Recent reviews by sonen4

Played the game for a little while some time ago, didn't have the time to keep playing but enjoyed my time with it. Come back around a year later and it's basically unplayable now. No idea what happened, sounds like a new developer fixed a working and enjoyable title until it was suitably broken. Thanks a lot.

This game is great, and worth your time and money. Here's (a spoiler free review) why:

- The premise: Slay The Princess is a choice-heavy visual novel with horror elements, somewhere between The Stanley Parable and Doki-Doki Literature Club. Horror's not a genre I usually go for, so if you're like me I think you can still have a very enjoyable experience with this game. The game also has strong visual and verbal depictions of violence, gore, and similar things. If this is something that concerns you, the game is upfront about it and provides resources for its contents.

- Time commitment: The game can hit an ending in ~3-4 hours, and it took me ~15 hours to get 100% achievements. It's a very digestible game that is not interested in wasting your time.

- The mechanics: Mechanics are weird for a visual novel, but the vast array of choices and how the player interacts with those choices becomes the mechanics of the game. I found it interesting to explore the various branching paths of the game, and was surprised how much diverging content there is. I did need a guide to hunt down all the routes and achievements, but that's only if you're interested in seeing everything the game has to offer.

- The story: The story is a fun time. While not one of my all-time favorites, the story is well executed, internally consistent, focused, and engaging. The game is shorter, but that length means the relatively simple premise never feels like it outstays its welcome.

- The art: The art is mostly black and white with rare and deliberate splashes of color. The steam page gives a great sense of the style throughout the game. If you're reading this, don't confuse the lack of color with a lack of effort: not only does the art style contribute to the overall atmosphere, but the use of art to express mood and tone of individual scenes is very well done.

- The voice acting: Unless I'm mistaken, all the voice acting in the game is done by 2 people. At the literal start of the game there was a slightly jarring moment for me where 2 different 'characters' voiced by the same voice actor sounded very similar (The Narrator and the Voice of the Hero), but that's the only real case of it and it was never enough to pull me out of the experience. Otherwise really enjoyable VA work.

- The music: The music is fine. I'm not a music guy, but nothing stood out to me as inappropriate or irritating, and I never got to the point of wanting to mute the game music and listen to my own, so that's a good indicator.

- Overall: I had a genuinely great time with this game. If you're already here and on the fence about purchasing, go ahead and do it. You'll be glad you did.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is great. If you're on the fence about buying, go try Epic Battle Fantasy 3, which is free. EBF5 is just like number 3, only longer, cleaner, and better.

EBF3 is a microcosm of RPGs. It has all the grinding, questing, leveling, and boss fighting, condensed down into a 5-10 hour experience. EBF4 built on those concepts, and EBF5 is a full 40 title in its own right, retaining the charm and appeal of the original without ever feeling bloated or excessive.

EBF5 is light on story compared to a 'traditional' RPG. That's not to say the story is bad, but rather it's simple with archetypical characters and tried-and-true save the world plotline. The story serves the function it needs to, being well executed without ever getting in the way. There is a lot of jokey/humorous dialogue which, along with the art style, helps set the tone of the game as light hearted and fun.

The reletive de-emphasis on story allows for the game to focus more heavily on, well, gameplay. The combat is turn based tactical perfection, being widely diverse in both player options and enemy abilities without ever feeling excessive or confusing. A variable difficulty setting allows the player to adjust challenge at any time, ranging from very simple to maximum abuse. Getting the medals on Epic difficulty is fun, and a worthy challenge that never feels like it's deliberately wasting the player's time. There are a lot of strategic options to explore and play around with, and often a switch in approach is what it takes to make a seemingly impossible challenge beatable.

I had a lot of fun with EBF5, and if you're still reading this, I think you will too. Give it a try.

If you’re reading this review you’re probably trying to decide if this game is worth your time and money. My recommendation: absolutely buy this game. Ouroboros is a phenomenal, engaging experience worth every cent spent and every hour played.

Here’s why.

First, if you have played a free version of this game, know that this version has significantly more content. Probably around double what the free version has, with more scenes, areas, bosses, and a more complete world and story. It’s worth the purchase.

If you’re new, here is the premise. Ouroboros is a microcosm of every JRPG: you’re a hero, the princess is in danger, you travel to dungeons and fight monsters to collect artifacts, you fight the big bad and save the day. But then you realize something is wrong, and you find yourself back at the start, being told that the princess is in danger and you need to find the artifacts to save her. The game then becomes something else, where the entire world is a puzzle and you must find a way to break the sequence of events and change the cycle. And only by overcoming the world-wide puzzle can you confront the true enemy lurking in the shadows. It’s pure JRPG goodness with a dash of meta-narrative and a pinch of time-travel.

I would also suggest, for those new to the game, to try playing through at first without a guide or walkthrough. My first play through (of the free version) I fell for a lot of the tricks and pitfalls of the game’s puzzle, and this really enhanced my overall play experience. You feel the same cyclical frustration of the characters as you try to find the right solution, and you later find cathartic vengeance on the mechanics that only served to steal your time. My one complaint of the game is that starting the solution can be a little obtuse, so if you run out of things to try or find yourself frustrated as to the actually solution then by all means let a guide point you in the right direction. But otherwise the game is amazing, and one of my favorite RPG maker games to date.

My steam version play through took about 6 hours to complete and unlock everything, after having already played the game several times. Even on my original play through with numerous missteps my game time did not exceed 10 hours. This is a short, high impact experience that I’d recommend to anyone. Seriously. Buy this and try it out.

Oh, also there’s like sex and nudity (with patch) and general adult stuff in there too. This is not a game to play if you want a quick fix, getting to this content takes time and effort. But like anything you work for, it’s content worth having.

Short Version
RPG Maker Game with adult content. Good story and fun, interesting combat. About 15 hours of gameplay. Worth the time and money I spent on this, would generally recommend the game.

Longer Version
The game is an RPG Maker game, for all the benefits and drawbacks that implies. It's well balanced and paced, the enemies and bosses being interesting enough to be challenging without ever becoming tedious or frustrating. The game uses a skill learning system where abilities are learned by equipping items, and then lets you switch in between which learned abilities you take into combat. This lets you switch strategy and tactics quickly and easily and gives the game a good feeling of strategic depth. By the time you settled into a rhythm of the 'best' builds and abilities the game is nearly over, so it never feels like it overstays its welcome.

The storytelling is excellent and far above par compared to its peers in the adult game genre. If you've played a Sierra Lee game before, you should have an idea of the quality of writing in the story and characters. The story does require, like any high fantasy story, a certain level of buy-off from the player. If you don't accept the premise, you won't enjoy the story. The main character Felana is a prostitute by day and a secret academic-historian by night. This unique dichotomy is explored over the course of the game and makes for an interesting, compelling, and atypical protagonist. If I had to pick one thing as the selling point of the game, it's the story. I can't explain why without explaining the story itself, but I'm serious when I say this is worth the price of admission alone.

The adult content is text based unless you put in the patch, but even then the pacing of events is at the mercy of the story. This works for me because it means events are more intrinsically intertwined with the story instead of being at an on demand basis (although there are still a couple of these). This does mean that if you're looking for a game to get you a quick fix, this probably is not the game for you. Otherwise, events feel more natural because they always come as a result of the circumstance of the story.

Overall, as mentioned above, I recommend this game. If you are on the fence and would like to try something by the author, I would recommend Ouroborous (a full, free version of which is available with a quick search) and/or The Last Sovereign (still in development and the current public version is free and available). Both are also RPG Maker games by Sierra Lee and are likewise highly recommended.

Great game.

The story is almost entirely centered around the two main characters and their bizarre (in a good way) burgeoning relationship with one another. You have choices that you make that can effect the scenes you see and the way things play out, and the game has a mechanism to help you find the 'harder' endings if you do not want to just look at a guide, altohugh whether or not you use this mechanic is up to you.

The story itself is very compelling, It maintains plenty of complexity while keeping the story length digestible. You can play through to an ending in one sitting and can see all of the content in an evening. The multiple endings also have a neat way of interconnecting, and eventually I was learning the secrets of the larger world of the characters before I even realized it was something I wanted.

If visual novels are your thing you should not miss out on Crimson Gray.

I have been a longtime fan of the Danganronpa series, and it pains me to say that I hated this game. And not just ‘well this title is bad but maybe the next one will be better’ but rather ‘I refuse to support this series and this developer anymore’. Short, spoiler free version is that the story is a mess, the marketing is a lie, and the ending is a middle finger to the series own fanbase.

If you care to know more I will explain, but to explain why I have to explain how.

Spoilers below.

You have been warned.

Coming into this series I had two pieces of information from the game's prerelease on my mind: the main character is female, and the game has a storyline separate from current ongoing Danganronpa world narrative (which was supposed to end in DR3 the anime). Both are lies, but not only that, they are not even compelling misdirection. Let's start with the first one.

Kaede is not the protagonist: she is executed in the first trial. First of all, it is really a ♥♥♥♥ move to advertise your story as having a female lead, only to kill her off and replace her with some dude (especially for a series that has already had some image problems with the presentation of its female characters). But that is not the part that really gets me, because on a conceptual level I understand how killing off the supposed protagonist can be a compelling story line. My biggest problem is that this was slated to be the first in the main series with a main character who is NOT a generic every-man trope. Makoto was the self-proclaimed 'most average character ever', and Hajime's arc was learning is super talent was nothing. Kaede had a specific talent and a specific character, which set her up to be that most compelling protagonist yet.

And they kill her off to replace her with another generic every-man. What makes Shuichi unique? Oh, he does detective stuff. You mean the thing I was already going to be doing anyway? Shame there is no other dimensionality to his character, like, I don’t know, a particular penchant for music? Gee, that would be interesting. Instead it is yet another protagonist that that only has character depth by being around other, more interesting characters. Rinse and repeat.

But why is this a problem? Because the creative team decided to favor shock-value over engagement. As in: the value of marketing one main character and killing her for the shock value is more valuable than any potential backlash for having dishonest marketing. But maybe I am just dumb for buying a game based on what I was told it would contain. From the developers. My bad.

But you know what the worst part is? The story built in its own back door to this issue in the first blood perk. The idea of a first blood perk is inherently dumb: it can never hold narrative weight because it would undercut the core engagement of the game. In other words, the first blood perk was never going to be used. But it could have been. With nearly no changes to the script, Kaede could still be the culprit and be permitted to keep in the game, spared from execution with just a slight change to first blood perk mechanism. She remains the protagonist, remains in the killing game, despite having committed murder. How compelling it would be if all of a sudden everyone detested the protagonist and she had to slowly work back into their good graces through the course of the story, performing good deed after good deed for the sin she commits in the story’s opening act. And the creative team do not do it, because shock value trumps engagement. Kill her off and bring in the generic everyman. And nuts to you if you expected anything different.

Secondly, about the game having a different universe than the previous games. This is also a lie. Junko is back, and the game even stops itself to give the player a trivia quiz about the previous titles. The first time Junko appeared on screen I was so angry I had to stop playing. Junko 'worked' as the villain of DR1 only so far as a mechanism to make the events of the game happen. Junko as a character is bad: DR1 had either the good sense or limited budget to keep her 'character' to a minimum. Following titles ruined this.

And so along comes DRV3 with the promise of new universe with a fresh start. Finally the series can come out from the shadow of Junko, the looming weight that has been holding the series back by its stubborn refusal to let this character go. We will get something new, something original, something...

Lol, just kidding. It is Junko again. It is the same world and the same universe and the same villain. Why would you ever believe us when we said this would be different? I bet you secretly wanted this.

I suppose there are people cheering at her return. Probably. I was so angry I considered cold stopping right in the middle of the game. I should have. The developers had created an expectation in me by marketing a game that I wanted, and then reveled in taking that away. I feel betrayed, like the developers are laughing at my misfortune for having the audacity to believe that the villain could be anyone other than Junko.

And then there is the twist ending.

There has been a concerted effort to make the end of these games wacky and crazy, and DRV3 decided to accomplish this by being meta. Hey, player, did you know you are playing a game? A game in a fictional world, where the characters are following a set script. We will have the characters acknowledge that they are fictional characters, in a game, following a script, for the enjoyment of the audience. You.

Going into the trial I was numb, no longer finding enjoyment from the game but persevering that the end might make my frustration worth it.

I have briefly read through some online discussion on the ending, and the defense that this ending is somehow NOT a middle finger directly to the audience of the game for wanting to enjoy the Danganronpa series. And I bet if I spent more time scouring the language and reading between the lines for the subtext I would find it.

I am not doing that. The ending condemns the player and the audience, using its endless 4th wall breaking meta narrative to explain how the audience is there to watch characters die in killing games, where Junko has to be the villain and there has to be a hope/despair conflict and the characters have to overcome and save the day because that is the formulaic narrative that the audience expects. It ascribes to me, the player, opinions I have never held, and then decries me for holding them.

In other words: the game slaps me in the face and demands I thank it for the privilege.

I almost wish I had more to say about the ending, but the endless self-congratulatory revel in the series own history and narrative structure is not that complex despite taking hours to get through. There is the hypocrisy of the game both decrying the 'hope springs eternal' audience expected ending, then delivering the same ending anyway. There is the inconsistency of the characters both recognizing they are fictional entities in a fictional world following a script and yet lamenting their own circumstance as if they were actually people and not the meta defined characters they just decided they were. There is the inbuilt critique-deflection of 'that was just a lie/that was part of the script' to defer any criticism of the story, the world, the characters, and the motivations for anyone attempting to be critical. But if I had to sum up my problem with the ending, it would be this:

You win Danganronpa V3 by not playing it.

I guess I cannot offer any harsher critique than the game itself. Do not buy this game, do not play this game, and if you have somehow been tricked to see this ride through to the end, your reward is to put down the controller and watch before credits impotently wash over the screen.

Found this to be frustrating.