Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 20th

Today's challenge is: Criminally Underlooked.

As hinted yesterday, today will be about my favorite game on my favorite console (the SEGA Master System, to reiterate), which is itself criminally underlooked, unless you live in Europe or in Brazil. Let's get into it.

Most people have heard of Ninja Gaiden. People will usually think of the NES trilogy or maybe the more recent ones when hearing the name. If you're asking for old Ninja Gaiden games not on NES, you might hear about the arcade version, but no one ever mentions the Master System version while that one is easily and by far the best one in the series. THAT should be a retrogaming sin, and therefore I'm gonna talk about SEGA's take on Ninja Gaiden.



So to clarify, this game isn't a port or anything, but a brand new game with a similar design. Everything other than how it remains a ninja platformer has changed, so much so that you could call this Ninja Gaiden 4 or something. The special weapons are mostly different, you have a special move that hurts everything on the screen at the cost of 5 units off your lifebar, you can hang pretty much everything your hands come across, the wall jumping has been rethought into something that feels a whole lot more natural, and the knockback hitstun has been made a lot more fair.



In comparison to the NES games, It's definitely on the easy side, but while some people may complain about that, I don't think this is a bad thing. It's not too easy, you still have to put in the work in order to complete the game, but I'd rather have than than having an unfair experience, like the respawning enemies you'll find in the NES trilogy. Sure, they're not impossible, and difficulty is a good thing when the game gives you means of fighting back, but I still prefer the easier one because of its design.



While the SMS game is visually a LOT superior to the NES games, the same can't be said of the music. Even though it did do a pretty good job overall, the SMS can't compete with the NES there, but that's a console issue, and imo the only area the SMS falls short in the 8bits console war (unless you count the library, but that's not the console's fault). Even with a FM enabled console (and there aren't many compatible games), there's just no way you can compare them. Also, the NES trilogy's music is legendary.



Back to the game itself, it also features those storyboard cutscenes, and in my opinion the story is pretty fun, though the translation seems to have been botched. There are some fun and unique moments in the game too. In the second level, you can see “SEGA” written on some buildings, and the boss of that level is sitting down the whole time as his goons come after you, and he just gets more and more beaten up the more you slash him down. There's also this little bandana animation on your character, which wasn't a very common thing at the time. All the levels are very unique themselves. They're also nice and colorful, and their bosses all work in very unique way. The boss of the waterfall level might be a little disappointing, but at least he has two phases. Other than that, it's just a pleasure to go through them.



When I got this game, I went to visit my friend Phil (always the same people coming back in these stories, huh) so we'd go through it together, and I think it left a great impression on the both of us. About 2 years later, I showed it to his brother Jay (yup, same people), which led him to buy a Genesis SMS adapter which he had ignored up to this point, and which was pretty weird considering he was also a SEGA fan. I ended up gifting him a SMS myself recently, as Felix (oh god can't I stop talking about the same folks) was getting rid of his collection. I know full well that he's going to add this game to his collection eventually, and in the meantime, I'll try to spread the gospel of 8bits SEGA a bit more.

The game is exclusive to the obvious GOAT of retro consoles.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

I really dig these write-ups, it gives surprising insight into your video gaming universe. It makes me want to try it out, see what games I'd end up talking about!

Also, I have never tried Mirror's Edge. I feel like this is something you should introduce me to...

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

Anytime you're over here then!

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 21st

Today's challenge is: Depressing Game.

Today's challenge is a fun one, despite the theme. While it could be interpreted as a depressing gaming experience, in an unintended way, I prefer to think of it as a game that emphasizes a “lower” mood overall. And while I'm more of someone who likes high octane stimulation, I can definitely appreciate a game that tries to pull me into a state of vulnerability, if it's done right, and that's what I'll be focusing on today.



The game I picked for this theme is A Rose in the Twilight. It's a 2D puzzle platformer, and one of the games in a series of “cute horror games” that give similar vibes, courtesy of Nippon Ichi Software. The other games in that series that I'm familiar with are the two Yomawari games, htoL#NiQ and void tRrLM();. I however consider A Rose in the Twilight to be the greater one. You play as a little girl with a rose tied around her waist, which has the power to either draw or give the color red from and to various objects. Removing the red color from an object freezes it in place, even if it's falling mid air, and giving it back allows it to behave normally. There's also an egg shaped Giant that can help you progress, either by acting as a platform, tossing items or tossing the little girl herself. You have to progress by using those mechanics. There are also a few sections where the only way to progress is to commit suicide, and you'll usually find a device to help her do so (in the most brutal of ways, so that her spilling red blood can activate a mechanism). The little girl is immortal, but is not without fear or pain, so these segments do a great job of conveying strong emotions.



You might be wondering how horror and cuteness work together, and honestly I can't exactly explain it. So many opposing themes occur at the same time in these games, and it's really something you have to experience yourself to understand. All I can say is this formula needs to be explored a lot more. If you've played Undertale, you can kiiiiiinda get a similar vibe, although in my opinion it only conveys a tiny fraction of what it can feel like.



The story is told through blood memories that you collect through the game, and it's honestly very hard to make anything out of it until you've collected all of them. The soundtrack that plays through those is absolutely gorgeous, and has an organic feel that you don't find all that often in gaming anymore. I'll take the liberty of linking one of my favorite pieces from the game after this paragraph (really love how clearly you can hear the piano's hammer in this one). Style wise, since colors are so important to the main mechanics, the entire game is black, white, shades of grey and red, and it further supports the depressing mood this way. It doesn't look nearly as good as htoL#NiQ did, but I feel like it was intentional.



I played this one shortly after its release in 2017 (pretty much the best year in gaming in my opinion) since I had been very impressed with it's predecessor. I absolutely ate it up, and I give it a solid 9 out of 10 at the absolute lowest, despite how simple and short it is. Get yourself a nice blanket, and give this gem a shot if you're interested. Also, try to find all the small Easter eggs. I personally loved killing the friendly giant in the only way possible.



The game is out on PS Vita and PC. It's also one of the rare games in this list that I do not own a copy of, and instead only have the digital version. It did come out physically however, so you can be sure that I'll get it sooner than later.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 22nd

Today's challenge is: Favorite ACTIVE Franchise.

Alright, I'm starting this one late so I don't have a lot of time. Let's hurry up!

I went back and forth with this theme, and it was another problematic one since I had to add rules to avoid lying. Those rules are as follows: Even though I'm picking an active franchise, I have to consider every game in the series, including spinoffs, and if there is a sub par title in said franchise, I can't use it. That's because otherwise, I'd have to pick a game from a franchise I've already used or planned to use in this challenge, which was bound to happen since I'm mostly using titles I really, REALLY like. I had initially narrowed it down to Gal*Gun, which isn't all that great, but everygame is solid and pretty much the king of its near extinct genre in the modern era. But then, something happened this week, and I thought of something much, much better.



That franchise is the Aleste franchise, which I wasn't really considering because the last Aleste game was in the early 90s... Until Christmas of 2020, that is! Just a few months ago, Aleste collection was released on PS4. It features all of the Game Gear and Master System Aleste games, with a brand new Game Gear title made for the occasion, known as Aleste 3. On top of that, a new, modern era game is currently in development, codenamed Aleste Breach (sure, Compile no longer manages the franchise, but M2 is, so close enough). And since Aleste kicks way more ass than Gal*Gun ever did, it was a very satisfying epiphany.

While I used the collection for today's challenge, I'll mostly focus on Power Strike II, and I'll include a story about another title, which is the one that made me think of this franchise. But first, let's say what I have to say about Aleste Collection. I received my copy last week, and I haven't played it yet. However, I'm really disappointed that they only included the 8-bits games, and not the other 3, which are MUSHA, Space Megaforce and Robo Aleste. Also, I almost gave in and let myself buy the 400$ collector's edition, which came with a mini Game Gear that could play the new one they made. But I only got the regular one for one fourth of this figure. Oh well.



Anyway, about Power Strike II... Well, it's about as amazing an 8-bits shmup as you can get. In my book, nothing even comes CLOSE to packing as much of a punch as this one does. It has the best graphics, fantastic controls and weapon systems, a mindblowing and over the top soundtrack (might be the very best soundtrack on the Master System period). I had a copy made-to-order just for myself from some guy on the internets, and I carry it everywhere I go where I can introduce it to people. The only things I'd do different with this one is that I'd rather play as Ellinor instead of this pothunter mercenary asshole, which is a very minor complaint, and I'd make the game sliiiightly less unforgiving when you take a hit. You lose half of your power ups, and you're better off resetting the game if it happens even once. I've only beaten it once, and otherwise, I get a game over on stage 4 or 5 if I get hit a single time before then.



That was a tiny review, but like I said, I'm short on time. I'll be sure to add a bunch of Gifs, however. Now, about the other game... Well, that game is MUSHA, a crazy expensive Aleste title on the Genesis (though, to be faire, almost all the Aleste games are well into triple digit figures, even for loose carts, with the possible exceptions of the first Aleste on Game Gear and the first Power Strike, but for both of them, you still have to be lucky to find them under 100$.



Some of you may know about Felix selling his video game collection. Recently, he approached me and asked me if I was interested in buying Musha for 100$. I was like “lolwat”, then he said he would do 50$, but no lower (apparently it was a typo, but he still rolled with what happened next). I said “lol sold” and sent him 60$, then he actually sent me his game for a joke of a price. And now I own it.

Upon receiving the game, I inspected it and noticed a star was scribbled in a small hole visible from the inside of the game's case. I looked at the reverse side of the cover art and found a gigantic, heartwarming message addressed to me (though I initially thought it might have been there since before Felix aquired it). Normally, people would be outraged that such a valuable collectible would have been done like this, but I thought it was the most amazing thing of all, and actually ended up reversing the whole cover so that his message would be showing on the front.

Felix, thank you so much for this, it feels as though our nerdy bromance has reached unspeakable levels. I love you man, and I will take care of and cherish this lil' kid of yours that I adopted as though it was of my own blood.



Aleste 1 and 2 are out on Game Gear. Power Strike and Power Strike II are out on the glorious Master System. MUSHA is exclusive to the Genesis. Space Megaforce is the sole Nintendo Aleste title, and is available on the SNES. Robo Aleste is exclusive to the SEGA CD, and the Aleste collection is available on PS4 and Switch.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 23rd

Today's challenge is: Indie Game.

We're doing an indie game today, awesome! This theme is one of the more promising ones as these games don't necessarily get all the coverage they deserve, and there's also a huge variety of titles to choose from. That being said, however, I knew what I was gonna talk about today from the very beginning of this challenge. My pick for “Indie Game” is Rabi-Ribi, my favorite Metroidvania (it overthrew Strider 2014 to take the title, which is no small feat).



Back in 2016, a collector friend of mine (same guy that let me in on the Magical Chase thing, actually) told a little discussion group we're both a part of that a company called LimitedRunGames was releasing physical PS4 copies of “Shantae: Risky's Revenge” and “Shantae and the Pirate's Curse”. Upon learning of this, I immediately flocked over to their website and lined up to order a copy of each of these titles. I thought their business model was cool, so I checked out their confirmed upcoming titles, and found out they specialized in distributing physical copies of relatively niche games, usually independent ones. I was rather unfamiliar with most of the titles, though one of them caught my attention pretty quickly. It was listed as a platformer and bullet hell hybrid, which was a surprising combo. That was how I first heard of Rabi-Ribi. I decided to stick around and regularly check out the company until that game was up for sale, which ultimately ended up costing me SEVERAL thousand dollars along the way, as I ended up buying a LOT on there in the years I spent waiting for Rabi-Ribi, and I guess that I'm still doing that to this day.

I already said Rabi-Ribi was a “platformer bullet hell metroidvania”, but what else is it? Well, a lot of things, so let's take it from the top. You play as a pet rabbit named Erina who was turned into a bunny girl, who must travel the land in order to subjugate and rally other pantless girls to your cause with the help of her trusty squeaky hammer, a time stopping amulet, bombs and various weapon, and, of course, the naggy yet adorable fairy named Ribbon. If you haven't figured it out from this description, it is indeed a moe dream consisting of only the cutest anime girls.



But don't let any of this fool you. This game is INSANELY brutal, and by far one of the most difficult games I've ever had the chance to play. Even on the normal setting, you'll be wondering how the hell it's even possible, and I'm not even talking about the fact that “normal” is only the third difficulty level in a set of 8. Thankfully, the game is very fair towards the player and doesn't rely on cheapshots to increase the difficulty, but you have to be REALLY good for sometimes very long periods of time without missing a beat. I lent a PS4 copy of the game to my great friend xXOpkillerXx/Oppiie, who is one of the best gamers I've ever had the chance to meet, and he's almost thrown the towel on the fourth difficulty, something I could not have imagined him do ever.



Design wise, the graphics are bright and colorful, and styled in a very retro fashion. The landscape varies a ton in very refreshing ways, and makes sure to always keep you visually stimulated. The game being a danmaku (technical term for bullet hell) boss rush as well, that stimulation is increased a hundredfold by the beautiful and dazzling boss attack patterns. The music is absolutely incredible here as well, and I regularly play the soundtrack disc that came with the game (it's actually been sitting in my CD-i for the past year at least!), and recently, a symphonic album of the game's OST was released to celebrate the game's fifth anniversary. I bought it despite of how it added up to almost a hundred dollars with shipping and everything, though I haven't received it yet. I must also add that I'm usually iffy about metroidvanias because of the backtracking which is a major pain in my ass, but this one makes sure that you never need to do that if you don't want to, as there are warp points all over the damn place.



Overall, Rabi-Ribi is an amazing, adorable and unique game that, if the ruthless difficulty doesn't discourage you, will have you coming back a lot. I consider it to be an all time great game. Special shoutouts to Volupture (aka xMUSICxMASTERx (sorry lol)) who has a spectacular enough set of balls (or boobs I guess?) to try and beat this game on her first playthrough on stream. You get my admiration for that, and I hope you do manage to finish the damn thing.

If you, too, are a bunny lover, the game is available on PS4, PS Vita, Switch and PC. And as a last note, I know this might not qualify as an indie game depending on your definition of the term, but I don't give a shit as it is definitely worth talking about for any excuse you can get.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

the most Sven "ongoing series" choice that was ever possible

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

What, Aleste? Why?

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 24th

Today's challenge is: “Not usually my thing, but...”

Last one from the original template image, and the last 7 themes of the challenge will be ideas given to me by various friends!

Soooo, today could have been two things. Either a turn based RPG, which I universally despise, but I've had enough of those in this challenge. The other option would be a very very passive game, like a visual novel that doesn't have any real skill required (therefore, not like Ace Attorney or Zero Escape). And I decided to go with the latter.



Not too long ago, a friend of mine asked me about a great anime that had H-scenes in it, because a friend of his wanted to watch that, and apparently I was the man of the hour to him for this stuff. I'm not really into hentai, it doesn't really bother me, but it's almost always complete shit. I told him that, but also said I would think about it. A few days passed, and I thought of the Grisaia franchise. Told him that while the anime had some sex, the visual novel had the hardcore stuff, at least the PC version did. I actually had the Grisaia Trilogy on Switch, so around that time, I decided to give it a shot to see if I recommended something that at least made a bit of sense (the Switch version doesn't have porn in it).

Sooooo I started the whole thing, and... Well, at first, I wasn't really impressed. It was entertaining at times, and didn't mind the cast at all, but the cringe was real. However, a few hours in, I found myself in the Amane route, and then this big dramatic flashback started. And holy fuck did the whole thing start blowing my mind.



When it comes to anime, I'm FAR more of a slice-of-life guy than an action/drama/whatever person (so, like, the opposite of what I like in video games I guess), but this massive change in tone got me hooked instantly. The narration was superb, and savored every minute of this 8 hours long arc. There wasn't any choice involved for this whole section, just followed along as the girls (and their teacher) tried to survive their bus crash in the middle of nowhere in a rather relatable fashion, and they all had great personalities as well. This flashback alone made the game worth playing, and that was only one of 5 routes, which all split into 2 other routes each for a bad and good ending each. The other ones aren't quite as good I'd say, but most of them were still really nice.



Once you're done doing all of the routes, you can move on to the second title in the series, which is litterally just a background read for the protag, and I thought the whole thing was quite nice, even though it was a little over the top dramatic. The reason I thought it was great is because I'm not a fan of flavorless protagonists you're just supposed to project into, and I much, much prefer a well constructed character whose perspective you're supposed to warm to and understand separately. I wouldn't say he was a super well constructed protag, but hey, I'll take what it can give me, and I support the design choice.



Then, in the third game, the protagonist is captured and the girls from the previous games unite to save him using the skills the protagonist taught them back then. I thought the whole operation was an incredible thrill ride from start to finish, and the “final fight” at the end was also pretty good. Again, this game is almost all story and no interaction, aside from a few things at the very end, but this convinced me I absolutely had to watch the anime (it wasn't quite as good, but there was no way it could live up to the whole thing anyway, so considering that, it was alright).

Lastly, you have some “what if” and “after story” special features, which are either extentions of girl routes, or silly fanservice, and other stuff like that. Overall, the whole thing provides almost 100 hours of reading content, which may seem like a lot, but I was totally captivated by the whole thing. I guess I did suggest my friend something legit after all!



On a last note, I had actually played a game from that franchise before, a spinoff title on Vita (Japanese only), which was called “Grisaia no Kajitsu Spin-out!? Idol Magical Girl Chiruchiru Michiru”. I got it because it was only text, and I got the platinum on it after like 5 minutes of holding R on the console. I made a silly video out of the whole thing, which I will link after this paragraph. A lot of my friends actually got that platinum using my copy, so it was totally worth the 40$ I paid for it! I think an English version of this was released somewhere at some point, but I've never seen anything about it anywhere.



While the original games were released on PSP, Vita and Windows, the English trilogy is only available on Switch and PC. You'll have to play the PC version if you want the pornographic scenes, and you'll also have to look somewhere other than Steam to find it.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 25th

Today's challenge is: “Best game recommended to me by a friend”.

All right, now we're onto the additional themes that were suggested by friends of mine. This theme was suggested by T-Force.

A couple years ago, I asked Felix if he'd want to do a little challenge with me. We'd each give the other a retro game to complete/master, and go back and forth like that in hopes of expanding our gaming experience beyond what we naturally feel drawn to (reserving a right to veto dumb suggestions, of course). He gave me Atomic Runner, which I beat fairly quickly (found out that the spiky balls were OP against bosses, something Felix was surprised to hear), then he gave me Eternal Champions on the Genesis (he said I could use any character, and only had to beat the game once, but more on that later), and I gave him Keio 2 on the Sega Saturn (and the fucker never even beat it). I went to a local game store, bought the game for 5$, then I completed the Eternal Champions challenge in a rather ridiculous way: I got to the roster in arcade mode which only shows one character at a time, scrolled right twice to see this circus girl called Jetta, didn't even bother to look at the rest of the cast and grinded her until I could beat the game like once every two tries. When I told Felix, I don't know how he felt about it exactly, but he probably thought it was fucking retarded.

After that, I said he could still do Keio for the next round (I don't think he even played it again), and he gave me another childhood game of his, which is the game I'm gonna talk about today: Rocket Knight Adventures, for the Genesis as well.



I didn't own this game, but my friend Phil had it and he agreed to lend it to me for a while. At first, I wasn't too impressed with it, and I thought the first 3 levels had great variety, but were a little boring. Things picked up after that with the 4th level, which was the flying battleship level. There I thought the design was starting to look like something I wanted in a game like this, then on the next stage, it started out with a shmup section, then you were attacking the main enemy base, then you saw your rival, who climbed into a giant robot that's several time the height of the screen and tried to crush you, and then you found a robot of your own while running away, jumped in the cockpit and your cutesy face turns into a pissed off frown, then the screen says “FIGHT!” and then the two robots engage in spiky ball fistycuffs and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS GAME?!



And guess what? It only gets crazier from there. You go into outer space (yes, shmup level), the rival is there, and has a laser cannon that can cover almost all of the screen, and then a giant spaceship that can warp and morph into pretty much anything as you destroy its parts, then it's on to the mothership, which has a ton of bosses. You settle the score with your rival, he gets frustrated when you defeat him and blows up the wall behind you, and now you're being sucked into outer space. You have to hold onto some bars to avoid dying while the enemy is trying to make you fall, but eventually you succeed and he's the one who gets sucked outside to die a miserable death.



But oh dear god, you've haven't even seen the best yet. Now you have to defeat the true mastermind, a pig uploaded into a computer that controls a giant robot. A cute boss fight plays as you start beating it up, but then it gets pissed and the regular boss theme plays, but faster and in a very eerie way. You still break it down and the whole mothership gets destroyed. You manage to escape into a tiny escape pod, BUT IT'S NOT OVER YET! As you plummet towards earth, the boss chases you to kill you before you escape, but you're out of ways to attack, so all you gotta do now is survive and hope that atmospheric reentry friction gets the best out of him...



When I first saw that, I had no fucking words to explain what happened. This is stuff made from dreams, and this being one of Felix's favorite games ever is no nostalgia goggles issue, because it definitely stands as one of my favorite Genesis games as well now.

Rocket Knight Adventure is just your average platformer. With a very unique and fast paced rocket mechanic. With incredible and diverse level design across the whole game. With the most unbelievable set of bosses you've ever seen. With some fairly great music and graphics slapped on. No, really, it's crazy good, and you should play it. Felix, thank you for making me play this, although you should finish Keio 2 you stupid fuck kthx.



The OG Ossum 'Possum game is exclusive to the Genesis. The Super Nintendo “version” is called Sparkster, but it sucks anyway.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 26th

Today's challenge is: Game that no ones seems to know.

This theme was suggested by Hakulyte.

Honestly, I could have picked a lot of things if we were talking about your average gamer. I mean, most people I know know at the most about 5 games in this entire challenge so far. Even with some of my more connoisseur friends, I could still have picked some obscure Japan only modern game, and it would definitely qualify. However, I have something better in mind for today.



The game I picked is Blue Reflection, a turn based RPG (yes, another one of those, that doesn't really please me lol) that's very similar to the Persona games. It's also published by Koei Tecmo (the people behind Ninja Gaiden) and developed by Gust (the guys who make the Atelier games). Not exactly small studios, but despite that, and despite the fact that a lot of my friends are into these kinds of games, only one of them had even heard of the title before, and all he knew of the game was a shitty trailer for the Vita version (which is only available in Japanese). I personally had never heard anything about this game either; I just saw it sitting on a shelf in one of my preferred modern gaming hunting spots, and since it intrigued me, I ended up picking it up blindly.



In this game, you play as a former ballet prodigy who can no longer dance due to an injury. She meets with two strange girls and gains the power to transform into a mystical warrior or something (magical girl style) to fight against emotion monsters, predominantly in the other dimension, which she is quite thrilled about since in that form, her leg is no longer injured. The game has two main segments: one is the real world (which is mostly limited to her school and some cutscenes at home) where she can talk to other students, text people on her smartphone, start quests, improve her friendships and whatnot, and the other is the other world, which is governed by strong emotions, and depending on which emotions are in play, the world changes accordingly. You can also find a girl in the real world, trigger an event that will overwhelm her with an emotion, and you'll have to go defeat enemies to bring her back to normal. Really, it's a Persona game. Sometimes, big ass monsters will attack the school in the real world, and you can attack them there as well.



The music is pretty great honestly, and I think the graphics are fantastic, especially in the other world, where everything looks incredibly vivid. The combat system is also surprisingly satisfying, even for a turn based hater like me. Even when it's not your turn, there's a bunch of shit you can do and there's always some kind of passive strategy you have to keep in mind. By the end of the game, you manage a ton of gauges at the same time in order to give yourself an edge, so you really are always doing something, which is great! The attacks you use are also super flashy, and that's also a huge and welcome distraction.



There's one more thing this game is known for (among its small dedicated fanbase, at least), and it's the ungodly amount of fanservice the game gets. It's ridiculous how often you see characters half naked or bathing or trading underwear or grabbing each other's boobs or doing other stupid anime girl shit, to a point where it can become an annoying distraction, but I'd say it doesn't hurt the experience too much if you can deal with this kind of stuff. Personally, I'd say I didn't mind the game taking every excuse to turn the entire school into a gigantic wet t-shirt contest because it never felt like it was the real meat of the game, and there's always something going on I guess.



While I honestly liked this wayyyy more than Persona 4 (the only one I played and completed), I'm not gonna pretend that this is a better product overall. Sure, the dungeons are far better, the visuals are uncomparable and so is the gameplay, and the main character is honestly cute and fun to get into, but it's not without its shortcomings. You do so little stuff in the real world, it can feel pretty constricting. There are also only 3 playable characters, so there's not much room for variety or customization. The biggest flaw is probably how the game is all about emotions, but sucks ass at conveying anything other than depression. But hey, I still liked it, and I think any Persona fan should check it out and give it a shot as they'll probably have a great time with what this has to offer.



Blue Reflection is available on Vita (only in Japanese), PS4 and PC.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

I really like the transformation!

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

I rly like ur sig

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 27th

Today's challenge is: Dead franchise you wish would be revived.

This theme was suggested by Evascythe.

I had a lot of options going into this one, yet I kinda knew from the start what I wanted to talk about. I'm gonna talk about Atlus' Trauma Center series, and besides general talk about the franchise itself, I'll focus on my my favorite game in the series (which is also my favorite game on the system itself), which is Trauma Center: Second Opinion.



I was never a huge fan of motion controlled games (until recently, as VR is a completely different experience), so I definitely had a weird relationship with the Wii. There were a few things I really liked about it, such as being able to play Gamecube games on it, and having an open arms setup with the controllers (with the Wiimote and the nunchuck, something I could only replicate using the weird Phantasy Star Online Keyboard Gamecube controller). That being said, It is still the only console my family went for during that generation.

Soon after it became obvious we would be getting one (and my dad did buy it on a whim at Walmart, which pissed off my mom), I started looking up games for the system, not wanting to be stuck with Wii Sports for like 2 years before I got anything else, and while watching trailers and other gameplay videos on a French video game website, I immediately became interested in Trauma Center after watching the French dudes play it. I ended up renting 3 games soon after we got it, which were Mario Galaxy, the Trauma Center game, and some other game my sister got for herself that I can't recall (I don't think I even played that other one and I'm pretty sure it was just some gay shovelware, and just in case you find my previous statement weird, know that video renting stores are still alive and well across Quebec).



I played Mario Galaxy for a bit, then started playing Second Opinion on hard difficulty and beat it in one sitting through a 30 hours session (excluding the extreme stages, I sucked at them). I just couldn't put the game down, I was too engrossed in it. I thought the difficulty scaled very nicely, yet always remained very challenging. I loved the storyline and the characters themselves, and the last level made me hold my breath for most of it because it was simply too epic.

That's about it for how I was introduced to the game, now let me explain what it actually is. It's basically a surgeon sim game, where you use a bunch of medical tools to perform operations on patients. At first, it's all about regular procedures, just to warm you up to the many tools at your disposal, then you start using a special power called a Healing Touch (its effect varies depending on the character you're using), then you start doing some unconventional stuff like fighting against bioengineered giant bugs (called GUILTs) causing lacerations all over the place and stuff like that (you also have to disarm a bomb). The key thing that made the game great (gameplay wise) in my opinion is that it's all about speed and precision, and it does a great job at sharpening your gaming instincts.



Upon finishing the game (or getting stuck on the extreme stages, but that's just an extra), I went to bed, then I looked up the series a little more, because I was still craving what it offered me. Turns out that besides the DS game that Second Opinion was a remake of, there was another game about to come out, New Blood, so I eagerly waited for it to be released, then got it pretty soon afterwards. It wasn't quite as good as the other one, and I found it to be much harder, but it was still a ton of fun.

Not too long after, I moved, and the third Wii game in the franchise (Trauma Team) sort of flew under my radar. I did get it eventually, and... It was really weird. I thought some of the characters sucked, and there were some drastic changes in flow and gameplay. But I still liked it. It's great, but doesn't shine when compared to the rest of the series. Then many, many years later, Felix gifted me a coral pink DS Lite that came with a ton of shovelware and a hot pink jewel box, which gave me a chance to play the only game in the series I hadn't played before, which was Under the Knife 2 (or Second Opinion 2 going by the Wii title). Now, maybe I suck ass with the DS, but this was way, wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy harder than the Wii games, mostly because you couldn't simultaneously switch tools while operating. It was still pretty fun, but I couldn't even beat the last stage on normal difficulty, and I felt like this had little to do with my reflexes or anything, so I chalk that one up as a slight disappointment.



All that being said, every game in the series was released in the same time period. Under the Knife 1 and 2 are available on the original DS, and Second Opinion, New Blood and Trauma Team are Wii exclusives. Considering how wildly the Switch has taken off, I'm very surprised that Atlus hasn't tried to bring it back, as it seems like a perfect console for that. I'd really, really like to jump back into it, preferably with a more modern take on the concept. But we'll see if it ever does.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 28th

Today's challenge is: Game with favorite music.

This theme was suggested by xMUSICxMASTERx (aka Volupture).

Alright, this is the big one I had to stretch my interpretation of certain themes for, since it fitted almost everywhere. And I'm actually going to cheat and pick two games for this one, as there's a lot to say here. That being said, the games are closely related, so it's not much worse than it was on Day 2, and they're games made by the same company, actually. Still, this is going to be a heck of a post, so let's get into it right now.

I'm talking about Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. Although if I'm being completely honest, Ys VIII is the one with the ever so slightly superior soundtrack, so I'll focus on it a little more. It's not exactly an obscure franchise, but it was never super popular in the West, despite how the recent titles were critically acclaimed. Before VIII came out, the only one I had played was Ys: The Vanished Omens on the glorious Master System, and it kind of sucked. The bump combat (basically, you don't have an attack button, you just hug your enemies to deal damage) was just really weird, though I still thought it was cool for what it was.



Fast forward a few years, and I ended up hosting Keith at my dad's place to help him ease into his new Quebec life. I was definitely intending to stimulate his interest into a broader spectrum of video games as well, and I'd say it worked out rather well. Among other things, he mentionned being a huge fan of Final Fantasy, which honestly made me cringe a lot, so I tried to introduce him to other franchises. I made him play the demo for Tales of Berseria, and it definitely worked out as he got the game himself pretty soon afterwards. On that high note, I told him to keep an eye on NIS America's games, as they were porting a new Ys a few months from then. I had seen screenshots and some online talk about it, but that was it. We looked up some trailers together, and I ended up being the one whose interest spiked this time around.

I preordered the Vita version at a local store, and picked it up on release, as I was absolutely stoked about this one. I mentionned in a previous write up that I've rarely felt let down by a game I was anticipating, and this one sure as hell isn't an exception. If it wasn't for Gravity Rush 2, this would probably be my favorite game of all time. I was actually the second person in the world to platinum the North American Vita version, and then while looking up the trophy lists and regions of the game, I found out you could platinum the game a total of 6 times. There are three regions with separate lists, those being Asia, Europe and North America, and they all have two versions of the game in the PS4 and Vita versions. “Cool”, I thought, “time to buy the same fucking game 5 more times”. I did just that and completed all of them for a total of 12 playthroughs. I also bought a 7th copy just because I wanted one with the Collector's Box. And I'm probably gonna buy an 8th copy in the future (for the Switch, this time), just because the reversible cover art is incredibly gorgeous. I have problems. On a side note, I did the same thing for Ys IX, but I preordered all three versions as soon as they were available. But more on that one later.



It's a little hard to explain what the story is without spoiling the entire thing, so BEWARE OF SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH. True to Ys tradition (with the sole exclusion of Ys Origin), the story covers a travelogue written by a man known as Adol Christin, the crimson haired adventurer. While travelling on a ship on his way to the unknown and working as a sailor to pay for the fare (along with his partner in crime, Dogi the wall crusher), a giant creature showed up and wrecked the ship as they were passing by the cursed isle of Seiren. Finding himself stranded on said island, he tries to round up survivors to work with them and figure a way out, though he himself is more interested in exploring the mysterious area than in saving his own skin. Soon after arriving however, he starts being plagued with weird dreams in which he observes an unknown civilization and its Maiden of the Great Tree, Dana Iclusia. While scouting the island, he figures out that this Dana is actually from the Jurassic era, and was a leading religious figure for her dragonkin people. Somehow, both Adol and the Dana of the past learn to communicate, and she helps him progress in his adventures. They eventually find the lady in question sleeping in a tree, seemingly for millions of years, and the group now tries to figure out what happened to her people, and what are all the strange things happening on this island, such as the resurgence of the dinosaurs, which should have been impossible. It turns out that Dana was chosen as the eternal watcher of her entire civilization as her people was brought to extinction through a process that was occuring once again in the current time. Dana fought valiantly against her fate, but even though she failed, she refused to ascend with the other watchers of the past, and managed to stick around until Adol's time to fight the process once more. With their new friend, Adol's party shifts to a new focus and hopes to find a way to stop the extinction event and thus save humankind. I'm not gonna go so far as to say what happens from there, but it's a great story in my opinion.



While this is undoubtedly a RPG, this is NOT of the shitty turn based variety. It's a high flying, blazing fast action RPG, almost like a Musou game. Each of the 6 playable characters has a wide array of offensive skills, and a decent amount of movement based skills as well. Design wise, the dungeons are mostly designed to look like natural formations, and it's therefore not just a bunch of crypts and temples that exist just to be dungeons basically. You'll instead have jungles, forests, mountains, caves, stuff like that, and I think this is one of the strongest points of the game. Hell, this is probably the only game in which the “water temple” is arguably the best dungeon. Along the way, you also gain adventure gear, which lets you progress to new areas in different ways, much like Link would with his hookshot, power gauntlets and whatnot. Speaking of Link, I want to say that as a life long 3D Zelda fan, the new Ys games shit on the entire Zelda franchise. So please, take notes and give them your attention. Praise Falcom. Oh and as side note, sure, the graphics arent super detailed or anything, but considering it was designed as a vita game originally, it holds up really well. And it's bright and colorful, which is personally all I could ask for.



But what about today's theme itself? The music? Oh fuck yes. It's the very best, at least to me. The majority of the game is balls to the walls power metal, with some tasty violin licks mixed in, and it works incredibly well with the gameplay and context. I honestly think I could round up my top 3 video game music tracks of all time with this game, and my top 5 by including Ys IX, and I wouldn't feel like I'm pushing it. Mitsuo Singa might take some flak for his hentai work, and he may be a one trick pony, but he and the JDK Falcom Band are fucking geniuses. “A-to-Z” is the true ending's final boss' theme, and hands down the best video game track I've ever heard in my life. “Deadly Temptation” is the regular boss theme, and probably my favorite boss theme as well across all of gaming. Then you have stuff like “Hope Alive” which plays at the climax of the prehistoric Dana side of things, which is not really the greatest track on its own, but within story context and with the accompanying visuals and sound effects, it carries a lot of weight. You also have the orchestral theme song, which brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. And that's already 4 all time great songs, and there's more than those in this game for sure.









This seems like a good place to start talking about Ys IX as well, as the fantastic music found in this game doesn't really need much context at all. All you need to know is that it's set in a fictional Paris of yore, specifically in the gothic era. And you can again hear some of that glorious power metal, coupled with harpsichords and even fucking saxophone, and yes, it works really well. All of the Grimwald raid themes are fantastic battlefield themes, like “Lacrima Crisis”, then you have stuff like “Cloaca Maxima”, which is just a very interesting track overall, and is a dungeon theme in-game. The theme that plays when facing strong enemies is “Feel Force”, and it has more of a prog metal feel instead, and it's really great too. The big, killer song from this game is “Norse Wind”, which is a loop that lasts over 2 minutes long and acts as a theme for... A gigantic open field. If this was Ocarina of Time (pardon the Zelda references, but both franchises are quite similar, so it's only fair), this would be Hyrule Field's theme. That is absolutely crazy. Like with VIII, there are also a ton more legendary tracks in here, like the main city theme, but I don't think the soundtrack (or even the game as a whole) is quite as legendary to me as what you had with the previous title, but it's just a tiny difference. The game itself did a few things better, but overall I think it gets outshined. Ys VIII has better colors, slightly better music, better level designs, better story, but Ys IX has better balance, movement, exploration and graphics. Opinions vary a great deal on that topic, but I think we can all agree they're both fantastic.









I'm not gonna go too much in depth about this one, but I'll still say a few things about it. I actually started playing the Japanese version as soon as it was released, and it took me just under a month to complete it. If you wonder how it's possible to 100% a game that's only in Japanese without a walkthrough, let's just say it's the kind of skill you might develop if you're a kid growing up without knowing a word of English. I remember having to “brute force” Metal Gear Solid as a kid, so it was a similar kind of experience, and I still have the luxury of using Google Translate whenever I wanna read what something is saying. This was also not the first time in recent history I went in blind into a huge foreign game, and another game like this might be coming out sooner than you'd think. Wink wink nudge nudge.



And speaking of walkthroughs, being the insane fuck that I am, I'm actually the one who wrote and posted the 30 000+ words walkthrough on Playstationtrophies.org, about 2 months before the English release. I bought the very computer I'm using right now just to do this, and I'm actually in the process of writing a new one that's better suited for the English version. And since I don't do things halfway, I also decided I wanted to be the first and fastest person to platinum the North American version of the game, since I had an obvious edge over everyone else. It turned out to be impossible to be first, because a couple journalists with review copies already got the platinum trophy, and I couldn't do anything about it. However, I did manage to be the first to do it post release, and also the fastest to do it as well, which I performed on stream. A 32 hours long stream, for a 32 hours long run.



I FUCKING love Falcom's modern games.

Ys VIII is out on Vita, PS4, Switch and PC. Ys IX is out on PS4 only, but will be coming soon to PC and Switch as well. And you should play them. Hell, Ys VIII even came out on mobile, and it looks great! You could always give that version a shot!

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

ok blue reflection looks cute as hell WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

It is cute as hell! And I have no idea why this game is still crazy expensive. Sure, the physical version, I can wrap my head around, considering how there's rarity in play, but I have no idea why the digital version is so expensive. Hakulyte checked out the DLC set for the game, and it's all some serious bullshit as well.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 29th

Today's challenge is: Game you played as a joke but enjoyed unironically.

This theme was suggested by sanzath.

As was hinted yesterday, today's another Japan exclusive, and a game I'm about a thousand hours in and that I'm trying to make a decent strategy guide for. It should be the Magnum Opus of my “guide” career, because I don't think I could ever top this project. And all this for a game I bought because I thought of it as a joke...



To be fair, I wasn't the only one who thought of it as such, and I learned of the game the same way everyone else did. I randomly asked a friend of mine to introduce me to a game I had never heard of that I'd absolutely need in my collection, and he introduced me to this insanity: there's a sandbox picture mode in the game that our lovely nerds in the land of the rising sun have taken in a very cursed and you-are-going-to-hell direction. Also, the game is notorious for having the longest title in gaming history, which, when translated, reads as follows: Summertime High School: A Young Man's Notes—How a New Exchange Student Like Myself Ran Into His Childhood Friend on the School Tour, Then for Some Reason Became Super-Popular with the Girls for His Daily Scoops on the School Photography Club Even Though He Only Takes Panty Shots, and What He Thinks as He Goes on Dates During His Summer of Island School Life.

Doesn't exactly roll right off your tongue now, right? But what is it? Well, it's pretty unique, so I can't really compare it with any one game, however I can try to explain how it works. It's an open world game in which you play as a student attending summer classes on an island. The world advances linearly (like it does in Majora's Mask, except over the course of almost 3 months instead of 3 days) at a slightly faster rate, but there are way to make it skip ahead to avoid having to waste time idling or something. You can take a leak to skip ahead about 15 minutes, take a nap in the nurse's office, work a day shift at a summer job, stuff like that. An interesting aspect of this is that there's “almost” no real way to tell the time other than finding a clock on a wall somewhere and looking at it. I say “almost” because you can make a save, then look at your savefile, and it will say what time it is.



This game isn't really about studying however, but interacting with the students, citizens and island workers, so it's a bit more like Animal Crossing if I have to compare it with anything. It's fairly big too, and there's a decent amount of stuff to do in there. It can also get pretty crazy, like meeting a god at a shrine or whatnot. The main set of quests would be those having to do with the photography club, which the main character is a part of. Those usually involve interviewing various people on the island in order for the club to write a blog article about it. Despite what is hinted in the game's title, taking pictures of panties, while being something you can do, is super counter productive. It permanently messes up your diary entry for that character by displaying a photo of whatever underwear they were wearing during that day instead of their portrait, which, if you care about trophies, makes it really hard to complete the whole album of every single person that visits this island over the course of those 3 months, plus, if you are noticed, it damages your reputation, and might lead someone to call the cops on you.



There is no huge, long term consequence for being arrested other than having your reputation lowered a lot, but it's better to avoid it anyway. You can raise your reputation by completing sidequests, giving gifts, selecting the best options in dialogs, returning lost money, and being an overall good person. You can lower it by raising havoc, bumping into people, running them over with a bike, crawling on the floor, looking at women's underwear, kicking people and so on. You could say the whole thing is a mix of Majora's Mask, Animal Crossing and Grand Theft Auto. With a huge anime slice-of-life skin. And even though the game is made by the same people who are behind Senran Kagura (the character models even look like they're from the same franchise), it is actually quite wholesome overall.



It's a shame I cannot understand a word of what is going on, because honestly I at least feel like I'm playing something really interesting. I've gotten a grasp on how to get every ending (there are over 300 characters on the island, and about 15 of them have their own ending with the main character, some of which are exclusive to NG+) even though it was an absolute nightmare to figure out. I like that there is so much to do in your free time as well, and even though the game's mechanics are a little clunky, it feels like you're playing something that the devs put some serious efforts into. I really hope to finish my guide for it, which might make the other trophy hunters consider importing the game, which in turn is the slightest chance I've got to help the game getting a western localization (it's incredibly unlikely to happen, but I'm doing what I can).

On an aesthetical note, while the game itself doesn't quite look like the sharpest thing ever made, it is still bright and colorful, which is not unlike the modern Falcom games. The main theme can get a little repetitive, but it never ended up bothering me a huge lot.



The game is available on PS3 and PS4. While there's no region locking on these systems, do know that this game is extremely import unfriendly, mostly due to how much Japanese you need to know in order to truly play it. Lastly, major shoutouts for the dedicated Japanese wiki of the game, which at least lets me know where something is happening on any given day. If I didn't have that, I'd be looking at a 10 000 hours project instead.

Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge
 

March 30th

Today's challenge is: Cereal Box Game.

This theme was suggested by xXOpkillerXx.

I'm a little disappointed today. I really wished to have my entire grid free of PC exclusives, but Oppiie really threw a wrench into those plans. While doing research on it, I was counting on Japan to have some sort of Famicom cereal box release, but no dice, since apparently that's a Western thing. That's too bad, because I would have taken any weird mahjong/pachinko garbage over a PC game (you know, the kind that littered those illegal multicarts in the late 80s and early 90s). Then, upon learning how Europe was also into cereal box bonus games, I hoped that they at least had some micro computer game, since that would be a bit more interesting to talk about. But that didn't happen either. There were some DOS games early on, so at this point I'll just throw the white flag and talk about a DOS game you can actually say a bunch of things about.



I don't actually hate computers or PC gaming, far from it. I think they're the most powerful machines to play on, and with certain genres, like FPS and RTS games, they're by far the go to platform, and I'm 100% ok with that. If you're into modding or fanmade stuff, they're also the first choice, and they come with insane multiplayer, multitasking and broadcasting convenience. Really, PCs are great. But my personal love for pc gaming has long since died. It died on the day I became a video game collector, where my focus has shifted primarily to beautiful plastic and dedicated systems, which became a necessary part of the experience to me. I know a tiny bit of PC games do get physical releases nowadays, but it's a dead art in my mind. I can respect a collection featuring many individual builds from a variety of eras, since in my mind it works like having a collection of micro computers (one of these days, ZX Spectrum, one of these days), but I can't buy and store everything. And since this challenge is also a very personal thing to me, well... That's why I was so adamant not to include PC games. Oh well.



Anyway, I'll talk about Chex Quest. I know, I know, very predictable, but there's a very good reason why I picked this one. Not because it's the best one, I haven't even played it, I've only watched part of a speedrun of it after seeing the AVGN's episode on the game. Also not because it's the one cereal box game that's still being played by a significant amount of people to this day. I picked it because LimitedRun Games rereleased a massive collector's edition of the game for 150 fucking dollars, and it's the most amazing thing ever. If this was a console port with the same amount of goodies, it would be sitting on my shelf as we speak.

For those who don't know, this is a DooM clone that is breakfast themed (too bad that's not today's theme, else I would have picked Captain Novolin (or Captain Diabetes, you pick) for the SNES instead, which has a lot to be said about, starting with how it was never sold in stores, but given to diabetic kids by physicians to teach them how to manage their sugar levels and insulin dosage). Like I said, I haven't actually played it, but it looks pretty cool, and all of Doomguy's arsenal is in there as mods for the Zorcher, a special remote that pacifies breakfast aliens. Other than that, well it plays like DooM, but it's not like they were straight up reusing levels or anything, it's its own project. And there's no E1M1 theme in there, or anything close to that, which is really disappointing.



And that's about all I'll say about it, since that's all I know about it, and this challenge should be more about my knowledge of the game rather than me doing research on games to then talk about them. That by itself is kinda sad, because I used to collect these games as a kid. I'm pretty sure I had all of the cereal box games released in Quebec from 1995 onwards, but despite that, I must admit that Chex Quest is the King of the “genre”. RIP to the Tycoons and Age of Empires of the world.

Chex Quest is a PC exclusive. Today was kinda lame, I apologize!