Utawarerumono Past and Present Rediscovered - Review

Well... atleast Shunya got her closure.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Aquaplus
Platform: PS5,Switch,PC.
Official Site: https://aquaplus.jp/uta/shiro/

Release date: 28-05-2026

 

Okay I won't lie but I kinda forgot about this game but I decided

to play it since I love the utaware series! not like I had anything else

I wanted to play so this game seemed kinda nice either way. 

 

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. 

 

Pro's

- Wraps up Oshtor and Shunya's journey.

- Enjoyable turn based combat system.

 

Grey Area

- First half feels rather bland compared to the last 80% of the game.

- The OP doesn't play upon starting the game. 

Con's

- Game in general lacks polish; such as models/movement speed.

- Sidequests were uninspiring and mostly filler. 

 

 

This game is a sequel to Monochrome Mobius which takes place

after the first utawarerumono game and before mask of deception.

I always thought Mono-mobius didn't really wrap up all there was to tell

especially regarding Shunya which this game actually gets to do!

 The beginning of the game does start with a brief recap and slowly

gets things going but it did feel a bit off since everyone was at lvl99.

combat certainly was no issue during the first two hours or so but I did

wonder when/if there would be a stat squish and there was.

If you never played an utaware game before this game is a terrible place to start

 so you're better off either playing monochrome first or start from prelude of the fallen.

(I'm not one to gatekeep or anything so I like to give atleast two starter points.)

Speaking from my own experience it may be better to play Shunya's duology last. 

---

 

Combat is the same as MM tho what I really like is that after defeating

a special mob in an area you gain the ability to 1shot anything there.

 So long you attack them first, enemies also see you as a threat at that point.

 This was actually really satisfying, Halu true MVP.

This is great because it removes a lot of monotony from having to fight all enemies 

you come across to level up again, Since 1hitting them gives exp and loot.

It gets even better on the overworld since you can just bump and KO enemies on your mount!

The stat squish already felt kinda harsh but the grind being eased was a relieve

since it wasn't hard to level up at all.   Difficulty does ramp up around level 30

 and fights can get difficult the higher you get. If you use your BP wisely

and don't forget to invest some into defense or HP it'll be fine.

The whole battle system relies on buffing yourself and debuffing your enemies or else

get wrecked LMAO. Shunya's the character who got ko'd the most but what else is new?

Munechika exists to patch people up and provide some buffs or extra DPS if possible.

Oshtor's the most balanced unit and Mika's purpose is to hit things. 

We also don't have to unlock HP/MP recovery at savepoints anymore. 

However I will admit that by the end of the game the area lord loop was a tad repetitive. 

----

 

 Side quests were kinda just there though... they were nothing unusual.

I felt like I had to do them since when I got thrust into a battle after meeting

Soyankekur I got my ass beat!😅💀 well there wasn't any dungeons before it

but when I reloaded I noticed new quests that had appeared. After I did

those I was able to handle the fight much better. So levels do matter!

The best side quest would have to be the one that unlocks Halu's final mode...

it also had me going why is this listed as a side quest?!

it was voiced & the story was strangely good.

The rest of the sidequests felt like unnecessary busywork which is such a shame!

I didn't even do a bunch in the lvl 70 range at the end of the game cuz I was burnt out of them. 

---

 

Graphics; well the environments look fine and I am not one to complain but I did

notice the models can look like they miss a coat of paint however certain scenes

still looked good depending on the lightning in them so it wasn't too bad really. 

The animations can be kinda stiff too but there were moments, especially comedic or

fighting were it was really well done so... I honestly don't see a reason to complain much.

Suppose after three years you expect more but aquaplus has never been one

to have graphics that were amazing. Except maybe the zan games although those

were by tamsoft and the graphics were on par to the neptune action games.

I find the graphics are decent but the environments were far better than the modeling

which reminded me of tears to tiara kakan no dachi. Okay enough rambling about this. 

Music; was generally good and soothing to the ears, like I know from the series

it fit the mood and tone of the scenes well enough. Both OP and ED were great

however for some reason the OP didn't play when booting up the game. 

 ----

 

I rather liked this town, even if its nothing unusual it reminds me of some edo era scene.

 The running speed also bothered me a little because if you tilt the left stick

to the max too fast you'll just zoom across the map at max speed. WeeU!

You can in fact walk and run slower but you really need to tilt carefully.

The areas are big so I didn't mind it being a turbo run that much

but the lack of polish was rather obvious here.

 ---

It took me around 50 hours to complete the game which includes most side quests

except a few endgame ones because I kinda burnt out on them and I just smacked

enemies in the final dungeon for some extra EXP. I don't think you need to be

higher than level 80 to beat the game. However I did almost forget we could

level the blacksmith but due to that I had enough materials and was able to get

some of the best weapons/armor upgrades with ease. No boss in this game really

forced me to dig into the weapon upgrade system, the weapons and armor you

can buy or find was more than enough to make it through. I thought it was overall

breezier than Monochrome Mobius which was a little tougher in my memory anyways.

Halu was around rank 70 which matches the level range I cleared with; 77-80. 

---
 

 Overall its nice they did follow up on Oshtor and Shunya's adventure!

because I remember being a little disappointed Shunya's case was unresolved

and a lot of the stuff on arva-shulan was not fully explored which this game does.

It had a strong start it did slow down and while it was nice to

have the crew back together I did get a feeling of is this really it?!

There were plenty of interesting bits it all just felt very low key and looking back

the first half of the game just felt rather bland to me and not much stood out.

I thought the majority of the game would take place in Arva-Shulan but... it didn't.

So I was kind of let down in the first half when we had to go activate a bunch of towers.

I personally was more interested in the villains and SUS twins but most of that was

reserved for the last 35% of the game and rather fast too. The villain group didn't have

that much build up that when it was time of their re-appearance I forgot about them.😅 

Most things weren't explained very well till right at the end. It wasn't all bad though

I still think exploring the regions around Yamato is a real treat, I didn't even mind

going through the areas that much, even if the story was uninspiring at this point.

Mostly because the gameplay was excellent and if they nailed anything its that.

TL;DR

At the end of the day I think the story is OK but the first half could be better.

When the story got to the heart of the matter it was pretty good but that was 80% into it.

As for the romance... I couldn't enjoy it as much as with Rias and Slade, Shunya and Oshtor

didn't even get that many moments that they weren't on my shipping radar till someone started

talking about feelings.  I suppose they had no time/budget since there weren't a lot

of light-hearted CG's either. Having played the trilogy I could never fully get into it

since Shunya is never referenced. The way the story played out... it made sense though!

I do like the ending for the both of them, it was a rather bittersweet. 

7/10  

I did get the idea that they rushed to get this game out due to it being a little rough

around the edges but other than that if you want to continue Oshtor/Shunya's adventure

and love the utaware series I see no reason why not to get this at some point.

 If you liked the OG trilogy but disliked MM or old school rpg's then it could be a skip.

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

 

Some senile grandma rambles after the jump! I try to avoid major plot spoilers

but if you don't want anything at all then just stop reading here. 

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. 

 

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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. 

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

 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.

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

Yakuza: Like A Dragon 7 - review

Like a WHAT?!

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Sega.

Platform: PS4/5 etc.
Official Site:N/A.

Release date: 09-9-2021

 

Not sure what to play next I decided to get started on this game

that has been sitting in my backlog for like half a year! 

 

 The game is still set in the same old Kamuro-cho because where else?

or rather you start there but the majority takes place in Yokohama.  

This time we got an all new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban! It didn't seem like

I had to have played the previous games but it was nice to catch some references.

For most of the game it felt like its own story, but some things may have more impact

if you know who some familiar faces later in the game are. 

 

Pro's

- Fun cast of characters.

- Plenty of side content you can do at your own pace. 

 

Grey area

- Story is interesting but it is also messy. 

 

Con's

- Pacing issues, difficulty spikes.

- Confusing plot. 

 

--- 

At first it felt like I saw this somewhere before like the beginning of Yakuza 1

i'm not sure which was more dramatic though but I can definitely see a call back. 

Much like Kiryu, Ichiban also had to spend time in jail but much longer.💀💀💀 

The fun actually starts when Ichibum gets out of jail, he got a bit too excited

and hasn't quite gotten the memo yet. They messed up his hair so he's stuck

looking like he's been struck by lightning. Ichi also felt like he was a bit delusional

and very insisted on doing stuff his way even tho he had someone trying to look out for him.

Oh no... anyway it was quite entertaining to follow Ichiban get his bearings but things

went down the rabbit hole and I thought parts of the plot were confusing.

Was wondering what was up with him and some even say he was a Schizo...........

it certainly would explain things but I think he was just hard-headed.

No one seemed to mind his quirks which was hilarious.

 

Ichiban in a box.

 Storywise I wasn't really sure where any of it was going really. 

It went from Yakuza drama to being homies with the hobo's

to trying to find a job but that is just the tip of the iceberg

as its all down the rabbit hole from there which was just more drama...

Atleast some of it was entertaining, except ''the talk'' in ch10. (I'm tired...)

Then due to pausing the story to get better gear and immersing myself in some side content

I forgot half of the plot so it was like wait this game has a story?!💀💀💀

Now everyone in Yokohama will know Ichiban confections has the best rice crackers ever.

 Uh yea I guess I should go meet with the Omi now huh? about what again?!

That's it... that is my LAD7 experience.

From then on I was able to follow the plot better maybe cuz there wasn't much distractions. 

---

 

Also its no longer a brawler and it just plays like an turn-based RPG now.

 I didn't have much problems with the genre switch as it felt comfy. I don't really feel

like mentioning the gameplay as its just turn based with a job system

to change the characters classes(which I barely did) because it was a hassle.

 The only ones I changed was Saeko(to Idol) and Adachi(to enforcer). 

The battle system is a homage to dragon quest because the protagonist likes that game

I guess sega did a handshake with square enix to keep the names and other references intact.

I played on normal and it seems you're locked to that but I didn't have much

of a problem throughout the game, I could clearly tell when I had to upgrade

and get my shit in order which happened only twice in ch9 and ch12.

I hated this dungeon as it didn't seem to end but those enemies were funny.

 You also raise Ichi's stats(intellect,confidence style etc)like its some persona game

but you don't actually have any social links with NPC's. Raising Ichi's stats usually 

come from choices during substories,skills or the vocational school.

You can deepen your bond with your party members as well by fighting,eating or triggering

 party talk skits but often they'd reach a point they got locked so you had to chat at the bar

to raise it further, these events varied whether they were interesting but most were nice.

 

This game's balance is odd though, early on its rather easy. I got by with the joke weapons

from that one store for a long time along with some light crafting but I had to

upgrade everything in ch9/12 which made things more bearable.

 Unfortunately the upgrades were expensive and the only way to solve that is to do some

optional activities to get more money and the best way to do that is the management minigame.

I got kind of bored of it by rank 21 but I ended up finishing the whole thing anyways. 

 

The length? 50-60ish hours. My ingame save said 55ish but for some reason PSN

inflated this number by 10. Okay whatever maybe it counted me idling but the game didn't. 

Much like Yakuza 5, LAD7 also has a long finale so you gotta make sure you can play

for almost 3 hours because once you enter the final dungeon you can't save.

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

I recognize that place from lost judgment and I don't like it.

I know RGG recycles a lot but they do it in a clever way and I did enjoy exploring

Yokohama a little more in this game than in Lost Judgment.

The game was also permanently discounted after Y8 came out so its now 20$

with it dropping to 10$ on sales but this price is perfect for the contents you get.

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

 

The TL;DR of it would be that I think it was a fun game! but the story

was a bit all over the place? I didn't hate it or anything, at the end of the day its OK.

Honestly I liked the characters, interactions and substories much more than the overall plot. 

 I really struggled to follow some of it till it was straight up explained but even then

it still somehow failed to follow up on one thing in the ending, it made me angry. 

I think the switch from brawler to RPG was refreshing and it still

had the fun things I liked from past Yakuza games such as substories.

Ichiban wasn't constantly getting scammed like Kiryu did in Yakuza 1 in some of them

Ichi is actually helping others out of them. So I couldn't see him as a lvl1 dumbass

but there were some moments here or there cuz he can embarrass himself.😅

It took me a few games for Kiryu to grow on me but Ichiban did it in one game.

Hero missions were boring and repetitive and Ichiban's reaction is similar to mine when I think of it.

The only downsides are the somewhat confusing plot and some pacing issues.
I just think had they paced this game properly I wouldn't have to go out of my way

to get upgrades. They could have implemented dungeons better because chapter 8 was way

too short and to find myself slightly walled by combat the next chapter does not feel good.

It doesn't even get better because the enemy lvls increase like wildfire and I am like hold up?! 

There weren't really any big dungeons besides two so the rest of the game felt like yakuza 1-6

but turnbased. The best way to level ended up being the arena btw can you believe it?

I mean you can revisit the underground dungeons to grind but it was so out of the way

it wasn't even on my mind not even side quests/substories took you back there.💀

 Despite grievances I recommend it to anyone that is interested in an RPG

with an older cast and doesn't mind doing side contents. 

7.7/10

 

More ramblings after the jump, maybe some light spoilers but nothing too heavy

hench why most of the rambles are behind here.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Remastered - Review

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Game Arts/GungHo ent.

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

Release date: 18-4-2025

 

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

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

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

I actually ended up finishing both close together too. 

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

 

Pro's

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

- Main heroine has good character development.

- Lot's of hilarious and funny moments.

 

Grey Area

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

 

Con's

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

- Slow walking speed in dungeons.

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

maybe its something they couldn't fix. 

 

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

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

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

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

 

Much like Lunar 1 there's no complicated crafting system

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and then everyone is fairly straight forward. 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Except in the epilogue but more on that later.. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Me every morning......

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

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

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

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

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

 

TL;DR 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9/10

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

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

when not which made it an overall enjoyable experience.

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

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

 

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

 

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?