Recent reviews by Jolla

Rolled back my AB savefile, fixing it seems to screw up steam achievements from what I've read.
Years before, I've already dropped this game after the AB release bug scandal of unlocking platinum god when I was no where near it, killing my motivation. I thought I could get back into it and then get this DLC when it goes on sale, well looks like I'll be dropping it a second time.

Screw you Repentance, congrats on pushing me to my first refund.

It's a short and nice chill time. The sort of games I focus playing nowadays, and I got what I wanted.
If you're in the specific situation where your backlog is slogging, and you want to experience a game till the end without feeling like dedicating your time to it. Well, it's free, try it out if it looks to be your cup of tea. ^u^

I am. Flabbergasted.
This DLC is Really Good

Nailing down a superb addition to the story that feels heavily like a seamless extension. Providing new insights on what's going on, alongside giving a full view on the world and how the characters are doing after the closure of the prior narrative. The world of CrossCode is still shifting like how you remembered it.
On top of that, are some of the hardest but genuinely invigorating and immersive challenges that takes full advantage of the adrenaline rush that is this game's combat. As a result, every boss I faced was an absolute beaut. The final temple's boss might possibly one of the most tense and fun bosses I've ever had the pleasure of fighting, and I don't say this lightly as someone who's gone high and low in playing adrenaline fuel games.

If you're already a fan of what CrossCode has provided, I absolutely encourage getting this DLC to drive the fun even further.

$10 for what makes PuyoPuyo so fun: the online battles.

If you're a new player, like, BRAND new to PuyoPuyo, I'd recommend that you hold it off for a little while before buying it. Not to get it on a sale, but for when new solo content gets added in the form of free updates. Since as this game stands of the time I'm writing this review, 90% of its content panders to multiplayer, while the rest are just freeplay CPU battles. No story mode and such, which is to be expected considering the budget price.
These free updates will include a Challenge section, consisting of three modes to test your skill or use for practice. And, then later along the line would be (from the looks of it) a hefty Lesson mode, which looks to be 300x better than PuyoPuyo Tetris' lesson mode.
Or you could play/emulate previous Puyo entries and later come back to this. But that lesson mode when it gets added, looks to be very, VERY beginner friendly.
I still recommend emulating some other puyo games for some casual practice. But since Challenge Mode and Lessons have been added to this game, it's become a very good game to consider purchasing if you're new to Puyo.

With that out of the way, if you're a Puyo enthusiast looking for a way to play online without having to deal with the issues of Puyo vs Tetris balancing. Look no further than with this game. Online ratings actually mean something and require much less grinding to get to where you belong. There's more customisation available from the get go with the new profile badge and all the cosmetic content is unlocked.
AND THERE'S NO DENUVO!!!!!
I still wish however there were more QoL stuff added to the game, i.e. being able to see who's in a Freeplay lobby prior to joining it.

Fever mode was added to this game which was only half featured in PuyoPuyo Tetris. I personally don't have a formed opinion on it yet. But it does come off as a very fun game mode for casuals to fool around on, with a nice sense of power to it and much more lenient countering.

For the english translation, the localisation is good for the most part, even if we've some got name changes (which most of them are fine from my view). The dub, it's... okay. 50% good, 40% eh, 10% wtf. Examples like Serilly I find to be even better than the Japanese dub. But for someone like Sig, I wonder how it's humanly possible to sound even more bored than his previous dub in PuyoPuyo Tetris. Not only that, but I swear the audio for him in particular is suffering from massive reverb.

Nevertheless, I'm happy SEGA is willing to let PuyoPuyo have its moment in the sunshine outside of the realms of Japan Only. If you're into Puyo, please do support it at some point and have it stay non-Japan Only for future entries.

You give me a world filled with speculation and beauty, and I'm probably going to explore. I don't want to go to the main objective, I just want to explore.

35+ hours finishing the game, I paid 10 bucks for this.
I didn't feel like my patience was being tested, and every step felt like decent progress.

The Good
- Really fun and satisfying gameplay
- Scoring mechanics are god-tier
- Music is absolute banger
- Difficulty keeps itself objectively fair while still being absolute insanity
- A lot of different playstyles to try
- A multitude of different version releases into 1 package.
- Movement is really tight and responsive
- Replayability is at its absolute highest
- Loads of new stuff to be done as you get better
- Slowdown being used for making impossible attacks possible.

The OK
- The basics of the game can require research via guides or by searching it up
- Game's difficulty is a bit harsh for those with absolutely no experience

The Bad
It's really hard to find any
uh
- I guess how all the mechanics are very cryptic and hard to blindly understand, as mentioned above


Detailed review below


Touhou is to bullet hells, what Guitar Hero is to rhythm games.
on the other side of the spectrum, DoDonPachi (or any CAVE shmup) is to bullet hells, what Beatmania IIDX is to rhythm games.

Touhou has definitely got some fun in it, but it has felt kind of lack luster in recent times. Also most people think of it when Bullet Hell is mentioned.
DoDonPachi, not anywhere as much people know or play this, barrier to play them is pretty high (like it originally being arcades) and the difficulty can go way off the charts. But all around, it feels much more polished, fun and downright addictive compared to more well-known games.

DoDonPachi Resurrection made me open my eyes during a period where I was playing ZUN games less often and was in need for something refreshingly new and fun. Not only did this game provide me some really fun mechanics, but it also showed how great and fast shmups can be, all along with providing a soundtrack with some of the biggest bangers and a ♥♥♥♥-ton of different modes to play and mess around with.

Gameplay by a basic standpoint is fitting term for shmup fun. Moving around, dodging and streaming millions of bullets and huge lasers all the while blasting enemies to bits with millions of bullets and huge lasers in return. Satisfying all around and it never gets old. This is not even going into the depth of it, which is worthy of a couple of long paragraphs. CAVE implemented so many mechanics that somehow blend together so well which makes the gameplay and the scoring system so amazingly fun, and nothing even feels like a gimmick. It makes a clear line which separate the Newbies, Regular Players and the Professionals.

Bosses aren't what you'd expect from touhou, I'd rather not compare them but I wanted point out a comment I remember hearing which required bringing it up:
"Touhou's boss patterns are meant to look aesthetically pleasing, CAVE boss patterns are made to kill you."
Despite that, most bosses are made to be still readable, some of their attacks are pure adrenaline to dodge and the slowdown mechanic makes bosses really eye-opening. In short, they're fun.

That's going by mentioning the difficulty, this is NOT easy by any means. I still have trouble beating stage 5 without using a continue in 1.5 Normal. With all the bullets covering the screen, believe it or not, but this game isn't unfair. In other words, there's a lot of knowledge and gitting gud required, especially on the topic of the final boss and true final bosses (which is way out of my reach of skill). Similar to IIDX mentioned at the top, you'd need some experience in its genre before trying this.
Thankfully there is a Novice mode for those not wanting to be plopped right at the front lines, but it's still kind of difficult however. :l

The music in this game fits in one of the many definitions of a Headbanger, and they're all so memorable. You'd listen to the stage music, good electronic stuff. Listen to a true final boss song, good 999bpm electrionic stuff.
Some examples of the great music from DoDonPachi:
https://youtu.be/sOg-j3DeeNg (DaiFukkatsu - Stage 5)
https://youtu.be/8YvZl5m74IM (DaiFukkatsu BL - Ship Select)
https://youtu.be/6eA8qi5H5BU (DaiFukkatsu BL - Stage 4-B)
https://youtu.be/aesOh9XvYu4 (DaiFukkatsu BL Arrange - Stage 2)
https://youtu.be/BLK6hcbddQs (DaiFukkatsu BL - Zatsuza True Final Boss)
https://youtu.be/hjWyvuDNOcU (SaiDaiOuJou - True Final Boss) --- SDOJ is not in Resurrection

For a shmup, especially the arcade ones, there would be a lot of focus on how good the replayability is.
Do I still want to play more after 15 hours of playing the same 5 stages?
The answer is Yes, there's so much to do, and as I said the fun gameplay never gets old. You get better and the game gets more enjoyable, making you want to play more. Then you discover new tricks, new mechanics that help, you play more.
You get your butt kicked? That's fine, you play more anyway because this game is so bloody good.

If there is anything you'd gather by this review, Resurrection is not really friendly to brand new shmup players, it can otherwise be scary. The mechanics are hard to figure out without a guide, I remember my first couple of games I didn't know how I died or not die when getting hit. Without a guide, there is going to be a lot of confusion and brain-dead lack of good scores and wondering how the others are doing it so well. That's pretty much the only bad point of the game that my mind can come up with, but the problem can be overcome, so after some research you've got yourself an amazingly fine game to play.

I love this game, I can't stop playing it, I can't stop thinking about it. If you've played bullet hells in the past and have somehow not stumbled upon the DoDonPachi games before, do yourself a favor and buy this. It's got everything to love.

Game Ranking: A masterpiece of its genre

Some say that a game must provide a play time equal the cost it was to buy, frankly I disagree to an extent. What matters is how fun and/or impactful those hours of playing were, and OneShot is probably the most impact I've seen packaged up. (I should also mention that most of my time playing this was in offline mode.)
What is most astounding about this game is how it takes some of the most out-of-boundary game and story mechanics, and not break the immersion or create holes in the plot.
I'd rather not say anything else as most reviewers don't lie when they tell you to go in blind. This game feels soulless when you know the story as it's the treasured present OneShot has to offer.

You will be feeling the feels, unless you go into this without caring (don't do this).
Buy OneShot, you won't regret it.

The packaged game is Japanese only, there is however a fan made patch that’s been around since the original release. Unfortunately the patch currently doesn't work on the steam version and the team are working on updating it.
You can find the patch and the instructions in the thread listed below: http://steamcommunity.com/app/745880/discussions/0/1485487749771634089/

Hidden Star in Four Seasons is the 16th and currently latest instalment in the mainline touhou games, and an otherwise pretty good release from the current era (2nd Modern Windows Era). The game is designed to be a breath of fresh air compared to the last game, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, and it does feel like the difficulty takes part of a more beginner friendly path, which makes this a good game to start from.

HSiFS introduces a mechanic into the series called “Sub-Seasons”, where on the character screen, you can choose a secondary season along with the character and can level up its power on the bottom left by collecting season items. Each season sub-shot has different power and mechanics reminiscent to the season’s representing character’s shot. (i.e. Summer gives spread-out ice bullets similar Cirno’s shot)
You can also release your season by pressing C, this drains your season level back to zero (ex. Summer) and activates a “mini-bomb” where the power of it depends on the gauge’s level, with a cap of 6. Like before, what the release does depends on the selected sub-season.

General gameplay is what you’d mostly expect from an average touhou game, plenty of enemies shooting bullets, collecting points and power items, dodging all the pretty patterns from bosses. You gain lives through scores and bombs by beating bosses. The bosses in HSiFS are pretty good for the most part, the final boss is great, and the stage 5 boss is a bit crazy compared to the usual difficulty for 5th stage bosses. (although not Clownpiece-tier)

The music is amazing, and it always has been when composed by ZUN. I always notice myself unconsciously banging my head at certain points while dodging bullets at the same time.
My personal favourite songs from this game are: The Colorless Wind on Youkai Mountain (2nd Stage) and Illusionary White Traveler (4th Stage)

And the characters are mostly good, but this is being said from a fan. As a new player, you won’t exactly be taking notice on anything but the design and maybe personality, since the games for the most part have always been vague in character backstory. That’s why written works exist. I’m sure fans, while focusing on design and personality, also enjoy potential lore and relations with other existing characters as well.
Aunn is as pure as a cinnamon roll and deserves all the cuddles.

There is however a big flaw myself and some others have found with this game, the visibility of the bullets is very weak at an amount of points. Now this has almost never been a problem with touhou, but with this game you'll be finding a lot of the season items and backgrounds lacking much contrast between the bullets, which is something really important in a bullet hell game.

What's strange is the bugs from the Comiket release still exist, thankfully the most notable one (crashing from clearing certain 5th boss spellcard practices) can be fixed with the same patcher mentioned at the top.

Hidden Star in Four Seasons stands as an enjoyable experience for both newcomers and experienced players alike (but not as enjoyable compared to the early windows games) and a potentially decent entrypoint for those willing to get into the touhou fandom. Hopefully ZUN does release more of his games onto steam making it simple for foreigners to play without needing to pirate them.

This would probably be the best game to free some stress and play calming music you have downloaded with smooth sounds.
But since I love listening to music, adding a game inside all music I have, is like a match made in heaven for me.

Game OSTs, vocaloids, a 4 second sound, you name it! This game will accept all types of 'music'

That is pretty much it.

My personal favourite song so far to play in this is called Lunatic Rough Party
It was like this song is made for this game upon practical stage and music itself

I felt like my old review was very outdated considering the amount of experience I have gained. Up to the point that I would say that easy mode is not a lie and hard mode is not 'hell'... No, I am not an asian.

Apart from that, this game is very solid, and not too hard. It gave me motivation to try out the touhou series.

Actually, if you want to try touhou some time, start with Touhou 6 or 10 if you want a fresh game; or 7 or 13 if you don't mind additional mechanics. Or you know, how about all 4?

So for the actual stuff...


+ Controls are solid enough 'Graze' very easily
+ Moderately fun Bosses
+ Unique Boss for every playable Character
+ Free
+ Slight Replayability

- Some boss 'spellcards' are very plain, generic and uninspired.
- Dying or making a mistake can punish you severely during a later boss.

Verdict:
It is a shoot'em up with a touhou inspiration, nice characters, and fare replayability.
But it is free. So get this game, you won't regret it.