Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 74

The Last Act Launch and a Feedback Survey!

Today I’m excited to announce that the supernatural otome visual novel I wrote the script for, The Last Act, is now available on Steam!

The Last Act follows Sarah, an aspiring actress who thinks her dreams have come true when she lands the lead role in a play… only for dangerous and possibly supernatural incidents to threaten the show’s success.

It features a mystery story, multiple endings, and three possible love interests, so if this is the sort of game that interests you, be sure to check it out!

Meanwhile, there have been a bunch of smaller pieces of game news that have gotten my attention lately – No More Heroes I and II getting a print run through Limited Run Games, El Shaddai set for a mid-April release, Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis confirmed to have gacha (boo), and Devotion finally being sold again!

Square Enix also announced a game showcase for tomorrow, although it doesn’t look like there are a lot of games lined up that will particularly interest me. But you never know!

And now, let’s talk about this site! I blog about a variety of topics, and I’m sure you have your favorites. There are probably some things you’d like to see more of and maybe some thoughts you have on our contests and other activities. Well, now’s your chance to tell me!

I’ve opened up an official Feedback Form about this site and its content, so please take a look! It’s pretty short and should only take you a few minutes to complete.

Of course, you’re free to leave your thoughts in the comments here instead, if you prefer.

Thanks!

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Yakuza 3 is Actually Really Good!

My journey through the Yakuza Remastered Collection began last year when I started Yakuza 3 Remastered, but then it got put on hold for Bloodborne (which got put on hold for 13 Sentinels), so it took me a while to get back to it.

But once I finished Bloodborne, I returned to Yakuza 3 and reached the end this weekend… and even though it gets a lot of criticism, I actually really enjoyed it.

There are two main things people often name when criticizing Yakuza 3.

The first is the combat. Enemies block nearly constantly, although in return it felt to me like Kiryu’s attacks hit a lot harder when they do land. You end up spending a lot of time waiting for an opening, so while the combat is fine, I’d agree that it’s less fun than in the others I’ve played.

The other big point people bring up is the slice-of-life sections. Kiryu has moved to Okinawa to take care of the orphanage, and you spend a significant amount of time there early on.

So while the main plot is teased before flashing back to the events that built up to it, your early objectives will involve playing with the kids, helping them with trouble at school, dealing with conflicts that come up between them, and so on. It’s a quieter, calmer look at life in the series with a lot of cute moments, and I enjoyed it.

The main story itself is also really good. It starts out with a bit of mystery and goes through some entertaining twists and turns as it builds. Some moments late in the game are seriously emotional, and the main antagonist is great.

Click for major Yakuza 3 spoilersThe whole Chapter 11 section was impactful, and Rikiya’s death hit especially hard. He was such a pure, loveable person, and losing him like that was just too sad.

Meanwhile, Mine was unsettling in how he could appear so quiet and mild-mannered and then suddenly go berserk, and yet by the end, I was pulling so hard for him to redeem himself and stick with us as our ally.

(Mine’s sacrifice required some suspension of disbelief; I feel it would have been better if he grabbed Richardson and immediately pulled him off the roof, to show there was no other way to stop him. But since they wanted him to give that final speech, we instead get the awkwardness of him holding Richardson on the edge of the roof for about five minutes while talking.)

Yakuza 3 has a number of entertaining substories, too. Some are bland, but others are really good. Then there are some of the fun little details in this game, such as how Kiryu learns certain special moves by witnessing wacky events in the city and blogging about them.

It was also interesting for me to see not only how the Yakuza series progressed, but also what seemed to be the earliest groundwork for systems used in Judgment. Chases, a substory where I had to follow someone… and one of the most fun substories was even a murder investigation!

(Oh, and that samurai movie substory? Yeah, that’s not making me want Kenzan and Ishin any less!)

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Yakuza 3 and was delighted to find out that it’s such a great game. I’ll be taking a break from Yakuza for now, but I expect to return to the Yakuza Remastered Collection later this year to start Yakuza 4!

If you’ve played Yakuza 3, what did you think of it?

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Hopes for the Recent Pokémon Announcements

While we were still discussing romance games near the end of February, there was a Pokémon Presents live stream celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series.

In addition to an overview of the series and a new trailer for New Pokémon Snap (which looks absolutely beautiful), they also made two new game announcements.

The first was for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, remakes of the fourth generation games. These had been widely rumored for a while.

But then they followed that with the announcement of an all-new game called Pokémon Legends: Arceus, set in ancient Sinnoh as you work to create the first Pokédex.

Let’s talk about these games. First, while the chibi graphics of the Diamond/Pearl remakes has proven to be controversial, I don’t mind it. Yes, I was hoping to see them remade in the graphic style of the newer games, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl look pretty good.

There’s only one thing that has me uncertain about Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and that’s the potential lack of Pokémon Platinum content.

See, Pokémon Platinum introduced new aspects to the plot that weren’t in the original Diamond and Pearl, and I really liked that part of the story. But since these are remakes of Diamond and Pearl, there’s a chance they’ll stick to their original storylines, like how Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire followed the stories of Ruby and Sapphire respectively.

If Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl include the Platinum story content, I’ll probably get one of them. If they don’t… well, then I’ll wait to see what else they have to offer.

(On the other hand, I admit I didn’t actually play Diamond/Pearl, only Platinum, so maybe I ought to get them even if they lack the Platinum story content, since they’d be newer experiences for me.)

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are also being developed by a company called ILCA instead of Game Freak, which is an interesting decision. ILCA has worked in a support role on several big-name game, but it appears as though this is the first time they’re the lead developer.

Moving on, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has caused quite a stir since it looks fairly different from any past Pokémon game.

Much of the hype comes from fans who see it as an open world game along the lines of Breath of the Wild, and as someone who isn’t a big fan of open worlds and couldn’t stick with Breath of the Wild, that has me less enthusiastic.

On the other hand, they haven’t clearly said that it will be open world. The closest we get to anything official being said is the trailer calling it a “vast wilderness.” That might just mean the areas are big, without being fully open world. If it’s some sort of Xenoblade-like structure with large areas to explore and a world that opens up more as you progress through the game, I’d be pretty excited for that.

(It’s being widely reported as an open world game, but Wikipedia also thinks it’s an action RPG despite us clearly seeing turn-based or ATB combat in the trailer just because it has some action elements, so don’t take anything as fact if it doesn’t come from an official source.)

Meanwhile, there are some really interesting story theories out there due to a potential connection to Team Galactic. I’d love it if there really is a direct connection between Legends and the main Sinnoh games (or maybe even, you know, Pokémon Platinum’s story).

I was a little disappointed that they still haven’t said anything about the new Detective Pikachu game announced for the Switch, but I’m cautiously optimistic for both Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. What are your thoughts on these upcoming Pokémon games, and what do you think they’ll be like?

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Kuro no Kiseki Lets You Switch Between Action and Turn-Based Combat

Ever since Falcom said the next Trails game would feature a new combat system that includes action and real-time elements, fans had been arguing over what this meant for the series.

The few details revealed after that only increased the confusion about whether or not the next game, Kuro no Kiseki, would feature an action combat system or not.

Now at last, we have our answer! During Falcom’s 40th Anniversary live stream, they shared new details about Kuro no Kiseki’s characters and battles, including footage of the new combat system.

(I’ve avoided reading about the characters and setting since I’m so far behind in the overall series, but you can get the full details from Gematsu.)

Yes, Kuro no Kiseki features an action-based combat system… but once you start a battle, you can seamlessly switch to command-based combat to choose attacks, Crafts, Arts, etc.

It really does feature both, and it hasn’t abandoned turn-based combat.

I had concerns when they first announced the real-time elements, but this actually looks pretty great!

The action combat seems basic right now, but I like the way you can switch straight into the command-based mode (with what appears to be free positioning ahead of your action) and how that appears to be a significant portion of the combat, not an afterthought or compromise.

Meanwhile, they also announced a Trails of Cold Steel anime that will tell an original story (and apparently is getting its own tie-in game, although fans expect that to be a mobile gacha game).

I’m way far behind in my Trails playthroughs and still hoping to hear news of official Crossbell localizations when I get that far, but maybe by the time Kuro no Kiseki is coming out in English, I’ll be all caught up and ready to go!

What do you think of the Kuro no Kiseki combat system? Do you think this method of blending action and turn-based combat is a good idea?

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Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past Has Some Fun Cases

[image error]When I started thinking of playing another 3DS game, I decided to check my 3DS to see what game I’d left in the system.

To my surprise, I found Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past, which I hadn’t played and didn’t remember prioritizing, but apparently at some point it was the next game I intended to play.

So why not? I decided to play it.

Memories of the Past is a visual novel adventure game in which you play a detective investigating various cases. It contains six cases, but the Jake Hunter release history gets a little complicated, so let’s talk about that first.

The series began all the way back in 1987 on the Famicom and saw consistent titles across a variety of platforms from then on, including a line of mobile games.

The first five cases in Memories of the Past are actually the first five mobile games, the first four of which are remakes of the original four Famicom games.

Finally, the sixth case is titled Memories of the Past and was created for this DS game. In fact, while all six cases are unlocked from the start and I played them in order, the game clearly intends for you to start with Memories of the Past, because it prompts you within that case to play through the others, creating a single continuous experience instead of treating each as a separate game.

(If you play them separately, like I did, you can skip the previous cases in Memories of the Past, but it still quizzes you on the major points.)

Gameplay-wise, everything is handled through menus. You won’t be tapping around the environment to search for clues, but rather choosing “Inspect” and then picking an area/object to inspect from the list that comes up. It can be a little tedious, since occasionally it needs you to inspect things multiple times or in the right order, but it’s fine.

It also frequently quizzes you on the current case’s events to make sure you remember the important details.

I found the first three cases to be pretty straightforward, entertaining enough to see how the mystery plays out, but not too compelling. The fourth was probably my favorite, with two alternating points of view and a story that had some fairly emotional moments.

The fifth case was fine, and the sixth was interesting in how it tried to bring things together, but not particularly noteworthy on its own in my opinion.

In addition to the main six cases, there are also a number of “Jake Hunter Unleashed” cases, shorter mysteries with chibi art and an emphasis on humor. They essentially feel more like puzzles, since they give you all the evidence and witness testimonies right away and you need to figure out the truth.

One more thing I want to mention is that this is another series that decided to change its setting to America for the localizations. Unlike Ace Attorney, where changing the names makes sense for the pun-based humor, there’s no reason for that to have been done in Jake Hunter. I assume they thought western audiences would be less inclined to buy “Detective Saburo Jinguji,” but honestly I find “Jake Hunter Detective Story” to be such a bland title I’m not sure it paid off.

Anyway, Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past was enjoyable enough. I wouldn’t say it’s a new favorite, but I’m intrigued enough to check out the next game that was released in English…

…which is not any of the five Jake Hunter games that came out after Memories of the Past, but rather the next one after that, Ghost of the Dusk. (And so far they’ve skipped over the next game, Prism of Eyes, despite it getting an English rating, so staying up to date with the Jake Hunter series doesn’t seem like it’ll get any easier anytime soon…)

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Bloodborne is a Beautiful, Wondrous Nightmare

Bloodborne is a beautiful game.

Maybe that’s not the term you might expect to come up first when talking about FromSoftware’s nightmarish action RPG, set in the monster-filled city of Yharnam, but it’s a thought I couldn’t escape as I played.

I love Bloodborne’s architecture and overall aesthetic. There were so many times during the game where I’d stop to admire the breathtaking view I’d discovered, and one point in particular when I stopped what I was doing to just take a walk through the then-familiar streets of Yharnam to see how things had changed.

You might have guessed this, but I love gothic horror.

You know what I love even more than gothic horror? Cosmic horror.

So Bloodborne, with its gothic horror setting that spirals into increasingly cosmic horror themes as it progresses, is a game after my own heart.

I’d been interested in Bloodborne for quite a while, but I was wary of it since it leans toward faster-paced, more aggressive combat than Dark Souls (which I played slowly and methodically, with great reliance on my shield). It took some getting used to, but once I got into it, I fell in love.

Like with Dark Souls, death became an expected part of the experience for my in Bloodborne, and it wasn’t long before I knew a boss fight meant that would be my Bloodborne focus for quite a while. And once again, it became addicting, a situation where I always felt like I either was getting better at the fight or was so close that surely I’d win next time.

Partway through my playthrough, the DLC went on sale, so I picked up The Old Hunters and played through that fantastic experience as well.

Bloodborne is dark and creepy, sinister and ominous, and yet also beautiful and wondrous if you’re into that style of horror that I am. While the moment-to-moment story felt more in the background and the NPCs didn’t leave a big impact on me, I latched onto every shred of lore and backstory I could find and delighted in the dark picture it presented.

Some of the boss music is amazing, too.

I also just love the way the scope expands so much from those early hours of the game. Similar to how a JRPG might have you start out in a little village with tiny quests and go on a world-spanning adventure, the situations I was dealing with by the end of the game made me look back at the start and shake my head at how much simpler everything seemed back then.

Anyway, 80 hours later I finished my Bloodborne playthrough, and I can see myself returning to it for a second playthrough someday.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to taking a break from constant death but then eventually moving on to another FromSoftware game (which will probably be either Sekiro or Dark Souls II, or a Souls-like such as Code Vein)! How do you feel about Bloodborne?

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I’m Surprisingly Excited for Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis

Last week, Square Enix announced the enhanced version of Final Fantasy VII Remake for the PS5, as well as a PS5-exclusive DLC starring Yuffie.

(If you have the PS4 version, you can upgrade your game to the PS5 version for free, although not if you have it through PS+.)

Alongside that news, Square Enix also revealed the truth behind the mysterious trademarks “First Soldier” and “Ever Crisis,” which fans speculated might be related to Final Fantasy VII.

They are, and they’re both mobile games.

I have no interest in Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, which is a mobile battle royale prequel set 30 years ahead of Final Fantasy VII. However, although I was disappointed when I saw both games were mobile, I’ve become much more interested in Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis.

It is a single-player, chapter-based game that covers the entire Final Fantasy VII compilation timeline: Final Fantasy VII, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus, along with new story content as well.

Meanwhile, a Famitsu interview about Intergrade, First Soldier, and Ever Crisis, translated here, revealed even more details.

Ever Crisis is a command-based (ATB) JRPG that uses chibi character models in the field and full models in combat. In addition to the compilation titles, it will also cover the First Soldier story and a new prequel scenario written by Nojima about “THAT legendary hero” (presumably Sephiroth).

New chapters will be added each month, and each title will be separate from the others with its own chapters to choose from (so you won’t have to play through the Final Fantasy VII chapters first if you want to play the Advent Children game, for example).

Honestly, that sounds fantastic. I’d love to play through a new turn-based version of all the Final Fantasy VII timeline events, and the trailer calling it “another possibility for a remake” together with Nomura saying it’s the response to people who preferred the command-based battle system sounds like it’s exactly that.

The only thing that has me worried is that the official website says it’s free-to-play with in-app purchases.

I’m hoping that just means you’ll buy new stories or bonus items or something. It doesn’t sound like a gacha game, but that sort of wording always makes me nervous. We should learn more as we get closer, since Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis is planned for 2022.

So here I sit, looking forward to a Final Fantasy mobile game. How about you? What do you think of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, and do you intend to play it?

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The House in Fata Morgana is an Emotional Gothic Romance

Romance month is over and the contest winner has been contacted, but now there’s one more visual novel we really need to talk about.

Originally, I intended The House in Fata Morgana to be the last review of February, but I didn’t finish it in time… in part because it gets so heavy at certain points that I needed to take a break, and in part because it’s the sort of story that deserves to be savored, not rushed.

Described as “a gothic suspense tale,” The House in Fata Morgana begins with you awakening in a strange mansion, where a mysterious maid tells you that you are the mansion’s Master and invites you to learn about its history.

It is a slow burn story, not in the sense that it takes a while to get interesting, but rather that it takes a long time before you truly understand what the story is about.

There will be times when you’ll question why I considered including it in February’s celebration at all, although you should understand by the end; I’ve described it here as a gothic romance, but at times it is horror or tragedy.

I don’t want to say too much about it, because the slow unfolding of its tale is part of this visual novel’s beauty.

The House in Fata Morgana is powerful and emotional, and it also plays a clever trick using its medium partway through that I assume most people only find accidentally, like I did.

Click for The House in Fata Morgana spoilersIf you’ve finished or gotten far enough to know the truth about the fourth door, go back to the fourth door’s story and check the backlog from time to time.

The backlog does not reflect the false story, but something else entirely.

There’s so much I want to say about The House in Fata Morgana, but most of it I don’t even want to include behind spoiler tags, in case someone would see it by mistake. Instead I’ll just say that if you like visual novels at all, I consider this one a must-play (as long as you’re okay with some seriously dark sections and sensitive topics), and it quickly rose to stand among my favorite visual novels.

Oh, and the soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous, which makes the emotional moments stand out even more.

The House in Fata Morgana has a prequel story as well, which I’ll definitely read, although I’m tempted to wait for the Switch version to be released in English, since the console versions bundle the two together with additional content. Anyway, go read The House in Fata Morgana!

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: Top 5 Games With a Central Romance

We’ve talked about a lot of visual novels this month.

And there are a handful of romance-focused games in other genres.

And a lot of RPGs have multiple romance options that you can choose between.

But what about games that fall into other genres and are about more than just romance, but also feature one canon romance at the center of the plot?

That’s the type of game we’re going to focus on today, and so here are my picks for five great games that feature a central romance.

5. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

You might argue that the love story isn’t exactly at the center of a story about Professor Layton getting sent forward through time and trapped in a future London, but Professor Layton and the Unwound Future prominently features flashbacks that show Layton getting to know and fall in love with a woman named Claire. Their story is actually much more important to the main plot than it might first appear, and it’s one of the things that makes Unwound Future one of the best in the series.

Without that romance, it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as it is.

4. The Last Story

I played The Last Story for the first time just a few months ago, and I stand by what I said in my review – this Wii action JRPG deserves a lot more recognition than it gets. Now, why is it on this list? Well, while the story follows a band of mercenaries, a fair amount of time is also devoted to the growing relationship between Zael and a young woman named Calista. There’s a lot more going on in the story besides just that, but it’s a sweet romance that really helped it stand out.

I just wish The Last Story would get a re-release to make it easier for more people to play it.

3. Final Fantasy IX

That’s not a problem for our next game, however, because not only is Final Fantasy IX still readily available for the original PlayStation, but they’ve since ported it to pretty much everything. Now, I know a lot of you are raising your eyebrows at me for not picking Final Fantasy VIII or Final Fantasy X, and I’ll admit I’m biased toward Final Fantasy IX because it’s one of my favorite Final Fantasy games, but for me, the romance in Final Fantasy IX just outshines the others. Watching Zidane and Garnet go from strangers to friends to falling in love with each other felt natural to me, and the song “Melodies of Life” just makes it even better.

(I also loved the romance between Beatrix and Steiner, so that’s yet another reason for me to pick Final Fantasy IX for this list.)

2. Trails in the Sky

Okay, there’s a lot of Trails games I still need to play, but I wanted to highlight Trails in the Sky for this list. As I mentioned in my review, it’s a slow-paced yet highly story-driven JRPG that is well worth taking the time to see through to the end. And yes, there is a slow-burn romance between the two main characters that is also worth playing it for. The relationship gets a fair share of (in my opinion undeserved) criticism, but as long as you aren’t put off by a romance between two characters who are seen as adopted siblings (but aren’t related by blood and met each other when they were old enough to know that), I think you’ll enjoy taking this journey with Estelle and Joshua.

Now, I need to get back to playing Trails in the Sky SC to see the rest!

1. To the Moon

But if you play only a single game on this list, make it To the Moon. To the Moon is on PC, mobile, and now the Switch as well. You play as two scientists going back through an old man’s memories to fulfill his dying wish in his mind, and while there is no romance between the actual main characters you play as, the love story in the past as you explore Johnny’s memories is truly central to the story.

In fact, of all the games I’ve covered today, this is probably the one that most requires the romance for the rest of the game to work. It’s a wonderful, beautiful game that you really need to play.

Conclusion

And there you have it, five excellent choices if you want to play a great game with an important romance as part of its plot. I was really tempted to include Yakuza 0 on this list, but I couldn’t figure out a way to talk about it without spoilers. So, uh… play that one too!

Anyway, what do you think? What are your favorite games that feature a canon romance, and what do you think of my picks? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is another otome I picked up for my Vita (although it’s also out on Steam now), and when I started it, I expected to love it.

The protagonist is a young woman who wakes up with amnesia in a mysterious manor. Soon she learns that there are several others trapped there with her, as well as monsters that prowl the manor’s halls.

If they want to escape, they need to search the manor for the pieces of a broken kaleidoscope, as instructed by the manor’s mysterious master.

I love this premise. The eerie, monster-filled manor gave me almost a Resident Evil or Fatal Frame vibe, and the premise felt similar to something like Zero Escape – a group of strangers who may or may not be able to trust each other, trapped for reasons they don’t understand and given a strange task to complete to escape.

There’s even a combat mini-game, of all things, that rewards you with points you can spend to unlock short episodes, which we’ll get back to in a minute.

Psychedelica’s structure is a bit unusual for a game like this. Instead of branching onto character routes right away, you’ll play through the common route and get the main ending first. After that, you can make different choices to see character-specific endings and other alternate paths, some of which are locked behind seeing specific scenes, other endings, or certain short episodes.

Short episodes are small scenes that either show something from the characters’ pasts or an additional scene from their stay during the mansion, often with a slice-of-life focus.

This structure can be a bit confusing, but fortunately Psychedelica has what I love to see in a visual novel like this – a flowchart that lets you quickly jump back to any scene.

The common route and main story are pretty interesting, and I enjoyed learning the truth about what happened. The short episodes also have some entertaining moments, even if they do steer the tone a lot more toward slice-of-life than the game’s initial premise might suggest, and a couple of the character endings are interesting (especially for one character who is largely a mystery outside of his route).

But oh, the romance is bad. Some of the love interests are straight-up unlikeable, and even for the ones I liked, the actual romantic connection was pretty weak.

Click for Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly spoilersAnd did they really need to use the “childhood friend had a crush on the protagonist” trope for four of the five love interests?

This led to a weird situation where my enjoyment of Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly steadily diminished after I finished the common route. That core story was pretty interesting, but after that I felt like I was trudging through a series of awkward and bland scenes just to see the full story.

There are definitely some good things in this otome, but ultimately this isn’t one that will stick with me. But what did you think of Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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