ShadowShine57
2022
I have a lot of thoughts about this game. I really wish I could say it's better.
The base gameplay is REALLY good. When the game is flowing, it's some top-tier Dandori management gameplay. As you add more workers and get more types of work, planning everything is REALLY satisfying. The "boss fights" (forge duels) are cool too, although I have a major complaint with them that will be expanded on later. The last one is especially good. I was actually going to give this game 2.5 stars but the final duel was cool and fun enough to bump it up half a star to me. Expanding and upgrading your forge was satisfying as well.
The pixel art is pretty good, especially the area in the background of the forge, which is animated and constantly changing based on your choices. The amount of choices and how they affect how the game plays out is great, and the writing that goes with them is pretty good. (Only weird thing with the writing is that some of the customer dialogues have out-of-place broken English... maybe it's on purpose?) Music was forgettable but serviceable; about what you'd expect for this type of game.
As for the bad? Well, I'm going to copy-paste what I wrote in the game's "Feedback and bug reports" thread on Steam and let it speak for itself.
Bugs:
The device that resets your perks and the room for doing so do not have proper names, instead they have their internal names.
If you have more than 4 apprentices, you cannot select them all when you need to choose an apprentice for a quest. This screwed me over when I had to choose an apprentice for a fair and the one I trained up for it was not selectable.
I'm not sure if it's due to the room type or placement, but my middle room in the very top of the building, which is a perk room, breaks decorations. If I place a decoration, it is not visually there. If I click where I know it is, I can still sell it.
I placed a bunch of candelabras and chandeliers. After reloading my save, they all disappeared and the default torches/candles reappeared (which caused some of them to float in the air)
The carving tools do not give a carving bonus when they clearly should.
If you click the "left" button in a furniture menu with multiple pages, the click will go through the menu and hit the "fire worker" button unless you click on the very left edge of the button.
You can get female apprentices, but all dialogue still uses male pronouns for them.
Feedback:
Once your forge gets past a few rooms lag becomes very common.
Menus should remember your place and be logical. For example, when loading a save it should go to the page with your latest save instead of making you click arrows every time. Also when cancelling a furniture placement, it should return to the menu placement you were on previously.
There should be an option to pause an order without forcing the worker away from the workstation, for when you're trying to avoid the wrong person seeing you complete the order.
Fairs should inform you of what skills will be required for them ahead of time so you can plan accordingly.
Some orders for the French/English only make the other faction mad if they see you complete them. It will tell you it will make the other faction mad, if the other faction is present when you select it. But if they're not there when you select it, then someone from the other faction walks up, it will make them mad without you being able to know ahead of time. It should inform you when the order is potentially dangerous.
There's a couple places where the AI could be smarter. If someone goes to cook a meal but someone else is, it will cancel their action and they will just stand there holding their food, even after the other person finishes, unless you tell them to cook on it again. Similarly, if the ore chests become full, your miner will cancel his action and you must manually tell him to mine again once there's space for more ore.
Furniture placement is very precise for what it will and won't allow, to an annoying degree. It should let you place some things closer to the wall (or between underground rooms) so you're not squeezing for space, especially since the fancier chairs and tables are for some reason bigger. (As far as I can tell it's actually impossible to fit the nicest chair, table, pantry, and stove into a kitchen)
During the "cutscenes" the way the text moves and shrinks is very disorienting, so you can't really read it until it's done printing. I'd either make it print instantly or make it stay in the same size and position the whole time so you can actually read while it prints.
When making choices for a quest, I think it should make it more clear when your choice will cancel another quest. At the beginning I thought I could play both sides, but ended up accidentally siding with England in the process, a choice which I basically had to keep for the rest of the game.
The story takes place over 60 days. By day 30, I'd purchased every upgrade and tool and money was practically useless to me by that point. By day 40, I'd fully decorated the forge and got to 100 reputation with all factions and truly felt like there was nothing left to do. So I spent the last 20 days basically just fast forwarding and only completing orders for quests.
Maybe I should have chosen the hard mode, but it seems weird that the game would play out like this on the default mode most people would choose. Idk, I don't really know what the solution is but I just think it's a bit odd. I felt like the rate of progression was good, might have been boring if it was slower, so I don't really want things to have been more expensive.
The base gameplay is REALLY good. When the game is flowing, it's some top-tier Dandori management gameplay. As you add more workers and get more types of work, planning everything is REALLY satisfying. The "boss fights" (forge duels) are cool too, although I have a major complaint with them that will be expanded on later. The last one is especially good. I was actually going to give this game 2.5 stars but the final duel was cool and fun enough to bump it up half a star to me. Expanding and upgrading your forge was satisfying as well.
The pixel art is pretty good, especially the area in the background of the forge, which is animated and constantly changing based on your choices. The amount of choices and how they affect how the game plays out is great, and the writing that goes with them is pretty good. (Only weird thing with the writing is that some of the customer dialogues have out-of-place broken English... maybe it's on purpose?) Music was forgettable but serviceable; about what you'd expect for this type of game.
As for the bad? Well, I'm going to copy-paste what I wrote in the game's "Feedback and bug reports" thread on Steam and let it speak for itself.
Bugs:
The device that resets your perks and the room for doing so do not have proper names, instead they have their internal names.
If you have more than 4 apprentices, you cannot select them all when you need to choose an apprentice for a quest. This screwed me over when I had to choose an apprentice for a fair and the one I trained up for it was not selectable.
I'm not sure if it's due to the room type or placement, but my middle room in the very top of the building, which is a perk room, breaks decorations. If I place a decoration, it is not visually there. If I click where I know it is, I can still sell it.
I placed a bunch of candelabras and chandeliers. After reloading my save, they all disappeared and the default torches/candles reappeared (which caused some of them to float in the air)
The carving tools do not give a carving bonus when they clearly should.
If you click the "left" button in a furniture menu with multiple pages, the click will go through the menu and hit the "fire worker" button unless you click on the very left edge of the button.
You can get female apprentices, but all dialogue still uses male pronouns for them.
Feedback:
Once your forge gets past a few rooms lag becomes very common.
Menus should remember your place and be logical. For example, when loading a save it should go to the page with your latest save instead of making you click arrows every time. Also when cancelling a furniture placement, it should return to the menu placement you were on previously.
There should be an option to pause an order without forcing the worker away from the workstation, for when you're trying to avoid the wrong person seeing you complete the order.
Fairs should inform you of what skills will be required for them ahead of time so you can plan accordingly.
Some orders for the French/English only make the other faction mad if they see you complete them. It will tell you it will make the other faction mad, if the other faction is present when you select it. But if they're not there when you select it, then someone from the other faction walks up, it will make them mad without you being able to know ahead of time. It should inform you when the order is potentially dangerous.
There's a couple places where the AI could be smarter. If someone goes to cook a meal but someone else is, it will cancel their action and they will just stand there holding their food, even after the other person finishes, unless you tell them to cook on it again. Similarly, if the ore chests become full, your miner will cancel his action and you must manually tell him to mine again once there's space for more ore.
Furniture placement is very precise for what it will and won't allow, to an annoying degree. It should let you place some things closer to the wall (or between underground rooms) so you're not squeezing for space, especially since the fancier chairs and tables are for some reason bigger. (As far as I can tell it's actually impossible to fit the nicest chair, table, pantry, and stove into a kitchen)
During the "cutscenes" the way the text moves and shrinks is very disorienting, so you can't really read it until it's done printing. I'd either make it print instantly or make it stay in the same size and position the whole time so you can actually read while it prints.
When making choices for a quest, I think it should make it more clear when your choice will cancel another quest. At the beginning I thought I could play both sides, but ended up accidentally siding with England in the process, a choice which I basically had to keep for the rest of the game.
The story takes place over 60 days. By day 30, I'd purchased every upgrade and tool and money was practically useless to me by that point. By day 40, I'd fully decorated the forge and got to 100 reputation with all factions and truly felt like there was nothing left to do. So I spent the last 20 days basically just fast forwarding and only completing orders for quests.
Maybe I should have chosen the hard mode, but it seems weird that the game would play out like this on the default mode most people would choose. Idk, I don't really know what the solution is but I just think it's a bit odd. I felt like the rate of progression was good, might have been boring if it was slower, so I don't really want things to have been more expensive.
2019
Really, really cool. So much work went into creating an authentic early internet feel, and there must be hundreds of thousands of words of writing for the whole game. Also the game has a lot of music and it's all really good.
2018
Best colony sim I've played, takes some learning to get into though.
2024
The game system is good and I love the characters but microtransactions/live service BS ruins it.
2023
Goes from funny to terrifying real quick when you're all alone in the facility and you think the ghost girl is following you.
2024
Not very good but it is good for stupid fun with friends
2014
One of my favorite competitive games, I guess it appeals to the platform fighter fan in me, but with a super fast-paced twist.
2023
Great fun with friends, gives a really good feeling of being part of a submarine crew. The submarine systems and electronics are just complex enough to appeal to a nerd like me, even made the electronics for a sub my friend designed.
2018
Most of my playtime on this game was playing with randoms and I never lost a single round. Idk why, maybe they were all children but if I was crew it was always super obvious who was imposter and when I was imposter it was always super easy to lie to everyone over text.
2023
Eldritch horror and fishing, what else can you ask for
2021
Really good RPG maker horror game with a variety of outcomes, was fun to run through a dozen or so times in order to get all the endings.
I can't put my finger on why but this is the best Civ game to me. Although I still suck at it I have to play on the easiest difficulty or the AI destroys me.
2020
I'm not normally much of an FPS guy (unless it's also an RPG) but something about this one just hits right for me. It's very fun both playing with friends and alone; in the latter case it's a great game to just vibe and play while you watch a movie or something.
2019
Before I dove deeper into Megami Tensei and had only played Persona 3-5, this was my favorite game in the series. Now, after finishing 20 games in the franchise, this is still my favorite game in the series. And the Royal version just cemented that.
The overall story isn't quite as strong as Persona 4's, but is still phenomenal, despite its occasional cringe anime moments. Each dungeon has its own little story tied to it and each comes to a satisfying, emotional conclusion, with several emotional moments spread throughout as well. The party members are my favorite in the series, I love each and every one of them dearly for different reasons.
Do I really even need to say this? The visual style is amazing, one of the best in any games ever in everything including the pause menu. Also, the soundtrack is phenomenal, my favorite in the franchise (although Persona 4's comes close).
Social links (now called confidants) are, in my opinion, the best in the series. Basically every character is interesting, and each social link also gives you more benefits now than just the bonus fusion XP. One might give you more negotiation skills, or unlock more healing items to buy, or more gun customization. This encourages you to try to complete them all even more, and adds some strategy to wanting to complete certain ones earlier on to get their rewards. There is a structure in social links that's a bit repetitive, though:
1) Social Link 9: Character is in trouble, needs someone's heart changed
2) Joker goes into Mementos and changes that person's heart
3) Social Link 10: Character is happy their problem is resolved, reveals they know Joker is in the Phantom Thieves but promises not to tell.
Obviously, this is a pretty minor complaint though.
Combat and fusion is mostly the same as the previous 2 games, with a few key differences. First, guns are back! Each character has a unique gun type which can target multiple enemies per turn, and adds a fun twist to combat. Second, there's no more shuffle time, instead demon negotiation is back (although it's somewhat simplified compared to other Megaten games).
The best thing about this game, and why it's still my favorite, is the dungeons. They're hands down the best dungeons in the series. No longer randomly generated, each one is carefully crafted to give a satisfying progression through, almost a bit like a Zelda dungeon, and very highly themed.
Now I want to talk a bit about Royal. It adds three new social links, all of which are very good. It adds another dungeon, which is decent although I would say for this game it's fairly average. But what it really adds is a new ending, and this new ending is amazing. Obviously I won't say too much about it, but it's my favorite ending in the series. The next paragraph doesn't really contain spoilers, but if you want to go in absolutely blind it does sorta describe the conflict in vague terms so be wary.
The new ending, imo, is the best version of a Law vs Chaos ending where you can really see the argument the Law side is making. The Law side doesn't even want to fight you as they truly just want what's best, but is willing to do so to see their goals come to fruition. Everything about the final scenes from the acting, music, the action, and even the gameplay was absolutely heart-wrenching and created an unforgettable experience that I'll always remember as one of the best game endings ever.
The overall story isn't quite as strong as Persona 4's, but is still phenomenal, despite its occasional cringe anime moments. Each dungeon has its own little story tied to it and each comes to a satisfying, emotional conclusion, with several emotional moments spread throughout as well. The party members are my favorite in the series, I love each and every one of them dearly for different reasons.
Do I really even need to say this? The visual style is amazing, one of the best in any games ever in everything including the pause menu. Also, the soundtrack is phenomenal, my favorite in the franchise (although Persona 4's comes close).
Social links (now called confidants) are, in my opinion, the best in the series. Basically every character is interesting, and each social link also gives you more benefits now than just the bonus fusion XP. One might give you more negotiation skills, or unlock more healing items to buy, or more gun customization. This encourages you to try to complete them all even more, and adds some strategy to wanting to complete certain ones earlier on to get their rewards. There is a structure in social links that's a bit repetitive, though:
1) Social Link 9: Character is in trouble, needs someone's heart changed
2) Joker goes into Mementos and changes that person's heart
3) Social Link 10: Character is happy their problem is resolved, reveals they know Joker is in the Phantom Thieves but promises not to tell.
Obviously, this is a pretty minor complaint though.
Combat and fusion is mostly the same as the previous 2 games, with a few key differences. First, guns are back! Each character has a unique gun type which can target multiple enemies per turn, and adds a fun twist to combat. Second, there's no more shuffle time, instead demon negotiation is back (although it's somewhat simplified compared to other Megaten games).
The best thing about this game, and why it's still my favorite, is the dungeons. They're hands down the best dungeons in the series. No longer randomly generated, each one is carefully crafted to give a satisfying progression through, almost a bit like a Zelda dungeon, and very highly themed.
Now I want to talk a bit about Royal. It adds three new social links, all of which are very good. It adds another dungeon, which is decent although I would say for this game it's fairly average. But what it really adds is a new ending, and this new ending is amazing. Obviously I won't say too much about it, but it's my favorite ending in the series. The next paragraph doesn't really contain spoilers, but if you want to go in absolutely blind it does sorta describe the conflict in vague terms so be wary.
The new ending, imo, is the best version of a Law vs Chaos ending where you can really see the argument the Law side is making. The Law side doesn't even want to fight you as they truly just want what's best, but is willing to do so to see their goals come to fruition. Everything about the final scenes from the acting, music, the action, and even the gameplay was absolutely heart-wrenching and created an unforgettable experience that I'll always remember as one of the best game endings ever.
2008
This was the first Megami Tensei game I played, and is still one of my favorites.
In my Megaten reviews I always mention what I thought of the story, and this is quite possibly the best in the whole series. Every dungeon culminates in an emotional moment that'll leave you a bit misty-eyed and happy to welcome the new member into your party if relevant. And the amazing soundtrack serves to make you feel those emotional moments so much more. You'll want to continue investigating the TV world and solve the mystery of the midnight channel.
This game continues the life sim gameplay set up in Persona 3: Spending time in your daily life between dungeons, doing social links, etc. Honestly between 3 and 4, I'm not sure whose social links I prefer, they're both pretty solid overall.
The combat is similar to Persona 3, which I described in that review, so I won't go into it too much. A major difference is shuffle time, which now only serves for recruiting new Personas.
The dungeons are a pretty weak point. I think I prefer them over Tartarus, but not by much. At least each dungeon feels different in theming and tone, but unfortunately the dungeons are all just a series of randomly generated hallways that aren't very interesting to explore.
In my Megaten reviews I always mention what I thought of the story, and this is quite possibly the best in the whole series. Every dungeon culminates in an emotional moment that'll leave you a bit misty-eyed and happy to welcome the new member into your party if relevant. And the amazing soundtrack serves to make you feel those emotional moments so much more. You'll want to continue investigating the TV world and solve the mystery of the midnight channel.
This game continues the life sim gameplay set up in Persona 3: Spending time in your daily life between dungeons, doing social links, etc. Honestly between 3 and 4, I'm not sure whose social links I prefer, they're both pretty solid overall.
The combat is similar to Persona 3, which I described in that review, so I won't go into it too much. A major difference is shuffle time, which now only serves for recruiting new Personas.
The dungeons are a pretty weak point. I think I prefer them over Tartarus, but not by much. At least each dungeon feels different in theming and tone, but unfortunately the dungeons are all just a series of randomly generated hallways that aren't very interesting to explore.