Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 63

Excellent Black Friday 2021 Video Game Deals Already Available

Black Friday isn’t until next week, but the sales have already started to appear. This is a great time to find a good sale on a game you’ve been waiting on, or maybe start your holiday video game shopping.

Looking around, I’ve already seen a lot of great deals (some on games I love, some I intend to buy), so here are the ones that stood out to me the most:

Yakuza and Judgment

Best Buy has some notable Yakuza deals, specifically Yakuza: Like a Dragon for $19.99 (PS4, PS5, and Xbox One), Judgment for $19.99 (PS5, Xbox Series X), and Lost Judgment for $29.99 (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X).

Amazon also has that same Lost Judgment PS4 deal.

I haven’t played Yakuza: Like a Dragon or Lost Judgment yet, so usually I wouldn’t promote them specifically like this, but my experiences with the series so far have left me confident in them. As for the first Judgment, I absolutely loved it, and you can check out my review here.

Resident Evil

The Resident Evil Village sale at Best Buy jumped out at me right away, since it’s on sale with a free steelbook for $19.99 (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X). While I might have had some mixed feelings about Village, I can’t deny that it’s worth it at this price.

The Resident Evil 2 remake is also on sale for $14.99 (PS4), and that’s one that I loved.

The World Ends With You

NEO: The World Ends With You is on sale for $29.99 at both Best Buy and Amazon, although only the PS4 version so far.

Trust me, this game is fantastic, and it’s a shame it hasn’t seen more attention. Where is my review, you might be asking? I finished the main game a while ago now, but I still have to wrap up the post-game. After that, I’ll definitely share my thoughts.

Nier

Nier Replicant is on sale for $29.99 at Best Buy (PS4, Xbox One) and Amazon (PS4, Xbox One).

I haven’t finished Nier Replicant yet, since I took a break from it for personal reasons, but keep in mind that I thought the original Nier was incredible, and Replicant just takes that same great game and makes it even better.

Persona

Persona 5 Royal is on sale for $24.99 at Best Buy and Amazon. Best Buy also has a sale on the sequel/spin-off Persona 5 Strikers, $29.99 for the PS4 version and $34.99 for the Switch version.

While I didn’t get to Persona 5 Royal yet, you can read my glowing review of the original, and I also found Persona 5 Strikers to be a great game and sequel.

13 Sentinels

Best Buy also has 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim on sale for $19.99.

This game is a masterpiece. If you aren’t familiar with 13 Sentinels, take a look at my review, and then go grab it in this sale if you enjoy story-driven games!

Kingdom Hearts

The Kingdom Hearts All-In-One Package is on sale at Best Buy for $19.99. This collection includes everything from the 1.5, 2.5, and 2.8 collections, and Kingdom Hearts III, so it’s pretty much all of them except for Melody of Memory. Alternately, Kingdom Hearts III is on sale on its own for $9.99.

That Kingdom Hearts III deal, at least, is also at Amazon for both PS4 and Xbox One.

I have too many Kingdom Hearts reviews to list them all here. The sheer number of Kingdom Hearts posts should give you an idea of how I feel about these games. And yes, while some people criticize Kingdom Hearts III, I personally loved it.

Conclusion

More sales might well appear as we get closer to Black Friday, so I’ll keep this list updated!

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Yakuza 8 Plans, Judgment’s Future, Unannounced Titles Planned

Back in October, an announcement from Ryu Ga Gotoku posted on the official website confirmed both that the company was being restructured and also that the next Yakuza game was in development.

Yakuza 8 (although who knows what they’ll title it in the west, since Yakuza 7 became Yakuza: Like a Dragon) has now been mentioned again in a new interview with director Masayoshi Yokoyama in this week’s Weekly Famitsu, translated by Gematsu.

In it, they first mention that the restructuring is normal for a company like this, and then confirm that Yakuza 8 will follow Ichiban as the main character again. It also will be “set several years after the story of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.”

(Yakuza games often take place in the year they’re released, so that makes sense.)

Since Yakuza 8 was already confirmed, of greater interest to me is the mention of Judgment. He says that Judgment is “very important” and goes on to say that they will “actively challenge [themselves] to create new titles, not only for Judgment, as circumstances permit.”

Now, I read that in an optimistic way. I interpreted “not only for Judgment” to mean a new Judgment title is all but confirmed to happen eventually, which made me happy that the rumors of the series ending were false.

…But most people online, it seems, interpret it in the exact opposite way and are upset that this interview confirms Lost Judgment is the last game in the Judgment series. This seems largely due to VGC reporting that Yokoyama said they would “cherish” the series and then recounting the earlier rumors. In my opinion, the lack of the “not only for Judgment” quote and the repetition of the rumor makes the outlook sound more negative.

Meanwhile, Twinfinite claims Yokoyama said he has high hopes for the Judgment series continuing, but there wasn’t a specific quote.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, you might be asking why I haven’t played my much-anticipated Lost Judgment yet, and that’s because I decided to finish the Yakuza series first due to Lost Judgment including a spoiler for Like a Dragon.

(It’s killing me; I want to play Lost Judgment now.)

One final interesting piece of information from the interview is that “unannounced titles outside of both series are also in the works.”

That could refer to more spin-offs, being outside the mainline Yakuza series, or another licensed spin-off like the Fist of the North Star game, or maybe even a whole new IP. Whatever it is, RGG Studio has proven to me that it’s something I’ll want to keep an eye on.

Here’s hoping we still have a chance of getting Kenzan and Ishin in the west…

How do you feel about the latest updates from RGG Studio?

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Norn9: Var Commons – Romance and a Vanishing Plot

We’ve got one last review that came too close to October to be written after I finished the game, this time for the otome visual novel Norn9: Var Commons.

I picked up Norn9 for one simple reason. The main theme was composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

I know, that’s not a good way to decide on a game purchase, but that’s how I ended up with a copy of Norn9, and this year I finally decided to play it.

Unlike the previous otome games we’ve discussed, Norn9 has multiple protagonists. In fact, you initially play as an elementary school boy, who is going through his normal life when he suddenly finds himself seemingly in the past, and then is picked up by a futuristic flying ship.

You’re introduced to this ship and the people on board through his eyes before you get a choice of which character to follow next, one of three young women who are the actual protagonists.

Each protagonist in turn has three love interests, so while nine love interests feels like a lot, it works well being split across three heroines.

These characters all have psychic powers of one kind or another, and they’re on a mission for an entity known as The World, on their way to receive orders about how they’ll use their powers to maintain world peace. This is a pretty intriguing setup, which makes it all the more disappointing that the plot just sort of fizzles out.

Most of Norn9 does not deal with the main plot at all. The end of each route returns to the overarching story to wrap things up, some more than others, but it often felt rushed to me, like it didn’t want to dwell on the plot too long.

And the epilogue, meant to clear things up, left me feeling even more confused on some points.

So let’s talk about the romances. Like I said, there are three protagonists and nine different love interests. The heroines all have distinct personalities, which was nice, and there was decent variety among the love interests. Some were more memorable than others (okay, I admit, it’s been just over a month and I’ve already forgotten a good number of them) and the actual character writing was generally solid.

Norn9 had a lot of funny moments and romantic moments that made me enjoy playing it, but everything about the story just left me feeling like it was incomplete.

Now, there’s a fandisc/sequel that supposedly fixes a lot of these plot issues and tells a good story. Unfortunately, it was never translated. Here’s hoping that one of these days they decide to give Norn9 another shot and translate the fandisc here as well! I didn’t have the best time with Norn9: Var Commons, but I enjoyed it enough that I’d pick up the fandisc if it ever comes out.

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Chaos;Head Noah and Chaos;Child Bundle Announced for Japan

When I played and reviewed the visual novel Chaos;Head this October, I mentioned how unfortunate it is that there is no completed fan translation for the updated re-release, Chaos;Head Noah.

Well, maybe we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of an official translation just yet.

In an interview with Dengeki, translated here by Gematsu, Makoto Asada from MAGES. spoke about three things.

Anonymous;Code has been delayed to 2022, Mystereet is being ported while its sequel is put on hold indefinitely, and Chaos;Head Noah will be bundled together with Chaos;Child in a new release set for February 2022.

That last one definitely caught my attention.

Since Chaos;Head Noah isn’t available on modern systems, they decided a package containing it and its sequel would be the best way to make it available to more players.

Of course, this is just for Japan. There’s no reason to believe this means they’ll finally translate Chaos;Head. However, if you had asked me a week ago, I would have said chances of Chaos;Head Noah being localized were next to nothing, because they wouldn’t devote resources to translating a game available on nothing more modern than a Vita, even though the creator said in 2018 it was possible.

But now, with a new release coming for modern platforms? This is the best chance we have of getting Chaos;Head Noah in English. Do you think it will happen?

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Yo-kai Watch Spin-Off Y School Heroes Trademarked in the West

You know what name we haven’t said much around here lately? Yo-kai Watch.

This is partly because I still haven’t played Yo-kai Watch 2 or 3, but also because there’s still no sign of Yo-kai Watch 4 localization, the Switch port of the first game was never localized, and the big anniversary news turned out to just be a mobile port.

But there’s still hope for the series here after all!

Sometime after Yo-kai Watch 4, in 2020, Level-5 released a spin-off called Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu, based on their Yo-kai Academy Y anime and follows a student investigating mysteries at the academy.

It seemed unlikely that they’d localized Yo-kai Academy Y ahead of Yo-kai Watch 4, but Level-5 apparently referred to Yo-kai Academy Y by the localized title of Y School Heroes: Bustlin’ School Life during its TGS 2020 presentation, although I wasn’t able to find a video of the presentation itself. That’s beside the point, though, because now we have even more cause for hope.

The other day, fans noticed a new trademark registered by Level-5 for “Y School Heroes” in the west.

Level-5 hasn’t localized anything in a long time, and there were reports of its North American branch being shut down, so a sudden Yo-kai Watch trademark in the west is quite a surprise. Of course, a trademark doesn’t always lead to an announcement (I’m still waiting on Baten Kaitos news), but it’s a good sign. Here’s hoping we’ll not only get Y School Heroes, but eventually Yo-kai Watch 4 as well!

Do you think this trademark news means anything?

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Cartagra: Twisted Murders and Romantic Encounters

Going into this October, I had one visual novel already lined up for Celebrating All Things Spooky.

I’ve heard great things about the mystery visual novel Kara no Shojo, and earlier this year I picked up a bundle that included it and its predecessor, Cartagra (warning, link is NSFW).

Cartagra is often described not only as a murder mystery, but also horror. It’s an eroge, as well, so I expected a murder mystery horror story with occasional sex scenes.

You’ll notice it didn’t make the cut for Celebrating All Things Spooky. Let’s take a look.

In Cartagra, you play a former police detective turned private detective who has been asked to look into the disappearance of a young woman. Yet as he investigates, he becomes increasingly embroiled in the bizarre serial killings terrifying the city, even though it isn’t officially his case.

It is a dark story, that’s for sure. The murders are pretty gruesome, not to mention the bad endings that the visual novel describes in detail. Some parts were pretty unsettling to read.

But what surprised me was how big a role the protagonist’s relationships played. Even though only one character’s route actually runs to the end of the mystery (and most of the others are bad endings), the detective practically has a harem. Everyone wants him, and your choices will determine who he has sex with, often enough that it can’t be dismissed as just an additional aspect of the story.

So what I expected was a murder mystery horror story with occasional sex scenes, but what I got was a murder mystery romance story with lots of sex scenes and occasional horror elements.

Now, don’t take that to mean I disliked Cartagra. It was an exciting story with unexpected twists, likeable characters, and some interesting ideas. It just wasn’t what I expected, and it definitely didn’t fit in with spooky games month.

(Since I started Higurashi as an emergency replacement, I’d say it was a win all around.)

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I’m Excited for the New Star Ocean Game

Near the end of October, we also had another big JRPG announcement, a bit of an unexpected one: a new Star Ocean game is in development.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the sixth entry in the series, set after the events of the fifth game but still earlier than the last game in the timeline.

It stars two protagonists, Raymond (who looks significantly better in artwork than his game model) and Laeticia, and you’ll choose whose story you want to follow.

Their meeting is the spark for the game’s story, but the official blog post about the game says your choice of who to play will determine “the events that take place during the story, including the allies who’ll have your back by the end of the game.”

Exploration looks like it will be a big focus, with a lot of verticality involved since you can fly for short distances.

I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing the game’s visuals, and I don’t really get it. Aside from the character models, which I’m not crazy about, I think Star Ocean: The Divine Force looks beautiful. The environments especially stand out to me and make me want to explore this game’s world.

It’s so pretty!

Now… back in 2015, I was also pretty excited for Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, which got a fairly negative reception when it came out.

And… I still haven’t played my copy of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

Since then, however, the first Star Ocean game was remastered, so I intend to pick up Star Ocean: First Departure R to try it ahead of this game’s release. I keep hoping they’ll remaster or port the second game in English, though, since that’s supposed to be one of the best in the series and is difficult to find nowadays.

Here’s hoping The Divine Force will be an excellent return for the series when it comes out next year! What do you think of the newest Star Ocean game from what we’ve seen so far?

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Impostor Factory is Another Emotional (and Sometimes Creepy) Entry in the Series

Among our long list of exciting games that came out this year is Impostor Factory, the third main entry in the To the Moon series.

I played Impostor Factory immediately after it came out, but since that was right ahead of October, its review got put off all this time!

Now, I honestly considered making it the first “spooky” game review of this October. Impostor Factory begins with a man named Quincy arriving at a mansion to attend a party, and it isn’t long before strange things start happening. Creepy things.

Yet despite the creepiness in certain parts of the game, I decided it was too much of a stretch to include it. So, it’s finally time to talk about Impostor Factory.

Unlike To the Moon and Finding Paradise, Impostor Factory doesn’t begin with Neil and Eva visiting someone’s memories to fulfill their wish. It feels unrelated at first, but don’t misunderstand, it is definitely a main entry in the series rather than a spin-off, and the reasons for that become clear as you play.

It soon becomes another emotional story through a character’s life. The format might be different, but the feelings are the same, and there’s a plot twist partway through that makes everything mean so much more.

I’m not sure I can give any specific details without brushing on spoilers, so I’ll just say that while you shouldn’t expect this to be a conclusion to the overarching story, I think you’ll enjoy Impostor Factory if you liked the previous two (although it seems like it’s a somewhat controversial one among fans). For me, I’d rank this second in the series – it didn’t quite hit the emotional highs of To the Moon for me, but I enjoyed it more than Finding Paradise.

So if you haven’t played Impostor Factory yet, be sure to get it. I just hope we won’t have to wait too long before getting a fourth main game in the series!

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A Different Month of Horror With NaNoWriMo 2021

Original image by brands amon from Pixabay

November is here, this year’s celebration of horror games is over, and the contest winners are being contacted!

We’ve got a lot of things to talk about, including a couple of games I finished in October that didn’t quite fit the spooky theme.

Before all that, however, NaNoWriMo has begun!

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a yearly challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

I got started at midnight, and so far I have 5,300 words written of a new supernatural horror novel. So even though our focused look on horror in video games is at an end for this year, I have another horror-themed month ahead for me in my writing. This year’s novel is partly inspired by Silent Hill 4, so I’m looking forward to getting into it!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what sort of project are you working on?

And this was the first year that the Celebrating All Things Spooky contest had slightly different rules, so if you have any thoughts on that, please share those in the comments as well.

Here’s to a fun and productive November!

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Celebrating All Things Spooky: Pony Island

Pony Island is not really a game about playing the endless runner called Pony Island. It’s a game about being trapped in limbo, forced to play the Devil’s badly-made games.

(This is not a spoiler. Pony Island makes no pretense of actually being a cheerful pony game and reveals Lucifer pretty quickly.)

In theory, you’ll be stuck playing Pony Island forever, possibly with the option of giving the Devil your soul. However, it’s a simple matter to exploit the game’s flaws and hack into it in search of a way to escape.

Pony Island is… bizarre. I’d call it a puzzle game first and foremost, since you’ll frequently search for clues of how to proceed and play “hacking” mini-games that involve rearranging tiles to redirect a key down the path you want. There are also some endless runner sections, though, and a few other parts that switch up the gameplay even further.

It’s an entertaining experience. The game is both creepy and funny, and it also has one of the best fourth wall breaking tricks I’ve seen in any game.

Click for Pony Island spoilersOne of the bosses requires you to keep your eyes on him, so you lose if you pause, minimize, open the Steam overlay, etc. At one point in this section, the game mimics you receiving Steam messages from one of your actual Steam friends.

I don’t know how the game chooses which friend to mimic, but for me it picked someone who had actually sent me a real message right ahead of the fight, which made the trick even more effective.

Now, the narrative falls a little short for me. I expected it to do more with its premise, and there are also some inconsistencies due to its different aspects – you’ve got an in-game desktop with multiple programs and games, but it’s also an arcade machine? Okay, maybe nitpicking the logistics of the Devil’s gaming machine isn’t important, but then there’s the fact that much of it is designed so that you, the player, are the main character, yet you can learn more about the main character’s identity and past.

Those are just a couple of minor things that made the game less effective than it could have been, but enough of the things it did were clever enough that I don’t mind.

So if you want a puzzle game that’s creepy, funny, and overall a bizarre experience, check out Pony Island.

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