Bioshock is a game about free will. It's about choices. You are told what to do in each chapter/level. You are expected to kill whoever get in your way in an once glorious city for everyone who wanted to leave the postwar power relations of the world and strike out on their own which called Rapture. Rapture is a city built by people who don’t want to follow God and consider God as something that stops them from being great. So they live their own way, doing their own thing. There are no rules except for the ones they want to follow. And it doesn’t matter who gets hurt along the way. Bioshock shows that this is a very dangerous philosophy by spending most of its time with characters conversations that developed through extensive audio logs and villains monologues throughout the story. It is both visually and aurally beautiful but also haunting at the same time that hooked me from the start. And that's why it still holds up pretty well after 17 years.

If you telling me years ago that there will be a remaster of Mahoutsukai no Yoru with new voice-over and an official English translation that release worldwide, my weeb ass wouldn't believe that shit but here we are the magic happened. For the first time, a Type-Moon visual novel received an official English translation. And finally on December 2023 exactly a year after the worldwide release, it release on PC.

Taking place in the rapidly modernizing Japanese suburb of Misaki in the late 1980s, Mahoutsukai no Yoru also known as Mahoyo centers around Aoko Aozaki, a high school girl in training to be a mage. She lives in the mysterious mansion on the hill with Alice Kuonji, her magic teacher and roomates but sometimes Aoko treated her as her rival. In Type-Moon universe, magic cannot reach the knowledge of ordinary humans so its power does not weaken and remains a mystery. So when an odd young man from the countryside named Soujuurou Shizuki accidentally discovers their occult activities and after trying to kill him, they then force him to live with them until they can wipe his memory. It is primarily a slice of life, coming of age story that explores the three main leads, living their lives, going to school, and arguing, a lot, all while occasionally diving into the world of magecraft. I will say the first four chapters of the VN (around 5-6 hours of playtime) might be a little on the slow slide as it takes a lot of time to set up the plot but once you get to further through, it really starts to pick up.

Mahoyo isn’t just important from a lore perspective, the story features the first introduction of two prominent mages who later appear in important roles in Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime. It also introduces and explains much of the lore that Nasu would use to inform his later works, including the much better known Tsukihime and Fate. Nasu’s world-building is intricate, obtuse, and not always easy to understand, so Mahoyo functions as an excellent entry point. Kinoko Nasu wrote the novel which is unpublished even before Kara no Kyoukai novel.

The main characters which is the trio is not only among my favorite Type-Moon's characters but also one of my favorite trio in general. They are the heart of the visual novel and Nasu is able to draw a lot of character out of each of them as individuals and as a team. And out of the trio the one that is the most interesting is Soujuuro. I think the reason why is because Soujuuro really the least interesting and bland looking guy, and that is kind of the point. Being born in the mountains without electricity or running water, his lack of modern knowledge makes him naive yet very earnest. His role in the story is to be the perpetual goody two shoes and to be continually taken advantage or used of by the two main female characters. Despite all of that, he is not an idiot. As he’s further exposed to the modern world he quickly picks up on new concepts and even if he doesn’t completely understand, he learns better how to maneuver around them. With how morally grey Aoko and Alice can be, Soujuurou’s straightforward and down to earth earnestness, makes him a very sweet character and someone you want to see get a happy ending.

Just like other Nasu's work, Mahoyo has some heavy action sequences that is so pleasing to witness. So many stunning CG that get supported by cool and realistic animation, which make it look really like an anime. Like Tsukihime Remake, the character sprites are not placed precisely and fixed in the center but are made large and blend with the background. Its highly expressive with each character giving a good range of emotions and reactions that range from funny, to cute, to heartfelt. Mahoyo also doesn't use dialogue boxes like visual novels in general and the layout is made like we are reading a book by using paragraphs and punctuation. The graphics and sound effects are even more impressive. Mahoyo implements various effects, animations, panning shots, and dynamic camera movement to add a real sense of motion to the story. The pristine flair of the art and animation enhances the experience and makes it feel even more immersive.

Mahoyo is not only a great visual novel but serves as a great introduction to the Type-Moon universe. Not only does it connect to the various themes and factions of the world but gives an overall great impression of Nasu’s writing and characters. I would recommend this to someone who wants to get into Type-Moon universe since it stands alone as a self-contained story and isn’t bogged down by assuming familiarity with previous titles.

Many things that can make horror or thriller game very tense to play. Quite a lot of it come into play in forcing your mind to shift gears into survival mode, and at the same time making your heart race. Some examples are supportive songs, the appearance of surprising foreign elements, the difficulty of finding ammunition for weapons, and the inability to fight back. This last thing is used by Soma, a horror game from the developer who also made the Amnesia series.

Soma uses a game form that is almost similar to Amnesia. In this game, you do not have the ability to fight back against threats posed by “ghosts” or your enemies. Instead, the main concept is to avoid enemies by hiding. Not having the ability to shoot and attack enemies means you have to always be aware of your surroundings. The tense situation shown in Soma is also fully supported by a fairly high quality graphic display. The dark and chaotic atmosphere shown in the game can be well represented through the game screen. Likewise with the lighting effects. This effect makes a big contribution in emphasizing the dark conditions and at the same time brings out the natural fear of the dark that you may have.

The story of Soma begins with an accident experienced by Simon Jarrett, the main character in this game and the person you control later, which causes him to lose his girlfriend and leaves him with permanent brain damage. At one point, he was offered a kind of neurological treatment that claimed to heal his brain. Simon certainly didn't miss this attractive offer. It turned out that the "doctor" he met to provide treatment had not even graduated and he was just offering some kind of discovery that was used for his thesis. Using just trial and error, Simon finally sat on a machine designed by an ungraduated doctor and ended up waking up in a strange and dark place.

Exploring a world that is dark and has threats that can come at any time is the only way to complete the game. To do that, you will be equipped with several game features that are quite interesting and interactive. The most interesting example of your interaction with the environment is the way you open doors and activate various levers. You have to hold down the left mouse click while swinging it towards the open door. Likewise with levers or levers to open various reinforced doors. The opportunity to interact with other objects is not limited to that. You can also find quite sad or cruel moments with it. For example, when you need to restore the power source to run the train. It turns out that the electricity you need is used by the injured person to survive with the help of machines. What's worse, you already know this person well enough thanks to the various voice messages you encountered on the way there. When you pull the power source from the engine its using so that it can flow to the train you want to run, it will be in pain and beg in fear so that the power source is not removed.

The sound effects in this game clearly get more attention. Not only the location can be determined by sound, especially if you use high-end sound equipment, but there are also many variations. Sometimes you can hear the sound of a metal pipe falling at the end of the hall, steam leaking, or just a trickle of water. This game's ability to make the game very quiet and then insert a surprising sound can get your adrenaline pumping. To support your ability to hide, this game provides the ability to peek from hiding places. So by using the peek function, you do not reveal all parts of your body to see the enemy's position. Because, there are several enemies who can make the game screen chaotic just because they look at you. Often the best way to avoid enemies is to run as fast as possible. Most enemies will not chase you if they get blocked by a door.

One very important thing to remember in this game is the need to improve your memory skills. Because, this game doesn't provide a map at all. If you are moving in narrow areas, such as corridors and rooms, this does not have much of an effect. It's different when you move in a wide area in the middle of the dark. The only clue is the lights in the distance, whether it's your target or the enemy's lights. So if you're a dumbass like me that always had memory loss every 10 seconds then just be more aware of your surrounding while playing this.

One thing that is unfortunate is the lack of risk involved when meeting an enemy since this is a game that requires you to hide and run in order to avoid them. Enemy attacks do not immediately cause game over. It turns out you can still move away from an enemy after one hit, with the penalty of screen blurring. This condition can be cured by finding a strange device that is half machine and half biological. After that, you can freely return to your adventure.

After replaying it i can safely say Soma is my favorite horror/thriller game for now, one that initially gives a very tense atmosphere. However, after playing for a while, you will concentrate more on finding puzzle pieces and finding out the story this game has. Truth to be told the ending still broke me even after replaying it, such an ending like this is one of if not the most unexpected thing from Soma. It must be admitted that the lack of penalties given to enemies when they attack you makes this game less scary. However, that doesn't mean its gripping nuances can't make your heart beat fast, especially when you play it alone in the middle of the night with lights off.