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.

Final Fantasy VII remake intermission - review

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

Release date: 10-6-2021.

 

I ended up buying the twin pack deluxe edition with FF7 remake 2 on ps5 by accident because

there are too many versions. While I played the original remake on ps4 I never played intergrade

aka the PS5 version that has this intermission. So while waiting for remake part 2/rebirth

I ended up playing the Yuffie DLC! this review is pretty short because well this DLC

was short so there's not much to talk/write about but I still wanted to anyway.

Pro's

- Fun side content.

- Decent enough plot that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Con's

- Short, feels like there's a missing gap between chapter 1 and 2.

- DLC was about Sonon+DoC references and not about Yuffie.

- Can skip this DLC and miss absolutely nothing.

 

 More rambles after the jump. I suppose there be spoilers cuz I rambled about Sonon.

Granblue Fantasy Relink - Review

TBH I think Grindblue Fantasy fits a lot more..

 Genre: RPG.
Developer/publisher: Cygames.
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: https://relink.granbluefantasy.jp/en/

Release date: 29-1-2024.

 

After the last disaster I sat through, GBF relink would by my next game as there wasn't

anything else I wanted to play/get. I mainly picked this because I heard the story

wasn't too long and a fantasy setting and pastel-ish colours just felt right for my mood.

I''ll say it straight up my enjoyment of this game was like 50/50 but it was mostly good

some aspects just were not for me.

A thing to note is that Granblue Fantasy was originally a gacha/browser game and also one

of the very few that has like a 10+ years and still running even surviving the P5 collab curse.

Unfortunately I couldn't get into that game but it has its charms I saw that much.

Pro's

- Decent enough story.

- Awesome boss fights.

- Variety in playable characters with unique playstyles.

- Exploring is rewarding, variety of chests & map size is comfy.

Con's

- Terrible entry point, wastes no time introducing the main crew.

- Short, endgame is a grindblue fantasy fest.

- Fate episodes can seem cheap in trying to tell a story of a character.

 

I did play the demo and honestly that did not sell me on the story/characters...

you'll probably be fine since fate episodes exists which gives a little backstory to everyone

but sadly they expected you to already know GBF to some extend. I ended up watching

season 1 of the anime because I don't know this series and it did sell me a little better.

The anime actually had sakuga animation if you don't know what that means, its moments

were the animation is notoriously better. All this also reminds me a lot of the situation with the hamefura otome game cuz that game also wasted no time to introduce anyone

in great detail so the more you know the better.

TL;DR this game just didn't do much else other than being one more adventure with Gran&co.

It was epic at times and this had really high budget I also appreciate the effort they put into

the game since the party AI is much better than in most games.

Ultimately this game just fell kinda flat to me idk why. Maybe I am not enough

of a fan to enjoy this game as were my thoughts during chapter 9, it also felt like a lot

of story beats were repeated/reused and were a bit cliche maybe it was that

or they were just playing it safe or being too by the book which kinda put me off.

Didn't help that they put character stories as mini visual novels that... are super short

speaking of short the story was short too and then all you're left with is grindblue fantasy

which is boring if you don't have any friends that can play with you to make it easier or more fun.

There are also a lot of playable characters but most don't add anything to the main plot

I kinda disliked that, sure they have their own story but there's almost no time to tell them here.

-

There's one final thing that I didn't like, characters would talk as they walk

or during battle and even would drop lore in there, needless to say I wasn't able to pay

fully attention to that. Near the end of the game Id would talk of his past which honestly

should have been a cutscene, my field of vision simply cannot pay attention to all that is onscreen.

Having to attack,dodge and run takes quite a bit of my attention already and I play on normal/action.

One ear in and out the other if you catch my drift. The final nail was this game

commited the cardinal sin of rolling the credits and then going but one more thing!

Meanwhile I am like then don't roll the credits yet if its not over? >:(

 -

I will say I ended up walking away from this game in a better mood than with fate/remnant

and that probably says a lot, me being salty about how they added an extensive post-credit epilogue

but hey! atleast it wasn't DLC cuz during the credits I was like oh no... what if its DLC???!!

Rest assured GBF relink is actually a complete package. Its just that I think the epilogue

would be better if they incorporated Id's fate episodes into it instead of turning it into

a monster hunter fetch quest and collecting Rolan's notes before doing the same thing

we did in chapter 9 which leads to the realization of oh my god! Rolan is the true heroine!

GBF is a series with a ton of charm and I think the characters carry it a lot but this game

sort of desensitizes the player because at the end of the day it just wants you to grind

for this or that to be as strong as possible and you ain't getting the final epilogue scene

if you don't plow finish SOMEONES to do list. Now I hope you can understand

why I am 50/50 on this game. Turning my ps5 on and seeing skybound heart

will take 40 mins but then 2 hours pass and I have to go to bed did not help at all.

Mr fix-it dude except you're on cleanup duty.

 

I still recommend this game if you like grindy games with epic boss battles

and are already familiar with the series in general.

6.5/10

More ramblings after the jump but I have pretty much said enough here already

but my final thoughts exist to get my thoughts out a bit more.

Lost Judgment - Review

Man...

 Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer/publisher: Sega
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: N/A

Release date: 24-9-2021.

 

I wasn't really sure what to play but then I just wanted to see Yagami,Kaito and Sugiura again

instead of Kiryu-chan so we're doing another generation gap to try & do some more

detective work in Kamurocho! Since the judgment games are best played blind

i'll try my best to not talk too much about the general plot... except for some things

I felt like I had to mention however I won't be discussing the general plot as a whole.

Pro's

- Decent enough plot.

- Substories were generaly better than in judgment, finding squirrels was fun.

- A whole new district to explore besides ye olde kamurocho.

Grey area:

- Game deals with some pretty heavy themes involving suicide/harassment and bullying.

Con's

- Awful pacing, goes on too much about the same thing for too long.

- The keyword thingy and/or using a variety of tools can feel like busywork.

- Most investigation parts were not interesting and were pretty forced, the biggest offender

being at the end of the final chapter, like come on that killed the flow.

The story this time... is like some random season of some detective drama and

honestly after finishing it really felt like it could have been a tv show too.

Right of the bat we're on the case of a guy that tried scamming a girl out of her money.

It was all a ruse from the get go like the guy was one of those typical con artist setting a girl up

with a debt to they have to pay it off in some establishment by selling themselves.

Luckily for the girl she found the right detective agency for the job to get to the bottom of it.

Then we go to an all new district the (ga)ijin-cho which leads us to a case about highschool bullies

and it did not get much better from there since there is a gang active in the ijincho district too.

Ah yes because afterall the judgment games are a yakuza game in disguise! with political twists.

Honestly this was one of the few moments I laughed the other one was Sawa scolding

Yagami for picking fights in the gym and him reverting to a highschool boy.

This game had rather hefty material right in the opening hours from the above to a case

about bullies, I had to keep taking breaks during that cuz it was almost too much.

I'll admit it was fairly interesting but it had some pacing problems

like one moment you're doing a substory to further the mainstory.

I think they should have branched it better but I guess it couldn't be helped

and oh well for the sake of the case I go pass your test I guess.

Atleast in this game they actually used the markers properly so I wasn't getting lost.

    I got a little de-motivated at that part and just closed the game for the day... in the middle of it.

They like also loved to switch chapters in the middle of a cutscene the worst offender

was from ch2 to ch3 I was like really? you really gonna switch chapters like that...

Love how this game tells me to go do something but 5 steps later this happens & I cause a traffic jam.

 

This game really isn't much longer than the average RGG game though its somewhere

between 20-25 hours depending if you get distracted by side content.

Most chapters are fairly short but chapter 10 was quite long compared to most other chapters

I wouldn't be surprised if that is where people drop this game cuz that is also the point

where the game throws in its mental gymnastics and wtf is even real justice?

Honestly I start to wonder why I didn't just drop it but yea if I am in like ch10

which is almost at the end then i'm gonna see it through cuz I got hooked by the story.

Maybe I need to change... but I am the type to see things through if I am far enough anyways.

 

Gang's all here!

That aside I was happy to see Yagami, Kaito and Sugiura again as well as Tsukumo

which I sorta forgot about but he had a real glow up or so to speak.

The character interactions were pretty great and the first subquest was actually funny.

I still remember how the subquests in the original judgment didn't really grab me

but it seems they learned and made them more fun! Yagami's inner dialogue

was also pretty funny this time but it seems like he was complaining a lot actually.

Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy having to find most subquest in this installment

cuz it was all such a busywork so I only focused on a handful that caught my eye.

 

Graphics wise it looked great but I think thhe lightning at times may have needed work

when like the sun was setting it tended to look significantly worse.

The above screenshot isn't really good at describing it I just thought it was funny.

They may also need to work on the water textures... I was not impressed.

Music was generally pretty good, OP was not my style but I will say

it fit the theme of the game and Kuwana's character very well.

 

Nottu dissu shittu againu...

You know I think the story may be fine though but yea it just didn't really grab me

as much as the first game? so that's that maybe it was because of the material being heavy

but if I had to be honest it wasn't that but the overall pacing just felt off and in the end

it felt like it was all over the place with the forced substory introducing a new mechanic

and substories being a pain this time to find too. By ch4 I got a general picture

but they kept revealing more layers of the onion and I was like uh sure now what.

I failed to understand why we frequently needed to kill time or do literally anything else...

their is a major bug in ch6 where it could softlock your game if you triggered

a specific school substory with the robotics club, it is fine anywhere else.

TFW: Get told to do literally anything else but also can permanently glitch yourself.

Accidentally roasted Hoshino-kun...😂

In terms of substories I remember really enjoying running into them in Y0 or Yk1 but they were

hard to find here in lost judgment, since they are locked behind some keyword BS which

ultimately turned me off from them which is such a shame cuz the handful I found were funny.

I did like how we had a whole new district ijin-cho which I jokingly keep calling gaijin-cho

because I was kind of getting tired of just kamuro-cho, it was also bigger than the osaka? district

Majima was placed at in Y0 so there was plenty of new sights to see.

Too bad the substories were a pain to unlock this time... there can be so much fuzz

unlocking keywords or special tools to find stuff it all can be a hassle.

Battle wise it was a lot better and the health bar no longer can get broken Yagami's moves

felt cooler this time around as well but other than that it was more or less the same.

Final Thoughts?!

No better image to describe how I feel about this game in general.

 

TBH I think the story was pretty good but at the same time can be a complete

mental torture due to the story elements about bullying and harassment.

There were times I wanted to give up, the only reason I tried to finish the story was to get

to the bottom of it but it wasn't really a fun ride. Like at all. The story also tried to pull some

mental gymnastics near the end and I was like I'm so tired during the court scene in the final chapter.

Also I knew Kuwana was full of *** the moment he started vaping like a hippie.

Its okay though I still love him and he is single handedly my favorite character in this game

or more like Kuwana carried this game really hard, I mean it when I say this.

Of course I liked seeing the characters again and some substories were fun but I just

wasn't enjoying myself. I disliked the constant need to interrupt the mainplot

to introduce a new mechanic and actual substories being buried behind keywords

and you can't even randomly trigger them anymore (only some).

The characters kind of did feel one note and never really did anything surprising

its like they had a role and that was it, which is why the only one I really liked was Kuwana.

Yagami could have a bunch of things to say but the only word that comes out is Sawa.

Due to some of the above it felt like the mainplot was dragging on

plus it in general feeling like a can of worms and then you eat it too (ew).

I had to force myself to finish this game, I did not really have this problem with the original.

I believe there were some serious pacing issues as well as most of the investigation scenes

not being really interesting, they didn't make me feel like I learned much most of the time.

The worst offender was the one in the final chapter which was action packed

but then it had you... have to figure out a route and select random objects which

completely killed the flow of it all. That actually made me frustrated. 

I also missed finding random cats during investigation segments and this time

they made them harder for some reason or like they want you to look really hard

for some reason or examine something twice over. Meanwhile this dragged it on for no reason

since there isn't even a proper checklist of what to look for, you just click random things

or examine something twice over or else you can't proceed. I didn't feel smart looking

around cuz there was barely anything to find either. >_>;

I will add to this that I did really enjoy finding some of the squirrells when I got into that

and I feel like it filled the hole of not being able to find cats like in the previous game.

Just a kiss and make up already moment except not really.

 It makes me wonder how many people actually dropped this game around

ch9/10 and never finished. Like I remember I enjoyed pulling of the layers of the mystery

onion in the first game but with lost judgment I had to force myself to do it.  The character

interactions also weren't that fun & there were only a handful of moments I laughed including

Yagami getting scolded by Sawa or not being able to look Kuwana in the eye that one time.

As is with most RGG games the story was too heavy for there to be any fun which was reserved

for substories. I mostly ended up playing this game when I would watch a tv-show before bed

so I only played it when I had nothing better to do or watch which is why it took me a while to finish.

7.5/10

I guess that is one whole point less than what I gave the original huh?

Who are you, you are not Yagami. Yagami wouldn't let this happen /s.

 

So all in all this game was a drag for me despite the battle system being an improvement

and no more mortal wounds (yay). The story was as interesting but it

had some pacing issues and I nearly lost my patience at times.

Basically for me Judgment has a better story and Lost judgment has better gameplay.

This game made me want to curl up in bed instead of actually playing it... does this say enough?

The story at its core wasn't even half bad... but idk the way it was presented made it such a drag

and wasn't enjoying it that much. I also stopped doing substories during the main story

since I felt I would lose the excitement and the flow of it if I lingered too long to do random stuff.

I will say that the ending of this game was much better than the last game I played and it was

actually satisfying in rounding everything up. Also while I could be wrong about this

but I am pretty sure the theme song of this game was about a certain character

being fed up and taking matters into his own hands. My takeaway is that this game

wasn't about Yagami it was about Kuwana. That's why its called ''Lost Judgment''.

I kinda do wanna play the Kaito files someday cuz he's a bro but i'm not sure when...

Would probably only recommend Lost Judgment if you don't have anything else to do

and want to see Yagami and the gang again. Or perhaps want to play every RGG game out there

but be advised this game carries some heavy themes and may be a tough pill to swallow

especially if you have dealt with similar things. What's next? not much but I am kinda

in the mood for an otome game so its either waiting for Matsurika no Kei or Granblue Fantasy relink.