Recent reviews by ☆.: Ⓛⓞⓕⓣⓘ :.☆

Disclaimer: Just my opinion.

Tails/Backbone Noir Preludes follows the 3 main characters: Clarissa, Howard, and Renee of the original Backbone cast as it gives you a glimpse into their lives prior to the events of the main story. A fourth new character, a scientist named Eli is added to the preludes whom introduces the origins and discovery of the mysterious "Artifact" that was mentioned in the later chapters of the main game.

Despite the summary of the game in the store mentioning there are branching choices, they do little if anything at all to change elements or the outcome of each character's story and each story is linear. In fact most of the "branching choices" just serve to add flavor text corresponding to the personality trait you choose for each character but there IS definitely replayablity to be found to experience each story in very slightly different ways albeit with the exact same outcome. That's not a bad thing at all, it just suffers from doing this in an uninteresting way.

Howard, Renee, and Eli's stories are, to put simply: Boring. I couldn't find myself invested in Howard's slice of life through college at all. Eli SHOULD have been in the most interesting setting and circumstances but was ironically the most boring of all because he spends half of it writing in a journal. Renee, admittedly seeming like a huge ungrateful *****, had some nice tension building up to something that resolves anticlimactically. They all had some nice elements that just could have had so much more done with them to make them a little more interesting.

Clarissa is an exception. It becomes apparent that most of the time and attention to storytelling went into Clarissa's story and it stands out. Unlike Howard, Renee, and Eli whos stories take place a year or two before the main game begins, Clarissa's story offers an in depth look at her life spanning back several years to show how and why she grows up to be the narcissistic sociopath she is in the main game and has the most choices that ACTUALLY change something about her story. Her story builds up with tension, shock, and leads to an emotional confrontation with a satisfying pay off. It just had all elements of a compelling story worth experiencing and the only reason i would recommend this game.

Later Alligator is Pseudo Noir investigative point and click adventure game with a cute twitchy animation aesthetic. It revolves around the main character, and ya boi Pat. Ya boi Pat is an adorable, historically paranoid simpleton, and professional web designer that has very good reason to suspect his whole family is finna bust a cap in his ascot upon his Dad inviting him to an "event" at a hotel after over hearing a conversation about him on the phone. So he enlists the help of a complete stranger (thats you, btw) to find out why his own homies are conspiring to clap him like these cheeks. You do this by interrogating as many residents, close friends, and family members of ya boi (that's Pat) around the Alligator New York City as possible before time runs out.

Alligator New York City is full of quirky, goofy characters each with a random or absurd story or reference to tell you while you question them for information regarding who they are, what their relationship with ya boi (Pat) is, and what the incredibly ominous and totally not obvious"event" will be by either helping them or besting them in one of over Fourty minigames for them to spill the beans, and discover the truth about why they tryna drill holes in ya boi's dome.

Should you be interested in picking up this game especially for your kids, prepare for a collection of mostly entertaining puzzle minigames that you actually need to use your brain for (ironically) that range from nerve racking sliding puzzles, to hand-eye coordination challenges, to memory, to an anime dating parody with a particularly authentic art style to go with it.

There are perhaps a couple adult gags (that is just say for more mature thinkers) including one in particular i felt the game could have used more of for the kind of "punchline" it delivers, but make no mistake the game is unmistakingly suitable for all ages to enjoy~

I would recommend this game for those that enjoy a short, cute indie game with loads of quirky, funny characters to find and interact with, and families with children with growing minds that love to play video games that may or may not be craftily disguised as educational experiences and brain teasers, or those that just enjoy puzzle and brain teaser games in general.

Just remember ya boi Pat, aigh't? <3

Later Alligators~

Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review. Stop reading my review.

Stop.

Reading.

My.

Review.

Stop reading my review before I reccomend this game to you.
Stop reading my review before I tell you to play it.
Stop reading my review before I warn you about what it really is.
Stop reading my review before I finish writing this review.

But a review is never really finished. It just stops updating.

Not sure how this game is being recieved so positively when the controls are absolutely awful and clunky, melee combat is slow and sluggish and feels terrible, sometimes bullets hit spots your not even aiming at.

Theres no easy way to queue with friends, no easy way to find specific lobbies in a server, and the game is unstable and prone to random crashes. These have been my experiences and the experiences of my friends.

Im sorry i have tospeak so harshly about this product but i believe that the only people acually like this game are the kinds of cheapos that unfortunately can't afford good games because this is not a good game. I can give it the benefit of a doubt that after recieving extensive work it may turn into a much better experience but it is definitely not a good experience at this time. At least not for me, and im fine with that most def'

Disclaimer: This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion. This is one person's opinion.

Did you read that? Do you understand that? Read it again until you're sure and then continue to read the following: This is the one of the most human games ive ever played, and it portrayed entirely by animal characters. From the art style you would probably expect this to be some cutesy lighthearted story but it's quite the opposite. It's very dark and down to earth. It's real and relatable for the most part in ways most melodramas neglect to detail. The character's aren't one dimensional cliches, they have life and depth that most players would find relatable to some extent of their own lives, coping with hardships, problems and failures, dreams, and realities.

This however is a story. It's less of a game, and more of a story. I would anazlyze any gameplay that you do in this game to moving a little character around pages of a book looking for words to read and things to learn about. There are a few minigames like a guitar hero minigame, and a full length 8-bit dungeon quest game, shooting corssbows like daryl dixon and knife fighting, building a robot but for anyone expecting anything along the lines of true gameplay in between minigames, they will be dissapointed if thats what they need in a game to call it a game they enjoy. Definitely not for gamers that have never read a book in their life and have no intentions of ever trying to read a book, let alone PLAY one (seriously try reading a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ book dude...). However if you DO like to read and play interactive visual novels, chances are you wont be dissapointed.

You begin the story as Mae Borowski, a queer 20 year old college dropout that returns to her hometown of Possum Springs, a small, former mining town slowly declining of it's inhabitants, and historical value. Things have changed, people have changed, but they've also stayed the same. Mae reunites and interacts with her old friends and faces, mainly her best friends Gregg (rulz, ok?) and Bea(trice), as well as make new friends with an elephant in the room. Very early you learn that before Mae left for college, she viciously and brutally assaulted a schoolmate for unprovoked undisclosed reasons and that reputation sometimes precedes her. Everything isn't as it seems with Mae or her home, both inside and out, above and below. I felt like i was playing as myself as i could relate to Mae in very many ways. Her fears, her insecurities, her mistakes, her sexuality, her family, her problems. (I never tried to kill anyone though but still)

Pros:

The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ music. Even people i've spoken to that have said they didn't like the game have admitted the music is amazing, and it is. Most of it is orchestrated music with a variety of instruments, but there are some other genres that im afraid i don't know how to identify exactly, but they still sounds great.

The art style is unique. You might find it creepy, you might find it cute, but it's certainly unique.

Very down to earth story. One i would call relatable. Life is bittersweet, everyone's different and everyone has an opinion (like the disclaimer at the top of the page if you hadn't read that. You should really read that really quickly). People die and people move one, some get left behind or stay behind because they have to. Let go to keep yourself together. This story does a good job of having characters that each deal with this differently.

Lots of humor. In spite of the maturity of the story, theres still lots of comedy and lighthearted emotion to give you a laugh.

Cons:

The initial story is short overall if you were to rush it. At it's price it's giving you an hour per dollar more or less with filler and side story--which is good. Everyone wants small indie games to be 5 or less dollars because theyre indie games, but any game should give you at least equal the amount of hours per dollars it's asking for and this game does across replayability and filler, but still is short overall. If that not what you're looking for, this game is not for you.

There is no gameplay worth calling gameplay. There just some platforming here and there, and some minigames but as i mentioned above this is a story and you're just moving around the world and just moving around the pages, and turning them to read. This is a reading game--an interactive visual novel if you will. Don't go into expecting anything else. If that's not what you're looking for, this game is not for you. (Read a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ book.)

Theres a hidden plot for the finale of the game that i personally didn't care for. It was interesting but out of place considering all that happens before being a melodrama, and then it's seemingly thrown in there out of the blue.

It is a morbid story with consistent religeous overtones and references regarding christianity, atheism, and agnosticism for those that are easily annoyed by religeous and spiritual discussion.

If you miss something or ♥♥♥♥ something up, well tough vagina. Youll have to wait to finish that playthrough and replay it from the beginning, or reset entirely to the beginning to fix it/get it next time. You're only given one chance to do things before it autosaves and keeps the ball rolling.This can be a real pain in the ass with things that are easily missed and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, or down routes you just prefer not to go.

Final verdict 7/10. It's a great "game", great story, i just didn't like the finale personally and having to replay through the entire thing just to do or see one small thing you missed. People that like to read relatable down to earth melodrama with fantastic music and unique artsyles should love it. Gamers that want to play games should stay away from it. It's a book, not a game. Don't buy a book IRL and then get mad when it doesn't come with a controller or a chord you can plug into an outlet. Read a book, or don't bother trying. With that said support indie developers that aren't trying to be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, dislike the game because you just simply didn't like it, not because it's indie, not because it has an animal cast, while you proceed to kiss the ass of every triple A publisher that ♥♥♥♥♥ out generic FPS and free roam hack and slashes that you CAN'T bully easily. Put yourself in the shoes of a game developer and have someone hate your creation you put your heart and soul into for arbitrary and shallow reasons. That's all.

Do you agree with my review? Do you disagree? By all means comment and discuss your reasons why. Politely.

This game is not in any way shape or form even remotely for hardcore gamers or for people that are just not comfortable with relating to or expressing empathy or their emotions to a video game. It's an adventure that wants to invest you in it's tale rather than it's gameplay that flips typical RPG elements that everyone should be used to by now on it's head. The game is very sensitive to talk about so ill try to be as informative about what to expect if youre interested in it without divulging anything about the game.

You get to assume the role of either a hero that saves everyone, a neutral entity that only cares for themself, or a villain that eradicates everything--with each decision having a reward or consequence that not only affects you, but the world and its inhabitants. Adhering to any of these 3 tropes reveals a lot of depth to the world and it's characters you will decide the fate of.

It's sweet tender and humerous, and assuming you are the kind of person that reacts to that sort of thing, you will enjoy the sensitivity and humor it has to offer. There have been people that have told me ( :V ) that the fandom of the game ruined their interest in playing it to which i have yo say is no excuse to not enjoy something you like when you can ignore things you dont like about it. You're only spiting yourself and not anyone else but.

So i reccomend this game to the people that like a story and an adventure that tries not to be one dimensional and straight forward in how you play it, while trying to pluck emotions and laughter from you. I do not reccomend this game to people that simply feel they fit best in the COD, Gears, Final fantasys and all that hardcore fast paced ♥♥♥♥ that tries to invest you in their gameplay first and everything else second, and doesn't try to berate you into investing an attachment to it's characters when thats just not what they play games for.

This game would really only interest a real anime fan that enjoys finding more LGBT oriented stories and characters; not at all something to interest a casual anime "davvler" i guess would be a good word to use and someone not of the supportive LGBT variety. Its a visual novel about a androgynous boy that is mistakenly transferred to a once co-ed boarding school that is now an all girl school. So naturally the best course of action is to just go with and pretend to be a girl with the full consent and help of the principal. We've all been there once or twice right? By the way it is of course a visual novel, that means really its just a picture book that will have you spneding all your time reading and clicking your mouse just to turn the page. Ocassionaly you will have to choose what your character decides to do for what situation hes in, which is just to determine which girl you want to end up with

The 4 main characters--including you--are basically the common cliche, cookie cutter anime stereotypes found in alot of anime: Youre the androgynous "male" character that ALREADY looks like a female, yet somehow doesn't realize it and thinks he's a man's man, there's the softspoken shy over-academic glasses girl--with big boobs, the outspoken sporty competitive girl--with big boobs, and your hot-blooded principal/teacher that's actually SUPPOSED to be an older woman but looks and dresses like a teenager and has a thing for barely legal young men--of course with big boobs. But i still felt they were nicely designed characters.

The story as well is just as cliche but tells itself well enough, its a shame its not just a full flegded animation. You fall ontop of girls in awkward intimate ways, you spill things on their big boobs, youre forced to make decisions between them, etc. Your character, while supposed to be heterosexual and cisgendered, somewhat discovers he can "enjoy" transvestite activites at least during 2 of your interests' paths (alot of people dont know a transvestite actually has nothing to do with homosexuality or transexuality) but thats really all the "character" developement that happens. However i cant in good faith advocate this as a truly lesbian or transgender novel because its not supposed to be despite it giving that impression.

Pros:
-It has a great bright vibrant artstyle that i absolutely love (perhaps even a bit too bright enough to hurt your eyes).
-The girls have nice designs--especially Lea (omfg i want her clothes... ;_;)
-Is a sweet romance anime novel
-I personally rather enjoyed the girls personalities. Selina specifically i feel is the best and strongest character that probably makes the story as interesting as it can be, with Lea being the second.
-If you look nicely drawn boobs, then the story has nicely drawn boobs on sexy ladies
-Silly and humorous


Cons:
-The whole grounds the story is based on is stupid i have to say. Thats not me necessarily saying its bad, but it is something that would ONLY happen in anime.
-Notice how i kept saying the girls are nice characters with the exception of the character the story is taking perspective of right? Thats because the guy is not a great character at all that doesnt really have any terribly interesting qualities or talents that the other characters have to read about whether that was intentional or not. Not much is learned about him besides what you begin the game knowing about him in otherwords and thats how each story ends
-The music while it is sweet and cute, is too few in variation and gets a little annoying after how long they go on and how often theyre used. It was especially annoying when youre reading something really intimate and mature happening between the main character and one of his interests and theres this really cheery upbeat tune playing to it that sounds like you should be reading about a little girl having a tea party.
-No sex in case thats something you were expecting. It's strictly romance with some saucy moments, but nothing involving intercourse.
-This visual novel was made to particularly interest anime enthusiasts that like romance, underlying LGBT stories and characters. If thpse things don't interest you this game novel most assuredly will not

Final verdict: 5.7/10. I genuinely did enjoy it for the story so i give it a thumbs up based on *my* interests. Lea and and Selina are great vibrant characters that are most of the interest to be found here while you are not in my opinion. There could have been more done with the story and the main character i feel. With that said i will certainly look forward to what the publisher is working on next.

DISCLAIMER: This is simply one person's opinion.

Dead rising 3, like its predecessors before it, is about killing hordes of zombies, saving survivors, while trying to develop a way to escape the imminent cleansing of the infected area. With that said, this, in my opinion is the weakest game of the series on nearly all accounts. It simply doesn't have any of the charm that the other games of the series pulled off. The characters are uninteresting, the environment is dull, the music is lacking and boring much unlike the other 5 games of the series (if you count OTR, Case West and Case Zero separately). Couple that with many optimization problems and glitches and its a very poor game. It is still by all rights an enjoyable one if you aren't bothered by all that, and have a very (very <------) good computer that can run it. Honestly the difference between high and low settings is nary noticeable, and even on max the game still has some texture hiccups anyway.

Pros: - More time to mess around and kill zombies at your leisure. The DLC stories that come with the apocalypse addition also have no time limit at all which is awesome.

DLC Content - DLC weapons, vehicles, clothing, and 4 side stories featuring 4 of some of the (very forgettable) main stories characters that had little to no face time at all or explanation to their situation.

On spot crafting - One of two things that i actually preferred this version for: Being able to craft combo weapons and drinks on the spot wherever you are.

Infinite storage - The other great feature they added. Everything you use, wear, pick up, drive, craft (save for drinks) is saved and stored in the appropriate storage container for you to pick up, wear, use again as many times as you want whenever you want. There is no limit to how many you can take once its been added, but it is dictated by a timer that has to recharge upon depletion. The more valuable and useful the item, the more charge it takes from the storage timer. For example you could take out a super OP combo gun that makes the game as easy as clicking a button at things 4 times at once, but then you have to wait a while for the storage locker to recharge before you can take anything else out of it, depending on the value of the item you want.

Lots of combos - Tons of combos, some return from DR2, alot brand new, all fun to use. Well some are useless and cosmetic


Neutral: The first half of the story is really nothing special or interesting, until you get to the overtime/facts conclusion which is very interesting and has an interesting twist to the ending.

Attribute distribution - Rather than points developing automatically upon leveling up, you store points to distribute to the areas you decide for them to go.

No survivor escorting - Instead you have stray survivors and survivor missions. Stray survivors simply run away after you clear a certain amount of zombies around them. Survivors you help out in missions will join you as a posse you can take around with you to help you out. They actually still get in the way more than they help you.


Cons: - Boring characters. Me personally i hated everyone except Annie. They don't have any kind of charming, or interesting qualities to them at all. Nick, the main character, is a whiny, frantic, wimpy kid. Again IMO. Maybe you would like him just fine, but i personally do not. He's not particularly bad, just doesn't hold a candle to Chuck or Frank. Just about every other character in this game, survivors and bosses included are stereotypes based on a linear theme.

I do have to admit near the end of the game he starts to earn some respect.

Poorly optimized - Lots of glitches, bugs, texture issues. Textures sometimes fail to rez, screens will flicker and black out when doing certain things, it will randomly freeze and lag, etc. This doesn't happen TOO often, but they're definitely there.

Boss Fights/ Psychos - Compared to DR1 and especially DR2 (sitting at the top looking down from its throne,) DR3 has mediocre bosses, hardly any of them are interesting characters, and theyre relatively easy, almost laughably so. They don't have anything interesting or charming about them (again my opinion, feel free to disagree if you find you like them just fine) unlike the previous bosses. There arent any fun or compelling psychos like Adam the clown, Steven the store owner, Cliff the hatchet man. Slappy, BiBi, The rednecks, Ted and snowflake, Leon, etc.

Music - Again DR3 falls flat on boring uninteresting music to fight to. I personally just didn't get filled with any of the excitement and anticipation i felt from the previous installment music, nothing made me go "Wow thats such an awesome track" save for 1 or 2 songs. But that comes down to your taste of music anyway. However if you were a fan of the previous rock/metal soundtracks, you won't care for DR3's soundtrack.

Survivor missions - Some survivors make you go above and beyond to save them which can be really annoying and tedious.

Annie and Chuck - The only characters in the game i liked and they don't get their own DLC stories...

No fast travel - My biggest issue out of them all would be the lack of fast traveling. DR1 and 2 had shortcuts to unlock for a more convenient method to get to parts of the map quickly. In DR3 there arent any. You will be forced to navigate to each of the 4 sections of the city manually, on foot, by car, through legions of zombies, and blockades to slow you down completely every step and turn of the way over and over and over and over and over and over and over....


Final verdict: 5.5 out of 10. Its really down the middle for me. As i mentioned its still by all rights a fun enjoyable game for fans of the series, but its falls flat from the games before it. I do love and enjoy the game, it's still fun to play, its just a farcry of the previous installments. I recommend this game for fans of the series, and people that have strong optimal computers, but not for new players first game of the series.

-General-
Not for the prudes or someone that doesn't have a computer gaming controller. There's alot of boobs that will be flying around in your face regularly. Big bouncy boobs. And playing this with a keyboard is very frustrating and fills you with a sense of it not being worthwhile to try.

-Combat-
The fighting is what you'd expect from any 2d arena fighter, maybe being a little bit more faster pace than KoF or Mortal Kombat. Super attacks, combo resets, etc. Some characters excel in a particular style like Parasoul and Peacock being very annoying rangers, or Squigly and Fortune being good at chaining and resetting combos, or disrupting their opponents. But i dont feel as though their is a reliable blocking system personally.

-Art & Music-
The art style i must say is absolutely stellar. It's really something that you would love to see as a full fledged tv series. The music I dont feel is too outstanding and gets repetitive rather quickly, but its still good, i find myself humming some tunes from the game now and then.

-Story-
Each character has their own story and every story is it's own story for that particular character. The foundation is the same in that the Skullgirl focus and final boss, with a pair of designated recurring antagonists, but that aside, every character's story is non-canon to anothers with maybe one or two overlapping continuities. [X] will kill [Y] in [X]'s story, but [Y]'s story has little to do with [X]. Some stories are more interesting than others. Not saying thats a bad thing, thats just how it goes.

-Verdict-
6.5 Now i give it a middle score not because i think its not a good game. I think its a great game but not too outstanding aside from its artstyle and i am a sucker for beautiful detailed artwork. It's definitely unique with its universe and its certainly worth a try.

This game is both figuratively and literally a work of art. The beautiful music, painstakingly detailed environments, and passionate voice acting blew me away. Then Fidget and all 304% of her adorable-osity sealed the deal. At first the story didn't really spark much interest--being the typical "all powerful mysterious warrior with amnesia traversing the land helping it's people while trying to regain his dark and mysterious memory"-- but as it went on it started to pull me in. It's best described as a cross between Okami and Rayman Origins with a little bit of Kingdom Hearts sprinkled on top. (Pros and cons below.)

Pros:
-Beautifully orchestrated music
-Painfully detailed environments and weather effects
-Very touching and emotionally impacting. Feelings of pain, sorrow, love--concepts of life and death are handled maturely like they should be and conveyed to the player
-Excellent, passionate voice acting
-Exciting and tense moments

Neutral:
-The humor is 50-50. There are some funny jokes. There are some dry jokes.
-Storyline may or may not provide the player with much interest.
-The difficulty fluxuates. Some areas are very easy, some areas suddenly rape you.

Cons:
-A bit on the short side
-Typical hack'n slash with redundant combat
-VERY few combos to use; especially for a hack n'slash
-Hordes of respawning enemies can be a bit overwhelming and annoying at times
-Boss battles are complete jokes. Normal enemies are more life threatening than the bosses
-Practically no replay value

Conclusion:
-6.5/10. While the gameplay and hack'n slash elements are regretably limited, this game is a work of art. It's a 2D game that has infinitely more heart and soul put into it than most overrated 3D Micheal Bay games out today. It is TRULY a work of art and deserves as much support and recognition as it can get for its BEAUTY instead of gameplay which unfortunately is below par. Of course artistry isn't for everyone. This game is not for everyone. But that doesn't stop it from being truly beautiful.