AI: Somnium Files - Review

  Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Spike Chunsoft.

Platform: PS4,switch, PC.
Official Site: https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/ai/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v26532

Release date: 17-9-2019

 

Honestly I wasn't sure what I was going to play next

so I picked another game I bought on a PSN sale.

I thought it might be a good pick for something different from the usual VN's

and because AI is all the rage these days. Didn't quite feel like playing Yakuza 7 yet.

Since its a mystery type of VN I decided I was going to not use a guide till I

really got stuck or something. Nothing appeared to be missable as you could go back

later for certain things but man this game got surprisingly dark despite having a lot of fluff.

 

Pro's

- Great cast of characters.

- Pretty good mystery, you won't find it out till almost the end.

- Decent graphics, the character models were pretty good.

 

Grey Area 

- Route system was interesting but early on it can feel disconnected.

- Jokes are fine and dandy but it did hurt the scenario at times.

 

Con's

- Somnium's were annoying to progress through.

- Point and click segments for the sake of having them.

- There was no need to replay mini scens of certain major events.

 

As for the story its a mystery VN so I won't be writing about the story.

You're sort of thrown into it and as you play you will get to know

the protagonist and the people in his life while trying solve a murder

which leads to other things but it was definitely a whacky ride.

Sometimes the game likes to joke around like during some investigation or dream part

which ultimately killed any tension the game had at that point.

I guess they wanted to keep it light-hearted despite touching upon deeper subjects.

It is what it is. 

Some of it made me smile/laugh and other times I was just oh...

 

By the time I finished the second day/chapter I was pretty much completely hooked

and wanted to see where it was going so this wasn't at all a bad mystery VN.

NGL the reason I kept playing was because I wanted Mizuki to get better

which lead to me wanting to find out about whatever the hell was going on. 

 

There are point and click segments and you can examine objects in the room

which sometimes lead to fun dialogue, during blue and red route I tried to select everything

but eventually stopped because it added nothing. Only very few moment I thought

they used it right which is such a shame for a mystery oriented game. 

Okay this was useful info, heheheh.

There's apparently an achievement for finding everything in Boss's room at a specific

point and I am like wew lad... never doing that without a guide.💀💀💀

New mononoke chigiri lore just dropped!

 The game is basically full of random moment if you try to select everything

but thankfully most of that is optional and sometimes it gives an achievement. 

Like Kaname tried to sniffle a shoebox at some point or staring at a stereo set

and being reminded of boobies. I did xray'd the mermaid during story

but not enough to trigger some random achievement.💀 Thankfully through

the flowchart you can easily replay any segment in the story so I got that postgame. 

 

There were a few moments were you had to interrogate a character and most of them

were fairly easy except that politics guy, idk its the way the evidence

against him was presented? very easy to make a mistake

and you get an achievement if you do it correctly.

Probably just a me problem... but that one was the hardest for me.

 

For my first route I decided to stay blind but you basically have to do all of them

to really get what's going on. I ended up on blue route first..........

not sure if that was ideal but eyy... lmao. Honestly I found the story to be whack here

and I wasn't sure wtf I was even playing anymore.💀  Red route had IMO the better narrative

as it actually felt like we were going places especially on other branches during it, so while

the first route I did seemed like hot garbo the rest was pretty good.

The only time I disliked the route system was when I did green route, thankfully I did it last

or almost last but I don't understand why that stuff wasn't locked entirely till you do

red and yellow routes since by the time it does lock it reveals way too much.

After green route locked I had to jump to pink route and then back to green... then pink again.

I suppose they wanted to create a more serious route but also a true end route

but they couldn't do it both at the same time. This just lead to it being a hassle. 

  

Aiba in a box out of context.

The somnium sequences is where the game is more trial and error as opposed to just

point and click stuff. At times it is really obvious but you can select wrong choices

which often just lead to funny moments and ultimately wasting your time.

Those somnium sequences have a six minute limit, granted there are checkpoints but they

felt the need to make the retries limited so more often not you have to restart completely. 

You can fast forward but if you can't figure it out it can still be frustrating. Also these

sequences can serve as route splits and on my second play I almost ended up on green route 

when I wanted to go to red route. Thankfully at this point I was loosely following a guide.

Loosely because I still wanted to figure stuff out on my own. 

 

I want to try to explain the somnium gameplay because hoo boy it had some mechanics?!

I can deal with having to retry during a somnium but time moves quite fast.

Every action costs time, some more than others and through random TIMIE's can help

reduce that but you can get screwed over because you can get negative TIMIE's.

I believe I didn't even understand this crap till I was at the end of my second route.

This just didn't feel right to me, some dream parts were of course easy

but some others were like LOL good luck! so if you constantly failed

trying to figure it out a more difficult dream this just gets too frustrating.

This action takes a lot of time but with that TIMIE it will only take 10 seconds.

 But yea to get those TIMIE's you have to look for them and do actions preferably

those who do not take much time, some of them are fixed and others random.

Let's not talk about negative TIMIE's though... let us not. (Traumatized.)💀 

 

I will say that the one thing I hated about this game was that they sometimes

would replay mini scenes everytime the subject came up so you see someone getting

stabbed over and over which wasn't funny. It was especially bad in the 3rd dream

(if we count prologue). Thank god for fastforward in dream sequences though

but it was just annoying if this happened in VN segments.

Even in the pink epilogue they felt the need to replay a movie of someone dying

and I was like please can we not do this? we already know this. 

 

 

In terms of characters; I liked the protagonist Kaname and Aiba wasn't that bad either

her name is actually a pun since she's literally an eyeball. Though at times it felt like Aiba

was more or less the brains of the duo not that Date was incompetent he can be a bit of a dork

 and he is constantly roasted for his antics sometimes deserved other times not.

Kaname really does have his heart in the right place and he's not a bad person

but I did think the narrative actively tried to present him as such which I disliked. 

Honestly I was perfectly in sync with Date when he said those words.

Mizuki... I sympathized with her however she was a bit of a brat but kids

are allowed to be a bit bratty and she goes through a lot so I forgave most of it

especially by the time of yellow route cuz holy shit she went through hell.

God bless Kaname for being the adult in the room and taking her in.

Mizuki doesn't seem to care and their relationship seemed really stiff

like whatever atleast she had a bed to sleep in? Ok I guess.............

but that is mostly because she is a tsunderella and for some reason Kaname is too?!

yea two tsundere's in one house is going to be a party wew lad. 

I will say that at first I didn't get why he adopted her but it all makes sense

I would too take this kid into protective custody because holy hell.

 Iris the vtuber did grew on me and wasn't too bad but her route was

and at the end of it I couldn't really say I liked her much either.

I think this game had an anti-vtuber narrative because holy shit she's loco.💀

However despite her route being seemingly random... it was still important. Pink route

was much better in completing her story and after it I honestly wish her nothing but the best. 

I neither liked or disliked Ota, i'm just really indifferent on him

to the point I don't even have many screenshots of him except where an NPC

is yelling like gordon ramsey and 1 other. I did like some developments

in red route. The family stuff made me sappy but that's about it.

Aww yea! finally a likeminded girl!

Boss; I liked her but due some story developments I was never really

sure about her. I would've liked to see more stuff with her but the story

went to other places beyond my imagination.

There were other characters like Pewter who is apparently gay or Moma

but I don't really have much of an opinion on them, like they played their part

in the narrative but that's about it really and I don't wanna go into spoilers too much.

I do gotta get this off my chest but while some it could be deserved this game was

way too focused on making Kaname look bad when he didn't even do anything.💀💀💀

Oh he talks to himself because of his AI eyeball and makes a fool of himself.

Some moments were deserved because ''gotta make a quick whiff'' was embarrassing.

Though somehow even lines like this were relevant in some way.

 That Moma guy was worse though since he even... incriminated Kaname during

some dialogue which turned me into a Kaname apologist because he did nothing wrong. 

I find myself thinking other characters are always making Kaname look worse

when he is actually a half-decent guy.  Side note; I found out Kaname is voiced

by the same guy (in JP) who voiced the priest in Trouble Magia so that was a revelation. 

Needless to say Kaname was generally a good guy with his heart in the right place!

Gotta respect him for that tbh.

 

 

TL;DR 

The main villain in this game is exactly that.

Anyway overall this was a satisfying mystery VN with great characters but there were

some caveats such as the point and click segments being just there for the sake of it.

Also while some jokes are fine I feel that there were too many dumb jokes

so it was hard to take it seriously. At first it felt more like a comedy game with a mystery. 

Despite some somniums being annoying I still enjoyed progressing through the routes so

it wasn't too bad. I believe my play order made the story actually better because blue route

 set the bar so low red route and beyond was smooth sailing for the rest of the narrative.

Also there's a theme of found family which was really beautiful, I loved yellow route.

Green route is where everything slowly started to fall into its place

and I really do think the mystery was well crafted, everything was revealed

at the right time, it was beautiful. However I didn't really enjoy psychin in the refrain

because it sucked if you made mistakes, you had to start over since there was very little time

but even then I noticed a pattern and there was definitely a way but this made me hate

the TIMie system and it showed that if you don't use it in a specific way you'll never clear.

7.5/10 

I think i'd rate the story a 9/10 but the gameplay was just kinda eh so I have to subtract some points.

Also I cannot believe that if you play with JPN VA and eng text then the ending song will be in english.

Now the song itself wasn't bad but I can't believe they never fixed that... also there was a bug

where if you saved in Psychin in the Refrain it would give an error and fail. Thankfully

I could still load an old save and overwrite the failed save but it gave me nearly a panic attack.

TBH you cannot release a game in that state! maybe its not a big deal as long

as you don't save in somniums and keep a saves before it but its not a good look

to have a bug like that in the game, this game is 5-6 years old but the lack of QA is apparent.

 

I do want to talk about the routes so there will be light spoilers after the jump

because it is impossible to talk about them without spoiling something.

 

Mononoke Chigiri - Review

Apparently japan hates this game but I liked it...

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.

Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/mononoke/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v52266

Release date: 31-7-2025

 

Honestly I wasn't sure if I should get this but it did catch my attention

and I liked the setting so why the hell not? its also been a while that the otome game

lineup  in japan has been so stacked sadly this game did too well in japan whether

that was because its sandwiched between other titles or the high prices. Mononoke Chigiri

was no heavy hitter with a lot of hype such as over requiemz, its kinda just there. 

 

I had mostly a good time with Mononoke Chigiri so it wasn't that bad buuuut I honestly

just don't care what japan thinks. This was just one of those games I enjoyed more than they

did. Reason my enjoyment is high might be because I was tired after the drama in UtaChro FD

so this game was just comfort food to me. Comfort food isn't necessarily good 

but it can be great and make you feel better. 

 

 Pro's

- Decent but simple story that's not overly complicated with lots of funny situation.

- Great heroine and romance with most LI was satisfying.

- Gorgeous art from sprites and backgrounds to CG's.

- BGM fits the setting and some have really nice relaxing vibe. 

 

Con's

-  Pretty long; the length can be a bit of a double edged sword.

- Some sub characters or enemies have no sprite, it would have more impact if they did.

- Not one but two attractive unromanceable side characters.

 

 I liked the OP, it had the right kind of tone for a game with this setting, really good jam.

The lyrics of the OP already kinda spoil what kind of story its gonna be.

The ED was okay, I didn't skip it this time unlike UtaChro FD

and the animations for it were absolute adorable and feel good. 

 

Art was gorgeous, it was done by Melo, I didn't even recognize it at first

but it really is them. The backgrounds were nice to look at too.

Music was alright it suited the scenes well, it certainly wasn't the worst i've heard.

I loved some of the BGM like one of those was so relaxing it made me melt. 

I'm more wondering where the hell did otomate pull some of these composers from

cuz they seem really randomly picked but it mostly worked out so it wasn't a bad idea.

The UI was clean and it was easy to read the text as well. 

 

Heroine/Plot.

The heroine Fujita Yuma is an onmyoji  and she took her role seriously even if she's just

new to it she is trying. Yuma had her own sprite in the corner, I really miss this in some games.

To compare her to other heroines she's not particularly strong but she is brave and proactive. 

Yuma generally tried her best but she does at times lack self-awareness and can be a ditz. 

Edit 2: thinking about it Yuma was quite capable, does what she wants and not overthink

but she makes mistakes which leads to hilarious situations, I guess this is why

japan dislikes her, an otome heroine braincells should be mostly dormant. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As an overthinker... I appreciate her! I suppose she can come across as irresponsible

or thoughtless for opening a door without knocking but hey this added to the comedy!

The story was pretty simple and she had the goal of sealing the bakeneko whom's seal

was weakening and she befriended a bunch of youkai to help her do just that.

Its not a plot-focused otome game but rather one that focuses on the journey

which is slightly different depending whom you go for, the solution to the problem

was never the same and routes were more or less character focused.

This game didn't suffer from copypasta but I can see it being kind of repetitive.

Needless to say I've found 4 out of 5 routes worth doing.  

 

This was not a serious otome game at all since it was a rom-com. 

There were times the story was hilarious, the heroine was sometimes wearing her clown

pants unintendedly in the beginning however the game did know when to be more serious.

There was a common route which sets the stage and introduces the setting and story

but it was quite long, I could see people drop the game because of it

so this might not be for people who prefer shorter or more serious vn's. 

I did love the overall vibe and I wanted to learn more about everything. So it wasn't off

to a bad start. I did think it was bit slow at times and took its sweet time

but it ended up being surprisingly well written in a way that suit the setting A LOT.

I also liked how the perspective would switch to the LI or Hayate&Satoru.

If you really like japanese folklore and youkai, this game is an easy recommendation.

Time for this local grandma to go back to bed!

 

The system was mostly standard VN stuff and each love interest had only two endings

a good end and a bad ending which can be heartbreaking, i'm glad they made

the endings count so its quality over quantity, the good end was pretty satisfying.

 However there was was a minigame but you only have to press a few buttons in order.

This kind of interactive game play wasn't that complicated. At first I thought

it was too fast but its an easy to memorize pattern and by route 2 I had it down.

Also you don't have to do it perfectly, completing the minigame

is fine with 5/7 so you don't have to get all seven button presses correct. 

You can retry via the backlog and save before it, imo it wasn't a bad minigame.   

I actually expected this minigame to be used more but it wasn't used as much at all

which was a relief for people that don't like this sort of stuff.

 

Playtime might depend on your reading speed, took me 50 hours for all routes.

I think my speed is normal or slightly slower because I sometimes pause. If you're

a fast reader then this game could feel a bit shorter then I make it out to be.

This game took me a two weeks to get through, I feel more satisfied with

Mononoke Chigiri than I did with Fuyuzono Sacrifice as well.

I didn't full focus on this game and took breaks, I think I could have finished it

sooner but there were times I wasn't ready to jump into the next route.

 

In terms of characters I didn't think I would like Akihito as much as I did

but I absolutely adored him by the end of his route! so that was a pleasant surprise.

I did Chiaki second but... I don't really like him. I got weird vibes and thought he was creepy

but I can't deny he was very much like a fox so it all checked out. He was just too much for me.💀

I generally liked Gaku but he was a bit stiff at times, you can see he means well

especially at the start of the route or where he expressed some of his thoughts.

I think his route accomplished more with the setting and story overall.

Sakichi's route was downright hilarious and a true rom-com, I enjoyed it the most

and may have left the strongest impression on me cuz some stuff you don't see everyday.

I enjoyed Sousuke's route as well and I think it was one of the best routes in the game

next to Sakichi and Akihito, Due being locked its a good route to end the game with. 

 

I do have some complaints but not a lot. Some side characters have portraits, there's

nothing for really minor characters or enemies which made the game lack in impact

especially with their being some fight scenes so you had to use your imagination.

Its hilarious how Hayate and Satoru's were really handsome like

if Mononoke Chigiri got a FD they should definitely have routes. 

The bakaneko I didn't find very threatening except... near the end of a route

and overall the game can get a bit repetitive but the individual characters

were all great and the way the problem was solved each route was unique.

So I can't complain too much. I almost ran out of steam at the final route

but it managed to get its grip on me and I still progressed at a steady pace. 

 

TL;DR 

This game made me love the whole otome genre all over again.

Its had a decent enough basic plot but I thought it was more focused on SoL, interaction

with the LI which lead to all sorts of fun situations, sealing the bakeneko

was merely goal but I think the journey with the LI mattered more here.

There wasn't any extreme content which could be disappointing for some but games

like this can be nice in their own way, there's enough shit happening in the world. 

It was quite long as well especially the first time through, had it been shorter

there would not nearly be enough time so I think the overall length is just right. 

At its core it may be quite a simple story... but it was still enjoyable

like sometimes you just want something that's not too complicated

while chasing 2d men and Mononoke Chigiri really delivered with this. 

I also really love animals and I liked how there were some cute scenes with the guys in

their youkai form, they kept it light and fun it reminded me of beastmaster & prince. 

 Overall pretty decent otome game that shined on building a connection with the LI! 

it takes its time with everything and it took its own setting serious to an extend, it had

a potentially bittersweet setup that became really obvious near the end of some route

but this wasn't a tear jerker, I think you're more likely to cry tears of joy

from laughing over something stupid that just transpired. It was just a cute and funny

otome game but its plot was not its strong point, instead the chara's and interactions shined.

8.2/10 

I recommend it if you like more simple light-hearted otome games focused on japanese folklore.

Its worth a look if you want a more comedic centered otome game. 

However if you prefer shorter otome games, darker/serious stuff or

don't like comedies i'd probably not recommend it.

Edit: If you're not sure about it just wait for a sale. Its not too bad but

if you go in expecting too much it could be disappointing, seeing how it is received

makes me think I am an anomaly that enjoyed this more than others.

 

I'm not sure how much chance this game will be brought over, tho I think there's better picks.

If aksys is gonna bring over lighthearted and comedic type of games now...

I see no reason they or others couldn't pick this up especially considering 

this is like the lovechild of Beastmaster&Prince and Radiant Tale.

 ---

 

 

My Play order: Akihito > Chiaki > Gaku > Sakichi > Sousuke.

There was a lock on Sousuke's route so I did him last. None of the initial route

had any big spoilers except maybe Gaku they all hint a little at things

and my own play order flowed surprisingly well. There's apparently an official

order but I don't think it matters too much Akihito and Chiaki share a plot line

so doing one hints at the other. Same for Gaku and Sakichi. I think Sakichi

should be done before Sousuke though but that's my opinion. 

 

Character rambles after the jump so if you don't want spoilers just stop reading here.

I share a few of my fav CG's as well but not all of them.

 

Utakata no Uchronia Trail - Review

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Licobits.

Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://licobits-game.com/uchronia/fd/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v53877

Release date: 24-7-2025

 

You know back when I finished the original game I kinda wondered

if a FD or sequel was already planned since it felt like it was only half a story

and would you look at that? a FD was announced and released like a year later.

 

Pro's

- Afters were neither too short nor too long.

- Most afters wrapped up the story that the OG started well enough...

- Art was consistent overall.

 

Con's

- Overall plot in some routes is rather repetitive.

- Story can feel heavy, there's sugar content but not a lot.

- Some afters feel draggy and waste the majority of their runtime.

 

The OP was as good as the first game was, honestly I really like the singer as well.

The OP of both games Dawn & Deep Blue are so good, even the full versions. 

 

 

As it is a FD it has after stories for all the LI's routes from the original game.

There's both a normal and a best end... so choices seem to matter here. 

There are new routes as well for Hiiragi and Tsuwabuki

as well as another story which was set after the truth end last game.

You can get a mini ending with every LI from the previous game there as well

sadly this doesn't include the new LI from the FD. 

The menu where you select which story you'd like to view.

 

Art was gorgeous and sprites moved a little due live2d, I personally don't really

care about the latter but its a nice touch I guess. Whether a route had

good CG's though varied a lot, I think Tobari drew the short end of the stick.

Yashiro's route had a lot of new backgrounds which were all really good. 

 Most BGM's felt the same as the original nothing stood out to me except the OP.

The ED was just kind of there I actually skipped it after the 2nd time. 

 

TBH I thought the font was rather tiny, likely not optimized for switch lite.....

There's so many kanji too I was literally squeezing my eyes out.💀 Maybe it was like this

in the OG but I didn't have this problem with Toki no Kizuna's port so the whiplash was rough. 

 

I didn't list this as a con because its likely a me problem but I don't like how there is a start screen

then a separate screen for the logo before the actual main menu shows.

I mean why not just show the logo with the start screen? before the main menu???

its weird design that just makes it clunky to sit through everytime you boot up the game.

 

Average conversations in this game be like...

The pacing was OK but this game is really slow in general but I am glad

the afters weren't any longer than they were. It also felt more like a sequel than

a FD due to the contents being heavy. Like this just shows how open ended

the OG's endings were... and for some they were not ideal.

I was pretty much deceased by the time Tobari's after was over, thankfully

Yori revived me somewhat but he drove me mad by the end of his own route.💀

Each after/new route only had 5 chapters and it took maybe 5/6 hours to clear a route

individually. Due to that it was neither too short or too long, by the time I did the final route

I did feel a bit tired of it all. Let's be real this was a long FD so its not surprising.

 

Unfortunately there were bugs at release which slightly hindered my enjoyment of the game.

I am pretty sure the another story was meant to be done last but I couldn't do that

due to Awayuki,Tsuyukusa and Hiiragi's after being full of game crashing bugs.

By the time I did get to the bugged routes there was still no patch, so I decided to do

Awayuki's since his was only in chapter 1 unlike Tsuyukusa which had bugs in 2 chapters.

Experiencing wasn't fun but with the context of Awayuki's scene made me laugh somehow... 

I was sure it will be fixed sooner or later but it wasn't a good look to have these sort of bugs.

Also like clockwork when I am done with the game a patch appeared.......

okay everyone ya'll can enjoy it now without fear of it crashing.👍

 

Hmmmm....

Anyway I didn't really like Tobari's after but I liked the ending yet in Yori's after I liked

the majority of the after except the ending... Yashiro's after was generally good

and I loved Tsuwabuki's new route which was an alternative take on Yori's in the OG.

Awayuki's after was mostly good, it didn't leave me nearly deceased as someone else.😒

Tsuyukusa's after was a bit too slow-paced for me but that may've been due his personality. 

I suppose you win some and you lose some is how I sum up my experience with this FD.

--- 

I wasn't the biggest Uta-Chro fan but this FD did was wrap up  what the original game started, sadly

I just wasn't that invested in the general affairs of things but it was by no means a bad FD.

Uta-Chro likes to focus on the big picture and not just the romance, it really varied whether

or not a route balanced this. I suppose it depends on tastes but to me Tobari&Yori's after felt weak.

Though while I understand characters can't always be together there wasn't a whole lot of

romance scenes and what was there was woven into the plot. Hinagiku's just trying her best

which is good but it at times it would also focus on plot or side characters

who somehow still had their own little role to play in the story. 

The only characters that suffered with afters were the ones that never really went into the truth

so the story had to go out of its way to go into that... which wasn't all that fun. 

There's not a lot of CG's either so that didn't add to the experience either its only

been a year so the artist probably didn't have a lot of time to work on it. 

It wasn't a bad FD, even if it wasn't outstanding it was still good.

When I look back at the original... it just feels unfinished so this FD or sequel is much welcome.

 

TL;DR

Honestly for the most part its a good FD and there were definitely a bunch of route

that I thought were good and its okay if you don't like everything.

I'm walking away from this while liking atleast 3/4 routes, which is more than enough

though if you play FD's mainly for sugar content or more focus on romance this might

disappoint a little because there was still a heavy focus on the plot and slow-life.

It did further expand on the characters and it had moments

that were nice to see so it wasn't all bad if you like the pacing that is.

7/10

After finishing both games I realized UtaChro is actually pretty similar to trails in nature

so I recommend it to people that like slow-life and great worldbuilding

because at the end of the day that's what the UtaChro games are good at.

Also this isn't exactly beginner friendly you need a good grasp of japanese to enjoy it

fully, I saw aksys didn't have many upcoming games but they will likely localize this

and I will be disappointed if it doesn't because the OG really needs this FD. 

 

As for my playorder I started with Tobari but then heard there were bugs

so I adjusted my play order so the ones with the bugs were done later.

 Tobari > Yori > Yashiro > Tsuwabuki > ANOTHER > Awayuki> Tsuyukusa > Hiiragi.

 

Route babbles after the jump, I will share a few of my fav CG's as well

but no more than 3 per route, if you don't want any spoilers then just stop reading here. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toki no Kizuna Hanayui Tsuzuri - Review

PSP box art cuz its gongeous I mean gorgeous.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate

Platform: PSP,switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/toki/switch/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v12141

Release date: 19-6-2025

 

Once upon a time otomate released an otome game called Toki no Kizuna

but then realized it didn't nearly have enough romance which was lost in the sauce

that was the overall story so they released a FD; Hanayui Tsuzuri.

 

--- 

Pro's

- After stories were a much needed epilogue to the original routes.

- Most other side content brought a smile to my face.

- After's are of decent length and didn't really overstay their welcome. 

 

Con's 

- New routes and flower chapter rely on Senkimaru's sad end so you could

feel lost in terms of continuity if you happened to only do the good ends in OG.

- Yachiyo's route is really aimed at a special audience so its not for everyone.

 ---

 

I thought the OP was pretty fire this time around and actually wanted

to listen to it most of the time I booted it up. The original game's OP

was a good jam too but it just didn't hit as good as the FD one. 

 

As for the heroine she mostly has dropped the act of pretending to be a man and she

was much more accepting of herself. Yukina let her feminine side shine through in this FD.

Maybe for some its disappointing but I didn't mind this. The extended epilogue

really did show her at her most badass which was really good IMO. 

 

---  

After stories.

All after stories start with a brief summary of the route but it felt a bit rushed

I suppose it might be good if you need a quick refresher, other than that they were in generally

pretty good as an extended epilogue but that's about it. Doing your fav LI first is recommended. 

There are choices in the after stories but it doesn't affect the outcome.

The only thing it affects is the CG variation so there's not much to worry about

and you can play at your leasure without fear of bad ends which the original had a lot of. 

 

New routes.

As you know there are new routes for Shiyuu and Yachiyo but honestly they're a hit or miss.

I didn't like Yachiyo's because it is really aimed at a specific audience that is not for me.

Shiyuu's route was a lot better and more well rounded, I actually cared about him.

Before I played this FD I wasn't sure when these took place but it made sense

for it to happen after Senkimaru's sad end as she doesn't end up with anyone

and certain characters are alive except someone and Yukina basically is the head honcho.

The new routes didn't have any choices so it was like reading a novel. 

 ---

 

There's a Inbetween chapter that takes place sometime during the original game

with some choices that may give extra CG with the chosen LI.

Honestly I don't really like this sort of content that's supposed to make up for

the lack of fun times in the original. Its hard to get into it so i'd rather prefer a scenario

after endings of the original game and that did exist in this game this just wasn't it.

In terms of length it was maybe about 30 mins to an hour the first time through.

You will pretty much skip half of it when doing another character in this section. 

I only bothered with Kazuya for this and vibed through some of the others

but it was kinda funny how he was constantly so listless, it actually was a problem.😂

 Other than that there's the flower chapter that takes place after Senkimaru's sad ending

 which acts as an extended epilogue but without any romance. After doing both Inbetween

and flower chapter you unlock something called twelve tales which is pretty much the

conclusion of the story as it wrap up the series well enough. I did this last. There's also some

unlockable bonus side stories that you get by finishing every guy's after story/new route.

Plenty of content all around but some of it can be skipped if you had your fill. 

  ---

 

Overall its a solid FD with plenty of content value.

Its okay to play it back to back because most routes needed the extended epilogues

but had the switch port not included this then i'd be disappointed so I am glad it is.

It was nice there's still a scenario that explores one sad end of the original game

but the only thing it was good at was formally closing off the Toki no Kizuna saga. 

The other extra bonus content was nice, it even reminded me of ken ga kimi's FD

but I don't think it was as loaded which was a good thing imo.

If you liked a character in the original its definitely worth to check out their after story

in this FD but its okay to skip the ones for characters you didn't really like.

Personally for me only Kazuya and Senkimaru's afters were worth it as well as Shiyuu's route

others just weren't as engaging or interesting to me. Maybe its cuz I didn't like all LI equally. 

I'll admit I feel like I forced myself through some of these afters and new routes

but I can see this isn't a bad FD, in fact its pretty good addition

since the original left much to be desired.

8/10 

This FD has just the right amount of content that there is not a lack of volume or too much of it.

A lot FD's just tend to stop at afters or new routes. Its rare to get a bunch of

chibi side stories along with an extended epilogue of a less than ideal ending.

This was 20 hours of good stuff which may stretch to 25+ish if you do everything. 

Route babbles after the jump as well as my fav CG's, its not really a digest but commentary.

Also disclaimer i'm sorry if I didn't like every LI we can't all like the same things!

if you don't like what you're reading then just stop and close the browser.

 

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Remastered - Review

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Game Arts/GungHo ent.

Platform: PS4,PC,switch.
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 18-4-2025

 

Okay I decided to get started on Lunar 2 the sequel to Lunar Silver Star Story because the original

Toki no Kizuna was too repetitive and I needed something else to spice up my life

so what better way than to work on your backlog than slogging through only one thing?

I actually ended up finishing both close together too. 

Anyways this game is set thousands of years later following Hiro and his flying pet cat Ruby.

 

Pro's

- Interesting story that expands upon the setting of the original.

- Main heroine has good character development.

- Lot's of hilarious and funny moments.

 

Grey Area

- Epilepsy warning, ISTG this game had a lot of flashing.

 

Con's

- The first hour of the game was harder than the game overall.

- Slow walking speed in dungeons.

- Optional dungeons had difficult random enemies but the bosses were easy...

 

Honestly I found that the storytelling had significantly improved and it no longer felt barebones.

Lunar 2 actually ended up adding meat to the bone that was the original game.

Late game reveals did explain more about the world. It explained

why things are the way they are, overall I left pretty satisfied. 

 

As for our protagonist this time... Hiro's just a normal boy who likes to go on

adventures and read way too many books, his grandpa is an archeologist.

The beginning of the game felt like a comedy which... suddenly gets serious

as some guy Leo crashes our parade of doing the usual adventuring.

Apparently the destroyer is coming and he is here to stop it and help Althena.

To do so they need to go into the tower but Hiro and gramps beat Leo to it...

they find a girl who Hiro thinks is the most beautiful he ever met and its love at first sight!😂

She doesn't really seem to notice him and is more concerned with her mission. 

Lucia is her name and she came from the other side aka the moon in the sky

to seek Althena's aide and stop some guy named Zophar from destroying everything

but it seems Lucia is being suspected of being the destroyer as well.

Hiro decides to be brave instead of a chicken and tries to help her out with her mission.

 

Hmm... we should be close to the viera village right?

Gameplay is mostly the same but I thought Lunar 2 was significantly more difficult

in its opening hour and you can actually get game overs easily. Thankfully

it balances out once you get access to actual equipment as well as more party members. 

 When Lucia first joins she is very overpowered and could one-shot everything so I was like

this is kinda nice but also... I bet she's gonna lose her powers cuz this ain't it or is she secretly

the destroyer? The game hinted she had the power to either save or destroy... and it checks out.

Of course she didn't keep that power cuz the game would be no fun and I did have to look up a guide

for the first boss because they did require some specific strategy like place your character

in the top left and make sure to debuff it. I didn't even know you could move your characters

with the defend command till the guide pointed that out.  The UI felt much cleaner

and not as clunky as the first game which was nice as well buuut I did think it was

a little slower compared to the prequel. Switching screens also felt slower

maybe its something they couldn't fix. 

 

It took me about 25ish hours to beat the game which wasn't particularly long.

I mostly had 1-3ish hour sessions, its not a long game and it didn't overstay its welcome at all

maybe its good I took a break between the two games and I fear had I jumped into this

right away then I may've liked it less so I am glad I didn't do that. 

 

Much like Lunar 1 there's no complicated crafting system

and you just buy items and gear from shops or find them in chests. 

 

In terms of collection there was the usual bromides and if you wanted them all

you're best off using a guide since most were still kinda missable during the main story

but there's a away to get them in the epilogue apparently. 

A lot of the pictures were nice so its worth trying to find them.

There were a few for the previous heroines as well, sorry none for the dudes though.

Mia looks like a queen... because she is one.

 Lunar 2 still has some of the same progression issues that I hated from the first game.

Thankfully this only happened in the first real town you get to and never happened again. 😊

When I had to go look for that priest I already knew who it was but because

I hadn't talked to a bunch of specific NPC's I couldn't trigger the event.

I wish they learned because someone could even think there game is bugged cuz they know

what they must do but they lacked insuffient flags to trigger the next event.

Idk its probably some series staple but its weird its only in the first town

and then everyone is fairly straight forward. 

 

Another thing I found weird was: Hiro can sprint but only for a short time

but what is weird is that in towns the speed was faster than in dungeons

so I didn't understant why they didn't keep it the same, just weird design.

There's ways to increase it but it involves putting on random gear pieces

and if you trigger a battle you will start asleep. WTF is this shit?!

Its almost impossible to avoid all enemies so ain't no way I will gimp myself

just so I can run faster, this feels like a cruel joke or punishment if you want to run faster. 

 

Also it is hard to avoid enemies, while not impossible a lot of the times there's

no way to avoid them and only some enemies could be avoided.

This is more or less because of placement and some places just being tiny or cramped

but this is not a big deal since you need EXP anyways. May as well fight em.

Except in the epilogue but more on that later.. 

The only time I had trouble with the enemies in the main game was in the beginning

but I feel that this is more or less because you don't got any access to better equipment.

Once I did as well as getting more allies it felt the game became more balanced.

The last two dungeons were also harder than most dungeons but it should be ok if you have

max starlights so you can top up MP midway & before last boss. The epilogue did see

another spike but that wasn't an issue because of save and run method due to this

you can just save your MP for the boss as levels at that point didn't really matter.

 

AI/auto mode is helpful to remove tedium of battles but there's moments

manual input is better such as boss fights or a certain cavern beneath

a certain new version of a city. Some later bosses may've had me do another take

but this game is very generous and you can save right before most, even mid dungeon.

You can save anywhere. Also enemies don't respawn till you leave the dungeon.

 

There's also no fast travel feature for a good while, you do get that same

special item from the original game but its been nerfed and only gets you out of dungeons.

Which makes the item that you can buy useless or Ronfart spell that does the same thing...

It isn't apparently not untill the epilogue you get access to fast travel which is a good

20 hours into the game... but even then you had to revisit the towns for it to work.

NANI le F*&cK It would have been nice indeed to have a quick way to restock on items

but the game just makes it a pain in the butt. Hiro already went to those places

so I cannot fathom this decision. The rememberizer works the same way

you have to visit certain spots before you can view the scenes. Unlike the previous game

which just let you view them right off the bat. This simply only adds play time.

 

That aside this game did have me look for my party members once but I wasn't as annoyed with it

maybe because nothing felt like it every dragged on too long and the game balance was alright

sans beginning and epilogue. Those two moments are the only time the was a difficulty spike.

Lunar 2 did not overstay its welcome and I had no issues with the pacing.

 

Idk what the original was like in terms of humor but this game

did have one legendary line from Ronfar no less that made me smile.

Me every morning......

There's only one area I grinded in because I wanted the best equipment at that point

and it was in Sluice forest, the money gain elsewhere before it was just not worth it.

Doing so did give me an extra level or two as well so it wasn't a bad idea.

I ran from most of the enemies in the epilogue dungeons cuz it wasn't worth my time

and the bosses themselves were easy and not level-gated. 

 

TL;DR 

Lunar 2 is the most hilarious RPG I have ever played and I don't regret it.

I liked Lunar 2 a lot more because it actually adds to the original

which honestly just felt flat to me and this game is the meat to its bones. 

Sure some of the story-beats are kind of predictable but it was the right kind of predictable

and it felt like I also learned a little bit about the world it took place in. Instead of like

setting off on a journey to become a dragon master, a bunch of stuff happens and then some.

The romance was a little better, its not as obvious oh no they like each other but you could

definitely tell they both cared. Its also explained off key in a single line of dialogue no less

that Alex simply is a quiet guy(that grits his teeth in the face of adversity) with a kind smile.

Even that... made me appreciate our past hero a little more. 

For Hiro its kind of love at first sight but... there was no time for sappy stuff 

and it didn't feel like Lucia reciprocated it so it kind of felt one-sided at first.

This leaned towards; when a guy likes a girl he'll do anything for the girl

so in short Hiro is just a massive Lucia simp.😂😂😂

Due Lucia spending time with the group she learns how to be human and understands feelings

because of this I think it was believable she fell for Hiro. I think its kind of heartwarming. 

It also felt a bit like a comedy which may not be everyones cup of tea.

9/10

Overall I felt engaged with the story and was motivated to sit through the game

which was slightly more difficult than its prequel. It knew when to have fun and

when not which made it an overall enjoyable experience.

I can recommend it if you'd like to see more of the world of Lunar

especially if the original game left you feeling this wasn't all. 

 

More rambles after the jump but its mostly about the characters and a summary of my thoughts.