Horizon Forbidden West (PS4)

Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. The start of this game heavily references the story events from the first game. While you can get the general idea, newcomers will probably feel lost and detached. The game will be familiar to returning players so it can feel samey at times. This is a third person action adventure where Aloy has melee attacks with her spear. However, her main form of attacking will be her other weapons, such as her bow and arrow and slingshots. There are different types of ammo, dealing a different type of damage such as acid, flames and frost.

The key draw of the game is of course the combat against the machines, that usually take on the form of a dinosaur or prehistorical animal. If you don’t want to face them head on, you can also go for stealth as Aloy has a set of stealth abilities. These include the ability to make traps, cause distractions and ways to attract machines to a location. A lot of the encounters can be done via stealth, head-on attacks, or a combination of both. On higher difficulties, facing them head-on will be difficult unless you had already lowered their numbers via stealth first.

All of Aloy’s weapons and abilities can be upgraded and unlocked via a number of skill trees. Experience is earned from defeating machines, completing quests, and hunting wildlife. It can be an addictive loop although this is something we have already seen plenty of times before. Aloy herself is nimble with plenty of parkour moves. She can jump, climb, shimmy and swing with the best of them. However, the parkour system still needs some work as there are kinks where Aloy doesn’t grab a hold of something, or doesn’t reach for the thing that you were aiming for. When she falls down and you have to start again, it can be annoying. She has a glider now to help with traversal and a key piece of equipment is her focus. This is a triangular piece of machinery clipped on her eye and is an excuse to present an informative UI that highlights points of interest for the player such as showing a machine’s weak point.

Despite the improvements, there remains a few frustrating elements. No matter how much the game handholds you or have Aloy make an obvious remark on what to do or where to go after a few seconds of looking around, there are some parts where it is still not immediately obvious. There are also poorly designed boss battles where it can be annoying as you are trapped in a small area facing against a human opponent. Yet they are invulnerable so that you must do something else. This wouldn’t be so bad except that they are constantly attacking and stunning you without a care in the world. Aloy herself is also over confident in the beginnings of the game, to the point of being arrogant and rude to a lot of people that she meets. She ends up coming off as impatient since she has more knowledge but doesn’t spend the time to try and convince the other party.

There is a huge amount of variety in the design of the machines this time around. In addition to all the ones from the first game, there are plenty of new designs, a lot of which you immediately encounter in the beginning of the game. It can get overwhelming at first but also gives you back some sense of discovery and accomplishment that was evident in the first game. The platicky look of the characters are gone. While it’s still not the most amazing facial designs ever, it is much more natural. The graphics remain stellar and impressive. It also includes a lot of accessibility options so that you can customize and tailor the game’s difficult and controls to your liking. The music is notable and provides the perfect amount of ambience and atmosphere to the game.

Like the first game, the story is a slow-burn. This is the main draw of the game though but it doesn’t hit the highs that you were hoping for. Given that the gameplay has remained largely the same, Forbidden West can feel overly familiar and even a bit boring as it doesn’t seem to do anything daring to push the formula forward. Everything works and mechanically, the game is fine with no significant weaknesses. Yet it is lacking that fresh feeling, especially when it is yet another open world game filled with collectibles and the same boring sidequest designs. What doesn’t help is that the game’s design encourages grinding, and it’s heavy grinding. There’s the big skill tree, and every weapon has multiple levels requiring differing types of rare drops. It’s tedious and slows down the game too much.

The story is interesting once it gets to the point where there is a big revelation. While it can originally feel cheesy, especially with the attitude and design of some of the characters, they present an interesting potential and facet to the grander scheme of things. Unfortunately, the story then basically boils down to being a gigantic fetch quest where Aloy has to explore the Forbidden West to find objects that will allow her to complete the thing that finally pushes the story forward, and to confront the villains. When the story finally picks up towards the end of the game, it means that only the final act has the meaty plot developments. This can come off as being too late. It can be unfair to constantly compare this game with the first, given that the original was focused on uncovering a big mystery, whereas this one is pushing the concept forward. Still, it felt like the developers squandered the potential and wasn’t totally satisfying.

The game is long, especially if you play a lot of the side content. The main story is only around 20 hours where it starts off slow but ramps up a bit towards the end with a few juicy tidbits. The ending teases what the future could be and that the series is definitely continuing, one way or another. After the story, you can continuing finishing the sidequests, finding all the collectibles, and exploring the vast open world. The open world is massive, containing all the staples you’d expect like forests, deserts, open water, mountains and caves. It’s just that the content is nothing special as it’s the usual open world filler.

Overall, there’s no denying that Horizon Forbidden West is an expansive, polished, and impressive game. However, it lacks the charm and sense of wonder that Zero Dawn had. A sequel should improve on everything, which this game mostly does, but also introduces enough new elements to keep the experience fresh, which is the area that it ends up lacking in. the gameplay mechanics and gameplay loop are too samey, especially considering the glut of open world games nowadays and unfortunately, unlike the first game, the story in this one wasn’t enough to hold it up. It’s still a worthwhile experience, just that expectations may have been a bit high after the first one.

-----------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Purchase from Amazon using this link.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Fairy Tail - Season 6 (2012-13)

Season 6 of Fairy Tail is 25 episodes long, based upon the manga series. Since the fifth season was filler, most of which occurred then was inconsequential and thus forgotten. However, the first episode is dedicated to the characters talking about those events but also utilizes that time to say goodbye to all the supporting characters that had returned. We can expect to never see them again. The anime then continues on its merry way and properly deals with the seven year absence of the core members of the Fairy Tail guild.

In those seven years, Fairy Tail has become a joke. They were one of the strongest, if not the strongest, guilds, but they have now sunken to become a laughing stock. They are the lowest ranked guild and this is a bitter pill to swallow. It’s surprising that it only took seven years for this massive fall in grace. The world has also changed in those years with new guilds popping up and taking the number one spot. There are some new customs too, the main one of which is the annual competition that takes up the whole of this season.

The annual competition is one in which all guilds can participate in. Winning this competition cements that guild as the number one guild in Fiore. It is a convenient way, and an easy excuse, to have a big tournament arc in ths anime. Of course, Fairy Tail cannot miss this opportunity to reclaim their title and they enter the competition. It takes a few episodes for the characters to prepare and party until the competition actually starts. The characters need some training to power up their abilities. Thanks to their seven years of absence, people they had one knew had gotten a lot more powerful, so they need some training to catch up. Sadly, the characters boost their powers via a shortcut, feeling like they cheated and removes any meaning to their additional strength.

The competition itself isn’t filled by one-on-one battles, otherwise it would be too boring. It’s composed of various challenges so it’s like a slightly more serious (and dangerous) sports festival. It tries to amp up the atmosphere with strong rival teams as well as cheating rival times. You fully expect Fairy Tail, who are the dark horse of the competition, to one up all the others and show the world who is boss. There is another arc wrapped into this given that the competition organizers are shrouded in mystery. There is something shady going on so while the Fairy Tail members are genuinely participating to win, there are others who are there to investigate the unusual magical activity.

There are further hints at a deeper plot happening in the background. Characters with nefarious plans are trying to do something yet ultimately it doesn’t amount to much. It feels like it is constantly teasing you as the focus still stays on the tournament itself. It tries to build up too much so that when some of the arcs are resolved, it is anticlimactic as it wasn’t not as big a deal as it was trying to make it out to be. Furthermore, the anime has so many one-off characters in the past such that when they are reintroduced in a way that is supposed to be significant, you probably had forgotten who they were, and all the impact was lost.

For an anime with traditionally low-quality animation and poor fight scenes, it does surprisingly well this season. There is an abundance of fight scenes but it uses the usual tricks to better effect. The season is more exciting and fun to watch in general. It’s not going to win any awards but at least it is slightly more than just a slideshow. The downside is that since the season has to cover so many battles, it rushes a lot of them and they end too quickly. It builds up some of the events to successfully create eagerness from you, only to fail at satisfying that during the actual event. While at other times, you don’t expect anything good as it’s probably filler but it is better than normal.

The power levels are out of whack since despite Fairy Tail members having trouble against certain opponents in the first half of the season, somehow, they completely decimate and dominate others in the second half. Yes Fairy Tail members are supposed to be strong but they went from zero to infinity in the blink of an eye and this is a tough pill to swallow. It doesn’t help that their opponents were also hyped up to be serious challengers. There is a similar problem with the relative power levels of each character. When characters are facing off against each other, you expected one to win based on what we were told and what we had seen before, but then the anime ignores that and flips the victor to the other side. This feels inconsistent.

Lucy unfortunately gets the short end of the stick time and time again. At this point, you’d have to wonder if the writer hates her. She starts off well, getting a power boost and comfortably squaring off against a strong opponent. Then just when she may be able to get the limelight and justify her own place in the Fairy Tail guild, she gets curbstomped and put out of action. It’s disappointing when this is constantly her fate. On the flipside, Natsu remains his normal self, which can be annoying. Love or hate him, it does feel good when he fights for his fellow guild members. However, even though it was satisfying to see him beat the pulp out of his opponents, the fact that he gained his massive boost in power by taking a no-effort shortcut at the beginning of the season cheapens a lot of Fairy Tail’s wins in this tournament.

Surprisingly, the arc does not end by the end of this season. It gets close to finishing it but you’ll realize when there were only five or so episodes left that there was no way it could be finished off. It’s a bit disappointing, particularly since the anime seemed to have finally found a good balance and started becoming enjoyable. A lot of the humor remains the same as previous seasons, which means that it can be cringeworthy and cheap. Yet there are times where it is decent and funny. It is at these moments that the anime shines with what could have been had it managed to provide consistent higher quality content.

Overall, the sixth season of Fairy Tail is actually the best season yet. After over a hundred episodes and multiple seasons, it finally struck that balance between its low budget animation and enjoyable storytelling. Granted, it’s still not the most complex or amazing story, and the tournament arc is a lazy and unoriginal story attempt, yet it was fun to watch. There remains the cheesy and cringeworthy moments, there’s the plot points that feels pointless, but for the first time, you aren’t bored out of your mind for most of the season and there are plenty of episodes with genuine emotions.

--------------------------------------------------

For other anime reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lion is an updated version from the PS1. It is a tactical role-playing game in the Final Fantasy series of games. The story itself has no tutorial. If you want a tutorial, then you’ll have to select it from the menu and it is a beefy thing. That’s because there are many facets to the game and it is extremely confusing for a newcomer with little idea of what to do, what stats mean, and what the abilities are. Even the controls for more intricate stuff can be confusing so it is best to click around and get used to it. The game has a high learning curve due to the sheer number of systems and mechanics in play. This means if you have little experience with SRPGs, or you’re a first timer in this game, then you’ll struggle with even the first random encounters. This is doubly so since you have limited options and abilities at this early point of the game but the good news is that once you’ve played a few levels, you will slowly find yourself becoming familiarized with how it works and become comfortable with it.

Battles take place on a grid-based map. You select the party members to use before the battle begins. Once it is your turn, you can move and perform a variety of actions which are dictated by the job of your current character. They can move on the map and the objective of each battle is usually to either defeat all enemies or defeat a certain enemy. The maps have different features on them such as different heights and other types of obstacles. Thus, character and enemy placement is extremely important. Another big element is that if you attack from the side or behind, that character will have a higher chance of successfully damaging the enemy, and the same is true for the enemy attacking your characters. The battles have an isometric view which is not the best given this camera angle makes it difficult to gauge the grid and placements. As it is, you will constantly try to shift the camera, only for the different heights of things on the map to continue blocking your sight.

The game provides you with a huge cast of playable characters, with the potential for infinitely more as you can generate new generic characters to join your team. Each character can freely change jobs, which allows them to learn new abilities that they can take to other jobs. this gives the player a lot of options and sometimes it can feel like there are too many options so that you are not sure what job and ability you should spend the time for. By performing actions during battle, you gain experience points and job points, the latter of which are used to unlock the job abilities. This is somewhat annoying in that a specific character must do something in order to get those points, so you are forced to use them in battle and do something with them. This isn’t too great when their current job is more of a defensive role rather than an offensive one. There are some quirks to the game, one of which is the uneven difficulty. Some story battles are extremely easy, while others are annoying, especially the ones where enemies can heal and revive. Then there is the fact that enemies can easily cause status effects on your characters, steal your equipment, or destroy your equipment. Yet on the flipside when you try out those skills, there is an abysmal success rate so it can feel unfair. There is no quick way to restart a battle, you will have to reset the game and sit through the unskippable cutscenes first. There is also no way to run from a battle, so you must waste time fighting the random encounters. Considering that battles do not take a short amount of time, this is not great. Given the ease of getting yourself into a bad situation, you end up saving after every single battle, which is tedious and a hallmark of bad game design.

Another quirk is that the enemies always target your weakest character. This makes sense as that is what you would do but unfortunately when all of them move halfway across the map to target that one character, they are bound to die. It can be a vicious cycle given that the character needs to do something before they can gain the experience points to get stronger but aren’t given that opportunity as they’re quickly killed. Then there’s the fact that every single character that’s not the protagonist can be perma-killed (hence the ability to generate more generic characters). Certain enemies do excessive amounts of damage where one hit can take down over half a character’s health. Yes, you can manipulate the game’s AI but for most players who just want a decently good and fun time, this is not great. The enemy will constantly outnumber you and will attempt to surround you, and the RNG element is incredibly painful. All that said and it takes around the first chapter for the player to really get the hang of the gameplay. Once it has clicked for you and you’ve started to fiddle around with the characters, it gets addictive. You’ll fall into the temptation of wanting to grind for those extra job points to unlock a new ability that would pair extremely well with another job. You can’t help but look at it after every single battle, and the same goes for the equipment upgrades which come thick and fast. The game constantly introduces new characters who will join your team, and these ones are often much stronger than the starting generics. However, by the time they arrive, you would have already spent a long time on developing your beginning characters, so you have to decide whether to start afresh on a stronger one, or just keep your existing team. It’s usually worth it to swap characters but it does feel like you have wasted a lot of your time in doing so.

The game is mainly told via in-game cutscenes where the characters speak in dialogue boxes on the battle map. There are occasionally animated cutscenes that are fully voiced, which looks great due to the art style. The story is often touted as one of the best in the Final Fantasy series, but it depends on your tastes. It is more serious, and it has a bit of politics with a grander scale throughout the whole game. Yet there are times where you might just not care, and the second half is weaker given that the characters end up being forced to go along a specific path due to a smaller scaled reason. The story battles towards the end of the game can also feel more like filler rather than something that was required for the story. The game takes 30 to 40 hours to complete, and the final boss can be cheap because it likes to rapidly cast every single status ailment onto multiple characters at once. This is slightly softened by the fact that the final boss is otherwise easy. The game has several sidequests and they can be missable. Once you finish the game though, you cannot go back, and you may have locked yourself into the final series of battle without being able to exit. This is another annoying quirk of the game, you are easily able to accidentally save yourself into an unwinnable or unescapable position.

Overall, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a fun but also incredibly annoying game. It has some frustratingly stupid game designs such as the enemy easily destroying your characters equipment, or easily infecting your characters with a debilitating status effect. Other than those annoying quirks, the game itself has a lot of depth. The job system can be overwhelming at first, especially when you are trying to decide on how to build your characters. The game is winnable with many combinations but it’s just finding the one that suits your playstyle. The story is okay, it can become dry towards the end but all in all, this is a fantastic game that has aged well considering when it was released.

------------------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram (PS4)

Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram is a visual novel which is a spin-off from Steins;Gate. It is a port of the original game that came out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Vita, although that version was never translated into English. This port was translated into English and released as a bonus with PS4 and Steam copies of Steins;Gate Elite. It contains eleven side stories which expands upon the events of the original visual novel, although this version lacks trophies, which is a shame but not a huge deal.

If you are playing this straight after Elite, then there will be quite a bit of adjustment required. This is because the graphical style is completely different. Elite took scenes from the anime, while this game reused assets from the original visual novel. Therefore the backgrounds and sprites have a totally difference aesthetic. That said, this is a unique aesthetic and looks great. Despite the majority of the game being reused assets, there are still a few new backgrounds and all of the CGs are new and specific to this game. The game is completely voiced by the same voice actors, so this is not just a cheap and lazy cash tie-in.

The game expects you to have already played the original and that you are familiar with all the characters, the events, and the concepts. The various side stories take on different tones, some are serious, while others are sillier and more lighthearted. The concept of the game is that each of these side stories take place in alternate worldlines, or possibilities. For example, in the very first side story, Okabe casually uses D-mail and time leaps with none of the serious repercussions that the main game had. Each side story has a different supporting character as the narrator, so it can feel quite different given that you’ll be hearing their inner thoughts which also reveals a lot more about their characters than ever before.

Each side story still roughly fits within the events of the main game, somehow. Sometimes it stretches the scenario quite a bit and it basically asks you to overlook that. Most of the side stories take place within the same few days as the main game. There are plenty of nods to the events of the main story, especially with the secrets that each character holds within themselves. Time travel still features quite heavily as a plot device and while this game was originally released before Steins;Gate Zero, there are some things that happen here, that you will recognise or see referenced in that game.

The scenarios in each side story generally works and there are times where it rivals the original in terms of raw emotions. Exploring the what-if scenarios and having that different perspective so that we can see the thoughts of the side characters provides a lot of additional impact. While some of the side stories don’t actually reveal too many additional major events, by going into depth on what we had already known, it makes it much more nostalgic and full of potential. Although the ones that cover the same events from a different perspective are a little bit more boring in comparison.

There is one particular chapter that deserves mention, and it is one of the later ones. It is interesting in that it is a mystery story akin to the original. Obviously it isn’t as long but it doesn’t need to set up all the concepts and is able to jump right into it. As the mysteries keep piling on, you are waiting to reach the end and the big reveal. Once it does that, it’s not that it is unsatisfying as it still all clicks into place, but it stretches the believability of the events. And this is a theme because a lot of the events in the side stories rely on coincidences, ones that seem to always somehow involve the cast of supporting characters. While this is necessary in terms of game design, it can raise a few eyebrows when the world seemingly revolves so much around this group.

The game has limited interactivity, as you’d expect of a visual novel. The only control you have to is to pull out your phone and reply to different text messages that you’d receive. These text messages end up becoming the collectibles of the game as different replies will branch off the content of subsequent replies. There’s an in-game tracker to see what you are missing. Story-wise, these text messages don’t affect it at all and you will always reach the one ending for each side story. Each route varies between an hour to two hours long, so that’s around 15 hours of content, depending on your reading speed.

Not all side stories are available from the get go, you will need to unlock batches of them as you complete others. After reading all the side stories, there isn’t anything else to do unless you want to replay them to get all the text message replies. This English translation is a bit of a rushed job. This is probably due to the game being a bonus inclusion rather than a standalone release. It’s fine for most of the game but towards the end, it’s like the editor either ran out of time or was just sloppy as the frequency of typos increased.

Overall, Steins;Gate: Linear Bounded Phenogram is a good bonus for fans of the original Steins;Gate. You get to spend more time with the characters and explore a few alternate worldlines including some really interesting ones. On the other hand, it does retread a lot of things and relies heavily upon knowledge of the original game. There are certain sections of the game where it is obvious that there are different writers as the style and themes aren’t as focused and tight. Still, it gives you a nostalgic hit and it is a good expansion to the Steins;Gate universe.

----------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Dogeza: I Tried Asking While Kowtowing (2020)

Dogeza: I Tried Asking While Kowtowing is based on the manga, with 12 episodes and an OVA. This is a sex comedy so there’s plenty of fan service and even the author was surprised that it was adapted into anime form due to its content. Each episode is less than four minutes long. Considering that there is an ending theme and a short intro, the content is a tad bit over two minutes long, so there isn’t much time at all.

The anime follows Doge Suwaru, who for some reason, will go around kneeling (i.e. dogeza, or kowtowing) and begging the girl to reveal their breasts or underwear for him to see. Each episode has a different girl, and this is pretty much the whole anime. It tries to do something different for each girl, but every episode defies logic. There are often cringe-worthy scenarios that can be difficult to watch.

No matter what, the girl will eventually relent. What Doge is doing amounts to sexual harassment, so there are mixed feelings when he succeeds. The sad thing is that the humor doesn’t justify the setting because the humor is non-existent most of the time. You might get a chuckle, but the premise can border on crossing the line to be enjoyable. The humor that works is mostly the narrator commenting on Doge and the absurdity of the situation.

The animation is limited, and it has a visual novel feel to it. You never see Doge, and each scene basically has the girl’s character portrait in front of a static background. There’s a lot of dialogue going on between Doge and the girl as he begs. The dialogue is mostly fluff and there’s no particularly special way he uses to convince the girl. So apart from the premise, there isn’t any substance. Perhaps it is because it is much harder to adapt this into anime form compared to the original manga, so it is lost in translation.

Overall, Dogeza: I Tried Asking While Kowtowing is a decidedly average anime, probably even below average. If you’re interested in the premise, then it’ll take only 45 minutes or so to go through all the episodes, so it is not too much time wasted. However, there isn’t much substance to this anime at all and it can be quite boring and bland. Given that there wasn’t much of a plot, there isn’t much of an ending either. If you’re keen for an anime that focuses on sexual content with a good dose of humor, then Interspecies Reviewers is a much better watch.

--------------------------------------------------

For other anime reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Steins;Gate Elite (PS4)

Steins;Gate Elite is an updated enhanced port of the original visual novel. The biggest new feature is the addition of scenes from the anime, which replaces the original visuals. Despite taking scenes from the anime, it’s not as if the whole game is fully animated. Rather, it’s still a visual novel at its core and so there is a lot of text. The text is accompanied by a static screenshot from the anime, with lip syncing and some animations to transition to the next piece of text. Thus there’s more movement here given that the characters and the scene will move as the story progresses. It’s done well and gives, what is basically the same game, a breath of fresh air. That said, the anime isn’t extremely detailed in its animation. One can say it is a step backwards in terms of the art direction when compared to the original.

The original game didn’t have many interactions, and there are even less here. This is a visual novel that is 95% reading, with only a few key choices in the story. In the original game, you could pull up the cellphone and poke around its menus, but even this is taken away now. Messages that are received by the phone automatically pops up to be read, and phone calls are automatically picked up. This isn’t great since you’ll be going through a scene when suddenly the phone screen pops up, which feels so random and out of place. At least the Tips section, which provides explanations on various terms that appear in the story, remains and is written well. It will give a clear explanation of the term when required, and in other times, there will be a healthy dose of pop culture or humor.

The key draw of the game is the story and this is arguable one of the best visual novels of all time. It’s a science fiction story about time travel but roots itself with real world concepts and theories, which gives it that extra authentic feel. The theories it pulls out and explains, are real, even if the usage of them is tweaked for the sake of the story. Unfortunately, the story has a slow opening, so that may put a lot of people off before they finally get to the meatier and more interesting part. The extra animation of this version helps a little but doesn’t completely remove that problem.

The story follows Okabe, who is a university student. He suffers from chunnibyou, whereby he puts on an act to satisfy his own delusions, although there is an important reason for this. The start of the story has Okabe attending a lecture about time travel with his ditzy childhood friend, Mayuri, when afterwards he experiences a hallucination and is left a bit confused once he returns home. He is joined by Daru, an expert hacker (and a stereotypical otaku), as well as Kurisu, a prodigy who has returned from America. The group, along with a few other supporting characters, will become involved in events concerning time travel. It explores the concepts in innovative ways.

After the shock revelation that is the end of the first chapter, the story will hook you in more and more until it doesn’t let go. The scientific theories and concepts come thick and fast as it tries to explain the phenomenon and it is at this point that you’d expect a shock revelation at the end of each chapter because… it does that. It blends in the humor in a natural way and manages to successfully swap from serious to silly, then back to serious, all within the same scene. The scenarios heavily explores the mentality and reality of time travel, along with the repercussions of going back to redo something again and again. You can see the side effects and how it eats away at you, it’s quite thought provoking.

There are times where the story stretches the believability of a few of the group’s feats, but that’s understandable and the story is good enough to make up for it. Each character has their own quirks, from Okabe’s delusions, Daru’s extreme otaku nature, and Mayuri’s naivety. While these traits can make them endearing and unique as characters, they’re also not the most likeable or realistic traits. The story can feel like it gets side tracked a lot but you don’t know that it is like that because it’s actually foreshadowing and setting up future events. Once it connects it all together a few chapters later, the payoff is massive and is immensely satisfying.

There are certain choices throughout the story that dictate which endings you will get and would have been irreversible if not for the plentiful autosaves that the game makes before every decision. Each of the endings rely on the player caring a lot for a specific character and for the most part, it succeeds. However, if you have played the original, then you will feel that this version rushes things a bit so that you don’t get to develop as heavy a bond as the original. The original spent a lot of time providing the backstory and setting up the scenario so that you were fully invested in it. this version has a much faster pace and feels shallower as a result.

Getting to the true ending is worth the effort and is best left for last after you have experienced all the other endings. This is because it will allow you to fully feel the same heavy emotions and responsibility that Okabe feels. The sacrifices that he has had to make and the way the world plays around with him by constantly throwing up new challenges, they’ll get to you. It is a powerful ending and one that manages to successfully wrap what you thought was a somewhat throwaway beginning of the game, and what seemed to be an unsolvable problem, into a neat conclusion. The way it bookends the story cements this as one of the best written visual novels ever. It makes the ending all the more sweet because you, as the player, and Okabe, the main character, has worked so hard and persevered through so much to earn this happy ending.

The length of the story depends entirely on your reading speed and whether you know what choices to make to get the endings in an optimal route. If you follow a walkthrough and read fairly fast, then it’ll take around 25 hours to complete. For most players, it will probably be upwards from 30 hours. Apart from the multiple endings, there isn’t anything extra once you have gotten the true ending. The PlayStation 4 version does come with a digital copy of Linear Bounded Phenogram, which is another whole game itself, so there’s plenty of story content.

Overall, Steins;Gate Elite is a fantastic visual novel and contains a great story. This is a perfect start for anyone keen to get into a meaty sci-fi story filled with compelling characters and fantastic writing. The reuse of the anime footage (with some significant tweaks as times), works well for what it was trying to achieve. However, given the choice, the original is probably better because it felt that this Elite version overlooks or omits a few things in its story flow, so that certain events aren’t as impactful.

-------------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Purchase from Amazon using this link.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy Evolution Hot Shot (Deluxe)

Review:  #776

Name:  Hot Shot

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Legacy Evolution

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 1)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

As an update to his Armada incarnation, Hot Shot transforms into a yellow sports car.

Unfortunately, this release does not include his Mini-Con partner Jolt (that was left for an exclusive release instead...), but he still retains the gap on his rear spoiler.

In terms of size, Hot Shot is fairly decent, he is shorter and lower than most other Deluxe vehicles, but also wider, so it evens out.

There is a little bit of a gap behind his front bumper but otherwise, this is a decent vehicle mode.

You can actually remove the engine block for a slightly smoother hood (well, as smooth as it can be with the recessed area).

There are no gimmicks here, but then again, the line isn't really focusing on gimmicks.

TRANSFORMATION:

A transformation with the complexity just right, so that he doesn't feel too finnicky or too unsatisfying.  The hood splits into two and rotates to form the legs.  The back folds up to become the robot's back.  The arms flip out from underneath and there there's just a little bit of shifting panels to move the roof away and flip out the head.

ROBOT MODE:

Hot Shot's robot mode is decent.  The character can be hard to create a figure of due to his transformation scheme, especially the shoulders.

He carries a fair bit of kibble, such as the rear of the vehicle on his back, but he has a good reason for this and it is accurate to the cartoon.

The head sculpt is good, and the face is well painted.

The visor isn't for show as it can flip down.

The front halves of the car forming his legs can be a bit chunky.

He is fairly short, above is a comparison against Siege Sideswipe.

Despite how his shoulders still looks so awkward, he has full range of articulation.  He has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

The engine block of his vehicle is the weapon for his robot mode.

He can hold the weapon in either hand.

Despite the amount of kibble, Hot Shot is surprisingly nimble, although the way his ankle tilts are jointed can make them hard to reach.

The gun can peg onto the back when not in use.

He retains the awesome feature of the rear wheels and axel folding up to form a shoulder cannon.

Unfortunately, unlike the original toy, the cannon is neither springloaded nor does it have a missile.  Understandable given the budget these days.

A great update to a character that really needed it, since both the original toy and the 2008 Universe update had major flaws.

OVERALL:

Hot Shot is a fantastic update and he is a really fun figure to boot.  Both modes look like, and the fact that he retains the shoulder cannon gimmick in robot mode is awesome, and makes him a worthy update to the character.

----------------------------------------------------------

For other Transformers reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Purchase from Amazon using this link.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)