Category Archives: Reviews
Danganronpa Another Episode Hits PS4 Summer 2017
Getting things ready for Danganronpa V3, NISA has announced today that the former PS Vita exclusive Danganronpa Another Episode will be hitting PS4 this Summer!
We are happy to announce that Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girlswill be arriving on the PlayStation®4 as both a physical and digital release in summer 2017 in North America and Europe!
Originally released in 2015 on the PS Vita, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls is a spin-off action-adventure game that connects the critically acclaimed mystery adventures Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
-PR
You can find information on the games main site here.
Also have a look at the first PS4 screenshots:
Persona 5 has Been Delayed in the West till April 4th, 2017
Unfortunately Persona 5 has been delayed in the west to a new date of April 4th. Here’s what they had to say about it:
[T]he Japanese release of Persona 5 smashed all our expectations, and as a company, we decided that we owed our fans the very best effort to make Persona 5 our gold standard in localization. Practically, this means redoubling our QA and localization efforts, even returning to the studio to record previously unvoiced lines. We don’t want to rush this game[.]
-PR
Of course, it’s not exactly compensation, but the game will feature Dual Audio, meaning the original Japanese voice acting is in the game as well in the form of free DLC.
Also for today only, you can get the Ryuji Sakamoto Avatar and Theme Set in the US.
Lastly, the Take Your Heart Edition has updated art
Nvidia: Porting PS4, XBOX ONE and PC games to the Switch is simple thanks to the Tegra Chip
During their latest financial call CEO of Nvidia Jen-Hsun Huang has made some more comments about the Nintendo Switch, specifically in regards to porting games from the PS4, XBOX ONE and PC.
He stated that thanks to the Tegra Processor, which is similar to what is found in those consoles and most PCs, developers should be easy when porting over games to the Nintendo switch.
Here is what Huang had to say:
“The quality of games has grown significantly. And one of the factors of production value of games that has been possible is because the PC and the two game consoles, Xbox and PlayStation, and — in the near-future — the Nintendo Switch, all of these architectures are common in the sense that they all use modern GPUs, they all use programmable shading, and they all have basically similar features.”
“As a result of that, game developers can target a much larger installed base with one common code base and, as a result, they can increase the production quality, production value of the games,” Huang Added.
This is good news as one of the many complaints of the Wii U is that porting was not very easy. It’s nice to see that Nintendo addressed this.
What do you guys think?
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone Is Arriving to the West on Jan. 10, 2017
Today SEGA has just announced that Hatsune Mikue: Project DIVA Future Tone will be arriving in the west on January 10th next year! This game is looking like to be the largest Hatsune Miku game to date!
This party isn’t over yet, we’re not even CLOSE to being done, because SEGA is dropping even more beats with the biggest Hatsune Miku rhythm & action game yet with Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone! Get ready for a dance marathon, because this PlayStation®Network exclusive features a monster tracklist that PS4 players in the Americas and Europe can get down to on Jan. 10, 2017!What is Future Tone? It’s the largest Hatsune Miku game yet, with 200+ songs and 300+ costumes for Miku and her digital friends to play around with. Plus, it’s the arcade incarnation of the Hatsune Miku games, meaning there’s a slightly different control scheme. It’s more of the same great Miku action across five difficulty levels (If you’ve been nailing songs from Project DIVA Xon EXTREME, just wait until you load up EXTRA EXTREME in Future Tone.)Future Tone is a collection of two song packages each priced at $29.99: ‘Future Sound,’ a collection of songs centered around the Project DIVA games and ‘Colorful Tone’ which collects songs related to the Project Mirai games and arcade songs. For those who can’t get enough of the digital singer, there’s a special discount price of $53.99 for those who purchase the bundle containing both packages. European prices will be commensurate to the US Dollar.-PR
RUMOR: Nintendo Switch to be $329.99 CAD
Toys R Us Canada has listed the Nintendo Switch at $329.99 on their website. For our United States readers that is roughly $244 USD.
Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has previously stated before that the Nintendo Switch will be “affordable” to consumers and that it also wont be sold at a loss, but will be listening to what consumers expect from the pricing.
As a consumer is this ideal for you?
Dragon Quest VIII Comes to the West on the 3DS January 20th
Nintendo has just announced this morning the Western release date for the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VIII!
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 3, 2016 – With the new year comes new quests and great adventures, and 2017 will be no different when the DRAGON QUEST VIII: Journey of the Cursed King game comes to the Nintendo 3DS family of systems on Jan. 20. This handheld retelling of the classic RPG will be back and bigger than ever, with two new playable characters, more side quests and the ability to battle monsters on the go.
–PR
It’s good to see Dragon Quest VIII is just right around the corner for Dragon Quest fans and JRPG fans! Be sure to stick around for more coverage on this game as the news breaks. In the meantime check out some screenshots for the game.
The Legend of Heros: Trails of Cold Steel II review – Class Reunion
Platform: Playstation 3, Playstation Vita (version played)
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: XSEED Games
ESRB Rating: T
Thank You XSEED for providing a review copy of this game.
A few years ago, Studio Falcom asked Sony if they were to ever produce game carts that would hold more data than the usual 4GB carts for the Vita. Sony in response told them to use two 4GB carts in response. In theory, that’s what led to how Trails of Cold Steel and Trails of Cold Steel II came to be. In Trails of Cold Steel, the game abruptly cuts to where everything that could potentially goes wrong, well, went wrong. Trails of Cold Steel II is a direct continuation of the original game as it picks up right where the first game left off. It is absolutely imperative that you play the original game to start playing this game. The game gives the player a pretty competent backstory that the player can view at any time, but it would be beneficial to play the first game.
Yomawari: Night Alone Review – You Are (Not) Alone
Developer:Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher:NISA
Platform: PS Vita/PC
ESRB Rating:T
Thank You NISA for Providing a Review Copy
It’s October meaning it’s time for the Halloween craze to begin again. As such, it would be appropriate to look into the horror genre which brings us to Yomawari: Night Alone. You play as a little girl who takes her dog, Poro out for a walk. On the way back home, Poro unfortunately gets away from you. Leave it to your big sister of course to go out and look for Poro for you. Hours pass by and for some reason neither Poro nor your sister has returned home… Did something happen to them? Are they okay? With these thoughts in mind, you yourself decide to out and look for them.
Adam Wolfe – Episode 1 (Steam) Review
Adam Wolfe Episode 1
Platform:PC
Release Date: 10/7/16
Developer: Mad Head Games
A Review Copy Was Provided
MSRP: 5.99
Adam Wolfe is an interesting twist on the classic mystery game. It kind of feels like the visual-novel version of a mystery game.
As the player, you’re acting as Adam Wolfe, paranormal investigator. As someone who watches anime with paranormal investigators, I’ve become used to they themselves having some sort of non-human ability, like discolored eyes that can see the dead, or inhuman strength. Adam Wolfe is none of these. He’s just another normal human; a guy with a gun and guts. His single-minded drive to discover the truth about his missing sister pushes him to not only face but also confront the paranormal as he probes the mysteries he’s gotten caught up in. I was quite happy to discover this – that the game so readily accepted the paranormal, but didn’t insist the protagonist be paranormal as well. It makes the game that much more interesting to be taking on problems as your every-day detective.
Meeting Adam Wolfe.
The fact the game actively involves paranormal elements was interesting. I’ve found that with mystery games, the investigations usually lead to a “logical, scientific explanation” to explain away any strange occurrences. Adam Wolfe, on the other hand, not only embraces the idea of legitimate paranormal elements, but uses them to drive the plot forward. At the first introduction to the game’s paranormal mysteries, I confess I was kind of afraid things would take a cheesy turn. After all, if the strange occurrences aren’t given enough background or explanation, they can be hard to take seriously, which makes things feel comical instead of foreboding. Adam Wolfe didn’t fall into this rut, in my opinion. The paranormal elements were backed up by beliefs held by various world cultures about spirits and spirituality – this made the story feel more real and believable.
As for the gameplay itself, I thought it was an interesting combination of elements from point-and-click, hidden object, and puzzle-based mystery games. In some cases, the game feels like a point-and-click, where you simply have to investigate your surroundings or choose what action to take (for example, choosing to go left or straight through when your path splits). However, during those investigations you’ll often find yourself faced with a hidden object search or a puzzle. The hidden object searches are actually done with a story – as Wolfe talks, you’ll have to find the item he’s talking about, which somehow feels a lot more fun than the typical check-off-the-list-items format. The puzzles are interesting. The first few seemed easy, but some of the later ones were more challenging, and thus more fun. However, the variety was awesome. Having the same type of puzzle over and over gets monotonous so Adam Wolfe’s range of puzzles, in both skill and type, made things much more enjoyable.
A mysterious “gift” left for you.
I have only a few minor complaints about the game (based solely on the first chapter). Firstly, the animation of the characters talking really bothered me – it just looks strange as their eyes and nose don’t move naturally with their mouth while speaking. However, that aside, the rest of the animation is really well done for a game in its price range. Not just the animation, but the art in general, as well as the voice-acting. Another thing that bothered me was both the amount of clicking I had to do to progress through story portions – while initially the idea of clicking various elements on the screen to start the next part of the story was fun, it got to be a bit frustrating later, as I couldn’t just put the mouse off to the side and listen to the story segment. Finally, the controls seemed a bit too nitpicky at times. I can’t list specific examples, because spoilers, but in a few cases I’d be clicking on an object, just not on the right spot on an object. This got a little frustrating as it led to some false assumptions that I was targeting the wrong item, not just the wrong place on the right item.
Overall, I did enjoy the first chapter of this game as visual novel-style mystery game. I wish there was a little bit more background story/explanation given as to the events before where you begin playing. I’d also love less clicking and slightly more forgiving selections (would have saved me clicking in numerous spots on the same object to find the right spot). However, things like the art and puzzle variety distract from that. Not to mention, the game’s got a unique concept so far and I confess I’m totally curious to figure out the overarching mystery about Wolfe’s sister and the events tied into her disappearance. I’ll definitely be buying the other chapters to finish the game and solve the mystery!
7.25/10
+ Unique gameplay
+ Puzzle/challenge variety
+ Beautiful art
– LOTS of clicking
– Some finicky controls/targeting
Superdimension Neptune vs. SEGA Hard Girls Review
Superdimension Neptune vs. SEGA Hard Girls
Developers:Compile Heart/SEGA
Publisher: Idea Factory International
ESRB Rating: T
MSRP:$39.99
Release Date:October 18, 2016
Superdimension Neptune vs. SEGA Hard Girls is the latest spin-off in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. This time at the helm it’s everyone’s favorite Planeptune Guild leader IF. However, instead of running the quest guild at the Baslicon, she’s a wandering adventurer traveling the Wasteland of her homeworld, turning up wherever there may be treasure or adventure. At the start, I believed IF was a perfect protagonist for this kind of game, and I was not disappointed in how well she fit into the game’s overall story.
The Gaming Gamma 