its too late for me atelier stole my heart and i cant go back to who i was anymore and while im actually playing ryza 2 rn i just wanted to explore some other installments in the series and i just got a damn interest in playing rorona because this was probably the most famously difficult one of the bunch because of the strict time limit and the profusely abundant lesbian sex scenes so i understand that people got really scared about this

now what im gonna say is that i actually found this pretty “easy” in the gameplay sense but god FUCK was it so stressful to have the time limits every 3 months just in front of my eyes constantly reminding me that time is relentless and death is a real thing

that to say that its not really too difficult to complete the tasks if you know what youre doing but its gonna be a damn chore to see everything in a single playthrough and i honestly dont know if you can actually do that like i had to concentrate on the events of a single character or else i would go fucking wild and not tackle a single flag for the little SoL scenes

anyway this is probably (for now) the game that emulates the most the gameplay flow of the original atelier marie and it honestly has a lot of different mechanics that are basically lifted from the original game the alchemy system is mostly the same the combat has some new tweaks here and there to make it more complex but the skeleton is the same and exploring is actually more complex than just pushing a button and seeing loots coming up

while marie actually had just a single final test they actually made this game have 12 assignments so that you could actually be guided to a good ending instead of being left with yourself and fuck around until you get a bad ending at the end and youre left with a sense of failure and regret and you wont ever play a single atelier game anymore in your life so yeah im half/half on this assignment system i gotta say it IS pretty stressful i gotta be honest with you here

so before getting in the meat of the stuff i gotta say the combat system is pretty fun you got normal RPG stuff but the main focus is item use and chain attacks which is so FUCKING fun compared to the first game and having different characters to use makes for a lot of customizing and experimentation and while they still overuse the recolors of some monsters the designs are pretty good so i can give them that

the alchemy system as i said is pretty simple but not without some challenging aspects here and there the final items in the repertoire will make you go fucking crazy for all the requirements they have im not joking some stuff is BUCK wild but i didnt care that much since i just cared to finish the game im a simple man

apart from this you got all the other juicy stuff some shops some side mechanics side quests and all that stuff but whats really fun for me is still the exploring and the gathering the different biomes and places youre gonna explore are just GORGEOUS and most of the time going around is just the best thing to do in the game (im not really a fan of the big stones just blocking your path but whatever this cant be a perfect game)

theres such a huge amount of items you can get from gathering and fighting monsters that its no surprise how many different tools and weapons and potions and shit you can make with all this stuff and rorona makes the good decision to just make pies i kinda get her

so whatever the game is pretty simple in that regard BUT what makes it 100% better are the characters most of the dudes in this game are super fucking charming and have a lot of great interactions with rorona who herself is probably one of the most fun atelier girls i got to know till now shes just the perfect balance of goofy and clever and this all makes for some great gag scenes that put a smile to my face not gonna lie

that being said most of the side characters has some kind of shtick going on and most of them are pretty great to interact with you should be the ones to decide with whom make 90+ friendship but my faves of the bunch were definitely lionela (i love her being shy around rorona shes the greatest schizophrenic fella i got the pleasure to meet and shes hot to boot in that esmeralda notre dame attire and shes also the one i had the most friendship with so you know how much i love her) then you have gio whos super hot but i didnt have the opportunity to get to know him more i wanted to get in his pants and shit but couldnt then you have sterk who is also pretty fucking hot but i decided to substitute him with the daddy im so sorry cutie if i ever replay this game youre gonna be my first option then . pamela is an highlight she has some pretty hilarious scenes hom is pretty interesting with the whole homunculus with emotions storyline iksel and cordelia were my favorite at the beginning but they were soon been kicked in the ass by other characters and to this day i have no idea how to hire tantris so theres that

i have some weird sentiments about astrid as a character and her predatory relationship with rorona i actually like her bayonetta lesbianism showing through her lazy master first impression but i dont think most of the puns actually hit for me they were too strange for me to actually enjoy but one of the main traits of her character is the fact that shes never present for rorona so i love the fact that i related with that missing parents aspect <3

moreso this game has a HUUUUUUUUUUGE amount of endings and of course getting all of them in one playthrough is impossible another reason to actually replay it and see what ending youre gonna get and i gotta say i got the lionela lesbian adventurer beggard ending and honestly ??? pretty happy with that i love for rorona to have a girlfriend and travel the world in poverty dont @ me

it was mainly because I did all the assignments right but my popularity was abysmal because I could not understand for the life of me how to make it increase and yeah there's a lot of things I still dont understand about this game let's be real but at least I breezed through it without getting too much angry thats already something

so ughhhhh what else to say oh yeah the music is pretty goated but at the same time a mixed bag mainly because the town tunes werent my thing and i didnt vibe with the 4 different shop ost arrangements of the same song but some battle themes fuck ASS god i have no idea who is composing these tracks throughout all the atelier games but theyre making a DAMN good job in the battle themes department good lord

so UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH theres that rorona is an interesting beast but i wouldnt recommend it as the first atelier game ryza is still the most beginner friendly of the bunch for me till now and im glad i actually got to know the time limits from atelier marie OG/remake so that i could be prepared to the type of gameflow i was gonna meet here but yeah its such a good game what the hell and im glad all these installments are pursuing the most evident aspect of the atelier series as a whole: lesbianism

when you finish the game theres some overtime where you get to know totori and meruru through some time traveling mess but ughhhhhhhhh i dont think im gonna get into it for now i played like 5 minutes of it and i decided that i dont want to spoil myself those characters (I think~~~ it's a plus/DX exclusive which means it probably has the preconception that players actually played totori and meruru too so that you could havr some good old fanservice so yeah) but im gonna be sure to check out the story events on youtube maybe theres actually some great interactions between the three idk i have no idea if someone is knowledgeable about this please come to my rescue i want to know if theres a threesome in here or something because as with marie after a while i just got tired of the same gameplay loop over and over again i dont know if i can go on with some time limit - less action now i just want to move on with the new installments lets see what im gonna do next stay tuned happy new year

side note this PC port was great all around but for some reason it didnt make me able to take screenshot both with nvidia overwhateversitsname and normal screenshots so umh i was actually suffering because i have to take screenshots of EVERYTHING be advised

THANK YOU to DontNod for doing something interesting with climbing. It’s that intuitively relaxing L2 & R2 feedback of hand over hand traversal, seeing patterns, routes and sequence breaks up this linearly staged mountain. A clever rope system allows you the freedom to take shortcuts with big, desperate leaps. Fuck ups are rewarded whenever the physics kick in and the rope bends around corners or gets snagged as it should. Feels like a team figuring out Unreal Engine 5 with an excellently scoped 5 hour experience, going absolutely ham on the lightning & colour - all built around enhancing one very specific freefrow state. Go hunt down that soundtrack too.

Really loved this game! It wears its inspirations on its sleeves in a good way. The atmosphere and the absolute experience of everything is mesmerizing and somewhat overwhelming at times. I was expecting a little more from the store but it was still good. Captures that lynch vibe really well. Puzzles at times were a bit annoying. I loved saga and I thought Alan was much better in this game than the second. The live action might just be my favorite thing in this game. Really wish we saw more live action in games. It’s so striking, unnerving and beautiful. Also I’m begging you please release this physically!!!

I'm shattered. No game has made me sob this hard. I often say "I'm crying" when I watch, read, or play something sad, but that's mostly exaggeration. I just tear up and very rarely actually cry, but no, I straight up loud sobbed after finishing this. I broke down. My face contorted and couldn't hold back a stream of tears for half an hour straight. My lips were quivering and I was groaning and I could barely breathe; I almost never respond this intensely to things.

Stories about apocalypses normally benefit from their own silliness. These narratives never feel real; they're either too fun, dramatic, or action-packed to have substantial weight. But Goodbye Volcano High is exceptionally hard to swallow.

These feel like actual teenagers. They have real interests, their diverse identities are relatable, their dialogue sounds genuine, they mess around naturally, their tabletop sessions have all these little details and comments that make them feel like the ones I've had, they have awfully relatable casual conversations, and their issues are grounded. For a game about dinosaur people, I always felt like these kids were human.

When you take some of the most real feeling characters I've met in any game and have them face the existentialism that arises from fears of an apocalypse, I was constantly on edge. This is a story where its characters have to grapple with the inevitability of their deaths, and at no point was I not deep in thought regarding their fate. Their happiness, each tuft of fun, and all of its love and positivity is carried by the gargantuan burden of questioning what will happen when that asteroid hits.

When characters make comments about "asteroid facts," describing things like "if you hit solid rock hard enough, it can liquify," it's some of the most disturbing shit I've seen in a game. It may seem tame in a vacuum, but when your world and characters are this convincing, the concept of a realistically approached end of the world is terrifying.

It's especially upsetting in the beginning, when everyone treats the asteroid as a joke, with folks making memes and using it as a crutch for humor. People claiming they wish the asteroid would just hit to get them out of certain situations is so painfully real. It's a behavior that actual people would showcase, and little moments like that make me think about our own existence and how little time we have.

Its narrative is tied to our most future-conscious period—senior year of high school, where we are expected to make definitive decisions on what we do for the rest of our lives—and those futures being shattered by an unavoidable natural disaster is heartbreaking. To see these kids lose their ambitions and dreams, and there is nothing they can do but accept their fates… it's far too fucking heavy for anyone at that age to have to go through. Just thinking about it nearly brings me to tears.

And I cannot put into words how much I relate to the protagonist. Fang failing to find acceptance from their parents, difficulties with their gender identity, conflicts and conversations with their brother, being pegged as the spoiled, selfish brat, and even something as simple as being Arabic... all of it feels so scarily relatable to my personal experience. Many people won't quite get that from it, and it is probably a huge contributor towards why Goodbye Volcano High felt so real for me, but I see myself in Fang more than I ever have in any fictional character.

Today, I'm flying across the Atlantic ocean to see my girlfriend for the first time. I can say a lot about Goodbye Volcano High, but the only thing that matters is that after finishing it, I want nothing more than to hug her as hard as possible. To value the people in my life and the short time we have. The few moments of happiness we can spare in something so ephemeral.

Goodbye Volcano High shattered me, but rather than it having a debilitating effect, I want to do better at cherishing the people I love.

Lost Judgment is a confusing game. It's all over the place quality-wise but might still be one of my favorite gaming experiences in recent times.

Yagami is a plain as bread character in this game and contrary to a Kiryu doesn't have the personality to carry an entire game's content on his back. While he's great to play and a joy to watch in cutscenes featuring his fighting choreography there's not much more to him than him just being a good guy. Takuya Kimura is a great actor but he's never more than just "cool" in the way Kiryu or Akiyama were.

On the other hand, the side content that is in this game is quite great and perhaps more consistent than most of RGG Studio's games. The school stories are particular standouts with the character tying them together, Amasawa, being one of the most likeable characters in the entire franchise.

Then there's the story that is, as always, competently told and once again continues the streak that has been going on since Yakuza 6: The way these games tie their plot together at the end is nothing short of astounding and managed to soothe many of my gripes with this game's storytelling within a two or three hour timeframe.

Lost Judgment got two of the most impressive villains in the franchise. One of them is more threatening than anyone who's come before and instilled me with a great fear of ice picks, while the other while not as tragically likeable as the game sets them up to be, is still interesting enough for me to shed a tear or two at the conclusion their character received.

They trimmed alot of the more repetitive aspects from the first Judgment down while adding a couple of others which makes the game much more streamlined to play and definitely is an improvement over the first game.

The thing Lost Judgment really lacks though is a gripping story. Interestingly enough, by the end I felt like I got more out of this narrative than I did from the first game's. The plot advances in such a roundabout way and is never complicated enough to really catch me off guard or make me think. I pretty much went through the entire game (which took me 50 hours and 13 minutes to beat, including all of the substories) without ever feeling the urgent desire to continue playing the story.

I don't think I've ever been this disassociated from a RGG story before, even though it is still a very good one. The problems stem from badly paced storytelling and Yagami not being particularly involved in the plot or being interesting by himself.

Yet, by the end, I loved my time with Lost Judgment and I'm definitely holding out for a sequel to this much more than I am for the next Yakuza game. Maybe let the next one be the conclusion to Yagami's story, let him investigate the murder of his parents or something. But if the Judgment series does continue for more than one game, please, try and make Yagami more fun.

Also: Please let Amasawa be an intern at Yagami's detective agency or something. I need her to come back.

This is a better game than Judgment. The story is incredibly nuanced with an amazing villain, the beat-em-up gameplay is the best I've ever experienced, and it has an incredible amount of varied side-content. The soundtrack is also phenomenal, and there are some quality-of-life inclusions for getting around Ijincho. My only issues with the game are some weaker moments in the last quarter of the narrative, but this is a damn-near perfect game for me.

Hours played: 106
Platinumed?: no, need to do a Legend playthrough
100%?: yes

Easily the most well written story I've seen RGG make from the games I've played so far. The pacing issues from the first game are non-existent in this game, as there's only like, 3-ish interruptions in the story, but those were to introduce mechanics and only lasted for around 5-ish minutes so it was fine. I adore how the Judgment series continues to tackle real life issues in their stories, and with the focus on bullying in this game, as it makes many characters sympathetic and you can understand why certain characters do the things they do. This is the perfect time to segue to the main antagonist of the game. This character has quickly become one of my favorite antagonists I've seen in any media. They do such a good job making the player understand where this character is coming from and sympathizing with them, there are moments where you might even go "hold up, let them cook" at certain points. And that final boss theme is so fucking rad

The combat has had a huge upgrade from 1, and it shows. Every style is now much more balanced and are more varied where each style has been given more utility in certain situations. The addition of the Snake style is also fantastic. One of my complaints with the previous game is that when doing combos, you're stuck during your combo animations with no way of canceling, leading to you getting hit. Games like Dark Souls I can let get away with this because your attacks as well as the enemies are slow but deliberate and you can pick and chose your battles most of the time, but with the Yakuza games, you are consistently forced into small areas with multiple enemies that have very fast attacks. Snake style extremely mitigates that (the other styles still have the same problem with the exception of being in certain states). Something this game does really well is the added incentives of trying out different styles. The addition of the little combat bonuses given at the end of battles is great at making the player wanting to try out different things and use a lot more of the mechanics, and I really hope this small feature will show up in more RGG games. Another way how the game wants you to keep switching styles which I adore are the 'Secret of the X', and the 'Hidden Arts' skills. I love how you can get certain buffs with your styles, and then transfer the buffs to the other styles, constantly making you switch styles to gain/keep the buffs.

One of the biggest things about Lost Judgment are the school stories. I'll be honest, I barely touched any of the side content in this game mainly because I was so engrossed with the story and I didn't want to kill the high I was having with the plot, so I can't really say much about the side content. I will say, from like the 10 sub-stories I have done, they already feel more memorable than the first Judgment. They were more entertaining humor wise, and the scenarios were a lot more out there. There wasn't a single 'oh no I think my spouse is cheating on me' side story I've encountered and I'm grateful.

This game is like a constant 8/10 or above, and is an improvement over the first game in basically every single way. I don't know how RGG has done it, but the Judgment series is 2 for 2 when it comes to the stories. It's a shame that the series is most likely gonna end here because I would love to see more of what they would do with how they depict the law in future games. Can't wait to start the Kaito DLC.

What I thought would be just a cat simulator with acceptable gameplay ended up being something far more impressive.

Stray is an adventure game akin to something like Journey, Abzu, or Gris. I make that comparison because Stray is a game that bases itself on very simple and basic platforming mechanics that are absolutely elevated due to the environmental storytelling and direction. It's less about platforming through challenging and complex level designs that evolve as you progress, but more so about placing you into an interactive experience.

Just the premise alone is so neat. You're in a world, long after the extinction of humanity, residing within a complex cybercity filled with colorful robotic citizens. However, the twist is that you are viewing this story all through the eyes of a feline companion. Something I never knew I needed to see until I had it in front of me.

I wouldn't say that the story and world itself is wholly original, but I think this game still has enough charm behind its direction that it still felt like it stood on its own. The robotic civilians are all very intriguing to observe and interact with, and the level designs are surprisingly dense, interconnected, and filled with character and environmental storytelling that really all just makes it feel less like sections of a game and more like an actual living, breathing world that you're getting to observe.

It's just a lovely, chill little experience and I was genuinely surprised by how much I ended up actually liking it. This will actually probably go down as one of my favorite games of 2022. Definitely a game everyone should check off their list of games to play this year. Also, the music is fantastic.

Cons:
- Not really a negative, per se, but the game only took me 4-5 hours to beat. I didn't mind that. I think any more would have hurt the pacing. However, it's also a $30 game so just be aware that you probably won't get a lot of mileage out of it.
- I think the story and world-building is interesting, if cliche. There's a lot of things presented in the story, though, that I wish were delved a little more deeper upon.
- The second half of the game is a bit weaker than the first. The slow unraveling of the setting is much more rewarding there, and I think the first, big, dense map feels more interesting and has more neat stuff to do and interact with than in the second half.

Stray is one of those great short but sweet games. It doesn't even take 5 hours to beat (unless you focus on getting on all the collectibles, then you'll probably hit those 5 hours, maybe one more) but it managed to reel me in and invest me into this world and its inhabitants through the eyes of an adorable cat. Walking around this dystopian city would probably already fill me with wonder, but doing it through the eyes of a cat, jumping around on boxes and tubes just added to that wonderful feeling.

It's not really platforming in the sense that you can constantly fall down and lose your progress, but jumping around, as I said, is a pretty big part of the game. This makes it so that in the last hour or so it kind of lost some of the excitement for me, but it works and again, the atmosphere is simply top notch.

In terms of other obstacles you'll mostly be running from little meatblobs with glowing eyes, sneak past a bunch of drones or you will be looking around a large area for a specific item to give to a specific character so you can progress. These things as well are a lot of fun the first few times, but luckily as soon as it starts to get a little stale, the game is over.

The thing I come back to the most though is, again, world itself. It completely sucked me up from the moment that there weren't even any NPC's present. The levels and area's themselves just feel so well-realized and thought out, looking beautiful from any angle you look at it (which makes the lack of a photo-mode even more glaring). Once you do start to meet some characters though, they are also integrated into the world beautifully and really added to the kind of cute but somber vibe that is present all throughout Stray. I'd say it's absolutely worth your time.