tekanji's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:3.3
- Helpful Votes:109
- Reviews Submitted:4
- First Review:June 30, 2012
- Most Recent Review:November 1, 2012
- Featured reviews0
tekanji's Review History
Twilight City: Love as a Cure
You're a young vampire passionately in love with a human. However, the burning desire for blood is in you. Remove the curse and become human again!
Overall rating
3
/
5
58 of 77 found this review helpful
All the ingredients of a good game, but...
PostedNovember 1, 2012
tekanji
fromJapan
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Strategy
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I'm a fan of the Life Quest style games (in this case it's closest to Magic Life), but I felt like Twilight City had all the components of a great game and then failed in putting them together to make a cohesive whole.
Now, the art and the music were beautiful. My only gripe was the lack of body diversity options -- you had one skin type (white) and one body type (thin), and all the characters in town had the same skin/body type because they use the same art as your character. Really, it's highly disappointing that this game was so lacking in diversity when all the other LQ games have been so good in that department.
The storyline was... ok. Cliched and not very developed, but nothing horrible. The writing, however, was sub par. The dialogue was often awkward, and in two spots it was just wrong: 1) it said something about my character (a woman) becoming "man" (should have been "human"), and 2) it called my unnamed human lover a "her" when in the opening movie the couple was clearly a man and a woman. And, on that note, I'd like to say that making the pair hetero was disappointing, given that the Life Quest games always let you choose the gender of your partner.
So, last but not least, the gameplay. Twilight City uses a quest system, which I liked in theory, but in practice -- since you can only have one active quest at a time -- it disrupted the flow of the gameplay. Quest completion was also what decided what items and jobs were available, which was both limiting and frustrating because so many of the quests needed money and new jobs (which I was already qualified for) just wouldn't open up. Then, finally, at the end, I felt like the designers just dumped everything at once. I was never able to strike a good balance between questing and progressing through jobs/skills, and it made the game feel poorly paced and not very fun.
There was also no real challenge to the game. No chance of failing anything and no visible time limit. There wasn't even a meaningful separation of days! Because of this, I sailed through the game and beat it rather quickly (in about 2 or 3 hours), and the linear storyline means that it has no real replay value for me (unlike the Life Quest games, which I generally had to have 2 playthroughs to experience all the content).
What I really want to see out of a Life Quest style game is a good, non-linear story that gets me engaged and immersed in the world. I want to be able to use my character to influence the world around me, and I want my choices to change who the character is. A deeper storyline, and a better balanced level design, would have made this a great game. As it is, I can't recommend it, even for fans of Life Quest.
Guardians of Magic: Amanda's Awakening
Open your eyes to a wondrous world in Guardians of Magic: Amanda's Awakening, a spectacular adventure of science and spell-casting.
Overall rating
3
/
5
27 of 28 found this review helpful
Good game, but way too short
PostedSeptember 30, 2012
tekanji
fromJapan
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Strategy
Fun Factor
4
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
2
/
5
Storyline
4
/
5
Overall, this was a very enjoyable game. I thought the art style was great, as was the plot, dialogue and voice acting.
The puzzles had a good balance of repetition and variation (there were about 4 or 5 different puzzle types, each of which showed up 2 to 3 times), although I wish they had balanced the difficulty settings better (some puzzles in the beginning were hard to figure out, while the ones at the end were easy because I already knew what to do).
My biggest problem with the game was that it was too short and there wasn't enough development of the plot. I beat this game in under 3 hours, when typically games I buy here at BigFish take me at least 6 hours. I would have appreciated more dialogue and character interactions (there were a few interesting characters to be found around the world that you couldn't interact with, for instance). The villain's motivations also fell flat to me (not to mention the "reason" given for the villain's actions was bizarre given the other information given about them).
The "too long; didn't read" version: This is a good game, but I can't recommend it because it just didn't have enough content.
Life Quest 2
Move to Metropoville and begin a 12 step Life Quest program! Find a new rewarding career in this incredible Strategy game!
Overall rating
4
/
5
3 of 5 found this review helpful
Great sequel to Life Quest
PostedJuly 7, 2012
tekanji
fromJapan
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management, Strategy
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
3
/
5
Level of Challenge
3
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I am a huge fan of Life Quest, and I keep an eye out for any game that uses the LQ engine. I am a fan of life simulation games, so my standards are pretty high for quality.
Life Quest 2 has all of the great features of its predecessors: a good balance between an open world and clear goals, a broad range of ways to play the game (which gives it replayability), and an almost unprecedented amount of customization for a non-AAA, 2D game. In addition, LQ2 comes with an improved goal progression system (where you can pick one of several available goals to go after), more options for interacting with townspeople (you in addition to dating/marriage/children, you can now meet people around town, make friends, and go places with them), and more things to do around town (like campaign to become mayor).
That said, even great games have room for improvement.
My biggest gripe with the LQ engine is that it lacks focus. While the in-game goals give you a clear way to progress in the game, the idea is to "have it all". There are no career tracks, only jobs (some of which link to others), which means that in order to get the highest paying jobs you have to consistently switch what kind of profession you're in. While this system is good for allowing player choice, it comes at the cost of depth, both in terms of a sense of immersion and of having meaningful, play-dependent storylines.
And, speaking of story, while the Life Quest 2 story is both interesting and well written, there simply wasn't enough story content, nor was any of it truly dependent on player choices. Since the Life Quest series is an open world, obviously it's a tricky balancing act between allowing a player to create their own storyline and providing them with one (especially because it may not match with the character they created in their mind). However, I believe that the balance could be maintained by the creation of a few storyline paths that come with their own character or characters to interact with based on that storyline. In essence, I'm suggesting using a simplified version of the Visual Novel storyline type.
Last and certainly least, a small comment on the clothing system. While the adding of a "type" to clothing and linking the "type" to a job was an interesting addition, I felt like the way it was implemented limited my wardrobe choices. Instead of having one piece of clothing linked to one "type", I think it would be better to have one piece of clothing have multiple "types" (so, say, a piece of clothing could be good for use as a business suit, power suit, or professor outfit, while another piece could be good for a professor outfit, student outfit, or casual wear, etc.). That way players could have a limited way to mix and match depending on their personal tastes, while still giving them an in-game reason to buy and change clothes. It would also be nice to have more clothes to choose from if at all possible.
I recommend this game!
Catwalk Countdown
Move up through New York’s elite fashion world as a talented designer in Catwalk Countdown, a fun Time Management game!
Overall rating
3
/
5
21 of 24 found this review helpful
Didn't live up to my expectations
PostedJune 30, 2012
tekanji
fromJapan
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Time Management
Fun Factor
3
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
1
/
5
Storyline
2
/
5
I bought the game because the online demo version was promising. I particularly like the simulation-style time management games (where you have to take care of a character's needs), and the storyline seemed interesting.
However, there were several major problems:
1. Apart from your collection and reputation, the stats were useless.
1. Apart from your collection and reputation, the stats were useless.
What was the point of inspiration? What did well-being affect? I have no idea.
And shouldn't a fashion game focus on.. fashion? The only difference between sketching and sewing was how much time they took and how many points they added to your collection. While I understand that actually letting you choose clothes for your fashion line would have been cost prohibitive, I would have much rather have had the "inspiration" stat removed and had the "collection" stat been divided into steps (how many pieces completed, and maybe even have a % completion for each piece, which would let you know if you needed to sketch, sew, or fit).
Not to mention that after the first quest with your uncle was over, money was useless (easy to get, but nothing of value to spend it on). You had no rent, no bills, eating at home was free, no need to buy any fabrics...
2. The game was a bit buggy and wasn't good with giving you relevant information.
When I moved on in a way the game didn't anticipate, all of my To Do list vanished with no explanation, including currently open tasks.
Failing something was frustrating, because half the time I'd be where I needed to be but be 30 minutes early, but all the tasks I did took an hour which made me fail! Not to mention that when I failed the game by giving the wrong dialogue options, the game plopped me at the beginning of the week with no To Do list and no guidance aside from "get your collection ready". I did so, failed again, and then by chance got back to the original dialogue that I had failed (but then had to go through ANOTHER week of doing nothing just to get the ending text). Not to mention that it was hard to figure out which dialogue options mattered and which would give you the same response no matter what.
3. The story started out strong but fizzled out pretty fast.
There was a lot of potential for interactions between you, your uncle, your two friends, and the fashion guy. None of them really panned out; your friends and uncle just kind of faded out, and the dialogue with the fashion guy started getting weird at the end. Not to mention that the ending text was underwhelming and made me feel like nothing I had really done up until then had really mattered. Yeah, she got her collection and fulfilled her dream, but that was guaranteed to happen by winning the game. I would have liked better development of and an actual resolution to the various plots started with the supporting casts.
***
Honestly, though I can't recommend this particular game, I would be willing to check out another game in this style by the developers.
The engine itself was relatively easy to use, and aside from some useless fripperies (the celebrity photos was unneeded), I felt it helped with immersion. The dialogue itself was pretty well written (though there were a couple of typos), and if the storyline were better developed it would have helped make this game a lot more fun. Solid gameplay would have also helped to smooth out some of the gaps left by the lack of story content.
I would recommend for any developers who are thinking of publishing this style of game to take a look at some of the popular games as models for what to do (The Sims series is a good example of solid gameplay, while Visual Novels like Matches and Matrimony are a good way to get an idea of the level of story content needed).
I don't recommend this game.