Pumpkin's Video Game Diary!

[Pumpkin]

Heavy Rain (PS3)

Heavy Rain is an adventure game/interactive movie centered around a mystery. You play as four separate characters as they attempt to unravel the mystery of the Origami Killer. This murderer is known for abducting children and leaving them to drown in the... heavy rain. During the story, another little boy is kidnapped, and you must rush to find clues, complete trials, and find the boy in the few days you have left before it's too late.

Being an adventure/interactive movie game, Heavy Rain is very narrative driven. You'll put yourself in the shoes of the different characters throughout the chapters, walk around, interact with things, and go through many a quick time event. You walk by holding down R2, and you'll get prompts as you go along to move your left analogue stick in any number of directions, or to press a specific button, hold a button (or several) or to mash a button. These can also be required during quick time events, so make sure to familiarize yourself with the gameplay. You can also switch to motion controls if you prefer. It can feel a bit awkward at first, but the game does give you ample opportunity to learn in low-stress situations.

Note that your actions do have an impact on the story. Some characters can die if you make wrong decisions or fail quick time events. This will impact some chapters and some of the overall narrative of the story, as well as if you rescue the little boy or not. The four characters are: Ethan Mars, depressed dad, Norman Jayden, a profiler from the FBI with some high tech gadgets, Madison Paige, a woman who gets wrapped up in the case for some reason that you find out later, and Scott Shelby, a private detective also on the case. You'll encounter other side characters as well during the story, but you won't really have direct control in the same way as the main four.

Overall it was a pretty alright game. I liked what it tried and the mystery kept me guessing. I also felt the pressure of my decisions and the time I took with them and it would certainly get my heart rate up. The setting was neat, and I enjoyed having my actions mean something. With that said, there were a lot of faults. The voice acting was usually pretty terrible, and the result of button inputs was not always clear, leading to making some decisions I didn't want. The characters were generally pretty one dimensional with the exception of Norman, I found, and they decided that Madison was usually best in her underwear or in other sexually compromising situations. It was a short game and I think an interesting play, it also had some feels moments and a good mystery. If you have some time to spare for something on the lighter gameplay, more storytelling side of things, I'd give it a try. It was alright, not a waste of my time, but definitely nothing great.

Verdict:
IT WAS OKAY

[Pumpkin]

Bravely Second (Nintendo 3DS)

Note: Both this game and this review contain heavy spoilers for Bravely Default. If you have not yet played Bravely Default, avoid both until you have!

Story:
Bravely Second picks up not too long after the end of the first game. It starts in the heat of the action with a new threat, called Kaiser Oblivion, kidnaps Agnes. A new hero by the name of Yew must band together with his friends in order to rescue her. On his way, he meets with some familiar faces, such as Edea and Tiz, and also meets another strange girl claiming to be from the moon. As the story progresses, you'll meet some old friends/enemies, and be asked to solve some moral dilemmas for them. You'll also meet some new friends and enemies, including the bad guys who are trying to help Kaiser Oblivion in his nefarious plans. It's up to Yew (and you) to save Agnes, stop the Kaiser, and show your friends and enemies that there's more than one way to happiness.

Gameplay:
Bravely Second plays very similar to Bravely Default with a few tweaks. The Brave/Default system returns, in which you can save up moves or spend them for several actions in a row. Job classes old and new make an appearance, although this time you'll have to make some touch moral choices to decide which ones to get when. It does play in typical turn-based RPG fashion, with you and your enemies taking turns in battle, depending on your Brave Points, and of course different jobs have different skills, equipment, strengths, and weaknesses and can be changed any time outside of battle. As the jobs level up, they'll obtain new skills and abilities, and you can equip a secondary job command as well as use support commands from other jobs for more customizable parties.

One of the main new features, is the One More Time system in battle. If you complete the fight in one turn or less, by pressing L1 you can immediately go in to another fight, retaining the same HP, MP, and BP. You can continue this trend for as long as you complete the battle is one turn or less, and once you no longer can, or you choose not to, you'll be awarded extra exp, jp, and pg depending on the number of fights you completed. This makes grinding a much quicker and smoother process. You can also assign quick commands for auto-battles, turn battles off or raise the encounter rate, and a few new shortcuts have been added.

In addition, there's a new mini-game where you make stuffed toys for points, which can be used to improve your equipment for higher efficiency, and traded in for pg (money). There's also rebuilding as in the first game, which also includes another mini-game of sorts where you defend the space you're rebuilding.

World:
The world is divided in to three main parts: Dungeons, towns, and overworld map. In dungeons you will battle monsters and traverse mazish locations, generally ending them with a boss fight. Towns are where you shop and socialize and rest after that dungeoning. And the overworld map is where you travel between these locations, also fight fights, and generally explore. Bravely Second retains the same gorgeous art style, and you'll be exploring old and new locations alike. Your destination will be marked on the overworld map with a yellow exclamation point, and sidequests will be marked with a blue exclamation point.

Characters:
(In no particular order)
Yew: A young man and one of the three cavaliers of the Crystal Orthodoxy, he is naive in many ways, but generally wants to do good and holds steadfast in his conviction to rescue Agnes.
Edea: Making a return from Bravely Default, Edea has grown both in rank and in wisdom. She's become more of a leader, although she's still a big eater and has somewhat of a short temper.
Magnolia: A French speaking girl who claims to be from the moon, she has a special mission to defeat strange creatures known as Ba'al.
Tiz: Back from the brink of death with terrible hair, Tiz has become much more confident while retaining his caring side.

Overall:
I enjoyed Bravely Second much more than the first game, so much so that I'm considering giving BD a second chance. The storytelling is excellent and ties in well with both the world and gameplay, and I found it to be much more subtle and less heavy handed than the first. I liked the new characters much more than I expected to and really grew to care for them throughout the journey. There were some great new job classes as well, and the game was made much more accessible with the new grinding system and an easy mode that was actually easy. There are difficulty settings for those who want more of a challenge, but I was glad to enjoy what this game had to offer at a pace I could keep up with without feeling overwhelmed. The locations are gorgeous as usual, and I found it to be improved in almost every way. The main negative for me is that it's easy to get burned out, which is similar to the first game, and I once again don't enjoy the nearly forcing me to be social in a game I don't care to be social in. With that being said, if you were a fan of the first, definitely give this one a try.

Verdict:
LIKED IT A LOT

[Pumpkin]

Tomoyo After ~It's a Wonderful Life~ (Steam)

Tomoyo After is a visual novel and sequel to CLANNAD. This story takes place if Tomoya pursued a relationship with Tomoyo, and follows their life starting shortly after that ending. You can play this before CLANNAD, I suppose, but you'll not understand many of the references. This VN does have choices for you to make along the way, which can lead to several endings. There is a "Best" ending if you make the right choices. There is also a completely optional side game called Dungeons & Takafumis, which is a small and rather cute little strategy game if you want to give that a whirl.

Newly working Tomoya is having a great relationship with his new girlfriend. She stays over, cooks and cleans for him, they tease each other and laugh and frolic as the young couples do. Unfortunately, Tomoyo's younger brother likes to show up unannounced and catch them in embarrassing moments while making himself perfectly at home. And oh yeah, a girl also shows up who demands ice cream and likes to make terrible jokes and also hang around like she owns the place. But wait, that's not all! Turns out that Tomoyo and her brother have some family drama when a little girl is brought to the house who is an illegitimate child of their father!

Yes, this does sound like a soap opera, but luckily is told better. Tomoya and Tomoyo agree to watch this little tyke, named Tomo because of course she is, to help prevent family drama after Tomoyo's brother, Takafumi, took drastic measures to keep the family from falling apart. Raising a child is a big responsibility though, and soon they have to make decisions about what's best for her. The story also deals with the personal stories of some of the side characters as well.

Characters:
(Ordered from favourite to least favourite)
Takafumi: Tomoyo's younger brother. He's goofy but kind and very open towards those he cares for. Big in to computers and the creator of Dunegons & Takafumis.
Tomo: A friendly little girl who was abandoned by her mother and brought to live with Tomoyo and Tomoya.
Tomoyo: Tomoya's love, she's a very headstrong and determined person, but also very caring and much softer this time around.
Tomoya: Our protagonist, a man who accomplishes anything he sets his mind to, but is also very goofy and not very serious until he needs to be.
Kanako: An old friend of Takafumi's, she's very bossy and loud and also really loves ice cream.

Overall I enjoyed this visual novel. I didn't like it as much as I did CLANNAD or some other VN's, but it was definitely worth my time. It had many feels and, although I jokingly said it sounds like a soap opera, it's very well told and has a good sense of humour about itself as well, which I really enjoyed. It made me laugh out loud a few times, so I had a lot of fun with it. Dungeons & Takafumis is also quite fun. It's definitely not to the standard of an actual Strategy RPG, but for a side game in a visual novel, it's very well done and worth checking out if you think it might be your deal. While it had its faults, it was a nice, touching story with a mostly likeable cast of characters and I enjoyed my time spent reading it.

Verdict:
LIKED IT

[Karifean]

Ah man, Tomoyo After. I really love this game. I guess it helped that Tomoyo was already my favorite CLANNAD heroine, but geez the story of this game hit me hard. Even harder than After Story. A must-read for people who liked CLANNAD, as far as I'm concerned.

[Pumpkin]

The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns (Steam)

This is a short visual novel offered for free on Steam. Our young protagonist, Toma, has never felt like her own person. Ever since her name was "stolen" from her by her aunt in naming her cousin, Toma has felt rather cheated in life. Named after her grandfather, Thomas, she wonders what her life would be like if she'd had the beautiful name given to her cousin instead. Because of this insecurity, she tends to shut herself off from others and prefers the company of graves in the cemetery to most real people. Aside from her best friend Hattie.

While skipping school one day, Toma meets a mysterious girl by the name of Emmeline Burns, who tells her the sad story of how she and her family all died on the same day many many years ago. She also shares the story of herself and a young woman named Cornelia. The two were in love during a time where it was even less appropriate and accepted than it is now. They don't let this stand in their way, however, and pursue their romance as best as they can before the tragic incident that ended Emmeline's short life.

Hearing the story, Toma realizes that life is short and that, no matter her name, she is her own person. Her own person with a history of people with many lives and stories that have shaped her to be the person she is. With her newfound courage, Emmeline might just take the first step in telling Hattie how she really feels.

As I mentioned, this is a very short visual novel. I got through it in a bit over an hour. Because of that, the story doesn't go as long or as in depth as I think it could have, but it is very nice quality for a free game. The art, while not perfect, suits the setting and is still pleasing to look at. The story is very good and touching, with a nice cast of characters, and could become something great if fleshed out properly. I would love to see that in the future and would happily pay the money to read it if it should happen. There's good use of language and setting as well. It was a cute romance story, a very nice short read, and it's free so you have nothing to lose if it sounds interesting and you want to try it.

Verdict:
LIKED IT

[Pumpkin]

Message Quest (Steam)

Message Quest is a short adventure/puzzle game available for reasonably cheap on Steam. In it, you play an outside force trying to help a lazy young man named Feste. Feste, you see, is one of the people who's job it is to travel across worlds and deliver "The Call", calling heroes to action to save the day. Feste, however, is extremely lazy and incompetent, but he's the only one left to do the job. That's where you come in!

Your job is to help Feste accomplish his task. This includes dragging him where he needs to be, solving puzzles, doing battle, or a few other odds and ends. Most of the gameplay is puzzle driven. You'll put pieces together with increasing difficulty, find hidden objects, bridge dimensional rifts via puzzle solving, etc. If you want some small puzzles to help get your brain working, these is the game for you!

Aside from puzzles, you also have dialogue choices. Interestingly, you can select dialogue for BOTH sides of the conversation, which makes discussions very easy to lead towards the tone you want and most enjoy. In some cases, you'll have to select every question and respond to it, but overall there's some good variance in what you can do.

The last aspect is the battles. There aren't many in the game, but you'll be given four battle options to choose from and a description is present on each so you know what you're doing. Some require cool off periods, or give buffs, etc. It's actually fairly challenging in that you don't just mash the same command to win most of the time, and things like buffs are very helpful.

Overall I enjoyed this game. It was funny and quirky, the stained glass-esq art is very nice to look at, and there's some good sounds and music in there. It was fun to play and easy to pick up or stop as needed and didn't require much time either. It's good if you want something to play here and there with some puzzles and a more lighthearted nature. It's nothing great, but it's good for what it is.

Verdict:
LIKED IT

[Pumpkin]

The Walking Dead: Season 1 (PlayStation 4)

The Walking Dead is an interactive adventure game in which you take control of a man named Lee. When our story begins, Lee is in the back of a cop car making idle chitchat with the police officer, when suddenly all hell breaks loose, because zombies. As he's running from the awful situation in front of him, he meets a young girl named Clementine, whose parents were away when the incident happened.

Lee and Clementine travel together, trying to find her parents, or even just a safe place in this new, unsafe world. On their travels they'll meet and say goodbye to many people, some of which is dependent on your actions. In essence, this is a story about a man trying to take care of a young girl in a horrific situation.

Being an interactive game, most of the gameplay comes in the form of choices you have to make. Some choices have a time limit, which varies, and saying nothing is also an option in most situations. How you respond to things and the decisions you make will have some effect on the narrative. Sometimes it will only be a change in dialogue, and other times it will determine your companions. It will also shape people's impressions of you.

Aside from dialogue options, you'll also move around, examine things, use things on other things, shoot things, or other such actions. Most of this is done by pointing and pressing a button, although occasionally you'll need to mash a button, or hold a button. Like dialogue choices, many of these events are on a timer, so make sure you're paying attention for any quick time events. This is a largely narrative game, don' expect high action because the periods of action are pretty minimal. This game spans five episodes and supposedly will have an impact on Season 2 (although I haven't checked it out yet). You may also get the 400 Days DLC, which adds a few small side stories to playthrough as well.

Overall I really liked this game, much more than I was expecting to. I won't list characters as to not spoil anything, but I found them to usually be fairly well written and believable. The moral choices were great and it really had you explore some of the things that might happen in a disaster scenario and the difficult choices that might need to be made. It was really touching and at time heartbreaking, and I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. It was a game I didn't want to put down, and I'm excited to try season 2. I really wasn't expecting to like it too much seeing as how I don't like the show, but it was actually really excellent, and if these interactive adventures are your cup of tea, I would highly recommend it.

Verdict:
LOVED IT

[Psychotic]

Glad you enjoyed it, I sometimes like to think you're the Lee to my Clementine, Pumpkin!

[Pumpkin]

Muramasa Rebirth (PS Vita)

Muramasa Rebirth takes place during the Edo period in Japan and follows two separate stories. One is the story of Momohime, who has her body snatched by a vengeful rōnin. The other story follows Kisuke, an amnesiac hero. Central to the plot are "Demon Blades", Samurai blades that lust for blood and force their wielders to go on killing sprees before driving them insane.

You can play through both stories simultaneously or in whatever order you choose. When starting up the game, you get to choose difficulty and story, so you can rotate between the two stories if you wish, or play one after the other, or whatever order you prefer. There are two difficulty settings, and completing the game on the harder setting will unlock an even harder difficulty (not that I would know firsthand).

In this game, you'll control your protagonist through different maps, fighting off enemies like Samurai, Ninjas, demons, and the occasional evil pheasant. Exclamation marks will appear when a battle initiates. Pressing Square will attack, X will jump, Start will open the menu. In battle, you can also guard by holding the Square, and deflect projectiles by pressing Square at the right moment. You can also use the arrows in conjunction with Square for additional attacks, and holding and then releasing Square will allow you to use another attack that is effective for breaking Samurai blades. Pressing O will unleash special blade skills. Pressing the down arrow will use an item.

As you deflect, guard, and use your blade skills, their "HP" will deplete until they "break". When your blade is broken, you're much more susceptible to damage. Pressing Triangle will switch to another blade. You can have up to three blade equipped at a time, along with one accessory. Different blades play slightly differently and have different skills. As your other blades are sheathed, they will restore themselves slowly to be used again. Collecting souls by defeating enemies, or finding them in the environments when outside of battle, will also help to restore them.

Outside of battle, you can also cook items to be used for healing in battle and out. There's a fullness gauge and more food cannot be consumed until the bar has depleted. There are also items you can buy that do additional things. You can also buy maps and recipes from vendors, eat at restaurants to restore health, and rest at hot springs. There are also challenge caves with a recommended level to tackle if you choose. You can also forge blades using souls and other points you gain from using restorative items. These are on a "tree" like system, so the stronger ones cannot be forged until you have enough points, have forged the blades before them, and sometimes have unlocked story event blades. You'll be given a large map, as well as smaller maps, and the game will always point you in the right direction to progress the story. Treasures will also be indicated on the map, and barriers will be up that cannot be crossed until certain bosses are defeated.

Overall I did really like this game, more than I expected to. As you can tell from the write up, it's a very gameplay heavy game, and the story is more of a background. Speaking of backgrounds, this game is absolutely gorgeous. Some areas are repetitive, but you probably won't even care because almost every scene is a work of art. The game itself is a bit slow and repetitive, but picking it up to play for a half and hour to an hour at a time is both engaging and relaxing. It's also not incredibly long, especially if you only do one story. So if you're looking for a beautiful, gameplay focused experience to pick up and play in short bursts, this game is definitely worth it. It manages to be simple and complex in pretty much every aspect, and I very much enjoyed my time with it.

Verdict:
LIKED IT A LOT

[Fynn]

That IS a prett game! :O Reminds me of Odin Sphere!

[Vermachtnis]

That IS a prett game! :O Reminds me of Odin Sphere!

They're both made by VanillaWare.

[Pumpkin]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

A Link Between Worlds is a spiritual successor of sorts to A Link to the Past, and takes place further in to the timeline. As I have not played ALttP (YET), I won't be able to comment much on what the similarities and differences are.


In this game, you take control of a young hero named Link (please, try to contain your shock), as he essentially tries to save Hyrule and Princess Zelda. You see, there's this fellow named Yuga who is going around sealing the seven sages in to paintings. While trying to stop him, Zelda also suffers the same fate, and Link... well, instead of being stuck, he can now merge in to walls and shimmy around on them unless there's an obstruction.

Using his newfound powers, Link is able to go through cracks (teehee) that he finds throughout Hyrule in order to enter the mirror kingdom of Lorule. Unlike Hyrule, Lorule is not doing so great and is overcome with darkness. This is where Yagu resides and where he's hidden the seven sages that need to be freed.

If you've played a Zelda game, you'll probably be pretty familiar with the gameplay in this one. You go around attacking things with your sword, finding rupees, breaking people's jars and cutting grass, etc. You can find heart pieces, four of which make a heart, and full heart containers to up your life. Your equipment can also be upgraded, and you can play a few mini games and look for some cute little critters in exchange for item upgrades.

There are some differences from the average Zelda game. The first was mentioned in that you can now merge with walls. This is integral to a lot of the puzzle solving that you'll need to do throughout the maps and dungeons. Secondly, items are rented from a dude who takes over your home to open up shop. If you die, he takes the items back and you'll need to go rent them again. Later on, you can also outright buy them for a higher cost.

As usual, dungeons are a large part of the game. You'll enter quite a few in your journey, each of which requires specific items. ALBW goes back to the Zelda routes by being an overhead view without the ability to jump, and also in allowing more freedom of progression. You can tackle most of the dungeons in any order you want to, and the game doesn't really hold your hand as far as telling you where to go or what to do. It just gives you a list of destinations and lets you figure out the rest. Whether that's a positive or a negative is up to you.

Overall I really liked this game, more than I was expecting to. I actually prefer more direction in my games, and this one kind of leaves you on your own past the beginning sections. This did lead to some frustrating moments where I got stuck, but I actually found myself liking the freedom of deciding what I was going to do when, and at what pace I was going to progress the game. While some of the puzzles were frustrating, they were pretty fair and did a good job at making sure you thought things through and became familiar with your various gadgets. I also enjoyed the story, especially at the end, and it was a very nice game to look at. The item rentals made me nervous at first, but it wasn't unmanageable by any means, and the dual worlds to explore was a neat idea. So yeah, if you enjoy Zelda games, definitely give this one a try!

Verdict:
LIKED IT A LOT

[Pumpkin]

Read Only Memories (Steam)

Read Only Memories is a cyberpunk point and click adventure game. It takes place in San Francisco (Neo-SF) in 2064, where robot companions and devices are common place. Neo-SF is a bit on edge, however, because of all of the technology present in their lives. Some people, called "Hybrids", have augmented themselves with technology. Others view this as wrong and demeaning to humans, and go by the name of the Human Revolution to stop them.

You play a journalist (name and gender up to you) who is approached by a small bot named Turing. Turing claims to be the first sentient ROM, and he's in trouble. His creator, and your friend, Hayden has gone missing. Our little blue friend suspects foul play and needs your help in finding him and figuring out who kidnapped him and why. Along the way, you'll be encountering a coulourful bunch who may also help you find what you need if you play your cards right.

Since this is a point-and-click game, most of what you'll be doing is... pointing at things and clicking options. You can observe things, talk, use items, and touch, depending on what it is you point and click. You'll be given items and find some along the way to help you on your adventure, and you can interact with other things using certain items. There is of course puzzle solving, and it comes in a few different forms. There's also a mini-shooting game as well.

Talking is another big aspect of the game. Choosing to say or not say certain things can affect your story and who helps you or not. Choosing the order to do things in and who to place your trust in can also affect some of the story. This is a mystery, after all. The game is pretty easy to progress as most of the time you'll have your next destination marked on your map. You can also save or load at any time unless talking or in a scene. There are a few other quirky things to do here and there as well when you want a bit of a break from the story.

Overall this was an excellent game, and I liked it much more than I expected to. It starts off a bit slow, but it becomes very engaging and touching and does a good job of mood setting. I haven't played many point-and-click adventures and this one was pretty forgiving if you're new to the genre like me. There's a really good cast of characters and the game also has a pretty good sense of humour. It's good to play in small bursts or for a while if you're itching to see what happens next. Also, if you're looking for and want to support games with more gender and sexual diversity, I would definitely recommend giving this one a try if you want something story heavy. I was pleasantly surprised and very much enjoyed my time with it.

Verdict:
LOVED IT

[Bubba]

I'm glad you liked A Link Between Worlds! I thought it was a fantastic entry. I actually completed it three times straight when I first got it. It was probably overkill as I've not had the urge to go back to it. Now I have a New 3DS I may fire it back up again!

[Fynn]

Well this looks really interesting!