Katsono
This is the first time I’ve seen an offline co-op game: both players need hints from the other player to solve puzzles but otherwise, no connection between the games is required. Luckily this allows for playing with a single steam copy of the game, pretty cool huh?
It’s a fairly short game and the puzzles are not too elaborate. It has four chapters during which you’ll see an environment where you can scroll through different screens and interact with things to find and solve puzzles.
So first of all, it’s very samey. You might expect a lot of difference between the two players but they just get different riddles and texts that are cut in half. The locations are the same and work the same way.
The game also lacks a lot of interactions. For example, you start the game on a desktop and you have a paperclip on it. You can’t do anything with it. It’s very obvious what is a puzzle component or not because of this. What’s more, most puzzles are extremely linear and isolated. If you go to a screen, you’re likely to find every element you need on that specific screen. It’s the same for coop, almost the entire cooperation is done with both players on the same screen and hence while the game advises you to hide your screen and share the information yourself, there isn’t all that much which is different.
It looks nice and has some cool animations but it’s all pretty samey and there isn’t really much to say about the presentation. Overall, the game was fun but I didn’t think much of it ultimately, especially the story which I think is neither very interesting nor well used in the context of a coop game.
It’s a fairly short game and the puzzles are not too elaborate. It has four chapters during which you’ll see an environment where you can scroll through different screens and interact with things to find and solve puzzles.
So first of all, it’s very samey. You might expect a lot of difference between the two players but they just get different riddles and texts that are cut in half. The locations are the same and work the same way.
The game also lacks a lot of interactions. For example, you start the game on a desktop and you have a paperclip on it. You can’t do anything with it. It’s very obvious what is a puzzle component or not because of this. What’s more, most puzzles are extremely linear and isolated. If you go to a screen, you’re likely to find every element you need on that specific screen. It’s the same for coop, almost the entire cooperation is done with both players on the same screen and hence while the game advises you to hide your screen and share the information yourself, there isn’t all that much which is different.
It looks nice and has some cool animations but it’s all pretty samey and there isn’t really much to say about the presentation. Overall, the game was fun but I didn’t think much of it ultimately, especially the story which I think is neither very interesting nor well used in the context of a coop game.
2023
It's cute, it's fun, it's beautiful. It sticks to one concept and executes it. However, like me, you mind find yourself bored before you finish it entirely.
Very short visual novel (about two hours long) with essentially nonexistent deviations from the main story (the choices change a few lines only and they only influence whether you get a bonus scene at the end or not).
The game mostly focuses mostly on the topic of insecurities and I think it does a great job at showcasing the two main characters, their problems then later trying to bring a solution. At the same time the story works as an encouragement to the reader! I also think that adding this theme to the story and making it central to the on-going romance makes it much stronger than if there wasn’t any such topic to accompany the love story.
The narration is a bit confusing because of the non-chronological order the story is told in. There is no proper date given for each scene so I was lost at the beginning and didn’t know in what order things were happening. It’s still an interesting choice and it allows the story to speed up its pacing and thus, to not drag.
One thing I really liked about this VN is that there is a small portrait in the bottom left corner of the screen which shows the main character and their expressions, instead of them being invisible like most VNs do. I think this is a really cool feature and I would love to see it in more games.
It’s refreshing playing something that looks this great. There is a lot of care put into the visuals and they are very pleasing to the eyes. There are animations added here and there to make things more alive than they’d be if they were still pictures.
The game mostly focuses mostly on the topic of insecurities and I think it does a great job at showcasing the two main characters, their problems then later trying to bring a solution. At the same time the story works as an encouragement to the reader! I also think that adding this theme to the story and making it central to the on-going romance makes it much stronger than if there wasn’t any such topic to accompany the love story.
The narration is a bit confusing because of the non-chronological order the story is told in. There is no proper date given for each scene so I was lost at the beginning and didn’t know in what order things were happening. It’s still an interesting choice and it allows the story to speed up its pacing and thus, to not drag.
One thing I really liked about this VN is that there is a small portrait in the bottom left corner of the screen which shows the main character and their expressions, instead of them being invisible like most VNs do. I think this is a really cool feature and I would love to see it in more games.
It’s refreshing playing something that looks this great. There is a lot of care put into the visuals and they are very pleasing to the eyes. There are animations added here and there to make things more alive than they’d be if they were still pictures.
2003
They warned me, they told me it was bad. They told me to skip it, I didn’t believe them. I thought maybe it would be like the Dark Souls 2 situation. Hell, someone once recommended I skip Trails in the sky 3rd and it ended up being my favourite game in the series.
No, this time they were right. The game is just as bad as everyone says.
Everything sucks about it except maybe the graphics. The melee moveset is pretty lame and a lot of the enemies require guns to be fought anyway. The upgrade system has been replaced by just numerical upgrades and honestly I’m not even sure I see the difference.
Mobs barely try to hit you. You can play most of the game by holding the button to fire your gun and you don’t even have to bother moving except for a few bosses. What’s more annoying is that it takes a lot of time to kill tanky enemies despite them not doing anything and the game loves throwing groups of enemies. You advance to a new area, you trigger a group spawn and you have to kill maybe twenty trash mobs. It never stops.
For my second playthrough as Lucia, I just skipped every optional encounter and the game was still dull. It feels like a bad copy of Mario 64 where I just follow the red coins. I don’t even know why I bothered playing this playthrough, it’s some of the same levels plus an underwater section and the cutscenes are barely different. Yes, even the cheesy cutscenes you get to watch twice.
Why is there even a story? Dante talks to a random girl who tell him to go somewhere and they both meet again there. Couldn’t they have do so right away? Then from a random village he’ll take a bike to go to a big city instead? Why? Why are you chasing this comical sorcerer dude and all? Why is there a full city “infested” (yes infested) by tanks?
Perhaps the only positive thing about this game is that it’s quite short, at least you only have to endure about six hours of suffering.
It’s a terrible experience, but real gamers don’t skip DMC 2.
No, this time they were right. The game is just as bad as everyone says.
Everything sucks about it except maybe the graphics. The melee moveset is pretty lame and a lot of the enemies require guns to be fought anyway. The upgrade system has been replaced by just numerical upgrades and honestly I’m not even sure I see the difference.
Mobs barely try to hit you. You can play most of the game by holding the button to fire your gun and you don’t even have to bother moving except for a few bosses. What’s more annoying is that it takes a lot of time to kill tanky enemies despite them not doing anything and the game loves throwing groups of enemies. You advance to a new area, you trigger a group spawn and you have to kill maybe twenty trash mobs. It never stops.
For my second playthrough as Lucia, I just skipped every optional encounter and the game was still dull. It feels like a bad copy of Mario 64 where I just follow the red coins. I don’t even know why I bothered playing this playthrough, it’s some of the same levels plus an underwater section and the cutscenes are barely different. Yes, even the cheesy cutscenes you get to watch twice.
Why is there even a story? Dante talks to a random girl who tell him to go somewhere and they both meet again there. Couldn’t they have do so right away? Then from a random village he’ll take a bike to go to a big city instead? Why? Why are you chasing this comical sorcerer dude and all? Why is there a full city “infested” (yes infested) by tanks?
Perhaps the only positive thing about this game is that it’s quite short, at least you only have to endure about six hours of suffering.
It’s a terrible experience, but real gamers don’t skip DMC 2.
I was recommended this port as the best version of the original Resident Evil and I can see why. It’s a solid port that really takes advantage of the touch screen to include some fun minigames and interactions.
The game is really fun, I’m genuinely surprised to discover that what I thought was an action series is pretty low on the action. Hell, I was gunning way more in Silent Hill 1. RE1 is a game of very limited supplies for the most part and it constantly keeps you on your toes.
Midway through the game, when I thought I was getting myself a steady supply and learning to deal with the monsters, it throws a sudden difficulty spike to keep the tension up. I lost all my healing supplies and I was running scared for my life.
The knife random encounters are a great way to give back life to areas you’ve emptied, as they can happen anytime and anywhere, putting you at the risk of dying. I died a few times to unexpected knife sequences but it’s a fun addition I like.
I’m not a fan of the inventory system. I can see what it’s trying to do but ultimately I just did multiple trips to pick up things I needed and I didn’t really feel held back otherwise. It wasn’t putting me in a situation where I have limited ammo or healing items because I could carry as much ammo as I want and usually one healing item is good enough. The quest items taking space, especially the keys taking one individual space, was kinda tedious.
The map on the top screen is nice but it’s lacking a lot (and I would prefer it on the bottom scream). It would be nice to see the direction your character is facing and to have more indications, at least player made ones. Not being able to write things on the map and not having any form of indication, not even for the save / storage areas was disappointing though not very bothersome.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. I always wanted a game where you explore a single seamless area such as a mansion and this delivers. The place feels realistic and you spend the entire game in one area with its surroundings. In a way, it reminds me a lot of Castlevania games and their castles, even the map and backtracking is somewhat similar.
The game is really fun, I’m genuinely surprised to discover that what I thought was an action series is pretty low on the action. Hell, I was gunning way more in Silent Hill 1. RE1 is a game of very limited supplies for the most part and it constantly keeps you on your toes.
Midway through the game, when I thought I was getting myself a steady supply and learning to deal with the monsters, it throws a sudden difficulty spike to keep the tension up. I lost all my healing supplies and I was running scared for my life.
The knife random encounters are a great way to give back life to areas you’ve emptied, as they can happen anytime and anywhere, putting you at the risk of dying. I died a few times to unexpected knife sequences but it’s a fun addition I like.
I’m not a fan of the inventory system. I can see what it’s trying to do but ultimately I just did multiple trips to pick up things I needed and I didn’t really feel held back otherwise. It wasn’t putting me in a situation where I have limited ammo or healing items because I could carry as much ammo as I want and usually one healing item is good enough. The quest items taking space, especially the keys taking one individual space, was kinda tedious.
The map on the top screen is nice but it’s lacking a lot (and I would prefer it on the bottom scream). It would be nice to see the direction your character is facing and to have more indications, at least player made ones. Not being able to write things on the map and not having any form of indication, not even for the save / storage areas was disappointing though not very bothersome.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. I always wanted a game where you explore a single seamless area such as a mansion and this delivers. The place feels realistic and you spend the entire game in one area with its surroundings. In a way, it reminds me a lot of Castlevania games and their castles, even the map and backtracking is somewhat similar.