Oh how innocent I was a few weeks ago. I haven’t been following Orange Season too closely honestly, but I do believe I was following the game’s official account on social media for a while and when I’d see the occasional screenshot, I was pretty intrigued. I thought this would be a fun, relaxing fall review I could enjoy spending a few weeks on. I won’t waste any time keeping you in the dark. I don’t have much good to say about Orange Season. I spent all of five hours on it and was already regretting asking to review this one after only the first 20 minutes of playing it, due to the issues it has.

First, let’s discuss what kind of game Orange Season is. Orange Season is an indie farming game. Like other farming sims, your character moves to a new town to live the charming, rural farm life. You’re dropped off at your farm, told to greet everyone in town and take care of your farm, of course. I went into this review assuming there would be some big goal like most farming games have: for example, making the town more popular and bringing in new tourists, or restoring a community center. Well from what little I was able to put up with playing Orange Season, I never actually found out if there was some larger goal beyond making your farm a success. I started off cleaning up the area you get for planting crops and got stuck at least once in the middle of a rock.

After planting a few starting crops and cleaning up the area some, I spent my time hunting all over town looking for new characters to greet and introduce myself as the new farmer in town. This is where the biggest issue came into play and a large part of why I refused to spend anymore than five hours on Orange Season. So when the map is actually working, it’s not the most helpful. The main town area where most of the characters live and hangout regularly is quite large. I don’t know that I’ve played many farming sims with a town this large. Now you’d expect that the map would help you locate characters around town; however, as you can see in the picture above, you’re merely told who’s in which section of town at any given time and I found no way to actually pull up a legitimate diagram of the town to locate these people. You only know which separate, large section they’re in and seemingly if they’re in a building or not. I saw some of the characters had a blue house symbol so I figured maybe that meant they were in their homes. Still, a majority of the houses were seemingly locked at all times as well. I imagine this could be a feature where you have to get to know the characters better to be allowed into their homes, but it was quite obnoxious and made tracking them down near impossible.

Anyway, not only was the map an extremely bare minimum of any use to me, but it constantly would glitch and become 100 percent useless. I could open the map and it’d be fine, and two minutes later open it again and the map was completely blank. No section would be highlighted, I wouldn’t see any faces of who was in the area and the cursor to move between the sections on the map was gone. Plus, the map glitching like this required a full game reset. By that I mean, I had to close out and re-open the game to fix it, only for it to glitch again less than five minutes into starting the game back up. This is a farming game where characters are constantly giving you requests to complete and you need to be able to reliably track them down. I found myself spending multiple game days simply trying to find them all at least once and greet everyone for the first quest. Then there were four characters who told me to come find them once I had and they would give me new quests, which again, I’d have to track down various characters for later to complete.

The map glitching out was only one of two big issues I had. You may have noticed earlier I mentioned getting stuck in the middle of a rock. My character got stuck quite a lot as if there was an invisible barrier all around and I’d have to wriggle my way out as best I could. I got stuck on rocks, I got stuck in a circle of trees and I often got stuck on houses. Houses you can even phase into while wriggling around trying to escape. To get off the house, away from the invisible barrier, I’d have to go up into it and then keep coming back down trying to dislodge my character. I’ve included a clip above of one occasion where this occurred. Then when I accidentally opened my map while randomly pressing buttons to try to get unstuck, the map had gone blank yet again. I even once got stuck at the very edge of the fishing dock on a lake and went on an adventure walking across the lake. The lake has this treasure floating on a wooden plank and I thought to myself, “Why not go get that treasure while I’m stuck out here?” But alas, another invisible wall made this impossible and I was not allowed to go check out the treasure while stuck on top of this lake. So I went back to the dock and wriggled all around trying to get back on and away from it.

Aside from the two big glitches that made this game completely unplayable for me, I still didn’t really enjoy it otherwise. Planting crops and growing stuff worked alright. But only the watering can and hoe had any guide for which square on the ground they were targeting. Also, trying to target anything properly seemed like you had to be at a very specific angle to do so. When I would walk right up to doors they wouldn’t activate very easily, neither to let me open them nor to get the being locked notice. I would have to move my character around a bit and come at them not quite right up front and be at the perfect angle. Not only that, but planting seeds doesn’t even have a targeting square, you kind of just hit the tool button as you walk around the dirt you used the hoe on and hope your seeds plant in the spot you want. One more issue I had was that I couldn’t cycle through the calendar and check the dates on the calendar page of the menu. It seemed there was no way to do anything with that menu, the only thing viewable is when the next festival is. I couldn’t figure out a way to physically move a cursor across the dates.

I truly went into this thinking it would be a fun farming game for fall. Even after I was disappointed and regretted asking for it in those first 20 minutes of gameplay, I still thought I could at least get through a full game year and then make my judgments after I gave it a shot. Unfortunately, the main two glitches in this game made it the most frustrating, impossible disaster I have ever reviewed. Now, I wanted to give the developers the benefit of the doubt, but then I went and looked up how long the game had been in Early Access on Steam. This game came out as an Early Access title in early 2017 and now over seven years later it’s finally received a full retail release, and they’re charging $29.99 for brand new console versions of the game. Sure, they may fix these issues later and it can become a game worth playing. Truthfully, I loved the atmosphere and I thought Orange Season was a very attractive game visually. I also had fun with the fishing gameplay. But the fact that after seven years of testing and polishing, this is the game they’re charging 30 bucks for, is utterly ridiculous. I refuse to waste anymore time giving this game and the developers the benefit of the doubt and I cannot recommend Orange Season whatsoever. I believe fans of cozy games or farming sims specifically are better off spending their money elsewhere.

Review Score
Overall

The post REVIEW: Orange Season appeared first on oprainfall.

When I first saw Thunder Ray I thought it looked like a decent Punch Out! style boxing game. I was always a huge fan of games like this, so my interest was piqued enough that I wanted to try this out for myself. I mean, we have a man here that has bested all the best fighters on Earth, so now the universe wants to challenge him! Let’s see if I found another great arcade style boxing game, or did I just got punched in the face?

Graphically, Thunder Ray looks great. The fighters featured in the game are all huge in scope and size. You will encounter huge robots, mutants, a witch and even a tiny alien that looks harmless at first glance. These characters are greatly detailed and each has a variety of special moves that are very well animated. The game runs at a solid framerate on the Switch, and this is a good thing seeing as you are expected to dodge attacks with quickness and precision.

The game features at total of 11 fights. Eight of these are in the main game and the additional three are in the Origins DLC included in this package. Each fight has different gimmicks for you to overcome. Some fighters will cast spells or have magical barriers, while others may give you status effects like confusion that reverses your controls, or poison which – as you would figure – constantly drains your health. This makes it very important to either block, duck, or dodge whatever these foes throw at you and counter attack. Once you knock your opponent down three times you win and Ray will end them in an over-the-top and gory fashion. But if you get knocked down, you lose and will have to try the bout again. The real problem is the controls here feel very heavy at times, and I had a very hard time dodging some of these. The last bosses in each mode gave me a ton of trouble even on the easiest setting.

With so few fights found here I feel the value in this one is being able to master these controls and get through the game on higher difficulties with better ranks – which I guess is the goal of most games made in this style. I still think the price tag on this is bit high at 1999¥ for this Asian release of the game. There is some meat on the bones here, but once you get used to the controls you can breeze through the first eight fights in right around 30 minutes. Now how many hours you’d have to put into this to get that good really depends on the player, and I’m too old and don’t have that kind of patience anymore.

Overall I think Thunder Ray is a decent game for players who enjoy this genre of game. The difficulty here was a bit too much for me personally, but I know a lot of players really enjoy a challenge in a game like this. Still, I think the price tag is a bit much for what you get here, so I would wait for a sale before stepping in the ring.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Thunder Ray appeared first on oprainfall.

A while back I had been in the mood for some otome and when 9 R.I.P. was announced for localization, I decided I would review this one. I didn’t know much about it going into things and typically I am extremely picky about the otome I’ll play. But, it sounded like it was a longer game than most and had a lot going on, so I was intrigued enough to take on this review. Was 9 R.I.P. worth the time investment? Or was it simply a failed horror show not worth the price of admission? Keep reading and find out my thoughts.

The main character of this one, Misa Isshiki, is at a loss for what to do with her future. She recently received this career path survey at school and is expected to fill it out with her plans. Misa lives at home with her mom and her older sister, as her dad passed away when she was little. Misa’s sister, Tsubasa, followed her own path in life. Now their mother expects Misa to follow the route she wants for her. Ideally, she wants Misa to become a doctor like her father and constantly pressures her to do as she wishes. Being lost in life and unsure what to do with this survey, not to mention constantly pressured by her mother, Misa ends up spirited away to one of a few different dimensions.

In one route, Misa ends up trapped in her school in a sort of limbo realm full of the dead. In another route, Misa finds herself in Hell. In a third potential spiriting away, she ends up a ghost herself. And finally, the last potential outcome is being haunted by spirits in the regular old mortal world, still a human herself. Regardless of the outcome, Misa Isshiki is expected to go through the challenges awaiting her and ultimately figure out what to do with her life. Each of these four routes contains two different potential romance options for you to get to know and you’ll make various choices along the way. In these initial common routes containing two love interests each, make the right choices and whoever you’re closer to by the end is the one Misa will end up falling for. After this, you’ll be lead to their specific route where you can get even closer with them, or find yourself doomed should you take a wrong turn.

9 R.I.P. has a lot of overlap between routes. I found myself tired out pretty early on. You’ll often be revisiting routes and have to skip over the various common route content you already saw to get to the choices you have to do differently. Despite that, this otome was relatively straightforward. If you leave on the option to see when you’ve raised a character’s affection, or you constantly check the status screen as you make choices, you’ll find it easy to go in a decent direction. However, I did find out that you can reach more than one good ending in a lot of the routes and trying to go back to get the best ending can prove difficult until you figure out how things work completely. Not to mention the game also has this insanity meter in some of the common routes, but I found it extremely difficult to even raise it naturally during a first playthrough. It wasn’t hard to avoid a lot of the bad ends. Also, these bad ends aren’t a true full ending like other otome with bad endings. They don’t have their own special bad end CGs or anything like that, it’s more of an abrupt fail. I got a few bad ends to see how they went, but typically I just went back through the game’s log and rewound a smidge to wherever things went awry. You’ll know relatively quickly when you make a bad choice, since most of the routes don’t make it too hard to figure out.

I really enjoyed my time with 9 R.I.P. Though, I do believe it was somewhat lacking in comparison to other Idea Factory otome. I mean, between all the events going on, most routes don’t have a ton of romantic parts. It’s kind of lightly dispersed between other happenings. Also, the horror wasn’t anything major. Some of the love interests in their initial common routes were cheerier and lacking in scary moments. And the ones that were more horror filled still weren’t anything crazy. I think my favorite of all the romanceable partners you can go after was definitely Koyo. His route was really fun honestly, mostly the beginning common route shared between both him and Sena. I had a hard time picking between them at first, but after going after both of them, Koyo was definitely my favorite.

I think the atmosphere in this otome is the best thing about it. It has a really good soundtrack, especially all of the ending songs. Hibiki, one of the love interests I was least interested in, I think actually had the best music theme of all of them. Each guy has their own unique music theme which will play often. While I’m on the topic of the game’s music, I should discuss the different extras in 9 R.I.P.‘s menu as you complete routes. It doesn’t have a significant amount of extras, there aren’t any additional stories following up on endings or anything like that. Still, like other Otomate titles, there are some special extras. The main extra content you’ll unlock from finishing routes are these voice lines for each guy. They each have a menu with different voice lines, some of them featuring aspects of your time with them after the story ends. In addition to that are the standard otome extras, like how you can listen to the soundtrack, check the glossary of terms from throughout the game, or look back at images of Misa with the different characters from throughout the story. You can also of course revisit specific chapters you’ve gone through to make different choices and get other endings, even starting with an already filled affection meter if you’d like. And finally, you can re-watch various videos as well, mainly the end credit music bits for each love interest.

I didn’t happen upon too many issues. Performance wise, 9 R.I.P. played smoothly for the most part. There wasn’t a true abundance of grammar mistakes or typos. Honestly, I now expect there to be some in all of these localized otome, they’re never flawless. Nonetheless, I do think Idea Factory International is a ton better at the quality control than certain other companies that localize these games. The biggest error I found was in the videos menu. The bars with the name of whatever should be the highlighted video you’re going to watch didn’t match up with what was pictured in the center and what the video ultimately ended up being once selected. I’ve provided a picture above of this issue. You’ll see the bar I had selected says it’s Sena’s video but in the center it shows it’s Koyo’s. That specific menu was pretty messed up and was the biggest issue I ran into.

When I went into this, upon looking up how long the game was – seeing as it’s already out in Japan – I was expecting it to be a bit longer than it actually is. But with so many different love interests and multiple endings for all of them, it still has quite a lot of content. I spent over 35 hours on this otome and completed six different routes, plus unlocked various alternate endings. I still have a couple more routes to go. In the end though, 9 R.I.P. was a fun time. It’s nowhere near the spiciest otome you can play, but the atmosphere and music is fantastic. If otome are your thing, you’ll enjoy yourself. I do believe it’s worth the price of admission. 9 R.I.P. releases on the Nintendo Switch Oct. 15, 2024.

Review Score
Overall

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It’s not often I associate “comfy” with murder, but when it comes to the Famicom Detective Club games, that’s the word that comes to mind to best describe them. Sitting down with one of the 2021 remakes is like curling up in your favorite chair with a cup of your favorite warm beverage and just vibing. After close to 30 years, would the newest entry in this series, Emio – The Smiling Man, give me the same feeling while also delivering a great mystery?

Rather than focus on the supernatural and ghosts, this time around our intrepid Boy Detective finds himself investigating the murder of middle school student, Eisuke Sasaki, that ties into a local urban legend. Emio – known as The Smiling Man because of the characters in his name – supposedly appears before crying girls while wearing a paper bag on his head emblazoned with a smiling face. If the girl laughs, he leaves her alone, but if she cries, he strangles her. So why, this time, would Emio appear before a boy, and why would he use a rope instead of his bare hands? And what relation, if any, does it have to a series of unsolved murders from 18 years ago?

Despite being the newest entry in this series in decades, Emio – The Smiling Man plays exactly like its predecessors. It carries over the visual style and voice acting from the 2021 remakes, which themselves retained the point-and-click adventure style gameplay of the original Famicom releases. You have a choice of several options in each scenario, including calling out to nearby people, talking to them, examining the surroundings or specific areas with your cursor, taking items, using your phone, and thinking about the situation. Each of these actions is meant to put you in the shoes of the protagonist and engage in the case the way a real person would. Unfortunately, it also results in a lot of cycling through options searching for the correct course of action. There were at least three times when I had exhausted every option and couldn’t figure out how to advance, so I just kept hammering my choices until something finally happened. There was also at least one instance where the correct option was to investigate a specific area, but I clicked the wrong part of the object and did not trigger the next event. These weren’t enough to ruin my enjoyment of the story, but it did lead to a lot of frustration.

Fellow Utsugi Detective Agency members – Shunsuke Utsugi and Ayumi Tachibana – return from previous titles, and this time you not only follow the protagonist, but you finally get to see Ayumi in action, as well. Throughout the investigation, you’ll keep notes to review, including important names and information you uncover about each person of interest. Periodically, the protagonist and Ayumi will review their notes, testing your knowledge of the case before deciding where next to go in the investigation. Having them both pursue different avenues of questioning gave the game a bit more breathing room to explore the story from multiple angles, as well as introduce a broader, eclectic cast. My personal favorite was Tsubasa Fukuyama, Ayumi’s former classmate and current middle school teacher at Eisuke’s school. Other notable newcomers include Junko Kuze, the serious detective in charge of Eisuke’s case, and Daisuke Kamihara, her jovial and easy-going partner. Each character is brought to life by some absolutely fantastic voice work, and Megumi Ogata especially deserves some kudos for her performance as the protagonist. She was a joy to listen to.

As for the story itself, I found this entry very engaging, with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep me guessing for a significant chunk of playtime. The pacing was breezy and scenes never felt like they overstayed their welcome. That being said, the ending left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied, with one too many contrivances hampering an otherwise strong narrative. There is also an epilogue that ties up a few loose ends that packed an emotional punch, but the game rightfully warns you that it deals with some distressing content, so just keep that in mind if you’re at all sensitive to some of the broader issues explored in the main story.

Emio – The Smiling Man was a comfortable, familiar experience that both benefited from that familiarity and suffered from it. I loved revisiting this world and the characters, and the overall excellent writing was engaging and entertaining; however, retaining the same point-and-click nature of the previous games lead to some frustrating play sessions and unintuitive courses of action. The presentation was gorgeous, with beautiful background art, detailed and emotive sprites, excellent voice work and an amazing soundtrack. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish the game, and while the Fukuyama’s Report Card extra does give some minor incentive to replay for a higher grade, there isn’t much else, which makes it slightly more difficult to recommend at the $50 price tag, especially since you can get the twin pack of the first two games for only a few dollars more. To be clear, I really enjoyed my time with Emio, and if you liked the previous Famicom Detective games or really enjoy mystery visual novels, then this is a surefire title to grab. Due to its dated gameplay and shorter length, if you’re more of a casual enjoyer, I’d wait for it to go on sale. If you’re unsure where you stand, there’s a free demo available so you can test the waters yourself.

Review Score
Overall

The post REVIEW: Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club appeared first on oprainfall.

Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid is not a game I had been watching or was expecting to do a review for. However, when I was informed we had a copy for review, I decided I could use a relaxing summer game to play. Last year, I took on a different game for review that I had hoped would be my relaxing summer game, and it was not that, whatsoever. But Natsu-Mon looked like it could actually be what I hoped and thus, I decided to take it on. I spent 32 hours playing this game throughout August and I’m now finally ready to give my thoughts.

The game takes place during this kid’s summer break in 1999. Satoru is an elementary school kid whose parents have been running a traveling circus troupe. They stop by Yomogi Town where they’ll next be setting up the circus and doing shows later that summer, in the middle of August. Satoru is pretty much left to his own devices while enjoying his summer break in Yomogi. Right from the start you’re sent out to explore the town.

The game is an open-world adventure where you control Satoru and do all kinds of stuff. See, your ultimate goal is to study whatever you want for your summer research project, which all the elementary school kids in town find themselves doing for summer homework. To complete this project, Satoru is provided a study set, which includes a sketchbook and colored pencils for making a picture journal to document his adventures. Throughout the game you can either activate the sketchbook documenting whenever you want during the day, or let it happen automatically when you go to bed each night. Either way the pictures appear on their own, but you can choose how in depth the text goes about the latest events and choose a stamp for the corner of each picture. Satoru draws scenes for events he finds significant that occurred during the day and also all fish and bugs he catches are documented when you newly catch one. Fish, you never really know what you’re catching before reeling them in. You can kinda guess based on the shape or size of their shadows, but otherwise it’s a bit of a mystery. Bugs, you’ll know if they’re brand new ones you haven’t caught yet because new bugs will have white circles around them, and old ones you’ve caught previously won’t.

You’re mostly free to explore and discover stuff at whatever pace you like, since you can change the time speed in the game’s settings to a much slower pace, or a quicker one. One of the circus members, Tokotoko, will collect you each night at 5 for dinner, and also you’ll have to go to bed by 10. If you send yourself to bed before you pass out at 10, you can get up early and do the radio exercises at the local shrine. You’ll get a stamp card to fill out each day that you go. Also, between those hours of 5 and 10 at night, you can’t explore the whole map like you can before dinner, only nearby areas closer to the Ashitaba Guesthouse where you’re staying.

Some of the activities you’ll find yourself spending your August days on are: fishing, catching bugs, climbing stuff, swimming and even helping the local elementary school kids investigate mysteries around town. The fishing rod you won’t get until a few days into the game, and there’s also an acorn shooter you can buy with money you earn. You can sometimes find coins out and about to fund your purchases, but it’s usually mere pocket change. You can get more cash by locating and collecting various colored diamonds in the area and selling them at one of the available shops. Plus, there are other various items laying around worth a bit less, like the numerous plastic and glass bottles laying at construction sites or near rivers. Eventually, you’ll also find dig spots where you’ll either get junk in varying degrees of quality you can sell, or fossils to donate to the local museum. You can donate these fossil pieces to the museum, in addition to very specific rare fish and bugs whenever you manage to catch them. Satoru will get paid for the stuff you donate to the museum too.

I had a lot of fun exploring all over the place, climbing stuff, finding new secrets and investigating the mysteries throughout Yomogi Town. There’s even a neighboring town called Tonari Town. You can take a train between the two towns, or you can take a bus to numerous bus stops across the map as you find and activate them. Also, in the beginning of Natsu-Mon, you won’t be able to climb very far or run for too long at once. Satoru is limited by his Sticker Gauge. This Sticker Gauge is essentially a stamina meter. There is a limited number of stickers you’ll be able to collect and you do this by completing the different tasks available in the game. You’ll get stickers for donating rare bugs to the museum, for playing with a little ghost girl a certain amount of times, for locating very specific ancient treasures, and many other goals found throughout the two towns and surrounding areas.

Atmosphere wise, the game is quite pleasant. There isn’t a lot of music in the game, mostly you’ll be hearing the sounds of nature. For example, the sound of nearby ocean waves rolling in, or the cicadas buzzing on trees. Every now and then though, at certain spots on the map, a bit of pleasing music will play in the background. Visually, the game is a very simple cartoon style. You’ll also see stuff cut-in now and then as you get closer. Although, I’m not sure if this is simply an aspect of the game no matter what, or if you’d also see it on PC. This review is strictly covering my experience with the Switch version of the game.

Ultimately, I truly enjoyed the time I spent on Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. It was fitting to play this game slowly throughout the month of August and it was definitely the carefree summer adventure I was looking for. One last thing I’d like to mention, while on the normal time speed, the game days can seem to move a bit too fast to accomplish much. Despite that, I really do suggest enjoying the game at your own pace and playing it as carefree as possible. A new game plus mode is included, where you can transfer your sticker energy and quests you’ve already completed over to a new path. I wouldn’t worry about getting everything possible done in one playthrough. Also, the game has a $15 DLC expansion with more to do and some extra story revolving around a radio station. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have that DLC and can’t tell you whether or not it’s worth the cost. But, if a relaxing slice-of-life summer adventure in a Japanese town back in 1999 sounds like a fun time to you, then I do highly recommend this game. I should also mention that while I did spend 32 hours on the game, I spent most days on the relaxed time speed. So, your playtime with this one may vary and you’ll have to decide for yourself if you think it’s worth $40 for the base game.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid appeared first on oprainfall.

Back in 2017, I reviewed Tokyo Xanadu on the Vita and had a blast with it. I never got around to playing the enhanced Tokyo Xanadu eX+ version that released on consoles sometime later, so when Aksys said they were bringing over the Nintendo Switch port of that version I jumped on a chance to check it out. Let’s see if one of my favorite Vita games plays just as well on the Switch.

The story takes place in Tokyo 10 years after a massive earthquake wreaked havoc on the city. Many in the city perished on that day, but the city slowly rebuilt to its former glory. There is a dangerous shadow that hangs over the city known as the Xanadu. Kou Tokisaka and a group of his friends get drawn into investigating the Xanadu, and this will lead them on an adventure that will test the very fabric of their beings.

While I really enjoyed the story of the Vita release, I felt the extra chapters in the Tokyo Xanadu eX+ version really did flesh out these great characters even more. The story itself is pretty basic and most people will see where it’s going right off the bat, but the interesting characters will hook you instantly. You cannot help but keep playing to see how everything is going to turn out for Kou and his friends.

Graphically, the game looks great on the Switch. All the character models are nicely detailed and the enemies all have unique features as well. Some will be palette swaps of course, but the boss monsters are all huge and imposing. Environments look great as well, even if they aren’t quite as detailed as the monster and character models. Tokyo Xanadu eX+ runs at a very consistent frame rate on the Switch dock or in handheld mode, so there is nothing to worry about in the performance department.

The soundtrack was one of my favorite parts of the Vita version and that hasn’t changed a bit with this new release. They added a few new tracks to the mix that were just as good of quality as the previous ones, making a great soundtrack even better. The voice acting is all done in Japanese and the actors do a great job bringing these characters to life.

Since the gameplay here is largely the same as the Vita release, I’m just going to talk about the new aspects. I know this one has been out before as well, but this was my first time playing it, so it was new to me. If you want to know more about the basic gameplay, please check out the Vita review.

First up, let’s talk a bit about the revised localization. Now it’s been a hot minute since I played the Vita version, but I did notice the tone of this release is more inline with what you see from other Falcom games. The terminology matches up with what I’ve seen in the Trails series, so I think this adds consistency to these releases, which is a good thing. I did notice a few errors here and there like the one pictured below. If the text is complaining about emotes, you should probably actually put them in the text on the phone. That said, overall I think the team did a pretty good job here, outside of a few glaring errors.

Overall I enjoyed my time with Tokyo Xanadu eX+. It played just as great as I remember and the new additions really helped me get into these great characters that much more. I love the new music tracks and the voice acting is top notch as well. Players just picking up Tokyo Xanadu eX+ should snag this version ASAP. If you own a previous release of this version, I don’t think the new localization is enough to justify a purchase on its own, but the game does come with all the previous DLC, making it somewhat of a good value at $49.99.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Tokyo Xanadu eX+ appeared first on oprainfall.

I was pretty excited when Atlus announced Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance a few months ago. I love the vanilla release, so adding an all new storyline, with new characters and demons sounded like a great time to me. I’ve spent around 40 hours with the game, and achieved one of the many endings. This means it’s time for me to share my thoughts on this one. Did it meet my high expectations? Let’s find out.

This release contains all the story content of the original game, and a brand new Vengeance path. This path will introduce you to a new character named Yoko Hiromine. She goes to a different school and seemingly has the power to fight the demons as well. She is a very grounded girl and looks at everything through a very objective lens. Like the previous story, our young protagonist will bond with his Nahobino ally and fight to save this world from the demons.

The new story path is more interesting than the vanilla one, but honestly it’s the character and demon interactions that make this one really shine. The writers went above and beyond to give everyone a lot of personality and it really comes through in the writing. I think fans of the previous release and new fans will find a lot to love here. The localization team should get a shout out here as well, since without their work a lot of this gold would’ve been lost.

The gameplay here is very similar to the vanilla release. You will still explore each area of the game, taking on side quests and collecting demons to fuse into stronger ones for combat. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some additions and QoL improvements, though. First off, you can save anywhere now. I really loved this feature cause I’m always afraid my console won’t wake up from sleep correctly and I’ll lose some progress. There are new demons for you to collect, two new locations to explore in Shinjuku and Shakan, and you can interact with your demons in the Demon Haunts. Interacting with them will improve their stats and gain you some powerful items as well. Other new features include a compendium fusion system, guest characters that can be used in combat and much more. With all this, even old players will have plenty of new stuff to play around with in this release. If you want to know more about combat and gameplay features that didn’t change, please check out my review of the original Shin Megami Tensei V.

Graphically, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks fantastic. The amazing environments and highly detailed character and demon models make it one of the best looking Switch games out there. The new demon designs are top notch as well, especially Nahobeeho, as cosplaying Jack Frost is just a win!  The game runs at a steady framerate, but there is some graphical pop in every now and then. This doesn’t take away anything from the fantastic experience though.

There are plenty of new battle tracks to enjoy in this release. I found myself rocking out to each of them as I slayed all the demons that opposed me. The new areas have some great new themes as well, Shinjuku’s really stands out with some creepy chanting in the background that really immerses you into the overall atmosphere of the area. The voice acting is all great; no matter if you go with the Japanese or English cast, you’re getting top quality VA that really brings these characters and demons to life.

Overall, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance took an excellent release and just made it better. The new areas are great, new demons spice up the already crazy roster you could obtain and the Vengeance story path really shows off the game’s characters in a new light. This game is well worth the $59.99 price tag for anyone who doesn’t own the initial release, and even if you do I still think there is enough new content here to warrant a purchase. Now if you will excuse me, I have some post-game demons to round up!

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance appeared first on oprainfall.

Endless Ocean Luminous is a game I found myself curious about because I loved Endless Ocean 2, Endless Ocean: Blue World as it was titled in North America. Having been so many years, I’m no longer sure how I ended up with a copy of Blue World. Regardless, I thought it was quite the hidden gem on Wii. Therefore, having had a lot of fun with all that Endless Ocean 2 had to offer, I decided to specifically ask for and take on reviewing Endless Ocean Luminous. However, I did have my worries after seeing the trailers for this game. It wasn’t so much what was in the trailers, but more so what wasn’t shown that made me skeptical about Luminous.

Endless Ocean Luminous is definitely unique. Now keep in mind, I have no experience with the first game in this series, a title also released for the Nintendo Wii. I’ve only played the sequel. Anyways, in Luminous you have three different game modes: you can go on a Shared Dive online, you can do a Solo Dive offline, or you can choose the Story tab. The basics of the plot are simply that you just joined Project Aegis. Project Aegis’ goal is to study the Veiled Sea and figure out and fix the problem with the World Coral, which seems like it might be dying. Your goal as a new member of Project Aegis is to study the Veiled Sea and collect light to restore the World Coral. You can collect light mainly from scanning all of the fish you come across. You also get this Mystery Board relic which is supposed to be a historic artifact from the Oannes civilization. Various things you do in the game, specific fish you scan, certain treasures you locate, etc., will unlock spots on this board. Ultimately, completion of all 99 mystery tasks are required to finish the story.

The story mode in Endless Ocean Luminous is not what you would expect. After you finish the first few tutorial story mode chapters, to unlock each chapter afterwards you have to do a dive either online or offline and scan hundreds, if not thousands, of fish. Each next chapter unlocks from scanning these fish. Except the last one, which as I just mentioned earlier, requires you to finish the Mystery Board. Every story chapter is super short. This AI character, Sera, will teach you stuff and guide you on very small tasks. You won’t be exploring huge maps for the story or doing anything major. You only get a bit of info and insight into your goal and you hang out with this other Project Aegis diver, Daniel. The majority of your time in this game will be spent going on dives outside of the story and scanning more and more fish.

I found Luminous to be a very shallow bare bones game, which seems to be a common trend with new Switch entries to old series. Fashion Dreamer is a similarly shallow Switch title I previously reviewed, though I had no personal experience with that particular dev’s prior games to compare it to. I only knew what little I had read about what they were like. Endless Ocean is another story, I’ve played a prior game which was vastly different. In Blue World, the main focus of the game was on the story. In Luminous, your focus is on exploring randomly generated maps in the Veiled Sea. Every map is supposed to be different, however, the vast majority of each map is identical to every other map. There are small sections of each map which will be part of a unique theme. One map might have a few arctic areas in addition to relevant fish species that live there, and another might have prehistoric fish. But again, these unique themed areas are only a very small portion of the map. You spend the majority of your dive filling out a map with near identical scenery to the rest of them and running across and scanning the same exact fish you’ve seen hundreds of times already.

Your goal when you go on these dives in the Veiled Sea is to scan all of the fish, thus collecting their light to save the World Coral, and you’ll also be searching for these strange glitched fish. I call them glitched fish because when you scan them, there’s something wrong with them and they’ll glitch in and out like a fuzzy computer glitch. This is part of the game though, not an actual glitch. So after you locate and scan all of the glitched fish on the map, a UML will soon appear. UML stands for Unidentified Marine Life. Typically, these UML are significantly large unique creatures that aren’t usually found in the Veiled Sea. Once you’ve hung out and watched the UML for a bit, they’ll eventually leave, which allows you to once again find glitched fish and summon the UML again. Once you’ve filled out a map 80% of the way, it will automatically fill out the rest and you can then share your dive code for that map with other people online.

Online dives simply involve you swimming around the same maps as offline and occasionally running into other divers who you complete the same tasks together with, which you would normally be completing offline. No one really hangs out with each other and uses emotes and whatnot, at least not in random dives. You can start a dive and share the ID with friends to get them to join I imagine, but I didn’t test this out for myself. As you find treasure and complete tasks, you’ll earn some money you can use to collect alternate colors for customizing your diving equipment, emotes for using on a dive and interacting with others online, and various stickers to decorate your character’s outfit further.

There isn’t really much more to explain about Endless Ocean Luminous, I’ve covered most of the important stuff you should know. There isn’t a lot to do besides swim around endlessly filling out maps and scanning fish. After a while, scanning fish becomes an annoyance since you have to hold on the button to scan a lot of fish at once and then wait for the image with info about the fish to pop up. After you’ve seen so many of the same fish numerous times, you can’t simply scan without that pop-up to move along quicker. At least not that I found in my over 15 hours spent on the game. As you raise your rank from going on these dives, you can gradually befriend increasingly large and/or more significant fish, but they don’t stick around for long. I found that my companion fish often ditched me pretty quickly. Another thing I almost forgot to mention, is how there is no danger in this game and little challenge. In Blue World, not only was each map fully unique, arguably small but unique, but also, certain fish such as sharks would attack you. There would be a very loud warning alarm and they would whack you with their tail, which causes you harm if you don’t make them docile quick enough with your tools, or swim away and escape in time. Not only that, but you had limited oxygen in your tank as well. Also, I seem to remember the game had a museum tank to customize, permanent porpoise friends you could train at your island, a reef area for you to revive underwater, and even tourists you could help and take out on dives.

Endless Ocean Luminous has none of this. You can swim right up to the most dangerous looking fish and they couldn’t care less that you’re there. You never leave the water. Ending a dive simply takes you back to the main menu to check out what you’ve completed on the Mystery Tablet, customize your faceless diver some more and check out the gallery of stuff you’ve found. You can take pictures of fish in the water and thus, there are some minimal photo mode elements. Nonetheless, the game is extremely repetitive and gets old and uninspiring after a while. There are periodically online event dives you can go on, but they really aren’t that special or extremely different from regular dives. Well, except for the fact that you have a 20-minute time limit each dive.

There are some positives to Endless Ocean Luminous. The game is very chill and has an enjoyable atmosphere. Every now and then, some background music will start up as you’re swimming along and I had fun and enjoyed myself more when it did. I didn’t hate the game and I do believe it performed as expected, I didn’t have any unexpected problems. Nevertheless, in the end, this game was extremely bare bones, quite shallow and not at all what I think old fans would want from a new Endless Ocean. It’s not a horrible game, but I expect better from this series and a $49.99 price tag. I’m disappointed in what they decided to release. You may find this to be an enjoyable enough carefree adventure should you find it on sale in the future. Still, I don’t know that I can honestly recommend picking it up if you’re an old fan of Endless Ocean from the series’ Wii days.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Endless Ocean Luminous appeared first on oprainfall.

I have to say that the Rose & Camellia Collection is probably one of the oddest games I’ve played in a long time. This collection of five different titles has you battling it out in epic slap fights with a variety of opponents. The game is almost completely motion controlled with a single Joy-Con, and has some of the most over the top stories I’ve seen in a long time. The real question is, was it any fun? Let’s dig in and find out.

There are five different stories here to slap your way through. The first follows Reiko as she tries to take over the Tsubakikoji family after the death of her husband. She will have to pummel the other ladies in the house to make this happen! The next story follows Saori as she seeks to get revenge on Reiko for taking over the family, but things do not go as planned. The third story sends a young maid in training, Rightie Mita, to complete a fierce competition, The Death Queen Circuit. This is like Street Fighter for slap fights. The next story has us taking control of Shizuka Tsubakikoji as she keeps getting some unwelcomed house guest. There is only one way to handle them of course, pummel them with slaps! Lastly, there is the La-Mulana bonus episode. This follows Mulbruk as she proves she is the true heroine of the game, by slapping down all the other girls that oppose her.

All of the stories here are well written and presented in a very nice visual novel style. Each story is more more over the top than the last. Some of the stories try to present themselves as serious, but you will be laughing too hard at just how ridiculous it all is. The voice actors really drive this home as well, they go full ham on these characters, and I loved it! Their performances with the era fitting music just really make all the storytelling here top notch and a pure joy.

Graphically, Rose & Camellia Collection is nicely done. All of the 24 characters found in the game are nicely detailed and vary in style. You have the La-Mulana characters, maids, boxers, a giant robot and much more. The battle effects here are all great as well, along with great sound effects that really seem to give your slaps a lot of weight, especially when you land a critical hit or get a nice counter attack.

Now let’s dig into the gameplay of this one, and this is where things fall apart some. There are two different controls schemes to choose from. Most players will opt for the motion controls because the touch screen controls are completely unusable. I tried them for a couple of battles and had nothing but problems. The motion controls do work for the most part, players will hold down A and swing the Joy-Con in order to smack their opponents. There is a timing mechanic here in order to get critical hits, and after completing all 24 fights here, I never did quite figure it out. I kinda got the timing on the double slap you unlock late in the game, but there is another strike called a Palm Strike which I wasn’t able to pull off even once. When you’re not on the attack, you can hold down the R button and swing the controller at the right time to dodge enemy attacks. These characters have some tells that let you know when they are about to strike at you. This is sorta like those you would find in a Punch-Out!! title. If you successfully dodge an attack and time it just right, you can even counter attack your foe, but be warned, they can do this to you the same way if your attack is poor.

Overall, the Rose & Camellia Collection isn’t a terrible experience, it’s just not a great one. While the controls sound good on paper, they are inconsistent in execution. Throw in some crazy difficulty spikes on top of this and things can get frustrating very quickly. I had a blast with over the top stories and the campy but fitting voice acting, but I think this package might be a bit overpriced at $20 for around 3 hours of gameplay. That said, if you catch this one on sale, and want a fun story with some unique controls, this might just fit the bill.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Rose & Camellia Collection appeared first on oprainfall.

Typically, I don’t take on otome reviews. They tend to be games I have a hard time stepping away from once I’ve gotten into one. Plus, doing all those paths back to back to back can be a lot. I tend to play otome very sparingly and these days I’m pretty particular about which ones I’m interested enough in to pick-up. However, Sympathy Kiss is one I was at least somewhat curious about and we ended up with a copy for review. Thus, when I was asked to do this review I figured why not, I was looking forward to distracting some men at the office.

Sympathy Kiss is a modern slice-of-life otome, rather than a fantasy or historic one. The main character, Akari Amasawa, has been working as a designer at Estario, a mobile app company, for the past year. Recently, Estario’s first app, Estarci, hasn’t been doing so great. Estario decides to transfer some employees to a new team to try to revive the app. Estarci is somewhat of a social news app.

Throughout Sympathy Kiss, you’ll go through day-to-day life getting to know your colleagues on the new Estarci team and coming up with ways to improve and save the app. The game splits into numerous routes pretty early on. You can either take home some guy, Nori Tainaka, who regularly lives with random people; or, you can leave him and choose one of a few different colleagues at work to help out and get to know. As you play through the various routes, a few other paths can be unlocked. At the start of the game, you have about five guys to choose from.

There are a lot of different guys to get to know. Nori Tainaka, who I mentioned earlier, is described in the game as a nice very puppy-like guy. He’s sweet and helps out around the house for anyone who takes him in. There’s also Yoji Kobase, who takes on the director role of the Estarci team and keeps everyone on task and everything running smoothly. He seems stern and intimidating in the beginning, but deep down he’s a caring guy. Honestly, I think Kobase was my favorite among all the choices. Not only is he supportive and good to you in his route specifically, but he’s always reliable and helps out the others on the team in their routes as well. Another option is Rokuro Yoshioka, who works at Tempesty, a tech company Estario will collaborate with on Estarci. Rokuro is described as seeming like a prince in that he’s very attractive and acts princely. Yoshioka is the son of Tempesty’s president and is supposed to eventually take over the company. These are just a few of the men you can choose to hang out with and attempt to seduce. Another member of the Estarci team, a woman named Nanami Oe, takes on the role of your loyal work friend who gives you advice and gossips with you about the guys you choose to hang out with.

As far as interactive features are concerned, Sympathy Kiss is pretty basic. Periodically you get choices to make, some of which will raise either your work or love stat in each guy’s route. You’ll get one of numerous endings depending on which routes you take and where your work and love stats are at by the end. You can also sometimes choose between two different emotions, such as when someone asks if you like something or not, or based on how you want to react to something they do. And there’s this RiNG app which characters will periodically call or text you through at different occasions during the story. The game allows you to go back in a story log and change choices whenever you like, you can save in one of numerous save slots and you can also skip parts of the game in replays to jump over story parts you’ve already read, or to skip ahead quickly to each choice. One feature of Sympathy Kiss I really appreciated was how at the end of each chapter you’ll switch to the perspective of whichever character’s route you’re on and find out what they were thinking when something happened earlier on in that chapter.

I do believe I’ve played through every single possible route in Sympathy Kiss. I dated each guy and saw a variety of endings, I also went back and speedily skipped through some previously played routes to see alternate endings. I am mysteriously missing one prologue gallery image though, so I may have missed something. But I played as many routes as I could possibly find and dated every guy. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the story of this otome. However, I felt like there weren’t a ton of extras to enjoy. You have a gallery, a music player, there are interesting profile info pages you can unlock for each guy and you can revisit any specific chapter you want to adjust the work and love stats and see different endings. But other than that, there wasn’t anything else. I know some otome have little additional postgame chapters to unlock and similar features like that, which Sympathy Kiss unfortunately doesn’t.

Oh one other thing I would like to discuss real quick are the amount of grammar mistakes and errors. I’ve realized these last few years that very often these localized otome are loaded with a ton of grammar errors throughout. When I first went through Kobase’s route, the first guy I chose, I can only recall a single mistake. However, as I went through more routes, there were significantly more errors. Nonetheless, it isn’t the worst otome ever in this aspect. I’ve seen grammar mistakes far more often in some other otome. So it’s not as bad as it could be and I did appreciate that there was at least some effort put in there.

In the end, I quite enjoyed my time with Sympathy Kiss. I found that despite being a T-rated otome, it wasn’t overly cheesy and I had fun dating…well almost everyone. Not only that, but the music and overall atmopshere was very enjoyable as well. If you’re otome obsessed, you have no reason not to pick this one up. If you’re new to otome and have wanted to try them out, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t start with Sympathy Kiss. I do hope in the future though, that this game gets a sequel or fandisc of some kind. There wasn’t really any postgame story content to enjoy and there are a few guys I would like to see more of.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Sympathy Kiss appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve had a chance to sit down with the Nintendo Switch release of Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters and it’s time to share my thoughts on this port. I’m pretty letdown this release didn’t include the swimsuits by default and they are locked to the Digital Deluxe release. This version does have Maho and Anri as playable characters, which is exclusive to this release. This is just a terrible way to do business as it forces players to buy more than one version if they want all the content. Even the folks who sprang for the limited editions of the previous releases still had to pony up for a Digital Deluxe if they wanted the swimsuits. You can get those on the disc if you want to get the upcoming physical Xbox release, which is just odd in and of itself. Let’s hope this is something they fix with the upcoming release of Gamer Maker.

Since I wanted to cover the performance of this port I will be very light on story and gameplay details in this review. If you want a more detailed look at the story and mechanics please check out my review of the PlayStation 4 release. The story begins as Neptune and the other Goddesses receive a distress call from the PC Continent. They depart to handle this emergency while the CPU Candidates are sent to a nearby abandoned lab to investigate its contents. There they discover a sleeping Goddess, the Ashen Goddess, and as she awakens she traps the sisters in capsules for two years! When they are awakened, they find the world is not how they left it. The latest smartphone, “rPhone,” dominates all of Gamindustri markets, and Planeptune was lost due to Trendi attacks while both Neptune and Nepgear have been away. Nepgear finds herself in a state of depression having lost both her sister and her home; however, new friends Maho and Anri help Nepgear get back on her feet, and they begin to try to get things back in order. Nepgear’s struggle will be great in the face of this new enemy. Can she overcome it and take back her home and save Gamindustri?

Gameplay here is a bit different than previous entries, since the combat is all action based. The world map hasn’t changed a bit however, this is the Gamindustri you know and love. Players will go from place to place, completing missions to progress the story forward. There are plenty of sidequests that come up as well through the ever-popular Chirper app. Here you can take on quests, claim rewards and give likes to the Chirps from the various residents of Gamindustri. These quests are what you would expect: hunt X monster, gather X item, or find lost residents. You will not only gain rewards from this, but also unlock new scouts to use in Disc Development. Making these discs will give you a ton of different buffs that are very useful in battle.

The girls will gain new special abilities and moves as they level up to make slaying your foes even easier with amazing combo attacks. The Switch release gives you access to Maho and Anri right off the bat. Shanghai Alice and Higurashi are also unlocked instantly, so you won’t have to complete the game to use them in combat. This does make the first areas of the game a bit easier since you have access to characters with powerful attacks early on. The photo mode is unlocked when you launch the game as well, which makes a lot more sense than having it do so after you complete one run of the main story.

Graphically I have to say this is one of the best ports Idea Factory has done for the Switch. The character models still look good, even if a bit scaled back, and the environments still look great as well. The shadows on the characters look a bit strange at times, and there are greater loading times than the PlayStation 4 release. This occurs when going in and out of battle, so it can make things janky at times. Overall the framerate is pretty solid, docked or playing in handheld mode, but you will notice some hitches in combat every once in a while. These aren’t too frequent, but it does throw off your combo when it occurs.

Overall the Nintendo Switch release of Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters is pretty solid. It may not be as pretty as the other releases, but it still looks good and runs at a solid framerate. The addition of Maho and Anri as playable characters gives this version something the others don’t have, and this is a pretty solid game overall on any platform. The base release will set you back $49.99, and if you want a decent portable version or just want to play around with new characters it’s probably worth your coin. If you have another version of the game already, there isn’t much extra here for you to dig into.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Neptunia: Sisters VS. Sisters (Switch) appeared first on oprainfall.

Years ago when I watched Love Live! Sunshine!! I was very taken with Yoshiko Tsushima, AKA Yohane. I thought she was by far the cutest member of Aqours and her chunni antics just made me love her even more. So I was very excited when I found she was getting her own spin off anime project, Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, and even more so when Inti Creates announced they were making a Metroidvania title based off the anime, called Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. After I enjoyed the anime series, I was very excited to dig into the game to see where this story continuation was going. Let’s see how everything turned out!

The story here begins as a strange undersea dungeon suddenly surfaces near the town of Numazu. It quickly becomes all folks in town can talk about, so Yohane’s friends each begin to explore the dungeon one by one, but they never return. Yohane decides to venture into the dungeon to rescue her lost friends with the help her faithful dog Lailaps. What mysteries lie ahead of her in the dungeon, and will she be able to rescue her friends?

The story here is pretty basic, but for those who enjoyed the anime this is a great side adventure. I love seeing the girls interact with each other, and the Easter Eggs they threw in here for fans of the anime and Aqours in general. This one isn’t going to blow you away with amazing storytelling, but if you’re a fan of Yohane or Love Live! Sunshine!! you will have a good time here seeing all the girls in action once again.

Graphically the game is done in that fantastic pixel art style Inti Creates is known for. The character sprite works still comes out quite detailed this way, and all of the girls’ sprites were very cute, down to the last details! Enemy models look great as well, with a pretty good assortment of them. There are still re-colors, but I felt like there were less here than in some of their other games. The boss monsters really shine with their huge size and impressive looks. You can tell the team put some love into each one. The environments themselves are great as well. Each one is very detailed and you really get immersed into the type of area, from lava filled volcano to fluffy candy style areas. The game ran great on the Switch from start to finish with no frame drops.

In the music department, Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE really shines. Each area has amazing theme music that fits the feel of it. This includes a mysterious sounding theme for the temple and more upbeat theme as you begin to explore this underwater dungeon. The theme song, “Deep Blue”, is an amazing tune that got stuck in my head for a long time after I stopped playing this one. I wish Inti Creates would’ve included an in-game music library, or something for completing the game, so you could enjoy these tunes on the fly, but there was nothing unlocked post game. Which is one of my complaints here: it’s pretty bare bones overall outside of the main game.

The gameplay here is very much that of your standard Metroidvania title. You will explore each area of the dungeon, battling enemies and bosses as you save your friends and gain new abilities. Each girl has two unique skills, one you gain as soon as you free them, and the other when you find a hidden item in the dungeon. All of these skills can be used to slay enemies in the dungeons, such as Dia’s electric slash and Hanamaru’s adorable rolling attack. These skills can also be used to solve puzzles in the dungeon to gain access to new areas as well, but players should also look out for special items in treasure chests too. These will give Yohane some new skills and allow her to equip more accessories as well.

Yohane can purchase a number of healing items and items that will buff your stats from her fortune telling shop with in-game currency. These help you out in a pinch if you need to restore your health or Darkness points. The latter is what you use to call out your friends to help you in combat or use the variety of weapons you can cast. That’s right: you can cast a variety of weapons and accessories from the materials dropped from defeated monsters.

Weapon casts include several different types of bows and swords, each with different properties, so you can choose whichever fits your play style the best. Cloaks and accessories can be cast as well. These give you various buffs that will keep you alive during the harshest areas of the dungeon. Some will give immunity to status aliments while others may cut down different types of damage. Each one will give Yohane a boost in HP and Darkness points, so you will have to balance her out as you see fit. I went with a big HP build and tanked a lot of the bosses, but this is totally up to you.

Overall I had a great time with Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. I loved exploring the dungeon and seeing all of my favorite Aqours members once again. Each girl’s skills were very unique and suited them very well. Hanamaru having a laptop fall from the heavens to make it explode with a single touch made me laugh out loud since I got the reference from the original anime, and this is what games like this should do. I feel like the package is a bit light on extras since there is nothing to do after completing the game. No new game plus with more difficulty, unlockable galleries or even a way to listen to the music post game. It will take you around eight hours to see everything the game has to offer and I feel like it is worth the $29.99 price tag for fans of the anime or Yohane, but everyone else might want to wait for a sale to snatch this one up. While I loved everything here personally, I was a big fan of the series going into this, so I know I got a bit more out of this than those just looking for another Metroidvania to pick up. That said, I have no issue telling fans to snatch this up ASAP, it’s a lot of fun with girls you know and love.

Review Score
Overall

Game was purchased by the reviewer.

The post REVIEW: Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE appeared first on oprainfall.

I have never played a fashion game like this before. I know syn Sophia is the developer behind the Style Savvy games that were on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, but I’ve never played them. What caused me to take on this review is the fact that, regardless of my lack of experience with games focused on fashion, I do love dressing up my character in various other types of games which allow it. I’m that player who will sacrifice a bit of stats to make sure my characters still look good. Thus, I was very intrigued by Fashion Dreamer and wanted to try it out. Not to mention this is yet another more chill casual game, which is what I’ve been tending to lean towards when taking on reviews lately.

Fashion Dreamer is a pretty basic fashion game. By that I mean, there aren’t a lot of concepts or things going on. At the start of the game, you get a Muse to dress up. A Muse is what your customizable character is called. You can pick your hairstyle, nose, eyes, height/body type, skin tone, hair color, lips, etc. There are quite a lot of options to choose from. I should mention, though, that the body type options are limited. You basically just pick a height from the selection they have available and certain proportions change a little bit depending on the height you choose. There aren’t any sliders to decide how slender or curvy your character is or anything else such as that. You can choose from a few different face shapes, however. Anyway, once you’ve created your first Muse, it’s time to jump into the virtual world of Eve.

The game takes place in this virtual world, Eve, where there are four different Cocoon areas to hang out in. Well, there is only one Cocoon to start and you have to unlock the other three. The goal of the game is to become a fashion influencer and spread your brand. You’re able to like other characters’ outfits to collect usable clothing pieces. There is also a pop-up area where the most popular clothes and clothes other people have shared show up, so you can also hit like on those to collect them as well. In the game’s offline mode, there are pre-made CPU characters who will be around town and ask you to create Lookits for them. A Lookit is essentially a new overall outfit. Sometimes they may also like what you’re wearing and copy your outfit. Either of these will give you random rewards, such as gacha and bingo tickets and color palettes. The color palettes you can use to create your own items. You’ll need E-Points to unlock and create different clothing pieces. Creating your own clothing essentially just requires you to change the colors of pre-existing styles of clothes, and the more color palettes you unlock, the more choices you have.

E-Points you’ll get for anyone liking your outfit, liking your shared clothing pieces that pop-up in their game, stuff shown in your showroom, and so on. Your showroom is a small space you can decorate and display clothing in however you like, in addition to other items you’ve collected. The game contains both an online and offline mode. While you can collect E-Points offline, the process is extremely slow. This game is a lot more fun and active if you play online. Online you’ll see other players’ Muses in your game and be able to create Lookits for them as well, plus you’ll be able to visit their showrooms and see clothing items they’ve shared which you can then collect. The CPU characters are also present in the online mode in addition to the real player Muses. Each Cocoon area has its own gacha machine and two bingo machines. The bingo machines simply give you E-Points as a reward. The gacha machines are different in each Cocoon. They all have their own unique styles of items you can unlock randomly from using your gacha tickets. This will unlock certain styles in the clothing creation menu, so you can recolor them how you like.

There honestly isn’t a lot going on in Fashion Dreamer. The more likes you get, the more popular of an influencer you become, and as you get to higher ranks, you unlock more Cocoons. You also have a brand rank to raise from creating items. You can customize your brand symbol that goes on clothes you create and the more you create, the higher that rank will raise, which will then unlock additional clothing styles you can customize. Oh, and you can take photos, both at a photo booth spot and wherever you’re at in the Cocoon. For the photos at the photo booth, or Photo Egg as the game calls it, you’ll be able to add little decorations to and save.

Like I was saying before, there isn’t a lot going on in Fashion Dreamer. You make a ton of outfits, you travel between the three different areas of each Cocoon, dressing up other people’s characters to fit their preferences, hit like on whatever you like or want to collect for yourself, and you create clothing items over and over again. Also, after collecting a ton of stuff and creating so many outfits, I found some of the options weren’t very vast or unique. Hats for example, there are a lot of beret looking hats. The variety isn’t super vast. Not to mention, there also weren’t any bags, nor any gloves or necklaces that are separate rather than stuck as a part of certain tops. The game is really fun as a short bursts type of game where you get on only for a little bit, as a break from other games with a lot more going on. I thought the music, sounds and overall atmosphere were pleasant too. But, I don’t see it as a good game for sitting down and playing for hours on end. I was really into it the first two days I played, but after a few days, it became something I only checked in on for a little bit at a time. I played for over 15 hours, reached the platinum influencer rank and saw the credits. I believe there may be a diamond rank seeing as I still saw other players at a rank higher than me, but I imagine that would take a very long time to reach in comparison to the lower ranks prior to the game credits.

Ultimately, in the game’s current state, Fashion Dreamer wasn’t bad. I had a ton of fun dressing up my character and collecting different clothing. But, it also didn’t have much of a long gameplay life, I simply wasn’t extremely into it for more than a week. Although, you should know that this isn’t the game’s final complete release. By that I mean, various upcoming free updates have been announced. These are simply my thoughts on the game as is, before any updates have come out. I had fun with Fashion Dreamer for what it is, but it could’ve been a lot better. I don’t think I would pay the full $49.99 price for this. As it is now, I definitely would recommend waiting for a sale if it sounds like something you would enjoy. I might possibly write a follow-up in the future, should the game be substantially different or receive a lot more substance after all of the updates are out.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Fashion Dreamer appeared first on oprainfall.

I heard a few things about the series a while back when it was just a light novel series. I didn’t really get into My Next Life as a Villainess until the anime began. For those who aren’t familiar, it features a character who is reincarnated into an otome game called Fortune Lover. She recovers her memories and realizes she is now the character Catarina Claes, who in game is the main antagonist and for most endings is killed or at the very least exiled. From there Catarina does her best with her limited skills to change her fate.

This game is a new story that is set after Catarina believes she’s avoided her death flags. Catarina and her friends end up on a voyage on a luxury ship called the Vinculum. What seems to be an enjoyable trip ends up going awry with pirates boarding them, but also other plots are in the works. The new development reminds Catarina of an old fan book and a fan disc she never had a chance to play. While similar to the scenario, things are still quite different. It doesn’t take long for Catarina to realize she might have more death flags to avoid, and she doesn’t have the advantage of knowing as much as she did about the base game here.

As the main protagonist, Catarina is just as simple minded, gluttonous, and oblivious as she ever is. These traits do reflect in some of the choices that come up, which are are funny at times and may differ from some choices that might typically be seen in these games. If you are not familiar with the light novel or anime, it might be worth noting that Catarina is a pretty dense character who can compete with the best for not noticing romantic signals. While the current Catarina is different than the original, I do like the moments where she embraces the villainess attitude. If you are not a fan of the series, this could be an area you might not appreciate as much from your own tastes though.

It’s probably not that big of a surprise that this is definitely for the fans. It is a new story that does feel like it would belong in the series. All the the characters are voiced with the voice actors from the anime returning for their roles. That being said, I will say even if you are not familiar with the source, you won’t be too lost. The game does a good job recapping the main points worth knowing. At a few points there will be a flashback to the past, usually once from Catarina’s memory and the perspective of another character. If you are new you might have trouble figuring out which choice to make for some characters to build affection. Then again, that is also why they have auto-save.

Routes in these games usually have several chapters, though some routes can conclude within three. The first two chapters for any route will play out more or less the same as Catarina and the others board and enjoy themselves. At the start there are four suitors: the princes Geordo and Alan, Catarina’s adoptive brother Keith, and Nicol, the brother of Catarina’s friend Sophia. Once you finish one of these routes, two more open up for the new characters. These two are original characters named Rozy and Silva. Rozy is an engineer on the ship who quickly befriends her through food and Silva is the head of the Weiss Pirates that take the Vinculum. The two are interesting, though unsurprisingly Silva gets quite a lot of time due to his role. Rozy has fewer parts overall unless you go for his route, which is a bit of a shame. While the scenarios they go through have some similar motions, there are some differences. They can range from what actions are taken, what characters appear, and what details are revealed, among other things.

While there are about six main routes to choose from, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- boasts a total of 25 different endings. These endings include different ones for each route, another ends, and doom endings. The game features a number of galleries and libraries like most games in the genre. Unlocked endings, music tracks, CG scenes, and cutscenes can be viewed from the special menu. The CG scenes look pretty good and the music is also pretty fitting. If there is anything that I would say as a negative about the music is while the tracks are nice, none really blew me away personally. Another thing to collect along the way are memory scenarios. These are unlocked as you play through, and may also depend on what choices you make. These scenarios are not available as you play through a route, but are accessed through the special menu. While they don’t really do much for the main scenarios, they explain some past events and memories of the characters. They are not really important to the overall plot, but they are nice to have.

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- is a game that is very true to the series. The story, setting, and new characters are not something that would be out of place in the original story line. With the series taking place in a world of an otome, it’s only fitting that the game is a solid example of one also. The characters are unique and each route differs enough from each other to keep things interesting. If you are a fan of the series I can definitely recommend this, and if you are not but are looking for a more light hearted otome, then I would say this isn’t a bad choice for you either.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- appeared first on oprainfall.

A while back I remember saying I would cover it, should EastAsiaSoft ever put out a “real mahjong game,” as I put it. I had already reviewed one of their mahjong solitaire games before and wasn’t interested in covering numerous other nearly identical mahjong solitaire titles. And thus, being that I’m a huge fan of Riichi mahjong these days and the fact that EastAsiaSoft was finally localizing a Riichi mahjong game, I decided to take on this review.

Now, I am by no means an expert at Riichi mahjong. However, I have been playing it a lot these past few years, mainly against other people via apps on my phone and at this point I’d say I’m a proficiently skilled amateur. I can’t look at a hand and know immediately how many points it’s worth in total, I don’t have every single unique hand memorized and I never do too well in tournaments. Nonetheless, I know what I’m doing when playing digitally and can at least hold my own against much better players. Now with that being said, let’s get into discussing Another World Mahjong Girl and what I thought of the game.

Another World Mahjong Girl is not your typical Riichi mahjong game. It’s been formatted as a two-player affair. The player, you, are there to teach various girls of assorted humanoid species how to play mahjong. You’ll take control of one of a few different girls and play others across a magical world. There isn’t more to the story than that. You simply go from place to place, chapter to chapter, taking on girls in mahjong. You can read a bit about each girl before you battle them and then you’ll face them in numerous rounds until you whittle their points down to 0. If your own points hit 0, you fail and simply have to start over against whichever girl you were facing. You’ll have to face almost every single character two times, for multiple rounds each time. I didn’t find this to be the most exciting Riichi mahjong game, seeing as they made it a two-player thing. Typically, Riichi mahjong is played in either three or four-player matches. This could’ve been better had you played multiple girls in at least three-player matches.

In between facing these characters in mahjong matches, you can “discipline” the girls available for you to play as by buying and using items to raise their stats. This is where some of the game’s ecchi aspects come into play. The girls make sounds as you discipline them. Other ecchi aspects of the game come into play when you take away their points at the match results screen and in the gallery where you can touch the girls and they’ll make some sounds and cycle through one of three different lines. I don’t normally tend to play ecchi games, I took on this review for the mahjong, but I know there are much better ecchi games out there than this. The ecchi content seemed to be bare minimum.

That wasn’t the only issue I had with Another World Mahjong Girl. I felt like there were numerous issues throughout playing. First of all, from what I know about Riichi mahjong, this game doesn’t seem to have the standard romanization for the different Yaku. Yaku are essentially hand patterns and/or win conditions. If you break apart your hand and don’t go for Riichi, then you have to have a Yaku to win. A lot of Yaku require you to go for Riichi though. Anyway, the romanization choices were less common and I just found it to be strange. I also thought it was odd they seemed to use a white dragon tile which looked more like the one used in Chinese mahjong. But I suppose this is a fantasy game, I mean neither of these aspects are necessarily wrong, they’re just unique choices.

I did run into various legitimate mistakes and glitches as well though. In some of the character bios there were huge spaces after any quotation marks or apostrophes. Another mistake was whenever I was on the results screen at the end of a round, if a Yaku/point description took up two lines, then the next one would overlap it rather than being on its own line further down. Not only that, but when I started the game for the very first time and was sitting inactive on the difficulty choice screen, trying to decide if I should go with Normal or Hard, the game completely froze my Switch in a way I’ve never had happen before. My controller was still on but it was totally unresponsive. I had to put my Switch to sleep using the power button on the main system and hold it for a few seconds to get my Switch to light back up and be able to shut down the game. One final issue I had was the incorrect use of Ron. Any time I got a winning tile from the wall, which is a Tsumo not Ron, the prompt to call my win was displayed as Ron. Whichever girl I was using, her voice actor would correctly voice Tsumo. Tsumo would also be displayed in the match results afterwards. But the option to call my win during the match was incorrectly displayed as Ron.

In the end, I personally would not recommend Another World Mahjong Girl, not to fans of Riichi mahjong, nor lovers of ecchi games. The mahjong aspect wasn’t super terrible. I mean, as you went through each opponent they gradually got better and the chance aspect was never unfair, it wasn’t hard to get good hands. But the two-player part of it wasn’t as fun as playing regular three- or four-player mahjong and there are much better sources for enjoying Riichi mahjong, some of them free-to-play and against real people. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the ecchi features in this game were very bare minimum. You can find much better ecchi in other games. I simply found this title to be priced too high for what it was. I got through the whole game in only about five hours on Normal and in my opinion, it’s not worth the full $10.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Another World Mahjong Girl appeared first on oprainfall.

After I reviewed EastAsiaSoft’s release of Mugen Souls a few months ago, I was really hoping they would pick up the sequel, Mugen Souls Z, and I got my wish. I was very much looking forward to checking out this game again, and having all of the CG’s and bath minigame intact would just be icing on the cake. That time has finally arrived, and I’ve spent about 40 hours playing the game. Now, let’s see how this port turned out, was it as good as the last one? Let’s find out.

The story here begins as Chou Chou is exploring space for a world to conquer. She soon spots twelve shiny worlds that seem to fit the part. Upon exploring these worlds, she soon runs into the newly-awakened Ultimate God Syrma, who has a strange coffin with her. Chou Chou, as we know, has to check out everything she find interesting, so she begins to examine it. She is suddenly sucked into the coffin and her Undisputed God powers are absorbed, making her tiny. The only way to restore Chou Chou to her normal form is to absorb the powers from the other Ultimate Gods, spread throughout the twelve worlds.

I think the story of the first game is a bit better than Mugen Souls Z, but I really love the new characters introduced in this game. The well-mannered Bertram having a huge crush on Alys with her idol status is just funny, and Reu is just a wild child that gets super close to Shirogane, making Tsukika a bit jealous. All of the other great interactions the old cast has with the new cast really make the story a lot of fun. If you were a fan of the original, you’ll find more to love here as well.

Graphically, Mugen Souls Z looks about on par with the previous game’s Switch release, but I do think this release looks a bit better. It’s not the drastic upgrade it was on the PS3 between the two games, but you will notice. The character models look great, and each of the Twelve Worlds has a different look and feel. The CG artwork is certainly a highlight here as well, be they for the bath minigame or the story based ones. The performance is pretty good on the Switch as well. The game runs at a solid frame rate docked or handheld, but you will notice some dips when playing in handheld. It’s very playable, but not quite as smooth as it is docked.

I think, over the years, I have gotten a soft spot for these classic Idea Factory tunes, since I found myself really enjoying the soundtrack here. I know there is nothing special about it, but I found myself humming along as I slayed 100’s of foes and having a great time doing it. The game is voiced in both English and Japanese, but just like last time, the bath minigame is voiced in Japanese only. I think I like the Japanese cast a bit more, but the English crew does a good job giving these characters life as well.

The gameplay here hasn’t changed a lot from the previous game, so rather than retread old ground this review, I’ll focus on the new things. The combat is mostly unchanged from the last time. The captivate system returns, and again, each enemy will have a personality with some sort of fetish they like, and you have to pick a personality and pose to change into in order to capture the peon. This system is somewhat improved this time, since it shows you what the successful outcome of each of your actions will be before you do them. This really helps you gather peons faster, since it’s much easier to get the outcomes you want.

The other major change to combat is the Coffin Skills. When an enemy is turned into a peon, it will trigger a Coffin Skill from Syrma’s coffin. These range in effects from stat boosts to HP recovery, and you can set this to whatever skill you wish. The Peon Ball back, but is now known as the Ultimate Soul. This is a joint attack between Syrma and Chou Chou. It powers up in exactly the same way, based on the number of Shampurus you have collected throughout the game, though you will have a limited number of these to use on each world before returning to base. This limit will increase with the number of Shampurus you have as well. The damage for Ultimate Soul will get a nice buff if you have a ton of Peon Points banked from doing actions during a battle, but this will deplete all your PP when you use it. The overload rate increases when anyone is KO’d in battle, and if the overload level goes too high, just like with the Peon Ball, it will blow up in your face usually resulting in death. The last new feature is Damage Carnival. If you do enough damage during a battle, you’ll get bonus points at the end of combat. You can upgrade this to make it require more damage to activate, but provide a bigger bonus.

As you complete worlds, you will gain Ultimate Fusions. These are field skills ranging from the ability to snag floating chests to the ability to swim. When you capture certain Peon Points, you will gain power ups to these skills. These include Ultimate Vault, which allows you to jump higher; Ultimate Snag, which allows you snag locked floating chests; Ultimate Hunt, which allows you open locked chests; Ultimate Warp which allows you to use certain warp points. These are all boosted versions of the Ultimate Fusion skills. Years ago I said this was the most annoying part of this game, and I still stand by this. They spread these skills all around the maps in a way that makes for endless backtracking. You may have one skill needed at the top of the map, but the Peon Point with the skill may be on the bottom. This made for a lot of needless running around, seeing as you will be visiting all these worlds multiple times as these skills unlock to start with, this just seems very tacked on.

While Mugen Souls Z does have some issues, it’s still a really fun game. The combat is still very unique, the story is great with a lot of fun interactions between the characters, and the bath minigame finally being uncensored is a great addition to the game as well. I spent about 40 hours with the game and got the true ending. I have also done some of the absurd post-game battles thanks to the crazy amount of included DLC that will make you very OP starting out, but these post-game battles are still a big challenge. I feel like this one is well worth the asking price of $39.99. It’s not perfect, but fans will find a lot to love here.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Mugen Souls Z (Switch) appeared first on oprainfall.

When I first saw Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, I was drawn in by how unique it looks. When I found out some members of the Danganronpa team was behind the development of this, I knew I had to check it out. Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of that series, it had been a while since I played a good mystery game, and I figured this would fit the bill. Let’s see if it lived up to my expectations.

The story here follows a young man named Yuma Kokohead. He wakes in a storage room after being knocked out and can’t remember anything but his name, and barely catches his train. However, Yuma doesn’t wake up alone, as he soon notices a Shinigami in the form a tiny ghost that only he can hear hanging around him. She tells him the reason for his amnesia is that he has made a deal with her. The train he boarded is heading to the Kanai Ward. This area is cut off from the outside world and controlled by a huge corporation called Amaterasu. They rule this area with the might of a militarized Peacekeeper force. He has been sent by the World Detective Organization in order to figure what is actually going on in the rainy neon lit hell. This will not be easy, though, and even the train ride there will prove to be a lot more than our young friend bargained for.

I really enjoyed the overall story here. Each case was pretty well thought out and let all the various characters you meet throughout the game shine, even if just for a little bit. I feel like they could’ve done a better job fleshing out these side characters, but maybe the DLC cases will do this. Each case across the six chapters was pretty interesting, but I feel like some of them were drug out in the labyrinth section. The game has a decent runtime of 35 hours overall, but you could shorten this down if you just stuck to the main story.

Graphically, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is one the best looking games on the Switch. All of the character models are nicely detailed and gloomy environments in the city are just outstanding. The design of that downtrodden city always covered in rain with an amazing neon glow is just great. Shinigami has the standout design here; no matter if it’s her cute ghost form or full on sexy female one, she is just great in style and character. This is also one of the best performing games on the Switch. It runs at a consistent frame rate docked or handheld, which is not always a given for a title that looks this nice on the platform.

I have to say this soundtrack is one of the most fitting ones I’ve ever heard. Lots of sorta upbeat tracks, but they all have that sense of mystery to them that really adds to the atmosphere. The sound effects during the mini games are great as well; I usually don’t have much to say about sound effect but these really did add to overall experience here. The voice acting is top notch in both Japanese and English. All of the actors do a great job giving these characters life, and really it just comes down to preference on which one you think is better.

The gameplay here is divided up into a few sections. The first is where you control Yuma as you explore the surroundings looking for clues. The ones you find will earn you Detective Points you can spend to upgrade your various skills. The last is the Mystery Labyrinth, and these sections are by far the biggest during each case. Here you will traverse a maze playing different mini games and quick time events. I put the difficulty here on Easy since I’m never good at these sorts of things, so when I failed I lost a little health, but my guess is on higher settings the penalty will be more brutal. You do this until you reach the end boss and uncover the truth of the case! The interactions here between Yuma and Shinigami are great and were one of my favorite things here.

All in all I had a good time with Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. The game really has a focus on death, which is pretty much what you should expect from this team, but it went a little hard for my personal tastes. Those who loved Danganronpa and the other works of this team will be right at home here, and there is nothing wrong with that since they are the target audience. If you love mystery games that have a wild twist to them, you would probably want to check this one out as well. I feel like it is well worth the $59.99 for those into this, and the DLC cases will likely add icing to this already wonderful cake.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Master Detective Archives: Rain Code  appeared first on oprainfall.

Ever since I finished the original Atelier Ryza game I’ve really been getting into the overall Atelier franchise. I’ve never played anything older than the first Mana Khemia though. So I was looking forward to trying out Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg. I knew it’d be a dated entry, but I adored the new art/graphical style and Koei Tecmo mentioned in their promotional info that it had a new Unlimited Mode, so I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about the time limit. Originally, I didn’t think I’d be the one doing this review but fortunately, it landed in my lap and I was lucky enough to check it out.

Atelier Marie Remake revolves around Marie, of course, who is the worst student at the Royal Academy of Magic in Salburg. She’s given an atelier and five years to create a high enough quality item to pass a special graduation exam. And that’s it, that’s the basic plot of the game. You’ll find that Atelier Marie, being the very first Atelier game, is super simple and basic. You have five years in game to raise your alchemy skill and make something decent. This game’s calendar pretty much resembles a real calendar, each year has January through December and each month is a full month, they’re not some sort of fictional shortened versions. To gather stuff, you’ll leave Salburg and go to one of a select handful of areas to gather materials. Each time you gather something, a day passes by. These gathering areas have monsters to battle as well. To form your party, you’ll hire a couple of characters out of a number of people in town. These characters require payment, so you’ll have to pay them every time you get back to town. But as you become friends, the cost slowly goes down. Also, battles are a super basic turn-based affair as well. There’s nothing fancy or any advanced mechanics here. In between alchemy and adventuring, you’ll also be able to fulfill requests in town to make money and you’ll occasionally happen across rumors in town or at the local bar, which will raise your knowledge and possibly unlock stuff, such as new places to gather. And as you finish quests, your reputation will go up. Your reputation goes down if you miss a deadline for a request or cancel one.

Now, I did play the game in the new Unlimited Mode. Nonetheless, you’ll find the game isn’t necessarily completely chill on Unlimited. Various events still happen on certain dates and when you take on a request, you will still have to finish it in a specific number of days. Thus, despite having extra time after the five year deadline to complete what you need to, you’ll still be relying on the calendar and trying not to waste any time. It’s just not as relaxing and carefree as a later title, like Atelier Ryza, which lacks a calendar system altogether. Still, it’s nice they give you that extra time to complete the important stuff, it’s not as strict as Atelier Ayesha for example. Also, the game is really short; I finished my first playthrough in a little over 10 hours. However, there is a bit of replay value. There are a handful of endings to unlock, there was one character I never even met who required something I clearly didn’t do correctly or at all, and you might find yourself with not enough time before the graduation exam to befriend every single party member and see all of their events. Plus, when I checked the event requirements list, which shows you some vague requirements for unlocking different events, I saw some characters had one scene you don’t get to unlock in Unlimited Mode. Based on the requirements, I thought these might be some sort of bad ends/relationship results or something of that sort. Therefore, even though this is a really short Atelier title, you might just find yourself playing it quite a few times, especially if you’re a completionist.

Overall, I thought Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg was a super cute and charming little entry. It’s super basic, being the very first Atelier, but the brand new modern chibi character designs and all the various art screens throughout the game were all extremely charming. The soundtrack was just okay. Having played this before launch, I missed out on the ability to play with Atelier Sophie’s bar theme as the relaxing tune I set in my atelier. I always like to have a chill tune set for the hours I spend on alchemy. Oh and something I forgot to mention earlier, the alchemy system is also super basic. You merely need to have the required ingredients, there’s no little minigame or advanced mechanics behind crafting. There are some occasional minigames though. When I crafted or collected specific items, a minigame would pop-up where I’d have to go around a maze on a time limit, collecting something while avoiding these enemies of a sort, to keep that item or even get extra. Also, eventually you’ll be able to unlock different designs for your atelier, which have specific bonuses for different gameplay aspects.

In the end, I’m very happy to have had the chance to play Atelier Marie. I was really looking forward to it as I said before and it turned out to be quite the fun and cute little adventure like I hoped it would be. Well, maybe it was a bit shorter than I realized, I’m not sure I would pay full price for this one, much less the Digital Deluxe price. Regardless, the fact that the Digital Deluxe Edition lets you play the Plus version of the game, which as far as I know is much more like the original with just a few extras – not a modern remake – is a nice little bonus. I may have to get myself the Digital Deluxe someday in the future. Anyway, if you like Atelier games, or you’re a fan of really basic and short little slice-of-life type RPGs, then I would highly recommend Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg. But if you prefer a much longer game, or specifically a more in-depth Atelier title, then this one might not be for you. Or, perhaps it’s something you’ll wanna snag on sale.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher. A copy of your own will cost $49.99 for the Standard Edition and $69.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition.

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If you could have any wish granted – any wish at all – but it meant taking part in a life-or-death illegal broadcast where failure means being erased from existence, would you do it? And if you found yourself on this broadcast against your will, would you be willing to hurt your costars in order to achieve that wish, or would you give in to apathy and let yourself be erased? Not that such a broadcast exists, of course; those are just rumors. The Other World Stream is just the gossip mill working its rounds… isn’t it?

Charade Maniacs, the newest release from Idea Factory, honestly has a really interesting premise. Set a good century into the future, technology has advanced to the point where humans were able to create a second artificial moon named Morpheus, though for mysterious reasons it one day disappeared. Wearable smart watches with projected displays, called Bangles, support daily tasks, provide entertainment, are used in education, and can even regulate bodily functions. Artificial intelligence is commonplace enough that protagonist Hiyori Sena’s family has their own pet robot dog they treat like the real thing. Hiyori has heard the rumors of the Other World Stream from her classmates, of course, and after the family’s robot dog finally stops working, she idly wonders if she could wish him back to life if she were to go on the stream. Her childhood best friend, Tomose Banjo, reminds her that the stream is just a rumor, but as he prepares to confess his feelings to her on their way to school one day just before summer vacation, the two unexpectedly find themselves whisked away to a place called Arcadia, where two moons hang in the sky and their every activity is monitored. Here, they and eight other unfortunate souls will have to participate in the Other World Stream – or be erased from existence.

Did I say eight? Yes I did. Charade Maniacs boasts nine love interests for Hiyori, but manages to keep the cast from being too unwieldy by breaking them down into smaller groups throughout the story. Here’s a quick rundown of all your romantic options:

• Kyoya Akase (CV. Soma Saito) – An energetic, positive presence who always tries to see the best in others and refuses to distrust the rest of the cast. He joins the Information Team.
• Tomose Banjo (CV. Kenichi Suzumura) – Childhood best friend who is fiercely protective of Hiyori and distrusts everyone else on the Other World Stream. He joins the Cleaning Team.
• Mamoru Chigasaki (CV. Daisuke Namikawa) – A quiet, reserved man who hates confrontation and who takes being on the Other World Stream harder than most. He joins the Information  Team.
• Mei Dazai (CV. Makoto Furukawa) – A stoic bookworm who cautiously accepts others but doesn’t exactly trust them. He joins the Information Team.
• Keito Ebana (CV. Tomoaki Maeno) – An antagonistic, distrustful man who wants nothing to do with anyone else in the cast when they aren’t being forced to perform. He joins the Cooking Team.
• Ryoichi Futami (CV. Tomokazu Seki) – A cool-headed and kind man who takes on a big brother style role to most of the other cast. He joins the Cleaning Team.
• Souta Gyobu (CV. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) – An impish boy who shows callous disregard to the whole situation and just wants to figure out the mystery behind the Other World Stream. He joins the Cleaning Team.
• Takumi Haiji (CV. Nobuhiko Okamoto) – A childish, softpoken boy who doesn’t quite grasp the situation everyone is in. He joins the Cooking Team.
• Mizuki Iochi (CV. Megumi Ogata) – A bold, mature older sibling type who the rest of the cast constantly wonder if they’re a man or a woman and about which Iochi could care less. They join the Cooking Team.

Whew! That’s a lot of characters! Like I said earlier, the game does a good job of giving the player plenty of chances to interact with each of the LIs, rotating them between scenes and breaking them into smaller groups Hiyori interacts with throughout the story. This game has a very long common route, but it uses that time to establish each character and let them interact with Hiyori and each other before the game branches into the working routes: Cleaning, Cooking, Information. Everyone is going to have to live together for the foreseeable future, and that means doling out the chores, so the cast all draw straws to see who is assigned to what. As the odd one out, Hiyori gets to choose which team she’ll join. These routes give you the chance to interact with the smaller group in a more focused manner as each team tackles a different aspect of life on the Other World Stream. From there, you can finally narrow in on a specific LI. It took me around 10-12 hours to finish my first route (Cleaning Team and Tomose) and another 5-6 to finish my second (Information Team and Akase), and I’ve put another two or so hours into my third route (Cooking Team, I haven’t made it to the LI choice yet). To say you will spend a lot of time with this cast is an understatement.

It’s just too bad one of them isn’t who they say they are. Wait, what? That’s right. On top of having to act against their will in an assortment of dramas, there’s a traitor in the cast’s midst.

Here’s how the Other World Stream works. The cast are all forced to participate in a series of dramas that range wildly in subject and tone – you can have a romance drama one day and be in a thriller the next. The Director chooses the dramas and who will act in them. Acting in each drama earns the cast member points: the better they act, the more points they get. If they can collect 3,000 points, they can go home. If a cast member refuses to act out a scene, they are inflicted with a Punishment Game, where they not only lose points, but also lose a bodily function. If their points go below zero, they reach a Dead End and are erased from existence, as if they were never born in the first place. While the Director chooses who acts in each drama, the Producer picks who takes part in the Other World Stream itself. And the Producer just so happens to also be a cast member. If the cast can figure out who the Producer is, they can all go home. But if they choose wrong, they all die. Who can you trust, when someone isn’t who they say they are, and they’re the reason you’ve been kidnapped and taken to this strange world to entertain otherworldly beings for who knows what reason?

I really like this premise, and I like the way the cast all react to the reality that they have a traitor amongst them. Some, like Akase and Iochi, refuse to give in to animosity and choose to trust everyone; others, like Tomose and Ebana, keep their guard up and remain standoffish to the majority of the group. The rest find something of a middle ground, or just straight up embrace being seen as untrustworthy from the get-go. Unfortunately, Hiyori refuses to distrust anyone, which I felt ultimately made her feel a bit too much like a wet blanket. I don’t mind the optimistic heroine, but in this case, I think it would have been nice to have her push back at least a little against the premise rather than immediately jump to blind trust of everyone. The game gives reasons she would trust certain people over others because of how the routes split, and it would have been a fun change of pace if the routes you choose influence how much trust you have in those characters over the others.

Presentation-wise, Charade Maniacs is gorgeous. The character designs by Teita are stunning, and the way the game frames the Other World Streams are stylish and fun. The music is honestly one of the best soundtracks this year, with incredibly upbeat and engaging music, and an opening and ending theme that are certified bangers. The acting isn’t shabby, either, with a veritable who’s who of voice actors lending their talents to this charming cast. You have your staple gallery and music player in the menu, as well as a glossary of terms, people, places and other important bits of information. There’s also a ton of replayability here, with so many LIs and three distinct story routes. That being said, the long common route can be a turn off since it takes so long to get the chance to romance any of the cast, and romance definitely takes a backseat to plot here. (For me that’s not a problem, but if you’re looking for a romance-heavy otome, this one isn’t it.) I did not have any major issues with the localization this time around, though I did catch a few typos, doubled words, and other grammatical mistakes. The game has a lot of text, and as noted above, I only fully completed two routes, so it’s possible I just didn’t encounter anything egregious the way I have in other titles.

Overall, I have had a blast reading through Charade Maniacs. The cast is large and varied, but not overwhelming, and the overarching mystery of what the Other World Stream is and why it exists keeps me going back for more. What’s up with the Arcadians? Why specifically wipe out the memory of people who died rather than just kill them? Why was this cast chosen to have such a drastic imbalance between male and female members? If you like mysteries, you can’t really go wrong here.

Charade Maniacs is available on the Nintendo Switch for $49.99 and well worth the price.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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A Wonderful Life is not a Bokujō Monogatari game I have any history playing before. I haven’t played the original GameCube version, nor Another Wonderful Life or the Special Edition version. I feel like I’ve heard in the past though that this was a good entry and have always been curious. Also, when this remake specifically first released in Japan, I had seen some stuff online and got the impression it would be a really charming entry. Seeing as I have no nostalgic history with STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life, this review will mostly be about how it holds up in comparison to similar modern entries and in general if it seems like a quality remake or not.

A Wonderful Life has a pretty basic premise typical of the Bokujō series. You find yourself moving to Forgotten Valley, where your father once lived, to run a farm. At the start of this remake you get to customize your character in a limited fashion, picking your hairstyle, default outfit, eye color, etc. After doing this and picking your name, you meet Takakura, an old friend of your father’s, and move to town. You’ll get a house with a kitchen and TV to use, a couple dirt areas for crops, a barn, a chicken coop, plus a cow to take care of and a dog. You’ll also be given some tools to help get you started.

What I found different about STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life, compared to other Bokujō Monogatari games I have played previously, is that it didn’t seem to completely focus on farming. Sure the farm is there, you can grow crops and raise animals and whatnot, but it doesn’t take very long to get done with your daily farming duties. It’s really more about your life in Forgotten Valley as a whole: the farm, making friends with the locals and seducing someone in town to get yourself a spouse and start a family, of course. Also, there isn’t a ton to do in the early game unless you save up and buy a ton of animals and plant a ton of crops right at the start. I find I don’t get too many animals because I can get burnt out having to do all the tasks it requires to take care of them, every single game day. However, it seems as if this entry wants you to focus more on animals than crops. Most other Bokujō games don’t actually force an animal on you from the start aside from a dog or horse. One other thing that was different is that each season is only 10 days instead of the 30 I was expecting.

Despite not having much to do at the start, I found myself wanting to be present for the whole day each game day and not sending my character to bed early. I played like this because in AWL you can actually milk your cow twice a day and the dirt your crops are planted in will dry out at some point during the day, which leaves them being able to be watered again. Not wanting to neglect anything at the farm, I wouldn’t go to bed until at least after 7. While waiting for the latter half of the day, I’d befriend some of the characters around town and work on seducing Matthew. The spouse options in this title are also a bit more limited than later games.

For a good amount of the time I spent on this review, I really enjoyed having a new relaxing farming game to play. But as I got into it, I found that overall, it wasn’t as good of a remake as I had hoped. Keep in mind though, I have no past history with A Wonderful Life, so this is merely how it seemed to someone who’s never played before but has an appreciation for the farming sim genre. I know it’s a GameCube game originally, but unlike STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town, which I found felt like a quality remake with real effort put into throwing a fresh coat of paint over it, AWL’s remake felt like they kept some of that retro jankiness. Despite using the button to move straight and not turn when trying to target certain dirt plots, I found my character would constantly skip out of line and water a plot in the next row diagonally across, or some other near-ish plot that wasn’t at all where I was aiming. Also, when I was out in the ocean fishing, at certain angles, the water layer glitches out and it looks like you’re standing next to a ditch, not the ocean. I also can’t forget how sometimes when I got off my horse just for a minute to go talk to someone, when I came back he’d be asleep and refuse to move for a good amount of seconds. It just didn’t feel fully remade. Again though, I’m not a returning player to this game specifically. For all I know this could be an intentional development choice to not ruin what fans loved about the original.

Ultimately, STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life wasn’t as charming as I had hoped and imagined it would be. It did get some more charm added in when I got to the second chapter and started my family. Still, I don’t think this Bokujō Monogatari game aged as well as some others, it ended up being super average. It’s not at all a bad game, I enjoyed my time with it. Nonetheless, I think this is mainly one for fans who have that nostalgia for it and will be going back to an old fave. If you’re new to it like me and really want to try it out, I’d suggest waiting for at least a small sale.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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