Omega Quintet
PROS
-
Has the IF-Compa DNA. If you love JRPGs of the same developer-publisher, such as nep games, turn-based, skills, 3D free roam, ADV scenes, then this is a good catch.
-
Lovely characters. Aria best girl. Neko-chan second best. 3D models not as lovely, but still cute nonetheless.
-
Scenes are funny af. Found myself laughing quite alot.
-
Disc Analysis feature is probably single most important gameplay element. It gives each playthrough its own style, and thus increases replay value. You choose the “build” path: skills and spells for each girl, and on each playthrough you can cycle their roles and what weapon they wield.
– Real player with 97.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Romance Visual Novel Games.
I just finished the game, although I did not get the real ending. I general I’d rate the game as 5/10. I cannot say that I recommend the game to everyone but is not like it shouldn’t be played either.
You should play the game if:
-
You like other Idea Factory titles, like Neptunia or Fairy Fencer.
-
You like cute, anime games and you enjoy the way they are played out. With the visual novel style of dialog.
-
You don’t mind grinding, specifically the Neptunia-type of grinding.
-
You aren’t looking for a game that’d tell you a good story.
– Real player with 87.2 hrs in game
Celestial Hearts
I had high hopes for this game and after 20 hours of time well spent (Story Mode) I must say, I am more than pleased.
Kayah and Helen are so cute ^^ (I have quite the crush on Sera though :p)
There are many references to the Knight Bewitched Series, so I had that warm and fuzzy feeling of coming home to a place I love.
Love the storytelling, the colorful areas, the music, all the goodies you can find in chests or get from boss-fights (my inventory was rather full at times)…
I wish there was a sequel already, because the ending promises new and exciting adventures. But I will be patient…and hopeful… I know the remastered version of Knight Bewitched is in the making and I am sure looking forward to that too ^^
– Real player with 36.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Romance Party-Based RPG Games.
For an old school RPGmaker game, this one does shine.
Sophisticated, yet easy-to-master battle mechanics.
Realistic and balanced progression ladder. Never overpowered.
Cut-to-the-chase conversations and time-saving auto battles.
You can run from almost any unwanted battles just to target those rare enemy drops.
Taking my time on hard, I’m just halfway through after 25 hrs. It’s just me. I like to smell them roses.
Celestial Hearts is indeed a well-thought-out game.
Looking forward to your remake of Knight Bewitched! :)
– Real player with 29.6 hrs in game
Kabukicho Story
It’s okay. A melancolic little story told using the RPG medium. There are a a couple game sequences. The whole thing is short, maybe a couple hours at most.
(follow my curator page GenXPlayers for more retro and indie reviews)
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Romance Historical Games.
Great game. The atmosphere is really soothing and the story is awesome.
I am just gonna point out a few things here. This game is somewhat held in the 12th century irl. Although this is a fantasy game, modern language is not really that suitable. But overall, great game. I recommend playing it.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
After I met that catgirl, my questlist got too long!
After I met that catgirl, my replays of this game got too manifold!
It’s no joke actually, I have spent an obscene amount of time on this game and do not regret going for completion. It’s the first time in a while that I felt so motivated for a rather simple RPG and it’s all due to the good writing and enjoyable combat system. I want to explain why exactly this game is worth buying and how it stands out among its contemporaries.
Story:
You play as Vera, the charm witch, a woman who is ever positive and seductive, but also compassionate and thoughtful. Everything begins on the day that she meets that catgirl, Tea, who arrived in Morpheya under the Elder Tree from a lighning bolt. The catgirl claims to be from another world and quickly the duo starts their own adventurers guild to get their hands on information about how she can return to her mysterious home “London”.
– Real player with 92.4 hrs in game
An enchanting game with dangerous lips++ ~(˘▾˘~) No Spoilers
STORY: 9/10 From the very beginning to the very end, I was entertained and engaged in Vera and her friend’s journey. The main story is well paced, clever, and hilarious with an intriguing tale of love and overcoming hardships. With five main girls, each one having a unique personality, voice, and reason for being there. I played three routes, Sunny, Tea, and Celia and got all of their endings. Each ending for each route is unique, giving you different information and hidden story bits, which encourages multiple playthroughs. I won’t spoil anything here but trust me, each route is vastly different from the other. If you want the entire story, you have to charm each girl which will result in 5-6 different playthroughs, each being at least 15-30 hours long. Without new game+, it is a bit tedious to do each and every route again so be aware and make a lot of saves.
– Real player with 61.4 hrs in game
Crystalline
Most of you reading this have probably never heard of PixelFade. They’re a small company, who have only produced two visual novels so far. ACE Academy, and now Crystalline. I have read through many VN’s from many developers, yet PixelFade has shown themselves to be the best. Both games are extraordinary, but Crystalline in particular is an experience. It’s currently taken the position of my favourite Visual Novel ever, and I seriously doubt it will be topped (until hopefully, PixelFade’s next game).
– Real player with 45.0 hrs in game
Well, I’m glad I took the time to read this after I finished Kaori’s After Story. This visual novel has been quite a journey… Quite literally, I suppose.
MC finds himself nodding off in the middle of studying. When he wakes up, he finds himself on a grassfield of an entirely different world called Terra. There he comes across Leanna, a Mage-Knight investigating a strange energy activity that’s happened recently, which she then links to the MC. Leanna offers to help the MC to fit in Terra and also takes him to the Mage Academy to check in on this energy phenomenon. Eventually it becomes a story to try and get our beloved MC back home. Along the way, the rather mysterious mercenary Zack, the studious Mage-Caster Amelia, and the charming treasure hunter Kara all join the party to help out in this process.
– Real player with 38.8 hrs in game
Fading Hearts
Before Fading Hearts i’ve played TONS of Visual Novels and Dating Sims. I knew nothing about Fading Hearts before I decided to pick it up not knowing what to expect. From the main store page it seemed interesting enough for the $10 I paid for it. I have to say, I was quite dissapointed to be frank.
First I’m going to go over what I liked about the game. The gameplay was really interesting and fun, definitely felt more closer towards a Dating sim. You get stats you can raise by doing various activities throughout the day and the stats (usually) have some effect on the game, such as how much money you get and beating certain monsters in the forest. There is a combat system, though not very in-depth, was entertaining for the first few times. And the game strongly encourages and is ment to be played with multiple playthroughs for all the endings, even including some cute dialouge at the end of each playthrough that provide hints on what to do on your next one.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
This is a spoiler-free review.
This is a type of game that seems to have people that either really like it or just straight-up hate it. There’s also a lot of curious people that want to know if the game is worth getting, so rather than just tell you “Oh yeah, I like this!” I’m going to list all of the various things a person may like or dislike about the game.
First of all, this is NOT a visual novel. This is a simulation game mixed with RPG elements. A visual novel is a game in which you only point and click to get story to continue. This is NOT that kind of game. It becomes a simulation game when there are stats to alter and daily choices to be made. It infuriates me that so many people called this a visual novel, when it’s obviously a simulation game. Since you can go into a turn-based battle with HP & MP, level up, use a sword or magic, that’s the part that’s RPG-like. Although, I definitely wouldn’t call this an RPG, since the battling is definitely not the focus of the game. In fact, you don’t have to step foot in a battle if you don’t want to. You can progress the story without participating in battle.
– Real player with 13.3 hrs in game
Kaori After Story
It has been eluded to in other reviews, but let me preface my review by saying that it’s almost impossible for you to get the whole effect of this VN if you don’t read Ace Academy first. There’s a lot of references that you can’t just get from context clues or brief discussions. In fact, since I completed Kaori’s route months ago, even I had to really think back to all that happened in that arc to make sure I understood everything the MC was talking about.
I must admit, when I played Ace Academy, I felt rather unsatisfied by how it ends, at least as it relates to the main plot of the story. I’m not sure if PixelFade is planning on making an AA2, but it was left sort of open-ended, and I’m not the biggest fan of those kinds endings. With that said…Kaori After Story was AWESOME! It bookends the Kaori route amazingly, and it really helps sell the permanency of their relationship. The dialogue and the conversation trees are vastly improved from AA, and feel much more natural. Hell, I’m secure enough in my masculinity to admit that towards the end, I had some serious feels. The artwork here has also improved drastically. I must be part psychic, because I had pictured what an Ace character would look in the engine PixelFade used for Crystaline. Not only did the devs actually give me such a scenario in real life, but it looks almost exactly how I pictured it in my head, and it looks great. Kaori’s redesign for the new game engine is adorable, mainly because they’ve made her features much softer in this iteration. Given that she’s a Tsundere, having softer features makes it easier to believe that she has the capacity to be gentle and kind. Although there were some custom screenshots in AA that showed her appearing tender/lighthearted, and they looked fine, but not as good as she looks here overall.
– Real player with 24.3 hrs in game
PixelFade did it again. I absolutely loved Ace Academy it is one of my top visual novels. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they made an after story for the ace academy story and super excited when I saw that it was of my favourite route as well. Instantly bought the game (had to replay ace but didn’t mind that) and I am so pleased with it
The story is sweet and romantic. The characters are likeable and fun, And Ofcourse Kaori is the same firey red head she always is, I am very glad to see that PixelFade is still working on ace stories. This visual novel was very well written and of course the character is awesome I mean who doesn’t love a tsundere?
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
She Is My Sin
She Is My Sin is a old school Top Down Shooter game. It is about a story of a dark hero, who was planning to steal the power of 2nd God.
The Ruler of the second Heaven [High Tower] has been vacant for a long time. Nobody knows the truth that only six Gods lives in [The Seven Gods]. Someone is ready to create a bigger deception to bury the lies and mistakes.
Features
-
Own all kinds of well-designed weapons with gunsmithing immediately, and no need of endless boring Levels upgrade.
-
Gaining thrilling experience by close distance combat with extremely short TTK.
-
Realistic gunshots and smooth operation feel.
-
Concise storytelling style.
-
The main characters and enemies are all cute girls.
-
But the voice characters of those girls are male.
-
The level design is full of paying tributes to the classical game.
We will update the video and screenshots soon.Please wait.
ACE Academy
Wow. So, this one came in as a complete surprise. I didnt expect much when i bought it, but boy was I wrong.
TL;DR:
Pros:
-
Intriguing Story
-
Good, genuinly funny writing
-
Tons of choices, that also have an impact
-
Unique and likeable characters
-
Fully voice-acted
-
Decent length
-
Nice Artstyle & Soundtrack
Cons:
-
Abrupt, unsatisfying ending
-
Minor: Artwork occasionally gets re-used
In Detail:
Pixelfade. Never heard of that Developer before, nor about the game itself. So I expected a pretty run-of-the-mill Visual Novel…This was not what I got.
– Real player with 61.1 hrs in game
Do I recommend it, even though this is only the first episode? Yes I do.
The scores below are from 1 to 10, 1 being terrible, 5 being average and 10 being excellent. I am confident in this Visual Novel and I think it can be one of the best Western Visual Novels. Keep in mind that the scale I am using is the same that I use to evaluate japanese visual novels (like Grisaia no Kajitsu):
Story: Not rated at the moment (episode 1)
Since this is only the first episode and was pretty much about introductions (and there’s still another girl to be introduced in the next episode), I can’t rate the story. My personal thoughts are that this is going to be a straightforward comedy slice of life romantic visual novel, so I don’t expect any serious developments or mind blows.
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game
DIY MY LADY
DIY MY LADY + VR VERSION
To play this game, the first and most important thing is to create a custom character. This DIY character can be created from photos. And can be saved for DIY Worlds.
Select the DIY Face button in the upper left corner first, to generate a header.
After selecting a photo here, you can add many effects. Such as cartoonize, or changing age, or even changing gender!
Then there are ~20 kinds of bodies to match/attach to. After connecting the body with the head, a lady is created.
– Real player with 34.7 hrs in game
The game has a lot of nice features and a few weakpoints.
First of all, the KI communications are very funny and the KI has a lot of answers for your questions which
even makes sense a lof of times. And even when the answer is nonsense it is funny. So the KI communikation
is in my oppinion the best part of this game. In english it is even possible via microfon.
Another big pluspoint is the model, because she is very cute and you can place her on your desktop.
I also like the dance moves and the music even when there are just a few options.
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game