Oh boy, its always a treat making the first and only backloggd review for a game. I guess I should explain a bit first. I don't really play VNs, other than stuff like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, 999 etc, stuff that's usually considered an adventure game more than a visual novel (although in japan they are all considered adventure games but videogame genre classifications are nothing if not arbitrary bullshit, by and large).

And yet when this game came across my steam discovery list I was intrigued. Taking a glance you'd be forgiven for thinking this game is nothing more than shovelware made by a teenager : it looks incredibly amateurish visually. And yet most reviews were positive, so it can't be as simple as all that. It was only 99 cents so I thought, what the hell Ill give it a go.

Firstly the game seems pretty extensively researched, there is a pretty large glossary to read through if you're confused by certain terms and in all honesty save for the whole "game set in anime japan world written by someone who very much isnt japanese" and certain decisions about character voice, the game is surprisingly well written. Its quite the intriguing sci-fi/occult mystery story.

Now as to whether or not the amateurish artsyle and assets (character portraits are drawn on paper and photographed, sometimes with a whole ass shadow of the phone that took the picture obscuring the damned portrait) are the result of straight up incompetence, a deliberate stylistic choice for effect a la "cruelty squad" or a desire to make people think its a deliberate stylistic choice to mask the creator's own lacking art skills I genuinely cannot tell.

That aside, I suppose I enjoyed this game, save for a rather annoying requirement for the good ending requiring fiddling about with saves, conspiracies and pseudoscience always make for good stories (reminds me a bit of Uchikoshi's style) and the all-girl cast is certainly a change of pace to what Im used to, which thankfully isnt used for cringeworthy, sus attempts at fan service.

Its a pretty good game, the combat especially is very well done and I felt great beating the bosses.

Unfortunately I just find the actual connecting levels to be kind of annoying. The movement works well but I really hate stealth in general. I think I had the realization after being stuck on a shitty area for the second time and realizing "oh wait I can just sprint and grapple past every enemy and make it to the next area". At that point though, I just wondered what the hell I was even playing for. No amount of Genichiros and Lady Butterflies and whomever else will make up for the fact that I fundamentally don't enjoy most of this game.

This game has pretty inexcusable technical issues, the framerate is insanely choppy, It crashed on two occasions and Bugs are very present in the experience. On the other hand this is the most fun Ive had with a pokemon game since I was a little kid playing gen3/4, so Its only fair to give it 8/10.

The open world really does suit pokemon, and breaking up quests helps the pacing massively. In fact in contrast with the godawful story in Swsh and the slog of bullshit that is SuMo, I actually found myself giving a slight amount of shit about the characters in a pokemon game! For the first time in... ever basically.

Arguably the game could have used some scaling (imo I would have made 3 tiers of Boss trainers, and given them 3, 4 and 5 pokemon respectively based on badge order) but in all honesty I was never absurdly overleveled except for thew bug and electric gym basically.

At the end of the day though, Ive really enjoyed my experience with these games, other than the two times it crashed (which is pretty embarassing for a massive multibillion dollar corporation to output, and no Gamefreak isnt an indie studio)

Listen, its not what it looks like... Actually its exactly what it looks like. Look! I played P4G for the first time and when I finished it I felt like Id said goodbye to an old friend forever, so I got this to prolongue my P4 vibe, in the same way you keep drinking in the morning to avoid the hangover.

Whatever the music bangs and the story is kinda dumb and overwritten but this is Persona so it fits pretty well. I also generally suck at rythm games but this was easy enough to manage on normal (if not with amazing grades but frankly who gives a shit)

I usually hate 3D Platformers, and Ive never liked any sonic games I've played, so you'd think a sonic inspired 3D platformer wouldn't be my thing but I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Now, as Maradonna can bear witness to, I got quite heated at times when the precision platforming got a bit too annoying and especially that rhythm section caused my blood pressure to spike a bit. I'm also generally quite shit at 3D platformers, on account of playing very few. I am thankful this game avoided the major pitfall of having a time limit, cause being sent to the beginning at that last level would have made me snap my controller in half.

Other than that though, the levels are cool, the artstyle is nice and music works well so consider it a recommendation I guess. Its fairly short which I think is entirely to the games' benefit and I dont mean that as an insult

This is entirely a skill issue, but this game is too hard for me. Ive never played any of the Tony Hawk games so maybe that's why but I just don't have much fun dying often before I can figure out how to get good at this game. A pity cause the aesthetic is cool but I guess its not a good entry point into the genre.

AFAIK there's just the one purpose-made difficulty, which, if that's the intended only way to play it then I guess that's fair enough but Ill have to move on to something else :(

EDIT : I used the "assists" feature to buff myself but swiftly realized being killed wasnt the issue here, I just dont really enjoy the basic structure and mechanics of the game, so Im moving it from shelved to abandoned

XCOM Style game made by a small korean studio. In terms of art and coding its really well done especially when considering the no doubt limited resources the studio has at its disposal. The gameplay is generally entertaining if padded and the soundtrack is good if generic.

The Main problem lies in the story and pacing of gameplay. The game is really long, which could be a selling point to some but after 16 hours it feels like nothing has actually happened or been developed, with kinda samey missions all throughout.

The story isnt awful for a first attempt by a studio and the translation isnt great, though this is understandable if they dont have enough resources for multiple localizations. So far you might have picked up on a slightly patronizing apologetic tone to this review but rest assured Im less forgiving in the main issue of the actual plot of the game.

This is a very wordy game, in a sort of pseudo VN style along the lines of persona. This again, is fine in itself (I enjoy some of those types of games) but the execution is pretty fudged. In XCOM we are fighting against fictional aliens. We learn more about their motivations but they are at the end of the day a clear enemy without any reservations in killing, abducting and subjecting its victims to nightmarish bodyhorror. This game however goes for a fictional but broadly "real world setting". Sure its a not a realistic setting and the countries are fictional and all that but we are broadly dealing with humans and human problems. This again, is fine in itself but it has to be done right as the adding greyness to the setting requires more justification or thought which frequently this game seems to be unwilling or unable to do.

The problem is that this is an almost cyberpunk serious setting but we are not really given many reasons why our actions are justified. The bad guys are criminals, yes (and some are even cultists) but other than "this fictional state has been purposefully made weak and disarmed by other countries (which oh boy lets not even think about which real world parallel was trying to be established here) its never really adressed in my time playing why there is such an apocalyptic level of crime and lawlessness. In a more competent Deus Ex type cyberpunk game this might make us suspect we are perhaps working for an ineffective or corrupt government that maybe is partly responsible but no, the good guys are just good.

This is later slightly remedied but very little humanity is given to these goons especially in the early hours, which added to the fact we are given rewards for how many of these we mow down and that the games' idea of difficulty is spawning wave after wave of these Death Wish 3 extras you get desensitized to killing them like they are horde of Zerg from Starcraft.

At the same time for being a supposedly "disarmed" nation the police is pretty bloody well equipped and trained, much more than the thugs they are up against, as well as imposing what seem to be authoritarian measures (no travelling between districts) which again made me thought there would be a "are we the baddies?" moment but no (At the very leasy not even a suggestion in the 17 hours I played

I can already picture someone responding with "What the hell were you expecting your character to organize rehabilitation programs and joining the salvation army to feed the homeless?" No! Obviously not, thats exactly the point that they would have saved themselves so much trouble if they had just made the enemies aliens or monsters or demons or whatever so as not to have to justify it all in the story of the game. Its like all those call of duty campaigns where you bomb infinitely worse equipped people with drones that blow them up without any possibility for fighting back.

Other than that, if youre looking for more of a review of a product than a critique, its 20 euro and well worth that price if you enjoy Xcom style combat, low level grindy missions, silly shonen stories and you like them being long AF cause you have no money and way too much time. Its definitely got its charm

Charming little diorama puzzle adventure game. Pretty short at 2 and a half hours more or less but there's a lot of extra arcade modes and beating your high score and all that. It gives off a cartoony vibe, not only in a general art style sense, but in resembling a children's cartoon in setting and plot. It's pretty compelling.

The actual puzzles aren't the hardest, and sometimes the game kinda fumbles trying to add variety but overall I found it rather relaxing. I think the greatest decision they made is to not require rotating pieces, cause that always makes these games' puzzles absolutely crash to a halt as all enjoyment and pace is replaced with trying to rotate everything.