Category Archives: 2019

Atelier Arland Trilogy, New Game Plus, Videos

New Game Plus: Ghosts Don’t Have Feet – Atelier Rorona DX #8

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It’s time for our weekly visit to the kingdom of Arland, as our New Game Plus runthrough of Atelier Rorona DX on Nintendo Switch continues!

We’re well into the game’s second year now, and all sorts of interesting things are happening. Rorona is still devastatingly overpowered, however; can no-one provide her with a decent fight? She’s the Lu Bu of the Atelier world at this point.

Hit the jump to see how today’s crafting, gathering and Puni-splattering went.

Continue reading New Game Plus: Ghosts Don’t Have Feet – Atelier Rorona DX #8 →

Cover Games, Death End Re;Quest

Death end re;Quest: Where Does the Game End and the World Begin?

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One of the most interesting things about Death end re;Quest is the fact that it gradually evolves over the course of its duration, with new mechanics and structural elements being continually introduced throughout the first distinct “part” of the game.

Today we’re going to take a look at part of the game’s overall mechanics and structure: specifically, the part of the experience that allows you to explore and advance the overall story. We won’t be discussing the narrative itself today — just how it’s presented and how the game hangs together.

It’s one of Compile Heart’s most interesting games, even before you’ve unlocked everything — so let’s take a closer look at one of its coolest aspects.

Continue reading Death end re;Quest: Where Does the Game End and the World Begin? →

Atelier Arland Trilogy, New Game Plus, Videos

New Game Plus: Medicine for a Verdant Land – Atelier Rorona DX #7

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Thus far our playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX’s New Game Plus mode has been going swimmingly, with one out of the three years down without breaking a sweat.

From here, things start to get more interesting and challenging… or, well, at least they might if you didn’t have all your nice upgrades from first time around. Instead, on a second playthrough and beyond the main challenge comes from getting all the playable characters up to standard, grinding friendship levels and triggering the events necessary for the endings you’d like to see.

Hit the jump to see how our first tentative steps into the second year of Rorona’s career went…

Continue reading New Game Plus: Medicine for a Verdant Land – Atelier Rorona DX #7 →

Atelier Arland Trilogy, Videos

New Game Plus: Cabbage Girl – Atelier Rorona DX #6

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“It’ll be a short episode,” he says, then proceeding to play for an hour and a half. I was having fun, though!

Yes, this week’s episode of New Game Plus runs a little longer than intended, but, well, there were important things to do. Very important things. Like the cabbage competition in the annual festival!

Hit the jump to see just why everyone is calling Rorona “Cabbage Girl”…

Continue reading New Game Plus: Cabbage Girl – Atelier Rorona DX #6 →

Cover Games, Death End Re;Quest

Death end re;Quest: Introduction

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Although Idea Factory and Compile Heart will likely always be known as “the Neptunia people” thanks to the success of their flagship franchise, this cult favourite collective has been becoming more and more adventurous and creative as the years have advanced.

A big part of this experimentation comes in the form of Compile Heart’s “Galapagos RPG” project. Originally set up in 2013 with the mission to “develop RPGs specifically for Japanese customers”, the intention behind the studio was to eschew the growing trend for Japanese developers to change their style in a specific attempt to court a wider Western audience, and instead to focus primarily on that core audience. This wouldn’t rule Galapagos games out of being localised, mind you — it just meant they’d be unapologetically Japanese.

Sounds good to me. And going by the strength of past games put out by the project — including Fairy Fencer F and Omega Quintet — it seems to be a winning formula for the studio. Let’s take a first look at their latest, and where it came from.

Continue reading Death end re;Quest: Introduction →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – In Search of the Truth

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Many games these days make a point of providing some sort of “added value” over and above their base experience. Be it a postgame chapter with stiff challenges, post-launch DLC or a New Game Plus mode, these features are typically there to keep you playing even after you see the credits roll.

Visual novels, as an offshoot of video games, aren’t typically known for having substantial postgame content other than the “metagame” that multi-route titles have: seeing all the possible narrative routes and collecting all the CG illustrations. But, as we’ve already established fairly comprehensively in this feature already, Spike Chunsoft’s 428: Shibuya Scramble isn’t a game to do things… “conventionally”.

Oh, sure, the base game has 85 “bad ends” to collect (with a series of trophies and achievements attached to these, encouraging you to seek them out rather than avoid them — and it’s worth doing so because several are very odd indeed!) as well as a “normal” and a “true” ending, but once you’ve seen the main narrative through to a satisfactory conclusion, you’re not done. Not by a surprisingly long shot.

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – In Search of the Truth →

Atelier Arland Trilogy, New Game Plus, Videos

New Game Plus: Replicating Ancient Tool – Atelier Rorona DX #5

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Get out your ancient tool, boys and girls, because Rorolina Frixell is most certainly going to replicate it good and proper!

Yes, in today’s episode of New Game Plus, in which we are presently enjoying a second playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX on Nintendo Switch, we take on the poor overworked girl’s third assignment, which is somewhat vague on the specifics but nonetheless proves not to be too much of a problem for her.

Hit the jump to see how we got on today!

Continue reading New Game Plus: Replicating Ancient Tool – Atelier Rorona DX #5 →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – A Question of Identity

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Well, it’s time to unravel some of the mysteries at the core of 428: Shibuya Scramble. And there are plenty of them!

Not only that, but “beating” the game isn’t the end, either; once you’ve seen the “normal” or “true” endings, there are other, more deviously hidden scenarios to track down… but that’s a tale for another day. Today, we’re going to focus on the how the game explores its various protagonists and one of its most important core themes.

Let’s step back into Shibuya, then… the beating heart of one of the world’s busiest cities.

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – A Question of Identity →

Atelier Arland Trilogy, Videos

New Game Plus: Time On Our Hands – Atelier Rorona DX #4

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Whew! Even with the chaotic week I’ve had (including a brief period of complete computer failure last weekend) I managed to get all my usual videos out on time. Go me.

As always (well, usually, anyway), Friday plays host to New Game Plus, our weekly exploration of post-game content and New Game Plus modes. Currently, we’re doing a second playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX, part of the Atelier Arland trilogy we’ve recently explored here on MoeGamer.

Hit the jump to find out how today’s alchemical efforts went!

Continue reading New Game Plus: Time On Our Hands – Atelier Rorona DX #4 →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – The Mechanics of Storytelling

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When we’re talking about conventional games — particularly today’s games — it’s important to consider them from a wide variety of perspectives.

Typically, we look at a game from several different angles: the way it’s presented through its sights and sounds; the way it plays through its mechanics; and, where applicable, how it handles its story.

When contemplating visual novels, the balance tends to be a little different. We tend to up the focus on narrative considerably, and in many cases mechanics don’t enter the picture at all — many visual novels simply don’t have any! That is, unless you’re 428: Shibuya Scramble, in which case your narrative and mechanics combine together to produce something exceedingly interesting…

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