Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 90

I Finally Played All the Final Fantasy XV DLC Episodes

Amid last month’s flurry of romance games, I also took the time to finally play something else: the rest of the Final Fantasy XV DLC!

I played Episode Prompto right when it launched, but even though I always intended to buy and play Episode Ignis and Episode Ardyn, I never got around to it.

Then Final Fantasy XV came to Game Pass for PC with all its DLC included, so I decided this was the best opportunity to catch up.

And since I had all the DLC in my hands, why not start with Episode Gladiolus after all?

Episode Gladiolus

I originally skipped Episode Gladiolus because it didn’t interest me, and it’s by far the weakest of Final Fantasy XV’s DLC. There’s not much story here, just Gladio fighting Gilgamesh to become stronger. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. The best part was probably its remix of Battle at the Big Bridge.

Episode Ignis

Then I moved on to Episode Ignis, which I was especially looking forward to since Ignis is my favorite of the four Final Fantasy XV protagonists.

Episode Ignis has more of a focus on story, and it also isn’t as linear as Episode Gladiolus, instead giving you a city to explore, reclaim sectors of, and find treasure in. Exploring the city was pretty fun, and the story had some epic moments. Some of the story content reminded me again of how strange certain storytelling gaps in the main game felt, but Episode Ignis on its own was awesome and well worth playing.

Episode Ardyn

Finally, it was time to play Episode Ardyn. This is the one I was most excited for, and learning Episode Ardyn was included with the game on Game Pass was the tipping point that made me finally play the DLC.

Episode Ardyn has an even heavier focus on story and lore than Episode Ignis did. It lays out more details about the world and its history and focuses on Ardyn’s change into the villain we know him as. Some parts felt a little rushed, and I think it would have greatly benefited from a longer length. Pretty much everything in Episode Ardyn’s story made me say, “This would be much more effective if it was more gradual.” It’s still enjoyable in this shortened form, but it makes me think about what could have been.

Oh, and it gets bonus points for Verstael. Young Verstael is everything I wanted from him.

He’s even better here than he was in Episode Prompto. I don’t understand how the main game squandered Verstael and all his mad scientist potential, but he makes up for it here.

Anyway, like Episode Ignis, Episode Ardyn does eventually put you in a more open area where you can battle enemies and capture sectors. It was really a lot of fun, and I’d rank it at the top of all the DLC.

I’m happy I finally played the rest of Final Fantasy XV’s DLC, and my final ranking would be Episode Ardyn > Episode Ignis > Episode Prompto > Episode Gladiolus. Have you played the Final Fantasy XV DLC episodes? Which was your favorite?

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E3 2020 Cancelled; More Online Events Likely

Every year we look forward to the rush of game news during E3, but this year E3 has been cancelled.

Due to concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, the ESA announced today that E3 2020 has been cancelled.

Since E3 isn’t until June, I’m surprised they made the decision this early, but maybe they wanted to make sure people have enough time to cancel their plans.

According to the official announcement, they’re looking into the possibility of having a coordinated online experience in place of E3.

Nintendo will probably hold its E3 Nintendo Direct as usual, but I wonder if they’ll still show gameplay in the following days like they normally do through Nintendo Treehouse. Xbox will also be holding a digital event sometime this year. Sony was already planning to skip E3.

It will be interesting to see if other companies do digital events around the same time, such as Warner Bros., which was reportedly going to hold its first E3 press conference this year.

If there’s an online E3, I’ll cover all the news like every other year. If not… well, I’ll cover whatever news there is. What do you expect to happen in the wake of E3 2020’s cancellation?

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Two Lines is a Short, Creepy Horror Game

Over the weekend, I played a short horror game called Two Lines after a friend recommended it to me.

When I say Two Lines is short, I mean very short. It took me 45 minutes, but that’s only because I kept dying and getting lost. So I won’t be able to go into much detail, or I’d spoil it.

You wake up in a bloody room and leave to find yourself in an ominous-looking town. Then you start searching for answers.

It’s set up largely like a maze, so you’re really looking for a way to progress and get to new places. I’m not crazy about the maze-like structure, because I felt like I was just wandering around, but that’s not a big problem in a game as short as this. And it isn’t long before you realize you aren’t alone in the town, either…

Two Lines has a great atmosphere. Even before I saw my pursuer, I was on edge due to the audio alone. The game is creepy and unsettling all the way through.

(There’s also a large nod to Silent Hill implying that it actually takes place there.)

Aside from my mixed feelings on the maze-like structure, the only thing I disliked was that I couldn’t find a way to pause. I see the appeal of a horror game where you can’t pause, but it meant I had to start over when someone started talking to me partway through my playthrough.

Two Lines was made in one week for a Game Jam, so I’m interested in seeing what the developer will do for his upcoming full horror game Nemeses, which has an alpha demo out now.

Anyway, if you’re interested in a short but very atmospheric horror game, go check out Two Lines.

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Amnesia: Rebirth Announced for Fall 2020

Fictional Games has been teasing their next title for a while, and now it’s been revealed as Amnesia: Rebirth.

Described as “a new story set in the world of Amnesia: The Dark Descent,” it is set in the Algerian desert and follows a new protagonist named Tasi Trianon. According to the official description:

Retracing Tasi’s journey and pulling together the fragments of a shattered past will be the only chance to survive the pitiless horror that threatens to devour you. Time is against you. Still, you must continue, step by step, knowing that if you fail you will lose everything.”

(While it’s unclear if Rebirth will connect to The Dark Descent’s story or not, it’s worth pointing out that Algeria is where Daniel came into contact with the orb and set the events of the game into motion.)

Amnesia: Rebirth is planned for PC and PS4, with a fall 2020 release window.

In a Playstation Blog post about the game, Creative Director Thomas Grip says Rebirth will be “built on what [they] learned from the original game” and promises “an emotionally harrowing journey.”

So far, everything sounds great. I didn’t enjoy Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs a lot, but since Rebirth is being handled by Frictional Games themselves and the announcement specifically references The Dark Descent, I’m optimistic that this new entry will play more like the original.

Frictional Games is working on another project as well.

I’m excited for Amnesia: Rebirth, and I really ought to play SOMA before it comes out. How do you feel about the newly-announced Amnesia sequel?

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Thoughts on the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo

It’s been a long time since the public demo was first leaked/rumored, but now at last we can try out the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo ourselves!

I’ve played through it twice, once on Normal and once on Classic.

First off, the nostalgia from the music alone is unreal. I love the new version of the opening bombing mission theme, and it really helped drive home that this remake is really happening.

Moving on to more tangible things, Cloud and Barrett’s personalities feel on point so far, and I like what they’ve done with the Avalanche members.

I enjoyed the dialogue during the demo, and I’m looking forward to (presumably) getting to know Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs better across the course of the game. At one point there’s a little bit of background banter between Jessie and Biggs, and I hope there are more conversations like that in the full game.

Click for original Final Fantasy VII spoilersAssuming things play out the way they do in the original, I hope the remake creates enough of a bond with them that it’s a real gut punch when they die.

Anyway, the public demo is missing flashbacks that will be present in this sequence in the final release, so I’m looking forward to that as well.

The gameplay feels pretty good. At first the camera felt odd, but it didn’t bother me much once I got into it. The normal combat system is interesting. It’s certainly action, but pausing to pick special moves and switching between characters made it feel slower and more tactical. I was also bad at it, so I’ll need to pay more attention to dodging and blocking if I go with Normal in the full game.

I tried out Classic mode for my second playthrough. Classic is locked into the Easy difficulty setting, so between that and the AI being much better at dodging/blocking than I was, fights were significantly easier (although I still had to heal myself occasionally).

Classic mode doesn’t feel like a true turn-based RPG, and battles against weaker enemies are a bit odd since sometimes the auto-attacks are enough to defeat them, but I still kinda like it. It’s… relaxing, compared to the regular gameplay mode, and it lets you really focus more on the choices you’re making. I’m interested to see how it feels later in the game when enemies get tougher. (I’d also like the ability to select Normal difficulty with Classic mode, but I don’t think they’ll add that.)

Overall I’m pretty happy with the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. It doesn’t answer my major questions about how the bulk of the game will play out (how much exploration is there? what are side quests like? will the city actually feel alive?), but the start feels good and I’m looking forward to playing the full thing on April 10!

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Yakuza Kiwami 2 is Both Epic and Flawed

So in the middle of the romance month, I also finished another game: Yakuza Kiwami 2!

I started it around Christmas, because Yakuza technically counts as a Christmas game, sort of, and finished it last month. Like Kiwami, which is a remake of the original Yakuza, Kiwami 2 is a remake of Yakuza 2 and follows Kiryu shortly after the events of the first game.

When I played Kiwami, I found the side content to be disappointing, but it’s in top form again in Kiwami 2.

A lot of the substories are pretty funny, there are fun mini-games, and it features the return of cabaret club management, and also a tower-defense-style activity that’s worth it for its theme song if nothing else. The game runs on the new engine like Judgment did, and it’s pretty enjoyable to play.

(The cabaret club story is also basically a sequel to Yakuza 0’s cabaret club story, which is awesome.)

Now, I liked the story a lot. It’s not as good as the story in Yakuza 0 or Judgment, but it’s still pretty good, dealing with the trouble that arises when Ryuji Goda of the Omi Alliance begins trying to start a war with the Tojo Clan, as well as a sinister plot linked to events from many years earlier. There are some great new characters introduced here, although I never liked Sayama quite as much as I wanted to.

The returning characters are also great, of course, and in particular I found Majima to be much more lovable than he was in Kiwami.

There are some things I didn’t enjoy, however. In addition to some aspects of Sayama’s character not coming across well, I also disliked certain parts of the ending. One twist, while I liked it in the context of the scene, raised a lot of questions after for me after-the-fact, and a few of Kiryu’s decisions annoyed me.

Click for major Yakuza Kiwami 2 spoilersSince Terada defused the bomb before the confrontation, it makes me question just what he was trying to do in that scene… lure out Takashima? It feels odd in retrospect, like it was set up more for the sake of the twist than anything else.

But what really bugged me was Kiryu’s decision to fight Ryuji again instead of escaping the building while they still had time… and then him and Sayama talking about how they let Haruka down but she’d understand.

Ah yes, the little girl is smart, so she’ll understand why her father-figure is going to die because he chose to fight someone instead of escaping while he could. Of course. Even if he suspected he could trust Terada, Sayama still seemed too casual about how Haruka would react.

That whole conversation just bothered me.

Kiwami 2 also has a new short section starring Majima, but the Majima Saga is… kind of disappointing. It doesn’t have substories or leveling, and Majima only has two heat moves, so there’s not much to it in terms of gameplay. The story starts out interesting, but ends up feeling more like an excuse plot to put Majima in position for some Yakuza 0 closure.

That aspect is handled well, though, so I was happy I played it.

Anyway, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is an epic game overall. It had a few disappointments at the end, but not enough to overshadow how much fun the rest of the game is.

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: My Girlfriend is the President

I wanted something more lighthearted after that last one, so we’re ending this month’s celebration with the game that topped my list of weird visual novels, My Girlfriend is the President.

When an alien ambassador accidentally wipes out the Japanese government, she buys herself time to restore them by brainwashing the entire world into believing a nearby girl is the president. And that girl… is your best friend and neighbor!

My Girlfriend is the President is insane.

The protagonist is one of the few characters let in on the truth about what’s going on due to his immunity to the brainwashing. Almost everyone else considers it to be entirely normal that the president (of the United States of Nippon, because the aliens were a little confused about Earth’s governments) and her cabinet are a group of teenagers… and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

From random English lines to surreal military parodies to Pokémon and JoJo references, it’s filled with weird bits of ridiculousness that kept me entertained.

(And while at first you might think the game has some odd typos, it’s actually a case of them avoiding real country names, so you get things like Rusia and Ameriga.)

Earlier this month, I talked about how a lot of “weird” visual novels lack a true soul. This one, thankfully, has a soul. It has heart. It takes a ridiculous premise and runs with it. My Girlfriend is the President isn’t a bunch of wacky ideas thrown together to be quirky, but a full comedy that will take you upwards of 20 hours to complete.

Parts of this visual novel follow a familiar path. You have the ditzy childhood friend, the sudden arrival of a rival (in this case, President Putina of Rusia; your childhood friend is President Ohama), characters cooking for the protagonist, awkward romantic misunderstandings…

…and in the middle of all of these familiar tropes, you’re also trying to pass bills, dealing with politics, and getting swept up in disputes between aliens such as the loli alien gamer scientist Qoo Little-Little.

The romance parts are a little slow, but the rest of the story is absolute nonsense in the best way possible.

Now, it’s an eroge, and as far as I know there is no all-ages version, so you have to be okay with a lot of sexual humor and some explicit sex scenes (but you can skip through those if you don’t care to read them).

I wouldn’t recommend My Girlfriend is the President if you’re looking for a serious plot, and I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for deep, meaningful love stories, but if you want a wacky comedy filled with ridiculous moments and absurd situations, it might be what you need.

I still need to finish up my remaining routes, but My Girlfriend is the President turned out to be the perfect way to wrap up our first ever Celebrating All Things Romantic month!

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For-

The next visual novel on my list to play was one I’d been interested in for a while, Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For-.

This visual novel doesn’t feature multiple character routes, but it isn’t a kinetic novel, either. There are choices to make and two different endings based on a choice near the end.

Now, I really thought this was a romance story when I picked it for today’s review, but it isn’t.

You might be able to read some romance into it if you squint, but really it’s a story about non-romantic relationships and moral questions regarding androids. It still has love as a core theme, so it’s kinda like when I reviewed Tacoma during my horror month.

Set in a future where androids have become an accepted part of life, this visual novel places you in the role of an android-hating teenager who would prefer to live without such things.

When he finds a broken-down android named Lucy in a local junkyard, he takes her home and soon begins questioning what differences there really are between a human and an android that acts like a human.

It starts out as a sweet story with some funny moments, but I was surprised by just how emotional Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- gets. Some parts were quite upsetting, and it was worth playing through for the true ending to see the final resolution that wraps up the plot.

So while it isn’t romance, and while there might be a lot of questioning-robot-sentience stories out there already, Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- is a good choice if you like those sorts of things and want an emotional story.

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: Japanese School Life

Japanese School Life is a short visual novel about an exchange student named Brian who is beginning a year at school in Japan, which he’s absolutely thrilled about.

On his first day of school, he befriends two girls in his class, and they decide to show him around Japan and teach him about Japanese cultures and traditions.

This visual novel is more of a celebration of Japanese culture than anything else. There is no particular plot to speak of, just Brian going through his year in Japan and experiencing various things. A couple points introduce minor conflicts, but everything stays light and casual.

Some parts are oddly lecture-like. Brian will ask about a particular custom, and one of the girls will go into a detailed explanation of the tradition and the history behind it.

Still, it achieves its purpose. While it might be a little heavy-handed in that regard, and a couple parts felt a little odd (such at the point where they discussed how we rarely use umbrellas in America), I did come out of Japanese School Life with more knowledge about Japanese holidays and culture.

But this is a romance celebration, so let’s talk about the romance.

A handful of choices determine which route you end up on, and I use the term “route” very loosely. Each choices had a few different lines of dialogue, and the character route you’re on changes how two or three scenes play out. None of the scenes are blatantly romantic, either, making the whole thing feel more like a friendship story with hints of attraction.

Click for Japanese School Life spoilersThere’s not even an actual love confession. The story ends with the camera focusing on the chosen love interest while Brian thinks about how special she is to him.

I finished both routes wondering why they hadn’t just made it a friendship-focused kinetic novel, since it practically is anyway.

So if you’re looking for a cute slice-of-life story meant to teach you about Japanese culture, Japanese School Life does a decent job, but if you’re hoping for an actual romance story, I’d look somewhere else.

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Celebrating All Things Romantic: Bad Apple Wars

In addition to all the shorter visual novels I’ve been focusing on this month, I decided to also play one or two longer ones, starting with the otome Bad Apple Wars.

(Okay, I intended to start with Code: Realize, but my PS+ copy is broken and crashes all the time.)

Bad Apple Wars begins with the protagonist on her way to high school when she’s hit by a truck and dies. She finds herself at a strange new school where she’s told she will start a new life if she obeys all of the school’s rules and graduates.

Doing this, however, means you lose all of your individuality and memories. There is a group of rebellious students known as the “Bad Apples” who are trying to break as many rules as they can to keep their sense of self and be expelled so they can return to their original lives.

Early on, you’re given a pretty innocuous choice that puts you on either the Good Apple path or the Bad Apple path. That’s the sole traditional choice in the game.

Because of that choice, there are two different common routes, although they’re closer than you might expect. If you pick the Good Apple path, the protagonist is conflicted about her decision and befriends the Bad Apples anyway, and the common route always goes through the same major events with specific spots where you deal with your love interest of choice, so they end up feeling more like two slightly different perspectives of the same route.

Still, the common routes do a good job of building up the strange setting and introducing the characters, although not all of my questions were answered by the end of the game.

Click for minor Bad Apple Wars spoilersWhile the ending always explained the school’s true purpose, there are still questions to be answered. Who are the teachers? How did they get involved?

Who is the Headmaster and why does the game make a point of saying the Rotten Apple’s voice sounds similar to his?

What exactly is the requirement that lets the protagonist get past limits? (I have a theory about this, but it’s never quite explained.)

The main focus of Bad Apple Wars, however, is its characters.

Two of the love interests can only be pursued on the Good Apple path, and the other three can only be pursued on the Bad Apple path.

While there aren’t other true “choices” in the story, there are certain points where you can pick a location to go from the map. The location you pick determines which character you encounter there, which determines which character route you end up on.

One more aspect comes into play as you read the story, and that’s the touch system. At this school, touching someone lets you see their deepest memories. Certain key points have you touch your love interest and see glimpses of their past, told from their point of view. Eventually you’ll reach a special scene where the place you touch them decides whether you get their good ending or bad ending.

The characters are all pretty great. The supporting cast is strong, and the love interests are all pretty distinct from one another. Getting to see their past from their own perspectives gives it a nice touch and really heightens the emotion of those scenes. I honestly liked every route, although the epilogue of one soured it a little.

Click for major Bad Apple Wars spoilersI’m talking about Shikishima’s epilogue, of course.

I didn’t mind the idea that because of how far apart in time they were and his incurable illness, they could never be together. I really liked how his good ending was going. If it had ended with the protagonist meeting his great-great-great nephew or whatever he is and leaving us with the implication that they would get to know each other, it would have been a sweet ending.

(Higa’s ending handled this quite well with his reincarnation, for example.)

Even if it had ended with him taking her to see the sunflowers, that would have been nice.

But having him be aware she keeps mistaking him for the original Shikishima, and even questioning it when she says she loves him (and her hesitation makes it really seem like she sees him as a stand-in) just made that ending feel unsatisfying to me.

Now, the weakest part of Bad Apple Wars is the protagonist. She constantly goes on about how she’s “empty” inside, isn’t good at anything, and doesn’t have any interests or even hobbies. The emptiness itself is okay, but it’s hard to take the repeated narration about how she has nothing. It’s especially bad on the Good Apple path, where she doesn’t want to help the Prefects but isn’t willing to join the Bad Apples, so her narration is just nonstop wishy-washy thoughts about how she doesn’t know what to do.

However, she improves significantly by the end of each route, gaining confidence in herself and realizing she has something to care about. Sometimes this is a little too directly linked to her love interest, but just seeing her become proactive is a welcome relief.

I’ll be honest, when I started Bad Apple Wars, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but the characters changed that for me. The characters and their backstories give Bad Apple Wars the boost it needs, and I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a character-focused otome with a dark premise.

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