Overall, I’d say Hakoniwa Explorer Plus is a quirky little adventure game with a lot of interesting gags, a solid base mechanic, although it may need some slight tweaking, and enough big boobed/butted large bosses to easily identify the improbably female boss cast. While there are a lot of aspects that need a little touching up, such as the supped speedy rate at which your weapons deteriorate, the gags, simple gameplay, and school swimsuits will probably have you coming back for more.
Overall, Touhou Azure Reflections is a really great spin-off with its own fresh gimmicks and playstyles, with enough of a challenge for veteran players, while easy enough for new players to get into. With a solid soundtrack and interesting characters, a great beginner tutorial and some nice variation with accessories, Azure Reflections is a fine game if you’re looking for more Touhou in your gaming diet, or if you’ve been interested in getting into the bullet hell type games but have never known where to start.
Overall, I'd say Strange Journey Redux gets 8 pixies out of ten. It's really solid with some interesting gimmicks and solid gameplay, but it just doesn't quite have the oomph to substantially set itself apart from the crowd.
Overall though, X-Morph has a decided charm to it, and while the main alien computer things voice bothered me, the amount of enjoyment I got out of shooting up tanks and convoys with my friend in the co-op mode well more than made up for that. There was screaming and yelling, vying for turret space, and lots of cheering when we finally won.
Ultimately, Steins;Gate 0 is a novel. A rather good novel, with interesting, unique, and ironically very 'human' characters, but a novel nonetheless, so you're enjoyment will be dependant on how much you like the storyline, although I can say I really enjoyed it.
Remember those weird and awkward days of trying to fit in in high school? Well, they're about to get weirder. And awkwarder. A retro style game about that crazy and scary period of time during high school, you can follow the poster child for weird and dorky, Daryl, as he tries to make sense of his teenage years. Also, dimensional rifts and brainwashing, strange creatures, and super powers.
Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online isn't bad, it just isn't great.
Hey ho hunterino! You’re moving on from Moga, Dundorma and Bherna and heading to the New World to continue your hunting exploits, are you? Don’t forget to bring back a souvenir! But not Dung. That wouldn’t be cool. The Monster Hunter Franchise is a series I’ve put more time into than planning for my future. With an average of 400 hours per game since 3U, and with my first being “Monster Hunter” for PS2, I’ve been hunting for quite some time, and I feel confident in saying that Monster Hunter World really outdid itself. Whether it be the ease for new players to get into, the ‘honed’ weapon movesets, the gorgeous environments, or the quality of life improvements, Monster Hunter World has something for veterans and newbies alike.
I feel like I’m doing things slightly backwards here, as I reviewed Zwei 2 first, and now the first. Well, I did say I wanted to see it released, and it is, so I’d call that a win. While the first zwei certainly shows its age, it’s a charming adventure through a fantasy world filled with puns, monsters, puns, conspiracy, and puns. Did I mention all the puns? There’s a lot, and they’re great.
Under Night In-Birth is a 2D fighting game coming to us from French Bread and Aksys Games. With a heavy Type-Moon vibe to it, a nice selection of characters, and a solid combat system in place, if nothing else it's certainly a solid entry into the fighting game genre. There are plenty of different modes to try out and the combat is fluid making it easily accessible to newcomers or those that aren't particularly good at fighting games.
Exist Archive is a JRPG brought to us by Spike Chunsoft and tri-Ace. Maybe recognizable from their works such as Danganronpa and Valkyrie Profile respectively, these two came together to create a solid JRPG that covers most of its bases in: gameplay, music, and story, although perhaps lacking a bit in gameplay explanation.
Not too long ago, Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion was out on the Vita, along with its counterpart Sins of an Empire for the PS4. While I did enjoy the experience of Flames of Rebellion on the Vita, it did have some minor issues compared to its PS4 relative. Thankfully, with this PS4 port, not only can you own the two titles for the same system, but some of the issues from the first port have been resolved.
A while ago I had the opportunity of reviewing Tokyo Xanadu for the PSVita. In my review I mentioned about waiting to see if the EX+ PS4 version would get localized in North America, and here it is! With sharper graphics and smoother gameplay, as well as additional content to the original version, this JRPG has certainly gotten an upgrade.
A while ago I had the distinct pleasure of being able to write a preview for Oh My Godheads, and now I have the chance to write a full review. For those who haven't read through the preview, or have forgotten, OMGodheads is a very interesting mash-up of capture the flag and dodgeball, sporting "the world's first capture the head action…for 1-4 players".
Zwei is a series originally released only in Japan, if I recall correctly, and the sequel Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, has made its way to North America, much to my pleasure. Introducing some interesting dual character mechanics, probably taken from the Zwei (German for two), provides a wonderful blend of monster mashing, puzzle solving, dungeon delving, and dancing that I’d be hard pressed to give a similarly done title off the top of my head.
Hoo boy, where to begin with School Girl/Zombie Hunter. I suppose I should start off by mentioning that it’s like some weird cross between Resident Evil and Onechanbara, as weird as that may sound. While I have no doubt the developers set out to do…something, it feels as if they stuck their hands in too many pies, while not really committing to any of them. It has all the bases to be: a fan service game, story driven, an action game, or a comedic parody, yet I found it to never really settle on any of the options it had going for it. Oddly enough, the game isn’t really “bad” per se, more of a weird genre limbo type deal.
I’m not sure about any of you reading this, but I was a huge fan of the first Demon Gaze, even playing through the bonus dungeon that was more than a little bit of a pain in the arse. Especially Luna’s cell. Demon Gaze II is a weird type of sequel, where the events of the first game are followed but not needed to be really known about until the epilogue, although knowing the first game will definitely make some of the recurring characters a lot more hilarious. Like the first Demon Gaze, Demon Gaze II follows the dungeon crawling experience its predecessor left, making a lot of changes and improvements, almost all of which I was glad to see.
Admittedly, I don’t normally play the style of games that Bad Apple Wars falls under, mainly the “dating sim” style games. Even more so when it’s also female oriented, so this is a step in a new direction for me, so bear with me a bit. That being said, the game isn’t bad, even from a male perspective, but I wouldn’t say it’s all that great either. The music is good, but the storylines and characters could definitely use some work.
Two anime/manga/light novel franchises come together in Accel World vs Sword Art Online in the form of an action RPG that has an interesting premise and gameplay, but is severely lackluster as a port. While AWvSAO may have a solid basis in gameplay and environment, at least on the PC it's bogged down by a lot of lag and the often-times infuriatingly stupid enemy AI.
Overall, I have to say that Cherrymochi did an absolutely stellar job with Tokyo Dark: the graphics and music are great, the animated cutscenes are a wonderful touch, and the amazing level of detail that went into the choice and SPIN attribute system is great. Whoever said that "the beauty is in the finer details" is absolutely correct. Despite playing as detective Ito, strictly speaking, your choices and attitude describes who she is, even though she is also given her own personality at the beginning of the game. Tokyo Dark is a game that gets you hooked and keeps you there, all throughout the game, and maybe even past the end.