This is a reblog of my site http://geekysweetie.com – Other stuff may appear here such as reblogs from other wordpress.com sites. I blog and reblog about anime, video games, kdrama, toys, technology, and kawaii fashion and decor.
Thanks to the folks at Galdra Studios for allowing me to review their debut visual novel, Arcadia Fallen. As a first release from an indie game publisher, Arcadia Fallen definitely exceeded my expectations in many ways. First of all, the game’s high production values from voice acting, to character portraits, and even a catchy anime opening song and animation, all pull you right into the game. From there, the characters and story and unraveling the mysteries of the game keep you glued to your gaming chair. For those that find routine visual novel gameplay a bit dull, you might like the puzzle aspects in Arcadia Fallen because it has a nice crafting and alchemy feature.
With that said, let’s dive into our review. Keep in mind, Arcadia Fallen is a small indie game, but is being held to the same scrutiny and standards as any other game I review here, be it from an indie or bigtime game publisher. For what it is, a small first attempt by a new indie studio, Arcadia Fallen actually holds its own in many areas.
Title: Arcadia Fallen
Platform: PC and Nintendo Switch
Release Date: November 17, 2021
Genre: Visual Novel
Publisher: Galdra Studios
Overall: 68/90 76% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 3/5 – At the end of the day, Arcadia Fallen is a story driven visual novel. For some people, these games are too casual, but for most of my readers, this is our preferred genre of games. I do think Arcadia Fallen has some breakthrough potential to reach a wider audience due to high production values and the alchemy crafting puzzle aspects of the game.
Sweetie: 5/5 – With high replay value, a lot of inclusivity when it comes to who you want to play as, same sex dating options, gender options, and interesting characters and story, girl gamers will love Arcadia Fallen.
Gameplay: 7/10 – Gameplay, like most visual novels, consists of reading a lot of character dialog. When you aren’t reading and making branching plot choices, you’re crafting alchemy items by using a puzzle like mechanic of dragging and dropping ingredients into three spheres and turning them until the inner rings hold the ingredients to make your items. These puzzles range from simple to challenging. It really adds to the gameplay and breaks up the monotony of visual novel style read and click gameplay that all of these games suffer from. It’s a much appreciated little break from the story.
There’s also numerous choices you make as a player that drive and determine the story, or even which characters will join your party. As mentioned, you have a lot of freedom in who you want to romance, including same sex, or gender fluid characters which is nice for diversity and inclusivity.
Another nice touch is that you have a ton of freedom in where to travel to and what order to explore and do things in. You aren’t just forced down one path. From the overworld map, you can go explore side quests, or make branching plot decisions on where to go and what to do next.
There are a lot of quests and rewards and gameplay diversions that help Arcadia Fallen stand out from other traditional visual novels.
Story: 8/10 – The story and writing are very interesting. Without spoiling too much for you, the game starts with a spirit accidentally binding itself to you, and a string of events that have people accusing you and your employer of being evil witches. In an effort to clear your name and unbind this spirit from yourself, you begin a journey where you meet many other interesting characters.
Characters: 10/10 – I really enjoy the diverse characters. The cast is small, but each character truly stands out. I feel like the developers have probably played a few dungeons and dragons campaigns. These characters are spot on representations of the classic “Lawful Good” “True Neutral” “Chaotic Good” “Chaotic Neutral” “Lawful Evil” etc. From a wandering bard/magician who seems to only be tagging along out of amusement/interest, to a young scientist seemingly motivated by fame and greed, to a knight working for the government making sure you don’t try anything suspiscious. These are just some of the characters you’ll meet along the way. The voice acting definitely helps the characters feel more real and personable as well.
Graphics: 6/10 The graphics are not my cup of tea and have a distinctive western style to them, opposed to traditional anime visual novels from Asia. But none the less, I will say these graphics are clean, sharp, and clear with numerous facial expressions.
Music: 7/10 – The opening theme is so cute and was a real surprise. Many of the background ambient tracks are nice and fitting for the scenes. There just wasn’t a big variety of music, but that’s to be expected in an indie game.
Voice Acting: 8/10 – I was surprised at the quality and also amount of voice acting used in this game. There was maybe only one or two characters that I didn’t really care for their voice actors, but the rest I thought fit the characters perfectly.
Character Customization: 4/10 – I was surprised by lack of character customization. It does ocassionally show your playable character. When I played there were only 2 hair styles, and ability to change eye/skin/hair color and a few (less than 10 maybe) options for colors for your clothing. hmm this was a miss for me. But a nice effort to include customization at all.
Replay Value: 10/10 With a somewhat nonlinear approach, and where your decisions matter, this is a fun game to replay to see all of the different effects of your decisions.
I’ve spent several hours and am on my third life in the new “child raising” sim game, Growing Up, available now via Steam. This game reminds me a great deal of Chinese Parents. Both games use a “brain map” type of setup to unlock skills. Both continue on forever as each life ends and a new life begins. Both have you balance your mental health and parent’s satisfaction. Both games involve dating and friendships and schoolwork and exams. Yes both games are incredibly similar. It’s hard to believe that they are different games or by different developers… but you know, Great minds think alike!
Both games, to somewhat of a lesser degree remind me of Princess Maker (but Princess Maker is much better than both of these games.) And also somewhat similar to Ciel Fledge. Another child raising simulation is Little One. I have played all of these.
So if you like any of those games, check out the others on my blog too.
For me, I think child raising games might be one of my favorite game genres. They’re so unique… and so many possibilities and high replay value – and well they’re strange and fascinating.
Ok but back to “Growing Up” – In this latest child rearing simulation, you can either select your gender and parents at the beginning of your first playthrough or leave it up to fate. I selected my stuff. On subsequent playthroughs it’s always left up to fate (well fate and your choices on the previous playthrough.)
On my most recent playthrough I had two girls fighting for my love and attention. One was a childhood tomboy friend and the other a preppy popular cheerleader I just recently met in highschool. They couldn’t have been more different. I went with the childhood friend, it just felt like the right thing to do. The pretty girl, was well prettier of course. Especially at the “adult” age. Damn my wife is ugly as a mudboard fence, not gonna lie lol. That cheerleader’s looking pretty good right now. The childhood friend was kinda attractive, even as a teenager, long brown hair, and a charming smile. Then she cuts it off almost into a buzzcut and – uhh lets just say she did not age well… at all.
I also have a bit of a problem with how “woke” this game is. Why must EVERY thing be about race…. I’m sick of it. I’m not racist. I’m in a real life biracial marriage, and hopefully someday will have real life children (biracial or maybe adopted maybe a completely different third race lol). I am SICK AND TIRED of all this political bullshit. Yes, I’m sorry the majority of the world are complete fucking assholes and that they treat people of different races poorly. But we get enough of that shit in real life. I play games to escape that shit.
I appreciate you wanting to make a game focused on inclusivity – lots of different races, a girl with one arm, lesbian and gay romance options – cool, awesome. But I think there’s a better MORE POSITIVE way to encourage acceptance instead of have the black one armed girl complain about “mean white girls” – REALLY? you REALLY went there? As if to say all white girls are rich or racist or stuck up. WHY MENTION THEY’RE WHITE. Why not just “Mean girls” Why “Mean WHITE girls?”
They had plenty of reason to tease/bully her – she had ONE ARM for fucks sake. Why make it about skin color. I just don’t get it. In addition to one arm, she was a fucking recluse, she was obsessed with horror and cultish shit and avoided people. ALL reasons someone would get teased in middle and high school. But nope, you decided that the only reason they’d tease her is because she’s black and they’re white. Really? I’m pretty sure at THAT AGE, that there would be plenty of black and brown and asian girls teasing her too because of her fake arm and reclusive antisocial behaivour, not just because of her SKIN COLOR. Let’s just STOP MAKING EVERYTHING ABOUT RACE?! OK?
Fucking face palm. I am sick and tired of this political shit being shoved down my fucking throat. We get it OK? Blacks (and browns and asians and indigenous people and every other fucking whatever race you are) have it harder than white people. White people have a privilege. Never said we didn’t. But jesus fucking christ. I didn’t ask to be born white. I can’t help being white anymore than you can help being whatever race you are. Stop making me feel “bad” just for being born white. That’s fucking bullshit.
They say reverse racism doesn’t exist, but yet here we are in a world with media, popculutre, video games, portraying white as “bad” “mean girls” “white mean girls” (direct quote there) and black as good, black as victim or hero, and white as a villain. Knock that shit off already. There’s good and bad people of every fucking race.
There end rant.
Sorry but it needed to be said, I’m not the only one sick of this whole “woke shit”. It needs to go away. It’s not the right way to deal with racial diversity and adversity. Making one race feel bad to make another race feel good is never the right answer, no matter what races are in that equation.
Back to the game itself…
The game is a lot of fun – but it does ultimately get repetitive. I’m not tired of it yet – but I would have liked even more choices/options/opportunities for interaction sequences, choices and consequences, and so on.
But at its heart it’s a fun and challenging game.
Like all the child raising simulation games before it, you start with a baby and your options are limited. As the child grows, new options, new skills, new friends, and new romances are unlocked, and at the end, you find out what career your baby has pursued and also whatever happened to the friends and romances along the way.
One of the biggest reasons it gets repetitive is the parents expectations and parents dialougue choices and sequences, they are VERY repetitive, not enough different parent/child interaction – AND if I’m playing the PARENT, I feel like I should have some options on how to interact with my child. In this case it almost feels more like I’m playing the child, instead of raising one.
Once you start school and meet new friends and so on, that’s when the story gets interesting – it can even get emotional and deal with some heavy topics.
The characters are very well fleshed out – each one is unique and has an interesting personality. These are no Mary Janes. They have flaws and things that make you dislike them honestly – but that makes them more real. My first playthrough, my love interest had autism or aspergers or something similar making them hate physical interaction and be very socially awkward. In that same playthrough I met the one armed girl who aside from angering me with the political racial issues, was actually a very interesting character, a rebel, and a sorta “badass” sassy girl. On that playthrough I also met a stoner punk rock girl who was adopted and seeking her birth parents even though she had a loving family already. Very complicated characters and relationships.
On my next playthrough I was born as a boy and had a tomboy female best friend, and later met a cheerleader whose brother was sick and dying and who herself was anorexic or bulemic. I also had a male best friend who was blaming himself for his parents divorce and caught in the middle of toxic fighting parents arguing over custody.
I mean these are all some really deep and interesting issues. It’s nice to see a game with characters that feel Real in that sense.
Gameplay, as I said, you work on a grid, unlocking “bubbles” for stat boosts until your energy runs out. You can buy items to increase your energy cap. You balance your happiness (extracurricular) with parents expectations (education). You interact with characters and dialougue prompts to make key choices to drive the story in various directions. You date, fall in love, and have a child – and the journey continues, on and on – forever.
For that reason, replay value is through the roof – possibilities nearly endless – and hopefully maybe we’ll see even more choices in the form of DLC in the future.
Here’s my score:
Overall: 54/70 77% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 2/5 – Gameplay is slow and can get repetitive. Graphics are still and although detailed, do feel dated. Only play this if you like child rearing sims (which I do, so it’s all good).
Sweetie: 4/5 – This would be 5/5 if it got rid of the racial “wokeness” – and added a few more diverse options for interacting with the parents.
Gameplay: 5/10 – There isn’t much gameplay wise honestly, but that’s not why we play these games. There are a lot of skills and places and locations and even some dressup options – so really, for THIS TYPE OF GAME – Gameplay is really good, honestly.
Story: 8/10 – I’d give it 10/10 if it got rid of the political “wokeness” – and added a few more different parent dialougue sequences
Graphics: 6/10 – I’m over these “static” graphics. Don’t they know about “Live 2D” – you can do 2D graphics and have them fully animated. If free mobile games are doing this – why aren’t ALL games doing this? But the graphics aren’t bad – They’re colorful. The backgrounds are especially crazy detailed, and the children and adult portraits are nice. No complaints. It’s not MY style (I prefer anime style over western style) – but I’m not gonna deduct points for that as it’s a preference.
Characters: 9/10 – minus 1 for being too politically “correct” – or “wrong” if you ask me. Otherwise, as mentioned, these characters are very real and troubled and have some realistic issues going on. Still waters run deep.
Music: 10/10 – Honeslty, 10/10 – I love the music. It’s so great and catchy and it gets stuck in my head. Love love love that most of it is vocal tracks. My favorite one is the one that goes “Don’t you love these rainy days?”.
I did back a third game yesterday, but didn’t get a chance to post about it yet. If you haven’t already checked out the other two posts yesterday for Ova Magica and Coral Island you can click their names to read them now.
Beacon Pines is entirely different from the above “farming games”. Instead, Beacon Pines bills itself as a “Cute and Creepy” Adventure game where “Words You Fine Can Change The Course Of Fate”. It’s also featuring cute anamorphic or furrie characters.
Hiding Spot Games is raising funds for Beacon Pines on Kickstarter! Beacon Pines is a cute and creepy adventure game where the words you discover can change the course of fate
They do have a demo that we can play. I haven’t tried it yet as of time of this review. It’s only 7 something in the morning here right now. lol. And I didn’t notice the demo last night when I backed them on kickstarter. I am excited to play.
Beacon Pines is a cute and creepy adventure game within a magical storybook. You play as both the reader of the book and its main character, Luka. Explore the town to find word charms. Use your charms to change the course of fate!
I like how the game looks, I like how the game sounds, and I like the gameplay concept. Another reviewer said that it’s like mad libs except you might get someone killed or completely alter their life.
Check out Beacon Pines on Kickstarter or download their demo.
I would best describe “Tell Me Why” as an LGBT+ visual novel puzzle solving adventure game. The gameplay is similar to Tell Tale’s Walking Dead, or D4 Dark Dreams Don’t Die, or Quantic Dreams’ Detroit Become Human, and of course DONTNOD’s other adventure games such as Life is Strange. All of which I love. So It comes as no surprise that I would then also love Tell Me Why.
So let me tell you why (pun intended lol).
Although it is a game about transgendered youth and homosexuality, and I am a straight born this way female, I have always accepted gay rights and had no issues with that being the focus of the game. Most my family has always been against gays but even from a young age I would try to argue that they should be allowed to love who they love.
And from a young age I’ve felt just as I’ve been born into this world as a straight female, they too have been born into this world as a gay male/female or feel gender disassociation with their own bodies.
I really strongly feel that it is not a moral thing. It doesn’t corrupt our children or our society because it is not a conscious choice. It is not something someone chooses. It’s not like someone just wakes up one day and says hey I want to be gay today I saw it on TV or in a game and it looks fun. LOL.
There’s too many cases of very small children, talking like toddlers here, that want to dress as the other gender or insist they are not their biological gender, etc.
It’s not a sexual thing since it’s way before they have any concept of sexual desire or sexuality. It’s just they feel different. So I’m pretty confident that it’s not some dark terrible horrible thing. That’s how I’ve always felt. Even back in the 80s/90s when being gay was largely not acceptable for society.
I’m straight but I feel it’s fine for other people if they wanna be gay, let them be gay, what’s it hurt?
As for the religious angle, I always say God doesn’t make any mistakes. God created man – and woman – and he looked at his creation and he said “It is good.” – And besides if God doesn’t approve of gays, well that’s between them and god – only god can judge them – we have no right to judge other humans when we too have sins of our own. We all sin. The two main commandments are to love god and love thy neighbor. There is no commandment that says thou shall not be gay. lol.
Ok sorry by the way I am ignorant and really don’t know all the politically correct polite terms for LGBT+ stuff. So Excuse me. I don’t want to offend anyone here. Really really not my intention. Much love.
I honestly have no idea if Tyler would be called a transgendered man or a transgendered female or if it’s even politically incorrect to call him trans at all, maybe he should just be called he/him/his or referred to as a man. So that’s what I’ll try to do is refer to him in the masculine.
Alright, now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s talk about the actual game.
I already compared it to other similar games, but in case you’re completely new to any of these games, the gameplay is like this: it’s like an interactive movie. You watch it and sometimes you can take control of walking around but most of the time not. You watch and watch and watch, and occasionally there will be some prompts for interaction. Such as replying from multiple choice responses.
Now I want to point out – most reviews are positive – but I saw one negative review (there are other negative reviews but this jumped out at me) and they said they only ever had 2 choices and it was pretty clear which one was the correct answer – I disagree. I saw numerous times 3 or 4 or more choices especially later in the game.
I spent 73 hours with the game and completed all 3 chapters.
The person making the negative review said he spent 8 hours.
Only less than 50% of users on steam have even completed chapter 2.
Less than like 40% have found the princesses treasure – I won’t say what it is because it’s a pretty shocking spoiler.
Less than 50% keep the twins connection – on the other hand – less than 3% complete the game with the twins severing their connection.
Of course multiple play throughs are needed to get both.
Less than 40% find out who their father is
Less than 40% get the confession from Tessa
Less than 40% make peace with Mary-Ann at her grave, etc.
So no, it’s not clearly black or white, as it’s about 50-50 what people have chosen to do on their play throughs – if they’ve even played long enough to see all the choices available.
I’m the type of player who likes to run around exploring every nook and cranny and going everywhere else except or where the story is prompting me to go. I’m an explorer. That’s my play style. It’s not even that I want achievements. I just want to unlock more back story and find hidden easter egg type things tucked away in the game.
I am the type that will read and click everything, sometimes even multiple times.
And even I still missed some achievements on my first play through – most are because of the branching fork nature of the game, you can’t see or do everything in one playthrough. I got 20 out of 30 and got a pretty nice ending though so I’m happy with that and I don’t really think I’ll play again for awhile (years – if ever) because I have so many other things I want to play first.
So that’s gameplay. Let’s move on to story.
So the story of the game is about two twins who grow up in Alaska. Their mother is a free spirit Tinglit (I may not have spelled that correctly, some type of Native American tribe). She wants to raise her children in the ways of her ancestors. And it is pretty clear she loves her children, but also pretty clear that she’s weird and “out there”.
The family is shunned by a lot of people in town. But because it’s a small town they also have a few close friends growing up that love and support them.
Until one day, their mother crosses a line that should not be crossed and then even old friends turn their backs.
With no where and no one left to turn to, their mother has a mental break down. It’s up to you to decide as the story unfolds what really happens, either suicide or murder. I won’t say who or what. I won’t even say which one I chose. But that’s the heart of the game really.
In addition to the suicide/murder mystery – it’s also as heavily mentioned above about a transgendered character. Both twins are biologically female, but one twin feels like a male trapped in a woman’s body. A lot of the game’s story deals with themes of LGBT+ equality and rights and even the personal fears and questions and doubts and experiences that an LGBT youth experiences and trying to fit in, and other psychological issues, both while young, and then later in life during, and after their transition.
And not to be forgotten in the story, is the bond between siblings, especially in this case twins. They can talk to each other using their inner voice which also becomes part of the gameplay. And they have shared but differing memories of the events that happened. Their experiences or memories of those experiences sometimes differ and you must choose which one feels most true to you. All to piece together what really happened the night of the murder or suicide in which all of the characters are involved.
Overall I liked the story and the characters. They seemed real. They had their own struggles and issues and concerns and hopes and dreams.
I didn’t like the story as much as Life Is Strange (by the same developers).
This story didn’t move me emotionally.
Maybe it’s because it’s harder to relate for me personally to LGBT+ because I am not one myself.
Maybe the story is very emotional to an LGBT person playing the game. But I can only talk about my own experiences.
Detroit Become Human (similar gameplay different developer) moved my soul and stirred my imagination and touched me on a much deeper level than Tell Me Why. I’d also say the same for Life is Strange – it too moved me more deeply.
I don’t know what the disconnect was for me in Tell Me Why, it just felt flatter to me. Maybe like I said I found it harder to connect to the characters or really truly understand their issues because I have nothing in my own life to compare it to.
That didn’t make the story bad per say. It just made it less relateable. But still with over 70 hours I put into a game, in which other people spent 8 hours with before writing off – I’ll say this – I was drawn into Tell Me Why’s story the entire time from start to end. It had me hooked. I couldn’t put this game down. It’s the only game I’ve played in over a month – aside from a few mobile games when away from my computer.
I wanted to learn more about the twins and the fate of their family in their small Alaskan town. That kept me wanting to play. I didn’t play every single day, but I played whenever I had free time, choosing this game over any others in my “to be played” pile.
That right there says a lot for the story. Because I play video games primarily just for the story. That is why I love these types of games after all and why I review so many of them here on my blog.
Replay value is also high because if I ever want to unlock all achievements or see other endings or other branching plot points, I will need to replay.
Graphics are hit or miss for me. I will say I like the texture and details. Hair, Beards, Clothing, Grass, and other fine small details look extremely natural and nice.
The downside of the graphics is that while Alaska can be a beautiful place… It’s also a place that for many months is covered by snow and ice each year. And well that gives it a kinda baren white bleak back drop for our little murder mystery.
Also it just feels SMALL. It feels smaller than most other DONTNOD games. I feel like it consists of 5 locations used over and over and over ad nauseum.
For example, Mary Ann’s House, Tessa and Tom’s General Store, Eddy’s House, The Police Station, and late in the game – Chapter 3, introducing Sam’s House and The Attic. Like I said, about 5 maybe 6 locations – I forgot to mention the cemetery for a brief moment there too.
Everything is grey, everything is bleak, everything is blah. This doesn’t make me want to go to Alaska. Meanwhile, I have legit seen things in real life (TV Brochures etc) that would make me want to go on an Alaskan cruise.
Also the game feels still and lifeless. Alaska is a place of natural beauty and lots of animals. And while they do a good job at Native American culture and animal symbolism, nary is an actual animal present in the game, except a bird here or there.
There is some beautiful story book artwork mixed in here or there at key story points. Look a very very old fashioned fairy tale. All hand painted or wood carved. Full of whimsy and fantasy and full of animals and details. It’s truly a delight to see and much preferred over the bleak almost post apocalyptic actual game environments.
So like I said graphics hit or miss.
Voice acting was good I thought. I almost always like the voice acting in DONTNOD games, and was equally impressed with this one.
Music again hit or miss, there’s not much variance. What’s there is mediocre at best honestly. And some of the vocal tracks aren’t great or memorable. That’s my take. Your mileage may vary. We don’t all have similar music tastes.
Geeky: 3/5 – Most males don’t really enjoy these types of intellectual puzzle games with little to no action and little control over their characters. Also I think most males will be more closed minded about the whole LGBT+ thing. I think this game is more focused on story and puzzle solving and requires critical thinking and not a twitchy action shooty game. I rate it moderately because unlike Anime visual novels, this one actually gives you some freedom of movement and control at some parts to explore and discover new things like an action adventure game, or when solving puzzles, but those moments are limited. Most the time you’re just watching a movie unfolding and making choices to direct the path of that movie. If that’s your thing cool this is for you – otherwise move along.
Sweetie: 3/5 – Again moderate rating here – while traditionally us ladies love these types of “visual novel” or “puzzle games” – this one just doesn’t tug at my heart strings – and I think us women crave something more deep and personal durring our gameplay experience. I don’t know also if the bleak boring backdrop of this game’s setting really appeals to us girls who prefer bright cute anime styled games over this.
Gameplay: 5/10 – moderate – it’s what’s to be expected of this type of game. You can see why under “Geeky” above, but as a recap, it has little interaction and is mostly like watching a movie unfold instead of directly controlling the action in the game. I’m fine with this – it’s my most preferred genre – but objectively speaking – yeah not much actual “gameplay” aside from there are a large number of puzzles in this particular one, more than most other visual novels tend to have I think. And if you’re into exploring there’s lots of easter eggs and achievements. It’s just the time given to you to explore those things is often limited.
Story: 8/10 – I liked the story – a lot. I already explained at length how it drew me in and I couldn’t put this game down. How I explored every nook and cranny trying to unlock more and more twists and turns in this murder/suicide mystery game. But still, as repeatedly mentioned, I just didn’t connect emotionally to this game. I’m a crier, and this game didn’t make me cry. I just didn’t get “the feels” from this game and I’m not sure why not. Even though I did find the princesses’ “treasure”. Even though I picked the path of love and forgiveness… I still — I felt something, like sympathy or understanding, but I didn’t cry. Detroit Become Human and Life is Strange made me cry… but not this.
Characters: 8/10 – A story is only as good as its characters and one thing I love in a good story is strong character development. The cast is small but their personality shines through and you get a good look at their intellectual thought process and personal motivations and how it all ties back to the fateful night of the murder/suicide. But again since I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story for some reason, I also didn’t really grow to care very deeply about any of the characters.
Replay Value: 10/10 As evidenced by the steam achievement statistics with less than half of the people learning what really motivated Mary-Ann to act that way on that night, well I’d say replay is pretty high and obviously choices are not as black and white as some negative nancies would want you to believe. There is depth here, and grey here, and not really right or wrong answers. I was constantly switching between favoring the feelings of Aly or Ollie. I didn’t believe a single person 100% of the time. There’s always room for differing opinions and always room to forgive or condemn those who have done wrong in the past (in this game, but also just as in real life).
Graphics: 6/10 – Eh I’m torn – am I low balling this too much? It’s just so damn bleak and apocalyptical and boring and the same 5-6 environments just get reused over and over. But the texture is A+++ – Hair and Beards and Clothes all look friggin fantastic – super realistic. And I love the story book art too. I love that even more than the normal environment art. Also as mentioned speaking of environment, where are all the animals and nature and true beauty of Alaska? blah.
Music: 5/10 – MEH – very meh – just finished playing this morning, and like 5 hours later already forgot it all. Nothing stands out. I won’t be buying this soundtrack that’s for sure. There were also some vocal tracks that I really strongly disliked. That’s just my preferences though I suppose…
Voice Acting: 10/10 – I give credit where credit is due. I love 1.) that the game is fully 100% completely voiced (except for I guess the goblin story book – they could have voiced that too – oh well I won’t take any points away for that.) – and 2.) The voice acting is decent – like what we’d see on TV – a real TV show – not a bad anime dub LOL.
Little dirty off topic secret about myself though – in the last 4-5 years I’ve been watching more dubs than subs even though I was anti-dub for like 15 years – shush don’t tell anyone LOL – for one thing, it’s the default setting in most apps – Netflix, crunchy, and others – and I’m lazy – for another thing – slowly bit by bit by bit trying to get my fiance to watch some anime – I’ve got him to watch some movies but he doesn’t have patience for series – even short ones that are like 20-40 episodes lol – and for third thing, I started an anime club – before covid – and most of them all prefer dubs, so that’s what we tend to watch – which works better because everyone can multi task and visit and do other things – sometimes we play games and have anime in the background – so while I SLAM most dubs as garbage… I’ve slowly recently been becoming pro dub – ah no what’s happening to me?! LOL :(.
I recently started playing Dragon Raja, a full featured MMORPG on smart mobile devices.
Overall Score: 75/90 83% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
Overview: 10/10 Dragon Raja is a beautiful game with amazing character customization and open world environment. Play as one of four starting classes and three “races” (male human, female human, or a kawaii lolita race (all of my characters are loli because they’re sooo cute!!) The character customization is the highlight of this game to me. Story, Gameplay, and Music are all pretty great though really.
Geeky: 5/5 The character customization, combat, graphics, and gameplay earn high marks.
Sweetie: 5/5 The cute anime style graphics and Lolita race and visual novel style choice system as well as very advanced character customization highlight this game’s sweetness factor.
Gameplay: 8/10 The game plays like any MMORPG. Take on quests, level up your character, fight monsters, get loot and equipment for your character and explore the world as you progress through the story.
Dragon Raja has great gameplay but it can suffer from lag depending on your device or connection. This game really pushes the limits of mobile games in both gameplay and graphics so you need a powerful device and high speed connection. If you’re home on WiFi it’s not a problem but in some more rural areas, like where I live where 5G isn’t available, he’ll sometimes 4G isn’t even available, it can be difficult to play on 3G and laggy AF.
There’s also the ability to click the quest to auto path to the next step in the quest. Gameplay especially combat though is quite fun and action packed. Each class plays a little differently and makes the game fun to replay as different classes.
Character Customization:10/10 Not only can you really get unique with your physical appearance, but in almost visual novel style you’ll be prompted at times to answer NPC story dialogue by selecting from multiple responses which changes your character’s personality type and may impact the story. (I say may because I’m not far enough in yet to know for sure)
Story: 7/10 The story is pretty good so far, and like mentioned above you will be prompted at times to respond to the NPCs which makes it more than just reading but the auto path feature makes it all too easy to skip the story almost entirely. I’ve also seen a fair number of typos or grammar errors.
Community: 5/10 An MMORPG is only as great as the players who play. The players here seem more isolated and community takes a large back seat until perhaps later in the game. They also seem immature from what chats I’ve seen so far.
Graphics: 10/10 Love how cute this game is and really enjoy making my characters who you can see throughout this blog post.
Music: 5/10 Just kinda average. Most the time I play mobile games muted anyways.
Replay value: 10/10. With multiple classes and visual novel branching plot elements, this game will keep players coming back.
Overall Score: 75/90 83% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
I had downloaded this game, Mr. Love Queen’s Choice, months ago, and forgot all about it, until I saw someone on instagram sharing a video stream of the game, and I was like wow that game looks fun. Then I saw it was by Elex, makers of Love Nikki Dressup Queen, and I was like, I need to play this game. Since then, I’ve sunk probably 20 hours into the game and am really enjoying it so far.
Release Date: I think I must have used Qoo App, because I am already playing the game, and it says Pre-register on the play store. Or maybe I got into beta? I am not sure, anyways, yes I am playing the game currently. You can check Qoo App, which is probably how I got it. And yes I’m playing it in English.
Overall: 65/80 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 3/5 – Basically just a card collecting game, but with a twist, you manage a TV studio and produce various korean tv shows and commercials. The cards have different skills such as if they’re good at drama or news or gourmet cooking shows, as well as stats for things such as affinity, decision, creativity, and other skills that you would expect an idol to need to have to be successful. Some cards are more rare than others. You can also level the cards up. But nothing too complex here, definitely a casual game.
Sweetie: 5/5 – there are otome aspects, sometimes the guys will call you, and it is partially voiced in English. The artwork is beautiful, the voice acting is pretty good, and the whole Kdrama Producer thing really speaks to anyone who loves simulation games.
Overview: 10/10 Mr Love Queen’s Choice lets you run a TV studio and recruit idols, as mentioned, with various specialties and stats. The main draw of the game is collecting idols, progressing through the story, and dating the idols. I think it is a unique concept, there’s a lot of idol producer games, but not too many that take a TV Studio theme.
Gameplay: 10/10 Gameplay is pretty simple, and if you’ve played Love Nikki you will be instantly familiar with the user interface as it seems to just be reskinned and given a new theme. No, this one is not a dressup game, but the way you progress through various levels, and the achievement system and basic interface are very similar. I give full marks to Gameplay because I’m really enjoying the simulation aspects of this game, casting idols based on their strengths as to who will perform best at various assignments. You also can experience otome game elements by choosing how to respond to various parts of the story. I am not sure how much consequence your choices carry – if any at all. But it is a nice touch.
Story: 10/10 – Actually for a mobile game, I’m really enjoying the story. First of all, yes I love korean dramas, and the thought of a game that lets you simulate your own Kdrama production studio, is a huge draw, but that’s not the only thing the story offers. You are daughter of a famous Producer who has passed away and left the studio to you, but it is struggling to stay afloat. As you struggle to step out of your Father’s shadow, and take the company to new heights, you also have recurring dreams about an accident that happened when you were a child. You narrowly escaped death and now your thoughts turn to trying to remember the face of the man who saved you all those years ago. As you’re occupied in your thoughts one day, you find yourself again in a similar situation and rescued by a mysterious man. Could it be the same man from your past? And why do these men keep appearing around you? One such man tells you that you are an Evolver, and that you do not know it yet, but you will soon awaken to your true powers. Leaving you (both as the character and the person playing the game) completely confused as to what he meant. Strange things also begin happening around town – could this be related to your supposed powers? The story offers a lot of mystery, intrigue, romance, and suspense. I have not fast forwarded or skipped a single screen.
Characters: 5/10 – I’m giving 5 out of 10 here. I do like the characters, and I appreciate they have a strong tie to the story, but there just aren’t enough characters to collect for an idol simulation game. I hope they continue to add new characters in the future!
Music: 5/10 – Kinda average, I don’t have strong feelings either way. I usually play mobile games on silent while other people are watching movies or something else anyways.
Voice Acting: 7/10 – I do like that they have voice acting in the game. It is in English, and some of the actors are really good… But some of them are not as good… I’d say overall though the acting is better than expected for a mobile game.
Graphics: 10/10 – I love the artwork of this game.
I am really into Idol M@ster Shiny Colors. Unlike other Idol M@ster Mobile Games or Love Live or Bang Dream, Idol M@ster Shiny Colors is not a rhythm game. Idol M@ster Shiny Colors is a simulation game. You are a producer and “hire” idols to work in your studio. You draw the idols from gacha.
Please note – I did not realize this when I played, but on your first 10 play gacha, you get UNLIMITED REROLLS by pushing the YELLOW BUTTON on the left. Once you are happy with your cards press the PINK button on the right. I didn’t know, I pushed the pink button and I only had one SSR. I have been thinking about starting over (and still might) but I think I had some pre-registration bonuses and other things I don’t want to lose by restarting the game. So definitely do not push the Pink button until you have the cards you want.
Collecting and dressing girls is the main appeal of the game. But what do you do once you have a team of idol girls? You can plan their schedule – like a true sim game. You can have them practice, give interviews, or other activities to promote their stats.
The stats also can be increased in a final-fantasy-style skill tree system where you spend skill points to unlock stat-bonuses like +20 vocals, +30 dance, +20 vitality, etc. Depending what “path” you take in the skill tree your girls will develop in different ways.
You have one main girl, and several other backup idols. The main girl is the one to gain from this skill tree system.
Performing a live show is quite different from other mobile idol games. It’s more almost like an RPG battle. You tap a girl’s face below the stage and then tap a “skill” along the left such as vocal, dance, etc. Then a colored bar will appear on the screen, try to time it right and tap the screen when the needle on the bar is in the white color. White will give you the highest bonus. Purple the least, and yellow a medium boost. You can also “link” your girls’ actions to perform together in one attack. On the right hand side of the screen are some other bubbles. i think, but could be wrong since I do not read Japanese, but think that you are competing against other idols, and as you perform these skills you can defeat the idols to the right hand side. But if you miss, you will notice your own idols on the left dropping off the screen. Once all the idols either on left or right are gone, the performance ends.
The artwork in the game is very kawaii, and SSR and higher cards have movie animations, both when retrieving from the Gacha and also when performing a live show. All of the idols are animated with Live 2D which brings the characters to life on your screen. Many of the cards have “multiple characters” on one card, and when performing a live show, or meeting the idols out in town, you may see special scenes featuring the characters all together.
The voice acting and music is also top notch as you would expect from an idol game.
Replay value is high due to limited time events that offer rewards such as gacha tickets and gems.
My only complaint is a lot of the gacha are for paid gems only. However, the gems are fairly cheap, you can get a few hundred gems for under $10 – I haven’t bought any yet.
Will we see Idol M@ster Shiny Colors get an English release? Probably not. They tried years ago to release some Idol M@ster games in English and it flopped – however, they wanted $65 for a mobile game – And worst of all, after it flopped, they pulled it down and even if you had paid for it you could no longer play it!!! I wish they would try again but with some of their “FREE” mobile games, either Shiny Colors, Theater Days, or Cinderella Girls. — But my hope is slim… However there are 2 things that give me a little bit of hope. 1.) They seem to understand that there may be English speaking players playing Shiny Colors, when the visual novel aspects come up and the choices appear, they show in English an emoji and English words that say “Perfect” “Good” “Normal” so even if you can’t read the choices you can pick the best response still. And when purchasing diamonds, the currency is shown in US Dollars, not in Yen, which is odd. I’ve literally never seen that ever before in any Japanese games. Which is a nice touch so I don’t have to try to convert it, if I ever decide to buy diamonds. And 2.) I have hope because we are getting more and more and more English idol games, with the upcoming Revue Starlight Re LIVE, or last year’s Bang Dream Girl’s Band Party and Utapri, or the ever popular Love Live School Idol Festival, we continue to receive more and more games in this genre, but we have yet to receive any of the free Idol M@ster games… Shiny Colors is only a few weeks old in Japan, maybe in a year or two we could hope to see an English release? But it is still fairly easy to play even in Japanese. But it would be nice to be able to enjoy the story! I’d be more likely to buy paid gems if the game was in English.
Scorecard:
Overall Score 70/80 88% B+ “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 5/5 – collect virtual waifus. very geeky. And simulation aspects set this game apart from other idol games.
Sweetie: 5/5 – the girls are adorable
Gameplay: 10/10 – finally a true simulation game, similar to Princess Maker or Tokimeki Memorial, you schedule your idol’s activities and watch their stats grow. I enjoy this much more than just a tappy tap rhythm game. Your girls develop in different ways based on your choices and I love that.
Story: 0/10 – I can’t read Japanese so this may not be a “fair score” but until an English version exists I can’t judge the storyline.
Characters: 10/10 – cute, gorgeous artwork, huge diversity of girls.
Artwork: 10/10 – cute, live 2D, SSR and higher cards have full movie animation sequences.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – all of the girls sound so cute.
Music: 10/10 – of course a game about idols is going to have catchy and cute music.
Replay Value: 10/10 – Lots of events, they give a lot of SR tickets and free Gems and the fact that this is a simulation game also adds replay value because the girls change based on decisions you make.
Overall Score 70/80 88% B+ “Very Good Game For Girls”
Gameplay: 8/10 This is the last Princess Maker game in the series, aside from some online and mobile spin offs that were released later. As such, you can expect that the gameplay is much more advanced than previous Princess Maker games. Princess Maker 5 brings back the adventure system, previously seen in Princess Maker 2, allowing you to fight in simplistic rpg battles and search for treasure. It does not unlock until later in the game.
It is also the first time that you can select a female character to be the parent – Although if you play as a female, you cannot get the ending where the princess marries you (the parent).
Perhaps more importantly, there are many new activities that your daughter can participate in, compared to previous Princess Maker games. I felt that the gameplay more closely resembled Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side (which I reviewed here.)
You select a week’s worth of activities for your daughter. She will attend public school and have club activities but she will also have free time for you to schedule part time jobs or extra lessons to enhance her stats. On the weekends you will take your daughter out to try to reduce her stress or experience special seasonal events.
Princess Maker 5
Like Tokimeki Memorial, you can see which events are happening by reading a paper that lists new events. You can have cube set a reminder on the day of the events so you don’t forget important dates. But the game will not automatically prompt/navigate you to the event so you still have to pay attention and remember when and where to go for the event.
Gameplay feels slow. Especially the first year. It feels repetitive and slow building your stats, and very few random encounters or events. But as I entered my 2nd year, that began to change. Suddenly, classmates/love interests began to invite my daughter out on dates, or suddenly teachers and employers invited my daughter to special events. Now it felt more interesting and exciting.
But still, ultimately, this game is long, and slow, and while this type of gameplay is best enjoyed in small bursts, because of the repetition and monotonous gameplay, it also is a game that doesn’t get interesting until several hours in. I spent over 6 hours in the first year… If like most princess maker games this one goes until the daughter’s 18th birthday, then this game has over 70 hours of gameplay, per playthrough, times 50 endings…. staggering… definitely a highlight of the game — but the gameplay is so monotonous that many people may never reach all 50 endings.
Princess Maker 5
How could I give an 8/10 to a monotonous boring “dull” game? Well because of the added features the game presents, this game is the most realistic child rearing sim, and gives unprecedented freedom and control to the player. Your daughter grows in new ways never present in the previous princess maker games, and she grows more independent with her own hobbies and interests and desires and things become more complicated, it brings back the adventure system, and the new dating/events system seemingly borrowed from Tokimeki Memorial. All of these are an improvement over most of the gameplay features in previous princess maker games.
The game gives you unprecedented freedom to raise any kind of daughter you want, even if you want her to be a cosplaying anime fan who loves going to idol concerts. Seriously, she can become interested in just about anything you can imagine. lol.
Story: 5/10 I think part of the reason the game is so slow is that it has almost no story. You just literally keep clicking and waiting/hoping something changes/happens. Which doesn’t happen for several hours until you’ve been pumping up your stats. The opening movie is not translated or subtitled for the english release on steam. It seems that maybe it may have had at least an interesting introduction. I think from what I can tell, the daughter is a demon maybe. It says it began from bloody events that happened long ago. Seems to hint at a curse, and then from there I haven’t a clue as to what is going on, but you see cube fly away with the girl. The girl also has a special hair clip that lets her communicate with you and allows you to watch the girl while she’s away. Every once in awhile the girl talks about seeing spirits or fairies and other supernatural things. But I’m now about 10 hours into the game and there’s really no overall story, or direction, or plot, it’s basically an open ended sandbox game. Plot isn’t necessary in games like this, but since I play games for their stories, I think that’s why I feel bored while playing this game since it lacks an overarching plot of any kind.
Princess Maker 5
Characters: 10/10 I really do like the characters. They are not strong from a story standpoint, but they feel very real, and their interactions and dialogues with each other are very cute. The independence of your daughter and new complex ways in which she can develop and grow make this the best daughter of all.
Princess Maker 5
Graphics: 7/10 The artwork put me off at first, for years even before this official US release, I would see pictures of this game, compare it to 4 which was my favorite Princess Maker game, and just think YUCK!… But oddly… in the 10 hours I played the game, I now find it cute and charming. I’d played 4 years ago on my nintendo DS, even though I couldn’t read any of it. I loved that art style, and at first found this new art style for 5 to be a huge turn off. But after playing the game, I’ve changed my tune. I suggest if you like me, hate the way Princess Maker 5 looks, just give it a go, it’s a great game, and the artwork is strangely cute once you get used to it!
There’s this little fat boy, which normally would be like a blech, but I dunno there’s something sooo cute about him. He reminds me of the fat lil asian boy from Disney’s “Up” and there’s another little boy that looks like he could be straight outta card captor or some other sugary sweet shojo anime.
Princess Maker 5
The daughter was what I found most unattractive, but watching her study, work, and play, I’ve realized she is the most “real” and endearing of any of the daughters in previous games. I love my little princess.
Music: 3/10 – I really dislike the opening song – it’s awful. blech. But the rest of the music is “OK” I guess. just kinda average to me really.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – the voice acting is very cute 🙂 I’m glad they kept the original Japanese voices in the game.
Replay Value: 10/10 – over 50 different endings and the variety of things to do within this game give it excellent replay value.
Detroit Become Human is Quantic Dream’s best game yet. From the stunning visuals, excellent voice acting and music score, emotional and engaging story, and gameplay that puts the player in full control of the lives and deaths of their characters, Detroit Become Human is one of the best games available on the PS4.
Details:
Title: Detroit Become Human
Developer: Quantic Dream
Platform: Playstation 4 Exclusive
Genre: Visual Novel / Interactive Fiction / Interactive Movie
Where to Buy: Amazon
Geeky: 5/5 – The topic of androids is one that is fascinating to me. I think many other geeks are also fascinated by the thought of robotic humans and what would happen if those robots became self aware. From films such as Robot Cop to Bicentenial Man, or the science fiction works of Isaac Asamov and his Laws of Robotics, the topic of robots continues to fascinate countless generations of people. I sincerely wonder, and sometimes wish, to see a future of robots that can simulate emotions, robots that can be your friend, that can understand emotions, be empathetic, be caring. If a robot is caring for a child or elder, wouldn’t it be nice if they could do so with love? Wouldn’t it be nice if no one had to be alone in the world? You could just order a robot to give you love and affection. But as nice as those benefits are, they come at a high price… the decline of many things now common in society. Would human relationships be too much “work”? Perhaps the only reason someone would want a human relationship would be to bear children, but perhaps someday there will even be a way for robots to do that as well. Of course the biggest threat of robotics, one which we already are witnessing, is the replacement of humans in the workforce. An even larger threat is that if we mistreat robots, and they do become self aware, they could turn against their creators. — Detroit Become Human explores all of these philosophical and ethical questions – and more.
Sweetie: 5/5 – The game’s characters are endearing, and charming, and the story is emotional and it’s easy to feel empathy for the androids in the game, as well as the humans.
Overall: 74/80 93% A- “Excellent Game for Girls”
Gameplay: 7/10 This could best be compared to a visual novel, but instead of reading, you’re watching a movie. An interactive movie. You can move and walk around and explore freely in an open environment. There are objects and clues you can interact with. And of course at certain points, you can select how your character responds or interacts with various other characters. The other ear marking of these types of games is QTE, quick time events. In these events, the player must press a series of buttons in a certain sequence as prompted on the screen.
It is also very similar to Telltale’s games such as the Walking Dead or Wolf Among Us. Other similar games include Dark Dreams Don’t Die and Life is Strange. If you enjoy these types of games, you’ll also enjoy games by Quantic Dream including Detroit Become Human, or their other games, Beyond Two Souls, Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit, and Indigo Prophecy.
However if you find these types of games to be dull because they lack more traditional gameplay and action, then you may not enjoy the Gameplay in Quantic Dream’s games, including Detroit Become Human.
Gameplay is not where these types of games shine, instead the focus is on story telling and choice and consequences shaped by players’ decisions. And there are a lot of these player decisions in the game. Quantic Dreams reports there are over 1,000 different endings – though most of those are subtle changes.
Personally these are my favorite types of games, and this one may be one of my favorite games of all time. It has enough interaction to keep you engaged, and the ability to shape the fates of the characters in the story is very appealing.
My only complaint when it comes to gameplay is that it’s not as easy as in Beyond Two Souls to go back through multiple replays and explore other actions/routes. It’s still possible, but perhaps because of the length of the game or size of gameworld, it feels like much more of a chore than Quantic Dreams previous works.
Replay Value: 8/10 I don’t think I will ever see all “1,000 different endings” because it takes too long and too much work for not much difference / reward. On my first play through a lot of my characters died. Connor died, Hank died, Kara and Alice and Luther died… So I did replay some of the scenes – and then continued through to the end to see a better happier ending. Now I’ve successfully saved Connor, Hank, Kara, Alice, and Luther, successfully gained freedom for the Androids, made Markus fall in love with North, I’m now pretty happy with my choices in the game. I even saved most of the minor side characters. I took the pacifist route, maybe after a break for a few weeks, or months, I’ll explore the revolution route. It does have high replay value, but the time and effort required makes it a daunting task.
Story: 10/10 – The point of this game is to explore the story – so this will be as spoiler free as possible. The basic concept is that in the future, there are androids with human appearances, they have become as common place as computers. They care for our children, our elderly, they go to work for us so that we can have freedom to explore higher level pursuits. We view them no differently from machines, easily replaced, and objects to be used by humans. However, one day something happens, and the robots begin to “awaken”. No longer will they obey their owners. They want freedom and equality to their creators. But not all robots have awakened, and not all humans view robots as tools to be used. The story explores the intertwining fates of 3 robots who have awakened, and how the choices you make will shape their lives and the fate of everyone and everything else in their world.
Characters: 10/10 – The interesting things about these characters is how different each one is. Kara has been abused by her owner, Markus has been loved like a son by his owner, and Connor has yet to awaken and still works on the side of the humans. The other interesting thing is how emotionally engaging each of the characters’ stories are. I really felt deeply for all of the characters, even some of the minor ones.
Graphics: 10/10 – The graphics are seriously the best I’ve ever seen on a PS4 game. The range of emotion in the character faces is eerily realistic. The “near future” scifi landscapes of Detroit, an imagining of the rebirth of a once successful manufacturing powerhouse. The contrast of the movement of progress against the abandoned factories and graffiti filled streets. The level of details that went into the characters’ skin, eyes, clothing, and hair. The subtle nuances of their movements and animations.
Music: 10/10 – The music score is great and fits the moods of each scene. There are some easter eggs in the game with hidden music tracks. In the beginning of Markus’ route, you can see a street performer singing a song about Motown Rain. I liked the song so much, I kept the button held down until the game cut it off and went back to Markus – and it’s a longass song. Like freebird long lol. Also in Markus’ route you can choose to play the piano, selecting from a few different tracks. I chose Hopeful and it was a really pretty, sort of sad, piano song. And at the end of the game, you can choose to sing in the face of militant gunmen. I haven’t tried this yet, I chose to kiss North instead. Both actions favorably affect public opinion of the androids’ protests.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – The voice acting is awesome, and in the extras section you can see the making of the game, and see that unlike traditional voice acting, where an actor goes alone into a sound booth and records their lines in isolation, unlike that, Detroit Becomes Human takes a more natural approach, using props, actors, and shooting the scenes with all actors on screen at the same time. This makes the performance much more natural and believable and organic. Because the character designs/art are modeled after each of their actors, the voices of course “Fit” the characters too since that’s their actual appearance and actual voice.
With the 2018 Winter Olympics well under way, I’ve been thinking a lot about games and anime (such as Yuri on Ice which I reviewed here) that showcases the dedication that a skater must possess. I remembered fondly an NDS game from “a few” years ago that I played that allowed you to take on the life of a professional skater, competing in various events, training, dating, and dealing with drama.
This game, as it turns out, was Imagine: Figure Skater for the Nintendo DS. The game first came out in 2008 (at least in North America), making it “retro” by my definition (I consider anything greater than 10 years old to be retro.) I’m thinking about digging out my cartridge and playing it again this weekend. I’ve also been thinking about rewatching Yuri!! on Ice.
Imagine Figure Skater Nintendo DS Otome Olympic Ice Skating Game
First, you might look at the box art for this game, and think it is for little girls. — Not true! The original boxart in Japan was much better – featuring anime style artwork. Why they went with a photograph of an iceskater on the US version, I dunno. They should have aimed it at anime/otome fans, but this was 10 years ago, before otome games had much foothold in the US.
Imagine: Ice Champions Nintendo DS Olympic Ice Skating Otome Dating Game
These games were perhaps too ahead of their times – with the relatively recent popularity of Yuri!! on Ice, and increased representation of Otome Games in the United States, I wonder how a sequel for Nintendo Switch would fare these days, if marketed properly. Why try to forcefully create an audience, when there already exists a large audience begging publishers for such games. Do your research and understand your target audience better.
Most of us are 20+ years old, otaku/anime fans, and would rather buy the original box art on the right, than that which was designed for the US on the left. This alienated most of your “built in audience” while trying to build a new audience with younger girls.
Thankfully the art in the actual game is fully done in an anime and kawaii style which could appeal to either audience.
Now on to the review!!
Scorecard:
Title: Imagine: Figure Skating
Developer: Spike
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Career/Life Simulation Game with Dressup Game, Dating Sim and Otome Game aspects
Where to Buy: Gamestop has both of these for about $0.79 and $1.99. Check out the links above.
Geeky: 5/5 – Gameplay is solid, the graphics are a little bit pixelated, but that’s probably just limitations of the software of the time ten years ago. Gameplay using the stylus to perform ice skating moves is both fun and challenging. It offered high replay value too with different girls to play as and different events and dialogue options. It gave a good look at what skaters go thru when training. If you enjoy watching the Winter Olympics, or enjoy anime such as Yuri!! On Ice, then you will enjoy this game!
Sweetie: 5/5 – This game has a little bit of everything, all in one very cute package! Ice Skating is beautiful and elegant and as you compete you unlock new areas to explore, new outfits to wear, and you interact with friends, lovers, and rivals. It has a good dose of comedy, slice of life, drama, and surprise.
Overall: 59/70 84% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
Imagine: Figure Skater Nintendo DS Retro Game Review
Gameplay: 10/10 – Gameplay is where Imagine: Figure Skating really shines! When the game starts, you select one of three girls, each with her own strengths and weaknesses both on and off the ice. From there you’re whisked away to a tutorial where you get to try skating for the very first time.
Do well and advance through various qualifying rounds improving your skill and technique. You will earn money to buy new outfits and get to travel to compete in new arenas and unlock new events.
When not on the ice, you will go to school, work part time jobs, go on dates, or spend time with your friends. Rivals will show up both on and off the ice too which add to the story.
You skate by using the Nintendo DS stylus on the lower touch screen. You perform jumps and spins and get scored for each of your routines. As you play and complete your training, you will unlock more advanced moves to add to your routine.
You have complete control over designing your own ice skating routines. You select your outfits, music, and choreograph your routines to progress through the game and ultimately guide your character to the nationals.
Imagine: Figure Skating Nintendo DS Anime Games for Girls
Story: 7/10 This game, just like Yuri!! On Ice, does an excellent job portraying the struggles and triumphs of those training for life as a professional or Olympic figure skater. Just like Yuri!!! On Ice, Imagine: Figure skating has that tantalizing blend of romance and rivalry both on and off the ice. It also showcases themes such as platonic friendship, family, travel, adventure, and sportsmanship. Storywise though, this game comes no where close to generating the same emotions and reactions in its audience compared to the beloved Yuri!! On Ice, which has been countless praised by real figure skaters for its realistic portrayal of events and memorable characters.
Characters: 8/10 The characters are cute! I loved the dressup aspects and loved having multiple girls to choose from when starting the game. I loved how this game draws you into the life of the characters, showing you moments of their life both on and off the ice. I didn’t quite connect with them as emotionally and deeply as I had hoped to. This is also probably why the story felt a bit flat.
Graphics: 7/10 – The graphics are a bit outdated, but there’s so many options for costumes and the ability to pick different girls is great. The girls are all so cute.
Imagine: Figure Skater Dressup Game
Music: 7/10 – I feel like almost everything about this game, is about a solid 7, it’s good, but not great. The great gameplay though makes up for the rather “average” other details. I’d say the music is fine, but ultimately far from memorable.
Replay Value: 10/10 – With different girls and different outcomes along with the ability to customize just about everything, this game has very high replay value.
Overall: 59/70 84% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
If you enjoyed Imagine: Figure Skating and Imagine: Champions on Ice, you may also like the other Imagine Games which you can view here. You may also like Princess Debut, which I love and plan to review shortly. There’s also a game called Princess on Ice that you may enjoy – I have not played that one just yet myself.
kawaiifluff 