Root Double -Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition (Switch) Review

Early in the morning, explosions rip through the lower levels of a research facility.   The safety measures fail to activate, leaving people stranded.  A special rescue squad is mobilized to get those people out.   However, the rescue leader has a different goal, and heads off to execute it.   He is soon struck with amnesia-like symptoms, leaving him, and us, to discover the truth of the incident.

In Root Double, first the player is presented with two story choices, "Before" the incident and "After".   Now you know where the game's subtitle comes from. Each choice has a separate main character, but all the important characters are shared between these two points of view.   Everyone's name was set, with no ability to change it.  The way the story is told is unique for a visual novel, and more importantly, interesting.

I decided to start with the "After" story, since it had more endings to achieve, and I had a feeling the "Before" story might spoil something important.  It took about six hours to complete, with some of that time devoted to replaying parts to get the "good" ending.  The story was compelling.  This route doesn't "end" per se, but was interesting enough to keep me engaged for the next ones.  Hints were given, and mysteries remained to be solved.

Upon completing the "Before" chapter, I was glad I played "After" first.  There are some revelations that would definitely change how I perceived certain events. Supposedly, there are changes to "After" if played after completing "Before".  Reaching the good ending for both stories unlocked a third route. Completing that route unlocked the final route, which brought the story to its conclusion.  While this is a more linear approach than most visual novels, it was a refreshing take with a longer and more involved story.  It's also good that the story logically permits different points of view for important scenes.  It's really well done. Most of the twists are logical and fit in the world presented.  The only weakness was that the latter half, namely the final two routes, can be very exposition heavy.  There's a lot of stuff to explain.  For better or worse, those explanations can't be done any earlier, either.

Another difference in features that Root Double showcased was the Senses Sympathy System.  Instead of making choices in various places, a circular chart appeared in the upper right part of the screen.  Clicking it would bring the chart up front and center.  It would then display any applicable characters, along with how positively the main character felt about them.  There was even a value for the main characters, so you know how much they trust themselves.  Changing these values determined the direction the dialogue and actions went.  There are three colors: blue, yellow and red.  Blue usually won't drastically change what is goes on, but seemed to have minor dialogue differences.  Yellow was more serious, and can either lead to, or avoid red scenarios.  Red was the most serious, most rare, and could easily lead to a "Game Over" if you don't have the right amount of trust in the right people.  Sense levels could be changed as much as you wanted each time, but only once each time it appears, and only for the relevant characters.

The system was kind of confusing at first, since the wheel appears much more often than I initially thought it would.  I liked that it could change some dialogue, but it ultimately functions like a "choice" system with a few key differences.  One, most times the levels can be set in advance, not always right when necessary.  Two, I wasn't forced to change the levels any time the chart appeared.  If you keep on reading, the story moves on with the current sense levels.  If you don't like it, reaching the good ending for a route unlocks "answer mode" which functions more like a tradition visual novel system, which is a nice option to have.

"Game Over", usually referred to as a "bad end" in visual novels, felt easy to hit in Root Double.  This was good for completion, if nothing else.  Each also gave a tip on how to avoid it.  Most were pretty obvious, as it just needed a change in the sense levels of the involved characters.  Although the tip for getting the "After" normal ending felt generic enough to not be helpful in avoiding it without significant backtracking.  Thankfully there are plenty of save slots, so use as many as you think you may need.  There wasn't a route map or anything like that, but the story layout and direction don't really need it.  Plus the skip function is really fast.

Overall, Root Double is another good visual novel that fans will enjoy.  The story is compelling, and the way it is told is unique.  I'm always a fan of multiple perspective stories.  A normal playthrough for all good endings easily runs over twelve hours and is worth doing.  I would definitely recommend the game to visual novel fans.

The Good:

Interesting story and presentation.

The Bad:

Routes are not self contained, latter half is exposition heavy.

The SaHD:

While coincidental, it's funny that the racist villains are referred to as "Q".

(Root Double -Before Crime * After Days Xtend Edition review code provided by the publisher)

Raging Loop (Switch) Review

As promised in my tweet last month, I'm reviewing yet another visual novel.  It seems like that and shmups are all I'm doing lately.  Sometimes, it does feel like that's all that I'm playing, too.

While I say it a lot, the setting and idea for Raging Loop are great.  It's a visual novel that combines the Werewolf game with the idea of Groundhog Day (the movie).  Werewolf, aka Mafia, takes a group of people, a few of which are killers, and the rest innocent.  During the night phase, the killers agree on a victim, and that person is then out of the game.  During the day phase, everyone debates who one of the killers/wolves are, and vote to kill that person with a majority rule.  This cycle continues until all killers are, well, killed, or they outnumber the innocents.  Another wrinkle in the setup is when some innocents/villagers have special powers, which will be discussed later.

The game starts with Haruaki getting lost, and finding his way into a secluded village in the middle of the mountains.  He even starts to befriend a local named Chiemi.  However, things quickly go askew when the wolf game starts, and people begin dying in gruesome ways.  As an outsider, can Haruaki infiltrate and end this nightmare?  One wrong move can end his life...or does it?  Interestingly, all the "bad ends" actually happen.  You see, if he fails, Haruaki starts back at the beginning of the story, sometimes with knowledge of what transpired.  Until he can solve the mystery, he is doomed to repeat the werewolf game again and again.  That's where the Groundhog Day inspiration comes in.

This looping is also woven into the main plot.  Several choices are locked until you find the appropriate keys.  While not while unique, as the concept of cleared flags is constant in near every game made, it's done well.  Locks show which key(s) are necessary.  To find them, you just need to keep playing and try different choices, even obviously wrong ones.  Thankfully, the game includes a handy flowchart.  This makes it very easy to hop around, making choices, and getting keys, all while enjoying the story.

Raging Loop's story might not sound linear, but it surprisingly is.  There are basically three main routes that must be gone through in order.  It strangely didn't bother me.  I attribute that to how interesting I was finding the story, and how each built upon the previous.  Trying to figure out who were the wolves, who were the innocents, and who had the powers of the guardians was fun and surprising.  The guardians are the special powers mentioned earlier.  The village has four extra guardian deities that will choose a non-wolf person to give an extra ability to.  The snake can check one person per night, and be will be told if they are a human or wolf.  The spider can protect one person per night.  The crow will tell the bearer if the person hung the day before was a human or wolf.  There are also two monkey guardians, and each knows who the other is.

Honestly, while this works for a visual novel, it also sounds really awesome for another video game.  The idea and psychology behind how and when to use your powers, if and when to out yourself as a guardian...it sounds like a lot of fun.  My kids told me there is a similar sounding game in Roblox, and I might just have to check that out.  I don't know if I'd want to play with other people, but an open ended game using these powers, trying to find the killers, or even be one yourself.  It sounds fun.

Anyway, back to Raging Loop.  Several solutions rely on Japanese word/alphabet play.  Thankfully, the game takes the extra steps to lay it all out, so you won't get confused.  The one aspect holding the game back from being amazing is the ending.  It's not bad, but it wasn't that satisfying to me.  I'm not going to spoil specifics, but it tries too hard to make things mystical, and not, at the same time.  It's just not pulled off well at all.  It asks us to believe in magic, show us how the trick is done, but also include actual witchcraft, all after a massive info dump right near the end.  Still, the game is worth completing.  Besides some nice epilogue scenes, there's a commentary mode that injects character's thoughts during several scenes in the game.  The ones I read were okay, but not really worth going through the game again immediately to see.  Maybe some day in the future.

I know you've heard it before, but Raging Loop is a definite recommendation.  While it loses steam right at the end, it's not enough to stop the huge heap of enjoyment I got reading the rest of the game.  It's got a solid idea, and is pulled off very well.  I'm anxious to see if any other visual novels come from this same world in the future.


The Good:
Great premise and a captivating story

The Bad:
The story goes astray in the 11th hour.

The SaHD:
If you get this, definitely do not look at the artbook until you have completed all of the routes!  Massive spoilers!

(Raging Loop was purchased by the reviewer)

Root Letter: Last Answer (Switch) Review

Root Letter: Last Answer takes a good idea for a story and, well, turns it into a visual novel.  While in high school 15 years ago, the main character had a pen pal named Aya.  After finding the last of her letters mysteriously delivered to his house, "Max" decides to take a shot at meeting her in person.  As his nickname implies, he doesn't do anything half way.

Max travels to Shimane and quickly hits a dead end looking for his old pen pal. Undeterred, he decides to re-read one of her letters, and track down her old friends as a path to finding her.  Trouble is, she never specifically named any of her friends, just their nicknames.  Armed with that, determination, and some help from a few well-meaning locals, Max does everything he can to find out who his pen pal was, and where she is now.

For better or worse, the crux of the story is whatever secret revolves around Aya and the bull-headed conviction of people to be useless towards that goal.  I'm not going to spoil things if I can help it, but it really doesn't end up being that big of a deal.  One or two of the secrets may make some sense to keep under wraps, but the rest are super benign.  Plus, those one or two aren't even related to Max's quest.  One other weird aspect are the character's nicknames.  Max learns the real names of Aya's friends, but staunchly refuses to use those, instead only referring to them by these sometimes offensive nicknames.  It's not that bad, but makes it a bit harder for me to cheer him on.

One unique thing the game does is how it handles the interrogation of Aya's friends.  After corning one (sometimes literally), Max refutes each of their lies by presenting evidence.  It's set up like Phoenix Wright, but still feels fresh here.  Sometimes you will even enter "Max Mode", where a meter fills, changing what response you will tell the person.  I say tell, but he's usually yelling it at them...or at least enthusiastically saying at their face with higher volume and exclamation points.  The meter doesn't fill at a consistent rate, and the right answer isn't always obvious.  It's even harder when you have only a second or two to read the responses in the funky fonts.  At least there's no penalty for getting it wrong.

Root Letter does offer different routes in the story, but not in the way you may think.  The first 8 chapters are pretty much the same, and it's only the last one or two that are different.  The only things that affect your route are your responses to the letters you received years ago.  Max "remembers" what he wrote in each letter near the start of the chapter.  For better or worse, none of the other choices matter.  In my opinion, it's not the most logical, or interesting, way to do it.

Given this, the game would be prime for a flow chart, so you could just jump around and change your choices to get the different routes.  Unfortunately, there is no such grace.  Instead, you have to go through the whole game again, each time, to make the choices and get a different route.  Fortunately, there is a chapter skip in the menu, which will automatically advance through the completed chapter.  It's not the best method, but it at least keeps the subsequent playthroughs to about 20 minutes for a new ending.

Now, about those endings.  I won't spoil them, but they run the gamut from normal to horror, and even comedy.  You can see a bit why the choices lead to those endings, but they just don't feel like logical conclusions to the story.  If the choices had more of an influence over the story instead of just the last chapter or two, they might not seem as out of place.  Still, one or two of them are interesting.

There are two main additions in the Last Answer release.  The first is a live action mode, where all of the people and placed are replaced with photos of actors and locations.  It's pretty neat, and they did a great job replicating everything, but I prefer the original drawn artwork.  Quickly switching between the two would have been great, but you can't do it.  It has to be done on the main menu.  It would be nice to see the two back to back as you go through the story.  Still, it's a nice idea.

The second addition are some extended endings to most of the originals. These are hit or miss, but sadly, mostly the latter.  Thankfully, they are just unlocked to watch from the menu once you have completed all the vanilla game routes.  The one I would consider the "true" ending, because you have to watch the other first, is pretty good, and gives some extra closure.  There was another I liked, because it gave an actual resolution to the route.  The other two...are there.  Sorry to spoil this, but one involves kaiju.  Yes, really.  It's...odd, to say the least.

Root Letter: Last Answer is a decent visual novel.  The concept is good, as is the evidence-based interrogation scenes.  Route choices aren't the most intuitive, and the secret(s) behind the mystery could have been much more interesting.  They even throw out a very plausible explanation in the middle as a joke.  It's not that long of a game, so it's not a big time investment if you are looking for a new and (hopefully) cheap visual novel.  Otherwise, I'd suggest skipping it for much better offerings.

The Good:
Interesting idea with Phoenix Wright-style interrogations.

The Bad:
No route differences until very late, and very random directions of those changes.

The SaHD:
Like 428: Shibuya Scramble, this makes me want to visit the area it's set in.

(Root Letter: Last Answer was purchased by the reviewer)

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa (Switch) Review

Continuing my visual novel kick, I recently picked up Kotodama: 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa.  It is a unique blend of a visual novel story with some match-3 types puzzles thrown in for good measure.  While this does give it a bigger replay value than most visual novels, it's definitely not without its faults.

The story follows your protagonist after they recently transferred into the Fujisawa Academy.  Oh, and you also have a contract with a demon fox that gives you special powers.  These powers force someone to tell the truth by stripping away the layers of their deceit.  Using your special ability, along with some good old fashioned detective work, will allow you to uncover the titular mysteries of the game.

Events follow a typical visual novel narrative.  There is a lot of dialogue, and appropriate characters appear on the screen as they speak or are spoken to.  There are dialogue choices, but most will not appear during your first time through the game.  Without giving anything away, Kotodama has an interesting take on its story.  It sadly doesn't really have routes as other visual novels do, but for the most part, I appreciate the way the story is handled.

During the story, you will learn several key phrases.  Primarily, these give you experience for each of the elemental pieces in the puzzle mode.  There are even specific ones for each opponent that allow you to do extra damage to them.  For better or worse, all of these are necessary to get the best ending.  To make it harder, some only appear if you go to certain areas when you are allowed to choose from several.  There's usually a list, and some choices disappear if not taken immediately, with no real reason for it.  Even more unfortunately, not having all of the key and power words means you have to repeat the game loop until you get them, if you want the true ending.  A chapter select would have been best to save all the unnecessary time wasted when (not if) you start another playthrough.

The other element of the story is the few times your main character calls upon his or her power to root out the truth.  This manifests as a match 3 like puzzle game.  Unlike a more traditional experience like Bejeweled, you don't swap pieces to match.  Instead, you pick a piece, and it gets sent to the top of the 8x8 grid.  It's different than what I've played before.  While it's not the best, it's pretty fun, and has some decent strategy.  You also get some abilities to use, but...they aren't great.  They aren't even fully explained.  I think you use one, poke the opponent somewhere, and have a percent chance to get some extra turns.  If not, they lock some pieces, making it harder.  While these abilities can be ignored for the most part, they will sometimes help in a pinch.

Oh, did I mention that the main character pictures peeling away the opponent's deceit like layers of clothing?  Well, that's how it plays out.  No, really.  As you fill out each opponent's happy meter, it will reach one of four milestones, removing some of their clothing (not in the "real" world) and giving you more moves to complete the stage.  It's not quite as creepy as it sounds.  No one is ever shown fully naked, just in his or her underwear.  You read that right.  It's not balanced, but there is one guy that you use your power on, compared to the five girls.

Once you have beaten an opponent, save for the near-final boss, they are unlocked in the puzzle mode for you to fight when you want.  Plus, they each have four different sets of undergarments to also unlock.  Most fights are not that hard, save for a few towards the end of the main game.  However, if you acquire the power word for those opponents, they are much easier.  I did have to retry a few fights for the near-final boss the first time through the game.  I say retry, but you basically have to load your game, so make sure to save often and take advantage of the multitude of save slots offered.

Overall, Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of the Fujisawa was a decent visual novel and puzzle game hybrid.  The story has some nice ideas, but doesn't fully capitalize on its premise, and can easily drag on too long.  Puzzle sections can be pretty fun, though.   My only gripe was the ones at the end were really hard without having the special keywords.  If a sequel does get made and released, I would be interested in playing it for the story continuation.  Though it is not one I would get right when it releases.

The Good:
While mostly a visual novel, the match-3 puzzle aspect gives you a reason to play after the story ends.

The Bad:
Completing the game enough for the true ending can be a pain, and the final fights are difficult the first time through.

The SaHD:
No specific spoilers, but the ending was not fulfilling.

(Kotodama was purchased by the reviewer)

Chaos:Child (PS Vita) Review

I wasn't able to secure a review code for Chaos;Child when it was released in the west, since it was from a notably stingy company.  So once I finally tried out Gamefly's rental service, it went to the top of my list.  It's a visual novel with a scientific twist, and I was eager to play it.

The beginning of the game put a dent in that hope.  It was setting the scene, but I understood what was going on long before they made it apparent.  The scene dragged on, and lead into another that threatened to be just as bad.  Thankfully it wasn't.  It was a good analogy for what the rest of the game would be: some interesting ideas, but far too drawn out.

Don't get me wrong, there is good stuff here.  The characters are pretty good and fleshed out, and some scenes and twists in the story are very interesting.  The kind of interesting that's "stay up way too late to finish this scene."  Unfortunately, the rest of it is a let down.  Many scenes drag on far too long, or take too long to get to the point the player was at 10 minutes ago.  It will even build up to a point, then dilly-dally at the precipice rather than get to that point.  The final boss "fight" in the first ending takes over an hour of reading!  It's annoying and silly.

I won't go into spoilers, in case you do want to play the game, but some of the twists just felt random, or didn't make sense in the grand scheme of things.  Like Indigo Prophecy, it starts of with a strong crime premise, but loses itself when it turns to magical powers.  It's apparently set in the same universe as Steins;Gate (the semicolon universe), but I only knew that from reading outside material after completing the game.

There are a few different routes through the game, but you must complete the "common" route first.  It's not a bad idea, since a lot of the other plot points stem from those events.  There's even a true ending, which maybe-kinda-sorta ties the rest together and tries to explain stuff.  The game is not a fan of happy endings, either.  The biggest problem with the routes is how and when they are activated.

At various points in the story, Takuru's healthy imagination will flare up and he will experience a delusion.  It can be positive or negative, or even skipped if you want.  These are what will affect your route, but they are not obvious how or why.  The worst part is how far out your route is determined.  In good visual novels, the choices are fairly obvious, and once you start a route, you actually start the route.

Not so in Chaos;Child.  You get put onto a route, and much later will see the effects.  At least one route is determined 4(!) chapters before you actually get different content.  So, you have to either read or skip all that extra stuff just to see the new.  That's ridiculous.  Plus, there is no good function to jump around the story, so you have to either sit through the time it takes to skip through the bloat, or know when to have a separate save file.  This just makes an already too-long game even longer.

One last gripe I have with the game is the touch screen sensitivity.  Thankfully, you can tap the screen to advance the text (as all visual novels should do), but it's pretty flawed.  You are supposed to be able to "swipe" to set auto advance for the text, but it reads pretty much every time I touch the screen as a swipe.  95% of my taps are swipes, and set it to auto.  It's annoying and entirely preventable, since this is the only game I've had that problem in.

Overall, Chaos;Child is a visual novel you can easily skip.  You would get your money's worth, as the game is too long, but is too much of a mixed bag for me to recommend.  Let an editor have a run through the script, trimming it down, reducing some of the random twists, and it would be great.  Since that's not going to happen, it's just mediocre.


The Good:
The characters are fairly well fleshed out.

The Bad:
Story is too bloated.  Routes are way to subtle and far out.  Too many random twists.

The SaHD:
It starts off on a good note, like Indigo Prophecy, but unfortunately also ends up like Indigo Prophecy.

(Chaos;Child was rented from Gamefly's service.)

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (PS Vita) Review

Utawarerumono and its sequel are two games I've had my eye on for awhile, and when they hit my buy price, I snatched them up.  Mask of Deception is the first part of the story, and the game is a mixture of visual novel and strategy RPG.  Two of my favorite genres in one!

I'll start with the SRPG portion of the game.  There aren't that many stages, but I do like these fights.  At first it seems like a standard grid-based SRPG.  Characters can move and attack, while speed sort of dictates how fast and how often their turn comes up.  Once you get a few levels, it starts feeling more unique.  Your attacks are basically combos, with one of two different timing mini-games for criticals.  While there are only a few different strings, they become much more powerful as you level up.  Each added attack makes the combo do a lot more damage, or adds some other type of effect.  Even healing skills get extra moves, with either more healing, or some kind of buff.

The first timing mini-game is hitting the button at the right time.  A circle closes toward the button, and you must press it when very close, but not too far.  While it is pretty simple, there are some that are very fast, making them hard to hit.  There is not much of a penalty for failing, as you either get standard damage, or may cut your combo short and miss a bit of damage.  The second one is holding the button down, and releasing it at the right time.  This tends to be the mini-game used for magic skills, and feels a lot less strict than the first type.

It is a cool and unique system, but there is a downside.  Each attack has a different range, and it can be a problem trying to remember which attacks have which range, and what point of the combo they are at.  It will display the largest area and approximate damage when selecting one.  It's a bit misleading since not all attacks in your combo hit that range.  Plus, it doesn't account for enemy defensive moves.  This is really only a problem in the dream battles, where the enemies have the best and most annoying defensive and passive skills, while you don't get very many of them.

The visual novel portion is the bulk of the game.  You follow the story of Haku and the multitude of other characters he meets, befriends, and is generally pushed around by.  While I normally like visual novels, it does entirely depend on the story told.  For better or worse, Mask of Deception reminds me of Ranma 1/2.  Haku generally gets abused (physically and verbally) throughout the whole game, and that kind of thing really bothers me.  I can let a bit of it go, but as it goes on and on and on...I get tired of it.  Most of the characters come off as selfish ***holes.

It's a shame, since the rest of the story is actually really good.  The sections that move the plot forward, and aren't just character interaction pieces, are very interesting.  Also, I'd really appreciate it if tapping the touch screen would advance the dialogue.  I understand that because it's also a PS4 game, such a function may not be feasible, but it's silly that a standard of visual novels isn't in the Vita version.

The only other related thing that bothers me is the authentic terminology.  I get that they want to keep the terms that might be harder to translate, but it makes it all more confusing.  Many of the terms and combo attacks could and should be translated to something close.  At the very least, they need to use the spacebar when typing them out.  Look at the title of the game, you get an idea of what I'm talking about.  For the combo attacks especially, I can't tell which is which until I pick them.  If one gets another link when a character levels up, I again don't know which attack it is.  I'm sure there are some silly purists who insist on it, but it makes me more annoyed than the game has to.  So I suppose more than being authentic, it's senseless pandering.

Doing all of the story battles and scenes runs about 20 hours.  A series of dream battles opens up after completion of the main story, which gives you another few hours.  The trophies aren't bad, but a few would require hours of grinding.  The game's battles start out easy, and get harder as the game progresses.  The curve is decent, but there are some notably hard (and sometimes cheap) stages, like the final fight and most of the dream battles.  If you are stuck, you can usually re-play earlier battles for more experience and BP.  Experience scales with level difference, meaning you have to play later stages to actually get experience for actions.  This would be less of an issue, but higher level enemies excel at dropping you with 1 or 2 attacks.  That's a bit extreme in my opinion.  At least at that point you are through the actual game story, so you can safely move on to the sequel.

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was worth playing.  The story flip-flopped from being obnoxious to really interesting, but the battles kept me coming back to play more.  While I don't agree with some of the story choices, the gameplay and ending have me looking forward to starting up the sequel.


The Good:
Battles are fun, interesting combo system.

The Bad:
The story has some really annoying parts (think Ranma 1/2).

The SaHD:
So, technically, the experiment worked, right?

(Physical copy of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception was purchased by the reviewer)

Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk (3DS) Review

Ten years ago, the first Jake Hunter hit the US on the DS.  At that point, I had recently played Phoenix Wright, which started steering me into visual novel territory.  Since I like crime dramas, it seemed like a natural game to play.  I really enjoyed it, but didn't pick up the second release.  Partially because I was indignant that it was just a better version of the one I had already bought, and partially because I had a young child at that time, so I had no money.

Flash forward to 2018, and we are finally seeing another Jake Hunter released.  Ghost of the Dusk collects five different cases, plus an extra.  Each case is a separate story, with only a small handful of characters appearing among them.  Most times you will be playing as the titular character, Jake Hunter, but on a few rare occasions you will take up the mantle of his equally-capable-if-not-moreso assistant Yulia.  They are usually assisted by Jake's cop buddy Scott Kingsley, affectionately called King.

The game is pretty much a visual novel, but without the routes.  There are choices to make, but you can't really make the wrong ones.  This will keep some people from the game, but it shouldn't.  The stories and characters are interesting.  There are many times when you have to move to a different location, talk to various people, and even investigate suspicious scenes.  It works fairly well, but there were a few things that were either strange or rubbed me the wrong way.

First, there are many times when you must talk to people several times in a row.  For some reason, you have to select talk and pick the person again.  I understand doing this when there are multiple people, and Jake switches who he is talking to, but many times it's just the same person.  I guess it's nice if you want to examine something in between lines, but it feels a little strange.  Sometimes instead of speaking to a person, you have to "examine" them to move the story forward.  There are times this makes sense, and times it doesn't.

The examination scenes are the ones that sometimes frustrated me.  You have a small scene, and move the eyeglass around, pressing the button to see what's there.  Some things are obvious, plus the cursor changes to blue, but there were several times when I couldn't proceed.  I was missing the correct pixel to check.  It's not like the game highlights things of interest, so at that point it's just trial and error, clicking around various places on the small screen, hoping it's the slightly different message that allows you to finish and move forward with the story.

Another problem I had was with the text.  The main case had a rash of typos.  Strangely, they weren't anywhere near as prevalent in the other cases.  What they did all share were boxes of text that would be skipped through.  Sometimes, pressing the button to advance the dialogue would quickly dash through the box that was supposed to come up, and move onto the next.  It was easy enough to scroll back and read it, but that's a bad issue to have in a text-heavy game.  I'm pretty sure it's not my system, either.

While I didn't have a problem with this next point, the game is also localized, instead of just translated.  That means Jake and company talk in detective jargon, and the character names are fairly Westernized.  Personally, I like that, since it helps me keep the characters straight.  It will be a turn off to some people, though.

Ghost of the Dusk is the main case, and as such, lasts the longest.  It took me around 9 hours to go through it.  The four sub-cases were shorter, each lasting around 2 hours.  The final, extra case was much shorter, clocking in at about 30 minutes.  That one has a tiny alternate route, but it's little more than text and a riddle.  Still, the total play time clocks in at under 20 hours.  Since the game is linear, there's not much replay value.  Even if you miss the hidden passwords while going through the cases the first time, you can type them in to gain access.  I like that you aren't forced to replay just for some of the game's extras.

While Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of Dusk is short, the cases and characters are interesting.  The game isn't perfect, and it's not the longest investment of time, but it's well worth playing if you are a fan of visual novels, or detective stories.  Then, hopefully someday we will have the other games/cases translated, too.


The Good:
One main and four sub-cases with interesting stories and characters.

The Bad:
The game's linear flow hits a few distracting bumps.

The SaHD:
I know that the art style for each case is a little different, but Yulia's look varies a lot.  I didn't even realize it was her when I started the second case.

(Review code for Jake Hunter: Ghost of the Dusk was provided by the publisher)

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk (PS Vita) Review

Finishing off Aksys' "Summer of Mystery" is the third Vita visual novel, Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk.  Like the others, it is an otome game, so you play as a female protagonist.  She is a witch, which the townspeople fear.  To avoid suspicion, she was raised as a boy alongside her two "brothers", her secret known only to a select few.  As the story progresses, she will learn to dress and act like a girl to help her locate the mysterious Kaleido-Via, all while trying to keep her secrets from being exposed.

I will definitely give the game credit for a unique premise.  I was interested to see where it would go, and what exactly they would do with it.  At first, though, I wasn't that impressed.  You quickly meet most of the characters, and most of them annoyed me instantly.  Not the best way to start a game.  However, as the story continued, the characters either changed, or the annoying elements were pushed into the background, ensuring I would enjoy it.  There are some twists that I did not see coming, and they were pulled off very well.  My opinions on at least two characters completely flipped.  That's not something I expected.  Some of the endings felt a little too random for my tastes, so it's not perfect.  While I won't spoil anything, there are some connections to the previous title, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly.  After I started, I didn't think there would be, but fans of that game should appreciate what's in Ashen Hawk.

At a few points in the game, you will have a simplified map of the town.  From here, you can select short stories, comments from townspeople, and the next main story section.  I would have liked a quick explanation as to what the icons meant, but there isn't one.  Thankfully it isn't too hard to figure it out.  The pink eyeglass icons are comments from townspeople, which will give you a point.  These points are used to purchase special items from the antique store, which will unlock short stories, other side story scenes, and some gallery pictures.  To unlock them all, you have to talk to everybody.  It's not the most interesting way to unlock the additional scenes, but it's much less intense than Black Butterfly's shooting mini-game.

Once you have the necessary items purchased, it is very easy to go back and view any scenes you have missed.  All because of the glorious flow chart!  It was my favorite thing about Black Butterfly, and I was overjoyed to see it back in Ashen Hawk.  It allows you to see where all the scenes and branches are, so you can quickly move back to grab them.  This makes it easier to get all the endings and explore the story.  It's also much easier to actually get on to the branches than it was in the previous game.

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk was a fun visual novel.  After a rough beginning, the story and characters got a lot better.  Factoring in all the townspeople conversations and side stories, the main game is longer than most visual novels I have played.  The flip side is the "routes" tend to just be the endings.  Thankfully the awesome flow chart is back to make jumping to the relevant scenes quick and easy.  I definitely recommend this otome game to fans of visual novels, and especially fans of Black Butterfly.


The Good:
An interesting and unique story that pulled off some difficult plot twists very well.

The Bad:
The story is largely linear.  There are branches, but they are pretty much just the endings.

The SaHD:
I'm not a fan of the "character is abysmal at cooking" cliche.  It's not funny, and doesn't make sense.  It did have some small relevance in this game, but that doesn't really make it much better.

(Review code for Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk was received from the publisher)

7'scarlet (PS Vita) Review

Continuing Aksys' "Summer of Mystery", 7'scarlet has arrived for the PS Vita in the US!  This visual novel/interactive fiction takes place in the crescent-shaped country town of Okunezato.  Ichiko, the main character, arrives to locate her brother, who disappeared in Okunezato one year ago.  Tagging along with her is her childhood friend Hino.  While searching, she will meet several other characters that may be friend...or foe.

There are plenty of choices during the story, some of which are very important, and a few of which don't affect much.  One choice early on was obviously me choosing my route.  After finishing that route, I went back and was confused that the other options didn't change the two choices I had.  Eventually, I figured out that the first two routes can be done in either order, but the rest are unlocked sequentially.

It's an odd choice for sure, but the stories that take place build upon each other, even if they are mostly separate.  Happenings in one will become clearer when you play another.  Sometimes, there are little details that seem unimportant, but become small revelations when you are involved with another guy.  Every route was interesting to me, even if it takes all the playthroughs to actual see the main plot brought to completion.  There are a few twists that seem a bit random, but overall I think each route is engaging.

As for the length of the story, it felt a little shorter than average.  I'd say each route takes about 4 hours to get through.  The game makes up for it by having over five routes, most with two different endings.  Once I understood how to get each ending, it wasn't that hard to get them, but it did take time to replay each route.  There is a standard dialogue skip function to fast-forward through the game.  Since the only starting points are the beginning of the game, or the start of each unlocked route, you'll likely need that function to clean up any missed routes.  I was spoiled by the flow chart of the previous "Summer of Mystery" game, I know.

I really enjoyed the stories in 7'scarlet.  While it has some strange differences from other visual novels I have played, the story was very engaging, and I kept wanting to read more.  I'd easily recommend it to fans of the genre.


The Good:
Interesting and engaging story that adds more with each route.

The Bad:
New game starting points aren't the best when trying to clean up the endings and CG images.

The SaHD:
But why would the ca---hmmm...

(Review code for 7'scarlet was received from the publisher)

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly (PS Vita) Review

Aksys kicked off their "Summer of Mystery" with Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, the first of three visual novel games on the Vita coming out this summer.  Readers of my reviews know that I like visual novels, so of course I secured a review code to check it out.  And hey, this time the female protagonist has spoken dialogue!

The story takes place in a mysterious mansion that the heroine suddenly wakes up in.  With the help of some men she meets inside, they will try to survive and ultimately escape the nightmarish house.  While there are some familiar premises to the story, like an mysterious location and lost memories, the story is otherwise unique and interesting.  It moves along at a good pace, not moving too fast nor getting boring, and has some twists that I did not guess.  Toward the end, I was very much into the story, and wanted to see it through to its conclusion.

There are some choices to make while going through the game, but not as many as you might think.  In fact, the game isn't quite structured like most visual novels I have played.  For one, the story is mostly linear, which small branching paths that tend to meet back up where they should.  Character specific routes and endings are present, but they are smaller and shorter than expected, and don't occur in the most common places (ie, near the end).  While I did purposefully pick a bad ending at one point, I was surprised to see the ending I got at the end of the game marked as the "best" ending.  While it does seem the most realistic (as much as it could be), I thought for sure there would be a super happy "best" ending, where everything comes up rainbows.

All of the story scenes are contained on a big flow chart.  It shows when scenes branch off, and even has a mark that tells you when all conversations in that scene have been seen.  It's very easy to jump around and complete the parts you missed.  I very much like that aspect of it, and am enjoying completing as much of it as I can.

However, the game also has some extra scenes called short episodes.  While good in theory, there are several times in the game where you have to view some of these short episodes to progress further in the main story.  In other genres I can be okay with that, but in a story driven game, it feels jarring.  Being forced to stop and go read side stuff really breaks up the flow (and immersion).  I do like them as optional scenes to help unlock character specific routes.  At least, I think they help with that.  Most of the side episodes are locked, and have to either be purchased with points earned from the mini-game, by completing certain other scenes, or both.  It's not explained too well, and there are plenty of stages don't mention the requirements.  You just keep playing and viewing scenes, and eventually it opens them up.

At a few points in the story, there is a shooting mini-game to play.  It partially makes sense because you have to defeat the mansion's monsters to survive.  However, you are locking on and shooting butterflies, which aren't the monster.  Regardless, the mini-game is kind of fun.  You either move the cursor or drag your finger across the butterflies as they move around the screen, then press a button (or the on-screen "shoot" button) to fire.  It's fairly simple, but fun.  It's also not the most accurate, since many times I would drag across a butterfly and it wouldn't lock-on.  Also, it is really easy to miss some of the butterflies, since they only stick around for short, random intervals.  This is the method of getting points used to unlock some of the side episodes, and it was fun to play it enough to get all the points I needed for the side episodes.

Overall, I think Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is a good visual novel.  There are some text errors, and the side episodes can take you out of the story, but that story is really good, especially near the end.  I'm having fun trying to fill out the whole flow chart.  I'd recommend it for visual novel fans, but it's not the longest complete package.


The Good:
Interesting story with some unexpected turns, fun shooting mini-game.

The Bad:
Side episodes break the flow of the story, and there were some text issues.

The SaHD:
I didn't think they would explain the title so fully.  It was nice that they did, but I admittedly then thought "roll credits".

(Review code for Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly was received from the publisher)

Code: Realize ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ (PS4) Review

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ was released on the Vita two and a half years ago.  I really enjoyed it, and was eager to try out the sequel, Future Blessings, that was recently released.  The PS4 version of the game, Bouquet of Rainbows, houses both games in the series.  Yes, it is harder than it should be to keep the names straight.  Anyway, for this release, I stuck to the Future Blessings portion of the game, but I'll still have some information from Guardian of Rebirth, mostly re-hashed from my previous review.  If you are interested to dive deeper into that, here's the link for it.

Being a visual novel, all stories in Bouquet of Rainbows are heavy on the reading, but many non-protagonist lines are fully voiced.  It's also an otome game, so you are playing a female, with the option to be romantic with one of a few guys.  Guardian of Rebirth follows the story of Cardia.  After being virtually abandoned in a mansion and little to no memories of her past, she meets the gentleman thief Lupin.  Soon, she meets several other colorful characters and discovers the secrets of her deadly poison.  There are a few choices the player makes throughout the game, which will influence your route and the eligible bachelor you end up with.

Future Blessings, on the other hand, has far less dialogue choices.  There are the "after" stories, which take place after each guy's ending from Guardian of Rebirth.  You will obviously want to do them after completing the first game, otherwise they won't make as much sense.  The stories were interesting enough, and expound on some ideas touched in the previous game.  There's also three side stories.  The first is a non-romantic story where Cardia meets a new friend, and gets mixed up in the mafia.  It's surprisingly good for how silly an extremely brief synopsis makes it sound.  The other two are more what-if tales that allow Cardia to interact with Herlock Sholmes and Finis.  As you complete these stories, you also unlock brief stories with Delly, another character from the first game.

Your first story in Guardians of Rebirth will last the usual VN length of about 8 hours (estimate on my part).  There's good replay value in going through the different routes.  Enough of the story changes that it is worth doing all the routes, even if you skip the parts you have already seen.  The "after" stories in Future Blessings aren't quite as long, taking only a few hours to go through.  Adding in the side stories, there are more "routes" to do.  By contrast, these are a little longer than I would have initially thought.  Overall, doing all the routes and stories adds up to a good amount of play time and some good reading.

The whole package on the PS4 is really nice.  My only gripe is that there were some typos and broken text that I encountered.  It wasn't common, and not in every story I played, but it was noticeable.  While I still prefer to play visual novels on a portable system, Code: Realize ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ was fun to play on the PS4.  It's still an easy recommendation for visual novel and otome fans.


The Good:
Combines both the first and second game into one convenient package, and both have several interesting stories.

The Bad:
There were a few typos in at least one of the stories I played.

The SaHD:
Avido Crudele is a pretty rockin' villain name.

(Review code for Code: Realize ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ was received from the publisher)

Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita) Review

Almost a year ago, the otome visual novel Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds blew on to the PS Vita, bringing with it the first half of Chizuru's tale.  Edo Blossoms picks up right after the events of the previous game.  I was a bit caught off guard that you just pick a route to start the game.  I expected it to read the save file, and would maybe put me on one that I would have been on.

Thinking about it, what actually happens does make sense.  It would be strange to only allow people to play the routes they had started, especially if they didn't even own the first game.  Yes, the routes would make more sense, but since this is an expanded re-release of a previous version with new routes, there are probably some people that are more interested in seeing the endings to the new routes.  Since there was no real reason to limit their customer base, I'm glad they did it this way.  It would have been nice to know that before, since I was keeping Kyoto Winds on my cramped Vita memory card, ready for Edo Blossoms to use the save file.  It turns out I didn't need to do that.  D'oh.

Once starting a route, you get a very concise recap of the previous game, which also covers the start of whichever route you picked.  Like most visual novels, the game is very dialogue heavy.  The protagonist's lines are not voiced, but most of the other lines and characters are.  There are still images to accompany people talking, and special CG pictures at certain points in the story.  These can be viewed later in the gallery.  At several points in each route, there are choices to make, which affects the ending.

Hard to believe he is single...

While I was going through my first route, some of the characters and developments didn't feel quite right.  It kind of felt like an actual sequel, and one that was made by a different person.  Toward the end, I realized that some of these were supposed to feel like that.  Others were probably just me not remembering things from the Kyoto Winds.

After playing through two routes, I realized that I really liked Edo Blossoms, even more than Kyoto Winds.  While that one had a more unified story for the first four chapters, each route here felt different.  Not much was repeated, which makes it more interesting to go through many or all of the routes.  I even have the urge to play at least the final chapter of every route in the first game, so I can more logically finish all of the routes in Edo Blossoms.  Like the first game, each route is only a few hours, but with 12 different ones, it will take you awhile to go through them all.  Visual novel fans should definitely check out the enjoyable conclusion to Hakuoki with Edo Blossoms.


The Good:
Finishes off the story started in the previous game, and the routes vary much more than that release.

The Bad:
Easiest way to follow the routes is jumping back and forth between this and Kyoto Winds.

The SaHD:
Looking at the file sizes on the Vita's memory card, I can see why it was split into two games.  Even with less redundant data, the game would be massive, and wouldn't fit on a cartridge.

(Review code for Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms was received from the publisher)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (PC/Steam) Review

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is a visual novel otome game set in, well, Kyoto at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  It's also only the first part of the whole story.  I previously reviewed the PS Vita version, and the Steam release for PCs is largely the same.

As an Otome game, you will play as a female protagonist, with many romance options.  In fact, most of the guys you meet are romance options.  You won't interact with all of them in every scene, as that would get way too crowded.  They float in and out of each scene, which feels logical.  You are a "guest" of the Shinsengumi after all, and they wouldn't all go to every thing together.

There are several dialogue choices as you go through the game, some of which change the affection of the various guys, and some of which will change the next scene.  Once you get to the final scenes, it will be exclusive to the guy with the highest affection, and is effectively their route.  Then unfortunately, the game will go to a "to be continued" and we have to wait until the second part is released.  Other than that, I do like the story.  Having fantasy takes of real events is pretty neat, and they pull it off well.

One playthrough is about 4-6 hours, depending on reading speed, and if you reload to change a choice.  Since there are over 10 romance options, you will get a fair bit of replayability finishing the final chapter several times.  I'd also recommend playing through at least twice, since there are a few different scenes depending on dialog choices, and they are worth seeing.  They're also sprinkled in throughout the story, so it wouldn't be as easy as just replaying one chapter, which you can do for the character routes.  I'm not sure if and how the character endings will play into the second part of the story, but it might be worth doing a few, just in case.

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds ran perfectly on my i7 with 16gb of ram.  I mostly used an Xbox controller for it, but a keyboard should work perfectly fine, since it's a visual novel.  It's a pretty good story with good replayability for the different endings.  Now to continue to wait patiently for the next part...


The Good:
Good story, lots of options for ending routes.

The Bad:
Having to wait until the second part is released to finish off the story.

The SaHD:
Maybe after the second part, we will get Sengoku Winds?

(Review code for Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds was provided by the publisher)

Collar X Malice (PS Vita) Review

If you have read some of my other reviews, you will probably know that I really enjoy visual novel games.  That definitely includes otome games.  The back drop of Collar X Malice is pretty interesting.  After a high profile kidnapping and murder, a terrorist group known as 'Adonis' seeks to punish criminals and make people lose faith in a police force that isn't as sterling as they claim.  The series of murders is a countdown to X Day.  And what X Day brings, no one yet knows.

I really enjoyed the story of the game.  You play as rookie cop Ichika Hoshino (you can of course change her first name, but I left it).  After a rude awakening into the events of the X Day countdown, you team up with a group of guys to help solve the murders, and maybe save the city.  As you go through the game, you make choices which will affect story flow and which route you go on.  I was very surprised to get a bad ending very early.  Also, you get onto each route very early.  Since there were very few choices beforehand, I'm not really sure what determined my first route (it wasn't the one I was going to try for first).  When I went through a second time, I had a slightly better idea, but still not sure what got to that point.

At first I didn't like that the route was chosen so early, but it gives the protagonist and the romantic option time to bond and develop them as characters.  Most otome games seem to have a mostly unified story, and then branch off near the end.  I really like that Collar X Malice doesn't.  It really lets the characters and relationships develop more naturally.  There are different incidents to dive into, and the ones that Ichika is involved in change depending on the route taken.  That's a really good incentive to multiple playthroughs.

Another thing that the game does that I didn't expect is shifting perspectives.  To better flesh out the story, or to give the player some other tidbits, there are times the narrative shifts to another character.  On one hand, I like stuff like this in stories, as it is for the benefit of the reader.  On the other, it can feel a bit out of place, since otome games usually just follow the protagonist around the whole time.  There's also a select few times you will poke around a crime scene picture to find info about an X Day incident.  It was nice, but there are very few of them.  Lastly, there are also a few shooting QTEs in the game.  It's a nice little addition, but again are used very rarely.  I don't think they needed more, though.

Admittedly, one route through the game felt longer than average for visual novels, but it was probably still around 8-10 hours.  There were many times I was going to play for a bit, but got caught up in the story and ended up spending 3 hours playing before forcing myself to stop.  As mentioned before, having different crimes for different routes makes me want to play through them all even more.  So I'd say replay value for the game is very good, as each route had a lot of differences.

I very much enjoyed Collar X Malice.  It's an easy recommendation for visual novel and otome fans, and a great addition to the Vita library.


The Good:
I liked the story, and there is really good replay value in the different routes.

The Bad:
I have little idea how I got onto the routes I did get.

The SaHD:
Wow, two of the romantic options are just mean to you.

(Review code for Collar X Malice was provided by the publisher)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (PS Vita) Review

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is a visual novel set in Kyoto, Japan in the mid 1860s.  It stars a female protagonist searching for her father.  She quickly becomes a "guest" of the Shinsengumi, and the story unfolds from there.  Kyoto Winds is also a remaster of the previous Hakuoki, which came out a few years ago on the PS3 and Vita.  The story has been partially reworked, adding more minor characters and romance-able targets for the leading lady.  Sadly, the story has also been split in two, and this is the first part of it.

The story is pretty entertaining overall.  You interact with many different characters, which feels more logical for such a big group, as opposed to cramming all the characters into every scene.  There's also a fair amount of voiced dialogue.  Of course I expected some, but with so many characters, I expected less than there ended up being.  If the dates in the game match up with historical dates, it would make sense why there are sometimes big jumps in time (up to about a year) during the story.  Otherwise, it would be kind of strange that a lot of things happen in a month or two, but then nothing for the next four months.

Many points in the story will task the player with choosing an option which affects how the story unfolds.  Some of these make big differences in the short run, but in the long run, the story unfolds in much the same way.  Since the story is based on historical events, it makes sense that that would be the case.  Sometimes the following scenes feel a bit disconnected from some of the choices.  Basically, there seem to be better options to make the story flow perfectly, but you don't have to do that.  What your choices do greatly affect is which characters you can raise your relationship with.  This, in turn, changes which final chapter you get in the game.

When I say "final chapter", I don't mean the story's conclusion...yet.  It's only the first half of the entire tale.  This was a bit of a disappointment.  The breaking point is a pretty logical one (at least in the routes I did), so it isn't some awful cliffhanger to leave you waiting for the next part.  With so many different last chapters, I'm curious to see how the second game deals with that at the start.

Like most visual novel games, Hakuoki runs about 4-6 hours for your first playthrough.  There are several points where a different choice will change parts of the game, plus a route for each of the characters gives you some good replay value.  Finishing the game once allows you to choose at what point to start at, and then select one guy to set the relationship at high or low.  This makes it easier to see the alternate routes without having to skip through parts you have already seen.  Plus, when you come to a choice, previous selections will be marked with different font color, which aids in choosing another.  While a lot of this stuff should be standard in visual novels, I'm still very happy that it's included here.

If you think it would be hard for a guy to play and enjoy an Otome game, you would be mistaken.  Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds in an interesting story that is unfortunately split in two.  That is made better by the fact that it splits in a logical place, and with so many different ending chapters, has replay value for hours, even if you have to wait for the full story to conclude.  Visual novel fans should definitely give it a try.


The Good:
Interesting story with some nice twists, and plenty of ending routes.

The Bad:
Having to wait for part 2 to finish the story.

The SaHD:
I've seen Ruroni Kenshin, so I recognize a few of those names.

(Review code for Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds was provided by the publisher)

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness (PC/Steam) Review

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness came out last fall for the Vita, and is now available on Steam for PC fans to enjoy.  It is a visual novel set in an alternate Japan in the year 2112.  There is a computer system called Sybil, which dictates what your future path should be.  Everyone's feelings are quantified, and those with "clouded hue" can be deemed dangerous.  It's used as an indicator for criminals, and Division 1 is tasked with dealing with them.  To do so, they use a special gun called the Dominator.  It can either subdue a target, if their hue isn't too clouded, or, if they are beyond redemption, blast them into tiny bits.  "I am the law" indeed.

As you go through the game, you follow your chosen protagonist (either Tsurugi or Nadeshiko), and together with the rest of CID Division 1, solve some crimes.  From their perspectives, the crimes start out as unrelated, but quickly coalesce into an over-arching story that is pretty enjoyable.  Admittedly, I'd like a little more closure to one of the game's bigger mysteries, but it may be tied into a future game or even the TV show (that I still sadly haven't seen).

At many points throughout the game, there are choices to make, which will affect some of how the story plays out.  The game is great at showing you when the paths diverge, but it's not always obvious how or why certain choices would affect it.  Your choices will also affect a scene in the middle of the game where you get to know one of your colleges better, and the ending.  As noted in my review of the Vita version, my first ending felt very abrupt and out of nowhere, and felt more like an extra scene than an ending to the game.  Still, much of the story plays out similar regardless of choices.  However, there is also a mini-game to play, which lets you earn points to unlock things in the gallery and other bonuses.  It's a pretty fun mini-game, but you will have to get really good at it to get enough points to unlock everything, as the total cost is way too high.

As a visual novel, the controls shouldn't make much of a difference.  The keyboard works, but the controls felt really off, and it took me a few tries to figure out where the menu was.  It's on the "1" key, which, in my limited PC gaming experience, is kinda weird.  Once I found that, I was able to look at the keybindings.  I left them on default, which is ok once I knew where everything was mapped.  To me, the mouse is the best, as left click advances text or makes a choice, while right clicking is the menu.  Pretty much everything you would need is right there.  Plus, you can click the on-screen buttons if you wanted to set the text to auto (which advances for you when the spoken dialogue reaches the end of the line).  The Xbox 360 controller works just fine as well, if you prefer that.

PSYCHO-PASS is a fairly engaging visual novel that takes around 5-6 hours for a first run.  The two main protagonists and the branching paths give good replayability, although I wish some choices were clearer in what it affected.  I imagine the system requirements aren't too high, but the game ran perfectly fine on my i7.  Loaded quickly, too.  I'd recommend the game to any crime drama fans, as the story is well written, and the world is pretty interesting.


The Good:
Good story, lots of choices, and many ending scenes.

The Bad:
How the route changes is rarely apparent.

The SaHD:
I'm glad the real life (non-killing) Dominator sold out so I wasn't tempted to get one.  Not like I could afford it, though...

(Review code for PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness was provided by the publisher)

STEINS;GATE (PC) Review

I enjoy playing visual novels, and really wanted to try STEINS;GATE when it first released on the Vita.  I didn't get a chance to, so I jumped at the chance to try out the PC version.

The game starts out introducing us to the main character that we will be following around and he's...well, an idiot.  Okabe Rintaro (Japanese order) fancies himself a mad scientist (named Hououin Kyouma) on the run from the evil Organization.  He's pretty much that guy that didn't really grow-up, and still plays pretend.  Even so, his silliness is the cause of some funny dialogue (I like that he keeps adding "name subject to change" for the Phonewave), and a surprising amount of other characters go along with his disillusion.

There are a surprising amount of pop culture references, and they even figure in to the plot, some heavier than others.  Many of the references are obvious, but the names are changed.  All entries are put into the game's encyclopedia so you can read them later if you so desire.  The pop culture reference might make you think the game is a more silly, parody type of game, but it isn't.  There is a scene early on that at first glance would support that, but...well, I don't want to ruin it.  The game, and the science it presents, are both taken seriously.  I'll admit I don't know if all of the science was accurate when the game was created, but what little I do recognize seems legitimate.

STEINS;GATE is also a very long game, especially for a visual novel.  Clocking in at around 25 hours (assuming you read the story, which you should!), it takes several hours to even get to the first branching path.  There are six different endings to uncover as well as befriending the various characters through phone email responses.  Unless you want to re-read a big chunk of the game, creative use of the save files is recommended.  Thankfully you get more than enough, and you can even lock them so you don't accidentally save over them!

The game ran really well on my PC.  As a visual novel, it should run fine on many machines.  I tried using both mouse and keyboard and a controller to play the game.  Since a vast majority of the game is reading, either works well enough for that.  There are several points where you have to take out your phone, whether to read messages or respond to emails, and here is where I have to recommend the controller.  Despite having many more buttons on it, the keyboard doesn't seem to have one that calls up the phone.  The options only list the controller buttons, which are, by default, mapped to the triggers on an Xbox 360 controller.  I didn't see an option to set it on the keyboard, which effectively locks off an important function in the game.

STEINS;GATE was a really good story, and a good visual novel.  It does take awhile to get going, but that's because the story is long and involved.  I had fun playing the game, however I still would prefer to play the Vita version.  Even so, the game is an easy recommendation to science fans, and fans of visual novels.  Definitely a great one, and I'm looking forward to the sequel!


The Good:
A very hefty length for a visual novel with a really good story.  Locking save files is a great idea.

The Bad:
The story is a slow burn that takes awhile to really get going.

The SaHD:
The early scene with the alpaca game was done brilliantly.

(Review code for STEINS;GATE was provided by the publisher)

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness (PS Vita) Review

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness is a visual novel set in a futuristic world where everyone's emotional state and potential is quantified and monitored.  People who are more prone to committing crimes have a clouded "hue" to them, and are watched and medicated accordingly.

To me, it sounds a bit like Minority Report, but without the psychics.  At least in the game, the crime is usually already committed by the time you apprehend the criminal.  Minority Report might actually be like that, I haven't seen the movie, just remembering the trailers from years ago.  The idea is really interesting though, and I do like visual novels, especially on a handheld, so it was definitely a game I wanted to try.

There is a special group of people, the Public Safety Bureau, that deal with the "latent criminals" and try to either subdue them so they can be rehabilitated, or destroy them if they are beyond help.  To do so, they have a special gun called a Dominator, that scans an individual and lets them use the appropriate amount of force.  If a person is beyond help, the gun basically paints the room with half of them.  So when I said destroy the criminals, I meant it.

When you start the game, you get a choice between two characters.  Both of them are in the same division of the mental stability police force, but they have different roles.  One is an investigator, who is like an actual cop, where the other is an enforcer, who is someone that is a borderline latent criminal.  Since they are close to being criminals, they know how a criminal would think, and are also used as front line fighters.  When not in use, they have to be almost constantly supervised by the investigators so they don't go rogue and become what they hunt.  With such diverse freedoms, both characters have different roles, thoughts, reactions and choices in each of the similar scenarios.

Since the game is a visual novel, most of your time is spent reading.  At several points in the story, you will be presented with a choice, and this choice affects how the story progresses.  Some choices might seem trivial, but it becomes apparent early on that they have a lot of weight behind each and every one.  The game is also helpful in that it shows where the story branches off, but showing a pop--up on the right side of the screen.

It actually shows a few things over there, but that's the only one I could really figure out.  The rest just kind of happen, with no explanation what they are or what they mean.  There are ones that show a portrait and fill up what looks like a health bar.  Some show your character with an up arrow.  Any kind of tutorial or information about this would really help, since I'm sure they are somewhat important.  The instruction book isn't any help in that regard either.

So while it does show where the story diverges, I'm not always fully sure why.  Which choices affected it?  I still made it through the game just fine, but I would definitely like to know more about changing the route to see other endings, scenes and get trophies.  There were many times where I stopped and though about my choices, and what it might change.  This was especially true when prompted about taking the supplements to clear your hue.

I enjoyed the story in the game.  It was mostly satisfying, even with the few predictable parts.  It also took me a bit to keep all the characters straight, but I was fine by the middle of my second playthrough.  However, without spoiling anything specific, it seemed like the game was building toward something that just didn't resolve.  Also, one character ending I got (which it said was a 'true end') felt random and abrupt.  I don't know if this ties into the TV show, or maybe is explained in another route.  It's also possible that it's a preview of a sequel.  It didn't ruin the experience, but it also didn't sit right with me.

There's also a mini-game to play where you slide matching number tiles to add them together.  It's surprisingly fun.  It isn't too hard to grasp, which is good because they tell you next to nothing about how to play it.  It can get pretty hard in the later levels, though.  The points you earn in this game are used to purchase the picture still and voice clips from the cast.  You get a lot of points for completing levels of the game, which is good because you need a ton to buy all the extra stuff.

Honestly, I haven't seen the dude on left and I went through the game twice.

PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness is a visual novel, so it only takes about 5-6 hours to get through.  However, having two selectable characters and many branching routes gives the game a lot of replayability.  There were more changes going through a second time than I thought there would be, which is a welcome surprise.  I haven't seen the show yet, and had no real difficulty following the story, other than sometimes confusing character names.  I am definitely going to watch some episodes, as the game has me interested in it, too.  I would definitely recommend crime drama fans and visual novel fans try out PSYCHO-PASS.


The Good:
Visual novels are always welcome on my Vita, and the story was really good with lots of choices to make.

The Bad:
Even though it plainly shows when a route changes, I have no real idea what decisions affect the path and ending.  Well, except the bad ones, those are pretty apparent.

The SaHD:
There was a company taking pre-orders for an actual Dominator gun, with many LEDs and even motors so it would transform.  It looked almost as awesome as it was expensive.

(Review code for PSCYHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness was provided by the publisher)