Robokku

@DisplacedTomato still have 4m bells with your name on

Great article. Really conveyed the feeling of a small team on a crazy project. Even at the time, the game felt over-ambitious, but there are worse things a game could be criticised for

@DisplacedTomato send a dodo code now and I’ll see if I can pop over

@DisplacedTomato sorry, it’ll have to be later. Say 11pm UK time? About 3.5 hours from now. Any good?

@DisplacedTomato anything to keep you on the straight and narrow!

Message me on Twitter or Instagram

@Wazeddie22 what’s impressive about ACNH is that although having loss of bells changes the game significantly, it absolutely does not spoil it. You can still only build one bridge a day, buy 5 things a day, move one house a day, etc…

Takes some of the grind out of it and let’s you enjoy the fun stuff. I guess that must be what it’s like to be rich in real life…

@DisplacedTomato I’ll give you 4m bells. That would be funny.

@echoplex the point of NMTs is a fascinating study in itself and a good economics lesson. (Probably. Not an economist so maybe it’s just me!)

NMTs have become the go-to metacurrency of ACNH because they’re scarce (unlike bells). In short, people want NMTs because They don’t have them and because other people want them too.

(Practically speaking, you can also carry a large value of NMTs in a small space. An inventory of bells is about 4m – max 1 hour’s work for a trader. An inventory of 400 NMTs? How long would it take you to earn 800,000 Nook Miles?)

It’s the uselessness of NMTs that make them perfect as a currency. Gold nuggets are also scarce but it’s inconvenient to invest them with abstract value because then any gold crafting becomes ridiculously expensive. (Like if biscuits were money, you wouldn’t eat them.)

Any economist reading that will see I’m definitely not an economist! But makes you think…

@Wazeddie22 it’s all about hooking up with randoms online for dodgy deals – like so much in life! (Right?) Twitter has descended into pure spam but Japanese Twitter remains pretty reliable on the #カブ価 tag. Lots of fun to visit others and see their islands

@RupeeClock It’s a heck of a rabbit-hole to go down! This one made me laugh. Hopefully satirical:

• • -
    Turnip price are 547 Bells on my island!

REPLY WITH NUDES FOR THE DODO CODE!

RTs also appreciated!
#turnips #ACNH

• • -

@Kasma88 Glad you liked it! Thanks for the comment

@Damo @shani

I did enjoy writing this, taking things at a slower pace and sharing the experience. Maybe the biggest thing I got from it was a reminder not to be a cynical know-it-all determined to prove something wrong rather than enjoy the good in it.

@gokev13 Love that story! I was proud enough seeing him learn to walk (somewhat) accurately.

@Glitchling78 Congratulations and good luck! I have been waiting all this time to play games with my older son but don’t want to force it. As @Late said about their niece, better to let them explore and discover for themselves. My first true gaming love was Monkey Island so that’s the one I dream about him playing with his little brother one day. All the best – don’t forget the Switch in your hospital bag

@SpicyWolf Wow, thank you! Nice bunch of people here as I’m sure you know. Hope to see you in the comments some more

@Benji80 Thanks for this comment. If a game’s bland and boring, better to liven the review up

@Moroboshi876 The old arcade game is VERY different to the SNES game and hence to this one. Its gimmick was that it was in a Darius cab, so the screen was a 4:1 aspect ratio – 3 CRTs stitched end-to-end using angled mirrors. You could stab dogs and weird, half-naked giants, though… Wouldn’t stand up as a modern console game IMO.

Gameplay in this is dramatically more fluid and fun. The game is easier, too, which is a positive. Don’t be put off by the arcade game (but do play it if you ever see the original cabinet!)

@Kwehst guess my old brain doesn’t do maths anymore 🤦‍♂️

@Shmupsnstuff appreciate the informed comment. To be fair, I did note the difficulty setting and say the game can be “as chilled as you want”. Difficulty is a badge of honour in the genre so I wouldn’t take “hard” as a criticism. (And personally I thought it got really hard, really fast. Maybe it’s the yoko playfield but I found the patterns /really/ complex.)

For some people, your points will be very useful information so I hope they read the comments.

Finally, thanks for mentioning the blog!
(https://arcade.tokyo)

@commentlife Thank you! Look me up on Twitter and Instagram to follow along (or get my email newsletter!)

The editor added the joys and cons as that wasn’t part of my brief. Perhaps it will be for future reviews or perhaps the editors will continue to look after it. Either way, good stuff I think.

@GrailUK yes, the visuals get more intense when the bullets are really flying – it was hard to take a screenshot at those times!

@Aquamine-Amarine thanks for taking the time to comment. You’ll see from my other reviews that I don’t criticise “fan service” universally or just for the fun of it.

For example, if it actually goes against the characterisation in the game (like in Worldend Syndrome) then that’s a bad artistic choice. (But not enough to drop the score in that case.)

Here, it’s completely gratuitous and adds nothing, then risks being extremely offensive in the way it associates female sexuality with violence and shame. I won’t mark something down just because it’s not the kind of thing I like, but I will explain my thinking then I see an element of a game that isn’t working.

If you like the art in Yozakura Quartet (don’t know it myself), I advise reading that and playing Ikaruga between chapters. That would beat this game hands down.

@neogyo thanks for the comment – glad you liked the review. I knew it would bother some people but all you can do is be honest, I suppose.

The joys and cons were news to me as well, actually! (I.e. not in the copy I submitted) I like them and hope they’ll be required in reviews from now on.

@JasmineDragon Although the core story includes horror-like themes, you can play for long stretches of time without really considering it in the slightest. I suppose this provided a contrast for the rare suspenseful moments but I wouldn’t call it a horror game at all.

@CashMadness

Without wanting to be at all spoilery – and consider that fair warning, anyone reading this! – you probably didn’t mess up when you got the bad ending. Sounds like the demo only shows the most basic part of the game. If you play the full version then I think you will be relieved that it isn’t painfully trial-and-error. (But, as a branching narrative, it’s inevitably going to be a bit like that – especially if you’re a completionist.)

@nintendoknife well I had to leave something for you to add in the comments

(That and I had to google the reference…)

@Xyphon22 yeah, the prologue is entirely linear and it then opens up. However, it never becomes anything like Ace Attorney or Zero Escape in terms of puzzles. If that’s what you like then you’re probably not missing anything here.

@BenAV looking now at other less favourable reviews, I think it gets done down because the reviewers have low tolerance for VNs in general or don’t like the topic of the story. I personally find the subject matter a little hard to stomach but I can’t see that as a reason to mark it down. I also dislike high fantasy but it would be unheard of to drop points on a review just because a game had wizards and elves and stuff. On a personal level, I think the saucy drawings are a turn-off and if you took them away then this would be a very striking piece of YA romance fiction. If you’ve already picked it up then I think you will be really pleased with it. Enjoy!

@Ralizah Steins;Gate? You had me at semicolon.

Thanks for the tip.

I’m playing Worldend Syndrome right now and having fun. It wears its dumbness on its sleeve but the plot’s developing fast. Love the artwork too. Have you looked at it?

@Ralizah yeah I bought it. [THE FOLLOWING IS A BIT SPOILERY] First time through I missed the power bill – only just – so then just blew all my money on every available item. But then I couldn’t play the game because I had no power! Played on my second run but can’t say I was super good. Bullet hell always seems to short circuit my brain! Would ask if anything comes of it but don’t want to get any more spoilery! [END MILD SPOILER]

I think this game pitches itself strangely. It’s promoted as a waifu game with action controlled by bartending and has lots of talk about sex. Actually, I think anyone wanting waifus might be disappointed, the sex talk isn’t the main focus, and the bartending should be allowed to just be an inconsequential thing that the player invests with meaning. If I’d gone in completely cold (and it dropped its subtitle), I think I may have taken it like that. However, like me, anyone reading reviews about it won’t be going in cold and so will probably have those preconceptions which I think spoil its impact.

If it was just out there as a straight-up VN then it would simply be commendable for good character sketches but limited in narrative weight. As is, I feel inclined to judge it on the “bartender action” its title promises.

As I’ve said, though, I really struggled with the score and don’t want to do it down. If someone thinks they might be interested then they will probably not be disappointed.

One last thing – I found the Switch to be absolutely perfect for VN and I’m already playing another. Any recommendations?

@RogerFederer yeah, it was tough! I dropped a lot of coins into it in Tokyo a few years ago. It was set up next to Darius – from which it took the three-screen setup. Looking forward to a refinement of the more forgiving SNES game with that extra dimension of movement!

@Ralizah Thanks for commenting! What made this feel like a cutscene to me is that there is the repeated action of making drinks happening alongside the story, but without much influence over it. I don’t really hold that against it too much, but it sits a bit awkwardly for me alongside other VN that lean towards gameplay – Zero Escape, Danganronpa, e.g.

My view is that the game doesn’t play to “typical old teen-boy vices” – but when that’s something that saturates the genre and we’re not all teenage boys, it’s fair to hope for something different. Ultimately, Valhalla gave us that something different and has rightly been praised for it since it came out on Steam.

Really wrestled with scoring this one and could easily be talked up to an eight (and back down to a seven!)

@RadGravity I suppose what bothered me is that it purports to let you influence the story by mixing drinks, and regularly requires you to mix drinks, but the act of doing so is just bizarrely tangential to what’s going on. Quite what impact you’re making is rarely clear, and most of the time I think you’re making no impact at all. I appreciate VN as a genre, but thought this was unusually oblivious to player input. I really struggled to score it and I’m not surprised opinion is so divided. I’m sure this review will come back to bite me when I review the next VN and people ask “How did that get x when Valhalla got y?”

Appreciate the comment

@tabris95 I really appreciate this comment as I ummed and ah’d so much between a 7 and an 8. I am a VN fan and this is a really good one and certainly something a bit different. It has rightly been praised for a grown-up attitude to sex and relationships, but I ultimately felt it was only really clearing a very low bar in terms of maturity when compared to a great deal elsewhere in the genre (and gaming generally, I suppose). Having said that, your comment has swung me towards an eight – but I’m sure the next one will bring me back to a seven! A very good game.

Thanks all for kind comments. If you like my writing you could check out my site: https://arcade.tokyo/

@CrazyZelda79 Are you sure it’s not a regional Japanese racecourse? Because I know a way we can make some serious money if it is. I’ll cut you in. 😉

@JayJ Yes, but it’s very conclusive evidence so we shouldn’t complain!

@CrazyZelda79 Yes, I was thinking the whole time about the Kentucky Derby, which I totally knew was today! Kentucky’s a regional Japanese racecourse, right?

@BoilerBroJoe Exactly! Just two more… Just two more… Just two more… Just two more…

@Noid I’m very sorry if you thought my Game Boy was really going to predict the future! 😂

I actually submitted it as “My Game Boy Predicts the Future” so it got toned down!

@KingMike aha! Thanks for the info

@LaytonPuzzle27 haha! First draft started with exactly that – arguing that this was somehow the same. Instead of going forwards to 2015, you back to 1993, and instead of going back to 1985, you go forwards to 2019. Otherwise, exactly the same!

@pinta_vodki thanks, appreciate it, and yes I will!

(I have a blog btw: https://arcade.tokyo)

@hirokun hehe, I did wonder if someone would be photographing me. Maybe one of the models could do it to complete the circle?

@jedisquidward wish I could show you my Flying Power Disc shirt… (Check @arcadetokyo if you’re on Instagram! Can I paste links here? https://instagram.com/p/Bn_CO4KF1DT/)

@Knuckles-Fajita It wasn’t so long ago that games mags used to happily showcase the booth babes at E3, but… yeah… Genuinely a complicated situation, but not a good one.

@Guiltygear @ThatNyteDaez Thanks for looking up! Yup, it’s a JRPG for mobile, focused on the Japanese market. Looks like a pretty serious production with loads of environments, characters, cutscenes, etc. Amazing to look at FF7 coming on PS Classic and think that we have these things 10-a-penny in our pocket now…

@Knuckles-Fajita and @HobbitGamer Number 3 is a bit contradictory, but I think that’s how I feel about the “booth babe” situation in Japan.

@Bunkerneath I wrote what I wanted and there were 5 – which means No. 3 was actually on purpose!

@b0nes “obtuse art installation” – Hmm… Fair, perhaps, given the context of a videogames site.

@maruse “stupid beyond measure” – I am willing to go with that.

Thanks for reading and commenting, everyone. I appreciate that it takes your time and I do try to earn it!

@Mando44646 yeah, this aspect of Japanese culture is complex but frustrating.

@bimmy-lee I think you’re exactly right about the associated cultures that build up around arcades and gaming. It’s not just that certain places have or focus on certain games. Thanks for the kind words. If you are interested in Singapore gaming, here’s an old post from my old blog: https://arcade.tokyo/9pp/videogame-tourism-in-singapore
And I’m particularly fond of this story about a Real Escape game from the same trip: https://arcade.tokyo/log/last-garden-real-escape-game-in-singapore

Hope to be back soon on Nintendo Life. Meanwhile there’s my daily blog, Twitter and Instagram so come and say hi!