Recent reviews by throwpup

It PAINS me to see this game sitting at mixed reviews. It's easily now my favorite game, flaws and all. It's easy to see the rough performance, see the open world and differences from the first game, quit, give up on it and complain. But the open world genuinely isn't the impression you'll want to knee-jerk to. Just about every location in the game is used for a character quest with cutscenes, the ONLY side quests are character quests with cutscenes, there aren't any "collect x items" quests aside from one that you will naturally complete as you play the game, and it's entirely optional. It's VERY narrative, so don't let the open world turn you away. You don't need to ever touch crafting or pick up any ingredients, so you can let those worries die. Yes- the combat animation speeds could be tweaked and so could the performance, but they CAN be tweaked. The underlying game is a total gem of a game, and I don't want the developers to be discouraged, because they're going in the right direction. This audience reaction reminds me of cyberpunk's release when people were immediately put off by fixable issues and entirely overlooked the amazing game underneath, which is a massive shame. I'm certain the devs will fix the issues- their love and passion of this game is palpable in every aspect.

Now for why I love this game-!
The character and main stories are a total fun ride with the perfect balance of seriousness, heartwarming moments, camp, and absurdism that gets better the further in you go. I think big titles and companies are too scared to take the chances these devs did, and I'm glad that they did. It's not going to be for everyone, but a game for everyone is a game for no one, and will be no one's favorite. There's a lot of charm here, you can feel the people behind the work, and I like that and much prefer it to something hyper polished and bleached of character. Give it time to grow on you if you like that sorta stuff- because it will. If you don't like anime or the things that made the OG code vein unique, you won't like this one. If you liked the first game for what it was, then you will definitely love this one if you give it a fair chance and see it through to the end, it's totally worth it. The game was also surprisingly respectful of my time, despite being open world. I never felt like I was swamped with tasks, or that whatever quest I was doing at the time wasn't something I was excited to do and wanted to see. Even the achievements are respectful of your time. I didn't touch the additional dungeons much when I first started playing, because I was a little intimidated by there potentially being grind sinks, but in the later half of the game I went to every single one and did them out of pure interest. The amount is just as many as you'd want to get a fill, and they're rewarding as well. It feels synonymous to playing a normal narrative-oriented game, except with choices on what path to pick when. I loved the new weapon type additions, and I adored the two new veils (called jails now). I also REALLY appreciated how much content there was after what you would assume to be approaching the end, just like in the OG. They went above and beyond with the endings. They didn't need to go as hard as they did for me to love it, but they did anyway, and that's sick. The devs love of the original work shines through, as I occasionally noticed callbacks such as voice lines like craig saying Yakumo's line about elevators, and a Mido-like boss saying "Too Slow!" like he did during his slide attack in the first game. Every time that happened it made me smile. But it didn't rest on the last game's laurels either- There were tons of new moments that got me to smile or laugh, or even applaud at the screen like an idiot, which is something a super polished emotionless corporate slop game could never squeeze out of me. I also really loved how they went all-in with Josee's storyline and didn't shy away or let romantic things remain as implication, which is something anime has a tendency to do. They took a risk with you liking her enough to pull it off, and it paid off for me big time. I also appreciated that they kept it the same for female characters. Getting a strong yuri romance with the female counterpart to Yakumo was not on my bingo card, but damn, was it absolutely amazing for my lesbian ass. I know I'm totally biased here, but damn did I enjoy it, and I know others who like her or Yakumo from the first game will love it as well.

Give this game a fair chance if you like games with a lot of character, and love them for it. Call it camp, cheese, I don't care, I love that kinda mushy stuff. I even love the wonky proportions- I think they're super unique and recognizable. I just really appreciate games that stick out of the mold, and embrace their weirdness. I like a game not having so much polish that it sands down its unique aspects or outside-the-box risks. It's really fun to buy into and just enjoy; it gives some more color to my life during a pessimistic time when we might really need something like it. Give it time to grow on you, and you'll be rewarded, and then some. If you're looking for a game that's going to be bleached for a wide audience with nothing risky or quirky, or a game that shows all of its cards at the start, this game is not going to be for you. Anime inspired works have reached a wider audience now, with wider audience critiques, but if you're from the original camp that got into anime works for their differences to what you were used to vs something made palatable for everyone, then you'll find something really special in this game.

My word is Blessing.

I wish I could choose a neutral recommendation for this one. Firstly, fantastic ambiance, setting, visuals, sound design, all that jazz. Unfortunately all that is really held back by the gameplay. The hand system and two inventory system is funky to get used to but not a deal breaker, the sanity system I feel is unnecessary and really takes away from the moment, and I spent all my playtime wondering what it was the game wanted me to do even though i'm just one chapter done so far. For instance: in one chapter i'm supposed to avoid flickering lights and spooky sounds because it means i'm about to die from something invisible, but at the same time the game cues me into where to go in the big maze of a house by guiding me with, you guessed it, flickering lights and spooky sounds. Is it where I need to go or sudden death? Who knows? Half the time when I died I didn't know why, and upon reloading and doing the exact same things I would be fine. The sanity system is a steep slope that's hard to climb out of to boot. I loaded up some auto saves after dying only to be instantly killed by an invisible entity a second later I didn't know how to run from. When your sanity gets dangerously low you need pills, but they're super hard to find if you have no lights which you probably don't if your sanity is low in the first place. I feel like I can't take the time to feel spooked either because i'm only worried about my sanity level. I would really really like to enjoy this game and appreciate its magnificent ambiance and get spooked but the gameplay keeps interrupting the fun and replacing it with confusion and comedic untimely deaths instead. Maybe the other chapters are different and I just started out with a bad one, but so far the good in the game is really being held back by the bad. It's not a bad game at all, it just has a few design choices that really step on and cover up what's special about it.