Trials of Mana - review

Genre:RPG.

Developer/publisher: Square Enix.

Platform: PS4,switch,PC,mobile.

Official Site: N/A

Release date: 2020-04-25.

 

This game is a remake, its apparently pretty faithful...

Gonna be honest here, I have never played a mana game but this

was a nice game to just casually play, it is linear  and little to worry

about missing anything except maybe the cactus thingies.

Most of them are easy to spot but there are a few easy to miss!

I wish I could be completely positive about my experience with this game but I can't.

Anyway...

I got into this while waiting for xenoblade 3 to come out... I decided to continue playing this

from the demo I tried a while ago, it was easy to pick up the pace and/or understand

what's going on plus when chara's mentioned this or that also please be warned

this game is fairly straight-forward in terms of plot, there's not a whole lot of talking

and its pretty on point nor does it ever drag itself out more than needed.

Sadly it seems this game has dropped tremendously in value, I bought it for 30$

and it is now even 20ish euros. After playing I can definitely see why... it is not long

so unless you really love action rpg's most people would give up cuz certain things.

 

Pro's

- A simple, yet traditional story with some replay value.

- Good music, the ability to switch to the original bgm is nice too.

- The ability to choose your protagonist and those who tag along.

- Most of the bosses are all unique and fun in design maybe a lil frustrating too.

 

Con's

- Over two hundred chests but most contents are healing or revive items....

- Class change items shouldn't be locked behind RNG, nor be able to get duplicates of.

^^(Maybe actually put nice things in treasure chests?)^^

- Terrible AI is terrible.

 

The quick and dirty  would be that this is something to look into if you want something traditional unfortunately this games pitfalls are the god awful AI, I think its even worse than ff15!

it also has a nice class system but I found it to be such a hassle when it came to the

second class changes which involves unknown item seeds... it is never guaranteed whether

you get a light or dark class item??? so unless you want to farm and put up with stupid RNG s

 you'll probably have to take what you can get. If you can get past all this it could be a fun game.

 

I am well aware that you can't always get what you want and I already sucked it up and rolled

with classes I didn't want, so I'd like to believe i'm mentally strong enough in that regard.

Anyway bullshit RNG is still bullshit RNG no matter how you slice it. Even worse

if it is determined from the moment you get the item from the chest. REEEEEE~

Anyways I adored the characters and even made a start to the second playthrough but it seems

aside from the prologue and personal motivations most will be the same, a guide said some

of the end game will be different so that is nice. Sadly the AI is horrendously bad

and I was frustrated at watching my team mates die over and over and over again

to the stupidest things. Good news though the only difficulty specific trophy you can

just switch to before the boss itself! so no need to suffer on hard the entire game unless

you want all the challenge! you can just play on normal till then.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I put up with BS like in this game... I must've been really bored

to plow through this game but hmm I guess what was nice was nice even if somethings weren't nice.

Hah... I don't think Chawlotte's UwU speech was ever a problem... IMO there were worse things.

I wouldn't be surprised if people gave up on this game... the beginning might seem

like this is gonna be super stress-free but the AI will end up testing you.

 

For what its worth a nice, fun game but it has noticeble setbacks!

I do want to play the other mana games someday, they do have its charm

but as you can see, you must be willing to get past some setbacks.

Now for all my screeching, another good thing is despite them recycling three bosses

the main game isn't any longer than it should be. If you're still up for more there is a post-game

scenario but I am not sure why they had to split it from the main game. Maybe because

due to the extra classes making MP no longer an issue thus breaking the game.

Anyway if I had to score it this game it might get an 6.7/10 from me which translates to

 well its fine really but could be a little better? it might be even better if you want

a game with not much talking cuz there really wasn't. At the end of the day this was a classic.

 

More rambles after the jump, its more or less just my own experience

with this game and some parts may be a little ranty.

 

Final Roadtrip Fantasy XV - review

 Genre:RPG.

Developer/publisher: Square Enix.

Platform: PS4/PC.

Official Site: https://finalfantasyxv.square-enix-games.com/

Release date: 2016-11-29.

 

With not much else to play I decided to look at games I once started but never finished...

which lead me to FF15! I did remember where I stopped it was after arriving in galdin quay

and met some suspicious guy. Knowing this I saw no reason to replay from scratch

and it was actually easy enough to get the hang of things again!

Casually adds even more screenshots... after making posts.

My reasons for dropping the ball on this before was simple, my old ps4 had a bug

where it would try to eject discs sometimes even when there's no disc inside as well 

as annoying beeping sounds when it tried to do exactly that (even when turned off).

It was not just me that had it but yea I couldn't really play disc based games cuz of this.

A shame really because this game was quite fun and I don't understand the hate it got.

I suppose I could have bought it digitally when royal came out but I didn't

and it just ended up being dropped till now.😅 (The old model was replaced by a slim)

Pro's

- Exploring and doing quests/hunts is fun.

- Cast has great chemistry and most of the time the vibes are chill...

- Story is straight-forward but this is not a character game.

- Scenery is beautiful and the OST is really good.

Con's

- Story can be pretty peak fiction but terrible execution and full of holes so if you want

to fill those gaps, you need the movie(sets the stage), dlc ep's and read the novel(epilogue).

- Magic system is a hassle.

 

 

More ramblings after the jump break.

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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Gensou Manège - Review

 Genre:VN.

Developer/publisher: love&art/mages.

Platform: Switch,mobile.

Official Site: https://gensomanege.com/  

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v25993 

Release date: 2020-01-30.

 

I saw this was on sale at the jpn eshop for 30$ and since I had considered playing it

a while back plus the fact these VN rarely go on sale especially otomate/koei let alone 

this low I was like why not? this is also by the folks who made meikoi which I really enjoyed.

This was also one of the first few new otome games on switch but back then I didn't have one yet

so I had to sit out on it till now as I took advantage of the golden week sale.

This game also has a soft/fluffy colour scheme which really helped anyway

I don't know much about this game and went in relatively blind.

Also the title of the game would be something like Carousel of dreams or Dream Carousel.

I am not a professional translator but that is what it simply what it would translate to.

 

Pro's

- Cute & Comfy with an okay plot! but need to do all to fully understand it.

- Interesting characters.

- Gorgeous art and the backgrounds are very well done.

- BGM fit the mood most of the time.

 

Con's

- Kiss CG's could leave to be desired (but still ok).

- Character design can be a bit colour-coded.

- Could've benefited from a slightly stricter play order.

 

OP is cute but not the stuff I felt like watching everytime I booted it up.

 

Gensou Manege ended up being more or less a light-mystery otome game hench why

I won't write too much here except some prologue bits below! this game seems perfect if you're

in the mood for cute and fluffy things but still want to enjoy a little bit of plot to go along with that.

--

The heroine Emma lost most of her childhood memories and she has some weird magic powers...

as well as a miniature carousal she inherited from her late father, she really treasures this.

One day she goes to the amusement park and meets Hugo someone who claims to know her.

Hugo asks Emma to work with him because the people who work at the park are stuck there

so he wants her to help release them with her magic. After thinking about it and acknowledging

her magic powers might be of help she ends up joining their troupe! most of the time

she's been teached to not let anyone know of her powers as well. What could come of this?

The setting is french themed, not sure when its supposed to take place but they had electricity

anyway it is entirely a work of fiction so its best not to think too hard about it.

--

 

This game does have a common route but its more of a get to know

everyone a little while getting used to working with them kind of thing. It didn't feel like

it was too long and its also there to decide which route you'll end up on.

Art is really good, the backgrounds are very detailed and sprite work is pretty good! once more 

I will say I really love the colour-scheme even the user interface...and most of the time

I don't really care about the latter so I think that says something.

Music is fitting enough... but it didn't stand out too much and its just okay.

 Seiyuu cast... they're all relatively well known maybe some a little less though some of

the voice actors I hadn't heard in a long time so it was good to hear them again.

 

System wise its just standard stuff, a little common route to check flags to get on

the preferred route! there's only two endings one good and one not so good.

It does have a minigame but its nothing too hard or annoying.

The weird part about this after the first minigame there is an option to skip it anyway

which gives you an auto A-rank(still need to fail it for the other end though).

After the first playthrough I decided to skip every minigame because while cute it got redundant.

 

As for play order... the guide I used said if you care for the story that its better to save

Hugo's route for later as it contains the most revelations and he unlocks Arnaud.

My order ended up being: Luciole > Crier > Lyon > Serge >  Hugo > Arnaud.

If I had to recommend any order it would probably be this:

Serge / Luciole / Crier > Lyon > Hugo > Arnaud.  Because Lyon is where some

revelations start rolling and it start making more sense, the way it works

is Serge/Luci/Crier do have hints about what's going on but you won't really get it 

till you do Hugo nor will it fully make sense till Arnaud's route. So the order of the first

three or four routes doesn't matter that much as its hard to see how it fits into the big picture.

This game has a certain bittersweet feel to it, there is still some comedy to be found

as expected from the dev's of meikoi but comedy is not really the focus.

All the backgrounds were so detailed and helped with the setting the game

and made it more immersive. The heroine Emma also had a sprite!

She's cute and was pretty pro-active as well I couldn't dislike her at all.

The music always helped to set the tone/mood of the scenes but like I already

said above its not that great either. Romance wise it was good it just that

some routes may seem to not have much going for them but still all connect to it in some way!

 

Now I am personally wondering... why does this one go so under the radar?

is it because its not from otomate? by some other dev and not in english?!

or maybe just bad marketing? idk... maybe most just weren't interested

cuz they didn't have a switch yet at the time it came out, I know I had to pass.

Anyway this was like such a feel-good otome game and I could tell they tried with it.

I definitely recommend checking this one out if you're in the mood 

for something cute and fun that still has an underlying plot to figure out!

even if its not on a sale and at full price I think its more than worth it

just be careful with your play order,there are routes that do have more revelations than others!

I think this game is also good for beginners just trying out the otome game genre as the plot

in most routes is not too heavy but its there and you're just mostly in for a good time!

 7,7/10

As for language difficulty its easy to follow its plot, it might be good as a test

if you think you have a good grip on your japanese.

 

Okay that ends the non-spoiler section and the rest is all just character rambles and CG

there's probably a better digest of it by now but I still wrote some stuff down I remembered.

 

Birushana Senki ~Ichijuu no Kaze~ - review

 Genre:VN.
Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/birushana/fd/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v32229
Release date: 2022-03-31.

 

Well its here! the FD to Birushana or Bilshana (depending on how you spell it).

I'm surprised it got a FD but it did do pretty well so its only natural.

I kinda did wonder if it was really needed or not... as release draw close but its better

than something never getting a FD... like Hana Oboro for example.

 Aside from the usual after stories the fd also has routes for some of

the side characters that only had mini routes in the original.

 

Pro's

- After stories are diverse and suit the characters.

- New routes give those characters plenty of substance.

- Gorgeous artwork.

 

Con's

- After's get less Cg's than the new routes...

 

The OP movie is pretty good, definitely the type i'd just let play.

Its just a standard VN, After stories don't have any choices and its mostly just chill

and fluff as you get to enjoy some time with your husbando.

New routes do have choices but cuz of the love catch its easy to tell which is the

best choice and thus making it easier to get both endings.

Right after I downloaded the game from the jpn eshop I dived into Benkei's route

and well I already was satisfied in the romance department! even if he was not my fav.

 

After's aren't that long either... I think the length was about two hours depending

on your reading speed. There's not much to work with so don't expect too much

except some fluff and wrapping up some loose ends, as well as some horniness?

some had it on the lvl of oh god just fuck already?!

As for the new routes... they do a pretty good job of giving those guys more substance!

they are like a full route in the original game so we get to spend plenty of time with them.

Before starting on this I wasn't that hyped for the new routes cuz I was fine with 

what we got in the original and there wasn't much to them except

Shigehira but Tsugunobu really grew on me and ugh he's now my best boi!

With this I think the content value of this game is pretty good and will last a bit unless you binge...

The new routes get more cg's than the afters which could be disappointing! for afters 

there were only 3/4 cg's (with variation) and one bonus with the guy in present day clothing.

The new routes also follow some of the general plot of the original because again its about

the genpei war, you can't expect them to suddenly make it about something else

which is good because it was consistent in making room for the new-old friends.

I think that in general something Birushana is good at is concistency, there's minimum holes

in its plot they might be there but once you did all it really did make sense.

Of course its not perfect... and there's definitely some problems but I really do love

this series and its cast, it was great to spend more time with them.

If I had to be really honest neither of the Satou brothers were particularly interesting

in terms of plot, Takatsuna was slightly more interesting cuz he's Yoritomo's retainer but don't do

these routes expected new and exciting plot revelations cuz that's not what they're here for.

They're basically here for another romance option... someone for Shana to be happy with

which was nice in its own way, personally I did enjoy spending time with Tsugunobu.

For play order I did want to try to alternate the afters with the new routes which was: 

Benkei >  Shungen > Tsugunobu > Tadanobu > Noritsune > Takatsuna >Yoritomo>Tomomori >Shigehira.

Anyway Birushana FD is a great treat for fans that want a little something extra

I wasn't disappointed with the additional romance for some of the guys cuz some of them needed it.

The stories are diverse and suit the characters, in that sense Birushana doesn't disappoint.

Maybe I am being too positive but if I like it, I like it. There's not much to complain about either

except maybe the CG count for the after stories but it seems they wanted to focus more on the

side characters new routes anyway its better to have quality over quantity and its not like

the after's were bad... I mean the guys getting hornier is a good thing no?

 

I could understand some people not giving two fucks about those guys having new routes but maybe

it will surprise you & you'll end up with a new best boi, i'm speaking from experience here.

So overall me thinks depending on what you're here for that this

is a pretty good FD to compliment the original!

 

PLEASE NOTE that from here on there will be spoilers both for the original game and this FD

as I will write a little about the after stories/new routes from this point onward, so if you plan

to play either the original game in english/jpn or this FD I recommend to stop reading here!!!