Wednesday, July 9, 2025

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. 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
due to 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. 
 

Monday, July 7, 2025

Toki no Kizuna Sekigahara Kitan - Review

Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: Otomate
Platform: PSP,switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/toki/switch/
Release date: 19-6-2025
 
I don't even know why I got this game  but I wanted something meaty to sink my time into
and this ended up the right type of game for it. Was it worth it? it depends.
Toki no Kizuna also hasn't received any ports since it came out on PSP, it was localized
as demon's bond on mobile but solmare has long pulled the plug on that. Anyway this game 
shares the same setting as Hakuouki but it is mostly stand alone outside of a few references.
 
 
Pro's
- Overall plot is pretty decent but not outstanding.
- The heroine kicked butt and spoke her mind. 
- Gorgeous CG and sprites.
- Most BGM's suit the setting.
- What romance there is present is pretty adorable to see.
 
Grey Area
- High amount of bad endings. Can't decide if good or bad so here it goes.
 
Con's
- Doing all routes can be repetitive and make it feel same-ish.
- Feels more like a non-romance VN for the majority of its runtime.
- Despite trying to create intrigue it made certain stuff easy to put 2+2 together.
- No heroine sprite in the corner, this game may've benefit from that. 
 
 
This switch port also includes the FD which I am glad it did as the base game
really needed it and without it i'd have no motivation to finish all routes. 
As it is just a port of both games there is nothing added other than touching up
the art, I liked that the font was big which is great when it has losts of kanji. 
 
Story: this is set in old japan around the time of the end of the sengoku period. 
The subtitle should be pretty obvious about that, they've given it a slight fantasy spin.
Yukina an oni and head of her clan is tasked with finding a cure for the yasehime who was put 
into a deep slumber. Yasehime also wanted her clan to not deal with humans as she
wished to sever ties between oni and humans or create some kind of non-interference.
Oni's were once referred to as gods but the clans have since lived reclusively away from
humans, some shady people are apparently against this and are generally a nuisance. 
 
Yukina was one of the more capable heroines, while headstrong she could be sort of bitchy too. 
Key point is Yukina doesn't see herself as a woman cuz they tend to be looked
down upon in this era. I think its also kind of sad but she does what she has to do.
Despite that she could still show signs of weakness or indecisiveness but that made her human.
Seeing her repress herself wasn't fun, a big part of Yukina's character is accepting herself for
who she is and that is not trying to pretend to be a man. Some routes do this better than others.
What was amusing was that she would frequently would go i'm a chieftain before i'm a woman
 or get real feisty if the guys would treat her as a woman which she did not want.
At times she would also interject when they were butting heads so she wasn't just
standing there, she really does try to act independently for better or worse.
I wish she had a sprite in the bottom left corner or something or her sprite would appear
next to the guys instead, with her playing such a key role it feels like missed opportunity. 
 
The art was by Miko which was pretty good, the sprites looked damn good
and the guys looked attractive. There's not much to complain about honestly
except maybe some of Senkimaru's CG's looking a bit off.
Music well it was okay, not the best OST i've heard but it served its purpose?
I liked how energetic the battle theme was which wasn't bad
but there one track could be rather sleep inducing.. 
 
 The game had a stellar seiyuu cast and I recognized a lot of names
as well as oh my god Okamoto you're everywhere?!
 
Toki no Kizuna is a pretty long game, it took me around 1- 2 hours to clear
the first chapter, its a very slow and detailed historical fantasy otome game.
Though the length may vary depending on your profiency of japanese language
and sadly Toki no Kizuna is definitely not for beginners. I was fairly slow.
 
Its plot oriented and there is not much time for romance
but the heroine Yukina does grow closer to the LI over time.
I liked that there's a decent amount of suspense like who are the villains?
what is their goal?  their were a lot of characters, they all had a role to play but at times
I was more interested in the shady hooded guy CV:Tachibana Shinnosuke than our heroes
but that changed over the course of the game and I am not looking forward to his route in the FD.💀
There's a bunch of Jiji's/granpas and they always livened up the scene. I found it funny
how all the oni's would be beautiful people but the humans would be normal looking... 

The character interactions were pretty good but comedy wasn't the focus of this game
and for the most part it was pretty dry with only a funny scene here or there
with some romance crumbs too. Due to this Toki no Kizuna can feel like its not
an otome game at all and more like a non-romance VN.
The story was also fairly slow and at times it was testing my patience especially on 
subsequent routes since there was a clear pattern of things that would happen.
Some later chapters did feel shorter so that was a blessing rather than a curse as
the game had eight chapters in total. I think a route was 8-10 hours in terms of length.
Depending on choices a lot of scenes in the common route would change because it would focus
on the LI related to those choices before settling into the character route which starts from ch5.
And that is why even on subsequent plays it can still be a bit long. 
 
It was still interesting to see what character was involved with but overall it was kinda boring
to pursue multiple characters since some things still felt the same just with slightly different flavor.
Its also kind of easy to guess certain characters identities due to who voices them
its unfortunate because this kind of kills whatever mystery the story had.
The masked villains felt like they were team rocket, I couldn't take them serious by route 2.
At times it could make it seem like they didn't really take their own story and setting seriously
and if you look at the official site you can already see their appearance but the game
was generally slow at unveiling it which makes no sense to me. 
Oh well I played my sengoku musous and basaras so I already know who won the war... whatever.
 
TL;DR 
I thought Chitose's route was pretty good but its just too repetitive, there's very little
that would set each route apart from eachother, I know the setting is limited so it can't be that
different but after two routes it all just felt the same in the end. They also focused too much
on the setting or war stuff and not enough on the otome part.  I remember playing stuff like utawarerumono which also had war stuff but it wasn't as dry or boring as this. Even Birushana
had more fun to it. I remember making tomohorny jokes but here all I did was complain what
a psycho Yachiyo is.💀 Anything that was fun in this game was far and between. I'd probably
not recommend this game unless you like story heavy otome games that're slowburn or
are a giant Hakuoki nerd who wants to experience every content related to it.
There's not much sweetness but what's there is adorable, there's also a big emphasis on bonds.
Seeing Yukina develop a bond with the LI and accepting herself is what saved it.
6/10 
If you love historic fantasies as well then it might still be worth looking into but yea just
keep in mind the first game is not very otome-like and go in with low expecations.
 
My play order was: Kazuya > Chitose > Kazutake > Shin > Senkimaru.
Senkimaru's route is locked till you complete one route but his route has the real plot of the game
so its best to do him last. I recommend Kazuya's route first because there's
less reveals  and it following Sekigahara in the traditional sense.
 
Side note: This already came over once on mobile as demon's bond but Solmare
as I already mentioned pulled the plug.  I don't see a lot of people talk about it or
acknowledge it within the Hakuoki series so I think its popularity is up in the air.
It remains to be seen if it will ever get localized again but I think
it deserves better than being an ported to english like that.
 
As per usual character babbles after the jump as well as some of my fav CG's. 
 

Sunday, June 22, 2025

The town of Nie - Review

Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: Zombilica, Hunex/Dramatic Create.
Platform: PC,switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 19-9-2024
 
Not sure what to play next I decided to give The Town of Nie a try! I don't really play much
BL games and this is actually my first. I read a few manga's but that was it.
 Since it has an english release that is what I am playing as I do want to support those releases.
I played the switch version which I knew was already toned down as most PC to console port
 tend to be, not sure what was supposed to be different but only a handful of scenes were IMO bad.
 

 Pro's
- Interesting setting and characters.
- Pretty decent art, Hisora has a sprite as well as VA. 
 
Grey area
- Music fit the setting and mood but some tracks are quite mid.
- The OP did not automatically play when booting up the game, only when lingering on title screen.
 
Con's
- Some translation errors; most could've been fixed if it had a QA sweep.
- Sound effects were annoying; first time in long while I had to put it on lowest setting.
- Copypasta; some scenes are the same in every route that you can't readskip. 
 
 
 This was a supernatural VN, it has suspense and some gore to go along with it
but moments that it got gorey were relatively minor.
I wasn't really sure what kind of story it was trying to tell but there were moments
when I was like is this really a BL game? the narrative was interesting
so I was easily hooked, I liked how everything was slowly introduced
and I got a better picture of what was going on. It also didn't feel like it tried
too hard to get that japanese supernatural ghost stories effect.
Hisora as a protagonist was pretty okay, he wasn't a total asshole unlike some other
protagonist from another supernatural VN I recently sat through.
Though I did feel that he kind of felt idk bland? in general he seemed like some normal dude
but there was not much that stood out to him other than being a workaholic. 
By the time of Naruomi's route I thought that Hisora was cute but a big idiot. 
Hisora is also voiced and has his own sprite while the LI and important characters are
also voiced, minor characters on the other hand without sprites aren't and they only have grunts. 
You can really see where the dev's cut their losses. 
 
The art was pretty good in terms of sprite and CG's but the backgrounds
really varied like there were some good pieces but some weren't as great as others. 
Some bgm's really added to the setting but much like backgrounds it varied.
There were some bgm tracks that were honestly really average to just plain out of place.
Like yea imma bang my head to that one rock bgm.............. 💀 The bgm for tense situations
also ended up being a pain on my ears I lowered the bgm volume to 1 so I think that says enough.
The Town of Nie is one of the few VN that has me really mixed on its OST. 
Also the sound effect for bringing up the backlog or menu was annoying
and quickly grew on my nerves so that too had to be put on the lowest setting.
There was one more sound effect which was supposed to be kids laughing but it was like
1-2 seconds on repeat. These minor slights really brought the experience down. 

Translation wise... there be errors, some of them can easily be corrected
but it seems this could have done with another Q&A sweep.
For the most part it read pretty well so I can let it slide. 
 
    System wise its standard VN stuff, the common route had map movement
and this is also what decides which route you land on. 
 
The common route could seem long atleast I thought it did when I checked a guide
but it wasn't at all, the game was paced quite well and it didn't drag on at all.
Said common route served its purpose of slowly setting up the route itself and I liked
how it really felt like Hisora stayed at some inn that wasn't exactly normal
while still trying to find out whatever this place was.
The early hours can seem like this is a non-romance VN, Hisora is pretty much a normal guy
who doesn't really think about romance so it can seem like its not a BL game. 
The most gay thing Hisora said early on was call Koko sexy.😂
It was of course a BL game and there were plenty of cute scenes with the guys.
Due to spending time with a LI he does develop feelings, in some routes it done better than others.
I liked the romance more in routes that weren't Mio
 
I have never played a BL game before so I have nothing to compare it to but this was pretty OK.
I generally had a good time despite there being some gore/horror elements. Maybe it was due
to the stellar cast and decent amount of suspense. Though the horror felt more like it was there
on the side, there weren't many jumpscares or anything only one that caught me
offguard in Naruomi's route. There's only one creepy looking CG in the beginning
but I was disappointed there wasn't more of that. Some descriptions were horrific
but it also was done in a comical way? atleast there was no pictures of eyeballs
or innards falling out but I do think this game would have been scarier if there
had been more cg's or sprites to give more details cuz text is just text. 
If I actually had to see some of that shit it I'd probably lose it like Hisora did...💀
Maybe some stuff was reserved for bad ends but I stayed away from those. 
Also there was atleast WTF is this shit moment in most route
but the rest was relatively normal tbh. It also ended up feeling
more like a comedy like how was Asuku's route not a comedy?!😂
still The Town of Nie didn't shy away from being dark. Most of it is reserved for
bad ends but that tone is still present and some routes like Koko hit hard. 
 7/10
In the end I stayed for the characters and wanted to do their routes simply
to understand them better. I didn't really like Mio's route due some scenes here and there
but by the time of his good end most was forgiven, he's not a bad character but I do think
some things could have been handled better.  It won't take four routes to figure out who
mister mourning clothes was but its a shame you can't read skip the scene at the end of the route.
I suppose this game was designed that no matter who you go for some things need to be
explained no matter what before it can end. It can be a bit repetitive as well making the only
 reasons to do more routes more or less for the LI themselves and whatever secrets they carried.
The game has a FD but I am not sure if I will get to it anytime soon... i'm also not sure
if its worth it because if it doesn't have cute after stories or fun SoL scenes
and more weird stuff it definitely isn't for me. 
 
TL;DR What I really liked from this game was the suspense,mystery and fun SoL scenes
everything else varied greatly, some cute romantic scenes were there but it was not enough. 
 Honestly when I think about BL that I like Sasaki and Miyano come to mind.
The Town of Nie wasn't exactly suited for my tastes but atleast I did like some of it
and its not that bad of a VN, I did like the story and it stayed true to what it tried to do.
Its just that this sort of setting is nothing new and I thought I'd seen it somewhere before. 
Ultimately while the characters and setting were great the game is dragged down
by annoying sound effects and copypasta. After the first play it essentially becomes
a character game but by route 4 I was getting tired of the repetitiveness.
The game was obviously censored but it was done in such a way you could still
understand what originally had transpired and that doesn't sit well with me
because why even bother to change it in the first place?! meh. 
 
I used a guide for the game and it is recommended that if you care about the story
to play in the order of: Mio > Asuku > Koko > Naruomi > True.
Personally I think Mio/Asuku/Koko can be done in any order as anything sorta goes
but Naruomi definitely last due to how easily he ties into the truth end. 

 
This game also has bad ends with content that may be a bit much for some and since I am here
only for the story and shipping I decided it would be better to use that guide
and avoid  andmines that could hinder enjoyment. 

Route babbles after the jump and there might be some spoilers below as well as my fav CG's
so if you still want to play this then stop reading here, kthnx bye.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Honkai Star Rail - Review

I love the PS5 splash art.
 Genre: RPG.
Developer/publisher: Hoyoverse.
Platform: PS4,PC,mobile
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 11-10-2023
 
I decided to give star rail a try, because I keep hearing its pretty much structured
like any RPG (but still gacha) and inspired by trails, so here goes nothing.
 
Pro's
- Solid prologue & story on Jarilo VI.
- Great main cast of characters and fun interactions between MC,March & Dang Heng.
- Being able to replay old events.
- Automode for battles with material rewards, which removes tedium.

Grey area
- Xianzhou's story was a little messy.
 
Con's
- Combat can feel basic and a bit repetitive.
- Certain substories can be accessed too early creating inconsistencies.
(Like it acts like we've been to Peanutbutter but I actually haven't YET.
 
 Setting is a space fantasty/sci-fi, honestly it reminds me more of star ocean
rather than trails but in terms of combat its the latter that's similar.
I'll say it was off to a fantastic start and the story and characters easily hooked me.
There's an actual main party in star rail: March and Dang Heng whom I actually want
to have in my party but for Genshin impact which I also played I wanted to replace
the initials as fast as I could, Amber yea you're nice as a torch lighter.💀
I don't remember being very attached to Amber or Lisa except maybe Kaeya
but he was useful with his icebridges... untill Wriothesley put him out of a job.
The chemistry between MC,March and Dan Heng was just that great.
Other characters range from great to they're just kind of there doing their own thing like Asta.

Combat is like a turnbased RPG but its very basic and repetitive.
It bothered me you can't use items in battle unlike genshin?! and there's
no MP management, just normal attack, skill and a special move. It really seems
like a simplified version of trails. its servicable but I am not really here for it.
I only rank up my world level in star rail when I am really ready because
I am traumatized from genshin in which you could level up too fast and struggle.
Unfortunately there is a powercreep and newer characters will always be better
but that didn't really affect my early journey of progressing through the story.
The characters yo get from the game are perfectly viable.
There's an autobattle but that doesn't work on every fight, so for the story you still gotta work.
I think it is nice in that it can remove the tedium of having to grind for mats to level up
a character or light cone which is like their armor. There's traces too which is like a skill tree.
So when there's so many this or that it can get tiresome if you had to do it manually
so I can still appreciate the automode. However I do realize these type of games
make me miss regular rpg's since there's too much this or that here and in a regular rpg
there may just be skills gained by lvl up or something like a sphere grid like ffx/xiii
while you just buy gear in shops and in star rail there's no gear except lightcones
and without gacha they only come as rewards and they're quite rare.
I have rambled on too much about it but... its not the worst combat/gamplay system I have seen.
 Its also not open world like genshin so I wasn't able to get lost, it was still nice
to find random chests here or there but its rare to find lightcones from chests.
Its basically just a bit of credit, exp materials and the currency to roll on banners.
 
Music was pretty good I have no complaints and I thought the graphics were better than genshin?
the character models also have more shine to them. Just feels like it had more polish.
 
Storywise it varies; The prologue and space station were great.
The first world Jarilo VI was good but with the Xianzhou Luofu... despite having great
characters it had too much lore dumps and I wasn't able to remember it all, only the
important bits which was a shame. It was also here that I felt the need to already take a break.
Going from Jarilo VI to Xianzhou Luofu do be like this...
Overall its off to a great start but then sort of dips but never too low it loses momentum
and well if you think you need a break from the story then I suggest you do so.
Its also good to remember the story comes in parts so one will eventually catch up.
  ====================================================================
 
More like honorable fart...
The dialogue was a lot of fun as well and its not as bloatey as genshin was
which is notorious for having a lot of fluff, even I who can ramble a lot thinks its a lot.
At times when explaining lore it does get long but what can you do about that?
sometimes it is necessary. I actually don't really go back to read quest descriptions
but this one time as seen below I actually chuckled. It seemed the translator was like
someone has to read this right? may as well make it funny!
or they just had their funny pants on that day. Or always...
 
Despite this being a gacha game, much like genshin it doesn't throw you the banners in your face
and its easy to ignore any character you don't want to roll for and save up for someone you do want. Personally I plan to only roll on banners if I really like the character.
 
 When I started playing I could choose 1 standard character for free
and also choose between Ruan Mei or Luocha, I chose the latter.
For standard I chose Gepard but I am still using March 7th...😅
though eventually I think I will replace her with him.
I don't really feel too hot or cold towards Luocha, he's nice to have on your team
and even after the second world has an air of mystery around him.
On the other side I feel conflicted about Ruan Mei after her story quest, like
she's not that bad but she sure is something alright.
 
 
TL;DR overall I can recommend this gacha game if you like RPG's in general
even if genshin didn't work out for you, it mostly fixed most of my gripes I had with that
though I can't gaurantee one will like it as well, it never hurts to try.

More rambles after the jump but i've mostly said what there's to say.
There's no real plot spoilers but I do talk about some companion quest so light spoilers maybe?
 

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Lunar Silver Star Story Remastered - Review

Genre: RPG.
Developer/publisher: Game Arts/GungHo ent.
Platform: PS4,PC,switch.
Official Site: N/A.
Release date: 18-4-2025
 
Since I always wanted to play Lunar 2 I decided to get the remaster which contains both games.
Things to note is that they're based on the original japanese PS1 version and not on the WD release.
You can either play the classic version or the remaster, I picked the latter.
Either way I am really grateful these games even got ported, especially its sequel which
unlike the first game which got a psp version, L2 hasn't seen a port since its ps1 release.
This post is however about the first game, I don't think reviewing two games at once is a good idea.
 
Pro's
- Mostly likeable cast of characters.
- An anime RPG that carries the spirit of the 90's.
- Not too short or too long so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
 
Grey area
- Without a guide this can be a pain to 100% due easy to miss collectables.
- The general UI can seem a bit clunky till you get used to it.
 
Con's
- Story can be a bit cliche.
- Limited inventory space.
- Some characters are underutilized. 

It pretty much feels like an FF game from the PS1 era but with anime cutscenes
instead of FMV's and really good character interactions so I got some ''tales of'' vibes as well.
The interactions and dialogue were also pretty fun, this is what pretty much sold the game for me.
The main heroine Luna was delightful and it was pretty obvious within two hours
of play time that romantic feelings were involved but of course there was no time to talk
about any of that because the hero Alex had a goal to reach of becoming a dragon master.
Sadly while I liked Luna she is absent for a majority of the game...
its then that the other main characters ended up catching my eyes.
 
I knew there was something up with Luna but I almost forgot about her. Alex is OK
as a protagonist but after certain events everyone else basically has more to say than him
but when Luna's involved then he starts speaking up more which is hilarious cuz for half
the game it felt like he was gritting his teeth and bearing it that he couldn't do more.
I suppose putting it like that then Alex is actually a pretty decent MC, he's not whiny
but perseverant. TBH he felt like a pretty standard shonen hero
that wasn't quite silent enough to be considered a silent protagonist.
 
More characters were slowly introduced as the story progressed some turned out
to be allies and others villains. Its done in such a way that the player
can get attached to the main characters, most other characters were also
more interesting than Alex who really was just a dragon boy. 
Honestly after finishing it, it felt I had not seen all the world of Lunar had to offer
or the how or why's of how the world works. A lot of things were left up in the air
but atleast it ended on a good enough note. I do plan to play the sequel
so I hope that it actually makes more sense of things. 

Overall this game was just a very 90ish anime RPG it carries the spirit of that era.
In terms of story Lunar SSS has a really long prologue/first half and it isn't
untill you meet Quark for the second time the story really starts to move.
Other than that it felt pretty standard but I liked the pace, it wasn't too slow or too fast.
It took me about 25 hours to beat the game.
It started out fairly light-hearted but it was the opposite at near the end.
I will admit that Lunar SSS can be a bit cliche and if you play a lot of RPG's
it may not do much  new but I don't think it did it in the wrong way, still if you were
to expect this game to do things to revolutionize the genre you're in the wrong place.
Unfortunately idk if it was the localization but I found out the main villain had much more
 depth to him but all that was erased just so he could call the hero dragon boy. 💀
 
The battle system wasn't too complicated its honestly really simply, boring even.
I liked how there were 5 party members at once on the field! usually it just 3 or 4. 
 While autobattle could remove tedium it isn't useful for boss fights or late game
once I found a strategy I could apply it to most other fights. As long as you're
prepared no boss should be too much of an issue. Its not that hard of a game.
There was no journal to tell you what happened or what you should go do next
so I either had to write it down on a notepad or consult a guide. Thankfully RPGsite
had made a guide for the remaster which also included collectables, if not for them I wouldn't
have been able to find all bromides or get 2 out of 3 secret accesories. Other than that
the story was fairly easy to follow and it was easy to remember the characters as they all
had distinct personalities. The pacing was good and you gradually got to understand what
was really going on even if some stuff is left up in the air, sadly the villains hided their
true goal for a long time so if you want to know what's going on you have to wait till the end.

The quick TL;DR Honestly it wasn't a bad game, it had all the right ingredients
and for the most part it was a fun ride but it fell a little flat to me.
I suppose I shouldn't fall into the trap of going like what if it was
a little bit more fleshed out cuz its better to appreciate things for what it is!
still that shouldn't be an excuse either... its okay to think that it felt like it missed something.
I know Lunar is overall very well received and I too like it but this was pretty standard rpg stuff.
The main charm of this game was the characters, not the combat or the plot.
So for what its worth Lunar Silver Star Story was still a solid RPG.
It may have come a little late for me and i've seen it done before but that doesn't make it bad.
I pretty much recommend this game to anyone that likes older FF games with a fun
cast of characters like tales of or just simply likes oldschool rpg's.
7/10
 
More rambles after the jump.

Monday, April 28, 2025

Over RequiemZ - Review

 Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: Kogado/Otomate.
Platform: switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/over_requiemz/
Release date: 17-4-2025
 
I wasn't sure if I was going to get this game and it was literally a last minute decision
but I am glad I did because I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I ever would and it
had a pretty good story more so than a bunch of recent otomate games I played recently.
Also I could probably have finished this sooner rather than later however lately I don't
like it when I burst through games in a week but it lasted almost two weeks for me
so I slowed down my pace just a little bit, the game also is better with breaks
in between due to how intense the writing can be.
 
Pro's
- Interesting setting and complex characters.
- Mostly good pacing, atleast I thought fact side was.
- Gorgeous artwork, pretty consistent art.
- Beautiful music, I found it better than most of otomate's stuff.
- Replay value is high due to scenario split.
- You can completely ignore the dark side and get to enjoy the story with proper romance.
 
Grey area
- There's only one best ending, the other three are either bad ends, a tragic end or subjective good.
 
Con's
- Dorothy's route should've been locked.
- Most choices are meaningless except a handful that decided a branch or end.
 - Dark side can feel a bit drawn out, atleast one felt forced.
- The ending theme did not fit all the endings.

 
 
Over RequiemZ is loosely based on the wizard of oz.
The heroine Yuhiru gets isekai'd to a strange land and meets a bunch of guys
who are all convicted criminals alongside herself for reasons she doesn't get. The world
isn't quite like her own but she still recognizes elements here and there from it.
Due to her black hair and eyes, she is discriminated for it but she's not
the only one as one of the LI has suffered from it as well.
Yuhiru finds solace with a bunch of guys who like herself end up being charged for
crimes they didn't commit. The question remained of whether she can trust them or not. 
This honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Yuhiru sets out on a journey with them
which really felt like a journey btw, the characters also had good chemistry
but this was mostly the first 5 chapters before it focused more on the LI.
I loved the character interactions, there was a good dose of humor at times as well.
 Even if they were criminals it didn't feel like they were bad atleast not at first
but you could tell there was another side to them so it was exciting to see how it'll play out.
I really loved how the writing could be rather intense, it was hard to get bored
and if I did zone out then the dialogue would snap me back into it.
 
Art looks gorgeous both sprite,CG and backgrounds are very well done.
Music Some BGM's were absolutely stellar I rarely praise this much but they deserve it!
It also set the tone of the scenes well and I like the OP a lot as well.
 
System; its a standard VN however  there's a route split for each character Fact and Dark
Depending on your choices you can tip the scales to either of those and get different endings
but other than that most of the choices were meaningless, it may change a dialogue line or two.
All the endings of which there were four per route were right at the end.
Yea the split sides basically are like this, yes.

Length; A single route would be 15 chapters in total, every guy had a sort of
common route/prelude which lasted for 5 chapters and then it splits into fact or dark
of which both are 5 chapters long.  Nothing seemed to drag on, I thought individually
chapters were short, it still delivered the scenario in a well-paced manner.
My first route was about 7-8 hours in length but depending on your reading
speed it may differ.  Its important to note that both sides are different in tone
from the other so you won't get the same experience twice.
 
I wasn't sure what was up with the choice system maybe that's to decide what ending you get
or if you can make it to the fact or dark. I used a guide so... i'm not sure if selecting a less
than good choice would result in a game over ending and I didn't have the energy to experiment.
Often there would be red choices, I thought that selecting the wrong one would give me
 a bad end but the guide listed none. This game also only has four endings per route.
They were at the end so the bad ones felt more like you reap what you sowed.
Still I think some bad ends may've worked in a type of game like this since
most choices are actually pretty meaningless and add nothing of value except
the ones that decide the route split or the endings at the end of it.
 
 
I liked the general feel of the game but I had so many questions...
like why was the heroine summoned? isn't this judicial system too harsh?!
The early parts of trying to survive outside of the city reminded me of the dark dragon and
the happy hungry bunch from yona of the dawn. The first half of the game felt rather calm
but there were moments of suspense like do you tell a LI the truth of where you came from?
Anyway for the most part the game was very enjoyable, I wanted to get to know the LI
and perhaps more about the world... which was my main motivation to keep playing.
The characters were honestly pretty great, I wanted to know more
about them all, in good and bad ways. Its been a long time
an otome game got that kind of reaction from me.
They all had some sort of underlying trauma and it could seem like the heroine
is a therapist but I thought she was just trying to be a good friend
and a good friend listens to someone elses troubles and doesn't judge.
The fact route tended to resolve issues while the dark route let them fester.
In most other otome games I am like eh a yandere but this game did
not present them the usual way, more like they could become one.
Most of my questions were answered by the time of the final fact route.
 
The fact side pretty much felt like a normal otome game to me...
It focused more on the character development,backstory and current problem
as well as delivering some proper romance as Yuhiru grows closer to the LI.
The dark side reminded me of stuff rejet would come up with
and that would probably be for folks who like yanderes or something.
The main plot in dark took a different turn which... opened up other problems.
So even if you don't like rejet type stuff I could still recommend this game.
I personally thought it was a hit or miss as I could stand Claude's dark route
but Molly's... was a very oh no wtf is this shit?! momento.
I kind of wanted to skip them especially since I came to love Noil a bit too much
still I wanted to see all of his character so I bit the bullet againu. 

 
Yuhiru was pretty okay? I did think she could have been fleshed out more
like she wants to go back home but... ends up finding a handsome man instead.😂
There's only one route where she is actually given a lot more backstory
so if you don't do it she can seem a little less interesting.
That aside I liked her interactions with the love interest and she was very positive and brave
 so I don't think there was much to dislike. She goes through some shit alright
but the worst of it was mostly reserved for the dark side. Which is optional.
If Ceres crawled it was so Yuhiru could fly.
 
Over RequiemZ reminded me a little of 9rip but with more horror/suspense. I wouldn't say
it was on tsukihime/virche level but it had a good dose of violence and blood.
I think without the fact side this game would've been unsatisfying for me
and it may have even steered me away had I tried to do the darkside first.
Other than that it was character focused but most routes would never go into
the same problem twice maybe this was a double edged sword.
Unfortunately, while I was lucky enough to play the most spoilerific route last
otomate may've been better off locking it but it seems they forget
and I am blaming the guy in charge of management.😩
Locking Dorothy's route should've been a thing.

In most routes there were more bad outcomes than good ones, like one best end
a sad end and then two endings that I thought were generally leaning to the bad side
but they could be good in a subjective way.  In the case of Noil I think he had three
good outcomes and one bad but two of them  were really subjective and it would be up
to the player to determine that.  Each guy had 4 endings so two for each side, I think
there's a lot of appeal to this otome game though and I was invested quickly in whatever
was happening. The dark side of the route is probably what most are going to come here for
but I'd probably recommend to do the fact side first just for a better understanding
of the LI more so if you care about plot+romance.
 
-- 
TL;DR: Over RequeimZ was more well-rounded, it was just the right length
which was a relief since I think Fuyuzono really rushed itself.  Its just that one route
should've been locked. There was just enough time for both romance, plot/character
development but it can be really intense and can not seem very otome.
Looking at it overall the actual story/character's were really good and given a lot of depth
that I can forgive it. Whatever scenes there were with the LI were very enjoyable but don't come
here expecting only fluff. When I look at Noil's route it spends more time building trust...
however trust is the foundation for everything and without that there can be no love. 
That is why I had no issues with romance. The fact side did feel to me like any other otome game
 Its just that some characters had stuff going on in their dark route that legit made me go nope
so it certainly is not for everyone. There was a moderate amount of violence
and blood, I don't think it was as extreme as Virche. I also see comparisons
and I just don't see it?  Virche made me depressed, Over RequiemZ had me hooked and
despite the dark side being less than good I was excited to go to the next character fact route.
It has intense and suspenseful moments but it also makes room for more calmer ones.
Dark side tended to... have more extreme ends as opposed to the fact side
which just had a tragic and good end.  I thought at times the split sides also complimented
eachother, this was most obvious to me in Noil's maybe because I enjoyed the route.
Noil Bestia was one of my favorite LI along with Kaize&Claude.
I can recommend this otome, more so if you miss rejet-like games and want a story full of suspense.
If I have to be really honest, if you're just here for the story&romance just do the fact side.
I feel the dark side is there for people that like darker stuff, once again its contents is not for everyone.
9/10
Should this get localized? absolutely! there's definitely an audience for this
but even if it doesn't the language difficulty is fairly low.
Lastly, I don't recommend binging or rushing through this game.
Take your time, the scenario is carefully written and going too fast
will likely not make you be able to take it in or enjoy its finer aspects.
 ---
 
There are no route restrictions so you can choose whoever you're interested in.
For my first play I ended up choosing Claude... as I played the routes
it all was so character driven, if I had to recommend anything then you can do
Claude,Molly,Noil and Kaize in any order but Dorothy is best saved for last.
I almost by a hair chose him first and was glad I didn't.

This game is best played without spoilers and its very hard to write about the
characters without spoiling  so if you don't want that then stop reading here.
Its mostly just me doing commentary and a poor digest of whatever happened
while sharing some of my favorite CG's, not all of them of course.