Recent reviews by rinimt

You can find my full review here.[www.the-backlog.net]

Broken Dreams is a fairly short 2D puzzle platformer title. You follow Jack who is trying to get back to his love Michelle. We will need to use his shadow in a sort of Braid-like gameplay. Well, except when you're controlling both him and Michelle. Then you have to use both WASD and the arrow keys to move them.

The music, while nice at first, can get a bit repetitive. I'm not really a fan of when you're trying to have a serious story but the characters are saying stuff like, "I can use the right key to get to Michelle" (so as to tell the player the controls). The voice acting feels a little like it was on low quality microphones at times. The backgrounds are quite nice, however the sprites feel fairly downgraded from how they were on Flash/Android.

The game is a nice little time killer, though some trial and error things may get annoying to you. It's also available for free from the Google Play Store, and as mentioned before it is also available as a Flash game. There are some extra, more challenging, levels in the Steam version though, if you want to try and challenge yourself to those. This gets a weak recommendation from me, but there was some things I definitely didn't enjoy as much.

You can find my full review here.[www.the-backlog.net]

Tap Tap Legions is, simply put, a disaster. The English is absolutely horrendous, with the first screen of the game having a typo. The best way to play the game is to honestly mash all of the keyboard keys at once, and said keyboard keys are horrible for a natural typing position. The power ups are useless as they require you to have a third hand to use. You can't gain any gold from repeating levels, the only gold you get from failing a level is from what you pick up, and there's a very "handy" in game shop.

Tap Tap Legions is a very, very poor mobile port. Oversized UI, in-game purchases for gold to boost your troops, and really? The battles aren't that epic, especially considering you can't see most of them because you are too busy trying to get your guys out. It also feels odd that the "good" bomb to use is the one with the skull, and the bad one is golden. Sure, it fits with the fact other "bad" power ups are that colour, but it really just doesn't look right.

Avoid Tap Tap Legions at all costs. It's an absolutely disaster. If you really insist on playing, have fun mashing ASD/JKL a lot. It does at least win you levels!

My full review can be found here.[www.the-backlog.net]

After waking up as a human, Rabi has to go on a quest around the island she lives on to gather magic users to try and rescue Miru. Early on in this quest, she meets a fairy named Ribbon. Through the whole thing, you'll be greeted with a fairly enjoyable story, although it does sometimes just come in large chunks spread out across the map.

Rabi-Ribi is a Metroidvania bullet hell game that will really challenge you. It features numerous difficulties, and even with playing the game on Novice (the lowest one), I still had some bosses I struggled against. With being a Metroidvania, expect to be doing a lot of backtracking as you unlock new abilities and gain access to precious inaccessible areas. There's a lot to collect and find as well, so if you're a completionist, expect to spend a long time on this game.

Overall, I enjoyed Rabi-Ribi quite a lot. I did feel that the "larger" sprites (IE: when you're under the Giant debuff) looked a bit poor, and I did spot a few grammar mistakes. However, despite all that, Rabi-Ribi is a very enjoyable game if you enjoy either Metroidvania or bullet hell games. If you're looking for a game that will give you plenty to do, and will also give you a nice (and sometimes frustrating) challenge, then I'd definitely suggest looking into the game. If you're on the fence about it and feel like the $18 price tag might be a bit too high for you, I'd suggest waiting for a sale and getting it then.

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy for review purposes by the publisher.

You can find my full review here.[www.ffandmore.com]

Final Fantasy VI has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. This release on Steam is a port of the Mobile version, a version that was based off of the GBA version. This means that you can get all of the extra content that the GBA had to offer (Dragon's Den, Soul Shrine), should you wish to play that stuff. Unfortunately, they also brought over all of the known bugs in the GBA version - and seemed to have added a new one with your character randomly being invisble in town, with no NPCs spawning.

While this version does have it's share of issues - inconsistencies with the font choices, previously mentioned bugs - it is still not a bad version to play overall. While I would recommend playing the SNES or GBA versions over it, I still give this version a recommend as it by far not unplayable. If anything, it IS better than the PSX version. If you don't mind the sprites (some of which are downright scary), then go ahead and give this version a chance. In the end, it's still Final Fantasy VI.

You can find my full review here.[www.the-backlog.net]

After Hideaki's mother decides to move back to his hometown of Okutama, he meets a group of friends at his school. Each person has something they've hidden from their past, turning this light hearted story into something much darker by the end. You'll be able to find romance, friendship, and hard decisions as you follow each path within No One But You.

As a whole, I quite enjoyed my time playing No One But You. With a total of 5 routes to follow (4 girls and 1 guy), you'll go along the various twists and turns of each character's story. The artwork and music in No One But You are both quite fantastic and add quite a bit to the overall feel of the story. There were several times during the various paths that I was nearly brought to tears.

While I did find some issues with the calendar system (it's a bit inconsistent and sometimes repeats months), I still give No One But You an easy recommendation. While each path will only last you a few hours, with 5 to go through (and with all but one of them having multiple endings), there's quite a bit to see, making the game worth the price.

Disclaimer: I was provided a key by the publisher for review.

My full review can be found here.[www.the-backlog.net]

Strawberry Vinegar follows the story of young Sakuraba Rie, a girl who has her life upturned after a demon shows up that will reap her soul if she doesn't feed this demon food. For the next week (6 days, because weeks don't have 7 days in Hell), Licia will be living with Rie and her family, and yes - there will be lots of food.

Strawberry Vinegar is one of my favourite VN's I've read, despite how hungry it made me. The artwork is extremely charming, and the characters are very likeable. There are 6 endings to aim for in the game, and each is sure to make your mouth water with how much food you are shown. I did find some minor odd spelling issues (such as "parents" in place of "patients"), but they didn't detract from the story too much.

I highly suggest this game to anyone who loves food and/or good stories. There is some hint of female love, especially in some of the endings, but considering for the bulk of the game Rie and Licia are 9, don't expect much.

Disclaimer: I was provided a key by the publisher for review purposes.

My full review can be found here.[www.the-backlog.net]

Chowderchu - a game about wizards and supposedly made by a wizard - is a not-so-good platformer. According to the Steam greenlight page, it is a "torture platformer". The true torture in Chowderchu comes from the absolutely horrendous control scheme. If you want to play this on a laptop, forget it. You can't rebind the keys, you can't play with a controller (and there are no plans to implement controller support), and the jumping is just a mess.

This game is by no means worth $5. I wouldn't really even say it is worth $0.50. If you want a platformer to make you rage there are vastly superior ones out there. Don't play Chowderchu. Just don't. And if you want to have YouTube quality camera's on top of your gameplay, go to YouTube and watch a video with it. Leave it out of your game, please.

My full review can be found here.[www.the-backlog.net]

A Wild Catgirl Appears! follows the story of high schooler Ami as she is forced to join a club. While creating a game featuring a ninja catgirl, the catgirl figure (basically an Amiibo) comes to life and starts living with her. You'll be able to go down one of four romance paths in this fairly short visual novel.

A Wild Catgirl Appears! features some of the most clashing art I've ever seen. Some CG images are very clearly done by two different artists, often with parts of their "regular" model pasted onto the body of some MS Paint drawing. The internal resolution also seems to be no where near what the resolutions you can set the game at, causing a lot of pixelation in both the images and the menus.

There's not much notable about the story besides there suddenly just being catgirls. You can't scroll back through the dialogue at all either, as A Wild Catgirl Appears! lacks certain basic functions every other VN I've read has had - a backlog. There's also no way to fast forward through previously read text, meaning if you want to get all the paths, you'll have to click through it manually.

There's not much in the way to really recommend about this game. There are much better VN's out there. So save your money and just look elsewhere, even if you are into the whole catgirl thing.

My full review can be found here.[www.the-backlog.net]

Last Heroes is your typical, run-of-the-mill RPGMaker game. The king's brother is angry he wasn't crowned king and now wants to take control of four powerful relics so that he can rule the world. Your "unlikely" group of peope - the king, a magician, a thief, and a knight - will journey through dungeons trying to retrieve said relics before the angry brother can.

The title is fairly short (3-5 hours), and the dungeons all feel the same (perhaps because the majority of the dungeons in the game you go through twice). Enemies don't respawn, meaning you can't grind. Some enemies drop orbs so that you can buff stats, but since enemies don't respawn, you can't grind them. Not all of the chests refill when you make your return visits either.

I have a hard time finding a reason to recommend Last Heroes. The game is plagued with spelling and grammar errors, and there are some really cheap strategies you can use to beat all of the bosses (including the final boss). There are better RPGMaker titles out there, so unless you really want something that is short and basic, then give this game a pass.

You can find my full review here[www.the-backlog.net]

Plug & Play delves into the relationships of plugs. Over the course of around 15 minutes, you will see plugs do all sorts of... things... Some of these things you may have been better off just not seeing.

The animation and sounds are pretty well done in Plug & Play. I do feel the price is a little too high considering the length (even though, yes, they do state the length of the game right on the store page). There are also some points where you may need a seizure warning (flashing back and forth between white and black). It also did feel a bit odd to control at times,with some odd responsiveness when you were on the "human" shaped plugs.

Plug & Play is one of those games that I wish there was a neutral option for reviews. As it stands, I give Plug & Play a shaky recommend, but only if you can find it on sale or within a bundle.