Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian - Review

The most romantic atelier game.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Koei Tecmo/Gust.

Platform: PS5/Switch etc.
Official Site: https://atelier.games/resleriana_rw/us/

Release date: 26-09-2025

 

Okay since there wasn't anything else I wanted to play and it was rotting away

in my backlog I decided to get started on it. I didn't really have many expectations.

This is also like my first atelier game with... spinoff elements. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

 Resle: Red Alchemist & White Guardian is another half of what originally was gacha game.

 I never got the play the gacha game cuz they pulledthe plug in eng, however

it is still active in japan, at time of writing this review anyway.

Either way my opinion on this game varied a lot depending on my progression.

I wasn't too impressed early on but it does come into its own and I actually liked

the relationship between the leads by chapter 5 which is what I enjoyed the most. 

 

Pro's

- Great chemistry between leads.

- Combat is really well done. 

- Character events are fun.

- Story can seem weak or convenient but I still found part of it well crafted. 

Grey Area

- Alchemy is rather simple but left/right colour system makes it cumbersome.

 - Difficulty spikes; starts out cozy but is significantly more difficult by chapter 6.

Con's

- Some cameo's like Mu or Judie just feel like they barely meet an appearance quota

also don't expect wanderers to get any major development or anything.

- No CG's featuring wanderers. 

 

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Well I honestly wasn't sure how to approach this game? it had main entry energy

but it also tried to be a spinoff which honestly is a weird mix to me. 

 Needless to say there still are characters unique to this universe and I did

enjoy getting to know characters like Randolf or Camilla.

 Rias is definitely a fun protagonist, Slade seems to have his reasons

for being around and without their paths crossing the story wouldn't exist.

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ART/MUSIC. 

 The graphics were okay and the world like in the screenshot above can look beautiful

however most of the time we spend our time in the dimensional paths.

The areas were also smaller in scale which I liked, honestly maybe its because I am tired

of the open world so gust did well with this game in that sense. 

 The battle theme was good but other than that the music was on a just fine level.

I did love the OP and ED's. 

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COMBAT 

My only combat screenshot is of a poor ghost about to get nuked.

 Combat is turn-based again like older atelier games, thank god because

I didn't quite like Ryza or Yumia's battle systems. I think it was fairly simple

and it doesn't get too deep till you get all the members which is when

it reaches the full potential of managing the front and backrows.

I really did like the combat this time and it works so much better than whatever

Ryza had going on where you couldn't even use items unless haha. 

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 SYSTEM ramblings.

There's a skill tree and you can use SP to get stat boosts among other things

the SP mostly seems to come from quests and combat. The pool is shared so

you gotta remember to do it evenly, I did sometimes invest more into one member.

Early on I thought this was some sort of cheat to get statboosts due how casual the early

hours were  but this game does not forget that you have to craft your own gear and items too.

By the end of the game everyone was actually maxed out their original tree. 

You can manage a shop which in turn helps develop the town, this system wasn't bad

since it can get rid of junk materials. I got nervous when I saw the auto-add try

to get rid of rarer stuff so I ended up just doing it manually.

Its mandatory to raise the town level and it will roadblock the story, thankfully

it was not too grindy, you can hit the caps and then you have to invest to unlock

the next levels by turning in special items which are usually recipe morphed ones.

Its actually kinda nice to see how it goes from a ruined village to an actual town.

There was a moment where the town rank can seem like some gacha game mechanic which is 

out of place in a console game but other than that as long as you explore you will have

all the mats and optional recipies so none of it was particularly difficult just a bit of busy work. 

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

A rare CG that isn't Rias x Slade with a character that comes and goes.

 Early on the alchemy part felt kinda optional, I can count on one hand what I actually made

in eight hours of play and the majority was spend on story,gathering and fighting.

However around chapter 4-5 your really should remake your starting gear

since this is when the game gets more serious and less casual.

By the time of chapter 6 you should absolutely have your things in order

as this is where the difficulty spiked up to the point it wasn't casual anymore.

I didn't have that much trouble with the ch6 fight but if I hadn't made that healing bell

with revive I would have been in trouble. I also was able to trigger burst here for the first time

but I was not able to ult since the enemies died before that could happen. 💀💀💀

 The alchemy system itself was kinda simple? but the recipe system was convoluted

constantly had to press L2 to see the recipe tree was annoying. I'd say its a little more

advanced than say Marie. I didn't really like the random color thing either but I thought

it was easier to understand than some of the other recent atelier games. 

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

 PLOT/SETTING ramblings. 

Storywise it definitely had some interesting hooks but it wasn't deeper than it had to be.

I wasn't sure what this game was trying to be, or atleast I thought this way 5ish hours in.

If anything surprised me at all, is the chemistry between the leads.

 It could seem Slade was bland and generic but he was surprisingly thoughtful!

who wouldn't want a man like him? ISTG.

 I didn't expect it to be romantic but there was more than enough shipping fuel.

There was a found family theme between Rias and Slade and I LOVED THAT. 

Although one moment did remind me she can be a bit of a slave driver.💀 

Rias was an OK protag, a bit of an airhead, Slade complimented her

and he compensates for her. They're like the perfect duo. 

I was not sure why there was even an option to choose between them

but I guess its a callback to Eschatology or Mana khemia.

I'll remind everyone here that Rias has a whip.

With the amount of cameos you could have fooled me on who was really playable or not.

Most of the story could seem straight-forward, I'll give them credit since by chapter 10

I did think they did cook a bit with this one.  There was a bit of convenient writing

going on with a decent attempt at worldbuilding. 

Why other atelier characters got isekai'd into this world as wanderers

wasn't really important, its totally a normal occurance in this world.

Overall storywise, not particularly strong but it served, I wondered what if they didn't rely

on characters from other entries. Since the chara's unique to this game were pretty good.

 I kinda wanted Brad to join up but he was gone before I knew it, a waste.😞

Thanks for letting me meet him I guess?

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

The character interactions were great atleast which was nice

but they never really did anything that surprised me, or would drop

their entire character lore. I never played Mana Khemia 2 btw so Raze was just

a nice capable guy with a cool sword who looks a little like Anaxagoras.😅

At best they might hint at stuff from their own games but nothing deep

almost as if they want you to play their game or expect you to know. 

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

 

Overall Resleriana the red alchemist and the white guardian can be nice

if you want a more traditional atelier game with familiar faces. I don't see why

you'd have to play the Resle gacha game but you can get by just fine without it.

I never played it either, it did make me interested. 

There's some callbacks but the plot of this game is very selfcontained.

It took me around 45ish hours to finish the game, the early hours were rough

for me due to it being very slow paced but 20 hours in I got the hang of it. 

Due to that I wondered if should have skipped this game but the chemistry

between the leads was adorable, I have no regrets!!!

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

TL;DR

There were no group shot CG stills so this is as good as it gets.

 Well  I didn't expect much but it gets a lot of bonus points from me

for the chemistry between the leads, other  than that I found it decent at best. 

 Early on I was not very gung-ho about playing it despite that I am glad I stuck with it

so I got to enjoy all the Rias and Slade moments! The story was OK but it was rather

self-contained to whatever else goes on in this world. Some parts were well written

like the legend tying past to present so they did cook but... that's about it.

The game is mostly light-hearted but it can have some serious undertones.

All that really sticks to my mind were a bunch of sappy moments.💀 

I was too busy shipping Rias and Slade as well as Randolf and Camilla.😂

That was also the fire that fueled my progress through this game.

Gust, if you want to make another otome game then go for it! or get otomate to port Elkrone to switch.

I'd recommend it if you're looking for a mostly laidback RPG or if you want

another atelier game with cameos and don't mind romance between the leads.

I'll add to this that its not afraid to actually have you make better gear so

I wouldn't call it a cozy game cuz if you cozy it up Lara will step on you.💀

Compared to Yumia both games have their weaknesses but I personally

liked Resleriana Red Alchemist more! not just because of the romance

I genuinely liked the combat system more as well and the exploration didn't

overwhelm me either, it was just a nice cozy game that can get a lil difficult

but if you try then I don't think there's anything too difficult in this game.

8.5/10

 -

Some more rambles after the jump, its just character stuff and my final thoughts.

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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?

 

Atelier Yumia the Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land - Review

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Gust/Koei.

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

Release date: 21-3-2025

 

Honestly I was kinda excited for this one because it had a new heroine and world.

I tried the demo just to tip my toes in it while suffering through Tsukihime and I kinda liked it

however i'll say that this series is starting to feel more RPG-like with every new entry.

 

 

I like the OP but near the end of the game I started skipping it...

 

Pro's

- Interesting and decent story.

- Great cast of characters & fun interactions.

- Exploring is fun, its always nice finding chests.

- Character models are gorgeous, prettier than the environments even.

Grey area

- Due to the amount of content it is easy to get overwhelmed and  as an

atelier game this might've been the one where I spend synthesizing the least.

 

Con's

- Combat is too easy as long as you make good gear and items.

- Graphics are decent but... it can feel like it lacks a layer of polish.

- Ingame lightning either works in the games favor or against it.

- Shrines of prayers are too repetitive.

- Some bugs.

 

 I liked Yumia as a character, she definitely has her wits about her but is also a little timid

 and can come across as indecisive, the key theme is trying to do the right thing

but that isn't always easy. Describing her as a character isn't easy either.

Also seems she is well aware that alchemy isn't accepted so I couldn't help but noticed

she was anxious around folks but she'd be more open with people she knew. In terms of design

she kind of reminds me of Sophie or atleast in the artwork, sadly I didn't really like the design

since Yumia looks like a classy office lady with a jacket of someone

who's gonna do some outdoor camping or that's the impression I got. 😅

 

Other main characters were all GREAT and I LOVED their interactions with each other!

Story was pretty decent, I have no complaints, I absolutely loved how we slowly

got to learn more about everyone and whatever happened in the past.

I did think the ending fell a bit flat and it felt more like a beginning to something

Once I knew more about Yumia's past I liked her a lot more than right at the beginning.

Some villains are threatening, one of them is even like a dragon just not as fleshed out.

Garurumon was a weird character, was he friend or foe? he is shown to be a villain

from the get go, unfortunately like Vesper they lack depth but its done in such a way

like what else was there to tell? Lili was the more fleshed out of the bunch.

Final boss sure had build up but I thought he was just an asshole.

Due to the story being decent and the main characters having such great chemistry

I wanted to keep playing I could care less about the clunky combat

because it was fun to explore the lands of aladiss. Sadly there were still caveats.

He's like a dragon, unfortunately he wasn't as well developed.

In terms of graphics is erm... the models look great but while Ligneus region

looked fine to me, the Sivash region is where it started to look all washed up and soapy...

Graphics literally go from good to...

 

I see what you're trying to do but did you miss a layer of polish?

Sivash did look better at night, not sure if this was intended but it seems they forgot something.

The Auruma region looked okay I guess you get used to it.

It honestly baffles me how the models look great and are animated well

but the environments looks like they missed a layer of polish. 

Music was honestly fine, I don't really have any complaints, it had a good battle theme

and the atelier/synth music makes me forget the time so yea music's good. 

 

The character models look so good they look out of place with the rest.

 

In short; I liked atelier Yumia BUT I think this game needed a bit more time in the oven

because the straw that broke the camel's back for me was the Licht quest at the end of the game.

It literally tells you where to go next but for some reason the quest doesn't progress into the next

and at that point the only other things to do is the main story of which not much is left

or plain completionism which for some may not be their cup of tea. Its just poor design

and that wasn't the worst of it, I also had the bug where a side quest NPC will disappear

if you talk to it twice before killing the monsters making it unable to be completed.

This is also one of the few games that I ended up falling through the floor......

it usually ends up other people showing off their out of bound skills. This time it was me.💀

''...''

Like holy shit did they even QA this game?! Anyways I did like the characters and the story itself

was decent, for the first time ever I completely understood the alchemy system while

in dusk/mysterious I'd barely get it. Sadly I don't think this game was that cozy because

all the ''?'' marks and completion percentages did everything in its power to make it not cozy.

Its hard to recommend Yumia, maybe if you like easy games with lovable characters & lots to do?

7/10

''It was still enjoyable in terms of story/chara's but... its simply half-baked.

For all it did right, it did some wrongs. Its not perfect it just lacks polish.''

 

More rambles after the jump, I probably rambled on too much so you can stop reading here.

Infinity Nikki - Review

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Infold.
Platform: PS5,PC,Mobile.
Official Site: https://infinitynikki.infoldgames.com/en/home

Release date: 5-12-2024.

 

Ah where do I start with this game? from the world and exploration to the character design...

there was so much that appealed to me and I enjoyed my first few hours with it a lot

but sadly around the 30 hour mark the vibe changed and got very grindy for no reason.

This post is mostly spoiler free but there are screenshots with barely any context, if at all.

Pro's 

- Story is decent, relaxing game overall.

- Colourful cast of characters.

- Wonderfully detailed fantasy setting.

- F2P players have still a chance of putting together beautiful outfits.

Grey area

- Some bugs but things are very actively being fixed.

- Some conditions to craft the miracle dress are a bit much.

Con's

- Only four slots to save dresses in, at time of writing.

- Warp spires prior to activation aren't shown on the map.

- 10th ability dress is from a gacha banner..............

The game is mostly very light and fun, mostly everything is simply from collecting

whimstars to chests, sketches and ingredients nothing ever gave me

a headache except some of those domains that reward a whimstar

and crafting the miracle dress.💀 Which unfortunately turned the game into

micromanaging the daily allowance just to see the ending. **Thank god for fragile resin

sorry I am a genshin brainlet so its all the same to me really.

 

I'll be upfront Infinity Nikki is a gacha game but luckily the banners that were there

at launch didn't really interest me except butterfly dream and there was only 1 paid outfit

that I bought which can be gotten by paying only 1$ aka the cozy adventure set.

Also there were plenty of clothing and accessories and hairstyles

to get while simply playing the game which is a good thing!

There's three sets of costumes to be gotten from the depressed bear; Kilo, by collecting orbs

as well as the cinderella dress you can buy with bling's aka Infinity Nikki's ingame currency

like Mora from genshin. Sadly you need to buy everything else in the boutique first...

I don't recommend doing this unless you really like that dress or an outfit piece

as the requirements to craft the miracle dress also needs bling & threads. Both of those things

are a huge resource drain. As long as you do your daily tasks, explore and turn in materials

bling,threads or shiny orbs shouldn't be too much of a problem but it still doesn't change the fact

you may find yourself going broke in game along the way whether its because

of the cinderella dress or the miracle dress or in my case the fearless butterfly outfit.

Some people already crafted the dress but you never know if they bought the battlepass

or other packages... which gives plenty of bling along with other things. I don't think

Genshin ever made me grind that much to see the mainstory... but I guess its different here huh?

still I did get the fearless butterfly so i'm part of the problem. Anything can be done

in infinity Nikki F2P but in regards to the miracle dress it will require patience

*as getting the medals and glowing up dresses is quite a resource drain.

 

I don't think the dev's were that stingey though as the Nikki birthday costume

was free during the launch window along with the far and away set for pre-registration

both sets are very gorgeous you'd mistake them for a 5star outfit.

While I was playing the game I wondered how this game was even F2P

but at the end it all makes sense, I almost didn't feel bad to spend on it

so becareful I guess. Keep track of how much you spend on infinity nikki

and if necessary set a monthly limit to protect yourself.

The story... well it had a strong start but it turned into one thing after another

and you slowly got to uncover the mystery behind an incident which had the world in its grasp.

 Overall i'd say the story was decent, this still seems like a beginning

even though it took me like 30+ hours to finish... the initial release that is.

You get introduced to the world and get new abilities, its pretty much laid out like an RPG

there's some platforming and very light combat but none of it was overly difficult.

Most of the story was paced well but I did think it dragged a little at times especially

in wishing woods but then again I liked the twist and turns so it wasn't that bad. 

Hello there...👀

The characters were a varied bunch, I liked most from the handsome Giovanni

to the pixie merchant Timis... not even the mascot companion

Momo was annoying and I found him to be actually helpful.

Also let's not forget about Giroda... or Raggy for that matter!

The dialogue was kind of funny at times too!

The protagonist Nikki seemed to have her wits about her... perhaps too well!

other than that she didn't seem to be too bothered by suddenly being in an unknown world

but I suppose its better than her being whiney, angsty or something like that.

Due that its hard to dislike this game cuz even the protagonist seemed

to be enjoying herself, so why shouldn't the player try to do so too?

The things I enjoyed the most were slowly progressing the story and collecting things

while exploring the world which looked really nice. I am amazed by how gorgeous

the graphics and characters models are in this game! the music was nice too.

Let's not forget about the photomode, the world is so detailed you could take pictures forever.

Other than that I think it was relatively smooth in terms of fps, switching dresses

to jump or attack or gather insects/fish/groom animals made me feel like some magical girl.

The gameplay was very fluid as well, I heard its only 30fps but it looked and felt fine to me.

 

More rambles after the jump, I am generally very positive

about this game since I think it is genuinely fun to play! but I did

have some gripes which causes me to worry about the future of the game.

Kai no Kiseki Farewell O Zemuria - Review

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Falcom
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kai/

Release date: 26-9-2024.

 

Alright feels like its almost tradition for me to play a falcom game in september every year...

and I kinda feel old when I realize i've been at this for over 10 years.

There's a lot to think about but I tried to go into this game with very little expectations

but honestly it was hard, it seems falcom really pushed this a certain way and tried to get

old fans to come back for it because it promised a lot.

 

**I feel like I need some permanent disclaimer that this is just a blog where I ramble

about games I play, a place to write some thoughts on the wall.  If you don't like it

then close the tab, you can always play it yourself and form your own opinion.**

 

Pro's

- Rean route and Kevin's route were great.

- Grimgarten is kinda fun actually.

- Storywise it really delivered... and a lot of things makes sense now.

 

Con's

- Van's route was a slowburn and just boring compared to the rest.

- Maybe not make characters unplayable in grimgarten if they joined up prior.

- Gameplay balance is weird; its either easy or made to make your life miserable.

- 

 Anyway on to the game itself! it is structured similarly like reverie and there's a new and

improved marchen garten but with a twist if ouroborous decided to mess with it. OK I guess...

its like snake gang improved the original. Whenever I had to go in there for the story(early on)

 it wasn't really interesting. Some of the events may've been amusing in there, however it still felt

like it was but an after thought. It seems they can't let go of gacha mechanics so that's there as well. 

Grim Garten is just a grind dungeon where you can freely decide who to play as but sadly there's

some exceptions depending where you are during the story. I am grateful to the gacha gods for

gifting me Risette's black dress and some accesorries as well as Rion's bath towel.😅

Combat is pretty much the same as the kuro games except with improvements

so I won't be going into that, newly improved so it doesn't get stale I guess.

 

In terms of graphics the game looks great, they seem to take a different approach with scenes

at times; to try and make it more movie-like. Falcom sure has improved with this.

Music was pretty good, I loved the OP and I always listened to it when I booted up the game

except for when I took a short break to do whatever like chores. The final dungeon theme

this time was amazing and I loved it, like you just knew this was it!

 

I liked how everyone was covering each others eyes in this scene LMAO.

 

Things I enjoyed were mostly the little things like character interactions as shown above 

and it was great  when the main story actually progressed but depending on the route

I found it varied heavily and not every route was as great as the other.

Some parts were a bit of a slog especially early on not much happened.

Dog aggro is serious business, Van's a real magnet.

The prologue was kind of exciting but things calmed down quick for a bit  in chapter 1, honestly

it was like a reintroduction to everything I still knew & then some. I know my memory is not

great but its not that bad, I struggled to keep playing during those parts. I know all games

have their boring or slow moments but at times it could seem they focus too much on small

matters to stall or kill time till something happens that requires immediate attention

till then you focus on doing random requests so Van doesn't go out of business

which is what most of Van's route felt like which was not great.

 

Damn he wastes no time... huh?

 

It took me 50-60 hours to finish the game and the reason for that was mostly

because I did side quests so chapter 1 took me like 15 hours, maybe i'm slow but when

I closed the game I saw the completion at 40% in ps5 menu I was shocked because not much

of note had happened really, thankfully it picked up from then on in the different  routes.

If I had to rank them it would be Rean > Kevin > Van.

Hello good sir, this is a no smoking zone.

I did however stop doing sidequest during ch3, because I felt like it was time to get back

on track with no distractions. Had I skipped sidequest ands just focused on the plot then...

I think I would be done a lot sooner. 

 

TL;DR while I don't think Kai is a bad game, it can be very enjoyable however I think

Van route just spins it wheels for too long while we get big reveals elsewhere till we finally

get the bang for our buck with Van but at that point it is the end which sure was something.

I'll recommend this game to long time trails fans but if you're new to the series

this is not the place to be, there's lots of games you could try first but Kai is not one of them.

More ramblings after the jump but there's some complain'o-jutsu

but I feel like I should get it across that I generally enjoyed the game!

 

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - review

Couldn't take a screenshot of the title screen so uh have the keyart!

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Square Enix.
Platform: PS4/5, PC, xbone.
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 27-6-2024.

 

I have been playing FFXIV for quite some time but never wrote a review on it.

This post is mostly about the new expansion dawntrail and it isn't much about the previous.

There aren't any major plot spoilers in this post but anything could count as

a spoiler to some so whatever I guess this is just a blog post and I am writing my own

personal thoughts as a review of a game I played, if you don't like it then close the tab/browser.

Pro's

- Decent enough plot.

- Great character development for Krile and Erenville.

- The first four zones are beautiful.

Con's

- Levels are simply given to you and I personally don't feel like I earned the lvl 100.

- Recycles too much old tunes and enemy models as well, its like i've seen/heard this before.

- I get Wuk Lamat is a main character but she steals too much of the spotlight...

 

 The expansions features a slight graphic update with better textures and models

gotta admit I was a little nervous, my WoL turned out okay but there may have

been those the update wasn't too kind of. The developers were kind enough to

give players a free fantasia to edit the character again. Which is a good thing.

Not really great at taking screenshots but thought this was a nice spot in the game.

 

More rambles after the jump but if you want the short of it, I think Dawntrail is decent

however don't expect too much out of the story and just enjoy it for what it is not for what it is not.

 

Ys Memoire The Oath in Felghana - Review

Title screen not much so have one of these images you unlock for clearing the game?

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Falcom
Platform: PS4/5,witch.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/ysf/.

Release date: 22-5-2024.

 

With not much games of interest coming out and to take a break from otome games

I decided to get this game instead. Ys Felghana is also another ys games I never played

so now only VI and Seven remain unplayed.

V does not count and/or doesn't exist, remake it falcom... it deserves better. 

 

Pro's

- Fun boss fights (some annoying ones). 

- Exploring is rewarding, plenty of goodies to find in each area.

- Great OST.

 

Con's

- Ending feels a bit rushed.

- Short, its replayable but lacks an optional boss or reason to grind to lvl 60.

 

More rambles after the jump there's not really any plot spoilers in this post

but I did write somethings that bothered me, its all pretty minor.

 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - Review

 Genre: RPG.
Developer/publisher: Square Enix.
Platform: PS4/5.
Official Site: N/A

Release date: 29-2-2024.

 

With the exception right at the beginning I generally liked the story and it was fun

exploring the world, they added a lot of detail to where there was none in OG.

I mostly played this game in the evening whenever the switch was charging

which is why this game took me a whole month to finish.

 

Pro's

- Decent enough plot I guess...

- Nice to explore the world, a lot more detailed.

- I liked it when Cloud told Yuffie to STFU at one point.

 

Con's

- One too many minigames and gimmicks. Quantity over quality, most (but not all) were awful.

- Padding, pacing issues and thus ends up overstaying its welcome.

- Retry from current battle or this battle? the wording on the game over screen was poor esp in ch14.

- Gongaga & Cosmo Canyon are the worst areas to explore, in this essay I will...

---

 

Story is... mostly loyal to the OG FF7 except they're adding in elements

that weren't there before but I already knew that because of part 1.

What is really awful is that all these changes don't even really seem to matter???

The prologue of the game had me in confusion noises but then it was mostly

same as OG. They got rid of the stupid CPR minigame which I am grateful for

but instead we got a rhytmn game to impress Rufus. ' -' 

Could've done without the dolphin minigame too but it was cute...

 

I know OG FF7 had minigames as well but this game really went overboard and added even more.

For the first parts of the game it really felt like I was doing anything but the main

objective because it was just that bloated but then again they extended the midgard part

from 6 hours to 30 hours in the first remake so not sure what I was expecting. /Shrug

So now you get 40+ hours of disc 1 while the original PS1 release

was only 30ish hours as a whole. That's a world of a difference amiright.

 

Replace Rufus with SE and Mako with Minigames and its a mood.

Atleast the character interactions were mostly great as well as this NPC's dialogue

because it has all the energy that I had when I was done with this game.

 

Its not like I disliked everything, I did enjoy seeing certain parts remade.

Like Barret in a sailor suit😂 as well as a prettier& more detailed world.

So despite my complain-no-jutsu it wasn't all bad... in fact I had fun with it!

its just way too bloated which made the game overstay its welcome

hench why when I was nearing the end I just didn't like it all that much.

 

I still tried to do proto relics and clear up sidequests in chapter 13 but each area

had such a laundry list of things to do which was also mostly the same

and just repetitive so I had to limit what I engaged with. At the very least

there's always something to do so FF7 rebirth is one of those rare games

that can actually last a while if you want it to. However at the end of the day

IMO this game ended up being just fine, not great but it ain't awful either

its just that there are a lot of questionable design choices.

I'm not really sure if I want to play the 3rd remake because of this game mostly.

 

FF7 rebirth makes me appreciate the original with how simple and to the point it was

yet in the remakes they padd it out so much that I end up running out of steam quickly.

Also let's not forget the fact they make it seem like they're gonna change things

but then are like lol nope. They only make it more complicated than it really is

or try to make everything more epic while also making it longer than it needs to be.

**Gonna add to this that without part 3... I just don't know what they even want to do anymore.

6/10

 No thanks, for now I am done with the FF7 remakeverse because I think

they all just took a piss on it at the end just how this chocobo is able to float.

More rambles and complain-no-jutsu after the jump... but I think I have already made myself clear here.