Recent reviews by Mols

I have a lot of respect for AdHoc Studio. After the closure of TellTale, it really felt like the end of an era; a titan in the realm of story-driven games, despite it's slow public decline, was finally gone. The most frustrating part is that when you listened to the individual developers and writers behind the scenes, it was clear that the problem wasn't that the people involved weren't talented or didn't care about the projects they worked on. The higher-ups, whether through ignorance or incompetence, slowly drove the entire company into the ground.

Thankfully, some of the strongest voices from TellTale didn't throw in the towel. They came back, and over a few years, ended up making this absolute gem. I'll admit, seeing another superhero-themed piece of media in general made me roll my eyes a bit when it was announced at the Game Awards last year. There's currently a superhero fatigue, similar to how there was a zombie fatigue in the early-mid 2010s, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for a good piece of superhero media to come out and be successful -- it just means it has to work twice as hard to get any attention. But, admittedly, its absolutely stacked voice cast did catch my attention, and being someone who has played through almost every single TellTale game, I wanted to know if they were able to avoid the pitfalls that TellTale never escaped.

Thankfully, I have good news: Dispatch not only achieves better narrative cohesion, character writing, and dynamic choices than most TellTale games ever did, but it somehow managed to do even more.

For example, this might genuinely be the best use of hybrid 3D-2D animation I have ever seen. In most cases it's very distracting at best, and downright hard to watch at worst. They somehow managed to pull it off nearly seamlessly in this game. I am genuinely surprised by how good it looks. But not only is the style impressive, the animation is SO good. Seriously, give your animators a raise. The tiny human movements, like little shifts of the eye, or a character slightly adjusting their body to rest more comfortably REALLY makes these characters feel less like dolls being piloted around on the screen and more like people I am watching and relating to.

Another call out I have to make is how genuinely fun the dispatching/hacking mini-games are. This game does have the TellTale classic "press button and move mouse to mimic character actions" mini-game that we're all very familiar with, but they are few and far between. The core gameplay outside of making narrative choices is dispatching heroes to incidents and crime scenes to handle them. You can manage their stats, upgrade their powers, and develop synergies between characters that increase their likelihood of success when on a call together. I'm not entirely sure how much your choices in this part of the game effect the narrative, but to be honest, it doesn't have to. It's fun enough on it's own that I didn't feel like they had to effect each other, though it would have been cute to see some nods to some of the character-specific choices you can make (inconsequential but funny spoiler: for example, what happened to that baby kaiju Golem adopted??). Additionally, while the hacking itself wasn't quite as compelling as the main gameplay, it does get reasonably difficult by the end and there's even a particularly fun one in the last episode, so they're entertaining without overstaying their welcome.

Also, both the music selection and the original soundtrack were great! There were a few lesser known songs and artists that I love that I was very surprised to see in here, which was cool!

All of this to say, I did two separate playthroughs where I made almost the exact opposite choices and both were different but narratively satisfying by the end. It's a great game, and I highly recommend it. Makes me extremely excited for The Wolf Amongus 2 and whatever their Critical Role project ends up being!

Really wish I could give a neutral rating because there's a lot I really like conceptually about this game and the way it plays with the Elden Ring game system, but it's just... Really undercooked.

I'll be very upfront -- I am not an MLG Pro FromSoft gamer. Don't get me wrong, I love the FromSoft games, I just don't have the time commitment and focus necessary to get all of the way through a game. I usually get halfway through a FromSoft game before I get filtered and get bored so I go play something else.

All that being said, when Nightreign was announced, I was REALLY excited because it combined some of my favorite and most played genres, battle royales and rogue-lites. Combined with Elden Ring combat but tuned to be more fast paced, this really seemed like it was the kind of game designed for me. Unfortunately, it misses the mark.

This game really kind of throws you in headfirst. I think if you have a lot of time in FromSoft games or Elden Ring specifically, this isn't a problem, and is maybe even appreciated. For someone who doesn't, though, the lack of clear information can really be frustrating. A lack of on-screen minimap is kind of a massive failure, because the compass is too cluttered and unclear to give you good information and the game moves so fast you're punished for opening your map and trying to plan out your next move. That being said, I don't think the game being slower would really fix this problem, because honestly when I look at the in-game map I see a bunch of icons and have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue what any of them mean or are trying to indicate to me. Again, if you're super familiar with Elden Ring this won't be an issue, but if you're not, you're going to be very lost.

I guess I could really sum up the majority of my complaints into "If you're a massive Elden Ring fan and like the difference in gameplay, you'll really like this game. If you're not a massive Elden Ring fan, you are probably going to be too confused to enjoy it." That being said, there are some more practical issues I think that are worth mentioning -- the ring definitely moves too fast. It moves only a little slower than you, and god forbid you're in a cave, building, or on the lower side of a cliff because that's basically a guaranteed end of your run. I wish I could say this is balanced out by these areas effectively being high-risk high-reward, but they're really not, it's just better to go to places where you're not at any risk of getting stuck which means an already small map gets even smaller.

Additionally, some of the bosses feel kind of overpowered. Particularly, Bell Bearing Hunter. With an "okay" start you can make it past most night 1 bosses with smart gameplay and communication. Bell Bearing Hunter is just SO much more tanky than all of the other bosses for some reason. Even with a pretty good run going, me and my friends (the other two of which have both beaten every FromSoft game at least once) couldn't beat him. This was my only moment where an enemy felt genuinely broken in balancing as I've only put a couple of hours in, so my hope is that it's a one off.

Additionally, there are quite a few things the game just outright doesn't tell you. It IS a rogue-lite, and this is pretty common, but I guess the frustration comes from how some things, like the fact that churches will give you an extra estus charge, is not something you are told, and that can be a problem because an extra estus charge can be the difference between a win and 20 wasted minutes.

Also... The exact same stuttering and freezing issues that I had when Elden Ring originally came out that were eventually fixed. I don't know why it came back but god it sucks. I have a good build, for some reason Elden Ring (and now this game) just uniquely do not like my computer no matter what I put my settings at.

Anyways, since this was a big swing for FromSoft, I hope instead of regretting their decision and backing away from risks like this in the future, they genuinely take the feedback people are giving and actually put some time and work towards this game to build out some of it's weaker areas and add more content. I think this has the foundation to be something genuinely really special and unique, it's just off to a rough start. I hope this ends up being the case because I would love to come back and change this to a positive review.

I wish I could leave something in-between a yes or no recommendation, but I've ended up sticking with a no.

The combat is fun, which I think is really the reason that I'll most likely end up playing this all the way through the main story. I really like the variety of weapons, and it feels like there's a lot here for new and seasoned MH fans alike. Additionally, the new mount system removes some of the tedium and I appreciate that, especially when there can already be a lot of tedium in regards to inventory and equipment management.

I know a lot of the mixed reviews I've seen are in regards to performance issues -- to be honest, I'm running a pretty middle of the line setup at the moment and I really didn't have any issues except for a relatively minor graphical glitch that resolved itself quickly enough that it's basically not worth mentioning.

So why the negative review?

This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game's network and multiplayer functions. I do not understand how they came up with this system. Is Pinhead from Hellraiser their lead network developer? It feels like I'm performing a sacred ritual and hoping that the ancient gods at Capcom grace me with 10 minutes of fun monster hunting as reward for my 50 minutes of equipment/inventory management and network troubleshooting.

I pretty explicitly got World years ago when it came out to play with a group of other people, and while it was a great experience, getting everyone in a lobby and figuring out what we could and couldn't play together was frustrating. It's honestly a big part of what killed mine (and many of my friend's) interest in playing past the end of the story mode. I was really, really hoping that after 8 years they would have figured out a better system for playing with other people, especially when it feels like this game is mechanically really best enjoyed with others, and yet it has actually gotten MORE convoluted and confusing than it was in Worlds. To explain how it works now...

There are Link Parties and Environment Links -- despite their similar names, you can't be in both at the same time (even with the same players), and you cant take story quests in Environment Links -- it's purely just killing random monsters in a given environment. You also can't travel to new environments while in an existing Environment Link, meaning if you want to go fight a monster somewhere else with the people in your Environment Link, you have to disband the Environment Link and reform it in the new environment.

If you want to play through missions, you need to be in a Link Party with that person. This could just be Day 1 network issues, but it is often very difficult to tell if someone in your Link Party has actually loaded into your world or not, because sometimes they just wont visually show up for an extended period of time despite accepting the request and seemingly being in the same area.

To all be part of the same hunt at this point, you all have to accept the same quest, go trigger whatever cutscenes may play before the hunt, and VERY IMPORTANTLY, DO NOT HIT THE MONSTER UNTIL EVERYONE IS OUT OF THE CUTSCENES. If even one person attacks the monster before everyone is out of the cutscenes, the hunt will start and anyone in a cutscene will not be part of it, and thus you will have to exit and start over. Once everyone is out of the cutscenes, one person can hit the monster to start the hunt, and everyone else in the Link Party should get an invite to join that player's hunt. At this point completing the hunt will count as completing the mission for each player (as long as you had the mission selected before you joined the hunt).

While this may just sound mildly inconvenient (and I'm sure if you end up playing this game a lot, or just MH games in general, you may already be used to how convoluted this system is), please keep in mind this is all severely padded out by scrolling through long menus to find the option you're looking for, waiting a few minutes to make sure everyone is loaded in properly, traveling to the mission point, waiting to make sure everyone is through all of the cutscenes before starting the hunt, and having to start all over again if you accidentally slip up at any point within this 10-20 minute period.

I can't, in good conscience, say that if you are intending to primarily play this game with a group of people, that this remarkably frustrating experience is worth $70. I am not exaggerating when I say that this makes Elden Ring's multiplayer look simple in comparison.

Insaniquarium Deluxe is a 2004 PopCap Game's classic. While it's technically considered a puzzle game, there's a lot more than what meets the eye. It really shines because of it's simplicity; no microtransactions, no complicated skill trees, no need to rebind half of the keys on your keyboard so the gameplay feels "right". Nothing against modern games, but it's a nice breath of fresh air.

There's a lot of great aspects of this game that make it so addicting -- fun upgrades, varied enemies, and (my personal favorite) 20+ pets with unique abilities that support your efforts to expand your aquarium and hold off the hoards of aliens looking to feast on your hard work. Personally, I like to run Wadsworth, Rufus, and Vert because they were my favorites when I was a kid. I remember initially being terrified of Vert, because as a child, I had never really perceived mortality before, and the idea of something continuing to live after death confused and frightened me. I'd stare at him as he'd aimlessly drift among the schools of living guppies, wondering if Vert understood his twisted immortality or if he was simply devoid of any thought at all. My own thoughts would race and I would look to Rufus for comfort, but the perpetual frown carved upon his chitinous shell made me understand something. Vert was seemingly unphased by the theoretical nightmare he embodied, and yet Rufus the Crab, an animal that is understood to be the "perfect evolutionary design" that many creatures inadvertently end up mimicking, was locked in a state of inexplicable misery. Truly, is death worse than life? Or do we simply fear what we do not understand? I quickly plucked the pills that I had dropped for the guppies out of the tank and into my own mouth. As they began to take hold of my psyche, I looked to the last bastion of safety I had: Wadsworth. Alas, even he would come to abandon me, his little smirk slowly unhinging into a gaping maw and expanding beyond the limits of the tank, nay, reality, and allowing me to understand the folly of my questions. The dead can move, but they choose not to, knowing that it would strip them of the eternal peace that has been bestowed upon them.

If you're looking for a nostalgic romp through a classic game, I can't recommend this more! Just wish they'd update this port to have more resolution options for modern monitors, but I understand why we probably wont ever see that (thanks EA).

I'd like to start by saying, 'Capitalism, ho!' That's the catchphrase of the main character. It's also this entire game in a nutshell.

EDIT: I always forget that it censors my words. Replaced censored words with the cute stuff Recette says.

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is a game about running an item shop, as the name suggests. Meaning, y'know when you're playing an RPG and you find a city with a shop that's full of high powered items so you sell your car and put a mortage on the house so you can buy everything and be really powerful, and then it ends up the next dungeon has a ton of items way more powerful than all of the things you just bought? Well, fear no more! Now it's your job.

Recette, our main protagonist, and half of the name of the store Recettear, is on a quest to pay her father's debts by running an item shop (as running an item shop (even though she's like, ten years old) is the best way to pay off debts, and doing so would prove Recette a strong, independent woman of color). Tear, the 'Pie-kay!' fairy/debt collector who's forcing Recette to pay for her father's negligence, is the other half of the name of the store. As Recette is ten and has no idea how the economy works and how to pay back debts, Tear decides to help her start and run an item shop, acting as an advisor and a tutorial teacher. Other than that, she's just a jerk, which is pretty typical fairy behavior in Japanese games, so I'm not that surprised.

The game is entirely about finding items in dungeons (you dont do any of the fighting yourself, but we'll get to that) and selling them for around 120%-150% of the original price, depending on the person you're selling it to and how much they like you. There are also daily and weekly economic changes, so food prices might go up and weapon prices go down, things like that. The way you organize your store is very important, and you wont be able to stock everything on shelves, which is important to note, because even if you cant stock something on your shelf, there will still be that one 'Yayifications!' who's like "Hey, do you have this thing, I didn't see it on your shelves." You better be happy this isn't the real world, because most of the time, if it's not on the shelves, we dont have it. Lucky for you, Recette has infinite coffers to hold all of her capitalism, so yes, I do have that back scratcher you wanted so much. And back scratchers are listed under the 'treasure' category in this game. So that's a thing, I guess.

Anyways, to the dungeon thing. You dont do any fighting yourself. You're ten years old. Sorry, but you aren't Tengen Toppen Recette Tear. Though that 'Yepperoni!' would be 'Easy as pie!'ing radical. I'd do a review of that fanfic. You pay explorers and let them use your equipment, and in return, they give you items from dungeons that you can sell in your store. It's easier to just sell them the equipment you want them to have so you dont have to equip it every time, but most of the time the 'Capitalism, ho!'ing dungeoneers come into your 'So! I have an item shop! And stuff!'ing store, they dont buy the 'And it's cool and awesome!'ing weapons you put on display for them to buy. Instead, they'll 'Stained-glass yayness!'ing buy a 'Aww, but I wanted to leave through the window, like an action hero!'ing orange or some stupid 'Holy Carp!' ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ why dont you just let me give them the items. I dont want this 'A HOODLUM'S GONNA STEAL MY CUUUUUTENEEEEESS'ing knife. I'm not gonna go shank some '...I sold stuff. Like. To people.'. TAKE THE KNIFE YOU DRUNK HOE. Every dungeoneer is different, starting off with a poverty-striken swordsman, and moving on to wonderful characters like an alcoholic rogue who's constantly trying to sell you '...I wonder if I can survive with only two internal organs?' she stole to a creepy-but-hot golem chick who has big fists that she fists things with like Vi from League of Legends. Oh man, I know I'm going to get '...Maybe if I eat a lot of spinach, that can replace my blood' for talking about League of Legends on Steam. Come at me.

Oh, and by the way, you actually play as the characters in the dungeons. Yes, there is actual gameplay, folks. You get to play as poverty and alcoholism. In perspective, it sounds like a metaphor for capitalism, but hey, it's just a video game, and I'm too shallow to read in to that kind of stuff.

I do have some tips for you, though, as it might help your first play through:

• The man (there's only like, four NPCs in the game. He's just a normal looking dude) usually buys for the highest, typically being around 125%, but you can go a bit higher, like 130%. The old man does 130% occasionaly, too.
  
• When buying, paying 30%-40% is usually a safe bet. If not, go up to around 60% just to be safe.
  
• Alouette is a girl much like you, who also runs an item shop. She a hoe. She has a fairy, too, named Prime. They'll both occasionally come in and buy things from you. Alouette is willing to go up to around 140%-160% typically.
  
• Dont worry about deadlines. They'll catch up to you and 'You need to pay me some money y'know!' you over, most likely. And if they do, you restart the game from the beginning. Dont worry, though, you keep all your items, so you have a pretty big advantage. My first run through, I restarted around 3 or 4 times.
  
• Oh yeah, there are cash deadlines in the game that require you to have a certain amount by the end of the week. Should have probably mentioned that before.
  
• The little girl is an 'Totally a tree' and typically wont buy anything over 110%. Just hope she doesn't go for anything expensive if she goes into your store. When she sells, you have to go around 60%-80%. She a crafty 'because I'm bigger, I'm the big sister, right?'.
  
• While your usage of the dungeoneers depends on your play style, I pretty much exclusively used Louie (the swordsman you start out with) and very rarely ever played the mage character because he's fairly difficult.
  
• There are some resolution problems, as it was originally a Gamecube game, so I recommend playing in windowed mode and keeping it in a square instead of full screening. Otherwise it looks kinda 'But I don't wanna be a sailor!'. But that's up to you.

9/10. It's a solid game, and I got a lot of play time out of it. It's an honestly surprisingly fun game. You don't really expect an item shop sim to be fun, but hey, it is. I dont have much else to say about it.

Keep on capitalizing.

"Like Sakura Spirit with Cat Girls." - IGN, 10/10

Sorry I made that joke again, but it was so easy I had to. I'd also like to mention that this VN is nothing like Sakura Spirit

EDIT: After realizing that Steam censors some of my things, I have replaced the censored words with the *meow*s of the helpless nekos in my basement.

Some may remember my review of Sakura Spirit, but if you don't, I, along with all of the others who reviewed the game (GameSpot and that one guy who actually liked the game), praised it as the best game of this generation. Well clearly, we were too quick to judge.

Despite only being a demo, I got a solid hour entertainment out of this. Steam says 1.3 hours, but that extra .3 was me coughing up neko-fur balls from licking my cat while playing this. While it does add a level of realism to the game, I don't recommend doing it, because now my mouth tastes like cat, and usually that only happens when I go to Chinese restaurants.

While initially being perturbed, assuming that the game would be trash compared to Sakura Spirit, the previous King of the VN's, I put that masterpiece in the back of my mind (like I should have after I finished playing it) and enjoyed this neko-paradise as it came to me.

This story starts with Kashou Minaduki, our main protagonist, on a quest to bring honor to Japan by opening up a bakery (as bakeries are the most popular stores known to man, so owning the best bakery ever would prove Japan victors of the world). After a few moments of inner-monolouging outside of an empty bakery that goes over some vague backstory about his family that wont be elaborated on until later because plot, he finally decides to stop standing in the middle of the street and walks inside to see what's good in the hood.

He immediately notices two large boxes with a ton of warning labels on them. Well, what's in it? Delicate china? Nope. Maybe sharp knives? No. Oh, well, the box just meowed, so I'll take "Is there a *meow*ing neko in that box" for 200. Thanks, Trebek. Apparently, some nekos put themselves in boxes and shipped to Kashou. Not only am I pretty sure this is illegal, but probably violates some basic neko rights. We're introduced to Chocola and Vanilla, two nekos who are pets of Kashou's family. This is where we learn that the game has voice acting, which is definitely a step up from a lot of VNs. More importantly, though, the characters are animated, and this is where you notice there are jiggle physics. Yes, jiggle physics. Why are there jiggle physics in my VN? *Meow* you, because cat girls, that's why. And even more interestingly, in the options menu, there is a slider that lets you change the amount of the jiggle, the least amount being 'almost respectable human being' and the most amount being 'cat-*meow*ing pervert'. Obviously, my slider was all the way up.

I'd also like to make it clear in this part that Vanilla is my waifu so if you have a problem with that you can 1v1 me @ blizzcon in honor of m'lady.

Anyways, the rest of this VN is spent admiring the jiggle physics and learning about how based Vanilla is. Yeah there was some plot/story things that happened, but it's a VN about nekos-- a DEMO of a VN about nekos, at that-- so it's pretty obvious we're not playing this for the story. We're playing this for cute waifus so we can tell our friends "Hey, look at my new girlfriend! Isn't she cute?" and they can say "Is that a *meow*ing cat girl you weaboo what the hell is wrong with you" and they can push you into a locker and steal your lunch money or whatever friends do nowadays. Obviously I don't hang out with my friends a lot because I'm too busy writing reviews for virtual novels that no one cares about on the internet.

Debilitating personal issues aside, this demo is very promising. I think I'll be getting the full thing and updating this review once it comes out and I've properly beaten the game (I'm a completionist, it took me 900 hours to completely finish Sakura Spirit, but it doesn't say that on Steam because I did it in offline mode. No trust me, I'm not lying. Nekos are the most honest people there are). It's hard to tell where the story will go, other than meeting a bunch of other cat girls, one of which looks like a huge sloot because she's got this giant thong and stuff. It's the one with heterochromia. Yes, she has heterochromia. It wouldn't be Japanese if it didn't have at least one character with heterochromia. It just happens to be the slooty one in this case.

One last thing. There's a part with them asking you to take a bath with them and then calling you a pervert because you haven't bathed with them since they were children. Thanks, Japan.

Overall, 8/10, it was worth the hour I spent playing, the 3/10th's of an hour I spent coughing up fur balls, the ten minutes I considered the moral complexities of masturbating to this, the ten minutes I spent masturbating to this (those last two were actually done in the same ten minutes), and the hour I spent writing this review.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one thing. I'm slightly disappointed in the game's lack of meow-based puns. There was one in the very beginning, which made me hopeful, and then it just stopped. Come on, Studio Ghibli-- or Trigger-- or whoever the hell made this, you're better than that.

"Like Skyrim with Fox Girls." - IGN, 10/10

"Easily the pinnacle of gaming." - GameSpot, 10/10

"What the hell are you playing?" - My roommate who walked in on me playing Sakura Spirit, 11/10

Sakura Spirit is a post-modern Japanese visual novel with story elements and plot points inspired by other famous visual novels like the Clannad and Steins;Gate visual novels, as well as classics such as Katawa Shoujo and G-senjou no Maou. The riveting story is supported by emotionally engaging characters such as rising Judo star Gushiken Takahiro, our main protagonist, on a quest to bring honor to Japan by winning an upcoming Judo competition (as Judo is the most popular sport known to man, so winning this competition would prove Japan victors of the world). His friends and family, having no faith in the spirit of Japan himself, mostly because the main character is a giant nerd, tell him he should pray at a magical temple to give him good luck.

With directions given to him by a female Judo teacher he watches bathe because he's an unlikable pervert (this is okay, because this perversion gives the character more depth the only depth he gets in the entire game), he walks into a mystical forest, only to find an abandoned, but well kept traditional Japanese shrine. Walking inside, he begins to pray, but not after long, he hears a woman talking in his ear. He gets dizzy and falls to the floor, but not before getting a glimpse of this figure, who appears to be a succubus! All of a sudden, it's clear! The Americans tricked him into going to this shrine to sacrifice himself to Satan unwillingly! It was all a clever ploy to get Japan out of the running for the Judo competition!

I wont ruin the rest of the story, but the essentials are that he meets some fair maidens who are total ♥♥♥♥♥, but then he meets some that are like, fox girls, or something. And the fox girl in blue is my waifu, so I'm just gonna put it out there, she's off-limits.

This VN has a lot of references to Western pop culture and old Japanese mythos, while retaining a feeling of being true and unique to a real life situation. It makes the player feel as if they are actually a Judo star from Japan stuck in a world full of chicks with huge boobs and almost no men to stop you from hittin' that. Because if there were, you'd probably be too beta to get some.

This is the Boku no Pico Evangelion of visual novels.

10/10, it was kinda garbage, but I got a new waifu, so I'm definitely not regreting the $7.49 I paid for this.