Thomas Knight's Reviews
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
An interesting reboot of an old series. Shows its age in some ways, but it is a great way to revisit this franchise.
A potentially great game, mostly limited by technology. Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had here.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Overall I think this is quite a fun game and would be enjoyed by fans of the series and people who are just interested in the broomstick flight aspect. The actual flying is great and I like the customization. I do wish the difficulty was a little higher, but it’s still fun to navigate the courses at high speed. There’s also that it’s fairly short on content, but that’s about standard for most virtual reality games.
Spelunky 2 takes what made the first game so good and adds to it. It’s a challenge that never seems to get old and it’s easy to find yourself losing track of time, as you have just one more go. There’s a lot to learn about the mines and if you like rogue-lites, you may just find yourself addicted to this one.
Crash Bandicoot 4 is a great challenge and I couldn’t stop playing. It has a ton of variety over quite a lot of levels and the gameplay is genuinely fun. The production values are high and there’s always something to do. It’s a definite improvement on the previous games in the series, despite keeping the same feel. Despite being one of the best games I’ve played recently, I do have one big concern. I could see a lot of people giving up and coming away from this game with a bad impression because of the difficulty. While you can keep trying and trying, many areas are just incredibly difficult and some people won’t be able to pass them. This is not going to be a game for everyone and that's not a bad thing.
I would recommend Aokana – Extra1 if you completed Aokana, liked Mashiro, and enjoy the light comedy style the story is told with. It’s short, lighthearted, and sweet while keeping the humor up almost constantly. Despite the lack of a strong plot, if you want to see more of Mashiro after you won her over in Aokana, this is where you can find it. It’s not as engaging as the original Aokana, but it is in the end a short fandisc – additional content aimed directly at the fans. And that’s fine.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is only a few hours long, but for a Star Wars fan it could be worth it to experience that galaxy, far, far away. It does a lot right in that aspect. That said, considering the price for such a short game and the issues with the gameplay, I would be more cautious if I were a more casual fan or just enjoyed these types of games. It immerses you in that universe, but it doesn’t keep you in it.