Évaluations récentes de TheToad

After finishing Clannad (review here), Side Stories was a bit of a let-down.

- The characters are the same, which is the only reason to even consider "playing" this game. Side Stories consists of sixteen 20 minute long episodes, most of which take places during or before the events of the main game. It's hard to tell an engaging story in just 20 minutes, and most of the episodes felt a bit like filler and were not very interesting.
- The voice acting is good, however maybe because Side Stories came out several years after the main game, some of the voices sounded a little bit different. I also didn't really like the voice of Tomoya, who is not voiced by the guy who voices him in the anime.
- The art mostly consists of reused background images from the main game, and sometimes the images make no sense. They use the image of Nagisa's home when showing Sunohara's home, images of Hikarizaka (the town in Clannad) when showing his hometown, and the high school from the main game when showing his junior high school. Just very lazy. They don't even show the person talking, which means that we get none of the facial expressions that I loved in the main game.
- The soundtrack is also reused, but while it greatly helped set the mood in the main game, in Side Stories it is mostly used as "generic background music". Such a waste.

If you loved the main game and you're not ready to let go of the characters just quite yet, then you probably won't regret picking up Side Stories when it's on sale, however you won't be missing much even if you decide to skip it.

- The story, despite being "just another high school rom com" on the surface, is really well written and is guaranteed to pull you in.
- The characters are all interesting and likeable. Some more so than others, but there are no "bad" characters.
- The voice acting is perfect.
- The art is good, but the expressions that the characters make are what make the art really stand out. It does a superb job at expressing the different personalities and emotions of the various characters.
- The soundtrack is great and does a good job at setting the right mood, but even among all those great tracks there are a couple (like "Nagisa") that stand out from the rest.

I enjoyed some routes more than others, but in the close to 70 hours it took me to clear all the routes I was never bored.

And I don't care how tough you are. It is impossible to finish Clannad without getting at least a little (but more likely very) teary-eyed. Anyone who says that they didn't feel anything playing this game is either lying or dead inside.

Clannad is one of those visual novels that definitely deserves all the praise it has received.

Pretty fun so far.

I remember playing R-Type II on my Super Nintendo. I don't think I ever finished it, but I remember loving it, and it feels great to be able to go back and give the game another go. And not only that, but R-Type I (which is also included) has been just as good, if not better than, R-Type II.

After 5 hours I've still only beaten the first 2-3 stages of both games without any deaths. Luckily the game has a "infinite lives" mode so even if you die a lot (and you will) you can experience the ending of both games. Level select is another nice quality of life addition that I'm happy they included. The real challenge however is of course to finish both games in one go, without using any continues.

You have the option of switching between the original 2D graphics and an updated 3D version, and they both look fine (although I think I prefer the original 2D version). The music is also great.

R-Type I and II are just two really fun games. The weapon upgrades feel very powerful and are fun to use, the mechanic with having a shield/ball you can attach to either the front or back of your ship to block against incoming enemies and projectiles also adds an additional layer of strategy to the game.

I was surprised to see that R-Type II only had 6 stages (as mentioned I was never able to finish the game on the Super Nintendo so I didn't know this), but you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of these two games. At some point I will beat both games without dying. It might just take some time.

Definitely recommended, even for those who never played the games when they originally came out.

8/10

It actually IS a nice (but very short) action metroidvania game.

- There's no story. It's just two girls hanging out in one girl's apartment.
- The art is average at best.
- The game is only about an hour long so you don't really get to know (or care about) the characters.
- The soundtrack consists of one or two tracks looping in the background.
- There are no adult scenes for people who might be expecting that.

I know that there's a lack of yuri games on Steam, but you're still better off skipping Lonely Yuri.
Hopefully we'll get some more and better options in the future.

Ghostrunner is a blast. It's fast, flashy, and clearing out a room of enemies feels amazing every time.

You dash, slide, wallrun, move in slow motion and use various abilities to take out a variety of enemies, all of which have to be countered in a specific way (usually).

The game is not very long, around 10 hours if you're looking to 100% it, but I'll take quality over quantity any day.

My only complaint is that if I played the game for too long periods at a time it would make my eyes hurt and give me a headache - but the pain was worth it!

At some point I'll definitely replay the game on the new hardcore difficulty, and this is the kind of game that might even be fun to speedrun.

Highly recommended.

Short "puzzle" game where you have to drop a ball down the side of a rotating cylinder while avoiding obstacles, utilizing power-ups like reducing the size of the ball or stopping it mid-air.

The reason I put puzzle in " " is because towards the end it's more about trying and failing until you get lucky than actually using your brain, but I still enjoyed my hour with Kolumno so I'm giving it a thumbs up. Plus, it's cheap (on sale).

Path to Mnemosyne is a short but fairly well made hand drawn puzzle game. It has a forgettable story (and ending), and there was one puzzle in particular that I found a bit annoying/frustrating, however I still enjoyed most of the two hours it took me to beat it.

Gorogoa is a short, clever and beautifully drawn point-and-click style puzzle game.

The game can be finished in a couple of hours and has very little replayability, but it's still worth picking up on sale if you just want to unwind and relax for a while.