Thomas Knight's Reviews
I would recommend Senren Banka to visual novel fans who feel they would enjoy the adventure story or the light comedy style the story is told with. While I did feel the story was weaker in the character routes when compared to the common route, the characters themselves made up for it. The production values are high in the visual and audio areas. I enjoyed my time reading it and I believe many visual novel fans will.
Overall, this is an incredibly short experience but an interesting one. I’d usually hesitate to recommend a visual novel of this length, but between the cost being next to nothing and the sheer amount of choices you can explore, I feel like it does earn the recommendation.
Overall, I enjoyed playing Gensou Skydrift, but it did have some issues. It is quite short, without many modes. It has some technical issues and it’s not great graphically. With that said, I certainly enjoyed that it was more difficult than the average and it is very fun to play against friends, as well as in single player. The skill needed to successfully navigate the courses is what makes it stand out the most to me and certainly fits in with the rest of the Touhou Project series in that way.
Coffee Talk is a very laid back and well-written game. While I don’t really think it fits its own tagline of a ‘coffee brewing simulator’, it does hit the target on the conversations. It covers some sensitive modern topics in a different way and manages to feel very relatable, despite involving aliens, mermaids and more. While I would’ve liked to see further alternate endings or ways to affect the storyline, it’s a small but pleasant package for a budget price.
Overall, I really enjoyed Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk DX. In terms of the story and characters, I feel it to be the strongest of the Atelier titles I have experienced so far. While I may have some mixed feelings about the alchemy system and took issue with the difficulty spike, I enjoyed the world, all the side stories experienced along the journey and the relaxed feeling of the game. I highly recommend it.
Overall, I find the Atelier Dusk Trilogy DX to have been done well. The games themselves are all very enjoyable and this is the definitive version of them, with some great additional features which improve things even more than most remasters would.
I would personally recommend Bokuten - Why I Became an Angel, again with the caveat that the reader knows what they are getting themselves into. This is a very sad, emotional experience with some highly disturbing scenes and topics. It is also a very well written visual novel with a great story that I would highly recommend to someone who wants to experience something out of the ordinary.
Overall, this is a great rhythm game with some decent puzzling sections – that is if you are playing in VR. I did find that the control scheme was a big issue on the DualShock controller, but with PS Moves it worked almost perfectly. I’d certainly recommend it to VR players, despite frustrating issues around advancing the story and puzzles. For players using the TV and a DualShock controller, I generally wouldn’t recommend it unless you try before you buy.
I would highly recommend Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue to visual novel fans who enjoy either the sports theme or the light comedy style the story is told with. While I did have minor complaints about the romance in most routes, I felt it was one of the best visual novels of 2019.
While I have my concerns with how briefly the story is covered, I certainly enjoyed Utawarerumono: ZAN. I was surprised at how good the gameplay was when getting further into the game. It is a bit pricey for the amount of content, which I suppose is due to the niche nature of it. It will be more worth it if you plan to complete all of the modes, as story mode alone could be completed in less than 5 hours.
I definitely enjoyed reading through The Witch’s Love Diary, but I do feel somewhat conflicted. The style they used to tell the story was particularly unique, but it did come across as disjointed. The overall story was interesting and the characters were great. I can’t really say I’d prefer it as a standard visual novel where routes separate though, as it wouldn’t work with the story. It's an experience unlike most others and worth taking the time to play.
The mechanics are fairly simple, but the puzzles are well designed and the concept is unique. If you have a dark sense of humor and enjoy puzzles, I recommend it.
I would recommend World End Syndrome to visual novel fans who enjoy a light mystery story and romance. All of the characters are interesting, if not always likeable. The overall story comes together very well too and it works as a good example of a way to go through basically the same story several times while keeping things fresh. The art is amazing too.
Despite some writing issues missed in editing and minor technical issues, this rhythm game is simple, but incredibly fun and has lots of content for the budget price. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of customization and unlockables. Keep in mind though, this is a review of the PC version and the revenue model is different on some other platforms.
Sankaku Ren'ai is an absolute riot. The writing and localisation is great, all of the characters are likeable, all of the routes are interesting and production values are high all around. It's certainly very geared towards visual novel fans though - not an entry title.
Despite some technical issues, the mystery unfolding and adding more detail each time made this an interesting title, along with some characters with strong personalities.
Overall, this is quite a fun mecha game and budget priced. The story was disappointing, but the gameplay was better than I initially expected and worth praising. The several included modes give you quite a few ways to play and it works well on the Switch too, as missions can be played in short bursts. It's not much more than a fun time flying around and shooting down enemies, but as long as you don't expect more, then it's fine.
Death end re;Quest was a good JRPG. It’s strongest points are the story, the switching between worlds and the features of the battle system. It’s certainly not perfect though. Sometimes the wandering around dungeons went on too long without encountering anything and there are certain features which the game could explain better. It innovated in many ways while relying on tropes in others. Still, I enjoyed my time playing through the game and couldn’t put it down at times. It's one of the better Idea Factory JRPGs.
I’d certainly recommend the game to any visual novel fans who enjoy well-written comedy and unique settings. It raises questions and makes you think about the issues with this society. It's not your typical story.
The star of this game is the gameplay, but the cute characters, the humor and fun interactions between them add to it. As long as you don’t mind clothing coming off mid-battle, I’d recommend playing this game.