Starlight of Aeons
Negatives:
Main program is flagged as a malware by Windows Defender so you have to get around that to install this.
No full screen support
No text speed option
No framerate lock
4 hr kinetic novel with full Chinese VA (none on 3rd story, “1/30000 Days to Love” though). There are 3 stories, but the first 2 just make one story together. Good writing/narrative, characters, and art. Great soundtrack. Philosophical.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
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– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Forgotten Sound 2: Destiny
bad, not interesting, lame gameplay and puzzles. Weak interface.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Mystery Games.
CLANNAD
it’s alright, I guess…
– Real player with 1000.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Visual Novel Games.
this game.. what can i even say about this game? This is not just a game, but a part of my life now, one that i will cherish deeply forever. this game can make you laugh, cry, and just enjoy the simplicity of living. not a single moment is not perfectly made. I cant even begin to count how many times this game has made my cry more than anything else. This game was able to bring true love and happiness into my life, and i would choose to keep this over anything or anyone else in a heartbeat. This is easily the game ever made, and a masterpiece i will always look back on with love.
– Real player with 94.6 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Labyrinth of Lies
it’s okay! i probably would’ve given it a thumbs down if i’d played it before midnight in salem, but it’s definitely better than midnight in salem.
my main complaint is the pacing and the amount of spoon-feeding. there are a lot of nd games where you are sort of led gently through the story, but this one feels less like you’re driving it and more like it’s being told to you with puzzles. most of the major breakthroughs don’t feel like things that you did yourself, but that might just be me. that being said, the sets are pretty, if a little immersion-breaking. the characters vary in quality imo.
– Real player with 44.3 hrs in game
This morning I was fired from my job after 25 years of working there. My boss had retired and let this POS college grad with $200,000 in student debt and an ego the size of Texas take over, firing everyone over the age of 35 in order to “progress the company into the next century.” FCK YOU, CHAD! FCK YOU AND YOUR PORSCHE YOUR DAD BOUGHT YOU! Have fun looking for the huge sh*t I took in your wiper fluid container!!!
TlDr Nancy Drew 8/10 Would recommend
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Sea of Darkness
This game hands-down has the best graphics I’ve ever seen in a Nancy Drew game- from the gorgeous northern lights in the sky to the stunning ice caves to the characters themselves, the graphics were absolutely beautiful in my opinion. I found all of the characters to be likeable/ could sympathize with them to some extent as well. If anything, I wish there was even more dialogue so I could have spent more time getting to know some of the characters. This game was chock-full of puzzles and I found them to be quite challenging on Master sleuth level. Something that surprised/ disappointed me was how few “fatal errors” there were to make in this game- I’ve heard there were only three total. I weirdly enjoy the deaths in these games and was a little disappointed to have so few. All in all, an awesome game which I would strongly recommend. It took me 15 hours to complete.
– Real player with 15.2 hrs in game
Not bad as far as Nancy Drew games go…
I’ve been loyally playing these since ‘Secrets can Kill’ first came out back in the 90s so I can assure you this is better than the atrocity which was ‘The Creature of Kapu Cave’ or the utter nonsense which was ‘Ransom of the Seven Ships’. This game was a much better ‘ship’ game that’s for certain and the ‘ship facts’ were fun to listen to.
It definitely ranks below the kings of the saga, but it is still enjoyable. The puzzles are not bad, though some of them use common themes and it feels a tad repetitive. The mini games are fun though and I enjoyed making enough money to purchase everything in the gift shop (because I can). Plus the Iceland scenery is nice. In general the plot was… a bit more mediocre than some of the other games - I suspected the guilty party immediately and the climax felt a bit stunted.
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
Last Day of June
I don’t know how I keep finding my way into “walking simulators”. I suppose it’s because I have a desire to see extremely compelling stories, and walking simulators have to contain a better than average stories as that’s what keeps drawing people in. In this Last Day of June succeeds at an unprecedented level.
There was some trouble in my life when I played this game and when I looked at my list of games, I saw this was coming up next I had a feeling I was going to have an issue. I didn’t want a depressing game, I didn’t want to feel sad. Yet this was next on my playlist, so I hunkered down and prepared for a short session after which I would put it aside for later. Instead, I spent over an hour and a half watching this brilliant story unfolding, trying to do a let’s play for it and constantly being distracted by the way it delivers its story. You can see it in the youtube video linked below.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Although visually and audibly an enjoyable game to play, Last Day of June has a few issues that caused me to not be able to recommend it overall. The first has to do with the story itself. The story portrays a tragic car accident very early on in the game (which can be seen in the trailer that was released,) and involves the protagonist survivor Carl going back in time to try to prevent June from dying. During the game, glimpses of their past is shown that reveal how their relationship was in the years prior to the accident. Memories of several of the other characters can also be collected as an optional part of gameplay that give additional background on them as well as for Carl and June. The problem is the lack of most of this background before the accident occurs, apart from a short flashback that briefly introduces the characters and explains why Carl and June decided to go to the dock. The player knows almost nothing about these characters when June dies, and it’s difficult (in my opinion, though some may disagree) to have an emotional response about her death. Later on in the game, after discovering how their relationship had been before she passed, it’s much easier to sympathize with Carl’s loss. However, in my opinion, this occurs too late. Had the player been able to either see sequences of them interacting in the past in the prologue of the game, or better yet to actually play through scenes that highlight the love that they had for each other, the car accident would have been far more impactful, and the urgency of trying to save her would make the story much more enjoyable to experience. As it stands, however, the story felt a bit mediocre.
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
Life is Strange 2
Life is Strange 2
Life is Strange 2 is an episodic, story driven, supernatural-ish game in which your decisions will change the outcome of the story between the two brothers as well as their friends they made on the way.
Story
The main protagonist of Life is Strange 2 is Sean Diaz who tries to get to Mexico with his little brother Daniel Diaz after a tragic event at their home, in which Sean discovered that his little brother has some sort of supernatural abillity. Wanted by the police, the two brothers try their best to strengthen their bond on the way to their father’s hometown Puerto Lobos.
– Real player with 52.4 hrs in game
If you’re craving anything even remotely similar to the storytelling in Life is Strange 1 or Before the Storm, you should may as well look elsewhere. If you don’t like social themes in you games – regardless of subtlety or lack thereof – you’re probably wasting your time, too.
Minor plot spoilers for Life is Strange 1 and 2.
On a technical level, LiS 2 far surpasses LiS 1 and even BTS. Environments feel much less static. Dialogue is more fluid. You’ll find yourself wandering around, only to discover little quips and comments from Sean, Daniel, or the other characters minutes later. The animations are spectacular. Lip-syncing is no longer puppet-quality, although that issue was mostly resolved in BTS. You’ve got your standard Dontnod/Deck Nine beautiful environmental shots. While on the topic of visuals, LiS 2 is undoubtedly the most visually diverse Life of Strange game to date. You get to see sleepy small towns blanketed in snow, redwood forests in California, scorched deserts. You even get a small taste of that original LIfe is Strange vibe (you know what I mean if you play it) in Episode 1 that sort of lulls you into a false sense of security. You think for a second that this game will be kind of like the other Life is Strange games. Boy, are you going to be in for a shock.
– Real player with 51.3 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Haunted Carousel
Nothing really haunting - but a lot of riddles to solve.
In this episode of Nancy drew you have to find out why an old carousel is going bump in the night. Since there was a piece of it stolen it start’s to run on it’s own will - or so it seems.
Again the game uses the standard routines of interviewing people, talking with friends and try to solve riddles in the amusement park. All to soon it comes clear that all of the people you can interview might have a motive.
Technically this game is a point and click adventure, the game is aimed for younger female audiences, but again it’s playable for all who like adventure and puzzle games. This series is famous for the sometimes creepy stories that are involved. Oh… have I told you that you can have serious accidents during the adventure? No… well… Now you know! Have fun bashing in your head. Don’t worry since there is a cute replay option, something we urgently need in real life.
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
Replaying this was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise, because this was the game that caused my Nancy Drew burnout ~10 years ago. It seemed boring to me, probably because there wasn’t as much of a history focus outside of the history of carousels and is set in a lame, drab amusement park. This time around, I thought it was a pretty strong entry to the series.
I remember having some trouble with the puzzles before, which I breezed through this time. As you need full access to the park to carry out an investigation, you receive a handbook that covers various topics relevant to puzzles throughout the game, including use of a lathe, Ohm’s law, soldering, and more. I think the handbook seemed overwhelming the first time, but it’s really not. There was a small programming-related puzzle, too. I learned a bit of programming since the my first play, so I wasn’t confused by that puzzle except that it didn’t actually make much sense (you had to write a game update into the code, which was done by making the update name the parameter of the gameover function). It was a nice thought, but that could have been a better puzzle that taught more than it did.
– Real player with 10.2 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Tomb of the Lost Queen
I really like the graphics of this game and how in order to progress in the computer game, during which you play as Nancy Drew, you are trying to figure out the nature of the crime (whatever the crime is) by being a sleuth. I enjoyed reading the Nancy Drew books growing up during my childhood and it was really fun for me, as well as my family because my sister and I grew up watching watching mysteries, and so I’ve always liked to solve mysteries too. I think the Nancy Drew games are really nicely done because it feels like you’re solving the crime as a sleuth rather than someone who works for law enforcement, which is why I feel it’s more fun in that regard and you can progress in the game by using clues that you find while playing and also talking to various suspects in the game to investigate, which not only gives you information about them that would help in your investigation, but also helps to continue to progress further along in the game.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
This is a must for anyone who’s a fan of the Egyptian tomb-exploration setting. I’d say the puzzles are medium to difficult, but they shouldn’t cause you too much pain unlike some of the more challenging installments. Some were very challenging for me but only because I happen to be really bad at ‘find the hidden word’ and sliding block puzzles.
I feel that the cast let this installment down a little. There are only four others with you at the dig site, one of whom is only there for a limited time, and none of them were particularly interesting or likeable. Often the dialogue felt like it was going nowhere and dragging on forever. On top of that Bess is the only one of Nancy’s regular crew you can chat with on the phone, and she’s even less helpful than usual. I did enjoy the reapperance of Professor Hotchkiss, though, and Nancy’s employer/supervisor. Despite the lacklustre cast and non-excistent mystery, the puzzles, the setting, and the fascinating history makes up for a lot.
– Real player with 23.8 hrs in game
Narcissu 1st & 2nd
This is not a game in the traditional sense. You don’t have to navigate, survive, move, do anything at all. Consider it a Visual Novel with no decisions points at all. Think of it as listening to a story.
One playtime of N1 is about 3-4 hours, and N2 approximately double of that. (Notwithstanding the time spent crying) Although the game allows you to save, I suggest taking a Saturday afternoon to finish your first playthrough in one sitting. I wouldn’t finish N1 and N2 in a single day though, as both are very emotionally draining.
– Real player with 86.2 hrs in game
~Spoiler Free Review~
Despite being a VN/LN lover, I hadn’t heard of Narcissus until one of my fave developers mentioned it, saying that it was an inspiration to him and was part of the motivation that caused him to start writing for VNs too. I figured his taste was trustworthy, so I sought out Narcissus and gave it a go, and I’m so glad I did!
First off, I want to mention that the experience is best done by reading the novels in reverse release order; Narcissu 1st was the original VN, and then Narcissu 2nd, despite being released afterwards, is actually a prequel that sets up the events of the first game. You get SO MUCH MORE emotional meaning if you read the prequel first - otherwise the weight of the events isn’t anywhere near as hard hitting. So I’d recommend reading 2nd before 1st.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game