Nanaya
2007
The epitome of "fine". Shooting is decent and the powers are cool but the story is lame, combat encounters in the later half are weak, and they limit your usage of the powers too much for you to really have fun with them. I think I had more fun using the speed and cloaking to skip encounters than actually fighting. There were also plenty of annoying bits like anytime you're chased by a helicopter and didn't keep a missile launcher just in case and most of the alien fights seriously overstay their welcome. The game usually keeps a good pace though and the human fights can be enjoyable when you're not needlessly overwhelmed.
2012
I actually had a pretty good time with this. The decade of hearing people complain endlessly about it certainly kept my expectations low which probably helped me see it in a better light. Sure there's plenty of dumb things like EDI's cringe hookup with Joker, Kai Leng hopping out of a naruto fanfiction into a mostly-serious sci-fi world, and the unbearably goofy child PTSD dreams, but there's plenty to like as well. The rest of the game is still Mass Effect and it's still enjoyable to go on missions with your squad and make choices in the story, regardless of it just building up to the "choose your ending" scene. There's plenty of solid interactions, especially in the Citadel DLC, and I quite enjoyed how high-stakes the story felt leading up to the final confrontation with the reapers. Also Javik is cool.
2021
Got past the 2nd lord and just not enjoying it at all. The writing is awful and reminiscent of recent disgaea games with its incessant need to constantly repeat certain topics over and over again. You can practically see the shallow writing process in the 2nd area where the unique thing about it is the "snake eyes" keeping an eye on everyone so every 2 minutes someone will mention the snake eyes until the section is over. The party interactions are insufferable with shionne being a completely unlikable tsundere and everyone repeatedly having the "Are you sure you want to help a renan/dahnan?" back-and-forth among other cliches. The new refined combat system is fun with its smooth animations and satisfying comboing but enemies quickly become tedious damage sponges (especially bosses) and Alphen seems to be the only character that's actually fun to play as. Visually the game looks great and is pretty much the only tales game to impress with its artstyle. The music felt as generic as the story and I really didn't dig how needlessly grandiose it could be at times. Maybe I'll get back to it sometime but at the moment I just don't feel the motivation to put up with the flaws.
RIP. One of the better gachas with a cute, colorful cast of characters and a pleasant lively energy that helps set it apart from all the needlessly serious gachas out there. Gameplay strikes a good balance of attention required for an idle game and the presentation is pretty nice. Didn't really care about the writing because it does that annoying thing where the characters repeat what your character says back to you since your self-insert isn't allowed to talk and it drives me up the wall. Who actually enjoys going through a whole conversation of "huh? you wanna go shopping with me? and you're saying you want to pay for everything too? that's so nice I love you" like I'm playing chewbacca and having han translate everything to a nonexistant audience. Yui best.
Has one of the better antagonists and endings in a Yakuza game but is otherwise a side game in every sense. Going back to playing as Kiryu after Yagami is a sharp downgrade and the story is really padded out by bland sidequests that don't even meet the average for the series. Yakuza 6 might have not been a great game overall but it was a great ending for Kiryu so I'm kinda bummed they felt the need to make this game at all. That being said, it is nice to get a few more personal moments with Kiryu after a whole series of his character taking a backseat to political struggles and schemes. Wasn't necessarily bad, but definitely underwhelming.
2020
Wish this played as well as Wave Race. I like yuri so the cute interactions between the pairs are great even though I already saw the kandagawa team story in the anime. There's a surprising amount of care put into the presentation with some smooth menus, nice character models and soulful stages. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel good to play. It feels very slow and cornering feels clunky. The AI is absurdly easy for most stages to the point where I spend most of my gameplay not seeing other racers because I'm so far ahead which nullifies the combat aspect.
1996
Extremely soulful fighting game reminiscent of classic sonic team games with its vibrant colors and whacky characters. The gameplay is strangely both floaty and tight at the same time with characters getting hit all over the place and lots of fun specials. The stages are also excellent with lively backgrounds and even a great vocal track or 2. Arina is super cute.
1998
It's really neat how the story changes depending on your difficulty and it allows for a nice feeling of progression when you go from easy to normal to hard. The stories aren't super in-depth or anything but they're surprisingly nice for what amounts to just several short conversations and an epilogue. It is a shame the tracks stay the same across difficulties though. The arcadey racing is pretty good and there's a nice sense of speed. The tracks have great atmosphere with nice visual designs despite the PS1 hardware's limitations and the soundtrack is phenomenal.
2019
Every bit as good as the original version with some solid improvements and a great new ending. It doesn't completely remix the game or anything but being able to go out at night more often takes out a lot of morgana-related frustration and Maruki is an excellent addition to the cast. Kasumi is alright and at least fits in better than Marie did in P4G. The only notable issue with Royal is the terribly redone Okumura boss fight but that's easily handled once you know to switch to Merciless. Overall I'm glad it finally came to PC so I could justify replaying the whole thing and I had a blast.
2019
I didn't want to drop it but I'm not going to force myself through a game I'm not big on just because of the series it's from. Shenmue III is unfortunately stuck in a spot where it's desperately trying to recapture the soul of the original which it simply can't because it's not a dreamcast game. Shenmue I and II had an intrinsic soul thanks to their pushing the limits of the dreamcast's power with a semi-realistic artstyle and lovingly crafted environments. Shenmue III retains all of the clunky aspects of the original games but lacks the soul that would have made up for the more shoddy aspects and even turn them around and make them endearing. The artstyle has an uncanny cartoon-y look to it that is generally unpleasant to look at for every character but shenhua, and the environments are reminiscent of unreal engine tech demos. The combat somehow feels worse than the original games with a serious lack of impact on the hits like every opponent is a human-shaped sandbag. Also for some reason you lose health for running which is a very annoying design decision. What really pushed me to finally drop it was learning that the game does not even conclude the Shenmue story which is ridiculous even if the series was initially stated to have like 6 parts, because Yu Suzuki and his team should've known that managing to put out this game was a miracle in and of itself. I doubt that conclusion will ever come now. If I can praise the game for one thing, it's that they managed to get Ryo's original voice back and he somehow sounds exactly the same which is a nice walk down memory lane.
This review contains spoilers
After dropping the first game in the first few hours and dropping the anime about 2/3rds of the way through, I didn't expect to be so endeared to second light. This game has more heart in it than just about anything else I've ever played. It perfectly captures the spirit of a summer vacation you never want to end with its carefree days spent interacting with an extremely likable cast of cute characters as well as the inevitable bittersweet ending.
I typically keep a straight face when I'm playing a game no matter how fun it is, but the surprisingly stellar writing in second light left me with a dumb grin after nearly every date and daily life scene. I've always believed that a JRPG lives or dies by its characters and their interactions and second light passes this evaluation with flying colors. The characters' dialogue feels sincere and the way they handle their insecurities and aspirations are surprisingly natural while still keeping the exaggerated energy and cuteness of a CGDCT character. I could really empathize with Ao and her complex over her own ordinary traits, contrasted with her charismatic and gentle interactions, made her a very compelling and likable main character. What really solidified my glowing impression of the writing was one of the one-on-one interactions between Ao and Hiori in which Hiori lamented her straightforward personality and constant taking of people at face value, followed by Ao praising her and telling her that a lot of people act the way they want to be seen so Hiori's shallow perception was actually helpful to them. I found it surprisingly insightful and while it further endeared me to Ao, it also emphasized the down-to-earth style of writing that I can only imagine comes from a lot of life experience. I also enjoy yuri so getting to build Ao's harem was a great joy, especially since I never get to see yuri content in which my favorite ordinary main-character-type girls hook up so going on dates with Hiori and Hinako was a rare pleasure.
Of course the other characters were great too. I loved seeing Rena and Yuki develop an actual straight-up romantic relationship when this kind of content usually just sticks to hinting at yuri and Yuki's somber background really tugged at the heartstrings. Shiho and Kirara were adorable and had some particularly enjoyable date scenes when you hit on them with Ao. Hiori and Mio have plenty of cute interactions while still retaining their surprisingly heavy backstory from the anime and the uncertainty surrounding Uta made for a very interesting development. While I didn't have much experience with the first game, it was cool having Hinako in the party and her more serious personality contrasted well with Ao's. The only character I found kind of weak was Kokoro and her food obsession but I still enjoyed a lot of her scenes and didn't dislike her at all.
While the animations can be kind of stiff and the graphics generally aren't very impressive, the imagery of the areas and cutscenes in second light is great and make it enjoyable to traverse the otherwise simple dungeons. The enemy designs are cool but there's a tad too many recolors even for bosses. Also the girls are cute! CUTE!!! The music is also very good and excels at accentuating the more dramatic scenes and creating a very potent otherworldly atmosphere in the heartscapes when combined with the aforementioned imagery.
The gameplay ends up being a lot more fun than I expected from the initial hour or so. Building a wide variety of facilities and attractions around the school and getting to enjoy the date scenes involving them was a real blast and decking out my party with skills and fragments was pretty fun too. The combat starts to shine later on when you get your characters' ether speed up and they can shift gears faster, especially during boss fights where you get to use all the skills from gears 3 and up. I do think they should've started a bit faster by default though, it's rare to even see the reflector forms at all in the first part of the game. The stealth function doesn't really detract from the game but it doesn't help much either given how little of a bonus you get for sneak attacks. The last couple stealth missions are pretty annoying though.
I typically keep a straight face when I'm playing a game no matter how fun it is, but the surprisingly stellar writing in second light left me with a dumb grin after nearly every date and daily life scene. I've always believed that a JRPG lives or dies by its characters and their interactions and second light passes this evaluation with flying colors. The characters' dialogue feels sincere and the way they handle their insecurities and aspirations are surprisingly natural while still keeping the exaggerated energy and cuteness of a CGDCT character. I could really empathize with Ao and her complex over her own ordinary traits, contrasted with her charismatic and gentle interactions, made her a very compelling and likable main character. What really solidified my glowing impression of the writing was one of the one-on-one interactions between Ao and Hiori in which Hiori lamented her straightforward personality and constant taking of people at face value, followed by Ao praising her and telling her that a lot of people act the way they want to be seen so Hiori's shallow perception was actually helpful to them. I found it surprisingly insightful and while it further endeared me to Ao, it also emphasized the down-to-earth style of writing that I can only imagine comes from a lot of life experience. I also enjoy yuri so getting to build Ao's harem was a great joy, especially since I never get to see yuri content in which my favorite ordinary main-character-type girls hook up so going on dates with Hiori and Hinako was a rare pleasure.
Of course the other characters were great too. I loved seeing Rena and Yuki develop an actual straight-up romantic relationship when this kind of content usually just sticks to hinting at yuri and Yuki's somber background really tugged at the heartstrings. Shiho and Kirara were adorable and had some particularly enjoyable date scenes when you hit on them with Ao. Hiori and Mio have plenty of cute interactions while still retaining their surprisingly heavy backstory from the anime and the uncertainty surrounding Uta made for a very interesting development. While I didn't have much experience with the first game, it was cool having Hinako in the party and her more serious personality contrasted well with Ao's. The only character I found kind of weak was Kokoro and her food obsession but I still enjoyed a lot of her scenes and didn't dislike her at all.
While the animations can be kind of stiff and the graphics generally aren't very impressive, the imagery of the areas and cutscenes in second light is great and make it enjoyable to traverse the otherwise simple dungeons. The enemy designs are cool but there's a tad too many recolors even for bosses. Also the girls are cute! CUTE!!! The music is also very good and excels at accentuating the more dramatic scenes and creating a very potent otherworldly atmosphere in the heartscapes when combined with the aforementioned imagery.
The gameplay ends up being a lot more fun than I expected from the initial hour or so. Building a wide variety of facilities and attractions around the school and getting to enjoy the date scenes involving them was a real blast and decking out my party with skills and fragments was pretty fun too. The combat starts to shine later on when you get your characters' ether speed up and they can shift gears faster, especially during boss fights where you get to use all the skills from gears 3 and up. I do think they should've started a bit faster by default though, it's rare to even see the reflector forms at all in the first part of the game. The stealth function doesn't really detract from the game but it doesn't help much either given how little of a bonus you get for sneak attacks. The last couple stealth missions are pretty annoying though.
A solid, quirky game that's a bit rough around the edges. I thought the story was pretty enjoyable throughout, though there's a few too many superfluous cutscenes in which the characters just go "omg how could kids do this :(" which they really didn't need to keep doing after like chapter 2. Otherwise I enjoyed the characters, especially Komaru and Toko's interactions. Monaca ended up being a fun villain as well and I enjoyed her dumb tantrums. The gameplay was serviceable with its easy-yet-marginally satisfying shooting and puzzles but I mostly just enjoyed running around the stylized areas with Toko. Shame about danganronpa 3.
2019
Solid enough beat 'em up with a few glaring issues. Has a cute artstyle and some nice spritework as well as satisfying attack animations. The soundtrack also has some bangers that fit the game's style to a T. The most prominent issue is the game's insistence on padding despite being in a genre that's better off being only a few hours long at most. This is only made more annoying by the petty story reasons which kind of lose their comedic appeal when it's actually impeding my experience. Speaking of the story, it's surprisingly plentiful but despite the high quality presentation, the dialogue is often just awkward. However it does end up coming across as sort of endearing in a way, maybe because the girls are cute or because it feels like the creators were just having a fun time making the game.
1999
Not exactly a great game but how can I resist a game with cute girls and mechs? While the combat ends up being pretty simple, it does have a nice sense of scale and an aesthetic packed with soul. It's too bad it's not longer with more complex missions. Also Kiki CUTE!
2020
Pleasant little game with surprisingly fun combat and a cute main character. I liked dumping all my levels into int and sniping monsters with lightning and the boss fights were pretty well-done. The areas are mostly enjoyable but scrounging around for the lightning magic in the dark area was annoying. Story was mostly forgettable but I liked the character designs. Locking the bunny costume behind a huge grind is the greatest sin this game commits.