Recent reviews by Jozeevis

A really cool murder-mystery kinetic visual novel, set in a convent in England in the 1400s.

While going into this one I was not fully aware it did not have any dialog choices whatsoever, and really was just a novel with a visual component (which combines fun character models with really cool edited photos as backgrounds), and not to forget an amazing soundtrack, it did not deter me from thoroughly enjoying its fantastic story. It's historical setting was really interesting to me, and I love how naturally some of the facts of life there and then get woven into the dialogue. And with the mystery still at large by the end of this volume, and I absolutely can't wait for the next part to release to find out more about where it's going.

However, it has to be said that what's even more important for this game than its story, are its characters. All the nuns are wonderfully characterized, expressive, and well written. The pov character herself, Hedwig, is already a complex, deep character, with jumbled, contradictory, and above all human thoughts about much of the world around her. And the other characters are not far behind her, with even more layers hidden behind the surface that are yet to be explored. I loved each and every character (although special shoutout to Darcy), and the wonderfully complex dynamics and interactions between them.

As stated before, I absolutely cannot wait for Volume 2, and would recommend this for everyone looking for a good mystery novel, with great visuals, audio and above all fantastic characters that will make you leave wanting more!

A fantastic stealth tactics game from the developers of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Although I'm not the biggest fan of westerns, back in the day I came in possession of a copy of Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge. Despite being a big fan of the stealth tactics genre, I could not get into that game, and, having many other options for stealth tactics games to play (read: put way too many hours into trying to beat Commandos 2 even once) it remained unplayed in my desk for many years. This has not changed.

What has changed is the market, and stealth tactics game are near extinct these days. That was until Mimimi Games released Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, which (although I found it way too late) brought new life to this long forgotten genre and absolutely reignited my passion for it, as well as being in a setting I really liked. While I had seen Desperados III pass my dashboard a couple of times, thinking back on my previous experience with the series I had decide it would not be for me. However, after the release of Shadow Tactics's standalone expansion, Aiko's Choice, and absolutely loving that one as well, I started getting desperate, and so looked more closely at Desperados III. Finally realizing it was made by the same developers, I decided to give it a try after all, and I'm very glad I did.

The western setting was absolutely not the problem from me, because I absolutely love the vibes here. From the main menu music, to the archetypical, but fun, plotlines, to the fun cast of characters, with a wide variety of abilities, and the amazing level design as I was familiar with from Mimimi's previous games, I came to absolutely love Desperados III, despite my expectations.

Even if you think the setting might not be for you, if you have any love for the stealth tactics genre, or stealth games in general, you will absolutely not go wrong with trying out Desperados III.

Came for the social commentary on blue collar work in a futuristic capitalist hellscape, stayed for the surprisingly soothing, and fun, gameplay of trying your best to take spaceships apart as best you can. I think this game manages to nail the the combined feeling of having pride in your job well done, while struggling to survive underneath bosses that only care about their bottom line with no regards for your safety. It feels like a tough line to walk, but the game absolutely hits it out of the park, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

An exceptionally well written game, with so many branching paths that the first playthrough almost felt like the game read my mind the way it made me end up in paths appealing specifically to me. However, that was only the start of the journey that is exploring this game's many stories, that range from funny to tragic, but always has something interesting to say. The various princesses and voices you meet are all intriguingly written, beautifully illustrated, and amazingly well voice acted, I almost could not believe there were just two VAs doing all of this work, that's the amount of range on display here. With the latest (free!) Pristine Cut update added even more amazing stories, and allowed me to go on the journey of exploration all over again.

Although a content warning for blood, gore and body horror is absolutely in place for this one, if you feel like you can stomach it, this game absolutely has many stories worth experiencing, and I wholeheartedly recommend diving into this experience!

Full disclosure: this game was made by a close friend of mine.

That said, it's really enjoyable and I highly recommend it. The premise is fun, the spooky atmosphere is immaculate, and the gameplay is full of surprises. Even the elusive nightmare mode, which I didn't think would be my thing, turned out to be incredibly fun to play. The music alone makes it worth giving that one a shot!

So yeah, clear bias here, but I think it's a short, but very sweet experience, and especially for this price point well worth it. Give it a try!

This game's world is so fun and interesting, its plot tense, and the dialogue absolutely hilarious, you'd almost forget there's an amazingly cool turn-based tactics game underneath, but there is! Every character has cool and unique abilities, that made me think about every encounter in ways I never have, as well as fun and interesting personalities that grow throughout the story. But despite the gameplay's complexity, it slowly eases you into new characters and abilites (that you can later use in earlier stages) so it never becomes overwhelming. Add to that a system of optional challenges for every level that by choosing to engage with or ignore that basically allows you to decide how difficult you want to make each level for yourself, as well as the ability to rewind every action you take after seeing its consequences, and you got one hell of a fun game.

Easily one of the most enjoyable game experiences I've had this year! If turn-based tactics are your thing and especially if you like the sound of wizards in tacticool gear, absolutely give this one a try!

Easily one of the best Stealth Strategy games out there! If you liked Mimimi's other games like Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun or Desperados 3; or if you were into the Commandos series way back when, you'll definitely like this.

When Mimimi announced this game I was very excited because their track record in this genre over the years has been stellar, and I have immensely enjoyed all of them. However, as more info became available I got a little hesitant about Shadow Gambit. I still wanted to try it, of course, as the game allowing you to choose which characters to take on each mission, and unlock and upgrade them as you see fit was an interesting departure from the genre's norm. But I was also a little afraid this would take away from the excellently designed maps by having to account for too many choices on the player's part.

Needless to say, I shouldn't have worried. Besides reviving an oft-forgotten genre, Mimimi has undoubtedly proven themselves the modern masters of Stealth Strategy by daring to tinker with the formula like this and creating a really interesting and fun game experience! The missions still felt incredibly cool to play through, and having only a small number of islands all the missions took place in also worked surprisingly well. At first I was, again, afraid it would become boring, but as different objectives usually took you to different parts of every island this definitely wasn't that big of a problem. Add to that different missions having varying circumstances like enemy placement, whether it's day or night, and the ability to choose your own entrance, exit, and - as mentioned before - your characters, it kept every map fun and fresh to play every time!

All the characters were super fun as well! Both in the varying abilities they had at their disposal as well as their personalities. I loved that you were able to do little side stories between missions to get to know your crew a little better, and especially the Tests later in the game were stellar. The main story itself was also really good! While it's not the main thing I come to this genre for, the story managed to take me some really cool places and really played with some of my expectations; absolutely brilliant!

So in conclusion: Shadow Gambit is definitely a game I recommend to anyone interested in its genre, but also comes with the sad news that this will be Mimimi's last game. I hope other studios will see their success and decide to try their hand at this fun little niche of a genre. But for now, thank you Mimimi for the amazing experiences you've provided me in these years, and I wish all the people working there the best!

Absolutely awesome turn-based tactics game, recommended but with a rather big caveat.

I was expecting an XCOM-like game, but found something that, aside from more general similarities, like being TBT and having base/squad management, Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters actually does a lot of things its own way. Not having hit chances (only crit chances) changes the game feel drastically, and in my opinion for the better. It feels so much less frustrating to be able to focus on the tactics themselves rather than chance manipulation.

I also love the warp surge/Bloom mechanic, to still keep a little but of randomness and unpredictability in your skirmishes! It pushes you to hurry up, even though it might be safer to take your time, which leads to some hard and interesting gameplay choices. I also love how using your own abilities speeds up the surge, which makes sense not only lore-wise, but also gives you even more interesting decisions.

Another highlight were the characters and the story. I loved the interactions between the three main NPCs (Lunette my beloved), and it was nice to have some interactions with them where they open up a bit to you throughout the story. Certainly not to any deep, emotional extend, but that wouldn't fit here anyway, and it's still a nice touch. The story itself is also not especially deep, but remains tense throughout and has some really cool surprises! Especially later in the game I couldn't help myself but get excited about all the cool things that were happening in the story, especially when this lead to some really cool boss fights.

Talking about boss fights, my one major complaint with this game: the difficulty. Not necessarily from the boss fights themselves, but they surely made it noticeable. I started playing this game on normal difficulty, knowing that I'm not the best at these kinds of games and that went perfectly fine for me. Until I met the first boss, who absolutely handed my ass to me. I retried that fight about 5 more times over the next couple of hours, but I simply could not get past it. So eventually I decided to replay the campaign up until that point on the easy or 'Merciful' difficulty (because sadly you can't switch difficulty mid-campaign). Again, up until that point I didn't notice any major differences, things were easier but it obviously helped that I knew what I was doing better this time around. And then I returned to that boss fight and... killed the boss in 1 turn. I kept at it and while certainly not every fight was as simple as that, I also never was in danger of losing anything big. By the end, none of my knights ever got killed in a fight. While it was certainly still an enjoyable experience, I would've liked it if the difficulty gap between easy and normal was a bit smaller, maybe another difficulty level in between or even allowing you to make a custom difficulty.

So yeah in the end, Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters was a really cool experience, I loved the setting, the characters, the story, the gameplay, and although the difficulty was a major issue for me, in the end it did not stop me from enjoying this game a whole lot!

Genuinely one of the best narrative games I've played in recent years. Amazing writing, great art, and a killer soundtrack! While the text-heavy, gameplay-light experience won't be for everyone, if you don't mind that then this is definitely worth a try!

The survival mechanics of just trying to get to the next day at the start, slowly learning your way across the space station, until eventually you can get involved in slightly bigger things is implemented fantastically well. But despite this, the story knows well enough that it will never fully revolve around you, it knows you are merely one of many people in this place, and what matters not is changing all of that, but the individual relationships you build, and how you affect them, and they you. The fact that when I thought I was approaching an ending, and took the time to go around the space station visiting all these people I started caring about one more time, for no other reason than I felt like I had to before I might be gone, is a testament to how well written the game is.

On that note I love this game's approach to endings. Where you can be following a questline, and suddenly be presented with an ending, a way off the station, a way towards a new, different life. And you can choose to follow that, but you can also always choose to say no. Decide that the life you've build on the station is worth more than whatever's out there for you. And the game never judges you for that, it's not a fail state, it's simply a choice and it will never force you to leave if you don't want to.

And I didn't want to, I felt that all the people I met across the station were worth staying for, even as some of them decided to leave on their own. The fact that it accomplishes this in a bunch of hours of gameplay is absolutely magical to me. The fact that even between all the bigger events I got involved in, I found so much joy in simply having a job in a bar, and that's what helped me decide to stay over and over again, I think is what makes this game so special.

So yeah, I truly love this game, and if it seems anything like something you might enjoy, I can definitely recommend you give it a try!

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