Spike Chunsoft is a name that I’m sure many of us have heard. Whether it’s from Danganronpa, Zero Escape, or the Mystery Dungeon series we, as gamers, know the name Spike Chunsoft. However, we also know of these titles thanks to different publishers. Be it NIS America, Aksys Games, or Nintendo we associate Spike Chunsoft games with other companies. This leads to an interesting predicament. How does Spike Chunsoft differentiate itself from these companies?

While Idea Factory International used the Neptunia series when in the same situation, Spike Chunsoft didn’t have an unlocalized Danganronpa or Mystery Dungeon game to fall back on. So instead, they decided to bring their crown jewel over from Japan. A game that not only scored a 40/40 from Famitsu but was also one of the only visual novels to do so. I’m talking about 428: Shibuya Scramble.

428: Shibuya Scramble was originally released for the Nintendo Wii as 428: Fuusasareta Shibuya de or 428: Blockaded in Shibuya. Since the original release, the game has been ported to the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. Now though, Spike Chunsoft is bringing the game to both the PlayStation 4 and Steam in September of this year. Like I mentioned, during its initial release the game was critically praised. But why? How could a visual novel be good enough to score a perfect 40 in Famitsu of all places? Well, let’s delve into the premise to begin explaining why.

The premise behind 428: Shibuya Scramble sounds pretty normal at first. A woman by the name of Maria Osawa is kidnapped. The kidnappers demand a ransom and Maria’s sister, Hitomi, cooperates with the police in order to deliver the ransom. The exchange is to take place outside the famous Hachiko statue by Shibuya Station. With the police in place and watching Hitomi things seem to be going according to plan. But if you’ve played Danganronpa or Zero Escape, you know Spike Chunsoft doesn’t do simple.

The exchange occurs, but the kidnappers tell Hitomi to find a blue van before yet another person shows up and attempts to murder her. As things begin to escalate out of control, the government tries to lockdown Shibuya. Why? Well, that will be a mystery our protagonists will have to solve. And yes, I did say protagonists.

428: Shibuya Scramble is unique in that it has five main characters. Achi Edo, a former street-gang leader; Shinya Kanou, a detective who is part of the ransom exchange; Kenji Osawa, Maria’s father and a virus researcher; Minoru Minorikawa, a freelance journalist; and Tama, a woman who is working part-time as a costumed giant cat mascot. These five characters will not only cross each other’s paths, but their decisions will greatly affect each other’s stories.

You see, another interesting feature of 428: Shibuya Scramble is that each character’s actions will open or close certain paths to the others. The flow of gameplay works something like this. The game takes place on April 28^th between 10 AM and 8 PM, with the game progressing in 1-hour blocks. Your goal is to get each protagonist to the end of the hour. Once that’s done the next hour will open up. However, along the way, you’ll be given various choices.

These choices can range from deciding to intercept someone who you think maybe the kidnapper, to giving directions to a couple of guys who turn out to be yakuza members. If you pick the wrong choice, such as giving those yakuza members directions, you may block off another character’s path. Thus making their section impossible to complete until you go back and change that decision. This ends up giving 428: Shibuya Scramble up to 85 different endings. And getting to the end is going to require you to do some thinking. Thankfully, the game does have some assistance in the form of tooltips.

The tooltips in 428: Shibuya Scramble work just like the ones you find in many other text-heavy games like Super Robot Wars or Hakuoki. Important terms will be highlighted and by pressing a button you’ll be able to select those highlighted bits. Doing so will give you additional information. This is especially useful for those of us who don’t live in Japan and may not know the significance of the Hachiko statue. However, this is where I have my only issue with the Anime Expo demo. This text was too light.

Since the base text is white, you’d expect the developers to utilize a much darker color for the tooltip text. Which they do use to highlighted tips you’ve already read. However, before the tip is read, it’s a much lighter blue. In fact, I had trouble sometimes seeing what was a tooltip and what was text. This led me to start hitting the tooltip button every time I advanced the dialogue just to be sure. Hopefully, this is something that the developers can easily adjust before the game launches in a few months or via an update later on. That said, what’s my conclusion when it comes to this title?

428: Shibuya Scramble is the game I think Spike Chunsoft needs right now. A high-quality visual novel is a great way to showcase what this company is capable of. Yes, Spike Chunsoft is localizing STEINS;GATE ELITE. However, that’s a 5pb title. This is Spike Chunsoft’s own creation and I think it’ll go a long way to showing this company can stand on its own much like IFI did five years ago.

428: Shibuya Scramble is coming to the PlayStation 4 and Steam on September 4. Also, take a look at our impressions piece from GDC and our interview with David Kracker, the localization director of 428: Shibuya Scramble.

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Yesterday, we posted our impressions piece about London Detective Mysteria from XSEED Games. While I found the game to be a pleasant surprise, there was a lot more I could have talked about. Namely, regarding its developer Karin Entertainment. So today, I want to touch upon Karin Entertainment since what I’ve found out about them is fascinating.

According to VNDB.org, Karin Entertainment has three brands. There is Karin Entertainment, which focuses on otome titles. Next is Karin Chatnoir Ω which focuses on primarily 18+ BL titles. And finally, there is its newest brand, Karinto, which has an upcoming smartphone title: Otome Ken Musashi.  However, we’re going to focus on Karin Entertainment proper here since it turns out London Detective Mysteria is not the first of their games to be released in English. Instead, that honor goes to Animamundi ~Owarinaki Yami no Butou~

Animamundi ~Owarinaki Yami no Butou~ was released in Japan in 2005 and looks to be one of Karin Entertainment’s earliest titles according to VNDB.org. This was later released in 2006 as Animamundi ~Dark Alchemist~ for the PC by now-defunct publisher Hirameki International and was even rated by the ESRB as a Mature title. The reason for that rating can be seen in the plot. The short version is that count Count Georik Zaberisk’s sister Lillith is accused of witchcraft and this story being set in gothic times ends up with her being beheaded and burned. However, that’s just the setup.

It turns out Lillith’s head survived. So now, in order to restore the body of his sister Count Zaberisk decides to delve into the art of alchemy. But, you know what the crazy part is? Lillith is voiced by Yui Hoire. Yes, the voice of Nepgear, Raika, Salamandinay, and Chie, voices the decapitated head of a girl named Lillith in an otome novel. Consider my mind blown. But why spend so much time highlighting a game from 2005 you may ask?

In short, it shows not only the roots of Karin Entertainment but their creativity and the kind of talent they attract to work on their games. This is doubly impressive when you consider that these titles have nothing to do with Otomate.

To put it another way, back when I wrote my Fate/Extella The Umbral Star E3 impressions piece, I kept wondering what Koei Tecmo had to do with that game, only to find out the answer was nothing. The same can be said for London Detective Mysteria. This game feels just as good as any Otomate game I’ve played, yet this team isn’t affiliated with them. And it’s gotten me excited to see if XSEED Games might bring over any more of their games in the future. In fact, in yesterday’s piece, I mentioned Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime

Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime (roughly The Absolute Secret Mystery of Thumbelina I believe) was released in 2015 for the PlayStation Vita. As such, it’s one of the only other titles of Karin Entertainment’s that I think XSEED Games could reasonably localize. Many of their older titles being for the PSP or are PC-only titles. So, what’s this title about?

From what I can gather through some brief research it seems to take characters from various fairy tales and folklore and utilize them as part of its plot. Much like how London Detective Mysteria uses people like Holmes, Watson, Lupin, etc. The plot revolves around a young girl named Charlotte who one day shrinks until she’s about the size of a thumb. People start calling her Thumbelina and she becomes quite popular. In fact, maybe a little too popular.

One day, the village is attacked by soldiers while Thumbelina and her childhood friend, the Little Match Boy, are out. Figuring that the soldiers are after Thumbelina, the Little Match Boy heads into the forest with her, hoping to find a way to change Charlotte back. Along the way, they meet other iconic characters and of course, Charlotte will fall in love with someone. That said, the few reviews I read about this one were mixed.

The main things I read stated there were some serious plot holes, the common route was quite long, and, interestingly enough, there are two yuri options. Even so, this setup sounds like it could be quite entertaining. I can see a lot of lighthearted and comedic opportunities here due to the setup. Plus, I’m really curious how an otome developer would handle a yuri route. Since I tend to like emotionally-driven stories, I’d love to see how this plays out. While we obviously have to wait and see how London Detective Mysteria does, I’ll cross my fingers for this one down the line. But let’s say that doesn’t happen. Is there anything else Karin Entertainment can bring over?

Of course! There are the three BL titles that Karin Chatnoir Ω have done for the PC. With the announcement of JAST Blue and MangaGamer announcing Lucky Dog 1, BL is getting ready to have its own push in the West. The timing, I think, couldn’t be better for Karin Chatnoir Ω to make its debut here and tap into an underserved market that is starving for content. Anyway, let’s wrap this up.

Karin Entertainment is, as I said, a fascinating company. While it’s been awhile since they’ve been involved with the Western market I’m happy to see another player in the space. Especially since it’ll break up to monopoly Otomate has on the market right now. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time Karin Entertainment allows its games to be localized either. Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime sounds like it could be really interesting and I’m sure the BL fans out there would love to try out Karin Chatnoir Ω’s titles. While we need to see how successful London Detective Mysteria is here in the West first, I’m gonna cross my fingers that this won’t be the last project the West sees from this developer.

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The combination of otome and XSEED Games is not something many of us expected. When we think of otome, we often think of Aksys Games, Idea Factory International, or MangaGamer. Conversely, when we think of XSEED Games we think of Senran Kagura, anything by Falcom, and of course Corpse Party. So, you may think these two things would make for strange bedfellows. However, what many people tend to forget, especially in the wake of Senran Kagura’s success, is that the people at XSEED Games are a talented bunch and come from all fandoms and walks of life. And the proof of that is in this little gem of a title called London Detective Mysteria.

London Detective Mysteria was originally released as Eikoku Tantei Mysteria in 2013 for the PlayStation Portable by Karin Entertainment. It was then remade in 2016 as Eikoki Tantei Mysteria The Crown for the PlayStation Vita. This is the version of the game we’ll be getting and it’s quite promising. But, let me show you want I mean by delving into the game itself.

London Detective Mysteria stars Emily Whiteley. Emily (who can be renamed) comes from a family with high social standing, which in the late 1890’s England, meant she had access to some pretty important people. This leads us to our prologue where she’s headed to the palace to attend the Queen’s birthday. After some snide remarks about her waistline from her butler Pendleton, the two arrive at the palace only to walk right into a mystery.

Emily is a very observant type, and a bit of a tomboy much to Pendleton’s dismay. She quickly notices two figures who don’t seem like they belong at a socialite party for the Queen and follows them to discover they were called by Scottland Yard. These two figures are Hurlock Holmes and William H. Watson. And if those names are familiar that’s because they are the sons of the famous Sherlock Holmes and Watson. In fact, homages to other famous historical figures make up the cast of London Detective Mysteria. But back to the case at hand.

Emily eavesdrops on a conversation they have with the Queen to learn that a cat which was given to her as a present by a foreign king has gone missing. And since she needs to present said cat at the party today to affirm her friendship with that King, they need to find it ASAP. Thus, why she summoned Holmes and Watson. Emily though is discovered and asked by the Queen as well to assist. Turns out Emily’s mother and the Queen knew each other. But, with the Queen’s blessing, the trio set out to find the missing cat.

After doing some basic tracking, the three end up unable to follow the cat’s path any further. However, Emily has a plan: catnip. While I’m not sure the actual plant they use is catnip, it has the same effect. After having Pendleton bring some of the necessary plants, the trio light it on fire and use the smoke to attract any cat in the vicinity to them. The plan works perfectly, and our heroes are able to reclaim the cat and return it to the Queen. Avoiding an international incident in doing so. But we’re not quite done yet.

After this success, the Queen summons Emily privately a few days later and encourages her to enroll in a famous school for detectives in London. While Emily is unsure at first, with the Queen’s encouragement she takes her up on the offer. The Queen gives her a ring, the very one in the logo, and the demo ends as Emily prepares to head off. While this is an abridged version of an hour-long demo, there’s still a lot to unpack from it. Let’s start with Emily herself.

I love Emily. Not only is she voiced, she also leaves a strong impact out of the gate. Intelligent, observant, and able to stand toe-to-toe with Holmes, she’s a very proactive protagonist. A key complaint I hear about in otome titles is that the protagonist is always very passive. Needing to be rescued, or propped up, or that she’s forced to rely on the men around her. While I don’t necessarily see this in every otome protagonist (I adore Chizuru for example and find her to be quite strong) I can see people’s point. Emily though seems set up to defy this sort of thinking.

It’s her observational skills that tip her off that something’s wrong. She makes the decision to follow Holmes and Watson. And it’s her plan that ultimately saves the day. Will she need the support of her love interest down the line? Probably, but that’s human nature. We’re an interdependent species, not an independent one. No one is perfect and we can’t shoulder everything ourselves. I suspect Emily will go through her own growth in this department, but I do think otome fans will enjoy how different she is from your standard otome heroine. Next, let’s talk English. Namely Victorian English.

XSEED Games has always been known for their attention to detail. Shiki’s valley-girl manner of speaking is Senran Kagura is a good example. London Detective Mysteria is being localized with careful attention to the manner in which people speak. Since this game takes place in the late 1890’s the dialogue reflects this. Today and tomorrow, for example, are spelled “to-day” and “to-morrow”. Another example? Jack the Ripper (yes he’s here too) will have a Cockney accent. This actually would make London Detective Mysteria more authentic than its Japanese counterpart. Combine that with Karen Entertainment’s attention to detail and research in getting the settings and character designs right and I think fans of Victorian England will have much to be happy about. So, what’s my final verdict on this demo?

You don’t need to be a detective to see that XSEED Game’s first otome is shaping up to be a real winner. In a market that already has such heavy hitters as Aksys Games and IFI taking every Otomate title they can get their hands on, you’d think the only realm left was the 18+ titles MangaGamer is bringing over like Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome. However, XSEED Games has found a developer with quite the hidden gem. Who knows, maybe this time next year we’ll be talking about XSEED Games’ localizing another of Karin Entertainment’s titles. Namely, Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime. But for now, look forward to when this title drops in the near future.

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Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about Super Neptunia RPG. After taking a hard look at both the E3 and the Anime Expo demos, you might think I’m ready to throw in the towel on this one. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. For you see, I very much want Super Neptunia RPG to be successful. Not just as a Neptunia fan, but because this franchise is at a major crossroads. What exactly do I mean? Well, let me explain, starting with a quick recap of some of the major milestones Super Neptunia RPG is about to set.

One of the most fascinating things about Super Neptunia RPG is really how many franchise firsts this game sets. It’s the first Neptunia game to be in 2D; it’s the first Neptunia game to be handled by a Western studio, and it’s the first Neptunia game to be on the Nintendo Switch. This game is breaking some very serious ground. To illustrate this, let’s step through each of these three things starting with the fact this Neptunia game is the first to be in 2D.

It’s a bit surprising there has never been a 2D Neptunia game in the franchise’s almost eight-year history. Which is kind of amazing when you consider all the effort the Neptunia team puts into the end credits of most of the games. Many of these credit sequences feature homages to many retro games and recreate the Neptunia characters as sprites. It’s really surprising that the core Neptunia team hasn’t done anything with these little homages. More than likely, they just haven’t thought of a compelling way to utilize them. Sometimes though, someone with an outside perspective comes along with a fresh idea. Which brings us to our second first: Artisan Studios.

Artisan Studios is the first Western developer to work on the Neptunia series. Which is a huge deal. Imagine, as a fan, that you were suddenly given the chance to contribute to a Neptunia game. You’d be ecstatic even if you knew nothing about game development. Now imagine how a developer who has a great idea must feel when they’re given a chance to work on such a beloved and prestigious series. They must have been over-the-moon when they were told they would be working on a Neptunia game. Especially one that was in 2D and would be on a brand new platform: the Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch is our third first and you shouldn’t just brush aside that point. Yes, I love my launch-day PCH-1101 3G enabled Vita, but that system’s time is over. Not only is the Switch the only way to play Super Neptunia RPG on the go, but it’s also opening up the franchise to a new set of fans who have waited on the sidelines. If you’re reading this site, I’m sure you probably have a PlayStation 4 or a PC with Steam, but not everyone does. This is a great chance to grow the fan base and franchise. In fact, the success of Super Neptunia RPG will play a key role in deciding if these three things will be ongoing things or a one-time event. Let me elaborate.

Let’s say that the game sells well enough to turn a profit and be a successful project. We’re not talking record setting here, just enough to please the powers-that-be. That means we’re more likely to see not just more 2D Neptunia games, but possibly more experimental titles. A Neptunia game we never knew we wanted could be a few years away. We’d also get to see other Western developers take a swing at the franchise. Heck, next time we could see someone from the EU or from Latin America try their hand developing a Neptunia game. And finally, it would ensure that Switch fans would continue to see Neptunia games on their console. But consider this, what if Super Neptunia RPG doesn’t meet that simple goal. What if it falls short?

Well, for one the franchise would be fine. Neptunia is enough of a juggernaut that one low-selling title wouldn’t cripple it. But it could close off many doors. We may have to wait for quite a while before we saw another 2D Neptunia title or anything that strays from the core concepts of the franchise. We may also not see another Western dev touch the franchise ever again. After all, why take that risk when it didn’t pay off this time. And finally, we could see support for the Switch scaled back. That could range from future titles being eShop only, to very limited print runs. A lot rides on the success or failure of Super Neptunia RPG.

Now the more astute of you will point out that there’s a lot of factors that go into decisions like these. Sales numbers for a particular platform, physical vs digital copies, critical and fan feedback. And you are correct, but even a critically acclaimed game that doesn’t sell enough to break even is considered a financial failure. This is a business after all and money is the endgame. But, then you’re probably asking why I brought all this up. Well, it’s because the E3 and the AX demos play a big role in setting the stage for Super Neptunia RPG’s success.

Like I said in the Anime Expo piece, demos are basically a publisher’s sales pitch to a consumer. And sadly, the pitch for Super Neptunia RPG was underwhelming. In four years of covering both E3 and Anime Expo as press, it’s hard to think of a demo made me more concerned about the future of a title. Let’s use Senran Kagura Burst re:Newal as an example. That demo was extremely short, to the point that I was kind of disappointed. But it was polished, I could at least understand how the game worked and I felt confident about its future. The same can be said for something like My Hero One’s Justice. There were some issues, but I can see the appeal. Not so much here. Which begs the question: what happened?

It’s human nature to want to point the finger and blame someone. However, it’s not really that simple here. With Artisan Studios developing the title, Idea Factory of Japan overseeing things and localizing the game for Japan, and IFI handling localization for the rest of the world, there’s too many moving parts to definitively blame anyone. And honestly, it doesn’t matter. Blaming people doesn’t provide a solution. However, I will pose one question. Would these demos in this state be acceptable to an audience in Japan?

I ask this, for one simple reason. If it’s not acceptable there, why is it acceptable anywhere else? Yes, different markets do have different standards, but quality should not vary between regions. Thus, we’re in the situation where one of the most important Neptunia titles is looking in a rather rough state. To me it’s troubling, but I’m not ready to give up on it yet.

You see, the point of this article is that we shouldn’t be treating Super Neptunia RPG as “just another Neptunia game.” Heck, you should never treat any title as just another title. Developers and publishers should take great pride in their work. And I know IFI has been trying to do just that with its panels and the thought they put into its merchandise. I know Artisan Studios is trying to create something new and amazing by bringing Tsunako-san’s gorgeous artwork to life. I know this can be a great game. But that fact isn’t being communicated to us.

Developers and publishers shouldn’t assume that fans will always be there to support titles or franchises no matter what. Trust and goodwill and the most important things you can garner from them. That means things like these demos absolutely matter and they need to be treated with great care. Because if not, it could lead to issues down the road. It’s why I’ve spent three articles and over 3,000 words talking about them. Because this isn’t just another Neptunia title to me. It’s the start of a brand-new chapter and of something wonderful for my favorite franchise. And in the end, I want it to succeed.

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Super Neptunia RPG is a game which left me with mixed feelings after playing it at E3 2018. While I could see what Artisan Studios was attempting to do, the demo itself felt rather rough. In short, it felt more like a conceptual demo you’d present as a prototype than a demo meant for public consumption at an industry tradeshow. While I adore this franchise and wish to have faith in both Artisan Studios and Idea Factory, I was concerned. Then I heard from Idea Factory International that a new build of the game would be available at Anime Expo. So, since I’d be there I might as well give Super Neptunia RPG another try. How did that go and have my thoughts changed? Read on to find out.

The first thing I’m going to note is that while the new build of Super Neptunia RPG does have some differences, the majority of what I said in my E3 2018 Impressions piece still stands. As such, to avoid reiterating what I’ve already stated I recommend you read that article first before delving into this one. I will note, however, that I’ve grown more accustomed to the Pudding Dogoo.

The Pudding Dogoo is something Neptune can create on the field to use as a springboard to jump much higher. I’m not sure what it is that was tweaked but it does feel more natural in this build than the E3 one. This could also just be me finally adjusting to the mechanic, but I do think it works. Aside from the Pudding Dogoo, there was one new mechanic added in this build and that was the Break Attack.

The Break Attack is basically Super Neptunia RPG’s version of the EXE Break from previous Neptunia games. On the bottom of the screen is the Break Gauge which is divided into segments, just like the EXE Drive gauge. This gauge is what you’ll use to perform your Break Attack. I should note that for this demo, the gauge filled rather quickly and once at about half full would give me the prompt to perform the Break Attack. From here, you would select what character you want to perform the attack with the face buttons on the controller. In this case, since this was the Nintendo Switch version this would A, B, X, and Y.

Once you’ve pressed the appropriate button, the chosen character would then perform their Break Attack. Which if you’ve ever played any other Neptunia title is just like the EXE Drives. They’re supposed to be flashy over-the-top attacks that deal tons of damage and make our heroines look badass. The key word there is supposed to though. It’s here where we need to start talking about an issue that like the E3 build is a problem in the AX one: the lack of polish.

While I certainly wasn’t expecting the AX demo of Super Neptunia RPG to completely fix all the issues of the E3 build, what I wasn’t expecting was there to be new issues. Sticking to the Break Attacks for the moment, they really felt underwhelming. While they certainly look like they should impress there are a few issues. One is that the 3D Neptunia games often use lots of camera angles to make these attacks very dynamic and leave an impact on the player. That’s that not really possible in a 2D game, but you can still do a lot with the character models. However, for some reason, I felt the animations used were rather boring save for Blanc’s. A big reason for this I think is the speed of the attacks and the sound effects used.

In regards to the sound effects, these really fell flat to me. The best way to put it is they felt generic. The speed of the attack meanwhile I think had more to do with the framerate. Whenever I did a break attack the game felt like it slowed down a bit, especially when loading in the full-bodied character cut-in that takes place before the finishing blow. This really slowed down the action and dragged things out. I understand this build probably hasn’t been optimized, but the slowdown is easily apparent. Finally, there’s a big issue with Blanc’s Break Attack specifically: the sound effects didn’t work.

This really highlighted the sound effect issue to me, since all I could hear was the sound of the monster reacting to the hit and the not the sound of Blanc striking the enemy. These monster sounds didn’t work for me. Also, just to be sure this wasn’t a one-time thing, I tried using Blanc’s Break Attack after trying the other character’s and this was a consistent issue. In addition, during IFI’s “Nep Yeah!” panel the game soft-locked.

For those who don’t know what a soft-lock is, it’s basically the game being stuck in a state where it’s still running, but you can’t continue on. This is opposed to a crash, in which the game just closes unceremoniously, or a freeze, where the game becomes completely locked up. As for what triggered the soft-lock I couldn’t say for sure, but it looked like the item menu was opened just as a battle was being finished, which probably confused the game. While I hate to nitpick about these things, this did happen during a live panel. Plus, it’s indicative of the state this demo was in, in short, this was not ready to be shown I feel.

The purpose of any demo is to give a person a sneak peek as to what they will be getting into. This is a publisher’s chance to sell me on the game. It’s supposed to instill confidence in the project and pump me up for the inevitable release. However, this did exactly the opposite. I left me wondering what was going on behind the scenes. In short, I’m concerned about this game.

As I said, I adore the Neptunia franchise. It is easily my favorite gaming series and one that’s had a massive influence on me. But, fan as I may be, I still need to be honest at the end of the day. And based on the E3 and the AX demo, I can only recommend a wait-and-see approach to this game. Hopefully, Idea Factory International will stream the final build of the game sometime before release as they often do. Until then, all we can do wait for September 27^th, what looks to be the Japanese release date, to see how this outing for Neptune and crew will fare. However, we’re not quite done yet with talking about Super Neptunia RPG.

Come back tomorrow where we’ll go over why the success of this Neptunia game is so important to the future of the franchise. See you then.

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While it’s true that the Neptunia franchise is a major source of notoriety for Idea Factory and Compile Heart, that’s not the only RPGs they do. Fairy Fencer F, Omega Quintet, and Dark Rose Valkyrie are all examples of other stellar games the company has put out. It shows just have far they’ve come since the days of the original Hyperdimension Neptunia. At Anime Expo this year, Idea Factory International announced that another of these RPGs was coming to the West: Death end re;Quest.

Death end re;Quest looks to be yet another ambitious title. While Omega Quintet focused on idols and Dark Rose Valkyrie dealt with the idea of a traitor amongst you, Death end re;Quest instead deals with a different concept, trying to survive in an online game. If this sounds similar to Sword Art Online, then you’re right. I thought the same thing. However, as games like Princess Evangile has shown, using an existing idea as a base is perfectly fine. It’s the execution that really matters. So what’s the premise here then? Well, let me explain.

Of Virtual Worlds and Missing Programmers ~ Premise

The story of Death end re;Quest seems to revolve around two specific characters. Those two being Arata Mizunashi and Shina Ninomiya (Eng. cv. Kayli Mills). Shina is the lead developer for a game called World’s Odyssey or W.O.D. for short. During development of the game, she goes missing and work on the title halts. However, a year later Arata finds that the game is somehow active. Looking into things he finds that Shina is alive and has been trapped inside the game this entire time. Getting her out will be no easy task, however.

Something is preventing Shina from logging out of the game. Trapped inside and with death being a very real possibility, the two figure out that the only way for Shina to survive is to achieve W.O.D.’s true ending. Of course, this is a Compile Heart game, one of the companies synonymous with the trope of Guide Dang It. And in a very meta-decision, this also applies in-universe. W.O.D. has a 99% rate of failure.

With odds that low Arata and Shina are going to have to wage a war on two fronts. One in the real world and one in W.O.D. in order to achieve the impossible. Hopefully, Shina left a strategy guide lying around the office for Arata to use, cause it sounds like the two are going to need it. Still, I find this premise quite interesting. It almost feels like Corpse Party meets Sword Art Online. But, the story is only one part of the formula. What about the gameplay?

Hacking your way Through Bugs to Victory ~ Gameplay

Death end re;Quest’s gameplay is an interesting mix of systems. Particularly in regards to exploration and combat. Let’s start with exploration. If you played Mary Skelter Nightmares last year, then the idea of field abilities are something you know. While exploring the area you can use your field skills to help you advance past certain obstacles. A similar system looks to be in place in Death end re;Quest.

One of the things we can gather from the trailer is that Shina can utilize insect-like abilities to advance past certain areas. For example, being able to fly across a gap using butterfly wings. While we don’t know a lot about this system yet, it looks like it could encourage exploring old areas again. As for the bug motif, that’s actually quite prevalent in the game. Bugs are a central theme but in the idea of literal insects and coding bugs. In fact, programming is a theme in the battle system.

Combat in Death end re;Quest works like a standard RPG. At least at first. One of the main draws of this game is the fact you can change the battle system mid-fight. Examples that have been given so far are turning the game into a first-person shooter, a fighting game, and even a slot game. While details are scarce, I imagine that certain enemies and bosses will be weak to certain battle systems. As a whole, it’s a creative idea. That said, I still have a few questions about Death end re;Quest that I think will really be key to how well this game is received.

The Unanswered Questions and Mysteries of Death end re;Quest

Let’s start with the battle system first. While the idea of switching genres is something really cool, the first question that pops into my mind is how you balance something like this. There are going to be some genres of games that people will be better at than others. For example, I’m terrible at fighters and FPS games. So, if a boss is meant to be defeated in one of these genres how difficult will it be for me? On the flipside, if you’re really good at either of those genres does that destroy the difficulty of the game? Another question that I have is regarding the various endings.

If Death end re;Quest has a 99% chance of failure, how many times will I need to restart the game and how easy will that be? Now, realistically I don’t expect that 99% to be literal, but let’s take a reasonable example of say three endings and several unique game overs. The game overs can be handled easily. As long as the game doesn’t pull any mean tricks, I can see the game overs being just a neat addition (like in Corpse Party) where you only need to go back and do a few things differently. It’s the endings that really worry me.

Taking our example of three endings (let’s say bad, normal, and true) what happens when I obtain one of these? Do I need to restart the entire game? Is there a new game+? How easy is it to get locked into a specific ending? The reason I wonder about this is that something like this happened in Mary Skelter Nightmares. If you made an incorrect decision in Chapter 3 of that game you were locked out of the True Ending. Considering Mary Skelter Nightmares is a pretty difficult game and has 9 Chapters, this can really sour your experience. While I certainly expect to need a guide to achieve Death end re;Quest’s true ending, I just hope the developers had enough foresight not to make repeated playthroughs a chore. With those questions stated though, let’s close this out.

Conclusion

In the end, I’m really curious about Death end re;Quest and am eagerly looking forward to its release next year. While IFI hasn’t released a ton of info about the game there’s certainly enough to pique your interest. Compile Heart is one of those developer’s that’s earned my trust and I’m more than willing to give this latest experiment a shot once it releases here.

Death end re;Quest is slated for an early 2019 release on the PlayStation 4.

The post AX 2018: Death end re;Quest appeared first on oprainfall.

Over the last two days, we’ve covered the demo of Tokyo Chronos and taken a look at its development team. Today I want to touch upon the Kickstarter itself and offer a series of recommendations for those of you who are looking to back this project but aren’t sure what to back. Creating backer-tiers is never an easy thing, but some projects do it better than others. How does Tokyo Chronos handle things? Well, we’ll find out but first, let’s touch upon what the goal of this Kickstarter is and what exactly it means to back a project.

Tokyo Chronos’ goal with this Kickstarter is more about supplementing their own funding than creating a project from scratch. There are two reasons I feel this way. The first is that a demo for Anime Expo was already produced. This signals that the development team has probably completed the preliminary work of the project and just needs some assistance to finish the project and gauge public interest. The second reason is the amount being asked for $75,000.

$75,000 isn’t a small amount of money by any means. In fact of the projects I’ve backed, it’s the 3^rd highest. The first two being Muv-Luv ($250,000) and Grisaia: Phantom Trigger The Animation ($100,000). On the flip-side, it is more expensive than other Visual Novels I’ve backed in the past. Those being Grisaia: Phantom Trigger Vol. 5 ($30,000) and Koropokkur in Love ~A Little Fairy’s Tale~  ($30,000). Is there a reason for this? I think so.

Keep in mind that developing a VR title is more expensive than a standard game of the same length. While at the Tokyo Chronos panel during Anime Expo it was revealed that the team is shooting for a playtime of ten hours over eight chapters, that’s still longer than most VR experiences. A game like Skyrim VR being the exception. As such, even while being a visual novel, this isn’t exactly going to be inexpensive to make. So, now that you have an understanding of why the development team is asking for support, let’s take a look at what it means to give that support.

Let me correct a common misunderstanding when it comes to backing a project via crowdfunding. You are not outright buying something. Instead, what you are doing is investing in a business project. I realize that sounds a lot less glamorous to some people but it’s the truth. Just like investing in a business there are risks here like with any project. What do I mean? Well here’s a list of potential issues.

• Various rewards could be delayed, changed, or canceled.
• The release date could be pushed back.
• The end result may not live up to your expectations.
• Available platforms could change or Tokyo Chronos’ release on them could be delayed
• Tokyo Chronos could be canceled entirely.

Now, realistically, it’s highly unlikely the game would be outright canceled. The most valuable thing to any company is the goodwill of the consumer. After all, if you lose their trust they will not support you in the future. And I’m sure Sekai Project and Tokyo Otaku Mode do not want this to happen.

No major company would willingly support a project if they felt it was going to fall apart. Plus, as I pointed out in my piece about the development team, this isn’t a bunch of newcomers. These are seasoned veterans who I’m also sure don’t want to damage their reputations. Still, before you invest in a project understand that there is no guarantee that you’re going to get what you pledged for. This isn’t a pre-order, its an investment. That said, if you still want to invest, what tier should you give at? Well, a lot of that depends on your own disposable income and what rewards you want.

To make this simple I’m going to list the four tiers I think are worth taking a look at. Then I’ll delve into why I think each of those is worth your time. First, the tiers themselves:

• Backerkit Access – $1
• Digital Key for PSVR or Steam – $40
• Physical Copy & Digital OST – $60
• Limited Edition – $179

Let’s start with Backerkit. Backerkit is a very useful tool in case you’re not sure how much you can actually give. What Backerkit does is allow you to individually select certain rewards once the campaign has been funded. Think of it as reserving a spot so that later on you can get what you want. The second tier is the $40 Digital key.

The digital key is pretty self-explanatory. Though it gives us an idea as to what the Tokyo Chronos team values their title at, $40. That’s a pretty decent price for the game, I feel. It’s little much for 10 hours, but for a VR title, I can certainly see paying that much. Especially, if the title lives up to expectations. Take a look at my impressions regarding the Anime Expo demo if you’d like more information on that. The next tier is the $60 Physical copy & digital OST.

This is where we start to get into that range where it’s harder to justify. I prefer physical copies and I love video game OSTs. It’s pretty much what makes up the music on my phone. That said an extra $20 for a physical copy is a little up there. If the package gave me a physical OST copy I’d feel better about this. Still, I think this a solid tier if you want a physical copy of the game. The next tier though is where I have a few questions. The $179 Limited Edition.

The pricing of this tier confuses me. Most limited editions range between $60-$100. In fact, outside of importing my Neptunia LE’s from Japan, I can’t remember spending that much on an LE. You do get some neat rewards with it, such as the mini-light novel, but it’s still pretty expensive. Honestly, I’d like to see a tier that has the LE box by itself for $80. If I have a physical copy of the game, I don’t necessarily need the extra digital keys. Or at the least, I only need one. Still, these four tiers I think are the main ones people will go for, so what’s my recommendation?

If you’re not sure what you can spend but still want to support the project just do the $1 Backerkit pledge. This way you at least have access later on to select the rewards you can afford. Next, if you just want a copy of the game, take the digital tier. $40 is not a bad price, and you’ll probably only play the game on Steam or PSVR, not both unless you’re fortunate enough to have two different VR headsets. Finally, that brings us to the question of the physical editions.

This is the hard one. If you just want a physical copy then the $60-tier will work. However, the LE tier requires some careful consideration. $179 is not cheap for anyone. Yes, it’s a very nice exclusive for those that have the money to pledge that much, but for most college students and gamers who have limited income, it’s a bit of a stretch. I’d say, don’t break the bank on this one. Stick to the $60 tier unless you really want those extra rewards. With that analysis complete, let’s wrap this up.

Tokyo Chronos is shaping up to be an interesting and ambitious game. One that I do have faith in seeing the light of day. That said, great consideration should be taken when pledging to any Kickstarter. Remember, it’s an investment, not a purchase. You’re putting your faith in the devs and expecting rewards as a result. Which doesn’t always happen, so invest responsibly, please. Still, it’s a project that I think does deserve support and I plan to do the same myself once I double check my own post-Anime Expo finances. As for what tier? Well, I’m still debating between the $60 and $179 tiers myself. But I’m sure you’ll be able to find a set of rewards that fit your personal tastes.

Tokyo Chronos is due out in early 2019. Please take a look at the trailer and be sure to check out our other two articles regarding the demo and the development team.

The post AX 2018: The Tokyo Chronos Kickstarter appeared first on oprainfall.

Judging a development team is a tricky thing. On one hand just because you have big names doesn’t mean that a project will go smoothly. At the same time, however, knowing that the people in charge have experience is always a comforting thing. You want strong leaders with proven track records in charge, especially when it comes to something groundbreaking. With that in mind and the Kickstarter in full swing, let’s take a look at the leaders behind Tokyo Chronos and see who this team is. Let’s start with the Producer, Kazuma Miki.

Kazuma Miki is probably best known for being the Producer for Sword Art Online. However, that’s not the only title he’s been the producer for. Take a look at the list below to see what I mean:

• Accel World
• A Certain Magical Index
• A Certain Scientific Railgun
• Erogmanga Sensei
• The Irregular at Magic High School
• Ladies versus Butlers!
• Oreimo
• Valvrave the Liberator

As you can see, Kazuma-san has quite a lot of experience (especially with adapting light novels to anime) and even was the Executive Producer for Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. So as far as managing a project goes, I think Tokyo Chronos is in good hands. Next up we have Haruki Kashiwakura in the Director’s chair.

While Kazuma-san has been producing for quite awhile, Haruki Kashiwakura looks to be new relatively new to directing. The only credits I could find on both IMDb and Anime News Network were as follows:

• Blassreiter (TV) – 3D CG
• Expelled from Paradise (Movie) – Motion Director
• Linebarrels of Iron (TV) – 3D Animation
• Magi: The Labrinth of Magic (TV) – 3D CG
• Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (TV) – 3D Animation
• Penguindrum (TV) – 3D CG
• Sonic Generations – Cutscene Animator
• Strike Witches 2 (TV) – 3D Animation

From this list, you can see that Haruki-san has spent quite a lot of time working with 3D animation and CG. This is actually why I think he was chosen for the role of Director. While Tokyo Chronos’ PR highlights his role in Expelled from Paradise I can see those other roles being just as important. Haruki-san’s experience with 3D motion is going to be crucial here. Remember, VR is supposed to be immersive. We should feel like we’re not just part of the experience, but that we’re living it. As such, I think that experience with 3D is going to come in handy. You need an eye for detail here after all. Speaking of details, any VN needs a detailed story and the person tapped for this one is Kou Segawa.

This is the one person on the team whom I can’t find any solid information on. Tokyo Chronos’ PR credits Kou-san as the writer for A Mystery Schoolgirl series. However, I’ve been unable to find such a series. The Tokyo Chronos website instead lists Konya and Kimi ni Korosareta to shitemo the latter of which I found. As such, Kou-san is a little harder to pin down. However, Kou-san does seem to be a mystery writer. It’s just that sadly, information on light novels is a lot harder to come by than anime or manga. I’ll defer to the wisdom on Kazuma-san and Haruki-san on this one and assume there’s something unique that makes Kou-san a good fit for this project. This brings us to the last major member of the team which would be LAM.

LAM is the illustrator on the project. While much like Kou-san I can’t find a lot of information, I was able to locate LAM’s Tumbler and Pivix. The Tumbler page, in particular, was a good find since it gives us a list of works LAM has done. From the looks of things, LAM’s been working as an illustrator since 2014 at least. While I can’t read much of what’s on LAM’s about page, the entry of Fate/Grand Order does jump out. The other thing that leaps out at me is an interview with manga.tokyo.

The interview with LAM (credited here as RAM) is an interesting read. What stands out to me is a question about LAM using vivid colors in a lot of their work. LAM points out that they “…choose colors which make illustrations eye-catching.” This is actually a good point if you look at the artwork for Tokyo Chronos.

While I’m no expert in art, what catches my eye are the contrasting colors. There’s a good mix of bright colors which seem to highlight specific portions of the characters. However, this is balanced out by other darker tones. I think LAM says it best in this way in the interview:

“I like vivid colors and often use them, however illustrations with these colors tend to become childish, therefore I give careful consideration to create a classy and mature vibe.”

The overall designs, plus the contrasting colors do indeed create something that’s exciting to look at, but also looks rather adult at the same time. How well this will translate to VR, I’m not sure. However, taking one look at LAM’s portfolio does show they have quite a bit of talent. So, in my book, good choice. With all four big names covered, let’s wrap this up.

In the end, I think Tokyo Chronos is in good hands. While I can find more information on some members than others, I can see why this particular team was chosen. Everyone seems to have skills or experience that would best suit their roles. The fact there was a demo at Anime Expo, which you can read about here, is also more proof that the project is coming along. That said, one should always be mindful of possible pitfalls.

Taking a look at the project’s Kickstarter page the team seems most concerned about getting the game out on time. Delays can happen and it’s up to this team to make sure they don’t occur. However, it is possible. In addition, there’s also each platform to consider. Developing for multiple pieces of hardware and multiple storefronts means you need certification for each. That can eat up some time. Then there’s also the concern about getting rewards out in a timely fashion, which is a risk for any Kickstarter. Heck, I’m just now getting my Corona Blossom Vol. 3 rewards. Still, I’m optimistic.

As a whole, I’m really intrigued about Tokyo Chronos. After playing the demo and researching this team, I feel pretty confident about this project. Will it revolutionize the way we enjoy visual novels? It’s too early to say, however, someone needs to take that first step and it might as well be these guys.

The post AX 2018: The Aces Behind Tokyo Chronos appeared first on oprainfall.

Visual novels are easily one of my favorite genres of gaming. In fact, the reason I became the Visual Novel Manager for oprainfall and helped build our coverage of the genre is that I love them so much. While these games may be light on gameplay and interaction, the stories they tell and the emotional connections they make are timeless. So much so, that many other games such as Neptunia, Super Robot Wars, and even Persona make use of many of the genre’s elements. That said, can Visual Novels continue to evolve? Of course! And Tokyo Chronos is a game whose sole mission is to do that.

Tokyo Chronos – Where VNs meet VR

Tokyo Chronos is a “VR Mystery Virtual Novel”. While mystery VNs are becoming quite common (Danganronpa, Virtue’s Last Reward, and Kara no Shojo for example) VR visual novels are a rarity. There are quite a few reasons for this. Development cost is certainly one, but another is also the lack of adaption of VR headsets. This is changing, but it’s a slow process. Another is figuring out how you take the unique 2D storytelling style of a VN and bring it into VR. Virtual reality is all about the immersion of course. So, can you simply layer the textboxes, sprites, and backgrounds and call it a day? Or do you try and make a fully 3D world for the reader to enjoy? Tokyo Chronos aims for the latter approach here. But first, let’s talk about the premise.

Not much of Tokyo Chronos’ plot is known. However, we do know that the game will follow eight childhood friends who find themselves in a deserted Shibuya. Four characters have been revealed so far. These are, Kyosuke Sakurai (cv. Yuto Uemura), the protagonist; Karen Nikaido (cv. Yui Ishikawa), the cool beauty of the group; Yu Momono (cv. Ibuki Kido) the one closest to Kyosuke as well as the cute one; and finally, Yurai Togoku (cv. Shoko Yuzuki) who is a brilliant scientist and Haruki Kashiwakura’s favorite character. And on that note, let’s delve into the demo itself, shall we?

Delving into an Abandoned Shibuya

Tokyo Chronos’ demo is short at about 10 min but effective for giving you an idea of the game’s vision. The version I played was on the Oculus Go, however, the Oculus Rift, SteamVR, and PSVR platforms will be supported as well. Let’s delve into the demo proper though so I can share the experience with you.

You begin in an alleyway with nothing in front of you and nothing behind you. This is actually a good staging point since it allows you to really look around and get used to the VR. After advancing a few lines of dialogue, Momono will appear behind you at the end of the alley. After giving you an obligatory hug, the two of you will head out to what I believe is the famous Shibuya Crossing.

Once there you join up with Nikaido (with Momono glomping onto her for good measure) before the three of you notice a figure standing atop a building in the distance. This was actually impressive to me since if you turn to look in that direction, you will indeed see someone standing on top of said building. These little moments are when the VR truly shines. The figure comes down from the building and joins the group, revealing herself to be Togoku. It’s shortly after this that the demo ends. As you can see, there’s not a lot of the surface, but that’s because this demo’s main purpose is to give you an idea of what playing Tokyo Chronos will be like.

What I got out of the experience was interesting. How movement would be handled was my biggest question, but that’s actually done automatically as you advance the text. This gives the player the ability to look around and take in the visuals. Another interesting touch visually is that characters will appear and disappear as they move around. It’s tough to explain, but it’s very much like they’re being digitized in and out of existence. This looks to be intentional and I’m curious if it’s actually part of the larger plot. Storywise, there were no choices and this really was only meant to introduce the characters, so there’s not really much to talk about here. As a whole, I actually liked the demo. However, there are a few things I do think could be improved.

Strengthening the Immersion

While I enjoyed my time with Tokyo Chronos there are some things that could be better. The first is the text. This was something even that was even brought up during Tokyo Chronos’ panel at Anime Expo. There are two problems that I can see with the text: the position of the text boxes and the lettering.

Tokyo Chronos places its text boxes near the center of the screen. In contrast, most VNs place their text boxes at the bottom. This alone wouldn’t be a problem since all you need to do is stage characters around the text box or make as much of it transparent. Which Tokyo Chronos does. The real issue here is the layering.

Text boxes in Tokyo Chronos are in the layer closest to the player. With characters being behind that, and of course the backgrounds being further back. The issue is that having text that close to your eyes makes it easy to lose focus. Especially in my case as I wear progressive lenses. This also made it really hard to keep text in focus when turning my head. While I never felt ill or dizzy, I had to wait a few moments for my eyes to readjust after moving so I could read the text. The lettering also plays a role in this too.

The demo I played had Japanese audio with English text. This meant I needed to rely on the text to understand what was being said. However, sometimes the lettering would be too close together to read certain words. This causes a bit of a blurring effect where it’s hard to see where one letter ends and another begins. This could, of course, be my eyes, but to point to a game that didn’t do this, let me use Megadimension Neptunia VIIR as an example.

VIIR does text correctly. The subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen and you can even turn on or off a background effect for the box to make the text more legible. It’s really a neat feature if you’re playing with Japanese audio. And that’s crucial for a game like Tokyo Chronos. Visual Novels are not often dubbed. This means we rely on the subtitled text to understand what’s going on. Something Japanese-proficient players don’t need to worry about. As such, getting the text right is absolutely crucial to this project’s success so I hope that the development team retools this a bit in future demos. With that all said, let’s wrap this up.

Conclusion

In the end, I think Tokyo Chronos is a big step forward for visual novels. The idea of doing a VN in VR is fascinating and I think it could be a great home for the medium. That said, there are some growing pains. The text being the biggest issue here. Like I said, it needs to be perfect for people outside of Japan to understand what’s going on. Still, for a game that’s trying to be a 10+ hour VN experience, I think there’s a lot to like here.

Tokyo Chronos is scheduled for early 2019. If this project sounds interesting to you be sure to check out the project’s Kickstarter page.

The post AX 2018 IMPRESSIONS: Tokyo Chronos appeared first on oprainfall.

Super Neptunia RPG is a game that many Neptunia fans have had their eyes on since its announcement as Brave Neptunia. Not only is it a 2D Neptunia title, but it’s also the first Neptunia title to be handled by a Western developer. In this case, Artisan Studios from Canada. While some fans tend to worry when a Western developer tries their hand at a Japanese franchise, I tend to be quite excited. After all, a different perspective can bring fresh ideas.

I’ll point out that Nintendo has had great success with Western developers utilizing their IPs. Just look at Metroid Prime and the Wii version of Punch-Out!! So, when I found out that Super Neptunia RPG would be at E3, it was instantly on my list of things to play. And play it I did, twice actually to try and get a feel for the game and gain some understanding. Because this demo left me with more questions than answers.

My initial impressions of Super Neptunia RPG were not great. While the game does work, it felt very rough. The town didn’t seem to have a lot of life in it, the battle system felt conceptual, and outside of her victory pose, Neptune was not smiling. I know that sounds like an odd detail but think about it. When does Neptune not have a smile or grin on her face? She’s a very expressive character, so a lack of expression is a bit jarring. For a game that’s going to be out in Japan in about three months, this was rather worrying. However, I may have an answer for all this. I suspect this was an early build of the game and not something recent.

For those who aren’t as familiar with game development, the type of build your playing indicates the point of development the game is in. A Beta build is far along in development while Pre-Alpha is very early on. The build of Super Neptunia RPG that I played feels like a very early build. Most likely Pre-alpha to Alpha. And if that’s true, everything makes sense. For lack of a better term, this would be a proof-of-concept build. All the mechanics are there and work, but it’s not polished. That does raise a question though. Why wasn’t there a more recent build available?

I can only speculate, but I think it’s safe to say that this build was the most stable. I’m certain that IFI has a much more complete build back at their offices, but if it’s crashing or not optimized then it doesn’t make sense to bring to a trade show. E3 is a place to show off working demos of games. It’s better to bring an older, more stable build than a recent one that’s prone to crashing. After all, nothing is more frustrating than a buggy game. With this in mind, I’m going to give two opinions about Super Neptunia RPG in this impressions piece. But first, let’s talk about the game a bit.

Super Neptunia RPG is 2D platforming RPG. If you’ve played Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG then you have an idea as to what I mean. You’ll need to use your platforming skills to navigate through some of the areas. Thankfully to help you, you’ll have access to something that would only exist in a Neptunia title: the Pudding Dogoo. Yes, a Dogoo made of pudding. And it somehow increases your jump height.

Actually, let’s talk about that for a second since it’s a good example of showing what I mean by the game being “rough”. On one hand, the Dogoo looks great and upon whacking it with Neptune’s sword it’ll make a rather amusing face. However, using it to jump higher is a bit… odd.

You would think that being made of pudding and being a Dogoo, you’d bounce off it. Especially when you consider that it augments your jump height by quite a bit. Instead, you use it as a platform. You jump on it once, stand there, then jump again. I can kind of see this working, but bouncing off of it just makes more logical sense. As I said, it works, but it feels incomplete. The same can be said of combat.

Combat has a lot of potential. Your party consists of four characters (in the demo’s case, the main four goddesses) and each character is assigned to a face button on the controller. When pressed your character will perform one action which is dependent on your formation. The party formation is determined by who the “leader” is at the moment. So, if Nep is in the front it’ll be an attacking formation, conversely, if Blanc is in charge it’ll be a healing formation. As such, you’ll need to use the right formation for the right job. However, each action also has a cost.

In the lower right-hand corner of the screen is a circle that will slowly fill up. Each section of the circle that fills up counts as an action point. Each action you take in battle has a cost associated with it. So, a careful balance between stocking these points, switching formation, and attacking/healing is needed. Really, I can see this being a lot of fun, especially since it gives you a lot of freedom and keeps you engaged. However, there the early nature of the build was again an issue.

For one, the animations seemed a bit jarring at times. Occasionally the game would stutter, while some animations either weren’t implemented or were too quick for my eye. Vert’s magic attacks are a good example of this. While she certainly is canonically quick, I didn’t notice an animation associated with her magic attacks. They just kind of happened. I’m sure this will be smoothed out by the final retail release, but I think you can see what I mean. So where does this leave my impressions then?

As I mentioned I’m of two minds here. As a conceptual demo, it’s perfectly fine. I can see a lot of potential and many of these issues are easily fixed. It’s just that this build doesn’t have those solutions yet. This is the build that’s basically made to make sure things work and then you polish it up later. However, as an E3 demo, it’s not great.

While you have 15 min to play with the game, I found myself losing interest rather quickly due to the lack of things to do. However, I’m willing to give the developers and IFI the benefit of the doubt here. I really do think this was just the most stable build they could get before E3. That said, how good of a game this will be in the end is up for debate.

It’s certainly not the worst Neptunia game by any means. Gameplay-wise, I still contend that the original Hyperdimension Neptunia is the worst in the franchise. Though, my least favorite games happen to be Action U and Producing Perfection. Conversely, it’s too early to tell if it’ll be the best game. Especially since I find the original Megadimension VII the best game in the franchise mechanics-wise; with Mk2 being my personal favorite for its story. In the end, I think Super Neptunia RPG is shaping up to be a competent game, though I’m hoping we’ll see an updated build of the game before it launches later this year.

Super Neptunia RPG will be launching later this fall on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

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Code Vein is an odd game for me to write about. Action games are rarely my cup of tea. While I do play the occasional Action RPG, I’ve never even considered delving into something like Dark Souls because of its difficulty. Throwing myself at the same obstacle several times isn’t my idea of fun. However, I decided to give Code Vein a try at E3 in order to see if maybe I was missing out on something. So, what did I think? Well, let’s start this off by talking a bit about what Code Vein is.

Code Vein takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where “Thorns of Judgement” dot the landscape and even grow out of skyscrapers. It’s in this world where the surviving humans have become vampiric creatures known as Revenants. The story focuses on a group of Revenants known as Vein. Vein exists in order to fight the Lost, which are Revenants who have given into their bloodlust. Which basically means we’re in a vampire-zombie Apocolypse. Certainly, an interesting premise and setup and it ties into the game’s look.

Code Vein is a very dark looking game. There’s not a lot of bright colors in this title. Which makes sense when you’re dealing with the collapse of humanity and using blood as a source of power. If you were to tell me that this was the end of the world as we knew it, I’d believe you. Aside from the general aesthetic, graphically the game seemed fine. There were no issues that I could see everything looked smooth. That then brings us to the gameplay. And to start that topic off, let’s talk about E3 demos in general.

Many E3 demos are timed. In this case, I only had 15 minutes with Code Vein and wanted to spend as much of that playing the game as I could. So imagine my surprise upon learning that the tutorial area consisted of picking up notes on the ground and reading them. Since this would consume time I needed to get a feel for the game, I skipped it. Plus there was a helpful controller schematic at the kiosk. So, at least I would know what button would do what. Thus I set out on my quest… and promptly died. This is where a game like Code Vein differs from something like Dynasty Warriors.

Dynasty Warriors is very much an offensive-based game. Yes, you do need to defend and counter properly, especially on higher difficulties, however, you can often brute force your way through a problem. Games like Code Vein, conversely, seem to be defensive-based. You need to know an enemy’s pattern and every safe spot in each attack. It’s through lots of repetition and practice that you’ll master each section and make progress. In short, it’s the action-game equivalent of a bullet-hell or danmaku game (think Touhou or anything by Cave). So, if you like challenges then I’d recommend this. Still, this was only the first death. Surely, I would get better, right?

Try as I might, I never made it far into Code Vein. While I made a little progress every few attempts, I never really felt like I was accomplishing anything. A lot of this just stems from the fact that Code Vein is not a type of game I play. While I could certainly pick it up and beat it (with enough practice) it’s not likely I would for one main reason: the difficulty.

E3 Demos tend to tone down the difficulty a bit to give the player a fighting chance and allow them to see as much of the game as they can. I could barely stay alive for two minutes while healing. So, I’d assume that the retail release is going to be a mountain I do not want to climb. However, does that make Code Vein a bad game or demo? Absolutely not.

Everything in Code Vein does work and you can tell the dev-team put a lot of work in the title. Like I mentioned, I’ve never played the Souls games, but I can easily imagine this fitting in with fans of those games. After all, the challenge is something they adore. It’s part of the fun and only serves to make a hard-fought victory all the sweeter.

In the end, Code Vein is very much a game made for a particular crowd. That crowd being the Dark Souls crowd. If you love these types of games, then I certainly think this is worth looking at. However, if it’s your first foray into the gene then I’m going to recommend picking up Dark Souls or Bloodborne first to see if this is something you’d enjoy. Just be aware that practice and repetition are core to these types of games. You’re going to die… a lot.

Code Vein is scheduled for a September 28^th, 2018, release and will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.

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SNK 40^th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is a collection of SNK’s titles from over the years. What I find interesting about this is that while I certainly know of SNK, I never played any of their games. So, for me, this collection is an interesting way for me become more acquainted with them. However, before we delve into the game itself we should talk a bit about SNK in case you’re also not as familiar with the company.

SNK or Shin Nihon Kikaku’s history is quite interesting. As the name of this collection suggests the company has been around for 40 years. Yes, that means they’ve been around since 1978 and they were a big part of when the gaming industry was just starting out. While many people these days know of SNK from The King of Fighter’s series, they have done many arcade titles over the years. Much like Capcom, who started out the same way. However, where they differ is around the fourth generation of video game consoles, or the SNES & Genesis era.

It was around this time where SNK really wanted to showcase how advanced their arcade technology was and so they released the Neo Geo. A system that could perfectly replicate arcade games at home in console form. However, the system was also very expensive which is why unless you were an arcade collector you probably didn’t have one. However, this wasn’t SNK’s last attempt at hardware. Another good example is the Neo Geo pocket which was a portable system designed by them. Sadly, outside of Japan, it didn’t catch on. However, that doesn’t mean that SNK hasn’t been important to the industry, far from it. In fact, the advancements they made were quite impressive. Something quite apparent through many of the games in this collection.

So far, 13 games have been announced for the SNK 40^th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION with more to come. However, there’s no way I could play that many in the time I had allotted, so I stuck to two classics I knew a little about: Athena and Guerrilla War. Let’s start with Athena.

Athena is one of the few SNK games I have heard of. In fact, what I know about it is mainly its legendary difficulty. And difficult this one is. You play as the titular Athena who went looking for adventure in all the wrong places. I’m not even kidding here. In what is very much a game from the 80’s the plot is that Athena was tired of being sheltered and runs away from home. In the process, she opens a forbidden door and ends up falling from heaven to the lands below. Now, she needs to defeat Emperor Dante to get back home. And to do that, she’s going to need some armor and some weapons. Speaking of which, let’s talk about said weapons.

What makes this game rather unique is the weapon system. Different weapons have different ranges, attack powers, and can even break different blocks. Mastering these weapons is absolutely key since everything, and I mean everything is trying to kill you. This game will test your arcade skills, but thankfully there’s a neat feature the developers added to this collection: the ability to rewind time.

We all know what a save state is. You can save a game at any point and then just load that state. It’s how many people practice difficult games. However, what if instead you could just rewind the game at any point? That’s basically this system and it is much appreciated. I loved this feature as it allowed me quickly undo a mistake by pressing and holding a button. It’s really a feature I’d love to see more arcade classics use so that people could practice a section. That said, it’s not going to solve all your problems. Sometimes you’ll just end up in a position where no matter what you do, you’re doomed unless you rewind quite a way back. So, you’ll need to decide where just losing a life is more appropriate. Still, I enjoyed Athena and after a few deaths booted up Guerrilla War to give it a try.

Guerrilla War is a game I was only familiar with from seeing a playthrough on Frankomatic’s Obscure Game Theater. So, going into this, I knew this would be a hard game to try. However, that doesn’t make it any less fun. The goal here is to defeat the opposing army and rescue as many civilians as you can. The game functions like a twin-stick shooter. Use one stick to move and another to aim. It feels quite good and you’ll need to master moving and shooting to clear this title. I couldn’t make it out of the first stage, but with some practice, I’m sure I’d get the hang of it. All-in-all, it was a fun time. So, where does that leave my thoughts on this epic collection?

I think if you’re a fan of either SNK or Arcade titles you’ll want to pick this up. The game features not only the original arcade version of games but also their console ports. In addition, there are some non-arcade games as well, such as Crystalis which was SNK’s answer to Final Fantasy and is often considered an NES gem. All-in-all I think you can find a lot of value for your money here.

SNK 40^th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch this fall.

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Gal Metal is a drummer’s game. Now don’t let that intimidate you. This may be a game for drummers, but you do not need to be a drummer to play this. Some musical background does help, but it’s not necessary. That said, this is probably the most freeform and open-ended music game I’ve seen outside of music creation tools. While I normally would find something like this intimidating, instead I found myself utterly captivated in learning the ways of Gal Metal and now I’m here to share that knowledge with you. But first, what is Gal Metal?

Gal Metal is a drum-based rhythm game with a premise that could only be from Japan due to its crazy-awesomeness. Aliens are invading the earth and only the power of Metal can defeat them. Together, with your school’s all-girl metal club, you’ll need to beat back the invaders using your Joy-Con controllers. But how does one accomplish this? Well, first we need to talk about a basic music concept: 4/4 time.

You all know what a beat is. Listen to any song and I’m sure you can pick out the general beat. 4/4 (pronounced “four four”) time is a simple way to say each measure of music has four beats. It’s the simplest timing you learn when playing an instrument. Gal Metal is no different. The game uses 4/4 timing for its patterns and scoring. This means that if you can find a beat, you can play this game. Really, it’s that simple. So, how do you play then?

Drumming in Gal Metal is simple. Just swing your Joy-Con to the beat. The right Joy-Con is for the drum, the left the snare, and both make a cymbal crash. Simple, right? Well, now comes a twist. In most rhythm games, you must follow an onscreen guide. In Dance Dance Revolution you match your steps with the arrows in the guide. In the Hatsune Miku games, it’s timing button presses. Gal Metal has no guide. This led me to ask XSEED Games a simple question. How do you play the game then? There must be a way to judge my performance, after all.

This is where the concept of 4/4 timing comes into play. You’ll have four beats to make a pattern. Say you just use the right Joy-Con and drum on-beat four times in a row. Well, that’s a pattern. The game has several and they are all named. You can combine any of these patterns together to play the game. However, if you really want to send your score into the stratosphere you’ll need to learn a few more things. Let’s start with going back to those patterns once again.

Every pattern is part of a family. There are different families of patterns and each family has several patterns in it. It’s important to remember this because chaining patterns from the same family will earn you bonuses. Each song has several sections. For example, a song can have an intro, A section, A refrain, B section, B refrain, etc. Performing patterns from one family during a section will earn you a section bonus. Doing this for the refrain as well will earn you another bonus. It’s these bonuses that really help your score. My first few attempts had me scoring just over 100,000 points. My final attempt had me nail a few section bonuses and score over 500,000. These bonuses really do add up; however, you really shouldn’t focus too much on them. To explain why I’m going to ask you look at the video below which features the producer Tak Fujii demonstrating the game at XSEED’s booth.

For those who are unable to watch the video (or if it’s is down in the future) let me summarize Tak Fujii’s point. Gal Metal is a game designed for you to have fun; not for you to stress over. Let’s go back to that 500,000-point run I did. I attained that while not looking at the screen or focusing on what I was doing. I merely listened to the music and shook the Joy-con as if I was trying to keep a beat. I wasn’t doing anything fancy, I was just enjoying myself and the music. And that my friends is what Gal Metal is about.

While I do think it’s important to demystify the underlying mechanics, it should not be the focus of the game. This is a game for you and your friends to play around with and just enjoy. If you just want to drum and find your own beat, go for it. You don’t need to be a percussionist to play this. Heck, my background in music comes from playing flute in middle school and the occasional round of Dance Dance Revolution or Project Diva. If I can do this, so can you.

Gal Metal will be releasing for the Nintendo Switch this fall. Be sure to keep an eye on this one and look forward to our interview with Tak Fujii himself!

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Disgaea is the quintessential franchise for NIS America. Not only is the Prinny their mascot but stop by their booth at any convention and you’re sure to see the staff wearing Prinny-themed shirts that even say “Dood” on them. Disgaea is Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) and thus by extension NIS America. So, what better way to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of NIS than by releasing a remaster of the very first game in the franchise: Disgaea 1 Complete.

Disgaea itself has been around for 15 years and originally came out on the PS2. In fact, it was Atlus, yes, the same Atlus that publishes Shin Megami Tensei, that localized that title in the US. And it’s from that success that NIS America was born. So, as a NIS America fan since Sakura Wars: So Long My Love I owe Disgaea a lot. And funnily enough, the only game in the franchise I’ve played has been Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice which I bought alongside Valkyria Chronicles when I purchased my PlayStation 3.

While I’ve heard many people say Disgaea 3 is the weakest of the games, I quite liked the writing and the humor. It was the combat and the concept of reincarnating your characters to make the stronger I didn’t grasp during my first playthrough. Which led to me hilariously struggling to beat the story mode, but I digress. For me, Disgaea 1 Complete a fantastic chance to see the origins of this franchise and learn about Laharl, Etna, and Flonne. Three characters I’ve certainly heard of but know little about. Thankfully, NIS America’s demo let me take Laharl and Etna for a spin.

Now if you’ve never played a Disgaea game, let me explain one of the most important concepts first: terrain. While terrain has always been important in Turn-based Strategy RPGs, here it’s even more so. Often in a stage, you’ll find certain tiles are under the effect of Geo Symbols. These symbols create Geo Panels on the map and can bestow certain effects to whoever is standing on them. These can range from boosting a character’s stats, to weakening them, to even warping characters around. Understanding Geo Panels is key to doing well in Disgaea. Both in utilizing them and eliminating them.

Let’s go back to the Geo Symbol for a moment to explain what I’m talking about. When you destroy a Geo Symbol, that in turn changes all Geo Panels to the color of the Symbol destroyed. In addition, this damages any unit standing on these panels. Plus, if there’s another Geo Symbol in the way, it too gets destroyed and starts the process again. Often, if you destroy certain Geo Symbols in a particular order, you can annihilate your enemies. It’s a neat system, but it does take some practice to figure out each puzzle. Thankfully, there is the good-old-fashioned method of pounding away at your foes as well.

Combat in Disgaea is simple. You move your units and set up your attacks and once you’ve executed them you’ll end your turn and pass control off to the enemy. They key word there though is execute. While your characters will move as soon as you tell them too, they will not attack until you select the execute command. This means you can set up several units to attack the same enemy in a combo. And in fact, this is what the game intends for you to do.

Combo attacks not only mean more damage, but they also can lead to additional attacks. This is how you’ll deal most of your damage. However, this does come at a tradeoff. Now all those units you clustered together are ripe for an area attack. So, it’s a careful balance between knowing when to utilize these attacks and when to focus on defense. This is really where Disgaea really shines. Well, that and the massive amount of time these games take to 100%, but that is for another day. Before we close out, one quick note on the graphics.

Disgaea has always been a fluidly animated series and it is gorgeous to watch. However, the PlayStation 2 was two system generations ago. So how does Disgaea 1 look on the PS4? Well, in short wonderful. While I never played the original, I have seen a few side-by-side comparisons of the two versions and there is a noticeable difference. That said, the style of Disgaea 1 is certainly there. So, if you’re worried that things are being changed around, don’t be. The Disgaea you knew and loved is still there to be enjoyed, or in my case, discovered.

Disgaea 1 Complete will be coming to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch this October.

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Little Dragon’s Café is the latest offering from Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of the SNES classic Harvest Moon, and it really shows. If you’re familiar with Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons, then you’ll feel right at home with this brightly colored and artistic-looking game. Though, if you’re in the dark about the premise of Little Dragon’s Café then let me take a moment to bring you up to speed.

You play as one of two siblings whose mother has become comatose. Thankfully, an old man arrives at your café with a way to save your mother. Just raise the dragon he’s brought with him to adulthood and harvest some dragon blood. Simple task, right? Except, raising a dragon is going to take some time, so you need to keep a roof over your head and food in everyone’s belly. The solution? Managing a café.

Yes, instead of running a farm, you’ll be managing a café. Still, don’t assume that running a café is going to be any less interactive than running a farm or that it’s going to be boring. There’s quite a lot to do. For one, you’ll need to come up with dishes using ingredients you find. In addition, you’ll also need to work on improving those dishes. Thankfully, the game has an interactive way to make the cooking fun.

Cooking utilizes a rhythm minigame. The minigame itself is very simple. Just press the buttons in time with the prompts to cook. The dish I cooked during the demo was very easy to clear. However, the development team thought ahead in this case and once you master a dish you won’t need to repeatedly play the minigame to cook the dish. This is certainly a welcome addition since by the time you get to the complex dishes I’m sure you’ll want to focus on mastering them instead. Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about cooking every dish though, you’ll have some help.

No one person can run a café, so the game provides you with some help. There is, of course, the sibling you choose not to play as, but you’ll also have three other companions who will give you a hand. There’s Ipanema who is a bit of a café otkau, though she often tends to make a mess of things while trying to help. There’s Billy who seems to be a bit of a slacker and is often the source of Ipanema’s ire. Then there’s the guy who will be the café’s chef. All four of these characters will help run things while you’re away, though you’ll still need to keep an eye on things, so you don’t overwork them. The game, though, will alert you if your staff is having troubles while you’re out and about. But, why would you leave your café in the first place? Well to explore of course!

Exploration is another staple of Harvest Moon and things are no different here. You’ll need to scavenge the land for ingredients for your recipes as well as the recipes themselves. While sometimes you can find ingredients lying around, you’ll have to do a little hunting to get others. But how does one hunt wildlife in a game with no combat? Well, you’ll need to be quick on your feet and trick the various wildlife into defeating themselves.

Let’s say you want to defeat a wild boar for its meat. Instead of hunting it with say a bow and arrow or a sword, you’ll need to trick the animal into charging into various objects until it knocks itself out. This is both clever, and a little unintuitive. I do like the idea because it keeps with the spirit of many of Yasuhiro Wada’s projects. That is, trying to create a game with no combat. The problem here is that it’s not very apparent to the player if what you’re doing is effective or not.

The main problem I had here is that I wasn’t seeing a visual indicator that the boar was damaging itself. There’s no number that pops up above its head, no health bar, and no animation to indicate harm. So, for me, the fact that my actions were working wasn’t being communicated to me. However, this could also be just an issue with the build I was playing. Which I think we should talk about for a moment.

The build of Little Dragon’s Café was a debug build. Which is perfectly fine. A build like this is a great sign that the development of the build is going smoothly. In fact, if I wasn’t told this was a debug build I may not have noticed it except for one major thing, the loading.

There is a lot of loading in Little Dragon’s Café. The main reason for this seems to be the art style the development team chose. While it is a beautiful aesthetic, the game does seem to need some time to load assets when you change locations. So, going from the first floor to the second floor of the café requires a load and going outside to explore requires a much longer loading screen. While it’s not as bad as Corpse Party: Blood Drive, the number of loading screens is noticeable. The good news is that loading times should be reduced from the debug build.

Remember, that a debug build is not optimized. Its purpose is to allow the developers to find and fix bugs that arise. While optimization is part of this process, you need to make sure the game is working properly before you start focusing on performance. As such, I’m willing to give Aksys Games and TOYBOX the benefit of the doubt here regarding the loading times. Still, I certainly hope they do get the loading times down. While I didn’t time anything, it sometimes felt like loading could take 10-20 seconds. Still, in the grand scope of things, this is small potatoes. And I’d rather use those potatoes to make a delicious dish for this café.

This was my first experience with Little Dragon’s Café and I must admit I’m very interested. I’ve loved the Harvest Moon games and I think this one could be something I indeed fall in love with as well.

Little Dragon’s Cafe will be arriving on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on August 24, 2018

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Senran Kagura has been an important part of my time here at Operation Rainfall. One of my first editorials was about how it’s not an eroge. I wrote two impressions pieces about Estival Versus. I’ve also interviewed Kenichiro Takaki about Peach Beach Splash and I’ve done a complete playthrough of that game including obtaining the Platinum for that title. Yet, despite all my experience with this franchise, I’ve still yet to finish the first game in the series that made its way to the West: Senran Kagura Burst.

Burst is a title I’ve tried several times to play. However, having started my journey along the path of Life and Hometown with Shinovi Versus I found Burst to be a bit lacking. The combat was slower and honestly felt more grindy than Shinovi. Sadly, this also means I haven’t played Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson despite owning the “Double D Edition.” Thankfully, Honey Parade Games has decided to revisit Burst and give it an upgrade with SENRAN KAGURA Burst Re:Newal.

Burst Re:Newal is a reimagining of Senran Kagura Burst, which itself is an extended remake of the original Senran Kagura which came out on the Nintendo DS. However, Burst was the first game to make the journey West. Still, Burst Re:Newal is important for a couple of reasons. First, it gives fans who have never played Burst a way to do so and experience the origins of both the Hanzō and Crimson Squad (known here as Hebijo since Homura’s crew were originally the Shinobi squad of that school). Secondly, it gives Western fans a way to own a physical copy of this story. Burst was an eShop exclusive in the West, so this part of Senran Kagura cannon was restricted to digital copies until now. That bit of history explained, let’s delve into the game.

If you’ve never played a Senran Kagura game, here’s how things basically work. The game functions as a sort of hybrid between hack-and-slash and a beat-em-up (XSEED uses the term Busty Brawler at times to describe it). Your goal in each stage is normally to fight your way through various grunts and defeat a stage boss; normally another one of the shinobi characters. To do this you’ll need to use your basic attacks as well as shinobi arts.

Combat functions exactly as it does in both Shinovi Versus and Estival Versus. You can combo your enemies with basic attacks and chase them through the air. One new addition, however, is a glowing grid that will alert you to an enemy’s attack. This is a great cue to either dodge or block/counter the attack. While these basic techniques are your bread and butter, you’ll need to transform to really tap into your chosen Shinobi’s power.

As you attack you’ll build up your Ninja Art gauge. Once you’ve got at least one scroll’s worth of power you can transform, and you’ll have access to your shinobi arts. These are basically your special moves and can either quickly clear an area of enemies or deal massive damage to bosses. Katsuragi’s Tornado Spindle is a perfect example of a Ninja Art that can do both. However, remember that the other Senran girls can do the same to you when you face them as a boss. This is where a new feature can really help, Burst mode.

Burst mode serves to enhance your character’s stats for a short period of time. While active, you’ll hit harder, can combo infinitely in the air, and your Shinobi Arts will be powered up. In fact, if you’re attempting to completely strip your opponent (clothing damage is a staple of Senran Kagura after all) you’ll need to use Burst mode to do the job. It’s a nifty addition, though one I didn’t use much. The reason as to why lies in the demo itself. It was extremely short.

The E3 demo for Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal consisted of two stages: a tutorial and a stage where you fight Homura after taking down some normal enemies. I was quite surprised by how small this demo was. The E3 demos for both Estival Versus and Peach Beach Splash felt like they had more depth to them. So, the fact that my time with Burst Re:Newal was over so quickly is a bit disappointing. Especially since this game felt like an improved version of Estival Versus. As such, it’s a bit hard to judge the demo itself, though I will say that it felt extremely polished. Before I close this out, however, XSEED let me know one thing about the story.

XSEED is using the original script for Senran Kagura Burst as the basis for Burst Re:Newal. So, if you enjoyed Burst’s localization, know that things aren’t going to dramatically change. XSEED is looking at the script though and bringing it more in line with the feel of recent entries. Which makes sense. The localization team has gotten used to working with these girls for the last five years. As such, there are things that can be improved upon from their original localization. In short, it’s more tweaking the script than rewriting it. So, what’re my final thoughts?

I’m looking forward SENRAN KAGURA Burst Re:Newal. Senran Kagura is at its best when it combines its over-the-top fanservice with its deep narrative. Yes, “Life and Hometown” may be a reference to that fanservice, but it’s also worth remembering something else about these girls. It’s the story of their daily struggle to live their lives and protect the place that’s dear to them, or their home. Just as the factions of Good and Evil Shinobi coexist, so too does the story and fanservice of Senran Kagura.

SENRAN KAGURA Burst Re:Newal is coming to the PlayStation 4 and Steam this fall.  

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My Hero Academia is not a series I’ve had the pleasure of watching yet. While I am aware of its existence, it’s just not a series that’s interested me enough to sit down and watch it. Thankfully though, games can be a great way to introduce someone to a franchise. Super Robot Wars is a fantastic example of this at work. With that in mind, I decided to give My Hero One’s Justice a try while at Bandai Namco’s E3 booth.

My Hero One’s Justice is a 3D-arena fighting game. The goal is simple, pick a character and use them to knock out your opponent before they finish you off. Combat is very simple but enjoyable. Your basic attacks are all mapped to one button. This means there aren’t any tricky complex button inputs to learn. In addition, you have three “Quick Specials”. As the name implies, these are quick special attacks that pack a little more punch. Finally, you also have a pair of “Plus Ultra” moves and an “EX Plus Ultra”.

As the name implies, these moves are your classic super moves and they are quite flashy. Pulling these off requires pressing another button in conjunction with the appropriate Quick Special button. Since I was playing the PS4 version, this meant I’d press R1 and Circle or R1 and Triangle. Utilizing the EX Ultra Plus required pressing R1, Circle, and Triangle. As you can see, the controls are simple to learn, but mastering them will take practice of course. Especially since no hero fights alone.

In addition to selecting a character to play as you’ll select two additional “sidekicks”. Any playable character can be a sidekick so feel free to mix and match to create your dream team of heroes. During the fight, you can summon your sidekicks by pressing R2 or L2. These characters essentially function as an assist. Popping in to deal some quick damage and then retreating until they are summoned again. Simple systems like these make the game accessible to just about anyone. Which for me is great since I’m terrible at fighting games. That said, a fighting game should still feel fluid and quick. After all, you’re trying to emulate a superpowered brawl here. So, how does the game feel?

I played as Ochako Uraraka during my time with My Hero One’s Justice and quite enjoyed it. Her abilities and fighting style are based around zero gravity. One great example is having her pull a concrete pillar from hammerspace and effortlessly whacking your opponent with it. Another neat skill of hers involves hitting an enemy and making them float. This allows you to send the enemy into the air for a quick combo. Honestly, this was probably my favorite part in playing as her as it felt like something out of Senran Kagura with how good it felt. I like Uraraka and wouldn’t mind playing as her again. That said, let’s talk about combat for a moment.

While the combat in My Hero One’s Justice is fun, it does have a few quirks of its own. For starters, since this is a 3D area you have a lot of room to fight in. However, I found it very easy to knock my opponent across the room. This led to a lot of chasing down my foe, which hampered the moment of the match. Another oddity is running up walls.

Combat is not restricted to the floor. You can run up the wall and doing so will flip the camera so that the “wall” is now the new “floor”. While this is a great concept, it confused and disorientated me a little. In addition, getting the camera to flip takes a little work and felt a little random. One interesting thing of note is that the environments are destructible. I was able to knock my opponent through a wall, but once again it felt a bit random. Even so, I still quite enjoyed My Hero One’s Justice.

I can see this being a great game to play on the couch with friends. Plus, it can be a good way to introduce someone to the My Hero Academia franchise. While I may have only played as Uraraka, I can tell the other characters have some eccentric personalities and powers. I’m sure you can find one that fits your playstyle. The only thing I’d like out of this is for things to be a little quicker.

Compared to Dragon Ball FighterZ and Jump Force, this game feels slower. While not a bad thing outright, it doesn’t make the combat feel as frantic as it could be. This is a superhero brawl after all. Still, if you’re a fan of My Hero Academia I think your beloved franchise is in good hands with Bandai Namco. As for everyone else, my recommendation here is to keep an eye on it. While there’s a lot of fighting games in the pipeline for this year, I do think My Hero One’s Justice deserves a look.

My Hero One’s Justice is launching October 5, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

The post E3 2018 IMPRESSIONS: My Hero One’s Justice appeared first on oprainfall.

At E3 2016, I played a little demo called Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star and said it could be a challenger for the Dynasty Warriors crown. While I didn’t review the game, I personally found it to be an enjoyable title with quite an interesting story. I also found the game to be really difficult at times. In particular, with how it required you to stay on top of your objectives lest you end up failing one and putting yourself in an almost unwinnable situation. Speed was the name of the game and Fate/Extella was one of the smoothest and fastest hack-and-slashes I’d ever played. And now in 2018, we have the sequel coming: Fate/EXTELLA Link.

Fate/EXTELLA Link continues on from The Umbral Star, so the Master, Nero, and Tamamo of course return. Which leads us to one of the first changes. The Master is actually a unit on the field this time. Which means you need to protect them. If the Master falls, then the fight is over. Of course, Nero isn’t about to let that happen (nor is she going to let Tamamo hog the spotlight) so let’s delve into a few other new changes. Starting with the Command Seals and teleportation.

As I mention, protecting the master is paramount, so what do you do if the master is in trouble and you’re several sectors away? Why you teleport of course. Like in The Umbral Star you have three command seals you can use each fight. I normally used these to revive your character if they fell in battle. However, in Link, you can use these to teleport to almost any sector on the map. The key word there being almost.

In order to teleport to a sector, there must be a clear path there. So, if you’re trying to get to something behind a gate or a sector that’s sealed off, that won’t be possible. Likewise, I suspect if you’re caught in a sector trap that seals you in, you won’t be able to flee using this method. Still, this is handy for when you’re under the gun and need to frantically run halfway across the battlefield. Another neat feature? You no longer need to collect the Phantasm Circuits to perform your Noble Phantasm.

The Noble Phantasm is your character’s strongest attack. In The Umbral Star, you had to collect three Phantasm Circuits in order to perform this. Making it basically something you saved for stage bosses. Instead, in Link, this was turned into a meter that fills up as you KO enemies. This means you can potentially get two or three of these off each map. Especially, since the Phantasm Circuits can still be found on the map. In Link, they’ll just fill your gauge quite a bit. Oh, and one more awesome change. XSEED Games has added subtitles to the cutscene that plays when activating a Nobel Phantasm. Finally, let’s finish off combat by talking about skills.

In The Umbral Star skills were important but were more focused towards support. These could provide healing, status buffs, protection from sector traps, etc. In Link, skills have gotten a bit of an overhaul. This time some of them are attack based. This is crucial because it allows you to rather quickly deal damage against tough enemies. Another big change here is that nearby characters can join in during a skill if you press the appropriate button prompt. All of this makes Fate/Extella Link feel even faster and more frantic that The Umbral Star, which is quite impressive.

For me, this game is a must buy. I loved The Umbral Star and from what I saw at E3 this looks to be even better. I’d go as far as to say this was the best demo at XSEED’s booth and my favorite thing at the show. If you’re a fan of hack-and-slash titles, then I strongly recommend picking this up. If you’re just a Fate fan, then I do think this is worth a look. However, I’d recommend picking up The Umbral Star first and seeing how this fantastic branch of the Fate franchise starts.

Fate/EXTELLA Link will be coming to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita this Winter.

The post E3 2018 IMPRESSIONS: Fate/EXTELLA Link appeared first on oprainfall.

Title	Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
Developer	Design Factory, Otomate
Publisher	Idea Factory International Inc.
Release Date	March 13, 2018 (US & Steam), March 15, 2018 (EU)
Genre	Visual Novel, Otome
Platform	PS Vita, Vita TV, Steam
Age Rating	ESRB: M (US), PEGI: 16 (UK)
Official Website

Last year, Idea Factory International set out to become the new gold standard for otome games. Between holding the Official Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds Festival + Cafe and releasing Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on both PS Vita and Steam, it was an impressive effort. IFI wanted people to know that they were Hakuoki’s new home and that the otome community would find a passionate ally in them. Those efforts continued this year with the Official Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms Festival to commemorate Hakuoki: Edo Blossom’s release. However, goodwill and passion alone does not make a good game or localization.

When I reviewed Kyoto Winds last year, I had some concerns. One was the developer’s decision to split the original Hakuōki ~Shinsengumi Kitan~ in two and release each half as an enhanced remake. The other was with the quality of IFI’s localization. However, I was hopeful. Being a casual otome fan and Kyoto Winds being my first exposure to the franchise I was intrigued. I wanted to see how this tale would end and how Chizuru would grow. So, will Chizuru and men of the Shinsengumi live up to my hopes and stand victorious? Or will all their efforts turn to ash and blow away into the wind? Let’s find out.

Edo Blossoms: The Second Half of a Legendary Tale

Before we begin, we need to address the odd way in which Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms relate to each other. Instead of being a sequel, this is the second half of Hakuōki ~Shinsengumi Kitan~. In short, this means this is a direct continuation from Kyoto Winds and you should have played that game before even considering this one. Thus, there will be spoilers for that game from this point on. In addition, I’m going to assume you’ve played Kyoto Winds.

The reason for this is to prevent redundancy. The core problem with Edo Blossoms is that it’s literally the second half of a game. Many of my thoughts on the technical details of Edo Blossoms (graphics, sound, interface, etc.) are the same as Kyoto Winds. If there are differences between the two game engines, I couldn’t find them. So, Instead, I’ll be focusing on how these elements are used to tell Chizuru’s story.

Putting the “Visual” in Visual Novel ~ Technical Details

Like I mentioned, there’s not a lot, if any, differences between Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms when it comes to technical details. While the characters do get new outfits, that’s about it. Graphically and musically it’s the same game. That said, the way Otomate uses those elements to tell the story holds up.

Many visual novels are perfectly fine with describing the action and maybe providing a few sound effects. However, both Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms do try and go one step further. Both games make effective use of their visual and audio elements. For example, if you hear and see four sword slashes, but only three bloody thwacks, there’s a narrative reason for that. This kind of attention to detail is apparent in other Otomate games such as Norn9: Var Commons. The same can be said of the music.

The music in Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms is quite enjoyable. Both games use its music appropriately to communicate the mood and feeling of each scene. Which is good. Since the voice acting is still in Japanese, it helps to communicate the emotional tone of the scene. As for the voice acting, it’s fitting. Many of the actors are well known and turn in great performances. Sadly, there is no dub, though that’s standard when it comes to otome titles. While both Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms are one and the same in technical details, it’s in the game’s progression where they couldn’t be more different.

Standing Alone or Back-to-Back? ~ Game Design

In most romantic visual novels, there is a common route which then branches off into character-specific paths. In my Kyoto Winds review, I used the example of a river to illustrate this. This was because I had assumed that Kyoto Winds had to feed into whatever common route Edo Blossoms would have. Except it turns out that Edo Blossoms doesn’t have a common route. Instead, it contains all the individual character routes you’d find in the latter half of a romance visual novel.

When you start the game, you’re taken to the above screen to pick which route you want. The story will then quickly recap the events of Kyoto Winds before picking up in Edo. In short, this means you’re playing the latter half of a story. This is a bit of a problem. I’ll touch more on that later, but for now let’s focus on the routes themselves, namely their length and endings.

Each route consists of a prologue, an epilogue and four chapters. The sole exception being Toshizou Hijikata who gets five chapters and Chizuru’s solo route which has one. Within each chapter are two kinds of choices. The first are your basic decisions that raise your affection with your love interest. The other relates to the corruption system.

The corruption system is something that’s new to this game. Functionally, it’s just a way to lead to a bad ending. During each chapter your bachelor will suffer a fit of bloodlust. You’ll be given three options. The first is to let them feed on you and erase their corruption. The second is to give them some medicine which will maintain the corruption level they are at. Finally, the third to let them endure it and max out their corruption. However, this is the real choice that matters in each chapter.

Near the end of the chapter, the game will check the corruption of your bachelor. If it’s critical, then you’ll end up getting a bad ending for that chapter. If it’s below that you’ll continue to the next one. This means each chapter has a possible bad ending. That is until you hit chapter four.

At the end of chapter four, the game will also check your affection level. If you haven’t maxed out their affection, and they are uncorrupted, you’ll get the “unrequited love” ending for that character. Only if you max out the affection meter can you get that character’s true ending. This means that each character technically has six endings. Which means there are over 70, with many bad endings having very terrible things happening to poor Chizuru. I should note there are two exceptions.

These two are Sanosuke Harada and Chikage Kazama who do not have a fury form, thus no corruption. In these cases, affection seems to be the sole determiner in clearing a chapter. Personally, I found this to be a positive since it made things less predictable. However, that’s also because these two along with a few other characters get additional development.

The one thing I did notice that really bothered me was the difference in quality between certain routes. Some routes have additional dialogue and scenes that occur if you’re raising your affection with those characters. It makes it feel like an actual relationship is being built as opposed to just running through the motions. Which, is sadly how the other routes feel in comparison. That being said, let’s talk about the writing itself on the next page.

The post REVIEW: Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms appeared first on oprainfall.

It’s supposed to be a good time to be a Yuri fan. MangaGamer has released the next entry in the A Kiss for the Petals franchise, Maidens of Michael on both Steam and its own online store. However, what should have been just another release, has turned into an uncertain situation due to the sudden delisting of Maidens of Michael from Steam’s online store.

What makes this situation rather peculiar is that Steam and MangaGamer have worked closely together in the past. Steam has been critical in cultivating the visual novel community in the West. Not only due to it being a trusted platform for consumers but because it’s open to diverse types of content. MangaGamer has been a major part of that push.

MangaGamer has offered all-ages versions of several visual novels on Steam. In addition, the publisher has been behind many important milestones in relation to the growth of visual novels on Steam. For example, it published Kindred Spirits on the Roof. A game that not only was a landmark Yuri title but also could be classified as one of the first Eroge on the platform. In short, these two companies have worked closely together in the past. So, what’s changed?

While we don’t have a definitive answer, I’m going to try and speculate on a few things. Namely, why neither MangaGamer nor Steam has said anything and why the game may have been pulled. Finally, I’m going to touch on what we as concerned fans can do. But first, let’s summarize what we actually know.

What We Know

For those not familiar with A Kiss for the Petals, it’s a series of Yuri visual novels. Or visual novels that focus on lesbian relationships. The series takes place at St. Michael’s Academy which is an all-girls school. If you’re familiar with series like Strawberry Panic! then you’ll have an idea of what to expect. This series focuses on the various relationships that take root at the school and begin to bloom between these young women. In fact, this series has been around a long time.

In total there are over 20 games in the franchise spanning four series. Of those, three have been released by MangaGamer in the West. First was Remembering How we Met was released on September 25th, 2015 for Steam. Next, The New Generation was released on November 25, 2016, on MangaGamer’s site as an 18+ title. Finally, that brings us to Maidens of Michael which was released as an all-ages version on Steam and an 18+ version on MangaGamer’s site on February 22, 2018. A practice which MangaGamer has been doing for years without issues until Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, Maidens of Michael was delisted from the Steam store with no explanation posted or given. Trying to access the game’s Steam page results in a redirect to the Steam homepage. However, the game’s community page is still able to be accessed along with its forums.

From reading this thread on the page, we can see that none of the people who purchased the game were informed by Valve, the owners of Steam, as to why the game was delisted. Nor have they been offered refunds or credits. This most likely means the game has not been completely pulled yet. Just hidden so that no one can purchase it. Still, this leaves the game’s fate uncertain. Especially because MangaGamer hasn’t provided an update on the matter publicly, which some people in the thread were concerned about.

The Word from MangaGamer is…

MangaGamer’s radio silence regarding the delisting may seem odd. Especially since the company is pretty transparent. As such, I reached out to them for any information on the matter they had, which they happily provided.

MangaGamer confirmed that on Wednesday evening Maidens of Michael was indeed delisted from the Steam store by Valve. However, as of Friday night, they had yet to receive any clarification as to why the game had been pulled or how they could rectify the situation. In short, they’ve been trying for two days to get an answer so they can give fans an answer.

This is a little unsettling for various reasons. MangaGamer is a well-respected publisher in the visual novel space. If they’re having this much trouble getting support from Valve, I can only imagine how hard it must be for an indie-dev to receive support on their games. In addition, this inconveniences MangaGamer’s fans who wish to purchase the all-ages version of the game. It denies the ability to do so without providing an explanation and leaves those who have purchased it unsure about its fate. Why would Valve do this?

Valve: Silent in a Time of Need.

There are various reasons for delisting a game on Steam. However, until Valve comes forth with a reason all we can do is speculate. More than likely, someone filed a complaint regarding the game and cited its content as an issue. I’ll touch on that more in a moment, but let’s focus on Valve for now.

In its defense, Valve does need to take content reports seriously. A publisher who is abusing Valve’s platform not only can cause harm to the community but can place Valve in serious legal trouble. There are various federal, state, and local laws regarding the sale of offensive content. In addition, many credit card processors restrict the types of content a store can sell. So, a violation of these laws or agreements can be a serious issue. However, there are a few issues I have with this case.

First off, Valve should be working closely with MangaGamer to review and resolve whatever issue has arisen. It should not take two days for Valve to let any publisher or developer to know why its game has been delisted and is under review. If Valve wants to complete its own independent review that is their right. But, you do not build goodwill with your customers and clients when you are completely silent as to what’s occurring. Secondly, there’s the matter that the game was just released.

While I am not intimately familiar with the process Valve uses to approve games on its platform, I do assume that there is an approval process. The game would need to be approved to be listed in the store and I’m fairly certain that would include a review of the content of the title. As such, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to approve something for sale and then revoke it three weeks later when the content hasn’t changed except for bug fixes.

That being the case then, why did Steam pull the game then? Sadly, I believe their hand was forced due to complaints. More than likely, the game was pulled for review to verify the content was appropriate for sale on Steam. So let’s talk about that content for a moment.

Playing the “Schoolgirl” Card

Maidens of Michael as I mentioned is a Yuri visual novel. This means that it does depict relationships between women. In addition, there are people who are uncomfortable with the fact that these characters are students. And honestly, that’s fine. If the content isn’t for you, then it’s not for you. However, there is a difference between voicing an opinion and acting maliciously.

The problem here I suspect is that a small minority of people are reporting that the game has adult content in the Steam version. Which wouldn’t be hard to do since there is an 18+ version and it’s not hard to either screenshot or describe scenes that occur in it. Reports like this would force Valve to take the game down to conduct a content review. But, let me ask a simple question – Why this game?

MangaGamer has released several games that have an all-ages Steam version and an 18+ version. In addition, the company has offered content restoration patches on its site for some of those Steam titles without incident. No one has raised a serious complaint up to this point. So why now? Sadly, it’s because people find schoolgirls offensive. Or more specifically, find lesbians offensive.

As much as I hate to raise this argument, there’s a very telling post by a user named “hamburger” in the game’s Steam forums. In particular, one post where he states and I quote: “no sex? correct. it’s impossible for lesbians to have sex (it would be sodomy)”.

While you can stretch the meaning of sodomy to mean non-vaginal intercourse, the term is commonly not used that way. Besides, that also ignores the fact that there are various marital aids that can facilitate vaginal intercourse between women. However, let’s delve a little deeper into a claim hamburger made. Namely that he’s responsible for the game being taken down using the below photo as proof.

1. The Steam rep, Arisa, only removed the game from the user’s account.
2. While Arisa did say they would look into it, they mentioned nothing about delisting the game.
3. There is no way for a user to know if their complaint directly led to a game being delisted
4. This is not hamburger’s account. It’s the account of another user by the name of “Curator Connect” as can be seen in the top right-hand portion of the image.

I think it’s safe to say that hamburger’s credibility is a bit lacking at this point. But let’s also address one final issue. That the ages of the characters aren’t apparently stated in the all-ages version leaving it ambiguous.

To be fair, MangaGamer could include a blurb somewhere stating that they are 18 years of age or older. In fact, this is done in the 18+ version as soon as you start up the game. Maybe in the future MangaGamer can include a similar warning for the all-ages version just to remind the player of what they’re getting into.

Sadly though, there are people out there like hamburger. People who let simple prejudices and misconceptions guide their every action. People who don’t want diverse content in the world, but who only want to discriminate and shame others. That then raises the question of what can fans do against people like this?

Our Responsibility as Fans

The best thing you can do is show support. The easiest way would be to tweet MangaGamer and Steam that you want games like Maidens of Michaels. Yes, complaints do catch people’s attention, but it’s also really hard to ignore hundreds of people saying that they want diverse content like Yuri titles.

Also, if you’ve played the all-ages Steam version of Maiden’s of Michaels make double sure that you leave feedback about the game. This is doubly important since you have first-hand knowledge of how events in the game play out. Finally, let me touch upon something you shouldn’t do.

Don’t use coarse language or use threats if you tweet at Steam or MangaGamer. While it’s sad I have to explicitly state this, the echo chamber that is the internet tends to be a very foul and negative place due to a sense of anonymity. This does not endear you to anyone or make you sound intelligent.

Think of it this way – ambassadors are people who help facilitate peace and communication between people. Meanwhile, hamburgers are people who apparently are bigoted and think lesbians can only perform sodomy.

In short, be an ambassador, not a hamburger.

Thanks for reading and take care.

The post OPINION: Why was Maidens of Michael Delisted from Steam? appeared first on oprainfall.