Samantha Lienhard
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Writing For
MonsterVine
KeenGamerLatest Reviews
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...
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.
The second route, unfortunately, feels almost extraneous. Without fondness for Tamamo no Mae from the previous games, her story feels too much like repetition of Nero’s route, while the third route is when the story truly breaks away from that formula. There are also side stories for the allied characters,...
RiME
The game’s buildup is at times too subtle for the story it wants to tell, but it’s not as ambiguous as the beginning might make you believe, either. RiME isn’t the game to go to for challenging puzzles or a direct story, but it gives you a beautiful world to...
Conarium
Conarium can be completed in roughly 5 hours, depending on how long you spend on exploration, but those 5 hours are filled to the brim with Lovecraftian themes. While it rarely places you in any danger, Conarium instead builds up horror through its compelling atmosphere, dark storytelling, and a growing...
The Caligula Effect 2
Finally, the music deserves a mention. Since idols and musicians play an important role in the story, you’d hope for a strong soundtrack, and it succeeds. The dungeon themes are exciting and catchy, with a neat transition from the instrumental to vocal version whenever you enter combat.
Beat Cop
With rampant corruption and tough choices to make, Beat Cop can be grim. At the same time, it’s often funny, if only because of the insane situations Kelly ends up involved in. Unexpected complications await you as you try to solve the mystery, and you never know just what the...
Stories Untold
It’s a short game, as each episode can be finished in under an hour. Yet the story’s presentation—the dialogue, atmosphere, mystery, and growing sense that nothing is what it seems—makes it work well as a tight, concise package. If you like horror stories and adventure games, Stories Untold is worth...
Owlboy
Although Otus can’t speak, his posture and facial expressions convey his thoughts enough to make him lovable, and his companions are all entertaining in their own ways. Optional scenes flesh them out even more, and the only downside is that such a fantastic cast of characters deserves a more satisfactory...
Unfortunately, its story isn’t on the same level. Your journey begins when a young man named Amon finds a mysterious artifact and begins to investigate it. Despite some interesting lore, however, the story is rarely compelling, between bland plot developments, villains whose motivations go unexplained, and protagonists with almost no...
