I just started playing Birdie Crush a few weeks ago. It has a lot going for it. First of all it has an awesome opening song that I absolutely adore. Secondly it has cute anime graphics with various costumes and equipment to collect that make it in part at least a Dressup game. Thirdly, even people that don’t like anime, like birdie crush for the golf gameplay such as my fiancé – finally found a cute game he will play with me lol .
Well what is there to say about birdie crush that hasn’t already been said? Lol. It’s a golf game. It’s free and available on both iPhone and android mobile devices. It has cute anime graphics and rare event items and costumes.read more
Today I’m writing my review for Ciel Fledge. I’ve spent 20 hours or more on this game over the past few months, and it is at times slow, and suffers from really really bad controls on the Switch version… but I kept playing… and I was about halfway through the 10 years with my virtual daughter, when I reached the bad end. Pro tip if battling the gigant, attack the little shadow Ciels around the gigant, and don’t attack these shadows if they’re beside you, lol… I burnt myself… literally. :(… I saved right before that, but I’m burnt out on this game for now. You can also save your game after the credits and start a new game+ with all of your items and money and some of the things, like the diets and etc already unlocked. Nice :).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.
Geeky: 3/5 – On the fence with this score… Production values are fairly low and it shows, also not much “gameplay” as is the nature of visual novels. But it does earn a few points for geeky internet “meme-like” humor.
Sweetie: 5/5 – High marks for being an otome game (a game with a female protagonist) and for having cute cats. Also has pretty good character development and surprisingly good writing.
Concept: 8/10 Cat President is an otome game in which you get to help one of 6 different cat candidates (spoiler: one of them is a dog) become the nominee of their political party. You might also fall in love with your chosen candidate by the end of the game. Like most visual novels there is little to do aside from click and read. I like this genre of games a lot, but if you’re not used to this format, it may not be your cup of tea. On the plus side, Cat President takes a fun, whimsical, and light hearted approach to the visual novel genre. Most of the routes are short (around 2 hours each). There are multiple endings including normal, good, and bad endings which adds some more replay time. If you get all of your desired endings in one try, I estimate this game will take 12-15 hours to complete. Because of the light hearted nature, and short length of this game, it may be a purrfect game to give visual novels a try. However, if you’re a visual novel veteran, you might be disappointed by the “fluffy” nature of the plot, or by the somewhat amateur artwork, especially given the lack of poses of each sprite.
Story: 9/10 You play as a young girl who has been out of work for some time when she decides to attend a debate with her best friend and you are called upon to give a question to the candidates. You mention how you’ve lost your job and want to know how the candidates will help people like you. They all have the purrfect answer, by offering you a spot on their campaign team. These are no ordinary candidates however, as they are all cats (and a dog). This is how the game opens. The backstory explains that politics became so corrupt 20 years ago that humans are no longer allowed to hold any type of political office. It’s also eluded to pretty early on that cats can (and most do) become human (if they can afford it). Although the story does take itself lightly, and has some genuinely WTF moments, it’s not without more serious and delicate moments as well such as relationship drama, political scandals, and very likeable characters who have very human-like flaws. I was very surprised by how relateable the characters felt to me. I could see qualities in them and in myself, in my cats, and surprisingly most of all, in my past relationships with other humans. I went into this not expecting much other than comedy, so I was really surprised when I felt myself identifying with or nodding in understanding/agreement with many of the characters and situations in this game. Plus, if you like comedy (who doesn’t like comedy right?) and even more-so if you like cats, and are familiar with the internet memes, then you will really appreciate the humor in this game.
Gameplay: 5/10 – Unfortunately, as is the nature of visual novels, there’s really no “gameplay” per say, however the game does have all of the basic functions one expects in a visual novel such as being able to review different scenes or endings and gallery items. It does feature a lot of different endings and have high replay value. I’m not really so much of a fan of the “choose which route you want at the begining of the game” it seems to me only cheap “mobile games” use this mechanic, while “real” visual novels like Clannad for example, let you dip in and out of different characters’ routes, so you might experience different parts of the game each time you play. Locking into a route right out of the chute, limits then which stories and experiences you can enjoy in each play through. I’ve noticed this mechanic becoming increasingly popular, but I’m just not a fan of it. I like the “challenge” in trying to get with the guy (or cat in this case) that I want to be with, and putting me on his route right away takes away this challenge, and therefore, in my opinion, diminishes the fun a little bit for me.
Graphics: 5/10 – This is probably my biggest complaint with this novel. The game could have been really “cute” I think if it had “anime” style drawings for the characters and cats in the game, similar to Dandelion Wishes Brought to You, or other Otome games featuring cats and animals. The photographs of the cats are cute, but my biggest complaint is they are COMPLETELY static, they needed to have more photos in different poses, or different expressions. As a cat lover and owner, I find my own cats and those we watch on youtube etc to be extremely expressive. These static sprite images don’t capture much emotion or charm of these cats. They could have used different poses or angles, or tried to get their cats to be more expressive for some of the shoots (but well cats do what they wanna do so I understand maybe it was more difficult lol). I did critique the artwork when I left a brief steam review, and I was told that it was intentional to be more humorous and fit the theme and feeling of the game, and also because the creator wanted to include his friends’ real life cats. I did write back and suggest maybe just adding some more varied photos/poses would help – but I still think anime, ultimately is the way to go – it’s what the target audience wants, and what we expect. I am not a “graphics whore” – and I play all sorts of indie games (sprite based etc) and retro 8 bit and 16 bit games — but with a Visual Novel, the art work becomes highly important, because you don’t have that “gameplay” you need the artwork to help tell the story, hence the name “VISUAL” Novel, right? So the art was disapointing, if for no other reason, than it felt too still / stiff and wasn’t emotive or expressive. Although the writing was full of charm and did a great job defining the characters, the art didn’t help draw out that charm in any way.
Music: 6/10 – Music “gets the job done”, the main track is Hail to the Chief, the official presidential anthem of the USA. It’s really the only track I remember hearing consistently throughout, but I do remember hearing different tracks, including a vocal track even, but they’re ultimately not very memorable. The good news is, since each route is short, they can get by with a very limited number of music tracks, and the music itself does its job by providing background noise while not distracting or detracting anything from the focus of the story.
Replay Value: 10/10 – The replay value is exceptional here due to there being 6 dateable candidates, and each one having multiple endings. The characters are also diverse enough that each route feels like a fun and unique experience. The relatively short nature of each route makes multiple playthroughs easy and enjoyable.
Overall: 51/70 73% “C Good Game for Girls” – If you love games like Hatoful Boyfriend, and love cats, furries, internet humor, memes, youtube, or just want a fun, light hearted visual novel with great characters and a surprisingly warm and touching, though ultimately hilarious story, then you need to check out Cat President – a More Purrfect Union.
Princess Maker 2 is part of the Princess Maker Franchise – Note – none of these games were ever released in English. Princess Maker 2’s translation was mostly complete – 99.99999% when their licensing agreement fell through and also the game met tough criticism (by American media and press outlets) from people that viewed it as too pedophiliac in nature despite there being absolutely no sex scenes in this game. The (western) world was just not ready for Princess Maker 2 (and may never be ready either).
There are many websites which offer Princess Maker 2 (in English) as “abandonware” however; it is the wish of the creators and those involved in the (failed) localization that you never download or play this game (you can google about that too, there’s copies of letters from people involved in the project all over the internet, in which they remind us that this is NOT abandonware and to not “pirate” the game. — So Take that as you will. It’s a little bit different from a “Fan Translation” in which you can still support the creators by buying the original game and “patching” it with the english translation – in order to play Princess Maker 2 (in a language you can understand), you’re going to have to pirate it – I’m not putting a link here, I’m not condoning it, I’m not promoting it – I’m just telling you, it’s out there, if you search for it and if you care to play it. And that that is the only way to play this game in a language that you can read and understand.
There are many similar, but ultimately inferior, games which have been developed by English speaking fans, drawing inspiration from the Princess Maker franchise. These games include but are not limited to Cutie Knight Deluxe, Prince Maker, Long Live the Queen, and Spirited Heart Deluxe. I recommend checking them out, they’re still great games, but I found myself constantly comparing them to Princess Maker, and found them to be inferior to it in every way (art, story, number of activities, number of endings, variety of things to do, etc.) – That is not to say they are bad games – I own them all and love them – but they are no Princess Maker.
Anyways, Princess Maker 2 is a great game – as are all the other games in the series which I have supported and purchased despite not being able to understand them. There’s even a (relatively) new mobile game – in Korean language which I play on Bluestacks (an android simulator). As far as I know there’s no plans to bring those games to an English audience any time soon. The same people who fan translated Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side (which I reviewed here by the way) – had indicated interest in Princess Maker 4 or 5 translation – however, to my knowledge that translation has not even begun yet. Many other translations have begun, but never gotten further than intro or menu translations for any of these games. I sincerely hope, maybe someone in the fan translation community might visit my little blog one day and see that there is a “need” to translate these games which have no hope of ever being commercially released outside of Asian territories.
With all of that out of the way, here’s my review of Princess Maker 2:
Title: Princess Maker 2
Publisher: Gainax
Genre: Life Sim / Raising Sim / Dating Sim / RPG
Release Date: 1993 Japan Only
Platform: (all different kinds, but the one I’m reviewing is the PC version) (It was also on Sega Saturn, PS2, and more consoles)
Geeky: 1 star
Sweetie: 5 hearts
Overall: 77/100 77% C+ “Good Game for Girls”
Concept: 10/10 You raise a daughter from the age of 8 to 18. You see her grow and change as you manage her schedule in different ways, and you also battle in turn based rpg fights and dungeon crawling elements (I think that feature is unique to Princess Maker 2 – I know some of the other games don’t include the battling / dungeoneering elements.) You lead her to her destiny in dozens of different endings. Her sprite will change to reflect her mood, her condition, and her age as time goes on.
Gameplay: 10/10 You set your girl’s schedule choosing different tasks for her such as cooking, magical battle, dancing, etiquette, visiting the palace, reading, etc, etc. There’s probably about 20 different options to choose from. You can also choose to give her a break by giving her some allowance to go shopping in town, or splurging and taking her on a vacation. She’ll randomly encounter different people, sometimes they will attack her, other times sell or give her items, or sometimes just chat with her all of which may effect her stats. You can also choose to explore dungeons for treasure, items, and more which greatly alter her stats. There’s also a dressup element to the game and what you have her wear also effects her stats. All of these stats and her relationships with all of the other characters are taken into account when deciding what ending you will receive.
Storyline: 7/10 You are a war hero who defeats a demon – the gods are so thankful to you that they grant your lifelong wish for a family – you are all alone, and unmarried. Now you become a single father to a very young cute girl who needs your guidance. The plot is up to you! Will she become a powerful fierce wizard, a war general just like daddy, or a princess in the palace, or maybe she’ll even fall in love with you and become your wife! (which is why the game was so opposed in America lol – dunno why they couldn’t just remove that one ending and release the game still – but whatever, I’m not in the game industry so I dunno all the details, just what I’ve read online. Seems like such a waste to have completed all that work and spent money localizing this game and then cave to media pressure and pull the plug at the 11th hour.) It’s a very loose gloss-over type of plot, that doesn’t get very deep while playing the game, but that branches into dozens and dozens of endings and hidden scenes and lets you chart out your own destiny.
I just discovered =&0=& which according to the developer,=&1=&is an action-packed magical =&2=&. You play the principal of an academy, tasked with training your students to save the world, all while finding missing cats, delivering love letters, and helping elderly ladies to cross the road… oh and fighting monsters.”
Features:
School-simulation JRPG
Unique 2.5D graphics
Real-time battle system
Manage and build your school
Recruit and train your students
Promote your students into various class levels
Multiple endings
For Pc, Mac, and Linux, Available on Steam and DRM Free
Job Class System similar to FF5
Crafting System
The gameplay is 2 fold, focusing on managing your students so that they graduate, and then selecting a job class for them similar to Final Fantasy 5. Your students then go out and battle monster with a real-time active combat system.
Also, if you back the kickstarter, you get access to kickstarter exclusive backer reward “Night Mode” In which you may be surprised by your students’ behaviors after hours. Such things, remind me fondly of Graduation 95 by Mixx.
Grab it on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com2us.tinyfarm.normal2.freefull.google.global.android.common&hl=en
Geeky Factor:
Sweetie Factor:
Concept: 6/10 Tiny Farm is a game similar in nature to that of Harvest Moon or Farmville. The objective is to take care of live stock, plant and harvest crops, go fishing, and breed the animals in your farm, all while making a profit to buy new farming equipment, better seeds, better livestock, etc. It’s one of those games that’s fun in small doses, and addictive at first, but if you intend to play it heavily, you may become bored by the repetitive nature of these games. They try to lessen that effect somewhat by regularly having special events with limited edition livestock or other prizes that you don’t want to miss out on, which keeps you logging in to keep up with the latest in-game events and items. I also find it a bit more interesting than just a farming simulator as you can also run your own zoo, or go to the beach, or participate in other activities as well.
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Gameplay: 7/10 The gameplay is pretty simple and straight forward, the controls are easy, you can click on an animal to bring up a submenu where you can give it “love” which helps it level up, and once it reaches certain levels of love it can breed with certain other animals who also have max love. You can also sell your animals to make room for new animals (which you’ll have to do a lot in the early levels as your space is very limited). You get to play the lucky bag gacha once every 24 hours for free and inside you will find things like animals, eggs, decorations, buildings, etc. You also get to go on a safari once a day for free. The safari is a mini game in which you must turn over cards to collect animal foot prints. Once you reach a certain number of footprints you’re able to bring home a new animal. You can find different animals in different areas on the map. You can place buildings and decorations around your farm, zoo, or beach to increase the profits from these areas. Also back on the farm, you can hire a search party to capture different animals; the choices change each day with different animals being able to be found. Legendary animals also appear and can be captured after having given animals on your farm enough love. To capture the legendary creatures you’ll need to spend even more love; which becomes problematic as you never have enough love when the animals first appear – they do this because they want you to spend money. If you can find a way to level up, that will replenish your love and allow you to capture the animal before it disappears. Visiting friends gives you a few bonuses, but is pretty useless, there’s really no social interaction or multiplayer appeal to this game. The repetitive nature of the game also drops it down a few points in our score, it’s just not very fun after awhile. I like to check in on my farm 3 or 4 times a day for about 15-25 minutes at a time; anything more than that would be incredibly boring.
Story: 0/10 There is literally no story. The game is going to take a hit in our score books here, since we always rate games based on story and gameplay.
Characters: 8/10 I kinda “fudged” this category a bit (otherwise the score will be too low); and for this review, I am considering the animals themselves as the characters in this game, since there are no characters and no story. But there are some SERIOUSLY CUTE animals…. A llama in a banana costume, a nine tails in a barista costume, and many more. They’re over the top, creative, cute, zany, and limited edition too which makes me want to play to collect em all (like pokemon). The animals are really the heart and soul of the game. I think they could add a feature similar to pokemini, lineplay, or cocoplay though where you have a human avatar representing yourself and get to dress her/him and collect outfits from the gacha. I also think they could open up inter-species breeding. (maybe it unlocks at a higher level, I only began playing last week), to offer a wider range of pets. Right now it’s pretty specific, pets that look the same like a bearded pig and boar can’t breed with each other even or a Black cow and a Dairy Cow, when it seems like breeding them should be possible. So I deducted a point there.
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Customization: 7/10 You can customize where you place your buildings and which animals you have on exhibit in your zoo. However, there’s little to do to customize the animals themselves. You can purchase “special effects” like rose petals or other things to place around your animals, but the effects available for purchase are limited (can count on one hand). And as mentioned above they’re missing out on further customization by neglecting to have human avatars, outfit gachas, or even outfits or accessories for the animals. Most of all though, I think the game could be more customizeable by allowing us to set different features within our shops; think of the old retro Rollercoaster Tycoon game for Sega Genesis, you could choose how salty your food was, how much ice was in your fountain drinks, etc. Finding the right balance between profit and happy customers. I think a feature like that brought to Tiny Farm could really make it shine and differentiate itself from its competition. But the buildings are upgradeable which unlocks more profits and bonuses which is a nice touch. I just would like to see them take customization a step or two further.
Kawaiiness (Cuteness): 10/10 – This is the cutest little farming game I’ve ever seen, the pets are so adorable. The fact that there are so many different animals, and especially lots of in game events with limited time animals makes it even more adorable. I would play this any day compared to farmville or hay day.
Music: 8/10 Cute and catchy music that is repetitive but does not get annoying
Graphics: 10/10 The graphics are “pixel” style and have a cute retro feel. The buildings are brightly colored and there’s a lot of different styles of pets and buildings to choose from.
Performance: 10/10 I have not experienced a game crash or any lag while playing on my old Ipad 2 (before Air designations). I have only been playing for a week though so that may change as my farm grows and more buildings/animals are packed onto my screen (taking more resources to display).
Edit It has begun! Full contents of bundle as follows:
For a Minimum of $3 You get:
Yojinbo the Body Guards; and The Sagara Family
For a Minimum of $10 you get all of the above PLUS:
Moreo Downhill Night; My Girlfriend is President; and Cosplay Fetish Academy
For a Minimum of $20 you get all of the above PLUS:
School Days HQ
I already preordered my JASTUSA Bundle from Groupee’s website. And you can too! But you have to hurry, because this is limited to just 3,000 bundles worldwide! Just head over to http://groupees.com/vn2 and decide how much you want to spend. $20 (or $18 during the preorder period) will get you all the games in this bundle. But they have smaller packs starting at just $8 for a few games. JASTUSA is one of the leading publishers of visual novel games in English. Their games cost a pretty penny on their website, making this the deal of a lifetime for visual novel fans! You get each game for under $3, while they typically retail for $40+ on JASTUSA site.
School Days HQ and My Girkfriend Is President are both confirmed to be included in this bundle.
The admin also teased that the Non-hentai game that will be included is either Stein’s Gate or Yojinbo. – I have played both and they are both EXCELLENT games. Everyone in chat on Groupees is complaining about Yojinbo – Because I assume not many of us girls are over there on the site right now — Let me tell you, Yojinbo is an amazing game with a TON of “feels”… It’s a historical period piece — But unlike Hakouki (which I found REALLY fricken boring), Yojinbo spices things up with a lot of magic and fantasy elements too! I like it WAY more than Hakouki and I would not be upset to have a digital copy of it now that my newer PC no longer has a CD Rom drive. Stein’s Gate of course is just all kinds of awesome and I’ve already reviewed it in detail over here: https://geekysweetie.com/steins-gate-review/ (based on the fan translation version)
As to what other items will be included, we will find out in less than 30 minutes when the (non pre-order) sales begin!
