CLANNAD Side Stories
So I sign into steam and much to my surprise I see Clannad Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de (Clannad Side Stories) on the store page, and after a brief moment of incomparable excitement and a small amount of time to recompose myself I bought the game, now if you have seen my original review of Clannad you will most likely know I have a great deal of passion for this subject matter…..
so I guess I’ll preface this review the same way I did with the original Clannad VN, and this is by saying I maybe a tad bit bias in this as I absolutely love Clannad, I have the Manga, the Blurays, the 10th anniversary art book, so yeah just keep that in mind while reading this review, and try to forgive me ;)
– Real player with 680.7 hrs in game
CLANNAD Side Stories Official English Release, Published onto steam by Sekai Project and Developed by Key, who has also developed visual novels like Kanon, Air and Little Busters just to name a few. CLANNAD Side Stories is known as ＣＬＡＮＮＡＤ -クラナド- 光見守る坂道で in Japanese. It is originally released on PlayStation®Portable in 2010, it combined the text of the respective novel published in 2005 and audio from the drama CD’s published in 2007. Each story centers around a specific character from CLANNAD, from Nagisa to Yoshino, even including Kyou’s pet, Botan. [Botan is pretty cute but not my favorite of the bunch] Each short story adds rewarding depth to the world of CLANNAD and its cast. A small note before I proceed this review will be slightly different from the other reviews as there will not be any score given. Relavent links can be found at the bottom of this review.
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
Tales of the Neon Sea
Tales of The Neon Sea-Exciting domestic Chinese style cyberpunk game.
Leave a comment on my favorite game is my tribute to this game.
In the thought of many people, cyberpunk-style games should have several characteristics: a huge world view, a huge map, and a thought-provoking ending. And this game changed my opinion.
The ethereal worldview casts an invisible shadow on the cyberpunk style. Although there are many background books and texts in the game, they focus on introducing the background of the main task of the game itself, and avoid discussing the background of cyberpunk. In my opinion, this is really the finishing touch of this game. The game brings players who are on the main storyline into a real cyberpunk and Chinese-style atmosphere through a good drawing style, which not only allows players to see the punk style of the future city in the rich plot, but also allows the tragedy mainline process Of players get a touch of comfort and a sense of belonging.
– Real player with 31.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Kickstarter Dystopian Games.
In A Nutshell
🔵 Pros
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Excellent, modern pixel-art graphical style, with great amount of detail and care in the realization of environments.
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Overall good variety of puzzle types throughout the game, keeping it interesting and not redundant.
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Original, interesting setting, ensuring information about world lore and characters do not sound as something “already seen”.
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Many additional lore elements, secret collectibles to gather for the more attentive players.
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Tons of smart references to pop, anime, movie and video-game culture elements and characters.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Godus
it’s 2 years later and essentially nothing has changed… key personel in the company that were working on the game left because their contracts were not renewed, and insider whispers are that nobody is working on it anymore… the company denies that, yet nothing has been added or changed. Instead, they started making yet another microtransaction laden game for IOS, which, not only tries to push you to spend real money, but also has an obnoxious character that gets in your way frequently to try to get you to watch advertisements. 22cans… you are dead to me!
– Real player with 482.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Kickstarter Multiplayer Games.
GODUS Beta 2.1 Review Update August 2014
8 months after my first Review of this game, I have given Godus another 20 hours of game play in the latest 2.1 Patch.
The worst parts of the old Godus Alpha have been fully realised, Godus 2.1 is now an iOS game and the freemium model mechanics are fully in place.
After 20 hours in the 2.1 build I can say that there is no game here, just a count down mechanic, followed by a countdown mechanic, everything else you do in Godus leads you to a bigger countdown.
– Real player with 144.3 hrs in game
Memory’s Dogma CODE:01
So, imagine you see a luscious, appetizing cake, copious amounts of fluffy white cream topped with a juicy, plump strawberry beckoning you to taste it. You take a knife, cut yourself a slice, and lo and behold, to your delight, you see a layer of chocolate cream sandwiched between the two layers of sponge cake making up the treat. Mouth watering, you spear a piece on a fork, carry it to your mouth, anticipating the sweetness about to bloom on your tongue, only to discover the chocolate cream is, in fact, dog shit, what you thought was sponge cake is just regular dish-scrubbing sponge, and the strawberry is plastic. The whipped cream is the real deal, but will that make you feel any better? Memory’s Dogma is in fact just that: an attempt to pass a pile of garbage off as something appealing, at least outwardly. The core of it is completely rotten though.
– Real player with 56.3 hrs in game
Short story, most people will be able to complete it within 2-3 hours or less.
The story is actually rather generic anime plot and predictable, but I still enjoyed the content nevertheless. Just come in with low expectations and have the characters, environment, and music immerse you, since those are the selling points rather than the story itself. Art and CG is very good.
However, there’s a particular scene (actually, a character) that didn’t make any sense to me. Felt it was extremely forced drama. But if I rambled on about this character or this scene in particular, it would be spoilers. This character’s motivations are basically illogical and the story doesn’t give them a chance to redeem themselves and the point of this scene. Felt like it was just there to create some delusional pain or attempt to frighten the audience, but it didn’t quite work on me. This scene could’ve been much better but they failed to execute.
– Real player with 16.1 hrs in game
Order of Ataxia: Initial Effects
No reviews for this one? Guess I’ll give it a shot.
This is a visual novel. If you’ve never played one of those, gameplay consists of reading and making choices. Basically a choose your own adventure.
TL;DR at the end.
At the time of this review, the game is not fully voiced (it will be getting a voice patch later, according to the store page). I completed a single path through the game, and reloaded before the final choice to get a second ending. Took me 3.5 hours.
ART: You can see the art in the screenshots on the store page. It remains consistant the whole way through. Characters have several facial expressions and a couple poses.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
I rarely ever write reviews but I like the developers other visual novels and this one didn’t quite reach that expectations but even so it’s by no means bad. I didn’t write a review so much as make two lists but it’s what came to mind so that’s what I did and now I’ll go to waiting for the next Rising Angels episode. :)
Bellow are my positives and negatives for the visual novel.
Bad/what could be improved:
- Better audio visual feedback when you click something, like a sound effect or the text to scroll.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
Guard Duty
Did not enjoy the gameplay even for a moment. Pains me to say it, because the graphics and animation were superb. The story was forgettable (I spent the first hour looking for my pants), and the voice acting was just okay (though plentiful).
Besides the fact that I was never invested in the story or the characters, this point and click adventure used a bunch of gameplay conventions that drove me crazy. Sometimes, there will be a scene where the landscape extends past the monitor, which is only visible by first walking to the boarder. Then, there would be scenes where items were inaccessible until something else happened, but there were no indicators that there were a new object hotspot. And lastly, the interaction of objects was not consistent, even the same object might be inaccessible at one time then be able to be pushed a few moments later.
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game
The adventure game genre seems a little oversaturated with somber detective stories. As much as I enjoy those, I love nothing more than some good laughs, some vibrant colors - and I’m a sucker for cartoons! Guard Duty fills that void on all counts.
It harkens back to gems of lo-res point&click comedy such as Simon the Sorcerer or Discworld. It’s got that lively, colorful, cartoony art and animation that’s just joy to these tired eyes. It’s crisp & elegant, with a well-chosen palette. Story-wise it might also remind you of the classic Discworld - as you assume the role of a member of the town guard. There’s magic, orcs and monsters, too! And time travel! If you enjoyed Sir Terry’s imaginative worlds (both the fantastic and the earlier sci-fi) & his sharp wit, you’ll be right at home - like in the novels, the main goal is simple: “Save the princess. Save the world”, but what elevates it is the characters, the interactions, and the humor. There’s some genuinely endearing slapstick, a few nods to the genre classics (concentrated in one spot mostly), but my favorite was the multi-layered bits, saturated with meta relating to modern culture, and even gaming. On the flipside - the game gets significantly darker when the main antagonist surfaces. Tondbert only gets glimpses of this dark side - but then, in the last act, we are transported into a bleak neon-lit future. Think Blade Runner or Terminator. It still manages to throw in a few jokes, and there’s your token geeky hacker girl to lighten up the mood - but other than that, it’s pretty straightforward sci-fi/cyberpunk. This bit feels shorter - with not much world to explore - but it makes sense. For one, given the situation, the world of the future wouldn’t be very lively & interesting to just roam around. Two: there’s been enough build-up, time for some decissive action!
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star-
Hoshizora no Memoria is almost a perfect visual novel game. It has a hilarious and very relatable plot which will get you instantly hooked. The game has a lot of comedy in it; the common route provides you with running gags, while the character routes freshen up the game with new comedy elements. When I first read the beginning of the secret heroine’s route I was pretty much crying with laughter. The game does also play with your emotions as well, however.
The translation of the game is pretty good, although there are many errors and goofs, such as spelling and grammar errors, a small number of untranslated lines (there’s only about five or six of them, however, so not that many) and other general mistakes, such as “Hisakaki” instead of “Hibarigasaki”. Apparently these errors will be fixed and reworked in the upcoming package release.
– Real player with 2129.7 hrs in game
Highly recommended! I thoroughly enjoyed this VN. It was quite lengthy, (therefore a great value for the money), has excellent character development, beautiful character design, entertaining sci-fi elements, and one of the heroines is obviously the designated comic relief. (She doesn’t disappoint!) I will also warn you right now that there will be a lot of real life people standing next to you chopping up an endless supply of onions while you play this game, especially during the last 2 unlockable routes.
– Real player with 95.7 hrs in game
Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
TL;DR: narcissu’s a compilation of a few tearjerking stories grounded/based in reality, in a minimalistic visual novel style, of people awaiting their death. There’s a free version for the first 2 games. 1st game’s story happens after 2nd, but they can be played in any order. 2nd is better, tho. This anthology (paid) version contains the first 2 games plus the epilogue and a short story (1980). The anthology dlcs has 3 other stories. Of them, Zero is the better one, as it’s related to the first 2 games. The last two stories, not so much. Little Iris is skippable… BUT it contains the followup to the previous short story (1993), which is amazing. Sumire is not as bad as Little Iris… but has fantasy elements, which it’s bad for the series.
– Real player with 231.4 hrs in game
That took quite long to read all of the Narcissu anniversary novels. :D
So Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project contains 5 visual novels (each novel is like DLC, not too pricy).
These are very sad stories about hospital patients who are waiting for their death. Novels show what are their thoughts, their wishes and so on. Except “Little Iris” That’s an entirely different story, and honestly, I enjoyed it the most.
About story lane.
Each novel has One story about One person. It started with Himeko story about the Hospital’s 7th floor how she met a mysterious girl Setsumi. In the next novel, the story explains who is Setsumi and how she gets to the 7th floor. It’s like story steps back every time showing how these characters are connected. (Except for Little Iris which is an entirely different story.) Sumire story started weird, like fantasy type of novel. But then it connected pretty well with other Narcissu novels. (TBH I didn’t understand what happened with Sumire at the end. Did she cleared all of her’s debts and chosed “world of closed” eyes?)
– Real player with 47.0 hrs in game
Shining Song Starnova
Oh my, it was a fun long adventure! This visual novel is about the ragtag band of seven cute idols and you play as their producer trying to make them great again. I can’t say I was too excited when I just started. Not my cup of tea absolutely. But I realized once again that when a game is really well done, it doesn’t matter if it’s up your alley or not.
My first impression was very positive. All those settings, nicely organized gallery. In this regard everything was just flawless. Artwork is lovely. Each girl’s sprite is beautiful, CGs are so pretty and there’re also cute chibi images. Even being so far from my actual preferences I still have made 100 screenshots. Plus, the game is partially voiced, has cards and achievements.
– Real player with 88.7 hrs in game
Shinning Song Starnova First Impressions
(Completed Mika’s Route)
Love in Space is probably my favorite Visual Novel developer. They seem to always be put on a budget via crowdfunding but they always deliver. The Sunrider series is a great blend of sci-fi opera, fanservice and story payoff, I was always a fan of the spinoff academy entry more than the main series, but they are all treasures.
Shining Song Starnova is the latest visual novel created by the team and joining up with Sekai Project they once again release a top-notch visual novel. Multiple routes, great writing (I was a bit fatigued from the use of “oy”), and great characters make this entry a must have and possibly a great starting place for those new to the visual novel genre.
– Real player with 50.2 hrs in game
WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.02
World End Economica 2. Even though my recommendation wasn’t exactly glowing for the previous one, I would definitely recommend this one if you made it through the first. In my honest opinion, it was definitely better than the first.
The story this time around is four years on from the end of WEE episode 1 and is still economics based but the plots shift a bit. He is no longer making money for the sake of some ludicrous dream. In fact, he is no longer making much money at all. He and some Swiss (?) noble attempt to fight the corrupt giants of the financial world and a romantic sub-plot creeps in. He is stuck in a love polygon between several girls (yes this is a visual novel) but, this being WEE you do not get a choice in the matter. Fighting for justice is not simple and Haru (this translation team changed his name from Hal) must learn this while walking the razor’s edge and not lose sight of what really matters.
– Real player with 21.9 hrs in game
Took five hours to burn through the entire thing in one shot.
If your think 13 bucks is worth five hours of reading, then buy this. ‘Cause it’s amazing. The game is full of references to the first game though, so if you haven’t played or read that, you’re probably going to be pretty lost for the first hour or so, upon which the information is reiterated so many times that you can probably piece together even if you didn’t know that yes, there was a WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.1 even though this is episode.2. Really, if you’ve played one, then you might find the constant reminders irritating. I sure did after, what, the twentieth time?
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game