Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 59

Valentine Video Games Festival: Love Cypher Demo (and Kickstarter)

It’s been a while since we’ve had a crowd-funding campaign to discuss, and during the Valentine Video Games Festival no less!

Love Cypher, currently seeking funding through Kickstarter, is a near-future romance visual novel set in the 2040s. You play a new student at a university studying artificial intelligence advancements.

It is a galge with four romance routes (and the possibility for more if Love Cypher should meet both its goal and subsequent stretch goals).

A demo is also available, and I played it after seeing the Kickstarter campaign. The demo is fairly short and follows the protagonist as he arrives at the university and meets the heroines.

From the demo, Love Cypher comes across as a lighthearted romantic comedy, with some silly situations and classic misunderstandings.

However, the description mentions that the advanced AI technology in this world “re-sculpts one’s identity, while keeping the individual unaware of their transformation,” which suggests there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Alongside the rom-com antics, it looks like it will deal with themes of identity and humanity.

(Nowadays I’m suspicious of anything that looks fun and lighthearted with hints of something else, but the developer has said online that the story will be philosophical, but still fun, so I don’t think we have to worry about this one being secretly depressing.)

Love Cypher will be an 18+ visual novel once it’s complete, although the demo has no 18+ content since it’s the beginning of the story.

The art looks very nice, and all around it looks like it will be a high-quality production. Although it has stock backgrounds for now, the Kickstarter page says they will be replaced in the final version. It’s tough to judge the story from the demo this early on, but the premise sounds intriguing.

So if you’re looking for an upcoming romance visual novel, you might want to check out Love Cypher’s Kickstarter page to learn more about it.

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Seabed

I’ll say this up-front: I would not describe SeaBed as a romance.

But by the time I realized that, it was too late to play something else in time for today’s review, and it is a game about love.

SeaBed is described as a yuri mystery visual novel.

It switches between different time periods, showing scenes of Sachiko and her girlfriend Takako on a romantic vacation, their past together as childhood friends, and working with colleagues after starting their own business.

However, it soon reveals that in the present day, Takako has gone missing. At this point, I thought I understood why it was described as a mystery.

I was wrong.

The prologue (which is lengthy, by far the longest chapter) follows that up with another twist, and then another one, leading into one of the most confusing visual novels I’ve ever read.

SeaBed is not an easy visual novel to read. It leaves you wondering exactly what is going on, and even once you start to form an idea, a new detail will arise to make you question it all over again. Part of this is because it’s told through three primary viewpoints. At certain points, you’ll also unlock “Tips,” short scenes worth reading as soon as you unlock them to add to your confusion fuel further theories.

Despite this sense of mystery, most of its scenes are slice-of-life. Casual conversations, simple interactions, pleasant day-to-day scenes with a slight undercurrent that something might be wrong. It has a glacial pace, so keep that in mind if slow slice-of-life isn’t your thing.

Sachiko and Takako’s relationship is a key part of the story. At its core, I’d say SeaBed is a story about love, and about how it feels to be separated from someone you love. There are hints of romance at other points in the story, as well.

Honestly, I still don’t quite understand the story even after finishing it. Instead of bringing everything together so that it all makes sense, it’s more ambiguous, with room for interpretation despite the biggest points fitting together.

Click for SeaBed spoilerI’ve come to the general conclusion that Takako is really dead and the alternate reality where she lives at the sanatorium is the imagined world created in Sachiko’s heart, but it’s not easy to explain away everything as Sachiko’s own mind working to heal herself. Some parts feel as though they must have been paranormal in nature to at least some degree, yet at the same time, it feels like it doesn’t want you to think that.

SeaBed is a game about love, although it’s not quite a romance. Was it a good fit for a Valentine’s Day celebration? I don’t know. Either way, if you like slow-burn visual novels where the genre can most accurately be described as “confusion,” you might find SeaBed to be an intriguing mystery.

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Nekopara Vol. 3

We’ve come this far, so why not keep going? For our Valentine’s Day review, I continued on and played Nekopara Vol. 3.

Just like how the previous main volumes each picked two catgirls to highlight, Volume 3 focuses on Maple and Cinnamon.

Maple has a secret dream she has convinced herself can never come true, while Cinnamon wants to support her in any way she can. It’s up to the protagonist to help them through these conflicts… and of course become romantically involved with them along the way.

(The story acknowledges the silliness of this ever-growing harem and his insistence on prying into people’s business.)

Like in Vol. 2, you might be surprised at the emphasis on the story here, simple though it might be. It has a good message about following your dreams and even digs into the protagonist’s own backstory and motivations a bit. I’d be tempted to call it wholesome, except, well, Nekopara has a reputation for fanservice for a reason.

It has its share of ecchi content as usual, and even the all-ages version makes it very clear when the H-scenes occur in the 18+ version, with the characters even discussing them afterwards.

Aside from that, it tells a nice story with a number of sweet and funny moments (even Shigure had some funny lines, or maybe I’m just getting used to her).

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Nekopara has a very specific audience in mind, but if you aren’t in it for the fanservice, what you end up with is a lighthearted, fluffy romance story. The romance in this one didn’t feel as central, but it made up for that with a bit more following the characters and their new relationship after the main conflicts were resolved.

If you enjoyed the previous Nekopara games, you’ll most likely enjoyed Nekopara Vol. 3 as well, for a new romance story with your group of catgirls. What better to talk about for Valentine’s Day?

(And don’t forget, the whole Nekopara series is among the prizes you could win in this year’s !)

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Blind Men

Our next game to discuss is a boys’ love visual novel called Blind Men, written as a parody of spy fiction.

The main character is Keegan, a young would-be super villain who hopes to be accepted into the League of Evil by proving himself with a daring scheme.

However, when it’s time to pull of his evil plan, two enemy spies end up getting in his way.

While Blind Men is a fairly short visual novel and should only take a few hours to get all the endings, choices have a fair impact on the story’s direction. You get to choose one of two possible evil plans, either kidnapping a professor or stealing a diamond, in addition to which of the two spies you end up entangled with.

Each love interest then has a few different outcomes to his route based on your choices, along with the situation being completely different depending on which plan you picked. Some of the choice consequences felt a little obscure, but that’s not too bad when it’s so short to start with.

Blind Men is pretty funny. The whole premise of playing an aspiring super villain (who tries so hard to act villainous and not be flustered by his love interests) together with the spy fiction tropes it parodies results in enough humorous moments that it made me laugh several times.

The romance feels a little lacking, unfortunately. There’s definitely flirting, you can see some chemistry building if you make the right choices, and you might be lucky enough to get an ending with implications of romance, but it comes just short of feeling truly romantic. That might be due to the short length. If the characters crossed paths more times before the ending, the romances might feel more fully-realized.

With that said, it’s still fun. Blind Men might not do the best with its romances, but it’s an entertaining spy parody with several endings to keep you trying different paths.

(On a completely different note, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 exists! I’m so excited! It looks fantastic! Also Front Mission and Radical Dreamers and Live A Live; that was a crazy Direct!)

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Code: Realize – Future Blessings

Last year, one title we looked at during February was Code: Realize – Guardians of Rebirth, which quickly became one of my favorite otome games, and one I’d recommend whether you’re generally interested in otome or not.

So it’s fitting that this year’s celebration includes Code: Realize – Future Blessings, the first fandisc released for Code: Realize.

(A fandisc is similar to a sequel, but more like an extended epilogue. I’d describe a fandisc like this: you earned your happy ending in the main game, and now you get to enjoy it.)

Future Blessings is made up of several parts, so let’s take a look at each of them. First up are the after stories, stories for each of the love interests that focus on their life with Cardia after the events of their route in the main game. It’s nice to see each route get its own follow-up, and I found these stories to be cute, funny, and very sweet.

Click for Future Blessings spoilers…except for Victor’s, in which Idea delivers an ultimatum to Victor and Cardia since they see her as a danger in that route. It was still a heartwarming, romantic story, but considerably more intense than the others.

I also played it second, so it was a bit jarring to go from Van Helsing’s “we’re having trouble communicating because we’re each so focused on the other’s happiness” conflict to Victor’s “either you become an immortal killer or we’ll kill Cardia right now” conflict.

(I would have expected Saint-Germain to get a high-stakes after story, if anyone, but nope, even his was more relaxed than that.)

I can’t think of anything better for this Valentine’s Day celebration. Since these stories focus specifically on the relationship between the protagonist and love interest after they’ve become a couple, romance is their primary focus.

(But someone, please tell me why the writers treat Abraham Van Helsing and Victor Frankenstein as though “Van” and “Franken” are middle names? I can get on board with affectionately calling Van Helsing “Van,” but Victor being referred to as “Professor Stein” bothers me every time it happens!)

Aside from the after stories, Future Blessings also includes two whole new character routes, a romance route for Herlock Sholmes and a platonic route for Finis. Both of these routes are great and have similar intensity to the routes in the original game. I enjoyed both of them quite a bit.

Click for Future Blessings spoilersAnd it just felt so nice to finally see Finis get a happy ending.

Plus his route included new scenes with Nemo, and more of that crazy man is always appreciated.

One more story, “Lupin’s Gang” is a new adventure set during the original, in which Cardia and the others become entangled in a plot involving the Mafia. This story is not romantic due to effectively being part of the original’s common route, but it’s a fun adventure with entertaining new characters, even if the pacifist Mafia family did make me raise my eyebrows a bit (Kiryu would love them).

Finally, as you complete each story in Future Blessings, you unlock a series of short chapters featuring Delly. These are all incredibly cute and often funny.

Click for a no-context reference to a Future Blessings joke1. Eat the cookie.
2. Eat the cookie!
3. EAT THE COOKIE!

Overall, Code: Realize – Future Blessings was a delight to play. The after stories are wonderfully fluffy and romantic, and reminded me of how much I love this cast of characters, the new routes are exciting and satisfying, and everything has a great blend of excitement, humor, and romance. If you enjoyed Code: Realize and want more of its romance, I definitely recommend picking up Future Blessings.

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Meeting in the Flesh

At first glance, this next title might look like it belongs in our October celebration rather than this one, but that is not the case.

Meeting in the Flesh is a free visual novel set in a horrific world of monsters… but it’s not a horror story.

You play as Vil, whose job is to deliver salt to the inhabitants of this town since they need it to live. Over the handful of days in which the story takes place, you interact with several of Vil’s monstrous associates and get to know them. A key choice puts you on one of three monsters’ routes, with additional choices that then lead to either a romantic ending or not.

(The love interests are all male, but Vil’s gender is never stated, so I’m not sure if it would be considered otome.)

It’s fairly text-heavy, with dialogue and narration written on one side of the screen while character sprites appear on the other side. Most of its worldbuilding carried by its writing, therefore, although there are a handful of CGs for important moments as well.

Despite being set in a world of flesh and blood and a fair amount of body horror, it’s surprisingly sweet and wholesome.

All three of the love interests are nice and personable, despite their monstrous appearances and everything else that comes with this setting. Each route follows a similar pattern of being introduced to the character’s situation and then having a choice to make at the end, but the conflicts faced by each character are pretty distinct.

While you do need to be okay with some unsettling descriptions and situations, it’s a very sweet visual novel. I’d go so far as to call it fluffy.

Click for Meeting in the Flesh spoilersI never thought I’d say “my love interest just ate me, what a sweet and fluffy ending,” but here we are.

To be fair, the eating occurred in order to fuse into one being.

…but it still happened. And it came across as sweet.

Crafting a nightmarish world in such a way that it feels cozy and comfortable is an impressive feat of Meeting in the Flesh, and it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a monster romance.

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Valentine Video Games Festival: Adventure of a Lifetime

Let’s kick off this Valentine’s Day (month) celebration with a look at a visual novel called Adventure of a Lifetime.

Adventure of a Lifetime follows a young man named Hiroki who returns to the islands where he grew up to help his grandmother during summer vacation.

There, he reunites with his childhood friend Chisa, and also meets a mysterious girl named Emily who has come to the islands in search of sunken treasure from an old shipwreck.

The three of them soon make it their quest to find the shipwreck and retrieve the treasure that is so important to Emily. Scuba diving is a key part of the story due to the sunken treasure focus, and it puts in a surprising amount of effort into explaining details about diving and safety measures.

As someone who loves treasure hunt stories, I found that to be an especially enjoyable aspect to the story. It really did convey a sense of treasure hunting and, well, adventure, as promised by the title.

A small handful of choices made throughout the visual novel will determine whether you end up following Chisa or Emily’s route. I thought Emily’s route felt more central to the story due to the focus on the shipwreck, but Chisa’s route had its share of great moments. Romance didn’t feel like a huge focus, but was still an important part of the routes and felt believable enough.

The art is also beautiful, and I liked how many CGs it had for a visual novel you can finish in a few hours. It has a good soundtrack, too.

Adventure of a Lifetime is a nice visual novel to play if you’re looking for an island-set romance with a focus on diving and treasure hunting. It’s also the first game to be added to the list of prizes in , if you’d like to dive into this romance yourself!

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Valentine Video Games Festival 2022 (New Name!)

Welcome back to another… well, last year it was called Celebrating All Things Romantic, but in light of the fact that we do not in fact celebrate all things romantic, only romance-themed video games, I’ve renamed it!

The celebration’s tentative new name is Valentine Video Games Festival, but if you can think of an exciting v-word for the end, do let me know.

(I considered Valentine Video Games Vacation, but “vacation” just didn’t seem to fit. …I was calling it Visiting Valentine’s Day Video Games up until about five minutes before publishing the post.)

Anyway, this celebration is not quite as exciting yet as our annual horror celebration yet, but it still includes a month of reviews and prizes to win!

My work in the romance genre is still growing, and includes a short story in the Christmas romance collection Love Under the Mistletoe, the isekai visual novel Ascendant Hearts (PC/Switch), the supernatural otome The Last Act, and other visual novels you can find on my list of games.

Contest

Moving on to this year’s contest, some things have changed since last year, so be sure to read everything carefully.

The available prizes are:

LoveKami -Divinity Stage- (Steam code)LoveKami -Useless Goddess- (Steam code)Ascendant Hearts (gift sent through Steam)The Last Act (gift sent through Steam)Nekopara bundle (gift sent through Steam)$15 sent through PayPalYou pick a game for me to review!…and possibly more game prizes to be added throughout the month!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in March.

Rules:

No purchase is necessary.Only comments made between February 2, 2022 at 12:00 PM EST and February 28, 2022 at 11:59 PM EST will be counted.1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Valentine Video Games Festival blog post = 1 point.You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and so on, until all prizes have been given out.The winner will be contacted by March 2, 2022.

Valentine’s Day might be partway through February, but you’ve got all month to enjoy reviews, leave comments, and earn points to win a prize at the end! Let’s have a great festival focused on romantic games!

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Final Fantasy VII Remake 2 News Could Come This Year

Today is the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, and Square Enix revealed special 25th anniversary logos.

The anniversary logo features Cloud, Sephiroth, and Zack and is reminiscent of the 10th anniversary logo, which also featured those three.

Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura both had messages about the anniversary as well, which curiously mentions “even more new FFVII projects that started up after the remake.”

New projects? That sounds like something outside of the remake, First Soldier, and Ever Crisis. Maybe we’ll get a Crisis Core remaster at last.

Square Enix also held a live stream today to give updates on First Soldier. That’s the mobile battle royale game, so it doesn’t especially interest me. However, as reported by Gematsu, Kitase said during the live stream that he hopes to share more details about the Final Fantasy VII Remake this year.

That’s far from a guarantee, but it’s still exciting! I’ve been dying for a glimpse of Part 2, so maybe it will finally come in the months ahead.

The live stream also included a small clip from the Ever Crisis opening movie. It’s caused a fair amount of confusion, since it features characters from First Soldier. However, if you recall, Ever Crisis is supposed to cover the story of the entire compilation.

First Soldier’s story being included in Ever Crisis was announced from the start, so that’s presumably what we’ve gotten a glimpse of here. Since it was a First Soldier live stream, it makes sense that they’d focus on that part. I’m very intrigued by Ever Crisis, and I hope we learn more about that soon as well.

So we’ve got a few tidbits of Final Fantasy VII news and the potential for Part 2 to be revealed later this year. What are you hoping to see?

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The Next Ys Game Will Have a Completely Different System

2022 is the 35th anniversary of the Ys series, so fans have been hoping that this year would bring news about the next game in the series.

In a recent interview translated here on Twitter, Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo talked about the next Ys.

Apparently the next Ys game is in development, but won’t be ready in time to be released this year.

More interestingly, he said that it will be “completely different” compared to Ys 7, 8, and 9, which all used a similar system.

(Similar comments have been made about the potential Ys 10 before this, with Kondo saying the next game should evolve into something new.)

I’m nowhere near caught up on the Ys series, having only played the first one (despite thinking last year might be the year when I’d play the rest), but it seems like Ys 7 is when the party system was introduced instead of playing as a solo character.

As a result, a lot of people are suggesting the next Ys game might go back to being solo. Others think some specific combat mechanics used in those three games might be removed while keeping the party.

The interview also goes into topics about Kuro no Kiseki II, but I didn’t read those parts since I’m not even remotely close to being caught up on Trails, either.

It’s a shame a new Ys won’t be out for the 35th anniversary, but it’s interesting to see that they’re planning new things for the next entry. What do you think the new Ys system will be like?

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