Recent reviews by Link

Well, it's a while since we had a Neptunia game which plays in the main canon of the game series. In a way you could argue that Cyberdimension Neptunia in 2017 (2018 for PC players) did but well only very sparsely.

So yeah, after a long time of weird spin-offs and crossovers here we are - we're having a game which doesn't quite know if it's mainline or spin-off. But well - what we can say: its story fits lovingly into the main canon of the series.

If you wish to read the basics of the story - just go to the Store page - they have the basics here. So what can I say about the game as someone who has fully played it.

Let's start with the bad things. Becuse yeah - no game without drawbacks - and this game has quite a few of them. So I feel it is important to point them out:

• Dungeons sometimes feel quite stretched
  
• On top of that - dungeons quite often reuse the same layouts - aka: they used dungeon parts and stacked them onto each other
  
• Music reuse from older games is massive - the game technically only has 6 new songs - a title song, a map song, a dungeon song and 3 battle songs.
  
• The battles start quite sluggishly with low Attack Points, and permanent tiny breaks.

And those things are literally raining onto a player in the beginning. The first 3 chapters of the game drag on quite endlessly thanks to it.

But what can I say: Player! Stay strong! Because once you've got past that... the game will show its good sides. And fortunately enough - for me, they completely outweighed those bad sides.


Because yeah - you managed to get past the first 3 chapters. You were listening to the same songs you know from former games again and the game finally unveils the story.

And boy - at this moment it becomes an amazing ride. The bad parts mostly vanish:
The dungeons by now - way less repetitive. The battles - by now you should have so many discs which you can (and should) use in battles to make the battles way more interesting.

And now the game story also unveils itself. And it's quite a ride. Character development is strong - background story is.. quite dark and mysterious - without becoming too evil and dark. It strikes a balance.

On top of that - at that moment more and more side stories appear which show us the current happenings of the Game industry. What is this "Senmu 3" game which failed... how do people on PC continent protect their games from piracy vs. Gamindustri. All of those little nudges are just fun to read.

Like usual nearly everything is voiced in Japanese - if you're an English dub user - then it's nice to see: the English dub is back - but like usual it's about.. I'd say 60% of all dialogs are dubbed. In comparison to the last two spin-offs - well, at least we're back to dubs.

At this point... we come to the list of good things.

• Gorgeous Live2D cutscenes
  
• Great Planeptune city environment - and certain dungeons which I cannot talk about here without spoiling too much
  
• Story strikes a balance between mysterious, funny and serious
  
• Great character development
  
• Surprisingly deep battle options using discs
  
• Really nice new 3d models in quite nice 3D graphics (not amazing by modern standards but well, really nice by Compile Heart standards)

You will have about 30 hours of gameplay which I consider decent. A minor complaint: if you figure discs and all those mechanics - the game can be ... pretty easy sadly. I don't take it overly negatively at the game because fortunately it makes up with its story and the rest.

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Neptunia's back, baby!
I am really happy with this game. So yeah.. please don't give up during the beginning - the game is really great at showing off all its bad sides early. If you give it some time - it will be able to show its good sides.

I am really happy how this game turned out. Enjoy it.

It Takes Two takes you on a journey where you need to fix the relationship between Cody and May - a husband and a wife who lost the passion and love in their relationships. Their daughter wishes for them to learn to love each other again - and all of a sudden her wish comes true - kind of: her parents get transformed into tiny dolls and they must solve challenges in the tiny realm - by working together.

And that's the core premise: 9 chapters - you must play Co-Op with a friend. The two player must work together. Each of you will always be given a special ability whether you choose May or Cody and neither of their abilities will be able to complete a chapter alone - but together, they can do it.
Singleplayer is thus obviously a no-go - you can play together in front of the same monitor/TV or you can play remotely online. If you go the online route: fear not, only one player needs to buy the game, the other friend can join via Friend's Pass.

I have played this game a short time after it was released with a friend - back then I was participating via Friend Pass - my friend has already played it once as May and felt they would get a different explerience if they played Cody - so back then I played as May. And now as I write this (December 2021) I bought the game because I really enjoyed my time back then - and now I invited another friend - where I did the same - now I played Cody, and my friend played May.

So I can confirm: yes, playing as Cody gave me a different experience. I knew the story - but I had another role in it. So well, some people down there argued it's a one time experience. I would disagree - it's a two times experience. However, I would recommend to keep a little time between both playthroughs.

But yeah: visually this game is a masterpiece. Every area in each chapter is lovingly designed - so many little details - so many environments. There is a lot of love and heart in the environments. Everything just looks like a dream - or nightmare. Even if some areas like the 6th chapter (cuckoo clock) can be really frustrating here and there - it's just a beauty to look at - never will I look the same way at a wall clock anymore - I toally want to buy such a clock now. Just to think of the game. Same for other chapters - they are just inspiring.

The music: it's not overly special - but always fits. It never feels off. It's just a narration for what you play. So at that moment again: they just got that right.

Ultimately the story: the main premise is obviously predictable. Right from the start you know - Cody and May would find each other again. But what's well executed - you learn about Cody and May. You learn about their first vacation, their hobbies, how they proposed - this gives them a great character depth. They also talk a lot about how they see each other as parents and how they rose their daughter (Rose).

Ultimately: a little master piece - and in my opinion a well deserved Game of the Year 2021. I can recommend it to everyone who loved to play something together with a friend - and work together with them. COLLABORATION!

I loved Death end re;Quest. It was not what I expected to come from Compile Heart but in the end: I got an amazing story, very nice character and a pretty great battle concept. The typical Compile Heart mixture of Visual Novel and JRPG worked amazingly.

Hearing there would be a second part, I've been quite sceptical. How would a second part to a game with a pretty completed story work? Would they do an mk2 on it? As in: pretend everything from the first game didn't happen and start again. Well: In a way... maybe? In another way: maybe not. But well: can't talk about this here because you know - story spoilers. And I wouldn't want to destroy any story relevant parts for you.

Should you play Death end re;Quest before this game? Yes, you should, although it isn't absolutely necessary - while the story is linked, see above, it's independent enough to not require it.

The gameplay concept over the original didn't change overly much - you have visual novel scenes throughout the day in the isolated Eastern European town called Le Caoara - you attend a school called Wordsworth there. And Le Choara turns into a dark evil place at night - which you will be able to explore at night in JRPG style. Enjoy it.

The gameplay challenge is nicely balanced: Easy mode will literally let you enjoy the story as you can just progress from battle to battle - make the necessary battle and you'll advance quickly enough. Medium and Hard modes require you to grind more and experiment with the battle system a bit more. The battle system has a lot of variety so if you seek a challenge: Go ahead - you have Super Knockbacks, you have a decently interesting way to learn attacks, and the characters in the game add to each other rather well.

While we're on it: I really enjoyed the chemistry between the 3 main characters which would be Mai , Rottie and Liliana (spoiler reveals the names of later characters in the game). Or four - if you count a character from the first game. The interactions between other Wordsworth students and Le Choara residents were interesting enough to keep me entertained.

Like the original: the game is quite bloody, sometimes the language can contain swear words - but overall it just fits the general style of the game. There are the typical fan service scenes which Compile Heart cannot refuse to add to any of their games although this game honestly wouldn't need them. But well, they're there. What else would you expect?

On a minor note on that: in Death End re;Quest 1 the characters in the Glitch mode which returns in this game had very revealing outfits. The console version had those adjusted (aka censored) - for the PC version these adjustments were reverted for original characters who returned. Kudos for that, Idea Factory!

All in all: Good game! You liked the first: Play it! You didn't like the first? Don't play it then, it's very similar. You didn't play the first? Well, maybe check out the first one for now but you can just jump into the second.

I was told just recently that I should really play these games - so well, I found a cheap key for this game on Amazon so I went for it. Just a few minutes later I was engulfed in it - it might just be a 2D platformer - but this is literally more of a piece of art than just a game. And that's great. It touched me - I love the music, the art style and the story touched me. I played the second part immediately after this one, and the second part even improved over this - but that doesn't mean that this game is any bad - it isn't - it's amazing.

You like 2D platformers? Then give this series a try. It's absolutely worth it.

This is one of those games which reminds me why I love video games so much. Unlike movies where I just watch a story I may relive a story. The story touched me and I've been in tears multiple times during the game. The art style, the story, the music, the love for detail, everything can only be called a master piece. I completely missed this series until recently and I absolutely regret that I did.

You love 2D platformers? Then you need this game. This game is 2D platforming in its best form ever. The first part was amazing, the second one even tops it. This is a piece of art... and a game! And that's great!

I was a user of Cities: Skylines from the first day. And despite the policy by Paradox which means you have to continuously spend money on a game to keep it updated. This is one of those games where I enjoy doing it. Each update is charming, brings something new to the game. And the game itself...

Well, it still feels to me like what Sim City should have become in the end. Moddable.. huge cities... it's just a pleasure to play.

Pros:
-looks super nice
-allows for very detailled planning
-moddability
-huge cities

Cons:
-the very detailled planning can become too much
-traffic is hard to get under control sometimes

Honestly when I heard about the game - seeing a 2D style Neptunia game by a Western developer. I was quite sceptical. Will they handle it well. But I cannot deny, the game was suprisingly much fun when I played it.

At the beginning the battle system seemed simple and dumb - looking into all its possibilites and I was quite surprised how much depth it can offer. The formation change resulting in different attacks invited to play with them. I enjoyed those in the end.

I for myself missed the candidated but at the same time I think the four main CPUs were represented in the best way possible in here.

The Jump and Run overworld does its job fine and has quite a few nice secrets.
The backgrounds are very nicely drawn and everything adds up to a very nice charm.

All in all: I didn't have too high expectations of the game but they were easily surpassed. I had a blast playing this.

VR Flush trains you for the every day situation of getting teleported into space by aliens while sitting on the toilet. We all know how common this is and I imagine everyone of us had it happen to them in the past.

Proving to be an intelligent life form has always been difficult for me - I'm often not entirely convinced if I'm an intelligent life form myself, so how am I able to provde this towards aliens who would terminate me if I didn't manage to otherwise. Finally I can train for this situation at the safety of my own home - preferably while sitting on the toilet myself, sadly my sensors don't reach that far.

In all honesty: This is a fun little VR demo and probably very helpful if you want to give people a quick and simple seated VR experience. I enjoyed it, it's free, I had my laugh, there obviously isn't much to do though - but still: thumbs up from my side.

Danke schön nach Darmstadt für dieses wirklich nette Minispiel :-) .

Actually when you get VRChat you can potentially have 2 games in one. Sadly in a rather negative way. When I stepped in in September 2017 it was still calm and empty - and admittedly boring. I convinced a few VR and non VR friends to join in as well and we went onto discovery. Yeah, it was cool to walk around with your own self-made (or self-edited in our case) model and explore some of the worlds - but there wasn't really much else. It wasn't as meme infested as newcomers would experience it nowadays but yeah: ignore the memes and you will start out by searching the right people to hang out with.

And then - December 2017 - I had that moment: I met the right people. And boom. There went my life. 300 hours of gameplay later I can only say: I would've definitely missed out on something if I didn't meet those people. Over time I met more people because well.. once you have the connection it's just going to get bigger and bigger. More and more people.

The community behind it is pretty much everything.. it's super trolly and malicious. But on the other hand it's creative, welcoming and amazing. People create amazing worlds and amazing avatars - and despite the limitations of the current SDK people surprise every day with new things.


Rating:

Positive:
+ Be whoever you like to be. Be your own model. It isn't too complicated. Tutorials about it are everywhere.
+ Team up with people you like and have amazing adventures with them or
+ Relax and just hang out with them
+ Role-play however you wish
+ Bringing people into VR - it encourages you to have VR for ultimate enjoyment. But no, you absolutely don't need it. Jump in without - and enjoy.

Both positive and negative:
᛫ It's a meme infested hell. If you still get into Uganda Knuckles - they're still around, have fun. If you were never into it or are out of it by now - it just won't end.
᛫ Finding great worlds to visit it a hit and miss.

Negatives:
- Several users miss a text chat option if they don't like to talk. Sorry guys, but VR users really only have their voice.
- Without the right group of friends it can be pretty boring.
- game performance is often hell even on powerful systems.


Still: I found my people - wouldn't want to miss them. So yeah sorry, I'm returning to weeb hell, I'll talk to you later.

Well, this game happened to touch me much stronger than I expected it to. This game is comparable to stories like Planetarian or other visual novel stories and it asks similar questions to its players - mostly about robot ethics which many of you probably weren't thinking of.

I'll ask some of the questions here as most readers of this would have probably guessed by the story that this is what they want you to answer:
If robots are created by human beings - does that means they are less worthy than human beings?
Can we have them do labour we hate to do simply because they're programmed to enjoy them?
What does it mean to have a soul? What is a soul? Do only human beings quality for having a soul?

The game doesn't give distinctive answers to these questions as it contains multiple character who would all answer these questions differently - the game even gives you the chance to answer them sometimes in-game.

The ending left me in an emotional mess - for multiple reasons. If you like these kind of games - give it a chance. It's honestly good.