Recent reviews by Marigold

Unlike a Tamagotchi, your daughter (probably) isn't going to end up dead in a room full of nothing but poop. I can't confirm since I haven't gotten all 70ish endings, but she's a lot more likely to grow up to be the queen of all poops. Or a dancer, which might be worse--I didn't spend eight years and tens of thousands of gold on a top-notch education just for you to become a dancer, sweetie.

Now you, too, have the opportunity to probably be a terrible parent without risking permanent damage to your delicate lady parts or 18 years' worth of child support payments. In real life, careless parenting is pretty much limited to leaving your child unattended for hours in the nearest Walmart. In Princess Maker 2, your precious daughter can literally marry Satan when she grows up. Next time, don't let her work at the cabaret and partake in underage drinking, Dad.

You're (probably) not going to hell after playing this game, despite the old DOS version’s greatly exaggerated reputation. And if you do, at least you have a shot at marrying the supreme ruler of Hell--if your poorly raised daughter hasn't married him first. The only thing removed from the original game is the cheat/debug mode, so you have to actually raise your child and force her to work or explore and fight in the RPG sections if you want a steady supply of cash.

As I pushed my daughter to the brink of exhaustion and forced her to work on the farm for weeks at a time, I realized I didn’t care enough about her dreams and feelings. I cared about results: getting her the best marriage partner, raising her to be the strongest combatant in the realm…okay, and the actual game achievements. Right now, some of them are kind of buggy, but they’re all legitimately attainable. I assume they’ll be fixed in a later patch.

As others have mentioned, the current translation is a bit rough around the edges and your daughter’s speech at the end of the game desperately needs subtitles—unless you’re fluent in Japanese. I am glad for the added voice acting, though it can get repetitive after a while. Setting the text to instant (or “Without wait,” as the odd translation puts it) helps a lot if you’re speeding through to get different achievements and endings. It’s a shame the Steam overlay doesn’t work, but it might be unavoidable considering the age of the game.

Despite the minor issues I have with PM2, I’d love to see Princess Makers 3-5 on Steam someday, so I can continue to accidentally torment my innocent blank slate of a child as I try to shape her into what I failed to become in my own life. But as I they say, it's never too late to become a queen of darkness.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=506376209

Hey look, otome fans: it’s Amnesia in English on Steam! Those who have been desperately hoping for an English localization of Amnesia (and may even be veterans of the Not-So-Civil Dialoveable-Amnesiac War) will probably get this regardless of reviews. I may just be writing this for my own amusement, but hey, why not? Maybe there's someone on the fence.

...Or in a cage.

Like many of the Japanese games making their way to Steam now, Amnesia: Memories is a port. Unlike most Japanese Steam games’ ports, however, this is Amnesia’s English debut, alongside a simultaneous Vita release. The text is all translated into English with the Japanese voice acting intact. Fortunately, Amnesia makes a good transition from handheld to PC. Things that may seem like annoyances at first—such as being forced to left-click to progress the text—are easily overcome thanks to the ability to remap keys and controller support.

The game itself looks great in 1080p as well, with easily legible text, though close-ups of characters and backgrounds suffer from minor aliasing. While the character sprites and CGs are beautiful, the backgrounds seem like stock photographs and simple line drawings with your 12-year-old cousin’s favorite “Unicorn Diarrhea” Instagram filter applied. However, my BFF (who normally has good taste) calls them “stylized” and “appropriate” so it could just be my severe unicorn allergy speaking.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=506379697

Plus there are mini-games, so you get to beat your boyfriend(s) in air hockey and cackle maniacally at the first hint of their sad, sad anime boyfriend tears. Or if they beat you, Oh my god I was playing in windowed mode and I accidentally Skyped my mom when I meant to fling the puck back at you, okay, so get over yourself, Kent. There’s also Inexplicably Violent Rock-Paper-Scissors if you prefer. (I would’ve enjoyed seeing additional mini-games, such as Flowerpot-Dodging or Knee-the-Yandere-in-the-Groin, but I understand that this is a visual novel first and foremost.)

Amnesia is a traditional, story-focused visual novel without any stat-raising; endings are determined entirely by the series of choices you make and the parameters those choices affect. Exploring alternate realities and unraveling the mystery of your past(s) is an intriguing approach that takes precedence over the romance in most routes, and completing all five routes is necessary to reveal the full picture. I recommend seeking out the bad endings even if you’re normally averse to your boyfriends hating, stabbing, or dismembering you. Then again, I probably took too much fiendish delight in finding new ways to get what’s-her-face killed.

Each route begins with already well-established relationships, though our heroine has to relearn (and hopefully remember) the exact nature of those relationships over one month. Having amnesia’s rough—even when you regain consciousness and immediately find out you have a hot boyfriend. Ikki’s and Kent’s routes felt like the best introduction to Amnesia’s setting and made the parameters feel especially relevant to the story. There’s no common route at all, so the scenes and events in each guy’s route are unique.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=506377418

The love interests themselves were diverse and well-written, though how appealing the routes and characters themselves are likely comes down to personal preference. I absolutely loved one route, enjoyed two very much, plodded through another because I totally already knew whodunit, and then one I fdgsffdgguyuggyhuyghgyuyuyuygugujyguyuyyujuyyhgnugngnnggyhdfrtgdhftrsgfd

Sorry, I must have gotten dizzy after recovering a repressed memory.

If you’re expecting light, breezy romance, this isn’t your best bet, but the feeling that you’re one misstep away from a horrible fate is far stronger in some routes than others. Your adorable giant bug sidekick Orion serves as the game’s main source of comic relief and also doubles as the heroine’s personality, because she apparently lost hers with her memories. I’m not a fan of “blank slate” visual novel protagonists (probably because of my aforementioned rotten personality), and it was off-putting that the MC doesn’t speak, with Orion reacting, thinking, and narrating in her stead. Luckily, Orion is the best. THE BEST.

Even taking my (exaggerated) criticisms into account, I enjoyed Amnesia very much and am thrilled that it got such a fantastic English localization from Idea Factory International. It took me 47 hours total to complete all the routes with their many endings and they were hours very well spent. I hope this is the first of many Otomate releases on Steam and I’d love for Amnesia to help prove that there’s a market for Japanese otome games here.

One last thing—I forgot to make fun of the guys’ outfits, which made them look like they all rolled out of a Hot Topic going-out-of-business sale circa 1995 and woke up in a giant barrel full of rejected Final Fantasy characters’ belts decades later. There, my duty is now fulfilled; it is time for me to leave you. One day (probably today), you will forget ever reading this review…

Note: The publisher provided each volunteer beta tester—including me!—with a complimentary Steam copy of the game as a thank-you for testing. Beta testers weren’t asked to write reviews (only bug reports), so this review is all me, baby.

Okay, maybe that’s not as compelling a tagline as “Lose your mind. Eat your crew,” but my ship captain gave birth at zee and she didn’t eat her crew. Yet. Or her baby, in case you were wondering. She safely deposited it back in her home base of Fallen London, just to be sure. Her sweetheart probably watches over it while she’s off zailing across the Unterzee. …Probably.

There’s a lot more to Sunless Sea than popping out babies on your ship. That only happened once, I swear. There are giant crabs, giant jellyfish, giant sharks, giant eels, giant eyeballs, giant pirate ships—all of which are very eager to kill you or at the very least bust up your ship. Leading your ship to sink…and killing you. Okay, maybe I was right the first time.

There are also a lot of words. Lovely words. Unsettling words. Downright horrifying words. Your ship’s officers have their own stories that you can slowly unravel (or you can ignore them completely, which may not be the best idea), as do the islands you can explore. Many of the islands have their own factions, and currying favor with the residents can lead to benefits for your captain as well as story tidbits. You can also romance some of your officers, if that’s your thing. Hey, when your fuel and supplies are low and it’s even darker than usual and you’re really far away from home, sometimes things just happen, okay?

Sunless Sea is a game that revolves primarily around exploration rather than trading and combat, though those are part of the game as well. Trading and fighting are rarely the most efficient way to make Echoes (the game’s currency), but venturing far from Fallen London and satisfying your curiosity will often be rewarded. Or you’ll die. Repeatedly.

Experiencing the beginning of the game as a new ship captain is rough and it may feel frustrating at first, or even like a grind with very little payoff. You will die, possibly in quick succession. There’s permadeath in Sunless Sea, though you can continue your legacy through a Scion if you upgrade your lodgings to at least a townhouse and procure a child somehow—and give it weird stuff until it wants to go off to zee. No amiibos or iPads for your bundle of joy, at least if you want it to grow up to be a proper zeefaring captain like you.

However, if you want to stave off death a bit longer and you’re just learning the ropes, you CAN enable manual saves, which makes things considerably easier. Not easy—there is no “easy” in the Unterzee—but it might help you find your zee legs at first.

The game itself is beautiful, especially when you look at all the detail in the 2D islands up close or glide through the darkness and notice the waves crash, snow fall, and all sorts of things glow. The music can’t be praised enough, and does a lot to add to the hauntingly beautiful atmosphere (you’ll probably see this word come up in a lot of reviews) of the game. There’s a reason so many people are clamoring for the soundtrack.

There’s a free browser game called Fallen London if you want to get a better idea of what the writing and setting are like before buying Sunless Sea, and you can get some bonuses when started a new captain if you’ve played the browser game first and link your accounts.

If you like reading and dying, I’d highly recommend Sunless Sea—or even if you only enjoy one of those things.

WARNING: If you suffer from an intense fear of dolls, Nameless will justify every single one of your fears and manage to create many, many more.

How to review a game without a name? A game in which you read extensively rather than running around smacking things with a giant sword or building stuff out of blocks that definitely aren’t arranged in a way to suggest inappropriate aspects of human anatomy? By saying IT’S TOTALLY AWESOME, that’s how. You’d think I’d have far more sophisticated vocabulary after so many hours of visual novels, but no.

Yes, Nameless (if that is, in fact, its real name) is a visual novel, and unlike its predecessor, Dandelion, there’s absolutely no stat-raising at all. Some people weren’t fond of the excessive, sometimes tedious stat-raising in that game, but here there aren’t any stats to raise, part-time jobs to do, or gifts/power-ups to buy. That may be a plus (if you’re like me) or a minus if you enjoy some sort of “real” gameplay in your visual novels (and/or are a masochist—kidding!). Still, I’d wholeheartedly recommend playing Dandelion before Nameless if you can afford both, not just because it’s also awesome but because there are some lovely references sprinkled throughout Nameless—but they each can be enjoyed completely separately. There's a certain character you'll appreciate a LOT more if you've played Dandelion first, however.

You might have noticed the distinct lack of giant…bosoms featured in the art on the store page for this game. Yes, those are all guys, even if some of them are exceptionally pretty. No, this is NOT boy’s love/yaoi/dudesquared or whatever the proper term is. You play a lonely, secretly grieving high school girl, Eri (or whatever you choose to name her), who takes solace in her collection of ball-jointed dolls. (Google "Crobidolls" if you want to gaze upon their beautifully creepy splendor.) Thankfully, Eri's not your typical crybaby doormat “n-no it’s embarrassing” otome protagonist. Her “seriously unimpressed face” (you’ll know it when you see it—and you will see it often) alone has endeared her to me forever. Though, like many otome game protagonists, she does seem to have issues identifying basic human emotions and physical responses sometimes. Yes, why does one's heart beat faster when an especially hot guy is nearby?

Those pretty boys in the pictures--Eri's ball-jointed dolls who ~somehow~ turn into hot human guys and end up living in a house with her (potential band name: Dolls II Men)--are her romantic interests, and they all have interesting and varied personalities. The doll-guys aren't your usual one-note, wish-fulfilling otome game love interests, either, with some of them having serious psychological trauma that needs to be worked through in their specific routes--but they can all be extremely entertaining and heartwarming too. If you’re familiar with Dandelion, you may already be prepared for them to make you laugh, cry, and possibly curl up under your desk until the pain goes away.

What’s a visual novel without choices? Probably something along the lines of a moving picture book. Luckily, that’s not the case in Nameless. To replace the stat-raising, dates, and stuff-buying of Dandelion, Nameless offers a lot of choices for the player to make. Sometimes it’s not entirely clear which choice leads to which outcome, which is exacerbated by the absence of some sort of “love meter” common in similar games—like Dandelion. I’d recommend Googling something along the lines of “nameless [doll dude’s name] walkthrough” if you want to make sure you’re on the right track the first time around.

Each character has a “happy” ending (relatively—the developer, Cheritz, is deliciously evil, as you will soon discover) as well as MULTIPLE bad endings. Yes. Multiple. Bad. Endings. ENJOY. They’re still worth seeing, however—the story and universe are fascinating and elaborate and it’s worth digging deeper, even if you have to spend a few hours crying under your desk afterward. If you encountered Jisoo's "bad end" in Dandelion...you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Others have mentioned the top-notch voice acting (in Korean), the gorgeous art and CGs, the lovely music, and the fleshed-out supporting cast of characters. One of my main criticisms of Dandelion (and various other otome games) was that once you choose your guy and start down his path (which doesn’t begin until after you finish the prologue and a small number of “common route” chapters in Nameless for the first three available routes), everyone else sort of fades into the background or disappears entirely. It’s just you and your man. Okay, looking at these men, that may be nice, but still. It's definitely not a problem in Nameless at all, since the story will keep the other guys and supporting cast around. Other people live in this world too, and they’re worth getting to know!

One last thing: please go easy on the super-enthusiastic reviews from people with very little playtime—as mentioned elsewhere, Nameless originally came out in November 2013 on Cheritz’s website, and is one of the VERY, VERY few (excuse me while I wipe away a tear) otome games made outside of English-speaking countries to have an English translation provided right off the bat. It was released on Steam on Christmas Eve, 2014. (A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!) Otome fans tend to be very eager to support future possible releases (like the next game Cheritz is working on...!) and are often overflowing with enthusiasm for their favorite games and game characters.

If pigeons weren't enough, now you can choose between BUNNIES and KITTENS. Well, kind of. Unlike the pigeons in Hatoful Boyfriend, these animals fortunately (?) don't stay animals forever. (I took a bunny with me to the beach; he was not impressed when I put on my $100 dollar bikini, the fruits of MANY nights of labor at the local art gallery. I would've been pretty weirded out if he was.)

Animal jokes aside, Dandelion is a lovely, very professionally done Korean visual novel aimed at a female audience. I think this may be the first Korean visual novel on Steam, and it's gorgeous, with fully voiced Korean dialogue and English text. I believe you can set the text to Korean as well. There are five different possible love interests you can pursue at the start, though at the beginning I swear it plays more like a pet raising simulator than anything else. Steambuns instead of Nintendogs, right?

But no, there's a mystery that slowly begins to unfold--and eventually romance. With people. Human people, I swear. Just ignore the occasional animal ears. Yes, the $30 price tag may seem very steep to a lot of Steam users accustomed to cheaper alternatives, but before brushing it off, try the demo (available on Steam right here: http://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/323760/?snr=1_5_1100__1100). It doesn't take long to see how much work went into it, and how many visual novels on Steam have extensive voice acting? Not enough! I've only noticed a few small translation errors here and there, but they aren't nearly as common, noticeable, or cringe-worthy as a lot of the freemium VNs' rushed translations on iOS and Android. Overall, the translation is very well done.

Hopefully, if Dandelion does well enough on Steam, Cheritz might feel inclined to add Nameless, their latest visual novel set in the same general universe--but with dolls instead of cats and rabbits. Yes, dolls. How can any girl resist?

UPDATE after completing all routes, including Jisoo's absolutely TERRIFYING "bad route" (totally worth it for the extra CGs!):

Yes, I sank 35 hours into Dandelion. Yes, every one of them was worth it. I can't think of another visual novel/dating sim that left me thinking so much after completing it. After completing all 5 routes, make sure to check the bonus content! I was really interested in the mystery behind the story--who left me with these animals and why? The bonus content was the cherry on top of an already delicious sundae--and isn't the cherry sometimes the best part?

First, I have to praise the characterization of Heejung. I know most visual novels/dating sims use "blank slate" protagonists (sometimes without eyes--creepy!), but Heejung is the most relatable, realistic heroine I've encountered in a while. (I may be biased because I, too, wonder where my mysterious new bruises came from and how expensive it would be to install a TV in my bathroom when I take a bubble bath to raise my beauty and femininity stats in real life.) Who doesn't understand the pressures of "making it" and continuously doing things you dread solely to please your parents and loved ones, no matter your culture? Who doesn't fear being left behind?

The love interests are fantastic too, and are much more than their archetypes may make them appear at first glance (pretty bunny, baby bunny, snobby bunny, sweet kitty, glutton/pervert kitty), though of course I had favorites. I started with Jihae, whose route seemed like a good one for beginners (just remember to raise some affection with Jieun too!), and ended with Jieun because I was super stubborn about not pursuing a baby bunny. He's a baby! Heejung is a college senior! ...But his route was one of the sweetest and actually had the best ending. Jiwoo's was great too, especially if you've seen as many Korean dramas as I have and can appreciate how the game pokes fun at kdrama clichés. (Those envelopes of money! Candy Cinderella and chaebol romances!)

There is a LOT of stat-raising, but if you focus first on raising your Stress/Pressure Relief abilities, that helps a lot, and soon you won't even notice your Stress and Pressure stats raising at all. Make frequent use of Quick Save/Quick Reload if you accidentally poke/show love/feed them fruit in the wrong place (sometimes deliberately...!) and get a bad reaction, or if you can't find the bunny/kitten of your dreams anywhere in the entire apartment.

If you're on the fence about getting Dandelion, definitely try the demo first--and then just get it. Unless you really, really hate bunnies and kittens (are you more of a dog and ferret person?), you won't be disappointed.