I've actually been wanting to play this game ever since I completed Planet Laika, an amazing game (please check it out it changed my life) that also happens to include humans with doglike faces so similar to this one that I was surprised to find out it wasn't developed by the same company. Unfortunately, just like Planet Laika, Dog of Bay is one of those obscure Japanese games that never recieved an English translation. So it sat in my wishlist for a good amount of time until the fated day of August 14th. The day where Hilltop Works announced a translation seemingly out of nowhere for this game. I was extremely surprised and very hyped. Was my hype worth it? Well...

I guess I'll mention the good stuff first. The character designs, models, and movements are great. A lot of people find them "weird" but as a furry fan of anthroporphic animals, I liked them a lot. While doing some light research I actually found out there are some pretty big names doing the voice acting and singing (they got Frieza and the dude who sings the Dragon Ball theme songs on this thing???) which explains all the amazing performances. There are some really good tunes in here! The story is contained to the 5 very short cutscenes inbetween each level. There isn't really much of it, which is unfortunate because the game sets up this really intriguing world and the small bits we do get are nicely done.

Onto the very bad. As other people have mentioned, the interface is just abysmal. For a rhythm game, that isn't very ideal. Unlike the games of the same genre that came before it like Parappa the Rapper or Space Channel 5 that use clear button inputs or easy to follow beats, it decides to go with an extremely cluttered interface of... gems and waves that make it very hard to tell what inputs are going to come up next. The game doesn't do a good job of explaining things either. I had a better time focusing on the waves on the side of the screen (which the game tells you nothing about) than the gems. I guess once you get used to it it really isn't that bad until the final level where the button inputs start getting a little crazy. While I managed to get 80 or higher on all the levels even as someone who kinda sucks at rhythm games and using a controller with button lag, I imagine this flaw would make most people give up on the game.

Overall, this game is alright. I'm glad a translation of it even exists. I think it's worth checking out since it can easily be completed in under an hour. If there was just a bit more story in it and a more polished UI this would definitely get a 4/5 from me.