9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors – I knew I wouldn’t like it

Nine_Hours,_Nine_Persons,_Nine_Doors_Cover_ArtTo be honest the odds were stacked against 999 from the start.

1. I don’t like visual novels. I don’t think I’ve made a secret of this dislike or of the reason: they’re really boring to read. The dialogue parts aren’t so bad, but there’s always a lot of description of things that don’t need describing (because we can see them, because this is a visual novel) and a lot of time-wasting before anything happens. It’s especially annoying in 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors because they’re supposed to be trying to escape with their lives, but they spend an extraordinary amount of time chatting or bickering about little things when I’m screaming in my head “Just open the door already!”

2. I don’t like puzzle games. I’ve played and liked a few such games here and there, but it’s not a genre I really enjoy or one that I actively seek out. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

L2 Love x Loop – So boring I couldn’t keep playing

l2 love x loop wallpaper2Yes, Idea Factory actually managed to make a game worse than Kurunugyaaah. And they achieved it quite easily too, by making L2 Love x Loop unspeakably dull. Bad games I can handle. Boring games? Urgh… If this was on the DS or the PSP then maybe I might have toughed it out and completed at least one route, but my PS2 is on its last legs as it is so I have no time to waste. And seeing as the game is so poor, I’m not going to waste too much time writing about it either. I quit and here, in short form, is why:

1. Main reason: There’s too much talking. Yeah, I know it’s a visual novel, but still! They keep repeating themselves – robots this, robots that, Eua this, Eua that. On top of that their dialog is choked with lengthy, unnatural explanations about things that don’t shouldn’t need explanation for the in-game characters. And the writing just doesn’t read very well, so it’s hard to follow much of the time. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

The Conveni DS – Sexist? Or realistic? Either way it’s boring

the conveni ds coverThe Conveni DS is a convenience store simulator developed by Hamster and published by Nippon Ichi Software. Like most Nippon Ichi Software games it is a disappointment through and through, though I did derive some fleeting enjoyment right at the beginning before I realized just how bad it was.

The problem is that, as the game’s subtitle (“Management Training for Adults”) claims, the game is supposed to simulate the day to day running of a convenience store. However instead of making you play the manager of such a store, you’re rather set up as the owner of a company that manages a bunch of Lawson franchises. What that means is that you set up the franchise, pick the merchandise, hire a manager and some workers and then basically sit back and watch the money roll in. The Conveni is the most boring game I’ve played all year because there’s simply nothing to do once you’ve set things up right. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Fuurai no Shiren DS 2 – I’m not really into postgame content

shiren ds 2-3I finished the Hole of Tonfan dungeon! It was a pretty fun dungeon, now that I look back on it. Your first few runs will always be devoted to getting Nfuu to eat the best meats you can find – first finding out what those best meats are and then obtaining some and feeding it to him. Piggo meat is great, the healing bunny meat helps a lot and my life has been saved a few times by the meat that cuts enemy ATK or HP in half.

After that it’s all up to your luck. The run I finally finished was one where I was lucky not to encounter a monster house. Those are hellish because Nfuu always insists on staying and fighting no matter what, and he usually gets himself killed. I was also lucky enough to pick up lots of mamel meat on level 1, which I used liberally on the enemies lower down. And I was lucky again when killing those transformed mamels gave me back the meat half the time, letting me reuse them at all. After that it was all a matter of arriving on floor 15 and I was done. Yay! It took me a while to believe I’d actually cleared that dungeon. ^_^ Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Last Bullet DS review – Likeable characters, laughable plot (spoilers)

Last bulletLast Bullet is a visual novel/sniping game developed and published by Furyu Corporation. I know them better as dungeon-crawler developers, but I recently learned that they occasionally dabble in otome games as well, so I decided to give Last Bullet a shot. And you know, it was actually pretty good. I’m not a fan of visual novels in general, but this was a fast-moving dialogue-based game where even the bad guys were likeable, plus the monotony was broken up by frequent sniping missions and the whole game is only 5 hours or so long, so I had a pretty good time in general.

Since Last Bullet is 90% story and I plan to spend some time in this review pointing out just how ridiculous said story is, I’m going to have to do a lot of spoiling in this post. If you were planning to play the game (and it’s not bad at all so you might as well) you might want to look away now. Do please go on, this is most interesting →