Do you like a good and compelling story with fantastic music to accompany it? Do you like good and/or eccentric characters? How about a very good boi? Do you like puzzles with interesting mechanics and solutions? Do you enjoy Shu Takumi's work? If you don't know who that is, its the man who made Ace Attorney also worked on Dino Crisis 1 and 2. While I think this remaster is really great in all regards I did see some weird stuttering in animations with a certain character on screen.

I love this game so much. This game is a cult classic a reason. Don't sleep on this game people!

Coming into this game I had very little experience with pure farming games which is Stardew Valley and Rune Factory 4. Yes you read that right, I have never played a Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons before. I'm not the largest fan of this genre, what got me into wanting to try this was the whole "life" aspect. There aren't many games that I've played where you go through the whole rigmarole of going from young adult, to married with children, to growing old together. I had the ending of this game spoiled for me but I can't be all that upset because the original game is old, I was very much alive and able to play it at the time, and the ending STILL got me so it doesn't matter. Also this game took me longer than most jrpgs, oh my lord. I didn't think it would have taken me over 2 weeks to beat this game.

While it was a bit repetitive, the game definitely could have used more automation upgrades, that is a staple of the genre as far as I'm concerned but I got REAL tired of playing musical chairs with my chickens. Animals also didn't seem to die and from what I can tell that is new to this remake. Speaking of animals I really wish there was a way to put the horse back in the barn without needing to call all the animals back out only to put them all back in. Putting in the effort to get the best tools was worth it because of how much more they let you do. I also wish you could fuse more than one crop at a time, instead of needing to do it for each and every one in the stack you intend to. I get why its limited but its still tedious as af especially when Vinny is needy as all fuck and won't shut the fuck up EVERY TIME you talk to him.

I was iffy on the artstyle. The bachelorettes all looked fine, some of the bachelors were ok and others were not. But some of the regular residents were hideous to me, like Sully. The man looks like what an Easter Island head would be with a full body.

I named my character after myself and played a male character which is something I haven't done in decades. I just don't really care about being "myself" in games but it felt like it should be done here. I married Nami, anyone who knows me even a little bit shouldn't be surprised by this. This game has the Animal Crossing New Horizons issue of lots of repeated dialogue. Outside of events, you get the same couple of lines form everyone and it made me not wanna talk to people unless I had to and even those evens play out mostly the same each year. Also you couldn't gift people items while they were doing ANYTHING but standing still or walking (LET ME GIFT YOU GORDY PUT YOUR FUCKING ARMS DOWN FFS) but you can give them request items during those actions so that dumb stipulation should have been removed along with needing to shove the item in certain characters faces several times before they accept them.

Another thing I don't really agree with or understand is this game's profanity filter. First of all, its a single player game so why is it even here? There is no online connectivity whatsoever. Second half of its triggers didn't make sense. How is Cream not allowed but Creamer is fine or using the number 14 (despite the game calling said crop Crop 14) is unacceptable?

As I said above the whole life aspect is what got me to play. Seeing my character age throughout the game, as well as other characters, just seemed so novel to me. I can't name a game that does this outside of like post credits "where are they now" type deal. Seeing my child become her own person was something I didn't think I'd get to see again in my life, though I think making the kid such a depressed mess was a little too real. I cried right after the credits finished, I held it together but that whole last year had this underlying sadness all throughout its events. Every single one I saw just made me sad which is a far cry from the excitement for seeing each one earlier in the game. The people of the town seemed to think highly of me, my family and animals loved me and the farm was in a great state.

So despite the repetitiveness in actions and dialogue, some iffy character designs, I think the life aspect is what sets this game apart from the rest. If you have some interest in this game I say go for it. I can assure you that you'll most likely have...

A Wonderful Life

I was honestly surprised by this. I had the played the original moemon a bit back when it first released and I didn't think it would be getting new variants now. This hack was more competent than I thought it would be as its not just a sprite swap despite otherwise just being firered again. If anyone cares my team was Tyranitar, Garchomp, Metagross, Venusaur, Staraptor, Gyarados

What it does well:
The sprites were great, I didn't see a single bad one in my whole run
The mons you can find on routes were varied and many
New areas were added to find mons in (one of which let me get a Larvitar as soon as getting cut so that gives this bonus points)
The gym leaders and elite 4 have ample coverage and use strategies but not to the extent where you'll need to waste your time EV training (I even beat the elite 4 before any of my party was level 60, while the champion and lance are in said 60's to 70)
TMs are infinite use
The move reminder is free
Shows the stats effected by a mons nature for those of us who can't be bothered to memorize the table
You can buy all evolution stones and items at the Celedon department store including the link cable item for trade evos
Mega evolutions are in (to me this isn't a plus but to most it is)
Fairy type, physical special split and pokemon at least up to gen 6 are in

What it does bad
Opening the national dex in this version (the most recent as of July 2023) crashes the game
Mega evolution does not work in double battles
Mega stone selection is limited (despite 5/6 of my team being capable of mega evolving only 2 of the stones were in the game)
The level jumps in the back half were a bit steep for my liking. (Basically just added almost 10 levels to everyone in the back half and not much to allow for faster leveling outside of the usual lucky egg grinding)

So while it has some kinks to work out, I had my fun with it. I'm glad it wasn't a tryhard hack cuz I would rather buy a rope for myself than spend any amount of time EV training. The sprites were well done and it asked you to strategize more than just run a team of sweepers without being frustrating to do so.

(this is written before completing the post game)

Its hard to believe the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs are finally over, and actually stuck the landing. Hearing the words I've been waiting several games for made me tear up. They also stepped up the animation game at times here as in some actual choreography in battle and character moments thats more than just using the premade animations, and even had what looked like accurate lipflaps to the Japanese that I don't remember in any of the other 3d games. The newer character's animations also put the returning character's to shame be it solo victory poses or S-Crafts. This game was also fairly concise, not a lot of meandering or what feels like wasted time which I feel was always an issue with these games. They're long in the tooth. I also am not really into the TRC. It reminds me of Tartarus in a way, where its just general randomized nonsense.

If Reverie is the blueprint for what the series will become in the future, I'm all for it. Except for maybe the TRC, that can go.

I found the hitboxes to be kinda wack at times but otherwise it was a solid castlevania inspired romp. The levels were short enough in of themselves that the whole "second run" the game tells you to do to actually beat it wasn't a chore. Also for being a galgun game, there wasn't a whole lot of what you associate that series with here. There was like maybe a handful of them, and most weren't overt. Shinobu and Maya play differently enough from each other but I always found myself trying to do actions that would fit in these types of games (no double jump or backdash, or dash) but the game is more limited in character actions. Shinobu for example can't hit small enemies unless you've been firing long enough once you get to round 2 unless you wanna spend your sub weapon points. I did find some other ways to speed up my rounds with clever use of the subweapon mechanics, one was clearly intended as it says so in the tutorial but the other was CLEARLY not and I was able to avoid entire rooms and platforming challenges with it.

I however do not agree with having no actual map to view outside of the fast travel menu, which is only at the pillars between levels and at your base. This is a metroidvania type game, so there are secret rooms and doors that require the abilities you get latter on to open. You better remember where they are buddy! That compass that they have that points you in the direction of the boss and collectables like upgrades or girls to rescue only works for the later if you're in the same room (I also saw it only have things appear halfway through some long rooms too), plus this compass doesn't have the other collectable on it which are panties. I already told you this was a galgun game, you should have expected it. Also I get that Maya is the younger sister, and smaller the game makes sure you know that, but having the melee focused character have half the hp of the ranged is weird as AF.

It might seem petty, but that whole thing with the map knocked a whole point off my score. I got so tired of running around the levels for the 5th time trying to find my last few girls and panties that I just pulled up a video to find the rest of theme were. A metroid type game needs a readily accessible map!

People told me not to worry about this being a tactic game and they were right. This is barely one, its closer to a jrpg with limited attack ranges. This game was also WAY shorter than I expected, not that I weight game length in my rankings. I though this would at least take me into the next day but I beat this in a sitting. Anyway this was a generally solid all around experience the whole way through. The sprite art and animations were well done. Also this game is a literal musical. I know its called "Rhapsody: A musical adventure" but I thought it was just music related. There were like 8 different songs and you could even choose if they were sung in english or japanese. If I have one complaint, its that the game liked to have me return to places I literally just came from for progression. Most of the areas aren't too big but its still annoying to come from the forest only to be told I gotta go back.

I'm looking forward to playing the other 2 once I get a hold of that collection