The World and its Flowers: Review of [161125]Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana

Foreword: Quite a hyped game for me, I’m not even going to lie that this was quite the weird game that was slightly off from what I expected. Despite being hyped due to being favorable in many aspects, that high standards made this game look much worse than it may have been, so that was quite a disappointment. I also even thought at one point that this game was pulling a “Favorite” on me, by presenting an enormous amount of fantasy elements and leaving them vague only to be utilized later (kek). So that admittedly made me a bit more salty than usual.

Generally, I found this game to be heavily lacking… in many more areas than I wanted.

Let’s just get to reviewing of the title. Because I have nukige on my backlog begging to be played

Title: 枯れない世界と終わる花 (World that does not Wither and the Ending Flower)
Producers: Sweet&Tea (It’s pronounced Sweetie)
Release Date: November 25, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19658
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=914784
Game Type: Fantasy Drama Visual Novel

Summary: The world that’s about to end and the seven-colored flower that oversees that conclusion… This world is a sad place where the hardest working individuals are the very ones to suffer the most.

Shou is a boy who has returned to this beautiful and peaceful town where he has a promise to fulfill. A promise made so long ago he’s sure that his opponent has already forgotten. On his way, a mysterious girl who he already knows accompanies him, and giving her the name “Ren”, the two somewhat mismatched couple travels down the road to this town, where they depend on the kindness of its people to survive.

Just a reminder that you also need loli to survive

Saving the World, one Timeline at a time: Review of [111216]Gin no Toki no Corona

Foreword: If you’ve followed my blog for a relatively longer period of time, you’d know that I always complain and bitch about the protagonist being worthless or being crappy. I’m sure you guys are tired of hearing me talk about one worthless protagonist after another, so I thought, “Why don’t I bring back a game I know where I won’t be so nit-picky?”

And this thought brings us to this game, a relatively old Eternal title which has been a great joy in various ways for which I describe in the review below.

While I understand that I do have a relatively older review available here, I thought I’d play this game for a couple of reasons. One is that I was waiting for the very few April releases, while a major incentive was that unlike me from the past, I can actually read Japanese enough to understand the game’s mechanics.

Then there’s the fact that Tono Soyogi voices Corona (and Aka in the FD). I’m a sad idiot who would replay games just for the CV, okay?

Title: 輝光翼戦記 銀の刻のコロナ (Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona) [Lit. Trans: Warrior of Light Wings, Corona the Silver Time]
Producers: Eternal
Release Date: December 16, 2011
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v6668
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=705617
Game Type: Turn-based Fighting Game

Summary: Touka is not a normal student. After wishing for years to become a hero, he somehow finally gained an ability to detect strange distortion of space caused by demons. Because he believes these demons are bad, Touka takes it upon himself to eliminate these demons to “bring peace to this city”. He enjoys his “secret job”, but is often tired since the distorted space occurs at night.

One day, the same space distortion occurs again, and as Touka approaches it, he feels that his opponent is very powerful. Entering anyways, he is easily overwhelmed by the “master” of this distortion and forced into a corner. Just as he was about to be killed, a girl appears and saves him. Her name is Amakasu Tokino, a 3rd year who is also extremely popular at the school that he goes to! Touka begs to join Tokino after getting his behind saved after seeing her strength, but Tokino firmly warns Touka to stay away from this distorted space called “Shinya” (True Night).

However, Tokino seems to have a change of heart, and allows Touka to join in their group. Little do they know that their small task of eliminating “Shinya” will not be an easy task, and with evil approaching their back, the group realizes that they are all destined to die…

Or are they…?

Carefree walk to school!

Story Length: Very Long (>50 hours, including gameplay)
Complete Story Clearing Difficulty: Moderate
Comments: A turn-based fighting game that’s sure to provide hours of fun, the system is very simple and explained on the manual. However, if you were like me two years ago with very limited Japanese, you may have a hard time with this game such as being able to read skill information correctly

Game Mechanics:

So within this turn-based fighting game, all characters and enemies have two forms of “HP”; one being a magical barrier with something I like to call “Affinities” with the other one being Life Points, which are actually the HP.

The cool thing about this game is that attacks characters receive deduct from this “barrier”, but at a varying rate to what that attack’s affinity was. For example, Green is weak against Red, so if you have a Green barrier, you’re likely to receive 150% or even 200% damage from attacks with a “red” affinity. On the flip side, if you have a strong resistance, it’s possible to get by with damage reductions up to 75%!

After a barrier is broken, all attacks now deduct from “Life Points”, but the strange thing about this is that when deducting life points, the damage of the attack doesn’t matter; it all takes off 1 life point per attack. The exception are multi-hit attacks that take off as much LP as it says it will hit, so it’s better to use a weak-multi-hit attack than a powerful one when your enemy has no barrier. Many monsters and bosses especially have MULTIPLE barriers of varying affinities, so you need to choose your team wisely in these scenarios.

MRW bosses with multiple barriers can heal

If you’re not already knowledgeable about Eternal’s “Order” and “Reaction” skills, it’s quite simple. Order skills in red are usually attacks or buffs that are activated on your turn, while “Reaction” skills are moves that are activated if a certain condition is fulfilled. Many of these skills cost “Mesia Points (MP)” to use, and that becomes very important during bosses.

Keep these terminology in mind, since they’ll be used to describe the main characters’ “Ultimate Moves”, which are ridiculously powerful moves that if used correctly, make any of these bosses seem lolwtfezmode.