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#1-10

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Spoiler

 

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Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus

Playstation 3

Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 5/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
R&C Into the Nexus was my first platinum.  Had I thought more about this milestone I would have picked a different game.  It wasn't bad, perse, it was fun and fast but mostly just "eh".  I played the original few games on the PS2 and I think I did enjoy those more.  The story seemed to just be taking me from place to place, weakly linked together planets.  And the guns were eh.  And the one thing I always liked about this series were the guns.  So I was a little disappointed.  I definitely liked the original more, and I feel like it just lost some of that charm.  The gadgets weren't that fun but the game overall wasn't bad.  Just eh.

 

 

 

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Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi

Playstation 3

Difficulty: 5/10*

Fun: 8/10

Is the price worth it: Yes

Ah, my first of what will be many visual novels.  Hakuoki is fantastic.  I loved the characters, loved the story.  There were a few moments where I wanted to smack the main character over the head but I've played much worse.  What I really liked was how much history was in the game.  Whenever a historical person was mentioned they would give you a little blurb about who they were and how they were important.  I'm waiting with baited breath for the next one to be localized.  And about the difficulty, it depends if you use a guide, the "right" answer isn't always obvious.

 

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Final Fantasy XIII

PlayStation 3

Difficulty: 6/10

Fun: 7/10

Is the price worth it: Yes

Ah, Final Fantasy XIII.  For one, I don't think this game should get the hate that it does.  I liked it.  Is it the best?  Not at all.  But I did like the paradigm system, although I prefer the similar dressphere system from X-2.  I liked the characters, the story wasn't...bad.  It wasn't the best, though.  I will say that the landscape was stunning.  Overall it's not the worst Final Fantasy nor the best.  But I still enjoyed it, a lot.  Other than fighting the Long Gui.  That was not enjoyable.

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Hyperdimention Neptunia mk2

PlayStation 3

Difficulty: 4/10

Fun: 8/10

Is the price worth it: Yes

This is one of those games that people are going to love or they're not going to understand and thus going to hate.  I was in the former category.  It mixes fun mechanics, great characters and character design and a whole lot of gamer jokes.  The battle system is rewarding although it had a really steep learning curve.  The beginning bosses can be painfully hard and you might die a lot.  But then suddenly there's this moment where it gets a lot easier and you start steam rolling everything.  Maybe the end game is a little bit too easy but it was still fun.  The leveling doesn't take that long overall so I think that's good.  My only complaint is how...well, I didn't use the CPU forms nearly at all.

 

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Danganrompa Trigger Happy Havoc

Playstation Vita

Difficulty: 7/10*

Fun: 8/10

Is the price worth it: Yes

Ah, Danganrompa.  This game seemed to come out of nowhere and suddenly became very popular.  And I totally understand why.  I absolutely loved this game.  I played it on the harder difficulty which is why I said it was a 7/10.  This game was the first puzzle/mystery type game that I've ever played that I didn't know "who done it" right away.  It made me think and puzzle things together which I truly enjoyed.  I also really liked the cast the characters.  My major qualm, really my only qualm, is that level of grinding "school mode" that's required to complete the trophies.  Grinding that mode over and over just takes a little bit too long for my tastes.

 

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Lego Marvel Superheroes

Playstation 3

Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Get it used
This isn't my first Lego game, just my first on trophied one.  I like the games alright, they're fun and they're easy and I like their sense of humor.  The races weren't too bad and none of them took too many tries so that's good, it doesn't really punish you for just being generally bad at driving fake lego cars and flying legos that control like drunkards.  Overall it's a good game, best enjoyed with a friend, though.
 
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Persona 4 Golden
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
Oh Persona, how I love this series.  Seriously, Persona is one of my favorite series.  And Persona 4 Golden is definately one of the best.  There were some things I liked more abotu 3 but overall Golden is just a fantastic game.  It is a game you have to sit down with a guide to get it done in two playthroughs but that doesn't bother me.  It does have a bit of a punishing start in the dungeons but that just makes NG+ XP boost all that much more fun.  My only qualm is that you can't start a romance with Yosuke, it just seems set up so well.  But yes, very much a fantastic JRPG with fun social aspects and a good battle system.
 
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Final Fantasy XIII-2
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 5/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy really does try.  13-2 is not a bad game but the series as a whole seems to be getting a bit too big for its britches.  Every game seems to be attempting to out-lore the others and its getting a little ridiculous.  I feel like this game left a lot of plots unsolved but I've heard that it gets wrapped up in Lightning Returns.  So I'll hold out in that.  Overall, though, it was a good game.  I liked moving through time, changing things and going back.  Also it's not even close to as linear as the first game so kudos for that.
 
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Tales of Xillia
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
I've played Tales games before so I had a general idea what to expect with this game.  What I didn't expect, however, was how good this game was going to be.  I've liked all the Tales that I've played but this one really had an emotional impact I haven't always seen with other games.  Without spoiling anything, man this game is really sad.  And that is my favrotie kind.  It's not unreasonably pathetic, it's just sad.  The trophie grind wasn't really that bad either, a nice medium between working for it and getting it as you go.
 
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Batman
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale if you're willing to put up with major bugs
Oh my word, this game.  Why is it so buggy and poorly optimized.  If a game is made up of QTEs and decisions then there should not be any lag that might affect said QTEs and timed decisions.  And yet...  Honestly I think these mechanical issues hurt the game more than anything else.  I've never been so disappointed in a game from a technical standpoint.  Now, moving on, the actual game.  Although this game has so many bugs they're hard to see past.  I like how the choices you make could really effect the story, and you normally had pretty good and diverse choices.  Overall, I liked the game but the bugs and the technical issues are just too much.

 

 
 
#11-20
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Megatagmention Blanc + Neptune Vs Zombies
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 6/10 (game), 1/10 (plat)
Is the price worth it: Get it on flash sale.
This game.  I have such mixed opinions.  The game itself was a blast.  It's got the typical Neptunia humor and I really do love these characters.  In particular, I really like Blanc so I'm glad she got her own game.  Bashing up giant mobs of enemies was so much fun and since the defense stat in this game is basically broken, it's easy and fun and you feel pretty overpowered for quite a while.  Then the trophies come in.  The reason this game is fun is for the humor and the button mashing destruction.  The bosses however are monotomous attack, guard, attack, guard.  The hardest trophies?  Boss grinding.  it was a complete pain and I normally enjoy a little JRPG grind.  So I would only recommend this game if you don't plan to platinum it.
 
 
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Ookami
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 5/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: YES
Oh Okami.  I absolutely love, love this game.  I loved this game on the PS2 and I loved this game on the PS3.  This game is in my top 5 of all time, I would have done it easier but I didn't know there was a PS3 version!  The art is beautiful and perfectly stylized.  The ink painting style looks beautiful and yet is still perfectly easy to play in.  The gameplay is very fun, I love using the brush techniques and it doesn't require your circle to be perfect or your straight lines to be perfectly straight.  Just close enough that it's not frustrating.  The only "grind heavy" trophy is the fish trophy which is grinding, yes, but comfortably so.  Overall, basically 10/10.  My only qualm is camera control sometimes messes up your platforming.
 
 
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Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10 (for a rhythm game)
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Ya
I love the Persona series but I'll admit, I was a little wary of a rhythm game.  I like the genre but normally they don't cross over with RPGs.  Even so, I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a good game, if a little on the harder side for the type, with a very good story.  Honestly, the story was a little odd, but really good and I think it touches on a few really good, really meaningful themes.  Despite being a rhythm game.  My only real complains would be the lack of songs.  There are a lot of remixes which are fine, but in this case there are just too many.  I would have liked a large colelction of songs avaiable since they have to be played so often to grind out the last few trophies.
 
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Hyperdimention Neptunia: U Action Unleashed
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: I got it on flash sale
Action Unleasehed is WAY better than its gameplay sequel Blanc + Neptune.  It's fun, pretty much every character is viable to use, and none of the trophies were unreasonable.  The weakness in this game, however, is the story.  The ending seemed to just...happen.  The main boss didn't have a motivation, and I didn't really ever figure out what the final boss was.  It was just a boss for the sake of a boss.  I don't expect much with these spinoff games but it was still disappointing.  Overall, though, a good game for the <$5 I spent for it.
 
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The Wolf Among Us
Playstation 3
 
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 7/10, minus glitches
Is the price worth it: Yes, just get it online it's pretty cheap
I really should have learned by now: do not play Telltale games on the PS3.  Yet again, this game was glitchy and laggy, although not even close to as bad as Batman was.  I did have to restart after getting a corrupted save file but that was the only major glitch I had.  As for the actual game, I loved it.  I love the Fable universe and I felt like this was a faithful recreation.  I also really loved the voice acting for most of the characters.  Especially Bigby, he sounded exactly like I had expected.  The QTEs are good, honestly, it's a great game.  The only thing I didn't like was the look of werewolf Bigby.
 
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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Ya
I have a very mixed opinion of the game.  Overall, it's very good.  I really liked this game, it's story, it's battle system, its world.  But this game was hard.  Very, very hard.  I'm usually decently good at turn basedRPGS, as that's a majority of what I play.  And yet I found myself struggling with multiple bosses even if I could easily total any of the enemies in the area without even being hit.  So there were a few times I was extremely frustrated trying to beat bosses, but that was the only real downside.
 
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Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Yes.  Mine even came with an artbook
At first, I wasn't very interested in picking up this game.  The art style really isn't one that normally I'm that drawn too but a friend of mine told me how much she liked it and that I should try it out anyway.  In the end, I ended up really liking this game.  The battle style is good, once I got used to the "crafting" system I really liked it, although it does make me use items for once in my life.  I really liked how each different character had a different play style, even if I was much better than some than others.  The biggest complaint I see from people is that the game is "too easy".  While I have nothing against easy RPGs since I play for the story, I can see what they mean.  It's not too easy in my opinion but it's far from hard.
 
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God of War
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale.
Oh this game.  I like and I hate this game at the same time.  The combat is really fun, you feel really powerful and that is just good.  The mythology is fun.  And then there's the platforming.  I feel like God of War became half platformer at the last minute because many times the game requires a little more finesses than is physically possible given the control of the game.  Kratos likes to over jump, jump to the side or dodge in weird directions.  So I like the combat but the platforming is really weak.  Also I hate having to do a speedrun.  It was easy but I still hated it.  So a decent 6/10, brought down from a 7 because of platforming.
 
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Lost Dimension
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale
The more I played this game, the more I liked it.  A first I wasn't too impressed but the more I played the more I understood different design decisions.  And, more than that, the story expands so much in the new game +.  Honestly, this is a very easy JRPG and I would definitely advise it to anyone who likes the genre or wants to try it.  It's very simple, very fun, and I like the story.  It's been a while since I've played any tactical style games so that was a nice change.  Kind of sad I had to kill Agito both runs but oh well!  Also, these trophy images are stupid, that's my biggest complaint.
 
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World of Final Fantasy
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Sure
I like this game a lot, I'm not really sure why it took me so incredibly long to finish.  It's fun, it's cute and it's an odd mix of Final Fantasy and Pokemon.  While the battle system took a little getting used to, I did enjoy it as I'm a big fan of turn-based games.  My biggest qualm is some of the odd translations choices but oh well.  Overall it was a good, fun game with a huge grind but nothing too bad.  The story was good and it was enjoyable.

 

 
 
#21-30
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Spoiler

 

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Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Depends on how you value visual novels.
Oh my gosh have I fallen in love with Hakuoki.  Ever since I played Stories I've been hoping for more that was localized.  While Kyoto Winds is mostly just an update to Stories I still really enjoyed it.  The slight redesigns, the new animations and scenes were great.  And even better, new routes.  I've loved Yamazaki from the first game and I was kind of sad that after his death about halfway through the game he's just gone .  So it was really great to see more of him.  I also though some of the new animations were great.  Hakuoki probably isn't the best otome game ever but man, have I fallen in love with it.  I can't wait for Part 2.

 

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Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Playstation Vita

Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
I really like the Danganronpa series.  The character designs are so interesting, the characters are interesting and I find the mysteries rather difficult at times.  But fun difficult.  There were a few moments where I felt there was no way to logically figure something out, but other than that this game was great.  I even enjoyed island mode and the pet system.  What I didn't enjoy was Magical Girl Usami.  That minigame was horrible.  But, that aside, overall I was very pleased.  Great follow-up to a great game.  Not sure why this is a 6 but the first is a 7 difficulty for me, I guess I'm just getting better at them.
 
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Steins;Gate
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Very much
I'm still a little floored.  When I first picked up my vita a whole lot of people suggested this game to me, even though I hadn't really heard about it before.  So I picked it up.  I wasn't really sure what I expected, especially at the beginning but man.  I am very glad I grabbed this game.  While it started off weird and at first I wasn't overly impressed by the end I couldn't put it down.  The story is very interesting even though it takes a little bit to keep going.  And the endings.  Man, those are some of the most gut-punch endings I have ever seen.  Overall, I love it.  My only complaint is when you choose your replies I would like to be able to select and back out, just to see how he was going to respond.  But other than that, man this game is a masterpiece.
 
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God of War II
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 9/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale
I do wish that I knew these games were as hard to plat as they were before I bought them but oh well.  Overall GoWII is a major improvement from GoW.  The plot makes a little more sense to me, the platforming is much more natural and the button promps aren't so awkward.  While I won't say the game was easier by gameplay, the controls were just so much better that it seemed easier.  The challeneges are still a tear-inducing nightmare but oh well.  I'm done with them, finally!  Overall, not a bad game, just hard.
 
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Persona 5
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
First off, I love the Persona series.  I'd been dying to get my hands on this game since it came out and it was totally worth it.  Everything that I had qualms about in Persona 4: Golden, the dungeon design, the quests, and the overly long intro, was retooled for this one in the best way.  The quests felt important, the dungeons were fun, and the game sprinkled in a little bit of early combat to keep you interested.  And more than anything else, this game is amazingly stylish.  It's stylized and it works beautifully.  I enjoyed most of the confidant stories, I enjoyed the playable characters and I really enjoyed having a voice option between Japanese and English.  Overall, for people who enjoy an extremely story-heavy game, this is a fantastic one.  Still wish Mishima was playable.
 
 
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Lego Marvel's Avengers 
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
One of the best things about the Lego games is playing them with friends.  My friend and I played this entire game two player which made it a whole lot better.  As per usual, it was a fun, simple game.  I liked the trohpies since they were completionist or just fun, like playing certain types of characters together.  Overall, it wasn't much different from Lego Superheroes, just with different heroes.  It was fun to play Wiccan, I woudl say that was my highlight.
 
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Code Realize: ~Guardian of Rebirth~
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
Another visual novel/otome game.  What can I say, I like them.  Was this the best otome game ever?  No.  It has a few overused tropes and the story seems to drag in a few places but I still love this game.  Some of the voice acting is phenomenal.  The music is also very good and very thematic for the scenes.  I like the art and characters and it is an interesting story.  I especially like the final, locked, route as it ties back into everyone else's little individual plots.  That was a nice way to wrap up the game.  It did crash a few times on me so I learned to save often.
 
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Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: I'd wait for a sale
First off, I am not good at shooters.  At all.  So, putting aside my inability to aim at anything, I really enjoyed this game.  But it wasn't as good as 1 and 2.  I really liked the challenge rooms/riddles but I did not like the spacing of the save points.  The final chapter had well spaced save points, in my opinion, but the rest of the game they seemed a little far.  Especially if there were large chunks of cutscenes in between that I then had to skip a few times.  The other issue I had was not being able to get to the store easily after finishing the game.  The game was fun, the riddles were the right level of challenege, just a few gameplay aspects I struggled with.
 
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Collar X Malice
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
Oh my, it's been a while since I've loved a visual novel this much.  I had my eye on CollarXMalice for a while because I love the artist from her other works.  I am so glad I picked up this game.  It has a few gameplay elements, small easy 2 option puzzles and simple QTEs but I liked that, growing a little beyond a typical VN.  But more than the gameplay, the story and the characters were amazing.  First, as I mentioned before, I absolutely love the art.  All of the details, the clothes, hair, their eyes, the art is just stunning.  But more than that, I liked all of the characters.  Even minor characters, everyone had a purpose and a personality, it was just a beauitfully fleshed out world.  Also, I really liked some of the alternate endings even if they were really sad.
 
 
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Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
Ah, finally, the second half of the newest Hakuoki games.  Honestly, I was extremely looking forward to playing this game and I was not disappointed.  There were a few routes, in particular, that I was very interested in playing and, as already a fan of the series, I felt they held true to the characters.  There were a few routes that were a little boring since I didn't really feel invested in the characters.  But overall, Edo Blossoms was very sad, very touching and the CGs were, as always beautiful.  I think what hurt this game the most was being separated into two from Kyoto Winds.  I still think they should have been one combined game, since splitting them up, I believe, does lessen the emotional impact of a few character's deaths.

 

 
 
#31-40
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Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
As the Nonary Games encompasses two different games, I'm going to review them separately.  First 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  I absolutely loved this games.  The puzzles were the right level of difficult where I had to think sometimes but I felt rewarded when I was done, the characters were interesting, the the plot was weird, but good weird.  I was invested in what was going to happen next, I needed to see another ending to learn something new.  Virtue's Last Reward, however, I felt was a little lacking.  My biggest gripe was I felt like I spent half the game watching dots move around a map.  I did not need a map every single time the characters moved.  I also felt like some of the puzzles required me to "brute force" the answer, which was more frustrating than fun.  Overall it was a good game, but the characters and plot weren't as engaging as it's predecessor.
 
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Zero Escape: Zero Time Delima
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
The final game in the Zero Escape series, I felt like it was a good conclusion.  it brought back the comfortably difficult puzzles of 999 with the branching narrative of 999 and VLR.  I liked all of the characters and I was able to follow the plot/timelines much easier, despite all the craziness that was going on.  I felt like I was able to follow the flowchart much better.  While it didn't have the same "punch" that 999 had it was still better than VLR and I felt like it was a fitting end.  My main qualms were the art.  While the overall art wasn't bad, there was a whole lot of clipping and sometimes when the camera zoomed out edge lines looked very ugly.  So good game, I wish the art was a little bit cleaner.  (Also, I had no idea Junpei was Junpei, he looked so different).
 
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Mary Skelter Nightmares
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 5/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Depends if you mind the grind
First off, my review of this game assumes one thing: I don't mind fanservice heavy games.  I really like Idea Factory/Compile Heart games.  I don't mind the fanservice, I like the CGs, and overall, I really enjoy their games.  I know some people do that.  With that in mind, this is a series that I am going to be continuing.  The story was a little bit odd but the gameplay was fun and I liked the character designs.  This is the first "first-person" dungeon crawler I've played and that made me a little disappointed, as I prefer 3rd, but it was still fun.  I wish that the final levels were a little smaller, they seemed excessively large, and that the skills were more of a "skill tree" but still, overall a fun game.
 
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Kingdom Hearts Final Mix
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 8/10
Fun: 10/10
Is the price worth it: Totally
There really isn't much I can say about this game.  Kingdom Hearts as a franchise is near and dear to my heart.  It was my first video game ever and since then the characters and stories and everything have really stuck with me.  So clearly the platinum is honestly amazing.  Maybe I should have had it as my 50th or something but I was so close I couldn't wait!  Overall I love this game and I think it aged well.  The only complaints I have are the Speedster trophy and the difficulty trophies.  I hate speedruns, so I did it in the <115 hours, I'll admit that.  But the one thing I did like was that everything was possible, even if it was hard.  Wish Proud mode had been balanced a little better but still, I love this game.
 
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Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 8/10, unless you're good at rhythm games
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: No, get it on sale
There are three genera of games that I really, really enjoy.  JRPGs, Visual Novels, and rhythm games.  Thus, the combination of a great JRPG like Persona and a rhythm game is right up my ally.  Overall I love this series.  It's nice to revisit the P3 cast, the songs are enjoyable and it's an easy trophy list.  There were also some major improvements from the first game, however, there were also some changes I didn't like.  First, I like the "social link" system.  It's similar to the main game and I like having goals to level each one up.  I also liked the costume/accessory system, however I felt the "use xx different accessories: and "use xx different" costumes were annoying.  I ended up dressing my characters up in silly costumes I didn't like, just for that social link.  Also, I miss there being no story mode.  I know not everyone liked it in P4:Dancing All Night, but I really did.  So the weak "dance competition" story just didn't do it for me.  Overall I loved the game, I really enjoyed it, but I did feel it was much more shallow than it's older brother P4D.
 
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Pyschopass: Mandatory Happiness
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10, unless you struggle with the 2048 game
Fun: 4/10
Is the price worth it: No
This game...I am of two minds about it.  Overall I like it, it has some good story parts and I love to visit the world of Pyscho-Pass again.  However, some game-play and technical limitations I feel like really hampered what could have been a great game.  First, the auto-skip function.  Every other VN that I've played, which has been quite a few, lets you skip through any text you've seen before and stop at anything new.  Well, this game seems to have the text in segments.  If anything in that segment is "new" then the whole segment will not auto skip.  This is annoying!  I probably skipped some new lines because I was just bashing the X button to continue the story.  I didn't want to read the same thing 4+ times.  My other game-play qualm was the "turning point" system.  It wasn't that obvious how your choices affected the "routes" and story and that annoyed me.  I want to know if my actions are affecting someone or something.  Final complaint, Kugatachi.  I found her routes a little...boring.  Even though hs is an "emotionless" character,  I felt she could have been handled better.  On the plus side, I really like the 2048 minigame.  It's a lot of fun, for me at least.  Also, some of the endings are really good.  Just not all of them.
 
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Access Granted
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Sure
I'll admit, this was an impulse buy.  I saw it thought it might be fun and picked it up.  It's cheap, basic, but it was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed the puzzles and the rain in the background was relaxing.  I wish I could have interacted with the "background" some but oh well.  There was one puzzle that I never actually understood, 33, I just poked around until it completed.  Aside from that, though, it was a fun, fast, cheap game.
 
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Norn9: Var Commons
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
Overall, I enjoyed this game.  It's short and sweet, for a visual novel, but I honestly enjoyed each of the routes.  One of my biggest qualms was the sudden change in background music.  More than once.  I get that music changes the scene but they were so sudden it could be rather jarring.  The music could be really beautiful and somber and then suddenly mid note the song ended and either nothing or something else was plying.  My other complaint is the little minigame that's all RNG.  But overall, good game.  The story was interesting and I liked all of the boys and all of the girls.
 
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Persona 5: Dancing in Star Light
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Eh
Honestly, I could pretty much copy and paste my review for Persona 3: Dancing in Moon Light here, as I have the same pros and cons.  Overall, good game but the beat maps were a little wonky at times.  Also, the sense of difficulty was rather artificial as All Night difficulty is just Hard but with random and unintuitive button placement.  Which has little to do with skill and more having to do with moving your fingers in a weird order.  So that was my biggest issue.  And, of course, using costumes and accessories I didn't want to only for the social events.  But still, I enjoyed the game even if I'm pretty neutral to Persona music.
 
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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes!
I was a little nervous starting this series but I have to say, I am now intending to pick up the rest.  I really enjoyed the songs and the gameplay and the difficulty.  The harder levels felt harder but also something I could learn to get better at, which was very rewarding.  I felt like there was a little too much of a grind for the plat, since I barely had enough points to get anything after beating ever song, but it was still a lot of fun.  I will didn't enjoy being forced to use the touch screen which was a little awkward.  My main con though...was the UI.  Why do I have to sit through two loading screens to change a costume?  Why can't I choose random and then change the costume/singer?  I don't understand why changing the module is a different screen than setting up the song to play.  Annoying!  I like to use the random button but then I have to back out if I want to change anything.

 

 
#41-50
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Spoiler

 

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√Letter
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale
When I started this game I thought it was a basic visual novel, choose the responses type of game.  It is not.  There is a very basic (and IMO underutilized) search and find mode and also an "investigation" mode.  I wish that mode had been explained better, or at all, since I really messed up the first time since I wasn't sure how it worked.  There are many times that the correct answer isn't very well indicated and I wish you could easily double check the question or response you're trying to reply to.  The game also seems to "hold your hand" a few times, overemphasizing where you need to go or who you need to talk too.  I'm not sure why there's a map when there is only ever one place to go.  And it got pretty annoying by the end  Basically, Root Letter isn't a bad game, it just had a lot of features that it doesn't use to their full potential.  Storyline wise, most of the routes were pretty interesting, even if they were a bit weird.
 
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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
My review for this game isn't really too different from Diva f, see above, as there isn't too much that's different and I mean that in a good way.  I really enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the difficulty, and I enjoyed the music.  The visible unlocks, see how to unlock different items is nice; although the grind necessary for some items is way too much.  3939 combo notes is beyond excessive.  Especially for such a short song.  But I digress.  Overall fantastic game that is fun with good music.  The plat is a little bit too much of a grind though.  And I wish the other vocaloids had more songs.  I like Miku but the proportion is just completely one-sided.
 
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Final Fantasy X
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
I absolutely love this game.  FFX and Kingdom Hearts are my two favorite PS2 games and being able to replay them on later systems is great.  The story is interesting, the battle system is nearly perfect, and the graphics, well, they were good in their time.  The cutscenes, though, those still hold up pretty well.  I still think that a combination of FFX's battle system with FFX-2's job changing system would be the absolute perfect battle system.  In my opinion at least.  I love how the turn-based system works and I always have.  Playing it through again, well, the voice acting for Tidus is absolutely awful but oh well, the game is still good, everyone else did fine.  I honestly didn't even mind the minigames for the most part.  Aside from that Chocobo Race.  With a later game and a little less awkward controls, it would have been fine but man, that was the hardest part of the game.
 
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Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Get it on sale
I'll be perfectly honest.  I only picked up this game because the art looked good.  However, this ended up being a very good, albeit short, VN that I enjoyed the whole way through.  The story was interesting and I did end up loving the art the whole way through.  The colors were good and the story was interesting.  The butterfly hunt minigame wasn't bad, although I felt like the segments were a little too long.  I didn't mind playing it to unlock the short episodes, but I wish the game would have told me that that's how it works.  From this point on spoilers ahoy!  I really liked that Hikage wasn't the "main love interest".  I've played enough otome games that I assumed, he's red, he's on the box, and he's the first one she meets.  Obviously, he's the main boy.  So the twist that he wasn't was nice.  My only issue was, really, with Kazuya.  In his own route, and really only his own, I felt like he didn't care about Takuya at all.  They're supposed to be twins but he seemed rather nonplussed when he was turned into a monster and then when he was in a coma.  Yes you got your girl but at the price of your brother?  He seemed way too okay with that, for my liking.
 
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Amnesia: Memories
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
I absolutely love this artist.  I have multiple art books from them and another game, CollarXMalie.  So really, no matter how good or bad the game was, I would have enjoyed it because I'm in love with their art.  The character designs are weird but very interesting and I really like it.  They've clearly gotten better since there's some odd anatomy in a few portraits and CGs but otherwise, I'm happy.  That aside, I liked the game.  It wasn't the best otome game ever, but it was still good.  I liked all the routes, I liked the over-arching story even if it was a bit weird.  There seemed to be a lot of typos in the last route which there weren't in the rest so I'm not sure if it was rushed or something.  Also a few times that the wrong pronouns were used, just some weird localization issues that stood out.  Otherwise, I really enjoyed it.  Good game, beautiful art.
 
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Horizon Zero Dawn
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Totally
My first PS4 platinum ever.  And man, is it a fantastic game.  I've heard that Horizon is one of the PS4's best exclusives and I totally believe that.  It's the first "open-world" game I really played and I really enjoyed it.  But more than that I love the world buildings.  The different tribes, how they speak, what they think of the Old Ones.  It's just really interesting and really fleshed out.  There are a lot of good, solid NPCs and single-player games really need that.  So I completely enjoyed it.  The only thing I didn't like was the Hunting Grounds.  But I hate anything that involves a timer.  I really liked that you could run and gun or stealth or used traps, and I actually ended up using a little of all three.
 
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Period: Cube Shackles of Amadeus
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On Sale
The follow-up to my first PS4 plat is my first plat of 2020.  I picked up Period:Cube because I liked the art style and it was on sale.  And I don't regret it.  It's a middling game, it's interesting, it's not too long or too short, but it's also not the best.  There are a few plot points I feel like aren't fully explained, a few weird moments, and a few let downs.  But overall it's a good game.  I love most of the character design, I like the art style and I like the 'trapped in a game' type story.  I also really enjoyed the voice acting.  One of the characters speaks very differently 'in' and 'out' of character and I really enjoyed that.  So overall, not a bad game if you like otome games, but don't get it at full price.  It's a little on the shorter side.
 
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Bad Apple Wars
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: On Sale
The first thing I can say about this game is that the music is beautiful.  "Clear Memories" is one of the saddest pieces of music I can remember and I love it.  Since visual novels are have limited gameplay, music is even more important and this game nailed it.  The amazing music aside, the way that the routes are done is a little odd.  Touching certain parts of the CG is a little dodgy at times and, since that's one of the only way to make 'choices', it can get rather annoying.  My main qualm with the game, though, is the localization.  There are quite a few places/characters that I feel like were localized...oddly.  Enough that it stood out and I started to notice it more and more.  The story was decent though.  A fun otome game with an interesting art style and amazing music.
 
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Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes~
This is by far the easiest of the Kingdom Hearts games to platinum.  At least, out of the ones I've tried.  But it's still a fun game.  This is one of the only entries in the series I did not play on it's original console as I never had a 3DS.  So I'm very glad I get to play it on the PS4.  Overall, it's a Kingdom Hearts game.  Not TOO hard, fun, with great combat.  I didn't mind the "dream eater" pokemon-style party members.  They could be pretty fun, aside from the big ones that kind of got in the way.  My biggest issue with it was really a few enemies.  In a KH game, I've never been stunlocked to death by enemies before.  Bosses, yes, but not enemies.  So the fact that there are quite a few that could do this was rather annoying.  Especially Symphony of Sorcery.  That world was just plain hard when I started it.  So overall, good game, but compared to the rest, it's not the best.
 
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Kingdom Hearts III
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes!
Ah, Kingdom Hearts III.  The wait is over.  And me?  I'm pleased.  I managed to avoid any real spoilers until playing the game myself and I am absolutely satisfied!  The gameplay was fun, in fact, the fighting was more fun than the previous entries and I LOVE Kingdom Hearts combat, so that's saying something.  I didn't use the attractions, they were a little gimmicky for me, but otherwise, it was fun.  I liked the form changes, I liked all the different keyblades, I love the magic updates.  This is the first game where I really enjoyed using magic, and thus actually used it.  The story was a little nuts but, as one of the few people who's played every game in the series to death, I pretty much followed the whole thing.  I love that Axel/Lea got as much screentime as he did but I have some minor story qualms.  Threads left untied, wasted potential.  But otherwise, a fantastic and fun game.  Worth the wait.

 

 

#51-60

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Spoiler

 

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Marvel's Spider-man
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: It's on sale often enough
Honestly, I picked up this game because I'd heard good things about it and it was on sale.  I'm a comic book fan but normally don't collect Spider-man so it's not something I would normally immediately pick up.  Still, it was a good game.  Short, not too challenging and mostly very, very fun.  I really liked that you can change suits AND suit powers, so you aren't stuck with something ugly because it had a good skill.  My biggest issues is near the end of the game there seems to be a major difficulty jump.  I spent 9/10 of the game focusing on stealth and webbing up enemies and then, suddenly, new enemies appear that neither of those work on.  It was a brick wall of difficulty I didn't expect, nor enjoy.  But other than that, fun game, easy, and fast.  And the web-slinging is the best way to get around a map!
 
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God of War (2018)
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 8/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: Ya
God of War came with my PS4, otherwise, I was on the fence about getting it.  I remember how everyone was praising it when the game came out and it is a good game but it's not a great game, in my opinion.  It's still fun, it's pretty, and the combat is good.  I liked the interactions between Kratos and his kid and I even liked the chatty Mimir.  If there's another game in the series I will probably continue to pay it. I think my biggest issue was how hard the backtracking for trophies could be, even with the fast travel option.  Most of the puzzles were fun, nothing was too obtuse.  The combat was enjoyable but I did have issue with a few of the enemy types.    God of War is supposed to be a fast, chaotic destruction and then I would spend entire battles trying to hit a teleporting witch.  Just not as fun.
 
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Tokyo Xanadu
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 9/10
Fun: 5/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
I picked up Tokyo Xanadu because I liked Trails of Cold Steel I and it looked cool.  And I don't regret it, it's a good game.  I was expecting it to be turn-based like Trails so that was a little bit of a shocker but the combat isn't hard at all so it's easy to get used too.  The game chugs on the vita when multiple things are dying and the character is trying to move all at once but it came off more like a cool slow-mo than the system struggling.  I thought it was interesting and I liked how (most) of the characters played.  The characters really did all have different pros and cons, except Shio.  I never figured out how to really use him since dodging was so important.  It just wasn't as good as Trails was.  So a nice middle ground JRPG, interesting, fun, but not mind-boggling.  If you want to plat the game, though...well, the second time through, by the end, was not fun.  Enemies were way stronger than I was, they moved faster than I could dodge and if I didn't have the right elemental combo than you're just out of luck.  And you can only bring 3 people to a dungeon.  It was a complete slog by the end.  My biggest qualm, though, and spoilers ahead......was the ending.  The "epilogue" ending I did not like.  It was too 'clean'.  I much preferred the ending at the Final Chapter.  End it there, no need to backtrack and tie a pretty "happy ending" bow on it, it ruined the whole package.
 
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.hack//GU Last Recode
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: A little on the shorter side but I think so
Starting off with a confession, I played the original games on the PS2 and loved them so I am coming back to this with the air of "nostalgia glasses'.  And I am really glad that I bought this game again.  I loved it.  I love the world of .hack and it honestly makes me yearn for more.  First I'll cover the pros: I really like the combat, specifically in volumes 2+.  Being able to change your weapons to match the enemies, skill triggers, it's a little chaotic but it's fun.  Now, if only you could choose what enemy Haseo was aiming at, it would be even better.  I enjoy the relationship mechanics, although they're a little bare-boned, sending the greeting cards is fun.  What I like the most in the world of, well, "The World".  Personally I'm not much for MMOs, I am a staunch resident of single-player land, but even so, The World feels very large.  By the end of the game, you recognize different "players" from the forums and from running around town.  Classes and weapons make a whole lot of sense since it is a video game.
Now, I'm not so blinded by nostalgia that I can't see the flaws.  My number one issue is the darn clipping!  I know this was a PS2 game but now it is not.  This is the PS4 and why why why is there so much clothing clipping through character models!  It's very distracting when Atoli's wings are in her chest for an entire cutscene!  That aside, my other qualms are less annoying and more just there.  The game is definitely too easy.  I was maxed level in each volume at the end of the story so when I did optional side stuff I wasn't leveling up.  And I meant every story encounter was a cakewalk since I was always, accidentally, overleveled.  The Avatar battles are a slog until the end and they get upgraded a bit, which is honestly disappointing.  They could have been so cool.  But why does the game feel it needs to tell me the instructions every time?!  I know the Avatar fights are boring but I'm still awake.
Overall it's a fun game, I really like the story and the characters, and I feel like the addition of Volume 4 was a short but pretty bow on top.  They didn't really clean up the graphics that much but it's fun enough that I didn't really care.
 
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Final Fantasy XV
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yep!
This review will contain unmarked spoilers.
If I remember correctly, FFXV had it's struggles when it was released.  Now, I will admit, my 'lag' in playing games means they can be 'fixed in post' before I even get my hands on them.  So this is a review under the guise of the 'newest'/Royal edition and all that entails.
 
I absolutely LOVE this game.  I love it in a way I haven't loved a game in a very long time.  I've played some good ones recently but none of them have ripped out my heart in such a way.  And boy did I enjoy it.  The beginning of the game, the sidequests, the chatter, the camping, it was all fun, cute.  It set up a lot, a lot more than I even noticed at the time.  It wasn't until everyone was falling apart that I realized how much I missed the early days in the game, not just the boys.  Major spoilers here: I absolutely loved that Ignis goes blind.  Not for the despair aspect, but how it's handled.  After the fact he bumbles, he's not very helpful in battle, he's slow.  And, as a player, it made me think.  Run ahead like I want too, like I'm programmed as a video game player, or wait for him.  I waited because I felt it.  It was an emotional rollercoaster for me and for that I love it.
 
Now onto the gameplay.  At first, I was not sold.  I am a staunch proponent of turn-based battle systems in Final Fantasy games.  I do not like how they're pulling away from that.  And yet, once I got it, I got it.  It was less skill and more aim and timing and it was fun, it was fluid.  Overall the battle is 'chaotic elegance'.  I love how the boys will attack together if they're close, help each other.  If Noctis gets knocked down they help him up.  It's small but it's a nice touch.  My main qualm is when you have bosses in areas with nothing to warp too.  Don't give me a skill to rely on and then take it away.  I'm not a huge fan of the leveling up only at camp.  I got used to it but it was a put-up-with-it more than anything.  If I killed something, give me the experience for it, why make me wait.
 
Onto the smaller details.  There is so much I want to talk about.  I like the fishing minigame, it's fun and not too hard.  And the banter, always enjoyable.  I feel like it could be a little weird with no fish biting sometimes but otherwise, fun.  I loved the idea of Prompto taking photos and looking through them at camp.  It was nice to see and it was he took better pictures than I ever could.  My absolute highlights are the voice acting and the 'smaller' details, though.  The English voices are amazing.  Lately, I've been playing a lot of games in Japanese since I was unimpressed with the English but boy, did they nail it.  There are moments, quiver in someone's voice, a quiet noise, it's just good.  I also like how many small details there are in the game.  Noctis or Gladio handing Ignis a cup of Ebony in the car, Prompto stumbles during some of his link attacks and Noctis helps him up, Ignis stumbles when he's blind and Prompto catches him.  Just the small things, they show a lot.  The detail put into the game, flowing from characters to gameplay.  Prompto just learned how to fight so his link strikes are awkward and half the time Noctis has to help him back up, while Ignis who has trained with the Prince for so long, they glide togtehter as perfectly in sync as could be.
 
Now, that wall of text aside, the game is not perfect.  For one it has the absolute worst loading times I've seen in a game in years.  It doesn't load often, going in and out of the car, of cities, areas and dungeons, it's all very smooth.  But when it loads man does it load.  I actually started a painting project while things were loading.  The other issue I had were textures popping.  It wasn't often but when it happened it was BAD.  The first scene with Shiva was hard to watch because the frost effects on the train kept popping in and out.  Episode Gladio's floor was invisible for a good ten or so minutes.  Normally the game ran like a charm but when it hiccuped it looked awful.  Speaking of Episode Gladio...the DLC.  Now, I got the Royal Edition which has all DLC but Episode Ardyn for about $14USD.  So for me, it was fine.  But I do think that the episodes should have been included in the base game.  They matter, a lot.  Especially Prompto and Ignis, there is a lot of world-building in the former and the latter, well it's important.  So I don't think those should have been locked behind a paywall.
 
Overall, clearly, I loved the game.  It had a few glitches that a triple AAA game like this should not have had but I'm willing to set that aside in my final assessment.  I think the story was just too good to let some weird textures hold it back.
 
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Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 9/10
Fun: 5/10
Is the price worth it: Out of luck, it's off PSN
Spoilers ahoy!  Don't continue if you intend to play this game!!
Moving forward.  It has been a long time since I started this game so this review isn't going to be as thorough, so sorry about that.  First off I'm going to discuss the things I liked.  As per usual, the minigames were changed up just a little bit for the new installment.  As someone who struggles with spelling the new Hangman's Gambit was much easier for me!  It's a small thing but previously the mix of trying to figure out the word and then spelling the word caused quite a bit of stress.  The rest of the trial minigames were fine, but nothing that really stood out among the others.
 
As per Danganronpa, the characters were...interesting.  I think I liked this group a little bit better overall compared to 2.  There were quite a few I was really sad to see die.  I loved the dynamic between Shuichi, Kaito, and Maki and I was invested enough in them that once I figured out about Kaito I was upset.  The twist in chapter 1 of you playing the killer was an awesome one.  I love a good stealth protagonist swap.
 
From a technical standpoint, I loved that this game included the option to use the Japanese audio.  I ended up going with the Japanese for this one (which is how I actually figured out one of the twists about K1-B0 ahead of time) and it was a nice change.  It made the nonstop debates a little harder but overall I think the game works great in both languages.
 
Regarding trophies, ho-boy is this game a GRIND.  Grind isn't something I mind too much, I can just zone out and watch youtube or Netflix, but there was so much of it.  Grind coins, items, collectables, minigames, an ENTIRE SECOND GAME MODE.  It was just way too much stuff 'to do' packed into what is essentially a murder-mystery visual novel.  I could do an entire review-lengthed rant on why the Ultimate Talent Development Plan and Despair Dungeon were completely useless 'filler' that were unnecessary and added bulk, not quality.
 
Speaking of those minigames...this was my biggest qualm.  The minigames requirements for trophies weren't impossible but they were very hard.  I don't even want to think about how much I had to practice for that racing minigames.  Over and over for literally weeks, if not months, just to beat it.  I'm not good at racing games, which is why I don't purchase them.  I didn't expect a murder mystery to require me to have split-second reflexes for a driving game.  Are they possible with a lot of practice?  Yes.  Are they fun...ehhh?  Not really.
 
The last point I'm going to make is the story.  I'm leaving this for last because I know that the ending of V3 was a little...divisive.  This is the final major huge plot warning spoiler.  Turn back to avoid spoilers.
 
I really liked the ending of V3.  I know a lot of people think that it 'cheapens' the first 2/3 games (if you include Ultra Despair Girls) but I don't think it does.  I think that V3 said exactly what it wanted to say.  The game points its finger at you, the 'viewer'.  "You think this killing game is horrible but you're the one who keeps buying it".  It was a twist, it was unexpected, and it was very well placed.  Danganronpa was so over the top and extreme from the get-go, what kind of ending were people expecting?  In-your-face is kind of the MO of the series.  
 
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Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: On sale, it's a very short game
While I enjoy horror I haven't played that many horror games in my life.  Not entirely sure why.  When I heard about this game I was quite interested as I also really enjoy Japanese horror and Japanese ghost stories.  Was I disappointed?  Yes and no.  I'll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible.
 
Overall Death Mark is good, it's interesting.  It's a nice little episodic horror story that's just creepy enough to be uncomfortable but not disgusting.  While I was never scared I still felt that familiar shiver, which is good.  The sounds effects and music really give it that extra punch.  The screams are horrific and that chewing sound, ugg.  I didn't mind that there was very limited spoken dialogue.  How to deal with the spirits as a little bit of 'adventure game logic' but it still worked.  Even if it took a little trial and error.  I'll go back to this in a moment.  I like that the game gives you hints but never too much, just enough to put together yourself.  I liked that there were different endings depending on if you destroyed or helped the spirit, although it wasn't always that clear how to do the latter.
 
My biggest issue with the game is...well, the trial and error.  Dying to the same spirit three times in a row really kills any sense of 'horror' or 'tension'.  I'm not scared when I'm having to re-do the same 'fight' over and over again, especially when there was no way for me to know the right answer.  There is one set of questions in particular that really irked me.  There was a hint to not use the word "eye" or anything that sounds like "eye".  Some of the later questions I got wrong and died and I couldn't figure out why.  Well, it's because there is the kanji for "eye" in the answer in Japanese.  But I'm playing this game in English.  There is absolutely no way for me to know the 'correct' answer.  They should have rephrased that set of questions to work in English!  I don't like being punished for a question I physically could not have known the answer too.
 
Overall interesting game but the sense of dread is easily killed by slightly clunky 'battles' or 'decisions'.  I am, however, still interested in the second game.
 
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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 8/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: Yep!
I love the Trails of Cold Steel series.  I think the world is massive and interesting and I love how it's both about the characters and this overarching political drama.  I love how each game is a story in and of itself but there is clearly one, larger story spanning across the games also being told.  Cold Steel isn't 3 games in the same world, it's one story told in chapters.  And I really love that.  Plus I am a suck for some good, old-fashioned, turn-based combat.  That being said, no game is perfect.
 
Starting with the story.  I would give this a nice, solid B+.  Had the game ended at the "Finale" I feel like I would have given it an A.  But the long, drawn-out dual epilogues really killed any sense of tension and emotional impact from a certain scene.  I'll stay spoiler-free, here, but I enjoyed the kick at the end, only to have to trudge through a few more hours of gameplay.  I liked reuniting the classmates and the sense of very small cogs in a much larger machine.  Especially at the end of the Finale.  While the epilogue didn't ruin it, entirely, it definitely heavily deflated the emotional impact of what had just happened.
 
I love the Trails combat.  Always have, always will.  This game I felt like I got a much better grasp of how it really worked, and did much better buffing and understand the full mechanics.  That being said, any game that forces me to play on the highest difficulty is automatically losing points.  Trails combat is hard on normal, on NIghtmare I had to cheese it to win.  Do I regret it?  No.  I finished it and I played the game on normal as a normal game.  So I did not enjoy having to play again with the only difference being that I was going against a bunch of HP sponges.
 
Not as much to say about this one.  I'm looking forward to continuing the series, I have Trails III ready to go once I recover from this very, very long game.
 
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Return of the Obra Dinn
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 5/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: No way, sale only
I honestly think this is probably the shortest game I have ever played in my life.  Now that doesn't mean it's a bad game, I'm just putting that out there for anyone who is interested in it.  It took me, someone who is infamously slow and refused to use any guides, about 10 hours to platinum (minus a little trophy screw up on my part I had to replay the game to fix).  Considering my previous platinum took me about 180 hours, it was a very, very short game.
 
Now for the review.  Return of the Obra Dinn is, essentially some combination of a point-and-click, walking simulator, and murder mystery.  The goal is to rewatch the moment of death for the crew and passengers of the above-named ship and figure out their fate.  Did they die, were they killed, they did survive.  And to figure out their names.  More on this in a moment.  The idea of the game is amazing.  I love having to work backwards from only the 'moment of death' and having to look for little tiny details.  For the causes of death there were a few that threw me because of the graphics being pixilated enough I couldn't tell what was going on.  But for the most part, it was very fun and I liked the challenge.  It was honestly quite hard in spots.  And, with regards to puzzle games, I enjoy hard.  It's the good type of difficulty that makes you feel like a genius when you figure it out.  I also like that the game only shows correct answers in groups of three.  That way guessing doesn't get you as far.  However...
 
I'm going to be perfectly honest, about 20 members of the crew were total random guests for the names.  A lot of them I could figure out by context, common sense but some of them I'm not entirely sure how I was supposed to figure them out.  The last few crew members were me just shuffling the same names around until I got the unlocks for them.  I wish there had been a little bit more to help with the names, or that whatever was there was a little bit more obvious.  For example, I knew there was a group of Russians but not which was which so I just had to cycle the names to check.
 
The graphics are, well, unique.  I get that this is an indie game and I appreciate how they made it work.  I just wish a few scenes are a little bit more clear.  There was one death, for instance, that I couldn't really discern what was even happening, it just looked like a muddy blob of pixels.  So while I get the art style and I get the lack of animation, I wish some of the scenes had been a little bit clearer.
 
Overall, it was a fun game and hard, but not too hard for the most part (if you happen to have weirdly specific knowledge about naval ships and crews).  It was, however, very short so I would only suggest picking it up on sale.
 
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Cyberdimention Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 3/10 (7 if you struggle with 30+ minute repetitive fights)
Fun: 5/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
 
I really love the Neptunia series, and honestly, most Idea Factory games I've played.  Now with that said, 4 Goddesses Online is...a bit of a disappointment.  It's fun, it's funny, it's exactly what I'd expect from a Neptunia game (half gameplay, half fanservice) but it's also one of the buggiest games I've played in quite a while.
 
I had a myriad of different issues over the course of my playthrough.  First, I had two straight up game crashes.  They both seemed to be caused by trying to adjust costume elements while in a dungeon. I found online that someone reported the same issue that was also caused by changing costumes.  Second, I had more than one boss where whoever I was planning ended up 'stuck' to the boss.  I couldn't move or just, only attack or block.  There were no signs of a status ailment, I was just literally stuck to their character model so that when the boss moved I moved with them.  Not game-breaking but very, very annoying.  Third, the entire Fancy Shop is completely broken.  One of the best things about Neptunia is dressing up the characters with new clothes and accessories and yet I couldn't purchase any.  The entire game the shop was completely empty other than hair colors.  A real let down.
 
Aside from the bugs, the game wasn't...bad?  It's another side game like Zombies and Action U so I'm not going to judge it as harshly as I would if it was a mainline game.  The voice acting was the usual, mostly pretty good but I have to say I am not a huge fan of Noire's new voice.  It doesn't scream 'tsundere' the way that it should.  The visuals were normal and the gameplay was normal.  It was just another game like the others.  I did like how everyone played, though, so it was nice to be able to swap between characters.
 
Discussing gameplay, though, oh boy the bosses.  I believe I had the same complaint in the other reviews but man does IF like their bullet-sponge bosses.  Some of them took so long that I was getting bored.  I understand the guard break system and it's not bad but that break bar needs to move down a little bit faster.  I think I spent about half of each dungeon fighting the boss, and the other half clearing the entire dungeon.  Bosses and metal dogoos.  I get that they're supposed to have a heavy defense but even magic seems to barely chink at their guard bar and it's more of an annoyance than a threat.  When they do 0 damage to me and I do 1-2 damage to them it is just a very long, very boring fight.  Also, the AI in this game is absolutely awful.  For the harder boss battles, I had to play Blanc (healer) since otherwise, she would let everyone die.
 
Since Neptunia is a series that is fanservice first and plot second, it was exactly what I expected.  The dialogue was funny and the plot was decent.  I do wish it had been a little bit longer and maybe they expanded into the hacker attacking the world, but it's a side game so my bar for acceptable is much lower.  No one is playing the game for its plot.
 
I'm not playing this game for its plot, you're not playing this game for its plot, no one is playing this game for its plot.  I'm playing for good gameplay, gamer jokes, and cute girls.  And that's what I got.  It does, however, get badly spoiled by boring, long, LONG boss fights that are the opposite of fun.

 

 

#61-70

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Spoiler

 

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Code: Realize - Future Blessings
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
My review on this game is going to be on the shorter side because this game is on the shorter side.  That said, I did not not enjoy it.  I was just a little shocked at its length.
 
Future Blessings takes place after the events of the main game and so it helps to have a good memory of how everyone's endings went.  There were a few things I'd clearly forgotten but overall I could follow what was going on.  I liked a return to the world and the characters.  It was nice to expand on some of the endings and give Finnis and Holmes a little more character development.  I really enjoyed Finnis' route as I felt like he came off very 'flat villain' in the main game, for the most part.  His route really fleshed out the character and gave him a lot more.  Holmes route I wasn't as attached to as his character didn't really intrigue me all that much.  Still, it was interesting none the less.  As for the 'side story' it says that the events are hinted at in the main game but I have no memory of any sort of hint.  Still, it was inserting if a little slow at times.
 
As for the boys' after stories, they were good and interesting.  Except for Van Helsing.  Spoilers to follow.  In everyone else's route, Lupin, Impey, Victor, and Saint Germain, there was plot.  Something happened.  While none all of them were to my taste, there was still an event taking place that affected what was going on.  In Van Helsings I felt like nothing happened.  It was just a soap-opera length misunderstanding that was both avoidable and boring.  I really like Van Helsing as a character so I was very disappointed that his route was so bla.  His CGs were all boring and uninspired.  Most of them were variations on a kiss and nothing more.  Everyone else had interesting CGs.  I feel like he was really let down in this installment.  His short moments in Lupin's route were more interesting than his own.
 
The music was recycled from the main game and the art style is the same so not much more to say.  Overall, it's a nice little slide of dessert to go along with the main game.  Fun, cute, but a tad on the short side.
 
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Amnesia World
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 3/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
So this was my first and second-to-last Japanese language game.  It is much harder than I thought to try and muddle through a game that I can't understand.  So my review is going to be short and sweet.  Beautiful art.  Cute chibis.  Ehh minigames.  Weird-as-heck rhythm game.
 
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Word Soduku by POWGI
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
Not much to say about this one either.  I really like Soduku and I got it on sale.  It's great for sitting around at appointments or when just bored at work.  Soduku is Soduku.
 
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Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
A little while ago I platinumed the first game in this series, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and I really liked it.  The games have absolutely gorgeous art and for me, that's the real draw of visual novels.  Ashen Hawk did not disappoint.  Aside from one or two CGs with some weird anatomy, all of the visuals were amazing.  I love the art style and character design and even the backgrounds were good.  Detailed enough to look nice but simple enough not to distract from the character portraits.  I also liked that the portraits 'interacted' with the world.  They moved or turned based on the actions in the scene which I've never really seen before.  I liked it.
 
The music was also amazing.  Aside from the festival song, which was a little too happy, the music was on point.  It had some nice haunting melodies but for the most part, it wasn't too distracting.  The incidental sound effects were good too.  Even with the main character's narration, you knew what was going on.  I will say I did adjust the volume, though, since the voices were way too quiet compared to the sound effects and music.
 
For both games in the series, I really like the flow charts.  It makes it pretty easy to go back and go through each route without having to save scum in any way.  It works well and makes it a lot easier to see what's missing than just trying to guess.
 
Spoiler warning as I am now going to discuss the plot with no spoiler warnings.
 
Overall I really liked the story.  At first, I thought I knew where it was going but then it was clear that I was wrong.  In a good way.  I loved how different everyone's route was and how there were so many different outcomes.  It wasn't just a 'good' and a 'bad' ending for everyone.  It was a whole bunch of different ways that things could play out.  There were nice easter eggs to Black Butterfly, which of course were fun.  I particularly liked Levi of all of the 'route' options.  His character never changed from route to route and I love how accepting he was of the main character and his affection for her.  It's obvious that he loves her even when she was dressed as a boy.  I also felt like his reveal that he was "Black Shadow" really fit in, once he explained that his mother praised him..  It was a nice twist and didn't feel out of place.
 
Overall I really enjoyed the game and wish there were more in the series.  If I ever find an artbook I would totally pick it up.
 
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Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
I'm not entirely sure what happened to this game, but the localization team really dropped the ball.  I noticed multiple mis-spellings, weird translations, random brackets around words, and a clear issue with the "text box" location.  Normally I'm not this picky but there were so many issues I'm going to list some here.
  • There were many, many instances where the text goes too far to the right and gets cut off or is weirdly non-centered.  They needed to end the paragraph box further towards the center and it makes the text look very sloppy.  And for a visual novel readable text is very, very important.  
  • An entire line after the glossary room was red, not just the word. 
  • Glossary entry (brought up by the down key) that does not fix in the box provided
  • Really strange transition issues.  There were a lot of non-English words thrown in that the average user may not know.  While I understand having Lupin use a lot of french, the character is French, it didn't make sense for everyone else.  I know Japanese has some hard-to-translate bits but translating 'ojo-san' to 'Mademoiselle' is just...weird.  Frankenstein is Swiss, he has no need to throw in French phrases.
  • Random brackets around phrases.  Sometimes it seems to indicate that it's a memory of someone else speaking.  But sometimes there is only one bracket and sometimes they seem to have no meaning.
So the quality testing on this game is awful.  It also annoys me that they use end quotes at the beginning of a line but the entire series has done that so it's not like I expected a change.  Overall I was just really, really let down by the quality of this localization.
 
Now I still enjoyed the game.  I will happily get on my soap-box about how much I love Victor Frankenstein's voice actor (Kakihara Tetsuya).  He does such a good job that I love listening to him talk.  All the voices are good but in particular, he stands out as my strong favorite.
 
I feel like, across the three games, Cardia has gotten a more distinct personality and I like that.  I much prefer protagonists, even in visual novels, to have a character all their own.  While she's easily pleased, she's also sarcastic and has some really great lines.  I loved how, when asked what kind of clothing she prefers, her first thought is "well I need to be able to tackle someone".  This does make the later games a little bit more interesting, even if they're shorter on the whole.
 
In my last review of a Code:Realize game I complained about Van Helsing's route.  It was boring and 'plotless'.  I can safely say that every route in Wintertide Miracles has more meat to it.  Now, they're still fluffy but they're interesting and I enjoyed reading them.
 
I really liked the 'new' story that was added, Cantarella, more than I did the story of the Gordon family.  I think I just liked the characters more and would like to see more of them.  Aiguille I would love to see more of in the next installment, assuming there is one.
 
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Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: If the like the genre, sure
Did I buy this game exclusively because it is a Neptunia game?  Yep.  Do I regret it?  Nope.  While I will give Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart a middle review score that is because it excelled in some places but was really brought down in others.
 
First off, the story.  I'm considering this one of the 'side' games and I would say that it is on par with the others.  They're not bad, but I feel like the writing is never as strong as the main games.  I was never entirely sure what spawned the entire plot but oh well.  That's not what these games are bought for, right?  I know that some people were very split on the "self-insert" protagonist.  I feel like he was there just enough to push the plot along, so I don't really care either way.
 
On the flipside of the meh story, was the characters.  I love them.  Love them.  Unlike the characters in the other Neptunia games, these new 'generals' are based on games/franchises.  While I haven't played even most of them, I still really appreciate their characters.  There were so many jokes and references that it got a constant chuckle from me.  There were only about three characters that I wasn't at least familiar with, so I got most of the references and it was enjoyable.  I do think that there were a few too many characters, though.  There were quite a few I never ended up using just because I never got around to it.
 
Personally, I really enjoy turn-based strategy RPGs.  With that said, I think that Hyperdevotion Noire could learn a few things from some other series.  While the combat was enjoyable for the most part, I felt that it was very 'unfair'.  There were multiple times that most/every enemy could attack in a huge area while none of my characters could.  By the end, I started just letting people die and bringing in someone new when they did since they could be killed in a single turn.  With how slow leveling is with combat alone and how many characters there are, I felt like the enemies were just too overpowered.  I played on Normal, for reference.
 
The other major issue I had with the game was the Lily Rank system.  Now, I've played other Neptunia games, I know how this works.  But 100 was just way too high.  With, I believe, 22 playable characters grinding to 100 took way, way too long.  I have no issue with the system itself but I wish that the 'top' rank was 50.  I feel like that would have been a whole lot more manageable.  It's one thing to grind 7 or so characters.  But once you reach over 20, that's just nuts.  While that's more of a trophy issue than anything else, it was still a little too over-the-top for me.
 
My final conclusion is that Hyperdevotion Noire is a good spinoff of a good series, that's brought down by being a little too bloated and having a little too loose of a plot.
 
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Chaos;Child
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 5/10
Is the price worth it: Don't bother
Advanced warning, this game is rating M and the below review mentions gross, disturbing content as well as spoilers.
 
I picked up this game because it was in the same Science Adventure series as Steins;Gate.  When I first started it up I was a little put off by the art since it's a lot different from Steins;Gate and even from the cover.  Then I got into the story and realized how incredibly dark it was and I was immediately sold.
 
I was quickly un-sold, though.  I have never played a game that I enjoyed the plot but disliked the characters so strongly.  By the end, I didn't hate everyone quite as much but for the most part, most of the cast isn't really all that likable.  I liked Shinjo and Itou, the two characters you're supposed to care about the least and by the end, I liked Takuru as well.  The story was so interesting I really can't come to a good decision.  I love the mix of paranormal powders and grizzly murder, but also adding in pervy moe anime girls just doesn't do it for me.  And remember, I own nearly every Neptunia game.
 
Chaos;Child is needlessly raunchy and perverted which detracts from its very, very interesting plot.  On the one hand, I love how gory the game is, the murders are bizarre and unique, and sound effects give everything that extra oomph.  On the flip side, though, there are way too many sex jokes and needlessly excessive scenes for me to recommend this to anyway.  Also, the writers seemed absolutely obsessed with vomiting.  There are constant mentions, examples, sounds, etc.  In almost every chapter (maybe not the first few).  It's continual, disguising, and completely over the top and unnecessary.  While I get that being upset or scared may cause someone to feel the need to throw up, that seems to be Takuru's response to every stimulus.  Emetophobics beware.
 
While for the most part, the sound design is great, it has some amazing "gross" sounds like slicing flesh or, as mentioned above, vomiting, there are some sound issues.  There are a few instances where there are crowd noises, people screaming or yelling and it is excessive.  When the reporter is killed the students start screaming, understandable.  Having 7 unique screaming lines one at a time was just excessive.  After about three the point is across, it's time to move on.
 
My final breakdown is...uncertain.  I love the twisted plot, I love the gore level, I love the murder board, in the end, I actually ended up liking the main character as well.  I dislike most of the characters and the game's sense of pacing could use some major improvement.
 
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Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: It's hard to find so I don't even know how much it's going for...
 
This is another review that is going to be a little patchy since I started the game so long ago.  I can't comment too much on the story since I really only remember bits and pieces.
First off, I really like Digimon which is why I picked up the game.  I loved the shows and I love the few games I've played in the series too.  I'm sure I sunk over 100 hours into Digimon Rumble Arena 2 on the PS2.  I also played the first Cyber Sleuth game, just not on my account since that was before I had a PS4.  Overall, I really like the series.  I like the battles, I like the mechanics, and I like the story (from what I remember...).

The basic rock-paper-scissors of Data-Virus-Vaccine make perfect sense and once you get it, most battles are pretty easy.  You can pretty much squeak your way through the entire game with 'cool' digimon, as long as you keep that in mind.  What I didn't like, however, is the end of the game.  There's a point that suddenly every enemy either has really high defense or magic defense and until you get end-game Digimon you're just out of luck.  Enjoy doing 10-20 damage at a time.  While I get that defense/magic defense piercing moves are really good, I didn't like how required they felt at the end.
It took me a long while to really understand how the ABI system/farm system worked so I feel like that could have been explained better.  There were many a digimon that weren't gaining stats and I didn't understand why until much, much later into the game.  It would be nice if the game would tell you that a digimon couldn't gain any more stats due to ABI in the digiline or something.
Some of the trophies are locked behind some annoying RNG like trying to get all the medals but I was rolling in so much money at the end of the game, for the most part I didn't care.  Getting medals that I was missing to drop, now that was a battle in and of itself.  I don't like RNG-based trophies, especially for drops that you have no control over.  I swear I fought for a good two entire evenings just trying to get one medal.

I can't really fully review the story since...I don't remember it well enough and I tried to speed through my NG+ for the hacker rank trophy.  I think it was a little weird and super pseudoscience-y but oh well.  I do like, however, that if you ever get lost Mirei will give you a hint as to what you're doing.  Great when you come back to the game 2 years later or just mashed x through the dialogue.

All in all, if you like Digimon it's a fun game.  I really, really wish you could skip the cutscenes, though, in NG+.
 
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13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
 
This game seems to have just appeared suddenly one day and then everyone started to play it.  I never heard of it until I was given the game for Birthday/Christmas.  My friend saw that it was a visual novel with giant mechs and figured I would love it.  And she was very, very right.
 
Vanillaware has a very unique art style and honestly, I absolutely love it.  Comparing this to Odin Sphere, though, I love 13 Sentinels a whole lot more.  The art is a little closer to 'human proportions' which I think hit the sweet spot for me between style and realism.  Everything just looks good from the character animations, to the backgrounds, to the coloring.  I love how different all the animations are and the look of the 'cutouts'.  In particular, I like how Yuki walks with such purpose, even in her slowest walking animation and it says a lot about her character.  My only issue with the art is the profiles where they are in the Sentinels, some of them have very weird angles.
 
As for the nonlinear story, I have mixed feelings.  I like how much it sucks you in, every chapter answers one question and asks 10 more but sometimes it can be a little confusing.  It typically takes me a little while to remember character's names and then characters have multiple names and I got lost from time to time.  I do, however, love how the story is unlocked.  I like the flowcharts (I love every game with flowcharts, it makes it so much easier to follow) and how everything branches off.  I do wish that sometimes it was a little clearer what needs to be done next.  There were a few times I had to google things to see how I was missing a keyword.  Luckily the game does have a glossary of sorts, which helps with the name confusion.
 
The mech battles are very fun.  They're a little chaotic but the good kind of chaos where a lot of things are on the screen but, since it's turn-based sort-of, there is time to think.  I do wish the map was a little clearer from time to time, trying to distinguish flying enemies from ground enemies when they're in a group is a nightmare.  But overall it was just hard enough to feel tense but just easy enough not to get upset.  There was one battle near that the end where my PS4 really chugged to display everything on screen but aside from that I had no gameplay issues.
 
I won't go into the story too much so as not to spoil anything but I really, really liked it.  I like how everything slowly unraveled as you, along with the characters, learned different details.  The game does a very good job of making you feel as if you have the whole story until you get a small detail here or there to expand it.  I also loved all of the characters.  Obviously, I liked some more than others but by the end, I was invested in everyone's different route.
 
Final comments?  Pick up 13 Sentinels, really.  Just pick it up, play it.
 
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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 3/10 (unless you struggle with puzzles, then 8/10)
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: On sale, it's a short game.
To be honest, I mainly picked up this game because it was on sale and I love me some puzzle games.  I'm really glad I did, though.  This game hits the sweet spot in length (for a quick game), interest, puzzles, and fun.  Some of the puzzles were a little hard, but I didn't really struggle with anything.  I absolutely loved the lock picking puzzles, of which there are quite a few.  But I know some people struggle with puzzles more than I do so I am not going to flat out say that they are easy.  They were easy for me.  Your experience may vary.
 
Each case was unique and interesting.  I think they were all a pretty good length, although to me the Abbey Grange was painfully short.  I would have liked that one to be a little bit longer like the others were.  But that aside, everything's a good length for a short little sit-down and play.  And since each case, for the most part, is unconnected it's a good game for someone who can't sit down and binge.  I enjoyed the log that gave little hints as to what needed to be done next.
 
The graphics are...decent?  Sherlock has the oddest running animation I've seen in a while and oh boy, no one on this team knew how to render a dog.  Toby looks...a little terrifying.  There were a few graphical glitches but they all had to do with either lightning popping in and out.  So overall, I could consider it on part for a AA game.  Not ugly but a little, just weird in places.  For the most part, the animations were decent and the graphics were good enough.  Everyone's facial expression seemed like, well, faces.
 
Overall, a nice, short puzzle game.  I liked the 'deduction' style of figuring out who was the murderer.  It was also a nice place to review what information had been collected.  Easy, fun, enjoyable.

 

 
#71-80
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Spoiler

 

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Final Fantasy X-2
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: It comes packaged with FFX so ya
I played this game back on the PS2 and liked it so much I was excited to play it again.  The graphics are still a little...dated and the voice acting's a little rough at times.  But overall, I love this game.  In some ways, it's almost tied for Final Fantasy X.  Almost.
 
Starting off with the absolute best part of this game: the dress-sphere system.  I know it's a love-it-or-hate-it system but I love it.  I like that each one levels up on it's own, I like that you can change them mid-battle if you need a different set of skills.  I like that each girl's a tiny bit different, and even with the same class some of their moves are different, and that each costume looks unique.  The only flaw I can really find is the garment grids.  Having to add and rearrange dress-spheres and then equipping the right garment grid is very menu-heavy and there's no easy way to scroll down.  So if you have all of the garment grid it takes forever to scroll to the bottom.  I wish that part of the system was a little bit more user-friendly, but otherwise, I love it.  I which more Final Fantasy games would lean more heavily into the class system.  The sort of real-time, sort of turn-based combat, I could take it or leave it.  I don't mind but I much prefer FFX's pure turn-based setup.  I don't like getting pot-shotted by enemies because I was cycling from one menu to another.  Most of the time it's not too bad so I don't hate it but it could be improved.  I do like that different skills have different 'cooldowns' though.  So overall, the combat gets a nice solid A.
 
Next up the story and characters.  Considering this game is a spin-off from a very sad, deep story, I feel like it falls a little short.  FFX's story was good, really good, and FFX-2's is decent.  I like seeing the characters grow, especially Yuna, but I feel like it's hard jumping off from such a good game.  I liked some of the new characters and the return of so many old ones.  I do like how they addressed the 'what happens now' after the world is saved.  People have lived so long living in fear of Sin, that they don't adjust well once he's gone.  So I like that jumping-off point.
 
The 'platforming' is a little clunky, okay, it's very clunky.  It's not bad overall since it's mostly just hold circle and find the right direction to point Yuna.  But it's a little...weird.  Especially with how often you have to do it.  So it's not a bad attempt, I feel like it just turned out a little more awkward than intended.
 
Overall it's a good game with a really unique and amazing class system that I really wished that more games would take a look at.
 
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Superdimention Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
Another year, another Neptunia side game.  What can I say, I'm predictable.  As with all of the others I picked this up on sale since I enjoy the series.  So keep in mind going into this that I am a huge fan of the Neptunia series and don't mind the heavy fanservice.
 
That said, for a Neptunia game, VS Sega Hard Girls was definitely on the tame side.  That might be because of the smaller cast of Neptunia characters, none of which are the well-endowed ladies of the cast.  Out of the regulars only Neptune (x2!), IF, Nepgear, Plutia, and Histoire make an appearance.  The missing cast members are filled in with the Sega Hard Girls, which up until this point I was unfamiliar with.  Each of the new characters represents one of Sega's consoles and, honestly, their references went a little over my head.  My gaming history started with the PS2 so I'm not very familiar with the Sega consoles except in name.  None of their characters stuck out to me as particularly funny or interesting, but I didn't dislike any of them either.  Segami was a little hit or miss at times but overall, they were interesting.  However, I'd much prefer to have my usual cast back.
 
Gameplay-wise, I was pleased.  Most of the side games that I've played were more action-based while this one is time/turn-based.  Turn-based combat is always an A+ in my book.  This time they implemented almost an action point system and overall, I liked it.  It was easy to understand and to get into a rhythm with it.  So no complaints about the combat.  It was definitely on the simple side but simple does not always mean bad.  Now, about the platforming.  This is where the game could have used a little bit more polish.  Jumping across long gaps was more an art than a science.  Sometimes you made it, sometimes you didn't.  There is a very visually obvious "coyote time" where IF or Segami slides off the edge of the ledge in which you can still jump so that's a little messy looking.  I also had a problem where it was very hard to jump off platforms that could also be climbed up or down.  The characters would tend to 'magnet' to the climbable walls instead of jumping.  So the platforming I could have done without.
 
Most of the time I don't have a lot to say about the sound in Neptunia games.  The voice acting is decent and the music is pretty good.  This one, though, this was one of the few games that I played 9/10 of the game with my headphones plugged into the jack so that I could mute the sound.  Each playable character (which for platforming/overworld was only Segami and IF) has literally two platforming lines.  One for climbing and one for jumping.  And that was it.  So every time you jumped or started to climb it was the same line over and over and over.  There also seemed to be a really small amount of battles lines for each character so everything was repeated constantly.
 
As for the plot, it wasn't bad.  I don't want to spoil anything and it's hard to really talk about without giving spoilers.  So overall, a decent B+.  I like that very little is missable in the game, aside from a few collectables that wouldn't be hard to get in a NG+.
 
Overall, it's a decent game, fun, interesting, and well written.  It has some flaws and I would suggest not listening to the sound except during cutscenes.
 
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Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 9/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
This won't be the best review since I started this game years ago.  But I'll talk about what I can remember.  As always, Birth By Sleep (BBS) is a Kingdom Hearts (KH) game and I love Kingdom Hearts.  As such, I'm going in already loving it.  I played this back on my PSP so for me this was more of a refresher than a fresh game.  I like that the story is split up between the three protagonists, although I have to say I never got the best grip on playing Terra.  The story is a little bit on the confusing side but enjoyable and it's the same combat as the other games, so still a good, solid A on that.  I will, however, be talking about the unique features of the combat in a moment.
 
First off let's talk about graphics.  Considering this was originally a PSP game I think it looks pretty good.  Kingdom Hearts has such an anime/cartoon style that I think it ages quite well.  It's not the best-looking game, but considering how old it is I think it aged pretty well.  As a side note, I really like some of the styling in this game, such as how Aqua's animations are very fluid and dance-like and Ventus holds his keyblade backward.  It adds a nice spice of uniqueness to the ever-growing cast of keyblade wielders.  I also really like the Unversed designs.  I'm all for good, slick enemies and the Unversed are just that.  They look cool and I enjoy seeing more and more types.
 
As I mentioned above, the combat.  For the most part, it's the same as the rest of the series but every game tries something new.  This time the big changes are the "command deck" that's a little reminiscent of KH Chain of Memories and the different "styles".  The command deck I actually really like.  And while you need a guide for it, the mixing of commands to make new ones or better ones is fun.  Extensive, but fun.  I like setting up my skills in the order I want and being able to tailor it boss to boss easily.  The command styles I'm...less attached too.  I like the idea, and I really like how a lot of them feel, but I prefer the "forms" in the other games (KH, KHII, etc).  I feel like the styles are too easy to accidentally activate and sometimes that can really mess something up.  And, once you do activate them, they don't stay around for very long.  I wish they were harder to spawn and then stayed longer so they felt like more a boon than an animation that's just making something take way longer than it needs too.  Now, with that said Spellweaver basically got me through both the Mirage Arena and the Final and Secret Episodes on Critical.
 
As for the story, well, it's Kingdom Hearts.  There's a baseline of 'confusing' and 'overuse of the words key, darkness, and light' but that is present in any and all games under that mantle.  However, for the most part, I felt like BBS was pretty easy to follow.  It got a little bit weird with Terra being possessed but I did like it.  And while I do get it, I wish there was more of a visual distinction between Roxas and Ventus.
 
In regards to the trophies...well.  There is literally a 4-year gap in my trophies for a reason.  I really struggled against the Unknown Figure and that put me off it for quite a while.  And now I need to go back and do all of that stuff 2 more times!  I get that KH likes to have "completionist" trophies and that I like. But man do I wish they shared a journal.
 
And let's not even talk about the annoyance that was the Mirage arena.  I do not want to stare at their armor for hours!  I liked the idea of it, similar to the Olympus Coliseum but I wish you could see the characters and not the armor.  I know it's because it was originally supposed to be multiplayer but...I don't do multiplayer so for me it was more of an annoyance.  I mean, did anyone play multiplayer in BBS?
 
BBS is a little bit infamous for its minigames, particularly Ice Cream Beat.  Overall I liked them: I really enjoyed the racing although I could do without the rubber banding, I was really good at the Command boards and enjoyed playing those as well.  Ice Cream Beat well it was...a thing.  I didn't hate it but I do wish the bar for everything was just a little bit lower.
 
Overall, BBS is an amazing Kingdom Hearts game, brought down a little bit by a high skill level required for some trophies.
 
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Spiritfarer
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
I picked up Spiritfarer because it seemed to have good reviews and was a 'sim' type game: farming, fishing, cooking, etc.  Honestly, I was really, really impressed, with a few caveats.  But glitches aside, it's a cute, sad, fun game.  It really hits hard in the emotions, but in a good way.
 
First off, the graphics.  Spiritfarer has a cartoonish style and it works pretty well.  The animations for everything are very cute and every character has interesting, unique animations (honestly, some of the best ones are the cat trying to follow you around).  Every once in a while portions of the graphics suddenly appear 'blurry', as if they haven't fully popped in yet.  It's not too distracting, for the most part, but it does happen from time to time.  The sound's not bad.  Some of the NPC-unique music clips are a little too short.  The background music that plays at the bus stop is annoying as heck and getting stuck there are night means the ~8 second long clip just repeats for the whole night.
 
As for the gameplay, I really like it.  Nothing's really too hard in regards to the minigames and even if you perform 'poorly' you still get something out of it.  My one issue with the gameplay, though--ladders.  Stupid Annoying Ladders.  When jumping around the boat, most buildings have ladders to get up them.  However, when you're trying to go down quickly, during many of the minigames, if you're in the same zip code as a ladder, your character will NOT jump down.  She will slowly climb down the ladder or, more likely, just stand there.  Sometimes she'll jump up instead of 'dropping' through the floor like she   I wish if you pressed down and x near a ladder then you could just jump down.  For the most part, the platforming is pretty forgiving as long as no ladders are involved.
 
I really like how there's no 'rush' to the game.  You can do everything in your own time.  Plant some crops, come back to them later.  Quests can sit as long as you want them too (unless, of course, you need them to progress).  It's a very 'chill' feeling.  My one issue with the pacing is 'nighttime'.  For a very 'video game' reason, your ship cannot move during the night.  Which is fine since you can fish, cook, feed cows, smelt, etc.  There is a lot to do at night.  However...my biggest issue is with the navigation.  I don't really have a problem with 'no traveling at night' but at least let me plot my course.  Why does the map suddenly not work at night?  Quite a few times I was looking at the map when the night started and suddenly the map closes and I can't interact with it.  So I'll go do something but have to keep an eye on the time so I can plot my course in the morning.  Just let me interact with the map at night.  Even if I can't move, at least let me plan.
 
My biggest issue with the game, though, was the glitchiness.  While it's not a mess, it's completely playable, it was also pretty glitchy.  If I played the game for more than 2 hours at a time, which I definitely did, it would error out about every 2 or so hours once I got about 5ish hours in.  Now it tended to break when it was going to and from an island which is also an autosave.  So I never lost any progress. It was just annoying.  I definitely had some serious issues with screen tearing and flickering white lines all over the screen and it was bad.  During one light-filled minigame, every time a flash of light happened the whole screen would tear which caused the entire minigame just to be a seizure-inducing glitchfest.  This is listed as a known glitch on the game's site but still, the flashing made me feel ill.  Eventually, it stopped but it was almost unplayable until it fixed itself.  I also ran into a glitch when I was doing the only timed quest in the game (luckily you can re-try).  It involves a lot of platforming and I made a mistake and needed to start a section over again.  Once I got back to the platform I could jump on the screen no longer zoomed out so I could see what I was doing.  So I had to try and platform without being able to see, well, the platforms.  And nothing would fix it.  I managed to stumble my way through but then I had to redo the quest again.
 
Now, for the game's story.  I'm going to make this spoiler-free so let's just say that this story is sad.  I guess sad isn't the right word.  It's not despondent in tone but more bittersweet.  There was one particular character quest (Alice) that, due to the events in my life, hit me more than the rest.  There were others that didn't speak to me as much.  But overall, I think the game balances cheerful and fun gameplay with a somber meaning rather well.
 
Overall Spiritfarer is a sweet, fun game that works both as a story that needs to be told, and just a fun little game to pass some time.  Its major downfall is some serious glitches but nothing that makes the game unplayable or that really hampers progress.  I've also read that the screen tearing can be fixed on the PC so maybe...play it on that instead?
 
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Persona 5 Royal
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
As I already did a review for Persona 5 (P5), however short it was, this review is going to only cover the new features for the Royal edition.  Also, I will try to make this as spoiler-free as possible.
 
For Royal, the main additions are new confidants, new gameplay mechanics, and a new dungeon.  Does it make it worth it to play both?  Not...really?  In my opinion Royal, like Golden, replaces the original.  I played both because 1) Royal wasn't out when I got P5 and 2) I really, really like this game.  I also played Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden so for me it's not that unusual.  But I would say if you haven't played it, skip the original and go right to Royal.  Is it enough of a change for someone who's already played the original to pick up?  I would say yes? with a very unconfident tone.  It does have some major additions but I would say to make sure you take long enough to forget most of the story and then play it again.
 
As for the new confidant, at first, I wasn't sold.  I didn't dislike them, but for Faith I wasn't really that invested until, well...to keep this spoiler-free, I'll say after rank 5.  I didn't hate it, I just also didn't care, it's the same way I feel about Devil.  But after the big reveal, well, I liked the story more.  A lot more.  As for Counselor, I still have mixed feelings.  I feel the direction the new confidant took the story was really cool and I liked the related plot elements.  But their actual confidant itself...was eh?  It didn't feel very important or really investing.  It was shallow compared to some of the others.
 
I absolutely loved the new gameplay features.  Showtimes were fun (although I literally never saw the one with Violet) and very helpful in boss fights.  I liked the new grappling hook and especially using it to ambush from further away.  The Will Seed addition is...eh?  Didn't care either way.  I'm sure there were other combat changes but nothing really stood out to me aside from the Showtime.  Oh, and the upgraded baton pass was a nice upgrade.  I also really, really liked that darts minigame.
 
As for the story updates, I liked them.  The non-new character that gets significantly more development in the additional month made me actually change my opinion of them.  I was neutral at first but after that additional development, trying to keep this spoiler-free, I ended up liking them for how 'honest' of a character they seemed to be.  I also liked the last Palace, it felt almost like a better ending Palace than Mementos' Holy Grail to me.  I've always felt like the Holy Grail was a little bit weird as a final boss, so I'm glad they've added to it.  I do feel like the ending dragged a little bit and some of the filler between the end boss and the end day could have been completely removed for a better pace.
 
Overall, I really liked Royal.  It was a nice addition to an already great game.  I would say that Royal functions as a 'bigger and better' replacement for Persona 5, so just skip the original if you haven't already played it.
 
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Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 8/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yep
I love Kingdom Hearts.  I've made this very clear very many times so, obviously, my reviews of them will be pretty positive.  That aside, I'll try to be as even-handed as I can.
 
First off, this is a re-release of a PS2 game.  As such it looks a little rough, but as with the rest of the series, the animated style means that it actually ages pretty well.  Aside from the stark contrast between the "nice" cutscenes and the rest of the game.  But for the most part, it looks pretty decent.  To my knowledge nothing was changed, just additional bosses, events, and mini-games were added.  I had already beaten this game and 100% completed the journal on the PS2 so even now some muscle memory kicked in to make the game pretty easy for me to play.  I remembered bosses' weak points, the location of treasure chests, and the like.  Funnily enough, when I first beat the game on PS3 I somehow complete the entire game without ever leaning dodge roll-- I'm still not sure how I did that.
 
Since it is an old game I'm going to focus on the changes.  Change one - Limit Form.  I'm...well, neutral to limit form.  I like the instant cure that can be used in fights where you don't have party members or party members are dead, but otherwise, I didn't find it very useful.  It eats through MP so quickly that I feel like it outlives its usefulness in about one or two moves.  Plus, I had very poor luck actually connecting with most of my attempts.  I do NOT like that dodge roll, one of the basic mechanics of KH, was locked behind a form leveling up.  While I really like the other forms in the game, I always liked the system, I feel like Limit Form never really added anything for me other than a cheesy little callback to KHI.
 
The mushroom minigames were just easy enough not to be tedious although I can say some were much easier than others.  I didn't spend too much time per mushroom so I thought they were a good middle ground of difficulty.  I also really liked getting the little crown.  In fact, that will be a point by itself.  I wish KH had at least some semblance of a NG+.  I understand why it doesn't, but I worked very hard for that little gold crown and I wanted to bring it with me to the next playthrough.  I like the addition, I just wish you could bring it with you.
 
The data battles were, for the most part, quite fun.  It was nice to fight all of Organization XIII since only some of them ger featured in each game.  What I didn't like was some of the RNG involved.  Completing Axel's fight was difficult because you had to end it on a reaction command and that bugger is ridiculously fast.  But worse than that...LUXORD.  I spent DAYS on this boss.  Not because the boss is difficult, no, but because of his stupid mini-game that you needed to complete.  Locking beating a boss behind a minigame is a big no-go for me.  I think I got it more out of luck than anything else.  I don't like when I keep losing a battle not because of my own skill but because of input lag on an old system.
 
As a small final note...boy do I wish KHII had a retry button.  Having to go through an area time and time again after beating a boss just makes it a chore.
 
Overall, good additions to a fantastic game.
 
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Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yep, support indie devs
Because I have such a history with visual novels (VNs), multiple people told me to play this game.  And so I finally did.  Warning, there is no way to discuss this game without spoilers so I will not be marking them.  Proceed at your own risk.
 
I did know going into it that the game was 'dark' and 'disturbing' and covered themes of suicide.  So that plot twist wasn't as much of a twist to me as it would be for someone who went in completely blind.  I did my best to avoid spoilers but sometimes it just happens.  I also figured out the second twist WAY early in the game, so again, not as much of a shock.  That being said I really, really liked this game.  It definitely takes a little while to get started and at the beginning, I was a little bored.  Since I knew it got dark I was able to power through but I can see people getting turned off.  None of the characters really stood out to me as that interesting from the get-go.  While I get why the opening is the way it is, I think the characters needed a little bit...more.
 
As for the mechanics, it's very interesting.  I know the 'fake' desktop had to be created for the PS4 version but I still think it worked pretty well.  This isn't the first game where I've had a 'fake' desktop and, for me, it's immersive enough. I liked how you had to go into the files to mess with things, it was unique and very in character for the game.  The poem minigame was unique.  But I think it falls into the same trap as Steins;Gate.  Unique for uniqueness' sake is not always a good system.  It worked but it was definitely clunky.  I did like that the more you played the 'easier' it was to aim for a specific character but still, a little awkward.
 
I know that this game was made by a small team (one person?) so I understand there were limitations.  I do, however, bemoan the lack of voice acting.  Especially for the Plus! version.  I really enjoy the voice acting in VNs, I almost always let them 'finish' talking even though I read very quickly, so not having any voice acting was a little rough.  While I understand why, I would have liked at least certain repeated words having voices likes in Danganranpa.  It's just hard to stay engaged for me, otherwise.  The music was fine and all but without voices, it was hard not to be distracted.
 
As for the Plus! content, I really liked the side stories.  In fact, story and character-building wise I liked the side stories more than the actual game story.  As someone who does suffer from major depression, it was nice to see it presented in a way somewhat similar to how I feel.  But it wasn't just Sayori, it was all of them.  Fleshing out the girl's characters made me a whole lot more invested in them and I think they all presented real, serious issues quite well.  I went from being neutral in the actual game, to liking all of them once I finished the side stories.  I think they are a major boon to an otherwise interesting game.
 
Trophies are a bit of an RNG nightmare but overall, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is a good game, with a good look at some serious topics.
 
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LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
Playstation 3
Difficulty: 3/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
I don't have a whole lot to say about this game.  It's another Marvel Lego game that plays like all the others.  There's a decent cast of characters to play around with and it's one giant collect-a-thon.  It is a tad glitchy but nothing I couldn't fix by leaving an area and returning.  Someday I want to be able to search characters in Lego games by skills.  I.e. someone who can turn invisible.  That's my main comment.
 
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Persona 5 Strikers
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 5/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: I'm not sure how much it goes for
As my previous platinums show, I really like the Persona series.  With that in mind, Strikers is not the type of gameplay I am used to, nor am I particularly good at.  Despite this, I really liked Persona 5 Strikers (P5S) as a nice, medium-length sequel to the original game.
 
For the graphics, it pretty much looks exactly like Persona 5 (P5)/Persona 5 Royal (P5R).  Same style, same colors, and it still looks good.  The menu, which was a weird high-point of the base game, is a bit annoying in this one.  The characters make sound effects as you cycle through and that can get a little repetitive and I found the animations also got a little annoying when you wanted to just flip through the menu quickly.  So I think it slightly moved into the 'overdesigned' territory.  But overall the visuals were A+.
 
As for the gameplay, it was a definite learning experience for me.  Typically I try to play turn-based or, if not that, just normal action games.  Not the screen packed with enemies from every direction.  So that took some getting used to.  I also tend to be very stingy with MP/SP/etc. so that was another big change since you could easily refill it at any checkpoint.  It took me quite a few bosses to really get the hang of how to play but by about midway I sort of found my stride.  I still prefer the turn-based but it wasn't a bad detour.  I just hope Persona in the future, unlike Final Fantasy, sticks to the turn-based systems.
 
I heard someone describe P5S as a 'food tour of Japan' and it's a pretty apt description.  Personally, I really liked the travel element and I would love to see that expanded upon in some way in future series.  The story was interesting and made sense in the context of the series so I didn't feel like it was a stretch to see this game as a direct sequel to P5/P5R.  Of the new characters I liked Wolf more, but Sophie wasn't bad.  I just found her entire plotline a little bit boring.  Points to the English voice actor, though, there are some lines she says that sound just like a Siri/Alexa/etc.  I do wish that Sophie got a makeover though.  In the Metaverse she looks like the Michelin Man.
 
Overall I really liked the games.  The Eternal Bonds trophy was way grindy-er than it needed to be, but aside from that one trophy I really don't have any major complaints.
 
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Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory
Playstation 4
Difficulty: 4/10 (9/10 if you are not good at rhythm games)
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: If you like rhythm games
Kingdom Hearts and a rhythm game.  A match made just for me.  I will still try to write a fair review but I love Kingdom Hearts, I love rhythm games, and I love Kingdom Hearts music.  So for this, I'm very easy to please.
 
At first, I was a little bit nervous since the Persona rhythm games are kind of awful.  Have I platted them all?  Yes.  But still.  Their idea of 'difficulty' is a very unnatural progression towards more and more notes on-screen which doesn't really feel at all satisfying.  Kingdom Hearts, however, handled difficulty perfectly.  When playing Standard I can 'hear' where I bet the notes will be for Proud and I'm right.  It more closely follows the Project Diva games and that is exactly what it should do.  A natural difficulty curve.
 
I will say, the trophy for "50 full chains"/full combos on Proud did make me want to scream.  I know some trophies are supposed to be hard but I am so good at missing a single note that this trophy became a complete headache.  Once I got the trophy, of course, I was able to full-chain a few more Proud songs on the first try.  That's just how it is.  I think this is something I should have focused on less trophy wise since it really would have come naturally in time.
 
As for gameplay, I really, really liked it.  Personally, I rely on the music itself for rhythm games.  I want to be able to close my eyes and know where the next note is going to be just by sound.  And that is exactly how this game plays (for the most part).  Traverse Town on Proud is a perfect example of this.  It follows the music and if you listen to the "glide" portion of it the next bit is easy since I follow the same pattern.  That is exactly what I like in my rhythm games, good music and notes that follow it.  There were even a few songs where I 'panicked' and couldn't focus on the notes but I just pressed the buttons to the music and succeeded.  I've heard a few people say that Proud isn't lined up with the music but I feel that they may need to adjust the sync speed since I thought it was nearly perfect.
 
Now, you will see in the above paragraph I snuck in a little "for the most part".  My one biggest issue with the game is the few songs that seem to have no pattern/rhythm to them.  It's rare, but there are a few that, particularly on proud, the notes seem entirely unrelated to the music.  Now all of these songs are ones that are difficult to put a beat map on and, honestly I feel like they should have been skipped.  I also feel like some songs didn't make great choices (i.e. The Underworld) and other songs should have been included (i.e. Dearly Beloved).
 
The "glide" sections, the songs with the background movie and gliding characters, I did not like.  The timing was much harder to get down and they follow a different rule set than the rest of the game.  I also wasn't sure why all KHIII songs were in this format.  Was it cheaper?  Faster?  Some weird obligation?  I feel like KHIII got heavily cheated compared to the other games in the series.
 
Overall, though, my review is that I absolutely love this game.  It is the perfect mix for me and I know I will continue to play it just for fun.

 

 
 
 
Edited by Alternatewarning
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Planned Platinum:

Current Focus:

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London Detective Mysteria, Final Fantasy Type-0

 

On Hold:

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Hyperdimention Neptunia, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, Hyperdimention Neptunia Victory, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X, Amnesia LaterxCrowd, Sakura Wars

 

WIP:

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Mind Zero, Hyperdimention Neptunia Re;Birth 1, Hyperdimention Neptunia Re;Birth 2, Hyperdimention Neptunia Re;Birth 3, Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns, Steins ;Gate 0, Code Realize: Wintertide Miracles

 

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 Megadimention Neptunia VII,  Kingdom Hearts: 0.5 A Fragmentary Passage, Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace, Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Robotics;Notes DASH, Robotics;Notes Elite, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, Death end re;Quest, The Caligula Effect: Overdose, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

 

Wishlist

No Localization Yet

Collar×Malice: Unlimited

 

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NEO: The World Ends with You, Horizon Forbidden West, NG: Spirit Hunter, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Dead end re;Quest 2, Neptunia X Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

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Code Realize: ~Guardian of Rebirth~
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 7/10
Is the price worth it: On sale
Another visual novel/otome game.  What can I say, I like them.  Was this the best otome game ever?  No.  It has a few overused tropes and the story seems to drag in a few places but I still love this game.  Some of the voice acting is phenomenal.  The music is also very good and very thematic for the scenes.  I like the art and characters and it is an interesting story.  I especially like the final, locked, route as it ties back into everyone else's little individual plots.  That was a nice way to wrap up the game.  It did crash a few times on me so I learned to save often.
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Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 6/10
Is the price worth it: I'd wait for a sale
First off, I am not good at shooters.  At all.  So, putting aside my inability to aim at anything, I really enjoyed this game.  But it wasn't as good as 1 and 2.  I really liked the challenge rooms/riddles but I did not like the spacing of the save points.  The final chapter had well spaced save points, in my opinion, but the rest of the game they seemed a little far.  Especially if there were large chunks of cutscenes in between that I then had to skip a few times.  The other issue I had was not being able to get to the store easily after finishing the game.  The game was fun, the riddles were the right level of challenge, just a few gameplay aspects I struggled with.
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Collar X Malice
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 2/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
Oh my, it's been a while since I've loved a visual novel this much.  I had my eye on CollarXMalice for a while because I love the artist from her other works.  I am so glad I picked up this game.  It has a few gameplay elements, small easy 2 option puzzles and simple QTEs but I liked that, growing a little beyond a typical VN.  But more than the gameplay, the story and the characters were amazing.  First, as I mentioned before, I absolutely love the art.  All of the details, the clothes, hair, their eyes, the art is just stunning.  But more than that, I liked all of the characters.  Even minor characters, everyone had a purpose and a personality, it was just a beautifully fleshed out world.  Also, I really liked some of the alternate endings even if they were really sad.
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Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 1/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
Ah, finally, the second half of the newest Hakuoki games.  Honestly, I was extremely looking forward to playing this game and I was not disappointed.  There were a few routes, in particular, that I was very interested in playing and, as already a fan of the series, I felt they held true to the characters.  There were a few routes that were a little boring since I didn't really feel invested in the characters.  But overall, Edo Blossoms was very sad, very touching and the CGs were, as always beautiful.  I think what hurt this game the most was being separated into two from Kyoto Winds.  I still think they should have been one combined game, since splitting them up, I believe, does lessen the emotional impact of a few character's deaths.
 
Below I'm going to discuss some route-specific things so I'm using a spoiler tag.
 
Spoiler

One thing I was disappointed about was some of the recycled scenes from the other games.  While I don't mind them re-using the old six routes, some characters, such as Sannan, have been fleshed out a lot more now.  So, in some older routes, I feel the characters are much flatter and simpler than they are now.  I would have liked Sannan as a villain to be more in line with him as he is in his own route, as opposed to a more flat character, guided by ego and evil.

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Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
As the Nonary Games encompasses two different games, I'm going to review them separately.  First 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.  I absolutely loved this games.  The puzzles were the right level of difficult where I had to think sometimes but I felt rewarded when I was done, the characters were interesting, the the plot was weird, but good weird.  I was invested in what was going to happen next, I needed to see another ending to learn something new.  Virtue's Last Reward, however, I felt was a little lacking.  My biggest gripe was I felt like I spent half the game watching dots move around a map.  I did not need a map every single time the characters moved.  I also felt like some of the puzzles required me to "brute force" the answer, which was more frustrating than fun.  Overall it was a good game, but the characters and plot weren't as engaging as it's predecessor.
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Zero Escape: Zero Time Delima
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 4/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
The final game in the Zero Escape series, I felt like it was a good conclusion.  it brought back the comfortably difficult puzzles of 999 with the branching narrative of 999 and VLR.  I liked all of the characters and I was able to follow the plot/timelines much easier, despite all the craziness that was going on.  I felt like I was able to follow the flow chart much better.  While it didn't have the same "punch" that 999 had it was still better than VLR and I felt like it was a fitting end.  My main qualms were the art.  While the otherall eart wasn't bad, there was a whole lot of clipping and sometimes when the camera zoomed out edge lines looked very ugly.  So good game, I wish the art was a little bit cleaner.  (Also, I had no idea Junpei was Junpei, he looked so different).
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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 6/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes!
I was a little nervous starting this series but I have to say, I am now intending to pick up the rest.  I really enjoyed the songs and the gameplay and the difficulty.  The harder levels felt harder but also something I could learn to get better at, which was very rewarding.  I felt like there was a little too much of a grind for the plat, since I barely had enough points to get anything after beating ever song, but it was still a lot of fun.  I will didn't enjoy being forced to use the touch screen which was a little awkward.  My main con though...was the UI.  Why do I have to sit through two loading screens to change a costume?  Why can't I choose random and then change the costume/singer?  I don't understand why changing the module is a different screen than setting up the song to play.  Annoying!  I like to use the random button but then I have to back out if I want to change anything. 
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Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 8/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
My review for this game isn't really too different from Diva f, see above, as there isn't too much that's different and I mean that in a good way.  I really enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the difficulty, and I enjoyed the music.  The visible unlocks, see how to unlock different items is nice; although the grind necessary for some items is way too much.  3939 combo notes is beyond excessive.  Especially for such a short song.  But I digress.  Overall fantastic game that is fun with good music.  The plat is a little bit too much of a grind though.  And I wish the other vocaloids had more songs.  I like Miku but the proportion is just completely one sided.
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Final Fantasy X
Playstation Vita
Difficulty: 7/10
Fun: 9/10
Is the price worth it: Yes
I absolutely love this game.  FFX and Kingdom Hearts are my two favorite PS2 games and being able to replay them on later systems is great.  The story is interesting, the battle system is nearly perfect, and the graphics, well, they were good in their time.  The cutscenes, though, those still hold up pretty well.  I still think that a combination of FFX's battle system with FFX-2's job changing system would be the absolute perfect battle system.  In my opinion at least.  I love how the turn-based system works and I always have.  Playing it through again, well, the voice acting for Tidus is absolutely awful but oh well, the game is still good, everyone else did fine.  I honestly didn't even mind the minigames for the most part.  Aside from that Chocobo Race.  With a later game and a little less awkward controls it would have been fine but man, that was the hardest part of the game.
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