Thomas Knight's Reviews
Despite the difficulties with the structure of the game and accessing different routes, I certainly had a good time reading Robotic;Notes Elite. The mystery unfolded an interesting way, the slightly futuristic setting was easily relatable and a lot of the character interactions and humor kept it going for the more relaxed sections. The production quality was incredibly high too, aside from a few minor parts.
Between the quality of the comedy, the scenes shown in the common route and the overall production quality, I’m happy to recommend IxShe Tell. I do feel like it could have been better at developing the characters or exploring their issues further in the character routes, which is what holds it back from a higher score.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 feels like a faithful remake, but still improves in all areas. The only real gripe I have with it is that the controls don’t feel perfect with the analog stick, but that’s minor considering there’s another option. There are a good amount of levels and tons of things to do in them. I really enjoyed it and that’s not just the nostalgia talking.
I feel rather mixed on this game. On the one hand, there are quite a few good things. I really enjoy the feel of racing, the way the shooting works, the courses, and quite a bit more. I liked the challenges too. Customization is great, with characters able to look completely different and performance upgrades being possible. Mini-games were a nice touch too. On the other hand, it’s far too easy. When I’m slowing down and waiting for opponents to catch up so I can shoot them to complete a challenge, it’s a serious problem. There are also issues with the user interface and loading, both of which slow things down a lot. The story wasn’t great either, but I don’t hold that against it too much as it’s primarily a jet racing game. I think the decider here is the price. It’s a reasonably expensive title for something with flaws that affect the experience so much. If it wasn’t for the difficulty issue, I’d have a much easier time fully recommending it as the racing gameplay is genuinely good. If it was less expensive, then it would be more justifiable as something to pick up to casually play with friends.
Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon – Infinite Combate is not a game I’d generally recommend. There was a lot of frustration. I found myself disappointed. With that said, as a fan of the anime series, there were certainly points I enjoyed, mostly around seeing the story again and talking to the characters. Some of the customization and extra content in the post-game helped to redeem it too.
I really enjoyed Destroy All Humans. In many ways, this feels like what a remake should be – it’s modernized and improved to the level of many current games, but very much kept the original spirit. While there is some further room for improvement that prevents it from getting a higher score, I’m certainly happy that I had the chance to play this. It’s left me hoping that the other games get a remake or a new sequel is announced.
Necrobarista is certainly an interesting take on the visual novel genre. The dialogue is amazing and the story is certainly worth experiencing. It could perhaps be priced a bit lower considering how short it is and it does have some minor technical issues. Still, overall I enjoyed it.
A potentially great game, mostly limited by technology. Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had here.
An interesting reboot of an old series. Shows its age in some ways, but it is a great way to revisit this franchise.
The pacing of the story wasn’t the best in the world and the characters weren’t as charming as some other titles, but it was a relaxing journey with well developed characters and an interesting world. Overall, the gameplay is one of the better systems I’ve experienced for a JRPG too and it comes paired with a beautiful world and character design.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen has an intriguing story, great characters, and a decent SRPG battle system. The story of seeing where Hakuowlo starts and where he goes from there is really the selling point here. I did have some complaints about the censorship going a bit too far and the battle system is not amazing, but overall I highly recommend it. It's certainly a candidate for my best visual novels of 2020 list.
Saints Row the Third has always been one of the most fun games I’ve played and Saints Row the Third: Remastered brings that to a new group of players. Perhaps it could have made more improvement as a Remaster considering the price charged, but the amount of sheer fun you can have makes it well worth playing. There are tons of things to do from structured missions to achievements based on driving on the wrong side of the road. This is not a game that you will be done with by just completing the story.
I would highly recommend YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story to visual novel fans who play visual novels for the story, more than romancing the heroines. I would also suggest that it is not suitable as a beginner’s visual novel but would be more appreciated by someone familiar with the genre. In several ways, this was not my style of a visual novel. Despite this, I rate it very highly. YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story is a story that I feel visual novel fans should experience and many will appreciate, even if it means stepping outside of their comfort zone.
While Sakura Wars does have some issues with the repetitiveness required to see all of the content and the battle system not being as fluid as it could be, the majority of my experience has been great. The interactions with the characters particularly stand out and the game’s focus is definitely on that. The patch which came out around release alleviated some of the issues I experienced playing prerelease, but did not completely erase them. I still recommend it, but it still falls below expectations in some ways.
I would personally recommend Making Lovers to visual novel fans who enjoy games with less focus on story, but more on characters and relationships. All of the characters are likeable, all of the routes are interesting and production values are high all around. It's a great entry to visual novels too. It's not a perfect title, but it gets a strong recommendation from me.
Overall, I really enjoyed Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate. There’s something satisfying about mindlessly mowing down thousands of soldiers and then using a variety of skills to bring down more difficult enemies. The story isn’t the most amazing thing in the world, but I feel like the gameplay more than makes up for it and the sheer amount of content in the game makes it worth the price, despite it admittedly being a bit high.
In the end, I find myself rather mixed on this title. It has some very good points – the character interactions, the voicing and the way it works as an introduction to the world of Azur Lane. There’s even a huge selection of characters to unlock even if it doesn’t cover the full range of Azur Lane characters. While there are positive points, there are certainly negative ones too. The constant button pressing and going back to the map to proceed. Battles being too short and too easy to need to do much. The user interface only really works well if you have a controller. In the end, I think this is going to be one mostly for fans of Azur Lane rather than fans of anime games in general.
Overall I certainly enjoyed this game. It was full of personality and it was a nice change to be making dance poses instead of attacking or defending like in some other popular VR rhythm games. I did feel like it was too short on content for the relatively high price and it might be better served on a VR system with better tracking, but it was fun and it’d be great to implement into someone’s VR exercise routine with the 100-stage mode.
I actually played Zombie Army 4: Dead War enough that my hand began to hurt at one point because I couldn't put it down. It's delightfully gory and the gameplay is incredibly fun.Playing solo was fun, but it improved even further in co-op with a good group. I recommend this game in general, but I recommend it even more if you can convince some friends to pick it up at the same time.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed Rune Factory 4 Special. It is an incredibly addictive game that has eaten up hours of my time and will continue to do so in the future as I play through again and again. The only complaints I have are fairly minor, such as a lack of explanations of a few points or the occasional case of a follower character getting in the way. It's a well-done remake.