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Initial 2: New Stage takes place in the same universe as the first game, but it’s not a direct sequel, since only two bad guys from The Initial appears - Kyuya and Ryuzaki - and their role in the storyline are different. This time, the game got English dub. The voices are nice, but the repeated lines during the fights get annoying fast. The story mode is longer than The Initial. The first game took me around 2.5 hours to complete. This game is a good 5 hours. The English text is… often very funny and the text warping in the boxes is off most of the time. So, if you are looking for a “perfect English” game, with a deep plot and character development, Initial 2: New Stage won’t meet that expectation. It’s rather a nice and casual hack’n’slash with two cute heroines - Belvia and Sera - plus Veritas. I think Sera’s habit of talking in the third person all the time is kind-of annoying. Anyway, I recommend it with a 50% discount, since its short.
What can I say? Hentai with very little gameplay. A simple rpg style fight, easy to win with a guide found on Steam. You can have all the endings in 15 minutes + 40 minutes to listen to all the sexy epilogues (audio only) and voila. Quite expensive price for an hour (or so) of content. (The rest of the time in the game was used for the cards.) If you're sensitive at heart, move on. Hentai scenes are non-consensual from the princess. Just look at the title of the game. If not, go ahead.
While Brilliant Shadows was excellent, Pale Spectrum blows the "I'm overdoing it!" syndrome. Too many characters, many of whom have no useful role in the story. I think most of them were Kickstarter awards... Too many "arcs" (important parallel storylines) in the script, all mixed up and hard to follow. Too many choices that don't seem to affect the story. I felt like I was reading a trilogy that an author would have wanted to write in one volume. I was lost at many moments, and many scenes made me die of boredom. Yet, in terms of presentation, it's great. The images are as sublime as ever. The dialogues are entirely dubbed in English, like in Brillant Shadows. The idea of wanting to make a bigger story than the first game, with a ton of endings, wasn't bad in itself, but the execution is a big mess. Especially since the endings I found seem to talk about parallel worlds / universes, with their own characters, magic system, etc... and there are already too many of them! It's hard for me to recommend it, although it has an excellent lifespan. From 6 to 13 hours, depending on the store page.
The first Orwell is excellent. This one... not so good. The lifespan is much shorter, the actions are more limited with the time limit, the characters are less endearing, the end that I had left me frankly disappointed. The nods to the first game, if you have a saved game on Orwell 1, were cool, but other than that, I don't recommend it.
An excellent game and a mix between a Sim-RPG-Visual Novel. With all its endings to obtain + all the random events + the "careers" for Olive (the default name of the girl to raise), you'll have hours of fun. Moreover, the characters have Japanese voices, contrary to the old version found on the Net.
The plusses:
+ Story and catchy characters.
+ Cool graphics.
+ No RPG combat. (narrative game)
+ Except in the "final fight" and during an event, it is impossible to die.
+ Several endings.
+ Good music.
The minuses:
- The game ¾ gameplay is to move from place to place to find or buy ingredients for spells. Very repetitive.
- The story seems to stretch at times.
- Short lifespan. If you're not stuck, you can end it in 3 hours.
+ Story and catchy characters.
+ Cool graphics.
+ No RPG combat. (narrative game)
+ Except in the "final fight" and during an event, it is impossible to die.
+ Several endings.
+ Good music.
The minuses:
- The game ¾ gameplay is to move from place to place to find or buy ingredients for spells. Very repetitive.
- The story seems to stretch at times.
- Short lifespan. If you're not stuck, you can end it in 3 hours.
The +:
* The characters' design.
* The universe and the scenario, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
The in-between:
* Its a linear story. It doesn't bother me personally.
* There are interactions (gameplay) but it's either "click on a dot to continue" or "click on x character to talk to him/her".
The - :
* The dialogues in CAPITAL LETTERS all the time! The text is also very small.
* Lack of options for a visual novel (history or return to previous dialogs, music volume control, skip text already read, text speed control etc.) due to its engine used: Tyranobuilder.
* Only one background music most of the time. It's annoying.
* A rather open ending, which hints at a sequel, but no news from the dev about that.
* You have to press F for full screen. It's only mentioned on the splash screen when the game open, not in the game itself (options menu).
* The characters' design.
* The universe and the scenario, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
The in-between:
* Its a linear story. It doesn't bother me personally.
* There are interactions (gameplay) but it's either "click on a dot to continue" or "click on x character to talk to him/her".
The - :
* The dialogues in CAPITAL LETTERS all the time! The text is also very small.
* Lack of options for a visual novel (history or return to previous dialogs, music volume control, skip text already read, text speed control etc.) due to its engine used: Tyranobuilder.
* Only one background music most of the time. It's annoying.
* A rather open ending, which hints at a sequel, but no news from the dev about that.
* You have to press F for full screen. It's only mentioned on the splash screen when the game open, not in the game itself (options menu).
A nice kinetic visual novel, while some “moments” made me very uncomfortable, the plot explain everything near the end.
While all the images, the music and the writing are great, the story line is disappointing. How matter what you do, there is only 1 ending. OK there is a bad end, at the start, but it easy to avoid.
A very good point-and-click, with a lifetime of a good 3 hours (with the soluce). Very good script and great pixel style graphics. On the other hand, I personally had to play it in window mode, because in full screen I had some small problems with the cursor.
Ah, Pathologic. This game that totally splits me in half. Its "art-story" side is excellent, but I can't say the same for the "video game" side.
The good:
The universe, the storyline, and the atmosphere are amazing. I felt really anxious in this city hit by disease. The soundtrack is exquisite, the characters are mysterious and the few voiced passages are good.
The average:
The dialogue is quite strong in English, and it's abstract and very vivid. This often made it difficult for me to understand everything and you really have to grasp everything to survive in this game. Also, there are a lot of them. So you have to like reading.
The bad :
The gameplay and the survival aspect. Our character walks slowly from point to point and there's a lot of back and forth. The places in the city all look the same. I had to open the map every minute so I wouldn't take the wrong path. Besides, there is a time limit for the 12 days. We also have to "survive" by managing our health (hunger, fatigue etc), which is not easy when money (and other objects) are hard to find. The fighting system is rotten. I've been massacred many times without being able to throw a single punch to my opponent. Also, the quests, starting on day 2, are not given to you like that. It's up to you to find them, by exploring the city and talking to x number of characters. Tough, with the time limit + health management.
To conclude, I'm very mitigated by this game, and it's with regret that I can't recommend it. Its universe may be mysterious and excellent, but the complexity of the dialogues and the survival aspect spoils it.
An old hidden object game about a mysterious town where everyone (or almost everyone) has disappeared. Is it a bad game? Not really, but I didn’t had fun playing it, unlike with Adam Wolfe or some Artifex Mundi hidden object games. Also, some objects in the Hidden Object scenes are too close to the inventory bar. This doesn't help to find them.
DDLC. I've heard about the hype and the internet has spoiled me on the whole thing (Just Monika!). I wanted to do it anyway, to see if I would experience strong emotions and become a mega-fan... NO.
DDLC didn't do anything to me. The beginning of the story is long and boring. A teenage slice of life / romance, cliché and dull. (All that pink in the interface!)
When the horror comes out, and everything starts to get a bit interesting, it ends far too quickly and the "surprise" (hello Monika!), was a big meh.
Video games that "break the 4th wall", I've already play some. Horror, too, and in better visual novels. Higurashi, Notch - The Innocent LunA: Eclipsed SinnerS, Summer Nightmare (it's also free)... not to mention other games with great stories, like The Cat Lady.
So, no, I don't recommend DDLC.
A game that doesn't work unless you install RPG Maker's RTP. A game that ends in 1 hour. A game made up of the software's resources, with a strange oil painting effect for the faces of the characters. A game where its story is almost non-existent. A game a little too inspired by Golden Sun. We have an Issac, a Garet, an Ivan, a Mia, and their powers are similar. A boring game to play.
Having played several "Tales of", including Symphonia, Abyss, Phantasia, Zestiria and Berseria, I was expecting a superb game. *Especially since I've read a lot of comments saying it was the best game in the license.*
I forced myself to finish it.
The storyline is so boring, the characters (except for Yuri and Repede) are dull as hell, the fighting (and I usually love fighting in a Tales of!) is meh.
I enjoyed the music, that's something.
Zestiria was my least favourite Tales of. Now it's back to Vesperia.
I forced myself to finish it.
The storyline is so boring, the characters (except for Yuri and Repede) are dull as hell, the fighting (and I usually love fighting in a Tales of!) is meh.
I enjoyed the music, that's something.
Zestiria was my least favourite Tales of. Now it's back to Vesperia.
A free horror-exploration game where you explore the house of the hero's grandparents, where strange events occur. A game easy to complete. You can even complete it in 10-15 minutes if you know what to do. Otherwise, a playthrough would take about 25 minutes.
I never thought I'd have so much fun shooting zombies while typing! Add to that the story, both parodic and comic, the DLCs that do well and that are worth their price, plus all the dictionaries offered by the gaming community (I've done several) and you'll have many hours of fun. Recommended.
While I was dessapointed by the Part 2 (no bad endings, really?) its still a nice VN to read.
One of the first Visual Novels I ever read. A pleasant experience, although the subjects covered in the story are very dark. I recommend it only to those who have a passion for reading, because there is a lot to read.
I played this every single day during lockdown, enough said. It makes past versions seem a bit lacking due to the ability to decorate outside but New Horizons is also taking its sweet time with releasing all the NPCs.
«Can’t stop playing»
«Sit back and relax»