Recent reviews by Candy-Sama - キャンディ様

EDIT (13/6/2024)

Wow, they actually listened - they're doing it!

EDIT (25/5/2024)

The honeymoon phase is over.

The state of the game can be summed up in 3 issues, as paraphrased from this specifc post from reddit:
1) A list of every single bug and issue in the game since launch, of which most still haven't been addressed.
2) A wonderful write up addressing all of the balancing issues and complaints many of the community have after 3 months of release & possible solutions (that has been rather ignored so far.)
3)Extensive discussions between people reminiscing about the game's state at launch, and how the "fun" factor has only declined from there. The stubbornness of the balance team and AH as a whole have led to the decline of one of the most fun games in recent memory.

I cannot, in good faith, recommend anyone to pick up this game until these 3 issues are addressed.
Arrowhead's former CEO (now CCO because he stepped down to be with the creative team) has been insanely transparent with the public on the comings and goings.
But I only have one question: Why have nerfs to guns been so easy to roll out like a "whack a mole" when it comes to the fun factor, but when buffs are needed, NOTHING IS HAPPENING.
When every warbond came out post Cutting Edge, every single gun was nerfed. It's like the devs didn't want you to have fun.

Oh, just an FYI, SONY still hasn't lifted the country restrictions for FUTURE purchases btw. In fact, there were MORE bans.

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EDIT (6/5/2024)

Sony has rolled back the PSN requirement!

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(Originally posted on 4/5/2024)

Genuinely thought we had a good game for once in this dark age. Of course, the business world would eye this corner of the society and tried to use us to inflate their numbers of PSN accounts for their corporate "potential investment!!" greed.

Received this pre-order as a birthday present from my girlfriend - I'm absolutely horrified at the game we received at launch; Cities Skylines 2 was released in a VERY barebones state with no mod support. I LOVED the first game, and I was very excited to play the sequel, with their promised updates on WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FINAL PRODUCT OF CS1 + THEIR NEW FEATURES.

I got my hopes up because it wasn't a AAA game - how I was so much proven wrong.

I personally think Colossal Order should have pushed back the release date to let the game "cook in the oven" longer.
$70 is NOT worth it for this game as it is now. This game should have been cheaper, maybe 30 dollars and marketed as "Early Access".

As each week after launch went by, we received "dev diaries" to document their progress on what should been at launch features. We wanted transparency, but the weekly updates were only smoke and mirrors to cover the fact that there was no progress shown each week. They then stop updates entirely because the "Community is too toxic".

At this point of time, Paradox Mods (their inhouse mod workshop; this is to support the console release BUT to also regulate what mods are out there so that they can restrict certain models behind their own paid DLC) Beta has released and it's a UX mess. Time will tell if they would actually improve the workshop - I doubt they will given how lackluster the updates has been.

To be fair, they do seem to be passionate about supporting the game, but again, time will tell.

As typical of the way Paradox runs things, the DLCs for this game are just predatory DLCs that expands the game with content that should have been in the base game, but isn't so as to milk us with FOMO feelings. This isn't exactly apparent in this game, but very much so in other Paradox games like Stellaris & Hearts of Iron 4.

However, "Beach Properties" DLC is literally just 4 assets (that other variations can be found on the mod workshop IF they release asset mod support) and no new mechanics to actually make a damned beach (THERES NO PROPER BEACH TEXTURES LMAO). In fact, the water physics in this game is more or less broken, which can be seen in the NUMEROUS posts over at reddit , on their requests for help.

End of the day, this review will just be one of the many negative reviews lost on this page regarded as "review bombing" by the fanbase who will defend them and plenty of modders who will work for free for them to fix what should have been their issues.

Get the game if you want to paint a ghost city with lack of a proper simulated population - otherwise, games like Manor Lord seems cool!

Please avoid this game.

It has turned predatory and it's sucking your time for little gain.

An absolute loss across the board. Made me remember the old times when I was playing Dynasty Warriors, but now with my favourite style of gameplay!

For a game that didn't have much media coverage. This was a hidden gem. A great game and a large amount of replayability to boot with the different ways you could approach the map/mission. The ease of using such Amazing Mods(such as Robz Realism) from the steam workshop makes this game a truly sandbox game, as well as adding more variations of the game.

So I didn't really like the Sakura Series as a whole, but I got this game as a gift and might as well do a review on it. Let's get started I guess. Take note, where I might be saying some aspect is bad in an aspect of the game, I did not mostly take into account everything else. I was looking at each aspect individually.

Story - 5/10
The "Plot" wasn't good. Really. There were a couple of cringy moments at the start of the novel that made me want to drop it instantly. For example, the overuse of the Protaganist thoughts during times like when they first met Yuzuki was really cringy and uneeded. The only reason I stayed was for the so called "romantic" choices with Sayaka or Hikari, and storyteller really butchered it. (I wanted a kiss scene. Why. ;~;)

Most romance/(insert any genre here) has to have a kiss scene or at least something really... (kawaii? Moe?) to make up for it at the end or any kind of build up. Not to mention that the romance build up between Hikari and the MC, since I only played her route, not too keen on doing Sayaka's since I don't like her character (N-Not that I like Tsunderes okay! There wasn't any Dandere/Kuuderes...) was really bad...

I mean, all you did was talk to her on the roof, even thought it wasnt much, then waltz in on her in bathroom and what, chose her over Sayaka at the beach? Theres wasnt much buildup to make her go all "caring" after you, and even throw away her so-called "Tsundere" attitude... Felt too rushed for that.


Gameplay - 7/10
Considering that this is an english-based indie game made by developers from all over the world, the gameplay is actually pretty good. Then again I have been playing games from some I guess the "most publicised" and (AAA?) companies like Pulotte and Sprite, my standards were kind of high...

But you need to work up the choices better in my opinion. How? Like you should have maybe, just maybe, given a chance to kiss her.. (I want kawaii~ The art works so well with this! Voice Actors aren't really that needed. Thought it will be a huge gain.)

Art - 8/10
Now, I'm pretty sure overall everyone came because of the art. I mean, it's the only thing that appealing to this game and mostly th reason why people want to see how to the story came out. The art is great. Real great. Tons of fanservice though, not exactly what I wanted. But it was to appeal to the main crowd here on Steam so I guess it's normal. Oh, and the enviroment was well animated. Why? Have you not notice the sunlight filtering down, literally, on the rooftop, and the animated sea on the beach? Now that was nice. Almost felt like NekoPara there. Hue.

However, there was a few flaws tho. Scenes like the "Cafeteria being crowded" with a really empty cafeteria is kinda... not there. I get it that the alternative is to have some sort of imagination. But really, you should have draw people inside to really emphasize on this..
True, it's pretty hard to draw, since I'm a Game Artist-in-study myself, and trying to get the poportions according to how far the perspectives are is pretty hard. Then again, maybe you devs should have taken more time to spread out your deadline for games and really work on each aspect of the game, then we might have gotten a better impression of you guys.


Overall Conclusion- 6/10
With all these fast games coming out so fast, and then patches for Voice Actors and all coming after, I really think your just looking to milk us of our money with this games. I mean, the story wasn't thought out well enough, none of the background art to be put together properly, It all points to fast deadlines and stuff.

Which makes me wonder why would you want to have fast deadlines? Why all the need for this? The only logical reason for all of this is basically to milk us of our money to have funds. But for what, I don't know. Maybe they need some base funds to have longer deadlines and good games, that might be a good thing. But why not make a kickstarter for that then? Your publisher is Sekai, you have of alot publicity there. They can help you with increasing publicity for your kickstarter. It dosen't make sense.

Then again, if your just trying to make Steam-standard VNs for the others on steam to be introduced to Visual Novel scene, then I guess you kinda failed there. Flight Diary and the other actual VNs from Japan publishers that posted their games on Steam have it down pat.