Recent reviews by ミルス

The conscise -- and a little tongue-in-the-cheek -- writing in Rose of Winter was a lovely change from the all too common, unnecessarily melodramatic and drawn out scenes that I've encountered in many other VNs. Because of this however the routes that you as Rosemary must choose between (4 in all) are also very short (at least half my playtime is due to standby) and hence this game is a little difficult to recommend at its full price. Still, I was impressed by the way that the components (distinct art style, music, story) were in tune with one another and with a charming cast of characters created a truly heartwarming experience.

Great little game for casual puzzle game lovers and lives up to its store description 100%.
Has enjoyable (and not too difficult) puzzles, beautiful art and music. A steal for the price.

Audacious to ask 13 € for this -- I for sure expected more than what I got at this price point.
The art is likeable enough but the rest is garbage and as some others have said, only good for idling.

If there were any more snowflakes to collect, I'd still be playing right now.

This little gem is just pure magic. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a platformer this much in my entire life. The story itself is nothing to write home about; one of Marvin's mittens got stolen and he's looking for it every day. The execution however is top-notch. Everything from the simple but rewarding progression to the music score, voice acting, level design, you name it, were all very well done.

The only (minor) grip I had with the game was the automatic saving system that got in the way of snowflake-hunting more than once by throwing Marvin back home at more-or-less regular intervals. I think I would've liked a disable option for this but I have to admit that it added its own little charm. Moreover, as traveling from map to map got faster, it didn't really bother me.

Overall, I'd say the experience was worth every cent. Absolutely loved it. I can well imagine myself returning to this game in the future.

This review concerns fRO/euRO server.

My problem with this server does not lie with the Renewal system but with the management. As a long-time player of RO, a game I love, it is really painful to watch it slowly tortured to death and milked dry. The level of greed as it currently exists is incomprehensible. Under different circumstances it would be easier to understand, say, if they were on schedule with new content, for instance. (For those unaware, they are far more behind the official Korean or the international server than they would like to admit.) Well, there are no schedules because they don't want to be held accountable for not meeting deadlines. There is also no community management. The choice of action when things get messy (because of incompetence and/or outright lies to the playerbase) is hiding and waiting for people to calm down. The controversial topics get forever ignored and no official statements made. I frankly cannot think of any MMO team which handles its game this bad, nevermind one that can afford treating its customers like dirt long-term.

Now this server also has lowest exp and drop rates for free players out of all the official servers out there in hopes to get more people to subscribe for Premium (more exp and higher droprates), although the excuse given is to "combat botting". I kid you not.

The typical maintenance (every Thursday) consists of switching WoE (mass pvp, for those interested) maps, fixing bugs, adding more cash shop items and implementing events. The majority of these events focus on:
- Buying Karats
- Spending Karats
- Using Bubble Gums (bought with Karats, or if you're rich enough, in-game)

Moreover, participation often requires items that you can only get from cash shop or buying Premium for the event period. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

Even the cash shop boxes that require real money to buy are bloated with worthless crap. Most notable of these is the (recent) shadow gear, which, despite being identical with iRO's requires excessive gambling. If you wish for a successfully refined set, expect to shell out about 900€,

While you can play the game in multiple languages, including Italian, the linguistical capabilities of the management are limited. If a game supports Italian, one would think there better be someone to contact who doesn't use Google Translator to communicate. Even when it comes to English, you will see many grammatical and spelling errors even in re-used events and cash shop descriptions. The corrections are reliant on player willingness to point them out specifically, not proofreading or testing before implementation.

tldr: If you have a significant amount of money to blow and give to people who will spit on you, be my guest and play it.

I would like to give this VN a positive review as I did like its initial premise and I really do wish I could say it was a good experience.. except it wasn't. Despite its short lenght, it was a struggle to complete – but in order to at least give this game a chance, I felt I had to.

The good:
Visually, I would say that Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1 is pretty gorgeous overall. The details are beautiful, and if anything, there are too many poses and expressions (because they ultimately appear on only one side of the screen). I also applaud for the layout, which (unlike in many other games) looks well designed and appealing to the eye. Nothing bad to say about the music, either: it is enjoyable enough and far better than what I had expected for a game of this lenght and kind. In addition, the inclusion of the soundtrack so that it's possible to listen to the tracks separately grants an extra plus. Another comes simply from the fact that it is cheap.

The bad:
As one could expect from a VN, writing makes or breaks it, and it unfortunately broke it for me. My first ending lifted up the (otherwise miserable) experience into something near-decent, but the dragged out nonsensial epilogue successfully drowned whatever good was left. There is also little to say about gameplay in this game, as there only was one point where you are allowed to make choices – but I never minded the lack of interactivity so much as how the game felt so shamelessly pieced together and none of the pieces truly fit. I don't buy the reason that it is the first in the series; it just wasn't good enough for a release. It tries to be serious but never gets past awkward in any of the areas it tries to explore. Instead we get a stupifying amount of details that don't matter, and characters so blank and plain that they wouldn't talk unless the creators had forced them to.

Although not explicitly included in gameplay, I must mention that some of the fanart pictures (presented along with in-game art) in the "extras" section, are of questionable nature. Fanart is nice and all but I do prefer it as an entity of its own, separate from the game. For the creators to associate themselves with this material and comments kind of begs a question of how seriously this game ought to be taken in the first place.