Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 65

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Devotion

What better way to begin this year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky reviews than with a horror game I’ve been dying to play?

Devotion is a first-person psychological horror game from Red Candle Games, who previously developed a horror game called Detention. I loved Detention, so I was eagerly awaiting the launch of Devotion in 2019.

When it came out, I decided to wait until closer to October to buy it. That was a mistake.

Devotion was pulled from Steam after images were discovered making jokes about the president of China, and it looked like it was never coming back. (You can read about the incident here.) Last year, I woke up one day to the exciting news that Devotion was being re-released on GOG, only for GOG to backtrack within hours due to “many messages from gamers.”

(Because GOG has never sold controversial games, right?)

But this year, at last, Red Candle Games began selling Devotion on their own website, and I immediately bought a copy to play this October.

Now that we’ve gone through the history of Devotion, let’s talk about the game itself. Devotion takes place in an apartment complex in Taiwan. In fact, most of it takes place in a single apartment, with the main character visiting and revisiting the same location seen at different points in time.

(Ironically, given the controversy, its story is not nearly as political as Detention’s. It’s really a personal tale.)

Devotion makes great use of the trick where you enter an area and the environment behind you changes when you turn around or leave the room, and the early parts in particular have a dread-filled atmosphere and some well-placed jump scares.

As you get further into the game, it becomes more focused on the personal horror and tragedy surrounding the main character and his family. It’s less horror in terms of scaring the player, and more the horror of the story itself and what happened to the characters.

Early on, it is fairly linear, but the middle of the game opens up more with puzzles for you to solve by visiting the apartment at different points in time and taking items from one to another as you learn more about the family’s lives. I felt like the ending’s impact could have been stronger, but it was a good, disturbing journey to reach it.

I enjoyed Detention more overall, especially for its exploration and puzzles, but I appreciated Devotion and its haunting tale. I look forward to playing whatever Red Candle Games makes next.

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Celebrating All Things Spooky 2021

Happy October!

You know what that means, another month of spooky games in honor of Halloween, with 2021’s Celebrating All Things Spooky celebration! I’ve also got a few special promotions and announcements lined up this year.

Sales and Promotions

Once again, my horror novellas The Book at Dernier and It Came Back will be on sale for $0.99 for the entire month of October.

Not only that, but my comedy/horror novella The Zombie Mishap will be FREE this weekend to kick off the spooky season! You’ll have from October 2 at 3:00 AM ET to October 3 at 2:59 PM ET to pick up The Zombie Mishap for free.

Announcements

You might recall that I wrote the script for a short horror visual novel called Not It, which is available for free from itch.io.

Not It has been revamped with new backgrounds, CGs, voice acting, and more as Not It: Spookiest Edition! It will be available to purchase from Steam on October 12.

Big Announcement

Not It: Spookiest Edition will release on October 12th!

Jump into Katie's nightmare as she deals with a centuries old curse that could possess anyone on Halloween.

Who can she trust?https://t.co/SMjbdMmZKl#VisualNovel #HorrorGame #IndieGame #Halloween pic.twitter.com/3hF9gFrpAw

— Snowhaven Studios (@SnowhavenStudio) September 23, 2021

Contest

And now let’s discuss this year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky contest! The rules are slightly different than they were last year, so be sure to read them carefully.

This year, the available prizes are:

Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)Alien: Isolation (gift sent through Steam)Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)Dead Age (Steam code)Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (Steam code)Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)eBook copy of The Book at DerniereBook copy of It Came Back$15 sent through PayPalYou pick a game for me to review!

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 November.

Rules:

No purchase is necessary.Only comments made between October 1, 2021 at 12:01 AM ET and October 31, 2021 at 11:59 PM ET will be counted.1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on a Celebrating All Things Spooky 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 November 2, 2021.

You have between now and Halloween to leave comments, earn points, and win a fantastic prize! The month will be filled with spooky game reviews and content as usual. I hope you’ll participate!

Meanwhile, I’ve been debating about changing the name of the event in the future to better indicate its focus on dark, spooky, creepy, and/or Halloween-themed video games… but to what?

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9-nine-: An Epic Story in Four Parts

I picked up the visual novel 9-nine- in a Steam sale after seeing a lot of praise for it online, especially from people who enjoyed other visual novels I love.

It’s split into four episodes, each of which follows a different route.

While that structure seems a bit odd at first, there’s actually a reason for it. You can’t skip episodes, and you have to play them in order. Each advances the overarching plot, which becomes a greater focus with each episode. Explaining in any more detail would require spoilers, so I won’t.

9-nine begins with a town festival, at which an earthquake causes the town’s sacred relic to shatter. After the earthquake, people begin awakening to special powers, and a boy named Kakeru gets caught up in an investigation when a girl is found turned to stone.

The first episode in particular feels somewhat like a murder mystery, as the main characters search for the user of the “Evil Eye,” the name they give to the petrification power.

However, it’s much more of a thriller at its core, especially as the episodes continue. There’s also a fair amount of romance, with each episode featuring a different heroine (although all are part of the main cast), and a number of humurous slice-of-life scenes as well. Some parts really made me laugh.

An interesting thing about 9-nine- is that it just gets progressively better. Episode 1 is slow-paced, mainly focused on romance and setting up the premise. Episode 2 is surprisingly emotional and raises the stakes even higher. Episode 3 might be the funniest of them all, and really kicks the plot into high gear. Finally, Episode 4 brings everything together for a truly epic and intense conclusion.

(A fifth episode was released in Japan with epilogue stories for each heroine.)

In short, if you try the first episode and aren’t especially hooked yet, it’s worth continuing if you at least find the premise intriguing.

9-nine- has some neat ideas that it executes well, and the story is a great mix of humorous, romantic, and exciting. If the premise sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend checking it out.

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Tales of Luminaria Has 21 Main Characters and Weekly Episodes

The Tales of Luminaria live stream took place last week, and we would have discussed it sooner except that we had Bayonetta 3 news for the first time in almost four years.

The live stream gave a basic overview of the game and its structure, which revealed some interesting details.

First, there are 21 main characters.

That’s a massive main cast for a Tales game to start with, and they’re all being considered main protagonists. Each character will have their own story, which in some cases will give you different perspective on the same events. They are split into three factions. Eight characters belong to the Federation’s Knight Academy, another eight are part of the Empire’s army, and the remaining five are adventurers who team up to pursue their own goal.

One episode will be released a week, and each will take about an hour to complete. Each character will have 8 episodes, and after you play Episode 1 for each character, a special “crossroad” episode will follow.

21 intertwining stories sounds like a massive game, and they estimated it would be like three console Tales games. If we assume 8 episodes for each character plus 8 crossroad episodes, at one hour an episode, that’s a 176-hour game.

Gameplay footage was also shown during the event, starting at 31:54 in the video.

A lot of people have been critical of it for not looking like a Tales game, but while combat looks very different (it’s using basic touchscreen controls), I was pleasantly surprised by how much it looks like a regular game. You run through the game environments, encounter monsters, talk to NPCs, and so on.

The game also has full English voice acting, and the main composer is Go Shiina. That stood out to me because the most epic song on Zestiria’s soundtrack were his.

There will also be an anime adaptation called Tales of Luminaria: The Fateful Crossroad. It will follow one character’s point of view and include content from the middle, instead of being an adaptation of the game’s beginning like Crestoria’s anime.

I’m very interested in how Tales of Luminaria will turn out. They confirmed that you do not need to pay for characters or main story episodes, so it doesn’t seem to lend itself easily to intrusive gacha mechanics. However, it’s still a free-to-play game with in-app purchases, so my theory is that the purchases (preferably not gacha, but probably) will be weapons/equipment.

I doubt my tablet will be able to run Tales of Luminaria, but if and when I replace it, I’ll be interested in giving this game a try once it’s out. How do you feel about Tales of Luminaria?

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Bayonetta 3 Exists! (And Something Strange is at Work)

Bayonetta 3 exists!

It’s real, not just a collective hallucination we all had back in 2017! At yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, a new trailer was finally revealed along with a 2022 release window.

And we have a lot to talk about.

The Bayonetta 3 trailer has caused a lot of varied reactions, because on one hand it’s so exciting to finally see more from Bayonetta 3, but on the other hand, it looks quite different… in some suspicious ways.

Before we get into it, let’s discuss the 2017 teaser. That tiny teaser left fans with many theories about the possibility that the Bayonetta in the trailer was either a fake, a younger version, or a Bayonetta from an alternate timeline/universe.

She had her original hairstyle, new guns, no beauty mark, and no hair texture on her sleeves (suggesting her outfit could be real clothes, not magical), and the teaser ended with her seemingly cut in half.

That brings us to today’s trailer and our first look at Bayonetta 3 gameplay.

It begins with soldiers in Shibuya fighting giant monsters. This made me initially think the trailer wasn’t for Bayonetta 3 at all, but maybe Project G.G. (and then there was an Astral Chain fake-out, too).

But then Bayonetta appears! …With a new design that strangely resembles her child self.

In fact, a lot of things about this new Bayonetta design, such as her new outfit and dance moves, seem cuter, for lack of a better word. As if this isn’t the Bayonetta we’re familiar with, but a younger version of herself – or an alternate timeline version of Cereza trying to imitate her older self.

Madama Butterfly also has a different design. Was she redesigned for this game, or is she a different demon paired with a different Bayonetta?

And what’s up with Bayonetta’s medallion? The central medallion is familiar enough, but it has a new golden addition at the top set with a purple gem – which some fans think could be the Right Eye.

Bayonetta’s voice also sounds slightly different, and a recent tweet from her English voice actor, Hellena Taylor, had fans already wondering if she’d been recast… yet Taylor also seems to be under an NDA.

Could that mean this is a new Bayonetta/Cereza, but “our” Bayonetta will also appear?

Okay, let’s get back to the trailer. We see some traditional combat, Witch Time (stronger than usual, perhaps?), and what appears to be a torture attack that targets multiple enemies. At one point she also briefly transforms into the redesigned Madama Butterfly.

Then she dances, but instead of her clothes vanishing into hair to manifest a demon, a large red symbol appears on her back and the demon appears to beat up the monster. Following that, it shows a number of scenes in which the player is controlling demons directly to fight. A purple gauge decreasing during these fights suggests these demon summons are available until the gauge runs out.

The very end shows a silhouetted figure arriving, with a sword from which hangs a doll similar to that carried by Cereza in the first game.

It is Cereza, but that person has her doll!#Bayonetta3 #NintendoDirect pic.twitter.com/OZtoSFprWi

— Apes (@apeslion) September 23, 2021

(A popular candidate for the silhouetted figure right now is Jeanne.)

As I said before, a lot of this looks very different beyond just Bayonetta’s design. First, the human soldiers at the start seem like they can see the monsters, and the official website, describes the enemies as “mysterious life forms appearing to be neither angel nor demon.”

Her demon-summoning is different than anything she’s done before, and even the means of summoning them is new. Of course, since this is Bayonetta, the lack of nudity in the trailer has a lot of fans wondering if Bayonetta 3 is censored, but it seems much more likely that it’s either specifically for this trailer to avoid the Nintendo Direct getting a higher age rating, or is story-relevant considering the number of other differences in the character and her powers.

When asked if Cereza would get naked in Bayonetta 3, Kamiya responded with “Do not underestimate me.”

The website also names the two new gameplay mechanics as Demon Masquerade (fusing with a demon) and Demon Slave (directly controlling them).

The description ends with “The eyes of the world are on the mysterious Bayonetta 3, coming in 2022,” which could be just a cute way to tie in the lore, but makes me wonder if the Eyes will be important after all.

Except that’s not possible… if this is the same world/timeline.

In short, I do not think this is the Bayonetta we’re familiar with. Whether she’s an alternate timeline Cereza or something else, there are too many oddities. And I still don’t think the Bayonetta in the original teaser was the usual one, either. Alternate timelines or multiple universes – something strange is at work here. I’d believe a Bayonetta redesign if her appearance was all that changed, but too many differences are stacking up.

Who is she? Why is she fighting kaiju in Shibuya? Why are her powers so different? I have so many questions and some concerns, and I don’t know what to think, but I’m thrilled that we finally got to see Bayonetta 3.

What do you think about the new Bayonetta 3 trailer?

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6 Projects Planned for Atelier’s 25th Anniversary (Plus a Sale!)

May 2022 is the 25th anniversary of the Atelier series, and a big celebration is planned.

According to the 25th Anniversary website, “various Atelier-related projects” are planned.

One of these will be a new game, a 25th anniversary title to be announced on October 2 at TGS during Koei Tecmo’s live stream.

Meanwhile, the website has six spots listed for projects, with the first dated October 2 while the others all say “Coming Soon.” These projects should be revealed between now and the anniversary. They probably aren’t all games, of course, but maybe we’ll get more game announcements than just that one.

A rating recently surfaced for Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream, so it’s highly likely that it is the October 2 announcement.

Not only are six anniversary projects planned, but there is also currently an Atelier sale going on across Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Nintendo eShop.

(Blue Reflection and Fairy Tail are also on sale where they’re available.)

Atelier sales are rare. The last time the Arland trilogy went on sale in the eShop was 2019. I know I won’t play these games too soon, but I’m tempted to buy them all now because it could believably be years before the next sale. Also Fairy Tail, because I was starting to think they forgot it existed.

Anyway, what do you think the Atelier anniversary announcements will be? Are you planning to pick up any of the games in the sale?

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Deltarune Chapter 2 is Fantastic (and Free)

So after Deltarune Chapter 2 came out Friday night, I downloaded it and played it over the weekend.

Like Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is free. Both can be downloaded together now and are considered a long Deltarune demo. The current plan is that Chapters 3-5 will be released together and cost money.

But anyway, let’s get back to talking about Chapter 2.

The first chapter ended on quite an unsettling note, and Chapter 2’s beginning suggests that nothing sinister happened after all… or did it? With that note of uncertainty hanging over you, you soon return to the Dark World.

Like in the first chapter, you have a small party of characters and various options during combat. You can either attack enemies to force them to run away, or choose the correct actions that will allow you to spare the enemies. Although at first only the main character can use these actions or ask another character to, the other characters eventually gain the ability to use their own actions.

A new system introduced in Chapter 2 is recruitment, which means that spared enemies will go to your town. Recruits don’t do a whole lot here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s expanded in subsequent chapters.

The main area for Chapter 2 is based on the Internet, with an AI queen who has seemingly become a tyrant due to the Internet outage and the appearance of a fountain, which you need to seal. There’s a lot of humor again, with several goofy situations and wacky characters getting in your way.

It also has its share of sweet moments, a few moments that hint at darker things to come, and some continued questioning of the relationship between the player and the main character.

Click for Deltarune spoilersRalsei, specifically, is acting suspicious, and multiple things suggest that he is aware of you, the player, being a separate entity from Kris. One scene in particular implies that he diverted your attention to watch the scene with Susie and Noelle so he could speak to Kris without you there to witness it.

(Apparently there’s also a much darker alternate route that sounds incredibly disturbing.)

Chapter 2 was a bit longer than Chapter 1 and took me over five hours to complete. Together with Chapter 1, the Deltarune demo has now taken me almost as long as all of Undertale. That’s a hefty amount of content for a free demo!

Now, due to the way it started, I was concerned that each chapter might end on a shocking cliffhanger that would be left ambiguous in the next part. However, while Chapter 2 definitely ends on another unsettling note, it suggests a much clearer picture of what’s going on and raises some intriguing possibilities for what will occur in Chapter 3.

I’m really enjoying Deltarune now in its own right (rather than viewing it as an Undertale alternate universe) and I can’t wait to see how this story will unfold.

It also looks as though there will be 7 chapters total, which is more than I expected. Here’s hoping the wait to 3-5 and then 6-7 won’t be too long!

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Deltarune Chapter 2 Comes Out Tonight!

Remember Deltarune?

Yes, adding to the list of exciting games all coming out at the same time, Deltarune Chapter 2 was announced with a release date of today at 8 PM ET.

Deltarune was a surprise game from Toby Fox that came out back in 2018.

I played it expecting it to be a demo, only to learn that it was Deltarune Chapter 1, the first part of a new game that may or may not be connected to Undertale.

Back then, the plan was that subsequent chapters would be released all at once, although an update last year made it sound more like the plan was to release it chapter-by-chapter, and that seems to be the case now. This is Chapter 2, and further chapters are still in development.

I’m a little disappointed by that, since there might be another long wait to Chapter 3. Still, I’m excited to get more Deltarune at last!

Nothing has been revealed yet about pricing, but since Chapter 1 can be seen as essentially a long demo, I’d expect Chapter 2 to cost money. We’ll know tonight, one way or another!

In the meantime, I’d better refresh my memory about Chapter 1, since it’s a bit fuzzy after all this time. Are you looking forward to Deltarune Chapter 2?

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Tales of Luminaria Details Coming on September 24

Tales of Arise is out now, but don’t forget that we’ve got a new mobile Tales game on the way as well.

New details about Tales of Luminaria will be coming soon, in a live stream announced for September 24. The live stream will reveal details about the world and characters.

As we discussed before, Luminaria is a completely original game with its own cast and story, instead of being a crossover like previous mobile Tales games.

I’m still hopeful that Luminaria will be a regular game, with no gacha, but I doubt will get that information this soon.

From other comments made recently, it sounds as though mobile games are a way to bring in a more consistent stream of money while they work on new entries and remasters/remakes. I’d be happy to see that, especially since Arise feels great so far (although I dislike its DLC practices).

I just hope the western release of Luminaria isn’t left to die like Link and Rays, and I hope Crestoria sticks around long enough for me to get a device that can play it!

Anyway, after the live stream on the 24th, we should have a better picture of what Luminaria will be like.

What are you hoping to learn about Tales of Luminaria?

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Yakuza 4: A Mostly Great Adventure

In July, I wanted to play a game that would make me smile, so I turned once again to the Yakuza Remastered Collection and moved on to Yakuza 4.

While the past few games focused mostly on Kiryu, Yakuza 4 switches things up in a big way by having four playable characters.

Unlike Yakuza 0, which alternated between its two protagonists, Yakuza 4 has you play through each character’s story before it all comes together at the end.

This has the effect of feeling almost like four miniature Yakuza games, although each story follows the previous one instead of taking place at the same time like I originally thought they might.

Anyway, I liked all of the characters story-wise and enjoyed the change of pace.

(Gameplay-wise, each character has his own combat style, which means that as someone who prefers faster styles, Saejima’s combat was agony for me. But I still love him.)

I liked seeing how the different characters’ stories all came together, and there were definitely some exciting points in the plot as it unfolded. Unfortunately, there were also some goofy moments, and not necessarily in a comedic way. I can stretch my suspension of disbelief, but Yakuza 4 requires a bit more of that than any other entry in the series I’ve played so far.

Click for major Yakuza 4 spoilersRubber bullets. Everyone complains about the rubber bullets. And you know, I can accept this Layton-esque twist of all of Saejima’s bullets being secretly replaced with experimental rubber bullets that non-lethally knock everyone out so that the antagonist can regain consciousness and shoot everyone else to survive while placing the blame on Saejima, sure. It’s convoluted, but sure.

But how did Arai not notice that the man he shot in the head at point-blank range wasn’t actually SHOT?

Also, Akiyama keeps literally all of his money in a gigantic unlocked safe in his office. Unlocked. It’s protected by a button hidden behind a book. The bad guys find it by accident. Giant unlocked safe. Giant unlocked safe.

Still, the rest of the game is full of Yakuza goodness like entertaining substories and wacky Revelations to learn new moves. Several substories also follow up on substories from previous games, which I really liked. The Yakuza series might not exactly have an overarching story (although Yakuza 4 drew on knowledge of the previous games more than ever), but I love that side characters and even minor substory characters develop over time.

And why did the series ever drop Revelations? They’re great!

I probably spent less time on the mini-games than in the past, but that’s partly because none especially stood out to me and partly because Lost Judgment is practically knocking on the door.

Anyway, Yakuza 4 comes in at the lower end of my Yakuza rankings, but a weak Yakuza game is still a great game. I enjoyed my time with these four characters and their questionable plot, and I look forward to reaching the final part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection in the future!

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