Recent reviews by ⊹⊱ Opiautia ⊰⊹

Honestly, it’s not that bad for a prologue.

The story is very simple, you’re taking over a café that was previously owned by your grandpa who passed away and employ catboys to help you run it. Apparently, they’re naturals at this and pretty easily adapt to the job making your life that much easier. The downside is that someone failed to mention that they’ll expect you to choose one of them to be your “house cat”, and that’s where the chaos begins as they all compete for your undying love and affection. All jokes aside, it’s a pretty funny and charming read, I just wish there was more to it.
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For starters, there isn’t really any romance. I’d say it leads into the start of potential romantic tension, but that’s about it. Every route ends right as you start feeling some sort of connection begin to grow, and while this is disappointing for people who were hoping to get some catboy action, it personally makes me hopeful for any potential sequels they do release. It’s clear if they put in the effort, they’re capable of creating a decent fully fledged otome that has the potential to be amazing, rather than cheap smut with the aim of milking the community.

I found it slightly odd that you never see your character speak or think, rather the screen moves when she shakes or nods her head. I suppose this is to make you “feel” like you’re the MC. The problem I have with this is, there’s literally no choices in the game apart from when you decide who you want to pursue. This could be because it’s a prologue, but hopefully in the future we at least see her thoughts, it’d make it feel a bit more personal that way if the aim is to *be* her.

That being said, I was impressed by the fact there’s full Japanese voice-acting, and that I didn’t want to turn it off after the first few seconds. On top of that the art is consistently nice throughout. My final nitpick here would be the sprites, when they’re making it so that one of the boys is closer to you the sprite itself gets noticeably blurry. You can still tell who’s in front of you, and make out their features though, like I said, simply nitpicking.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548037763
Overall, as a prologue it does its job extremely well, it pulls you in and leaves you wanting more. Hopefully, we’ll see a continuation of the series, or at the very least get updates to the game that helps properly wrap up the story and routes. It’s clear some effort was put into this, and I believe that was to gauge how many people would truly be interested, so I hope they see they do have an audience.

Remember when you’d log into Facebook and boot up one of those little cute pet games where you’d take care of an animal of your choice and get little rewards? That’s what this game feels like, only without the rewards, and someone figured they’d just slap a dating sim somewhere in it. There’s just so much done wrong that I’m not even sure where to start.
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The characters are honestly the only thing I like about this game, art aside. The diversity is amazing, from size to race it was a breath of fresh air. I respect the developers for being bold enough to place in a trans man, who’d probably be my favorite if not for Anders. The respectful use of pronouns was interesting as well as how they handled delicate topics in general. I was probably impressed most by Felix. The library scene with the homeless guy just about melted my heart. There are a number of cliché ways I expected that to play out, and yet they went a completely different route, I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised. The ages have a nice range as well, no more high school drama. Just a bunch of confident adults who know what they want and aren’t afraid to acknowledge their shortcomings. Unfortunately, this is where my praise ends.

The story is nonexistent, but I’ll give you a rundown. Your character moved to Rainbow Bay after a nasty breakup, looking for a fresh start and a change in careers. Of course, you learn this all at once during a truth or dare session about midway through the game, but I digress. You came here with the intention of being a well-known photographer, now whether you’ve always had this passion, or it was simply a heat of the moment thing, we have no idea. But the only real-time this comes into play is briefly at a fair, in which you happened to immediately get some big-time offer and gig. I just couldn’t care to be honest, because the game doesn’t have enough to make you care. Your character’s personal life appears to revolve around who your pursuing’s personal life and your dog. BFF just severely lacked enough depth needed to make a lasting connection or leave an impression.

This is probably why I have mixed feelings about the romance. It’s not bad by a long shot, but there’s not enough to it. Due to so much focus being put into the dog element of the game it almost feels forgotten about, or like a last-minute addition. Your character pretty much kisses everyone on the first date, and while the kiss is sweet and well written when you consider your interactions with them throughout the game it all moves so quickly. Seriously, what happened to romantic tension!? It’s hard to even know where you stand with some characters because the word friend keeps getting thrown around despite you having kissed or slept with them multiple times. It could’ve possibly come together a bit more smoothly with CGs, however, there are none. At all! Not a single one! I’m so heartbroken. How can you deny me an Anders kiss CG? Or Astrid! It’s just too cruel. On top of that, it bothered me that some characters still openly flirted with characters you were pursuing and neither party said anything or reacted in a way to suggest being uncomfortable. There were a few times where your character expressed disappointment at the word “friend”, but the lack of conviction behind it and the going with the flow was quite irritating, to say the least.
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Now, I’m not going to pretend that I like stat raisers, but I can often look beyond them if the story and romance are good enough because it’s usually worth the effort, albeit extremely frustrating. The irony here is that the stat raising element was not frustrating at all, rather it was just boring, and I didn’t understand the reason for it. There’s no reward for raising your dogs’ stats outside of getting the valedictorian achievement. I didn’t see an improvement in the dog’s behavior, nor did it seem like having higher stats changed the outcome of specific situations. On top of that, I found that the constant dog events were more annoying than anything and killed any type of potential romantic tension, not to mention it just personally made things awkward at times. It’s honestly quite amusing to me, that the part of the game it felt most if not all, their efforts went into is quite possibly the worst part. Somehow, rather than making me a dog lover, I’m quite glad to own a cat instead. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but this game made me absolutely fed up with them.

Finally, BFF lacks basic VN features. You cannot skip, only click super-fast, but not too fast or you risk the game-breaking and having it freeze up for a moment. Not having the ability to skip read text in a visual novel should be considered a crime, and a game sin. I also found that the method of fast clicking sometimes leads to sprites not loading in. There are also a few typos here and there but given all that I’ve mentioned so far, this is simply nitpicking at this rate as there wasn’t an insane amount, just enough for me to notice and make mention of. Nothing another proofread couldn’t fix. My final complaint is that if you like to save before choices, like me, and then go back and try other options, even that’s a hassle. The game doesn’t save at the spot you pick, rather it saves at the beginning of an event itself. To clarify, essentially, it’s like starting a scene all over again if you want to reload and try for other options. When you reload, you have to click back up to the point you saved at which almost ruins the whole purpose of saving in general.
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Words cannot accurately describe how painful it was to get through Best Friend Forever, nor how completely disappointed I am. Never have I fallen so hard for characters within a game I hate. There’s just so much wasted potential here and I feel like they pushed the dog part so hard that it comes across as cheap and lackluster, rather than cute, adorable, and funny. Originally, I was leaning more towards a neutral rating but after a few more run-throughs, I just have to say no. It’s cute, love the characters and the art, but everything else is just… bad. If the devs released a dating sim without stat raising elements and a fully fleshed out story, I think it has the potential to be mind-blowing.

This is the first game I played in the shadow warrior series, and after having beaten it I can say with complete confidence that it will be my last. I fail to see where the hype comes from, and I’ve never been happier to have a game be done and dusted. Shadow Warrior 2 immediately pulls you in and then proceeds to let you down in almost every way possible.
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Before I get into the bad, I will say the game has some pretty satisfying combat. It’s a hack n slash mixed with FPS, and it’s done really well. Your guns can be just as strong as your swords and it’s up to you to decide how you want to play. Whether you decide to run around slicing up everyone, or opt for some typical gunplay, there’s never a dull moment and you don’t feel powerless either way. The weapon upgrades make a drastic difference, so it’s not a waste of time when you take a moment to work out a build and mess with mod combos. Another thing is that we just started the game off on hard right out the bat, and I’d recommend going that route. I think it’d be too boring in normal, hard gave enough of a challenge without being insanely difficult.

It’s a shame honestly because if the rest of the game was as good as the gameplay, this would certainly be a positive review, but alas.
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The story feels rushed. You play as the ever hilarious Lo Wang, who somehow ends up in a situation where he yet again gets a voice inside his head that insults and berates him at every turn. On your journey to get rid of your inner demon you somehow end up having to save the world after learning the only good character in the game is actually evil. Mind you, this all is taking place while you’re chasing some giant creature thing to restore a girl’s soul. If it sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is.

Now, on paper, this all probably sounds pretty exciting. The issue is the majority of my playtime came from me doing bounties, trials, and side quests. There aren’t many story missions at all and thus not nearly enough character interaction or plot development. So you’ve got characters who are meant to hold some significance dying and you don’t have any real reason to care because the story was clearly not the focal point. Add that onto the fact that while someone your character supposedly respects is dying in front of you he’s going on an endless immature ramble and it just really doesn’t do anything for the heartstrings. Now it’d be different if your character was funny, so even though you don't care you could at least crack a smile... But he's not funny, at all.

I cannot even begin to describe how absolutely annoying the main character is. It’s almost suffocating how hard they tried to be funny. We get it, he likes ♥♥♥♥, but don’t forget he’s straight he just has the humor of an adolescent boy who still thinks farting is funny and cooties exist. It’s that bad. On top of that, someone thought they were so funny when creating his personality that they determined he should endlessly talk all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time. No matter what’s happening. It takes away from any seriousness the game tries to push. Hell, he mentions at one point that his parents died after someone mocks him the way he mocks others, and he gets in his feelings, but you can’t really care. At some point, he did just seem like a wannabe edgelord and an antagonist rather than a protagonist with a good sense of humor. I get where they were going, but it just fails miserably and since his personality is meant to be the selling point of the game, it makes everything all the more painful.
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But nothing is nearly as painful as when devs half-ass implement online co-op. Either do It right or don’t do at all. It goes beyond the other player not sharing the story achievements. My buddy and I are used to that, whatever, we don’t care. But when your partner can’t choose story missions, can’t interact with story objectives, and cannot talk to NPCs I begin to wonder why the ♥♥♥♥ they’re even there in the first place. Your partner is essentially just there to help you kill things, that’s it. If that sounds like something, you’re fine with, trust me it gets old fast. Imagine the time you could save in bounties if your partner could help you collect at least ONE of the twenty needed items you need. It blows my mind how developers can’t do co-op right! It feels like a last-minute thought, rather than an intended feature. It’s honestly disappointing.

The bugs pissed me off just as much. I won’t even get into the crashing, although there was a decent amount of it over the stupidest of reasons. But the sheer number of bugs blew my mind. For instance, once we learned that there were missable bosses in side quests we made it our mission to run around searching for them. This lead to me accidentally getting into somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, and I say accidentally but to be honest all I did was hop the fence, as the game allowed me, only to complete the quest, come back and realize we’re now trapped in said area because we were supposed to cut a dude’s head off to access it in the first place. Another bug happened that I’ll simply share below because I… there are no words for this.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2243944431
I just don’t recommend Shadow Warrior 2, unless you love endless ♥♥♥♥ jokes, plan to play with someone funny enough to make it bearable, have patience and a decent music playlist. I’m generally extremely forgiving with games, and a lot of the time the good will outweigh the bad. But what was good wasn’t showcased nearly enough, and what was bad was in my face constantly. If you must suffer, grab it on sale and enjoy it now that I’ve drastically lowered your expectations.

I’m genuinely impressed.

I haven’t read an otome in months, so when I picked Heiress as a way to end my little hiatus, I wasn’t expecting anything ground-breaking, just decent. But decent almost feels like an insult as this novel is enchanting and charming in its own little way.
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Unfortunately, the store page doesn’t do the story much justice. The MC is a healer living on the outskirts of town to avoid drama with the locals who deem her a witch. While not the best life, it’s decent up until a sorcerer shows up at the same time a mysterious plague breaks out. This plague gets lovingly titled the “witch plague”, which results in you and anyone else who’s been suspected of witchcraft being hunted down and burned alive so that the town might be cleansed and freed of this curse. So, with the stress of getting caught weighing on you, as well as everyone you know dying around you, it’s a race against time as you hide and fight for your life while trying to figure out who this sorcerer is, who you can trust, and just how do you end a plague that seems to be caused by magic.

The plot itself is simple, but I believe they handled it well. It was pretty fleshed out, and I adore the atmosphere of the town when the plague was at its peak. It all felt pretty surreal and downright unnerving. I especially liked the contrast between the bright and warm honey shop, whereas outside was dreary, dark, and generally unsafe. The ending was satisfying as well. With it being a fantasy novel, I feared it’d be cheesy and heroic, but it was pretty believable and realistic, given the circumstances. I love the way the MC handled herself, she wasn’t a hero, but she was also far from helpless.
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On the topic of the MC, she is one of the better ones I’ve come across. She stands up for herself and constantly reminds people that she is who she is and isn’t defined by their preconceptions which were pretty refreshing. I never expected her to stand up to Darius, let alone stand firm for what she believes in. Also, the constant inner turmoil between her bloodthirsty demonic side and her humanity was nice, I liked it. This is simply a nitpick, but I would’ve liked more options that let us delve deeper into that because it was pretty interesting, and would’ve been a treat to explore, even if it led to a “bad” ending. Also, a route for Theobald would’ve been pretty thrilling. I don’t believe it’d need to be a romantic one, I just adore his personality honestly and it would open the door for the “darker” side of things.

Speaking of which, the romance isn’t in your face, it’s more subtle and slightly more realistic since it allows time for a proper buildup given everything that’s happening around you. I wouldn’t say it’s deep by any means, but the tension is handled well and, I liked the way you could tell the MC was growing more attached through her thoughts and inner conflicts. Especially in Alvin’s route, I was quite impressed with how her jealousy and feelings were handled. Darius’s route was also incredibly well done, it didn’t turn out the way I expected it to, and for that, I’m extremely happy.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2207024685

Now, because I have to talk about it. The English translation isn’t perfect by any means. There are typos, some of the sentences are awkward and could do with a few adjustments however it’s not awful and didn’t kill the story or ruin my immersion as I could clearly understand the point the writer wanted to get across. The amusing part is that the scenes with intense emotion or action were some of the best translated. Take that as you will.

Typos, translation errors, and nitpicking aside it’s pretty solid. It’s worth the read, as it’s oddly captivating. What’s not to love? The art is gorgeous, the mc is amazing, you have magic, a plague, good ole medieval superstitions, and a perv gets his butt kicked. The only thing missing is dragons! So if you are craving a little more magic, I’d say give this one a try.

I absolutely adore this game.

The gameplay is satisfying, the world is atmospheric, and the story, while not anything overly complex or deep, was intriguing enough to keep me interested to the end. Remnant is one of the few games where I knew I’d enjoy it based on what few minutes of gameplay I saw, and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

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If you’re coming into this game expecting a mind-blowing story, I’d say lower your expectations a bit. It’s not bad, but it’s also not that deep. You won’t care for the NPCs because your only real interaction with them all is buying necessities or upgrading your weapons/armor. They come across as merchants more than anything else. The backstory behind Ward 13 and all that took place was pretty interesting, and it was fun unlocking more levels to read what lead to destruction. It reminded me a bit of fallout, going through an abandoned bunker and reading through the computer logs to try and piece together what happened to it and its inhabitants. The root mother’s story was also intriguing, however, beyond the journal and the original conversation you have with her it’s not developed further and that was a little disappointing. But nothing was more disappointing than your meeting with Ford. This could be because you’re following in his footsteps and come across a few of his journals that contain his observations and adventures. The game hypes him up to be one of the most interesting characters, and yet, unfortunately, this was probably the most exciting part about him because when you finally come face to face the entire thing was extremely anti-climactic. You meet, he’s worn down and in a cave. Gives a small spill about how maybe you could be the one to save them, gives you a key, and sends you on your way. Honestly, I wouldn’t have complained if he died, or if we had to battle to free him. Also, to whom it may concern, your choices don’t seem to have much of an impact on what NPCs say unless you’re trying to pick a fight.

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The selling point for me was gameplay, as it more than makes up for the story’s faults. The pacing is incredible, the dungeons aren’t so short they’re forgettable or too long they’re boring. You have a decent enough breather between bosses to test out new weapons and mods before you have to face another, and they were all amazing visually and fun to fight despite the challenge. You won’t be approaching each boss the same way, I found that once you learned the moves and timing, they weren’t so bad. Not easy, but also not frustrating. The only boss that gave me a hard time were the butterflies, but it’s hard to blame them when I kept rolling off the edge. Constantly. When they were almost dead.

Also, no two playthroughs are the same as RNG determines what bosses you’ll fight and what dungeons you come across. So, there’s a decent amount of replayability as you try to discover and unlock everything.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2177466595

The co-op was smooth and satisfying. We only ran into two bugs, one was visual, the other was audio but neither were game-breaking. The visual bug was that my partner had “waiting for all players” stuck on his screen until he reconnected. The audio bug, I assume an enemy got stuck underneath a dock, so we heard him doing his battle cries, we simply walked away, however, and moved on. My biggest concern was that co-op would trivialize some of the boss fights, that you’d blast through them without breaking a sweat and complete the game in 5 hours. However, this was not the case. We had our fair share of struggles, and both agree that the butterfly fight is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Fun, and very challenging, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I’ll say the only thing that might bother some people is that you cannot speak to a merchant at the same time as your partner, so while one of you are upgrading your guns and armor the other will have to go restock on ammo boxes, hearts, mods, whatever else you may need and just learn how to rotate them with each other so you’re not awkwardly standing in line waiting your turn.

Remnant is amazing and despite my nitpicking, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. I’d recommend it to honestly anyone, even people who disliked dark souls or dislike hard games in general. Once you learn the patterns and get the hang of it, it’s pretty addicting and very rewarding. Full price or on sale this game is worth every penny, and you don’t need a buddy to enjoy it I just think they’ll add to the fun.

Aesthetically pleasing would be the one genuine compliment I have for New Dawn. It’s just so vibrant and colorful, almost everywhere you look is just visual eye candy. The rest, however, is 50/50 and if I could I’d give the game a neutral rating but since I can’t I’ll give it a VERY cautious thumbs up.
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The story is lackluster, shallow and plays out like a DLC rather than a standalone sequel. I found myself caring less about most if not all of the good guys. Many tend to go on long unfunny tangents, and you’re going to get the joke, but the joke just isn’t funny. Unfortunately, the writers thought they were hilarious, and you’ll have to endure this with many of the side quests. Mickey and Lou, however, were entertaining, and their cutscenes were the only real saving grace to the story. Hell, I was rooting for them and if given the option would’ve immediately sided with the bad guys. It’s a shame, because I believe if they had put the effort into doing a fully fleshed out story revolving around the twins it would’ve been great. Instead, what we’re left with is two random villains who have no relation to the FC5 events, and anything relating to FC5 could’ve been squeeze in or popped into a small DLC.

The selling point is online co-op, however, even that feels half-assed. There are multiple missions where you will need to escort an NPC in a vehicle, however, these vehicles are only designed for two people, which leaves your co-op buddy scrambling to find a ride to try and keep up because otherwise, the mission will fail for them “abandoning the objective.” Another thing is progress, it only counts for the host which also means no Uplay achievements that are story related for your pal. Now we didn’t care about the achievements but progress being tied to the host only is pretty stupid. Also, this is just a nitpick, but photo mode should work in co-op as well, just sayin’!
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I thought the outposts and grinding for all the outfits weas the best part of the game. It’s very rewarding, and it was nice to be able to approach it in whatever way we wanted. Expeditions weren’t half bad either, though that got stale a lot quicker than the outposts did. The gameplay itself is solid enough, bugs aside. When you’re going in loud it feels like old COD when you’re opting for stealth it works out smoothly and it can feel rewarding the first few times you do it successfully. I was pleasantly surprised taking out alarms with a silencer didn’t alert everyone in the area.

The setting itself and the world is another plus, I honestly love it. The idea of the world being destroyed then coming back so vibrant and beautiful is a refreshing take on the post-apocalyptic concept, I adore it. Coming from a Fallout fan, I almost wish more games took that route. Even the monstrous animals were amazing in my eyes. I just wish the story had been up to par.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1924866884
Finally, be warned. Like most Ubisoft games, it’s buggy. Now, most bugs I can pass on, like the enemy AI reinforcements at outposts just standing still in the desert leaving their friends to die as they suddenly have a midlife crisis. But bugs that get me killed repeatedly or require me to restart the whole game? It’s just annoying. Twice after a loading screen, I got stuck in place and couldn’t move. The first time there was nothing around, I was just standing in place, trapped by open-air around me. The second time I spawned in a small ass tree, that a car can destroy but a gun can’t. Sometimes your character won’t vault through windows, other times they won’t climb up or down the ladder. Had to reload one part at least 4 times because of an infinite loading screen, and then once again getting stuck in place. NPCS love running directly in front of your car btw, thus forcing you to hit them and aggro-ing everyone in the area. Also, why the hell can we heal at full health? The amount of medkits I’ve wasted by accidentally hitting the button and my character deciding to pop some pills is ridiculous.
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � • • • •
I don’t believe the game was god awful, but I don’t believe it’s amazing either. I enjoyed it because of my coop partner and the story missions involving the twins, but otherwise, I would’ve refunded a long time ago. So, take that as you will. New Dawn is pretty as hell, but lackluster, shallow, and pretty pitiful for a sequel. My advice? Grab a friend you trust and who’s funny, don’t take it seriously, buy it 50% or lower, and enjoy the ride.

This game is frustrating as hell. If I had to sum things up, the Dead by Daylight community is like one big overly competitive family that’s constantly trying to one-up each other while everything burns down around them. The game itself is crumbling beneath the weight of the devs overly ambitious ideas and you’re just left with a product that was full of potential but unfortunately is now going nowhere fast.

The gameplay itself is far from complex. If you’re a survivor your job is to loop the killer, do generators, save your teammates and escape. If you’re a killer, your job is to stall gen progression and kill everyone before they get out. It’s easy to play and get the hang of despite how impossible it might feel to hit skill checks or catch more than one person at first. The gameplay may sound basic as hell, but it’s extremely addicting. There’s nothing quite like it with as big a player base. Anything that could compete dies fast or suffers from severe game-breaking issues that the devs take too long to fix.

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Now let’s get into why I can’t stand this game.
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � • • • •
In a game reliant on hitboxes, the hitboxes are f*cked. Some killers are worse than others, and you’ll find yourself asking, “How did that hit!?” 99% of the time. Freddy’s lunge is ridiculous, and the devs need to either fix the Huntress or remove her altogether if they can’t code a hatchet hitbox properly. Honestly, the drop in Billy and Huntress mains would be so drastic if air didn’t count as your player. The window you vaulted? Yea doesn’t matter. Little did you know that window sill is now a part of you, and if the killer whacks it you’re taking a hit. You might be playing the skinniest character in the game but she’s actually more “thicc” than Jane and Clown combined. Dedicated servers were meant to be the ultimate fix to this, but it’s just made things worse.

Another issue would be “gen rushing”. Which is essentially all of the generators in the game going by too quickly and survivors escaping in five minutes, when it takes almost twenty sometimes for a killer to even find a match. Now, I’m not about to be an idiot and cry about people being “toxic” for doing the only objective in the game but it is a bit of an issue. While there are ways to slow this down and stall things drastically, it requires luck, idiots, OP addons, or a combination of all three. Even then, you still might see three generators pop before you down one guy.
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � • • • •
Which leads me to say that balance, in general, is a problem. Some killers simply aren’t played because it doesn’t matter what you have or what map you’re on, you’re still in for a hard time unless you play unfairly. Killers rely heavily on addons and offerings to help tip the scales in their favor, however, this can result in unfair gameplay. Now, I’m all for getting rid of flashlight and insta meds if it means ebony mori gets a rework. Because both are unfair. I understand how long chases can go on, and when you finally down a guy only for him to be fully healed a second later it's frustrating as hell. However, ebony mori can take you out of the game in seconds. All it takes is being hooked once and the killer can kill you, which sucks because they typically camp your hook and wait for that moment to come. Usually, this just results in players leaving the match when they realize what’s happening.

Generally, however, people being AFK or DC-ing is extremely common in this game, I’m not even going to go too in-depth on this. All I’ll say is, to the AFK-ers: don’t launch the game if you’re not going to play it. Don’t get mad when the killer targets and hooks you first either and then proceed to dc or kill yourself because, “How dare they target me, the useless one!” As far as DC-ing goes, I get it, on both sides. It’s largely because of the MM and general balance issues. Killers are tired of toxic smurfs, flashlights, t-baggers, and SWF who put in Haddonfield offerings. Survivors are tired of being tunneled/camped out while their teammates do nothing, or they simply dislike the killer or offering. While DCs are technically kind of punished, the people still in the game are punished more than the people who left. Recently, however, many are unintended and just kick you out of the game for no real reason, which is one of the few bugs that come with dedicated servers.

Unfortunately, it seems that with each patch that comes, new bugs stack on the previous because the devs tend to take forever to fix things, or they break more stuff in the process. Currently, we have survivors becoming sonic after getting smacked by the killer. How do you fix this? Lose the game and let the killer hook you or else you risk being accused of hacking. Myers is getting perma tier 3 without the addons or stalking. DS sometimes doesn’t work, or it gives you a second chance if you miss it the first time. Why is Dead Hard even still a perk at this rate? It’s been broken since the day I was born. Plague gets stuck sometimes and can’t vomit, Ghost face either can’t be revealed or gets revealed through pallets and trees. If two survivors have the same name when you hook one the status bar will go to the other. It’s ridiculous.
� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � • • • •
Finally, DbD just gets stale. It’s the same game mode repeatedly. Events are nothing special and don’t add much of anything. Double BP, Moonrise, Summer BBQ, it’s all the same thing just with some nice décor and one extra meaningless objective like grab a lantern on your way out or do this special generator in particular. It’s just boring and uninspired.

This game is broken, buggy, and horribly unbalanced. No matter how many hours you see people clock into this one, I promise that your time and money are better spent elsewhere. This is one of the few games I’ve played that punishes you for being good and rewards you for being bad. Since the devs like to prioritize skins and licensed killers over a working game, I’d like to recommend the new killer they release to be themselves. Dead by daylight is dying, and with every new character they release they kill the game more.

Honestly, I adore this game. Originally, I purchased it because of the amount of diversity I saw on the store page. I’m not sure what I expected, and I can’t say I expected much beyond some video game references and nerd jokes, but I was beyond delighted by the end of it. The story is amazing, funny and the characters are everything I could’ve hoped for and more.

Things are pretty slow at the start; your character is looking for a job after their last one falls through and eventually you find yourself working at the Funplex and dealing with the day-to-day shenanigans that come with an arcade job. Now, this part of the story isn’t particularly amazing by any means, but when things begin to pick up and your character begins to find their footing and takes control of their own destiny, I was pretty much completely hooked. I love when a writer is able to mix serious moments with humor, and this one does that really well. I felt like I even got some life advice and gained some perspective. It also helps that the characters were all really interesting and I just loved the connection your character shared with them, and how they uplifted each other. It truly did feel like a merry band of misfits, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1870117718
Also, I’ve never related to an MC more than I do Arcade Spirit’s one. Your choices definitely shape your character’s personality and you get a lot of unique dialogue because of it. For instance, if you make your character more logical, some of the things they’ll say outside of choices will be rational. Whereas, if you make your character bold or funny, their dialogue will center around that. Because of this, you feel as though your personality is shining through the character, and it felt nice to feel like your choices really mattered and made a difference. I especially liked being able to punch that smug ass smirk off Deco Nami’s face, instead of just wanting to but being held back by someone who could somehow read my mind.

I’m also a really big fan of the variety, not just in skin tone but in body type, and facial structure as well. It’s just incredibly refreshing to see your potential candidates comfortable in their own skin and confident in themselves without having abs and a “perfect” body. Which leads me to say that the romance in this game is handled really well, it’s hard to summarize it because each route is unique in how it plays out. Sure, you’re always going to go on a date after the big Funplex event, but what happens on that date is dependent on who you’re pursuing. I’m a strong believer in the right words being enough, and for some characters, that’s all you’re getting. With others, you might end up making out on the beach. However, whether you’re dealing with a flirt or an accountant who’s all about logic, the romance is very much there, and you can tell a connection is forming. You might not be married with kids by the end of things, but it is nice to see characters stay true to themselves while letting you know they care about you.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869073602
Now, let’s get to the bad. There were two things in particular that I just couldn’t shake off: the voice acting, and the main character art. Honestly, my biggest gripe with the voice acting came down to inconsistency, which is why I won’t shred into it so hard, plus this is an indie company at the end of the day. It was just clear some actors were more comfortable than others, thus their delivery was more fitting. For instance, I thought Francine’s was among the most confident, and Gavin’s among the least. And while I adore Juniper, I’m not really sure why they went the route they did with her. Sometimes it worked well, other times it just fell flat.

Like the main character art, which I feel the need to touch on for a variety of reasons. For starters, the store page really tries to sell you on how customizable your character is, except it’s not. Sure, you get a ridiculous amount of hair, eye and jacket colors to choose from, but that’s about it apart from three hairstyles. And, while I do commend the developers on the amount of skin tones you can choose from, once I got into the game and saw everything come into play I had to stop and ask myself, how much is too much?

For starters, the female character doesn’t look feminine at all. Honestly, she just looks awkwardly manly in more scenes than one, and I had begun to wonder if it was the hairstyle I choose that was at fault, nope! This was the developer’s intention. With no warning or heads up to be seen anywhere on the store page, the devs goal for the main character was to be androgynous. This means, your character isn’t meant to look completely feminine or completely manly, however, this fails on multiple fronts. I feel that if they had cut back on the number of color choices, or made proper presets, one for male, female and a true androgynous character, this would’ve come together a lot better-especially considering they were on a budget. Now, I have absolutely no problem with androgynous people, but I do feel that they tried so hard to be inclusive that it just comes out messy, poorly executed, and all you’re left with is few CGs involving the main character that could look so much better and way more fleshed out.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869078238
Arcade Spirits is not a bad novel by far, flaws and nitpicking aside, it’s a solid read and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. If you’ve been searching for a novel with more diversity, humor, with a slightly more realistic take on romance then I highly recommend you pick this up as I have absolutely no regrets.

Wow. I don’t expect to be mind-blown when I read an otome anymore, but this one managed to blow me away. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I enjoyed every second of the ride. I’ll admit that this is the first title in the Psychedelica series that I’ve read, but it left such a strong impression on me that I feel compelled to write a review. Ashen Hawk is a bittersweet, heart-shattering must-read for anyone craving something original and unique within the genre.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1850316530
The story starts off rather slow with some cliché elements, as it’s your typical war between two clans who oversee a small, close-knit town. There are constant moments of extreme tension between both sides as they hold different methods and beliefs when it comes to handling the civilians. The Wolves believe in peace, whereas The Hawks fight for power. Now add murder onto that, with it looking like the Hawk clan is being framed, as well as a stolen artifact that’s a symbol of “peace” between the two clans, and it all seems like the story is going in one direction. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t sure that much could really come from this, but the game managed to exceed my expectations. The plot twists are memorable, and a lot of my beliefs were crushed when I realized just how wrong I was about this simple “cliché” story. By the time I made it to the end, I was completely speechless and absolutely crushed in the best way possible. I immediately wanted to read more! I believe part of this was thanks to the main character and her role in the story. She’s a witch, to be frank, and hiding it by pretending to be a boy. Now, I had noticed the “boy name” in the starting menu, but I didn’t think it would be such a huge deal. I thought that it’d come into play here or there, maybe they’d mention it briefly, but it’d be forgotten as quickly as it was brought up. Now, I never thought I’d say this, but pretending to be a boy is so refreshing, and what makes this novel such a delight to read!

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864252409
That sounds absolutely ridiculous, considering this is an otome and the whole point is to be a girl who somehow manages to make any guy fall head over heels for you with little-to-no-effort, but it actually works! I’ve always personally liked the idea of being respected more than liked for being “cute”, and this MC definitely demands respect. She isn’t manly in any way, she’s just strong willed, determined and completely badass. She stands up for herself, as well as speaks her mind. It was so refreshing, and a lot of her decisions and thoughts made sense considering the circumstances. I especially adored how she valued her independence and took care of herself the best she could without being so helplessly dependent on the men around her. The way she embraced her womanhood was so cute and enjoyable to read. It was especially amusing watching her treat it like a guilty pleasure when she should be able to do that without fear of people discovering who she is.

Another thing I’d like to touch upon is one of the biggest and most consistent complaints I’ve read about the Psychedelica series; how it lacks romance. And I beg to differ. There are heartwarming scenes with each guy scattered throughout even before you make the decision on who you want to pursue, and the routes themselves are romantic in a more mature sense. The guy typically has struggles that go beyond the MC, and seeing them fight through that for her is beyond romantic. Like Black Butterfly, this game is extremely brutal and bittersweet, which makes interactions with some guys more meaningful than others. Levi’s “I miss you” letter personally did more for me than several kisses. I also found Lugus going into the abyss for the MC was pretty touching as well. Hell, despite Lavan’s overwhelming amount of love for you, after he saves your life, he tells you he expects nothing in return and that you don’t need to really be his wife, to be who you want with whoever you want. If that isn’t romantic, I don’t know what is!

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1850344348
Finally, the artist needs a round of applause, because… WOW. I love every CG I saw, the way the personalities match the expressions are just mind-blowing. The characters all really shine, and it made the story so much more immersive and enjoyable. I found the “horror” CGs especially thrilling. They captured the struggle and inner turmoil so well that I felt compelled to give this artist a round of applause.

Ashen Hawk is different from your traditional otome in many ways, but I think that if you can look past that and read it with an open mind, you’ll enjoy it as much, if not more, than I did! It’s a brutally bittersweet experience that left me absolutely shattered and jaw-dropped, and I honestly wish there were more otome out there like it. It’s not for everyone, but it’s worth the money and completely worth the read.

I have an extreme love/hate relationship with Town of Salem. Essentially the game is something like clue, only you’re trying to figure out who the killers are before they kill you and the whole town. Or, if you’re on the “bad” side, you have your own goals that need to be completed, which typically involves killing everyone who’s not on your team.

When everything works as intended, the game is fun and challenging, and honestly one of the better multiplayer games I’ve played. It can get pretty tense, especially when you’re the serial killer and you get closer and closer to victory. Some classes are crap, but this is a personal opinion and I won’t go further than that because there’s three people out there who genuinely enjoy playing medium and I don’t want to ruin their day.
� � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � • • • •
Now let’s get to reality because the truth is the game is only tense because your teammates are dumb as hell. As a killer, if this game worked as intended you would need an amazing lie with a good will to go with it, but that’s not how things play out. You don’t need to lie, you don’t even need to say anything, and you can win as a bad guy because the people who play this game lack common sense and basic intelligence in a game that requires both. Some people might say its mind games but, in reality, all you need to say is, “Let’s hang this guy because he ate cereal for breakfast” and these people will do it. Hell, just click to lynch someone and town will follow suit.

The common argument to this is, “Just post your will and state your role and you’ll be fine.” I wish this were true, I wish it was. But sadly, it’s not. I’ve been lynched on D2 by a jester as transporter, both of the people I transported were alive and well and could easily vouch for me, but because a jester clicked my name, I was killed despite posting a will and claiming, with no CCs. This has happened more than once. Because of this, it takes away any tension or sense of accomplishment because you slowly start to realize that this game suffers from mob mentality, just vote someone up and despite claims or wills they will lynch you. As a bad guy, I’ve gotten people lynched as confirmed doctors or lookouts just because townies are absolute idiots.
� � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � • • • •
Now not all games are like this, some games play out like the devs envisioned and are genuinely enjoyable. But they’re few and far between and often instead of it being town vs the bad guys it’s really down to town vs town while the bad guys just quietly watch because idiots don’t pay attention and want to play on their phones or take a drive around town instead of reading the chat and realizing that the guy they’re lynching was just revived by the retributionist, meaning he’s on their team.

Which is another issue, afk-ers and people who leave. Every game has quitters, but when people leave in TOS after the match has started no one can replace them. You start to recognize the best roles and when you see that your doc/jailor/invest have all left the match you basically know you’re ♥♥♥♥♥♥. As far as afk-ers go, do I need to go in-depth? Town is reliant on lynching, it’s the only way to get rid of bad guys outside of vigilante, veteran or jailor. So, when you’re down to a few townies left and all you need is that one vote so that town can win against serial killer or mafia and this guy isn’t voting because apparently, he had to go run to dominos in Hawaii to grab his dinner, it’s the most frustrating loss ever.
� � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � � �  � � � � � � � � • • • •
Now I know some nerd will come along and be like, “Why not just play ranked? Everyone’s smart there.” That’s the problem, typically they’re in groups as well using voice chat despite it being against the rules so you don’t even stand a chance as a bad guy. There’s no in-between. I’m not asking for an easy win, I’m not asking to win all the time or even at all. But please, if I die can it be for a legitimate reason, mafia lied really well, serial killer got me, town caught me in a lie, or hell I even ran into vet, but not because a jester calling himself the “sheraif” said n1 I came up as (werewolf/lookout/godfather) and I get hung for it.

Honestly, I enjoy playing evil roles the most when I play this game because I know I’ll win as long as I pick off the smartest people first, which is typically two-three people per match in a game with fifteen players, six of which are evil, and typically the smart ones are on the evil side. Yeah, do the math. It’s hard to outright tell people to keep away from this game, but I genuinely couldn’t see myself recommending it to anyone without extreme caution. Yes, it’s cheap. Yes, I have a lot of hours. But in the long run, once you understand how everything works, you will feel like a university professor amongst preschoolers.