Recent reviews by Danto

Heartopia caught me by surprise and delivers perfectly on what it promises to be: a cozy life sim. It borrows a lot of elements from other games in the genre while blending them seamlessly together with a fleshed out social aspect. While the PC port can be rough around the edges (mainly the camera controls), it is a great time and stands up there with the greats. Don't fret the free-to-play tag or the gacha elements; F2P players will find plenty to do and a lot of items without having to pull out the credit card. The only thing I wish for would be gamepad support. I'm excited for the future of this title. As a last note, who cares if some crusty background texture or whatever was made using AI. It does not take away from the game and its creativity in the slightest.

Avoid this PC port at all costs. While the PSP version of Cladun X2 is a beloved and underrated gem, this PC port is poor in quality with major technical flaws that render the game virtually unplayable. Issues include a failure to recognize common gamepads, awful resolution scaling, and even worse, a seemingly unfixable state of constant 7-12 FPS. These are just the issues I encountered while others have reported many more, such as a flickering screen, disappearing sound, and crashes upon saving. As of right now, this game should not be on sale for modern machines.

Despite it still being in EA, Elin has already achieved what many other titles can only dream of. It feels incredibly fleshed out and polished, and it's made with a lot of love for the genre and its predecessor, Elona. The developer is incredibly active, listens to the community, and focuses on making the best game possible. This might not just be my GOTY, but one of my favorite games ever now. Very excited to see Elin stand amongst other giants of the genre in the future, which it already admittably does. My review doesn't do the game justice but I just want to spread the good word. Thank you, Noa.

A game that was once enjoyable and definitely a unique experience has finally gone down the drain. We all saw it coming and now it happened. My criticism has been stated a dozen times by other people already, so I'll save myself from the typing. Stay away from this disaster.

A masterfully crafted turn-based roguelike! Give it a shot if it looks even slightly interesting to you. You won't be disappointed.

[TL;DR, ★★★★/out of four rating]
You have probably heard of STEINS;GATE in some capacity before stumbling onto this store page if you are even slightly interested in manga and/or anime. I doubt there is much need for me to shill this awesome story about time travel, friendships, and gel bananas, but I feel like doing so anyway. Or maybe you are just uncertain if you should dabble yourself into visual novels to begin with, and if this should be your starting point, I can maybe help you make up your mind.

[GENERAL PREMISE]
STEINS;GATE is an incredibly well-crafted story and experience. It is about a love-worthy cast of characters that experience some well thought-out time travel shenanigans, craft friendships, and with a fair bit of drama to top it all off. Oh, and let's not forget the top notch, and by now, iconic, waifus. Going any more into the details of its story would ruin the experience, but let me say this: it is one of the best-rated visual novels AND animes for a damn good reason. It's simply a masterpiece and it all has been said a thousand of times before. If any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, what are you waiting for? Buy it. With that being said, there are two more things I would like to write about that concern STEINS;GATE. First up is the fan-made patch that turns STEINS;GATE into its best version yet and addresses some of the issues this version of the game has. It is more than recommended to install that patch.

[FAN-MADE PATCH]
The awesome people at Committee of Zero put lots of hard work and sweat into this, but thanks to them, we can experience STEINS;GATE in its full glory. The patch does fix several significant flaws and issues with the game's localization, Typography, subtitles, and a whole bunch of QoL fixes. If that sounds interesting, just look up "Committee of Zero Steins;Gate patch" on the interwebs and take a look for yourself. The patch is a godsend and is greatly appreciated. Every other review will probably say the same thing. Oh, and if you end up liking Committee of Zeroes stuff, show them some love.

Now that we've talked about the patch, we can talk about the topic of Steins;Gate and the connected franchise surrounding it, as well as how it affects this visual novel.

[SCIENCE ADVENTURE UNIVERSE]
While it's definitely not necessary to know any of this, it does enhance the experience. STEINS;GATE is part of the so-called Science Adventure Universe (hereafter called SciADV). SciADV is a series consisting of interconnected science fiction stories, spanning multiple different media, created mainly by Mages, Nitroplus and Chiyomaru Studio. They consist of a number of entries spanning all the way back to 2008 with the first one being the visual novel Chaos;Head. But don't worry, STEINS;GATE is a fully fledged standalone story and does not require any knowledge of prior entires of the SciADV series. There are a few references from its predecassor sprinkled throughout the visual novel, but when they happen its more of a cheeky smile type of "I knew that" thing.

While talking about SciADV, I do have to recommend the Steins;Gates mangas for when you have finished the visual novel. Due to them filling out and expanding some of its characters, you could see them as DLC, but I'm getting ahead of myself. You can easily start and end with here but if you end up liking STEINS;GATE, you can check out a whole pool full of other similar media to check out.

[CONCLUSION]
A cleverly written classic, STEINS;GATE cemented its place in the world of anime and is, in my eyes, a must-read for visual novel enthusiasts or for people who want to get into visual novels. It lives up to its name and is a story that will stick with you for quite some time. Now if you excuse me, I'll need an ice cold Dr.P.

[TL;DR, ★★★ and a half/out of four rating]
Saya no Uta, also known in the west as "The Song of Saya", is a well-known and beloved visual novel that stands tall amongst the greats to this day. Using words such as "beautiful" and "heart-warming" are ways to describe its story, while "grotesque" and "sickening" would also be completely accurate. It is easy yet hard to recommend this classic, and it comes down to each person, but I will try my best to help you decide whether or not you should pick up Saya no Uta.

[STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW] 
Despite this being the so-called censored release, Saya no Uta depicts some seriously messed up ♥♥♥♥♥ and is not for the faint of heart. It is also a remaster of the original 2003 release with some new CGs and improved translation, among other things less noticeable on a surface level. Overall, this is a great release and a splendid way to bring this beautiful story to a new audience.

I also want you to know that this review will be 100% unbiased or tainted by nostalgia. Saya no Uta has been an entry point for many people into the medium, yet I do not share that experience. I came in knowing next to nothing, which is exactly how I recommend this visual novel be experienced, besides a few things that definitely need to be pointed out. This is where my review comes in. Okay, now we can really start!

[PLOT/THE GOODIES]
Saya no Uta is an excellent and well-crafted story about love in its purest form and is very unapologetic about how it represents itself. Despite being a relatively short visual novel by visual novel standards, the intense and effective style of its writing manages to convey the emotions and feelings extremely well. Thanks to that, the cast of characters will quickly grow in your heart, one way or another. It also features an incredible soundtrack that manages to capture emotion just as well as the writing, plus the art is well drawn and serves its purpose wonderfully. I can't say any more than that, just know that its a very beautiful and emotional story with some spine-chilling moments.

This right here is a gem, and I do have to agree, calling this a "must" read for visual novel enthusiasts. Despite that, it comes with a huge flaw that could have been easily avoided. Its author's strange inclusion of his sickening fetishes.

[THE MORALLY QUESTIONABLE]
Remember how I told you that this release is censored? Hah, now that's stretching the definition! Saya no Uta features gore and, let's just call it, sexual violence without consent. While the gore part is mostly drawn and partially rendered in 3D and totally deserves its place here, the sexual violence without consent part definitely doesn't. They did cut out most of the H scenes for this... censored steam release, but some still remain in the form of writing and CGs, which is absolutely mind-boggling. I don't even want to consider what the full scale of this would be like because what's still here is down right vile. Saya no Uta would've done just as well, if not better, without that. It just makes me turn my stomach every time it comes up and serves next to no purpose in its overarching story. The purpose it serves could've been just as easily rewritten.

If you still want to play the uncensored version, freak, you can easily find it online by searching for it and paying for it. Yes, the patch is not free, and let me tell you that it is not worth the money. Despite it obviously adding the H scenes back that you really just can skip out on, it recovers maybe two other censored CGs at best that feature... excessive violence? Saya no Uta is full of gore, blood, and violence, even in the so-called censored version. It wouldn't be Saya no Uta without it so why censor some of it? I don't know who was in charge of choosing what needed to be censored, but oh well.

Last thing I want you to know is that I'm a strong supporter against censorship, especially of creative works, but this right really doesn't need a patch to fix its censorship. Don't say I didn't warn you, and better save your money.

[CONCLUSION]
Beautiful and emotional, Saya no Uta remains a must read for visual novel enthusiasts, despite its morally questionable inclusion of sexual violence. It delivers on its premise and provides a great read for its remainder, without overstaying its welcome. In a lot of ways, this is how a visual novel should be crafted. It's just this good. If anything of what I just said sounds interesting to you, and if you are still on board after what I just mentioned, give this gem a go.

[TL;DR, ★/out of four rating]
I'm a fan of Chilla's Art and horror games in general. Having played their "The Caregiver" and "Night Delivery" games before, out of their by now, massive game library, they both provide a fun and spine chilling experience. Doing lots of things right despite being rough around the edges. But that's not what I'm here for today. I want to let people like me know why The Closing Shift certainly isn't for everyone. 

[THE GOOD]
I'm well aware that I'm not the majority here, but criticism is something that is as important as praise. Starting with the praise, The Closing Shift has some seriously stunning atmosphere. While that whole VHS filter thing was already old when this game was made, it still managed to look great without overdoing it. The environmental set pieces are also on point. It makes the world seem believable with its odd amount of detail in some places. I loved that vending machine in the beginning. That's sadly all the praise I got for The Closing Shift with my limited amount of time I could spent in it, up until I got fed up with its poor core gameplay loop.

[THE BAD]
You got assigned the closing shift of a small trendy cafe. Your job involves taking orders, brewing coffee, and probably some other miscellaneous tasks, but holy hell, I have never seen such a confusing and convoluted system for doing something in a video game before. Take making a coffee latte as an example. While the ingredients are presented to the player at all times, and even a video tutorial is available to the player, actually brewing the latte mentioned is far too finicky and confusing to figure out in any reasonable amount of time. At the end, I was more annoyed by this mechanic alone than actually frightened or anxious about the game, which is definitely not what someone should strive for in any horror game. Yeah, I'm describing a horror game right now. Don't worry; I nearly forgot as well.

After wrestling with that for a bit and finally managing to get two orders out the door, a third customer—or rather, a group of friends to be exact. None of them could decide on what to order and continued to ramble among themselves about what to get while talking to us, the player, making it as confusing as possible to memorize the order. Once they're done rambling about coffees and biscuits, it's up to the player to pick one out of the three presented answers. What did they end up ordering? At this point, I had it with the game. It started to feel more like real-life work than an actual horror game. Now that I mentioned it, I think those two are rather close to each other, but that's besides the point. If I wanted to play a management game, I wouldn't have picked a horror game. Sucks that I couldn't even experience the potentially great horror hidden deep behind this crappy gameplay.

[CONCLUSION]
The Closing Shift fell flat for me, and I seriously cannot understand all the praise it gets for apparently being a flawless indie gem. Maybe this game sounds like it's totally right up your alley and you do you but it's a strong no on my behalf. Check out Chilla's Art's other games instead and stay away from the more gameplay-heavy titles. That's not were their strength as developers lie.

[TL;DR, ★★★★/out of four rating]
The Silver Case, also known as renown game designer SUDA51's debut title, who is most well-known these days for creating No More Heroes and Killer7. After having left Human Entertainment to fulfill his wish to create something original due to only having worked on pre-existing projects at the time, the game studio Grasshopper Manufacture was formed, and such this visual novel called The Silver Case was created. Previously only being japan only, 17 years after its original release on the playstation 1, The Silver Case made its way to the west with this English release, and oh boy was it glorious. Featuring new and touched-up artworks, UI, and the entire presentation as a whole, without removing any of its original charm. This right here is a remaster done right. Oh, and have I mentioned that well-known composer Akira Yamaoka remixed some of the original songs? Don't worry though, the original stuff is still preserved and toggleble inside the games option menu at will.

But what makes The Silver Case such a special game for so many of us you ask? Let me try to bring you closer and help you decide if this is something for you without spoiling the fun of it, because this VN is best experienced as blind as possible.

[PLOT/WRITING]
Its the year 1999 and the dawn of a new millenium when the 24 Wards of Tokyo are plagued by a string of serial murders. The detectives of the 24 Wards Heinous Crimes Unit have a main suspect in mind, but what are his motives and intentions? That's when you enter the shoes of the main protagonist, or more accurately bystander as I would describe him, who gets caught up in-between everything while all of the events unfold around him. You also get to experience everything from another perspective in parallel if you so choose, which I strongly recommend you do. It fills in some of the blank spots and answers some important questions, which overall provide the full "The Silver Case" experience. In a nutshell, the plot involves detective work, political drama, and social shenanigans. I can't go any further in-depth because that would ruin everything, but if any of that peaked your interest, good. Now you've got a vague idea about its plot, but what about how it's written, you may certainly ask? 

SUDA51, Masahi Ooka and Sako Kato, the writers of The Silver Case, delivered some stellar writing. I have never seen a work of literature that is presented the way The Silver Case is. With its bureaucratic feel, it paints the game's world in great detail. It perfectly reflects what a cold, lonely, and unnerving place the 24 Wards of Tokyo are. It all just feels too believable and almost real. Yet not everything is a totally bleak and cold hellhole. Its cast of well-written characters remind you that there is some humanity left in this world and sometimes even crack a joke or two. Yet at the end of the day, they will definitely make sure to remind you what kind of place the 24 Wards of Tokyo really are. Shoutouts to Tetsu my beloved.

This leads us into another very important thing when talking about The Silver Case and its "gameplay," and yes, this visual novel features gameplay segments. Why did I use quotations? More on that below.


[GAMEPLAY]
While reading through the usual dialogue boxes provided in any visual novel, The Silver Case occasionally requires you to walk around in a first-person perspective through 3D environments. Those environments oftentimes feature puzzles, log-files for more information about everything, or just triggers that advance the game. This is where this otherwise absolute gem of a game falls a bit flat. This part of the game really didn't age well. Mind you, while you have to do it somewhat often, it's just a fragment of the whole experience, and yet this can be a deciding factor in whether you like the game or not. Walking around in these environments can feel awkward, out of place, or just plain pointless. It's a grid-based system seen in a lot of old-school dungeon crawlers that don't have much to do in them. The Silver Case would've done just as well, if not better, without it. Yet it can provide a certain feeling that makes the world seem more believable and real; I'll give it that. At the end of the day, it really comes down to personal preference.

On a puzzle stand-point, those are just fine, even if they are a bit cryptic at times but that's just SUDA51's style. These puzzles usually involve numbers, because who doesn't love numbers? The real puzzle-solving isn't in the puzzles though; it's in piecing together the bits and pieces of information presented in the writing to get a complete picture of everything. This type of puzzle is another part of what makes The Silver Case great. Some of you may like it, some of you may dislike it; it's up to personal preference once again.

Now that my main criticism and some explanation of the puzzles presented in the game are out of the way, let's move onto another strong point of The Silver Case. Its presentation as a whole.

[PRESENTATION/MUSIC]
Like previously mentioned, The Silver Case features some of the most incredible atmospheric writing, but we are talking about a visual novel here. Another huge part of what makes a visual novel great is its audio and visual presentation, and The Silver Case got you covered on both fronts to great success.

Takashi Miyamoto, the main character designer and illustrator of The Silver Case hit a home run with his realistic yet uncanny character depictions. I cannot put into words how much this suits my fancy, but be the judge for yourself. It should really speak for itself. The legendary Masafumi Takada, the main composer of The Silver Case wasn't just sleeping either. These days most well known for composing songs for the series Danganronpa, No More Heroes and Killer7; you should be aware of how legendary this man's work is, and yes, he also delivered here. Combining its incredible audio, visuals, and writing, these three components are what make this game great and beloved to this day.

[CONCLUSION]
If any of this seems like it could be to your liking, buy it and try it for yourself. It might be a slow burn for you or just not totally your cup of tea, but hey, there is always the refund option on Steam. At last, can you lend me 50,000 yen?

[TL;DR, ★★★★/out of four rating]
"Master. This is amazing. I cannot believe how amazing this is. Killer7 might be one of the most unique, bizarre, and interesting video games out there. It might also be the most difficult game to review, so let me try my best and give you some insight on Killer7. In the name of Harman..."

Killer7 is a beloved cult classic, on-rails shooter with puzzle elements that just oozes with its surrealistic charm. Thought up by the legendary game designer SUDA51, Killer7 has you take control of, well, seven distinct personalities, which get assigned to go and carry out various missions that progress the absolute fever-dream-esque story of its world and inhabitants. Every single in-game mission has unique quirks, gameplay segments, which can wildy differ from mission to mission and unqiue environments, so that no two places ever feel the same. Yet, three things are always constant: satisfying gunplay, clever puzzle design, and questioning what the duck you are even playing. Not in a bad way mind you; each component of Killer7 is cleverly thought out. 

[GAMEPLAY]
Killer7 is not your standard on-rails shooter. It allows you to freely control your characters movement like any other game would, just so that its movement is limited to an invisible railing placed throughout its levels. You can freely choose when to walk either forwards or backwards, stop, and choose which way to go at intersections. This makes the game feel way less restrictive than your average on-rails shooter while still keeping the positives. There is also a nice variety of weaponry available to the player for combating the various enemies you will encounter along the way, each split up between the seven different personalities, which on top of that have their own unique abilities. These abilities are used as a way to either advance in certain puzzles, change the game world to some extent, or to just enhance your fighting prowess, making them all feel useful in their own right. All of these are also upgradeable as the game progresses. The last main gameplay component of Killer7 is its puzzles. Each puzzle is well-put together and fun to solve, even for people who aren't usually into that sort of stuff. I do have to say that they are plentiful and can be very difficult or even a bit obscure at times. Don't be afraid to have a puzzle guide by your side.

[AESTHETICS™]
Even someone blind as a mole can probably tell that everything about this game screams hyper-stylized. That includes its sfx, music, visuals, UI, world design, characters and their writing. Everything drowns you in its charm. It's very refreshing to see a game be like this and not some cookie-cutter template or something visually absurd beyond comprehension. Killer7 strikes a very bold, unapologetic, and "just enough" itch with its aesthetics, and I absolutely adore it for that. Hell, I could go on about this for ages, but be the judge yourself. It's to no one's surprise why Killer7 is as beloved as it is.

[PLOT/SUDA51]
Let me be straight with you. There is no way I could even summarize its plot or put it into words, and that is a good thing. If you are familiar with SUDA51's previous work, you already know what I'm talking about, but if not, just know that it can be bizarre, incredibly unique, and downright surreal at times, yet it's crafted with care and love for the end product. Even if you give it your time and thought, it might take a while until you understand what is going on or what the meaning behind a certain event is, if you are able to at all but as weird as it sounds, that's also the appeal of it. It's not a sign of "bad" storytelling; it's a sign of someone on the verge of being brilliant. It also doesn't help that Killer7 is part of the more broad "Kill the Past" universe, which spans across multiple games with Killer7 being the fifth main title, but I won't go into deeper detail here. That would blow the reviews' size limit beyond recognition. Just know that you don't have to worry about not having played the previous installments. It can be absolutely enjoyed on its own without being a direct sequel or anything like that. Trust me on this and just enjoy this man's Magnum Opus.

[CONCLUSION]
Killer7 is something someone with an interest in video games and surreal media should definitely give a go, especially if you find anything that releases these days to be stale and monotone. It gets my highest recommendation, and if you are still uncertain about getting into Killer7, you can always use Steam's refund feature and refund it if the game doesn't connect with you after a mission or two. Capcom, make the director's cut version happen.