My Dress-Up Darling その着せ替え人形は恋をする

Plot: High school student Wakana Gojou spends his days perfecting the art of making hina dolls, hoping to eventually reach his grandfather's level of expertise. While his fellow teenagers busy themselves with pop culture, Gojou finds bliss in sewing clothes for his dolls. Nonetheless, he goes to great lengths to keep his unique hobby a secret, as he believes that he would be ridiculed were it revealed.

Enter Marin Kitagawa, an extraordinarily pretty girl whose confidence and poise are in stark contrast to Gojou's meekness. It would defy common sense for the friendless Gojou to mix with the likes of Kitagawa, who is always surrounded by her peers. However, the unimaginable happens when Kitagawa discovers Gojou's prowess with a sewing machine and brightly confesses to him about her own hobby: cosplay. Because her sewing skills are pitiable, she decides to enlist his help.

As Gojou and Kitagawa work together on one cosplay outfit after another, they cannot help but grow close—even though their lives are worlds apart. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Kitagawa Marin

Gojou Wakana

Points: 8.5/10 [8,46875]

My Dress-up Darling is this anime I absolutely enjoyed but cannot feel compelled to give it 10 points for a few, very few actually, reasons that annoyed me to a point where I almost forgot this was becoming some mainstream anime shit. Either way, this anime is a simple love story between 2 otakus, 2 persons in love with that they love: one being cosplay and anime and the other one adoring dolls, dressing and applying make up to them. This in itself was a great setup, if they didn’t feel the need to add unnecessary ecchi romcom with two much well meant fanservice, that made a perfectly fine characters like Marin turn into an all male anime dream girl and hey, she loves dressing up as female eroge characters, ain’t nothing better than that?

The story in between them had a lot of chemistry though, which made me adore the anime quite a bit even if they threw in obstacles that could’ve easily been placed in a hentai as well…

Either way, the chemistry is positively enjoyable, making their relationship appear to be very healthy and benefitting. They treat each other in high regards for hobbies the society doesn’t look kindly upon, they both have this sort of respect and curiosity about one another’s passions that makes this anime as enjoyable as it is.

The character development is another crucial point, it had an insane amount of potential but was unnecessarily replaced by way too much emphasis on fanservice. Gojou was apparently bullied or let’s say frowned upon for loving dolls. It made him some sort of loner and while it is clear that interacting with humans is easier on him now (after having all these conversations with Marin) it’s not one of the main points of the show. It’s more of a side effect rather than a turning point of his character development. His development would have had more impact on the viewer, if they included more flashbacks and more slice of life interactions with their surroundings than simply dwelling on their hobbies or mostly Marin’s.

That may sound like a big bummer, but My Dress-Up Darling has many more quiet, serious moments, like the very last episode which have this feel good vibe, which also emphasises on the chemistry and their relationship development and which are ‘cute’, rather than ‘sexy’ like the fanservice they had to include in almost every episode for a reason I can understand (let’s accept it, anime girls need to have some sort effect on the male race’s crown jewels… besides the fact that cosplaying is inevitably linked to fanservice) but do not appreciate.

The few perks of cosplaying that were revealed in the show where sadly not enough to distract me from the humour of this anime which almost always derives from the fact that Gojou is embarrassed from an insane amount of unnatural fanservice in the form of the female main character. Hard to say if she's the living embodiment of every girl because she is extremely popular, beautiful, insanely cute and socially well accepted (because she just doesn’t talk about her main hobby with anyone but also doesn’t feel the need to). She is so perfect it’s hard to believe and no, her hobby is not being depicted as a problem. It’s her selling point. Despite being perfect, from head to toe, the character itself has absolutely zero self-awareness and since I am the opposite of her, I cannot feel good about this character. She’s confident enough to run around in nothing but a bra and a belt, looking herself over with bliss in a cosplay, saying she’s super beautiful and cute before pondering on not trying a cosplay in the next episode because she isn’t cute enough. She also seems to have no problem with being half naked in front of Gojou, which is obviously way too much for him to bear, even asking him to measure her boobs, before suddenly realising, holy cow, this is a male and now I am suddenly ashamed of myself, but not because I am naked but because this is actually a wonderful boy, only to turn up half naked again the next day. She might have some problems remembering, but her brain can’t be this messy… Despite being so heavily into anime, she can’t see that Gojou is having a heart attack in front of him while she’s undressing. It’s absolutely cringe at some points.

This kind of comedy cannot be defended by me and no, it’s just not funny to me. Neither do her eating habits sit right with me. It doesn’t make sense that she's beauty in human form with what she’s eating all day. Even when she took off her make up, she looked entirely the same. This doesn’t make sense.

Despite that I still enjoyed the romcom, the chemistry and especially Gojou. It’s definitely not as much of a masterpiece as some make it out to be, but it’s a good romance series that hopefully will receive a sequel because we all wanna know how they get together, right?

Artwork/Design/Animation - 9

Story/Characters - 8.5

Enjoyment - 9

Fena: Pirate Princess 海賊王女

Plot: A decade ago, a tragic shipwreck separated Fena Houtman from her childhood friend Yukimaru and took her father's life. Now, at age 23, she is trapped on an island and is doomed to spend the rest of her life selling herself to men. On the night she is to be forcibly wed to a client, Fena hatches a plan to escape from her employers, but two old acquaintances unexpectedly intervene and help her run away.

The three make haste for the open sea and land upon Goblin Island—a mysterious place that a clan of fierce warriors call home. It is there that Fena learns that her father's ill-fated final journey at sea was in search of a place called "Eden," the location of something important that he had to protect. With nothing but a clear crystal as a clue, Fena is tasked with finding this place, as she is the only person who can do so.

While still contemplating the search for what her father left behind, Fena reunites with Yukimaru, who encourages her to take up the quest. Now the captain of a seven-person crew, Fena must navigate the high seas in search of Eden. But as uncanny groups begin to target her, the perilous journey proves to be even more challenging than it previously seemed. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Fena

Yukimaru

Shitan

Points: 6,75/10 [6,65625]

Visually stunning but plot wise an entire disappointment. The plot seemed interesting, the premise sounded promising, involving pirates and samurais and a trip to a secret magical place.

The character designs are pretty, perhaps a bit too thin considering they can jump from house to house and survive some crazy stunts, but overall Fena looks amazing, pure and innocent while her company looks intimidating and strong and all of them do fit the samurai style. The outfits are really cool and even Abel has this threatening but pure aura. The animations are great, the fighting scenes look truly amazing. The environment designs are drop dead gorgeous as well. Visually Fena is absolutely top notch.

It’s really just the plot that gives me nightmares. Perhaps it was also that I stopped understanding the story, once the focus scattered and side plots remained unresolved. The damsel in distress trope wasn’t truly helping. It would have been better to actually see Fena fighting, may it be with a bow or anything else. Not seeing any kind of effort to improve Fena seemed to be incredibly bland and uninteresting as the main female character.

Besides the questionable main character, the storyline and pace become absolutely erratic when the plot starts to pick up around the 4th or 5th episode. The end also seems incredibly rushed and illogical. Our clumsy innocent pirate girl is being accompanied by seven loyal samurai to discover the truth about Eden, a place full of treasures? Memories? The journey turned out to be completely about Fena, her past and… her future? Hence the other characters remain in the background, sadly. It would’ve helped to put more focus on her crew and less on her. I suppose they would have been more intriguing than blank slate Fena, but I’ve also seen reviews praising Fena, so keep in mind it’s my opinion. I just thought more focus on the samurais could have shown us diverse interesting backgrounds, strong fights and maybe even goals and aspirations rather than being a tool for Fena and her journey.

Apart from the dramatic journey, we also have a loveline between Fena and Yukimaru. It’s not really well executed in my opinion. The scenes in between feel almost like brother and sister, with a few cute and shy moments. There is no real development in between them though, especially since the end is rather cryptic and puts no focus on the romance portion of the anime.

The more enjoyable character is our antagonist named Abel, whose true goal and past become apparent in the later half of the anime. Not spoiling anything, he can be truly intimidating, easily takes the reins and is truly clever. Yukimaru on the other hand remains in the background, behind Fena with little to no character development although it might have been nice to have seen his past, how he became samurai, the struggles he went through to meet Fena again. He could have been a splendid main male character, but his whole purpose seems to protect Fena and remain some unrequited lover.

The end being a mix of: here we have gods and spirits and the afterlife becoming real for a bit made me understand the anime a whole lot less as well, which honestly destroyed my entire enjoyment I had felt in the very first episodes. Other plot holes also lined up whenever the anime forgot about a character or two.

I can’t recommend the anime to anyone, it’s been too much of a disappointment.

Artwork/Design/Animation - 8,5

Story/Characters - 6,5

Enjoyment - 6

Mieruko-chan 見える子ちゃん

Plot: Miko Yotsuya's eyes water as she fixates on a single spot on her phone—she ignores yet another dreadful, horrific monster that is in her face, uttering the disturbing words: "Can you see me?" Before now, Miko enjoyed her unassuming high school days, with late-night horror shows serving only as a form of entertainment. But ever since one fateful day, she is the only person aware of the invisible monsters walking freely among humans.

Courageously, Miko makes a bold decision: she will never, under any condition, acknowledge the presence of the horrid specters. However, even though she pretends they do not exist, she can still see how they disturb the people around her, especially her best friend, the energetic and lovely Hana Yurikawa. In order to protect them from the monsters' annoyances, Miko gives it her best to continue her school life and avoid every troublesome crisis—even when they scare her to tears. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Yotsuya Miko

Yurikawa Hana

Niguredou Yuria

Points: 8,5/10 [8,375]

I honestly enjoyed Mieruko-chan the most this season. You may now tell me, that is illogical but it is how it is. The tidbits of boobas and butt in every 5th scene were perhaps distracting, but I am glad they started to grow less and less or maybe I just grew so used to it, I didn’t mind them anymore. Either way, I deducted one whole point because of the unnecessary fanservice. The quirky characters, scary but also not scary ghosts, the unforeseen and interesting twists in the story impressed me too much to mind the fanservice.

Mieruko-chan has an intriguing, albeit humorous, story: a cute girl starts seeing ghosts and in order to remain unnoticed she acts like she can’t see them like any other human girl. The ghosts looked super scary and disgusting, so while I wouldn’t call it horror, it’s not for the weakest of minds. It gets you thinking that Miko, our main female character, has a truly tough life to live now. She gets into all sorts of scary and funny situations with her best friend Hana and later on also gains a new friend who can also see ghosts, albeit not the super scary ones, which once again is an invitation for many laughs. Even the fact that Hana has to eat and eat and eat to maintain her bright aura is just a fun addition to an already quirky story.

Every episode delivers a ton of humour and sometimes the twists are being resolved in either a super scary or wholesome way. It’s these twists that made the anime so interesting. While the anime is mostly supposed to make you laugh, it also hits a few serious or scary tones and covers quite a few heavy themes like parent abuse or dead cute animals.

Each of the characters receive a small bit of development, but it’s mostly just a journey through their everyday life. Mieruko-chan hence provides a lot of entertainment and if ever a second season comes along, I would be more than happy to watch it again and be mesmerised by Miko and her companions trying to survive while scary ghosts spice up their lives.

Also major respect for the animation team: the anime looked super cute and fun!

Artwork/Design/Animation - 8

Story/Characters - 8

Enjoyment - 9

The World’s Finest Assassin gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocat 世界最高の暗殺者、異世界貴族に転生する

Plot: The world's greatest assassin had sworn lifelong allegiance to the organization that raised him. However, despite his loyalty, that very same organization takes action to silence him, ultimately leading to his demise. Drowning in frustration and regrets he can no longer suppress, he finds himself in an audience with a goddess attracted by his exceptional skills. The goddess offers him reincarnation into a magnificent world of swords and magic so he can perform a crucial mission: prevent that world's destruction by slaying its hero.

Accepting the goddess' request, he is reborn as Lugh Tuatha Dé, the son of a noble family of assassins serving the Alvan Kingdom. Under the guidance of his father, Lugh learns new assassination techniques that significantly differ from the cold-blooded and unsympathetic killing style of his previous life. Furthermore, his other talents bloom, allowing him to meet new allies and acquaintances. Even so, Lugh knows that his efforts are far from adequate, because a monumental adversary such as the hero can only be defeated with perfection. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Lugh Tautha Dé

Dia

Maha

Tarte

Points: 6,25/10

How this received better reactions than Sakugan is beyond me. This might be one of the most mediocre Isekais I have watched since the theme made it big in business. Even after 12 whole episodes all I remember is that we have one OP male main character who builds his own harem by manipulating/picking up girls who have been misused and abused, suddenly falls in love with the white haired girl that taught him how to use magic (which happens to be related to Lugh’s mother) while in the very end we finally get a glance at the hero he was supposed to kill. Overall the very first season was nothing more than a super slow and halfway useless setup to a story that might have been interesting.

I am not even sure, if I’d pick up the sequel, because all the anime gave me was unnecessary political talks and jiggling melons. The anime knew how to put in unnecessary fanservice, while the main male character is not even halfway interested in any of his girls. You might also want to keep in mind, that although he looks like a 14 year old, his mind is indeed already plus 50 given he was reincarnated and yet I didn’t really see all the bad morality reviews like I’ve spotted all over Mushoku Tensei (which were correct, the mc is a pervert). And while the MC here is not a pervert, it seems question worthy with all the girls that want to desperately get into his pants.

The anime after all revolves around Lugh, who was an assassin in his own world and is now tasked to kill the hero of his new homeworld. That premise didn’t sound all bad, so I wanted to try it.

It sadly just didn’t click for me. Halfway through I was bored out of my mind. I liked the main character, he is hard working, honest, smart and respectable. He’s extremely dedicated and lives his life splendidly in the new world. He’s perhaps a bit too bland in that aspect, too perfect. I can’t really find much about him that truly intrigues me. Him turning the girls down was a major fine decision, but the sexual innuendous didn’t make the anime any better either way.

All side characters remain blank slates, there’s hardly any to no development for all of his girls as well as himself. He merely grew height wise, because he was already a great respectable character from the get go.

I honestly am not much of a fan of Mushoku Tensei, I mostly adore the lore and animations/environments, but Mushoku Tensei is ten times better than this (in my humble opinion). Perhaps I would have preferred slightly immoral decisions rather than clean edges.

Artwork/Design/Animation - 6,5

Story/Characters - 6

Enjoyment - 6

Sakugan 削岩ラビリンスマーカー

Plot: The "Labyrinth" is an expansive space deep underground where humans live in clusters known as "colonies." Over the years, the surface has become a distant memory—even perhaps only a fantasy to those who have never experienced its wonders.

Making sure humanity survives the harsh conditions of the underground, a colony's citizens can take on a variety of specialized jobs. These include "Workers," who mine precious ore to fuel the colonies, and "Markers," who journey into the Labyrinth's surprisingly lush environment to bring back information that eases navigation. However, humanity also faces a threat to its existence—creatures called "kaijuu" whose sizes range from that of a small child to an enormous building, and are hostile to any human they see. Moreover, kaijuu that are large enough can force their way into the colonies, further increasing their threat level.

Memenpu is a nine-year-old college graduate whose inventions have greatly benefitted the Workers in her local colony. Recently, however, she has been dreaming of a place with a neverending ceiling not bound by bedrock. These aspirations fuel her desire to become a Marker and explore the Labyrinth's vast unknown in search of such a fantastical place. Despite her father Gagumber's vehement disagreement, a certain incident with the kaijuu jumpstarts a dangerous yet exciting adventure that will surely alter humanity's course forever. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Memenou

Gagumber

Yuri

Zackletu

Points: 8/10 [7,90625]

Sakugan was indeed one of the animes I enjoyed the most this Fall Season 2021, although I know it has many faults, but… it just clicked for me. I can’t exactly tell you why, but I can at least try to share my thoughts on the anime and why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

The story was quite cryptic and in these 12 episodes we did not truly receive an explanation on why people seemingly live in parts of a labyrinth, in different sorts of colonies, while “markers” seem to explore the labyrinth further. This was mostly hinted at since the actual plot revolves entirely around a father, named Gagumber, and his daughter Memenpu. They’re a bunch of idiots, but from the very first moment it is clear how much they care for one another although they’re entirely different from one another.

Maybe it was simply the father-daughter dynamic that made it work through a bunch of scattered unfocused 12 episodes which are more explanatory on the setting, rather than telling us what Sakugan (Sacks&Guns) is truly about. While that was disappointing, I couldn’t help enjoying the fact, that although Gagaumber and Mememnpu were never on the same page, both always went the extra step to find some sort of compromise, simply because they care too much, especially Gagumber.

Memenpu is a logical smart young girl, who can repair pretty much everything. She’s a genius. She has dedicated herself to finding a place that she’s seen in her dreams and that seems to hold some sort of backstory on her and Gagumber, but sadly nothing of that is being revealed in the first 12 episodes and given the mediocre reviews, it might not even receive a second season and since the light novel is pretty much unknown, I might never get to see what Sakugan has in store, regrettably.

Gagumber mostly has his hands full trying to protect her, but if he’s not too busy, you can find him drinking and flirting. Yeah, he’s not a good father, but he is also very much aware of it. Slowly but surely he redeems himself throughout the story. Memenpu is just so much more important to him and it’s perhaps this chaos couple that made the chemistry work. Yeah, he makes a ton of bad decisions, but his character development is splendid.

I also just grew to like how weird the entire story is, also the few side characters: Yuri and Zackletu. There are many comedic moments, but issues always get resolved and despite their clashing pasts, they work together and go on to find the place Memenpu wants to see.

I honestly just want more of Sakugan. I know the story line is scattered and unfocused, some characters seem like true idiots and nothing gets even halfway resolved plot-wise, but I enjoyed my time with Sakugan.

Enjoyment wise it couldn’t hold a candle to Mieruko-chan which I enjoyed immensely this season, but it is definitely within my top 5. Please have an open mind when you pick up Sakugan. Every episode is almost stand alone-ish, but the end makes up for the slow pace in the beginning.

The anime doesn’t deserve the bad ratings when other shows were much worse but get recognition for titties and waifus.

Artwork/Design/Animation - 7

Story/Characters - 7,5

Enjoyment - 8,5

Re-Main（リメイン）

Plot: When Minato Kiyomizu wakes up in a hospital, he learns that he has been comatose for 203 days. As it turns out, a car accident has caused him to lose all memory of his middle school journey. Eventually, he discovers his former glory in water polo and desires to continue where he has left off. However, embarrassingly becoming aware of the massive disparity between his old and current self, Minato begins intensive rehabilitation in hopes of starting anew—a life without water polo.

Yet, Minato is promptly reminded of his past prowess and a promise on his very first day in Yamanami High School. Soon enough, despite being completely aware of his ineptitude, he joins the school's water polo club! While needing to relearn the sport's basics, he, along with his clubmates, must recruit new members to attain the required seven-man roster. With that, Minato tries to rekindle his deeply buried talent for water polo—and become one of Japan's renowned players once again. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Kiyomizu Minato

+ Team

Points: 6,5/10 [6,625]

Summer calls for beach episodes! I mean, sports animes! Water polo, to be exact, which is perhaps a bit unexpected but seeing the huge line ups of sports animes nowadays, I suppose we might get anime on every kind of sports soon. The character designs look cool, the animation is solid and smooth but otherwise I can’t really find anything to truly praise. I’ve expected perhaps a little too much from Mappa, seeing they’re working on dozens of projects and this one is small in comparison to titles like Attack on Titan or Jujutsu Kaisen.

If it weren’t for the last 3 episodes I might have even given less than 6 points, but I am glad things got resolved in a satisfactory manner. Nonetheless Re-Main suffers from the usual plotstring of “underdogs become champions”. Re-Main tried to give it a little twist, since the main character is involved in an accident and stays comatose for 203 days and then his brain reacted and threw out memories from his last 3 years or something? Re-Main is indeed just a chain of super weird happenings with little to no explanation.

Does he suffer from his loss of memories? Not really, that would have been too much character development. Instead he’s back to an optimistic, perhaps a little frustrated, young man who has to start anew at Water Polo although he was fantastic before his accident. Then suddenly his memories come back and he loses another chain of memories instead and we’re back to the same old conflicts, except that this time around he’s a conceited jerk, but man am I glad reality punched him back, since his body wasn’t used to Water Polo either and maybe it served him a life lesson on how to interact with people who support you, hence I actually gave half a point more than I had intended to.

The other characters however remain blank slates with little to no characterisation or development. Seeing the immense success of stories like Diamond no Ace or Haikyuu made me think that other titles can only reach the same level, if they’re given more than 12 episodes, because the end was pretty rushed, in comparison to the slow development in the beginning.

It’s a mediocre piece of sports anime and if you perhaps enjoy water sports, have a go at it.

Artwork/Design/Animation - 6,5

Story/Characters - 6,75

Enjoyment - 6,5

Bokutachi no Remake ぼくたちのリメイク

Plot: Life is not going well for 28-year-old Kyouya Hashiba. Having left his office job to pursue a career in the video game industry, his internship at a popular game studio abruptly ends, leaving him unemployed and forcing him to move back in with his parents. Additionally, his jealousy toward the success of the "Platinum Generation"—a group of similarly-aged creators—has caused him to regret his decision to attend a traditional university instead of an arts college. Even though he believes there are no second chances in life, Kyouya is suddenly given one when he wakes up one day and finds himself 10 years in the past.

Instead of choosing business school like he originally had, Kyouya decides to pursue his passions and attends the Oonaka University of Art. There, he meets classmate Eiko Kawasegawa, the woman who had hired him as an intern in the present, alongside his new housemates and future Platinum Generation members: underachieving artist Aki Shino, aspiring singer and actress Nanako Kogure, and naturally-gifted writer Tsurayuki Rokuonji.

With each project they complete together, Kyouya and his friends venture closer to discovering their true potential as creators and remaking their lives into the ideal versions they desire. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12

Main Characters:

Hashiba Kyouya

Shino Aki

Kogure Nanako 

Rokuonji Tsurayuki

Kawasegawa Eiko

Points: 6,5/10 [6,5625]

Once again someone goes back into the past to do something he wanted to do, but couldn’t or just didn’t do because it didn’t seem to be a logical decision at that time. Either way, for some reason or another (thanks for that, story writer), Kyouya is suddenly thrown into the past. Yes, he wakes up and whoops, his desired art university acceptance letter has arrived. This time around he takes the chance to reach what he truly desires: to create art.

The premise reminded me of ReLife, which I enjoyed quite a bit. ReLife was more about human bonds, growing as a person and less about sudden love and weird time jumps that make absolutely no sense. Yes, I didn’t really enjoy Bokutachi no Remake much, it honestly started to make less sense with each episode being aired. It’s not even half as profound and deep as ReLife, it really just conveys one message: live your dreams, try whatever you want to try, even if it may seem illogical. You only have one life, live it to the fullest.

And here Kyouya desired to be an artist rather than a simple office worker. Like Kyouya, the characters are the dore, the entire drive of the story and honestly, there is not much to say. The main character honestly doesn’t receive much development since he’s constantly busy with holding all 4 of his friends together who are a bunch of very different individuals. The development is also cut insanely short, because suddenly the anime adapts a perspective of a different future where all 4 are mostly separated and we have not even a single clue what happened in the meantime. While the idea is interesting, I can’t fathom why the anime took this approach.

Neither did the love triangle impact me at all. Kyouya was always a big fan of Aki, in his future where she was an artist, and suddenly, kaboomski, she was in love with him, too. Who needs development and logic again? They may have worked well together and he was truly nice and motivative, but for them to be suddenly married was perhaps a step too much into the future…

Nanako on the other hand was left forgotten in the second part. Her story was perhaps the most interesting one, as she as a mediocre singer wanted to hit big, wanted to do her best. She was truly passionate and all we see of her is a short clip. But we don’t really get to see or hear her, in retrospect she only ended up as a tool for Kyouya to remember his past and to stand his ground. She was perhaps just an inspiration. 

Same goes for Tsurayuki. When it started to get interesting, when real conflicts finally arrived, the time jump happened and everything was nowhere near resolved. Nonetheless the realism of the working world was well captured, perhaps even the highlight as we could watch a gaming company develop a game and a bunch of kids working in teams which always sparks a lot of chaos.

The anime suffers from not being continued right now, perhaps also from having no explanation for time jumps. My opinion might be swayed, if a second season comes around to show what happened before the time jump, to actually give us an insight on why all of this even happened in the first place.

If you like Waifus and Titties, you can give this anime a try, too. The fanservice is uncalled for and absolutely useless. This doesn’t make up for plot holes. Neither does the beach episode. It honestly made me question why time has to be wasted on nothing in particular. This could have been used for proper character development.

It’s overall a decent watch, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend it, even if you’re into slice-of-life.

Artwork/Design/Animation - 7

Story/Characters - 6,5

Enjoyment - 6,5

Status: guide used to find materials and best combinations for the board, played through in about 60 hours, did not finish all side quests (about 80%)

Points: 4/5 [3,875]

How many Dragon Ball games are out there? I don’t actually know and neither have I played most of them. I do have this one card battle game for Game Boy and quite a few for the Advance, but I mostly remember Budokai 2 on Game Cube. The game really had me in its clutches when I was much younger. When Kakarot was officially released I watched a playthrough on YouTube and thought it was already pretty cool, but knowing I had gained quite a few in my community on twitch just because I’ve been weebing with Naruto games, I had to give Kakarot a try and damn, I was enjoying it immensely.

The anime is still making me feel all this nostalgia, I’d probably even give it a rewatch in the future and I think it is exactly this feeling, that most felt upon touching Kakarot and this may also be only catering towards DB fans in general. Apart from that Kakarot adapts the main story rather faithfully and might even help to get more people interested in DB. Rather than being simply Budokaitastic, Kakarot could be placed in the (J)RPG genre, given it tells a story about saving the world, offers world exploration, makes you gather materials and gives you tons of sidequests. The only thing that reminds you of the Budokai or Fighter games is merely the combat system which is quite easy to grasp, even for a simpleton like me.

I would also like to mention that the score of 4.25 is simply due to me enjoying the game immensely. I’d not like to put Kakarot into comparison with other games I’ve played this year, because while it is very well done, I’d like for it to be compared to games of the same genre. Comparing tomatoes and apples just doesn’t work for me, because while I enjoy both, I wouldn’t necessarily say that one is superior to the other.

Artwork/Design - 3.75/5

Kakarot features the usual CGI style of many Budokai games - which i have come to accept and halfway appreciate (in contrast to the usual anime style) but beyond that Kakarot creates a faithful world of a beloved franchise. While it may not be as good as other anime styled games out there, for example Tales of Arise, Scarlet Nexus or even NieR Replicant (the remaster), it features a variety of nicely looking landscapes reaching from forests, to mountains covered in snow or big cities which all will make you feel a big nostalgic, probably. I at least felt like that when Kakarot presented the DB world to me, along with planet Namek or God’s place.

While I’ll never completely warm up to the CGI style, Kakarot looks quite gorgeous and might make you want to explore the bright and colourful landscapes.

Story/Combat System - 4/5

I don’t think there’s a huge need to go over Dragon Ball’s story, other than mentioning that a hero from an alien race (Saiyan) who arrives on earth saves it from multiple disasters and villains. I’ve always loved Dragon Ball and its story and that will never change. Akira Toriyama has created something timeless and wonderful, that always warps me back to my days when I was still a child.

Kakarot - in comparison to other DB games - delivers the full DBZ story while giving you an enhanced big world to explore and collectibles to gather. It more or less dived into the RPG world in my opinion. It was quite an experience to see the entire map and now actually have an idea of where the different locations on the world map are. I’ve never truly asked myself that while watching the anime or playing the other DB games. Kakarot diverted from the path of simply being a fighting game and I can only say that this decision was a splendid one.

At the core are the different cutscenes and battles nonetheless, which lets you experience each fighter's skill sets, which you can max out by collecting orbs on the world map or through collecting certain balls which you can use in training points. So rather than just going from battle to battle, it is recommended to actually explore the world to build up your fighters.

Overall Kakarot is overflowing with love for the source material and I can only say that Bandai Namco has done a great job at creating an anime game which is faithful to the main story while also letting you explore a vaste map with more or perhaps less interesting side quests, gathering materials to update your car for races or just walking through the cities to talk to people.

It's therefore a mix of a fighting and semi-open world game, because while the different maps are quite big, it doesn’t take long to fly from one point to another and all the different maps aren’t exactly connected either (fast travelling is a good option anyhow).

The combat system is probably something Budokai players are used to. I’ve liked it quite a bit: gathering power (ki) to make special attacks, flying up and down or running across the field, defending or going in with physical attacks, laser beams etc. It’s not exactly a button smash combat system cause most of the bosses have attack patterns, so it would be advised to watch your enemy closely instead of pressing every available button. Nonetheless I can say that it wasn’t too hard to achieve most S Ranks. That, by the way, always made me feel kinda accomplished, not gonna lie.

If you’re only interested in the main story, you may also just use items and give no fuck about rankings as the game lets you advance, no matter how good your fight was. I didn’t achieve S-Ranks everywhere since I wasn’t in the mood to re-do fights, but even on the first try I achieved about 80% S-Ranks.

If you are really good, you might even get special battle end animations which are banger and leave you feeling quite satisfied with yourself. Needless to say, I might have triggered that about 2 times in like 30 battles? 

If you keep on battling and fulfilling sidequests, you’re also rewarded with badges of certain characters which you can place on different boards to trigger different effects. You can build them towards whatever you like: boosting your battle strength, finding better materials, upgrading your machines etc etc. Kakarot offers you freedom to play the game however you like, which is truly amazing. Collecting orbs lets you upgrade your skills and Z-Orbs make you learn new skills, hence - as I have mentioned - it’s not unrewarding to explore the big map.

If you fall in love with Kakarot as I did, you’ll easily be spending 60 hours on this, trying to get most S-Ranks, gathering materials to do the car races (yeah, I really loved doing them!) and finishing up most of the sidequests. Sidequests were perhaps the most boring things to finish. There was seriously just one quest that was enjoyable and showed us another side of the characters (yeah, the yamcha one). If we had more of those, it might have been actually rewarding to take them on. Let me mention though that doing them is not mandatory, they hardly give you experience points anyhow. Also while exploring can be cool, having enemies drop on you every 5 seconds is horrible, especially when they drop absolutely nothing worthwhile and merely disturb you while you’re searching for materials or orbs. Other nice activities include a baseball mini game, car races and fishing. Quite a welcoming refresh to doing your usual grinding.

They could have also put some more attention on side characters, since you’ll mostly be playing Goku, Gohan, Vegeta or Piccolo. Everyone else remains mostly behind, especially level wise. Despite that throughout the story each character has a moment to shine, which is more thanks to the original story rather than the game, but since it is one and the same here, I felt like mentioning it.

I would probably also enjoy a game like this for DB and/or DB GT/Super and since enjoyment is my utmost priority while gaming, I’ve given Kakarot solid 4.25 points.

Enjoyment - 5/5

The Last Campfire

Status: played through in 7-8 hours, used chat’s help to solve some puzzles

Points: 3,75/5 [3,828125]

TLC speaks of a light in the darkness. Something every human can relate to at one point in their lives. The characters don’t exactly remind you of humans visually, but the story they tell sounds all too human. If you stray from your path, you may need a guide to bring you back onto the right track! TLC displays a multitude of human emotions in beautiful ways through interesting puzzles, funny NPCs and good platforming experience. It’s been a while since I played some indie titles, but I had a super lovely time with TLC.

Artwork/Design - 4

TLC features a rather simple but sweet design, many bright and cute characters, like super big pigs or cooking turtles. On the other hand we have our adorable main character called Ember who leads the forlorn, the lost. 

In the game you can find many different unique areas: swamps, woods, ruins, caves etc. The game is all about exploring while you find many interesting looking items which serve some purpose or you can step into your boat and navigate through the soft looking water areas.

The visual design fits the overall subtle theme of emotional storytelling and makes the game all the more enjoyable. The puzzles were super well integrated into the environment, while the world around you changed swiftly. 

Story/Gameplay - 4

TLC is a puzzle adventure game with a truly touching, albeit subtle emotional story. The main character Ember is a guide, leading the forlorn, the lost souls, back onto the right track, like guiding a lost light through the darkness back to the campfire. These lost souls receive their light back once Ember solves their puzzle.

I like this subtle but effective storytelling which can easily be connected to human emotions, especially psychological illnesses as well, i.e. depression, burnout, stress etc. This connection is more or less my own interpretation though. Nonetheless I like overall storytelling through a wonderful narrator named Rachel August, who leads you from one place to another while you explore the different areas and story parts.

While Ember seems to be determined to bring the forlorn back, we have no further hints on world lore or what has been going on. Even Ember starts to question their purpose in life as they come across more and more forlorn.

Another brilliant aspect is of course the gameplay. The puzzles can be truly challenging or super easy. Sometimes I needed chat’s help, but even I could solve most of them on my own without consulting a guide which honestly makes me enjoy a game much more. Even though the entire game play might have been inspired by The Legend of Zelda (especially the visual aspects) it doesn’t truly remind me of the game series.

The approach to the gameplay is very simplistic: push, pull, interact (with objects or persons) and run around. Even though this seems easy, there is enough variety in the different mechanisms of the puzzles which range from pushing blocks and wheels, sorting through pipes while turning them around to fit over to protecting a light from wind. It’s always fresh and new, especially when a certain tool is added to control certain mechanisms from afar.

Listening to the subtle nature inspired music and Rachel’s voice was a very chilling experience, like a good night story being read to you. Cleverly touching upon (mature) real world problems through charming and subtle storytelling made me experience a lot of joy during my 6-8 hours with the game.

The end fell a bit short of expectations even though it was pretty to look at, while the overall gameplay was also a bit too short in my opinion. My gameplay experience was probably also a bit dampened by the lag on the Switch. Not sure if it also lagged like this on other consoles but it was certainly enough to scare me of the game crushing on me every 15-20 minutes.

TLC is a great indie game and if you’re into puzzle adventure games, then this might be something you’d enjoy.

Enjoyment - 3,75

Status: played through in about 12-14 hours, more grinding could’ve been useful, guide was used very few times to find new story progression

Points: 3,5/5 [3,453125]

Since I bought the whole package of Pixel Remasters, I also had the chance to try out FF II. Definitely easier to cope with, since I got used to Final Fantasy but the changes aren’t something I absolutely appreciate. Sequels often have a hard time being successful, but the Final Fantasy series shows that sequels can be either hated or appreciated either way, which probably also goes for other serieses like Tales of or even The Legend of Zelda. It would be more accurate to say that each game has good and bad points.

Artwork/Design - 3,75

Please refer to my Final Fantasy I review, there’s hardly much that has changed in II. Even the monster designs have stayed mostly the same except for a few personal changes character wise. Let’s just say they look more like JRPG dudes than before, especially the main male character. That’s something I can easily appreciate!

Story/Gameplay - 3

Rather than a fantastical approach in the prequel, FF II features a bad empire being bad because the emperor is greedy and he is greedy because… he’s greedy. Our heroes are banned from their home as the evil empire invades. 3 of the heroes wake up in another kingdom after escaping and learn from the princess about the events before joining the kingdom in their fight against the empire as mercenaries/soldiers. 

Character development and personalities are still missing, but we get tidbits of our main character probably being into the princess, while the main female character missed her brother a lot. The third companion only talks very few words and doesn’t seem to be very talkative, in a sense that he might not actually know the language everyone is speaking or have remained in a cave for too long… These characters all have official names, but in the remaster you still choose the names yourself. Roles cannot be chosen this time around.

The 4th team member is missing throughout the entire game for some reason before he is discovered to be the dark knight of the empire - a welcome twist that sadly gets no background history other than him having been abducted and brainwashed? I do like this political approach, but the story still leaves much to be desired.

Another big change is the keyword system. Highlighted words in dialogues can be learned and then used to question different important NPCs. This ultimately leads to a more defined way of finding out where you should be heading next. While I think this is a good mechanism, I can’t say the same about the new combat system.

The levelling system is a nightmare that hardly makes much sense. Upon being hit, you get more HP and raise levels. Weapons now have skill levels, using them makes the character more proficient, as in it misses less and does more damage. This can still be half logical and  through a bit of grinding the characters can become good warriors. Same cannot be said for the dark and white magic spells. They will be levelled upon being used. A good example would be to get completely beat up, escape a fight and heal yourself until the mp are empty and then repeated said process. It becomes increasingly difficult to level other spells though, simply because you don’t need them at that exact moment. Grinding life was me casting it on an alive team member while that person was using debuff and buff spells on the enemies. It’s a hassle that hardly makes sense and if you don’t level your spells, the fights will be impossible to survive in the latter part of the game.

Another problem I had with the game were the random encounters, way too many in a short time. WAY TOO MANY. I could hardly walk 5 steps without enemies stepping in my path. So while I appreciate the music, especially the battle track (Final Fantasy music is superb) it got on my nerves rather easily all too soon. On another note you could also step on a wrong spot, encounter enemies of high levels that killed you within one hit, ouch. Or maybe you ended up confused as a frog with poison with no way to get out of the situation.

I also have to admit I cheated my way through the last boss with a sword you can obtain throughout the story. I did not grind my spells enough to use them, but going back would have been a journey of more than 4 hours again, so I wasn’t too willing to do it again. Let this be your advice to level your spells diligently.

Just like Final Fantasy I I have to praise the soundtrack again. Really splendid, from dramatic sad themes, to chill town music, hammering battle tracks etc.

I did enjoy my time with Final Fantasy II. It was fun, but I won’t ever go back to it, because it’s a struggle to grind with a lacklustre story.

Enjoyment - 3,5

Status: played through in about 11-13 hours, guide was used frequently for story progression

Points: 3,5/5 [3,4375]

I never actually thought I would get the chance to play the first Final Fantasy game, but Pixel Remaster made it possible. I’ll also be more than happy to play II - VI as well. Hard to imagine that a fame game studio like Square Enix released this game when they were on the edge of bankruptcy while JRPGs were something super rare? Final Fantasy is probably one of the best selling JRPG series of all time and it all came to live with this first game. Visually it’ll be hard to compare it to modern games and even gameplay has evolved a lot since the 80s, but I can at least tell you the parts of the games I enjoyed and which seem a bit strange and old to me.

Artwork/Design - 3,5

There are many brilliant looking pixel games out there. Inmost comes to mind here and while the pixel art looks clean and sharp, there is not exactly a whole lot of variety as each town, each building and each dungeon look very much alike to each other. Not much of a surprise considering this was released like 35 years ago. Nonetheless the Pixel Remaster looks so much better than the original game and it’s amazing to think that such structures were possible 30 years ago. Most impressive might have just been the home of the elves where Link may rest in peace (what a disturbing coincidence?).

Enemy designs are also pretty top notch for such an old game, not gonna lie.

Story/Gameplay - 3

Last year I tried Dragon Quest, a game from the same era and it was incredibly confusing. I had the same fears starting with Final Fantasy I but it’s so different and soooo much easier to understand and navigate, which is practically already praise to the gameplay and story. Game styles have changed so much through time, haven’t they? Nowadays you even get a mark on the map or a sign on the screen on where you have to go and how far away it is, but in Final Fantasy it’s all about talking to every damn citizen, perhaps even taking notes because all of them have some small story to tell about locations or persons that all contain a certain role within the story.

Final Fantasy however has one of the most basic, most heroic, JRPG compliant settings. You control 4 characters who happen to be the 4 heroes of light. You may get to know that they’re part of a legend told within the world but why they are the 4 heroes, how they became the heroes or why they all even set out to save the world, we shall never know. Same goes for our main villain Garland. I suppose he’s evil, because Square Enix decided that he’s evil. We all need to have that main villain pulling the strings in the background in order for our JRPGs to become enjoyable… or something like that.

Without personalisation it becomes increasingly hard to actually feel anything for the characters, not to mention that they themselves don’t really talk either. They’re part of a legend which says to go and restore the crystals, so the upcoming doom (lands drying out, lands being flooded, lands being consumed by darkness and so on) doesn’t come to pass. You’re literally being sent from place to place by different NPCs as you journey over the map, visiting underwater ruins, volcanoes, different towns and villages to stock up on supplies, icy and cold areas, caves and mountains… Talking about travelling, there are quite a few methods that become available by progressing in the story: canoe, ship, airships. The last one is by far my favourite but also keep in mind that you can’t land on top of trees, which makes sense but is bothersome if you still gotta run over half a continent.

Through random encounters you fight a multitude of monsters in turn based battle. While random encounters can sadly not be switched off, I didn’t get too bothered by it. I thought the number was actually quite alright to manage the game without grinding more than 1 hour in total. Apart from that I did not understand the turn order in battle which happened to be completely random each turn. You can choose between 4 basic commands: attack, defend, magic, item. They’re all self explanatory. Equipment, Weapons, Items and Spells can be bought in towns all over the world map.

Besides that you get the opportunity to choose certain jobs/roles in the beginning of the game. The only disappointment here is that the roles aren’t explained. I only found out mid-game that the thief job is completely useless, there is no steal ability. That is truly disappointing but it doesn’t mean much combat wise. I still managed to beat the game after all.

Confusing to me was also the fact that visiting an inn is not enough to revive a fallen team member. You have to visit the sanctuary first and then book a night at an inn. I always forgot about that and had to spend money twice, but of course, that is me and my small brain.

Overall the game was great for its time, but leaves much to be desired from a modern perspective. It is also fairly short and storytelling is more of a necessary evil in order to provide interesting gameplay. Nonetheless I enjoyed myself and was happy to find out how the FF series came to be. It’s a good start to a beautiful series of games that have excited me every time a new entry was released.

Enjoyment - 3,5

Status: played through in about 35-40 hours, guide was used on some collectibles to reach 100% on each game

Points: 3,75/5 [3,703125]

I have never played any Spyro games before and only now I actually found out how much fun these games can be, it’s a shame, especially so considering the old games are barely available anywhere and who knows if they ever get remastered, remade or ported to new consoles or pc. This trilogy was honestly on par with older Mario games or even Banjo Kazooie or Yooka Laylee, which I played a bit last year, but it was much more of a hassle than Spyro for many reasons (one being that collectibles can be detected with Sparx, Spyro’s companion and that the collectibles aren’t listed in detail in the menu (so you can opt to use guides for certain things rather than having to remember which you already got)). Either way, it is a whole lot of fun and also super easy to navigate, luckily! Something that I definitely adore about adventure games where collecting is main game.

Artwork/Design - 3,5

Spyro shows off many colourful bright and unique small worlds which are all meant to be fully explored. The very first game in the Trilogy seems rather small in comparison to the third entry, so be prepared for more worlds in the following games. The art style is absolutely the same in each entry, many cute characters of different animal species, villains and allies alike. They’re all rather adorable as these NPCs guide you through the story on many interesting paths, through snow and ice, through hot volcanos, woods, underwater, caves and so on and so forth; variety is not missing in Spyro. In addition the games include small cutscenes which are pretty humorous, but nicely animated nonetheless.

Story/Gameplay - 4

The Trilogy contains the chronologically first released games of the series, Spyro, Ripto’s Rage and Year of the Dragon. Each of the games has their own little story to tell, while the gameplay remains mostly the same, except that each game adds a little something to the existing base, may it be new abilities like climbing or controlling different characters in special worlds. The second entry remains my favourite nonetheless for its super quirky story and characters. 

Spyro is of course the name of our main character, a cute purple dragon who always has something or someone to rescue. He hails from the dragon kingdom which he also has to protect by collecting sealed dragons in the first game, while rescuing a parallel world in the second game which is being terrorised by Ripto, the main villain before also having to defeat an evil sorceress in the third game which is mostly based around magic. Then again, it's a fantasy game including all sorts of fantastical elements.

Like any adventure game, it’s all about collectibles, defeating small enemies before stepping in front of boss enemies. Each game changes the collectibles ranging from dragon eggs to save the dragon babies, collecting green orbs to open up portals in order to save them or unsealing dragons to take them back to dragon kingdom. Exploring is always key and is easily achieved by displaying a map and offering you a detailed menu on what you’re still missing. In all games you have to collect gems though, which either offer you new worlds or abilities by “selling” them to a certain NPC. All of them can be found easily by using Sparx, your companion and gem guide. The other collectibles I mentioned can be found on the map or given to you in challenges (may it be the flight challenges or a multitude of different mini games like boxing, ice hockey and anything else you can imagine). Everything has this special cute Spyro charm.

Even the enemies and their designs as you either tackle or burn them. Controls are super easy, as you tackle with one button and burn with the other. There’s not much to keep in mind. The games are kept fairly easy in my opinion even if I had to google some orbs just because I couldn’t find them. Not sure how much of a challenge the original games are, but the Trilogy makes it rather easy to achieve 100-120%. Some challenges however, like the snowboard race, are quite difficult, because the controls while either skateboarding or snowboarding prove to be a pain especially when jumping (Spyro suddenly turning although absolutely no button was touched). But what is a game without small difficult challenges? Right, not exactly a joy.

Boss battles offer a mediocre difficulty challenge, too, but at least they’re fun! In addition the third game also gives you access to different characters and play styles, which can be either fun for you or a nightmare.

I did enjoy the Trilogy immensely, so if you’re a fan of action adventure games, then Spyro is definitely a good choice!

Enjoyment - 3,75

Status: played through in less than 20 hours, no guide used

Points: 4/5 [3,8125]

I am not the biggest of fans, but I do enjoy Demon Slayer quite a bit and plan to keep reading the manga as well. I’ve read quite many reviews about Demon Slayer and wondered to myself what people expect in a Budokai-themed game? It’s mostly just about the fighting and the only game that - in my opinion - went past that was Kakarot. Nonetheless Demon Slayer is a good fighting game, heavily reminding me of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm.

Artwork/Design - 3,5/5

The game looks pretty much just like the anime, perhaps more CGI but that is to be expected from Budokai games. Nonetheless I love the character designs, the battles look insanely smooth, skills look pretty much like the original and while environment designs aren’t insanely gorgeous, they’re solid backgrounds. The fights were well recreated, much like character models and cutscenes, so my compliments go back to the mangaka and perhaps also ufotable.

Story/Combat System - 4/5

Demon Slayer - The Hinokami Chronicles - adapts the story of the same titled anime/manga and hence I won’t say much, rather than here we have a young boy named Tanjirou whose family was killed by demons while his sister was turned into one. Together with her he sets out to become a proper demon hunter. He gets to slay demons, meets the pillars - the strongest demon hunters - and gains new friends. The story is perhaps a bit generic and not too original, but those rare moments of reliving a demon’s last breath where we get a glance of their previous human life, are really interesting and it feels like freedom has finally come to pass.

The game is aimed at the anime and manga lovers and perhaps less for people who were just looking for a new game to play. It was teased in March 2020, but took a pretty long time to be developed and was finally released in late 2021. CyberConnect knows how to create fun stylish fighting games, close to the anime’s original designs, like dot Hack or Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm.

The combat system is close to any Budokai game you can imagine: Naruto, Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia… It’s a mix of guarding (only until the shield breaks), dodging and attacking (in different versions). I am missing distance attacks and items, but it’s once again about Rank S, finishing fights in less time, with good combos and no damage taken. Nonetheless, if you do not manage to win a fight, you can have your character revived and continue without acquiring a rank. This was especially useful in the very last fight within the Adventure Mode. I was having a blast trying to outdo my rankings though.

Besides the Adventure Mode - which contains two cute mini games (i really enjoyed both!!) - the game also has an online and offline versus mode. Online you can fight against friends and strangers, offline you can do different training modes, in different locations against different characters. It all may get repetitive, but it’s fun and you can also gain kimetsu points and other collectibles in order to unlock different pictures of the anime, music tracks, locations and outfits.

Apart from a short Adventure Mode you can spend a long time fighting others or just collecting points to unlock your goodies. I am a bit disappointed that the story mode was resolved in like 3 streams, but I enjoyed the re-telling of the story, fighting with different diverse characters and listening to the solid anime inspired soundtrack. The little bit of exploration was interesting, but I imagine Demon Slayer could easily receive a game like Kakarot once the story has been fully adapted as an anime. Until then I will be gathering points to unlock all the collectibles.

Enjoyment - ⅘

Status: played through in appr. 60 hours, not like the switch save point knows how to count active and passive hours…

Points: 3,5/5 [3,46875]

What to say? I enjoyed NNK I much more than II and while I prefer the combat, I don’t know why the story had no impact on me, sadly. Even Tales of Arise (which was rather flat in comparison to Tales of Symphonia, story depth-wise) had more impact than Ni No Kuni II. I honestly might just have had too big expectations after playing Ni No Kuni I, which was absolutely fantastic.

Artwork/Design - 4/5

Once again we’re caught in parallel words, which are the same as the ones depicted in Ni No Kuni I, just myriads of years later. The collaboration with ghibli was discontinued with the sequel, but nonetheless designer Yoshiyuki Momose (Spirited Away) and componist Joe Hisaishi were working on this game as well. So while Studio Ghibli was not involved, you can still say the game looks gorgeous. The environment is rich and colourful, bright, we have dozens of unique towns, deserts, woods, fields, mountains, whatever really. It’s not the visual department that made me feel disappointed.

There are a few questionable choices though, like skirmish battles or the world map retro look which I can’t truly comprehend when you have gorgeous character and environment designs. You could have at least kept the character models instead of turning them into chibis.

Story/Combat System - 3,5/5

Here comes the disappointment: the story. In contrast to Ni No Kuni I’s heartbreaking beginning, we merely see a missile destroying an entire town as a president is seemingly wiped out as well. Turns out he’s not dead, just awoke in a different world, a lot younger than his original self and he also doesn’t really have time to think about his whereabouts as he’s promptly witnessing a coup d'etat, the mouse folk taking over the kitty kingdom or… something of that sort.

There Roland (former president) meets Evan, prince of a lost kingdom now and both manage to escape. Evan tells Roland that he wants to build a new kingdom for everyone. Apart from that, we also later on catch sight of strange happenings as a kingsmaker goes berserk. Kingsmaker are beings that protect a certain kingdom, a being the leaders of each kingdom have a bond with. Through information from books and civilians you’re being told about the evil villain who’s supposedly manipulating every kingdom and you set out to stop him. It’s honestly as flat and fantastic as it sounds. Nothing is unpredictable, there are no big twists and few really emotional moments. The ending was not exactly bombastic either, although it was a nice twist to the soulmate system which was already presented in Ni No Kuni I, which says you have a soulmate in each parallel world.

Spoilers ahead:

Many story moments seem inappropriately naive and childish, which was extremely cringey in the very end where the villain, having tried to destroy the entire world to selfishly recreate the kingdom that was taken from him because he fell in love with his kingsmaker - a forbidden thing apparently for a reason unknown to me - was suddenly forgiven by Evan. Where did logic go? Hiatus? I am sorry, but that doesn’t sit well with me. And neither can I understand the naive characterisation where Evan can seemingly forgive everything, although his father was killed, his kingdom and his people enslaved, having to live in caves etc. It just doesn’t make sense.

Up until this point however you’ll have a very big map explored, which is way too big for my liking, especially since everything besides the main story seems truly boring. Even the sidequests are entirely mundane and forgettable. It’s indeed fun to explore the kingdoms but the game did not excite me to go beyond the main story. I like the different vibes of each kingdom though, I thought that was nicely created. The cute companions called Higgledies are also pretty helpful, especially in battle if you manage to level them.

Which ultimately leads me to other problems. How to level each and every character, each and every weapon, each and every armour, each and every citizen, each and every building in your kingdom, your kingdom itself, your higgledies… and so on and so forth. There is so much to do, that you always lose focus of what could be most important right now. You can work on your kingdom, gain money by letting time pass by on closing the switch down or you could try doing skirmish battles to level your units, but you could also grind, then again you could recruit citizens or you could take on sidequests for experience points and rewards, but perhaps you could level your citizenry to gain better materials or maybe… maybe you should put your money into investigations of new weapons, new higgledies, new armour, new magic spells…

Honestly, there is variety and then there is Ni No Kuni II bombarding you with stuff to do that might be entirely mundane and just time consuming. If you dig that, go on, but it certainly just made me very tired.

The combat system on the other hand is a blast. Ni No Kuni I had a truly unique system, but Ni No Kuni II went a different way. Now it’s hack and slash in real time, where you can use small and big physical attacks, you can also choose to use a weapon for distance like magic or guns or bows, there are special attacks by syncing your three weapons to 100% which happens while you attack, there is dodging and guarding as well. It’s very dynamic and I liked how smoothly each command was executed. You can switch who you want to main in battle as well. There are gazillions of weapons and armour to choose from. The freedom of battle is absolutely amazing.

The combat proved to be difficult only in the very end where I was heavily underleveled because I tried to speed through every dungeon, since I was getting a little impatient. I did not want to drop it, because it is still a solid JRPG. Ni No Kuni II is just over clustered and unfocused and my gameplay enjoyment suffered immensely because of that. Despite that the music is great again and the combat system was also one of the more solid experiences. 

The voiced sections however are another big problem. The Japanese dub is lovely, but the translations are just wonky. Context wise it’s not wrong, but a direct translation would have been better. The exchange between voiced proportions and unvoiced proportions is also rather unhealthy. It’s especially annoying when you’re reading out the lines on stream and they suddenly start talking Japanese in the background again. It left me confused every time.

Overall, I can now say that Ni No Kuni I is better, but Ni No Kuni II is a solid JRPG with just too many different gameplay mechanisms.

Enjoyment - 3/5

Voice of Cards

Status: used guide to collect all weapons, completed/platinumed in about 20 hours

Points: 4/5 [4,078125]

I almost felt sad when I finished the game after 20 hours after receiving all the collectibles. It was such a good game, albeit a bit short. What made me pick up the game? Merely the fact that Yoko Taro was once again Creative Director and after playing NieR Replicant I became an even bigger fan of his games, his concepts and ideas. While playing the game, I got multiple NieR Replicant flashbacks because of the music (thank you so much, Keiichi Okabe) and a few story plots just remind you of Yoko Taro, giving you a chance to choose although story wise none of it matters, it’ll just hurt. Like all NieR games Voice of Cards has this certain feeling of mystery, of upcoming doom, it tells a fantasy tale about humanity’s issues in card game form and I for once had a blast playing it through.

Artwork/Design - 3.75/5

I honestly wanted to give it 5/5 points, because I liked the whole card design. I liked the map designs in card format, the fields, the woods, the paths, the towns, everything. It is simplistic of course! The character models reminded me of NieR Reincarnation and DLC wise you can have your Replicant team with you, since you can put the NieR outfits onto the main trio. The characters look really cool and unique, anime stylish. The NPCs are more generic, but even they have special designs as well as your new team members. The monsters look fantastic as well, everything just fits but… in comparison to what modern JRPGs can look like, taking Tales of Arise, Final Fantasy VII Remake or upcoming Forspoken into consideration, it could simply be more.

It could have animated cutscenes, it could have moving characters, an interactive environment… but it decided not to. Despite that it just looks amazing in card format. In my humble opinion it would have deserved 5 points, but putting it into comparison with other games… I simply cannot give it 5 points.

Story/Combat System - 4/5 & 3/5

Voice of Cards has a very traditional way of storytelling, through a narrator voiced by Todd Haberkorn. The English voice acting is superb, even the simplest bit of emotions can be found in perhaps a word wrongly pronounced or a small comment added here and there. It’s pure entertainment. Mad respect to Todd Haberkorn, I enjoyed listening to his voice while watching the story unfold. Even the dialogue is voiced by Todd in different tones, hence the game needed no more voice actors.

The overall story, atmosphere and music are very soothing, almost relaxing as you set out in a remote village, tasked to kill a dragon that has been wreaking havoc. Rather than saying it is about the end, the story is perhaps more about companionship, about forging bonds in a fantasy setting. On your way to the dragon you make multiple stops in all sorts of dungeons and towns. The distinctive Yoko Taro tone is always apparent, since the towns all have certain… traits. For example there is a town that is said to get along with monsters and you visit it, people keep monsters as pets and you’re like “damn, cool”. Then one of the monsters vanishes and you set out to retrieve it, of course you do, you’re good people, you bring it back and mere moments later the mayor serves you a tasty dinner. A tasty dinner you just rescued. It’s just something Yoko Taro would do, to get you thinking, to shock you.

Even your party is pretty distinctive, like… almost a bunch of weirdos, about people with a dark twisty background, about people that do not exactly fit into anywhere. Perhaps they’re idiots, too, but they’re lovely. It’s just so easy to grow attached to a boy that keeps a monster around him as cares for it as if it’s a family member, a young girl that is consumed by revenge and much of a tsundere, a muscled dude and a girl that runs into money traps like it’s her hobby.

The story is great, the ending was definitely twisty and I could not foresee why we chased that dragon and if chasing it was actually a good or bad thing, if we were a good group of heroes or bringing doom upon the lands. So I definitely have to mention that the story is worth experiencing.

The combat system on the other hand is alright, but… definitely a little boring. It’s a traditional turn-based combat system in card format, where cards of your team and your enemies lie on a table board. Skill cards can be acquired at certain levels, which can be certain special physical attacks against a single enemy or a mob of enemies, you can use magic spells of different elements (weaknesses can be easily perceived) or even heal and boost or debuff enemies. There is just one single trick: these skills cost gems. Gems you gain by taking action, each round. So in case you have 3 gems and use 3 for a big physical attack, you will not be able to use a healing spell for 2 gems in the next round. That is the only strategic mechanism and I can tell you, it’s not difficult. I didn’t have to grind much and the level cap is at 35 anyhow.

Aside from the story and combat, you can explore the map, turn the cards to get an overview and of course, gather all collectibles: items, weapons/armour, NPC/MC cards with background stories and monster cards with their own stories as well. That kept me occupied for a good 20 hours, where I played the game through twice and watched all 4 different endings.

I mentioned it above already, but the music is top notch again. Keiichi Okabe just knows how to make bone chilling music. Thank you so much!

I enjoyed this game, definitely putting it in my top 5 in 2021.

Enjoyment - 4/5

Status: played through without guide in about 5 hours

Points: 4.25/5 [4,3125]

Major thanks to @linsarcade at twitch for making me play this game. I hope you enjoyed me playing this game and I hope my chat did, too, because oh boys, that was a blast. I bought this on steam when the game was on sale, but also later realised that it was also available on the Switch. I do prefer playing on consoles but steam itself is a blessing anyhow.

Artwork/Design - 4/5

Mind you, 4 points is like 5/5 if this wasn’t just pixelart. Pixel art is drop dead gorgeous in here but if I compare this to the Matrix visuals on the PS5, it obviously can’t compare. In pixel art standards it is a 5/5 anyhow, because Inmost is truly beautiful. The game is served in the most beautiful manner of pixel art, displayed in mostly blue colours, uo to white and back to black. In  a way it reminds me of Limbo, as the environment displayed here is always dark and it rains often, truly befitting of the underlying gloomy rather depressive atmosphere of the story.

The pixel art - let me say it once more - is absolutely gorgeous. I think everyone should have at least seen a screenshot of Inmost to see what pixel art is able to do.

Story/Gameplay - 4.25/5

Once again I realised too late that it is also on the switch, but it was just as fine to play it on steam with a controller, so I won’t be sour about it. The story once again starts in a very mysterious manner, telling a story about a country where the darkness has taken over as a dark entity steals souls. While this may sound like fantasy, I think Inmost displays a truly human tale about loss, grief and abandonment as displayed in the very last few cutscenes. Hidden Layer games seem to put more emphasis on gameplay than story, since 90% is gameplay time rather than watching a story unfold, but it fits together nicely.

Just like Limbo and Inside, Inmost is a puzzle platformer, but more of a RPG rather than just a puzzle platformer. You will take control of three different characters which are switched at main points of the story. 

One character is a little girl trapped in her own house, probably displaying the fear of the unknown as she is convinced there is something evil in the attic, something mysterious, maybe even dead people? But her entire story also speaks about divorce, about death and maybe even about abuse, perhaps just in a psychological manner. Either way, something is happening here, which only is explained in the end. Another character you’ll be taking control of is a knight who seems to be serving the dark entity portrayed as a villain, but is he truly a villain? The knight’s gameplay is by far my favourite. The girl can’t fight and only pushes things left and right to climb, since she can’t jump high, but the knight actually fights, which is the only sort of combat system in here. A bit of hack and slash and dodging, nothing too detailed. His story is speaking of losing hope, about perhaps being an outsider.

The last character you’ll meet is a middle aged man, who will do most of the puzzle solving, ranging from ruins, to buildings, to castles, caves and woods. He can jump higher than the girl, but is not a fighter like the knight. If enemies cross his ways, he’ll have to run and lure them into a trap or escape. He seems to be searching for someone or something, but it is painfully clear once you reach the last few cutscenes. While the story may seem scattered, it truly comes together to tell one tale.

The end was truly splendid, even I had to share a tear because the game has some very important messages to convey. One sentence that stuck with me is, that we’re all having our own problems and issues and tend to focus on them, hence we lose sight of everyone around us and their problems. Well, if that doesn’t ring true for me, but especially so with the main story to serve as an example.

Enjoyment - 4.5/5

Limbo & Inside

Status: guide used in Limbo for 3-4 puzzles, not for Inside, both finished in less than 5 hours

Points: ⅘ [3,953125] (Limbo) & 4.25/5 [4,15625] (Inside)

Both games were created by Playdead and part of my Halloween Horror week. I am so glad I actually managed to buy them when they were on sale for both amounting to maybe less than 10€? I enjoyed both immensely as I am usually opting towards choosing JRPGs which nowadays rely much more on combat than puzzle solving. Both games were great, though I developed a slight preference for Inside for very few reasons. Finished each in one sitting (or I could have, if I hadn’t played Alan Wake before Limbo). Both are approximately 4 hours long, at least if you’re not a big brain puzzle solver like me.

It’s hinted at in Inside, that Limbo takes place in the same world, but it’s only a few clues and both don’t have much in common except for it to be puzzle platformers where a boy goes on a trip which often leads him straight into death. Further background and knowledge of the story is only emitted through showing. Limbo and Inside feature absolutely no dialogue, what you see in both worlds is everything you can go by to understand the story and yes, it’s fairly cryptic, leaving a lot to interpretation, especially in Limbo and less in Inside but since they’re fairly equal gameplay wise I am putting both into one Review with two different scores.

Artwork/Designs - 3.5/5 & 3.75/5

Limbo features the most simplistic looks, everything is black and white and the background receives some sort of grain filter. There’s not exactly any character modelling or designs as our main character is merely a small black figure, hinting to be a young boy. He’s displayed as a silhouette with shiny white eyes and even the spider you’ll encounter is nothing but a mix of a black circle and hairy black legs. You won’t be meeting many characters, but the world looks gorgeous in its simplicity. Given what other Engines are capable of, I can’t give it full points for simply looking good, but the depressing theme fits the gameplay just fine, so I’m giving it a solid 3.5 points.

Inside on the other hand is still simplistic, but it’s featuring darker colours, everything looks more organic and you’ll be seeing many ruins, buildings, fields, woods, adding to a richer, good looking environment, more than Limbo could show with its black and white backgrounds, having not much further depth to them. Overall Inside is a much richer upgrade in terms of looks, I’ve really liked the usage of darker colours to still match the mysterious, gloomy, depressive atmosphere while character designs are still simplistic but look a lot more organic.

Story/Gameplay - 4/5 & 4.25/5

Throughout both games you’ll be running towards the right in a gorgeous puzzle platformer, but let me say from the very beginning that Limbo is a lot more difficult puzzle solving wise, there are perhaps also more puzzles but I did not count them. With that said, I might as well add how achieved I felt solving them mostly on my own. While Limbo’s puzzles are integrated in it’s simplistic visuals, Inside’s puzzles are more reliant on your background, it’s more about interacting than Limbo. The point of both games is to die as often as you can—oh, wait, no, it’s about solving the puzzles without dying and showing off what a beast you are. I might have misunderstood the concept…

Either way, having died in Limbo about 150 times and in Inside about 20-30 times, I can say that Limbo is quite a bit more difficult in its puzzle solving nature. It often happened so unprepared, I was dead before my brain even realised it, despite me screaming at the screen ever so often. Both games feature a super cryptic story where everything story wise is told merely through observations. Limbo however does not exactly deliver you background knowledge, as you go from one puzzle to another until you suddenly find some sort of other dark person. The game description tells you that the boy has been searching for his sister but that’s it, that’s the plot. There’s nothing to go by and nothing to interpret on why his world is full of deaths and people that apparently want to kill the little boy.

Inside on the other hand is more descriptive, leading the boy into a facility where human experiments have been conducted. It’s even hinted that he might have been mind controlled from the very beginning as well. Maybe everything the boy was involved in was nothing more than an experiment for humans to develop… special powers? Breathing underwater being the most apparent one in my opinion. The story still remains cryptic, especially considering that both games probably have a message to convey which I could not comprehend. Maybe… freedom is great? Who knows.

In my opinion both games suffer from minimised story telling, but I enjoyed the gameplay too much to concentrate on the story. While both games are not exactly fear inducing, they have their moments showing you bizarre and grotesque happenings as well as very vivid deaths. The boy being ripped into two, being shredded, being eaten by some sort of wolves etc.

Controls are few and very easy, they’re mostly self explaining. You run with the Joystick and few buttons exist for interacting with the environment while another button lets you jump.

I also couldn’t give many points for the soundtrack… There is no real soundtrack, both games’ feature only environment sounds which are absolutely befitting, especially when the music gets louder at impacting dangerous moments. It also just fits with the simplistic presentation, but I had really hoped for something more substantial. 

Despite that I enjoyed both immensely and can only recommend them, if you’re into solving puzzles.

Enjoyment - 4/5 & 4.25/5