Recensioni recenti di Reckless

Yuna's in college...and she left Shirojo...

I...I need to sit down :c

Never thought I'd learn so much about wasabi.

The first of four, this drama CD explores a bit into the life of Ano as she prepares to graduate. Honestly, if you're here, you've probably played through the game already, so here's my take (spoilers ahead):

• Yuna's so much happier now! I love seeing this side of her, and..."I can graduate with a lot of good memories...I think they'd be proud." ;n; Yunaaaaaaa~
  
• Damn, Nena's got some moves.

To be honest, I expected only to come for the yuri and then, er, come for the yuri, if you catch my drift. But despite my misgivings regarding potential fanservice and to-the-point meet-'n'-flick that all of the news sites seemed to expect of Steam's first uncensored game of "frank depictions of sex", this visual novel turned out to tackle issues related to struggling romance, including but not limited to struggling with sexuality, age gaps, and the idea of valuing other close relationships against romance, not to mention a social and fairly deep discussion on what it means to feel love. It is superbly well written and, at times, poignantly heartfelt; some of the dialogue comes off as awkward in a realistic way, in the scope of anime and manga, but it rarely ever feels cheesy. None of the referenced (meaning named and drawn) characters are cookie-cutter personalities; no obvious tsundere, dandere, yandere, whatever. Rather, they are all multifaceted, organic creations, and the underlying theme regarding the main character almost perfectly fits an Uncle Iroh quote: "Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else." I surprised myself by becoming very emotionally involved with the characters and their stories, and ended up reading through this VN twice consecutively, and plan to listen to the drama CDs (by which I mean read the subtitles) when #4 is subbed and when they go on sale. Honestly, the explicit scenes are definitely not the end goal; they're nice to have and certainly demonstrate the different levels of experience, clumsiness, and passion between the different couples, but ultimately I found myself wanting to know more about the relationships themselves. There are uplifting and embarassing moments, heated and heartbreaking moments, funny and eye-rolling moments.

The technical side is also very charming and fitting with the theme of high school romance. Only the more important scenes are voiced, which is a feature I tend to like since it gives an enhanced sense of emotion and climax to certain story arcs. Each main story arc has a number of side story arcs focusing on the individual couples intersecting it. In this case, the planner approach is a stroke of genius. My one complaint on this end would probably be the difficulty in attaining the extra scenes, which are unlocked after completing the game and through selecting different choices throughout the game (the choices are very minor and only affect these extra scenes and some immediate dialogue; the story itself is linear). The music, though somewhat limited in choice and looped a little poorly, is tasteful for the different emotional stings throughout the game, from simple and melancholic to upbeat and driving. My two personal favorites are "Together", played during pivotal scenes in each relationship, with its melody seeming to display a collapse of willpower and the sort of heartthrob one gets from a perfect relationship, and "My Territory", which is a somewhat cheeky tune without any particularly distinct mood that plays a lot during important character-building scenes involving the main character at home.

In short, Kindred Spirits on the Roof is a well-written game that deals with relationships, longing, and the sort of struggles that arise because of each character's unique dealings and personal hurdles. It's a little expensive at $35, but I believe it to be well worth the price.

My personal relationship ranking: Yuna x Hina > Sasa x Umi > Sachi x Megumi > Seina x Miki > Tsukuyo x Kiri > Youka x Aki > Matsuri x Miyu. Although, I have to say, it's pretty hard choosing.

Edit: I write this at the end of my third time through the main story. Right now, I think my personal relationship ranking has changed to: Yuna > Seina > Megumi > Aki > Sasa > Kiri > Miyu, but it's still damn hard choosing an order.

Edit 2: My, oh, my, the extras. I've played through the story three times now, but it's currently 2 in the morning because I've spent the last ten or so hours(!) playing through all of the extra scenes. In my previous two playthroughs, I thought I played them all, but apparently that was not the case. The extra scenes add multiple layers of depth to every character, and they tie the entirety of the story back together in satisfying and emotional ways, sometimes heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking.

That being said, this was the first time I encountered the 30-minute freezing glitch/bug. It certainly is annoying, but I did not seek a fix. I imagine you could uninstall and reinstall the files to try to fix it, but it's not something that bothered me that much.

This game is a somewhat witty take on the ever-venerable Oregon Trail. You travel from node to node, trying to reach a final objective, and the game throws random encounters and events at you. The best parts? One, you have redshirts as a resource and not as part of your crew, and two, you can still die of space dysentery.

I received a free copy of this game at PAX East, but I would definitely recommend buying it when you have the chance.

Five years in(!), Skyrim is still one hell of a masterpiece. The base game certainly has its flaws, with plenty of bugs and annoying quirks, but so far I have yet to encounter a game-breaking bug (the non-functional weapon racks are kind of annoying, though). The land of Skyrim is breathtaking even on vanilla graphics, and Jeremy Soule's soundtrack is utterly gorgeous. In terms of gameplay, it's still an RPG; as a result, combat can get repetitive and sometimes tedious, and you certainly will get distracted by side objectives. Of course, that's where mods come in, and even if you've played this game six times over you'll be able to find new ways to play. Skyrim is a must-have for any gamer.

I have never cried from a movie, book, game, etc., and yet the opening twenty minutes were almost enough to push me over the edge. This game tugs on your heartstrings in a way that few others can boast to do so. The combination of extremely simple (though clunky [on my machine]) controls and mechanics, a compelling and poignant narrative, and - in my opinion, most essentially - a beautiful, heartbreaking yet uplifting soundtrack makes this a title everyone should play.

My roommate told me off about my terrible tank parallel parking skills as I tried to engage General Jaeger the first time.

"There's a button that says 'Detonate' on it. Press it." 10/10.

I bought this game during this year's summer sale to experiment with my friends, and it ended up becoming my favorite shooter by far, even beating out long-time runners BF3 and CoD: MW. There's just something to be said about the harsh struggles of the First World War, with almost every weapon capable of killing in just a single bullet.

The weapons are almost perfectly balanced, with perhaps the exception of the infamously mediocre Chauchat (I personally enjoy using it, though maybe not as much as the Lewis), and the asymmetrical maps offer each side an equal number of yet different vantage points and killboxes. In addition, the models are very accurate, though as Ian of ForgottenWeapons, who plays this game, will tell you, the French rifles have a slight error in their sight pictures.

This game is a high-risk, high-reward team-based game. The individual can accomplish much, but without any communication many games devolve into giant stalemates, alternating between attacking and defending. That being said, even a single squad communicating within itself is enough to turn the tide, and if one manages to get the entire team on voice chat they would be nigh unstoppable. Even a single machine gunner with enough cues from his comrades is enough to suppress the entire enemy team, forestalling their advance until the next phase.

Of course, every game has its downsides. For all its gameplay features, joining games with your friends is a little bit of a hassle. On the lower-populated AU server, it is nigh impossible to get your private squad into a game, instead having to rely on joining an already-existing squad and hoping no randoms join. The visuals are not something you would consider modern, and combined with some choppy animations sometimes the game looks clunky.

On the whole, though, Verdun is a fresh breath into a market saturated with head-turning, three-dimensional twitch shooters and gritty military simulators, introducing both a unique setting and simple yet appropriate mechanics. I heartily recommend this game.

9/10