Megadimension Neptunia VII - Game Review

Platforms: PS4, PC(played)
DLC: Yes, lots
Copy: Bought it myself

Megadimension Neptunia VII is yet another game in the storied Hyperdimension saga. Although the name implies this is the 7th iteration, it really means "Victory 2"; many are confused to this day. If you've been with the Neptunia series up to this point, then you pretty much know what to expect with this iteration. If you're new? Well, I'll do my best to help you figure out if this game is right for you!

God Eater Resurrection - Game Review

God Eater Resurrection is set in a post-apocalyptic near-future where the world has been ravaged by the sudden emergence of creatures known as Aragami. Being highly resistant to conventional weaponry, the Aragami have pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Fortunately for humanity, science and technology has adapted to provide a way to fight back in the form of God Arcs; specialized weapons made of the cores of defeated Aragami. These weapons can only be used by certain compatible individuals and this is where you, the protagonist, come in to play.

Muv-Luv Extra/Unlimited - Visual Novel Review

Muv-Luv is one of the most popular Visual Novels on the planet. Its sequel, Muv-Luv Alternative, has been on the top of the Visual Novel Database for years and still is to this day. Having no experience with the series at all, I felt it best to start here. Especially since it was only released locally this last year. It was released in.....2003? What the?

Muv-Luv is told in 2 parts: Extra, and Unlimited. In both parts you are series protagonist Takeru Shirogane. Your job is to ultimately pick a girl to romance by the end. Easy enough, ya?

Suguri - Game Review

I just want to say, firstly, that I am not a great fan or player of the Bullet Hell genre.

Suguri is a Bullet Hell style game where the protagonist, Suguri, must complete a series of progressively more difficult levels. Apparently a group of interstellar travelers are trying to make Earth their home. However, before that, they must eradicate the current inhabitants of the planet. With Suguri's ability to fly and vast arsenal of weapons it should be no problem......

Top and Bottom? Games of 2016

This is a bit more long-winded than I thought it would be. Mostly because I played more than I thought I did. Again, this is stuff I played this year and the stuff I liked more, or disliked, is farther down the respective list. Luckily, there was not that much I played that stank this year. That's always a plus.

It also bears mentioning that all of these games are available on PC; Steam or GOG.

Just a side note: I stuck Visual Novels into their own category and they are all solid likes. They are mostly narrative, though, so I didn't feel it was right to include them with the more interactive media.

Read it in chunks if you have to but it is mandatory to finish by the end of the year. It's best to force it on others as a punishment.

The Cat Lady - Game Review

The Caty Lady is a very melancholic game. That needs to be said immediately. The game opens on the protagonist, Susan Ashworth, committing suicide in her home. This begins a very bizarre journey where we see exactly what kind of disgusting beasts humans can be and why, exactly, Susan was so ready to end her own life. Along the way there are plenty of puzzles to be solved and decisions to be made!

fault - milestone two side:above - Visual Novel Review

Price: $15
Platform: PC(Steam)
Developer: Alice in Dissonance
Publisher: Sekai Project
DLC: Sort of(OST and Art Book)
Microtransactions: None

Note: This is a direct sequel to fault - milestone one. If you have not yet experienced that story, then please, for your own sake, go read that insdtea. I assure you you will make it back here again.

We pick up immediately where we left off in milestone one with Melano appearing out of nowhere and Selphine acting strangely. Ritona is forced to use something garish to try and gain an advantage in the situation. However, after this tense moment, Melano shows some tricks of her own. Tricks that are completely out of the scope of everyone's imagination.

Corpse Party - Game Review

Platform: PC
Supplied: GOG
Developer: Team GrisGris
Publisher: XSEED Games
DLC/Microtransactions: Nothing

Corpse Party is a Puzzle/Adventure/Horror game set in a grisly school. A group of friends and classmates want to make sure they remain friends forever. To do so, they decide to perform a simple friendship charm. Well, unfortunately for them, things do not go as planned and they are thrown into a hellish world of death and decay. With things like traps, ghosts, lunatics, and even starvation as obstacles, their very survival is at stake!

Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code - Game Review

Price: $25
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: French Bread
Publisher: Arc System Works
DLC: None

Melty Blood is a fast paced fighting game set in the Tsukihime universe. If you are familiar with that, then you might know what kind of characters to expect. The game offers basic modes as well as a very functional Network mode to take your skills online and compete with other players. It has just about all you need as far as graphics and performance options. Overall, this is a very complete experience.

Why is this so late you ask? Would you believe me if I said I completely forgot about it?

Steins;Gate - Visual Novel Review

Played: PS3
Price: Varies by platform
Developer: MAGES.INC
DLC: None
Genre: Visual Novel

*Note: This is on Steam! Check it out.

Rintaro Okabe attends a conference on time travel, only to find out that it is a farce. However, after witnessing the aftermath of a brutal murder he is shocked to his very core. An innocent text message sent from his phone regarding the murder inadvertently changes the course of human history. His message somehow went into the past!

Battleborn - Game Review

Developer: Gearbox
Publisher: 2k
Microtransactions: Yes
Version: PC
Supplied: purchased through Humble Bundle

Update 8/23/2016: I added a few bits having played it some more.
Update 9/14/2016: Cleaned up some grammar.

Battleborn is a game where a large group of wacky characters come together to tackle certain objectives in PvE or PvP environments. There are a lot of heroes from which to choose who all play in a variety of ways and fill varying roles. It's you and 4 others for PvE challenges and a 5v5 game in PvP; level up as you take out the baddies. The 3 game modes for PvP are Incursion, Meltdown, and Capture.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Game Review

Price: $30
Developer: Spike Chunsoft, Abstraction Games
DLC: Not that I am aware
Genre: Visual Novel

Hope's Peak Academy is a school for only the ultimate students. So when Makoto gets accepted, he is shocked. He won a lottery and was deemed the Ultimate Lucky Student. Upon arriving at the school he blacks out and wakes up in a random empty classroom. Shortly after some initial exploration he meets a lot of other students in the exact same predicament. They are unable to leave the school due to it being completely locked down. They are soon after approached by a strange bear named Monokuma. He tells them that the only way out is to graduate, and that graduation requires the students to kill each other.

fault - milestone one - Visual Novel Review

fault - milestone one - Visual Novel Review

Supplied: Steam
Price: $15
Released: August 9, 2013

I have never much been one to read for recreation so it comes as a surprise, even to me, that I am here now writing this. Blind purchases do sometimes pay off do they not? This is also the very first Visual Novel I have ever completed. Also keep in mind this is a Kinetic Novel so there is very little interaction with the player.

We open up this story with an assassination attempt by some insurgents against the monarchy of the kingdom. Forced to flee in an unconventional manner our protagonists end up some place that is both unexpected and almost inconceivable.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed - Game Review

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed - Game Review

Genre: Hack and Slash/Action
Developer: Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Tamsoft
Released: March 21, 2016
Price: $30 USD
Supplied: Steam
DLC: Yes, but very minor

Most people that know me, know that I am a pretty big fan of the Hyperdimension Neptunia(HDN) series. When I saw this game, a Vita port no less, pop up on Steam, I was excited instantly. Not owning a Vita, I was not privy to certain titles in one of my favorite series. This trend, fortunately, seems to be coming to an end as more and more of these games are ending up on PC.

The point of this game is to complete a bunch of quests so that the journalist that accompany the party, Dengekiko and Famitsu, can write a positive article about all the CPUs and CPU candidates. It's all pretty straightforward from there. Rest assured, the journalists are playable characters!

Demon's Souls - Game Review

Demon's Souls - Game Review

Genre: RPG
Developer: From Software
Released: A long time ago
Price: Probably cheap by now
Supplied: Bought used back in the day
DLC: Nope

This is the game that started it all for me and many other people. So why am I now here and writing this? Simple, I replayed through the entire game just recently and had some thoughts to share on it. I have played it all the way through to a platinum trophy in the past and decided to give it another whirl in anticipation for the launch of Dark Souls 3 in a few weeks.

Much of the game's overall design and theme does not change between games but there are a lot of small differences which impact the quality of the experience. Things such as stats being removed or added and other quality of life changes for the better through iteration.

Koihime Enbu - Game Review

Koihime Enbu - Game Review

Genre: Fighting
Developer: UNKNOWN GAMES, M2 Co., LTD
Released: January 28, 2016, May 19, 2016 for PC
Price: $57/40USD
Supplied: Imported via Yesasia.com
DLC: None

Update -December 6, 2016: This game is now available locally on Steam as well as being available for import on PS3/4. I also cleaned up some of the language and edited things to be more correct. I also added some points about the PC version noted with an asterisk(*).

Introduction
What is this game you ask? Why this is a 4-button fighting game based on an anime/visual novel about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore starring pretty ladies in place of all the men. Aesthetics aside, this is a very stripped down fighting game experience. That bare-bones sensation is felt elsewhere as well with the menus and interface being about as basic as possible. What does it offer and what are its mechanics? Well, let's dig in!

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel - Game Review

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel - Game Review

Genre: Fighting
Developer: Examu
Released: February 2, 2016

Price: $30/40 - PS3/PS4
Supplied: Purchased via PSN
DLC: Yes - 2 characters and a costume pack - DLC characters are free for the first month

Introduction
I must confess that I do not know very much about any of the licensed characters in this game from Nitroplus.  However, this is a fighting game, and an affordable one to boot, and I felt compelled to check it out.  My first impressions are that it definitely feels a lot like other games pushed out from Developer: Examu who is most well known for its Arcana Heart series.

We get 12 characters default + 2DLC as well as 20 assists.  Each Assist varies in function and its usefulness will change based on the character chosen.  They also have little stars on their portraits to show which partners are recommended for your chosen character.  The Assist's primary function seems to be combo extension for the player to do the really punishing and bone crushing damage.  Oh yeah, did I mention the damage in this game is extremely excessive?  It can scale to hilarious amounts.  Almost to the point that it invalidates the concept of Life-Leads.  Players can also die from chip it seems.

Each character gets a default 18-color palettes to choose from which is not too shabby at all.  Also, the announcer stood out to me because of how totally goofy it sounds.

This game opens up with Super Sonico and her band-mates jamming.  It has a fully animated sequence and the song is fully voiced and it introduces all of the characters in the game.  When you get to the main menu you get a further introduction from Sonico herself.  This alone is a pretty nice touch of flavor that shows a lot of love from the developers.