Recent reviews by MovingGamer

At the end of the day (or game - 2 hours for me), this is a Sonic game at heart. Even if it was released on April Fool's Day. Even if it's not a platformer (and not the first to hold this distinction). If you're a Sonic fan, when you finish this game, I think you'll find something Sonic-y to remember.

If you liked the original If My Heart Had Wings, then you will like Flight Diary. The themes and humour are the same, and are presented as a collection of short stories that build upon some of the routes of the original visual novel, offering more details on the motivations of all the main characters.

Memory’s Dogma Code 01 (MDC-01) to me is a just above average visual novel. It has good voice acting and artwork, an average and mostly linearly plot, and slightly underwhelming world building. It is probably worth full price if you like VNs that get straight into the plot, enjoy a thriller, and don’t mind unresolved minor plot points.

MDC-01 is a visual novel for people who prefer a story to get moving instead of idling through multiple slice of life scenes. This story opens with a death and a near death set in the near future where dead people’s memories can be digitally stored. As the setting suggests, the protagonist sets out to access a dead person’s memories, and the story almost never stops moving from that point.

The best aspects of the story are the great voice acting and pretty artwork. The voice acting makes every dialogue more alive by giving emotions to the characters. The artwork is pretty despite the slightly simple feeling to it.
The route structure is very simple and linear. There are several choices to make throughout the story, of which only a handful have a wrong choice that will quickly lead to a bad end. In a way, the lack of long branching routes is a good thing because it allows the reader to experience all the great voice acting and artwork without having to repeat content several times.

The world of MDC-01 is built through gradual releases of information bites, so the reader should easily understand the world. The details and plot developments are sensible at first blush, but some of them don’t stand up to scrutiny. The story’s conclusion resolves the main plot point, but offers no closure where the side characters are concerned. Current information points to the developer, LizArts, planning Code 02 and Code 03. The open plot points may be resolved then, but release dates are unknown.

The first thing that you must know if you are considering playing PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness is that pressing 1 on the keyboard opens the menu. Press 1 to open menu.

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The second thing is probably how it runs on PC. This is when a warning is necessary: some testers with Windows 10 64-bit reported late in the test period that the game wouldn’t play after the last patch was pushed.

During the beta test period, which formally ended almost 2 months ago on 1 March, NISA were suitably responsive to fix issues. After the test ended, some testers have posted problems but nothing has been heard from NISA, possibly because NISA stopped monitoring or being active on the beta test forum. Given how responsive NISA were during the test period, I believe it is reasonable to have some faith that NISA will fix the Windows 10 64-bit bug.

Also late in the test period were reports that the game crashed while saving but the crashes were difficult to replicate, and that some found the game taking unusually long (about 30 seconds) to load. No tester reported completing the game during the test, so it is possible that new bugs and crashes may appear.

Those who care about screen resolution should know that the maximum screen resolution is 1920x1080, and it can be displayed in either a window or full screen.

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The third thing would be what the visual novel is about. The review that follows can help you with that. The review mentions main themes, playable characters’ names and the total number of routes and endings. If this spoils too much for you, please read another review.

Do you want happiness? Do you wish others to have happiness? Then, what would you do about the nuisances that interfere with reaching that happiness? These questions drive the plot in the aptly titled visual novel PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness (PP:MH).

The plot of PP:MH uses a crime setting to explore science fiction themes and the philosophy of happiness. The first crime occurs immediately after the in-universe elite police force members are introduced, so you can quickly immerse yourself in the crime investigations. In doing so, however, PP:MH neglects any explanation of its unique sci-fi society. There is a tips section that explains phrases as you encounter them, but stopping the story to read the tips can be distracting. A solution is to watch the PSYCHO-PASS anime seasons and movie before playing PP:MH.

This clearly is not a common visual novel about a high school student dating cute girls. But that is not to say that PP:MH is devoid of pretty women. The crimes are investigated by the lovely Inspector Nadeshiko Kugatachi, who is one of the playable characters and is voiced by Aya Endo. Yes, that is correct. PP:MH has voiced playable characters, unlike many other visual novels. Oh, the other point? PP:MH again differs from other visual novels by allowing the player to choose between two playable characters for experiencing the story. One is Inspector Nadeshiko Kugatachi and the other is Enforcer Takuma Tsurugi.

Both playable characters are simultaneously in the story. By playing both characters, you experience the story from the perspectives of two different active participants, and see the plot develop as a result of the actions you choose for the playable character. In total, PP:MH contains 16 unique routes, where the chosen playable character shares a scene with one of their colleagues, and 14 unique endings (not tied to the routes). This provides plenty of replay value in going back for other routes and endings if you enjoy the story.

I played PP:MH without watching its anime beforehand and didn't have too much trouble getting into the story. I completed all routes and endings in about 55 hours. I found the mystery elements to be well-reasoned, but too heavy handed in foreshadowing. The story telling is solid except for a few branches where the text seems more appropriate for other choices leading to the branch. The translation is awkward in some places and has typos, but it is still easy to understand. The soundtrack delivers a sense of urgency during investigations, but otherwise it does not leave a strong impression. Overall, I consider PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness an average visual novel and recommend it to people who enjoy and appreciate serious plots.

Disclaimer: I received PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness for free as a beta tester. This did not influence the opinion expressed in my review.

Harmonia is a kinetic novel that delivers the standard Visual Art / Key package of art, sound and story. There is a variety of backgrounds and character poses, all of which are well drawn and designed to convey the scene. The background music is easy to listen to and does not feel repetitive. A couple of the tracks are songs. Only three characters are voiced, and their voices suit their personalities.

It took a little over 5 hours to complete Harmonia, which makes it a bit longer than Planetarian (completed in about 4 hours), another Visual Art / Key kinetic novel. The story of Harmonia does not have any significantly new or different experiences from previous Visual Art / Key works, so if this is not your first then you have an idea of what type of story to expect. If this is your first, then without spoiling any specific plot details, you can expect two things: one, descriptions of the characters’ regular daily activities to let you relate to them, and two, a plot twist to tug at your heartstrings.

Overall, Harmonia is a safe release to commemorate Key’s 15th anniversary because it reaffirms what Visual Art/ Key works are about.

Come for Tomoyo & Tomoya, stay for Dungeons & Takafumis.

If it's been said before, it's because it's true.

[EDIT 24 November for Steam Award:]
Dungeons & Takafumis (D&T) is a minigame within Tomoyo After that is straightforwad to play and somewhat difficult to master. D&T is like a tactical RPG, except you can only give orders at the start of a battle. Once the battle starts, you lose all control of your characters - they will move around the map to follow those orders (mostly for the best, but not always). Besides the orders, you control character starting position, equipped gear, and stat growth via allocating growth points and changing jobs.

The relatively small number of options under the player's control makes D&T straightforward to play. The difficulty is that the equipment won at the end of a battle is random. The Random Number God might give you what you need when you need it, or forsake you. The challenge in D&T is to win all battles within an in-game time limit by optimising your orders, starting positions and stat growth, while making the best use of the randomised equipment.

I watched the anime and I fell in love with CLANNAD.
Then I played the visual novel and I fell in love with CLANNAD again.
More recently, I went through CLANNAD Side Stories and I fell in love with CLANNAD once more.

If you love CLANNAD, then CLANNAD Side Stories is absolutely a worthwhile investment. If you don't love CLANNAD, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can give you an unbiased opinion on whether you should buy CLANNAD Side Stories.

Imagine you’re a parent of a child who is about to finish high school. Your child isn’t willing to talk to you about plans after high schools because it so ain’t cool to talk to parents about serious stuff like that. However, your parental instinct tells you that deep inside your beloved child is worried about the future. You want to help, but you know they will never agree to talk it over, at least not at this age. You notice that your child likes to spend time reading visual novels, so you decide to wrap what you want to say in a visual novel. You do some research about visual novels on the internet and write a script containing everything you want to say (in high school student lingo instead of grown up chatter). You also call in favours from friends to compose some simple music, draw some simple characters, take some pretty photos for the background scenery, and package it all together.

This might be the visual novel that you would make.

It’s short, the plot could be smoother, you forgot to proofread the script, but it contains the caring message that you want to tell your precious child. That it’s OK to not immediately know what they want to do despite everyone around them looking like they do. That they have many paths in life to choose from. That they will always have your love and support no matter what.

Then you put it on Steam because there’s no way your child would read it if you directly handed it over, right?

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Sapphire Dragon Productions, the developer, in any way. Just in case my closing comment about putting the VN on Steam made it sound like I am.

Review in one sentence : Himeko’s Epilogue is recommended for fans of Narcissu 1 and 2, and non-fans may feel unsatisfied with the content they get (about 1 hour of reading) for the price they pay.

As the title says, this is an epilogue for Himeko, who is a main character in Narcissu 2. As such, it is strongly recommended that you finish Narcissu 2 before starting Himeko’s Epilogue. The epilogue is short as you may expect, with about 1 hour of reading, and it takes Himeko’s story from Narcissu 2 to the very end. That’s not to say that the ending in Narcissu 2 is unfinished. The ending of Narcissu 2 satisfactorily closes the story of Himeko and Setsumi, so reading Himeko’s Epilogue is not strictly necessary to understanding the story.

Himeko’s Epilogue focuses on the friendship between Himeko and Yuka. Without spoiling any events, you could say that Himeko’s Epilogue is a story about two friends supporting each other to get through the difficulties they are facing. Yuka is a minor character in Narcissu 2, and her character develops a little in the short amount of time covered in Himeko’s Epilogue.

There are two options for going through Himeko’s Epilogue – Normal and Classic Mode. The only difference between the two modes is the artwork used for the background. The artwork in Normal will show character’s faces, whereas Classic will not, and the artwork in Normal is larger.


The chronological order of the stories is: Narcissu 2 -> Himeko’s Epilogue -> Narcissu 1

Setsumi is a main character in Narcissu 2, and Narcissu 2 is a prequel to her story in Narcissu 1. Narcissu 2 explains some of the actions that Setsumi takes in Narcissu 1, so if you can’t stand seeing characters doing things for seemingly unexplainable reasons then you may like to read Narcissu 1 last. Otherwise, you can read Narcissu 2 after Narcissu 1 and have several moments of “Ah, so that’s why!”

A review of Clannad using only names from its soundtrack.

The Girl’s Fantasy, The Big Dango Family
Meaningful Ways to Pass the Time, Tea Party in the Reference Room
The Place where Wishes Come True, Shining in the Sky
Memories of a Distant Journey.

If you want to know about other aspects of Clannad, I suggest looking at the top rated reviews, which clearly describe why Clannad is a brilliant visual novel. As those reviews exist, I decided to spend my time reading Clannad instead of writing that kind of long review.