Recent reviews by kirbo

Murder by Numbers is a visual novel styled detective/mystery game, that uses Picross puzzles as its method of gameplay. The story premise starts simple, the main protagonist is a detective-playing actress that gets herself involved in a murder case, after meeting SCOUT, a robot with visual recognition functions, that has mysteriously awoken with his memories lost, they team up together to solve the many incidents they somehow end up getting involved in, taking a mantle of a wannabe detective duo while trying to learn more about the past of SCOUT.

The gameplay options are simple and concise. When the situation allows for it you can move through different locations relevant to the current chapter, question people and present evidence to them to get information or reactions. Additionally, you can scan the locations for any suspicious looking spots, here is where the Picross tie in happens, to scan for items, you'll have to solve Picross puzzles that will reveal evidence that may help the ongoing investigation.

That is the simple explanation of the game, though I have a few comments about it. Firstly, besides the puzzles you'll encounter through the chapters, there are some extra set of puzzles on the "SCOUT's Memories" section. The way these are unlocked are by reaching different "Rankings" on each chapter, earning points as you complete puzzles. The thing is that if you happen to use hints during a chapter, you will miss out on bonus points, which from my experience of using only a few hints in Chapter 1, will not allow you to get the S rank and unlock all bonus puzzles for that chapter. Forcing you to replay the chapter and beat all the puzzles without using hints if you want to unlock them.

This previous realization was annoying as they don't tell you this prior to experiencing it on your own, so it lead to being careful on the remaining chapters and use save scumming if I needed a clue on a puzzle, so that I could clear them "without hints" and get all bonus points. Even IF you do this, there are a few missable puzzles that can cause this frustration if you progress the story too fast in some situations. Another slight con is that there's no way to replay the puzzles found in the chapters unless you replay them completely, possibly a "Gallery" where you could access them would have been a good addition.

Besides these minor gripes the game was very enjoyable, most cases were interesting and engaging, and it wraps up nicely for the few lingering questions that arise through the story. If you're doing the puzzles on your own then most of the playtime will be spent in them, the story on the surface is not incredibly long, but by the end it's interesting enough with its theme and characters.

Zanki Zero is a very interesting mix of concepts and mechanics. As a Spike Chunsoft game, it has the expected visual novel style of storytelling, with a deep and mysterious plot. Eight people have awakened in a deserted island in a post-apocalyptic world, A recurring TV program tells them they are the last remains of humanity. As they explore this new and unknown world of ruins, they also come to realize they are human clones now, who can come back from the death retaining their memories, be reborn as their child selves, only to age back into adulthood and seniority within a few days, only to die and restart the cycle again. The game's chapters revolve around uncovering parts of the past of the group members, as they slowly come to learn more about what happened to the world.

The gameplay is where this game changes the most from what most are used in a Spike Chunsoft published title. The game controls in a grid-based map system, as an RPG styled game where resource and inventory management are key. Your party moves in first person across the maps, facing up against enemies who can mainly be hit at close distance, management of your space as you move is key into mastering the combat and exploration system. I will say, it took me a good amount of time to get fully adapted to it, the default controls are weird at first glance using a keyboard and mouse, you can plug in a controller but the game felt clunky with it, I picked KB&M to continue going. Once you do get the hang of the combat, it feels very rewarding.

Dying is actually a main mechanic in the game, there are countless ways to die, from different attacks of different enemies, while being affected by conditions, and so on. Depending on the way a character dies, after being "Extended", they will earn passive bonuses named "Shigabane", that will make them stronger in the future. You do drop your inventory on death, which is annoying at times, but it can be picked back up on the place you died at.

As you explore the many dungeons in the game, each has an unique way to present it's map, as well as puzzles along the way you must conquer and solve to progress, some are very clever, others confusing at times, overall most were good but there's a lack of explanation in a few instances, I had to look up guides to proceed.

I should add that this version of the game has a "Difficulty 1" setting, which pretty much removes every enemy besides bosses, though the former are defeated in 1 hit. I struggled a bit to get the full hang of the combat but I would encourage to play at the recommended Difficulty 3 setting. As you progress they allow you to amp it to 4 or 5 for more drops on items. I felt 3 was perfect for a decent challenge while playing the main story,

I tend to 100% games, but this time around I cut it short. In order to get all achievements, all possible Shigabane must be acquired, that is over 140 different ways of dying as all 8 characters. Completionists may want to rethink twice if they want to do everything in this game, as that process can be incredibly grindy, I chose not to do it for my sanity. However the game is filled with many side pieces of information that add to the world building on the long-gone world. The map gets filled as you progress through it, so empty spots on the grid that aren't surrounded by walls are clues for you to check a possible missed detail, I did enjoy going for these and discovering all the secrets.

Overall this game was an incredibly unique experience, I had no expectation or knowledge of it prior, besides the basic description, and after playing it I found an interesting and unique story, charming characters, and a very unique battle system to go along with the exploration. This game seems to be a bit on the unknown side but I can say it can almost stand to the side of some of the other popular titles published by Spike Chunsoft, if you are a fan of their games, I recommend you try this one out.

After the previous game, I can see how the RGG team decided to expand on the concept first experimented with in Y4. Yakuza 5 is a complete evolution of the gameplay and game structure first explored in the last entry. They went from four protagonists playing their stories in the same city, to having five different protagonists with an entire city for each of them (almost) to explore. This game is MASSIVE in all aspects that you can consider, which really surprised me when I first started playing it.

Like the previous game, the story is split up into parts where each character takes front stage, with each restart putting you into a new city to explore, often filled with new activities to perform on as part of the many side contents you'll find around. On top of the main story which is connected to a bigger plot in between each of the character's segments, each protagonist also gets a side activity that gets briefly introduced as part of the main progression, that you can follow to take a break from the main gameplay loop and arguably play a completely different game on each. I do personally enjoyed these side modes a lot as I enjoy the great variety that this series offers on their side content.

As part of the main combat, it's pretty similar to the previous game's styles, besides the one character who is swapped for a new protagonist. One addition is a character specific way of spending their heat, which can be fun or annoying, depending on who you're using, Saejima's isn't that great and is more annoying than not when it triggers.

Completion wise, as expected from having five different cities, there is A LOT to do, as evident by my high play time logged, it is certainly a challenge for Completionists. Most of the actual objectives aren't all that difficult, there simply is an insane amount of things to do. One tip however: Play on Normal difficulty, Akiyama's Coliseum matches are NOT balanced for him and it is a pain to do them in Hard or higher.
There's also the fact that for some god forsaken reason, they do not allow you to create Clear Save Files from Premium Adventure, and they explicitly tell you this. This means that if you plan to do future replays, you are only able to carry whatever progress you had at the Finale. I have no Idea why they chose to do this and I understand it's the only time they did, so... there's that.

Performance and engine wise, there is a massive improvement from Y4 Remastered, having played Y0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2, this game feels like a middle point between 0/K1 and K2, it is still the older engine but I really felt a big improvement that it almost feels like it's the Dragon Engine at times, transitions into battles are smooth and instant almost always, the other times they play a small cutscene to begin the fight, but that's mainly an aesthetic choice, though it can get annoying after repeated occurrences.

As a final comment, I often see people disliking this game a lot, and I feel like it mainly comes from it's massive length, I get it for a bit, but the game being built in five different stories and cities are what enable it to be this way. Another point may be that Haruka's sections are so different and pretty much it becomes a rhythm game altogether, as a fan of that genre myself I adored this part, but I could understand someone who may not be as ecstatic to be more annoyed by it than not, I do enjoy the big variety offered so I enjoyed this alternate play style when it came, it isn't as hard as I wish it could be at times, but mastering the harder opponents was a fun challenge.

Yakuza 4 is the point where some of the elements that began to shape some of the best received titles of the franchise began to be experimented with. This game features four different playable characters, each has their own combat moveset, as well as story, background and motivations. The main plot of this game revolves around a series of events that will eventually bridge the paths of all four protagonists joined with a common goal. The presence of multiple fighting styles and characters was born here and further used in some future titles along the line.

Comparing it with Yakuza 3, it's predecessor, the title which it shares the most similarities to, they improved on the combat side where enemies guarded too much, here it is much more balanced and enjoyable. The experience system once again works differently which can be amusing. Experiencing the city of Kamurocho from the eyes of four different people helps create a similar, yet different atmosphere, as each character will have different side activities and meet different characters only available to them.

Not to say it doesn't have side effects or issues. Inventories are character locked while playing the main story and if you picked up something that another character may have benefited more from, they cannot really use it until the inventories merge near the end. Also, having a reset on your money every 4 chapters didn't allow for certain side activities or minigames to be enjoyed right away, since I lacked the funds necessary to pay for stuff like gambling minigames or hostesses. Overall in this game I did the least amount of side activities before beating the main story due to this side effect.

On the Completionist side of things, I was relieved to see that most objectives as compared from Y3 were severely reduced in difficulty, without downgrading the amount of stuff. This was a good thing in my opinion given how extreme certain requirements were in the previous game, requiring hours and hours of practice to perfect a specific minigame. There are new additions as well so it's not the same thing again, certain minigames also were modified in an unique game on this entry, which I found amusing too.

In my opinion the story isn't as emotional as most of the previous entries, there's a few moments but they're tamer compared to earlier title's. But overall I really enjoyed the converging stories and the many sides of Kamurocho the four legends were able to see through.

GNOSIA is a visual novel styled type of game that plays like the communication games of "Werewolf" or "Mafia". I'm only familiar with the former, and it felt like a similar game but with an altered scenario to it. These games usually require a group of people to play, so GNOSIA manages to turn it into a single player experience by having a skill system that allows the player to strengthen their skills with experience they gain from playing, and additionally by having a cast of characters with set personalities and behavioral patterns. The key to victory alongside understanding the rules of the game is to master playing around the different characters, knowing when to trust or doubt them.

The gameplay loop asks the player to continue to experience "actual loops" of the situation they find themselves in, trapped in a spaceship where a contamination from Gnosia has been confirmed. There is a main plot which revolves around finding out new information about the participants and the loop itself, progression is presented with special events that trigger at the beginning, throughout or at the end of loops. I found the story to be really engaging even if it isn't incredibly strong. The whole suspense that's caused by the continuous loops was really captivating.

A little bit of luck on your side is required for the progression, as certain events require specific situations to trigger, which involve certain events to happen during discussion and specific characters to be around. This COULD be annoying but the game provides a feature that will make it more likely to discover something you lack. Once you're in the right track, even if you fail to meet some situation through the end, you'll be left with a clue on what to replicate to get it again. I personally didn't really struggle finding the events and I did enjoy the discussion game, so that kept me entertained even if I wasn't finding something new every loop. Recommended for fans of discussion games of this type.

Suhoshin is a murder mystery visual novel that uses a flowchart system similar to games like the Zero Escape Series. The story follows a young man recently appointed as an officer for the old land of Joseon, nowadays known as Korea. The story takes place on ancient times, as the return of the protagonist to his home village coincides with a series of mysterious murders in the otherwise peaceful place. Using his training he steps up to uncover the truth behind the incidents.

The game is pretty straightforward and linear, most of what you'll do is follow the story along. There are a few instances where a choice must be made and depending on your choice you may branch out into alternate events. You can later use the flowchart system to pick another choice and see what change can be made to the events that play out.

I found the premise very interesting right out the bat, with the main plot starting to progress with little delay to get you in on the rhythm of the story. There are unknowns that arise as you go that later on get explanations. The art for the characters and backgrounds is very beautiful and the soundtrack has very calming songs for the parts that evoke this feeling, reading along felt very comfortable while listening to the tracks.

The game should clock in at about 10 hours of duration, it is not incredibly long, but it delivers on its premise very well, there are distinct days of ingame progression so picking the end of one to end a playing session could be desirable, to spend a couple of days in total reading through the story. Due to my own time availability i did not made progress on continuous real days, but on the ones where I did sit down to progress through some part of the story it felt good to go through.
As the credits list, the development team was a small team. As their first project I quite enjoyed this little ride that I found randomly recommended on Steam, and I can say it was a good choice to check out, I definitely look forward to similar projects from the developers as they improve their style.

Pros:
-Sonic is finally dead
-An adventure for all the family

Cons:
-Too many furry characters

Overall, keep Sonic dead and we good.

I waited until I had completed absolutely everything there was to do in this game before writing this, as such, I'm doing so well over a year after I originally started this game.
As I had been playing the games in their chronological story order, I knew that from 0, K1 and K2, 3 was going to be a step backwards, as this version is simply a remaster of the original release, hence it mainly has enhanced graphics and perhaps a few tweaks.
Of course, this is immediately noticeable as some systems are reverted back to how the series was handled back then. The combat system is a single set of moves that need to be further unlocked as you gain experience, the combos are pretty different from the ones I was accustomed, but they were easy to adapt to and learn what worked. Unfortunately the game suffers from the known issue of "enemies block too damn much". No sugarcoating it, it's a fact. A lot of dislike is given to the game due to this, but I personally took it as a way to adapt how i'd often played the series before: try to use grabs more often, or even weapons. Dodge around enemies, or simply go all out on your rush combo since the last finishing hit almost always breaks through their block. Enemies also tend to be damage sponges and it can get annoying, but I personally tried to adapt to this way of combating enemies.
Now the reason why i was able to look past the combat was actually the story, and specifically, the Okinawa sections. These parts of the game change from the usual action heavy gameplay and storytelling, to more mellow paced segments that almost become a slice of life story. Kiryu is simply enjoying his newfound life as an orphanage director and spends time with his kids. I personally completely adored these moments and a lot of their parts even brought me tears of joy. I can't find the words to say it but it just fills me with happiness, and I give the game a lot of points for all of these parts.

The game is not perfect by any means and I can understand part of the hate it gets, but I'll be bold to say its my favorite entry in the franchise so far because of some of the smaller aspects of it that form the whole product. And as I said at the beginning, I did literally EVERYTHING, including the entire completion list and all of Haruka's Trust, so I know well how unforgiving some objectives were. If after all of that I can still keep a positive attitude, its because of how much the game resonated with me.

Despite the name, the game is, in fact, longer than 12 Minutes...

Jokes aside, this game is an interesting experience. It can be described as a "point and click" heavily narrative driven game. Upon reaching their apartment, the protagonist goes about his night with his wife, some events take place but after about 12 minutes, time will loop and he will restart at the beginning. Likewise, the loop will trigger if he tries to leave the apartment, or if he somehow gets hurt or injured.

To uncover the lingering mysteries behind the surprise appearance of a police officer that wants to arrest the couple, using the time loop you should strive to uncover more and more information each time, pursuing more avenues and different tactics to reach a different outcome within the limited options you have at your disposal. There is a deep story hidden within to uncover.

The concept is interesting and enjoyable, though I will say sometimes it becomes a drag to have to wait for some events to happen, there are certain actions you can do to fast forward time on the loops, but sometimes some necessary sequences will take up more time that cannot be sped up in any way, this gets kind of annoying when you're trying to re-do some set of actions to try something else at the end, only to have to wait for some characters to finish a dialogue. If you absolutely know what to do it is possible to minimize the amount of repetition, but for a first, blind playthrough, most players will probably use several loops to learn some necessary information to proceed with the deeper plot.

That may just be nitpicking though, the game on its own is very enjoyable. Depending on how much you'd like to experiment on different outcomes of doing certain things or choosing certain conversation options, the main game should take at the very least 6 hours. For me it was worth the experience.

Death Come True is an FMV adventure/mystery game written by the mind behind the Danganronpa series, Kazutaka Kodaka. The story revolves around a young man waking up with amnesia in a hotel room. Bizarre events are happening within the hotel, including debating with his own identity and purpose there, the protagonists goal is to try to discover the source of the weirdness by replaying events slightly differently each time.

As an FMV, the scenes play out until certain choices are asked from the player. Some actions will lead to bad endings, others will progress the story. There are 2 branching main endings that are mutually exclusive, so the game must be replayed again to see the other. Luckily, once you've gone through it once you should know both how to quickly reach the end, as well as which choices to select to see more of the bad endings. There are no manual saves, but this is due to a design choice that makes sense once you reach the end, but skipping ahead during a scenario is very easy so this was not an issue in the end.

Every bad ending awards an achievement, an in-game medal, and unlocks bonus clips of behind the scenes footage of the filming process. It's worth to go out and reach them all to earn those extra bonuses.

The total length of the story is about 3 hours, including the seeking of all alternate endings. The bonus clips will boost to around 3.5 hours of total content to see. The performance and effects are very good in my opinion, the plot has some twists here and there, though the player can piece together the greater picture as more clues continue to present themselves. It was enjoyable for what it was, worth checking out in a single sitting.