Narumi's long winded reviews

Long winded story for a surprisingly grounded and realistic depiction of work life and workplace romance. My Japanese skills is as I mentioned countless times before, inadequate and weak, so I got through a lot of the game with minimal understanding and may misinterpret the plot. Yumeutsutsu Remaster (henceforth Yurimaster) is tiring and boring at times, but it's worth it to get to the true route which is surprisingly very different from the other routes but one that at least makes use of some early foreshadowing and actually ties into the themes of the whole game and even down to the title. However, the existence of a true route pretty much invalidates the existence of the other routes, making them feel like side routes by comparison. The side routes are written by different authors to the common and true route, further highlighting this discrepancy. This also has the effect of characters acting differently in different routes. Kokoro for instance is a horrible control freak in ...

Full disclosure, my Japanese skills is somewhere between Kindergartner and Elementary School Student so I consulted KHHSubs' guide for most of my time with Ishin. Ishin is that game that gets a lot of revere and praise for being that lost or hidden gem never released in the West, with some people preferring it over 0 or 5 as the best game in the series. Is it? Hell no, and I'm going to briefly break down why in the following review. Let's start with story. It's a self contained story that's pretty interesting and decently written. It's like AssCreed where it takes place in an established historical era with actual historical characters but tells a completely original story that deviates from actual history quite a bit. So not knowing anything about the Bakumatsu era isn't a big deal, you just need to know some basic background info on each character to get going. Unlike the other Yakuza games (bar 0), there isn't much downtime or filler in this. Pacing...

Over 40 hours later, with all side quests done and the main story completed. I just wanna say this experience has been a blast. The story is by far the selling point of the whole game and it is just so good. It takes some time to get going for sure, but once the mystery reaches its climax, you just can't get enough of it and want to keep on going until the end. The game really knows how to keep your interest hooked and get you wanting more. For the longest time I've felt the actual plots in the series weren't really all that good (aside from 0) and the main draw for me was always the characters and their relationships. Judge Eyes is the rare exception in that it is good on both fronts, compelling characters you can't get enough of and a gripping mystery thriller with some slice of life moments to moderate the pacing. Quite possibly my favourite story in the series, a close close rival to Yakuza 0 for me. I do wish some of the secondary characters got more screentime t...

Just got done finishing the Grand Route for this after god knows how long, and I have to say I loved this VN a lot. A big budget VN with great productions values and actually has a good intriguing story to complement its presentation. As with my favourite VNs, its a mystery novel with a lot of comfy slice of life moments in the beginning to ease you in. One of my favourite things Aoishiro does is how it shakes things up in each route making otherwise familiar scenes in feel more naturally integrated (a character may make some different comments based on something you said earlier). I really like this attention to detail you don't see very often. I also like how each main route is integrated into the overall storyline. Unlike other "pick your fav girl" VNs I've played, the routes to each main love interest is very naturally written and doesn't feel like you're picking off a list of candidates. In some routes you won't even meet a love interest from a comp...

Remember No Game No Life? That somewhat entertaining anime about 2 teens who had Isekai'd into some fantasy land, played games and got into harem shenanigans as well? Fair enough, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing offensive too (except for Stephanie Dola, she needs to be hung). So imagine my surprise, 4 years later, when they decide to make a movie prequel taking on a darker tone and considerably more serious. I bought a ticket (because Mary and The Witch's Flower wasn't playing anymore), got my popcorn (from a dollar store) and got comfy. “Now Narumi,” you may ask, “what the hell are you doing in my living room!!??” or alternatively “Does the movie live up to its potential after 4 years of waiting for more NGNL???” Aahahaha... Ha.. ... ... Now then...onto the review. Zero is about a serious story involving the Eternal War and how the Game World came to be. War is raging on between all races and humanity seems to be on the brink of extinction. Our protagonist...