The Internal の最近のレビュー

The Short (review of April 2021 version):

Pros
- Great voice acting
- Funny sci-fi comedy story with lots of fourth wall breaking that I actually want to see more of
- Fun space shooter
- Sexy characters
- Cute / Sexy character animations during the visual novel format

Cons
- Current build is short (April 2021)
- Bland turn based game portion (probably not finished yet)
- Most of the game is a visual novel format
- The lack of characters mouthing the words in the visual novel portion was a bit surprising
- I had hopes for more sexual content integrated into the game / more than the modern equivalent of quicktime animated sex loops currently implemented
- Early Access game is clearly Early Access (turn based game feels particularly incomplete, little to no real variety to approach available).

The Long:

As a nerd who's "played" a number of "adult only" games, I had high hopes from FOW due to their track record of kinky hardcore videos. With the likes of Kiss's Custom Maid 3D series, Illusion's Honey Select series or kinkier / darker Play Home, Miconisomi's Insult Order, or independent 3D efforts like Captain Hardcore, Waifu Sex Simulator, and The Northwood Lair... there's increasingly accessible competition out there for 3d interactive fapping material instead of the increasingly dated Japanese "visual novel" format. That being said, the current state of Subverse (as of mid April 2021) is a mixed bag.

So far, the current build makes a solid effort at a comedy sci-fi story, with quite a bit of fourth wall breaking. The voice acting is generally very well done. The story is presented very much in a "visual novel" style that will be immediately familiar to Japanese porn game fans. It features 3d models of the characters and is one of the best implementations of the visual novel presentation style that I've seen (Demi playfully wiggling her boobs being of note), though the character's mouths don't move when their character is speaking.

The space shooting part of the game is possibly the best part of the game at the moment with good visuals, relatively easy game play to those familiar with the genre, a little bit of variety in the form of waifu selection altering the "special" weapon, and a simple yet clever way of showing what's coming next (enemies approaching from the Z axis).

The turn based portion of the game is possibly the weakest. Think of a very dumbed-down take on X-Com, but with no item usage and currently little to no real customization for combat, and you'll have a rough idea. Given FOW's history for darker and kinkier stuff, I had hoped for the common trope of fun / interesting sexual "attacks" or "defeat" animations seen in non-visual novel Japanese porn games for the last two decades. Instead, it's a bland component that feels far from done in it's current iteration. However, the foundations for making something interesting exists, and I hope to see more done in this area.

The sex portion of the game is surprisingly vanilla (compared to FOW's previous works) and somewhat old fashioned, compared to previously mentioned interactive offerings. Some of the sex scenes allow for speed toggles, but that's about it. Otherwise, it's just short non-interactive animation loops that you can jump between. You can't even move the camera around. For what they are, they're pretty well done, but I had much higher hopes from FOW in this regard. The current build also has surprisingly few animation loops available.

Conclusion:
Overall, the game feels justifiably early access. There's some "good bones" (no pun intended) here, with some game elements looking very solid (voice acting, character models, and space shooter), while others are kind of "meh," The turn based strategy game aspect is still clearly not done / needs work to be fun and interesting, and the lack of integrating sexual content into the strategy game component was a surprise (why can't I throw a waifu under the bus to have her roughly gangbanged by every enemy on the level?) The sexual content is also surprisingly vanilla, given FOW's previous works. Worth checking out in hopes it will get "fleshed out" (pun intended?) more over the next months / years though. If you're just wanting interactive fapping material and don't care about narrative or non-fapping content, there's more robust options out there.

Solid Beat 'em Up game with some RPG elements (defeated enemies drop money, which you can spend to boost stats or unlock moves). Great music, well done 16-bit style graphics, and a simple though amusing story with well done voice over work. I've already beat the game once on "normal" difficulty. You're also able to wonder around, so roaming to farm is easy to do. Story is otherwise linear.
One of the only beat 'em up games with an ESRB rating of E 10+ (the ESRB is super conservative on their ratings, so this was a bit of a surprise compared to all the others in the genre being rated T for Teen).
My biggest complaints; the game is somewhat short, lack of side quests, and it only supports up to two players for local co-op, even though you can unlock two additional characters by beating the game.
Worth picking up if feeling nostalgic for 90s beat 'em ups, for a game featuring some girls who kick butt, or if it's on sale. Good value if you can catch it for $20 or under.

Like other chaotic multi-player games, this game suffers from players possibly struggling with keeping track of their character at times, and the level design is only moderately interesting. However, the game's over the top sense of humor and the diverse cast of characters and associated play styles are where the game shines. With support for both local couch 4 player and easy drop in and out online play, it's an easy include for PC couch co-op, especially if you can snag it for under $10. Pretty reasonable difficulty curve, with a modest variety of levels, and fully destructible everything... There's a lot here for those looking for a silly game to play by yourself or with friends.

Unplayable (under 5fps) on modest system (intel i7-8750H with Geforce 1050 Ti) at 1080p. Shockingly poor performance, especially when compared to other fighting game franchises that look good and run smoothly. Looks like they're doing another "please pirate me!" pricing strategy on DLC and costumes again like they did with DOA5 too. (Don't the developers know ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is a thing now?)
Disappointing to see a fighting franchise I enjoyed continue to become increasingly crappy.

Game has failed to launch on any of my Windows 10 computers for over two years now. Doesn't matter what CPU (Intel 6700k, 7700k, 6850k, 8750H) or GPU (IntelHD 615, Geforce 1070, Geforce 1080, Geforce 1050Ti), apparently. This game will not run with Windows 10 from the Steam launcher, due to issues with jrsetup.exe. End-users have no way to change the graphic settings of the game, as a result. You can dig into the Steam folders and launch jetsetradio.exe (the game), but end-users shouldn't have to do this.
IF it could be setup and run easily by your average non-computer nerd; Jet Set Radio was a Dreamcast Classic that was way ahead of it's time in having open world levels that even took advantage of the Z axis, allowing grinding to hard to reach places high above. Also had a great soundtrack and fun premise (rather than the now very dull "shoot everything" mechanic in 90% of modern games).

Never added the promised split screen co-op that I gave them money for. Failure to follow through on promises is never a good sign.

TLDR version near the bottom of this short review.

Soul Calibur and me
I've been a fan of fighting games for a long time. Though I usually prefered SNK over Capcom back in the 2D days (more story, better art, and more interesting characters), I was happy to see new takes on the genre with games like Soul Caliber, Dead or Alive, Power Stone, and eventually other titles like Guilty Gear upping / diversifying the genre. I personally never got into virtua fighter or Tekken, but I did give Tekken an honest try with Tekken 3 before beating it in less than 24 hours and deciding it was too dull.

The first fighting game I put 500+ hours into was Soul Calibur on the SEGA Dreamcast when I was young and out in the desert. It was either that or become an alcoholic, so I went with kicking my buddy's butt on a regular basis (my main was Cerevantes, his was Maxi). I got good enough to put up a decent fight in some tournaments, but usually would lose to a good Ivy or Voldo player due to lack of training against those two (that and them usually being the guy who went on to state level tournies).

I also enjoyed SC 2 and 3 on other consoles, before I moved away from the franchise due to not having a current gen console. When I saw the new version out, I figured it would be worth revisiting my old favorite.

Though there's a nostalgia factor, I have to say I'm dissapointed in the direction they've taken the game. Gone are the complex varieties of parries / gaurds (simplifiying it to two, a single same-speed parry, and one that initiates a "rock, paper, scissors" mini-game of sorts), many of the moves now feel less intuitive, many of the old combos are no longer combos, and the game's main win condition has essentially become knocking the opponent down, then killing them while preventing them from having a chance to ever get back up again.

It's become more of a knock-down game than a fighting game, and that's just not very fun to be smashing guard and directional inputs for 5+ seconds why your opponent kills you anyway.

Pros:
- Pretty nice graphics. (able to run 4k high settings on a modest i7-7700k & Geforce 1070)
- Cool DLC characters (Witcher and 2B. Hells yeah.)
- There's a fair amount of story, even if mostly familiar to Soul Calibur fans.
- Fairly responsive controls.
- Decent variety of fighting styles.
- Net code seems pretty solid / not laggy.
- Extensive art gallery, though zoom function is absent and no 3d character model viewing in this mode.
- Able to create and share character designs with the limited selection of premade outfits / items.
- No longer can block indefinately
- Soul Charges feel like they are more meaningful now, especially for some characters (like Kilik).
- Finally on PC. Let's see some mods!!!

Cons:
- Fighting system feels rather dumbed-down / focused on "new players" (A one-button "finishing move" you can actrivate after charging a meter. Very Street Fighter / KoF sorta thing).
- First one to get knocked down will generally lose against a high level AI or player, making it more of a "knock down game" than an actual fighting game. Recovery has been made exceptuionally difficult compared to the "easy" to "moderate challange" of previous versions.
- Gameplay is either very easy or stupid hard. Not much of a difficulty curve, more of a cliff.
- Game feels half done... like they took the game design document for a fleshed-out RPG, decided they didn't have the budget half-way through, then turned it into a Japanese visual novel instead, but with roughly sketched concept art for the pictures. Previous versions of this mode have felt more "complete" and polished.
- Rather limited selection of items for character creation.
- When facing a skilled opponent, if they knock you down, expect to never get up again / die.
- Instead of being able to block or evade when knocked down, now you just die.
- Though there's support for online lobbies for setting up fights, I was able to find zero available.
- Not alternate character costumes for main characters (where's my armor for Cerevantes?!?)
- Despite more emphasis on the story, the story is still pretty dull / a rehashing of every other Soul Caliber with no stand-out writing. (Guilty Gear seems to be the series to beat, as far as story and writing goes, and it's "above average" at best).
- Have I mentioned I hate losing due to luck (rock, paper, scissors) or being unable to play (unable to recover in over 1/2 my life gauge)?

Conclusion / TLDR:
Worth checking out if you don't mind being stabbed to death after a knock-down. Controls are probably "moderate" difficulty to learn at the higher levels of play, and the new clothing breaking system is kinda fun / borrows from some ecchi Japanese games. It's fun seeing the characters players make and share. Not a long wait to get paired for an online match (1 to 3 minutes during off-peak hours). Though there's an RPG mode in the game, it feels half-done. Feels more like Street Fighter with swords than Soul Calibur.

I really wanted to love this one, but nostalgia wasn't enough.

Final Score:
6.5/10 Some redeeming qualities, but don't pay full price for this one.

Lovely art direction, nice music, and pretty simple gameplay. The phrase "artfully melancholy with a bit of whimsy" comes to mind. This is one of those titles that might be worth watching someone stream, just so you can enjoy the world going by.

This short game is almost entirely about the seemingly post-apocalyptic world you navigate through, which I found thought provoking and disturbingly plausible, given that so many are in active denial that we're in an accelerated global extinction event + catastrophic environmental changes we're currently in... with industry and economics frequently being cited for why we shouldn't change our harmful ways. I wonder if the game world represents what that might look like in our lifetime?

Reasonable at full price, highly recommended on sale. Taking my time, beat the game in less than 4 hours.

Exceptional art direction. Nice music. Okay story. Decent, though pretty simple / casual game play. Interesting use of rhyme. No real replayability.

If you have a younger child or casual / non-gamer friend, or an artist friend, this is definately worth consideration.

Almost a "must play" if you have a younger daughter.

7.5/10 Pick it up for $20 or less, and play it with your kids :)

The Steam controller has easily proven to be one of the most noteworthy gaming purchases I have made in the last five years.

Though I don't exclusively nor constantly use it, it is definately a "must own" for living room couch-centric PC gaming, enabling a much more compact and ergonomic option than mouse and keyboard. It's become my default in the living room for non-twitch gaming that would otherwise be mouse or hotkey dependant. I frequently use it for side scrollers as well. It lives alongside my XBOX One controller, my Logitech bluetooth keyboard with integrated trackpad, and the occasional mouse and keyboard combo (which I usually reserve for my non-living room computer).

The haptic feedback feels right, the default control profiles usually work great (and there are tons of community profiles and tweaking options out there if they don't), the battery life seems good, range seems reasonable, Big Picture integration is well done, and the controller sits well in my larger end of medium man-hands.

If you're skeptical like I was, pick it up on sale (like I did). I grabbed my first one on sale, loved it, then picked up another one the next time it went on discount.

My only minor complaint? Not enough color options. I'd love a white one to match my newest gaming build!

Try it! You'll probably like it!