Recent reviews by kazenorin

I've been holding off to no review the game because it's mediocre and over-hyped.
People might be disappointed, but it's probably the best "Mostly Negative" game you can find around.

Basically Rollarcoaster Tycoon but modernized

Reminded me how much I like building sand streams and dam at the beach when I was a kid.

It is also highly additive, like:
Step 1: "Let me just see them finishing building this dam, I'd call it a day!"
Step 2: "Oh, a drought is coming! Let's see how my work fares!!"
Step 3: "Got through it and the dam works!!"
Step 4: "I've got an idea to build another dam, oh wait, streams would be fun too!"
Step 5: Go back to Step 1

I feel that you kind of need this DLC for tourism to be viable.
Would have been better if the profitability of parks doesn't require exploity mechanics.

The mechanics are too under-explained and non-intuitive.
I've spent a lot of time trying, watching and reading guides and community posts and still can't really get the supply chain right...
I think I need to conclude that the simulation of the supply chain for these new industries is just too quirky.

After many hours, I find myself having more frustration than enjoyment :(

It's fun when it works, but getting it to work doesn't seem fun at all.

For those who are going to buy this DLC, be sure to read these guides:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/255710/discussions/0/1733216893888441236/?ctp=2
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1550292479
https://skylines.paradoxwikis.com/Supply_chain

The kind of city builder that you want to do one more thing before you sleep, but eventually stay up all night because you-know-why.

Graphics, gameplay, maturrity and moddability *combined* speaking, this is the best citybuilder around.

This is my first JRPG game, though I did play Skyrim and MMORPGs in the past.

It's also one of the very few games I played without a guide, no tips, no online references apart from the in-game manual.
I don't have any knowledge of the mechanics of the game when I started.

I managed to complete the main storyline in 76 hours, or more like 70 if you discount the idling time.
Part of this long playtime could be attributed to me listening to all the spoken dialogues.
It actually took me a couple of hours before even entering my first battle.

Gameplay wise, I'd say it's completely doable with little experience with the genre, without external guides/references to help. The game gave me a fresh and relaxing experience, like watching an interactive anime. My not-knowing-anything start gave me some bonus to the immersion too.

Below are some comments/critics I have about the game's mechanic, so if you want an experience like what I had, stop reading (also contains very mild spoilers).

---

Time Limit:

Before I bought the game, I knew there was a "time limit" and people say that Ayesha's time limit are very relaxed compared to the Rorona and some others in the Arland world. I did not know what the time limit meant until running into it myself.

Early in the story it was hinted that "there's only two or three years to save Nio". Knowing that there was a "time limit" thingy, I thought this was what "time limit" meant - "two or three years to save Nio". But then, as someone who had zero experience of the series, it was a bit difficult to gauge what I was doing was a waste of time or not. What makes it worse, is that I was not sure how much time I actually have. I was therefore very careful of not wasting any time early in the game. The carefulness dropped as I progressed, and found that later in the game, travelling to do side quests was the real time drain.

I actually ran out of time when preparing for the boss fight to save Nio, which was kind of ridiculous because I actually spent two weeks preparing for the fight, trying to make the perfect items for the fight... It made me load a save two weeks before the time limit, rushed the boss and reunited with Nio.

I'd say I had just enough time to have a relaxing experience with the game, doing mostly what I wanted to do, and joining the 30% club for reunion with Nio. I even managed to get one gold achievement for collecting lots of memories (but probably not all memories).


I did not expect the game to abruptly end at the date like that. I also did not expect the game to have carry-over play-throughs.

Also, travelling takes way too much time.

Progression

Early game progression was good, in-game guidance was adequate and battles were manageable.

Mid-game felt too easy and too difficult at the same time, I ended up running around most of the time and suddenly reached end-game and realized why it the difficult part felt so difficult.

Honestly speaking, I didn't like the mid-game to end-game progression under time stress.


Learning to craft during mid-gaame did pose a bit of a challenge, especially because I didn't know that later on you'd get powerful crafting skills.

The difficult maps (Hidden Paradise) were probably not meant to be beaten during the first play-through.

I hit the level cap before January of Year 3 (i.e. 3 months before the time limit), had equipment and items that could beat the final boss, but was far from capable of fighting these Hidden Paradise enemies. After the first playthrough, I learned that these are DLC dungeons and are meant for post-clear play-throughs.

User Interface
I play with an old XB360 controller, which felt natural. Keyboard and mouse controls felt really weird.
The only complaints I have are not being to sort or filter the select equipment interface, and not being able to skip cut-scenes.


Equipment selection shouldn't have been a problem if I didn't hoard so much stuff. The hoarding was purely because of not knowing the time limit was a hard-end to the game. I was expecting a soft-end, and that I could continue playing afterwards.

Being a Kickstarter backer and spending like 10x more than the Steam price, this is perhaps one of the most expensive hour I've spent on a game. I do have perks and goodies for being a backer though.

But even for Steam's regular price, it's still not cheap for such a short experience.
However, this is one of favorite anime and VN series, so its worth it for me.

So do you fall in this category? If so, go for it!

Some other notes...
Even though the devs said you can enjoy the game without VR, I don't think that justifies the price if you don't experience it in VR.

Comparing it with Project Lux, another Hasekura-sensei's VR visual novel...
Project Lux feels longer, but Spice and Wolf is more beautifully made and aesthetically pleasing.

An hour worth of content for chilling. Mechanics are rather simple for a tycoon game, but the hour was fun.

Comes with everything to need to benchmark.
Wanted to buy 3Dmark a long time ago - I mean like since the 3DMark06 era.
But at the normal price, I simply cannot have it justified since I won't really use it a lot.
Now finally there are discounts and the price is much more reasonable with the discount for occasional users like me.