Kawotari
55 Reviews liked by Kawotari
Shadow Hearts
2001
This is a game and a series that a close friend of mine has been telling me is great for years. I’ve actually even owned the first two Shadow Hearts games for years as well, but I’ve always been a little too intimidated by the mechanics to properly give them a try. But over this summer break, I resolved to finally play through the Shadow Hearts series, and that’s just what I did~. It took me about 38 hours to play through enough to get the good ending on the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.
Shadow Hearts follows the story of Yuri, a young, foul-mouthed young man with the power to fuse with the souls of monsters he destroys. The year is 1913. At the directions of a mysterious voice in his head, he saves a young woman named Alice on a trian in Japanese occupied Manchuria. The powerful and dark sorcerer that he saves her from seems to let them get away purely out of whimsy, and so begins our tale. A tale that is often as dark as it is camp, and it really begins as it means to carry on in that regard x3
Coming out barely a month before Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts was then and is now very much a game living in the shadow (excuse the pun) of other great games on the system, but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t have excellent writing itself as well. It has an approach to myth, legend, and history that blends the three together in such a way that gives its places a delightfully uncanny presentation, and the game is delightfully creepy as often as it is just silly with how oddball its, at times incredibly joyfully anachronistic, characters can be. Given the time and location of the setting, there is a LOT that could’ve gone wrong in this game’s depictions of the places and people that appear in it, but by and large it very deftly handles its respective subject matters. The main writer of Shadow Hearts has said that a major inspiration was the original Devil Man manga, and it really shows with how painstakingly he goes out of his ways to paint villains and heroes alike in shades of grey, never settling comfortably into flatly evil archetypes. The major theme of depression and overcoming it with the help of those around you (or not doing that) is handled really well, and this is easily one of my new favorite written games on the console as a result.
The only real negative I can give about the writing is a really awful homophobic stereotype found in one of the merchant NPCs. Given the skill that the rest of the game’s subject matters are handled, it was a really uncomfortable and unfortunate pitfall of the game’s writing, and while it is just a minor character, it’s hard to overlook it when the stereotype is quite as bad as it is. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me (and I tend to be pretty strict about that kind of stuff), but I absolutely understand it being too uncomfortable a depiction for others, as it’s really no better in the English version, by all accounts.
The mechanics of Shadow Hearts really show the nature of a company composed largely of ex-SquareSoft developers. It’s a pretty standard turn-based game RPG with two rows for your party of 3 to occupy, but with a few important and ever present gimmicks here and there. First and foremost among these is the Judgment Ring system, which is something all of the Shadow Hearts games have but none more than this. Upon selecting an attack, a quick time event of a spinning ring pops up, and you need to press the command button when the spinning dial is over the colored sections. For normal attacks, each successive press gets you another hit in your little combo, and for spells, you need to hit more and more successes for successively more powerful spells (meaning the QTE’s get tougher as the game goes on). Later Shadow Hearts games have the ability to turn off the Judgment Ring system, but that is not the case in the first game . It’s not super difficult to get a hold of (and the whole reason I thought it was so hard at first was because I’d been doing it wrong ^^; ), but it’s something that’s ever present enough for both combat and out of combat mini-games that, if you don’t like it, it’ll likely drive you crazy.
The other major mechanical gimmick is the sanity point (SP) system, which other Shadow Hearts games would also continue to use. For every turn you take, your sanity ticks down by one until it hits zero. Once it hits zero, you go berserk and you can’t control that character anymore. This means you need to keep on top of keeping people’s sanity up with healing items (whose use also requires use of the Judgement Ring), especially during longer fights and boss battles. This is especially true for Yuri, who takes far more sanity points per turn when he’s fused into a more powerful demon form. While a lot of Yuri’s fusion forms really don’t matter much (the balancing of the game means that more often than not, less than half of them end up being really necessary or useful), you basically always want him in his fusion form if you can help it because it makes him just SO much more powerful, and he also doesn’t get spells to use outside of fusion forms. This ultimately just adds more balls into the air to juggle in boss fights, and it’s one more thing to keep track of in addition to health and mana and such. It’s not a great mechanic, but it’s not an outright bad one either.
All in all, the difficulty balancing is done really well, and it keeps a very persistent air of being just hard enough to be challenging while very infrequently being something you’d feel you’d need to grind to get past. The only real “well that sucks” aspect of boss fight design is usually getting to one and realizing that it has some status effect that it’ll inflict that will make your life miserable, so you’ll need to load your save and go grab some status immunity accessories at a vendor to take care of that. Thankfully, HP, MP, and even SP replenishing items are at shops as well as these immunity items, meaning you’re only ever a little bit of money away from making a fight or particular bit of grinding eminently survivable. It’s another aspect where I certainly wish the game were balanced in such a way that you didn’t need to rely on having stuff like a bunch of SP healing items or status effect immunity accessories to progress, but the game being that way isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s just a little annoying.
The presentation of Shadow Hearts is absolutely excellent in a way you’d really expect from a dev team made of ex-SquareSoft developers. From the way the 3D models look to the pre-rendered environments they move around on, this almost has the vibe of a super PS1 game in certain respects. The music is also excellent, and the creature and character design is awesome too. The game has a lot of really gross and creepy monster and boss design, and I don’t blame them for apparently implementing Yuri’s fusion system entirely to use more of the sick-ass monster designs they’d made. They’re great! X3
Verdict: Highly Recommended. From the writing to the presentation to the fun & engaging gameplay, Shadow Hearts is an incredibly strong RPG on a system with no shortage of them. The fact that it’s such an early RPG on the console makes that fact all the more impressive. If you’re a fan of creepy, myth-filled (think SMT-vibes) settings and turn-based RPG gameplay, Shadow Hearts is absolutely not a game to miss out on.
Shadow Hearts follows the story of Yuri, a young, foul-mouthed young man with the power to fuse with the souls of monsters he destroys. The year is 1913. At the directions of a mysterious voice in his head, he saves a young woman named Alice on a trian in Japanese occupied Manchuria. The powerful and dark sorcerer that he saves her from seems to let them get away purely out of whimsy, and so begins our tale. A tale that is often as dark as it is camp, and it really begins as it means to carry on in that regard x3
Coming out barely a month before Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts was then and is now very much a game living in the shadow (excuse the pun) of other great games on the system, but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t have excellent writing itself as well. It has an approach to myth, legend, and history that blends the three together in such a way that gives its places a delightfully uncanny presentation, and the game is delightfully creepy as often as it is just silly with how oddball its, at times incredibly joyfully anachronistic, characters can be. Given the time and location of the setting, there is a LOT that could’ve gone wrong in this game’s depictions of the places and people that appear in it, but by and large it very deftly handles its respective subject matters. The main writer of Shadow Hearts has said that a major inspiration was the original Devil Man manga, and it really shows with how painstakingly he goes out of his ways to paint villains and heroes alike in shades of grey, never settling comfortably into flatly evil archetypes. The major theme of depression and overcoming it with the help of those around you (or not doing that) is handled really well, and this is easily one of my new favorite written games on the console as a result.
The only real negative I can give about the writing is a really awful homophobic stereotype found in one of the merchant NPCs. Given the skill that the rest of the game’s subject matters are handled, it was a really uncomfortable and unfortunate pitfall of the game’s writing, and while it is just a minor character, it’s hard to overlook it when the stereotype is quite as bad as it is. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me (and I tend to be pretty strict about that kind of stuff), but I absolutely understand it being too uncomfortable a depiction for others, as it’s really no better in the English version, by all accounts.
The mechanics of Shadow Hearts really show the nature of a company composed largely of ex-SquareSoft developers. It’s a pretty standard turn-based game RPG with two rows for your party of 3 to occupy, but with a few important and ever present gimmicks here and there. First and foremost among these is the Judgment Ring system, which is something all of the Shadow Hearts games have but none more than this. Upon selecting an attack, a quick time event of a spinning ring pops up, and you need to press the command button when the spinning dial is over the colored sections. For normal attacks, each successive press gets you another hit in your little combo, and for spells, you need to hit more and more successes for successively more powerful spells (meaning the QTE’s get tougher as the game goes on). Later Shadow Hearts games have the ability to turn off the Judgment Ring system, but that is not the case in the first game . It’s not super difficult to get a hold of (and the whole reason I thought it was so hard at first was because I’d been doing it wrong ^^; ), but it’s something that’s ever present enough for both combat and out of combat mini-games that, if you don’t like it, it’ll likely drive you crazy.
The other major mechanical gimmick is the sanity point (SP) system, which other Shadow Hearts games would also continue to use. For every turn you take, your sanity ticks down by one until it hits zero. Once it hits zero, you go berserk and you can’t control that character anymore. This means you need to keep on top of keeping people’s sanity up with healing items (whose use also requires use of the Judgement Ring), especially during longer fights and boss battles. This is especially true for Yuri, who takes far more sanity points per turn when he’s fused into a more powerful demon form. While a lot of Yuri’s fusion forms really don’t matter much (the balancing of the game means that more often than not, less than half of them end up being really necessary or useful), you basically always want him in his fusion form if you can help it because it makes him just SO much more powerful, and he also doesn’t get spells to use outside of fusion forms. This ultimately just adds more balls into the air to juggle in boss fights, and it’s one more thing to keep track of in addition to health and mana and such. It’s not a great mechanic, but it’s not an outright bad one either.
All in all, the difficulty balancing is done really well, and it keeps a very persistent air of being just hard enough to be challenging while very infrequently being something you’d feel you’d need to grind to get past. The only real “well that sucks” aspect of boss fight design is usually getting to one and realizing that it has some status effect that it’ll inflict that will make your life miserable, so you’ll need to load your save and go grab some status immunity accessories at a vendor to take care of that. Thankfully, HP, MP, and even SP replenishing items are at shops as well as these immunity items, meaning you’re only ever a little bit of money away from making a fight or particular bit of grinding eminently survivable. It’s another aspect where I certainly wish the game were balanced in such a way that you didn’t need to rely on having stuff like a bunch of SP healing items or status effect immunity accessories to progress, but the game being that way isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s just a little annoying.
The presentation of Shadow Hearts is absolutely excellent in a way you’d really expect from a dev team made of ex-SquareSoft developers. From the way the 3D models look to the pre-rendered environments they move around on, this almost has the vibe of a super PS1 game in certain respects. The music is also excellent, and the creature and character design is awesome too. The game has a lot of really gross and creepy monster and boss design, and I don’t blame them for apparently implementing Yuri’s fusion system entirely to use more of the sick-ass monster designs they’d made. They’re great! X3
Verdict: Highly Recommended. From the writing to the presentation to the fun & engaging gameplay, Shadow Hearts is an incredibly strong RPG on a system with no shortage of them. The fact that it’s such an early RPG on the console makes that fact all the more impressive. If you’re a fan of creepy, myth-filled (think SMT-vibes) settings and turn-based RPG gameplay, Shadow Hearts is absolutely not a game to miss out on.
Tales of the Abyss
2005
jade curtiss my beloved
Do NOT let my autistic ass play these games, I WILL spend two straight hours in the alchemy menu crafting a weapon that will give Ryza the strength to send entire civilizations flying like puny little golf balls with a single whack
This review contains spoilers
The most obvious change from previous game is the stylistic shift in character designs, more realism and less weird doll anime look. Realism with ps2 hardware was no easy feat and this is not a Capcom game so unfortunately these models do not end up looking great. For some reason the characters look like they have a lower overall polycount than they did in the first game (hands with fingers are replaced by these ps1 era blocks, no teeth in mouth etc) which results in the ingame cutscenes really not being a pleasure to look at.
While the art style does hold up better in the pre-rendered cutscenes, those are few and far between and despite me not liking 1's look either, I'd say this is kind of a downgrade.
Maybe to go along with the new aesthetic, half the game's Voice Actors were recast and its also just a complete downgrade across the board, went from honestly great all around voice acting to the classic robotic English JRPG voice acting with chaos' nasal voice being probably worst offender.
The combat changes essentially boil down to 1's combat being boring and 2's being tedious, pick your poison.
The combat simply lasts too long during random encounters due to you dealing 0 damage if the enemy is an neutral state and combos requiring you to first charge for multiple turns.
It does have its moments during more drawn out boss fights but the game will still find ways to piss you off. The returning roulette wheel ends up feeling completely out of place in this game, trying to sync your multi turn combo so you land on the bonus points when you finish the enemy while also playing around the newly added random slot which can roll into reverse boost!!! giving boost to the enemy instead ends up being really annoying.
Enemies naturally have a boost gauge of their own which they seemingly use randomly so even if you get the perfect set up the boss can just boost before you knock him up (this also overrides whatever boost was already used by the player) and ruin your plan.
On the plus side, Xenosaga 2 has by far the most robust side content out of the 3, it offers an actual quest log (crazy!!) with 36 quests some of which are really fleshed out and some that are complete dogshit (4 and 32 especially) alongside 3 pretty lengthy post game dungeons.
The narrative puts a lot of focus on Jr and Albedo's relationship (to a point where Shion and KOS-MOS become background characters) but it doesn't really end up adding much to what I would consider the least interesting part of episode 1.
The pacing also feels really weird with the events of the story unfolding in this somewhat abrupt fashion. You're jumping from place to place and it all feels kind of disjointed and nothing really gets any room to breathe. This especially applies to the "main" antagonist who shows up -> speaks like 2 lines of dialogue -> fights -> dies.
Due to the focus shift, it isn't until the final cutscene where we get actual development on some of the things Episode 1 set up and this pretty much leaves Episode 3 to do all the heavy lifting.
While the art style does hold up better in the pre-rendered cutscenes, those are few and far between and despite me not liking 1's look either, I'd say this is kind of a downgrade.
Maybe to go along with the new aesthetic, half the game's Voice Actors were recast and its also just a complete downgrade across the board, went from honestly great all around voice acting to the classic robotic English JRPG voice acting with chaos' nasal voice being probably worst offender.
The combat changes essentially boil down to 1's combat being boring and 2's being tedious, pick your poison.
The combat simply lasts too long during random encounters due to you dealing 0 damage if the enemy is an neutral state and combos requiring you to first charge for multiple turns.
It does have its moments during more drawn out boss fights but the game will still find ways to piss you off. The returning roulette wheel ends up feeling completely out of place in this game, trying to sync your multi turn combo so you land on the bonus points when you finish the enemy while also playing around the newly added random slot which can roll into reverse boost!!! giving boost to the enemy instead ends up being really annoying.
Enemies naturally have a boost gauge of their own which they seemingly use randomly so even if you get the perfect set up the boss can just boost before you knock him up (this also overrides whatever boost was already used by the player) and ruin your plan.
On the plus side, Xenosaga 2 has by far the most robust side content out of the 3, it offers an actual quest log (crazy!!) with 36 quests some of which are really fleshed out and some that are complete dogshit (4 and 32 especially) alongside 3 pretty lengthy post game dungeons.
The narrative puts a lot of focus on Jr and Albedo's relationship (to a point where Shion and KOS-MOS become background characters) but it doesn't really end up adding much to what I would consider the least interesting part of episode 1.
The pacing also feels really weird with the events of the story unfolding in this somewhat abrupt fashion. You're jumping from place to place and it all feels kind of disjointed and nothing really gets any room to breathe. This especially applies to the "main" antagonist who shows up -> speaks like 2 lines of dialogue -> fights -> dies.
Due to the focus shift, it isn't until the final cutscene where we get actual development on some of the things Episode 1 set up and this pretty much leaves Episode 3 to do all the heavy lifting.
Pokémon Shield
2019
only good thing was dlc and trainer customization, good for competitive battlers too i guess
This is potentially my favourite game of all time, with some bias due to sentiment. I have clocked at least 1000 hours on this 30hr RPG across 6 playthroughs, without ever accessing the online features. At one point I'd replayed this game once per year, which makes me want to do it again now. The Unova pokedex contains some of the most creative designs to date (my favourites being zoroark, chandelure, hydreigon) but unlike its predecessor, mixes in the older pokemon in a way that feels natural. It's so cool that I can catch riolu in like the 3rd route of the game! The music is the best this game. It's the graphical peak of the series, with incredibly lively animations and gorgeous spritework. The pacing of the story is strong, the game is a great difficulty for nuzlockes and the postgame is only rivaled by ORAS which came years later. This game squeezed every bit of value out of the DS and is simply perfect for this era of the series. Literally PEAK.
this happened to my buddy junpei
malos would have solved this xbc3 shit in 5 seconds through the power of gay sex if he were there. or made it worse
Persona 3 Portable
2009
this is the best version of persona 3 - you don't lose much without the FES cutscenes, and the answer is a huge slog to play. the visual novel / point and click format really helps the pacing of the mundane segments, and the PS2 versions just don't offer enough in the way of interesting direction or animation for me to feel much loss. very easy game with party control, but you won't have to suffer from suicidal AI ruining your run, and there's difficulty options to keep you engaged enough. disclaimer: do not try and 100% this game. it will make your experience worse.
incredibly interesting game with a real narrative and thematic vision and mechanics built to match it. points off for the poor social links on both sides and abysmal main story pacing. i like this cast the most of every modern persona, and they're all given sufficient material to work with in the narrative throughout - benefits of minimal party social links! that said, it can be a slog: tartarus isn't too interesting, but the floors are at least shorter, and a lot of the mechanics will work against you wanting to play with it the best. very neat game that could've done with refinement in sequels. unfortunately, that never happened.
incredibly interesting game with a real narrative and thematic vision and mechanics built to match it. points off for the poor social links on both sides and abysmal main story pacing. i like this cast the most of every modern persona, and they're all given sufficient material to work with in the narrative throughout - benefits of minimal party social links! that said, it can be a slog: tartarus isn't too interesting, but the floors are at least shorter, and a lot of the mechanics will work against you wanting to play with it the best. very neat game that could've done with refinement in sequels. unfortunately, that never happened.
fave fave fave lion ushiromiya the world
technically my favorite game of all time, but lots of issues. imo carried by its unique characters and concepts. has my favorite world state in any RPG. english dub is rough to work with due to some especially noteworthy character assassination mistranslations :/
that being said, XB2 is incredibly rich and emotional if you're willing to work with it. can be a beautiful game with a much more serious story than it's usually given credit for. as an individual entry in the xenoseries, if you care to talk to NPCs and do sidequests, really immerse yourself in what's happening, then you'll find a wonderful imaginative world with a lot going on. but if all you do is rush through it between 1 and 3, without considering it further on its own merits, then it's not very good.
that being said, XB2 is incredibly rich and emotional if you're willing to work with it. can be a beautiful game with a much more serious story than it's usually given credit for. as an individual entry in the xenoseries, if you care to talk to NPCs and do sidequests, really immerse yourself in what's happening, then you'll find a wonderful imaginative world with a lot going on. but if all you do is rush through it between 1 and 3, without considering it further on its own merits, then it's not very good.
my actual favorite game!! genuinely could be played standalone if so desired. a short but full journey. quickly immerses you in a ton of fun and interesting lore. anyone considering playing XB2 should at least consider playing the DLC first. even though it's a prequel, i personally believe having the info in mind really really helps the main game through some of its worst story issues. sidequests are required but the information in them is more valuable than usual as compensation.
hmmmmmmm. Kind of a divisive one here for me personally. While I liked the characters, the plot felt kind of lacking and the connections to the other games in the series that were so hyped up by nintendo in marketing really didn't add to much, if anything. You could have replaced the references to the previous games with original stuff and nothing substantial would be different. In that aspect, this game was really disappointing. The villains were also an absolute joke, with the Mobius guys being the most generically boring guys in history and N being immensely less cool the more you learn about him. In terms of the gameplay though, it was certainly fun. The class system makes combat very customizable and I feel its absolutely possible to sink your teeth really into managing your party to get the most out of all your options. I also did a lot of side content in this game, which is uncharacteristic of me as I beelined it through the first two games. Exploration of the worlds is always fun in xenoblade games, and this is no exception. Perhaps I am just getting tired of the series, but this definitely didn't hit as much as the first or even the second game to me. Still would suggest to anyone that enjoyed the first two games because the gameplay is still fun but like yeaaaahh...
what a disappointment. what a shitshow. what a waste of fucking time. (really bold words to put on a page with this high of a rating!!! but i have my reasons)
after the absolutely incredible episode 7, episode 8 brings literally everything I hate about umineko crammed into a single package. in that sense, it's definitely the inverse of episode 7--whereas that was a best hits of everything i loved, this is filled with cloying slice of life segments, a mystery with an uncaught logic error in the middle of it (see footnote), and several hours of aimless and selfindulgent battle scenes, and most of them don't even have trance music in the background anymore to keep me partially invested. and all of these segments are hours upon hours long. the final confirmation that umineko probably wasn't for me in the first place and that my decent enjoyment of the previous parts was because i liked "the wrong parts", in the eyes of ryukishi. actually, you're supposed to like the shitty slice of life segments, and all the magic fuckos. and you're supposed to like them MORE than the murder mystery and battle of wits stuff.
a convoluted, overcomplicated mess that is somehow both overinsistent upon and confused about the "points" it's trying to make. makes every other episode worse in retrospect due to the Lore it introduces. a million fucking words just to fumble out {(ROT13) "vtabenapr vf oyvff"} in the most cumbersome way possible.
i want you to trust me when I say i am not missing the point here, it simply doesnt speak to me. ive simply concluded after 100 hours that i have a deep philosophical incompatibility with what this work is putting down. i understand what it's trying to get me to feel but it simply doesnt work. am i already too dead inside at 20 to hate almost all the heartstring-pulling being done here? oh well
the single thing this episode does well lies in the ??? chapter, which is actually pretty good. the benefit of this is that this episode didn't leave as much of a sour taste in my mouth as it could have so i'll still probably rate all of answer arcs a 7/10, but man. what a disappointing ending
(footnote: for some reason "no one has an alibi" and "one person has an alibi" aren't seen as mutually exclusive statements. so, while one person should definitely be lying, actually they're both telling the truth. if you catch this the mystery's unsolvable without looking at the hints.)
after the absolutely incredible episode 7, episode 8 brings literally everything I hate about umineko crammed into a single package. in that sense, it's definitely the inverse of episode 7--whereas that was a best hits of everything i loved, this is filled with cloying slice of life segments, a mystery with an uncaught logic error in the middle of it (see footnote), and several hours of aimless and selfindulgent battle scenes, and most of them don't even have trance music in the background anymore to keep me partially invested. and all of these segments are hours upon hours long. the final confirmation that umineko probably wasn't for me in the first place and that my decent enjoyment of the previous parts was because i liked "the wrong parts", in the eyes of ryukishi. actually, you're supposed to like the shitty slice of life segments, and all the magic fuckos. and you're supposed to like them MORE than the murder mystery and battle of wits stuff.
a convoluted, overcomplicated mess that is somehow both overinsistent upon and confused about the "points" it's trying to make. makes every other episode worse in retrospect due to the Lore it introduces. a million fucking words just to fumble out {(ROT13) "vtabenapr vf oyvff"} in the most cumbersome way possible.
i want you to trust me when I say i am not missing the point here, it simply doesnt speak to me. ive simply concluded after 100 hours that i have a deep philosophical incompatibility with what this work is putting down. i understand what it's trying to get me to feel but it simply doesnt work. am i already too dead inside at 20 to hate almost all the heartstring-pulling being done here? oh well
the single thing this episode does well lies in the ??? chapter, which is actually pretty good. the benefit of this is that this episode didn't leave as much of a sour taste in my mouth as it could have so i'll still probably rate all of answer arcs a 7/10, but man. what a disappointing ending
(footnote: for some reason "no one has an alibi" and "one person has an alibi" aren't seen as mutually exclusive statements. so, while one person should definitely be lying, actually they're both telling the truth. if you catch this the mystery's unsolvable without looking at the hints.)
jesus fucking christ.
OKAY actual review (spoilers at the very end):
I think NSO has kind of decent ideas (the throughline seems to be “the endless cycle of chasing clout is bad and mentally ill people should get help instead of turning to the internet to cope”) but a lot of the endings are like, “Woah!! That was craaaazy! Wasn’t that fucked up?” And then they all just end without really even saying much or trying to elaborate on any kind of point. As someone who went out of her way to get the endings all boy did it make me mad to grind for some of them that were only a couple sentences long before abruptly ending jesus lol.
There isn’t even an ending that feels like you can truly win. And that’s not bad, I’m cool with an ending that’s a bit of a downer or things don’t go as planned/you don’t “win”, but NSO doesn’t have any real story to justify these endings or make them satisfying in their own right (and it makes less sense that this kind of thing exists in a raising sim where the whole point of the genre is to Raise Or Lower Number And Win). In the endings where KAngel gets tons of subs, she can dump you and then get into a scandal herself, break the internet, feel empty that she’s made it this far, kill herself onstream, etc etc. And I think I would be fine with some of these if they had anything to actually say or made the loss feel important. They jump right into the shock or weird stuff and then immediately end it with some fuckin textbox like “ohhhh she’s soooo fucked up what did you dooooo”! Like maybe I would like some of these more if they went on for more than 30 seconds and had some closure/thoughts to leave you with!!!
In my head I compared NSO a lot to Doki Doki Literature Club because that's a pretty popular game that also appeals to NSO’s audience of “Yeah this game looks cute and has a cute girl in it …. But be careful. It’s FUCKED UP”. But DDLC has the upper hand because you spend a lot of time getting to know the characters and see their arcs before they suddenly do the big horror twist, and after that every horror moment is carefully placed until it crescendos into the ending sequence. With NSO, there isn't really a story for you to get to know Ame with, you can learn more about her but you can really only bond with her on a surface level (taking her out, sex, playing games) before they start spamming you with horror stuff back to back with little to no breaks. You never share a truly deep moment or a moment that would legit make me go, “Oh wow, I really care about her”. As a result, whenever the game does freaky horror metanarrative-breaking things it’s just, “Oh wow!” in the moment and then it immediately ends, and that's it.
That’s kind of another thing, I just don’t like Ame. Menhera girls just really put me off, it’s one of those things that I think are popular because it’s Japanese/anime. Like the same girls that will go “i wanna die i hate myself im horny im lonely im manipulating people i want money blahbblahblah” also exist in SPADES on Tumblr and Twitter in English/America and everyone can’t stand those type of people (myself included). I just dont like self pitying “I’m so fucked up” manipulative people with mental illness especially when using it to get undeserved sympathy money/things from others. It just annoys me so much. Call it a mix of personal experience and I am mentally ill so I can weigh in on this a little. So when creepy things happen to Ame I just don’t really care. When she’s annoying I get annoyed. When she’s talking about how P-chan isn’t good I just roll my eyes. And I don’t even hate her, like I don’t want to ruin her life or anything, because she isn’t real so it wouldn’t matter. I just want her to like go away and get serious help. This is why the “hospitalize her enough and she becomes normal” ending rules in my opinion.
And THEN… Possibly my most lukewarm take ever, but I just don’t like stories that focus on the need to get likes/followers. I’m really weirded out by people who only care about this. It just feels so vapid and like not a real goal at all, to be obsessed with that kinda thing (one could say this is the point of NSO, but again I feel like the story is lacking and does not speak well on this point).
And she wants all of this shit in a month which is just laughable. Like yeah try getting a million subs in a month I’m sure that will work out for you. When she guilts you for not being able to get her that many followers it’s just fucking stupid, like girl you have been at this for 30 days and you’re an independent streamer. You’re lucky to even have 500 followers. On god plz stop.
I think it’s not impossible to have a good game critiquing the internet, it’s a less popular game but the game Buried Stars (game about 5 kpop stars being stuck in a collapsing building) does a very good job of both telling a compelling story while also weaving in what fame/ followers/internet can do to change people and influence their choices in the moment. Though that game is more about showbiz, it definitely has strong critiques of some of the same things that NSO failed to try to say, because you can grow with the characters and find out deeper things about them and learn on a deeper level how everything affects them. Meanwhile Ame is just constantly in comically high highs and low lows and you can only exchange a couple of messages with her a day, never having a meaningful talk.
And hey! Spoiler time. The twist that P-chan isn’t real is just stupid if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. Who was she having sex with the whole time to the point of making the screen shake (finger blasting queen I guess)? Who was she at the amusement park with and kissing in the ending where she has her livestream outside? Who was walking around in her house and making noise during her livestream where she was talking about mysterious things and even said “Teehee I didn’t tell P-chan I was streaming so they were walking around!” after the stream? In the Labor ending you’re messaging from the computer while she’s away at work and doesn’t come home, what, is she actually at home typing on her computer and just ignoring her own texts to herself then? What about the endings where she blocks you from viewing her page, bro you made the fucking guy up you don’t have to block them they ain’t real they can’t actually see your post anyways!!!! I could literally go on and on but it’s a twist that exists just to be a twist. It doesn’t need to be there and the more you think about it the less sense it makes within the context of the entire rest of the game.
I do not like menhera girls, I do not like plots about chasing after clout, I do not like the lack of writing this game had. I suppose I am out of the target audience for the first two points but overall I feel like a good game should be able to pull you in regardless if you’re not necessarily a huge fan of some of its elements, because it does something good with those elements. This game has nothing to say except internet be crazy and mentally ill people be crazy too, and even then it can’t even be fucking bothered to say that half the time, it just shows you a fucked up anime girl who’s bloody and saying mean things and then it just ends. What an absolute waste.
OKAY actual review (spoilers at the very end):
I think NSO has kind of decent ideas (the throughline seems to be “the endless cycle of chasing clout is bad and mentally ill people should get help instead of turning to the internet to cope”) but a lot of the endings are like, “Woah!! That was craaaazy! Wasn’t that fucked up?” And then they all just end without really even saying much or trying to elaborate on any kind of point. As someone who went out of her way to get the endings all boy did it make me mad to grind for some of them that were only a couple sentences long before abruptly ending jesus lol.
There isn’t even an ending that feels like you can truly win. And that’s not bad, I’m cool with an ending that’s a bit of a downer or things don’t go as planned/you don’t “win”, but NSO doesn’t have any real story to justify these endings or make them satisfying in their own right (and it makes less sense that this kind of thing exists in a raising sim where the whole point of the genre is to Raise Or Lower Number And Win). In the endings where KAngel gets tons of subs, she can dump you and then get into a scandal herself, break the internet, feel empty that she’s made it this far, kill herself onstream, etc etc. And I think I would be fine with some of these if they had anything to actually say or made the loss feel important. They jump right into the shock or weird stuff and then immediately end it with some fuckin textbox like “ohhhh she’s soooo fucked up what did you dooooo”! Like maybe I would like some of these more if they went on for more than 30 seconds and had some closure/thoughts to leave you with!!!
In my head I compared NSO a lot to Doki Doki Literature Club because that's a pretty popular game that also appeals to NSO’s audience of “Yeah this game looks cute and has a cute girl in it …. But be careful. It’s FUCKED UP”. But DDLC has the upper hand because you spend a lot of time getting to know the characters and see their arcs before they suddenly do the big horror twist, and after that every horror moment is carefully placed until it crescendos into the ending sequence. With NSO, there isn't really a story for you to get to know Ame with, you can learn more about her but you can really only bond with her on a surface level (taking her out, sex, playing games) before they start spamming you with horror stuff back to back with little to no breaks. You never share a truly deep moment or a moment that would legit make me go, “Oh wow, I really care about her”. As a result, whenever the game does freaky horror metanarrative-breaking things it’s just, “Oh wow!” in the moment and then it immediately ends, and that's it.
That’s kind of another thing, I just don’t like Ame. Menhera girls just really put me off, it’s one of those things that I think are popular because it’s Japanese/anime. Like the same girls that will go “i wanna die i hate myself im horny im lonely im manipulating people i want money blahbblahblah” also exist in SPADES on Tumblr and Twitter in English/America and everyone can’t stand those type of people (myself included). I just dont like self pitying “I’m so fucked up” manipulative people with mental illness especially when using it to get undeserved sympathy money/things from others. It just annoys me so much. Call it a mix of personal experience and I am mentally ill so I can weigh in on this a little. So when creepy things happen to Ame I just don’t really care. When she’s annoying I get annoyed. When she’s talking about how P-chan isn’t good I just roll my eyes. And I don’t even hate her, like I don’t want to ruin her life or anything, because she isn’t real so it wouldn’t matter. I just want her to like go away and get serious help. This is why the “hospitalize her enough and she becomes normal” ending rules in my opinion.
And THEN… Possibly my most lukewarm take ever, but I just don’t like stories that focus on the need to get likes/followers. I’m really weirded out by people who only care about this. It just feels so vapid and like not a real goal at all, to be obsessed with that kinda thing (one could say this is the point of NSO, but again I feel like the story is lacking and does not speak well on this point).
And she wants all of this shit in a month which is just laughable. Like yeah try getting a million subs in a month I’m sure that will work out for you. When she guilts you for not being able to get her that many followers it’s just fucking stupid, like girl you have been at this for 30 days and you’re an independent streamer. You’re lucky to even have 500 followers. On god plz stop.
I think it’s not impossible to have a good game critiquing the internet, it’s a less popular game but the game Buried Stars (game about 5 kpop stars being stuck in a collapsing building) does a very good job of both telling a compelling story while also weaving in what fame/ followers/internet can do to change people and influence their choices in the moment. Though that game is more about showbiz, it definitely has strong critiques of some of the same things that NSO failed to try to say, because you can grow with the characters and find out deeper things about them and learn on a deeper level how everything affects them. Meanwhile Ame is just constantly in comically high highs and low lows and you can only exchange a couple of messages with her a day, never having a meaningful talk.
And hey! Spoiler time. The twist that P-chan isn’t real is just stupid if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. Who was she having sex with the whole time to the point of making the screen shake (finger blasting queen I guess)? Who was she at the amusement park with and kissing in the ending where she has her livestream outside? Who was walking around in her house and making noise during her livestream where she was talking about mysterious things and even said “Teehee I didn’t tell P-chan I was streaming so they were walking around!” after the stream? In the Labor ending you’re messaging from the computer while she’s away at work and doesn’t come home, what, is she actually at home typing on her computer and just ignoring her own texts to herself then? What about the endings where she blocks you from viewing her page, bro you made the fucking guy up you don’t have to block them they ain’t real they can’t actually see your post anyways!!!! I could literally go on and on but it’s a twist that exists just to be a twist. It doesn’t need to be there and the more you think about it the less sense it makes within the context of the entire rest of the game.
I do not like menhera girls, I do not like plots about chasing after clout, I do not like the lack of writing this game had. I suppose I am out of the target audience for the first two points but overall I feel like a good game should be able to pull you in regardless if you’re not necessarily a huge fan of some of its elements, because it does something good with those elements. This game has nothing to say except internet be crazy and mentally ill people be crazy too, and even then it can’t even be fucking bothered to say that half the time, it just shows you a fucked up anime girl who’s bloody and saying mean things and then it just ends. What an absolute waste.