Your friend has good tastes. 😄

Finished Hatsumira: From the Future Undying!

A solid, well-produced and fun VN.

The highlight is definitely the side cast - there’s a lot of fun characters, including a few I would argue are more interesting and/or better developed than some of the main heroines. The lead character is great too, he adds a lot of personality to the game.

But there’s two big problems with the game: First is the localization, which goes way too far trying to make the dialogue more “colorful”, adding so many accents that even reading the dialogue gets difficult sometimes. The second one is extreme imbalance in screentime between the heroines - if you’re playing this game because you got interested in one of the late-joining heroines like Meltyna or Rhea you’re going to be seriously disappointed.

Playing Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit (part of Ace Attorney Investigations Collection)!

Finished the third case and it’s easy to see why this game is so well-regarded - the quality of the cases so far has been excellent. Turnabout Legacy (Case 3) felt as gripping as some final cases in other games due to its connections with Edgeworth’s father and Von Karma.

The one thing I really dislike so far are the main “antagonists” - Judge Gavelle and her “helper” Eustace Winner. I’m guessing this will be explained in one of the latter cases, but it bothers me how the game keeps portraying Gavelle as an intelligent and capable person, yet has her supporting Eustace’s stupidity and constantly antagonizing Edgeworth even when he’s right.

Only played a couple hours, but don’t remember anying that looks like a connection between the two.

Finished The Messenger!

My summary of this game is “amazing side scroller in the first half, mediocre metroidvania in the second half”. Which is kinda surprising because I absolutely love metroidvanias and was looking forward to see how that part of the game was going to be, but I felt it lacked most of the things that make that genre fun.

Finished The Messenger - Picnic Panic!

Also decided to clear the DLC before moving on, which was fun but quite short. But I can’t complain since it was free.

Playing Hatsumira: From the Future Undying!

Chapter 2 introduces the mermaid tribe and the next heroine Meltyna, and in Chapter 3 we meet the dwarves, the undead tribe (!) and the final heroine Reah. This is followed by a very short Chapter 4, after which the game forces us into Yukikaze’s route.

He route deals with final battle against the Evil Empire™ and it was a fun and action packed route, but there’s one thing that really bothered me: There’s zero appearances of the other heroines. At least you get to see Aliah’s side of the final battle when you play her route, wonder if the same will happen on the other two.

Currently around halfway into Meltyna’s route with 86% total progress and expecting to finish this one over the weekend.

Hmm… I think I can agree that overall it’s weaker than the first one. If it’s the weakest game, then I can hope for a better next game, sound great.

If you ask 10 people “rank the Ace Attorney games” you’ll get 10 very different answers (which IMO shows how consistently good the series tends to be), but there’s three games that tend to hang near the top of most lists:

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
• The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve
• Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit

This last one is the only AA game I haven’t played yet, but I can definitely say that the first two are my favorites so far.

Really hyped to get the Investigations bundle, will probably be the next “main” game I play once I finish Hatsumira.

The Messenger is REALLY good. I wasn’t much interested in the game initially, but loved the tight gameplay when I got into it.

I’m getting a bit frustrated with some aspects of the game (mainly the excess of cheap deaths), but overall it’s really good. I got to the part where it turns “metroidvania” and it was a really cool change.

Finished Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All. That last episode was something else. Probably the strongest one in the series yet. It was also great to see the character progression. Still have one game left in the trilogy, but will play it later.

I think JFA is overall the weakest game in that trilogy, but that last case more than makes up for it. It’s an S-Tier case and one of the most memorable in the series.

Finished Cadence of Hyrule!

Side game #1. Played mostly with Link and enjoyed it, but not as much as the original Crypt of the Necrodancer.

I think what annoyed me most was the uneven difficulty - it’s really hard at first, then you get a good weapon and a couple heart upgrades and breeze through most of the game, only for the difficulty to spike up again in a nasty final dungeon before the final boss.

Playing The Messenger!

Side game #2. Pretty good Ninja Gaiden clone so far, challenging but not unfair. Just reached the “Searing Crag” area.

Playing Hatsumira: From the Future Undying!

Chapter 1 was stupidly long, by the time I finished it the in-game progress display was at 24%!

It focused on the beastman tribe and the second heroine Alilah, and overall was a good section. Highlights were the side-characters, which I liked way more than the main heroines so far - Lyth, Fal, Curio and even the three beastman warriors were great.

Also hoping we get less sections where it shifts the POV to the villains, because even though those sections were short they still managed to bore me to tears.

Anyway, Chapter 2 is looking like it’s going to be a breather episode focused on the resistance with more worldbuilding. Current progress is 18% into Chapter 2, 26% overall.

And, then… there’s my mystery game. It’s done and it was Danganronpa V3.

Oh, so that was the secret game! I was very curious about it after the last post.

… and yeah, I wasn’t very impressed with that one either when I played it years ago. The twist in the first chapter was cool, but after that it never got anywhere near as good as the previous two games and like you said the ending was terrible.

I’m glad Kodaka moved on from the series to try new things after that. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code was quite enjoyable, and while I don’t think it’s as good as the first two Danganronpa games the overall mood of the game was fantastic (Kanai Ward was such a cool location) and got me wishing for a sequel in the future.

I love the Cat Quest games. The games themselves are simple, but still pretty fun, not to mention the humour and all the cat (and dog for Cat Quest 2) puns.

They are so good. Extremely simple but so fun, everyone I know who tries those can’t stop playing.

I see you are still dealing with the consequences of your VN Madness Month. Good luck!

Definitely paying for my sins here. 😅 But at least it came in a good time, I’ve been in a good mood for playing VNs these past few weeks.

Finished The Fox Awaits Me HANA! (Link to Japanese eShop)

Easily the most obscure visual novel I’ve ever played - the VNDB page has zero reviews, a total of 3 ratings including my own, and even had a hilariously incorrect plot summary before I fixed it.

But this was an excellent story. It makes good use of having a cast already developed by the first game to stick to a faster and tighter pacing, there’s some really good twists, in particular in the nature of the “groundhog day” loop that you spend a good portion of the game, and the climax of the story offers strong emotional moments.

I did have some trouble with the game though, could not find any english-language guides and it took me a while to get “unstuck” in one part of the story, but I eventually got past that with some help from a korean wiki and Google Translate. I’ve submitted a guide to GameFAQs based on my playthrough, so if someone sees this post and gets motivated to try this game they won’t run into the same problems. 🙂

Finished Cat Quest 2!

Needed a short breather from VNs and remembered I had not finished this one. A simple hack-and-slash with a lot cat puns, very fun and highly recommended. It’s on sale (-75%) right now and even has a demo, so go try it out!

I’m starting some longer VNs and will probably need breaks from time to time so I think I’ll also play the sequel as a “side game”.

Playing Hatsumira: From the Future Undying!

This is an Isekai visual novel - a genre about people getting transported to a different world, typically with a fantasy/magic setting. This genre has been extremely popular in anime/manga/light novels for a decade or so, but oddly enough it’s quite rare to see it in visual novels.

First impressions have been mostly positive - production values are solid, the pacing has been good, and I’m enjoying the MC - he’s a capable and sharp-tongued adult, and his interactions with the rest of the cast have been hilarious.

Definitely not a fan of the heroine character designs, the the first time I saw Yukikaze I thought “wait, isn’t that just Yumiko from Grisaia in a bad cosplay?” 😆, but I think my biggest issue so far with the game is the localization - I don’t mind when the translator tries to make the dialogue more colorful, but I think they overdid it with this one - the MC uses way too much (british?) military slang and his dialogue feels very out-of-place for a japanese soldier.

According to the rather nice in-game progress display I’m currently at 6% of the game. This is going to be a long one.

I went overboard with VN purchases in the last month, so I’m probably going to keep focusing on those for a while.

Finished Senren * Banka!

Last week I commented about the first three routes, and there were two left:

• Lena: By far the best story of all routes. We finally get a proper explanation for the origins of the curse, an incredibly satisfying resolution, and I love how they even hint that certain events from Murasame’s route also take place in this one. The only bad thing is that Lena’s romance was on the weak side, but even then I’d say it’s a strong contender for best route in the game.
• Roka/Kohaku: This “side” route goes entirely slice-of-life with the main character working a restaurant alongside the heroines, and was a surprisingly enjoyable read. The weakest part of this route is definitely Kohaku, she’s the least interesting heroine in the game, but I really liked Roka and wish she had more screentime.

Overall I had a good time with this game and might be willing to try more Yuzusoft titles in the future.

Finished Loopers!

Had one last short VN from Key in my backlog.

It has a very interesting premise - it’s about a group of people stuck on a “groundhog day” loop, repeating the same day endlessly, but instead of dealing with the loop itself it’s more about their day-to-day lives as they try to keep themselves happy and sane in this situation. It also has a very nice and colorful artstyle that was one of the things that drew me to the game.

Sadly, I think the game is way too short to properly explore this premise or develop its fairly big cast - it has twice as many characters as another similar-length Key VN I played recently (Harmonia). There’s also some very questionable story choices, like some out-of-place horror segments in the early parts of the game or focusing too much on the treasure hunting theme.

Not a bad game, but I think it had the potential for a lot more.

Finished The Fox Awaits Me!

A fairly obscure VN I picked because the art and themes looked interesting, and also my first time playing a Korean VN. And I liked it way more than I expected.

It starts with the MC awakening in a bamboo grove with no memories, and he ends up getting involved with a magic fox, a mountain deity and a grim reaper as he tries to piece together his past and figure out what was exactly his previous relationship with the heroines.

One of the most interesting things about this game is how well it maintains tension, even during the more chill segments. You know the heroines are hiding things from you and it’s hard to tell how much you should trust their words, plus it’s clear from some scenes (including some rather bloody bad endings) that danger is around and you shouldn’t relax. There’s also the writing of Shua, the titular fox - she’s clearly obsessed with the MC, and you often wonder if she’s about to snap and do something crazy.

The production values were great, with a good OST, nice backgrounds and animated sprites. The english translation could’ve used a bit more QA though, I’ve spotted a few typos and mistakes, and there’s bugs like text occasionally going outside the screen. Nothing gamebreaking, but annoying.

Playing The Fox Awaits Me HANA (Link to Japanese eShop)

Direct sequel to the game above.

It has full english support and was originally planned for a US/Europe release, but it was suddenly cancelled with only some vague statements about it.

Decided to play this one first because it’s supposed to be shorter than other VNs I have on my backlog, hoping to finish it over the weekend.

More action? Or more slice of life / romance?

My favorite stories are the ones that do a good balance of the three, but if I had to choose between them I’d say slice-of-life.

A strong cast with a good dynamic is the main thing I need to enjoy a story, and you’re more likely to those in games with slice-of-life segments.

Playing Senren * Banka!

This VN has a very different story structure than what I’m used to. Most games tend to ramp up in the later parts of the story, adding tension and focusing more on action, but this one goes in the opposite direction and cuts most of the action in favor of slice-of-life moments and romance. It’s unusual but not a bad thing, and shows the developer’s commitment to the romance theme.

So far I’ve completed 3 of 5 routes:

• Yoshino: Has little plot outside of the romance, but since she has the weakest chemistry with the MC the romance doesn’t feel natural and the end result is very bland and uninteresting.
• Mako: My favorite so far, has the best pacing of the routes I’ve finished and balances comedy/romance/plot very well.
• Murasame: Has the strongest emotional moments and her banter with the MC is the best one, but revolves around a weak and repetitive plot line that drags the route down. However, if I could choose one route to be the “canon” one I’d definitely go with hers.

I’m currently playing Lena’s route which has been a very positive surprise - she had very little involvement in dealing with the curse on the first half of the game, so I never expected her route would be the one to give us its backstory and origins. Plot-wise it’s easily the best route so far, but the romance parts are not as good as Mako or Murasame.

After that there’s still the Roka/Kohahu shared route, but I’m hoping to finish this game in a couple more days.

I think the next game I’ll play will be Loopers which is another short Key VN.

#3 because I like Estelle way more than Rean.

I generally rank the Cold Steel games the lowest of the series - I did enjoy my time with them but I also think they’re the games where the flaws of the series are more obvious.

Second favorite of the “first games in an arc” so it’s #2 out of 4. That sentence may have ended up more confusing than I expected. 😅

Though if I sit down to rank all the games Daybreak would still end up quite high in the list.

Finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak!

The first half of the final chapter dragged quite a bit and that’s the main reason I’m putting this below Trails from Zero as my favorite “first game in an arc”, but overall I had an excellent time with this one.

Van is easily the highlight of this game, and while my initial impression of the playable cast was underwhelming I still ended up getting fairly attached to them. There’s some characters that need more work in future games (Feri, Risette, Bergard), but others like Judith and Aaron more than make up for this.

Also, while individually there’s some clear weak points in the cast, I really liked their progression as a group, their interactions with Van in the final stretch of the game were excellent.

Finally, the new battle system has a lot of good ideas and feels like a step forward for the series. Looking forward to Daybreak 2 in 2025.

Finished Planetarian: Snow Globe!

Planetarian is classic Key VN that I played a while back and enjoyed, and they recently released a physical version which I could not resist picking up for my collection.

Snow Globe is a very short (~1h) prequel story that comes bundled in the physical version, which shows a bit of Yumemi’s life and coworkers in the past. An interesting read and a nice bonus, but not something I’d recommend as a standalone purchase.

Finished Harmonia!

Another short Key VN I had on my backlog, but this one was decidedly “mid”. It has a similar structure to Lunaria with a boring start then getting a lot better when the “real” plot starts rolling halfway into the game… but unfortunately I found the main “twist” in this one incredibly predictable and figured it out in the first 10min of the game. 😕

I’d say the best part of this one was the setting, there were some very interesting ideas there but sadly not enough time to explore them.

Playing Senren * Banka!

Resumed this one and reached Chapter 3, the foreigner Lena got introduced as the last main heroine. So far Mako is still my favorite, but now that Yoshino’s getting more friendly I’m starting to like her a lot too.

Alexander is really good, one of my favorites. I prefer to make it with Brandy/Cognac like the recipe I linked, but you can also make it with Gin for a different, stronger flavor.

Grasshopper looks and tastes like chocolate mint ice cream. If you like that flavor enough to want an alcoholic version then go for it.

Playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak!

This may sound kinda random, but one of my hobbies is mixing cocktails.

Why am I saying this? Because it’s fun seeing the adult cast of this game going out for drinks and actually recognizing what they are asking for 😄. Van’s sweet tooth definitely affects his taste for alcohol since he keeps asking for cocoa drinks like Alexander or Grasshopper.

Anyway, back to the game, I’m now on Chapter 5.

Chapter 4 and the Intermission were a huge boost in my interest in the playable cast. I’ve gotten very curious about Risette’s backstory, and Aaron’s chat with Van during the intermission was excellent and gave me a much better view on him. Also, Judith who was one of my favorite characters so far has officially joined the party.

The story escalated really quick after that, and right now I’ve reached a section where you can align with different factions depending on your choices during the game. I experiented a bit with the options I had available and they all seemed fairly similar in structure, but liked the idea overall.

Not going to read any of that, to stay from any spoilery content.

FYI, I’m trying to avoid story discussion and talking mainly about characters, gameplay, and overall setting of the game. So hopefully no significant spoilers in there in case you read it by accident.

In summary, are you enjoying it?

Definitely. Can’t praise the MC enough (my favorite since the Sky trilogy) interesting gameplay ideas that are also good QOL improvements, darker tone that pushes some boundaries from the series.

The main thing I’m not “sold” is the new team, maybe because the MC set a high bar? But side-characters in general are excellent and memorable, so I’m hoping the other party members will get more development over the game.

Playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak!

Finished Chapter 3 yesterday.

Van is really great, one of my favorite MCs in the series. He’s this hard-boiled investigator with the perfect amount of silliness mixed in, I love the gag of him getting “bribed” into troublesome jobs by expensive sweets.

But the rest of the playable cast so far has been… kinda mid? Agnes is the demure, prim and proper female lead that I’d usually rank very low in preferences, yet she’s probably my favorite of the playable cast because Feri and Risette are just there, and while Aaron does have more personality his constant rudeness really irritates me. I’m hoping they’ll improve over the game, because there’s plenty of room for that.

What makes this extra weird is that the secondary cast in this game is fantastic, I’m really interested in Elaine and René’s relationships with Van, recurring side characters like the informers Dingo and Bermotti have plenty of personality, there’s Judith being absolutely hilarious every time she’s on the screen, and even some minor characters like the film director from Chapter 3 are memorable.

Another thing that I’m positively surprised is how they’re trying to push some boundaries for this series, this game is significantly bloodier with named character deaths happening often, and there’s even some raunchier scenes like the one where Van visits a nightclub - all of which fits very well with the “underworld” theme of Daybreak.

🥲