Vita
Playstation Vita
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Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
“I’d rather be dating pigeons…” Ok, maybe that is a little harsh, this game isn’t THAT bad. In fact, it really isn’t bad at all. It’s just super niche; way too niche even for a self-proclaimed connoisseur of niche genres such as myself. I’ll be blunt: This game is not my cup of tea at all. That aside, I will still try to judge it on its merits, knowing that there IS an audience for this other than me out there. With that out of the way, on to the review! Hakuoki is an interactive novel, slash dating sim, slash samurai life simulator (see what I meant when I said…
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The Longest 5 Minutes
The Longest 5 Minutes should have just been a visual novel, full stop. I guess I can expand on that thought. Let me start by what I feel the game sets out to do and build from there. The Longest 5 Minutes is a traditional JRPG told in such a way that you, the player, are experiencing memories of the main character who has lost his memory during the final fight with the game’s final boss, the Demon King. These memories take the form of micro dungeons and specific encounters. In each of these, the characters have a set starting level, gear, and money. Each of these memories have anywhere…
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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
I wanted to talk about this game the minute I started playing it, but I knew a lot of people had just gotten into the first game to play them in order. Since it’s nearly impossible to talk about this game without discussing the ending of the first, I decided to wait a long time before I gave my final verdict. I originally wanted to do this in two parts. The first part was going to be how I felt about the game during the beginning chapters where Rean is searching for his classmates. The second was going to be how I felt about the game after pushing through to…
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Atelier Shallie Plus
Atelier Shallie Plus is a handheld version of Atlelier Shallie with all of the DLC packed in, much like all the previous “Plus” versions of the Atelier games have done. I have not played the console version of Shallie or any other Atelier games, so my review is based entirely on the Vita version. Let me start with some less flavorful notes. The frame rate is appalling most of the time. While not entirely gamebreaking, there are a few moments when the game seems to really chug along. The characters are all highly detailed and look great. Even the backgrounds are pretty nice considering other games on the Vita in…
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Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky, published by Aksys games is an interesting take on the traditional JRPG gameplay formula, being a hybrid platformer and RPG, attempting to mix elements of both. The background of the setting is that an alternate world exists, mirroring the real world. Killed by a mysterious force, the main cast awakens in this alternate world, unaware of their surroundings or the reason for their presence. The narrative here has potential in the premise, but is ultimately lackluster in the delivery. With reveals coming too far in-between, allowing the player time to forget the small threads being woven. The story additionally suffers from the…
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Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls
Superdimension Neptune vs. Sega Hard Girls(SNvSHG) is is a RPG for the Vita where you play as the anthropomorphized representations of console systems & hardware. Combined from two different series (Hyperdimension Neptunia & Sega Hard Girls) that follow the same basic premise of hardware themed characters, we finally see a cross-over game as the two series go head to head, vying the girls representing modern consoles against classic Sega machines. What could go wrong? Unfortunately everything. SNvSHG suffers from a bewildering series of problems in its design, but let’s get one of the worst offenders out of the way; the frame-rate. Well the game plays at a fairly normal 30FPS,…
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Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
Originally released on the PS2 half a year after the PS3 came out, Odin Sphere launched with much fanfare. It’s music, art direction, and gameplay was just what everyone needed at the time. 2D beat-em-ups had all but gone the way of the dodo, but Vanillaware showed us that we needed them in our lives. With all of it’s beautiful environments and colorful characters, the game was a success with the niche market, and even got some positive mainstream press. Much of that praise came from lead designer George Kamitani’s animation decisions. I’ve always enjoyed his art style as well as his animation techniques. Using multi-sprite bosses where each body…
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Senran Kagura: Estival Versus
Gigantic breasted ninja running around trying to tear one another’s clothes off? Must be time for another installment of Senran Kagura. This time, they’re in their bathing suits most of the time. So how does one attack someone until they’re down to just their bra and panties? Oddly enough, probably a series first, when you transform into your ninja gear, you actually have MORE clothes on than before. Try not to focus on that too much; it may induce nose bleeds. Where do I begin with this one? Obviously, this is going to be sensitive material to some people out there. This game is not for them. It’s for a…
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Risk of Rain
A while back, I picked up Risk of Rain on Steam. I knew it was coming out for Vita and PS4, so I didn’t play too much of it on my PC as I really felt it would fit the Vita quite well. Turns out that, while it does work one the Vita, it’s much better on PC or the PS4. This is mostly because the game has a lot of buttons to assign considering how relatively simple it is. I managed to find a layout that suits my style and is interchangeable on the Vita and PS4. I like being able to use both the d-pad and analog stick…
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Trillion: God of Destruction
A while back I came to the realization that I really don’t like rogue-likes or dungeon crawlers. Then a few days ago, Idea Factory sent me a review copy of Trillion. Trillion is a game where you must kill a boss with a trillion hit points. There is a lot of Disgaea-like story within, but that last statement pretty much sums up the game’s premise. You are the Great Overlord of some netherworld who rules over the other overlords. Some giant creature comes through a gate and kills everyone by the thousands, devouring everything in sight. Your brother asks if he can go destroy this threat once and for all,…
