Spring 2024
Please disregard the mixed reviews on Steam as I feel they are unfair. This is an investigation game I liked from start to finish. The animations are poor and it isn't bug-free but the atmosphere definitely makes up for its shortcomings.
I had a great time with this one. It looks really nice, the gameplay is top-notch and I enjoyed the somewhat non-linear levels and worlds. If you're not going for the star coins or the extra challenges, the difficulty is just right for it to stay fun.
At first, I wasn't convinced with the mobile game animations and lack of challenge but it slowly grew on me. Completing the gazillion small quests and hunting for crafting materials ended up being super addictive.
Another game unfairly getting mixed reviews on Steam, I got completely hooked to this one! The actual soccer is decent at best but it's the colorful characters, the puzzles and the neat pixel/voxel art that kept me going back.
Sometimes, I get happily surprised by games I hardly know anything about. This is one of them. The unusual art direction, the gripping story and the dozens of impactful choices made throughout make a really neat package.
Much more than a climbing game, Jusant feels like a long poem. It's like being alone (well, almost), pushing through, piecing information together and weighing the meaning of everything you see. An ode to companionship and resilience.
Purr-fect companion to the first installment, it has a similar gameplay while improving every aspect of it. Combat is fluid, dialogues are funny and it's very addictive. I'm looking forward to the release of Cat Quest III later this year.
I got this one from the Internet Archive since it's no longer available for purchase. Great dialogue, gameplay and story, I feel it's one of Telltale's best. It's really a shame they pulled the plug on this one.
A very enjoyable game, even if the puzzle and combat sections were a little too easy. The story is original and the isometric visuals, which is a pretty uncommon artistic choice these days, are very well done. A treat for booklovers.
An nice VN set in 1860s Japan. As a straight guy, I didn't care much for the romance but enjoyed the setting, the political intrigue and the supernatural elements. The routes were different enough to complete them all.
Despite the repetitive missions, the first game in the series is still worth playing in 2024. The parkour, which was revolutionary at the time, is very well done and the atmosphere really pulls you in.
A decent game that makes great use of the 3D feature. Unfortunately it suffers from annyoing framerate issues (even with the 3D off) and quickly becomes overly easy.
The full game seems to be very pleasant (I intend to play if over the summer) but this free demo is buggy and won't save your game. My playthrough took about 90 minutes after losing my 25-minutes progress so it wasn't a big deal.
I really tried to like this game but I was bored all the way to the end. The visuals are nice (except for the horrendous vegetation texture pop-in) but player interactions are a joke and there's way too much distracting dialogue.
I love when straight men play Hakuoki <3
Seriously though, I don’t know if it was your first otome game or not; either way, it’s a damn good choice. It’s what I’ve thought of as the otome game to mention if I ever wanted to get a guy interested ever since I played it myself. Assuming you prefer playing VNs on 3DS, it’s a shame there aren’t more of them… not a single other English otome game in sight.
Yes, it was my first otome VN. While the 3DS is my all-time favorite handheld system, I’ve mostly played VNs on Steam.
The good thing about Hakuoki is that the protagonist doesn’t chase after the guys (I would have felt uncomfortable) but rather waits for them to make a move. The romance can easily be overlooked without spoiling the story.
the protagonist doesn’t chase after the guys (I would have felt uncomfortable)
Well… I don’t know where that idea came from… the most common stereotype about otome games (from people who don’t really play them) I’ve heard is, “all the guys assert dominance over the main character, therefore it’s not realistic”, which is just plain wrong.
The romance can easily be overlooked without spoiling the story.
…so much so that the Steam version apparently includes the option to turn it off (I’ve been trying to confirm this with people who played it, but I’m still not clear enough on it). It’d be my go-to suggestion for guys to play exactly because of its historical setting (no route being too identical to any other is also a huge plus), but at the end of the day, to me it’s still got to be an otome game.
Strong disagree on Swansong, and this is coming from someone who likes V:tM, but that could mainly be because I think it ended up in this weird spot where being an RPG hybrid just resulted in routes being locked from you based on character build choices rather than adding to the game.
And it’s perfectly fine to disagree. I saw the grayed-out choice as opportunities to replay the game in a different way. Once I realized there was no way of doing everything, I just rolled with what the game had to offer. Besides, I was reading Dark Prince, the first V:tM novel published, at the same time which may have had a beneficial effect on my Swansong experience.
Really love the overall look of this. Compact, simple, straight to the point. Really inspired to do something similar in the future.
Oh no, a shame Return to Grace was disappointing. I still want to check it out, but I think I should temper my expectations a bit.
You’re right to try it for yourself. Maybe I’m just not the right crowd for this game. I love walking sims as long as the atmosphere pulls me in and this one didn’t.