8/10: stellar highs (and a few stumbles) in the R;N character writing
0/10: Daru. Just, why are you like this?
Rating: 4/10

I really came to like the Robotics;Notes cast, so another game to flesh them out even more and provide resolutions to the conclusion was right up my alley. Unfortunately, for a solid 80% of the game, Daru's there to indulge in his worst instincts and objectify any and every female he comes across in the most wife guy-ish way possible. I thankfully made it through the game (the conclusion is all right but the homages didn't do anything for me) but only with liberal use of the Force Skip and Log buttons.

A cute, short visual novel-esque game with branching paths. It's got a neat minimalist style, and the good thing is that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Not a game I'm going to remember, but I don't regret fishing it out from my backlog.

Editor's note: I wrote the below review after finishing my first (Normal) run. I'll likely update this review some time after I manage to plat this game.

This game feels like a victim of its chosen genre - the game's style and strategic turn-based combat are phenomenal, and if this game were a normal RPG, it'd get high marks on that alone. However, the worst decision made by this game was becoming a rogue-lite: the runs last hours, do little to differentiate themselves, and at least so far, the actual ascensions just make the combat marginally more challenging. I really want to like this game, but unfortunately, the only feeling I can muster 10 hours in is fatigue.

This feels like a flash game. It's got a neat gameplay loop and it's entertaining for a bit, but that's about it, really.

As someone who hadn't dabbled in a racing game since Forza 4: the racing itself feels really good, but all of the stuff around the racing does not. It's hard to recommend this game without mentioning all of the common issues: it's always-online, the economy is intentionally stingy, and the campaign is really bare-bones (even after some post-release updates). The latter might be fixed with more time, but the first two really put a damper on my enjoyment.

It's a neat idea for a game, but as with many games that promise you that "your choices matter", there's shockingly little divergence in the plot outside of small sub-plot diversions. It's a nice game to experience once, but you can really see the wire-frame if you take a few runs through the game.

This was great! I booted this romhack up with the expectation that it'd be "Explorers of Time/Darkness, but different". It definitely follows the contours of the main EoTD, much more faithfully than I would've hoped in the beginning. It's a slow start, but once the story kicked off, I was very pleasantly surprised by the story beats and the custom changes made throughout!

As for the gameplay, it feels punched-up, like a more-lenient Super Mystery Dungeon. As a Phanpy/Shinx team, enemies felt tougher but nothing ever felt unfair (esp. giving Phanpy real moves).

My main complaint is with the pretty abrupt ending, which fell a bit flat for me, but I really enjoyed the ride and I think it does a good job of being a spiritual successor to the Explorer games.

It's...eh. The nicest things I can say is that the characters are pretty faithful and that it's a short game. Shout-out to obscuring the settings behind a touchpad slide (including the respawn option).

This review contains spoilers

A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game that leans more into the "Mystery Dungeon" aspects: the difficulty is ramped up compared to Rescue Team and Explorers, and new roguelike elements come into play that help differentiate each run. The Connection Orb is an interesting way to change up the recruitment process, but it runs into conflict once you can evolve your Pokemon - why would I evolve if I lose the pre-evo and can recruit the evolution (sometimes earlier)?

I played this game on-again, off-again on account of the very slow start, but when the story picks up, it picks up. It never reaches the heights of Explorers, but as is PMD tradition, the story still finds a way to leave me a wreck at the end. My main complaint is that the story pacing is pretty inconsistent: slow start excepting, you're required to advance the story as it appears, which is often jarring when you're just getting into the flow of free time and can leave you underleveled at crucial points if you're not actively full-clearing dungeons. The difficulty is a notable change from prior games, but certain boss fights leave you with little margin for error if you didn't prepare for them beforehand. I'm ultimately glad they took a different tack to the systems for this game, but it didn't grab me as well as the first two games did.

If I only played the main game, this would probably land at a 3.5-4/5 for me. The physics changes from the original are noticeable, but all the levels are various levels of workable, and the extra modes (and jump!) are a nice addition to the remake.

Unfortunately, the remade minigames really suffer from the physics changes (Monkey Baseball in particular) and even the ones that mostly made it unscathed just didn't feel as satisfying as their originals. Doubly unfortunate, I'm a sucker completionist who felt obligated to do all the challenges, and the capricious nature of a few of the games (Monkey Golf, I'm looking at you) really highlight how rough some of these games came out of the remake. I wish I could split the ratings for the minigames vs. the main levels, but as a whole, I'm left a bit wanting for something more faithful.

Fantastic track list, but it's a bit bare (only ~30 songs, incl. medleys) and it asks you to replay the songs a LOT for its relatively shallow story and to finish all the requests. Rhythm game part of it is still great, but it just needed more music/variety.

P.S. The "final" challenge is so, so cool