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Real Anime Situation! DT has its moments, especially when it comes to the comedic interactions between the heroines. It just fails to stand out in most other ways. It's a decent eroge and perhaps some people will like the heroines or situations created more than I did, but unlike Real Anime Situation! 2, I think this one is destined for the bargain bin.
Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is a solid improvement over its predecessor, which I already thought was good. Previous frustrations are mitigated thanks to the shift from pure platformer to Metroidvania, while keeping and improving what worked before. That said, it definitely suffers from just not being a very elegantly made Metroidvania. The best of its genre are lifted by a layer of artistry and cleverness that I feel this game decidedly lacks, which is disappointing when I feel it still gets plenty right. It's not the best you’ll ever play, but I’d recommend it quite easily.
Rance 03 - The Fall of Leazas is a visual novel RPG hybrid that features characters from the Rance series, both new and old, thrust into an epic war setting full of action and cruelty. While it retains its signature Rance style of humor, it explores a larger dynamic between characters and groups as it expands the scope of the game to an international conflict. It brings a fresh breath of air to the brutal Rance’s adventures and serves as a great starting point for a possible shift in tone for the overall series plot going forward. By using multiple character perspectives, Rance 03 is able to introduce a number of character motivations that feed into the overall world setting, giving incentive for readers to become invested in the series’ lore. Additionally, the gameplay loop is rewarding to engage with, providing a sense of success through either adult-oriented rewards or overcoming difficult situations due to limitations introduced in the current battle system’s iteration. In simple terms, it’s a lot of fun to play. The catch, however, is that you need to play the previous two games in the series to fully appreciate what the game has to offer. If you’re a fan of visual novels with gameplay and you don't have any issues with the more dubious aspects of the main character, definitely try out Rance 03 - The Fall of Leazas. With an impressive cast of characters, an expanded setting, and fun gameplay, you’ll be burning away your free time without even noticing it. Moreover, even with the added focus on other characters, they still largely retain the unique combination of charisma and cruelty that Rance has, which fans of the series will definitely appreciate. It’s an installment that both lighthearted readers and those who like reading deep into the text can enjoy themselves in. Just keep in mind that you’ll be seeing a lot of cute girls cry; that’s Rance’s style.
So has SNK learned from their previous games and made Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves a game worthy of the mighty Lone Wolves of Southtown? The answer to that is a resounding yes. In my humble opinion, this is the finest SNK game since King of Fighters XIII and does the legacy of Fatal Fury/Garou proud. It looks amazing, the new systems feel completely natural, it has an excellent flow to the matches, the roster is well balanced, and the free Season 1 DLC featuring Chun-Li and Ken Masters from Street Fighter are just a nice sweetener for that. The game just feels so good to play and string moves together that I can just see people getting hooked by it. As a fighter, it feels like the perfect combo of modern gaming and arcade gaming. For a casual gamer, I still believe there is a healthy amount of content here to grip and perhaps be your gateway game into the genre. This is the highest bar and likely the best game to convert anyone over to the series. The admittedly somewhat confusing marketing will undoubtedly create some curiosity in some gamers interested in its real life guest characters, but I expect them to stay for not only the best alternative to Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1, but for the game that has the best chance of winning the bout and becoming King of the Mountain.
If you liked Rance 01, then you’ll like Rance 02 as well. It’s the same silly protagonist inflicting trauma on innocent people he comes across, yet retaining a sort of charisma to him that makes you want to keep watching his adventures. Although technically less enjoyable compared to its predecessor by virtue of release date and relative quality, the experience is rather rewarding in terms of how many CGs you get out of it in a short span of time. Fans of point and click adventure games will have a nostalgic experience playing it as it retains the same old features. As long as you enjoy it as what it is—a silly story, then you’re bound to have a good time.
Strictly as a collection, the Lunar Remastered Collection is an excellent package. You have both games of a classic yet hard-to-obtain duology in a single, highly accessible collection. There are enough touch-ups to account for the different sensibilities of all kinds of JRPG fans around today. The fact that there are Classic and Remastered options which can even share save files is an especially nice treat. Still, the core of each game is kept gracefully intact from their PS1 counterparts. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Lunar 1 and 2 don’t offer particularly deep games in their systems and their stories are a bit on the simple and straightforward side. While this lowers the upper ceiling of the games for me, they have a high enough floor that I still enjoyed my playthrough plenty. They also make up for their simplicity with a charming and engrossing world and interconnected narrative between the games, while having some fun characters and dialogue. This collection serves as an excellent way to experience these fan-favorite RPGs, whether it be for the first time or just a trip down memory lane.
Inhuman Resources: A Literary Machination is a story worth experiencing. With choices that feel weighty, this horror story feels even more unsettling as it's made clear that you're the one taking control of the path your story takes and your actions along the way.
Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- is a visual novel/RPG hybrid that features cute characters and a gameplay loop that doesn’t overwhelm its readers. Your progress is largely customizable and the game leaves you free to explore as much of it as you want. Additionally, as an eroge, it rewards players with sex scenes that feature excellent art from its artists, creating a feeling of working towards a particular goal. Just be careful of its randomly cruel mechanics—you might find yourself losing major progress! While it lacks an intriguing storyline, it puts most of its efforts in creating humorous dialogue that fits the overall characterization of its protagonist. The motivations, while questionable, are consistent, making the story progression feel solid and sensible. Even the way the case gets solved is pretty comedic, as if we’re just here to have a good time. Just note that Rance is the strongest warrior in the world, so he might come off as weird sometimes. Weirdly cruel, even. Oh, and keep your brain off for the story unless you want to be annoyed. If you’re a fan of visual novel RPG hybrids, then Rance 01 -Quest for Hikari- is definitely worth a pick up. With quirky characters, an irresponsible and arrogant protagonist that’s strangely charismatic for some reason, and art that makes you work for it, it’s a fun little time sink for those who want to try out the Rance series or just have a change of pace from your standard click and read visual novel. Alas, it’s not that deep… yet. Maybe in Rance 02.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is the best version of what I still feel is Monolith Soft’s best outing yet. It’s a bang-on, quintessential example of how to create a massive, alien world that is stylish and inviting. It’s packed with imagination, and its mechanics mostly come together quite seamlessly to create an overwhelming, childlike feeling that I don’t feel any game has managed to replicate since then. With the changes made to the Nintendo Switch version, I feel this more strongly than ever. It’s nothing if not a classic in my eyes. However, it’s hard to gloss over just how poor I feel the Definitive Edition’s story content is. It leads to a wonderful game ending on a sour note, to the point that I actually wind up preferring the original’s notoriously inconclusive ending. After ruminating on it, it’s hard to reconcile the Afterstory with what the rest of the game presents, and in some ways it’s Xenoblade at its worst. However, the Afterstory is only a small part of an awesome package. If you want to explore a massive world, gunning down obstacles in your big robot with sick beats, look no further.
I felt like Love, Elections, and Chocolate was overall better than the sum of its parts. It’s imperfect, but it has enough good moments and handles enough sections in interesting ways even in those imperfections. The phrase that kept coming to my mind throughout my time with this visual novel was “rough around the edges”. I could definitely feel that this was sprite’s debut into full fledged visual novels, as there are some aspects (pacing, handling conflict) that felt rough at times. Its heroines all have rough spots in their respective routes if not their personalities and character, and the melodrama can come off as overdone. Things don’t always happen the cleanest in this story, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. I can’t say I expect it to work for everyone, but there was enough here that worked for me. It’s not a story I expect fans of this genre to all agree on thanks to the rougher aspects of some of its characters, and there’s plenty which I felt could have been done better with its narrative and character dynamics. Even with its weaker aspects, however, I enjoyed my time with it enough to give it just enough of a thumbs up.
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is perhaps not what long-time Atelier fans or even those who joined with Atelier Ryza would expect, but it's an ambitious new take on the Atelier series. It does a wonderful job of creating a sense of exploration and rewarding it, which creates a fun experience. It could however improve certain aspects, particularly around systems like alchemy and how little it links to combat and gameplay, as well as by fixing technical problems. It's something new for the series and a solid base to build on and improve for future titles.
Mojika: Truth Rears Its Ugly Head is an utsuge that dabbles in the psychological tug-of-war between knowing an ugly truth and being fed beautiful lies. By presenting the characters at both their best and their worst, the visual novel manages to weave a quest for revenge centered around manipulation and violence into a story that tries to relay a message about facing the truth. It’s depressingly heavy in its content, but hopeful in what it tries to achieve. Because of the themes, however, it’s definitely not a game that will be appreciated by everyone. Tread carefully as you engage its subject matter; you might learn things that’ll make you less happy.
Tayutama -Kiss on My Deity- is a story worth experiencing and has some great moments. Unfortunately, its structure makes experiencing all of its routes less than ideal, and it would have benefitted from a more comprehensive re-release. Still, I certainly enjoyed my first read quite a lot, and the new scenes in subsequent routes were ones I enjoyed.
Hentai Prison is a comedy visual novel with noir elements that makes use of the prison setting to create an unfamiliar feeling of tension amidst motifs of sex that are familiar sights to fans of the genre. The way it presents the characters as people with varying levels of sexual degeneracy pays great service to establishing how commonplace the interest in sex is even amongst the general populace, a topic that’s well-discussed in both community websites and academic papers. While generally light in tone, the visual novel gleans inspiration from prison stories and turns the game into a well-communicated message about our relationship with sex. Although having incredibly convenient plot devices at times, Hentai Prison shines as a great read for people interested in a long read about self-discovery in the weirdest places. I recommend picking it up not only because of its novelty but also because of what messages its stories try to tell. It makes sense for something so heartfelt to come from an exhibitionist—we’re the most vulnerable when we’re naked, after all!
The King of Fighters XIII Global Match should be the definitive way to play one of the best fighting games ever made, and unfortunately, it’s not in the shape it should be. It’s certainly not what I'd want anyone's first impression of King of Fighters XIII or SNK to be. If you don’t already own The King of Fighters XIII Steam Edition, then this is the only version you can now buy. I would still say if you don’t own the Steam Edition but are curious about the game, there is an amazing offline game here (CPU usage permitting) that you can take on. If like me you already owned the Steam Edition, there is currently no incentive to jump in and make the upgrade. I do hope the developers are hard at work with a patch to turn this around as I’m itching to play more, but currently, as a supposed upgrade for improved online experience, this more than misses the mark.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a great game, if one that doesn’t live up to those that came before it. It’s the same as several of its predecessors in many ways and can be incredibly fun at times as a result, but it falls down on certain new or unique elements. If you enjoyed Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for their gameplay or want to see what happens after the events of those stories, then you’ll likely enjoy this.
All The Words She Wrote is a short, slow, and sweet yuri romance, with a particularly fun dynamic between a cheerful fan and a misanthropic author. While it feels like it could've done a little more post-climax, the build-up to it was particularly good. It's worth the read.
X-Out Resurfaced is a bizarre proposition. There isn’t anything particularly bad about the game, nor is there anything amazingly standout aside from the soundtrack or the opening cinematic, leaving it as little more to me than just a curiosity. I enjoyed my time with the game (and even more when I found out you can have more than one life), but I genuinely don’t think I’ll be returning to this one again due to it lacking much in the way of outstanding qualities. It’s a pick for inquisitive fans of the genre, but unless you’re starved for something to play or just HAVE to have every Shmup on the market, there isn’t much here with X-Out that you can’t get elsewhere with less bloom.
Destiny Star Girlfriend 3 is my favorite of the three titles. It has plenty of comedic moments, but what makes it special is how it handles the plot, especially in how the characters grow closer and the events toward the end. Adding this to plenty of sweet romantic moments and shows of friendship made this quiet heroine’s story stand out even more than the over-the-top Yuuri from the first title, at least to me.
Warriors: Abyss was a pleasant surprise, particularly for its price point. There are perhaps some tweaks that could be made to the formula, but it nicely implements the roguelite gameplay with hack 'n' slash, creating a fun experience, if a touch repetitive as is common with Warriors games. It's one I enjoyed and a nice one to dip into for 30 minutes here and there. The only danger is it creates that 'one more turn' feeling, and 30 minutes soon turns into 3 hours.