If you love visual novels as much as I do, you probably already know how deeply moving and beautifully crafted the original “Kanon” is. I played the original release with an English translation patch because, back then, it was never officially published in North America. Fast forward to now, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that a remastered version has just been released on Steam for PC gamers! You can check it out here.
Kanon Overview
What is Kanon?
“Kanon” is a visual novel developed by Key, a renowned studio known for creating emotionally impactful and beautifully written games. First released in 1999, “Kanon” was Key’s debut visual novel, paving the way for other beloved titles like “Clannad” and “Little Busters.” “Kanon” combines elements of drama, romance, and supernatural themes, set against a backdrop of a snow-covered town that adds to its melancholic and hopeful atmosphere.read more
Sunny Side is the latest indie life simulation game that has captured the attention of gamers worldwide. Released in early 2024 by RainyGames, a small but passionate development team, Sunny Side promises a vibrant world filled with modern touches that set it apart from traditional farming sims. In this review, we’ll dive into what makes Sunny Side unique, its strengths, and its areas for improvement.
What is Sunny Side?
Game Overview
Sunny Side is a life simulation game where players can immerse themselves in a large open world, tending to farms, customizing their homes, and interacting with a diverse cast of characters. The game stands out with its inclusion of modern technology and extensive customization options, allowing players to truly make their virtual life their own.read more
“The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty” offers a haunting glimpse into the late Ming period of China, a time rife with social upheaval and severe famine. The game stands out for its meticulous attention to historical details, especially in depicting the stark realities faced by women and children. During this era, young girls like Sui, the character in our story, were often seen as burdens during times of scarcity. Desperation led many families to make heart-wrenching decisions—selling their daughters to human traffickers or even more dire actions. This game bravely confronts these issues, presenting a narrative that is not just educational but deeply moving, reflecting the harsh historical truths of human trafficking and the undervalued lives of women and children.read more
Review of “Hua Mulan: A Chinese Learning Adventure” – An Innovative Language Learning Game
Introduction
Hua Mulan: A Chinese Learning Adventure takes a refreshing approach to language learning by incorporating it within an interactive narrative that’s heavily inspired by the time-bending escapades of the TV series “Quantum Leap.” Unlike traditional games, players don’t just embody the legendary heroine Mulan; instead, they leap into various characters throughout Chinese history, using their Mandarin skills to communicate and mend time continuum rifts. This review explores both the strengths and areas for improvement of this promising early access game.read more
Welcome to the world of otome games, where love, romance, and personal growth intertwine to create immersive, interactive experiences. In this today’s post, we’ll explore 12 of the best stat-raising otome games that will captivate your heart and challenge your strategic skills.
As you embark on these virtual journeys, you’ll develop your protagonist’s skills and attributes, unlocking new paths and romantic possibilities with every choice you make.
From the pioneering classics to the innovative gems of today, this article delves into the intricacies of each game, comparing and contrasting their storylines, anime graphics, stat-raising gameplay, and other elements. read more
Rhapsody a musical adventure is one of my most beloved favorite games of the late 90s/early 2k. Hard to believe that was like 20-30 years ago, right? Even harder to believe that there are several sequels for this game, that for some reason or another, never made it to the USA, despite the relatively cult classic sleeper hit of the first title.
Palais De Reine looks quite similar to Princess Maker and Long Live The Queen, among other stat-raising simulation games. This game looks fantastic, but upon first installing the game, Windows 10 Defender detected a Trojan. For me, it was a severe one, and I’m praying it didn’t damage my PC. I am in the midst of contacting Steam for a refund.
In the discussion section, many other people are reporting Trojans – some with different names than the Trojan my PC discovered. My PC discovered Alec!ac – others are discovering Phonzy and Wacatac. The developers are telling people it is a false positive and to white list it and reinstall the game. Some people claim even after that, the game still can’t launch.read more
Thanks to the folks at Galdra Studios for allowing me to review their debut visual novel, Arcadia Fallen. As a first release from an indie game publisher, Arcadia Fallen definitely exceeded my expectations in many ways. First of all, the game’s high production values from voice acting, to character portraits, and even a catchy anime opening song and animation, all pull you right into the game. From there, the characters and story and unraveling the mysteries of the game keep you glued to your gaming chair. For those that find routine visual novel gameplay a bit dull, you might like the puzzle aspects in Arcadia Fallen because it has a nice crafting and alchemy feature.read more
I’ve spent several hours and am on my third life in the new “child raising” sim game, Growing Up, available now via Steam. This game reminds me a great deal of Chinese Parents. Both games use a “brain map” type of setup to unlock skills. Both continue on forever as each life ends and a new life begins. Both have you balance your mental health and parent’s satisfaction. Both games involve dating and friendships and schoolwork and exams. Yes both games are incredibly similar. It’s hard to believe that they are different games or by different developers… but you know, Great minds think alike!read more
I just started playing Wildermyth on the PC yesterday. This game is very fun and very challenging. I warn you, don’t get too attached to any of your characters, because it won’t be long before they die. Permadeath is real in this game. You get two chances. First time, your character will be maimed, second time, dead. I’m thinking I have to start all over because my characters just aren’t strong enough for the battle that they’re facing. I’ve tried twice now. Some had already died before that too.read more
I just purchased Calico and began playing it over the weekend. Calico is a cute anime style Cat cafe game. The gameplay is simple and relaxing. You collect cute animals and run errands for towns folk while baking cute treats to sell in your cafe. You can also buy and unlock new recipes, new furniture, and new outfits.
What I love most about this game is how inclusive it truly is. You can be fat, slim, short, tall, black white, or green, or yellow, red, pink, whatever. You can have long hair, short hair, curly hair, straight hair, bangs, no bangs, side bangs, etc. I mean my character looks almost exactly like me in real life. And within game, the NPCs are various body/skintone types too. read more
Ever wonder what would happen if you took Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Or Stardew Valley and replaced all of the humans with cats? Me neither, until I played Cattails Become A Cat on Steam. It’s on sale right now for the winter steam sale, the biggest sale of the year, for a few more days.
So what is Cattails? I’ve only begun playing the game today, but it’s advertised as being “Like Stardew Valley But With Cats” and near as I can tell so far, that’s a very accurate description. It also reminds me of the children’s book series “Warriors” about various cat clans and lives of cats.read more
Much like the first game, the second game is all about an alternate future universe where humans are banned from holding government offices and the country is run by cats.
Also like the first game, Cat President 2, never takes itself very seriously and is full of a lot of over the top cat puns and cheesy humor.read more
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World is a brand new game by Koei Tecmo Games to celebrate 20 years of the series. Wow has it been that long already? I still remember the first 2 games way back when. And you know what else I remember, a little-known Nintnedo DS offshoot game in the Atelier Series called Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island which came out about 10 years ago.
So why Am I mentioning Atelier Annie? Because, if you’ve ever played it, then you know what to expect from Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists. Both games are unlike any of the rest of the Atelier Games, and instead put you in a role of managing a city and completing missions to advance.
Nelke has some really negative reviews – at least on Steam, but I purchased Nelke anyways, on a hunch it’d be like Atelier Annie, and you know what, I’m not disappointed. If you liked Annie, you’ll like Nelke. Conversely, if you hated Annie, you’ll hate Nelke, and if you’ve never played either game, well there’s only one way to find out then, and that’s by giving it a go for yourself.
The reviews on steam are complaining how different Nelke is — and to some — how boring it is… But honestly Atelier Annie was one of my favorites in the series. I loved the humorous story / humorous main character, and yes, I enjoyed the more “Sim Like” gameplay of building a city.
Nelke is not without flaws however; Unlike Annie, it lacks the humor and charm, and feels a bit dry and dull so far in the story. I’m 4 hours in at this point… which brings to another flaw, in that 4 hours in, I’m still in the tutorial… This game is very very very linear in the tutorial… Like almost everything will be on lockdown… for a long while… expect your first 8+ hours to be linear AF….
After that though there really is a TON of stuff to do in this game. It is NOT boring at all. You can craft items, gather materials, build new buildings, talk to your villagers, discover new recipes, sell items in your shops, and invest in new routes and tools to use in your adventures. There are simplistic turn based combats and different characters to recruit to your village.
You have to complete some required, and other optional tasks within a set number of days within the game. This can make it difficult and frustrating, so save often and in multiple save slots to try to minimize time lost if you miss a goal.
The game either runs slow on my laptop, or just is really slow by design, to the point where its a little frustrating. It may just be my laptop though and can probably be improved if I adjust some settings.
The main complaint a lot of people have is that while exploring you do nothing but watch your characters walk by on the screen. They will converse, gather items, and occasionally run into random enemy encounters. The battles are also slow and tedious. I do agree with these basic gameplay flaws. However, they don’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the other aspects of city building and mission completing and watching my city grow and evolve based on my decisions and choices made in where to invest and what to build next, etc.
The graphics are insanely adorable as always with the Atelier series.
Unlike a lot of the other games in the Atelier Universe, this one does not have English voice acting. I do like to have the original voice actors, but I also sometimes like to have an English cast too. I was disappointed they didn’t offer both.
I assume replay value is high because each city you build will be pretty unique and you will attract different stores, different npcs, and different quests based on how your city is developing.
All and all I’d rate the score card like this:
Title: Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists – Ateliers Of The New World –
Platform – (for this review The PC version was used.) It’s also available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Where to Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMZZYK1?tag=amz-mkt-chr-us-20&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-org00-win10-other-nomod-us000-pcomp-feature-scomp-wm-5&ref=aa_scomp
Geeky: 3/5 – Points for bringing back some of the popular characters from this series over the past 20 years.
Sweetie: 5/5 – For the casual gameplay and kawaii art
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Gameplay: 7/10 – I do love the sim aspects, having been a huge fan of Atelier Annie (easily one of my top 3 games in the Atelier universe). But I do agree that the game is slow and the wait for the payoff/reward is pretty steep. The game also doesn’t run great, can’t tell if it’s just my PC though maybe.
Story: 3/10 – I’m not loving the story, or lack there of. I’m 4 hours in and there’s not much of any story to be found; it does keep hinting at solving a mystery about a fruit from a legendary tree. But compared to other Atelier games the story feels less engaging so far.
Characters: 10/10 – I love seeing popular characters from the Atelier games return all in a brand new game. I also love the new characters that were created just for this game.
Voice Acting: 7/10 – The original Japanese voice cast does a great job and sounds super cute, but where’s the dual English voice acting? A bit disappointing especially for a 20th anniversary edition, you’d think they would have put a little more time and effort into the localization on this one. It feels cheap and rushed to not have both to choose from.
Music: 10/10 – Always love the music in the Atelier games, and Nelke doesn’t disappoint here either.
Replay Value: 8/10 – I think replay value will be very high, but I’m not looking forward to dredging through 5+ hours of linear handheld tutorials each time.
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Overall I would recommend this game to anyone who does not mind slower paced casual simulation games, or to anyone who remembers playing Atelier Annie on the DS. I like Atelier Annie a lil bit more because of the humorous story; but Nelke’s story may pick up and become more interesting. I may come in eventually and update my review scores if I find the story to improve as I get further into the game. Gameplay wise though it is almost identical to Atelier Annie, so if that’s your thing, be sure to check Nelke out.
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