Recent reviews by SubrosianDimitri

tl;dr This is a great VN with a few story issues elevated heavily by its visual atmosphere and audio, all for 15 bucks

The original release of Harmonia was Key's 15th anniversary project that released closer to the 16th, the final game Itaru Hinoue did for them before going freelance, a kinetic novel without a voiced main character, 4 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gigs due to some really inefficient asset management, and standing in Planetarian's massive shadow.

This release is based on or maybe just a port of the Switch version by PROTOTYPE, so we have the following changes from the original release:
1. The game is now presented in ADV format instead of NVL format with no option to switch between them. I'm not super keen on this if only because the way the NVL format was presented fits the kind of atmosphere and tone this game better, but it isn't a huge loss.
2. A slightly updated English translation that reveals Shiona was actually saying Fuwafuwa this whole time and not Powapowa. Rei was actually eating Warm Orange Fluffy Soup this whole time instead of Warm Orange Powapowa Soup, and I don't really know how to feel about that. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same but with a bit less verbosity.
3. That storybook-like shifting crosshatching effect on the sprites from the original version is gone, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because the way it was originally done was by making every position of those their own individual sprites, which likely didn't help the inexplicably bloated filesize. It's a bad thing because that effect was really nice, even if I didn't fully notice it until a second reading, but at least this version is better optimized without really losing any other video or audio fidelity, that nearly 4x smaller file size doesn't lie.
4. Every single line of dialogue is fully voiced for every character, even faceless extras. And if you haven't played the original version, you have no idea how much that helps.

For those unaware, in the original version, Rei, our main guy, was not voiced, nor were any of the extras. Considering this story's setup about Rei being a newly activated robot who wishes to meet a human after the end of the world and learn about emotions, having him voiced lifts him from a low tier protag-kun up to a really damn good protag-kun. Having all the random minor characters be voiced too sweetens the deal even further. Even with the loss of the NVL format, this is the definitive way to read this VN. It even costs 10 bucks less than the Switch version.

It's still the same story about a robot boy in a post-apocalyptic future discovering and comprehending emotions with an atmosphere that far outshines the story itself and even Planetarian's. A story with the orange girl who lives in the church, the blue girl who lives in the library, and the red man who runs the town store. A story with with music that probably consumed a quarter of the original budget based on how top tier and it is and how unique it is for a Key OST. A story with an epilogue light novel that was, for some reason, only packaged with the first press release edition that you haven't been able to buy since 2018 and has never been scanned or translated. Seriously, can someone please translate Closed Memory?

It's still a good story, but the upgrade to full voice acting really does elevate it to a great story. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to continue holding out vain hope for an anime adaptation and for someone to translate Closed Memory.

Went from an inspiring underdog story made with love and passion (and some development difficulties before hiring a project manager) to this ♥♥♥♥.

Completed story mode: Not gonna happen
Physical Crowdfund Rewards: Dead in the water
The last 2 DLC characters: Didn't even finish QA because the devs were fired in the middle of it
Game itself: Broken to a ridiculous degree

All because Modus' pathetic, greedy, corporate ♥♥♥♥ headed suits decided it would be a great idea to kill development and fire the devs.

Now I can't recommend this game at all. Support the devs on future projects wherever they end up, preferably with an employer who won't do this ♥♥♥♥. Give Modus (or I guess Maximum) nothing but a gool ol' middle finger for killing TFH.

♥♥♥♥ you, Modus! I hope your Avatar game flops and you go bankrupt!

Let me just say before moving on to the review: For the ideal experience, go into the game properties, opt into the publictest under betas and type -F30 into the launch options. This will lock the framerate at 30 without affecting anything else, you might need to disable the grass effects or not play fullscreen depending on your computer, but this should make the game run at full speed no problem.

From what I saw about this game before buying it, I saw mixed opinions all over the damn place when people talked about it, so my expectations weren't high or low starting out. And I can say that I'm glad I didn't write this game off based on what other people were saying and decided to play it myself and form my own opinions.

- Starting with the basic stuff, the control works pretty well. The run button is awkward at first, but once you get the hang of it and learn the sheer power of the spindash, the game isn't nearly as slow as some people say it is. There is a bigger emphasis on platforming here than other modern Sonic games, but as someone who is only really a casual Sonic fan, this doesn't bother me.
- The homing attack can be kinda finicky at times, but you get used to it quickly, and I actually really like the kick attack and the possible utility it brings, and it doesn't even disrupt the flow at all.
- The returning color powers seem borderline pointless, and I hardly use them unless I need to in order to advance through the stage, which is luckily not very much.
- The parkour is not easy to figure out at first, but once you get the hang of it, the game becomes an utter blast, and it's almost never required to progress in the stage. You can just use it if you feel like it and possibly find one of the red rings that you can use to unlock Super Sonic if you get all of them. Though I haven't done that yet, and I really don't want to, because this game is surprisingly hard.

Like, it isn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard, at least not for most of the game, but once you get to the final world, it's like a brick wall. And that's only if you don't bother going for the red rings, which can honestly go ♥♥♥♥ themselves. They require that you are perfect with that parkour, and even that won't cut it in a number of situations when the timing for many of them is incredibly strict. The 2D segments don't help with that either, because the parkour can be really finicky when in those segments, so I often don't hold the run button at those points.

There's also a distinctive lack of focus in gameplay mechanics as the game goes on. I don't personally have a problem with experimentation (it's one of the reasons I love Kirby so much), but it can be a massive downside for some.

The boss fights are also pathetically easy, but are relatively enjoyable for what they are, helped immensely by the fantastic music. This game's soundtrack is top notch stuff, jazzy as hell and totally worth a listen!

Other stuff that works really well is most of the level design. The tubular levels are generally fun to go through (though a bit disorienting), and I always have a fun time in Silent Forest. The stuff that works here is really fantastic, providing fun platforming challenges and an adventure that doesn't go on any longer than it needs to. I never felt like the game itself was dragging on and just wanted it to end already, it's of a reasonable length and I feel is worth replaying. The story scenes are also fun, though predictable as hell and not particularly inspired. I still got a few laughs out of it though.

Granted, 30 bucks is a bit steep for a game that you can beat in less than 10 hours, unless you want to complete everything, then you're gonna be adding a lot of time onto your hours. Still, might want to wait for a sale on this one if you're not a completionist or like replaying games like I do.

Point is, don't let overly negative or reviews of this game make you not want to try the game out. You have to try a game out for yourself to form your own opinions on it. Sonic Lost World is a good game, and I think it's worth a play.

Note: This game is VERY light on the choices, be wary of that if you prefer branching paths in your VNs. There is also a sex scene that was removed from this version, but I can assure you that nothing of value was lost.

This game is one of the most overlooked Visual Novels in Steam's library, and while I wouldn't say it's one of the best, it's certainly one of the most interesting.

If you're too lazy to read the product description and tags (because we all know there are tons of people who do that), MYTH is a confusing as all hell psychological horror cluster♥♥♥♥ of a VN with one of the most insane and bizarre narratives I've ever seen. Structured much like 07th Expansions psychological juggernauts Higurashi and Umineko, this game is split into "question" and "answer" arcs, though there are 2 other story arcs as well. The first is a prequel of sorts to the game called Aguni: Beyond Fate and the second a duo of joke episodes called Sou's Case Files.

The main story follows an ordinary high school student (big shocker for a VN protagonist, I know) named Meito Tanabe, who lives in a world where shadows apparently don't exist (it's best not to question how the heck that would work). He meets a girl by the name of Shimon, who happens to have a shadow, and after following her to a place called the World of Shadows, he gets introduced to 2 more girls with shadows and a whole village of living shadows (yet another thing best not questioned). What follows is a search for a voice that led Meito to this world and a complex web of plots involving his ex-girlfriend, storytelling, the norse pantheon, and a healthy dose of "what in holy hell's name is going on?"

This kind of story would normally expect the reader to have extensive notes written down to document the characters, events, and relationships. Luckily, the game does that for you by providing character charts (detailing the characters themselves and how they relate to each other) notes on the events that transpire, which you will need to read to understand the impenetrable cage of insanity that is MYTH's narrative. I will say no more of the story since it really is something you need to experience yourself.

Outside of the writing, the game looks and sounds good for what is essentially an indie VN, the characters are well drawn and have decent variety in their poses and expressions and the soundtrack is honestly one of the best I've heard in a VN, standing right up there with Princess Evangile and the Key/VisualArts library. I'd say to give it a listen, but I've looked everywhere I can think of and have yet to find a rip of it, so you're gonna have to play the game to hear it. My only real problem with the visuals is that the UI isn't so hot. It isn't hard to navigate, but the looseleaf paper design of the textbox and the layout of the menus leave a lot to be desired in a game that costs $15.

Is it worth $15? That really depends on your tastes and money. I'd say wait for this one to go on sale to truly get your full money's worth if you don't have a lot of cash to throw around. It takes about 12-18 hours to see the story through to the end, and that is a tough sell for a game with little gameplay and basically no replay value.

Overall though, MYTH is a solid VN, and definitely a good addition to any horror enthusiast's collection, just be ready to put your brain to the test.

P.S. Sou is best girl!

When I was spending a year away from my regular school at my local community college, I always hung out in a room on campus where there were guys playing YuGiOh, Vanguard, emulators via a Nintendo Wii, and one guy always playing various fighting games.

There were 3 I remember the most, Tekken 6, BlazBlue (Don't remember which one though), and this game. I played it with him a few times, liked what I saw, but I couldn't get my hands on it, lack of a Playstation to put the disc into and all that. So, when I woke up to see that this game got released on steam and I had a coupon given to me because of some cross-promotion with Skullgirls (another phenomenal fighter), I spent little time adding the money to my steam wallet to pick this one up.

We've got a fun roster of colorful characters from various Nitro+ series, but I only immediately recognized 3 of them. Saber from Fate/Zero, Super Sonico because I spend too much time in the gutters of the internet, and Saya, who I am amused is in a game on steam considering the content of her native game. Everyone else is a mystery to me, and while that is a turn off for plenty of people (games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Melty Blood have the same issue), the fighting is so good that I don't think it matters.

The fighting in this game is some of the best I've experienced, with silky smooth controls, a lot of opportunities for mix-ups, recovering is surprisingly easy to accomplish compared to most fighters I've played, and solid mechanics. You can call in one of your two chosen assist characters with the simple push of a button (which I assume depends on the controller), you can activate this sort of cancel that refills some of your health and rapidly increases your special gague, there's even a dodge of sorts, something that you don't see too often in fighting games.

The online even works really well, assuming your opponent has a good signal. I played a few matches against 2 or 3 opponents with a good signal, and I had virtually no input lag, minimal slowdown, and barely any freezes, and I'm stuck on dorm wifi at the time of writing.

The keyboard controls are mostly customizable, you can change everything except for the movement keys (ASDW for player 1, arrow keys for player 2). Controller compatability is there (as it should be), but I have no idea how many controllers are compatible. I have a 360 controller and it works perfectly (well, as perfectly as it can since the controller is not conducive to fighters), so those options are there.

There is a big flaw however, and its one that will drive away anyone who isn't a fighting game enthusiast. This game is not beginner friendly. There are no tutorials of any kind to help you learn how each character plays so you can figure out which one fits you best. Video tutorials exist, but most people aren't going to look those up. So if you're considering buying this, just note that figuring out who you're good at is a crapshoot unless you look up external sources.

Other than that though, this is a solid fighting game and another wonderful addition to my collection.

Moe meat girl forever!

This game is absolutely bonkers, in a good way though.

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ is like normal PAC-MAN, only the map is rotated 90 degrees, there are tons of ghosts instead of just 4, and it's a race to eat as many dots, food and ghosts as possible before the timer runs out.

The game is split into several boards with different structures, dot and ghost positioning, and paths to follow. None of them really feel any harder than the others, but they're all difficult in their own way. The DLC boards are a fun addition, but I wouldn't recommend you buy them separately from the game, since it's cheaper to buy the full Big Eater pack and just get all of it at once.

Gameplay wise, it's actually a lot more complicated than basic PAC-MAN. Pac controls as you'd expect him to, and the basic premise is still there, but given a twist. Dots appear in simple paths for Pac-Man to follow, and once they've all been eaten, a piece of fruit spawns for him to eat, which creates the next path for him to follow. Power pellets work the same as every other version of PAC-MAN. Eat one and all the ghosts become edible...all 40 of them.

The ghosts in this game are much more numerous than any other version. They generally chase you in lines which get longer and longer as you pass by more sleeping ghosts, and there are usually one or two ghosts roaming around independently to try and throw you off. Often you'll be scarfing down 40 or more ghosts in one go after consuming a power pellet and racking up a ton of points. Some ghosts even hold power pellets so yo can keep yourself going. And if you're afraid you'll run out of juice at a bad time, have no fear. They added a meter on the top of the screen showing how long until the pellet wears off. And even if you do run out at an inopportune moment or are trapped between ghosts with no way out, you have another way to deal with them, bombs.

Bombs are another thing ghosts can carry, and are essentially a screen nuke for all the ghosts chasing you and any other ghosts who Pac is about to collide with. Bombs can be the difference between getting a higher score and getting killed (which doesn't stop the timer, but I'll get to that in a bit), and should be used sparingly, because the ghosts can trap you even more easily if you aren't careful after using a bomb, and the cycle just repeats itself until you run out.

The biggest change to gameplay is the actual objective. Instead of just eating all the dots, this game is a score attack, you want to get as many points as possible in a set amount of time, usually five minutes. Once the timer starts, it does not stop until it runs out, which means dying has a serious impact on your score. This is because respawning takes about 3 seconds, and it slows the game speed meter on the bottom of the screen down to the nearest multiple of 5, slowing you down even more. Using bombs and even going near ghosts can also slow you down. Using a bomb freezes Pac in place for half a second, and going near a ghost slows the game down and briefly zooms in on Pac to let you know to dodge or use a bomb.

And to be entirely honest, I actually really like these changes. It makes the game very fast paced and requires very quick thinking and reflexes to get that high score, making this game a real good challenge and quite addicting to play. I could totally see this in an arcade if they were still as prevalent as they were in the 80s, and I would glady drop a few quarters if I came across it.

A fun spin on a classic title for a perfectly reasonable price, and an absolute steal when on sale. If you like arcade style madness, this is a great time and I highly recommend it.

I had dabbled in the original N back in the early 2000s when some person had uploaded it to AddictingGames, and I had a good time with it, though my 8 year old mind couldn't figure out how to beat a good chunk of the game. Years later, I think around 2010, I had pretty much forgotten about it. However, while browsing my local GameStop, I noticed a small DS game called N+. I immediately remembered my time playing the original flash game, and picked that box up to bring to the counter immediately. It was full of great danger, a tough challenge, and even had the original flash graphics as an option (or at least a replica that the DS could actually pull off). I spent hours on that game, and it's still one of my favorite DS games, and what I considered the gold standard of pure platformers.

Now we have another N game, which I immediately jumped on the opportunity to buy the second I found out about it (by selling a bunch of TF2 and Dota stuff that I don't use). I'll be comparing this to N+ DS a lot since that's the one I have the most experience with, so when I mention N+, it'll be referencing the DS version and not the PSP or 360.

I am definitely enjoying this game so far, and for the sake of information, I'll repeat the same ♥♥♥♥ everyone else has said. The controls are dead on, I use an Xbox 360 controller to play and it reads all my button inputs perfectly. It's a bit annoying that I can only navigate menus with the D-Pad since gameplay and the level editor allow/require the joystick(s) respectively.

The music is nice, though I found myself having to mute it after a while due to the style while wearing headphones. It's not the music's fault, I just get a headache if I listen to that kind of pumping EDM stuff for too long, so I play with headphones off. It would be awesome if I could add in music from my own library or if the music from all the versions of N+ (but mainly the DS version ^_^) were in the game as unlockables, or even DLC if need be (I'd pay for the DS music in a heartbeat).

The legacy episodes are nice too. I noticed a few levels from N+ on the in some of the episodes I haven't unlocked yet, though with the physics being closer to the original N than N+.

Now for my gripes:

- No Tag or Domination multiplayer modes for us DS ninjas. I loved Domination in N+ and I'd love to see it return so I could do that without needing someone else to have their own game card. I have no real problem with no online multiplayer since I don't care much for online in a game like this. If it gets added in at some point, that's all well and good, but I just want my Domination mode back. :'(

- The initially ran slower on my computer than it should, but I was able to fix it. Apparently turning off V-Sync fixes the problem, though it didn't initially work for me. I ended up fumbling with the window size a bit, and when I re-fullscreened it, BAM! Glorious full speed.

- This is pretty minor, but the level editor has a lot fewer possible blocks than the DS version. Seriously, the kinds of shapes you can create in N+ DS is crazy. I actually tried to re-create one of my old custom levels and I had to make a lot of changes because the shapes I used don't exist in this version.

- To my knowledge, you can't set the graphics to the original flash graphics, I just don't see the same charm in these new graphics that I do in the simple flash graphics. I had similar feeling towards the Plus graphics in the DS version, but I could swap to the original graphics in that. Some of color schemes are also a bit too colorful for my tastes, but there are enough of them to mitigate that issue.

Other than those, this game turned out pretty good. I'll probably update this review later and give a much more informed opinion after I've cleared at least half the episodes. I still like N+ more, but once I've spent more time on this game, that opinion has a chance to change.

EDIT: Still like the DS version more, but this is still damn good.

A Kiss for the Petals - Remembering How We Met is actually the 18th installment of the long-running Sono Hanabira series, but it's the first one to be localized.

I myself knew very little about this series going in, all I had seen of it was the OVA (which is soft hentai, so be wary of that) and what I had read up on Wikipedia out of curiosity.

Sono Hanabira is set in the all-girls St. Michaels Academy, and this specific entry focuses on 2 girls named Risa and Miya. The whole game is really just a massive flashback to how the two became a couple, and it only takes about 3-5 hours depending on how fast you read to finish the whole thing. It is a fun read, lots of teasing and plenty of stuff to snark at, but I wouldn't say this there's a lot of substance to this one.

Graphically, it is quite nice, lots of bright and appealing colors, well-drawn and designed characters, and CGs are all of high quality (Chibi Risa 2cute4me).

The sound is great, too. The voice acting is what you'd expect, japanese vocals, high pitched voices, Risa sounds flustered half the time, and Miya pulls off the titilating tone very well. The music is basic, it's there and does its job, but I can't remember much of it off the top of my head.

Gameplay wise...there is none. This game is strictly a Kinetic Novel, meaning there are no choices to be made, all you do is read. It's a good read, but it would help if it were a bit longer or I knew more about these characters.

I can see why they would translate this one first, though. Since this series as a whole is yuri and does feature sex scenes, testing the waters with this was a good move. Now, chances are that most people who bought this game were already fans of Sono Hanabira, but it definitely made me want more. I liked Risa and Miya and they played off each other fairly well, and if they translate the rest of the games, I'd be down for that.

Granted, 8 bucks is pretty damn steep for something like this, especially if you're not someone like me who can read VNs over and over again and not get bored, so if you're on the fence about this series, I'd say wait for a sale.

If the other games do come out on steam, I'll consider them, Fuguriya deserves some support from us Westerners.

Note: This is a kinetic novel, the game is nothing but reading, be wary of that.

I don't noramlly enjoy horror games, not because they scare me, but more because way too many of them rely on cheap jumpscares and false tension. After a while, those scares lose their impact, and by the time the game is over, I'm not scared, just annoyed.

Higurashi succeeds where I feel a lot of horror games fail, it isn't right up in your face and it isn't always trying to scare you. It's an implicit psychological mystery, with most of the horror coming coming from uncertainty and your own mind.

Also, I was not a fan of Higurashi prior to playing this, though I didn't dislike it. I did read a lot of info on the series on TVtropes and saw some anime clips, but as I learned playing this, reading about it and actually experiencing it are 2 very different things.

The basic plot starts with someone killing 2 of his friends, the game then cuts to the events leading up to that. So you already know what's going to happen, it's just a matter of how it happens.

The story itself takes place in a rural town called Hinamizawa, where our protagonist Keiichi moved about a month prior to the game's events. It seems like a happy place, his friends are all nice people, if not a little rough when it comes to games and teasing, but nothing looks to be wrong. However, after a certain and very ambiguous point in the story, Keiichi begins a slow descent into paranoia. I say it's ambiguous because the exact point where it happens is really hard to figure out, which compounds the horror.

The music and graphics are pretty good. Being a Visual Novel, all of the characters are still images who don't really changes poses much, leaving their faces to do the talking. You can choose between the steam graphics (which are excellent), the original graphics (which look incredibly silly), or if you know how to mod stuff, there's one for the PS3 graphics (which also look excellent). The backgrounds look like real photos that have been heavily photoshopped to look more cartoony (lots of watercolor filters), which doesn't really bother me, though it might bother some. The music isn't what I'd call super memorable, but it does do a good job at giving you the proper mood for every moment of the story where it plays.

The visual presentation however, is somewhat awkward and takes a bit of getting used to. Instead of having the characters cover a good portion of the screen and have all the dialogue in a neat little box on the bottom of the screen like most Visual and Kinetic Novels, the text covers up the whole screen, including character portraits. This can break some people's immersion, especially when the text has to fade out for a second so the character sprites can change.

The lack of any choices can also turn some people away who were expecting to be able to actively participate in the games and story events.

Still, I recommend Higurashi for fans of the horror genre, just be ready for a lot of reading.

I got Melody's Escape around 3 months after it went into early access, and I ended up writing a rather haphazard and not very serious review. So, now that it's out of early access, how does the complete product fare, and is it worth $10?

The answer: Yes!

This is probably one of the most addictive music games I've played, helped by its simple gameplay, charming graphical style, and high quality music detection. I have no idea how the devs did it, but this accuracy is really damn good. There are hiccups on a few songs, but it was never the entire song in my experience.

The control accuracy is really good too, something vital to a game that requires precision. It felt like my fault when I missed an orb or an obstacle, as opposed to bad control accuracy.

There are also a lot of cool skins and visual mods on the workshop, and the game even gives you the template to make your own skins. Lots of fun ones to add to your list, lots of RWBY and MLP:EqG.

However, the game does have its flaws. The orbs can be a bit blurry depending on how fast they go by, though the devs have taken steps to fix that since well before the full release by redoing the orbs a bit so they're easier to see. You also need to have a large music library to get full enjoyment out of this game, though that's a given for a game like this.

My personal main problem with this game is that there are no leaderboards for individual songs. Hopefully this will be rectified in a later patch, because I really want to see how others fare on the songs that I play.

So, if you have ten bucks lying around, a lot of music on your computer, and like simple, easy to grasp gameplay, then this game is for you. I highly recommend it to any rhythm game fan.