BLUE REFLECTION / BLUE REFLECTION 幻に舞う少女の剣
I’ve stopped writing reviews since the last one which was long time ago. Simply because most of games don’t worth my time to review it, instead, by doing so, it is completely wasting of time since write a review doesn’t earn me anything or any money, sounds like Ako I know. But my case is: I rarely write a review unless it moves the bottom of my heart and soul making me feel guilty if not doing so. Blue Reflection is happened to be a rare case.
First thing I want to say: This review will heavily focus on my own feelings towards the game and the logical motion I had with it rather than talks about general things regarding the gameplay or any regular stuff. It may end up not very helpful for you. If so, I would like to state my apologies here first.
– Real player with 143.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Anime Games.
I’ve played many, many games and this one certainly deserves a review for all it has - the good, the bad, the ugly.
Visually Appealing, Sometimes Appalling
The thing that drew my attention from the very start was the art style - from its simplistic menus and icons, to the beautifully designed characters and worlds, I found myself attracted to it immediately. It’s perfect and refreshing. Then we have the ‘worlds’, called The Common, which is equally as fascinating at first glance. I really appreciate the little details like water reflection and cape transparency as these, albeit small details, are good details.
– Real player with 91.6 hrs in game
Get In The Car, Loser!
Story
For the most part, this is a classic hero’s journey, only the protagonist, Sam Anon, is struggling with her sexuality, dealing with bigots, and trying to feel worthy of friends who she believes are too cool for her. As a cis person, I don’t fully comprehend everything Sam goes through, but I’m still glad I learned something from her character arc.
For most of my LP, I always found it an odd story choice to make the leader of a racist, misogynist, and heteronormative cult a literal cyborg demon, since that doesn’t exactly fit into the cultists' definition of “normal.” My guess in hindsight is that this is to illustrate that despite all the pseudophilosophical rhetoric of the cultists, Valentin states they ultimately don’t believe in anything other than hurting people they deem weak. Thus, the Machine Devil, a literal embodiment of destruction, adopts the cultists' bigoted ideology because it is just like its followers in wanting an excuse to harm people. Maybe I’m just overthinking things?
– Real player with 20.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Indie Games.
Get in the Car, Loser! is a linear Visual Novel merged with a strange JRPG combat system. It’s very gay and very good, but not for everyone.
The general plot of the game is the usual “every 1000 years, a hero fights the incarnation of evil” except the heroine here took the matters in her own hands and did not wait for the Machine Devil to wake up and a hero to hear the Sword of Fate’s call. Instead, she stole the weapon of legends, and had her nb boyfriend Valentin and her friend Sam join her in a road trip to banish the Machine Devil before he can strike, fighting his incel and fascist followers on the way.
– Real player with 18.8 hrs in game
Venetica - Gold Edition
Venetica. Gah! It’s so buggy and the character animations are so awkward and the quests don’t always work right and most of the NPCs are so stupid looking and the map is so horizontal and so useless when this game’s Venice is so incredibly vertical, but… but… I’m soooo sad it’s over! I believe the ultimate measure for a gamer with a embarrassingly large backlog is when said gamer feels sad that a game is over.
So just what kind of game is this Venetica that I liked so much? It’s an action RPG but is it the very fun Diablo/Torchlight type where you get swarmed by countless mobs and gather countless loot or is it the equally fun Gothic/Witcher type which focuses more on clever swordplay skills and a strong story? Venetica uses the latter model. And fortunately Venetica’s swordplay is fun and its story, while no Witcher, is pretty good. Some professional viewers found the story cheesy but more than a few still confessed to liking the game. But I can intuit their peer-group pressure and I can spot a guilty pleasure when I read one. Venetica’s story is engrossing and I’m not ashamed to admit it. While you don’t know everything about the story right away, you usually know exactly why you are doing what you are doing and your glad you’re doing it.
– Real player with 70.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Indie Games.
**“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice**
Venetica is an action RPG, and is quite like one of your childhood friends calling in many years after you’ve last seen him, celebrating your birthday. It’s familiar, heartwarming and nostalgic. You’ll always end up needlessly excited, note that it is also always welcome.
We take a deep breath, and dive into the tale of Scarlett. She is a young woman who lives in a quiet mountain town, some miles away Venice. It is a charming evening for the mining town of San Pasquale: seeing off the pride of town, Scarlett’s fiancé and childhood friend, Benedict to join the Knight Order.
– Real player with 43.1 hrs in game
A Timely Intervention
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Time travel setting
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Humor (especially the part where the slips up of the journalist are being disguised by the other char from the future by calling him “simple” )
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2 seperate parties let you get to know 10 different chars
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when the parties unite again, those not in your active party still gain XP, in case you change your mind
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you don’t need to finish every single sidequest / find all the secrets for the achievements
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the part where you get to play with a custom party is very short
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close to no equipment
– Real player with 31.2 hrs in game
Gemelle games have been my favorite RPG game so far, because of its interesting story at the beginning and a heart warming characters development at the end. Game play was very fun but there were too many states to remember, even though there were scrolls that explained about those states in the inventory, I still think it’s a pain trying to memorize or reopen it, so I just played without memorize and reopen the scroll till the end game, and it’s still fun. How I got to play with 2 teams of 5 members, started at different places, each team had their own quests, the cut scenes and their conversation, those made me enjoy this game so much. Other enjoyment was how there was only item shop available and no equipment shop until the game was so close to the end. That way I could focus on saving gold to buy potions, and trying to solve side quest to get a better equipment.
– Real player with 29.3 hrs in game
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey DX
Worst game in the series. Play Ryza, or the Arland sub series instead.
The main focus of the game - Alchemy - is more of a chore than a fun thing to figure out.
Unlike other games in the series, where you have an alchemy level, in this game your have a PER RECIPE Alchemy Level as well as your own Alchemy Level. Firis' Alchemy Level just acts as a gate for what you can and cannot synthesize. You must make the same recipe, over and over, to get the Per Recipe AL. And due to the “Tetris Grid” system, the 1st dozen attempts to make anything will produce mostly terrible items.
– Real player with 100.9 hrs in game
Atelier Firis is the second game in the Mysterious subseries and the most ambitious take on the Atelier formula yet. It’s very different from every Atelier game that came before it and ended up being very polarizing in the community. It’s an Atelier game set in a massive open world with some survival mechanics and mostly vague goals to encourage exploration and experimentation. If that sounds awesome to you then you’ll love the game. The DX version fixes most bugs and issues that plagued the original release so now is actually the best time to finally give Firis a try.
– Real player with 77.2 hrs in game
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings DX
Not sure to comment. But i love mysterious series. Currently trying to reach 100% Achivements. Also love Adult Firis looks btw.
– Real player with 122.4 hrs in game
Honestly the more I play into the series the more I feel
how good the previews series were.
Sophie being the absolute top and then probably lydie then firis.
But surprisingly I didnt get to hear any gorgeous music in this game yet.
The wonderful music was all a remake version of previous series,
like plauta theme, ilmeria theme or sophie theme.
Still all of the remake ost from previous series are absolutely beautiful!
Near the ending but this game made a good ending to every character that
– Real player with 91.0 hrs in game
Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX
On 27 of April Koei announced:
We are currently working on the following fixes, which will be delivered in the near future.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.
- Graphics issues; world details not being displayed correctly on some maps.
https://www.koeitecmoamerica.com/mysteriousdx/info.html
Negative reviews are mostly about few screenshots circulating around that show worse graphics compared to the original non DX version. Personally I don’t care about no “flower field” or puddles looking worse (it’s not as bad as the screen shows btw. water gets clearer the closer you are to them. I’ll admit they do get a little distracting in the town and against light surfaces tho). Theres plenty of reviews on youtube, see for yourselves how “bad” the graphics are.
– Real player with 265.8 hrs in game
Atelier Sophie is the first game in the Mysterious subseries and an excellent entry point for newcomers. While Ryza might be more popular in the West, Sophie is the queen in Atelier’s country of origin. According to a 2021 Japanese poll Sophie is still the most beloved Atelier game ever and got twice as many votes as Ryza. How did this happen? Is the game really that good? Both yes and no.
– Real player with 70.8 hrs in game
Atelier Totori ~The Adventurer of Arland~ DX - トトリのアトリエ ～アーランドの錬金術士２～ DX
Overall Rating:
7/10
Gameplay:
6.5/10
• Atelier Totori is the second game of the Arland series. It brings a story that does well in character development. It also brings back characters from Atelier Rorona and brings a comedic relief to its story.
• Multiple quality of life aspects during alchemy found in Atelier Rorona are missing in Atelier Totori. Alchemy level during synthesis and component names are lacking. Additionally, the organization of components is subpar compared to Atelier Rorona.
– Real player with 433.3 hrs in game
Unless you’re really into JRPGs and you speak Japanese, you likely found this game on your steam recommendations and never would have imagined it’s part of a series with more entries then Call Of Duty and even most yearly sports games. This is the 12th of 25, not including 3 spin offs, with 26 on its way in a few months. And with the possible exception of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists (which is rather polarizing, but which I love and have 100s of hours in) this is probably the most common answer your going to get for “worst game in the series”
– Real player with 161.4 hrs in game
Blood Bond - Into the Shroud
I recorded a game play & review video of my experience. That will explain my displeasure with this title more than anything I could type here. Buyer beware!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
I played the game today again. I can see the fantastic progress. Despite all the bugs I enjoyed the game. But still I woudn’t buy this game for full price. The game isnt ready even for free demo yet.
+//: The story, fast set a new player into the story, little quests
+//: Model of main character, animations
+//: Nature, sky with birds, wood with deer, I believe to will add more locations and creatures and herbals.
+//: Graphics and post-processing, original comics-like style
+//: Voices, sounds, music
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Dungeon Dreams (Female Protagonist)
Dungeon Dreams (female protagonist) Review
As a person who grew up playing Azure Dreams, (and one who still actually owns the game), Dungeon Dreams was a quirky, fun alternative game to those long lost days of lore. Players will discover key moments reminiscent of the old Azure Dreams such as the character of Grant, who like Ghosh, is just as obnoxious, arrogant, and hilarious - equipped with his own theme song at every appearance. One important detail that sound be mentioned is the vast superiority of the Dungeon Dreams soundtrack compared to Azure Dreams. Instead of the grating obnoxious sound track of Azure Dreams, Dungeon Dreams is trendy and upbeat. I had often found myself humming along with it especially during the battle scenes.
– Real player with 327.7 hrs in game
This is absolutely the single best game of it’s style that I’ve ever played in my entire life, and I’ve been a gamer since 83!! This is a cRPG/Dungeon Crawler/Life Sim/Dating Sim/Time Management/everything in between!! This game literally has it all and then 1 up’s it all! It literally scratches every itch I’ve ever had in a game. This is My Time in Portia with adult undertones but with real cRPG/Dungeon Crawling equally involved.
There is building and expansion, serious risk vs reward akin to the classics like Ultima, dungeon crawling with just the right amount of grinding for XP and the rewards are very fair and balanced. There are multiple characters to party with and you must actively think throughout each dungeon dive. This is no simple button mashing here. The AI of the mobs is intuitive and forward thinking so one must react accordingly. The skill system exceeds my expectations in literally every way. There are the 3 typical branches, Fighter, Rogue, and Mage, but these branch into multiple subclasses with passive skills that stay active no matter what class is active!!!
– Real player with 98.9 hrs in game