Recent reviews by HolyGiraffe

I just finished the game, and I have to say, this has to be the best game I ever played.
A total 10/10.
Let me tell you about why you should play the game, besides asking Kagami whats his name, again, again, again.


1. This is a visual novel. Meaning you can play the game without much effort, even at the hardest difficulty, the game is very forgiving.
2. If you played Phoenix Wright, Danganronpa, any Zero Escape game, or any mystery game, this is for you, Buy it, stop reading this, it is worth your money, at full price.
3. You don't have to play the first game, there's a feature that allows you to avoid spoilers from the previous game, though sometimes there are gags and inside jokes and references from the first game. It isn't prominent.


Story
A mystery visual novel, told in a first person perspective. The story is very deep with some difficult themes like neglect, abuse, human experimentation, bullying, and some disturbing images to a very slight degree.
The story aspect is obviously the most important component of a visual novel, and 100% os every dialogue line spoken by a character is fully voiced, for your enjoyment and immersion. (So you can also listen).
The story is SO GOOD, and you're rewarded by paying attention to every tiny detail.
SERIOUSLY, you're don't even understand to what degree. Nothing is redundant. The game gives the attentive players rewards for being careful, and checking, and looking.
The characters are well written, with depth and emotions, and you can feel how much they attention the put to every single one of them.
Light spoiler:
Lien is the best character.


Action
No beating around the bush, the action is very... silly, and goofy.
If you played the previous game, you'll know what I mean. There's QTE in the game, and that's fine, but they go out of their way SEVERAL TIMES to make sure you understand you're not hurting the bad guys with your rubber bullets, and your stun gun... And its the kind of action where all of the bad guys stand in line, and you push one of them to make them all fall like dominos, so yeah, don't expect much from the action (though I don't know why you would expect this much from a visual novel in the first place).


Music
The background music is SO GOOD, I bought the package with the music, and downloaded some of it. Some themes return fro mthe previous game, but for the most part, it fits the themes and the atmosphere.
Some of it was kinda reptitive, and I sort of cringe at one particular song, which is why I gave it an 8, But other than that, Nothing to complain, perfectly fine.



Play it. Play the game. Do it. It is good.

Don't mind the time on my steam account, I played MS continuously for over a decade, religously, daily, and spent a lot of money on it. I have been active in the community.
I merely used steam's launcher today, so here's my review:

This game barely needs an introduction, it is literally paved the way for all MMORPG games.
Unfortunately, it is not the game you remember. The high-end content, the end-game requires a substantial investment of money spanning the thousands of dollars, and the free version server (reboot) where everything is slightly harder but the paid-content is free requires grinding for weeks, sometimes months even.

The old game had a sense of wonder because of how chaotic it was, with hidden streets, secret enterances, long walks, and sometimes the map after level 13 monsters included some level 67 monsters, randomly, which made the old game feel like an exploration, an adventure.
The level-up exponential curve was relatively low. So-much-so, that levels 50+ took months to achieve.

The modern version of today feels soul-less. There are no secrets, no easter-eggs, no benefits for knowing the game, the level curve only spikes way after the 200's, so levelings up never feels like an achievment. Your characters will get powerful very fast, and you'll kill every monster swiftly, but without any gratification. there's no rewards, just more grinding.

You only get stronger at some point by applying some P2W system, of which there are multiple, all of them are RNG-based. You'll never be guaranteed to get anything, and you may spend hundreds of dollars and get nothing.

The developers don't care for any issues raised.
For example, in 2018 I had a glitch on my account where some achievements weren't awarded to me (I'm not the only one).
The ticket is held suspended, opened, and unaddressed for 4 years, despite monthly reminders.
This is of course, only one example of many similar. They ignore it.
They'll ignore you.

The content is just coplied and translated from the Korean version, and... that's all basically.
Don't play.

As a big fan of the yugioh! franchise, and a long time player, I was skeptical. I had my doubts, because I knew Konami is greedy. Well, Duel Links was a huge success, and to my surprise, this game is - too.

• The game isn't the yugioh you remember from your childhood. Also, if you played only duel links, you'll get the wrong impression, again. The learning curve is steep. If you're a returning player, or if you're nostalgic, its free so give it a go on solo mode. The online is competitive, and you are indeed going to lose a lot.
  
• At the time I'm posting this, the gameplay is HORRIFICALLY SLOW. The game requires A TON of user input, and every little action has an animation. Using "Monster Reborn" ? First pick a zone to place the card, then click ok. Wait out the animation of placing the card, and the chain visual effect. and then pick a target, and click ok. Then wait out ANOTHER resolution animation, and then ANOTHER animation for the card itself, and then another animation for the ressurection of the monster. And ALL OF THAT is still like this after you change the settings to no animations.
  
• The game is a gacha game. There's no going around that. If you want to progress like the big boys you'll have to spend money. I'm sorry. You have to know what you're getting into.
  
• The solo mode (vs PC) will not let you progress unless you beat the AI with a "Loan Deck" (a pre-built deck you're given just for that one duel). As much as you'd like to just play your own cards, you'll get stuck soon enough if you don't play these loaned decks duels.
  
• EVERY TIME you load the main menu, it takes a few seconds to load. Even if you're just checking the settings, or checking another menu and then returning.
  
• At the time I'm writing this, only OCG banlist, no TCG. Also, there's no side decks, and all online matches are just 1 game, and some of the newest cards are missing from the game.

It is plain to see - a lot of love and care were put into this game. The visuals are INSANELY GOOD. You can't deny.
The solo mode can entertain you for hours (I have not finished all of the solo mode, yet, but I unlocked all of the chapters)

Also, if you know in advance what decks you want to play, before you start - it is EXTREMELY EASY to get the cards you want with an intuative crafting system. You ditch the cards you don't want, you craft any card you want (for triple the price of dismantling).
The game has a lot of cool customization options, like changing the field itself (the entire scene), having a tiny companion that emotes your situation, etc.
The game is also free. Despite the gacha, it isn't as greedy as I imagined it will be.
After a day the game has been out, they released a survey, and asked all of the playerbase, and it did seem like they were listening to some of the player's concerns.

It's free. But its gacha. If you're familiar with the game, its a no brainer. If not, try the Solo mode, don't bother going online, you'll lose a lot.

I just finished the game (took me about 27 hours, spread on a single week)
I played on the easiest mode since I wanted to immerse myself in the story.
Oh boy, the story. Probably the best story I have played in a video game in my life.

It's recommended if you played whatever despair games you're used to, and want more. It's up there.
Oh, you played the zero escape games? Yes, this is for you.
Somnium Files? you guessed it - this is for you.

At worst, the game is a resource managing game disguised in a brilliant story.
At best this is the most immersive, most interesting game you will ever play in your life.

PROS:
Mechanics are easy to understand.
Music. Just the music.
Story, and characters. Each and every one of them.
Modes give the game variety like no other. Want NO ENEMIES AT ALL? sure. Wanna SWIM IN ENEMIES? sure. anything in the middle? sure.

CONS:
The game does feature puzzles, and some of them are just plainly unfair. You won't be solving them without a guide, or a ♥♥♥♥ ton of luck.
Some dialogues are a bit... slow. Its the same writers as Danganronpa, if you can't stomache reading, you'll need patience with this one.
I couldn't handle walking in this game. Turning around in a zigzag mean you will have to ACTUALLY shift your body - make a turn, and them take a step. And then turn around again, and take another step, and so on, if you wanna move in a zig-zag, which the game requires you to do a lot some times. That's just punishment.

overall 9.4/10 from me

Avoid anything lood for 3 days for a unique scene

You win battles - you get porn.
You lose battles - you also get porn, but different.
10/10

It says I played the game for 20 hours, in reality its much less, I left the game open, and went to work.
The game is entertaining, and offers aprox. 5 or 6 hours of gameplay. I never was bored, not once. The voice overs are VERY well done, and as a fan of the detective genre, I liked it. I played before Danganronpa, Phoenix Wright, AI the Somnium Files, and more visual novel mystery games, and as I had an itch for a new game of that style, this hit the spot.

Point and click, and an occasional puzzle-game here and there, I never had to use a tutorial, or a guide, or anything because the game is clear enough about what they want you to do, which is more than I can say about nearly any other game in this category. The game also lets you have a lot of freedom in the regard that you have lots of exploration to do, and nearly no limits on where you can visit, and when, making it feel less like a pre-determined story, and more like an adventure.

Right, now about the story, There is nearly nothing I can say without spoiling, so I'll stick to the basics, and only share information readily available in the trailers; you play as Detective Grimoire, accompanied by his assistant, Sally Spears. They dynamics and relationship is entertaining, and typical to point-and-click games, you can investigate different objects around the room, while the duo commentate about stuff. The duo are sometimes hillarious, sometimes charming. The story never lags behind, and if you feel like you're onto something, you can be damn sure they're going to point that out soon after, and not dwell on things, slowly.

Music is terrific, and unique. Never a dull moment. The art, and the music have lots of little details and it all rewards the player for paying attention, which is refreshing, and engaging.

10/10 I wish I could forget everything, and play it all over again.

I wish it were longer.
The game has you operation a character in a map, where you can move from room to room within the bounderies of an area. You're basically controlling the play, pause, fast forward, and rewind, like its a youtube video, as voices move from room to room, sometimes two people talk and then split up to different room, so you can follow one of them, rewind and then follow the other.

Sometimes two characters meet, and then one of them reveal a secret, or its revealed they actually know eachother. Its this kind of game where you're conntecting dots, until you think you're ready (no time limit of any sort). As soon as you're ready, you click "answer" and then you're asked questions in the caliber of "who's the terrorist? who's the thief? who lied about the cake?" and you pick the right answer.

What happens if you fail?
Nothing. try again. In that regard, its sometimes faster to just try a whole bunch of combinations of answers, until you find the right one, and you're right - not neccesserily because you understand.

I love the game, but I am a bit dissapointed at the ending, it was lackluster in my opinion.

Yes, the game is worth it. Buy even without discount. Its good if you're into detective game. It will have you second-guessing, and changing your mind all the time.

I know SpikeChunsoft has DanganRonpa, and Zero Time Dilemma. Both I like. I played Danganronpa, and I played PW/AA games, and I had that itch for finding more like it. If Danganronpa and Phoenix Write are multiple cases in every game, this one is one big case in that sense, but near 90 hours of gameplay is more than enough to match and even surpass their playtime. I like detective games, but the games usualy give away the answer, or play dumb with you, and you don't have that here.

It definitely hit homerun as far as I'm concerened. Thats what I was looking for. The game has a bunch of mysteries, and a lot of content to offer.
The game has branching timelines, so it usualy involves choice matter discisions, and it makes you play all routes. This game isn't different in that regard. But it isn't branching a million times, you can play a full 3 or 4 hours before you get to a branching point.
As a visual Novel I appriciate the games that have full VA, even thoughts and small-talk. The VA is really good, never hit the cringe cieling Except for one time.
You mostly have to click for reading, and pressing buttons to move, you're not going to play a lot of action sequences, mostly clicks, discisions, and sometime real-time reaction button mashing, but not that often.

In visual novels the music tends to be repetitive because typically the time you spend reading varies from player to player. The music during the action is my favorite, and in during another part its the worst. I wouldn't play it for the music so who cares anyway. The music usualy matched the atmosphere, and that's fine.

10/10 Nothing short of it.
Fun thing is, it barely matters which route or timeline branch you're playing for good pacing. Anything else I say will only ruin it,

I must say, I am not very humble, I play lots of detective games, it is my kind of genre.
I usualy suspected a characters in games and I tend to be right, or at least very much in the right direction.
AI the Somnium Files had me second-guessing, and everytime I thought I was onto it, the game pulled the rug under me, and flipped everything on its head. I love it when games have plot twists, and I love it even more when its backed-up by a great plot.

Yeah, the game got you covered. Hold CTRL and it skips, even on your first playthrough. I wish more Visual Novels had this.


The best part has to be the dream sequences. I love controling my character, moving around, poking, checking, how everything don't make sense, very surreal. As for the worst part... It has to be history flashback, when they want you to think two characters care about eachother they show you flashbacks of their relationship. Something its good, but at some parts it feels very cheap. I felt the need to skip only these parts. OH AND CRINGE DANCING. I AM LOOKING AT YOU, IRIS! STOP DANCING!

If you're looking for a serious rpg game, no.
But you know why you're here. And yeah, it has to offer plenty. Hours of play.

A ton of translation issues, some minor text isn't in English, and some of the dialogue is kinda funny- writing, google-translate kinda English. All your base are belong to us - kind of English.
Also, when downloading the game you will get a censored version. I had to patch it by downloading a file. It wasn't too bad, I had to spend like 2 minutes overall.

Combat system - not bad, its a turn base, like a Pokemon thing.
Music - Could use variety, but I'm not complaining, I wasn't there for that.
Large breasts - sometimes too large. Like another-human-attached size
Cutscenes weren't just a still image, but like a series of several pictures, with broken English description. I can't say the drawing is bad, its actually kinda good.

It is giving the player a surprising amount of content for that low price.
I did the "good" gameplay where you defeat the bad guy, Stay a virgin, and Marry the man of Hazuki's dreams. Then had sex with him in a happy ending.
Then I did the bad route, Where you make every mistake possible, you become a ♥♥♥♥♥. I slept with every monster, and killed all the good guys. Then I got a full Netorare ending having the guy of Hazuki's dreams watch her get raped.

I also think there's a bunch of different endings that are "in the middle", since a some point I had different choice, I just deliberately went with the best / worst one.

Also at the start of the game I was just thrown into a town, without instructions, and I just stumbled upon the right NPCs by pure luck. Could have spent hours looking for the right one, I went completely blind to a random location.