Author: Chezni

Ah, yes. Chroma Squad–another game sadly lowered from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

It’s hard to quickly pin down the problems with Chroma Squad–in fact, there’s a lot of things that are great about it. I mean, we’ve got…

• Generously customizable mock-power ranger team creation
• A light-hearted atmosphere that leads to shenanigans
• A bear who does the dance of death
• A customizable Zord built out of cardboard boxes
• A surprisingly tactical combat system & character stat/skill/equipment customization mechanics
• A reasonably challenging final boss at the end
• Powerups in the forms of hiring different advertising companies
• Optional “quests” in the form of director’s instructions

Continue reading “Chroma Squad (Completed)” →

Screw men. Seriously. Screw them.

It doesn’t help that it’s a visual novel, albeit with fluid and expressive (Japanese) voice acting. It doesn’t help that it’s a Shojo, filled with all the tropes of overly-complicated love-drama, albeit with an excitable and fun spirit named Orion living in your head. It doesn’t help that out of the four guys you can randomly choose at the beginning of the game to date (with no information about them before the choice is made), I picked the misogynistic playboy asshole who couldn’t help but be constantly obsessed with putting his johnny in every single woman he met on the street BUT ME, albeit he apologized several times for such behavior. However, I think what did it in for me, is that by the time I got to the end of my first playthrough of Amnesia: Memories, the ending I received indicated that the writers hadn’t really intended for there to be any closure for the player, unless they actually tried to make it work with their boyfriend. I got an ending without explanation of events that happened throughout the entire game, no closure on the nature of the relationship with the boy named Ikki, Orion was still stuck in my head, and my memories were still lost in amnesia.

Continue reading “Amnesia: Memories (Completed)” →

Momodora was in no way a bad game. It maintained its extremely high level of sprite detail throughout the entire game. The mood and setting never let up and there was a plethora of minor details in the background and gameplay that hinted at a deeper lore. Broken shrines, untended graves, haunting pictures–even the NPCs have several little nuances that imply or even present a darker image of death and possibly in one case, suicide. And yes… you can turn into a cat.

Continue reading “Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Completed)” →