Recent reviews by Hymntanra

So...this game is pretty fun as a party game. Unironically I had a blast playing this game when I never expected to, and playing the role of either character while leading on is in itself a great thrill. Me and my friends intended to play maybe two or three rounds and we ended up playing about six or seven instead. It's just fun. It's not really original, mind you, but it's still fun. I thought when I began that maybe the easiness is slanted more in the favor of the Kira player (as most of these team versus tend to be slanted towards one side) but after a while it became a bit more apparent that both sides legitimately have their disadvantages and in a way that makes the gameplay more entertaining.

This is VERY much a game you need a mic for, though, because if you can't describe and defend your position precisely then all you'll have is little tidbits that don't really help. Being able to speak your precise location at a precise time is a massive advantage in this game and if you don't have it...you're gonna be at a loss regardless of what role you're playing, I'm afraid. It's has a get around for mic usage but it's not in depth enough to suffice.

Now let's talk about the major problem.

I enjoyed the game a LOT, and I mean a lot, but this game is painfully unstable. Like...with these graphics, and this simple gameplay, I shouldn't have to be turning everything down to the lowest levels just to keep it from crashing. And everyone in the group I was playing in had this problem so it was not a problem with my own computer. This game needs a patch badly. It also could probably do with a modification to the game kick method, because kicking all the players because one person disconnected really is not an effective way to deal with it. Especially if they're just an average Investigator or Follower as opposed to L or Kira themselves.

But yeah, make a few patches and fix up the poor running and it should be fine. Did not need the egregious amount of battle pass nonsense though. I'll recommend it just because I did have a lot of fun and since this is so early into release, I can hope that it will be improved at some point. Just be sure to turn ALL the settings down to the lowest setting at this point in time, even if you have a really high end computer.

Absolute embarrassment of a game. Heard the console port runs better, I personally do not know, but the fact of the matter is that even selling this game at 75% off is a sham and an embarrassment since it runs like complete garbage and is essentially unplayable. Do not buy, even on discount, because it won't work regardless. I have no idea how this game port got so many positive reviews. The anime is fantastic, but this? This is not.

Avoid at all costs.

It's a good, fun, time consuming, addicting game. By all means, this game is entirely a time management game dressed up in the attire of otome game, but the sheer variety of what you can do within the scope of Princess Maker 2 has always kept it full out addicting. I loved the original DOS version and Refine provides much the same experience ... in some ways. I do have some issues with Refine in particular. Some of it I can admit point blank is personal bias, like a perference to the old pixel graphics. But some of the issues are undeniably genuine faults. The most glaring is the translation. There are multiple occasions in the Refine translation in particular that feel like they were directly translated from the original Japanese, and even times where the translation is so bad that the game is actually telling you the opposite of what happened (ex: whenever you win a fight, the game tells you '(daughter character) by beaten by (opponent)' and has a similar quirk when your character dodges an attack). The original game release translation in DOS wasn't this messy, so why is it such a disaster here? Aside from offputting details like that, though, the game is absolutely one that will steal your time for hours. The real draw in in the huge variety of endings and the variety of ways you could find yourself at many of them. And that is all still very present in the Refine version.

I'd absolutely recommend this but I have to stress that if you played the original, its a hardcore mixed bag. It has most if not all of the main mechanics but the translation is far worse, the graphics are a pitiful downgrade from the original ones, and one or two of the original cutscenes seems to be missing. From that standpoint its a pretty low quality transfer but it does still play well, and if you haven't played the original DOS version then these things probably won't be as glaring as they are to players of the original. This one is still absolutely playable but....it's not as much a 'Refined' version as is it a slightly visually cheapened version of the original game. The more lewd endings are now fully available and in the game, however, so there are definitely things that Refine has that the DOS one lacked. I'd still recommend the DOS over this but this game is pretty fun even with those issues.

I've had RPG Maker MV for a while (likely obvious from how much time I've logged with the program). I was initially hesitant with the price but having a Mac this was my only option for the program, and I sincerely have always wanted to try one of the RPG Maker programs. They've always been very intuitive creation tools for the most part, although I wouldn't recommend anyone going in COMPLETELY blind. Do a crash course on switches, learn about placing original content into the program for use, and maybe consider the use of plugins (they're very simple to use). As soon as you understand the basics the rest will start coming to you with practice.

So, MV specifically. MV has a few unique features, probably most noticeably being its 'character generator'. It's essentially a face and sprite dress up program to create characters for your games. If you're not much of an artist or spriter, it's a fairly useful tool, but the art is a tad bit generic and the options are limited so if you have another option then definitely go with that. There's also Javascript options for more advanced programmers--I've seen some pretty crazy stuff attained with this program, stuff that usually wouldn't be associated with this kind of program. It can also create touch based games for Android, though I've never tested those attributes.

It's a great program, a bit pricy, but it compensates for that pricetag pretty well. There's also a pretty active community of spriters and music creators who are actively producing free-to-use content to embellish your content with so the limits are pretty much the moon and the creator's willpower.

You're a goat and you blow ♥♥♥♥ up.

Really, there's not much to it. The game is full of glitches but I can't say no to running around blowing up tanker trucks just by ramming them into a car. For such small environments, the game also has a lot of exploration value. Every time you think you've found everything you realize that there's something new. A hole you can crawl into, a ladder you can climb, a demonic circle that you can sacrifice people to and become the Blood God.

A more recent update also provided you with the option of playing as different goats from the getgo, and each have their own different abilities that add to the fun destructiveness of the game. There's also the MMORPG parody, which is basically a MMO 'Sim'. To answer the question ahead of time, no, its not a real MMO and no you are not with real people in it. But it has a clever feeling that almost emulates classic MMOs and is decidedly charming in its sheer stupidity. Large world, just as much stuff to blow up, and also your goat can do magic sometimes. Cool beans.

It's dumb, but its fun dumb. The best kind of dumb.

The Otome genre is one of those genres that is very tedious to work with. You could find a true masterpiece, a diamond in the rough, or a glorified choose your own adventure textwall. Cinderella Phenomenon is somewhere between the second and third. The ideas behind it, of a world brought into suffering by Grimms Fairytales via a curse that affects them in the way of the fairytale, is very clever. The characters are also very promising, with a temperous princess, a mute prince, a amnesiac playboy, and so on and so forth.

Problem is, this game can't be bothered to do anything with that.

To start, this game hates you. Remember that. You are the bad person. Cinderella Phenomenon has this very odd, repeated habit of establishing its protagonist as 'like, the worst ever, you guys' yet in the end I felt more sorry for her than anyone else in the game. And there is no way to counter this. You either accept that you are 100% in the wrong and become a cloying sweetie who hugs her sister and dances in the woods, or bad end. Problem is that this takes away from player's ability to actually PLAY anything. You stop exploring a world and start saving at every question to ensure you get ALL of them right. It becomes less of an exploring experience and more like the game is yanking you from location to location. Now, this has been done right in other games -- just look to the Ace Attorney series if you want an example -- so why is it so bad here?

Because the choice is so LIMITED. Because what you say ultimately ends up having no damn effect aside from if you get even one question wrong, the ending chapter is different. But everything else is exactly the same. You still go here, go there, and ultimately only small chunks of dialogue are added if you pick the 'right' answer. This game just grabs you by the collar and takes you along for the ride. Because make no mistake, you are NOT in charge here -- the game is. Instead of the player playing the game, the game is playing the player. And its just boring, stupid, and infuriating. What if I WANT to argue with this idiot who is inarguably treating me like crap? Well, you can't, because you'll get a bad end if you slip up as much as once.

So positives are that this game has a great setting with a fun IDEA. But that's all it is: an idea. It's heavily dragged down by some of the most boring, annoying gameplay you'll ever find. You could go ahead and download this game, because its not like you're having to pay anything, or you could just save yourself the trouble and go read a book. It's practically the same experience anyways.