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.
Sony’s new Subscription Service, titled Spartacus is set to roll out in Spring 2022.
It will be a tiered based subscription service, encompassing the two existing services, Playstation Now and Playstation Plus, but what’s really exciting is what happens on the most expensive, third tier… Here, Sony promises to offer a subscription service that rivals Xbox (not hard to do in my opinion because Xbox lacks the types of games I enjoy aside from Lost Odyssey – The only Xbox game I’ve ever loved.).
Anyways, for those unfamiliar, Xbox currently has a great subscription of classic Xbox 1 – 3 games on its own subscription platform.
While Playstation Now has a few PS3 and Ps4 titles, they really missed the boat with including any PS1 or PS2 games… BUMMER…. BUT that’s SOON ALL GOING TO CHANGE!!!! And I couldn’t be happier.
Not only will it include PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and yes even PS5 games, but it will also include PSP games – No word on Vita yet – but let’s hope. Even without Vita, that’s a damn good lineup of classic games!!!
My favorite console is PS2, but PS1 had my favorite series, Lunar. Oh yeahhh. Let’s get some Lunar up in this bitch! Let’s go!!!!!!!!!!!! Lunar, Suikoden 1-5, Grandia, Chrono Cross (yeah, yeah I know they’re remaking it anyways without this service), Dragon Seeds, Monster Rancher 1-5, Arc The Lad, Growlanser Generations, Alundra, Azure Dreams, Persona 1-4, So many more great great great RPGS of my youth… I WANT THEM ALL AND I WANT THEM NOW!!!!!!!
Truth be told, I still have my old consoles and old games – aside from literally a handful I sold for a hefty price — but I’m too lazy and they’re sitting at my parents’ house in storage – and too lazy to shelf them all catalog them all and monkey around hooking up old TVs/Systems and so on.
But this, just connect your PS4 or PS5 and you’re good to go!!! YES!!! Finally a reason to use this PS5 I’ve had since launch LOL.
TAKE MY MONEY, SONY!!!!
AND DON’T LET ME DOWN!!!! RELEASE THE RETRO RPGS!!!! LET’S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Return to the ranch this winter with Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX for Steam and Nintendo Switch. 90s kids will remember the fun and excitement of going through their collection of game and music CDs to see which monsters were waiting inside. That system has been replaced with a new in-game music database where users can generate monsters by searching CD titles.
That’s not the only change in store for those returning to this series after 16 years since the last entry in the Monster Rancher world. A lot of exciting new enhancements have been added to make your stay on the ranch easier and more enjoyable.
Players can now freeze up to 20 monsters at one time. With online play, users can battle or even download monsters created by other ranchers. A new random encounter feature has been added to increase the number of ranked battles. There’s also a fast forward feature to help speedup gameplay. New music has been added to the soundtrack of Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX. Most exciting of all, new monsters have been added that previously were only available in specific countries.
For those not familiar with Monster Rancher, it’s a game series that spawned a successful anime series. It never reached the heights of fandom as Pokemon or Digimon, but it was successful in its own right.
Gameplay focuses on raising, battling, and exploring with your monsters. Monster Rancher also differentiates itself from similar monster raising games by using permadeath. This means someday you will have to part ways with your beloved monster and start anew with a new recruit.
Yes, that’s right. Monsters will die, whether from old age or sickness or injury, making Monster Rancher a bit more intense than your typical Pokemon or Digimon style monster raising game. It also creates an emotional bond between players and their monsters. Your time with your monster is precious indeed, but, if you take good care of your monsters, they will stay by your side for a long time. It’s never easy to say goodbye to your favorite monsters, but your next monster is just one CD away.
Monster Rancher is what could best be described as a stat-raising simulation or time management game. Players assign various tasks for their monsters to complete each day which will raise or lower some statistics. You can also feed or give special items to your monster to further change his stats. These stats will largely determine the outcomes of battles or explorations. It’s not as focused on giving direct commands in battle, and monster’s stats have a huge influence on almost every aspect of these games.
The story is nonlinear and triggered by events and choices that you make in the game. While story is not the primary focus of the Monster Rancher series, especially the earlier games in the series, there is enough story to keep you moving forward.
As the game progresses, players move through a tier ranked competition system, aiming for championship status. With the new online play features, players can also expect to see online rankings.
Monster Rancher DX takes what made the original great and expands on it by adding new features and online play. Get ready to return to the Ranch on December 9th, 2021.
2021 is more than halfway over. Here’s what I have been playing (new releases) and what I’m looking forward to releasing for Nintendo Switch this year. They’re not in any particular order. The first one is my favorite, the next 20 are in reverse chronological order (newer games or unreleased games first) – After that, who knows lol. There’s of course many more great games that I just couldn’t cover all of them here. Nintendo Switch is truly the best console for gamer girls.
1.) Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4th Heart
Without a doubt, The game I’m most looking forward to is Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4th Heart. It won’t be in English sadly – but you can always hold your phone up to your screen and use Google Translate – that’s what I plan on doing. I already have a Japanese Nintendo Switch account and already play a few Japanese games this way. The translation isn’t perfect since it’s machine translated but if it’s the only way to play Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4th Heart, then I’ll do what I have to do. It’s inconvenient of course to hold the phone and work 2 devices, but small price to play for my hands down favorite gaming series.
2.) Pokemon Brillant Diamond and Shining Pearl
Overhauled with new graphics and available as a 2pack digital or physical game. I will probably only purchase one of the games myself. Pokemon Diamond was one of the best Pokemon games. So I’m looking forward to this remake.
3.) WitchSpring 3 [Re:Fine]
I have never played the other 2 games – or even heard of this series until now. However, it looks very fun. You choose if you want to be good or evil and it has cute anime graphics.
4.) Mario Party Superstars
Mario Party is one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, so I’m excited to see a compilation of some of the older Mario Party games now releasing for the Switch.
5.) Shin Megami Tensei V
Shin Megami Tensei is the series from which Persona became an “off-shoot”. This child has exceeded the parent now and become far more popular, but I still love Shin Megami Tensei. I don’t think I have ever played this one. I don’t know if it’s new, or possibly a remaster. Either way, I am excited for this game as well.
6.) Kitaria Fables
Farming and crafting with cute furry bipedal kitties.
7.) Sonic Colors Ultimate
Another remastered Sonic Game – kinda meh – but it’s sonic. I rather see a new game similar to the dreamcast Sonic Adventure series. It’s the best. But I’ll take some more Sonic in my life anyways.
8.) Olympia Soiree
A new otome game by Aksys
9.) Life Is Strange: True Colors
A new Life is Strange game. I love that series. There’s also a remastered version of the original one.
10.) Astria Ascending
A new handdrawn RPG with a heavy focus on battles and classes and customization.
11.) Fall Guys
I have not played the Switch version. I have it on Playstation and while it’s not my typical type of game, it’s so fun and funny. It’s like a Japanese gameshow like wipeout. It’s an elimination style obstacle course with a few minigames. The playstation one does not have local co-op. If the Switch version had local co-op I’d pick it up again. Super fun and fast easy to get started, difficult to master, type of game.
12.) Danganronpa – Remastered Games
All of the Danganronpa games are landing on the Nintendo Switch on December 3rd, 2021.
13.) Finding Paradise
I have this on the PC and it’s an excellent game – from the creators of another excellent game called To The Moon. The writing is fantastic and the stories in their games are very emotional.
14.) Baldo
Looks cute.
15.) She Dreams Elsewhere
The graphics look like a hot mess, but the concept of the game seems very fun. It claims to be very emotional and have a lot of interaction and choice and consequence.
16.) The Good Life
Photography game, huh? Similar to Pokemon Snap or Beasts of Maravilla?
17.) Garden Story
The Nintendo Page has almost no information, but the Steam store page has a lot of videos and info – and this looks cute. I can’t wait.
18.) Mineko’s Night Market
Craft, Eat, and Enjoy all the cats – sign me up. – Crafting, Eating, and Cats are 3 of my favorite things lol.
19.) Bear and Breakfast
Build and run a bed and breakfast… but you’re a bear.
20.) Rune Factory 5
Rune Factory 5 is not until 2022 – but hopefully it’ll be early 2022 :).
It’s Japanese only – but since it’s by Idea Factory – there is a chance we might see an English version eventually.
23.) Dream House Days DX
This company’s mobile games are always fun and cute. Lately they’ve been porting their mobile games over to Nintendo Switch. This is one of my favorites by this company. All of their games play similar so if you like this one, check out the other Kairosoft games too.
24.) Sweet Clown – A Funny Clown At 3:00AM
OK I do NOT like Clowns – Nightmare Juice…. But I DO like anime Otome Visual Novel games… Another one that’s Japanese only sadly.
25.) Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Another sorta Pokemon Snap-esque game
26.) Beasts of Maravilla Island
Another Pokemon Snap Styled Game – Lots of these this year – probably thanks to the New Pokemon Snap game.
27.) Fatal Twelve
Beautiful looking visual novel with an intriguing story.
28.) Maiden Gorgeous
Interesting looking visual novel – again only in Japanese at this time.
29.) Pokemon Unite
A free Pokemon Game for Nintendo Switch
30.) Crayon Shin-Chan Summer Vacation
Sadly, only in Japanese – It looks SOOOO cuuuute!!! I want!
31.) Lotus Reverie
A visual novel focused on time management.
32.) Professor Layton’s Mystery Journey Katrielle and the Millionaire’s Conspiracy DX+
Level5 Announced a new PLUS version of Katrielle and the Millionaire’s Conspiracy. I don’t have a link for it. It’s out in Japan already, and headed over here soon I think. Below is a link to the non PLUS version from about 3 years ago.
33.) A Plague Tale: Innocence
A dark story about a war’s impact on 2 children
34.) KiraKira Stars (various versions)
Nintendo has a few versions of this game, each a different story focusing on a different main character. I have not played yet. I believe it to be just a straightforward visual novel or kinetic novel. I do not think it is an idol simulation game sadly. Missed the mark for me there. I rather have Idol M@ster in English :(. I might check these out eventually though. They’re cheap at just $10 each and look cute graphic-wise.
35.) Summer Pockets
This version is Japanese only, but there is an English version on Steam. It is by Key makers of Clannad and Little Busters. Since there already exists an English version, and since Clannad and Little Busters are in English on Switch, I assume we will eventually see Summer Pockets on the Nintendo Switch as well.
36.) Sky Children Of Light
I played the mobile version a year or two ago – It’s a free adventure game featuring flying. It’s fun. check it out since it’s free.
Air is my FAVORITE visual novel by KEY – makers of games such as Clannad and Summer Pockets (I didn’t like Little Busters and Rewrite very much honestly). But Air – man I cry like a baby. I love it. I wish to god it was in English – I played a fan translated version way back in the day – plus loved the anime adaptations. But Air is arriving on Nintendo Switch in Japan next month. I might buy it and Tsukihime and work my Google Translate phone live scanning as I play it – which is what I plan to do for some of the other games on my list. Not the best – but until someone translates them, what can I do?
39.) Sugar Style
Sugar Style is coming to Switch later this year. Although this version is Japanese only, you can already play Sugar Style in English on the PC via Steam.
40.) Caligula Effect 2
This one surprisingly is being released in English. I remember covering news of its announcement at the last Nintendo Live event – However, I commented that it was only shown in the Japanese Nintendo Live and not the American one. Well, despite not being featured in the Nintendo Live Direct Event, here we have Caligula 2 releasing in English this October. The first game is very fun and often gets compared to Persona – It’s not nearly as good as Persona – but still good – and maybe 2 will be even better. I’ll be picking it up for sure.
41.) Worth Life
Only in Japanese at the moment. It lets you play as a landlord and customize lots. Looks like fishing and farming are key. By the makers of Rune Factory.
42.) Ken Ga Kimi
It looks very similar to Hakouki series of Otome Game Visual Novels. Sadly not in English. It’s also on Steam – but not in English there either.
43.) Izu In Love
It says it’s in English on the Japanese store page but I could not find it in the American Nintendo Eshop. I downloaded it because it’s 30% off right now. I’ll let you know if it’s any good.
44.) Bear’s Restaurant
Adventure Game of Tears & Hope
45.) Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi
Again looking similar to Hakouki. And it’s in English – always a plus LOL.
46.) Chroma Quaternion
Looking Good and Cute. Retro-Inspired colorful JRPG.
47.) Stray Cat Doors 2
Cute puzzle game.
48.) Paradigm Paradox
It is coming in English. Aksys just announced the English release 5 days ago. I am ready!
49.) LiEat
I played it on Steam and enjoyed it.
50.) Kasiori
It’s basically like PuyoPuyo or Tetris with cute anime girls
Angelique is a very popular Otome series – but sadly – 25 years have gone by, and never a single Angelique game has ever been released in English. Again not to worry, you can use your phone and google translate to get a rough idea of the story.
56.) Clannad Side Stories
More stories from Key’s popular visual novel, Clannad
57.) Jack Jeanne
This game is looking quite popular, but still no official English release date has been announced. For now it remains Japanese only.
58.) Story Of Seasons
There were a few Story Of Seasons games recently. Friends of Mineral Town and Pioneers Of Olive Town.
59.) RE:Zero
One of my all-time favorite anime, is now a game on Nintendo Switch.
60.) Lily White Lily Maidens S
Looks cute – too bad only in Japanese.
61.) Romance Of The Three Kingdoms
Romance Of The Three Kingdoms has been one of my favorite strategy games ever since SNES Super Nintendo back in the 90s. I’m glad to see we’re starting to get some of the newer games in English again.
Miitopia is a cute fun casual game that brings the DS classic to the Nintendo Switch with a few new additions. I will say, I wish that instead of Miitopia we were getting MiiTomo as I friggin loved that game – but maybe if Miitopia does well, MiiTomo might be next? Maybe not though as it was a mobile game. Ah rest in peace Miitomo. I actually wrote 2 reviews about my experiences in MiiTomo before Nintendo shut down the mobile game. Read my original Miitomo Review Here and the Updated Miitomo Review Here. I still miss Miitomo very much. RIP.
Miitopia incorporates the Mii’s and does a pretty good job of letting you customize their look. This new upgraded Nintendo Switch version of Miitopia has wigs and makeup and the makeup can be layered to create some rather interesting looks. The possibilities are endless. I even tried to make a Mii that looked like my cat (and kinda failed miserably, but lol).
I will say, less is probably more. I added lashes for days, and it was cute. I ran around like that for awhile, but then I added foundation, and lipstick, and eye shadow, and eventually I felt like a character on Ru Paul’s Drag Race haha. I eventually settled for just some small lashes and a little bit of eyeshadow because in real life, I almost never wear makeup.
I’ve only worn full on makeup twice in my whole life (turning 40 this month), otherwise I’m completely 100% bare faced like 85% of the time, or have only a drop of lip gloss or something on. I used to do my eyes, but I was never that good at it. I never do like contouring and stuff because I don’t know how lol. I’ll use concealer sometimes if I have a flare up in my rosacea but a lot of times I’m like MEH too lazy right. LOL. So having a Mii that looks like well ME, probably means I should do less makeup anyways haha.
I was able to create Miis that look ONE MILLION PERCENT like my fiance and my grandma. And that made me happy and gave me some awws and some giggles and all the warm fuzzies.
The demo is quite long. I feel like you could almost make a full game just from the Demo. Especially if your main draw to the game is customizing your Mii characters. Eventually you can have 4 Miis in your party in the Demo. I cast myself, my fiance, my grandma, and my cat lol. You can go back to revisit previous locations, get more gold, more food, more outfits, etc. so in a way, the demo is rather endless.
It’s fun and I enjoy it so I’ll still probably buy the full game, but I don’t see much need or reason to buy the full game because, unless you really like childish ridiculously funny campy humor, this game offers nothing story wise. You can max out relationships and unlock skills and get gear and everything right in the Demo.
There are other levels and probably more gear and whatever else in the full version. I hear there’s mounts and possibly pets in the full version. But overall, this Demo feels a lot like the final product.
Combat is simple turn based. You unlock new skills by just adventuring with the same party members. You level up, earn XP, and standard turn based RPG fare, nothing too ground breaking here.
Indeed, for me at least, the main draw of the game is creating Miis and watching their interactions. If not for that, this game is rather flat.
Still for what it does offer in terms of customizing your Miis and casting them in NPC roles and/or within your party it does well. Yes the same Mii can be used simultaneously as both an NPC and a Party Member for those of us who don’t have many friends or family. Also for those of us in that situation, you can choose to just use the default NPCs or choose look alike Miis which seem to be endlessly randomized for your enjoyment. You can always create Miis from scratch and make up characters in your head too! – the possibilities are endless.
Initially you won’t have access to makeup and wigs which REALLY add to the customization. I like to put light in their eyes at least. And it can be layered and look really nice! Or like I mentioned it can be overdone and look terrible too *cringe* haha.
Once makeup is unlocked the sky’s the limit for customizing your Miis.
Why I wish Miitomo was coming back though instead of Miitopia is I miss the ability to customize our rooms, and use our own photographs as posters on the walls, and the Gacha system (I know people hate Gacha – shush, I like them – I play a lot of Gacha games and find them fun.) Anyways I had a huge poster of my cat Milo with a pink bow on his head in my Miitomo room. And the Gacha outfits some were limited timed events and special collabs and rare and the online play and whatever else. Yeah that’s what Miitopia is missing. Customizing Rooms, Gacha, Using our own photos, and Online Play. Bring back Miitomo please Nintendo.
So yeah, without any story, well it has one, but it’s pretty cringe-worthy. The dialogue between Party Members is randomized and not interesting either, and just overall, nothing of substance to this game.
But if you like dressing up and customizing Miis – Miitopia on Nintendo Switch does it well. 10/10.
For everything else, like 1/10. LOL.
You can download the Demo and check it out for yourself! It’s free in Nintendo Eshop! The full game launches later this month.
Here’s how I’d rate Miitopia on Nintendo Switch:
Geeky: 3/5 – customization is good – graphics actually are pretty good for a Mii game – Gameplay is only good if you love old retro turn based RPGs, and story might as well be nonexistent.
Sweetie: 5/5 – Dressup for DAYS. Creating and casting Miis to look like friends and family is fun. Makeup and Wigs give a whole new level of customization. The possibilities are literally endless.
Gameplay: 8/10 – EH – well – it is interesting how Miis Bond and Unlock new battle skills. There is a job class system too. The combat itself though is turn based. And I think you only control one Mii and the others are auto pilot – by default at least – maybe there’s a setting to control the whole party I dunno. Customization of Miis especially now with Makeup is at a whole new level! Finding new equipment and being able to equip its stats while keeping your looks of whatever other equipment you want, is a nice touch. Outings and relationship building is fun. The food system is fun and funny. Different Miis have likes and dislikes when it comes to food. And food helps boost stats too.
Story: 1/10 – There’s a story – but it’s ridiculously silly. Too campy for me.
Characters: 8/10 – The characters can be anyone you want. You can go with defaults, create from randomized characters, or go full on custom, to create Mii who look like friends and family. I even made one look like my cat… supposedly. LOL. But – ultimately the character dialogue is so flat that it’s pointless and cringeworthy.
Music: 5/10 – Not bad, not great, average
Voice Acting: N/A
Graphics: 10/10 – OK it’s not hyper realistic but some of the backgrounds, like the fishing outing and the party scene when you have just added your fourth member – they’re pretty detailed and the lighting is so pretty and everything’s popping with color. And the makeup and wigs really do allow you to create any kind of Mii you can imagine.
Replay Value: 10/10 – You can literally endlessly play this Demo by keep returning to old locations, fighting, leveling up, finding treasure, money, equipment, switching up your outfits, makeup, etc. And it’s free and pretty nifty. It feels like a full game already to be honest.
Customization: 10/10 – I keep saying it, but yeah, customization of your Mii’s is 10 out of 10. I do wish to see customization of the rooms and gacha and limited event outfits like in Miitomo, but this is Miitopia not Miitomo, so I’ll just sit back and enjoy customizing my Miis. Thank you very much.
My first experience with an Atelier Game was Playstation 2 With Atelier Iris back in 2005. Almost 20 years ago. Today for an Easter present, my fiancé gifted me a Nintendo Eshop Gift card – what a good fiancé, right? lol. So I decided to buy some of the older Atelier games in the digital deluxe trilogy “packs”. These packs are also available on PS4. And many of the games are available as stand-alone entries too. Steam on the PC is another good place to look for Atelier games because they actually have some of the older games that have been re-released for PC. Plus there’s always steam sales – although these titles almost never ever go on sale. Boo.
One of my favorite games was actually back on Nintendo DS, Atelier Annie – but no one seems to like that one 🙁 I really liked it though. I also really liked Mana Khemia on PSP which was a port of the original Mana Khemia on PS2.
All in all, there’s over 20 games in the Atelier series. And not all of them have been released in English. So this post is meant as a “guide” on which games are available in English, starting with the “oldest” to most “recent” English games in the Atelier series. To keep it simple, I’m listing each game as a stand-alone, even if its available in a trilogy pack. That way I won’t accidentally double list anything. Keeping it simple, I will just list the game’s title, which systems it’s available in English for, and it’s original English release date (if I happen to know it).
Let’s start our list of Atelier games in order of Oldest to Newest – listing only those games available in English.
1.) Atelier Iris – PS2- 2005
2.) Atelier Iris 2 – PS2 – 2006
3.) Atelier Iris 3 – PS2 – 2007
4.) Mana Khemia – PS2, PSP – 2008
5.) Mana Khemia 2 – PS2 – 2009
6.) Atelier Annie – Nintendo DS – 2009
7.) Atelier Rorona – PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – 2010
8.) Atelier Totori – PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – 2011
9.) Atelier Meruru – PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – 2012
10.) Atelier Ayesha – PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – 2013
11.) Atelier Escha & Logy – PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – PS3 – 2014
12.) Atelier Shallie – PS3, PS4, PS Vita,, Nintendo Switch, PC Steam – 2015
13.) Atelier Sophie – PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Steam PC – 2016
15.) Atelier Lydie & Suelle – Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS Vita, Steam PC – 2018
16.) Atelier Lulua – Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam PC – 2019
17.) Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists – Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam PC – 2019
18.) Atelier Ryza – Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam PC – 2019
19.) Atelier Ryza 2 – Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam PC – 2021
Atelier Online for IOS and Android has been released in Japan in 2018 and is TBA for North America – so maybe there is hope we will see this game in English some day.
The following games have not been released in English and probably, due to age, will not be released commercially – perhaps the fan translation community will help pick these up:
1.) Atelier Marie – PS1 – 1997 – the very first ever Atelier game has never been released in English
2.) Atelier Elle – PS1 – 1998 – Sequel to the very first ever Atelier game – also not available in English
3.) Atelier Marie GB – Gameboy Color – 2000
4.) Atelier Elle GB – Gameboy Color – 2000
5.) Marie & Elle Atelier Pair – Wonderswan Color – 2001
6.) Hermina & Culus – PS2 – 2001
7.) Atelier Lilie – PS2 – 2001 – Completing the first ever Atelier trilogy – Also not available in English
8.) Atelier Judie – PS2 – 2002 – Part of a series known as Alchemists of Grammand – It is unusual in that it is only a 2 part series and not a trilogy like most of the other games – Also no English translation
9.) Atelier Viorate – PS2 – 2003 – Closing the Grammand series – And not available in English
10.) Atelier Marie, Elle, & Anis – GBA – 2003
11.) Marie’s Charajan – 2003 (Platform unknown – some type of mobile game I think)
12.) Atelier Marie Puzzle Workshop – 2006 – (Platform unknown – some type of mobile game I think)
13.) Atelier Marie Puzzle Workshop 2 – 2006 – (Platform unknown – some type of mobile game I think)
14.) Iris Eternal Mana Episode 2 After Story – 2006 – (Platform unknown – some type of mobile game I think)
15.) Atelier Lise – Nintendo DS – 2007
16.) Atelier Lina – Nintendo DS – 2009 (I think I’m most sad we didn’t get these 2 DS games as I really liked Atelier Annie although I know most people hated it. If these 2 were similar to Annie – I would have loved them.)
17.) Atelier Marie Elle – Gree (mobile / social app) – 2012
18.) Atelier Elkrone – PSP – 2012
19.) Atelier Quest Board – IOS Android – 2014
20.) Atelier Online – IOS, Android – 2018 (This one might still be coming out in English. It lists a North American release date as TBA – and it’s quite possible with Coronavirus and everything it just got extensively delayed.)
So you can see that for every game released in English, there’s an equally large number of games that have not been released in English. I am grateful for the games which we have received in English. I’m not sure which one is my favorite. Maybe Escha & Logy? I liked the story in that one. When it comes to gameplay, I actually like Annie and Nelke but I know many people don’t like them because they are quite different from the others. There is no right or wrong way or order in which to play the Atelier games. Our guide only seeks to help make sense of the timeline for those who wish to play the games in order.
Still my favorite game series of all time, Lunar, deserves a sequel and has plenty of source material to derive such a sequel or rather, prequel from. What I’d like to play is the original tale that started it all, playing as Dyne, with the original reincarnation of the goddess Althena, and Ghaleon, and Mel, and the other 4 heroes (whose names I’ve forgotten at the moment). Of course, they could always just spin it off in a new direction in a future somewhere and use return appearances or references of some of the characters. But the logical next step to me, would be to let us see and play the tale of the original 4 heroes.
2.) Suikoden
Well Konami is crap and only cares about gambling pachinko machines these days – but that didn’t stop the original creators of Suikoden from starting a successfully funded kickstarter to a spiritual successor of Suikoden called Eiyuuden. I already backed it… It’s estimated to take about 2 years before we’ll see it. The gameplay is 100% Suikoden, just for legal reasons they couldn’t use that name, so Eiyuuden it is now. Recruit the stars of destiny. Some are chefs, or shop keepers, some are fighters, build your fortress, 6 team battles, etc. Suikoden is long one of my favorite game series. 2 is still the best really, but they’re all awesome. Very excited about this kickstarter. They’re posting lots of updates over here. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes
3. Azure Dreams
One of my favorites back on PS1. I don’t think there was ever any sequels. There was a watered down version for GBA or Gameboy Color, but it was fundamentally different because they took out the best parts of the game, the dating and town building, leaving only a randomly procedurally generated dungeon crawling game. Still fun but lacking from the original. I’d like to see a sequel. A few different indie projects have taken inspiration from this series, but none have quite hit the mark for me.
4. Jade Cocoon
This game isn’t well received, but honestly I enjoyed it for its deep level monster breeding aspects. The last sequel was in 2001. One of the kickstarters I backed recently and shared on this blog mention they were inspired by both Azure Dreams and Jade Cocoon – so we will have to wait to see how the final product turns out. Read more about that kickstarter here.
5. Monster Rancher
How fun was this game? Pop in ANY CD – could be a music CD, game CD, DVD, movie, whatever – and generate a unique monster. I had (and probably still have) an enormous collection of CDs (games, movies, not so much music), and finding rare monsters was so much fun and so exciting. Exploring, Training, and Fighting the monsters, also fun. Now in a world of digital games, they would need a different system. I think it could be a fun mobile game, maybe like Pokemon GO, using some type of VR elements to find and capture monsters maybe. If it was on console or PC perhaps it could scan your digital library or use bar codes or CD key codes or something of that nature. There was a mobile game at one point but I recall it not being very good honestly. Monster Rancher was popular enough to have 4 or 5 sequels, but I believe the last was on PS3? or maybe even PS2? Let’s bring it back for PS5 – or better yet, the Nintendo Switch.
6. Dragon Seeds
Am I the only one who remembers this game? Like Monster Rancher, it too allowed you to generate random monsters, though not from discs. I believe it used some type of in-game items (strands of DNA) that you found while battling. Was there a sequel? I feel like there may have been 2 games maybe total? But maybe only one (too lazy to look it up right now). I think both were on PS1, with possibly the sequel – if it exists – being on PS2. I enjoyed this little underrated gem. I liked that I could battle in 2 player mode – but now with the internet – and online games – it seems those capabilities could be expanded.
7. Arc The Lad
Working Deisgns brought us almost all of these games back on PS1 (and likely is the reason they shortly thereafter went bankrupt) There may have been a few sequels on PS2, but now I’m pretty sure it’s been over a decade, perhaps nearing two decades, and no new installments in this series. I liked the branching plot, deep storyline, and anime graphics of these games. Why did they stop making them? They had so many of them at one time. Working Designs collection had what? 4? or 5? of them I think, and I know there were others released after that too. It seems weird for a once wildly successful RPG series to just vanish.
8. Lost Odyssey
The only reason to own an Xbox gaming console in my opinion is for Lost Odyssey. It legitimately is one of the greatest RPGs of all time. But I’m too lazy to dig my Xbox (360 I think right?) out just to play one game. I loved this game deeply. I know the creator is working on some mobile shit now and we’ll probably never see a sequel to this game ever in our lifetimes – which is a shame. What a waste of such talent. But I know he’s got to make a living and just going to where the money is (with mobile games and pay to win being the new way kids are gaming in 2000 and beyond). I’d like to see him return to work on Lost Odyssey 2… Or even just a port / remake of the original…. I’d even buy a next gen Xbox console just for this one damn game or its well deserved sequel, and then never sell it, so I could replay it over and over.
9. Skies Of Arcadia
Here’s another great, and forgotten RPG game – It has had a few remakes and ports, but never a sequel. Why the hell not? A quick google search tells me that the creator wants to make a sequel and aknowledges there is a strong fanbase – so why the hell doesn’t he just make a kickstarter campaign? Duh… Even if you have to change the game title and tweak the gameplay “just enough” That’s what everyone else is doing. Suikoden became Eiyuuden, etc. Shenmue 3 finally came out via Kickstarter, and loads of other games got long awaited sequels. One thing’s for sure, if Skies of Arcadia creators did start a kickstarter, I’d back it. It’d probably be funded in like less than 24 hours. For sure. One of the best, most unique, fun, and outstanding RPGs, ever made. It is now over 20 years old.
10. Inherit The Earth
Well this is already happening – although it’s taking its bloody sweet time in development. It appears to still be happening at least. Seems the last update on the website was about 4 or 5 months ago now. This was a childhood favorite of mine. The sequel looks interesting…. from what little is actually shown…… the patreon page is mostly web comics? But it seems there is going to be a sequel to this game… we can only hope. I mean it’s only been almost thirty years since the first game and all…. lol. You can follow the progress on patreon. https://www.patreon.com/wyrmkeep/posts or take a look at the official website… which is pretty damn bare at this point. http://inherittheearth2.com/ The web page does show 2 youtube videos… which gives me a little hope that something might eventually come from this project.
Following the creator’s account of those two videos, lands me here, at this youtube page, with about 20 videos.
But sadly, the most recent video is from May 2019 – almost a year ago. Perhaps this project is dead in the water now? Although it is still very deserving of a sequel. I hope to see it reach its goal someday.
11. Ever 17
This is one of the best visual novels of all time – I don’t care if it has typos and if the names are confusing – that’s arguably, intentional, anyways. Not the typos, but the name thing, you know. It’s one of the most mind fuckery games ever created, with huge revelations upon completing all branches, that nicely tie the story up and make it all, finally in the end, make sense. I do know that Ever 17 is part of a large series of games including Never 7 and Remember 11 – which I have played thanks to fan translations. Only Ever 17 was commercially released in North America, for the PC by the now bankrupt and defunct, Hirameki International. I love all the games, but Ever 17 was arguably the best. There’s also Riven 12, by the same developers, but as far as I know it did not receive a fan translation. After Riven 12, the creators went on to develop 999, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, whatever it was called, as well as Zero Escape and Nonary Games. The creator is hard at work right now on a new game, that’s not actually a visual novel, but still does have a branching plot, and like Ever 17 takes place in an abandoned theme park. I saw footage of it during the Nintendo Live Direct. So it appears to be coming along nicely still in 2020.
Anyways I don’t really want a sequel to Ever 17 because it’s perfect the way it is. The ending after all routes is perfect, leaving not a single question unanswered. But I do want someone to port this game to Steam or Nintendo Switch please for the love of god. Why hasn’t anyone brought this over yet? No one should own the rights anymore to it, so it seems like easy pickings. Someone even said years ago it was spotted in the steam database, so where the hell is it? I just want to play my favorite Visual Novel again please? thx.
12. Dogz and Catz – Petz
Ok so Dogz and Catz is argueably still going. Ubisoft bought them, and there’s been a few games here or there, but they’re poor clones of nintendogs at this point. They have lost what made them so great. Using the perfume to breed Muttz, to get unique looking petz, to mod the game to create your own breedz, the community – which could now be brought into an online or even mobile aspect to have showz, and so much more. I want THAT petz experience again please and thank you. Or at least bring PF Magic Petz 1-4 or whatever onto Steam or GOG.
13. Princess Maker
Where the hell is Princess Maker 4? People don’t particularly like it, because it’s text heavy and more like a visual novel, but I loved it. It had the cutest princess by far. Although Princess Maker 2, actually looks damn close to my real life self, with the brown curly hair, and brown eyes, lol. I like the animation style of Princess Maker 4 so much. Princess Maker 5 is kinda rather ugly, but I know the gameplay is better. I still haven’t beat it yet. It’s a long and slow game. Well that’s true of all the Princess Maker Games, but 5 feels slower than 1-3. I dunno why. I want 4 so bad I can taste it. I think I read one of the reasons it isn’t included is because of the ending where you can marry the princess. So if that’s all the fuss, just remove that one ending, shouldn’t be that difficult. I also heard it has too much text and they don’t want to bother translating all of it. Stop being lazy. We want PM4. Say it with me now. I’m still waiting… But while I’m waiting for that… where the hell is Princess Maker 6? When the hell was the last time a Princess Maker game was made in Japan? Like a million years ago? I just googled it and 5 was released in 2007… that was almost 20 years ago. We need more daughters. Release the daughters to us immediately.
14. Graduation
OK the last time we had a graduation game was in 1995… It was I think the 2nd? possibly 3rd game in the series in Japan and after that, they had many more graduation games, including Graduation M with all male students. These are not hentai games, though there is some questionable things, like you can marry all the students all at once lol. But anyways, these games are awesome. Can we at LEAST pretty please get the already 1995 English version on Steam or GOG? Please? Remember when GOG used to be for “great old games” – now it’s like an indie marketplace or Steam clone, and that’s a damn shame. I want more OLD GAMES. Gimme Graduation. I love the theme song. I love the game play. I love the whole game. I still play it from time to time. It’s challenging, it’s fun. It has a certain randomness to it, and unpredictability to it. It’s hard actually. You have to manage not just one daughter, but 5 or more girls (or boys in Graduation M). There’s dozens of endings, for each character. The voice acting was SOOOOOOOO bad. lol. I reviewed Graduation 95 over here. Can we get a re-release, with new voice acting? that’d be great.
15. Oreshika Tainted Blood Lines
I did not know until I went looking trying to remember what the hell this game was called, that I found out it was 1, a remake, of a 2011 psp game and 2, a sequel of a 1999 ps1 game. Oreshika Tainted Blood Lines was released in 2007 and a PS vita exclusive at the time. I really enjoyed it. It is very unique. And in some ways reminded a little bit of Azure Dreams. It has dungeon crawling, and a generational element. It stands out in my mind. And anything that stands out deserves a sequel. It seems to get remade or ported to other systems, about once a decade. So I think it’s time we see a remake or sequel of this unique dungeon crawling multigenerational RPG.
16. Earthbound (AKA Mother)
OK I know A.) The creators of Earthbound have 0 interest in any more games in the series. B.) The one we know in North America is Mother 2. C.) There are fan translations for at least one, if not both of the other Mother games. D.) Mother 3 is one of the greatest RPGs of all time according to many sources. E.) This has led to fans demanding a fourth game. Creators explicitly refused, which led to fans developing their own 4th game. F.) Work on the 4th game began in 2010. It originally was going to be a free no cost fan game. G.) Last year, it was announced it would sever ties with the Mother series and become its own commercial project titled Oddity. It remains to be seen how similar or dissimilar Oddity will be to Earthbound / Mother.
In the meanwhile while we wait for Oddity, could we get all 3 of the other games officially released in North America? And available on Nintendo Switch. I think the one we already know and love is available as part of the nintendo online thing. Maybe.
17. Breath Of Fire
What in god’s name happened to Breath of Fire? One of the greatest RPG series of all time and a favorite of my childhood? The last I heard, there was a mobile one a few years ago? When the hell was the last console installment? PS2? I think? It’s long overdue. Feels like forever ago. We miss you so much. Come back to us!
18. Tsukihime
OK where the hell is the Tsukihime remake? I remember sharing news that the remake was under way, like 10, or even 20 years ago, here on my blog… They keep pumping out god damn Fate/Stay Night/Extella games… All I want is Tsukihime. One of the best visual novels I ever played. We never did receive an official release. I was lucky enough to play the fan translation. Tsukihime is a long ass visual novel. It’s graphic and violent as hell. It has rape and murder. But also a pretty damn interesting story about psychosis and childhood and love and other interesting things. I assume we never got it because 1.) There’s a few possible incestuous things going on, and 2.) It’s just too damn offensive and violent. It is definitely a Porn game or Hentai game – however, it’s a LONG ASS game – did I mention this game is REALLY FREAKING LONG?!!! And the amount of Porn or Hentai only accounts for like 2-4% of the total story – So it’s not that bad – I’ve seen worse on American TV. Plus, I think it mostly could be edited out if they really wanted to? Without changing much of the story really.
I liked the story. I’m a woman, and I’m not offended by this game. It was quite interesting. I like the mystery aspect. Really probably the murder is no worse than say similar novels like Higarushi, although perhaps the rape thing would be bad, because of the latest in “cancel culture” I mean if we can’t handle a skunk hitting on cats, how will we handle a young man whose vampire hunting bloodlines, give him uncontrollable desires and urges to kill a vampire princess, in the most brutal of ways, only for her to appear before him the next day after being thoroughly violated in every way imaginable. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You see, as the story goes on, we learn why he has these urges, we learn about his fucked up family, his case of mistaken identity, psychosis, and childhood trauma, and why the heck he was sent away from his family as a child in the first place, and in the end, he even falls in love with this vampire he tried to rape and kill, and would do anything to protect her…. or not… the choice is up to you.
There’s other romanceable characters too – but she is definitely “cannon” (that is, the developer’s obvious path that they want you to take). But, you won’t know the whole story, unless you complete all the routes, the last of which is one of the lovely maid twins. There in lies the secrets to what the hell is actually going on in this bizarre, but brilliant mystery.
Uhhh OK I just went to google… to see where the fuck this remake is… because it was legit announced almost 2 decades ago… and it appears it’s COMING Summer of this year of our lord in 2021 AD. – they have a trailer and everything now…. How exciting…. Will we see it in English? Let us hope. If so, it will be the first time most English speaking gamers experience this beautiful story. One of the best, most intriguing visual novels I have ever played – and I’ve played just about damn near every visual novel ever. Tsukihime is one of my favorites. Top 5 for sure. LET’S GET EXCITED PEOPLE COME ON!!! Demand an English release of this game please. Write to everyone possible LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN!
19. Top Shop
Ok this is an odd one – Pretty sure no one reading this will know what the fuck this is lol. It’s a playstation 1 game, that’s KINDA almost like Monopoly in a way…. We also recently saw Billion Road on Nintendo Switch (I’ve been meaning to do a review of that, but haven’t gotten around to it). It’s kinda like Billion Road too… Sort of… But not really? I dunno it’s hard to explain. It’s like Kairosoft’s Mall Story and Mall Story 2, but multiplayer? LOL. You roll dice and move around a shopping mall. If the building is empty, you can open your own store. If someone owns the store, you pay fees. You can upgrade your properties (similar to adding houses or hotels in monopoly). The visuals are cute. The theme is cute. I dunno it’s very fun. It’s been well over 30 years now since the game was on PS1. Reminiscent also of 100% Orange Juice kinda? I mean all of these games, are KINDA like Top Shop, but none quite EXACTLY the same? Top Shop is the best of its genre. I want to play it right now lol. Very very fun party game or 2 player versus game.
20. Air
OK Arguably the best Key Visual Novel – There is a fan translation for this game. I have played it. We got Clannad in English for multiple platforms now. And we get Key’s other new games, like Summer Pockets – I want them to give an official release of Air (and also Kanon, but my list is limited to 20 games, and I liked Air a little more than Kanon). Both Air and Kanon are better than Little Busters, and whatever else garbage Key games we got. The only other really great Key Game we got was Clannad. For me, I’d rank Air 1, Clannad 2, Kanon 3, haven’t played enough of Summer Pockets to rank it yet. Little Busters somewhere near the damn bottom. And the other one – oh Rewrite, yeah I’d put Rewrite dead last of the Key games. I greatly prefer Air and Kanon over Rewrite. Rewrite was so boring I never did finish it, same with Little Busters. Snoozeville. Is there any hope we will ever see official releases of Air or Kanon? In English ever? Air is so damn sad. The anime makes me cry like a little bitch. Every time she is just lying on the bed crying and crying and crying and crying…. It might be the saddest anime I’ve ever seen, and one of the saddest visual novels I’ve ever seen. If you remember the movie, Benjamin Buttons, it’s basically like that, yeah? That plus toss in some reincarnation and ancient curses, and first love, and fucked up mother/daughter neglectful relationship, and the mending there of that relationship, and death, and rebirth, and there you have the story of Air.
Honorable Mention:
Tactics Ogre:
Tactics Ogre definitely gets an honorable mention on my list. There have been recent interviews with the creators of the series and talks about possibly porting the existing games or a new game, but nothing currently in the works. It is like Final Fantasy Tactics, but more advanced? And with a branching plot? and Some good/evil/neutral type of elements going into it. It’s one of my favorites. It gets remade ever so often. First appearing on Super Nintendo in the 90s, with Sequels on Game Boy Advance (I think?) and N64 (one of the only good RPG on N64), and remakes on PS1 and PSP. It’s been well over 20 years since we’ve had a new entry, or a remake. I’d like to see the old ones brought to Steam, Mobile, and Nintendo Switch, and eventually some day, a brand new Ogre Battle or Tactics Ogre game.
Well there are lots of other games that deserve to be on this list too of course. Tell me, what game do you think deserves a sequel? Are you a fan of any of the games on our list? Leave me a comment below!
I just watched both the English AND Japanese Nintendo Direct Lives – and it came as a little surprise to me, that they both feature some different games!! – The Japanese one looks fantastic! So many good games for girls. The North American one – not as much but still some good surprises!
You can watch both of the presentations below for yourself in full. Each one is an hour long. Each one has a few of the same games – but also some unique to each region. I hope beyond hope that most of those Japanese games will get an English release!
I have a Japanese nintendo switch account and an American nintendo switch account – so I can play both – but I can’t read or speak or understand Japanese so… still hoping for some English releases.
Anyways here are the presentations:
North America:
Japan:
I’m most excited about the following games:
North America Nintendo Switch Announcements:
Legend of Mana remake
Saga Frontier remake
Miitopia remake – now with horses and some extra costume features
Untitled Triangle Project Strategy RPG where your decisions influence the story – probably most excited about this game overall!
Famicom Detective Club – I already saw this in the upcoming release on Nintendo Eshop and immediately added both games to my wishlist. I have a MIGHTY NEED. 🙂 First time in America. I’d never heard of or played any of these, but they look hella awesome.
Bravely Default 2 – I am a fan of this series and looking forward to this new game,
Skyward Sword remake – kinda “meh” about this… I rather have seen a link to the past remake (my fave) or Ocarina remake (everyone elses’ fave)
DC Super Power Teen Girls (or whatever the hell it’s called) – The voice acting is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad – damn nasty. But the game itself… might be pretty sweet. It is an action game with some life sim elements. I’m down for that. – The Japanese voice acting is SOOOOOOOOO much better and actually cute… Not annoying like the American garbage voice actresses in this game. Still… will probably play it.
World’s End Club – from the creators of dangan ronpa and zero escape – pretty excited about this one. Kinda wish it was less actiony and more live novel-ly. but I’m still looking forward to it.
So I think that covered all of the games in the North American feed that I was excited for…. which is quite a large number – there were other games, but largely they were action or shoot em up games – not my style at all.
So moving on to the Japanese version here’s what I’m really excited about that I hope will get an English release!
Japanese Nintendo Switch Announcements:
Caligula 2 – I’m a big fan of the first game. So come on and give us an English release of this one too please!
Shin-Chan’s Summer Vacation – I highly doubt we will ever get this game. As far as I know we never got the anime, any of the other games, or any of the merchandise. But this looks wholesome as fuck. I want to play this. This is the game we need right now.
Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town – We are in fact getting this game next month in English and everything – so not sure why it was so coldly left out of the North American live stream – guess they think we are all barbarians who only like to shoot and kill things – despite Animal Crossing still being the top earning game for the switch – fucking face palm…. If I’m ever a millionaire, I’ll make my own video game console and video games and hire all the Japanese developers and scenario writers and animators – and do global releases and announcements for all of the games – and focus mostly on girl games. That’s my dream anyways – equal representation for games for girls – why wasn’t it in the damn live stream? Discrimination. Makes me sad they assume that we don’t care about these games because it means fewer of these games in the future and continuing to get left behind of all these awesome games for girls that come to Japan, and sadly stay in Japan – luckily that’s NOT the case for this game. Looking forward to playing it on March 23, 2021 – In English.
“Untitled” Otome Game – Where you play as a girl cross dressing as a boy – and date boys – it’s at about 40:00 into the Japanese live stream – not sure what this game is – looks good though. We do have a pretty high track record of getting Otome games on the switch – soooo fingers crossed!
Ever wonder what would happen if you took Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Or Stardew Valley and replaced all of the humans with cats? Me neither, until I played Cattails Become A Cat on Steam. It’s on sale right now for the winter steam sale, the biggest sale of the year, for a few more days.
So what is Cattails? I’ve only begun playing the game today, but it’s advertised as being “Like Stardew Valley But With Cats” and near as I can tell so far, that’s a very accurate description. It also reminds me of the children’s book series “Warriors” about various cat clans and lives of cats.
You begin the game by naming and coloring your cat (that’s your playable character) – You’re then thrown into a story scene of a little girl adopting you from a shelter, only later to have her mother dump you on the side of the road. That’s where your journey begins.
You meet another stray cat who guides you through learning the controls of the game. She teaches you to hunt, forage, and use your skills and inventory. She leaves you after asking you to choose a cat colony to join.
There are three options, the friendly forest cats, the fierce mountain cats, and the strange mystic cats. I picked forest cats because it seemed the best for beginners.
You have an empty little den, but later you can customize and decorate your den. You go to sleep, and save your game in your den each day.
To stay alive in the game you must hunt and forage, and sometimes fight other cats. You have to eat to stay alive.
There are seasonal events and special scenes throughout the game, similar as they say to Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons or Harvest Moon or Rune Factory, etc.
And so your life as a cat begins!
For $5.99 in steam’s winter sale, you too can experience life as a cat in Cattails Become A Cat.
Overall Score: 60/70 86% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 4/5 – these Stardew type games are pretty popular right now. The controls seem solid, gameplay solid, graphics retro indie style like Stardew. I think this one will appeal to gamers of either gender as long as they like retro indie sim games and aren’t too worried about “next-gen graphics”.
Sweetie: 5/5 – These simulation games are always a hit for girls, but this one especially so because of the cats.
Gameplay: 10/10 – Once you learn the controls and play a little bit it’s pretty easy. There are 3 difficulty levels, and I’m admittedly playing on “easy” on my first playthrough. There’s a lot of customization and personalization, and the farming/foraging/hunting/fighting as a cat aspect is very unique and fun. The seasonal events remind me a lot indeed of Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon as advertised.
Graphics: 7/10 – The characters all being other cats are very cute – I want more customization options for my own cat. I want to have stripes. I want him to look like my cat in real life. Right now there’s only solid colors. So I deducted points for that. Also note this game has an intentional retro/indie vibe – if that’s not your thing – this isn’t for you. But I like retro and indie games so “fine like this” :).
Story: 6/10 – I’m not far enough in it to say for sure, but games like this usually don’t focus much on story, and focus more on gameplay, and that seems to be the case here so far. It’s not a terrible story – and the whole cat thing gives it a unique angle, but it’s not a narrative driven game because it’s meant to be open world and focused on exploration and living and creating your own story.
Characters – 8/10 – all of the characters are cats! so cute. Again i’d like to see more customization for the main character, but otherwise, am pleased.
Music: 10/10 – Actually… I’m LOVING the music in Cattails it’s so peaceful and whimsical. I am definitely leaving the sound on while playing this one. The game has been running idle in the background while I type this, and although yes, the tracks are short, and loop, it’s not bad, because the music is so good.
Voice Acting: N/A – no voice acting.
Replay Value: 10/10 – You live your life as a cat, the way you want. That’s the point, so yes, there is huge replay value here. You join different clans, meet different NPCs, see slightly different stories, but even beyond just the clan thing, you customize your cats skills and attributes and that directly effects gameplay in many ways. So yeah I’ll be playing this again too.
Overall Score: 60/70 86% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
The one I ordered came with 2 controllers that look a lot like PS4 controllers and a wireless keyboard. It had a small 32gb micro sd card with all the software pre-installed. They say they use their own skins and stuff too but I’m not sure if that claim is true or false.
It does have some surprisingly rare games. Lunar Walking School is on there, but not Lunar Eternal Blue or Silver Star Story. Lufia is on there, including an unfinished Sega Genesis version that I didn’t even know existed. Some of my old favorite cartridges and CDs are on there, like Final Fantasy, Tactics Ogre, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Breath of Fire, just to name a few. And fun childhood memories of games I grew up with like Sonic, Ecco, Mario, and more.
Shipping was fast, arrived in less than a week. I began doing research on Retro Pie prior to receiving my console and I was already confused. I sent an email to their customer service team about how to install my own copies of roms onto their systems.
Initially, their customer service team responded within a day or two with a tutorial on 3 ways in which to get my own roms onto the console. When the console first arrived I was so excited that I didn’t try right away any of these methods as there was plenty to play already installed – and still is plenty to play too.
But after a week or two, I did want a nice way to play my retro games, which I do own, but it’d be nice to have them all on one HDMI ready tiny console. This thing is so tiny it fits in one hand. In fact you could probably fit at least 3 or 4 of them in one hand lol.
So I became more determined to load my own games. And here is where the misery begins.
So according to the guide the store sent me, as well as everything I’ve read online, I’m doing everything right.
There are 3 ways.
USB – the most straightforward way. I formatted my USB to Fat32 and created a folder called retropie and stuck it into my machine. It says to wait until it stops blinking, but mine never did stop blinking. I let it run an entire day and when I checked on it again it still had not created any of the rom folders.
I tried to manually create some folders on my USB using the path of retropie/roms/short name where short name is the console such as gba, snes, megadrive, etc. But this too did not work.
Moving away from USB I decided to try SSH. I enabled it under the RetroPie configuration settings as it is off by default.
Next I plugged my Raspberry Pi into my cable modem which is supposed to automatically connect it to my network. I chose to do a wired connection because none of the wireless methods of connecting were working.
I had tried Wifi, and it says that the keyboard will not show your password on screen but rest assured it is working, but when I pressed enter nothing happened.
So back to the wired connection. I ensured that SSH was enabled and then told it to show my IP address. I made note of the console’s IP address and went back to my computer
On my computer I installed WinSCP to access my raspberry pi via SSH connection on my windows machine.
I used the default username pi and password raspberry.
The connection timed out.
I changed port numbers. I had read about using 20, 80, or 55555.
I tried all port numbers. Depending on the port numbers I got various errors, such as connection refused or connection timeout when trying to connect with WinSCP
I tried looking briefly into Samba-Share but that seemed even more technical and over my head and I’d been trying for over 9 hours just to add a handful of roms.
In the end I could not add roms.
I emailed the company and now, almost 48 hours later am still waiting on a response.
I don’t think I’ll be able to add my own roms and I am disappointed.
I don’t think I’ll be able to add my own roms and I am disappointed as it is missing quite a few that I would really like to play.
The whole process is way more technical than I’m comfortable with.
STILL…. In the end…. for $150 for the console, the 3,000ish games that came pre-loaded, and the controls and wireless keyboard (controls work fine, wireless keyboard i dunno lol maybe not working). But still I feel it’s a good value.
If I’m having THIS much trouble trying to just transfer in some roms, I can’t imagine I could have ever loaded retro pie and emulation station and everything else on my own. No way.
So $150 for 3,000 games, yeah I’ll take it still… Even though it has some issues…
Aside from not being able to load my own roms, there’s other issues as well, edges of the screen in menus (not within games, but pretty much anywhere else) are ever so slightly clipped off making it hard to read certain things sometimes – it’s rare, it only happens in a few screens, which I wouldn’t have seen unless trying all these settings and config options to get my own roms loaded.
The other big issue is the controls can be reconfigured to your preferred layout, but it is really sensitive and buggy. I just left mine on default settings, which maybe in Asia and/or Europe, is backwards from the USA. I keep wanting to press the bottom left button (X) to confirm, and the bottom right button (O) to cancel, because that’s how it is on almost every console in USA. but on this console it’s reversed. X cancels and O confirms…. SOMETIMES…. and other times… in certain games/menus it’s reversed AGAIN – back to the American way. That drives me a bit batty. But is a minor inconvenience.
It came with little to no documentation. And everything needed batteries which was another minor inconvenience. I looked up documentation online and after some fumbling around was up and running in under 20 minutes. But this transferring in my own roms thing still not working. I’ve reached out to the seller, and also am asking around in online communities trying to get it sorted out.
I would say…. yes it’s worth buying…
If you are technical enough, save yourself some money and mod your own raspberry pi unit.
But if you’re lazy and/or not technical, go ahead and buy this.
I have read mixed reviews about controls not working or the console not working, but mine works fine, except for MAYBE the keyboard, or maybe I just dunno wtf I’m doing – and then also I can’t connect to Wifi or SSH even with a hard wired connection – is it a problem of the system or am I doing it wrong? I can’t say for sure.
There are flaws as mentioned above, but I’m still playing with and enjoying my unit.
If I get my own roms installed I’d give this 5 out of 5 stars. Without my own roms, I give it like 3 stars, “good but not great”. Transferring my own roms is not the only issue, but it is the biggest issue for me in my opinion. There’s lots of other little issues but it’s a neat little machine with some fun games already loaded. Check it out and let me know what you think. Also if anyone has any advice for me on how to load my own roms and what I’m doing wrong please tell me lol.
You might be wondering what are the best Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games for girls. What makes an MMO so addictive? That answer can be different for both men and women. Women tend to be more social gamers, they also enjoy more dressup and character customization. Girls don’t necessarily need ultra high definition super realistic graphics and often prefer cuter, cartoon, or anime style graphics that are bright and colorful. Girls are also more likely to read the story and lore within the MMORPG and not just skip through quest and NPC dialog. For a girl, the enjoymemt of an MMORPG is in the journey, not in the endgame. Girls probably want a game with a large variety of pets and mounts to collect. And girls probably are more into crafting, fishing, and other relaxing activities besides just hunting monsters.
Based on all of these factors. Which are the top 10 MMORPGs for girls in 2020? Here’s my picks for the best MMOs for girls.
1.) Temtem
Temtem is like a Pokemon or Digimon styled game with tons of cute monsters to collect. Temtem is also great because there’s no monthly fee. It’s the new kid on the block, being released just this year in 2020 which makes it super accessible still for new players. There are no expansions or things to worry about yet, but needless to say, that could change in the future. Fresh new content is constantly being added to Temtem. It has very positive reviews and a large and growing community of active players.
Here’s a quick rundown of Temtem’s features. As you can see it plays almost exactly like a Pokemon game. This info was pulled from the game’s official steam store page.
Story Campaign: Journey across six vivid islands and embark on the adventure of becoming a Temtem tamer while fighting against the evil Clan Belsoto.
Online World: The days of traveling solo are over; in Temtem the world is a massively multiplayer one. Tamers from around the world can join and you will be able to see them around you, living the adventure with you and fighting to become the best Temtem tamer.
Co-Op Adventure: You will be able to join forces with a friend any time and work together towards your next goal. Catch new Temtem, complete a Route, or face off against a Temtem Leader; all while fighting alongside your friend in dual battles!
Housing: Buy your own house at Atoll Row and decorate it your way. Buy new furniture, color your walls and you’ll be ready to invite your friends over!
Customize: Customize your character to stand out from the crowd and get new cosmetics while you battle other tamers. Pick a silly hat, a comfy sweatshirt, some pants and you’re ready to go! Or maybe you prefer to wear a full-on cosplay of your favorite Temtem?
Competitive: Start by choosing 8 Temtem and the pick and ban phase will begin. Take turns with your rival to pick your Temtem and ban theirs. When all the decisions are made and the turns are ended, you will end up with a squad of 5 Temtem and the battle will begin.
Always Growing: New content is constantly being added to Temtem, new events, new missions, new cosmetics, new Temtem, and new ways to play!
2.) World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft has to be doing something right to have lasted for over 15 years. It still remains the largest MMORPG with over 84 Million active players. The next game behind it has a mere 26 Million active players which is old school runescape. And yes, these numbers are from 2020. This means WoW is CRUSHING the competition when it comes to revenue from subscriptions even 15 years after its initial release.
Edit: I can’t find the original source of where I got those numbers – a reader politely informed me WOW’s numbers aren’t that high. And It is true. But it’s still the most highly populated MMORPG by far: https://mmo-population.com/r/wow ranking number 1. And with various sources citing between 5 to 8 million subscribers as of 2021. – It had 7 million according to the link in the source at time of this article’s publication.
What makes WoW so unique that it has both drawn in new players while retaining old players? I think it’s the ease of use of the game. The game is quite simple and easy to play. It is a good gateway game for users who have never played an MMORPG before.
It offers something for everyone from crafting to transmutation of gear allowing you to customize your looks without affecting the stats of the gear. Hardcore gamers can grind their way to the top of the arena and earn rare mounts and titles and earn achievements to show off their accomplishments. More casual gamers can try wow boosting to get a jump start on their adventures. Whatever your play style, even if you just want to read lore and spend all day questing, WoW lets you play the game the way you want to enjoy it.
And with the largest online community, many people stick around just to keep playing the game with their friends. New expansions and fresh content are being released still even 15 years later. In fact, there’s an expansion coming out in just a few more weeks. Some expansions bring back characters or areas from the past and continue to write the story in new and interesting ways.
The story is definitely another highlight in World of Warcraft, one that I think girl gamers will definitely enjoy as it is full of fantasy and whimsy as well as heartfelt moments along the way. There are even numerous roleplaying servers where one can totally immerse into character whilst playing.
3.) Mabinogi
Mabinogi’s cute anime style graphics and extensive crafting system really stand out. You can do anything in this game, from writing and composing your own music, playing music, fishing, farming, or of course grinding and hunting monsters. The game’s simple but cute anime graphics and the colorful world will draw girl gamers in for sure. Mabinogi is free to play but has some options for paid content, especially when it comes to character customization.
Mabinogi’s features are totally unique with no other MMORPG quite like it on the marketplace. That’s why it has been around since 2004 and continues to draw in new players, much like World of Warcraft.
Mabinogi is more like a life simulation game, allowing you to truly play the game any way you can imagine. Whether you want to just sit back and relax, cook, craft, play music, decorate your home, or go out and slay monsters, the choice is yours.
4.) Ragnarok Online
One of the oldest and most beloved MMORPGs of all time, Ragnarok Online remains a cult classic to this day and is more accessible than ever with new mobile and steam ports of its popular franchise.
There are many people also setting up private servers with faster EXP rate and increased dropped rates for rare items.
I love the colorful cute pixel graphics and retro feel of this game. The game originally released in 2002 making it almost 20 years old now.
Ragnarok Online is free to play but does have a VIP option for users who want to spend a little extra.
5.) Final Fantasy Online
Whether it’s FFXI or FFXIV, both Final Fantasy games are still popular to this day. With the name Final Fantasy already being well known to female gamers, and popular characters and monsters and lore from the gaming series, the attraction of this game is obvious. Whether you want to be a sexy cat girl or cute chubby baby like character, the races and character customizations allow you to look your best.
Like most Asian MMOs, this one can be a little grindy, but it’s definitely worth it. There’s a lot of great story elements as you can expect from any game with Final Fantasy in its title. FFXI still has about 50,000 players. It has lost most of its initial players to the newer FFXIV which boasts 23 million players in 2020.
Really FFXIV has a great single player campaign. But once you reach endgame, things can get dicey, with long queues and wait times for some of the dungeons. But if you’re a casual gamer, you might not mind it as much as you can fish or craft or do something else while waiting.
The story and music in FFXIV is probably the best of any MMORPG on the market right now.
6.) Dragon Raja
I did an in-depth review of Dragon Raja awhile back on my blog. What makes Dragon Raja so great is the character customization options. The graphics and characters are super cute. The story isn’t half bad either. And it’s a very accessible game being free to play and available on IOS and Android. I highly recommend Dragon Raja and think you’ll love it. It is similar in some ways to Mabinogi in that it is part life simulation. It lets you play the game as you like. Check it out.
7.) Perfect World
Perfect World is another MMORPG with heavy character customization. The game is also quite old being released in 2005. It is free to play, but there are lots and lots of costumes and mounts and pets that can be purchased with irl money. The game, like others on our list, now has a mobile version, and is more accessible than ever before. For hardcore gamers, there are massive battles with 160 players fighting for dominance. It also allows you to fly. It’s a great game for girls also because it is super easy, mindless in fact, because you can autopath everywhere. Also female characters can be picked up and held by male characters so I used to have a friend who carried me everywhere in the game because I had a tendency to get lost 🙂 lol.
8.) Tree of Savior
Similar in many ways to Ragnarok Online, Tree of Savior was a highly anticipated title but most fans felt it fell short of its lofty aspirations. It received mixed, mostly negative reviews at release. However, it has undergone a transformation called Re:Build and now is receiving mostly positive reviews. However, I hear they did a complete wipe and reset which angered people who had been playing since 2016. So it’s still one of those, love it, or hate it, types of games. It has a lot of charm and cute graphics that girls will love though so still makes our top 10.
9.) Phantasy Star Online 2
Wow American gamers had to wait a long time for this one, didn’t we?! Releasing in Asia in 2012 – and not available in English until May of 2020, Phantasy Star Online 2, could have taken the world by storm, if their timing was right. Phantasy Star has been a cult classic ever since the 90s with its offline RPGs. It is an interesting blend of scifi and fantasy elements. Some may even call it a steampunk MMORPG.
The original Phantasy Star Online was a big hit both internationally and in the US. While it’s still very early days for the sequel in the US, all signs are pointing to it doing very well despite being almost a decade old.
They are already preparing the next stand-alone Phantasy Star Online game for release on PC, Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch as early as 2021. Whether that will be an English release, or we’ll have to wait a decade again, remains to be seen…
One thing is for certain, for fans of Phantasy Star Online 2, it was definitely worth the wait. I speculate, that the release may be in part just a marketing ploy to draw players in before the next stand alone game releases next year. We shall see.
Despite potentially being a big marketing ploy for the next game’s installment, a lot of time and care was given to the localization of Phantasy Star 2 Online including English (or your choice of original Japanese) voice overs, and even English singing of the vocal tracks. That’s more love and care than would be given to most free to play MMORPGs.
With its anime graphics, great soundtrack, and unique scifi setting, I highly recommend Phantasy Star Online 2 as one of my top 10 MMORPGs for girls in 2020.
10.) FLYFF Fly For Fun
Securing the last spot on our countdown, we have FLYFF, Fly for fun. This game has been around since 2004. The cute 3D graphics and colorful world make FLYFF a big hit. As the name suggests, you can fly and even participate in airbase combat.
When it first released, FLYFF had incredible success. However, it soon became plagued by bots and hackers. They made numerous changes over the years to the game, but most dedicated players were already leaving FLYFF for newer MMORPGs. As the population declined, the game continued to fade into obscurity.
Another drawback was the game was quite slow and grindy as most Asian MMORPG are. It took forever to level up especially after about level 60. The game’s level cap is over 150, so as you can see, most players just became frustrated and gave up the grind midway through the game.
FLYFF recently got a new publisher this month. Some users are concerned this could be the doom of their beloved game. But I think to look at it this way, Bora Island paid a lot of money to acquire the rights to publish this game. They aren’t just going to waste money. They see potential in FLYFF and will work hard to continue to publish new and exciting content for the players.
Will Bora Island be able to revive what was once a cult classic? Only time will tell…
Conclusion:
Of course, there are many other noteworthy MMORPGs. Although some say MMORPG is on the way out, I disagree. I think MMORPG will always draw in players who want to obtain loot and/or enjoy crafting or even just want to make new friends. MMORPG is a unique genre that offers a little bit of something to all gamers no matter their playstyle.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Top 10 MMORPGs for Girls in 2020. What MMORPGs are you currently playing? Leave a note below. Maybe I’ll come join you. 🙂