Recent reviews by Simca

If you have ever liked other types of survival management games, I think you'll probably like this. It's a survival management game with an intriguing story, good characters, and hard choices.

I saw somebody on Google reviews describe the game as "woke", but I can't imagine why. There's almost nothing related to gender, sexuality (well the lead is bisexual but it's mentioned literally twice and is never dwelled on), or modern politics in this game.

The game has a lot to say about potential, future ethical dilemmas, such as the ethics of rapid-speed cloning, harvesting human tissue, corporate dystopias, and the risk/reward split on space colonization. But... given that we don't live in a distant sci-fi future and that the game raises good points on both sides of these issues, I'm not sure how any of that would qualify.

This game is basically a better Ace Attorney that tells a really gripping narrative about rumors and their power to change the world.

I could go on and on about how amazing this game is, but honestly, if you ever enjoyed a visual novel or Ace Attorney game, just play it. It's comparatively cheap and worth every penny.

If you loved the first Life is Strange game for the relationship between Chloe and Max and chose to Save Chloe, you will probably strongly dislike this game. Most of the negative reviews are about that. Basically, the developers needed a way to make this one sequel follow both timelines, so if you chose to save Chloe, then an entire town died for one girl, who breaks up with Max, and then they both go their separate ways and don't interact again.

Personally, I would choose the "She died." option when asked what happened to her, even if you picked to save her in the first game. It fits the story and the character of Max much, much better. I think it would have been smarter for the devs to declare "Save Arcadia Bay" as canon for this sequel and would suggest the (fantastic) comics for the "Save Chloe" outcome instead.

On to whether or not this is worth a play for you, the biggest difference between the two games is that, fundamentally, Life is Strange was about a very small group of characters and relationships, told through the lens of a superpower/supernatural plot device. The supernatural elements weren't well explained (or even properly questioned by the characters), The game was sort of designed as a setup to get that ultimate decision ("Save Arcadia Bay or Save Chloe"), for better or worse.

Life is Strange Double Exposure is a game about superpowers and the supernatural. There are a few too many characters to get to know in the run-time we had, especially due to the pacing. In the first game, things started out crazy intense but after that, the tension didn't ramp up again until episode 4 and 5. The first 3 episodes took you -very- slowly through everything about Arcadia Bay, and it set things up in a more stable way. However, Double Exposure was high tension basically from the start until right before the ending, which is going to throw some people off. There is not a lot of low-key downtime because you're feeling like you're on a clock before a disaster.

I'm not saying the characters aren't good (well, I'll say that about the relationships - the ridiculous amount of tension makes both of them feel fake or trivial) for the most part, but I do think many of them won't grip people as hard as characters did in the first game. The character of Safi, especially in the later Chapters, felt like it was subtly changing literally from sentence to sentence. By far the best character is Max. Her character arc - maturing and getting over her trauma - is the core character focus for the game.

Looking back at this review, I see I wrote a lot of criticism, but I ultimately enjoyed this game a lot, and I will continue playing games in the series. The stories are still compelling and hit emotionally in the right spots, even if they aren't "perfect".

Pros
* Decent length for a single player experience (8-10 hours), especially for $20
* Interesting setting, since clone society stories that delve very deep into the relationship clones have with each other and with their progenitor are very rare
* Compelling narrative (you get to experience the past, present, and future of this society) with strong characters
* Incredibly varied voiceover cast for a story about clones; some really help carry the performance
* Reaches ambitiously for some parallels with the chaos of the government changeover in Hong Kong from Britain to China - and mostly succeeds at doing so

Cons
* Little in the way of gameplay
* Graphics are about 15 years old
* Animations aren't much better - some have the rigidness of being slight T-pose variations
* Metaphor for revolution and oppression will be hard to connect with for many. I still found it interesting, just not moving.

Verdict: If you're only into games for the gameplay, definitely skip this. If your true purpose in single player gaming is to find exceptional narratives and experience them, then get this. It'll hit the spot.

It's extremely pricey for the length at $60 for roughly 13 hours to get the true ending if you're reading fast. That said, the game is also very good - one of the best in the entire Science Adventure series of Visual Novels in my opinion. The English dub is good quality, and the translation is one of the best in the Science Adventure series.

I saw a couple extremely minor errors, but I'd say the translation is at minimum 4 out of 5 (with only people who've read the untranslated Japanese version able to say if it's a 5/5 effort or not). The only obvious omission is the lack of name suffixes (e.g. "sensei", "kun", etc). I'm sure the Committee of Zero will make a patch to restore those and fix what few small errors there are in the text, but... I wouldn't say it's a necessary thing for any but the most hardcore fans in this case. This isn't another Chaos;Head Noah situation, thankfully.

If you aren't a hardcore fan, though, maybe wait for a discount.

Absolutely fantastic game; easily one of the best of this year.

The worldbuilding, story, and setting are particularly top-notch (above and beyond almost anything on the market). The theme is like... Danganronpa meets Killer 7 meets H.P. Lovecraft, which is about as insane and wild as it sounds. Soundtrack is also very good.

The downside is that the gameplay can be a little tedious at times, particularly collecting Blood Crystals, especially if you don't happen to run across the 'Foot Baths' that give you movement power upgrades, so you end up trying to traverse difficult areas without the double jump or air dash.

Nice, well-written adventure game. Has a very Twin Peaks vibe.

I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend it to others, even if it only took me a few hours to beat it.

I tentatively recommend this game. Weirdly, I feel exactly the opposite to many other reviewers here - I think that Shadows of New York is a far, far stronger title than its predecessor.

Coteries of New York offered more 'choices', but almost all of its choices were hollow and meaningless. This title's choices are also mostly hollow and meaningless with one exception - you acquire 'traits' which determine the ending. I found both endings to be wildly better than the ending to Coteries of New York, but that's an extremely low bar, since an ending where you're forced to dig a shallow grave in the woods would be superior to the ending of Coteries of New York. Let me clarify then, that the Shadows of New York endings are both quite good even in a vacuum.

The reason I hesitate about recommending this game is primarily because of its dependence on its predecessor. Coteries is a game that I wouldn't recommend (well, it's right on the border for me, which is why I won't leave a negative review for it). Its writing was far weaker than Shadows, and it paced itself horribly. However, almost all of the characters are shared between the two titles, and without playing Coteries, Shadows is probably harder to understand.

If the studio makes a third game, I hope they continue the much higher level of writing they showcased in this game and make it unconnected to the previous two titles. I think it would work much better that way. Also, based on the other reviews, they should add some more choices (even if they don't change anything) because the illusion of choice is apparently important to some people in their audience. I think this is because the franchise appeals to the Vampire: The Masquerade audience primarily (which has often been spearheaded by player choice), whereas normally it'd only be picked up by people like me, who are visual novel enthusiasts.

This game blew me away, honestly. In a romance-based work of fiction, I'm primarily looking for depictions of somewhat realistic romantic relationships (starting at friendship and going up through steady dating) between women. I was pretty sure this game was going to be incompatible with those ideas.

I've been sort of afraid of picking up a game like this before - partially because I worried my Steam friends would silently judge me for this (they still will, but I've accepted this burden) and partially because I felt like there wasn't a real chance that I would enjoy it. One of the big issues for me is that I feel uncomfortable in romance games that are overburdened with player choice. While this is a positive feature for many, I don't really want to roleplay with myself being the protagonist of the relationships. I simply enjoy watching other characters experience relationships, so it makes me feel awkward when a game tries to force me into the position of controlling every little detail of the plot. Thankfully, Kindred Spirits on the Roof never made me feel this way (partially due to the fantastic and interesting protagonist, whose actions feel very independent from the player for the most part). The other big issue I often have with romance-based games is fanservice - panty shots, accidental boob grabs, etc. I find those types of antics to be inherently incompatible with my concept of romance. There is none of that at all in this game.

The biggest problem that a Yuri romance work (in any format) has to tackle is the level of seriousness or reality to put into the work. It's such an incredibly fine line to walk, partially because everyone has different tastes. Some people like there to be absolutely zero conflict of any kind - pure and fluffy relationships where everyone is always happy. Others actually want to see the brutal reality and struggle with social stigmas that a homosexual couple would have to endure in order to survive. Some others enjoy a normal level of relationship challenges, where conflicts center primarily around uncertain futures, misunderstandings, or other love interests.

I feel that Kindred Spirits on the Roof strikes exactly the right balance between these different levels of seriousness, at least for me. The societal issues with homosexual relationships are mentioned but are only a true hurdle for very few of the couples in the game. The other couples all have problems of varying levels of seriousness with a whole host of different reasons behind them. I believe the idea was to vary as many circumstances between the couples as possible in order to broaden the range of romantic experiences that the game can showcase. Some of the relationships are mutual love from the start of the game, and others are one-sided initially. One forms in a set of three friends, one forms around an after-school club, and one forms out of disciplinary action of all things. The variety of the characters also comes out in the character design; all of the characters are pretty different looking in terms of hair color, height, face structure, and clothing choices.

There's only a few real cons I can mention for the game, and none are something I consider a real issue. First, the level of naivete shown by the characters regarding sex is unbelievable (literally). These girls are in Japan's equivalent to high school (several of them in the final year of high school), so the idea that not a single couple in the game realizes how two girls can make love is pretty absurd, which can throw a reader out of the experience sometimes. I know that it's cute that they struggle to express their feelings as a result of their lack of understanding, but it did stick out to me here more than usual. Second, if constant plot twists are very important to you, you may not enjoy this game (there's lots of other VN options for that though). While there certainly are some surprises, they aren't earth-shattering ones, and most readers with a keen sense of deduction are probably going to guess pretty quickly who is going to end up with who and how most conflicts will be resolved. Last is not a con but a warning: there's sex scenes in this game. They feature partial nudity (i.e. breasts) and, at least with the 'Full Chorus' DLC (not sure without it), are fully voiced (i.e. expect lewd moaning). Also, the premise of the game has to do with the ghosts wanting to watch people have sex at school so they can figure out how to do it. I didn't personally mind any of this and knew what I was getting into because of the content warnings present on this Steam store page, though I'll mention that I thought the premise was really weird (see point #1 in this paragraph regarding believability) especially since the ghosts have had -30 years- to figure things out before this.

The weirdest thing about this game is that I have very specific tastes, and this game almost perfectly matches them. The game basically feels like it was made specifically for me. So, I guess if you are also me (or can emphasize with some of the preferences I've expressed in this review), then you will enjoy the game greatly too.

Great little metroidvania title with amazing writing. On the basis of its puzzles, combat, platforming, boss fights, and other enemies, I'd probably rate the title about an 8.5 out of 10. These aspects are all very good.

However, the writing is absolutely fantastic. It was substantially above my expectations, and I have very high expectations. The way the plot weaves tragedy with small shreds of hope and mixes occasionally fulfilling those hopes or setting up another tragedy is pretty masterful. Your journey through the world is a very tiny part of something much larger, which you have very little awareness of. This is my favorite type of telling a story, as I love to try to piece things together while I play a game. There are a few 'explanation dumps', but there's still a substantial amount of information that is only explained once or twice. I never felt like the game was hammering home plot points into my brain because the authors felt I would be too dumb to understand, which is something I typically feel in games. Without engaging in spoilers, I'll also say that I particularly enjoyed the ending because it subverted many of my expectations for what would happen.

This isn't even getting started on the characters, who are also very well written. They all have their own current concerns, backstories, and personalities. While your closest companions are the ones who get the most direct characterization, the (mostly silent) protagonist, Robin, also gets characterized, if mostly through actions. She's consistently kind (sometimes to the point of naivete) but also very driven. This makes her kind of a pushover in many regards (in that she can be swayed by smooth-talking), but she's unwilling to budge on her ultimate goals of helping people who matter to her. The rest of the cast is equally well-rounded for the most part, with the only exceptions being minor characters who only make a couple of appearances. Honestly, even that is a strength. A few of the characters who rarely appear are some of the important ones within the enemy organization. Just by chance, Robin's path takes her through some of these figures but not all of them. This is more realistic than fighting an enemy force in an endless series of 1v1s (though there's certainly no shortage of that).

Honestly, in retrospect, I would have bought this game if it was just a video of watching somebody else play it. That's not to say the gameplay is bad, but everything else is just so great.