Figured I'd start reviewing stuff here. Since Steins;Gate is the most recently cleared game in my library, I guess I'll start with it.
Steins;Gate is the second game in the 5pb. x Nitroplus collaboration's "science adventure series", following Chaos;Head. It takes place in the same world, but aside from a handful of slight references is wholly unrelated. I found this is a good thing, for reasons discussed before.
Anyway, the premise of the game is simple; The protagonists accidentally invent a machine that can send mail back in time and thus change the past, and get embroiled in a giant conspiracy. To discuss (which, I'd like to note, the game's manual
does) is to spoil some awesome shit, and if you're planning on getting the game I'd advise refraining from reading any more (also avoid the manual and official site; Hell, seal the internet). If you're not, keep reading.
(Spoilers, highlight to read)
The main characters mess with their device and change the past a couple of times, until one day some armed thugs burst in to their hideout and kill one of them, Shiina Mayuri. Their time machine has been upgraded and can now send a person's memories and consciousness back in time, and the protagonist, Okabe Rintarou, uses it to try and save her. No matter what he does, and how many times he tries, though, she ends up dying on the same day at the same time, not just from being shot but from all sorts of reasons, including some nutty accidents.
It turns out that (LOL SCIENCE warning) the world's timeline is composed of countless world-lines intertwined, representing countless possibilities, but each world-line is enveloped in an "attractor field" which determines what will happen no matter what, and that due to their meddling with their machine they are currently on a world line that will no matter what lead to Mayuri's death and even better, SERN (the game world's counterpart of CERN) creating a time machine (oh, and their LHC was made for creating black holes for a time machine) in 2034 "conquering space-time" in 2036 and bringing about a dystopian rule by the Committee of 300.
(Bigger spoilers ahead, this is a good point to stop reading.)
Anyway, Okabe sets out to fix time and get back to his original world line only to recall that in his original world, he saw one of his friends (also main heroine), Makise Kurisu, dead. He's thus faced with having to decide which of the two lives or dies.
I won't spoil the ending but it's better than I thought it'd be.
I went in with practically no prior knowledge at all, didn't bother to look at the official site, and of course didn't read the manual, getting the game only because I need more 360 games. I wasn't expecting much (because, again, Chaos;Head), but it betrayed my expectations in a good way.
Anyway, what's a review without evaluating shit with numbers based solely on your own opinion? Thus, with 10 being utterly flawless, 5 being average and 0 being total rubbish...
Plot/setting: 9
Awesome.
Writing: 7
Good for the most part but a lot of endings are, as I said, half-assed, and there's way too much in the way of plot holes and unexplained stuff.
Characters: 9
Likable.
Sound: 9
(Music: 8, Voice: 10)
System: 6
The phone trigger system is a cool concept but worked out horribly, and auto saves could be done better. The tips system is nice, otherwise the game's system is nothing special.
Overall: 8
(Not an average, just something I slap on after considering other factors)
Edit (June 2012): I'd just like to add that this is one of those games that gets better when you look back at it some time later. Gave it an 8 when I first cleared it, would give it a 9-10 now.
＿
/ λ
～～～～
/ ´・ω・） ＜トゥットゥルー
_, ‐'´ ＼ / `ｰ､_
/ '￣｀Y´￣｀Y´￣｀レ⌒ヽ
{ ､ ﾉ､ | _,,ﾑ,_ ﾉl
'い ヾ`ー～'´￣__っ八 ﾉ
＼ヽ､ ー ／ ー 〉
＼｀ヽ-‐'´￣｀冖ｰ-/
What. The. FUCK?
Only one playthrough so far, really need to start on my second.
I've been playing Battle Rondo for some time now (date on my earliest screenshot says 27th December 07, so almost two years) and figured I ought to do a post on it.
Basically I just have her jet the hell out of the enemy's range and snipe at them till they die. Simple, but effective. Well, sort of; Lately there've been a lot of people using those accursed Ach-type's leg parts and the skill that comes with them even cancels out Angelic Sky which is annoying the hell out of me. Ah well.
I guess I did something right while raising her; Her AI's the smartest of all my Shinki, using skills with deadly efficiency. And by skills I mean Tempest.
And finally, a two-shot of Yuduki and Sumika.
And that's all for now. ノシ
The only other things I really want are Arkham Asylum and Dawn of War II but I'll wait till they're cheaper.
Altogether, Idolmaster audio adds up to around 3 GB = more than a third of all my audio. Nice.
I just noticed that Mtrix has released Kira ☆ Kira for the iPhone. Damn it, why do they keep releasing stuff that I already have that I for some reason want to buy again? Thankfully between Gift and Memories Off and my ripping DVDs and sticking Idolmaster videos onto mine, I'm out of space and can't buy it (I know this because I got a space warning when my instinct made me hit the buy button immediately upon seeing it). Well, not for now, at least.
Total playtime of 36 hours which adds up to, what, 12 hours a day? Nice.
