This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.

“What we want to bring to all of you Warriors of Light is the very best summer vacation a hero could possibly have. I realize this is like a sudden change from the feeling of Endwalker. But I mean, you did save not only all of Hydaelyn, but kind of the whole universe, so we thought maybe we’d give you just a little break.

So, the site of this vacation, and a brand-new adventure, will be what you know as the ‘New World’…what we know as ‘Tural’.”

~Naoki Yoshida (FINAL FANTASY XIV FAN FESTIVAL 2023-2024 Keynote Address)

In my hands-on demo of Dawntrail as part the Dawntrail Media Tour, my mind kept going back to those statements made in Las Vegas. I am veteran of Eorzea. I’ve played since alpha of 1.0, and I have completed every storyline and explored every new region as the story drove itself towards its almost inevitable conclusion that (perfectly, in my opinion) bookended the story that started so long ago for me in the Sixth Astral Era.

Personally, I am incredibly ready for something new and different. And yes, that includes even a summer vacation.

My hands-on Dawntrail demo was not the full expansion, unfortunately. I was limited to exploring the city of Tuliyollal, the field areas of Urqopacha and Kozama’uka, and a new dungeon that comes fairly early on called Ihuykatumu. I did that dungeon both as part of a media group as the Pictomancer job, and I attempted it later on both new jobs solo with Duty Support.

I won’t spoil what little of the storyline I saw in Ihuykatumu other than to say that the division of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn into different competing camps to determine the new Tural king that was teased in the Growing Light patches is not a pre-expansion gimmick, but it actually looks to be genuine. I am glad about this, as I hate it when intriguing storylines are set up and then immediately discarded afterwards. And honestly, what can be more interesting than having dear friends turned into competitive foes as a narrative hook?

But let’s talk the landscape and cities of Tural, because what little I got to see of Dawntrail is unlike anything we have seen so far in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online. Dawntrail is FINAL FANTASY XIV’s most beautiful expansion to date, and one that I never stopped discovering new things in during my demo. The place I kept coming back to during my Dawntrail demo, even to just watch the sun rise and eventually set, was Tuliyollal. This city is drenched in vibrant colors and was laid out in such a natural way that I did not feel like I was being bottle-necked into one part or another like I was by the bridges in Stormblood‘s Kugane.

A Day in the city of Tuliyollal. © SQUARE ENIX

Tuliyollal is built on a hill, with the dock and markets at the foot and the Royal Palace at the top, and the entire cityscape exists out in the open air. Tuliyollal did not feel excessively stretched out over a large map for the sake of making it appear ‘big’ or needlessly complex for the sake of looking complex, and there was something quite magical about being able to look down from a higher elevation and see the city (and a few other members of the media!) bustling down below. There is one certain spot, near the top, that I think will be an extremely popular spot to just people-watch from when Dawntrail launches because you can see so much of the city below it against the backdrop of the sky and ocean.

True to Dawntrail’s cultural inclusivity lore in Tural, Tuliyollal has a lot of NPCs of different races chatting with each other, sitting at a table, or even demonstrating combat for an adoring crowd. While we were warned there are quite a few NPCs missing in the city to talk to (and all they could say anyway was ‘Welcome to Tural!’), Tuliyollal feels like a real, lived-in city that was built up around the environment it inhabits instead of a place built to spite the environment like Rhalgar’s Reach does.

The two outside areas I could visit, Kozama’uka and Urqopacha, could not possibly be more different and they both were gorgeous in their own ways. Kozama’uka is a colorful, forested area with giant waterfalls that dwarf everything around you, while Urqopacha is mountainous with volcanoes with glowing lava cracked across the surface. While not everywhere in both areas was accessible to us, I was incredibly impressed with how much there was to discover. These photos below really only give a glimpse of everything there is to find there.

There is so much to see and visit in Kozama’uka and Urqopacha. © SQUARE ENIX

Both of these areas, and the tiny towns that exist inside both of them, are places you’re going to want to explore in depth while flying on a mount, as they are clearly geared towards that. To show just how much there is to find in these areas: it was only towards the end of my hands-on demo that I found a small, out of the way, pathway that had mysterious paintings inside across the walls.

I believe that I was part of the first non-SQUARE ENIX-employed North American group to clear the Ihuykatumu dungeon, and I did so as the new Pictomancer job. While my thoughts on the job can be seen here, I just want to say briefly that Pictomancer is incredibly versatile, and you will be utilizing both Aetherhue Actions and Motif/Muse Magicks quite a bit. As for Viper, you can see my full thoughts here about that job, but it will be the most complicated job in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online when Dawntrail is released. This is because there are multiple combos you need to execute in different ways in order to maximize your damage output. Once you try it out, you’ll get the hang of it. Trust me.

“Dawntrail is FINAL FANTASY XIV’s most beautiful expansion to date, and one that I never stopped discovering new things in during my demo.”

Ihuykatumu is a level 91 dungeon, and my character was level capped down to level 92 from 100 for it. Presumably, this sets Ihuykatumu as a fairly early dungeon in Dawntrail. One of my biggest questions coming into this expansion, especially with all the new Xbox Series S and X players, and the ability to buy scenario skip items in the online shop for a large discount at the moment, was if Dawntrail would be a good jumping on spot for brand new players.

Based solely upon my experience raiding in the dungeon, the answer is ‘no.’ The boss mechanics at each of the three major fights of that dungeon have Areas of Effect that crisscross the battle area in large patterns, and the enemies have special attack moves and patterns that clearly expect the players to know what to do based upon prior dungeon experience in prior expansions. In other words, this is a strong continuation of the gameplay style and degree of difficulty from Endwalker. If you’ve completed maybe only A Realm Reborn’s basic storyline and you want to jump into Dawntrail, then (based solely upon this dungeon) you’re going to have a hard time as the difficulty level is far higher than even the final ARR fights.

Something else that I wondered about would be if there was going to be a return of dungeon gimmicks/mechanics. I was curious about if this was going to make a resurgence due to another SQUARE ENIX-published title, BABYLON’S FALL, actually introducing the concept of dungeon mechanics during the Tale of Two Ziggurats substory that was released in May 2022.

Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P), however, stated that they want to introduce fresh mechanics back into the gameplay during the Dawntrail Day 1 Q&A. Unfortunately, Ihuykatumu did not have that. Ihuykatumu was the fairly standard ‘fight enemies, kill enemies, get to a miniboss, kill that, and repeat two more times’ type gameplay that has been around since the Stormblood expansion.

Personally, I am of a split opinion of this: while the dungeon mechanics do get annoying when you’re running the dungeon for the umpteenth time to try to get the latest Tomes, they do break up the standard dungeon format into something new. I am hopeful that with Yoshi-P’s comments, we can get more dungeon mechanics like firing cannons at Cuca Fera during Heavensward’s The Stone Vigil (Hard) dungeon. Therefore, I am hopeful that Ihuykatumu will not be indicative of the entire expansion.

There is a lot of enemy variety in Dawntrail. The enemies throughout the overworld and inside the Ihuykatumu dungeon are both unique and were not barely reskinned from elsewhere in Eorzea with a higher level and a different name (well, except for possibly the Malboros). Whether I am running away from Mountain Bears or even a reimagined Cactuar (yes, they are there, and I need that plush now on the SQUARE ENIX Store for purchase!), I kept gawking at them before dispatching them. I even ganged up with my fellow media Warriors of Light to take down a Rank A hunt, Queen Bee, that had fun new mechanics that required us to work together as a group to kill.

The new race option coming to Dawntrail is the female Hrothgar. I spent my entire demo playing as one, and I was more than pleased with how the character model looks. I don’t think it is a big secret that there aren’t a ton of male Hrothgar characters out fighting in Eorzea, but I would be absolutely shocked if we don’t get a lot more female Hrothgars long-term in the game. Everything from the character face to the fur looked detailed and amazing, and I was quite pleased with how the female Hrothgar looked in various job gear.

There is one more thing that I want to talk about, and this takes place back in Tuliyollal. Towards the end of my Dawntrail demo, I visited what I assumed will be the in-game market area in the city for tomes trade ins, NPC item sellers, and such. If you’ve played FINAL FANTASY XIV from A Realm Reborn through the Endwalker expansion, then there is one thing that you can count on when you visit any NPC shops: they will all be bare-bones cut and paste graphic images of each other’s stalls, no matter where you go in the world. There will be large, stacked bags, generic armor suits, and a few baubles here and there on display. Even at the most lavish lore-wise shop locations in-world, such as the Steps of Nald in Ul’dah and the East/West Balshahn Bazaar in Radz-at-Han, suffer from this generic sameness.

Yet, Tuliyollal’s shops could not be any more different. When started as a quick run through turned into a long, lengthy walk as I kept stopping to gawk at all of the small details the developers placed in. There are so many shops with jewels, individual books, different fish on display, and none of it – even the bookshelves – look to be a copy and paste job between shops. This part of Tuliyollal feels like an actual marketplace that has real, unique, shops in it that is absolutely stuffed to the proverbial Namazu gills with items.

What I presume to be the NPC shops in Tuliyollal are the most detailed ever in this game.

If you’ve read the past two paragraphs, then you’re probably wondering why in Etheirys I am talking about something like basic NPC shops in such detail. Basic service NPC shop background graphics are the kind of thing that no player ever really has talked about for the past decade-plus of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online. In fact, the development team could have probably just done the same bare bones basic work for it for Dawntrail that was put into every other prior expansion, and no one would have noticed or likely cared.

Yet, the fact that the details of NPC shops is something that’s been changed, that this is something SQUARE ENIX has taken the undoubtedly precious time to improve on, speaks volumes about the care and attention to detail the development team is bringing to Dawntrail. After all, if the development team cares this much about improving such a tiny detail of the game, which also haven’t been talked about at a Fan Festival or in a Producer Live Letter so far, then what other improvements and surprises await all of us Warriors of Light in Tural?

I, for one, cannot wait to find out.

There is a large variety of new enemies in Tural. 

If you cannot tell just from reading all of this so far, I was seriously impressed by my hands-on time with Dawntrail. This expansion’s hands-on demo, especially coming off of Endwalker, pulled off the equivalent of a Four Kan or Thirteen Orphans hand in Doman Mahjong for me. Tural feels truly like a fresh break from all of the prior expansions, and this expansion has real promise to be the best expansion yet. This opinion comes from having tried out the two new jobs, seeing the care and attention being given to the graphics and intimate, small details of Tural, and just how simply new everything feels.

Oh, and the music.

You cannot forget the music. Masayoshi Soken has composed music that sounds wildly different than anything that has come before in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online while also feeling appropriate to the atmosphere and the summer vacation goal Naoki Yoshida laid out in Las Vegas. I cannot wait to hear Tuliyollal’s theme at a future Distant Worlds: Music from FINAL FANTASY, A New World: intimate music from FINAL FANTASY, or Eorzean Symphony- FINAL FANTASY XIV Orchestra performance.

All of this is very high praise, considering how much I have loved this critically-acclaimed MMORPG. I spent almost ten hours in just a handful of areas, and yet I feel like I have yet to see everything there is out there. Tural feels like a giant, colorful, beautiful world with so much potential present to be the best expansion yet. And so I am just counting down the days until Dawntrail enters early access on June 28 and is fully released on July 2.

Please check out my thoughts on the new Viper job, on the new Pictomancer job, and about Naoki Yoshida’s Media Q&A from Day 1!

If you want more FINAL FANTASY XIV Online-themed content, then be sure to check out my ongoing cooking series, Cooking Eorzea!

Also, check out what eleven FINAL FANTASY XI Online enemies that I think need to be part of the upcoming Echoes of Vana’diel raid series in Dawntrail.

What do you think of Tuliyollal, Urqopacha, and Kozama’uka?

Did you preorder Dawntrail so you can get in during the June 28 early access period?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Dawntrail Media Tour: Dawntrail Shows Promise to be the Best Expansion Yet appeared first on oprainfall.

This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.

Introduction to Viper

Viper is the other new DPS job introduced in the upcoming Dawntrail expansion, which uses two one-handed blades that can be combined into a single two-handed weapon to fight with. This job utilizes weapon skills to attack enemies and calls upon the memories of ancient hunters contained within their soul crystal to enfeeble opponents and enhance themselves for a period of time.

Because this job does not have such an obvious inspiration as Pictomancer does from FINAL FANTASY VI, Viper has the opportunity to make its own unique mark on the FINAL FANTASY job canon. I was able to take up this job and spend some serious time with it in Tural as part of the Dawntrail Media Tour, and I found it to be a complicated but incredibly fun job.

Playing as Viper

Viper is a complicated job that focuses primarily around enfeebling foes and enhancing your Viper, pulling off multiple basic combo variations, gaining and using Rattling Coil stacks, and finally using the Reawaken ability to pull off a nine-ability combo sequence that you can then do a second time through the 120 second cool down Serpent’s Ire action.

Please note that I was able to demo Viper at the 100-level cap.

Enfeeblement and Enhancements

The longer I kept killing enemies in Tural, the more I realized Viper’s first priority is to enfeeble your enemies and enhance your own Warrior of Light. Unlike Pictomancer, Viper does not enhance anyone but themselves, and does not increase damage to the enemy for anyone else but themselves. As for what options you have, please look below:

These are not minor enhancement/enfeeblements but are instead quite significant to have in effect during battle. For instance, if you have both Noxious Gnash and Hunter’s Instinct in effect, then you’re doing quite a bit more harm to your enemy than you would otherwise.

Combos

Combining Noxious Gnash, Hunter’s Instinct, and Swiftscaled together significantly increases the amount of damage Viper can dish out by a significant amount by both pure numbers and the reduced cast/recast delay. Thankfully, these can be initiated by the first two steps of the 1-2-3 combo with Dread Fangs > Swiftskin’s Sting or Steel Fangs > Hunter’s Sting. You’ll want to complete out the full 1-2-3 combo to enhance the potency of another combo finisher as well in order to increase the Serpent Ire Gauge by 10 before switching to the other combo. These combos will be your standard combo cycle, and thankfully the 1-2-3 combo rotates through a single hotkey.

AoE combos start off with Steel Maw or Dread Maw, and they also combo out from there like above.

In addition to all of that, there is a lot of combo crossover in order to maximize damage through Swiftskin’s Venom Effect and Fellskin’s Venom Effect. These two effects bolster the damage potential of the third step of the combo, which gives a real incentive to do both combos back-to-back. And if that wasn’t enough, then you can execute Death Rattle or Last Lash on top of all that at the end of each combo.

Every 40 seconds, you can also fire off Dreadwinder into Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil and then into the other second skill of Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil that you did not use moments before. Furthermore, using Hunter’s Coil/Swiftskin’s Coil as a finisher to that second combo gives you access to Twinblood Bite and Twinfang Bite. Not only does this second combo grant the full array of enfeeblement and enhancements, but it also increases the Serpent Ire Gauge and grants a Rattling Coil. These Rattling Coil stacks appear as the red gems on the Vipersight bar. Rattling Coil stacks can be used to activate Uncoiled Fury, which does significant AoE damage.

I’ve barely discussed some of the combo possibilities here, and so I would urge you to review the action assignable and unassignable charts below to see how everything can be utilized. I promise you: it is a lot.

Finally, when you have 50 in the Serpent’s Ire Gauge, you can use Reawaken. Reawaken does solid AoE damage to surrounding enemies, but more importantly…it grants five stacks of Anguine Tribute. At this point, you can utilize the insanely complicated combo at level 100 of First Generation > First Legacy > Second Generation > Second Legacy > Third Generation > Third Legacy > Fourth Generation > Fourth Legacy > Ouroboros. Each Generation step uses up one Anguine Tribute, and Ouroboros uses up the fifth and final Anguine Tribute. If you then pop the Serpent’s Ire action (120 second timer) immediately afterwards, you not only are granted a stack of Rattling Coil, but you then have the ability to use Reawaken, and all nine other linked actions, in the combo a second time.

Combine that with a Role Action such as Bloodbath, and you’re a walking, damaging, self-healing DPS machine…especially if you have all three major enfeeblement and enhancements active as well. Please check out the end of the YouTube video linked at the top to see this full Reawaken combo in action!

Direction-Oriented Attacks

In what is probably the baffling decision for Viper, Swiftskin’s Coil and Hindsting Strike/Hindsbane Fang does more damage when executed from the target’s rear, and Flanksting Strike/Flanksbane Fang does more damage from the target’s flank. Thankfully, you do get Truth North as a Role Action to negate the directional angling, but it is still something that is quite a surprise to find for this job and it honestly does not fit in as you already have enough to worry about already.

Viper Actions Charts

Viper Unassignable Actions Charts

Viper Role Chart

Viper Traits Chart

Final Thoughts on Viper

If you’ve followed along with this all so far, then you’ve probably reached the same conclusion that I have: Viper is a very weaponskill heavy, complicated job. In fact, I suspect that Viper will be the most complicated job in all of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online when Dawntrail is released.

It can be very easy to lose your place in the weapon skill rotation, as both the single target and the AoE rotations have multiple weapon skill paths to go down to complete the combo — and you’ll want to do so in order to max out your enfeeblement and enhancements. FINAL FANTASY XIV Online’s smart AI is a Twelvesended gift, because the hotbar will light up the weapon skill with a higher effect to do next, and this will help you keep pace with alternating between the different combos. For me, this meant I could hit the combos constantly and consistently without remembering exactly what I had already hit. Without this, Viper would be infinitely harder to play and utilize appropriately in combo for anyone but the most skilled of players.

I do think that the directional-oriented bonuses to damage are something that requires quite a bit of movement and makes Viper a bit like Dragoon because of it. Thankfully, True North can negate that need to direct yourself if you don’t want to deal with repositioning every so often during the fight. I frankly don’t care for that mechanic because it feels a bit tacked on, and I am glad that not every combo and weapon skill requires me to be rotating to different positions around the enemy in order to execute effectively.

Finally, you’ll notice that I haven’t talked about single bladed and dual bladed weapons, despite that being what is advertised in the Viper job description. Watching the blades come together and come apart is quite cool looking graphically, but I found myself focusing on enhancing/enfeebling, filling up the Rattling Coil and Serpent’s Ire Gauge, and trying to pull off back-to-back nine-hit combos through Reawaken action and Serpent’s Ire action when I wasn’t utilizing my other combo sets.

Viper is ultimately a lot of fun to play, make no mistake about it. It is also the one job that I am dying to see be utilized in Crystalline Conflict PVP due to simply how much damage it is expected to dish out as quickly as possible. I really think that if players take the time to experiment and learn this job, then they will fall quickly in love with Viper like I ended up doing.

Please check out my thoughts on the new Pictomancer job, and about Naoki Yoshida’s Media Q&A from Day 1, and my opinion on the Dawntrail demo as a whole.

If you want more FINAL FANTASY XIV Online-themed content, then be sure to check out my ongoing cooking series, Cooking Eorzea!

Also, check out what eleven FINAL FANTASY XI Online enemies that I think need to be part of the upcoming Echoes of Vana’diel raid series in Dawntrail.

Are you going to pick up Viper when the upcoming Dawntrail expansion releases?

What do you think about directional-based actions?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Dawntrail Media Tour: Viper is a Complicated, and Fun, DPS FFXIV Job appeared first on oprainfall.

This article is based on play of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.

Introduction to Pictomancer

Out of the two new jobs, I would definitely say that Pictomancer is the easier of the two to quickly grasp and use. As I experimented more and more with this job, I found myself assigning the various actions/role categories across two cross-bars in order to utilize the Pictomancer toolkit to its fullest. This job is debuting as part of the upcoming Dawntrail expansion and draws upon the Pictomancer class first brought to life by Relm Arrowny in FINAL FANTASY VI (that’s FINAL FANTASY III for those of you who are playing on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES).

Playing as Pictomancer

Billed as a magical ranged DPS job, there are two major aspects to Pictomancer, Aetherhue Actions and Motif/Muse Magicks, with a smattering of other abilities thrown in. Each of the two main categories are assigned a different player HUD display: Paint/Palette Gauge and Canvases, respectively. I will first be diving into both of these, and then addressing the miscellaneous other abilities below. Please note there are Role Abilities for this job too, but none of those are unique to Pictomancer.

Please note that I was able to demo Pictomancer at the 100-level cap.

Aetherhue Actions

First up are Aetherhue Actions. Despite what you may think or anticipate, Aetherhue Actions are intended to be the bread-and-butter 1-2-3 combo actions for Pictomancer. Your regular cycle starts off with Fire in Red (single target) or Fire II in Red (AoE). Once that is activated, you next use Aero (I/II) in Green and then finally Water (I/II) in Blue to complete the combo. At this point, you accumulate a White Paint and you get 25 aether on the Palette Gauge HUD. White Paint can be consumed to use the spell Holy in White, which is an AoE attack. If you use Subtractive Palette when the Palette Gauge has 50 points in it, then you gain the effect of Monochrome Tones, which converts a single White Paint into a single Black Paint, and you get three stacks of Subtractive Palette to utilize.

Only once Subtractive Palette is active can you use the other 1-2-3 spell combo: Blizzard (I/II) in Cyan to Stone (I/II) in Yellow to Thunder (I/II) in Magenta. These are MUCH more damaging combo attacks than the Fire/Aero/Water combo, but they also grant you a White Paint and Aetherhues. With the converted Black Paint, you can cast Comet in Black, which is a more potent AoE attack than Holy in White. It is important to note that you can only use Comet in Black while under Monochrome Tones, and you can only cast the Blizzard/Stone/Thunder combo while Subtractive Palette is in effect. You can also still fire off Holy in White back to back with Comet in Black or with other Holy in White spells, even under the effect of Subtractive Palette.

This all sounds complicated, but it definitely is not. The majority of your damage is going to come through your Aetherhue Actions, and by doing the Fire/Aero/Water combo until you can swap over into the Blizzard/Stone/Thunder combo while firing off Holy and Comet AoE spells for as many times as you can. It was quite fun to do, and I was surprised at how little that I had to pay attention to the Palette Gauge in order to track my Aetherhues.

Your Aetherhue Actions are directly influenced by your Landscape Motif/Muse Magics, as I will detail below, and are the major reason why you’ll want to be firing off Starry Muse every chance (okay, every 120 seconds) that you get.

Motif/Muse Magicks

The second major half of this job is the Motif/Muse Magicks, and they are what you are thinking about the most when you see this job: A Pictomancer will paint Creature Motifs, Weapon Motifs, and Landscape Motifs on each of three canvases, and then bring them to life with magic.

First up, the Creature Motif. This spell has a 2.92 second cast time, with a 3.90 second recast timer. It also is a constantly changing action that will go from Pom Motif, Wing Motif, Claw Motif, and finally Maw Motif (in that order) when used. Once you use the Pom/Winged/Clawed/Fanged Muse ability (Living Muse Action turns into whatever painting is on the Canvas), it will then add that particular Depiction to the slot above the canvas as well as damage the enemy. Each Muse has a 40 second cooldown as well. When you have both Depiction of Pom and Depiction of Wings active, you create a Moogle Portrait that hangs out at the top of the Creature Canvas and will signal that you can use the Mog of the Ages ability that does significant AoE damage. Additionally, Retribution of the Madeen becomes available at level 100 when you have all four Motifs painted. These two Moogle and Madeen actions honestly really cool, and you will want to fire it off every 40 seconds or so in order to add another Depiction to the Creature canvas so you can build up to bringing out either the Moogle or Madeen to obliterate your foes.

The Weapon Motif is absolutely the most personally useful out of the three. First, you use the Hammer Motif ability, which appears when Weapon Motif is placed on the hotbar, and it paints a hammer on the Weapon Canvas (yes, that is the only weapon available so far). When you have a hammer on the canvas, you can use Striking Muse. This uses up the hammer painting and grants three stacks of Hammer Time. When you have Hammer Time active, you can then use Hammer Stamp to deal critical AoE damage at a large range. Hammer Stamp turns into Hammer Brush, and then into Polishing Hammer to complete the combo. Most crucially, you can still use the Hammer combo even while running away from enemies and it won’t be interrupted…which I found out firsthand during a FATE gone bad.

Finally, there is the Landscape Motif, which paints a starry sky over on the Landscape Canvas through the Starry Sky Motif when that particular action is placed on the hotbar. Every 120 seconds, you can then use the Starry Muse ability. This ability throws down a party AoE buff around the Pictomancer that increases the affected party members’ damage by 5%. It also gives the effect of Inspiration, which reduces the cast/recast timer for Star Prism and Aetherhue spells by 25%, lets you cast back-to-back Rainbow Drip spells, and lets you cast Star Prism. Star Prism restores the health of nearby party members and does AoE damage to enemies. Finally, there is the Hyperphantasia effect. If you perform five Aetherhue Actions or Star Prism spells, you are then granted the Rainbow Bright Enhancement. While that is in effect, Rainbow Drip (discussed in the next subsection) becomes an instant cast spell and has a reduced recast timer. If you can’t tell, Landscape Motif is more of a buff Motif than anything else, but it has a lot of really cool effects to help the party with. The AoE for party members was surprisingly large too, and I kept being surprised at how much I didn’t have to be in the deepest thick of battle to activate it.

If the Aetherhue Actions are the heart of the job’s mechanics, then the Motif/Muse Magicks are the extra necessary bits you will have to master the timing of in order to really execute Pictomancer successfully, since they simply add so much more damage with each Creature or Weapon cycles you do in combat. Also, because each motif can be recast immediately after battle, any Pictomancer worth their Archon Loaf will be reupping the motif paintings after battle and will be casting them whenever they can between Aetherhue Actions.

Miscellaneous Actions

Besides the Aetherhue Actions and Motif/Muse Magicks, there are a handful other Pictomancer actions. For example, there is the Tempera Coat, which acts like the Stoneskin of yester-era by absorbing damage up to 20% of your maximum HP and Tempera Grassa that absorbs 10% damage for yourself and other nearby party members. There is also Smudge, which lets you dash 15 yalms forward and gives you a very brief movement speed increase. Finally, there is Rainbow Drip. That spell does significant straight-line damage to enemies and also grants a White Paint. If you have Rainbow Bright Enhancement active, that means that you can rapidly stack up White Paints to then cast back-to-back Holy in White spells for even more damage.

Tempera Coat and Tempera Grassa are incredibly useful, if you can’t tell, and you will be using Rainbow Drip whenever you can to add that extra bit of damage to the battle — especially if you can cast a Holy in White Spell immediately afterwards with that new White Paint. Smudge is okay, but I found myself wishing that the movement speed boost lasted longer for out of battle purposes.

Pictomancer Actions/Unassignable Actions Charts

Below, I’ve attached collage photos of all of the different Pictomancer actions, roles, and traits that were available during the Dawntrail media tour so you can see it all for yourself.

Pictomancer Role/Traits

Additionally, here are the Pictomancer Role and Traits that were available during the Dawntrail Media Tour for me to try out.

Final Thoughts on Pictomancer

If you’ve made it this far, then you’re probably wondering how Pictomancer fits in with all the other jobs available to play. Pictomancer is primarily a magical ranged DPS job that offers limited party support through the Landscape Canvas and through the Tempera Coat and Tempera Grassa abilities. Pictomancer does not approach the support versatility of Dancer or Bard, but the 5% damage increase through the Landscape Canvas and Starry Muse is quite noticeable if it isn’t kept up whenever possible. Instead, Pictomancer utilizes all eight elements of the wheel (before Red Mage got to, surprisingly) to rotate two different color-themed combos with White/Black AoE attacks while simultaneously painting on the Weapon Canvas and Creature Canvas whenever those times are up. Additionally, there are few things more fun that activating Starry Muse, getting that Rainbow Bright Enhancement, and just spamming as many Rainbow Drip and Holy in White spells as possible during that timer window.

Pictomancer is a lot of fun to play, and it was not as difficult as it made it out to be when it was first demoed. The biggest challenge for this job is going to be remembering to use the appropriate Muse whenever the timer is up, so you can keep building those Creature and Weapon combos every chance you get. Finally, while I do not want to tout my own skills too much…I was able to pull enmity off the tank during the player dungeon we did during the Media Tour. It is an absolute BEAST of a job when it comes to doing damage if you can keep up on everything.

Please check out my thoughts on the new Viper job, see what Naoki Yoshida said during the Day 1 Media Tour Q&A, and what my overall thoughts are for the Dawntrail demo.

If you want more FINAL FANTASY XIV Online-themed content, then be sure to check out my ongoing cooking series, Cooking Eorzea!

Also, check out what eleven FINAL FANTASY XI Online enemies that I think need to be part of the upcoming Echoes of Vana’diel raid series in Dawntrail.

What do you think about Pictomancer? Are you excited to try it when Dawntrail is released for pre-order early access on June 28, 2024, and worldwide on July 2, 2024?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Dawntrail Media Tour: Pictomancer Is Far More Than Just Painting-By-Numbers appeared first on oprainfall.

You can check out more about Arzette at the game’s official website.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is available for purchase NOW: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Finally, you can check out my impressions of a hands-on demo here.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Operation Rainfall: My name is Quentin H. with oprainfall, and you are?

Seth Fulkerson: Seth Fulkerson, developer and creator of Arzette from Seedy Eye Software.

OR: Can you tell us a bit about Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore?

SF: It is a spiritual successor to a pair of infamous fantasy-adventure games from the early 90s, like CD-ROM era. The game has full motion cutscenes, is full of crazy animation, hand-painted backgrounds, and it is done in a familiar [and] beloved style.

OR: What is your personal history with the Phillips CD-i?

SF: So, a few years ago, I made a fan remaster of Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. I did that to fulfill an in-joke with friends, but also to explore the potential of ‘Well, what if those games were cleaned up a little bit, they might be a little better?’. The response to that was a lot better than what I thought. I was lucky enough that I had a lot of animators and artists that are my close friends. So, we were always sort of kicking around doing our own take on those games. And the time was right, so yeah, it was where the genesis of Arzette started. My producer, Audun Sørlie, got in contact with me and we started working together to make Arzette to what it is.

“I know a lot of people looked at Arzette and thought ‘Why is he making this? Is he making this as a joke?’

No, I wouldn’t spend three to four years of my life making a joke- I want to make a good game.”

OR: You mentioned a little bit ago, and in a prior interview in a January 2024 interview with Game Developer, you said that you took on the challenge of remastering two CD-i Zelda games: Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon as an in-joke. What kind of in-joke makes you want to develop a game for four years?

SF: So, in 2016, that’s around the time that Twilight Princess HD came out, me and some friends were literally joking ‘What if that, but The Faces of Evil?’. And so, I started trying to scope it out, and I’ve been making games for a long time – mostly really small stuff like game jam type stuff. But I had a hard time finishing projects – especially that were not bigger scope, but along the lines of that.

So, it was a dual purpose: ‘Hey, I’ll finish the joke but also finish a game.’ And in the course of developing those [remastered CD-i The Legend of Zelda games], I learned how to make a game for real and I also learned the development history behind the games and the circumstances that lead to them being the way they were. I found it really inspiring, and it really had a profound effect on me and how I wanted to approach future projects and also what I wanted to do with Arzette.

OR: CD-i aficionados will tell you that there is a third CD-i title out there – Zelda’s Adventure. Why did you not take on remastering [that] game as well? Did you use that particular third game any when creating Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore?

SF: Basically, the duology of games – The Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon – they share the same engine, they are almost the same game. Zelda’s Adventure is a lot different; it is a top-down game. But personally, it is going to sound controversial, but I do not care for Zelda’s Adventure. I know it has a lot of its fans, but for a game, basically The Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon, for all their flaws, had a pretty solid gameplay loop – especially for Western games released in 1993.

It’s very prototypical Metroidvania – multilayer levels – you collect items through people or collect powerups, you go back through levels with new powerups. Zelda’s Adventure does not really have that at all. In fact, there are lots of items that are red herrings – it’s a very mean game to the player. I do not like it.

OR: Let’s follow up on the gameplay loop. You’re taking gameplay from games published in 1993, and putting it into a 2024 gaming atmosphere. We have had at least two generations of gamers come up during that time period. How do you take that and make that relevant to a modern-day audience while still staying true to the original 1993 releases?

SF: So, right away, when I was prototyping, I identified a lot of elements that I knew I would include in Arzette. The gamefeel, how it looks – a lot of things. For instance, if someone were to look at Arzette from a distance, they would say ‘Oh, I know what that is’ or ‘That looks familiar’ and pick it up. Maybe they will get the feeling that this is like a CD-i like game, but they aren’t aware that they are getting the five-star hotel treatment of CD-i. There’s a lot of lives, there’s generous checkpointing, the gameplay’s a lot faster, there’s certain design elements that are intended to be more player friendly.

For instance, keys are always found in the same area if there is a locked door. But in the original game, keys could open whatever door they wanted across the entire world, [and so] it was a lot more obtuse. So, take the essence of those original games and apply a lot of modern sensibilities – ‘cause I don’t want to frustrate the player, I don’t want them to want to give up or think this is poorly designed on purpose.

I know a lot of people looked at Arzette and thought ‘Why is he making this? Is he making this as a joke?’ No, I wouldn’t spend three to four years of my life making a joke – I want to make a good game. It is a delicate balance of jumping, how you attack – it has to feel a certain way and [I] sort of dial it in. Because if I give too many lives, then I can go too far in the opposite direction. But, if you try to stay true to what those games were while polishing off the rough edges, then that is the sweet spot.

“Part of me being sincere and serious about making this a spiritual successor was to get some of the legacy staff on board.”

OR: How did you develop Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore‘s story, and keep the game from falling into an awful parody of the classic CD-i games instead of paying an earnest homage to it?

SF: From the beginning, I knew that I didn’t want to make a wink wink, nudge nudge meme game that was mean-spirited. This was an earnest homage to those games. I wanted to make sure the writing was sincere – it is a strange world with strange characters, but they don’t know that. They are just kind of living their lives. It was important to me and my co-writer to make sure that the atmosphere was Saturday morning cartoons. Sometimes the humor didn’t land, but for the most part, it was a good-spirited world with a good-spirited antagonist.

To me, Arzette would never work if it was mean to itself. It’s a loving homage, and everyone that worked on the game – they all knew what we were doing, they all have the same sort of strange fondness for the [CD-i] games.

OR: About how many minutes of cutscenes are there in this game?

SF: There are 45 minutes of animation in the game.

OR: How do you decide when to use an animation to tell the story and when not to use animation in developing your story?

SF: The original games, for all their flaws, they had a really clever way of delivering player information – and that was through the cutscenes. A lot of the scenes in Arzette deliver gameplay information, like it might seem nonsensical at first, but the drunk guy at the bar is actually telling you that you can reflect projectiles by stabbing them, even though it seems like he is just going on a drunk rant. We added a few minor quests in the game that don’t have animation, but for the most part, I wanted to make sure that the entire thing was fully voice acted and animated.

OR: Did you direct the voice acting?

SF: I had a professional voice director that worked alongside me while voice casting for the game.

OR: And I think you brought back some classic voice actors from the CD-i era. Can you tell us about that?

SF: Part of me being sincere and serious about making this a spiritual successor was to get some of the legacy staff on board. I managed to network and find contact info for some of the original voice actors and one of the original artists that worked on The Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon, Rob Dunlavey – he did the world map for Arzette and one of her levels. He was one of the background painters for Faces of Evil and he did the world map for the game as well.

Jeffrey Rath, who voiced Link in the original games and Bonniejean Wilbur who voiced Zelda – I explained the project, and that yes, it’s been 30 years [but] I promise I’m not crazy. I outlined that it’s an homage, right? They understood, because they’re fully aware of the reputation that the games have. I think for them, it’s really rewarding to see people wanting to revisit their work. They were very receptive [to this], and a joy to work with.

OR: Can you tell us about your partnership with Limited Run Games to publish this title?

SF: After I decided that I wanted to do this game, I started pitching it to various publishers. I sat down with Josh Fairhurst, the CEO of Limited Run, to pitch a physical version of the game. He saw approximately 30 seconds of an early version of the shopkeeper scene, and he decided this was a game they wanted to do. Limited Run seems to want to take risks on games that nobody else would, because Zelda CD-i spiritual successor is certainly a risk. But I think he knew exactly what I wanted to do and how it would be a special game. The game has been a success, so it certainly has been a wonderful relationship with Limited Run Games.

OR: In a 2020 interview with Eurogamer, you mentioned that it took you about four years to develop the remasters of Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. Did any of that experience play into developing Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore?

SF: Absolutely. I learned a lot more about programming, project management, and how to structure a game from those. They also share the game engine – Gamemaker Studio 2 – I’ve been using Gamemaker since I was 12 years-old, so a fairly long time and I’m fairly familiar [with it].

But it’s learning lessons from those games as well. Even remastering those games – I learned what works and what doesn’t for Arzette to give a modern gameplay experience for players.

OR: There is also a new CD-i controller that was released through Limited Run Games. Can you tell us about that and why would you want to do that yourself?

SF: That was one of the things that we had a discussion about, was doing that controller. It’s just one of those silly, fun things that Limited Run loves to do. For the authentic homage, you can pick up one of those retro controllers. It’ll work on any Switch game. I would not recommend players playing through Arzette the first time with the controller, but it is certainly playable. I’ve played through the whole game with that.

OR: And how was that experience playing with the CD-i controller?

SF: I will say…interesting. I will say, interesting.

OR: That is a loaded statement.

SF: Yes, it is.

OR: Now with Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore released, what’s next? More CD-i inspired titles? Are you going in a different direction entirely? Or what are you planning on doing in the future?

SF: I would love to keep exploring lesser-loved games and everything else. But really, a lot of it depends on the success of Arzette for where I would go next. But yeah, I’m pretty much up for anything.

OR:  Thank you.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is available for purchase NOW: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Have you ever played either of the classic The Legend of Zelda CD-i titles?

What do you think about the new retro-style controller?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post PAX EAST 2024 INTERVIEW: Seth Fulkerson on Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve made little secret about my love of the Yakuza games (and their spin-offs). It’s one of my favorite series, so I was ecstatic to have the chance to review Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the second of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s RPG offerings and a continuation of Ichiban Kasuga’s story. Joined by new friends and in a completely new setting, will this adventure charm me as much as Ichiban’s first?

Infinite Wealth Story

We pick up three years after the events of Like a Dragon and the Yokohama crew have settled back into society as productive, working adults. Kasuga Ichiban is at Hello Work trying to find jobs for the displaced yakuza following the Great Dissolution of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. Masumi Arakawa’s dream for the yakuza was for them to reintegrate into proper society, and Ichiban has made it his dream to make sure Arakawa’s vision comes to fruition. Yu Nanba found a job working in a medical warehouse, and Koichi Adachi is starting up his own security business. Saeko Mukoda is running her own club. Everything is going well, but it’s about to go downhill fast. Ichiban finally builds up the courage to take Saeko out on a date, and it ends disastrously – so much so that we skip one year into the future and she’s left the poor man on read. Not only that, but a VTuber released a hit piece on Ichiban that went viral, leading to him being canned from Hello Work. Adachi and Nanba get the ax, as well.

Freshly unemployed once again, the gang learn all the ex-yakuza Ichiban spent years trying to help were also targeted by this VTuber. Hisoka Tatara has it out for the yakuza in general and Ichiban in particular, it seems, dedicating multiple live streams to our hero. With nowhere to go, the yakuza turn to the Seiryu Clan in Yokohama, which has been filling its ranks in recent months. Acting captain Masataka Ebina claims he’s recruiting the former yakuza to work at his legitimate waste disposal business as he plans to enact the Second Great Dissolution. To gain legitimacy among veteran yakuza and prove his commitment to Arakawa’s vision, Ebina pulls strings to get Jo Sawashiro out of jail early, drawing in more former Tojo and Omi in the process.

It’s here Sawashiro drops a bombshell: Ichiban’s mother, Akane, is still alive, and she lives in Hawaii. Would Ichiban like to go meet her? Ichiban of course takes Sawashiro up on his offer, though unfortunately his bad luck follows him across the Pacific. Ichiban arrives on American soil and is immediately held up at gunpoint, then drugged and left naked on the beach. He’s arrested for indecent exposure and used as a scapegoat for multiple cold cases, until he escapes and runs into Kazuma Kiryu, who is coincidentally in Hawaii on a job for the Daidoji. The two eventually make their way back to Akane’s house, encounter a local yakuza named Yutaka Yamai – who is also looking for Akane – and make a new friend in Eric Tomizawa, one of Yamai’s men and also the man who held Ichiban up the day before. Ichiban is nothing if not forgiving to a fault, after all. Once the trio are safe, Kiryu then drops the games’s second bombshell: He’s dying of cancer.

So begins Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. In true RGG fashion, the game takes tons of twists and turns, bringing together an eclectic cast of misfits in a story that tackles finding a new beginning in life, closure in the life you’ve lived, and atonement for the mistakes you’ve made. The game takes aim at a number of issues, not the least of which include police corruption, overly burdensome and retributive laws, online dogpiling and how easily someone’s life can be destroyed by rumors, religious faith versus zealotry, economic disparity, homelessness, balancing urbanization and environmentalism, and bodily autonomy with regards to illness.

Ryu Ga Gotoku narratives have always had go big or go home energy, and that’s no different here, for good and for ill. Staging the majority of the story in Hawaii was a big hit, using this new location to explore themes that have been ever-present in this series, but to also highlight unique issues to Hawaii itself, as well as adding an international bent.

Ichiban and the gang from Like a Dragon return, and this time they’ve made some friends. The newest additions to the cast are Eric Tomizawa, a Hawaiian cabby caught up with local gangster Yutaka Yamai; and Chitose Fujinomiya, the daughter of a powerful Japanese magnate who is attending school in Hawaii. Old friends Adachi, Nanba, Zhao and Han Joongi join newly playable Seonhee and the Dragon of Dojima himself to round out the playable cast for this sprawling, dual protagonist story.

Let’s break it down a little more, as unlike previous games in this series, both Ichiban and Kiryu take top billing here. Infinite Wealth is as much a story about the search for Ichiban’s mother as it is closure for Kiryu, and the way the game handles each is at least partially reflected in their supporting casts.

Ichiban’s story takes up the bulk of the game, with the front half devoted entirely to his time in Hawaii. One of the first people he meets is Tomizawa, a down-on-his-luck cabby who holds Ichiban up at gunpoint just hours after our hero touches down on American soil. The son of an Hawaiian native and a Japanese national, Tomizawa straddles two cultures and acts as Ichiban’s liaison and interpreter as one of the few bilingual characters in the game. (This is, unfortunately, an aspect of the game that gets dropped pretty quickly, but I’ll discuss that later.) Chitose is the daughter of a big time Japanese business magnate and has been attending school in Hawaii. Stifled by her upbringing, she’s an interesting civilian foil to the yakuza families of older games. She’s also the most tech savvy of the crew, and ends up helping Ichiban widen the search for his mother by utilizing her ‘Net know-how to gather information. Ichiban’s crew is eventually rounded out by Adachi and Han Joongi, who bring with them familiarity but also new perspectives on life in Hawaii. Having old friends and new mingle was a nice reflection of Ichiban’s relentless optimism and drive to expand his world.

Kiryu’s party is made up entirely of familiar faces from Like a Dragon (which I’ll also refer to as RGG7), which feels appropriate as his story focuses more on the past. What’s new is who is playable, though. Seonhee joins the fray this time around, stepping out from her web of shadows in the Geomujul to take to the streets alongside her hero. Despite her connections to the underworld, she does not have immediate access to information the way the Florist did in previous games, instead helping Kiryu unravel the mysteries surrounding the Seiryu Clan’s connections with Hawaii and how VTuber Hisoka Tatara plays into everything. Nanba comes along as Kiryu’s physical and mental support, with Saeko and Zhao rounding out the crew. Having Ichiban’s friends pal around with Kiryu gives the cast a chance to discuss Ichiban in ways they could not when he’s present, as well as contrast the differences between both former yakuza – in particular, addressing Kiryu’s insistence on doing everything himself. Ichiban has always been a proponent of the Power of Friendship, and that is on full display here, demonstrating how he’s impacted those around him and how they, in turn, are lending their strength to Kiryu when he needs it the most.

Gameplay

Like a Dragon‘s turn-based combat returns here with some welcome tweaks. The battle system still relies heavily on exploiting weapon type and elemental weaknesses in your enemies, but has now added a free-moving aspect that allows for back attacks and team combos. In RGG7, your characters would run across the field to attack whatever enemy you chose, but you had no free range of movement. In Infinite Wealth, you now have a small area in which you can reposition your characters to either hit enemies on the back for added damage, or line up attacks to shove enemies into your friends for a bonus follow-up attack. You can also position your character near an ally and trigger a combo attack, where both will attack the enemy at once. It’s a small change with a big impact since it introduces some strategy, especially when dealing with enemies who use shields or are otherwise heavily armored. The higher the bond with a character, the more damage these combo attacks will do, and the more often follow-up damage will trigger.

Ichiban and Kiryu can also do Tag Team attacks with their crew once they build up their Hype Meter. This is represented by an infinity symbol next to each character’s combat portrait, and the more damage a character takes, the faster the gauge fills. Once it’s fully charged, Ichiban and Kiryu can then “tag” that character to perform a special combo. For instance, Ichiban and Kiryu’s Tag Team is the two of them rushing an enemy and punching them in the face; Tomizawa and his partner hurl wheel wrenches through the air; and Chitose ballroom dances with her partner to hit multiple bad guys in a line attack. Each of them are pretty interesting in their own ways. Ichiban can also use an Ultimate Tag Team that depletes all party member’s gauges but does massive damage to every enemy.

Characters have access to various jobs, which must be bought by taking part in vacation packages at Alo-Happy Tours. Each job can learn skills up through level 30, after which point levels only increase stats. These skills can be “inherited” by other jobs, giving you the opportunity to mix and match and craft your favorite possible job. Do you want your Samurai to also spray bubbly in your enemy’s faces the same way a Host can? Well, now that’s possible. Even ultimate abilities can be inherited, though you only have five total inheritance slots, one of which is for an ultimate ability. You earn inheritance slots as you increase your bond with other characters, and these inheritances will carry over to every subsequent job until you manually change which skills you’re sharing. This ends up being an excellent way to equip characters to exploit the weakness system and ensure you’ve got versatility.

Infinite Wealth has a wide assortment of jobs available. Host, Breaker, Chef, Idol, and Night Queen return from RGG7, so I want to focus briefly on the newcomer jobs: Action Star, Aquanaut, Desperado, Pyrodancer, Samurai, Geodancer, Housekeeper, and Kunoichi. Action Star is a heavy damage focused job with mostly single-target skills. Aquanaut is a magic-focused job with a decent mix of ranged attacks and healing. Desperado is a ranged attack job that mixes elemental-based damage between single and group attacks. Pyrodancer is a magic job with an emphasis on support and debuffing. Samurai is a strong physical job with a mix of single target and AOE skills. Geodancer, like Pyrodancer, focuses on magic support and debuffs. Housekeeper has a mix of physical and debuff attacks. And Kunoichi is a strong physical job. Ichiban can also access the Sujimancer job, which lets him call forth Sujimon to perform an assortment of magic-based attacks. Much like in RGG7, your unique jobs tend to be the most well-rounded, though it doesn’t matter as much here since you can mix and match skills with inheritance, so it’s really just going with the aesthetic you like the most. I would say the only exception is Sujimancer, which felt underwhelming even with high-level Sujimon.

As the Dragon of Dojima, Kiryu’s combat comes with its own flourish. He fists are his weapons, and his ability list is a what’s what of classic Komaki-style attacks. He can also access three different fighting stances at will throughout a fight: Brawler, Rush, and Beast. Much like in his own titles, each of these styles comes with its own pros and cons. Brawler is Kiryu’s default stance, and the only one in which he can use Heat Actions. You can also counter enemy attacks if you perfect guard. In Rush mode, Kiryu’s attacks deal less damage, but he has a wider range of motion, and he gets two turns, which makes this ideal for cleaning up low HP enemies or capitalizing on back attacks. Beast mode is Kiryu’s defensive stance, offering an increase in attack power, but at a significant hit to speed and range. While in Beast mode, Kiryu can break enemy guard stances without using special abilities, which makes this style invaluable against large groups of heavy types and enemies with shields.

When the going gets tough, Kiryu can also dig deep and harness the dragon within, unleashing the full strength of the legendary yakuza by literally breaking free of the game’s turn-based combat to wail on enemies freestyle. Rather than performing a Tag Team attack, by holding R2 when his Hype Meter is full, Kiryu can access Dragon’s Resurgence, giving him free range to pummel any enemy regardless of distance. Once the Resurgence meter runs out, Kiryu will rejoin his teammates in turn-based combat. Deciding between Resurgence and Tag Team can be the difference between winning or losing a battle, and I liked the versatility this offered.

Like every other character in the cast, Kiryu can also use the generic jobs (I quite liked him as a samurai, myself). But the Dragon of Dojima is honestly the strongest job in the game – absurdly so at times – and is a nice gameplay reminder that, despite the events of the story that have Kiryu significantly weaker than during his own standalone titles, he earned his Legendary Yakuza title for a reason.

Poundmates return with some enhancements this time around. Like in RGG7, you can call in support from a variety of colorful characters, many of whom you unlock through subquests. They range from the hard-hitting Chitose Holmes (not to be confused with Chitose Fujinomiya), to mainstay Nancy and her new friend Olivia, the lead singer of a visual kei band, one half of a manzai group who serves coffee, and even the Bartender from Survive. New this time around is the fact that most Poundmates you obtain will fight alongside you for three turns, rather than one-and-done moves. Those are reserved for the highest level Poundmates, most of which you won’t see until nearing endgame. For instance, Chitose will follow up all of Ichiban’s attacks with her own flurry of furious blows, sticking around the battlefield for three turns until she finally bids farewell. Having this bonus damage or healing can make or break early fights, and was a nice addition to the Poundmates system. The more money you spend on Poundmates, the higher your rank with the service, and once you max out your contributions you can unlock With Benefits options, which double the cost of a Poundmate, but also exponentially increases their base attack power. This addition was indispensable during endgame.

Along with Poundmates, Sujimon return, this time bigger than ever. Rather than just being a glorified bestiary, Sujimon now have an entire mini-game devoted to their capture and subsequent battles. Infinite Wealth makes no real effort to hide the Pokémon influence here, and if you’re at all familiar with those games, capturing Sujimon will feel old hat. After battle, Ichiban has the chance to “recruit” one of his enemies. To do so, you need to offer a gift (think Pokéballs) and then prostrate yourself to demonstrate your resolve. The sincerity of your attempt to woo the enemy is represented by a scale at the bottom of the screen, and the further along you time your button press the better your chances (though I highly recommend checking out the low sincerity). If you’re successful, the Sujimon will join you and can be used by Ichiban’s Sujimancer unique job, or fight in Sujimon Battles. They can also take part in Dondoko Island. I’ll touch on both of these aspects a little later.

Read on for Dondoko Island, Sujimon Battles and more! ->

The post REVIEW: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth appeared first on oprainfall.

Website

The longer I kept playing The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle, the more I kept thinking “this is so cool!” and the more I wanted to keep playing and wanting to get it when it is released. The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle bills itself as “an old-school wuxia turn-based RPG set in the chaotic times of ancient China,” and it has you start off as a no-named individual who has to learn martial arts as you shape the fate of Wulin.

While the game’s website claims it is a turn-based RPG, the demo I played at GDC 2024 was more like a grid-based tactical RPG game with up to five combatants on your side at once instead. During battle, you can move your characters a certain number of squares around, and you can also attack only within a certain number of highlighted squares too. This isn’t a knock against The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle whatsoever, but I do think it is important to be clear what this game is and is not.

What sets The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle apart from any other RPG of its genre is the combat move pool itself. Every attack is drawn from a pool of over 200 styles of martial arts, and so you will get to experience a lot of different moves. As you use moves over and over again, they will get stronger and level up over time. In other words: you’re literally practicing martial arts in the game and getting stronger and better for it. You can also learn new moves through manuals you collect throughout the world. I hardcore geeked out over all the ingenuity in combat, as I practice kendo in my spare time and it honestly reminded me of walking along the Avenue of the Stars by the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

The enemy AI felt fairly fleshed out and intelligent, and I was impressed that I had to use tactical thinking in order to win my fights (bouts?). While I did not get to experience much of the storyline, as I had to skip a lot of the dialogue to fit the whole demo into my timeslot, I was entertained by what I saw of the wuxia and historically-based atmosphere. Finally, the graphics are detailed pixel-art with vibrant colors. While I was playing my demo, the developer told me that The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle is supposed to be 30-plus hours and it has multiple storylines for you to complete. I am honestly excited for when this game comes out, as I want to play it, and I think you should consider picking it up too if you like the demo/early access that is currently out on Steam.

What martial arts style do you hope makes it into The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle?

Do you plan on picking the game up?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post GDC 2024 IMPRESSIONS- The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle appeared first on oprainfall.

I have to say that the Rose & Camellia Collection is probably one of the oddest games I’ve played in a long time. This collection of five different titles has you battling it out in epic slap fights with a variety of opponents. The game is almost completely motion controlled with a single Joy-Con, and has some of the most over the top stories I’ve seen in a long time. The real question is, was it any fun? Let’s dig in and find out.

There are five different stories here to slap your way through. The first follows Reiko as she tries to take over the Tsubakikoji family after the death of her husband. She will have to pummel the other ladies in the house to make this happen! The next story follows Saori as she seeks to get revenge on Reiko for taking over the family, but things do not go as planned. The third story sends a young maid in training, Rightie Mita, to complete a fierce competition, The Death Queen Circuit. This is like Street Fighter for slap fights. The next story has us taking control of Shizuka Tsubakikoji as she keeps getting some unwelcomed house guest. There is only one way to handle them of course, pummel them with slaps! Lastly, there is the La-Mulana bonus episode. This follows Mulbruk as she proves she is the true heroine of the game, by slapping down all the other girls that oppose her.

All of the stories here are well written and presented in a very nice visual novel style. Each story is more more over the top than the last. Some of the stories try to present themselves as serious, but you will be laughing too hard at just how ridiculous it all is. The voice actors really drive this home as well, they go full ham on these characters, and I loved it! Their performances with the era fitting music just really make all the storytelling here top notch and a pure joy.

Graphically, Rose & Camellia Collection is nicely done. All of the 24 characters found in the game are nicely detailed and vary in style. You have the La-Mulana characters, maids, boxers, a giant robot and much more. The battle effects here are all great as well, along with great sound effects that really seem to give your slaps a lot of weight, especially when you land a critical hit or get a nice counter attack.

Now let’s dig into the gameplay of this one, and this is where things fall apart some. There are two different controls schemes to choose from. Most players will opt for the motion controls because the touch screen controls are completely unusable. I tried them for a couple of battles and had nothing but problems. The motion controls do work for the most part, players will hold down A and swing the Joy-Con in order to smack their opponents. There is a timing mechanic here in order to get critical hits, and after completing all 24 fights here, I never did quite figure it out. I kinda got the timing on the double slap you unlock late in the game, but there is another strike called a Palm Strike which I wasn’t able to pull off even once. When you’re not on the attack, you can hold down the R button and swing the controller at the right time to dodge enemy attacks. These characters have some tells that let you know when they are about to strike at you. This is sorta like those you would find in a Punch-Out!! title. If you successfully dodge an attack and time it just right, you can even counter attack your foe, but be warned, they can do this to you the same way if your attack is poor.

Overall, the Rose & Camellia Collection isn’t a terrible experience, it’s just not a great one. While the controls sound good on paper, they are inconsistent in execution. Throw in some crazy difficulty spikes on top of this and things can get frustrating very quickly. I had a blast with over the top stories and the campy but fitting voice acting, but I think this package might be a bit overpriced at $20 for around 3 hours of gameplay. That said, if you catch this one on sale, and want a fun story with some unique controls, this might just fit the bill.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Rose & Camellia Collection appeared first on oprainfall.

Ninetail is back with some fandiscs in the VenusBlood series. This time we have three discs from VenusBlood HOLLOW featuring the dragon sisters, Liese and Julia. A couple of these are on the lighter side of things in the AfterDays stories, but just like last time there is one Chaos route story in the DarkChronicles tale. Let’s dig into these and see if they are something fans would want to spend their coin on, shall we?

Our first story begins as the war ends and Leonhardt keeps his promise with Julia, reuniting with her after the war as her subordinate. After some of the brainwashing he did to her during the war, she is completely obsessed with him and wants to jump his bones at every opportunity, as well as rid the world of all the Black Hellbeasts that still plague the world. To get her to calm down a bit, he enlists her sister Liese to use any means necessary to get her to back off the marriage, and things get out of hand from there.

The next story focuses on Liese, Leonhardt marries her after the war and they live on the surface. It’s been one month and he has been welcomed to Archlond as commander. Despite this, he frequents pubs and brothels, always getting into fights with authority he didn’t like as well. This was overlooked since he was such an asset to the kingdom in military manners. The main problem here is Liese is not tending to Leonhardt’s needs as a man, and if you know him this is not going to stand. This leads him to some extreme measures to show her exactly what a “Man’s” needs are. This tale takes some twists and turns from here and ends up not where I expected.

Lastly we have the DarkChronicles story. Here the war rages on with the Dark Angels led by Nachtu. Having subjugated all of the dark lords in the land, Leonhardt prepares his army to fight off their invasion. His tactics have become very cruel at this point, and he doesn’t care who dies so long as it meets his ends. He is currently training both Julia and Liese with his usual tentacle method, but he goes to the point where he actually breaks their minds. As their kingdom collapses, this will show just how far Leonhardt will go when he delves into chaos!

Overall I enjoyed all three stories, and it was great to see the dragon sisters on my screen once again. Like last time, I enjoyed the AfterDays stories more than the DarkChronicles one. I’m more of a law route guy than chaos. These are pretty short at a couple hours each, but each disc has three or four fantastic H-scenes with some very high quality artwork. These are well worth the coin for VenusBlood HOLLOW fans and if the sisters were your favorite, this a must buy at the $4.99 price tag for each.

Review Score
Overall

Games were provided by the publisher for review.

The post (18+) REVIEW: VenusBlood HOLLOW Fan Discs appeared first on oprainfall.

It’s time once again to check out a port of Neptunia: Sisters Vs. Sisters. This time I’m taking a look at the Xbox release of the game. Yes I know, it’s very odd seeing a game from this franchise on the Xbox and with the swimsuits included in base game no less, but here we are. I’ve spent about 25 hours with this one and completed the game, so it’s time to share my thoughts on this port. Does this port perform as well as its PlayStation and PC counterparts? Let’s find out!

This review is going to focus more on the quality of the port rather than details of the game itself. If you want to know more about the inner workings of Neptunia: Sisters Vs. Sisters, check out my PlayStation 4 review, or if you want to know about the Switch version you can check out that review as well. That being said, I do want to do a short story recap for those not up to speed on what this one is all about.

The story begins as Neptune and the other Goddesses receive a distress call from the PC Continent. They depart to handle this emergency while the CPU Candidates are sent to a nearby abandoned lab to investigate its contents. There they discover a sleeping Goddess, the Ashen Goddess, and as she awakens she traps the sisters in capsules for two years! When they are awakened, they find the world is not how they left it. The latest smartphone, “rPhone” dominates all of Gamindustri markets, and Planeptune was lost due to Trendi attacks while both Neptune and Nepgear have been away. Nepgear finds herself in a state of depression having lost both her sister and her home; however, new friends Maho and Anri help Nepgear get back on her feet, and they begin to try to get things back in order. Nepgear’s struggle will be great in the face of this new enemy. Can she overcome it and take back her home and save Gamindustri?

Graphically, I would say the Xbox port is on par with its PlayStation counterpart. The framerate on the Xbox One is very steady and while there are some load times, none of them are out of the realm of reason. The character models are nicely detailed and the environments look great here as well. The game would very likely have better load times on either of the next gen Xbox consoles and a better resolution, but it runs just fine Xbox One.

The action based combat here runs smoothly with no frame dips. Everything is done in real time with no major frame dips, even when the action on screen is full of crazy effects. You can freely switch to any character during combat, and when the time is right you can chain combos together this way as well. Players can also have the girls do some Tactical Skills. These are well known special moves in the franchise, such as Ex Multi Blaster, Cross Combination and other fan favorites in the series. When the Tactical Gauge is full, these can be pulled off with the use of just one button, or using the same button and up or down on the D-Pad for access to up to three moves with each girl. It is good to keep in mind that the Tactical Gauge will also have to be full if you use an item, but sometimes using it for an item rather than a skill, may give you a better benefit.

In the end, you get around 30 hours of a great Neptunia adventure for Xbox One or Series X|S for a great price of $39.99. Neptunia: Sisters Vs. Sisters looks great, runs at a consistent framerate and has the swimsuit DLC that was previously exclusive to the Digital Deluxe Edition, included in the base game. While this may not be a reason to pick it up for current owners, it’s a great addition for those jumping in with the Xbox release. I hope this helps the series find some new fans being its first adventure on the platform.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Neptunia: Sisters Vs. Sisters (Xbox) appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Vanillaware titles, so I was really excited when Atlus revealed Unicorn Overlord. It’s been a good while since I played a strategy game I really loved, but knowing the quality of this studio I had high hopes this would be one that would shine above all the others. I’ve spent around 60 hours with the game and it’s time to share my thoughts. Did it live up to my high expectations? Let’s find out!

The story begins as a general of the Cornian army named Valmore, has betrayed his kingdom and launched a surprise attack on the capital. Queen Ilenia, realizing the battle will soon be lost, entrusts her only son, Alain, to Josef, one of the kingdom’s most loyal knights. As the two flee the capital, the queen battles Valmore in an unwinnable battle. Soon after his victory, Valmore dawns a new name, Galerius, and vows to resurrect the fallen Zernoiran Empire. It only takes him 10 short years to conquer the whole world under this tyrannical banner, but Alain grows to be a fine young man and with a ring entrusted to him by his mother, he sets out to form a liberation army and free the land from Zernoira’s iron grip.

While the story here isn’t anything too deep, I enjoyed it overall. The cast of characters you meet along this journey and the struggles they endure flesh this tale out enough I don’t mind the overall narrative being pretty simple and straightforward. This will very likely be the hottest take of this review, but I honestly thought the localization was handled well for the most part. Some will not like that they choose to go with a medieval style of writing here rather than sticking closer to the Japanese source, but I thought it fit the setting and characters pretty well. I do hope that in the future, if Atlus decides to handle a title like this again, they include a set of subtitles that match the Japanese audio more closely for folks who would prefer to go that route, cause I can see where it would be a bit jarring using them with subtitles the way they are here.

Graphically, Unicorn Overlord looks amazing. That Vanillaware flair is here in full form with some of the best artwork and style I’ve seen in a long time. Every character has a ton of detail and the backgrounds look so lively you feel like you could just step right through the screen into them. I thought the food in the taverns was nicely done as well, and little touches like that is why their games are always such high quality when they release. I may have to look up how to make some of the food in this game, it looks so good! Anyways, the game runs at a steady framerate on both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The Switch copy I purchased does have slightly longer loading times, but if I wasn’t looking for them I’d probably not even notice.

Unicorn Overlord has one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time. I loved all of the overworld themes and I thought they fit each area to a tee. All of the battle themes are top tier and are now among some of my favorite battle themes of all time. I caught myself humming along several times as my solders were sending our enemies to meet their ends. The game is fully dubbed in English, and the cast does a wonderful job bringing all the characters to life. Their performance really made you care about these characters and helped a sorta predictable and bland story become great. There is a Japanese dub for those who want to go that route, but you will be getting dub subs instead of a more proper sub track.

While the gameplay in Unicorn Overlord will seem very simple at first, there is plenty of depth here as well. During battles you will form squads with your units in order to take on enemy units. The objective of almost every map is to seize the enemy’s command posts. Player and enemy units consist of many different classes and the game uses a Rock, Paper, Scissors type of system to determine which one has advantages over the others. As you deploy units on the battlefield, this will deplete your Valor. It will cost one Valor point for each unit you place on the field, and you can deploy units from any of the bases you control. This is very helpful when trying to move units to other areas of the map quickly, but keep in mind unit leaders will effect how each unit moves as well. Valor points will replenish as you defeat enemy units, but this is still a balancing act as you will want to save some points to use the Valor Skills each unit has at their disposal. These powerful skills can damage enemy units or provide you with healing and buffs. Using these effectively will very likely determine if the battle goes your way or not.

When units encounter each other, combat plays out automatically. This doesn’t mean you don’t have some control over the action, though. You can set up tactics in the equipment menu as you outfit your army with new gear. Better equipment will not only give them better stats but sometimes new skills to use as well. You can set up how these skill are used in the tactics menu. This works a lot like Gambits did in Final Fantasy XII. Just set up the skill and the conditions when you want units to use it. Fighters will use these skills in the order you set them up in. If you don’t want to micromanage your army this much you can just click down a button and let the computer decide what is best for you. I found this worked well some of the time, but sometimes it will actually give you equipment that is less than ideal, so keep an eye on it.

When you’re not in battle you can explore Fevrith and make many great discoveries. You can get resources to rebuild towns, do some shopping to get useful items and equipment, or take on some of the side quests the game has to offer. I had a great time just wandering around to see what all the developers had hidden on this map, and I’ve not really wanted to explore like that in quite a while. One key thing to remember here is that item shops will NEVER restock. Once you buy out the stock of a store it is gone forever. Now there are tons of towns in each area of the game, so it’s not like items are scarce, but if you go into each battle burning through items like crazy you may find yourself in a pickel when it comes time to take on some of the more challenging maps in the late game stages.

Overall I have to say I had a lot of fun with Unicorn Overlord. The combat is fun and has enough depth to keep it fresh all the way to end of the story. I loved discovering the over 70 characters and learning about the world as the game progressed and the game is just gorgeous to look at. I really only have one complaint and that is that the late game requires you to grind for EXP longer than you probably should have to, but this is something very minor and doesn’t really detract from the amazing experience this game is. This is without a doubt another Vanillaware hit and shouldn’t be passed up by fans of strategy games or fans of the studio. It’s well worth the $59.99 asking price no matter which platform you decide to pick it up on.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Unicorn Overlord appeared first on oprainfall.

Author’s Note: This review may contain minor spoilers pertaining to the story. The main character will be referred to as the Captain throughout this review.

I must admit, even though I love Action RPGs, I was very hesitant in reviewing Granblue Fantasy: Relink. For those who don’t know, Relink takes place in the same world as the RPG browser game, Granblue Fantasy. While I have played the browser game before, the most I’ve done is complete the prologue and roll for characters whenever I get the chance, I haven’t even finished chapter 1 of its story. So, my knowledge of the story and characters is minimal, at best. Granblue Fantasy has been around for almost a decade now, so I feared my lack of knowledge of the game’s lore and world would negatively affect not only my enjoyment, but my understanding of the events that occur in the game. So, after playing through the game’s story, was this Granblue newcomer able to enjoy Relink, or is it only for true veterans of the series?

Granblue Fantasy: Relink follows the Captain and the Grandcypher crew as they enter a brand new area, the Zegagrande Skydom. After a tumultuous entry, the Grandcyper crew finds themselves in the small town of Folca where they meet the local Mr. Fix It, Rolan. Rolan is trusted throughout the Skydom, so of course when a dangerous situation arises in the neighboring town of Tempeal, Rolan is asked to help the citizens. The Captain, the good-natured individual that they are, volunteers to assist Rolan in his efforts. However, what seems to be a straightforward mission quickly devolves into chaos as the Grandcypher runs into a group known as the Church of Avia. The Church of Avia runs off with the Captain’s friend, Lyria. Now, the Captain and crew must work to save Lyria from Avia’s clutches, and perhaps save the entire Sky Realm during the process.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s story is pretty straightforward; you could guess what direction the story is heading as you play it. That wasn’t a bad thing, though, as it was written well enough to keep me engaged and interested throughout my playthrough. The characters’ chemistry, especially that of the Grandcypher crew, helped keep me engaged as well. What I especially liked about Relink’s story is how welcoming it was to newcomers of the Granblue Fantasy franchise. They didn’t rely too heavily on past events, only referencing them sparsely throughout the game. And even if there were terms that I didn’t understand, I could read up on them in Lyria’s Journal. Lyria’s Journal is fantastic and can be easily accessed from the pause menu. It includes a glossary of terms used throughout the game (such as Astral and Primal Beast), information on the characters you meet throughout the game, and even gives a summary of the events that occurred before Relink. Not only that, you can rewatch past story cutscenes from Lyria’s journal whenever you want, provided you’re in town. This is great for those who want to rewatch a cutscene with a different gender Captain. And yes, you can change the Captain’s gender and name whenever you want from the pause menu, and this will automatically be reflected in Lyria’s Journal. So, you can rewatch the entire game’s story with a different gender Captain without having to replay the game, and I find that to be a fantastic addition. Cygames did not have to go out of their way to implement this feature, but I very much appreciate it.

But, you’re probably asking yourself if there’s a way to get to know the Grandcypher crew even more, outside of the Main Story and Lyria’s Journal. Well, I’m happy to say there is. Relink has a nice mechanic called Fate Episodes, and these can be accessed through the Quest Counter in town. Every recruitable character in Relink has a Fate Episode, and these tell players each of their backstories, what they did before the events of the game, and also what they get up to during Relink. Each chapter of the Fate Episode is unlocked based on Main Story progression, which Fate Episode chapters you’ve read, and what level the indicated character is. So, if there’s a character you’re really interested in, I’d suggest you focus on leveling them up first to fully read their Fate Episode. Not only do Fate Episodes develop your favorite characters, they even give you incentive to read them. Every time you read a Fate Episode chapter, it increases the character’s stats, and some chapters will increase the character’s Sigil slots. You’ll get to learn more about the character, plus they’ll get stronger too! The only negative thing I’d say about Fate Episodes is I wish there were in-game cutscenes instead of walls of text, this would’ve gotten me more invested. However, I appreciate that these were fully voiced by the character.

Most of the characters in the game did not develop much throughout the game’s Main Story, most of their development was locked behind the Fate Episodes. So again, if you really care about the Grandcypher crew, read the Fate Episodes. The one with the most development in the actual Main Story was the Church of Avia member, Id, and I did enjoy seeing his motivations and demeanor evolve throughout the story. I wish the other two big members of the Church of Avia had more screen time to develop, so I’m hoping they’ll revisit them sometime down the road. Another issue I had with the game’s story is that recruited characters don’t have much presence, if any, in the Main Story. Sure, they’ll have special dialog during certain Main Story areas, but they don’t show up in Main Story cutscenes nor are they really addressed at all throughout the Story Chapters. They’re just sorta there, and I wish they had more interaction with the main Grandcypher crew throughout the story.

The gameplay of Granblue Fantasy: Relink is very solid. I will admit, when I read PlatinumGames was no longer working on the game, I feared the gameplay would take a massive hit. Thankfully, Cygames proved me wrong. In combat, you take control of one character and have three additional party members. Normal attacks are performed using the X button, A button is jump, Y button is a special action that changes depending on the character you control, the B button allows you to initiate a Link Attack if the enemy’s stun gauge is maxed, and holding the RB button and pressing X, A, B, or Y allows you to perform Skills. I’ll use Narmaya as an example for the special action. If you press the Y button while using her, she changes stances between Dawnfly or Freeflutter. Dawnfly is great for taking on hordes of enemies while Freeflutter can be used to wail on single enemies. Other than these, you can hold the directional buttons to use items or click both the right stick and left stick at the same time to activate your Skybound Art (SBA). SBAs can only be used once the SBA gauge is at 100%, and these are super special attacks with nice animations. If you use the SBA while your party member’s SBA gauges are at 100%, they will also perform an SBA which causes a Chain Burst. The Chain Burst’s damage increases depending on how many members perform their SBA. You can change your party member’s SBA behavior in the Options menu to match your combat preferences. Once you get used to all of these options, you can string together beautiful chaos to decimate foes. I had a ton of fun fighting in Relink, especially against bosses, since each one has their own unique patterns that you have to learn if you want to be effective against them. Another great thing about the combat is, surprisingly, the party AI. CPU party members are actually very helpful in combat, using their skills at the right time and are great at staying alive. In fact, there were times when I died more than the CPU members and they had to keep saving me. It’s refreshing having CPU party members that don’t hold you back.

While I do love the combat, I did have some minor issues. First, they don’t tell you what each directional button item does. These aren’t even in the Inventory menu, so you can’t even read what they do, it’s a lot of guesswork. Next is the camera. While it is good most of the time, if you get too close to a wall or corner, the camera can get a bit crazy. Finally, I would’ve liked to have an option to change your playable character mid-combat. I do understand why that isn’t an option, since there is a multiplayer portion to this game and you shouldn’t be able to take over someone else’s character. But, it would’ve been a cool option to have if the game knows you’re playing Offline and with CPU party members.

You can strengthen characters by leveling up, using Mastery Points, equipping Sigils, and upgrading weapons. You level up through the usual methods: defeating enemies, completing Counter Quests, and completing Side Quests. Characters that aren’t in your party will still gain experience points during Main Story missions, but not during Counter Quests, so keep that in mind. Mastery Points are used to unlock nodes in a character’s Mastery Tree. These nodes can range from increasing stats to increasing a character’s resistances, and can even unlock more skills or Sigil slots for them. Mastery Points are gained through leveling up, completing Counter Quests and Side Quests, opening treasure chests, etc. The great thing about Mastery Points is that they aren’t limited to one character; they’re shared across all characters. So, if another character levels up and you don’t particularly like using them, you can use those Mastery Points to strengthen one you do like controlling. I do appreciate the development team doing this because it makes it easier to strengthen your favorite characters. Sigils are like accessories that give different benefits to your characters, such as increasing stats, increasing your critical hit rate, strengthening your combo attacks, etc. These can really give your character the extra edge they need to dominate foes. You can upgrade your weapon at the Blacksmith and even forge new ones there. Each weapon has its own special trait, such as increasing a character’s HP or increasing their effectiveness against an enemy’s weak point. So it’s beneficial to upgrade a certain weapon based on your playstyle. Additionally, you can change a weapon’s traits by imbuing it with Wrightstones. This can be done at the Blacksmith, but I didn’t find any need for Imbuing throughout the Main Story. Increasing your weapon’s max level requires materials, and most of these can be found by doing Counter Quests, and that is where most of the grinding is performed.

There are four types of areas you can explore in Relink: the towns, the Grandcypher, Main Story areas, and Counter Quest areas. Towns act as the hub area. Here, you can upgrade your equipment, purchase materials, sell any loot, accept Side Quests from citizens, recruit new characters, and even find treasure. Recruiting new characters requires a Crewmate Card, and you get more of these as you progress the Main Story or complete certain Counter Quests. There are 15-plus playable characters to choose from, and you start the game off with six of them available. An issue with the recruitment system is that you can’t try out the character before choosing them. You can only access the practice menu after recruiting them, which is rough if you end up choosing a character whose gameplay doesn’t gel with you. A way to get around this is saving before you recruit, turn off Autosave in the Options menu, recruit the character, practice with them, and then reload your save. This way, you can try out every recruitable character before permanently using your voucher. It’s a very roundabout way, which could’ve been circumvented if there was an option to try out the character before recruiting. The Grandcypher allows you to practice with your current character to tackle Time Attack and Score Attack modes. Time Attack involves destroying Sir Barrold as quickly as you can, while Score Attack calculates how much damage you can inflict on Sir Barrold before time runs out. Very simple minigames, but I appreciate them adding these options. Speaking of minigames, I do wish they had some available in the towns of Folca and Seedhollow. Give me a reason to stay in town a bit longer. There’s literally a fishing pond in Folca, let me go fishing! It just would’ve been a nice break from all of the fast paced action.

Main Story areas are the bulk of where the gameplay takes place. These are semi-open maps full of enemies, treasure chests, and other collectibles such as Archive entries and Wee Pincers. I call these semi-open since there is an obvious path to get to your goal, but you have the freedom to explore the map as much as you want before reaching the set goal. There are special monuments called Hallowed Ground scattered throughout the map, and these act as checkpoints and areas where you can save and heal. Siero, our resident adorable merchant, also magically appears at these monuments, giving you the options to purchase goods and access the Blacksmith. You can also return to town whenever you want during these stages, in case things get too rough for you. Once you return to the stage, Archive entries are pieces of information that give you some lore, and these are relatively easy to spot due to how they shine. These are saved in Lyria’s Journal after you find them. Wee Pincers are collectible little crabs you can find throughout the Main Story. Unlike Archive entries and materials, these do not shine or have a different color at all, so you really have to search the map thoroughly to find them – which comes to my one big issue with these Main Story areas: there’s no minimap. The most the game gives you is a compass at the top of the screen with a marker telling you where the story destination is. It doesn’t even mark where collectibles you’ve found are. So, if you find a treasure chest and forget to open it, you’re gonna have to search for it all over again. I do appreciate the lack of a minimap slightly, since it makes me actually look at the environment when exploring, and it does give a big sense of accomplishment once you find a collectible. However, if you’re trying to find 100% of collectibles in the game, having no minimap becomes more of a nuisance.

Counter Quests are quests you accept through the Quest Counter. These have specific goals you need to finish to complete missions, and they are also side goals which will increase your quest rating and rewards. Counter Quests can range from defeating bosses to defending Hallowed Ground to defeating all enemies. These are where you can play online multiplayer with your friends, but I didn’t try this function out since I tend to play solo. Counter Quests take place in specific areas of Main Story maps you’ve previously visited. There’s not much room for exploring in these quests, these are mostly a combat affair, which I do like, cause I do love the game’s combat. Most of the postgame content involves these Counter Quests, especially if you want to fight even tougher enemies and completely max out your characters and weapons.

Sail the skies and continue to page 2 ->

The post REVIEW: Granblue Fantasy: Relink appeared first on oprainfall.

Memories are beautiful, treasured and fragile things that give humans purpose and meaning. But are memories what make a person who they are, or do they simply add context to our choices? If someone can’t remember who they are or where they came from, can they truly understand themselves and the world around them? Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows ~What Beautiful Memories~, the newest steampunk alternate history title from Liar-soft, attempts to answer these questions and more in a beautifully realized tale that straddles two very different worlds.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Mega Engine City of New York ceased to exist. Every living thing vanished within minutes on Christmas morning of 1902, leaving behind only ruined buildings and empty streets. In the blink of an eye, three million people were wiped off the face of the earth. Five years later, Elysia Wentworth ventures forth into the broken remnants of New York to answer one burning question: Why?

As Elysia walks the barren streets above, deep “underground” a person is falling. Lily can’t remember anything from before tumbling into the mushroom-strewn landscape of the Underground other than his name, and that he does not want to be “her.” He finds himself on the outskirts of a bridge town named Verrazano, where he meets Milia Stoke, a “combat courtesan” with a metal arm who uses a pile bunker to protect the townsfolk from the Dark Gang – giant metal monsters who were once, presumably, human. Down here in the Underground, everyone eventually turns to metal, you see. Some just turn faster than others. That’s been the law of the Underground for as long as everyone can remember, and no one can remember more than five years ago.

Like clockwork, the town is beset by a White One, a monstrous being that devours memories and turns the people into metal. It’s been attacking Verrazano every week for five years, and Lily sees first-hand the chaos it brings when it steals away Milia’s memories of their meeting.

While in Verrazano, Lily meets an assortment of colorful characters, including a catgirl named Mao, a man with a giant metal arm named Luciano, and eventually the “airhead” A – the conductor of a one-car railway train who tells Lily he can be whatever he wants, so long as he chooses for himself. At first, Lily is against this, unwilling to become “her.” When Milia and the town are again beset by the White One, Lily decides to become “her,” embracing the inner voice she’s heard since arriving in the Underground, and harnesses A’s power for herself to defeat the monster. Now in the form of a young girl in a blue dress, Lily and A venture forth along the subway tunnels of the Underground in search of the violet horizon and answers to not only what’s happened to the Underground, but who Lily herself is. Meanwhile, above in the ruined New York, Elysia makes her way to the source of the disaster from five years ago, literally picking up the pieces of lives cut short along the way – including her own.

There’s quite a lot here that I really enjoyed. Memory makes us who we are – our childhoods, our growing pains, our loves and our losses. Without knowing where we came from, it’s hard to know who we are and why we do the things we do. So what happens when everyone is robbed of their memories yet trapped in a cycle of being they can’t contextualize? How do you deal with knowing you had a life before but can’t remember any of it due to someone else’s actions? The exploration of memory and the way it shapes a person – and how ugly and cruel the world can be when your sense of self is robbed from you – was so compelling. Lily being a blank slate gave the narrative room to breathe, to explore the ideas of loneliness, joy, sorrow, fear, grief, and love, and how those emotions can have positive and negative impacts on a person. The dual stories of Lily and Elysia also meant each idea could be explored from multiple angles. Watching as the pieces of the narrative fell into place was really rewarding. A and Lily’s relationship was especially engaging, and I loved every scene with them in it.

I found the sex scenes all well-done and tasteful, with some lovely CGs and impressive voice acting. The intimacy that comes with sexual relationships dovetailed poetically with the often exposed and raw emotions of the participants, so while the game does have an All-Ages version that removes and rewrites these scenes, this is one of those instances where I think the 18+ version better conveys the story’s themes. That being said, there are a couple instances of characters with ambiguous ages and some questionable consent, so while it wasn’t personally an issue for me, if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, the All-Ages version might be better for you.

Visually, Sona-Nyl is gorgeous. The characters have a vibrant, sketchy quality to them, with evocative pops of color and texture. The backgrounds are detailed and varied, and I found the CGs particularly impressive. The music has a fantastic jazzy quality to it that fits the mood and time period beautifully, and I found myself humming a few tunes even when I wasn’t reading. Overall, the game has some very strong sound design, especially during the encounters with the White Ones. And of course, the voice acting here is top notch – not just in the sex scenes. I’d be remiss not to mention the fantastic localization. This has to be one of the most eloquent VNs I’ve ever read, with fantastic use of cadence and repetition. The descriptions are detailed and expressive, and the dialogue is punchy. Everything is dripping with character and it was such a delight to read.

There’s very little gameplay to be found here, with only a handful of choices bookending and within each chapter. Before each interlude, you’ll have the chance to determine how a news article covers the destruction of New York City, and your choices here determine which options are available to you during each chapter. If you choose wrong with the newspaper, you’re met with one of two bad endings and are required to make the correct choice if you want to proceed. This means there’s no real replayability to see branching paths. The game takes roughly 12 hours to complete, making it a bit on the shorter side, but it’s relatively dense, so this actually worked out well for me. It hit that sweet spot in terms of complexity of narrative and length of time to read it.

That being said, not everything here worked for me. The villain fell flat, with confusing motivation and an unfulfilling conclusion. Seeing as this is the fifth entry in a series, I suspect that has something to do with it, but I’m a firm believer that a story should have a satisfying beginning, middle and end, regardless of where it fits into a broader narrative, and the ending of Sona-Nyl did not quite live up to what came before. A handful of characters also felt underutilized – again, possibly for the same reason. These weren’t enough to ruin the experience, but they did leave me feeling like I missed out on something.

Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows ~What Beautiful Memories~ was my first Liar-soft VN, but I doubt it’ll be my last. The intricate story, well-realized characters, and fascinating world building all impressed me greatly, despite some shortcomings. I loved the way this story wove in a multitude of faerie tales and children’s literature, especially its heavy use of Alice in Wonderland motifs. The MangaGamer version includes the unedited 18+ version and the All-Ages Refrain, which rewrites and removes the sex scenes. The Steam version is Refrain, but you can download an 18+ patch. Whichever you choose to go with, at $35, this one is worth your time.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows appeared first on oprainfall.

I was pretty excited when I first saw that the remake of Persona 3 was actually real. It had been rumored in leaks for a long time, and I was very curious to see how the newly announced Persona 3 Reload would be handled. Would it be a faithful remake, or something more in line with what Square Enix is doing with Final Fantasy VII. Turns out this would be very close to the original release, but they added some new quality of life elements as well as some nifty things found in the latter Persona 3 Portable release. I’ve spent quite a while with this one and it’s time to share my thoughts on it. Did I love this release as much as I did Persona 3 FES when I played it years ago? Let’s find out!

The story takes place as our protagonist arrives at Tatsumi Port Island. He is on his way to the dorm when some rather strange things begin to happen. The moon changes color, streets fill with blood and there are strange coffins everywhere. When he arrives at the dorm he is greeted by a strange young boy and asked to sign a contract. Not really knowing what is going on, he does so and the power cuts back on to reveal his dorm mates standing around in shock. They asked him if anything strange happened on his way over, and basically try to ease any concerns he may have. Soon he realizes there is much more going on here than meets the eye when shadows attack the dorm during the mysterious Dark Hour, which was the phenomenon going on when he arrived. During a desperate time he awakens his own ability to fight these shadows, his Persona. After the attack is over his classmates ask him to join their team and fight to save the world; he agrees and is made their leader. Now they will struggle to defeat these shadows and end the Dark Hour for good.

This is still my favorite story in the Persona franchise. I love all of the characters and seeing all their stories being told in this new engine, with a better English voice cast was really great. I fell in love with them all over again – well I love Yukari the most, but that’s another matter altogether. If you haven’t played any other version of this game, this is a great way to experience the story. I know some will say Persona 3 Portable is better because of the Female Protagonist, but this is the canon story and the way it was meant to be told. I would go into why I think this has more impact, but it’s spoilers so you’ll just have to see for yourself.

Graphically this game looks fantastic. They took all the style from Persona 5 and infused it with Persona 3’s. This worked out much better than I could’ve ever imagined. The character models, environments and enemies have lots of details and you will notice new things about them each time you play. The Personas themselves are especially well done. Thanatos, Alice and many of your other favorites have never looked better. Your party members have several different outfits to choose from as well. These will unlock as you find them scattered about Tatarus or from doing requests from Elizabeth, and yes the famous Battle Panties made the cut for all three of the girls in the game, they look great! The game ran at a solid 120fps on my main rig and 60 on my laptop with no issues. These systems run on a 3060 and 3050 mobile respectively, but I didn’t have any technical issues on either machine. This is a very good port from Atlus.

Persona 3 Reload really delivers in the audio department. The new soundtrack is fantastic, the newly remastered tracks sound just as good as the old ones in some cases and better in others. I do wish Atlus had offered more features here since they sell battle themes from the other Persona titles. It would’ve been nice to have an Atelier series style menu where you could pick tracks for each occasion and maybe even have the classic OST if you wanted. That being said there is nothing to be disappointed about here, and the new vocal tracks, “It’s Going Down” and the opening “Full Moon Full Live” are simply amazing tracks you will be singing long after your playtime has ended.

Persona is one of the very few series I play with the English dub, and I have to say the new cast here did an excellent job of capturing the same emotion and feeling with these characters as the old one did. Every voice here is on point, fits the character well and in most cases I couldn’t even tell that much difference from the old cast member. Fuuka got a massive upgrade in this department, her new voice actor really gave her a lot more personality, and I was really pleased with her performance. The Japanese audio is here for those who want it, and I love we get a choice in these games now, even if I do usually stick with the English cast.

Gameplay in Persona 3 Reload is divided up into two sections: Your daily school life, and doing some dungeon crawling in the home of the shadows, Tartarus, in the evening. As you make new friends you will gain social links. The more time you spend with each friend, the stronger the link will grow, allowing the creation of stronger Personas to take on many challenges you will face going forward. There are some social links that can be done in the evening, but most of the time you will either be crawling the dungeon or spending time with your dorm mates to unlock new abilities for them. This is something new for Persona 3 Reload and these buffs really turn the tide of battle in your favor, so I strongly suggest you take the time to do them.

Tartarus itself has changed a lot since Persona 3 Portable. Not only does it have a new look that’s simply amazing, but there are also new floor types and items to find here as well. You will find most of these in locked chests which you will have to gain Twilight Crystals to open. You can find these lying around Tatsumi Port Island, by completing quests for Elizabeth, or even in Tartarus itself. I feel like these chests added a bit of spice to the formula here, since lots of folks think this the most boring part of the game. I personally always loved the combat, so I had a blast climbing all the floors again.

Combat here is still turn based, but there are some new additions to it as well. When you hit an enemy weakness, not only will you get another turn but you can do what they call a Shift. This will allow you to pass that turn to any other player that hasn’t had one this turn. Persona 5 players will know this as the Baton Pass. This added a new level of strategy to the fight, and in some cases made them a bit easy. They also gave each party member some super moves called Theurgy Skills. These are powerful moves that can turn the tide of battle in your favor instantly. Your party members will end up with two each that unlock as the story progresses. The protagonist gains more, but you will have to fuse certain pairs of Personas to unlock his.

Overall I have to say Persona 3 Reload is the type of remake I look for. It’s pretty faithful to the original, but adds enough new features to make it feel fresh. I enjoyed my run here just as much as I did when I played this for the first time on the PlayStation 2, years ago. The $69.99 price tag may seem a little steep, but I got 100 hours of great gameplay here, so I feel like it’s worth your coin. If you’ve never played Persona 3 you should pick this up ASAP, don’t put off playing this classic any longer. For veteran players, this one is still well worth your time and you will have a great time here.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Persona 3 Reload appeared first on oprainfall.

Typically, I don’t take on otome reviews. They tend to be games I have a hard time stepping away from once I’ve gotten into one. Plus, doing all those paths back to back to back can be a lot. I tend to play otome very sparingly and these days I’m pretty particular about which ones I’m interested enough in to pick-up. However, Sympathy Kiss is one I was at least somewhat curious about and we ended up with a copy for review. Thus, when I was asked to do this review I figured why not, I was looking forward to distracting some men at the office.

Sympathy Kiss is a modern slice-of-life otome, rather than a fantasy or historic one. The main character, Akari Amasawa, has been working as a designer at Estario, a mobile app company, for the past year. Recently, Estario’s first app, Estarci, hasn’t been doing so great. Estario decides to transfer some employees to a new team to try to revive the app. Estarci is somewhat of a social news app.

Throughout Sympathy Kiss, you’ll go through day-to-day life getting to know your colleagues on the new Estarci team and coming up with ways to improve and save the app. The game splits into numerous routes pretty early on. You can either take home some guy, Nori Tainaka, who regularly lives with random people; or, you can leave him and choose one of a few different colleagues at work to help out and get to know. As you play through the various routes, a few other paths can be unlocked. At the start of the game, you have about five guys to choose from.

There are a lot of different guys to get to know. Nori Tainaka, who I mentioned earlier, is described in the game as a nice very puppy-like guy. He’s sweet and helps out around the house for anyone who takes him in. There’s also Yoji Kobase, who takes on the director role of the Estarci team and keeps everyone on task and everything running smoothly. He seems stern and intimidating in the beginning, but deep down he’s a caring guy. Honestly, I think Kobase was my favorite among all the choices. Not only is he supportive and good to you in his route specifically, but he’s always reliable and helps out the others on the team in their routes as well. Another option is Rokuro Yoshioka, who works at Tempesty, a tech company Estario will collaborate with on Estarci. Rokuro is described as seeming like a prince in that he’s very attractive and acts princely. Yoshioka is the son of Tempesty’s president and is supposed to eventually take over the company. These are just a few of the men you can choose to hang out with and attempt to seduce. Another member of the Estarci team, a woman named Nanami Oe, takes on the role of your loyal work friend who gives you advice and gossips with you about the guys you choose to hang out with.

As far as interactive features are concerned, Sympathy Kiss is pretty basic. Periodically you get choices to make, some of which will raise either your work or love stat in each guy’s route. You’ll get one of numerous endings depending on which routes you take and where your work and love stats are at by the end. You can also sometimes choose between two different emotions, such as when someone asks if you like something or not, or based on how you want to react to something they do. And there’s this RiNG app which characters will periodically call or text you through at different occasions during the story. The game allows you to go back in a story log and change choices whenever you like, you can save in one of numerous save slots and you can also skip parts of the game in replays to jump over story parts you’ve already read, or to skip ahead quickly to each choice. One feature of Sympathy Kiss I really appreciated was how at the end of each chapter you’ll switch to the perspective of whichever character’s route you’re on and find out what they were thinking when something happened earlier on in that chapter.

I do believe I’ve played through every single possible route in Sympathy Kiss. I dated each guy and saw a variety of endings, I also went back and speedily skipped through some previously played routes to see alternate endings. I am mysteriously missing one prologue gallery image though, so I may have missed something. But I played as many routes as I could possibly find and dated every guy. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the story of this otome. However, I felt like there weren’t a ton of extras to enjoy. You have a gallery, a music player, there are interesting profile info pages you can unlock for each guy and you can revisit any specific chapter you want to adjust the work and love stats and see different endings. But other than that, there wasn’t anything else. I know some otome have little additional postgame chapters to unlock and similar features like that, which Sympathy Kiss unfortunately doesn’t.

Oh one other thing I would like to discuss real quick are the amount of grammar mistakes and errors. I’ve realized these last few years that very often these localized otome are loaded with a ton of grammar errors throughout. When I first went through Kobase’s route, the first guy I chose, I can only recall a single mistake. However, as I went through more routes, there were significantly more errors. Nonetheless, it isn’t the worst otome ever in this aspect. I’ve seen grammar mistakes far more often in some other otome. So it’s not as bad as it could be and I did appreciate that there was at least some effort put in there.

In the end, I quite enjoyed my time with Sympathy Kiss. I found that despite being a T-rated otome, it wasn’t overly cheesy and I had fun dating…well almost everyone. Not only that, but the music and overall atmopshere was very enjoyable as well. If you’re otome obsessed, you have no reason not to pick this one up. If you’re new to otome and have wanted to try them out, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t start with Sympathy Kiss. I do hope in the future though, that this game gets a sequel or fandisc of some kind. There wasn’t really any postgame story content to enjoy and there are a few guys I would like to see more of.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW: Sympathy Kiss appeared first on oprainfall.

In this review, I discuss plot points and details of storylines and character arcs which could be considered minor spoilers. No major spoilers will be revealed.

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, by author Yuri Kitayama, is a medieval fantasy light novel series whose themes include self-discovery and personal growth, as well as the importance and benevolence of genuine friendships and bonds. The story begins with a college student who experiences an isekai moment, thus finding himself in a different world, full of magic, conflict, and monarchial quarrels. Then, finding his very personage merging with another, that of an orphan from the slums, their life is further drastically changed after a series of incredible events. Along with a supporting cast of charismatic individuals from all walks of life, our evolving main character forges a path forward; one new and ever changing, veiled by a desire of revenge, yet also with promise of new friends, experiences, and opportunities to grow.

Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies sets the foundation for an imaginative and intricate story, rife with fantasy, magic, and action, as well as challenges, from grand schemes to personal tests that life in such a disparate world entails. The overarching story follows Haruto Amakawa, a Japanese college student, whose nature is melancholic after having to leave behind his childhood friend and only love, Miharu Ayase, many years ago. A potential encounter with Miharu would appear for Haruto at the start of his first year of high school, however he hesitates, and then soon after, Miharu mysteriously vanishes, leaving Haruto empty. Years later and now in college, Haruto meets his end in a traffic accident.

Fate would intervene, as a dormant spirit within him guides Haruto’s soul, and thus his memories and personality, to a different world and merges it with that of an orphaned eight year old named Rio. Rio, on the verge of death himself, wakes and physically recovers quickly, though his mind is now a jumbled mess as the two personalities begin to coalesce.

Rio, an orphan of the Beltrum Kingdom’s slums, survives his harsh reality for the sole purpose of revenge. It was his only reason to endure his hellish life, yet now with his consciousness merged with that of Haruto’s and having Haruto’s personality, knowledge, and principles merged with his own, this new individual will soon face equally new and outstandingly peculiar circumstances. To add to his eccentric dilemma, the bandit group whom he begrudgingly associates with has kidnapped a young girl, whom Rio will shortly learn is a princess of the kingdom.

With an eccentric series of events then unfolding, we move into the crux of Kingdom of Lies, in which Rio will ultimately find himself entangled with these nobles through an offer of enrollment into their most prestigious primary school. Given his awful life in the slums and further led by Haruto’s wisdom and influence, Rio accepts the advantageous opportunity. He will spend the next several years at the academy, learning of the world around him and planning how to navigate it, all the while withstanding and overcoming conflicts fueled by classism from his aristocrat classmates and new surroundings.

Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies accomplishes quite a bit of development, from the introduction of Haruto and his history, to establishing both the new character born by the merge with Rio and the approach in which the combined individual will be portrayed. The series of events leading up to Rio’s enrollment and the proceeding conflicts thoroughly test Rio and further develop his character. Influenced by his evolving personality, we get to see how Rio thinks and behaves throughout new, challenging, and ever changing circumstances. Notable efforts are also made in building this world around Rio, and its society of inequality, curt attitudes, and self-interest. In all, the story sows new conflicts throughout, and ultimately lays the overarching plotlines which will extend beyond this volume. Altogether, Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies offers unique, individual stories and events as it also breaks ground for an extensive, epic tale.

In its entirety, I am impressed with how much is packed into this single volume, with the foundational work for the series established and conjointly offering the volume’s own main plotline and set of smaller events. More importantly, the volume is a mostly entertaining read throughout. The main storyline of this volume is an engaging one, as Rio’s efforts to acclimate to his new self and grow as a capable, resilient person in this unique world are perceptible and empathetic, and thus immersive. Also, his drive to take hold of advantages presented, all in preparation for a future odyssey, is just as perceptible.

Regarding specific elements of the story, the action scenes, though few, shine with suspense and force, and each is their chapter’s highlight. They also work notably well to display Rio’s growth as he acclimates to new and particular strengths offered by Haruto’s experiences and the spirit within him. Of course, they add distinct intensity and energy, too. Then there are the many scenes between Rio interacting with the aristocracy, which are commonly peppered with hints of stinging arrogance and vitriol from the nobles’ side, whereas he demonstrates a calm tolerance, patience, and remarkable maturity. The play in tones and moods from the differing attitudes definitely helps make them felt. I also appreciate the scarce, yet poignant times in which Rio’s frustration comes through, making him more relatable, and offering another layer of individual mood. For their brighter tones, I found myself looking forward to the scenes between Rio and his teacher and only friend at the academy, Celia Claire. These scenes are heartwarming, depicting the evolution of their relationship from strangers, to teacher and pupil, to having genuine care for one another. These scenes, and their dynamic as a whole, set moods of warmth, humor, and uplift, and are a wonderful reminder that there is sincerity and light in this brusque, prejudiced world. Lastly, world building and background exposition add further touches of depth, and the details describing the extrinsic society Rio now finds himself in also add distinct tones. Overall, Kingdom of Lies’s story is an engaging one, with its portrayals of setting and character, its palpable tones and moods, and its imaginative events which all work together to satisfyingly immerse and impress.

Despite its successes of delivering intrigue, stirring the imagination, and establishing a solid foundation, Kingdom of Lies’s story has its shortcomings. The foremost issue is the author’s reliance on many common literary tropes. Popular elements and themes such as rebirth in another world, the scenario of a protagonist’s ascension from obscurity, and the commoner versus nobility device, are used to move through much of the introductory groundwork, as well as begin the volume proper. I can fully understand their need, as an impressive amount of story and setup are made concise and manageable for us readers. However, it also makes some of the events and plotlines feel a touch too familiar. For example, school scenes in particular are lacking in the ways of rivet or uniqueness and proceed in an uninspired manner. Although used well to further the feelings and tones of inequality between Rio and his classmates, these interactions, necessary as they are to set tone, are mostly predictable.

Fortunately, author Kitayama mostly uses these tropes and devices as frameworks, developing plenty of variation and creativity around them, and thus keeping the storylines fresh. The events after the princess’s rescue come to mind, as the volume offers its first touch of a much darker style. Another example, the school life trope serves a purpose of introducing characters, mindsets, and other elements of characters and the world around them. And like the school life trope, several of them are eventually moved away from once they’ve served their purposes. However, as some are let go, there is a tendency of a new one or two being picked up later. Rio’s dubiously matchless skill near the volume’s end hints at the overpowered trope, and his popularity with girls is an aspect I could see devolving into a cliché in the future. Overall, while I’ll praise their effective usage to help introduce and move the story along, and although mainly used as a step to build more unique story moments from, there are yet feelings of commonness during the read that stem from the reliance of tropes.

The only other narrative issue I could debate is the use of exposition for characters. I felt there is a reliance on explaining how Rio or others are thinking, feeling, or interacting in given moments. I would have preferred dialogue or inner monologue in many of these cases, as I see them as opportunities lost for more character development. They could have served to show, rather than tell, the whats and hows regarding emotions and reasonings. I suppose this is more a personal preference in the end as, fortunately, the exposition isn’t so overdone as to take anything away from the experience, and I would leave this saying most readers may never take issue.

Along with an engaging story and solid series start, Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies accomplishes much regarding the introduction and development of its main character. With the merge between Haruto’s and Rio’s souls, this new Rio is a fascinating character, whose arc includes his efforts to acclimate to his new self as he navigates what is essentially a new world, one of magic and nobility, for them both. This familiarization with his new self is mostly shown through the ways each of the two’s previous personalities influence thinking and decision making. Haruto’s intelligence, experience, and thus his adaptability and resilience shine through as Rio faces new experiences and situations. I appreciate seeing the thought processes and reasonings behind decisions and actions, making for a calculated character with noteworthy maturity. His decision to take advantage of enrollment, as well as how he handles his classmates demonstrate his acumen. Even the common aspects of this school life, like practicing self-defense and studying to familiarize himself with the knowledge of this world, all convey insight and cleverness. Although Haruto’s personality is intended to be prominent, I also like how the previous Rio’s traits, with his cautiousness and distrust, are also present and influence that reasoning. The best example is the prudence shown when Rio must decide whether to involve himself with nobles by returning the kidnapped princess. When these differences in personalities come up, though noticeably scarce, they help portray the inner workings of the character’s new, single personality. Overall, being treated to the mindset and workings of this fused college student as he processes and navigates his new story is curiously captivating, and I’m look forward to the new Rio’s continued evolution.

I also appreciate Celia’s characterization, though hers is a bit more traditional and linear. A twelve year old child prodigy and current professor at the royal academy, Celia is immediately portrayed as a kind, compassionate individual who is quick to demonstrate care and sympathy for Rio. Before even knowing him, as one never concerned with social differences, Celia shows friendliness, patience, and consideration to Rio. When their relationship grows to that of teacher and student and later as earnest friends, Celia takes particular care of him, making sure he can handle schoolwork, while also keeping keen watch over him given her full awareness of the inevitable exclusion and prejudices he faces. I think my favorite example of this is when Celia asks Rio about his future, going so far as to offer him a position to continue working together with her research.  Warm and sympathetic, with moments of pure charm, Celia is an easily lovable character.

Unfortunately, character development has its flaws too, of which their impact on the story can’t be easily dismissed. One standout flaw for me is Rio’s character before the merge. I found it to be rather bare; a framework waiting to be filled by Haruto rather than one evenly subsisting alongside Haruto’s. Rio has a tragic backstory, which begins with a horrible event that plunges his existence into despair, but it ends there. The event itself, and an explanation that his life has been awful since, are all we truly get for Rio’s initial development. Also, we get tidbits of his life before the tragedy, but again, not much else of substance until the merge. I feel Rio’s personality is perhaps left intentionally sparse for the purpose of being colored in by Haruto’s. Indeed, many a times during my read, it felt as if I were reading solely about Haruto in a different world, rather than a combined individual. I’m glad for when certain aspects specific to the original Rio do come through, such as his difficulty to trust, as well as glimmers of his apathy, born from loss and a descent into a dangerous, callous life of poverty. But so far, seeing only his doubt, caution, and apathy, it feels as if the old Rio simply represents the darker attributes of the merged psyche. Perhaps more from Rio’s past, through flashbacks and reminiscences, maybe even more of those negative qualities one would ultimately pick up from such a life, could have been introduced to add greater depth to the original Rio. Ultimately, I feel he could have had a deeper characterization, one that more evenly stands with Haruto’s, and one which could have intensified the mental and emotional struggles of their shared being.

A lesser shortcoming, though it still stood out for me, is the characterization of the side characters. Yes, they are side characters, but I couldn’t get away from just how minimal they are. Many, such as the nobility, are shown to have a primary personality trait without much in the way of development. The noble male classmates, for example, all seem like the same person, sharing identical personalities and so making them forgettable. Slightly more remarked characters, such as Princesses Christina and Flora Beltrum, still only possess few character traits. Christina has an attitude and is quick to be angered by Rio’s very presence, while Flora is the meek, mostly unassuming type. Familiar, and bland at times, as side characters, they, and the rest, yet serve their purposes as foils to Rio and contrasts to Celia. Even still, I am hoping we get a bit more depth in future volumes.

A final element I wish to address is the artwork of Volume 1. The cover and illustrations within are done by artist Riv, whose depictions of our main cast are detailed and charming. Whether it’s the sweetness of Celia, the sharpness of Rio, or the intensity of conflicts, the artwork adds appreciated notes of personality, tone, and emphasis. I also like seeing a bit of artwork, as I assume author Kitayama directed how Rio and the others are depicted, so it’s a glimpse of the author’s own imagination regarding these characters. My one wish would be for more, as the number of images included this volume is few, and what we are offered is beautiful.

Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies is an accomplishment, setting up what is seeming to be quite the epic, full of adventures and conflicts for Rio and the individuals, even the very realms, around him. While setting up for a series which suggests plenty in the way of complexity and imagination, this volume also offers its own set of stories which I found entertaining and mostly unique. With the depth of its main hero, the cleverness of its storylines, and its ability to deliver palpable feelings through its characters and clashes, Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies manages more than enough originality and immersion that I very much want to keep reading beyond this volume. I genuinely want to see how Rio’s journey will take shape after these first incredible, foundational steps and onto the second ones.

Review Score
Overall

English translation of Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies and all volumes of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles by J-Novel Club

The post Light Novel Review: Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Volume 1 – Kingdom of Lies appeared first on oprainfall.

I started playing JAST’s latest release, Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans, a few days ago and found it to be an interesting title. It’s pretty much what I expected given it’s a very simple title about a horde of goblins and taking over the world, but it had more mechanics than I expected and a few other surprises as well.

The story here is pretty much your run-of-the-mill isekai anime plot line. A guy is in a horrible accident and wakes up in a strange new world as a goblin. He is being led to a girl they have captured and is told to have sex with her. She instantly gets pregnant and gives birth, so the other goblins proclaim him their king. From here he explores the forest until he finds a witch named Emmy. She has a bit of a goblin fetish and is very happy to get some time in with their newly-found king. After their fun time he decides the only way home is to conquer this world and take on some magical power from the two warring factions. The Kingdom of Water is led by an elegant leader named Verina and her loyal knight Alyssa. The Fire Factor is lead by a crazy sadist named Rin and her loyal servant Yuka. These two have a big grudge with the water people because of battles that happened in the past. In order to defeat these lovely ladies, our hero will first have to gain some powers from the spirits of this land. This will help him counter their powerful magic, and there is only one way to gain their power, giving them your kingly rod!

While the story here is pretty much what you expect from a Nukige, there is some gameplay here to discuss. The game’s story unfolds in turns and on each of these you can choose an action. You can invade lands of the ladies, scout to see if you can find out more information about your enemies, breed with girls you’ve captured to bolster your army’s numbers, or explore the land in search of the spirits to gain their powers. The choice is yours, but you have to keep in mind you have a limited number of turns to break the ladies into submission in order to get the true ending.

The music and sound effects here are really nothing special but they get the job done. I think the voice acting is the standout in the sound department. These actors gave it their all when sexy times were happening and if you don’t want to share this glory with the world I would suggest a good pair of headphones.

The best part of this game in my opinion is the artwork. There are quite a few H-Scenes for each of the five heroines and one each for the five spirits, and everyone has great CG work. They are all nicely detailed and have some of the best quality I’ve seen in a more budget oriented title in a long time. As you may guess from the title, there are some extreme things in the H-Scenes and there is a lot of instant birth, but thankfully none of this is too graphic.

Goblins on the March: Breed all Humans is a pretty basic Nukige title with some gameplay elements thrown in here to spice things up. The artwork here is the real standout, but the localization deserves praise as well. They really gave these goblins and ladies a lot of character, so reading this was a lot of fun. If you’re looking for a simple but quality eroge title for $16.99, this one should fit the bill nicely. So long as some of the fetishes here aren’t something not in your wheelhouse.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

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You can check out NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] on the official website, on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram.

You can check out upcoming tour dates and find tickets available for purchase here.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

If you’re like me, then you want to know whether or not NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] is worth seeing without having anything about the contents of it spoiled. The answer is that if you are a fan of NieR, Yoko Taro, and Keiichi Okabe, then unequivocally yes: you should absolutely go because you will love every moment of it.

The composition selection is fantastic, the story plot is well-done, and I was more than a little impressed with how simply Yoko Taro-esque it all felt. Just one word of warning: This concert will spoil the plot, in detail, through ending E of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… and the grand majority of NieR:Automata. Also, if you haven’t played either game in a while, you might want to refresh yourself on the finer points of both before you go.

In short, I am giving NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] a perfect score, as it is a concert that no NieR-lover should miss out on.

If you’re looking for a more spoiler-filled review about everything but the concert’s canon plot details, then read on below the image of Yoko Taro!

SPOILER REVIEW

When I bought the ticket back in July 2023 for the debut performance of NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] in Los Angeles for January 27, 2024, I had not played either of the NieR titles or any of Yoko Taro’s other titles besides a little bit of the now-defunct SINoALICE mobile game, his FINAL FANTASY XIV Online tie-in content, and watching the BABYLON’S FALL event online. I ended up playing through both NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… and NieR:Automata BECOME AS GODS Edition in the months leading up to the concert. And even though I mildly groaned at having to complete both games five times, I did so and found a wonderful, unique, and different world in each game with memorable characters. I actually wrapped up NieR:Automata and its DLC a week and a half before the concert started.

I am glad I did so, because this concert is designed for those gamers who have wrung out every drop of plot-related gameplay they could. Everything from the game’s beginning until the end of Ending E in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is described and shown in depth throughout the show. NieR:Automata isn’t spoiled quite as deeply, but almost all of the major twists-and-turns of that game are covered here too. If you haven’t played both games, then you’re probably going to be lost plot-wise for quite a bit of the concert’s story.

Yes, this concert has a story scenario that fits fairly neatly into the storyline of NieR:Automata. While I will not go into depth about the plot itself, I will say that I was drawn rather deeply into it. The voice recordings by 2B (Kira Buckland) and 9S (Kyle McCarley) both fit in perfectly with how the characters were brought to life in the game a half-decade ago, and I was impressed with how strong the voice direction and script writing was. It really felt like Yoko Taro put a great deal of time into making sure that NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]’s plotline didn’t feel like a rushed, unimportant piece of NieR lore but was instead a true labor of love.

Amazing cosplay was everywhere at NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]. (Photos by author).

What surprised me more than anything else about NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]’s plot was how he integrated it into the two-hour-and-change concert. Ordinarily with a video game orchestra concert, a selected video game composition is played while gameplay content and cutscenes relevant to that particular piece is played in the background. Then, another piece is played afterwards and different cutscenes and gameplay are shown. It serves to invoke different emotions for, say Aerith’s Theme and Chocobo Medley, in the viewer because they use wildly different accompanying scenes and music.

NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] takes a different tact. Before most of the 21 musical pieces, the plot would continue on the screen via voiceover and text like how the storyline was told in the Forest of Myth in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… or in the Devola & Popola’s Memories novels from NieR:Automata. The vignettes would then frequently tie into the next musical selection either directly or thematically. Later on in the concert, 2B and 9S’s plotline itself would suddenly continue through text on the paired video screen. This smartly made the entire concert into a single, continuous story that I have not seen since the FINAL FANTASY VII: A Symphonic Reunion concert in June 2019 that I reviewed.

Unlike that one-off performance, however, NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] amazingly succeeds. You will find yourself flowing from musical piece to musical piece, your attention and your heart drawing deeper into 2B and 9S’s adventure, clinging to every word that appears on the screen and that comes through the audio setup as Yoko Taro made something simply special here. Most importantly, it truly felt like a fully-realized and canon episode of the NieR universe instead of a cash-grab side project.

If you’ve played through both NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… and NieR:Automata, then something you’ve probably noticed is that there are not a ton of rendered cutscenes in those games like you would find in a modern FINAL FANTASY or KINGDOM HEARTS franchise game. At least, there certainly is not enough to fill up two hours of performance in both games. NieR series director Yoko Taro and series composer Keiichi Okabe decided to smartly intermix clips of cutscenes with panning shots of various areas in the two games and by using effects such as blossoming fire and colorful polygon lines in sync with the music. While you would think this would be detrimental to the show itself, that couldn’t be any further from the truth, as the non-cutscene graphics’ synchronicity with the music really elevated each other in a way I wasn’t expecting. The unique ways in which the cutscenes were also often shown (which I am deliberately not sharing to keep it a surprise) also served to keep me on my toes with anticipation of what would be coming next.

The orchestra, titled the NieR Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, was expertly conducted by Eric Roth. I immediately recognized him, as he had previously conducted the April 2022 A New World: Intimate Music from FINAL FANTASY performance at Hertz Hall in Berkeley, California that I attended. While he did not chat with the audience between pieces like he did at that prior show, his conducting mastery was on display. He kept the live orchestra perfectly in sync with the video, and he was able to make sure that all of the orchestra was presented as a unified vision. The NieR Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus themselves gave a top-tier performance as well. They presented the different pieces clearly and cleanly, and I did not hear any obvious mistakes in their performance. I would like to draw special attention to the chimes – you will hear those in various points throughout NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data], and they always rang clearly through the surrounding orchestra while not overpowering everyone else. The chorus, which I gave up trying to count after close to 20 people, managed to sing the made-up ‘Chaos Language’ lyrics clearly and distinctly.

The other real stars of the show are the two singers who sang on NieR:Automata’s OST: Emi Evans and J’Nique Nicole. Both artists came on at multiple times throughout the show to sing various tracks, but their standout performance was Weight of the World. You could tell that everyone in the Peacock Theater was focused only upon them, and they earned every bit of the applause they got. Both Emi Evans and J’Nique Nicole have extremely unique voices. I loved how they brought themselves into harmony with each other in the Chaos Language while singing various songs, and that is something that I cannot imagine being easy. Finally, the dresses they both wore – Emi Evans in blue and J’Nique Nicole in red – were both incredibly striking and really helped to make them stand out among the darker colors of the orchestra.

NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]’s concert length itself was surprising, despite being split into the standard two-parts-and-an-intermission-plus-encore. Clocking the show from when the first piece started, the first half went for 48 minutes, then there was a 23-minute intermission, and then the final part plus encore was an hour and five minutes long. Adding in the late start time and the pre-performance introduction by Keiichi Okabe, the show lasted until about 10:50 PM, and I wasn’t able to get out of the building until 11 PM. If you’re going to see a subsequent show, definitely take the late start and finish into consideration for your parking/transportation needs.

Finally, I need to talk about NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]’s merchandise and how it was sold. In what would be a first for me having attended so many of these type of concerts in the past, the company handling the merchandise started selling the merch four-and-a-half hours before the show itself started outside of the venue. There were clearly marked queue lines that snaked back and forth through the outdoors plaza, and they only took card. I arrived an hour-and-40 minutes before they started to sell merchandise, and I was able to buy anything and everything I wanted from the show. While a lot of the items were also available on the SQUARE ENIX Online Store, there were unique concert items such as T-shirts, keychains, and postcards available to buy. The line also moved incredibly quickly, and I was able to get all my buying done within about 20 minutes.

The biggest surprise with the merchandise though? They held back a significant amount of it for purchase inside of the event hall itself. I ventured my way to the mezzanine floor 10 minutes before the official (and ultimately delayed) start time to see that even after 50 minutes had passed since the Peacock Theatre’s doors opened, there were still plenty of T-shirts of all sizes available for purchase. It really felt like that if you wanted a T-shirt for NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data], you could absolutely get one if you put a bit of pre-planning into it. I sincerely hope that SQUARE ENIX and AWR Music Productions adopts this practice of selling merchandise for all future concerts that they both have a hand in.

While I have extolled the many, many, positive aspects of NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data], there are three small issues I had with the concert. First, the late start time. This was the first video game orchestral concert I’ve attended that had a significant delay in start time (20 minutes, or so?). Second, there was a very minor volume level issue with J’Nique Nicole’s microphone for her first performance, but it was corrected by the time she returned to the stage. Finally, in what is probably the only true hiccup of the evening, it was announced that the voice performers for 2B and 9S were in the audience for the performance towards the end of the show. Everyone started to look around for them, and they were not spotlighted and did not stand up for everyone to see. That was more than a little baffling. All three of these were ultimately minor issues, however, and did not detract from the overall show.

Overall, NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] was fantastic. Yoko Taro and Keiichi Okabe did an amazing job creating a show for fans of the NieR franchise, and their heartwarming statements at the beginning/end of the show really made my night.

If you love NieR and you can get tickets to the show, even if you can’t get to participate in a meet and greet session, then you have to go because you will not regret a second of it. NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] is an orchestral masterpiece and you must not miss out on it. I almost never give out a perfect score for an orchestral video game-inspired concert, but NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] is something truly special.

Review Score
Overall

You can check out upcoming tour dates and find tickets available for purchase here.

Did you attend NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] in Los Angeles?

What musical piece are you most excited to hear?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post REVIEW- NieR:Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] Is A Must-See Show appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve had a chance to sit down with the Nintendo Switch release of Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters and it’s time to share my thoughts on this port. I’m pretty letdown this release didn’t include the swimsuits by default and they are locked to the Digital Deluxe release. This version does have Maho and Anri as playable characters, which is exclusive to this release. This is just a terrible way to do business as it forces players to buy more than one version if they want all the content. Even the folks who sprang for the limited editions of the previous releases still had to pony up for a Digital Deluxe if they wanted the swimsuits. You can get those on the disc if you want to get the upcoming physical Xbox release, which is just odd in and of itself. Let’s hope this is something they fix with the upcoming release of Gamer Maker.

Since I wanted to cover the performance of this port I will be very light on story and gameplay details in this review. If you want a more detailed look at the story and mechanics please check out my review of the PlayStation 4 release. The story begins as Neptune and the other Goddesses receive a distress call from the PC Continent. They depart to handle this emergency while the CPU Candidates are sent to a nearby abandoned lab to investigate its contents. There they discover a sleeping Goddess, the Ashen Goddess, and as she awakens she traps the sisters in capsules for two years! When they are awakened, they find the world is not how they left it. The latest smartphone, “rPhone,” dominates all of Gamindustri markets, and Planeptune was lost due to Trendi attacks while both Neptune and Nepgear have been away. Nepgear finds herself in a state of depression having lost both her sister and her home; however, new friends Maho and Anri help Nepgear get back on her feet, and they begin to try to get things back in order. Nepgear’s struggle will be great in the face of this new enemy. Can she overcome it and take back her home and save Gamindustri?

Gameplay here is a bit different than previous entries, since the combat is all action based. The world map hasn’t changed a bit however, this is the Gamindustri you know and love. Players will go from place to place, completing missions to progress the story forward. There are plenty of sidequests that come up as well through the ever-popular Chirper app. Here you can take on quests, claim rewards and give likes to the Chirps from the various residents of Gamindustri. These quests are what you would expect: hunt X monster, gather X item, or find lost residents. You will not only gain rewards from this, but also unlock new scouts to use in Disc Development. Making these discs will give you a ton of different buffs that are very useful in battle.

The girls will gain new special abilities and moves as they level up to make slaying your foes even easier with amazing combo attacks. The Switch release gives you access to Maho and Anri right off the bat. Shanghai Alice and Higurashi are also unlocked instantly, so you won’t have to complete the game to use them in combat. This does make the first areas of the game a bit easier since you have access to characters with powerful attacks early on. The photo mode is unlocked when you launch the game as well, which makes a lot more sense than having it do so after you complete one run of the main story.

Graphically I have to say this is one of the best ports Idea Factory has done for the Switch. The character models still look good, even if a bit scaled back, and the environments still look great as well. The shadows on the characters look a bit strange at times, and there are greater loading times than the PlayStation 4 release. This occurs when going in and out of battle, so it can make things janky at times. Overall the framerate is pretty solid, docked or playing in handheld mode, but you will notice some hitches in combat every once in a while. These aren’t too frequent, but it does throw off your combo when it occurs.

Overall the Nintendo Switch release of Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters is pretty solid. It may not be as pretty as the other releases, but it still looks good and runs at a solid framerate. The addition of Maho and Anri as playable characters gives this version something the others don’t have, and this is a pretty solid game overall on any platform. The base release will set you back $49.99, and if you want a decent portable version or just want to play around with new characters it’s probably worth your coin. If you have another version of the game already, there isn’t much extra here for you to dig into.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Neptunia: Sisters VS. Sisters (Switch) appeared first on oprainfall.

When I first saw Custom Mech Wars, I thought it looked like a lot of fun. It reminded me of Earth Defense Force with huge robots that you should be able to customize in any way you can imagine. I finally got a chance to sit down and play through the 40 mission campaign, and now I want to share my thoughts. Was this the fun and crazy mech game I’d been waiting for, or did it just fizzle out from the start? Let’s find out!

The story takes place in a time when an enormous comet is approaching Earth. While the comet will not collide with our planet, it will cause major changes to our environment through changes to our sun and gravity. There will be large seismic, volcanic, and electromagnetic events that will be catastrophic to our way of life. Many areas are evacuated, and AI-controlled robots are left to patrol these areas. You are part of the Four-Seven Security Service. This group provides some services in the abandoned areas, such as crime prevention, repair, and putting out the volcanic fires. You soon learn many of the G-Mechs working the area are controlled by an AI that has gone haywire, and it is your task to suppress these rogue units.

Graphically, Custom Mech Wars looks pretty good. The mechs have a lot of details, and there are tons of parts you can use to build these units any way you like. There are several heads, arms, legs, torsos and dozens of different weapons you can use to load out these beasts for combat. The enemy units do not differ from the ones you can build yourself, but the AI seems to have access to many parts you cannot use yourself at that time. The environments are nicely detailed as well, there are empty fields, abandoned cities, airfields, and more. The PC port doesn’t have 1440p resolution for some odd reason, but the game ran at 140 FPS on my 3060 at 1080p, so I’m guessing you could do 4K at around a solid 60 with the same card.

In the sound department, I’d have to call this one pretty basic. There are a few music tracks that play while you’re blasting your foes to pieces. These are not terrible, but nothing really stands out about them either. There are opening and ending theme songs that are nicely done, but the rest of this OST is pretty bland. The sound effects are decent and get the job done. Many different sounds, from the guns firing and G-Mechs being blasted to pieces, fit the game well and add to the overall experience. The game has voice acting that tells the story through communications during the missions. These actors do a decent job here, but this story is so basic, there isn’t much they could do to add any flavor to it.

Gameplay here is pretty much what you would expect from D3 Publisher making a game like EDF with mechs. You will take on dozens of mechs during each of the campaign missions, unlocking new parts to build better weapons and machines along the way. This all seems good in theory, since just like with other titles, you will gain better parts for completing the missions on higher difficulties. But here, it just seems like they never give you enough parts to build anything cool. I did all the story missions on normal, and there are many different mechs in various sizes, that I didn’t have nearly enough parts to complete. While I get you don’t want players to be overpowered, in a game where the selling point was, “look at all the cool mechs you can make,” having the parts available to the player to create things should’ve been priority one. They have improved things a bit through the patches that have been released since launch, but I still feel like this could be a lot better.

When you finally get some parts unlocked, building the mechs is a ton of fun. You can attach various parts to several points along each torso, arm, leg, and various other parts. These include more arms or legs, crazy accessories, or some good old fashioned firepower to blast your foes away. These include several auto guns, melee weapons, rocket launchers, lasers, shotguns, machine guns, and many more instruments of destruction. I had a lot of fun just seeing what sorta crazy creations I could come up with and painting them various colors. You can even edit their deployment animations for an extra touch.

Custom Mech Wars isn’t really a bad game, but it gets wrong the one thing that makes it really shine by not letting players have access to the parts fast enough. It’s really fun to create some crazy mech and just go out there and blast all your foes to bits during the missions, but when you have to use the same ones for most of the game because you don’t have enough parts to make what you really want, it gets a little frustrating. I’d have a hard time recommending this one at the full $49.99 price tag, but if you catch it on sale, there is some fun to be had here. It took me around 13 hours to beat all of the missions on normal mode, and you could put a ton more in if you wanted to grind out all the parts to make the really cool mechs. Hopefully, they continue to patch the game a bit more and allow players access to more fun stuff to build their crazy creations with sooner.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Custom Mech Wars appeared first on oprainfall.

Years ago when I watched Love Live! Sunshine!! I was very taken with Yoshiko Tsushima, AKA Yohane. I thought she was by far the cutest member of Aqours and her chunni antics just made me love her even more. So I was very excited when I found she was getting her own spin off anime project, Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, and even more so when Inti Creates announced they were making a Metroidvania title based off the anime, called Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. After I enjoyed the anime series, I was very excited to dig into the game to see where this story continuation was going. Let’s see how everything turned out!

The story here begins as a strange undersea dungeon suddenly surfaces near the town of Numazu. It quickly becomes all folks in town can talk about, so Yohane’s friends each begin to explore the dungeon one by one, but they never return. Yohane decides to venture into the dungeon to rescue her lost friends with the help her faithful dog Lailaps. What mysteries lie ahead of her in the dungeon, and will she be able to rescue her friends?

The story here is pretty basic, but for those who enjoyed the anime this is a great side adventure. I love seeing the girls interact with each other, and the Easter Eggs they threw in here for fans of the anime and Aqours in general. This one isn’t going to blow you away with amazing storytelling, but if you’re a fan of Yohane or Love Live! Sunshine!! you will have a good time here seeing all the girls in action once again.

Graphically the game is done in that fantastic pixel art style Inti Creates is known for. The character sprite works still comes out quite detailed this way, and all of the girls’ sprites were very cute, down to the last details! Enemy models look great as well, with a pretty good assortment of them. There are still re-colors, but I felt like there were less here than in some of their other games. The boss monsters really shine with their huge size and impressive looks. You can tell the team put some love into each one. The environments themselves are great as well. Each one is very detailed and you really get immersed into the type of area, from lava filled volcano to fluffy candy style areas. The game ran great on the Switch from start to finish with no frame drops.

In the music department, Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE really shines. Each area has amazing theme music that fits the feel of it. This includes a mysterious sounding theme for the temple and more upbeat theme as you begin to explore this underwater dungeon. The theme song, “Deep Blue”, is an amazing tune that got stuck in my head for a long time after I stopped playing this one. I wish Inti Creates would’ve included an in-game music library, or something for completing the game, so you could enjoy these tunes on the fly, but there was nothing unlocked post game. Which is one of my complaints here: it’s pretty bare bones overall outside of the main game.

The gameplay here is very much that of your standard Metroidvania title. You will explore each area of the dungeon, battling enemies and bosses as you save your friends and gain new abilities. Each girl has two unique skills, one you gain as soon as you free them, and the other when you find a hidden item in the dungeon. All of these skills can be used to slay enemies in the dungeons, such as Dia’s electric slash and Hanamaru’s adorable rolling attack. These skills can also be used to solve puzzles in the dungeon to gain access to new areas as well, but players should also look out for special items in treasure chests too. These will give Yohane some new skills and allow her to equip more accessories as well.

Yohane can purchase a number of healing items and items that will buff your stats from her fortune telling shop with in-game currency. These help you out in a pinch if you need to restore your health or Darkness points. The latter is what you use to call out your friends to help you in combat or use the variety of weapons you can cast. That’s right: you can cast a variety of weapons and accessories from the materials dropped from defeated monsters.

Weapon casts include several different types of bows and swords, each with different properties, so you can choose whichever fits your play style the best. Cloaks and accessories can be cast as well. These give you various buffs that will keep you alive during the harshest areas of the dungeon. Some will give immunity to status aliments while others may cut down different types of damage. Each one will give Yohane a boost in HP and Darkness points, so you will have to balance her out as you see fit. I went with a big HP build and tanked a lot of the bosses, but this is totally up to you.

Overall I had a great time with Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEP BLUE. I loved exploring the dungeon and seeing all of my favorite Aqours members once again. Each girl’s skills were very unique and suited them very well. Hanamaru having a laptop fall from the heavens to make it explode with a single touch made me laugh out loud since I got the reference from the original anime, and this is what games like this should do. I feel like the package is a bit light on extras since there is nothing to do after completing the game. No new game plus with more difficulty, unlockable galleries or even a way to listen to the music post game. It will take you around eight hours to see everything the game has to offer and I feel like it is worth the $29.99 price tag for fans of the anime or Yohane, but everyone else might want to wait for a sale to snatch this one up. While I loved everything here personally, I was a big fan of the series going into this, so I know I got a bit more out of this than those just looking for another Metroidvania to pick up. That said, I have no issue telling fans to snatch this up ASAP, it’s a lot of fun with girls you know and love.

Review Score
Overall

Game was purchased by the reviewer.

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