July 2021
I’ll let you in on a little something, the Yakuza game, it’s not like boxing. The man who gets down isn’t the loser. The guy who can’t tough it out to the end, he’s the one who loses. Eh? Don’t you think? - Yakuza 0
What appears to be a calming game where you must spread seeds, grow trees, gain more flying seeds, and send them to other planets is much more. In fact, under the disguise it is a very basic RTS often requiring your seeds to battle the opposing seeds and the mysterious gray invaders. This means not only can you grow trees that create more seeds, but other trees including turrets and mines.
Your objective mildly stays the same, survive, don’t lose your production trees, and destroy any threats while invading other planets. The gameplay is very simple as you click the planet with your seeds and drag them to another planet to move them. Each planet has a certain radius out to let them travel, so further planets may require your seeds to bounce between areas to get there. If you are not careful and send out all your fighter seeds, your planet may be invaded and taken over.
There’s a slight story, but not terrible interesting or important. It is mostly there just to give you a reason for your objective.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Above average, so yes. There are more levels than need to be, and some require a little bit of RNG and a LOT of patience (in general poor design). Despite this, the simple gameplay and warm soothing environments/colors still offers an enjoyable experience.
One of the many expansions to the original Painkiller. The player takes control of a new protagonist, Belial, a Nephilim previously damned and tortured due to his existence. Due to the events of Painkiller, Belial escapes his prison and sets out to take vengeance on his wardens and torturers. Belial shows a bit more of a cocky side than the previous protag, Daniel, as he often mocks his opponents with belittling comments and pop culture references. Similar to that of Serious Sam, Duke Nukem, or Bender (Futurama). The campaign itself is relatively short.
This game introduces new designs to weapons previous in the series to fit more of his demonic form and even a few new items to add to his arsenal. The new weapons provide a fresher experience despite the overall similarity in gameplay. What makes this game a vast improvement from the previous is that the bosses in this game are far less gimmicky and do not require forced damage in order to defeat. Level designs are generally decent as we encounter both old and new locales.
The biggest negative to this game is that despite being a much shorter game than the previous, the load times are absolutely insane. Some load times can take several minutes. The constant mocking can also get a bit old and overall if you are not really into the gameplay of the original, you probably will feel pretty similar about this one as well.
Recommend? For the most part, yes. The reduction of annoying gimmicks, obstacle debris, and reduced level size makes this game much more manageable. However, the loading times are absolutely unforgivable.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Kinda. Definite improvement over the original, but still has somewhat crippling flaws.
This is a game that I always saw and believe I would enjoy despite all the negative comments around it. Though I still enjoyed it to a degree, I was able to find the flaw that really put a damper on my experience, the lost potential of it all. The game revolves in a dystopian future in Neo-Pariswhere information and memories are at the crux of society. A memory technology called Sensen (something almost every person has installed) allows them to remove memories as well as experience others. This, of course, becomes a problem as some become addicted to losing their own memories or gaining others as well as being incredibly exploitable by the government and those that would take advantage.
You play as Nilin, a recent captive who had all her memories taken and sentenced to death. Thanks to a rebellious faction, you escape this fate and work with them to gain your memories as well as stop the company that created Sensen, Memorize. You are armed with your fighting abilities that work much like the free-flow fighting in the Batman Arkham series as well as the Remixer. The Remixer allows you to change the memories of select targets which in turn may change the way they view you and events around them. This is one of those things that was greatly misused despite all of the potential it held. Free-frow combat had a unique mechanic that allowed you to customize your combos. Unfortunately, the combos themselves were relatively strict and the only real customization is what effect each button in the combo had. As you level up, you unlock a new button effect. Button variants for combos apply on hit and either apply more damage, healing, cooldown of abilities, or chains which improve the effect of the combo button they are attached to. You will also unlock various abilities that you can use during battle that can assist you in battle, including stuns and improved power. Outside of combat, the game offers platforming similar to Tomb Raider or Assassins Creed. This can be incredibly inconsistent as most jumps require the character to snap to a position, but the snap does not always occur as it should and can cause many falling deaths.
Now, to target all of the lost potential. First and foremost, the remixer. As you use the remixer, you get to alter various objects and actions in memories to change the outcomes. Any change is undone as you rewind past them (can only be done by rotating the joystick in a circle) which can take a long time if you get the wrong combination of items. The biggest waste is that there is only one solution per memory remix. Though this creates a more rigid narrative, the possibility of having multiple outcomes and the person having changed views from each outcome could have made playthroughs for each person more unique along with more interesting outcomes or branching paths. Along a similar vein, despite this dystopian setting the game does explore this universe other than lengthy news articles. Even more so, the scenarios it does bring up create somewhat unbelievable situations a bounty hunter who specializes in Memory Hunters somehow trusts a Memory Hunter the first moment her mind is remixed. This moment should have been more gradual rather than a switch.. Some just seem forced and awkward. The combo systems are far too strict even though they suggest customization and you will end up using one combo by the end of the game. The various effects just don’t offer enough variety in actions to keep the combat interesting. The platforming is fairly subpar and offers little to enjoy. There are moments where you use memories to travel through dangerous fields, however the means of activation are incredibly lack luster and provide annoying activation and intervals at best.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? In the best of times, I would say this game is average. It really doesn’t explore enough, nor did it expand on potentially great ideas that it brought to the table. I generally don’t recommend this game unless at a great discount but prepare for some disappointment.
Definitely should have written the review for this sooner as the memory of this is fading. Overall, it is a class 2D sonic game that once again pits you against Dr. Robotnik and his robot creations. Most of the levels are okay, and boss battles are enjoyable. However, I remember absolutely hating the Ruins level and boss fight in it’s entirety. You are able to collect Chaos Emeralds if you bring enough rings to the end and manage to hit the teleporter. This will bring you to a minigame where you are timed and must rotate the screen to guide the bouncing sonic to his destination. Other than some blatant bad level design, there are cases where you are unsure if a pit will lead you to a new path or just death. This is fixed in the later episode.
Recommend? Other than some of the level design (Ruins), the game offers that classic Sonic gameplay and generally does not disappoint.
Everything is better with a friend. This stays true for Episode 2 as not only are you joined with Tails, who you can do combo moves to fly among other traversal techniques, but the levels in this game are consistently enjoyable with very little issues or frustrations. Another improvement over the last is that fall pits are now marked. Previously you wouldn’t know if the open area below lead to another path or your fatal demise. Now there are markers that help you make the consistently correct decision or when to call upon Tails to try and save you.
This episode also includes another route where you play as Dr. Robotnik’s greatest creation, Metal Sonic. This does some pre-game backstory to Metal Sonic’s journey as well as revisiting some of Episode 1’s levels… for better or for worse.
Recommend? Yes, a complete improvement over the first Episode.
Thanks to a follower, I finally started the Yakuza series. A series that was bound to go down as one of my top games to enjoy. Let me start out that there is just so much to do in this game. Various side quests, businesses to run, various mini-games to play can give this game a base of 20 hours of gameplay without even touching the story. I’d almost say the experience of this game is only enjoyed IF you do the side stuff and get lost in it (such as pocket car racing).
Despite most games where you can get lost in the side quests and forget the story, this game’s story is quite great actually. It can seamlessly transition from a light hearted and comedic moment to some of the most heavy and heart wrenching dramas out there. You play as two separate characters. Kiryu, the somewhat oblivious consistent protagonist of the series whose determination and commitment to follow a just path leads him through hardship, and Goro Majima, a respectable business owner who is trying to get back into the Yakuza. Both characters have their own locale, side quests, fighting styles, and parallel story. After every so chapters, you will switch characters. This can cause some confusion but is important for the story.
The fighting of this game is pretty great as you can switch out from 3 main styles to destroy your enemies. Both characters have similarities per style, but wildly different move sets and abilities that go with them. There is also the Heat mechanic which can be used for devastating cinematic moves (each style and item you use has a different action associated). These heat mechanics can also affect various unlocked skills as well. Unfortunately, this game has an issue with crazy specific heat requirements to activate some skills which render them nigh unusable. Heat is gained by punching your enemies, well timed dodges, and consumables. Heat is lost by getting hit, dodging too much, or doing very little for a long enough time. Thus, heat is a very important resource to manage.
Abilities play a huge role in how you fight. There are three skill trees, each targeting a specific style. In order to unlock these skills, you must rub money into your muscles. The inflation of skills is crazy as the outer tree inflates like crazy. Beating up random henchmen will grant you some quick cash, but the real money is earned in each character’s business (Kiryu, Real estate| Majima, Cabaret). So, if you want to get those high-end skills, you are going to want to spend A LOT of time invested in your business.
Lewd? There are some suggestive themes and skimpy videos, but nothing outright AO.
Recommend? Very much yes. It is so hard not to go on and on about this game. The story is fantastic, the combat enjoyable, and the game is just a great time sink. Had this not been on my streaming agenda, I would have spent way more hours on this and not regret a single moment.
Very few games offer you the chance to be the villain, to be the monster. This game does just that. A sort of metroidvania that casts you as something resembling John Carpenter’s “The Thing” as you slither across a complex causing chaos and absorbing the biomass of your unfortunate victims. As you are a creature with an unending hunger, the story is very subtle and hardly in the way. Instead you must continue your chaos and carnage to make your escape of the facility without being destroyed.
You can control your tentacles to grab items or grab humans and either sling them around or nom on them. This in turn gains you biomass which acts as health. The more upgrades you acquire and biomass you consume grant you increased size, more health, and new abilities. Of course, certain abilities are locked at different sizes and thus you may need to deposit the mass in order to complete specific puzzles. As you reach new stages, the feeble humans do gear up with new weapons, mechs, and robotics to stop your rampage.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, though the game can feel a little repetitive at times, the ability to rampage as the monster is still ever satisfying.
I’ve previously talked about this game when I considered it “beaten”. Now that I have currently taken on all of the achievements, I can confidently say that I still very much enjoy this game. Sure, the community can be toxic, cheaters exist relatively commonly (blatantly teleporting from lockers), and some achievements kind of suck. Despite this I would still play it again and still excited for the upcoming chapters for new killers and survivors.
Favorite Killers: Trickster, The Shape (Mike Myers), Ghostface
Hated Killers: The Blight, The cannibal (Leatherface)
Recommend? Still yes, especially as they update the visuals and improve mechanics to this day!
Gifted to me, I had never played the series this is a spin off to. You play as a boyfriend to a girl (Kaori) you met in some sort of mech school. You are travelling with her to her parent’s house to meet them for Christmas vacation. As in most VNs, you get to choose dialogue at key points. Some of which will send you down different paths, get different dialogues, and even some different visuals.
Even though this game is a spin off of a series, other than maybe the origin of how these two characters met, and some characters they introduce briefly, you really don’t need the experience of the series to enjoy this game. It pretty much gives you an idea of their background through the conversations you have. Kaori’s family is a bit eccentric but provided interesting conversations. The game was a bit longer than expected too, which was nice as the story does well create a steady and believable growth of relationship as well as romantic moments. It’s also worth noting that this game has voice acting and fairly decent voice acting at that.
Lewd? Other than humorous suggestions, nope!
Recommend? Yes, even as someone who has not played the other entries, I can say that this offers a romantic and warm experience.
Kind of disappointed reading your review of Remember Me. It’s on my wishlist, and my thoughts were more or less the same as yours. Probably won’t be rushing out to buy it, not that it’s really high in priority. Was the story at least decent once you get past the apparent lack of potential options?
I would say the story was decent enough. Nothing amazing, but it can help get you through.
Congratulations on your assassinations! Glad you liked Kaori!
Thank you kindly and thanks for the gift!