Recent reviews by tailmaxxing skunkchad

toby fox does it again, even better than before. Over the course of this game's release so far, I've discovered so much about myself, found the love of my life, and i'm legit thinking this is gonna be game of the decade once it gets finished.

crack that melts your brian with constant information overload

These are some of my favorite games of all time. I'm going to get that off the bat right now. As someone who first played them on an emulator years ago, followed by me getting the All in One collection on PS4 for KH3, and then buying them all again on Epic before grabbing them here so I can use them on my Steam Deck, they're worth every penny.

Personal favorite is KH2 (big shocker, I know), but KH1, BBS, hell, even Chain of Memories are amazing too. These games all excel at different things.

KH1 is this densely packed world full of little details and secrets to uncover, and KH2 has extremely fluid combat that blends action and RPG gameplay nearly seamlessly.
Re:Chain of Memories, while rough in some areas (i think the GBA version is better balanced) really starts picking up once you start piecing together ways to break it in two with the perfect deck.


I've come to appreciate KH1 a lot more in some recent years. It's not as smooth or as fast as KH2, but it's not trying to be. This game was designed to be "what if mario 64 was an RPG," and it's clear to see everywhere in the game. Platforming is prevalent throughout each world, and every room is packed with little details and touches, like how Deep Jungle has you turning a potion into an ether, or how each little door on Big Ben opens based on how many hours your save file has.

As someone who originally played the vanilla version of the game, I'm a little mixed on some of the Final Mix additions. Pretty much every new ability is amazing, but the new enemies introduced to expand the Synthesis system are a coin toss on if you'll enjoy grinding them or not. I'm also of the opinion that many of the Final Mix exclusive cutscenes work better if you've already played the vanilla version of the game, as they tend to explain some things earlier and thus take some of the impact away from later scenes.

Sora reuniting with Riku in Traverse Town, only for us to realize that he's with Maleficent loses some of its impact when we see him in Hollow Bastion immediately after we get the Gummi Ship.

This game is going to have you flipping between loving it and wanting to figuratively toss it out a window. Early on, the game is rough, since you have such a small deck size, and you don't have many sleights unlocked to really make use of your cards beyond basic magic tiers. But once you start leveling up, unlocking sleights like Ars Arcanum, Strike Raid, Aqua Splash, and even Holy, your earlier frustration turns into curiosity on how you can optimize your cards in order to bend each boss over your knee and snap them in two.

This customization is entirely absent in the game's second story, which is a much more linear experience with predetermined decks and a new mechanic related to card breaks. It's also a lot shorter, though this is understandable when you remember this was originally an extra story mode in a Game Boy Advance game that had multiple prerendered cutscenes crammed onto the cartridge.

There are also a few issues where some boss attacks were never adjusted to account for the HD release running at 60FPS compared to the PS2 and PS3 versions running at 30. Similar issues were originally present in the HD versions of KH1 and KH2 but have since been patched out. Re:Chain has not been granted this attention, but thankfully these ports have an adjustable framerate cap, so if you're having trouble with Vexen's Ice Needles sleight, you can cap the FPS at 30 for it to function as intended, where you can actually evade it instead of requiring a 0 card on hand for you to break it. (demonstration[x.com] by StickmanSham)

Also, don't skip it. It's important. It was a bit understandable if you skipped it in 2004, but you have the game here, you have no excuse. The biggest issue here is that the credits spoil the reveal of a character's true identity, which normally isn't revealed until the climax of KH2

Someone make a Chain of Memories-like, the world is ready for it now.

As mentioned earlier, this one's my favorite. Big shocker, I know. But Kingdom Hearts II is this kind of amazing mega-sequel that we don't really see as much anymore due to many games having massively increased costs and scope. Almost everything from Kingdom Hearts has been improved significantly. Combat is snappier and more responsive, with magic being integrated into your combos and Drive Forms allowing you to temporarily boost an aspect of your toolset significantly. Almost every boss is a spectacle, with unique attacks, mechanics, and in some cases just sheer scale.

But it's not perfect. Due to how some abilities are handed out, platforming and level design take a backseat since you're not guaranteed to have movement abilities at certain points. As a result, levels become a lot flatter, with the most interesting level design being limited to the Final Mix exclusive Cavern of Remembrance.

Speaking of Final Mix exclusive content, I think it's generally a lot more consistent here and most of the new cutscenes work equally well for newcomers and returning players, barring two exceptions.

One occurs after the prologue, where a newly added cutscene manages to almost entirely give away a character's true identity significantly earlier than it was even hinted at in the vanilla version of the game.

The other is somewhat less egregious, with a name being mentioned just about one cutscene earlier than it was in the vanilla version, as well as a moment that is clearly intended to give a feeling of "wait, what the HELL?" to someone who had already seen the vanilla game's secret ending.

Birth By Sleep is...

okay, I'm gonna be honest. BBS is the weakest game here. It's not bad, but the systems just don't mesh together nearly as well as any of the other games in the series. I love the story, but if you're playing on Critical mode, the game can become an absolute slog at times. Terra's story goes from the designated "easy mode" to the worst part of the game thanks to the less-than-perfect implementation of the command deck alongside the laggy startup and follow-through inherent to all of his basic attacks. His evasion tool also has the least invincible frames of all three characters, to the point where the offensive alternative is actually a straight upgrade.

Ventus and Aqua fare better, with Ventus being a Sora-esque all-rounder and Aqua being more focused on magic commands. Completing all three stories will unlock a fourth, final story akin to many Sonic games. This story picks up directly after the end of Aqua's story, so it's recommended to do her's last. Also, do NOT save over a previous character's save, since the game doesn't have an internal "system" flag that tracks story clears, it instead checks for three individual cleared story files before unlocking the final story.

The Final Mix exclusive content here is primarily limited to extra Arena matches, some new enemy challenges, and a playable extension to the secret ending. Much of the other Final Mix additions aren't really additions to the English-speaking audience, as many of them were originally added for the international PSP release of the game, such as the Sticker Album and the postgame boss Mysterious Figure.

he is quite possibly the worst boss in the entire series.

It's fine. granted, my experience may have been painted in a positive light by getting this with the ultimate edition of the game, but the story somehow feels less substantial and more impactful at the same time. I'm a bit disappointed by some of the reused assets, in particular the use of Gunpla Hell. My best hope for the future is this game becomes the Gundam equivalent of Dragon Ball Xenoverse, where every now and then Bandai Namco just drops another DLC for it with a couple story missions and some new gunpla over the course of like ten years.

I'm not sure I would have bought it at full price, but this is also some of the most food I have gotten as a Late UC fan in a long time (the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ vigna ghina doesn't even have a new kit)

Get it on sale.

fantastic social game. Fishing is just about engaging enough for a low stakes game like this. More interactive than animal crossing but not as intense as something like SEGA Bass Fishing. Adorably low-fi, and at times surprisingly mysterious.

There are parts of the game that feel like old school creepypasta (in the sense of "this is strange, am i supposed to see this" and not "my cartridge has a spooky ghost in it") and honestly, making things a little weird like that is a direction i hope the game goes a bit further in. My friends and I finding a void portal by complete accident followed by the bones for the ghost fishing rod was an insane experience.

it's five dollars, you can do a LOT worse with five dollars. grab it and have some fun fishing!

i've known rambley for an hour and i would die for him

I'll say it up front. This game can be a hard sell if you're not already a Gundam fan. The Mobile Suits can be slow and the controls definitely take some time getting used to.
This isn't helped by the fact that several crucial mechanics are not explained in the mandatory tutorial and are only explained to you if you go out of your way to the extra training areas.

The netcode is a mess, the game fails to matchmake half the time and you will very often lose your matches at first due to not having extra upgrade parts for your MS.
The game also absolutely does its best to bleed you for your money, being a gacha and all.

At the same time though, I can't help but keep coming back to the game. Something about it draws me in more than Gundam Evolution ever did. Is it the fanservice having pretty much every MS from 0079 to 0093? Is it the gradual appreciation for the game's mechanics and depth?

All I can really say is that, well, I like it. I know that doesn't seem to be a super common opinion here, but I'm putting it out there.

Also bamco please give Code Fairy a proper pc port instead of the 20 dollar dlc I will HAPPILY pay 40 for a pc port

An improvement on the first game in basically every way. Gameplay is tighter, story is more gripping, graphics are absolutely gorgeous, and all the characters have unique movesets that make them feel more distinct than they did in the first game.

I'd absolutely reccommend it, and the story actually had me on the edge of my seat in some moments, which is a far cry from the basic story of the first game. There were a couple weird bugs at launch, primarily in regards to how fast the game updated at framerates higher than 60, but those have all been ironed out by now (Nobody needs to fight launch day Turbo Askal)

You don't even really need to play the first game to play this one. While it certainly helps, the game's story stands out on its own enough and the first game's story wasn't really that memorable anyways.

also, spoilery joke, don't look at this until after you've beat the game
Merga did nothing wrong.

No. The game isn't worth it. Not even for a buck.

First off, there's the obvious part. The game came out in 2017. It's been three years and not a single new chapter has been added. I understand visual novels aren't developed the same way as other games, but it's still not good for you to release an early access game and go that long without adding any new content. It seems that just a few months ago a preview video for an update came out, but for me it's too little, too late.

Second, the actual content itself. The game's writing... isn't very good. It reeks of the same "LOL visual novels are for PERVS" writing that a lot of half-baked visual novels on steam suffer from. So much of it is uncomfortably sexual. And listen, when you've got a furry who's horny on main 90% of the time complaining something is uncomfortably sexual, you've got a problem.
Examples:
your boss is a marine biologist but OH NO she can't do swimming herself because her boob implants are too buoyant, how lewd and wacky!
a clam (or snail, I don't remember and can't be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to play this game again) constantly screaming "SUCK ON MAH BALLS" because that's still funny if you're older than twelve
the only shark in the game, the great white, is pretty much "stock anime tsundere parody," to the point where she literally uses the word "baka"

Third, the actual gameplay.
In my eyes, a large part of the appeal of visual novels is the fact that there are multiple paths to take. Your story could progress differently or even end completely differently depending on your choices. You have to explore everything to see all the game has to offer. Even many horny one shot VNs do this, with you either seeing different sex scenes depending on what you choose, or even being rejected outright (usually because you were acting like a scumbag.)
Speaking of being a scumbag, that's something else that bothers me about this game. At the end of the chapter (and by extension the entire game), you're given a pachinko minigame where your performance determines the state of undress you get to see the shark in. However, you can get more attempts by choosing "ballsy" choices when given them. In context, almost every "ballsy" action is being a scumbag. The game actively encourages you to be a ♥♥♥♥ so you can see shark boobies.

On another note, the game's developer Conan McPhee, also known as Catfood McFly and Brutamod, built a tumblr brand based entirely around the "EPIC SJW LIBTARDS TRIGGERED COMPILATION" mindset. That's not a problem, people can do stupid stuff in the past. I know I did.
The problem is he still has this mindset. I know a lot of people on this service are gonna think that's good (review bombing a game specifically because it lets you choose your pronouns), but I might as well let my voice be heard.

It seems like it's a curse for every VN on steam to have a bunch of positive reviews that are just dumb horny jokes drown out reviews that are actually relevant.

A wonderful mix of Mario Kart and the high speed arcade racing SEGA is known for. And actually, the transformations are more akin to Diddy Kong Racing than Mario Kart, with actual flight and boats, as opposed to Mario Kart's gliding and underwater cars.

♥♥♥♥ Traffic Attack though, hate that stupid mission type.