Samantha Lienhard
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Writing For
MonsterVine
KeenGamerLatest Reviews
Vampyr
When viewed in that light, the story is an enjoyable mystery that brings together medicine and science, vampire politics and zealous hunters, and a city suffering from ancient evils. Aside from a rushed romance and a sudden shift near the end, the story is good and has intriguing twists and...
The puzzles themselves come in two basic forms: navigation and restoring the tower. Since there are certain places only the girl can go and other places only the golem can go, together with switches and levers to help the other character progress, most of the puzzles focus on getting each...
Forgotton Anne
Forgotton Anne is a bit heavy-handed with its themes at times, and its plot beats are sometimes abrupt, but those are easy flaws to overlook in such a charming story. In both its presentation and its storytelling, it really does feel like an animated film in video game form.
Harper’s role as an accidental hero adds an interesting twist in itself. He generally comes across as a regular guy caught up in events way beyond what he’s used to dealing with, despite one or two occasions where his emotional reactions to the situation didn’t feel strong enough. In contrast...
Earthlock
Character development was a major place where the original game struggled, but that isn’t true here. The optional conversations provide new insight into the characters and demonstrate their bonds with one another. They feel like a team, a group of characters I could care about. Between that, adjusted characterization, and...
The final two hours of The Longest Five Minutes feel like they are what the game was designed for. They bring in some genuinely interesting plot points that finally use the flashback structure to their advantage. Nevertheless, after the bland combat and generic storytelling along the way, my enjoyment of...
But what Candleman lacks in difficulty, it makes up for in beauty. The dark levels at the start are a far cry from the dazzling environments that await you later on, and each new development made me eager to see what would come next. The story is simple and presented...
Black Mirror
Overall, Black Mirror just ends up feeling a bit bland. The story is good, but not impressive, and the gameplay could have used better controls and more puzzles. It only takes around six hours to finish, and I wish more time had been devoted to building up the creepy atmosphere...
.Hack//G.U. Last Recode
There is also a collection of videos that parody scenes from the games, as well as the much more serious Terminal Disc. The Terminal Disc, which originally came with limited editions of the first game, contains four videos that give a recap of the first .hack quadrilogy, along with additional...
Mary Skelter 2
In fact, for a game about escaping a horrific living prison, Mary Skelter is surprisingly upbeat at times. It has plenty of dark moments, but also numerous lighthearted scenes between Jack and the Blood Maidens. The story is told through visual novel-like conversations, and you can also give your party...
Blue Reflection
The story gets into some serious topics at times, such as whether it’s acceptable to manipulate people’s emotions in the real world to gain more power for fighting demons, but in general it’s lighthearted and cute in both tone and appearance. The enemy designs are also sufficiently alien and bizarre...
Monster Hunter Stories
Nevertheless, Monster Hunter Stories isn’t a game to be played for a deep plot or complex systems, but for its exploration and monster-collecting. It struggles with frame rate and texture pop-in on original 3DS systems, but overall it’s a fun turn-based RPG.
