Recently Played: fault – milestone one & fault – milestone two side: above

I decided to kick off my Steam sale reviews by playing fault – milestone one. fault – milestone one is a visual/cinematic novel set in a fantastical world full of magic and intrigue. I was immediately impressed by the beautiful artwork that perfectly set the tone, especially extensive character reactions and backgrounds. I could really see the amount of love and effort put into it by the development team, ALICE IN DISSONANCE.

The way the game laid out the foundations of explaining the magic (manakravte – “mana-craft”) of the world. It felt like a unique take on magic that I hadn’t quite experienced before – at least, not in this way. On the game’s page on the publisher’s website (Sekai Project), they describe the genre influences that the fault series uses:

“It is also not purely Fantasy as much of the tone is heavily influenced by Science Fiction and focuses more on human drama rather than flashy battles and wizardry. It’s[sic] methodical narrative is a homage to the Science Fiction Genre of the 70~80’s.”

Recently Played: A More Beautiful World

I have finally returned after a very long hiatus and I am very excited to bring you more reviews in the next few weeks. I was busy with a work contract that ate up a lot of my time, but now that I am all done, I can resume gaming and reviewing (as well as binge-watching Naruto Shippuden).

Recently, I was contacted by Afterthought Studios, who you might remember from my previous review of Forgotten, Not Lost. I was very touched that they reached out to me and I’m thrilled to bring you my review of the demo version of A More Beautiful World (Act I), which exceeded its Kickstarter goal earlier this year.

Recently Played: Forgotten, Not Lost – A Kinetic Novel (Summer Sale)

Prepare to be hit in the feels because this game does not sugarcoat anything. It takes the truth and dresses it up in a tomato costume.

That’s right, a tomato costume.

Forgotten, Not Lost is a visual novel (“kinetic” – I’ll explain later) by Afterthought Studios, a small dev team composed of five people who have made a number of titles, including A More Beautiful World.

The story is centered around an old man who lives with his wife, Madalene, in a small house in the village of Memoria (symbolism!). Right off the bat, we are treated to a short series of depressing revelations and events in the same vein as Up and The Notebook. The old man has immense difficulty remembering aspects of his life that are so significant that even he feels awful not having the ability to recall them. Heck, the story opens with his inability to recognize his wife’s face. Yeah, that’s an immediate hit to the feels.

Recently Played: VA-11 HALL-A (Summer Sale)

Do you like bartending? Do you like visual novels? Well, I’ve got a game for you.

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartending Action is a game that combines mixing drinks with all of the cute anime girl cyberpunk aesthetic you need alongside some infuriating minigame cruelty.

If you’re curious about the “Holy shit” surtitle, it’s because the game spent a long time in development and was only *just* released this past June (2016). The prologue version, which came first, will supposedly be released for free on Steam at some point.

In VA-11 HALL-A (“Valhalla” being the pronunciation/”actual name”), you step into the shoes of Jill, a relatively lonely and depressed bartender working at one of many franchise bars in Glitch City. The year is sometime after 2070 CE (AD in-game, but I like to keep with the times).

Recently Played: Cat President ~A More Purrfect Union~

This game was purrrrrchased for me by a very kind friend who shamelessly encourages my love of visual novels and dating sims. Thanks, friend!

A game like this couldn’t have come at a better time. Hot of the presses (released on Steam just yesterday), Cat President ~A Purrfect Union~ (by Oh, a Rock! Studios) contains both playful political parody and adorable cat pictures.

Perfect.

Or should I say … purrfect.

Recently Played: A Little Lily Princess (Summer Sale)

Crawling my way through my Steam sale purchases (seems like eons ago …), I decided to plunk down and play A Little Lily Princess, a visual novel by Hanabira (published by Hanako Games, who also published Long Live the Queen). Since I’m an absolute sucker for games involving innocent girls falling in love with other girls, this was totally up my alley.

Based on the 1905 novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (who also penned The Secret Garden), the player is sent through the everyday experiences of Sara Crewe, the only daughter of a wealthy English widower living abroad in India. At this time in Sara’s life, she has been sent to London to live at a boarding school while her father continues his business in India. As horrible as this sounds, Sara lives in lavish comfort provided by the school at her father’s insistence.

Recently Played: Aviary Attorney (Summer Sale)

I’d like to start off by announcing that THIS is my HUNDREDTH POST!

Hurrah! I had nothing special planned for my hundredth post, so let’s carry on, shall we?

Before we go any further, I would like to say that while my desire to buy this was mostly stemmed from my intense love of Hatoful Boyfriend, the games are nothing alike and are two very different kinds of experiences.

This is what Les Miz taught me.

Aviary Attorney is a visual novel-style mystery game set in 1840s France where you, the wonderful genius player, take the role of Monsieur Jayjay Falcon, a lawyer. If this sounds kind of like Phoenix Wright, you’re probably on to something. I haven’t played anything in the Phoenix Wright franchise, but a number of the Steam reviews cited similar vibes.

The game sends you romping around Paris gathering clues to assist you in your case before launching you beak first into dramatic court scenes. If this doesn’t sound awesome to you, I don’t know what else to say.

What Makes a “Good Game”?: Voice Acting

Going through my Steam discovery queue on my quest to collect Steam Summer Sale trading cards, I’ve browsed through reviews for some of the titles that have popped up. Often, I look at negative reviews first, to see if there are any glaring red flags (e.g. the game is too short, incomplete, etc.) before looking through the positive reviews. Today, I noticed several reviews that had the same criticism:

No voice acting.

One reviewer even went as far to say that the game they were reviewing required voice acting to tell its story, that it was “standard”. Hold up.

Recently Played: Season of 12 colors (Summer Sale)

Season of 12 colors is a game that had found its way onto my wishlist some time ago. The reviews are hard to read in terms of accurately grasping the good points of the game without showing much bias, but I took a chance and bought it. I am so, so happy that I did.

Announcement! Steam Summer Sale Series

Try saying that five times fast.

Awful alliteration aside, I’ve got a series of reviews coming your way as I play through all of my Steam Summer Sale impulse buys (that I made very responsibly by limiting myself to a $100 CAD budget).

On our roster (so far) we have, in no particular order:

1. Influent*
   
2. Aviary Attorney
3. VA-11 HALL-A
4. Forgotten, Not Lost – A Kinetic Novel
5. A Little Lily Princess
6. Season of 12 Colors
7. Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle

*I’m playing the Korean language-learning version, as I wanted to refresh my knowledge and learn new words.

I’m very excited to finally have more games in my library that I will get around to playing whenever I can/feel up to it. I know that this selection is pretty much half visual novel, half language learning, but I’m pretty stoked to play all of these and share my thoughts with you!

I’d love to hear about the games you’ve recently bought in the sale or are planning to pick up. Leave a comment!

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On a more personal note, life has been hectic lately. I know I say that a lot, but this time it really is.

Right now, we’re dealing with a broken water heater that was leaking and flooding the basement (we opted to shut off the water altogether and have had to walk to McDonalds to use the bathroom for *ahem* no. 2s), a house guest arriving this weekend, as well as an upcoming move to an apartment! That doesn’t even include the other stuff going on for my co-dictator of the universe involving college preparations.

After we’re set up in the apartment, looking for work will be my top priority. So, I’ll likely opt to play the smaller games/VNs for stress relief. Thankfully, I’m well-stocked in that department now.

In a fit of excited graduation feelings, I decided to take advantage of the post-graduation credit offered to me by the university. Alumni get a sum of money to put towards any School of Continuing Studies course they wish, provided the money covers the cost of the course. Since I am a language nerd, I’ve decided that I’m going to take a course in beginner Dutch, starting in October.

When it comes to stress levels and having too many things on my plate, as with dessert buffets, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Let’s see how all of this goes. Wish me luck!