Thomas Knight's Reviews
Is Chocobo GP going to knock Mario Kart 8 Deluxe off its pedestal as the best Nintendo Switch kart racer? Certainly not. But it’s certainly a well-made title and plenty of fun, despite some questionable decisions and a lack of anything truly innovative. It’s a pity that many people will overlook it.
KamiYaba: Destiny on a Dicey Deadline is essentially a story about love and getting closer to a heroine. Beyond that, it shows a touching friendship that grows between a group who at first just occupied the same space. While it won’t win any awards for the plot, there are some great characters who I enjoyed spending my time with – and that’s often what people enjoy behind this type of visual novel.
Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a great way to keep your mind active, as well as a way to fairly compete with people of all ages. As someone who rarely has to use math beyond basic addition, I could feel the skills slowly coming back to me as I continued to play. It does have some limitations such as direct multiplayer being local only and a limited selection of minigames, but considering the budget price and accessibility, it’s worth picking up.
I feel like The Humbling of a Holy Maiden will be most appreciated by a niche audience – those particularly interested in the kinks on display here. That said, there’s still certainly a lot to enjoy about it. It has an interesting setting, wonderful art, and some great voicing. It is a bit short, but it packs a lot into that time.
Harem Kingdom is a laugh-out-loud comedy. I’d not say to come here for the story, but you get to know some rather interesting characters and have fun along the way. It’s a fantasy where you get whisked away to another world, but instead of fighting and adventuring like most isekai stories, you get to relax and enjoy yourself.
Overall, I enjoyed Samurai Warriors 5. I generally do enjoy the gameplay of this Warriors franchise and they’ve kept it fresh by including some small changes. The ultimate attacks were a particularly appreciated spin. While the story is never really the focus of the Warriors titles, it was an enjoyable telling of Nobunaga’s tale too. It doesn’t steal the crown of my favorite Warriors title from Dynasty Warriors 8, but it’s certainly a strong entry into the series.
Despite the serious performance issues in Disgaea 6, I still strongly enjoyed it. The story and characters were particularly good. I was surprised by this as I didn’t feel the same about most of the recent Disgaea titles. The sheer amount of customization and different aspects of the gameplay was as impressive as ever. As always, there’s a ton to experiment with.
The Persistence has some very real design and technical issues. Despite this, I found it worth dealing with them because it also has an addictive gameplay loop, a fun challenge, and a brilliant atmosphere when playing in VR. I certainly recommend it, but feel it could be much better than it is.
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster is quite a difficult game to rate. It’s incredibly frustrating in many ways. As the other side to that, the deep combat systems encourage experimentation and discovery. The lore is very interesting, but the story starts in a very slow manner. It’s not really impressive as a remaster graphically, but the additional voice acting is brilliant. If nothing else, I suggest you don’t purely go off the rating here and read carefully through the review. This won’t be for everyone. Things that I felt were good, I could easily see being hated by some. Fans of Persona should keep in mind that many of the systems are similar, but it is still a very different game.
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.
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.
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.
In the end, this is a fairly short and simple visual novel with some comedy. If you have an interest in Japan and visiting it, it should be an interesting read. To me, the interactions with characters were better than the story and I was very impressed by the use of animation.
I did enjoy this game and I would recommend trying it to anyone whom this type of comedic game appeals to. I will say that not everyone enjoys this style of game, but it is definitely one of the better examples of the type. The cast of characters brings a lot of fun to the series and the absurdity of it will make most players laugh. The only other caveat I would include is that if you have already played Neptunia VII, I would wait for one of Idea Factory’s frequent sales as there isn’t too much different about it.
This feels very much like a classic JRPG, with some extra features to bring it into the new age of gaming. This style of JRPG does require a lot of patience however, which is why I expect the turbo mode feature will be very appreciated by new and old fans alike. In the end though, it's the great story which kept me playing this game.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.