Recent reviews by Akira "Aki" Fujita

This game makes as much sense as its control scheme.

IT DOESN'T.

The video game equivalent of "hiding from your dad while he's on a drunken rampage by hiding out in the fields at night."

Equal parts terrifying and exciting, you'll relive all the memories, especially getting beaten by a leather belt!

...

I need to go sort some things out.

I don't remember Hong Kong '97 looking like this, tbh.

The best roadtrip game ever made.

HE'S GONNA TAKE YOU BACK TO THE PAST

Featuring Bootleg Sephiroth comes a game about family and friendship and wearing funny outfits during in-engine cutscenes.

I want to die.

Goodbye, and Thank You, Tango Gameworks.

This was my Game of the Year for 2023 and to see a company make one of the best games I've played in my life just... have their doors shut for what feels like almost no reason, it hurts. It hurts a lot.

Having said that, the game itself is amazing, and cements my hatred for corporate meddling in a game that almost seems to have zero of that. If Microsoft can't figure out why people liked this game, I have no hope for them in the future as time goes on.

Great game, wonderful even. And now we'll never get to see what else Tango can put out because of some people at the top who want to save money.

Kinda funny how the plot almost makes fun of people like that. Deservedly.

This one is hard for me.

On one hand, Anno Mutationem is lovingly crafted with a fantastic art direction with memorable designs and characters that are enjoyable from beginning to end.

On the other, the plot starts off promising enough, but falls apart towards the end because the developers ran out of time to rush to the ending. But that isn't all; the writing has points of being just all-out weird and disconnected from the rest of the game.

I say this as I recommend this game. But only because I did enjoy my 14 hours in this game up until the end. There are some parts (one side quest in particular) that really stick out to me. I won't spoil it, but I think a good side quest should serve as a story in its own capacity to further develop your cast or how they react to situations, maybe learning their likes and dislikes from something.

Unfortunately, this quest in particular ended as a sight gag and it ends with our protagonist and her companion just saying, "let's just never talk about this again."

So while I liked this game's style, had issues with the writing, and think the ending is extremely rushed, I think it's still a good game made by people who wanted to tell this story. And that deserves respect. I'd say pick it up if you do like the aesthetic, there's plenty eye candy here with some weirdness mixed into it that does make it unique, but I hope this developer follows up this game with a sequel that's a bit tighter in its script.

I'm so angry the developers gave this away for free.

It's so good I actually want to pay them for what they've created.