Another detective game I had very low hopes for and was surprised it was so good.

This game is a detective game with occult/paranormal element that’s set in Japan in the 80s. It’s an 80s detective story and I’m glad Aksys didn’t get their slimy fingers on this. It’s well steeped in Japanese terminology and 80s Japanese detective tropes.

It’s about a set of character that are Curse Users that each have a reason to bring someone back from the dead. The whole plot unfolds as you find out how each are linked to each other.
There’s some 4th wall shenanigans that are explained at the end of the game that don’t take away from the story and some puzzle that require you to talk to people well more than once, as well as examining items in rooms more than once.

I have to say the highlight of this game however is Richter Kai. A PI who left the force, who you can’t see how he was ever on the force. He’s probably the most animated (and hot) character next to Erio.

The best part about this game is that all the characters look their age, no 40yo that look 10 here. The women also act like people and not just some stereotype personality. It was a relief to see this after seeing the Switch shop flooded with porn VNs. Finally one where they told a really good story without all that garbge.
It also proves that you can tell a story without pandering to men’s dicks.

The main problem I had with this game was the chromatic aberration. It started to hurt my eyes after a while and there’s no off switch.
Overall though a really great game.

So I played this on a whim and didn’t have high hopes for it thinking it’d be another otaku pandering mess and…

It’s not.

It’s a funny (however short) comedy detective game with Lovecraftian/Cryptid plots. I really enjoyed it. The ending itself comes out of nowhere.

I will get out of the way the problems I had with it:
Namely a 10yo girl is constantly saying that she and Tendo are going to get married.
Tendo Saiga is 29…
Tendo however doesn’t even acknowledge it at all, doesn’t even comment on it and ignores it.
That girl also hates Hin Rei because she’s the new sidekick and thus horning in on her territory. Really they could have done without any of that and it would have improved the game a lot.

The only other problems was the text run on. But I could overlook that.

After all that it’s a nice fun comedy adventure in a town that is plagued by Lovecraftian creatures. None of the creatures use Lovecraftian names however, which is a bit of a relief. There’s also no talks about “sanity” or any of that after seeing these creatures. For Tendo, cryptids are just the norm.
There was also no gross sexualization of Hin Rei or any of the other women. Save one, and even then only slightly, and then the reaction of Tendo well.. spoiler and humorous. Not gross.
That all being said I found the whole experience a but short. It’s mostly voiced? There are parts that are fully voice and other parts that are just a catchphrase. I appreciated having the voices.
I was left wanting more and felt that I had only experienced one chapter of a trilogy game, instead of a whole game.

I would definitely check the game out if you are looking for a lighthearted visual novel.

This isn’t a good game.
The ending that the whole game builds up to is a big disappointment. Even after that the game keeps going and overstays it’s welcome.
Totori’s teacher is Rorona. If you know fansubs from the 90s you know how bad a copy of a copy is and Rorona is no different. She still acts like a child (for all the pedotaku) and is honestly a bad teacher. So Totori just ends up as Rorona 2.0. Her personality is almost carbon copy.
Another problem I found with the game is that if your on PC and pay for the Cici/Iksel characters you won’t be able to use them until the end of the game. The PS3 version however doesn’t have this problem. So what’s the point of them?
Also the homonculus system shows up way late in the game and requires pies to make work. Both taking time an resources away from your other tasks since you can only buy 10 pies at a time and you can’t register pies. Also the 5th Chim is locked behind an event that hasn’t even triggered for me yet.
The character storylines are honestly boring and you really only learn what you see.
Sterk isn’t that scary and is still searching for Gio
Marc likes robots… that’s his whole thing
Melvia is a crappy adventurer that wears gross clothing because “it’s easy to move around in!” yeah none of the men wear stuff like that so it’s just a garbage excuse. Also for how strong she is, she has no muscles. She’s just wank fuel for cumbrains.
Gino hits Totori after she’s stronger than him so I just cut him off. Fuck an abuser.

The other characters I didn’t bother with. Either because I couldn’t get to them in time Cici/Iksel or that they were just uninteresting.

SPOILERS***
We find out that Totori’s mother is dead after she fought with the Evil Face in the tower and lost twice. This of course is because women can’t do anything without men and is punished for even trying. It’s a fucking downer of an ending and also gross. Thi just tanked whatever interest I had in the game at all. They try to make up for it by have a “cute girl” that stows away on the ship but I didn’t give a flying fuck about her.
***END SPOILERS

TL;DR: Disappointing ending. Easily skippable in the series, will also take your money and not let you use the characters you bought until end game.

The itch.io app has come a long way from when I first got it, however it needs a lot of improvements.

What’s Working:

• I like that the tabs have their own section. Unlike the Steam client that just pops them up. I have have a list of tabs open.
• Has a list of my Library with my collections and creations on the side.

What’s Not Working:

• I really wish I could black list devs and games. There are a lot of games that pop up in my search that I just don’t want to see for whatever reason.
• No ability to review a game from the app. You have to go to an actual browser to do that. It could easily be put in the sidebar with Buy/Download Now, Share.
• No ability to follow a dev.
• No ability to add nor remove a game to a collection. Removing a game could be done by clicking an X when looking at it in the Collections tab.