Recent reviews by PvtRyan

Exedra makes me want to take some Excedrin. I sincerely wish this could have been a good game, but it's just not. Why-oh-why did it have to be a watered-down clone of Honkai Star Rail, of all things? Even Honkai Star Rail is a watered-down version of a game series I actually love (Kiseki/Trails), so this is just doubly watered-down into a boring slog to even open and do my chores in every day, and the fact that the menus don't buffer your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ inputs and take a split-second to become responsive sure doesn't help, either.

So, a couple months ago, I quit, and I don't miss it. I wish I did. I love Madoka and her friends. I can watch the last episode of the anime and cry any time I want. There's real magic in this IP, and this kamiforsaken gacha completely fumbles it all in every way... except the animations. The animation team is surely made up of pitiable, underpaid interns that really give it their all. I feel for them. And I feel bad for the fact that their talent is being wasted on this sad excuse for a game.

And the worst part is that none of it is fixable, either. This game needs a complete, 100% gutting and rebuilding with completely different gameplay, gacha mechanics, and design ethos. That will, of course, never happen, and so Madoka Exedra will never be a good game.

Blue Archive is the kind of game that was made especially for me. It's got guns, cute girls, an all-female cast, and it's got both a compelling main story and a plethora of fun side events that understand what's so appealing about slices of life in this kind of a setting. Every once in a while, you'll see a CG you didn't expect to get depicted, or the chibi models in-battle will do something hand-scripted in an event battle to make you laugh. It's great. They had every opportunity to take this good base and squander it with trashtastic, predatory gacha mechanics, but the yoke of gacha upon this game is light and borderline artistic. It's gentle. Coming from FGO, it's like night and day to me. You do not have to roll a girl more than once for her upper limits to be available to you. There's no, "teehee you rolled her once, but... like... have you really even ROLLED her if you didn't roll her six times so you can max her out?" And the sparking system is fabulous, too. 20 multis and you just *get* your target if it comes down to it... or if you roll her on that last roll? You can go and choose another girl up on that set of banners. And this is all in a game that hands out its gacha currency like candy (You can spark probably about 10 units per year... not to mention all the girls you'll just roll naturally!). It's just so generous and thoughtful that it makes me feel like I'm on a yacht looking down at the Hoyoslop people riding around in dinghys making do with their painful-sounding 50/50s. Blue Archive has forever ruined the concept of what I should tolerate in a gacha, and I'm glad for that.

Now, of course, it'd be all for naught if the game itself was garbage, but while it kinda makes a sloppy first impression with battles that are basically unlosable and a seemingly-low amount of player control, the higher end of Blue Archive requires thoughtful team planning, timing, quick reactions, and patience all in equal measure. I've been playing for about 9 months now, and there has always been a consistent leading edge of FUKKENHARD content that constantly whoops my ass if I screw up and don't test my teams enough. Now, personally, I'd like it if they made you able to give individual movement/attack orders to each of the girls to override their auto-actions, but as-is, there's enough to sink your teeth into if you're willing to devote a month or so to the game and actually get yourself to that hard content. Otherwise, just think of it as a VN with a really, really great OST and charming girls.

...Just about the only thing that I'm not a huge fan of is the fact that the player character doesn't have a selectable sex you can set and get a canonical design for, instead opting for total ambiguity/plausible deniability. I want to play as a cute office lady who gets to headpat her cute students and give them the encouragement they need... Nexon pls gib ability to play as a proper femsei ok thank you.

Serika best cat.

It's difficult not to recommend this game to anybody who liked Undertale. Every quirk of Mr. Tobias Foxworthy's gamedev style is here, apparently COMPLETELY undiluted by the fact that he has a whole team of people co-developing it alongside him this time. The characters are quirky, the encounters (and bullet patterns) are interesting, and the narrative is both emotional and twisting like the steel rollercoaster you wish for it to be.

And yet, it's also an easy recommendation to those who didn't like Undertale. The level of polish present in essentially every aspect of the game renders it a pleasant experience regardless of if you were put off by what some might describe as humor straight out of the the internet zeitgeist circa 2010. The music is CONSISTENTLY easy on the ears while having a greater variety on offer than Undertale ever had. The battle system has undergone a heavy revision that feels more like iteration and improvement than it does like a hasty retreat from a design goal. As a product, and purely on an objective level, it annihilates Undertale's production values, and I think that just might be enough to sweet-talk a hater or two into falling in love with what this game's got to offer.

I would not particularly worry about it being an incomplete product. What exists now portrays a complete "Act 1" to an entire narrative in a way that lets you experience a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it has achieved worthiness of its 25 USD asking price. That is to say, Chapters 5-7 would have to be pretty legendarily terrible for me to sour on this game.

Consider giving it a try.

TEVI is, at the end of the day, an inferior Rabi-Ribi that's been meddled with by people who didn't understand what was so good about Rabi-Ribi itself. While it has a number of small improvements that iterate on RR's solid foundation (more moment-to-moment combat options, and more build variety), ultimately the vision has been watered down into something more forgettable, and if TEVI were the game released back in 2016 instead of Rabi-Ribi, it would not have stood the test of time, and we would have never gotten a sequel. Let's get into why.

However, let's be fair and discuss what the game does well, because that list is both long and deserving of plenty of praise.

TEVI, being a gameplay-first game, delivers on that front with a combo-heavy, stylish boss rush sandwiched by meaty segments of calm, engaging exploration with a truly satisfying number of secrets to find. Enemies all typically have gimmicks to learn and respect beyond simple contact damage, and there are a number of times where theorycrafting an advanced strategy (such as manipulating enemy position for an optimal dropkick-bounce) can earn you a stat upgrade before you're supposed to be able to acquire it. The world this all takes place in is diverse, colorful, delightful, and, at times, downright depressing. The tone is all over the place, but rarely in a way that feels jarring or thoughtless. The gradation between the aesthetic of each area is often sharper than I'd like, with few visual indicators as to what area you're about to head into when going through any particular area exit, but that's really a nitpick and hardly something Rabi-Ribi ever thought about, either.

The boss fights are also appropriately difficult, though advanced players or Rabi-Ribi veterans will be displeased to learn that the game's highest difficulty is locked behind completion -- a fact that is couterbalanced by the ability to adjust the difficulty any time from the MC's bedroom -- a location that is accessible during the vast majority of the game. Nevertheless, the bosses have been... toned down, both in difficulty and otherwise, and it's such a shame because Rabi-Ribi's greatest strength WAS its boss fights. There's far fewer flashy bullet-hell attacks, and you can really sense that the one designing the boss attack patterns definitely cared too much about whether a given attack was visually or thematically fitting for a given boss instead of if that attack was fun to negotiate with or not. Granted, the fun is still there, to be had, but it's toned down.

And "toned down" is a phrase that, unfortunately, applies to most of the game as well.

The character design and tone of TEVI, in my opinion, is probably the single biggest downgrade from Rabi-Ribi, going from one to the other. TEVI is not really a happy game -- not like Rabi was, at any rate. TEVI has many depressing moments and somber locations, and the character designs are much more down-to-earth, less provocative, and -- key point here -- much less memorable. More western-looking, too, which is definitely a your-mileage-may-vary thing, but personally, I would take the Rabi-RIbi art style any day of the week. It was much cuter, and while there is certainly a decent amount of cuteness to find in TEVI (there are two... let's call them "secret" characters in a visitable in-game casino, who PERFECTLY demonstrate that this team can definitely make adorable designs!!! It is within their power!), I just have to ask:

Why?

I'd like you to see these quotes from one of the higher-ups involved with the production of this game:
>"Tevi was developed by the team behind Rabi-Ribi and has made many attempts and improvements: enhancing the art style and combat experience, adding a more complete story, and adding voice acting."
>"We analyze some factors that we believe are the obstacles to Rabi-Ribi’s marketing, such as a weak storyline or anime art style that might not be very appealing in the Western gaming community."
>"In the early days of the studio, we tended to do whatever good ideas came up, regardless of what kind of genre or how well the market was performing."

Do you see the problem? I'm not one to spin a tall tale narrative about the choices made by developers I have never met, but I cannot help see statements like that without getting the impression that Rabi-Ribi -- one of my favorite games of all time -- is seen as... embarrassing, to some of the people who helped make TEVI into what it is. Embarrassing, without realizing that "cute, happy, sexy, high-octane, super-difficult, exuberant metroidvania punctuated by thoughtful-yet-transitory moments of sorrow with a kick-ass, downright-DANCEABLE soundtrack" is exactly the one and only thing I ever wanted from Gema-Yue. There are just... so many depressing metroidvanias out there. So many dark ones. So many ones trying to inspire dread or fear or loneliness or just trying to be like Metroid. So many ones that tread the same damn ground, and it seems to me that a desire to go where others have gone before turned what was probably a much better in-dev concept for TEVI into something that, despite trying to be something special, ended up turning into something more run-of-the-mill. In trying to "improve," the foundation suffered for it.

So, those quotes regarding the art style do anger me a bit. Rabi-Ribi's art style did not need to be "improved," and the tone did not need it, either. What Rabi-Ribi needed was, at the end of the day, just an editor and some more thoughtful moment-to-moment dialogue.

Guess what? TEVI actually has that, and it IS a breath of fresh air. Having a three-person party is probably the singular biggest upgrade TEVI has over Rabi-Ribi. The characters play off of each other, and Tevi is a wonderful protagonist. I can't say enough good things about her. She's charming, she's funny, she's endearing. She goes through genuine grief and has some pretty damn soulful motivations for what she does. Even the sillier motivations you can still "feel," deep down. Celia and Sable are both welcome for playing off of her at pretty much every opportunity, too. Personally, I'd have preferred if Sable was a girl, but that's just a matter of personal preference. Either way, aside from some very small moments of contrivance, I really believed in their slow, meandering road to becoming friends throughout the journey.

And what can I say about that journey? That it took place in a wide, sprawling world? Yes. That it was appropriately long and satisfying? Sure. That every twist made sense?

NOT BY A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LONG-SHOT, LMAO

I cannot begin to convey to you just how many useless, throwaway characters this has. I cannot begin to convey to you just how long you go throughout the game without realizing what the ultimate evil you're opposing even is. I cannot begin to convey to you what an absolute FETISH this game has for twists you could not possibly have foreseen walking up to you and clocking you straight in the face. I won't belittle the writer of the game. I know writing is hard, as someone who writes, myself. I don't know their circumstances, but I do know that the story of TEVI, for all the HERCULEAN efforts it goes through to "improve upon" Rabi-Ribi's story, ends up being about the same level of quality -- a little better in many places, but a lot worse in a few key ones, too.

That's really the story of TEVI, as a game, too. Two half-steps forwards, one big-ass step back. Blunders mixed with a plethora of tiny improvements and tweaks. However, I'm running up against the character limit, so let's wrap this up. Ultimately, do I recommend TEVI? Yes. Of course. It's a good game. It just could have been so much more.

I eagerly await your next game -- Love Bunny -- Mr. Gema-Yue. Godspeed to you. I wish you nothing but the best. NEVERMIND. RABI 2 IS ON THE WAY, BOYS.

A delightful little game (about 2.5 hours long) parodying the classic Murder On The Orient Express. Honestly, if I had a dollar for every time I played a parody of that in a video game, I'd have two dollars, which is pretty funny but still fine by me. It seems to work out every time it's tried.

In any case, if you have any love of the Sonic cast, giving this a try will prove more than worth the asking price of your time. The writing, music, and visuals are all extremely charming, and that's really all you can ask from a game like this.

As an April Fools joke, I rate this a firm 10/10. One of my favorites.

I don't care to give a full in-depth review on the game this very moment (suffice it to say that I liked it a lot), but I thought it was pretty cool that one of the features I asked for on the forums was the ability to toggle the power boost cutscene and that the developers actually patched that into the game. SEGA actually listening to feedback is a nice whitepill, so I thought I should contribute to the game's positive score.

Generally speaking, this game is an easy recommendation for the typical Neptunia fan. It has some warts, but to summarize, it's a shaky 7/10 that needed another year in the oven and about double the budget. Then again, compared to most Neptunia titles, this is about standard fare, so that's why I recommend it. I had a lot of fun, even though there were a few major frustrations now and again.

The biggest strong points of the game are the narrative, the characters, and the visuals, so I'll briefly touch on those.
>Narrative
This is the big winner here. The actual scenario writer for this game was positively cracked, and whoever it is deserves a big raise. This is probably the best story told in a Neptunia game. Unfortunately, the storytelling doesn't quite live up to the story itself, but that story really is something unique and special, which is a step forward from even V-II. The twists and turns it takes and the plot points it has are clearly the singular best points of the game.
>Characters
This is almost a freebie were it not for the new girls. The returning characters -- CPUs, Candidates, Histoire, etc. -- are all a given, since I went into this game expecting to see more of their charming characters put on display. However, whereas previous titles often flubbed execution on newcomer characters, SvS actually delivered a supremely good set of additions to the cast that don't feel forced, bloated, or underdeveloped at all. They're all charming in different ways, and none of them are annoying. Great job there.
>Art style
This is the best the series has ever looked in terms of 3D (though I did not play V-IIR), and the addition of hand-animated Live2D breathes a rather shocking amount of life into characters new and old. I don't even really like Ram that much, but seeing her whirl her arm around to stick her fist up in victory on her literal 2D sprite was very cute! The dungeons look fairly nice (though I think 4GO did even better in that regard, tbh), and the menus are really nice, clean, and bright. Everybody's attack animations, also, look pretty great.

Unfortunately, the game can be pretty lacking in a number of other areas. The sort of elephant in the room here is the actual combat gameplay, which, unfortunately, just kinda sucks. It's frankly sub-par, with none of the moves ever feeling responsive (and taking WAY too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long to animate), ranged attacks often missing by fractions of an inch due to an enemy casually walking to the side, and hilariously inconsistent moments of trivially-easy fights punctuated by the occasional massively-bloated HP pool on some random enemy. The AP system is back, which is a real shame, because it forces you to switch between your characters with fresh AP pools instead of being able to just fight on your own terms with the characters you actually want to play as. The custom combo system, while neat in theory, is also more annoying than anything. I'd rather just have typical character-action game controls with a normal combo tree instead of whatever this is.

And, even when you're not actually in combat, the gameplay isn't much better, either. Exploring dungeons is a slog a good chunk of the time, with no dash button of any kind, and only a jump button to play around with as you slowly meander from objective to objective. The enemies don't follow you very aggressively, either, removing most challenge from traversal and turning walking from A to B into a chore, filled with inane character callout dialogue every five seconds. I swear, if CH updated this game with a dash button and a dungeon chatter frequency slider, that would improve the game a whole half a point. Everyone, unfortunately, has either the exact same or very similar running animations, too, despite the fact that they have perfectly-usable unique animations in battle while running and holding their weapons, so this really should not have even been an issue, either, as you run through copy-pasted dungeon one after another.

And, yes, you read that right. The copypasted dungeon problem is back, and literally worse than it has *EVER* been before in a Neptunia game. There are something like... five different dungeon maps (six if you count a repurposed section of the hub), copied and pasted across a good 10-15 dungeons, some of them being at different times of day or having the walls recolored. In order to achieve the illusion of variety, certain paths are blocked off in certain pastes, and sometimes certain rooms can be swapped out for others, but overall, you can easily tell its the same maps with the exact same geometry. This would be acceptable -- maybe -- if we had 10 unique dungeon types, and more of an effort was made to grant the illusion of variety, but this more than anything highlights the game's problem with lack of time in the oven.

The last of my criticisms is the actual moment-to-moment writing and polish. Little things like stilted dialogue or screen transitions resetting the BGM despite supposedly taking place during one singular cutscene sequence often mar the experience. Some of the music choices for certain scenes is, quite frankly, utterly baffling and bizarre, like the person who decided that was drunk of his ass and just tossed a dart at a spinning wheel to make the choice. Characters will often phrase things confusingly as if they're not even sure what the context is for their own statements (though that could just be the localization; I won't necessarily pin it on CH), and the actual phrasing of a lot of dialogue often seems ill-fitting to these characters who we know and love, like the editor for this game was a newcomer to the series or something. Heck, once you unlock the non-dungeon hub, you can even talk to random NPCs, but their dialogue is so bafflingly-written that it almost reads like it was AI-generated -- it's literally that bad.

However... aaaaaallllll that said:
It's Neptunia. Perfection is not in its genes, and it delivers an experience that fits right in with the series in all its spotty glory. That's what I wanted going in, and it's what I got. It wasn't a disappointment, all told.

Oh, and yeah. Nepgear's the protagonist, so that earns it an entire bonus point. Unigear forever! (Maho can come, too, though...)

The game itself has a fairly extensive amount of user-created content -- more than enough for you to get lost in if you feel like trying, and, generally speaking, it's easy to see why it became the main VR experience over the past few years.

However, I can't in good conscience recommend a game that suddenly, after many years, implements an anti-cheat "solution" like Easy Anti-Cheat. Kernel-level anti-cheat simply should not exist. It is extremely dangerous to your machine as a concept, and the danger it sets in both actual risk and continuing this terrible precedent of ignoring ethical software practices earns an easy hard-pass from me.

Modded clients are a whole different debacle, but probably aren't within the scope of this review. However, even without that consideration, sudden implementation of kernel-level anti-cheat is never acceptable. It wasn't acceptable with Doom Eternal, and it isn't acceptable now. You should never have to invest any resources (money, time, etc.) into a product that is suddenly hijacked with dangerous software (which Easy Anti-Cheat and ALL kernel-level anti-cheat is, by fundamental definition -- all software with access to your machine's kernel is dangerous by nature).

I'll be suspending updates on my copy and never playing again until the time that this issue is fixed. If that time is "never," then I'm "never" coming back. If and when it is fixed, I will change this to a positive review, as that reflects all other aspects of the game. I come back to this game when my friends ask me to, but I've instead switched my protests to simply trying to persuade people into playing the alternatives, instead.

I quite liked the game when I played it, but I advise those looking at purchasing SUPERHOT or SUPERHOT VR to not do so. There was a reference to a self-harming action in the VR version that was required as part of a normal playthrough of the game. While such a thing might be disturbing to some viewers, it was an extremely flavorful and interesting decision which fit perfectly with the themes of the game.

As of a month ago from the time of this writing, the scene in question was something a user could toggle off in the game's options at their own discretion.

Unfortunately, at the behest of some users who found this scene personally offensive, the developer decided to remove this part of the game entirely (there is now no option for it), which makes me wish I could refund even this version of the game. I like my games to be problematic, if you will permit me that word, and I like my games to deal with the messy, not-always-correct totality of any aspect of human nature, thought, and experience, so this move the developer took makes me wish to advise you against purchasing either version of the game to support the idea that games should be provocative and unafraid of the moral zeitgeist.

The developer, in performing this move, said that they "can do better." I encourage those reading this to think that the toggle-option that previously existed was already "doing the best," and to hold off on purchasing this otherwise-wonderful game until a possible reversal of this decision. If such a thing happens, I will be changing my review to a recommendation. It is a unique indie-developed first-person shooter with a compellingly-minimalistic narrative, pleasant presentation, and downright-fun "puzzles" to solve. So it is doubly a shame that I would recommend against its purchase.

A very pleasant OST for a delightfully pleasant yuri VN. An easy recommendation if you played the Kindred Spirits VN and ever got the sound of "Fu~ Fu~ Ha-ah-ah~" stuck in your head.