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.

 

Radiant Tale ~Fanfare~ - Review

 Genre: Visual Novel.
Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/radiant_tale/fanfare/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v42433
Release date: 31-08-2023.

 

Okay so Otomate decided Radiant Tale needed a FD and since I sort of liked the game

and they added a Liyan route I decided to get it! also it seems like Raditale FD releases

really close to Virche's FD, not even a week apart! 😱😱😱 I didn't realize this

till I was in the middle of Vilio's after and was like no rush right?! 😅

Good thing is this game wasn't that long... phew.

 

Pro's

- Enjoyable FD to compliment the original game!

- Gorgeous art and fitting music.

 

Con's

- After stories have choices but they don't actually matter.

 

 

As this is a fandisc it will have after stories for the main guys and 2 new routes for Liyan and Jinnia

which take place after the common route normal ending of the original Radiant Tale.

After and IF stories are roughly 3-4 hours in length, which honestly was enough as it never

did drag on long enough to overstay its welcome and most of them remained short&sweet.

I did set a good pace for myself and got through an after in a day so I spend

a good week on this which is pretty good value if you ask me but it all depends

how much time you have to want to set aside to sit back and read a little.

 

System is pretty standard as per usual, however I didn't understand why there were choices

in the after stories, said choices seemed to be there for the sake of it. Like congratulation Ion

or telling Ion that he was cool. I'm like... why bother at this point? there's no need for choices

if the outcome doesn't change or there is no dictionary or different scene to collect.

There being choices made much more sense in the new routes...

since there are normal ends but those give no CG.

Art is as gorgeous as ever and Usaba Kagerou and Miko have returned to grace us with more of

their insanely pretty art! Music is fitting enough and I did not have any complaints.

Honestly with most of the after stories I was pretty satisfied and I even ended up

liking certain characters more than I did in the original game which was really nice.

The after stories also further went into matters so yes if you loved the world view and lore

you'll be in for a treat for sure. So I can definitely recommend Radiant Tale to fans of the original

who can't get enough of it! The new routes may depend on tastes of who you were more

interested in. Its good they got routes because I sure was thirsting after one of them back then.

 

However I do think the afters could be either a hit or a miss... in my opinion it felt that

some of them didn't really had a good enough plot, I liked Ion,Zafora and Radie's...

but I had some issues with Paschalia and Vilio's afters and didn't enjoy them as much.

Both IF stories with Jinnia and Liyan were very enjoyable to me so there's that!

Anyway that is just my two cents and I still recommend Raditale FD if you really liked the original

since this is an amazing FD to compliment a good otome game!

9/10

For play order I mostly followed the same order I did in the original with the new routes last!

since this is a fd the order doesn't even matter I just decided this for myself

you could only do your fav's and skip any you don't like too...

Ion > Paschalia > Zafora > Radie > Vilio > Jinnia > Liyan.

 

The non-spoiler babbles end here and from here on i'll be writing about the afters etc!

and sharing my favourite cg's. So be warned there will be spoilers after the jump.

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Kuro no Kiseki 2 Crimson Sin - Review

Lol, they buried Aaron...

Genre: RPG
Developer/publisher: Falcom
Platform: PS4/PS5.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kuro2/

Release date: 2022-09-29.  

Okay its that time of the year! unfortunately while I greatly looked forward to this game

I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped! first of all this is a direct-sequel to kuro no kiseki

so I don't recommend starting with this game. Sadly when this game launched

there was a bunch of drama Llama due to chinese streamer that rushed the game

and finished it in a day or so and a lot of fans were disappointed.

After playing it myself I can sort of understand why!

I will say this here, I tried to be positive but this game is far from perfect

this is not one of those cases where sugar coating it is gonna make it better.

Anyway if you don't like what you're reading close the tab and

go play it for yourself and form your own opinion.

There won't really be many plot spoilers in this post, though some notes

about random scenes but nothing with full context.

Pro's

- Story has an interesting enough premise and it is good as a direct-sequel.

- Rion and Celis are goat, Nadia and Swin are cute little angels.

- BGM was good, tho mostly boss fights.

- Fishing minigame is back and better than ever.*

Con's

- This game does very little for the trails series as a whole.

- Dumb bad ends with time travel gimmick yet no consequences for it.

- We hardly visit any new areas.

- Characters get too careless and OOC in a way that does not fit.

- Minigames for the sake of having them.

I'm going to start with the things that I liked!

I loved spending more time with Rion and Celis and learning more of them

they're also Bergard's disciples/students and they go way back. Sadly Bergard couldn't

be around much in this game but these guys have our backs most of the time, especially Rion!

I liked the scene where Celis kicked a door and Rion went like oh my that's quite sturdy isn't it?😅

or the one where Rion covered Celis's mouth as she was about to spout obscenities.😂

I Need more cheeky guys like Rion in my life...

 Someone at falcom may have been a Eugeo fan though as Rion's S-craft is quite the reference!

and well he ended up being like a true bro too so... hmm!

Cuz Bergard isn't present at all in this game and I wish Rion/Celis replaced him in full

but they ended up being more or less guests that join at fixed times.😭😭😭

A timeless classic...

 Nadia and Swin are also back and they're so cute and sweet, most scenes were fun with them

also plenty of fun moments with the cast in the game, it wasn't all bad.

Okay you may be like what does this have to do with any of the plot? well it doesn't

the plot is mostly about the eight genesis, Quatre also gets more development

as his backstory was actually pretty big and could definitely not be told before.

Unfortunately this game may have been about the eight genesis but it did a terrible job

at even explaining wtf they even are... instead we get an entire chapter full of bullshittery

but hey just in case anyone misinterprets this sentence i'll add that atleast it wraps it all up

pretty well and there was a reason why garden master wanted the dang things... and why red grendel exists. So even if this game does nothing for the series as a whole it is good as a sequel.

Elaine has a nice ass.

Sadly I thought Elaine would have more presence but more often than not it felt like Swin

was the second protagonist and she was even sidelined for a whole chapter.

Haha atleast Elaine's final connect event was kind of nice, super fanservicey but uhm

while that is nice its also nothing definite regarding her relationship with Van.

 

Van is a good MC, kuro 1 has showed that but in this game he and the crew have

gotten careless, add into the fact the dead ends are just shock value

its like they tried to turn this into a visual novel! Maybe trails becoming a VN

wouldn't be so bad, perhaps this way they could actually finish the story as a whole. /s

As for Shizuna... she was cool as always but yet again this wasn't her game!

also I didn't really like her costume this time cuz it looked like she robbed a store 

and was caught in the act when going for the pants.😂

 

Anyway if you expect Kuro no Kiseki 2 Crimson Sin to make big progress for the series in general

then drop those expectations cuz you ain't gonna get it! but as a sequel or fandisk to Kuro 1?

yea it is good in that sense but it also doesn't do too much for any of the cast.

In short, Kuro no Kiseki 2 can be a disappointment *if you expect to much in the grand scheme of things.

 

More rambles after the jump, edit: I won't force anyone to read any further as I can sound

kind of harsh, cuz despite loving parts of it I did not enjoy the game as much and actually

expected more of it. Please note that I do not think this game is that bad...

if you really don't like what you're reading then I urge you to play it for yourself

maybe you will like it more than I did! thus my score of enjoyment overall

is a 6/10 this is my personal rating for the game.

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Radiant Tale - Review

 Genre:VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.

Platform: Switch.

Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/radiant_tale/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v30920

Release date: 2022-05-26.

 

Okay the WoF team also known for the recent variable barricade

have come up with a new otome game... about a circus troupe.

Now don't get me wrong but it finally seems they have embraced their inner clown!

if you have played WoF, Reine or other games they worked on they've been known

to be creative with their systems luckily they've toned down their BS.

The artwork is exceptionally pretty and some prerelease info confirmed

it won't be a virche and will be light-hearted! so its mostly a good time.

I won't be posting too many CG's in this part, everything that is shown is common route only.

If you're gonna get this game... enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not.

Pro's

- Interesting story and worldbuilding.

- Unique self-contained routes.

- Art, its beautiful.

- Music is lovely and fits the tone of scenes, though one track did annoy me.

 

Con's

- The common route is quite long.

- Sometimes problems come up that are resolved almost instantly.

- It feels like the general plot/world was from a rejected RPG game.

- There should've been a Lian route/end.

- Ye olde idea factory sound effects are back! missed em from old otomate titles

or compile heart games? hahah recycle factory is at it again to haunt us! /s

 

Story; I went in relatively blind and aside of knowing about the circus theme

I had a hard time figuring out wtf was going on till it was explained, Tifalia joined

some circus troupe and got to meet her mates. There's some monsters around that feed on

negative emotions as well as a down-trodden prince who is stuck in the body of a child

whom also seems to have shut off his emotions so the troupe gets ordered to put on a show for him.

TL;DR: The troupe works to try & make people happy as well  as help out prince Colivus

overcome his emo phase while mostly unaware of a bunch of political intrigue going on.

Unfortunately they find out they can't actually perform that well YET so they still have a ways to go

LMAO I can't help but be reminded of Kimiyuki cuz these guys don't seem to have any idea

of what they're doing so its up to Tifalia to help them out. Their shows end up being

retellings of folklore, they travel across the country like an actual circus troupe to perform in

the various cities(and bloom pretty flowers). Each of the guys have their own strengths so we see

a bit of everything really. Anyway that's all i'll write here about the story

I think I have already said way too much.

 The general vibe of the game reminded me of WoF... and it was pretty light-hearted

nothing too dark or dreary. The heroine Tifalia is cute but she doesn't have a sprite

or voice acting unlike most of the WoF teams heroines which is a let down

cuz I think it would've made her stand out more in the story since she is pretty important to it.

Also while this game has a circus theme, it kind of leaned towards theatrical troupe as well

but it is still a circus cuz they were trying to play out a story with tricks and magic.

Maybe my idea of a circus is just a bit old fashioned...? this is a fantasy setting after all!

The UI(user interface) its okay but not my thing, the text is very small and like I said the heroine

did not have a sprite, I honestly really wish she had one outside of POV from the guy.

The music was good it matched the general vibes of the game, it stood out more

than some other otome games so maybe that says something.

The system is just the usual choices and some map selection stuff, nothing special!

Art is by Kagero and Miko... pretty gorgeous! I think most of it is by Kagero but I know

for certain that Miko worked on Ion and some of the subchara like Rian.

 Seiyuu cast is... fairly unknown to me aside of Umehara but I have heard

the others SOMEWHERE before just not a lot. Also Aaron Wei i'm hearing you!

Radiant Tale seems like a good time if you want to explore a fantasy setting that doesn't get

too dark! there is an underlying plot beneath it all as well as some political intrigue

so even though it seems all nice and easy-going there's some guys pulling strings.

Aside of the main love interest there are also a lot of side characters

and one of them catched my eye but alas Rian is a side chara's with no route.😭

The prologue/common route is pretty long, while it serves as an introduction and is good at

setting it all up including developing the heroine, I did get a little bored

because it did seem to keep going on and on. The prologue is long and then you

have your common route which is were you get characters flags to decide the route but honestly

aside from some banter here and there its kinda like older otome games, you can get a feel of

everyones personality and see what they're like but the plot had varying levels

of being interesting still its not too bad its just a bit long!

 

So while it is a light-hearted game, Radiant Tale takes a while to get going, 

it has a good amount of wordbuilding and sets things up for the individual route.

In terms of romance there isn't that much of it in the common part... thankfully there's some

cute scenes here and there so its not like they forgot but most of it is in the personal route.

Radiant Tale might be cute but it isn't short&sweet. I'm not sure how else

to describe it as... honestly as I got near the end of the common route I started thinking

how while the story is nice it felt like it was scraps from some rejected plot for an rpg....

considering idea factory's history this is not at all surprising! the WoF team was

probably stressed with the daunting task of making another game so they

looked for scraps for some ideas at the headquarters. Nvm this is turning into a shitpost.

That aside I don't think this game is bad or anything but it might be nice if you're in the mood

for something slower paced yet with easy-going vibes as they all work toward a goal. 

In terms of characters, I think its gonna be a hit or miss maybe some might surprise you 

when you're actually on their route some will just have a terrible first impression. 

At first Zafora didn't quite click with me but the further I got into the common route

the more I got interested and actually wanted to do his route! so I saved him for later

sadly I didn't really like him that more over the others, oh well can't like everything.

As for Ion his route didn't do it for me either but I didn't dislike his character... my favorite 

was Paschalia, his route just did everything right for me and after it he was my best boi.

Lately I just tend to really like the cheesy stuff like coughTalesofArisecough.

Radie wasn't bad either but at times it made me wish I was going for Lian instead.

Also because I did Ion first I could not believe people were saying this is such a cute

and happy game which it isn't atleast not all the time. Zafora's route made me appreciate

what happened in Ion's a little more though so there's that! Unfortunately while I do like Vilio

his route suffers from the true end effect, not only do we have to sit through the common route again

it is also a combined version of all the routes thus far and it was twice as long as all the others.

Well... with this Radiant Tale finally turned into the clown fiesta you wanted it to be no?

I think this made the game seem extremely disjointed only to be tried

to put together with glue which actually worked? still it suffers from some commonly

found problems like most routes not even touching upon the real story.

As for play order... for first play I just went for someone that seemed interesting which was Ion...

You have to do all routes to unlock Vilio so my play order ended up being:

Ion > Paschalia > Radie > Zafora > Vilio.

Basically just pick whoever interests you except maybe Ion cuz his route hits a bit different

 Radie has some revelations about Tifalia so somewhere in the middle or before Vilio is good.

TBH it really doesn't matter in what order you play, cuz of how the final route works.

I do think the WoF team knew what they were doing and I can see things

from some of their other games in here. So while there might be some downsides

this was still quite nice, a cute fantasy setting otome game with a bit of volume!

Honestly if you prefer longer otome games that take their time, a proactive heroine

and like worldbuilding with some light political intrigue then I can recommend it cuz there is

some pay off, the cast was lovely too but if you have a short attention span then its better to pass!

7,5/10

Anyway character rambles/cg's after the jump, due to the games length I won't be writing too much

and whatever is there in the bimbo route babbles is just what I thought was note worthy. If you don't want spoilers back out now the routes are best enjoyed when you don't know what happens!

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Sweet clown ~Gozen San-ji no Okashi na Doukeshi~ - review

 Genre: Otome/simulation VN.
Developer/publisher: Takuyo.
Platform: PSV, Switch.
Official Site: http://www.takuyo.co.jp/products/sweetclown/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v16460
Release date: 2021-07-22.

 

What lead me to Sweet Clown? I started to look for something to kill time with

but not exactly in any hurry to finish it as a whole so this kinda became like a backburner game.

The japanese subtitle of this game is long (Gozen Sanji...) so I won't type it out

anywhere else in ENG it means: 3AM candy clown.

Considering the themes of this game this was for the better, its not as depressing as say Getsuei no Kusari nor is there too much despair like Virche but it isn't exactly light-hearted either.

Perhaps I wanted something not from otomate and since I feel like i'm a clown lately...

so I ended up picking up sweet clown after I had initially passed on the vita version

honestly how or why is Takuyo still around?! I wonder what there secret is...😂😂😂

 

Pro's

- Interesting story and cast of characters.

- Well-rounded routes.

- Art is pretty good but can vary.

- Music fits the mood/tone of the game.

 

Con's

- The routes do have a bit of a slow start... it takes a bit to get going.

- Sometimes it can seem that whatever choice you made doesn't matter also there are a lot.

- Le espresso depresso... wait this could be a pro.

 

A little bit on the plot... but it might be better to read the VNDB

description if you want to know what's it about!

Our protagonist Zakuro received an invitation for a 3am tea party, which leads her

to a castle owned by the sweet clown. There... she meets a bunch of other people

and the story slowly unfolds from there. It quickly becomes obvious Zakuro carries a secret.

She lost her brother when she was young and is extremely lonely and has some issues with guilt

over it... after meeting this sweet clown she ends up being selected to take over the role

unfortunately due to her issues things go far from smoothly.

The OP was pretty nice but apparently they changed it for the switch version.

I looked up the PSV version and uh i'm not sure why they changed

but it was most likely a licensing issue or they lost the file/was damaged

anyway this is the switch one.

 Oh well back on track, this game is probably not for people with fear of clowns and stuff

this is also a fairly mystery-oriented otome game more and play order is important.

What's recommended is Seisuke > Kuze or Takeru > Ouchirou > Manai.

There are also a bunch of endings 4 per route which are all toned differently

some more depressing than others, i'll be using the same order the guide recommended

and this order is very good because it makes the most sense with the overall plot.

 

I honestly found myself hooked right from the start and interested to find out more

and come back to it so I thought the flow of the story was pretty good

but it was kinda glum and so this is not something to look into if you want something light-hearted

its also not too dark! but if you want there's a more twisted end waiting for you.

The art and backgrounds were pretty nice and the music was appropiate so there's that

though I might have to say that while the art is gorgeous and there are nice cg's it did vary a little.

The system was pretty basic? there's a gazillion of choices so it might be better to use a guide...

what bothered me about the choice system is often there isn't even much of a difference

characters would often react the same as if the other choice was chosen which made me go

like thank god for the blue/red rose animation for affection which determines the endings.

Also you could literally make one wrong choice and be locked out of the best end... which

happened with me in Kobashi's route.... this combined with the mass amount of choices

makes me really want to tell people to use a guide unless you want to figure it all out yourself.

I did wonder why I passed on this game initially and it was probably because of some of the designs

and setting, even now some of those don't really vibe with me but still glad I did give it a try

because the story and characterization was honestly really good and in terms of despair

it might not be as extreme as Virche but when it hits, it hits.

 The prologue was a good setup albeit a bit long? it was ok cuz you slowly got

a better picture while also getting to know the guys if only a little.

I like it more than Shinigami to Shoujo cuz of the overall flow but this is by no means a simple

game like himehibi since  there are some layers of complexity in regards of the plot and char's

 so now you know why I won't be writing too much about the plot but i'll comment

a little on the character routes cuz I think this game is best experienced when you know very little like

psychedelica for example, the route which was most complicated was probably Takeru.

 

Most of the common route focuses on the heroine Zakuro and her internal struggles+the guys

trying to help her so they can go home each in their own way.

This isn't one of those otome games that has the heroine only help the guys its the other way around which honestly lead to an interesting experience. I do have to point out the routes

do start out fairly slow and once more that play order is VERY important, I did Seisuke first and

godbless I did because this guy completely became unlikeable in Souma's route! (atleast for me)

so for a moment I thought if I had done Souma first, I didn't want to bother with Seisuke anymore.😞

 

Overall this was a pretty good otome game with a well written story and heroine/cast

it might seem dark and dreary but it is definitely one that I can recommend.

The routes here are well-rounded in terms of plot and romance while developing both

the heroine and love interest. If anything some of the guys are just clowns really

but even then with 2 different endings per route+bad there's bound to be one outcome

that could suit your taste whether that's a happy outcome or a twisted version of it.

Weird thing was by the time I finished Souma's route I didn't even want to do the others... 😅

since the ending of it was so satisfying I felt no need to continue cuz he was also my best boi

but alas for the sake of the truth I continued on! if there was anything that I thought was a downside

is that routes take a bit to get going and it might seem same-ish how Zakuro had to overcome

her problems but every route added a new flavor its just that it might get a tad repetitive?

but as long as you're invested I don't think its a big deal! do have to be honest that if

you found your best boy the rest of the game could feel like a slog.

 

So all in all, Sweet clown is a pretty solid pick if you want something with a good story and cast!

but if you're not in the mood for a long and dreary read then it might be better to pass, there's

not much fluff either and its very character driven, the humor was a bit weird but it was there

if it wasn't I think this game would be plain depressing.

That's all I can say without spoilers really...

Sweet Clown is interesting but requires patience and perhaps an acquired taste?

I think I want to play something lighter next but this was still a good time killer

its definitely something to look into if you value character development..

8.2/10

That ends the spoiler-free section! there will be some route commentary below as this game

much like getsuei was far too long to digest and someone already summarized it anyway

so there'll only be commentary with a few of my fav CG's.