Story and Characters
-The story of Jedi Survivor is fairly simple, but it remains an effective story that gets progressively more and more engaging as it plays out. Without going into spoilers, Cal is back and while on a new planet called Koboh, he discovers echoes and technology left behind during the High Republic era that could lead to a safe haven from the Empire. Throughout the story, you interact with many familiar faces from Fallen Order and Cal’s relationships with those characters continue to deepen. The game does a great job acting as a natural progression from the first game as you get to see what all of the Mantis crew has been doing over the past 5 years. Cal feels a strong desire to keep fighting the Empire and the game opens with him pulling off a job with a new team that will help more people fight back. As the story progresses, the stakes get higher and higher and there are some genuinely fantastic moments in the game that do a great job of capturing the excitement of Star Wars.

-As previously mentioned, many of the characters from Fallen Order return for Survivor although they are not just the same characters they were before. Cal is older now and has a new sense of purpose. Cere is out trying to help the Hidden Path, a group that works to hide Jedi being hunted by the Empire. Greez has opened up a bar and is just trying to settle down and enjoy life when Cal drags him onto another adventure. I liked seeing what the characters were doing in between the games and it helped make the characters feel more real and fleshed out. There are also several new characters that you meet with the main one being Bode, a gunslinger who helps you on your opening mission and he continues to help out as he wants a better life for his daughter. At Greez’s bar and throughout the different planets you explore, you meet a lot of other side characters who you can interact with and who all have stories of their own. Most of them aren’t given too much depth, but having the bar be a central hub where you can interact with the different characters allows you to get to know them all a bit better.

-The villains in the game are also fairly interesting and I liked uncovering more information about them. I do feel the villain’s motivations were a bit underdeveloped though and I would have liked to have seen a bit more depth to them, but they ultimately served the story and were formidable antagonists.

Gameplay
-Much of the gameplay feels similar to Fallen Order, although everything is even more fleshed out and there are a lot more options for how you approach combat. This game adds more lightsaber stances allowing you to choose between single bladed, double bladed, two lightsabers, a crossguard saber or a lightsaber/blaster combination. These are not just visual changes either, but each stance has different strengths and weaknesses allowing the player to discover what they like the most. For example, the crossguard saber does a lot more damage and can block for longer, but it is far slower when attacking, while the double bladed saber is much faster but does less damage. I really enjoyed trying out the new stances and each one has their own dedicated skill tree so you can become even stronger and really pick which path you like. Personally, I really liked the blaster stance as the extra range was very helpful and it was simply a lot of fun to use.

-Luckily, Survivor did not remove the force powers you learned in the first game so you can still force push and pull, double jump and run on walls to help get around. You also learn some new abilities that are fun to use and you can upgrade your force powers even more to become far more lethal.

-The traversal and exploration is similar to Fallen Order, but again, there’s a lot more to do and see. You will gain new abilities to help you get around as well as the addition of rideable creatures that make traversal faster. You also have a grapple hook this time around that is fun to use and makes you far quicker. This is helpful because the main planet you visit in the game, Koboh, is massive, far larger than any of the planets in Fallen Order. You will explore the main town, numerous different caverns, cliff sides and old factories and all of the locations are full of secrets and collectibles. I loved the exploration as there were genuinely a lot of cool things to find and the game does a good job with fleshing out each location with interesting lore and unique flora and fauna.

-Another big improvement over Fallen Order is the enemy variety. In Jedi: Survivor, on the main planet of Kobh, you will have to deal with the Bedlam Raiders, a group of pirates that are harassing the local prospectors. They also have access to an old Separatist ship full of battle droids from the clone wars. These new factions allow for a ton of new enemy types from your standard pirate to super battle droids and magna guards. Every enemy feels different to fight and you have to be smart with how you approach combat as you can be quickly overwhelmed. There are also plenty of new creatures you have to battle and a ton of great boss fights that can be challenging, but also very rewarding.

-One of the biggest issues I had with Fallen Order was the lack of fast travel and how you would have to navigate this confusing three dimensional map to try to figure out how to get where you wanted to go. Survivor has made this far more bearable with the ability to fast travel from respawn points and a map that feels easier to use. I wasted far less time trying to figure out where I was supposed to go and there were always plenty of shortcuts to unlock to help you save time if you returned to a certain area.

-Customization is another area that has been completely revamped. The poncho-only Cal of Fallen Order has been upgraded and you have a wide variety of customization options. From your facial hair, to your jacket, shirt and pants, everything has way more options. BD-1, your lightsaber, and your blaster are all also able to have their appearance changed and the amount of options available is incredible. You can change out each part of the lightsaber and use a wide array of color options for both the blade and every part of the handle. You find more options for customizing while you explore which adds even more incentive to go out and search for chests and treasures.

-Another great aspect of the gameplay are the animations and finishers. Every blaster reflect or saber swing looks incredible and every enemy type has at least one, if not several, unique finishing moves. You also get different finishers depending on what stance you are using or if you are fighting an enemy with an AI companion. Dismemberment has also been increased in this game with arms and legs of human enemies often flying off after coming into contact with a lightsaber.

Side Content
-While Fallen Order mainly only had side content in the form of finding chests, Survivor offers a lot more. You encounter many NPCs in the world who give you rumors that act as side quests. Most of them are admittedly fairly basic and involve going to an area and fighting a creature or looking for someone who is missing, but they do take you to interesting parts of the map that you would otherwise likely miss. The main story leaves much of Koboh still unexplored and the more you explore, the more collectibles you will find as well as some cool easter eggs. There are also bounty hunters to track down, legendary enemies to fight, parkour challenges to complete, and these Zelda-like temples where you complete puzzles. You can even start a garden or play a table top mini game. It is all a lot of fun and made me want to do more exploration as the rewards felt worthwhile.

World/Level Design
-The two main open areas in Jedi: Survivor are Koboh and Jedha, Koboh being an entirely new planet and Jedha first appearing in the movie Rogue One. Both planets are quite large, with Koboh being very expansive and full of optional areas to explore. Both planets are outstanding and they feel very different from one another. One of the reasons I liked the exploration so much is just because the planets looked so cool. Koboh is rocky, but also covered in green trees and blue colored hot springs. It is a gorgeous planet and I loved how detailed everything was. One of my favorite areas are the Phon’Qi caverns, a deadly cave system that is full of dangerous threats, but also great rewards.

-Having a hub location in the form of Pyloon’s Saloon and the surrounding town of Rambler’s Reach was really cool because it allowed for more life in the game. In Jedi: Fallen Order, most of the locations you went to were kinda empty and devoid of much life outside of hostile enemies. On Koboh and Jedha, you get to interact with friendly NPCs and it feels a bit more lively. The bar is a highlight because you can hear people conversing and music playing in the background which adds to the Star Wars feel of it all. It still falls short of more traditional open worlds as many of the NPCs are just standing around or walking from one place to another, but it is a step in the right direction.

-This is not a major issue, but because Koboh and Jedha are so big, they clearly were the focus for the developers and the rest of the locations do feel a bit less interesting. Not that they are bad, but they are all much smaller and don’t have as many reasons to revisit them. Coruscant is the opening planet in the game which is really cool, but you don’t really get to spend much time there and it suffers from feeling more empty than the other locations when you would think it would be a more crowded location. But again, because the other two planets are so good and this is not trying to be a traditional open world game, it doesn’t bother me as much as it could.

Graphics, Music and Glitches
-The visuals in the game are mostly quite good and each location looks stunning. There were some lighting glitches that would pop up though in certain areas where the sides of the screen would have these strange white boxes showing up. It didn’t happen too often, but enough that it is worth mentioning. Other than that though, the game looks really good and definitely a big step up from the previous game.

-The music is incredible, they do a great job of using mostly original tracks, but also including some classic Star Wars themes when it is appropriate. Something that has bothered me in the Disney era of Star Wars is that they often don’t use the classic themes in their shows or movies and I am not sure why. Hearing the Force theme in the game was great and really helps the game feel like proper Star Wars.

- I did have some glitches here and there as this game is definitely not fully polished in every area. Frequently when I would board the ship to fast travel somewhere, my crewmates would T-pose in the cockpit while I was selecting a planet. I also had some occasional frame drops, mainly on Koboh. They weren’t too common luckily, and I have heard they were a bigger issue when the game first launched.

Main Positives of the Game
-The story is quite good and feels like a good follow up to Fallen Order. I liked seeing what the characters have been doing and the story has some genuine emotional moments that really worked for me. There are also some great set piece scenes that feel epic to play like battling a massive droid on a temple or going on a speeder chase through the desert.

-The combat is fantastic especially because of the new lightsaber stances, force powers and enemy types.

-Really fun planets to explore and the side content is all pretty good and made me want to take breaks from the main story to do more of it. Finding massive monsters in creepy caves or learning one of the prospector’s has a dark secret were fun diversions that also led to good rewards.

-Many quality of life changes from Fallen Order like a better map, fast travel and more customization options.

Main Negatives of the Game
-Some graphical issues and frame drops as well as some glitches were a bit distracting at times.

-The villains are decent in the game, but I needed more motivation for them and they were fairly one note. I won’t go into any more detail to avoid spoilers, but I was not entirely sure what one of the villain’s end goals were.

-Outside of Koboh and Jedha, the other locations are a bit lacking and feel a bit samey. While the planets were not nearly as big in Fallen Order, I do feel they had more diversity to them.

Overall Score: 9/10

This game is a great example of a near-perfect sequel that takes everything good about the previous game and makes it bigger and better. If you are a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend this game and even if you are just someone who wants to play an action game with some great combat and fun exploration, you won’t go wrong with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Shin Megami Tensei V is my least favorite mainline SMT and unfortunately, Vengeance does little to change that. That’s not to say, however, that it’s not much improved.

For what is probably the first time in any Atlus re-release, the new character ends up being the best thing about the game. Yoko is unequivocally the best thing about Vengeance, and stands far above the other characters in the game. Yes, the bar was in hell, but it’s still something worth celebrating. Miyazu, Tao, Ichiro and Yuzuru get additional scenes here and there in the new route in an attempt to make them a little more three dimensional, but they come off just as underbaked as they were in the original. These characters are fundamentally uninteresting and require a lot more than a couple of band-aids here and there to fix.

The new route in general is a massive glow-up from the original and almost objectively better than it. It’s not perfect because the characters are still weak, the writing is still poor and the cinematography is still bland but it feels like they actually remembered to write a story this time around.

Other than that, it’s still SMT V, warts and all. The areas are still frustrating to explore, the dungeons are still an absolute bore visually and mechanically, the pacing is still all over the place, the atmosphere is still lacking and the vibes still aren’t there.

Still, I’m glad SMTV (and Vengeance) exist. Between IV: Apocalypse and V, it’s very clear that Atlus is experimenting with the franchise and maybe trying to carve a new identity for it. Neither of those experiments worked for me with the latter being worse than the former, but it’s alright. We learn and we grow, and Vengeance proves that Atlus is at least willing to listen and is aware of what went wrong with SMTV, even if they couldn’t completely remedy it here.

A few notes:
- “Report to Bethel Japan” is the new “Pray return to the Waking Sands.” Please give these people phones or some way to communicate wirelessly.

- Locking a superboss and a mode/difficulty behind having to play an objectively worse version of the game first (or second) wasn’t the best idea. (Edit: apparently this isn't the case)

- Jacking up the compendium prices and limiting Macca sources to this degree in an effort to get people to buy the Mitama DLC is still incredibly scummy.

- This is what a trophy list for these games should look like. The platinum was rough due to the 6 playthrough requirement but Persona 3 Reload’s was just embarrassing.

If you've ever owned a phone and got one of those "Bubble Pop" games with a gajillion ads stuffed in them, you've played Bust-A-Move! ...Or Puzzle Bobble, apparently? I'm not too familiar with how this was localized, I'm just going off what Mega's review said.

So, gameplay-wise... Pretty simple. You shoot bubbles up top and if you match 3 of the same color, they pop. If there were any bubbles attached below the bubbles you just popped, they also drop since they're not hanging on to anything, which rewards you for landing rebound shots. You got a whole variety of colors, you got red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, white... If you're familiar with my reviews, you already know where this is going to go, but let's get through the rest of the review first.

In terms of the level design, I think the game is rather lopsided in how it goes about things. The first few levels will cram one gimmick bubble into them and then you'll enter a dry spell of no gimmick bubbles; shouldn't it be the other way around? Well, whatevz.
At first, you'll have a guiding line that tells you where the bubble you're shooting is gonna go, which I like... until the line goes away and the game kind of tells you "idk you figure it out" until you fail the level, in which case it comes back. Wouldn't it be much nicer if it stuck around all the time?
Ending the level can be a pain sometimes too, as the little straggler bubbles can only be cleared if you get a lucky pattern of bubbles, it's kind of annoying.

It's a decent puzzle game... with one caveat.

Colorblindness Rating: D-
I can't tell the yellow and orange Bubbles apart, and that sucks if you're being put under pressure by these impatient goddamn dinosaurs who tell you "HURRY UP" when you're trying to figure out what the hell color this is and where to put it.
This sucks big time; the thing is that this could've been avoided by giving them a more distinct pattern like they did with blue and purple, but in all their infinite wisdom, the devs decided not to do it.

Oh well, I guess that just means I get more time to play Cleopatra's Fortune, and infinitely more fun puzzle game for the Sega Saturn which you should totally check out!

It is a tale as old as time, one that any fan of any major video game franchise knows all too well, yet the fear all the same: if a video game is popular and successful enough, it will mostly get adapted into many other things, including the dreaded movie adaptation. These things have been coming out for the longest time, and while nowadays we are somewhat lucky with these, getting some pretty good, or at least decent adaptations every now and then, this was pretty much a death sentence back in the 90s, such as when it comes to Street Fighter, which got its own handful of films over the years, including the infamous original live-action film. I won’t go into detail about how I feel about the movie, because I have already done that, but if you are a big fan of Street Fighter, you definitely have seen this film at some point, or at least heard of it in some way. However, what you may not know about it is that, around the time it the film was originally released, there were actually a handful of video games that were made in order to help promote the movie, with these games confusingly being known as Street Fighter: The Movie.

I had known about this game for quite a while now, and while I never played it, I had always assumed that it was GARBAGE. I mean, seriously, it was already bad enough that it was tied to an already bad movie, but the fact that it changed up it’s look and style didn’t boost any sort of confidence in me either, so I wasn’t really looking forward to checking this one out. But hey, it still could’ve turned out to be good: after all Capcom was still the ones responsible for the game (to a degree), and they know how to do fighting games, so I figured they would know what they were doing with this. Thankfully, this turned out to be true, as while this isn’t quite as good as some of the other Street Fighter games so far, this is still a pretty decent entry in the series as a whole, one that gives you what you want out of one of these games while slightly changing things up, and one that is also HILARIOUS to play because of its new style.

The story is… pretty much exactly the same as the movie, with some new extra details thrown in there for the characters, and it works out well enough, especially for those who are a fan of the film’s plot, the graphics are… interesting, as it takes on the MK style rather than the typical sprite-based style of the previous games, having all of the characters played by their actual actors from the movie (with an exception here or there), and needless to say, watching them move and perform SF moves in this game is gloriously stupid, while also sporting pretty decent animations and backgrounds, the music is alright, having plenty of tracks that you would expect from a fighting game of this style, but it definitely isn’t the kind of music that I prefer to listen to from SF, and the gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Street Fighter title, with the extra bonus of all the cheese from the film that you could possibly expect, and some twists on how the game plays as well.

The game is your typical 2D arcade fighter, where you take control of one of 14 different characters, ranging from ones featured in the SF movie or completely new additions to the lineup, take on many different opponents in many of the “exciting” and “memorable” locations that were seen in said film, throw out many different punches, kicks, special moves and what have you to take down your opponent, depleting their HP all the way down to nothing, make sure to dodge, block, and counter at all of the right times to make sure that you sustain as little damage as possible, and stand tall as the true champ amongst all of the others, while also laughing at how ridiculous Jean-Claude Van Damme looks in this game. Any Street Fighter fan knows what to expect from this game, as well as any regular fighting game fanatic, but you will notice right away that, aside from the style, this game does do things somewhat differently from other entries, making it an interesting one to try out if you are familiar with the series.

In terms of the original arcade Street Fighter movie game, you get the usual serving of content here: just the standard arcade mode, where you fight all of the other characters one by one before you win, but here, again, you get a different experience for the series. The game’s fights have a speed that is similar to that of SSFIIT to a degree, along with all of the features that have been brought into fighting games in years prior, such as special moves you can pull off, desperation moves to get you on equal footing with your opponent once again, and various other crazy moves that you can pull off to get an advantage on your opponent. Despite the fact that this game is just meant to be a tie-in to the movie it is based on, it does still play very much like your typical SF game, giving you the same fast and fun gameplay you have come to expect, even it can be pretty stiff at times. Not to mention, with plenty of different opponents to fight and play as, including others that weren’t in the movie like Akuma, you will have plenty to do and mess around with, and what you do get is very fun to mess around with and learn at the same time.

Alongside all of this, given the different style that it tackles, the game also handles things like combos and damage differently as well, which could play a huge factor into how much you like this game. Rather than past games, where there was a limit to how much you could hit an opponent with your combos (to a degree), there are plenty of additional chances that you have to deal out damage here, allowing you to dish out MANY hits onto an opponent at once, and you can even juggle them in plenty of instances as well, even after they have already been KO’d. I managed to get plenty of combos in this game, sometimes even reaching double digits, because of this, and I usually SUCK at pulling off combos, especially in Street Fighter, but I was able to do it in this game, and it felt pretty good to do. What also helps is that, at the same time, while you can dish out a lot of pain, it doesn’t feel too overpowered. Your combos don’t do as much damage as they would in other SF games or fighting games in general, meaning that if you get hit with a devastating combo or special move, it doesn’t automatically mean that you have basically lost, as you can bounce right back and have the opportunity to strike to even things out with the opponent. I managed to get out of plenty of tight situations like this where in many other fighting games, I would just be straight up screwed, so I definitely appreciated that at least.

Despite all of that though, at the end of the day, this is (say it with me now) another typical arcade fighter. Nothing about this game makes it stand apart from any other game in the series, except for the fact that it now uses a digitized style for all of the fighters, and that it uses clips from the movie it is based on. It is your typical SF experience all the way through, one that doesn’t compare to the flashiness and load of fun that you could have with some of the previous SF games, even it is still very enjoyable all on its own. Not to mention, fighting game syndrome is present here as well, so if you aren’t quite ready for some of the matches later down the line, then get ready for the possibility of being beat up by Jean-Claude Van Damme or Raul Julia……. not too many can say they have gotten beaten up by them, that’s for sure.

Overall, despite a major lack of change and some annoying fights here or there, Street Fighter: The Movie: The Arcade game is a pretty decent tie-in game that manages to hold up surprisingly well after all this time, giving you the same kind of fast-paced gameplay that you know and love, while also having the undeniably stupid and silly charm of all the digitized actors and movie clips to help make it stand out among the rest. I would recommend it for those who are big fans of the other Street Fighter games, and even for those who are fans of the movie, because while it may not be as good as SSFIIT or future SF games, you can still have a lot of fun beating up your friends with it, and I think that is all that matters. But, before we go, I do wanna briefly go over the other Street Fighter: The Movie game that was released on the PS1 and Sega Saturn shortly after this game, because TECHNICALLY, it is a completely separate game from the main arcade game, even though it is mostly just the same as you would expect.

In terms of what changes with this game, there are additional modes you can try out now, such as a Movie Mode that has you playing as Guile the whole time, while having branching paths that determine who you fight, and a Trial Mode, where you beat up as many other characters as you can before the time runs out to see if you can get the highest score. There is a lot to do here, and there are additional characters here that weren’t in the original arcade version, which is pretty cool, but there is one problem with the game: it plays like ASS. I wouldn’t say it is completely terrible, cause I have played Doomsday Warrior, but this feels significantly worse to play then that of the arcade version in almost every way. Your movements feel a lot more sluggish and stiff, you jump as if you are on the moon, attacks don’t feel kinetic or satisfying to pull off at all, and the graphics and animation quality have obviously taken a hit as well. Sure, it does include a music video that was made for the Street Fighter movie, which is hilarious, but it doesn’t make up for the shitty gameplay here, making this the inferior version without a doubt. It isn’t terrible, but trust me, you should just stick with the arcade version over this anyday, as you will have a much better time with it overall.

Games #631 and 631.5

I was really excited to hear that Assassin's Creed was returning to a more focussed approach with Mirage after the last few massive (too big) RPG style games. In reality, Mirage is more like a shrunken down version of the RPG AC games than a return to the style of the pre-Origins games.

I'm an unapologetic fan of the old style AC games. Scaling towers and hoovering up map icons scratches a weird itch for me. Mirage does achieve that to some extent but there's definitely something missing. The world feels busy but empty, interesting yet bland. I enjoyed the story for what it was, but at no point did it really draw me in.

The gameplay is more in-line with the older style of AC which is a big plus for me. Although it still has one foot firmly in the newer style camp. I rarely got into combat as I was able to sneak around and assassinate quite easily, especially once I'd unlocked and upgraded a few tools. There's not much depth here though. Rather than introducing newer, tougher enemies, you just have to deal with more of them.

AC Mirage ended up being a bit of a mixed bag for me. Overall, I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but with a sense of emptiness hanging over the experience it doesn't rank high in the franchise for me.

Played a couple hours of Tetris during the presidential debate. Thought it would help calm my anxiety. It did not.

(side note I think I prefer dr mario as a puzzle game sorry)

Played on NSO Gameboy

Here I am, playing yet another Apple Arcade game.

So this is Words in Progress; a simple game where you're given some letters and you gotta make some words out of it. Simple concept, I do love me some word games like Letter League and SpellCast, so this game caught my eye.

Unfortunately, it's... not exactly the greatest word game. Nor is it a particularly well-made one.
For one, this game's dictionary is kind of wacky. It'll accept "losed" as a word despite that form of "lose" being considered obsolete.
Next, the letter bank the game picks from seems to be heavily skewed towards way too many vowels, it feels really unbalanced and will leave you hanging for a long time before you can make any meaningful words worth anything.
Finally, the game decides to freeze on me for no particular reason. Then it freezes when I try to boot it back up, then it also freezes when I'm trying to adjust some settings. Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop worked fine, so I don't know what's happening here.

Overall, would be a generally decent game if it weren't for the constant freezes and kind of shoddy word and letter selection.

Colorblindness Rating: A
Colors aren't a really big deal here, you can change the background color if you wish, which is neat enough, I guess.

tomodachi life is special. it creates a certain charm that its contemporaries often lack. even if it's not the most in-depth life sim, the game is really about the vibe and community it creates. your island is amazingly personalized, despite the limited interactions.

there is something absolutely remarkable about the way it can make you care about whatever miis you put on the island - from real people to random characters, they have distinct personalities, and the relationships they build are very meaningful.

all of this with the distinct nintendo humor makes it a very memorable experience. basically what i'm trying to say is SEQUEL WHEN

I have 1 true thing to say and 1 real thing to say: First, Demons Souls Remake is a pretty alright way to play Demons Souls in the modern era. Its certainly not not worth playing. HOWEVER.... It is also my go to example of what not to do when developing a remake. By necessity remakes aim to make some changes - so an essential question to ask or keep in mind is: does this align with the original artistic intention? If a remake has to make changes, you hope these changes enhance or highlight the attitude of the original work.

To me, Demons Souls Remake was made by people (whether it was Bluepoint or Sony) who wanted to make Demons Souls slightly more appealing to a different audience. While they never change anything crucial to the experience of Demons Souls, the changes they make feel cloying and wormy. Oh, Valley Of Defilement looks too defiled and oppressive? Gotta turn on the high contrast filter to increase the magpie-shiny sex appeal? Why did they change the starting Knight set and hide the Fluted Set like it was a secret to hide in a drawer somewhere? Not every change was bad (there was no reason for Penetrators magic to be blood-red but it does make him more badass) but so many of the changes seem to dislike that Demons Souls was weird and it just rubs me the wrong way. It feels disrespectful to the original vibe, like they were ashamed or embarrassed or just not very confident in Demons Souls’ personality. The changes feel revisionary and I cant help but resent that.

Previous Dark Witch Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/DragonMals/review/1712892/

The Legend of Dark Witch Review (Covers Dark Witch 1/Renovation, 2/Rudymical, Brave Dungeon/Combat, 3, The Meaning of Justice)

Hello everyone! It's Mali/Mals/Pitaya again with a review after my great Summer Camp that happened last week and I honestly gotta say: While the beginning parts were rough, the experience overall has got to be the best of them all and I'm sad to see that it's my last trip of them all. Im going to miss the memories I've had with my scout troop (I'm in Scouting BSA, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America), and I'll be starting my post-high school life in college, figuring out more games to review during the summer. Speaking of, let's get started with said review!

Intro
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Sometime in 2017, Dark Witch would eventually see some brief releases early in the Switch’s lifespan; Brave Dungeon gets a re-release with 2 new characters (Klinsy and Neville) along with a pack-in RNG card based time waster called Dark Witch Story: COMBAT. This game features two dorks named Hiroto and Aoi who go on a tournament to become the best in COMBAT, simple as that. The other game was Rudymical where, like COMBAT, expanded a little bit of the series’ lore of the world in the form of another spinoff, except this time, it took inspiration from the light-hearted approach of the second game, and made Beatus the place for magic and fun. I remember this plot too as this game itself was actually my first true Introduction to this series.

The day to which I have watched this video covering the game is lost in history, but I remember that it was around the time the game was released, which is the May of 2017. I remember asking my brother if it was related to Chronicle 2D ACT- the first game in the series that we played on that trip, but he couldn’t remember it. Remember that during this period was when I didn’t have too much interest in the series, but after confirming it myself, this was the point where I became OBSESSED with it. And I mean, OBSESSED. Around the same time period, I have played the second game's demo, and one year later in 2019, I have joined the Amino for this game's community which was ran by Derpy Devil, one of the best admins that I have ever got to see, and purchased the second game months later in October. I also remember joining the Unofficial Discord sometime later in 2019 but the date to which that is unknown. That place was ran by somebody else, but I am not going on a nostalgia trip with the Dark Witch Community. The times to which my sister wanted me to not stay in the server and I ended up doing it for 4 whole fucking years, and if I had listened to her, I wouldn’t have been in the constant loophole that I was, and everything about this will be touched up later. I do want to say something to Derpy though, in the case that they somehow stumble upon this site, and see this:

Derpy, if this message finds you in the future, whether you discover it yourself or someone else brings it to your attention, I want to express my thoughts. Firstly, I hope all is well with you, even if you might be known by a different alias now. Thank you for founding such a well-established community; your contributions will surely be missed. Through the Dark Witch Amino, you have probably done the best in terms of leadership and control, expanding Zizou culture internationally, to have as much as ~150 members in the Amino, which for Dark Witch standards, was a lot. Although the Discord server was disappointing, the Amino you created was the perfect showcase for everything Dark Witch in its early days. If you become significantly involved in another project, please let me know! Your early passion for Dark Witch was as commendable as that of a true friend, and I continue to hope for your current endeavors.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
"The Legend of Dark Witch 2: The Price for Desire," the 2015 addition to the Dark Witch series, stands as one of the most acclaimed entries, and rightfully so. Even though I'm not currently active in the community, the widespread opinion that it's the best is well-founded. This installment enhanced everything from its predecessor, "Chronicle 2D ACT," to such a degree that it overshadows the original in ways I'll describe in this review. The only reason I could find someone playing the Chronicle is if they’re a diehard fan of the series, playing everything from its roots to what it now came from. "Rudymical," also emerged from the veins of the Price of Desire, with having inspiration of the light-hearted nature of that game but to change things up with the gameplay and such–a smart move from INSIDE_SYSTEM now that I'm revisiting it, or should it be Esquarda? I believe thay they've elevated the game far beyond what INSIDE_SYSTEM could have envisioned, and I must tell you all the stuff that this and the Price of Desire have in stock.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Story (The Price for Desire)


The narrative begins with an introduction identical to the previous game: Syega, a crystal granting humans the ability to wield magic for various purposes. After that, the story shifts to Germa, an empire located in the East of the Facialis Ocean. They’re known for their incredible magic studies with their strongest group being the Ich. While some are friendly as a friend (Klinsy, Mari, and Rudy), most of them are aggressive (Icke, Kuito, Herbert, Urken) or lackadaisical (Litty). Due to their strength, they are now “a force to be reckoned with,” and they, alongside other researchers, have been sent to Liana for further studies, declaring war on them shortly after. Due to implications of the war being public, Zizou descends once again to come down to deal with this situation, talking to the researchers and eventually getting support from 4 people to enter Germa’s base to find and deal with the one in charge of everything: Franzer V.

After kicking down her first phase, we learn a bit from her that she’s all doing this not only for her own personal benefit, but how Germa’s in fear of Rasil (the country Riva’s a princess in from the first game) becoming strong? I don’t remember much. But then again, like I said, she’s power-hungry because after dealing with Rasil, she wants to be “on the top'' amongst everybody else just for Germa to be #1. Kinda her fault. Hell, compared to most of the characters, she looks the palest of them all! This is because she has been using herself to test the limits of Syega just for her and her nation to be the best. What a narcissist. Anyways, you get through her second phase, and then you finish the game as Zizou.

As Sola, your goal is to simply take her Spring break to go on a Journey to figure out where her parents , Trap and Paola went. Finding information from the Ich, and the four that Zizou conveniently met, and eventually Zizou herself. I have done a whole rewrite of this section to the point that it feels like a whole ass indie game, but I don’t know if I want to show it here, hehe.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Story (Rudymical)


"In the vibrant world of Beatus, music is the universal language and the heartbeat of its inhabitants." This is already a perfect introduction to start off the game, with it showing people having fun and such. A weird thing to discuss, but I also like how we don't see any noticeable background characters from any previous Dark Witch game, but it goes on to show it in the next scene with Rudy. The game then goes on to explain that she is no exception to this to the point that she thinks about making and eventually starting a grand music tournament dubbed Rudymical. She seeks to gather the Ich first to see if they want to become contestants of the game, and while some hesitated (Icke, Kuito, Klinsy, Herbet, Urken, Litty, leaving Mari the only one excited LMFAO), they eventually agree to become the starting contestants, and this alone leaves Zizou, Sola, and Al to come take notice. Although each route varies from the person:

Zizou: Zizou is chilling in the sky, drinking some of that bootleg starbucks that was featured in Dark Witch 2, and she gets notice of the whole thing from someone next to her, who might not be her sister from the third game, but they're talking about news about the festival, and despite saying that gods only descend when there's trouble, she's descending to come check this out nonetheless, and gets forced by Rudy to come play some Rudymical with her. After defeating the final Ich member, she thinks about going back home as the event seemed over, but Codino came to Zizou, saying that the fun is not over yet as her, Stoj, and the others (excluding Pelusa as she's replaced with Riva in this game) are the second league of characters that you have to go against, and after doing that, it leaves Franzer and Rudy to be the final ones. Rudy congratulates Zizou for making it to the point that she is, and fights her in battle, following Franzer. Instead of Franzer using her awakened form, she uses a special Syega that makes her look like the "queen of music", and the final battle theme being a fun, remixed version of the final battle theme in the Price for Desire.

After everything ends, Rudy crowns Zizou the Queen of Rudymical, and she immediately declines it and walks back to then teleport back to her resting spot on the mountains (which happens offscreen) ,and the narrator says that the story comes to a close as Rudy and Franzer wait for the other champion to come across, but as always in tradition to Dark Witch, it says "That's another story for another time."

Sola: After finding her parents in the ending of the Price for Desire/Sola's Journey (my improved side story for Sola in the Price for Desire), she gets note from her parents about the event, and while she initially hesitates a little like the Ich, her dad humorously forces her to take the path to become the champion, and she starts fighting the Ich in some Rudymical. What differs with Zizou when she finishes the Ich, she looks on a paper she was "given" at the beginning of all of it to figure out the next person is, and finds out that Codino is the next person, and immediately goes on the journey to find her, and the other contestants. Then you know the usual: Find and Defeat Rudy and then Franzer.

Sola then gets awarded the champion, and like Zizou, she not only declines it, but points to someone next to her that has been doing great on the same level as hers, and Rudy decides to award them the champion, with Sola going back to her parents, with the narrator this time saying that while Sola declined the gift, she does make note that she will miss the fun that she had and will continue to start doing more to the Old Islands, but that's a story for another time.

Al: Being the obsessed treasure fighter that she is, she wonders if she should be going on a big adventure just to find something to do, alluding to Brave Dungeon (this game while non-canonical comes before BD), but before that she was able to travel, some boy with an awesome, slick design of a good mix of purple, yellow, and red clothing with spiky hair with a black headband with Syega on it informs her of the tournament and actually had the audacity to taunt her thinking that she won't make it, and the boy runs off to the Ich, following Al.

After fighting the Ich, Al notices that the boy is already almost done with fighting the next group of people after hearing him with the next group of people saying out loud that he's "halfway there!" and Al recounts that he needs to beat him, thinking too that they should have a short physical duel right after, but continues to fight the next group of people nonetheless. At this point, the usual happens with Rudy and Franzer, but she notices that the boy won before her, and Al challenges him to a duel, with Al winning, and Rudy crowns Al the Queen of Rudymical. She does appreciate the boy for keeping consistent competition, and then the narrator comes in saying that while Al won, she immediately sold the crown for a huge price to then continue working on her adventures.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Gameplay (Price of Desire)

Keeping the system of the previous game intact, Dark Witch 2 makes a bunch of changes to said system to a point that it almost feels completely different yet so familiar. One of the biggest changes to the gameplay is the reduced difficulty, Papelne Trade, and After Talk. Let's talk about them individually:

Reduced Gameplay: In the original, you've found yourself competing against the enemy placements in the horrible level design where the design makes you want to break your 3ds in half. All stages had a selective enemy that you've hated becsuse they are just annoying to defeat or becsuse they're great at impeding your progress cause you're usually not careful if your surroundings. The sequel manages to take this element out, however I personally find it to be a bit over the board. I feel like they've changed the difficulty to be INCREDIBLY easy to the point that the hardest you can make the game casually is Expert but even then, but even then, it's just the enemies’ attack patterns that are altered to make the stages harder; not the actual level design. Hell, in Very x2 Easy, the game actually has special blocks that prevent players from having a more straightforward path to success. I have a feeling that this game didn't need so much of a downgrade to the difficulty, but if it was done to make the game more accessible, then that's alright for me.

Papelne Trade: While this is more of an expanded feature of the previous game in terms of upgrading your technical skills, life, stock, and attack, the Trade also allows you to become even more powerful than those games limitations, and replacing what you'd normally find Syega for in the original, you can directly upgrade your slots based on the Syega you collect in the stages. There's also brand new slots that you can replace Linear and Comet (Drop and Plasma for Sola) with for Punishment/Circlecon which are usually just more ways to attack, although Punishment makes most bosses an absolute joke because of how ridiculously strong the attack is. It's also with Papelne Trade that I can imagine Zizou drinking a bunch of Espresso for her to become insanely fast due to Express being an alternate form of speed that you can replace.

After Talk: After fighting a boss, you have s chance to spean to them after the fight: Something that fans actually complained about in the first game because it had a lack of sense to the story, figuring out what you're supposed to do next after beating a boss. This time, in the after talk, yoi can either get more information about the goal you need to get as Zizou/Sola or pointless, fun and game conversations with the characters. It's mostly just filler though so unless I'm truly playing the game (like I've done for this review), you don't have to worry about having to read any of this.

Riva from the first game also comes back as a playa character but only in the steam version of this game. Her version here is much more bearable than how she was in the original, although sadly I don't remember her three main moves outside of having this awesome Terarria Zenith-like sword attack where she swings a sword that travels in an arc, and Zizou’s Punishment which is supposed to be the Cobalt or Fire that she had in the first game. I guess she was added in a split second too because she doesn't have an after talk with the characters nor to have boss dialogue with them. Iirc she doesn't even have an ending and it just jumps straight to the credits. Honestly it would be interesting for the to have a story mode but like Sola, I haven't made any improvements with her story. Maybe after this I will, but I still have the third game to review on.
And that's basically what Dark Witch 2 has done to improve most of the gameplay from its predecessor. While the core game is still the game, the game has all of the changes that fans and critics put onto the game for the game to be better than the last. While I'm here, let's also talk about the stages individually, and how they improve on the stage design:


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Underground Physics Laboratory [Icke]


Just like Klinsy, she's a decent starting stage, with the obstacles being relatively easy to dodge and the Syega placements are easy to know and learn thanks to the simple level design. Although the placements for Sola are a bit trickier, this stage is straightforward. The only problem with this stage is the enemies on the bouncing machines. They have a gigantic hitbox, and in the harder difficulties, it's almost as if you can't do anything to protect yourself except with a well timed block. But iirc, a block still counts as a hit.

Icke is just your average tsundere: She's small, has two pony rails, and has an aggressive attitude. For a first stage game, it's not too bad, but honestly it's humorous that she has a calmer side with Sola but not Zizou. Also for some reason I remember the dialogue for her and Zizou perfectly, because of the demo that I've played a lot back then..

Her attacks are simple to learn too: She first lunges at you hitting the wall, and then uses her stick to latch onto both of the walls, preventing you from jumping. She'll then proceed to use her beam to send out a beam that will behave like Blad’s rings where it bunches through the screen.

Beam de Doooon!: Depending on where she's facing, she sends a giant laser in your direction. Her weakness is Dia Missile, which will stun her for a good bit before moving to her next attack.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Japonesque Night [Kuito]


Remember how I've said that the level design for this game is too easy? This level is the perfect example of this: If you're not aiming to 100% the Syega for this game, you can finish this entire stage without pressing left, if you know what you're doing, and this is made much easier when playing on Very x2 difficulty. Most of these stages would be great if they didn't have a short and simple layout that even a fetus still growing inside of a body can defeat. Before your BRAIN is developed.

Kuito is honestly a bit of a confusing person. I don't know her morals or goals, but her design is great I guess. Quite a bland character, and is honestly forgettable. She throws grenades like the ones that the enemies make but these can be destroyed easily, and she'll proceed with this randomly generated umbrella attack that can either be easy to avoid, or completely irritating to avoid. She'll also use said umbrella to float to the air, to then use a bouncing ball to hit you which won't do anything but to be a nuisance.

Final Shot: She'll send out a beam that will go your position, and Break into smaller pieces in your position. Although with her weakness being Lord Attack, her umbrella will get destroyed for the remainder of the fight, and this fight would be incredibly useless with it not spreading to multiple bullets.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Saint Ciro Library [Klinsy]


Haven't tested this yet, but this is another stage where if you know what you're doing and you're not 100%ing the game, the stage can be completed without pressing left. Although the platforming can make this challenge actually difficult with how the level design places books and enemies. You also don't immediately start running when you press the left or right button in this game engine like the first game, so precise decisions come in a frame or 2 later.

Can't believe Klinsy betrayed poor Heaven's Garden to work for this library that we probably don't know the location to. While I'm not saying that she's terrible for making decisions, why would she do that if she's going back to Heaven's Garden in the next game? I mean you don't see her obviously, but her assistant references how the “Chief Librarian” is inside, and with the after talk with her and some cynical dude, ”The Chief Librarian is a bit of an airhead”-- exactly what Klinsy is. I guess she temporarily moved there to work on the Syega research like all of the other girls in this game.

She's also stupidly annoying in Lunatic. Depending on your difficulty, she'll send out not too many bursts or flames, and then proceed to use some weird dinky ahh attack where she gets you in your position??? There was another one that she also uses but I forgot what it was because of me killing her pretty easy in Casual and Expert.

Dia Missile: It's the same attack as the first game made into a revenge attack where four or eight shards in specific angles come at you. She doesn’t have a known weakness but using Overhelm will make her attacks do little damage to break the barrier.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Maya Caves [Herbert]


Something that I haven't mentioned to you at all is the enemy design for this game. The enemies range from humans, beasts, and Fae obviously with your mushroom girl, hopping mushroom, and ghost enemy, but Dark Witch never really has enemies exclusive to their own place. The only ones that are exclusive for this stage are the girls wearing the fish costume that hop and slide on contact with water…. But why? Crabs in an icy place? This game's enemy placements are nonsensical, and it reeks in Brave Dungeon.

It may not be explicitly stated, but Herbert is said to be the leader of the Ich, and like her team, she is shown to be aggressive, although as a leader, I guess it’s alright to show some form of leadership in the form of being authoritative??? I don’t know what I’m saying LMFAO.. Additionally, she is a robot, which is quite remarkable. She’s also classified as a Beastman, but I’m not agreeing with that. In battle, she conjures two pillars on either side of the player to crush them, which also serve to block incoming shots. Following this, she takes flight and charges at the player's position. Eventually, she ascends, and calls forth a barrage of bombs that target the player, with the quantity varying by the game's difficulty level, and if she is invincible or not.

Overhelm: She creates a barrier that can easily be destroyed in a couple of shots. She is also weak to Boing Boing where it’ll deal a bunch of damage and stunning her. However for clearing out her overhelm, just use your standard shots.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Pasta Sandland [Mari]


As I've mentioned in my Chronicle 2D Act Review, I've stated that Mari is one of the many characters my brother likes. Although I don't get why people other than him like her out of all of the other cast so much. Yeah she's a wacky drunk and lackadaisical being, but why does that make a good character? I guess it's that coupled with a decent design made for her. Also, the English translator, Crippe, loves her so much that he commissioned a bunch of Mari art from multiple artists that have made it into Brave Dungeon 2. Some of them are suggestive, most of them are not, but the idea of having a good majority of the section of fanart to choose from to then have Mari plastered all over the place is a bit disappointing.

She comes and falls to the ground as a first attack. She then drinks medicine, and summons spikes behind or above the player using gravity to try making you get hit by them. Depending on which one she does, the spikes on the above are easy, just be in like with the area that doesn’t contain the spikes, while the ones to the left/right you have to just be in mid air. She’ll then summon a Dark Matter which slowly pulls you into it to take some damage from you.

Area Gravity: The background changes, causing all player shots to be drawn upwards. In Lunatic mode, the match begins with it, applying its influence throughout the battle unless. you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, staying near Mari can make the battle a bit easier, but just be cautious lol. She’s weak to illusion shot which can stun her and take a bunch of HP from her.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Myrant Street [Urken]


Another straightforward stage, although the ninja enemies can be a pain sometimes if you’re careful when playing games. You see them, ignore them, and they come out and slash. Also, I believe that this is the only stage where a visible human is here in the form of an old woman that can be easily defeated???

Urken is just another boring,and rude character that had to be put inside of the game for no reason. Other than an inappropriate fanart of her that’s contained in Brave Dungeon 2, I can’t find a single person in this world that actually likes this character. Okay so she got this cool sword, she got this snarky personality… That’s it. Hell, even Cholesy from Dark Witch 3 has a familiar personality and I know 2 people that like her more than Urken. Anyway, she uses that rod of hers to smash fire and ice to the ground, with the occasional spin dash to the player.

Timing Half: She makes your movements and shots slower. She’s weak to Dark Matter which will stun and make her stay in place.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Santamaria Manor [Litty]


The only issue that I have with this stage is the Syega that's locked behind a more powerful Dark Matter (which I forget to do for this playthrough), and the fact that the stage introduces those electric balls where if you hit them, it deactivates electric from parts of the stage for a certain timeframe. Other than these this stage is pretty normal.

Litty reminds me of World from Magical Drop: They're two characters that use bandages like clothing to cover them from their body as other than that, they're wearing literally nothing. Litty has a bit more to make her less revealing, which is good coming from me. She's also another weird character: She's playing around with the Fae to even say to the player that why is she hanging out in an area with a bunch of them despite her being the same thing and she's a normal human being. She shoots an orb forward. The orb moves slowly, but becomes invisible shortly after being fired, to then shoot one upward, with fake Illusions of the orb, which are gray in color instead of yellow, drop from the sky in an attempt to confuse the player before the real orb drops in from above the player's position.

She then makes a clone of herself which does the same things as her, but the way to figure out which one is which is by hitting them and seeing if her meter goes down.

Illusion Shot!: She throws three orbs, two gray and one red, that bounce around the arena. Only the red orb will actually deal damage to the player. This immediately breaks the illusion of her too.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Playground Forests [Rudy]


Another straightforward stage, although this time, the Syega are a bit more well hidden, which is to be said the same way for future stages from this point on. The weird coconut enemies from the last game come back, but they’re more of a joke due to the way that this game is in terms of how fast you can go, dodging their every move! I kinda like it. But they can still be a headache if you’re playing the game more carefully.

Rudy is your standard Beastmen that has the jolly, erratic attitude who always like to have fun. I love her personality because it adds to the experience of this game, with her fight being no exception. She jumps into the trees, followed by a falling slash near the player's position. She then shoots a bunch of projectiles in all sorts of directions before jump-slashing you once again. She will then proceed to do this three-slice attack that traverses the length of the screen:

Five of Star!!: She throws several needles upward; as the needles fall down, she rushes to the opposite wall before attempting to jump into the player with a spinning attack. (copied straight from the wiki cause they do a better job explaining this attack better than I could’ve done) She’s also weak to Time Division, which will pause all of her attacks for a while so you can spam your attacks. Helpful on Lunatic.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Toscana Cathedral [Codino]


Onto the next set of stages! While the next set of stages are still easy and such, they introduce new obstacles that do provide a threat, especially if you’re playing on the harder difficulties. For Codino, her stage has the standard afro enemies which have a much larger range, and yellow haired ones that have this altered version where it splits into two, and goes in the opposite direction, tricking you. There’s also the bouncing section, which if you aren’t careful, can be hard, especially for the crystal enemies being placed in a way where if you were to get hit by them, you'll break bones.

I don’t understand what’s up with Japanese fans of the game shipping Codino and Wonder Girl together even though they never interacted with each other in the games. Maybe the short ahh comics that this game has? I don’t know. I mean, NAN-A did state that she’ll have more relevance in the future, but… Doesn’t appear in 3, Brave Dungeon’s Remaster (outside of her being a fucking card), or Brave Dungeon 2. Not even during the short run of Beatus Creation, a small vTuber program that INSIDE_SYSTEM has run. Other than that, Codino is a pretty fine woman, but other than the fact that she’s a character for Viola Academy, she’s just a helper for Zizou in her journey to entering Vilhelm Castle. Her spear can turn into a bow, to which she’ll shoot arrows that pierce and fall into explosions that last, followed by a dash swing. She also summons energy orbs that slowly track the player’s position.

Fantasista: She uses the spear to smash it down to the ground, creating a beam that tracks the player, into a wall-esque beam similar to Stoj’s Upper Tornado and it breaks your shots. Her weakness is High Power Beam to which it stuns her, forcing her to do her next attack.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Lake Adria [Stoj]


Just like Codino’s, this stage is pretty difficult, but this mostly extends from those human fish enemies that come out of their costume when defeating them. If you use Linear Shot/Punishment, these enemies can be a pain. Not to mention that the weird coconut enemies + fish that break into shards come back with a vengeance. The fish can break into 8 and the coconut enemies are placed in places where you can get hit easily if you’re not careful. There’s also this short boat section that is also a bit tricky due to the crab placements, too.


Stoj comes back from the first game! Same personality, too. So with this in mind, let’s jump straight to her attacks: She sends a tornado forward that increases it’s size based on distance. She’ll then summon a bunch of mini-Stoj that go to your position from a little to a lot depending on difficulty, and she has the chance of sending a cloud that turns you into a pig.

Hyper Upper Tornado!! Summons giant tornadoes. She’s weak to boing boings, which will stop making her airborne and stun her. Also, I believe in Lunatic her artwork OS different when using this in a later difficulty for some reason.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Pei Ruins [Blad]


Another returning character with a stage that actually calms down a bit in terms of fbr overall difficulty, other than the enemies that throw 6 rocks at you. Everything else is straightforward, cause at this point, you're just too OP for the environment to be such a major problem, even on Lunatic.

And Zeu- I mean Blad in this game is the usual Blad that you've seen from the first: a person who doesn't work for free but rather for a price, so she was worried as shit when she heard from Zizou that she had to work for her, which was kinda halarious. And just like original Blad, she also attacks using the rings that she got! She throws one that splits into multiple different colored rings, to then throw another one that travels on the walls and onto to the ceiling to your position. Eventually, she'll do the same slightly annoying attack where she throws a lengthy one like a boomerang.

Star Dust Ring!!: Leaps into the air, throwing a bunch of red rings that turn white to get you. In all other difficulties, she falls into the floor and gets back up. In Lunatic, she doesn't, showing proof that the bosses including herself ain't playing around. Like before, her weakness is Dia Missile where it breaks rings and stuns her.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Port Campania [Pelusa]


And then the final stage of the game before we finally have the resources needed to finish off the Empress to stop the war. This stage is pretty normal until we get to the electric ball part that I’ve stated back in Litty’s stage. This part is just annoying sometimes, and I find myself damage boosting through this part of the stage.

I don't like Pelusa at all, seeing a character that looks like nothing but a gigantic mean piece of rock just makes me want to just get rid of her easily to which that I've immediately proved Zizou's thoughts to be wrong. She thinks that it'll be a tough person to best, but she doesn't know that she's playing with person who has made her so powerful that she'll be able to be defeated with good use of punishment and a revenge attack. But other with that method, she dashes to the wall, with a chance for her to jump whole you air borne. She'll also create a wave of explosions that quickly travel to the floor. She also has the ability to create a giant durable rock.

Final Evolution: Same thing as her second attack, but make it slower and tbe projectile bigger. Her weakness is Overwhelm which makes her attacks do little to no damage from when you cast the shield.


⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Vilhelm Castle [Franzer]


Now we finally reach her castle, which only contains a room with all of the zich researchers as boss refights albeit with more health carried from the second part of the game. With your newfound powers and such, it's just a matter of finding their weakness and abusing it until they die.. Remember that some characters hsve weakness that is better without actually using the weapon.

I explain more to why her character as a boss has to be one of the greatest so let's talk about her attacks. She jumps and slashes forward, to then to on the wall to slash you with little to no intervals. Just a matter of being careful when she does so, as she's quick with this attack. She'll also send a giant portal, and like Mati, she sends a DARK matter like entity to expand and make things more difficult for you.
Handbert: She'll teleport from right to left (or left to right depending in where she firsrt dashed) with an uppercut to finish you off. If you manage to get hit by this attack, you can actually get chained on, losing a bunch of health from this attack alone. In her normal state Dia Missile is her weakness, which will deal significant damage and stun her.
After explaining some lore how Germs needs to come on top as the strongest nation, she informs Zizou about repeating that one Fae experiment, experimenting with embedding Syega into human bodies to how nobody was able to successfully have lived with Syega being put into their body except for her, and because of that, she awakens into a stronger form of herself, using all unique attacked like turning into a drill summoning pillars and tornadoes, to then shoot massive amounts of energy when airborne. She can also summon the enemies that can hinder your movements but can easily be destroyed.
Franzer becomes a drill, rushing forward. As she moves, she releases energy orbs (the number dependent of difficulty level) that rain down beams to reduce the amount of space the player has to maneuver.

Exclusive to any difficulty higher than Very x2 Easy has an unnamed Revenge Magic that, unlike most other characters' Magics, doesn't normally have a way to hint that it's actually a Revenge attack. I mean, somewhat? She becomes completely invulnerable, and a hand comes out of nowhere and should Zizou make contact with it, she will be pulled into a dark area and bombarded with several strikes. This attack is very powerful and is borderline an instant death cause it'll take all but one (having one just kills you like normal) HP away from you so just don't get engulfed into the hand. I also remember in a now removed video of a man playing this game, and loved how he went through this again in a playthrough and all I have is “OH no, she's doing it again, No! Holy Crap! Is she gonna kill me???” in my thoughts. Exactly word for word.

After defeating Franzer, Germa stopped their research, and the world enters into another state of peace. Franzer is a great character because while she seems boring to just being a person that wants to use things to her own advantage, she's very resistant, to use her own fucking body to her advantage and at the very end, didn't manage to die due to the damage she caused to her. The only thing that's permanent and noticeable is her white skin that makes her look like she drank some bleach, but that means nothing for her. I would write Sola’s story here but just like the game (now) states, that's a story for another time. Plus, my thoughts of her story are goi/completely out of the box come to think about it LMFAO. in almost made an entire fangame just for replacing her side of the story while I was working in my review.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Gameplay (Rudymical)

The gameplay mechanics for this game is honestly pretty simple that I don’t need to go into further detail about it. When the enemy swings a green boing boing, you have to press A. With a blue one, you press X, a laser is B, and a Green one Boing Boing that goes behind you (usually exclusive to Lunatic but some of the harder stages in the hard difficulty have it too), you press Y. The only thing that makes this different is that you can purchase special items that you can use to your advantage, but most of them are barebones: An item that reduces the difficulty of the music a bit by taking a button that you don’t have to press for (which is OP imo, makes most of the Lunatic stages much better and more doable), an Item that directly damages the enemy to make the stage go faster, but the mapping is the same, and a weapon that heals you after you have taken at least two hits on a stage. As far as post game content goes, there’s nothing that the game has, but what makes this game unique than all of the Dark Witch games is that this game has official support for modding! Exclusive to the PC version, there’s a custom editor that the game provides where you’re able to map your own stages followed by custom music that you can add, and there’s a large selection of songs that I have downloaded to make the game better.

Most of them were from Touhou, Sonic, Mega Man, Onigri, and Crusaders Quest to fit in with the playlist that I have for Price for Desire when I don’t want to listen to the game’s official music. And since the game is released on Steam, it also has compatibility with the Workshop, with a short group of people making custom music for the game, but considering that most of the users in this base come from japan, there’s a whole bunch of songs that I have no clue on what they come from. Although one of them had this song as one of them which I remember comes from an old Terraria mod where the Hallowed sword was a whole ahh boss fight.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Graphics


The Graphics in this game (and Rudymical) share the same pixel artist and main artist as the first game, although most of the improvements just extend from the fact that the game has a much more vibrant personality put onto the characters. In my opinion, they nailed it for both games, and characters like Klinsy and the returning characters all look the same, but the new clothing that they have (especially SOLA) are all crispy clean. People also admit that Zizou’s second outfit makes it the best form of her too and I honestly agree with them. The only character that looked off is well, Stoj cause I believe she had the least iterations out of everyone, and it's honestly sad.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Soundtrack


Many regard this game as the best in terms of the Soundtrack, and honestly, I agree with them! Multiple bangers are included in this game with my personal ones being ones that mostly feel at home: Icke’s, Stoj’s, Klinsy’s, Rudy’s, and that’s about it. The Ich’s boss' music, White Out Champion, is so good that it even got a remix in the sequel. Not to mention, this version started the “Dark Witch” theme that would be used for every game since this one. Although hearing the Dark Witch The theme in both Brave Dungeon and its sequel is kinda weird since the protagonist isn’t Zizou, but it does show that this is a Dark Witch game. And apparently, both Brave Dungeon and its sequel are canon
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Other Thoughts


Now for all of you guys that have read this form the beginning to the end, you might be confused as hell with what happened with Rudymical: A game that mostly is original with the story and graphics? What version of the game you were talking about??! And I have unfortunate news…. Everything I've said about Rudymical was fake. Excluding the game mechanics.

The reason I have set Rudymical to be the way that it was for the review is to show an example of how the game didn't need to turn out to be just Dark Witch 2 but with a Rhythm coat of paint. That's what the original Rudymical is all about. Eventually in my next review for Dark Witch 3, I'll be doing the same thing for the story of the game, because I strongly have a feeling that the story there could also use a bit of work, even if it's mostly involved. But with this weird situation out of the way…

Looking back at the DW Amino, I can tell just how much I grew from that state of my life to what I was now. February 2019 is when I joined my first legitimate community, discounting Scratch. Derpy Devil was the owner of the place, along with two other ones that I forgot which they were. I know one of them still does stuff, but unfortunately became an 18+ artist, and the other one I have no clue on what they’re doing to this day. Anyway, back when I joined, I was only 12 years old. and honestly, it was a mistake of me touching communities back then: While I haven’t done anything necessarily wrong nor that this Amino did anything wrong (Derpy managed to make the environment comfortable and she succeeded in this 100%), the Discord Server was the main problem. There I have met:

People who couldn’t agree with any of my opinions to then say shit about me in front of me, knowing that I myself am naive to understand information due to how young I am (to the point that my brother and sister had to say some things to this person and they shut him up super hard)

Artists who disliked my criticism that I gave them for their art (despite their art looking like it came from the Atari VCS)
Kids younger than me who would go out of their way to raid my fan server for role playing this game just because they, who were going against the rules of the place, didn’t like how I was treating them (one of them even had the audacity to take things into extreme measures wishing death upon them in the form of, “Would you be happy if I’ve died?”)

People who have….interesting thoughts for the characters in a server that’s publicly made for everyone accessible to the series, and when people say that they shouldn’t be doing it, they would act like a child, to go run off on another social media to rant about their problems
People who are complete psychopaths that are capable of sticking to what the meta has for them because they believe it’s the only chance for them to live life and such, and are backstabbers to other members of the server for someone who plays worse than them

And other traits that I don’t want to remember on the top of my mind. It was around April of 2023, the release of Brave Dungeon 2 where I finally had to learn the hard way to leave this series’ community for the greater good. During the time of Early Access, the game was buggy as hell, which honestly is to be expected. The game hasn't been released to it’s full capacity yet, and there was time for the game to be released under a new coat of paint that the fans will like. However, this wasnt the case, and for someone I’m friends with that’s into making ROM Hacks of SNES, GBA, and DS RPGs, they decided to come join the Early Access Discord for 2 in an attempt to report all of the bugs that he could find. He found a BUNCH of them, and instead of actually taking into consideration said bugs, he was kicked from the gane’s credits and was banned from the server. Apparently the game to this day still contains some bugs but I will be the one to judge that someday cause I have that game, Brave Dungeon, and COMBAT to review.

(This is another good reason I have my system for making friends where you need to reach out to me first before I consider being friends with you. For everyone I've met in the Dark WITCH Community and following Up to this day of me using Twitter, I'd thought that there would be nothing wrong with them as I've spoken to them for a good while and then all of a sudden, things will eventually turn out to be either just a waste of my time or something else.

But if I now DO that, I would risk the chance of getting blocked by the other user because there's some people that don't want to understand the reason as to why I've unfriended them. It's like a subscription: Because I like to engage with people but I haven't engaged with you in over 2 months, it's safe to be assured that I (and you cause you never made the decision to text me for that duration) don't have interest in speaking to you anymore, so I unfriended you. It's your choice to see if that's a positive or negative reaction to be worthy of a block.)

Alrighty… I believe I have ended this review off with a bad mark. I just had a little vent about my times with this community to show how even a niche series like this can still have the most toxic fans of them all. But I'll make things great for you: This is the second last Dark Witch game that I'm reviewing with the third game being the true last one, and as for Brave Dungeon and it's sequel, those games are coming in the farther future when I have enough time to play and work on it. Besides, I've worked on this review since last week, and it's awesome that I'm ending Summer Camp off great!! But if you want something better, Gradius *Will” Continue after Dark Witch 3. Stay tuned for those, and have a an AWESOME day.

I'd like to begin my train of thought with, yet again, a memory from my childhood playing a similar game. Sim City 4! I think we can all agree that it was the best city builder back in the day. You could try to build your favorite city (I was a super geeky kid, so I actually did have a favorite city lol), you could watch it get burnt down by a fire or destroyed by a tornado or you could even drive in the car of any of your little sim people (this was special because you could take in the vistas of your city from the street). It was a joy for a brain in development like that.

Now that I'm older, it can be hard to find something that triggers that feeling of joy and wonder like Cities Skylines does - and trust me I am very aware that I am talking about a city building simulator (although in a way it can be argued that it's much more than that). It's not really the stereotypical super heroes and explosions that would be linked with exciting the imagination of a kid. I was a weird kid.

In any case, I always like to think of City Skylines as being the spiritual successor of Sim City. Many of Sim City's ideas are permeated in City Skylines, but better. And man this is a colossal game hehe. Just sitting down and trying to design the public transportation system of your city can take half of your total game time. Many of its systems are like that - and i think that's what I like the most. A semi handholdy mechanical beast that teaches you how to run a city. And you can run it however you want. You get to be the ultimate designer and - well actually THAT IS what I like the most. Being given the freedom to design.

I feel like I've always been passionate about many things ever since I was a kid and i really didn't understand how that would look like. I just remember being into Sim City and thinking that I was a complete dork, because I wasn't necessarily smart like the kids that loved doing math homework. I was weird like the kid that loved building cities in games but didn't understand why.

I know this is a messy train of thought filled with backs and fourths so I'll try to be succinct. The point of this whole review is just to say that designing things is cool. City Skylines gives you that in a way no other game has.

You can also heavily tax any sector of the population you want and for that it deserves 5 skyscrapers out of 5 🏙️🏙️🏙️🏙️🏙️