Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον 🌸🌈Pink Queendom💄🍒

If feels heart broken to rate down a game of my all-time favorite franchise. However, after several days of gameplay and struggling, I decided being cruel this time.

General impressions
Despite receiving several friendly warnings from PS5 players who have played Rebirth before my own journey started, “Putting down your anticipation, keep it low. Do not expect Rebirth will be as good as Remake has done’. I followed these advice, it didn’t reverse the outcome in the end. I don’t enjoy Rebirth, just like they didn’t enjoy it in their time too.

I don’t think Square could foreseen the problem which is happening, a couple years ago, when the team decided remaking the most popular FF title in RPG history. It’s not difficult to understand SE wished it reaching the greatness they seek, logically, decided to divide remake of FF VII into 3 games.

However, gaming industry has changed so much in a decade past. Gamers from anticipating a favorite title of their own for several years, shortened to at least one in a month nowadays, sometimes even more. It drastically changed how a player reviewing a game he/she used to love. Most of you probably have already known this: “People are eager to see something different, something new. Familiar stuff makes players get bored easily and quickly.”
It’s a result happening so nature that almost no one stops to think why it occurs. It’s an outcome of rich selections of what gaming industry is today, not a result of mistakes that have been made in a game’s development progress. So technically speaking, it’s not Rebirth’s fault.

Big companies like SE probably has already realized by now, making an AAA title with same structure and similar gameplay formulas into 3 pieces is a risky move. In fact, a risk that is too high to bear. Despite the developers of Rebirth has tried everything they could to add new features here and there in the game, obvious to notice. It doesn’t change the fact that the bone structure of FF VII’s gameplay is the same as the first game(Remake). To many players like myself, the system is too familiar to be interesting again for investing dozens of hours. You may have your doubts here, let me try to explain a bit further.

I’ve spent more than 100 hours in Remake, many of us who’re playing Rebirth right now have done it as well. I did everything that game has to offer. I know, despite the story of Rebirth is different from Remake and I don’t have a single doubt that it will be amazing until the very end and I still love all of protagonists, old and new, along with the world setting. However, it won’t change the fact that the gameplay experience I’m having, is no different than playing the first game for a 3rd time! Boring and tedious, are the words coming from my mind meanwhile I felt pain and sorry to say so. But the cruel reality doesn’t change.

Sounds not persuading? Let me draw an analogy between the trilogy of FF VII and in a relationship, and put Remake; Rebirth together as if it’s my lover. Remake is like the time when we first met - love from the first sight, I appreciated everything she does, we were deeply in love. I believed this feeling for her would stay forever; Rebirth, is the time after staying with each other for too long, the flame of love has faded, though we fight sometimes, we’re still remaining together. But it’s hard to deny, the burning passion I felt for her when we firstly started the relationship is long gone. This is what Rebirth is, comparing to Remake, it’s also the reason why Rebirth won’t surpass what Remake has achieved. “Knowing nothing, everything is brand new and fascinating,” to a player is a unique timed exclusive experience that Remake possesses, which SE won’t be able to replicate to Rebirth or the 3rd game. In fact, it’s not rare to see this ‘phenomenon’ within the industry. Why Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t receive the same positive reputations as Zero Dawn? Because the first game is an overwhelmingly phenomenal experience to a player, under one condition: he/she has never touched a Horizon game before. On quite the contrary, after Zero Dawn, 2nd game fell flat, not any new features can really save players from getting bored quickly when the core gameplay is exactly the same as the first game.
Ever heard of the Legend of Heroes trails franchise? Another typical example of a franchise using similar game mechanics over and over. When developers’ story plot becomes dry, what’s left for fans to play?

Of course there do have a few exception of similar gameplay across multiple titles still doesn’t fail. However, it requires a large fan base for a game to do so. Wanna an example too? The Witcher. I do not wish anything bad happening to the Witcher 4, since I’ll buy it myself. Let’s just say if, it’s a big if here, the half of fans don’t like new Witcher game. Even so, the other half of fans who appreciate it would still be good enough to support this title to sell a great number of copies, the game lives on afterwards, due to its massive numbers of fan base.

Unfortunately, through my observation, single-player FF titles(FF XIV excluded) do not possess such a large fan base. If half of fans didn’t like a new game, the title would take a heavy blow and fans like me would be done for.

Open world
To me, open world is an ‘old-fashioned idea’ to the age of gaming today. It was phenomenal when the time it was firstly introduced, because the concept was new to gamers. Not for today unfortunately. So many games are created each year with open world in it. Many folks like myself are tired of the setting of an open world. The massive size of a map making me doesn’t want to explore. There’s even a famous sentence describing this: “When I open the map seeing question marks all over the places, I feel the need of closing the game immediately.” Moreover, the open world settings are not friendly to both developers and gamers. To the devs’ end, they need to hire a large group of designers to ensure every corner of the map do have something for you to explore; To the players, you gotta play these content as much as possible to make game worthy. It’s very time consuming for both sides, in the end, everybody is exhausted. What does this have anything to do with Rebirth? It does. The concept of an open world game emphasizes exploring the world freely, the very idea of itself contradicts what a FF title often stands out. What’s the strongest suit of every FF game? The story. Free exploration can interrupt the smooth pace of story-telling, like Rebirth has done. In the game, you are consistently forced to shift your attention to a variety of ‘side activities’ while exploring the world outside Midgar. Not to mention, some side activities are decent mini games which require spending decent amount of time to play before winning. A player like myself, it’s hard to leave some side activities undone while proceeding to the next chapter. However, completing most of them, are too time consuming which resulting the main story is left behind for too long before resuming it again. In short, the existence of open world across several chapters is the cause of Rebirth’s story-telling being bitty, intermittent.

Mini games
Connected to the last topic, open world needs tons of content to fill the blankness of its large map, making it feel rich to explore, mini-games are a part of these content. However, putting numbers of mini-games into the main story and becoming a ‘to do list’, is a question move. Not all players enjoy all kinds of mini-games, especially some of them in Rebirth require time to practice before mastered them. To me, I have the time and patience to do them over and over again until I’m good enough to pass the ‘trial’.
(See comment section for the full review of mine, apologise: an old fan has really much to say to Rebirth)

FF VII Remake truly begins shinning because of Episode INTERmission. More precisely, only because of Deepground Tsviets - Weiss the Immaculate and Nero the Sable joined the ‘party’. Someone who also fought Weiss the Immaculate and won the duel in Shinra’s combat sim knew how formidable he is. To comparison, battling Sephiroth in hard is like a childish play.
So, when an album includes his bgm that nowhere else can be listened to, the ownership of it does mean something to me.
Now Square, it’s time to remake Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. I am dying to challenge these legendary soldiers again.

Fully understand now why people want Ubisoft to bankrupt and shut down for good. It brought all on itself.
Here’s another story for its disrespectful customer service today: Last night by a mere chance, I am shocked to find this game along with the deluxe content dlc key I’ve brought several years ago can no longer be activated due to Ubisoft stored the DE dlcs on a server which Ubisoft one-sided decided to shut down 2 years ago without notifying a paying customer like me. So any of us who’ve ‘owned ‘ the dlc key without activation before 2022, bad news, we lost what we’ve paid for forevermore. So, if you also own the game and never played it once after purchase, you might wanna check it out to see, whether it’s also your case or hopefully not.

Anyways, I was about to buy AC Shadows, I really was. But right now, since Ubisoft has this hobby to take away paid content from a customer, I don’t see the ‘ownership’ of Ubisoft’s games means anything to me. Not to mention to pay a lot for the ‘ownership’. What’s more, I can very well also believe that if I’ve brought AC shadows on March assuming it doesn’t delay again and for some reason, don’t play it right away, there’s a chance I will lose something I’ve paid for again. That’s called tracking record.
Okay, a guest pass to access Shadows is the most I can offer you, Ubi. Sorry but you don’t deserve anything more. Game’s removed from my wishlist. Good luck with your fate of bankruptcy, the world may honestly be a better place without publishers like you.

Surprisingly good VN blows like a fresh breeze refreshing my mind in the break time between big titles.
Exquisite art style with relaxing chitchat, amazing realistic background knowledge of real places( e.g London) brings nostalgia memories I had in there. Hilarious script makes me have a good laugh after a while in a video game.
The only downside is: I can’t obtain the adult patch as a DLC on Steam due to my silly region restriction which resulting me missing some content in the game. I have to stop my progress and wait for an alternate way to get access to the patch for enjoying the game fully. If Ume Softworks could provide it outside of Steam for downloading, the game is just perfect to finish, to list a solution. Anyways, I will give devs some time, hopefully it will be done not before long. Other than this, great VN!

If Nier Automata and the old Final Fantasy games had a child, this game is the closest thing to that individual.
…Unforgettable soundtracks, touching story, diversity depths of turn based on strategy boss battles made this old school bottle shining like a real diamond floating in the sea of video games.
The long main game made FND actually worth the price it asks for.
However, the difficulty becomes too frenzy hardcore towards the end killed all the fun a player may have, which is an issue Mistwalker should watch out for their future titles.
It’s a Chinese snake year in 2025, try not adding feet on a snake again for your next project, will you Misty?

The largest jewel in a crown of visual novels. Not many words needed to describe why it’s a must play in terms of origin, imagination, uniqueness and creativity within this catalog. It’s one of the true signature masterpiece in the golden era of visual novels.

TypeMoon, I’ve said this somewhere in the forum, and will say it again here: if you are interested in making a similar VN like this one for Fate Zero, then I believe the entire Fate franchise would have no regret regarding to the work of ‘remaster’, unless…you’re more interested in creating something completely new after so long. Even if that were the case, Zero is still the triumph card you haven’t thrown to the world’s ‘ table’.


*A special thanks to translators who’ve done excellent work for simplified Chinese to this game. Your wonderful work made it truly shin again after 20 years. Most of other VNs on Steam should learn from this game regarding to paying more attention on Chinese translations. VN is all about reading, if you don’t take care of your foreigner translation with precision and care, then the overall quality of your game will suffer because of your half hearted efforts. Frankly speaking, I’ve read dozens of VNs on steam, this game is the only one that I approve the translation quality of Simplified Chinese: native, concrete, precise, not a trace of machinery work. I can even feel some passion and love between lines. Can’t appreciate it enough, excellent work guys, thank you!

Let me be blunt: the biggest problem of this game? Pricing. If it were a complete version for $59.99, Sony would be jealous the sale by now.

On one hand, having mass potential buyers have to let go of this game because of the pricing(1/4 of my friends having your game on their wishlists, Microsoft), to me, the graphics doesn’t look any better than Shadow of the Tomb Raider(2018), Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection(2022), even Sony’s Forbidden West this year. However, the Great Circle requires you to own the most advanced rig at the moment in order to enjoy the game like it meant to be played, while the three above never ask this much to a poor PC gamer, like myself for example. The fact made me almost have to believe: this studio must be one of the share holders of Nvidia’s, the game may contribute a lot to the sale of N’s video card more than the game itself.

On the other hand, in terms of the gameplay, similar to an old game called Deadfall Adventure which was released far earlier than The Great Circle, cost far less, it is not a game that I haven’t seen before. As a no particular Indiana Jones fan, it became another stealth game with large collectibles around. Because nothing really standing out as new, it added another reason for not purchasing this game with full price. Frankly speaking, the game is only ‘amazing’ to hardcore fans of this IP in my opinion, positive feedback are under the suspicion of overrated it by fans.

The only thing I will praise MachineGames is: the incredible speed of fixing gamebreaking issue. On 10th of Dec. the game was on an unplayable state because the loading stutters were everywhere in the game(a result of not having a 4090 PC at hand ready), MG fixed the issue over night. Otherwise I would still be stuck in Italy, didn’t know whether to torture myself in order to continuing Indy’s bitter adventure or just giving it up quitting Triple A gaming for my own good.

Sum it up:
Indy’s fan: love is where it takes you, not Indy’s adventure. And I am sure you will do it better yourself, e.g not throwing your weapon to a hole while taking a picture in front of it.
None Indy’s fan: come back after grab a 5090 card, then purchase the Great Circle with a huge discount. Then you will realize that you’re the real winner in the end.

Let me add one more important note to my review helping the community: Originally I was planning to play this game on Xbox Gamepass, but the XGP's PC version was so bad, it has even more issues on launch day, e.g it doesn't support full screen on my PC for god knows why, which made my recording tool can't work properly. Moreover, the XGP version can't be added to steam as a none-steam game, which means all the steam features I won't be able to use while playing it, including the Steam input. So here's the problem: I don't have a xbox controller, the controller I use, XGP simply doesn't recognize it. There are other problems as well, though mainly these two were the reasons good enough for me to abandon XGP version and had to buy it on Steam. Now you know why Microsoft can't win Sony, it's ok you don't have a good product, but it's not ok you don't have a good customer service. It's definitely not ok when you lack of both, Microsoft.

7/10 - If this game doesn't have so many performance issues that decrease gameplay experience drastically much. But it does, some of them still remain while I am playing it.
So, 7-5/10 = 2/10

讲个自己的真实故事吧。

20多年前玩《从今以后》的时候，自己还是个恋爱经历为0的高中生，所以当初游玩陵祈的剧情没有什么真情实感，对「被甩」一事甚至还有些逆反心理。所以去了果凛小姐那儿就再没有惦记着「回来」。

直到若干年后大学毕业，做梦都没有想到，自己在现实里遇见并爱上了“祈”。「她」跟祈的相似度之高，如今回忆起来简直觉得不可思议：及腰的黑长直；美丽；气质迷人；音乐生；钢琴专业；狮子座［生日跟祈正好是狮子座的始与末（她：7/23；祈：8/21）］；连姓的谐音也相差无几：林-陵；迟到大王，约会没有一次能准时到，打底迟到一个小时都算少的；平时举止温柔懂事，但某些方面相当顽固不讲道理，有着说什么都无法让步的坚持。比如绝不解释为什么次次约会都能迟到那么久

分手的时候也是一样突然。1个电话，之后再没有肯见我一面。记得分手那天晚上，我跟男主一蹴一样，哭了一整晚，因为还深深地爱着她不想分开。老实说，我这辈子就没为别人哭过，她至今也是唯一一个。


时间转回到20年后的今天，带着一把的年纪，支离破碎犹如混凝土般的心脏，不谈恋爱不结婚对女人毫无兴趣的麻木，只因怀念而重拾这个游戏。与20年前自然不同，这次对男主一蹴经历的一切，感同身受，无以复加。不禁感叹「是不是学音乐的女孩子都这样...」

奇怪的是，「她」步入我世界那一刻，我并没有把「她」跟祈联想到一起。直到此刻重温游戏，祈的剧情那似曾相识的「压迫感」，像海啸一般，从记忆的缺口深处，怒吼着迎面袭来，这才使我恍若隔世。

事到如今，只能感叹命运竟能如此捉弄人。但与游戏不同：在现实的世界里，我没有等来她的复合，也没有收获破镜重圆的喜悦，更没有迎来甜蜜的happy ending。只有，与「祈」完全重合的那个人之间，最心酸的回忆。


雨，何时才会停？
被丢下的人，其实连许愿的资格都没有


图：一张绘制了许久却从未寄出的明信片

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3377006392&fileuploadsuccess=1

P.S 如果你之前没有游玩过这个游戏，我这里不推荐购买。原因是：该数字版采用的机翻，跟我手里握有的20年前，人工精细翻译的实体版体验相去甚远。如果喜欢秋回/告回，建议等04.10的新游。新游我也会跟MEGES提，让他们重视中文本地化的专业性。
对于我这样的情怀党而言，只能说，这个系列有数字版比没有总要强。但是十分遗憾，这次的中文版毫无诚意也是不争的事实。不要以为我们真的不在意，只是念旧情，没有作声而已。


JP Ver.
自分自身の本当の出来事を記録します

20年以上前に『それから』をプレイした当時、私はまだ恋愛経験ゼロの高校生だったので、『陵祈』のストーリーに何の実感も湧かず、むしろ自分が『フロム・ナウ・オン』であることに反抗的な心理さえ抱いていました。 「捨てられた」。だから、カリンさんのところに行ったときは、もう「戻ってくる」ということは考えませんでした。

数年後大学を卒業するまで、まさか自分が現実で「祈ちゃん」に出会い、恋に落ちるとは夢にも思わなかった。 「彼女」は今考えると信じられないほど似ています。腰まである黒髪が美しく、ピアノを専攻しているのがレオです。 ) 「彼女」:7/23; 祈る:8/21 )]; 姓の同音異義語さえほぼ同じです。 「彼女」は、約束の時間に決して到着せず、通常は穏やかで賢明な行動をとります。かなり頑固で理不尽な面もありますが、何があっても屈しない粘り強さを持っています。たとえば、私は毎回の約束になぜこんなに遅刻するのか決して説明しません。

別れもまた突然だった。ある電話の後、彼は二度と私に会おうとはしませんでした。私たちが別れた夜のことを覚えています。主人公と私はまだ彼女を深く愛しており、別れたくなかったので一晩中泣きました。正直に言うと、私は人生で他の人のために泣いたことはありません、そして彼女は今でも唯一の人です。


時は遡り、数年後、コンクリートのように壊れた心と、恋愛も結婚もせず女性に興味のない無感覚な状態で、ただ懐かしさだけでこのゲームを手に取りました。 20年前とは当然違いますが、今回は主人公の男性が経験したことを一気に感じてしまいます。 「女の子ってみんなこんな風に音楽を勉強するの？」とため息が出てしまいますが…。

奇妙なことに、「彼女」が私の世界に入った瞬間、私は「彼女」を祈さん関連付けませんでした。これまでゲームをプレイし直すと、『祈ちゃん』のプロットでおなじみの“圧迫感”が記憶の隙間の奥から津波のように押し寄せてきて、まるで別世界にいるような気分になった。

この時点で、運命はこのように人々にいたずらをすることができるのだとため息をつくだけです。しかし、それはゲームとは異なります。現実の世界では、私は彼女が一緒に戻るのを待ちませんでしたし、一緒に戻った喜びを享受することも、甘いハッピーエンドを迎えることもありませんでした。完全に「祈さん」と重なる二人の間には、最も切ない思い出しかない。


雨はいつ止みますか？

残された者たちには願いを抱く資格すらなかった。


写真: ずっと描いてたけど送らなかったポストカード。

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3377006392&fileuploadsuccess=1

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368936339

用一个近20年前的游戏去试图说服一个已过中年，不谈恋爱不结婚，甚至对女人都没什么兴趣的家伙玩一玩恋爱题材的影视作品，听上去像是不可能完成的任务。
然而，望着躺在书架上多年的实体版和封面上那个带着灿烂微笑的明日香，某个游戏还真的散发出了让人难以抵御，怀念的诱人魔力。

虽然一进游戏第一时间就先荡掉了明日香。我是一个重视「选择」的人，所以什么预设的女友，投怀送抱的家伙，都是第一时间说bye bye的存在。


...19年前，仙堂麻寻那宛若银河恶魔城遛关一般的自带BGM给我留下了十分深刻的印象。也正是由于她的存在，让我记住了秋之回忆5。而中断的胶片也一直被我认为是Memories Off family里最独树一帜，特立独行的存在。诚如仙堂小姐那坚强的外表下也需要河合尽力守护的曲折故事一样。
这次重温，就是为了能再听一次她银铃般的笑声，和那句“‘你’很温暖”的甜言蜜语。秋5的love letter之于我，千言万语，不如麻寻这简短纯爱的一句话。


...如果秋之回忆继续出下去，我想我也会一直买下去。不谈恋爱，不结婚的人生无所谓，但短暂的人生，倘若没有秋之回忆，恐怕不行。因为可以无须活在对方的标准里，无拘无束，自由自在地恋爱 - 这样的美好，也只有在游戏的世界里，才有可能实现。

Since I surprisingly found you guys like Romantic Interactive Films like crazy, ok, let’s do it again. This time, I’ve picked a real quality RIF with at least one completed route for you to watch.

I know you probably wanna ask: “What exactly do you mean by ‘quality RIF’ ?” Here’s the requirement: The story is humorous→The choices we make are logical→The flow of gameplay is smooth→Your overall watching experience are highly more enjoyable→Quality IF concluded. Enjoy your ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eSrZXJ7L7I


Side Note to Ladies’ School Prince Devs
All the actresses in the film did a fantastic job for their own roles, there isn’t much point to rate who is more a likable character in the survey in my opinion, lots of us simply appreciate them all.
In addition, I support the idea of maintaining the full cast for LSP 2 while everybody playing a different new protagonist, despite LSP2 isn’t going to be a sequel.