BorealPaella
2009
I love the visual novel also, but I think this is one of the few cases where an adaptation of the source material is better. The anime in this case. A romantic relationship buildup is very important for the last chunk of the game to be impactful. The visual novel made it so if you miss one flag for it, you stop being eligible to get any of the later ones. The ending has little impact in regards to internal conflicts without it. Which you'd need to follow a guide for to get them all.
Even so, the anime presented it much better. Other than that, this game has a lot more filler. At least compared to Chaos;Head Noah and Steins;Gate 0 from the same company. Early in the game, the game takes 2 hours to explain all the time travel theories at the time of the game's release, for an example.
What you lose, the non-canon endings not present in the anime don't affect the experience much. They all feel harem-y where it's just focused on the main character getting buddy buddy with the other women. They have nice ideas, but they all boil down to that.
Ideally, if you liked either, I think it's great to watch the anime or play the game also. But I think watching the anime and seeing the Mayuri ending for the visual novel also is enough.
Even so, the anime presented it much better. Other than that, this game has a lot more filler. At least compared to Chaos;Head Noah and Steins;Gate 0 from the same company. Early in the game, the game takes 2 hours to explain all the time travel theories at the time of the game's release, for an example.
What you lose, the non-canon endings not present in the anime don't affect the experience much. They all feel harem-y where it's just focused on the main character getting buddy buddy with the other women. They have nice ideas, but they all boil down to that.
Ideally, if you liked either, I think it's great to watch the anime or play the game also. But I think watching the anime and seeing the Mayuri ending for the visual novel also is enough.
I love the world, combat, and interconnected map, but this game really is only made for people who get a kick out of surpassing difficult things. I never feel any accomplishment for finishing a boss I struggled with to have any drive to push forward. The positives don't make up for frustration and I don't feel rewarded to want to chase that high.
This is a package with three games. Of which, I only played the first one. So, I'm only talking about that.
I really enjoyed the Date a Live light novels up to where I read (6 books at the time of writing). They feel more like a parody on harem and dating sim media expectations with a sci-fi twist and is genuinely hilarious often. There's none of that in this visual novel.
This, apart from one character's route feels like a really mediocre harem dating sim. Maybe the anime focuses more on the harem wish fulfilment stuff and they target that group of people with this. But all the identity it has in the light novels is missing from this. As a light novel fan, I was very disappointed.
I really enjoyed the Date a Live light novels up to where I read (6 books at the time of writing). They feel more like a parody on harem and dating sim media expectations with a sci-fi twist and is genuinely hilarious often. There's none of that in this visual novel.
This, apart from one character's route feels like a really mediocre harem dating sim. Maybe the anime focuses more on the harem wish fulfilment stuff and they target that group of people with this. But all the identity it has in the light novels is missing from this. As a light novel fan, I was very disappointed.
2002
Amazing game but it essentially forces you to learn what should be a speedrun strategy (Baiting enemies to attack and running past them while they recover) to finish it. There's too little ammo and medicine otherwise.
I find it really difficult to recommend unless you are content spending up to 2-3 hours to get used to it and reloading saves often if you get hit. But if you accept that, you have a great horror game to go through.
I find it really difficult to recommend unless you are content spending up to 2-3 hours to get used to it and reloading saves often if you get hit. But if you accept that, you have a great horror game to go through.
2001
I didn't finish it, but I came very close to the end. I don't know where all this deep writing people talk of is. If it's somehow all stuck behind the endings, that's bad. What I saw of the writing was very mediocre and didn't lead anywhere. Many characters have no purpose to exist. I also don't buy the "lots of hidden symbolism" thing because it genuinely feels like SH2 fans online thought far deeper than the actual writers did.
And, unlike the first game, it was either great fun or really boring gameplay wise. Has some amazing areas but some which are absolute snoozefests. Not even talking in regards to the horror factor. Many areas just were really bland. The amazing areas make up for it, but I prefer how Silent Hill 1 was more consistent in terms of keeping my attention.
And, unlike the first game, it was either great fun or really boring gameplay wise. Has some amazing areas but some which are absolute snoozefests. Not even talking in regards to the horror factor. Many areas just were really bland. The amazing areas make up for it, but I prefer how Silent Hill 1 was more consistent in terms of keeping my attention.
2015
Very simplistic exploration of the subject matter and too many characters in such a short game for any of them to have any development and they all end up one dimensional.
To add insult to injury, all the emotions it tries to make you feel feel forced. Instead of the story feeling compelling, they guilt trip you into how bad it is to attack monsters in legitimate self defense with a black and white morality.
The gameplay itself is great fun, but the story and character issues won't let me rate this any higher.
To add insult to injury, all the emotions it tries to make you feel feel forced. Instead of the story feeling compelling, they guilt trip you into how bad it is to attack monsters in legitimate self defense with a black and white morality.
The gameplay itself is great fun, but the story and character issues won't let me rate this any higher.
I don't know how people here specifically feel about this, but I saw it compared to Rune Factory 3-5 a lot. As if a game with different structure and gameplay loops is objectively worse when it's like comparing oranges with apples. It's another farming-social sim with a focus on dungeons but it plays very differently.
It's really rough, but it has a lot of charm and the "finish dungeons in one go or redo them" design and fields in dungeons being literal "rune factories" so you don't run out of energy and needing to plan around planting and harvesting crops in dungeons to finish them is great.
The only bad thing in this game to me is that farming is too simplistic and the villagers don't have enough unique dialogue. If you liked the newer Rune Factory games, I urge you to give this a go also. As long as you go into it not expecting it to be rune factory 4, it can be a lot of fun.
It's really rough, but it has a lot of charm and the "finish dungeons in one go or redo them" design and fields in dungeons being literal "rune factories" so you don't run out of energy and needing to plan around planting and harvesting crops in dungeons to finish them is great.
The only bad thing in this game to me is that farming is too simplistic and the villagers don't have enough unique dialogue. If you liked the newer Rune Factory games, I urge you to give this a go also. As long as you go into it not expecting it to be rune factory 4, it can be a lot of fun.
2016
Great story until the writers probably took notes from Genshin's success to pad the story as much as possible. The only reason I stopped playing. Also has a great gameplay loop.
I also wish it had more body type variety. Feels like 80% of the cast looks exactly the same if you were to push clothing aside.
I also wish it had more body type variety. Feels like 80% of the cast looks exactly the same if you were to push clothing aside.
2020
On par with Doom 2016 in terms of quality and gameplay, if a bit bloated, but it lacks the great environmental storytelling. I'm well aware most people don't care for story in FPS games. But the environmental storytelling in something like the first Doom, Doom 3 and Doom 2016 adds a great layer of immersion that improves the game.
The "chosen one, God slayer" story this game has is not only written poorly, has no emotional impact and slows down the pace but it actively detracts from the experience. It's downright embarrassing at times how much they try to sell the Doom Slayer as a cool dude everyone is afraid of. The games I mentioned prior make him seem cool without trying hard to, in a very organic way.
The "chosen one, God slayer" story this game has is not only written poorly, has no emotional impact and slows down the pace but it actively detracts from the experience. It's downright embarrassing at times how much they try to sell the Doom Slayer as a cool dude everyone is afraid of. The games I mentioned prior make him seem cool without trying hard to, in a very organic way.
2021
Fun idea and great artstyle but the game is so repetitive and same-y in all the runs from what I played that it doesn't have much to pull me back with for one more run. It also feels lacking in depth. That might change later, but if I'd need to play lots to get real variety, that's an issue in a roguelike game in my eyes.
2020
This is supposed to be an Action RPG but the game is supposed to be played like the Turn-based RPG original. Abusing weaknesses with spells and all out attacks. Except it's made more tedious because it still tries to be an Action RPG.
Held back by being too long and reusing map gimmicks and the story only really picking up after 5 dungeons.
1992
The only reason I dropped it is because end-game dungeons get really annoying to traverse.
It has the most interesting plot and world out of all the Megaten games I played. Law and Chaos aren't just one dimensional caricatures that have no effect on the world and it's inhabitants. It also has a lot more plot than games in the series released far later. Which I always found odd. The battle system gets repetitive, but you can also easily learn to abuse the speaking mechanic to make enemies leave you so you skip on fights you don't want to have.
It has the most interesting plot and world out of all the Megaten games I played. Law and Chaos aren't just one dimensional caricatures that have no effect on the world and it's inhabitants. It also has a lot more plot than games in the series released far later. Which I always found odd. The battle system gets repetitive, but you can also easily learn to abuse the speaking mechanic to make enemies leave you so you skip on fights you don't want to have.
This game takes away all the issues I have with most Megaten games (Too long, nothing happens until the end of the game in terms of story and characters, modern tokyo setting) and makes a short and sweet experience with an unique setting. The only issue I have with the game is that the battle system is only serviceable. But it's not as bothersome in such a short game (I think it took me 20-25 hours to beat). It also has a lot more personality than other, far longer Megaten games. Which have more time to flesh out the world. They just don't.
From the classic castlevanias I played, this is the one I enjoyed least. The ones I finished are Castlevania 1 and Bloodlines. But I also played Castlevania 2, 3 and 4.
The player controls feel worse than in Castlevania 1. Enemies have a tendency to blend in the environments more than in the NES games, with a more limited color palette.
The game loves throwing at you a lot of enemies with multiple attacks that are selected at random, in a game where the health bar is tiny. The map design is typically very linear and uninteresting and doesn't gel well with the enemies you fight; they don't complement each other.
The only great things about this game are the music and art in my eyes. All the other classic castlevanias I played were better in my opinion.
The player controls feel worse than in Castlevania 1. Enemies have a tendency to blend in the environments more than in the NES games, with a more limited color palette.
The game loves throwing at you a lot of enemies with multiple attacks that are selected at random, in a game where the health bar is tiny. The map design is typically very linear and uninteresting and doesn't gel well with the enemies you fight; they don't complement each other.
The only great things about this game are the music and art in my eyes. All the other classic castlevanias I played were better in my opinion.