kikidarko

Best game I have ever played, I would say. It's simple, new (or it was new when I got it 13 years ago!) and cute. If you don't understand this game, hey, I don't blame you. But definitely worth checking out anyway.

I LOVE Katamari Damacy, it was the only PlayStation 2 game I played besides Tomb Raider. I got this because it was a $5 download and I figured hey, a remake of Katamari Damacy but portable? Take my money! Sadly, though, this game isn't as great as it could be. I will always laugh at The King Of All Cosmos' one-sided dialogue with The Prince, and his appearance in this game is...frightening, but in a good way. The reason this game frustrates me so much, though, is how hard it is! I've been playing Katamari Damacy forever but it's not enough - even with the "Classic Controls" setting! That's the only thing that really bothers me. I don't mind that it is very similar to Katamari Damacy, I was mostly drawn the the portable element. However, I suddenly get frustrated when I never really got frustrated with the original. The King Of All Cosmos still has me laughing out loud, though, so despite the difficulty, I won't be putting this game down any time soon - that is, until I get access to my PlayStation 2 again.

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom is very close to my heart, and needless to say, I am very biased in its favor. The historical element is thorough and well-rounded and I like the setup: how you don't just pick a guy from a list, you have to figure it all out in one route. One of my all-time favorite otome games - it's a classic. I could (and have!) easily play any route without getting bored or feeling like the romance or the story is getting overused.

I am a big fan of both otome games and visual novels alike, so the amount of romance a game has usually doesn't matter to me as long as it fits well with the storyline. In Norn9 Var Commons, however, I felt that it had too much romance, too quickly, and that left the story - which seemed very interesting having to do with time travel, strange powers, and an almost dictatorial worldwide organization - to be much less explored than it could have been. I wanted very much to love this game. First of all, the amount of characters overwhelmed me: 3 heroines to choose from, each getting a choice of three guys, for a total of 9 men/9 routes. The game even recommends the order you play them in, to an extent. The first time I played, the first half of the route started off very interesting to me, moved at an alright (maybe a little fast) pace romance-wise and a good pace story-wise, but suddenly, the heroine and her love interest were head-over-heels in love and it hit me out of nowhere. I actually thought I had missed a section! I didn't see how he could love her so fast (honestly her personality was a little dull, which may have been cute had they had a stronger more, ahem, positive history between them, or if she at least smiled more often or said something interesting once in a while!) although her falling for him seemed more natural to me, at least. Then, after they fall in love, it's one chapter away from the end of the story, and all that had happened so far was the tension between the two and a few mentions of the very interesting plot sans-romance. From that point, everything felt sloppy and rushed and unrealistic. It seemed to go about the same for each story line that I played: too long in the beginning while I waited for them to get together (or anything to happen with the plot), their love and the **** new discovery or conflict occurring around the same time, rushed ending to finish it all off. Also, there were a lot of typos, but I understand that due to the rush to get the English version out they may have been passed over. Still, it added to the "sloppy and rushed" vibe I got from the game. I don't know if the sheer amount of characters and routes was what made this game lack or if it was just the focus on romance over the plot or if the routed were just too short, but it definitely felt like it could have been done better. For the price I bought it, which was half price, I think it's a nice enough game whose variety (and that Quest Mode) is what keeps me from giving it a simply bad review. I thought the art was nice, different from what I usually see which I like. Overall, good game, but definitely doesn't meet its expectations.