Recent reviews by Yingwu Usagiri

I dislike leaving one sentence reviews but this is such a shameless copycat of one of the most genius trickle-income concepts ever that I had to leave a review to be able to downvote this awful rip-off.

It's time for a short review again... Normally I only write lengthy and in-depth reviews but this game was so shockingly garbage that I feel like people deserve to hear about it...

Aside from the garbage of even getting the game going on stream (Game capture doesn't see it, Window capture just has a frozen singular frame of the game) and just in general there only being TWO whole resolutions (both small) to pick from the entire game is just trash.

To start the visuals look almost worse than a browser game, and I did play the oldschool Beat2Jam/O2Jam v2 and v3 to palate cleanse after this tragic mess. But on top of that the selection of songs is complete nonsense with there only being like 20~30 songs in the entire game UNLESS YOU PAY UP THE A$$ FOR A SUBSCRIPTION! or buy the extra songs seperately. But I don't see how they ever expect people to fork that over considering that every single song has no notes appearing at all or even on difficulty lvl 27 only a handful of notes at the start and then it stays blank. Sometimes the result screen doesn't even show up at all! So all in all, I was made to play this game for an hour as a punishment and even THAT I couldn't muster to do because nothing functioned. At all. At some point there were even invisible notes that got counted as a miss, yeah no $hit!

I genuinely hated this... And I went into this knowing it's the worst rhythm game on Steam, AND I STILL HATED IT!

Fair disclaimer at the start - I got this game through DareDrop and all the extra goodies that come with it

Normally for my curator page I write lengthy reviews but this one is my own and I'll keep it shorter, like the game. I was seriously surprised that if I hadn't gotten stuck on the "mirror fight" (more on this later) that it's only a 30~45 minute campaign.

Speaking of the campaign I did enjoy that a lot of things were predictable when you know your Japanese lore, I already figured that a fire happening in rain could only be the sun god Amaterasu which sadly gets pronounced by the game closer to Tiramisu than the proper Amateras and this continues into almost every name which feels a bit jarring even if it's expected but it's that slight immersion break when everything else is visually and audibly on point. P.S. I'm sure the game made her a guy but that's fine.

Returning to that "mirror fight" I mentioned. It's the fight halfway through where you get taught the charge attack and this is where everything turned to crap for a brief moment. Almost everytime you charge your mirror opponent you go straight through them without damage. Normal attacks almost always get blocked and if you so happen to both attack at the same time the opponent always gets presedence over you and you of course instantly die.

So I thought to myself okay, this is where it gets harder, cool! But it didn't... Amaterasu afterwards didn't even try to attack me once and the final Susanoo fight (normally a guy, now a girl?) was maybe 1 minute of charge attacks and not falling for a trap attack.

So in conclusion, would I say it's worth you getting Sclash? Absolutely! It's gorgeous, the music is great, the mythos gets close enough that it's recognisable and a treat for the Japanese lore lovers and I'm certain that the janky interactions/AI for some of the bosses will get tweaked. That said, personally I would've loved it if the story was told while you're fighting off more of the "regular enemies", there's a lot of straight up cutscenes and empty walking chapters where it messes with the flow of your being the solumn samurai. So all summed up I would say wait for a sale to go along with the online multiplayer update~

Normally I write quite lengthy reviews but I wanted to sneak this one in because software like this is important to my streaming ecosystem.

AvaKit describes itself as "the best choice for Vtubers" but that's not even remotely true or close.

It lacks:

In depth access to your tracking which allows for things like auto breathing (blinking) for eyes, or turning minute specific tracking options off or less/more agressively tracked
Spout so that you can send your output to OBS WITHOUT any UI elements popping up for viewers
Twitch integration of any relevance beyond just getting objects thrown at you (in an awkward fashion)
Steam Workshop or any easy way to add items and live2d objects to your model that actually track along with you (it only has "stickers")
VERY IMPORTANTLY, it can't use RTX tracking which is the most drastic improvement to tracking in recent times
Collaboration options which the bigger alternatives that are ACTUALLY your best choice for Vtubing have added
Even in the preview movies on the steam store you can see some of the tracking jitter and unlike alternatives there's no slider for X/Y/Z tracking intensity which takes care of jitter, zoom-bob and many other tracking quirks that are offputting to look at as a viewer
And I'm sure even more things that I set up a long time ago and airheaded over for this mini review

So in summary, is it cool to see a new option? Absolutely! And it's a very promising start, but for now the measly ten bucks for Vtube Studio (or not even if you just wanna crop it out or use the free version!) straight up can not be beat for now and riggers know how to optimize for it too to get the most out of your model like very accurate and seriously cool eye tracking with the RTX capabilities which also save you precious resources because tracking is intense on your performances.

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

The Adventure of Nayu is a cookie clicker in a cutesy skin with a super short story mode

The visuals of Nayu are really pretty and simplistic. As for the mechanics you have the usual cookie clicker aspects of upgrading your stats and clicking your left mouse button a lot.

The gameplay of Nayu works as you would expect, left click to attack and after a couple of hits you unlock a Fever mode which does increased damage for a period of time. As most cookie clickers you also build up your idle attack speed so that you don't even need to play the game but of course clicking stays the best method of attack. Nayu has a short story mode and with short I mean less than ten minutes, after which you unlock a minigame and the endless mode which is basically just to unlock all of the achievements.

The soundtrack to Nayu is childlike and simplistic which isn't bad for how long the story mode takes but after a while the pretty much three ish songs that all sound alike get really tedious and samey for endless mode. As for the sound effects they aren't obnoxious or over the top so they work just fine.

So, in conclusion and partly the reason why I wrote this review in the first place. Would I recommend getting this game? Barely barely! yes. But even for a price like 2,39 SEVEN MINUTES of story mode before you get dumped into basically a free to play cookie clicker clone is really a little tiny bit of enjoyment for anyone's measure of short. If you can get it in a sale the cute visuals are worth it so my answer would be: yes, in a sale, with moderate expectations of the game.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879749351
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879749380
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2879749419

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

Sixtar Gate: STARTRAIL is a rhythm game based on DDR / osu!Mania mechanics and controls with a fixed soundtrack

Sixtar has brought the anime-ness up to an 11/10 with everything being super colourful and adorable anime illustrations EVERYWHERE including videos and backgrounds for pretty much all of the songs comparable to osu! storyboards. In terms of mechanics you have four main 'blue' notes, then 2 shoulder buttons that take care of the double left and double right 'red notes' and every now and then the 'gate' opens to add a middle note in between the main four notes.

For this review I'm going to be comparing Sixtar to osu!Mania a lot because osu! is the rhythm game I'm most familiar with because of 14 years of playing it. The red notes in Sixtar are refreshing but they are placed so brutally every now and then even hiding them behind blue notes that I'm not completely convinced about them. That said if you can't handle them (yet) you can play in Lunar mode which takes out the red notes that are in the main Solar mode so that's a nice option to have for a more "classic" experience. Then if you ask me the gate opening is just a distraction, I'm fully used to 5k and even 7k so I have no issue playing like that but just keep the 5k layout constantly instead of flip flopping between the layouts and adding visual noise. The main appeal to Sixtar however would be the insane amount of customization with plenty of highways, note styles, profile imagery, emotes and completely different visual styles to choose from. And on top of that you can change the widgets that are on your highway so the look of this game is almost completely up to you which is much appreciated! The only request I would personally have is assisting the colourblind, most skins have similar looking 'middle notes' to the main blue notes and I too struggle with noticing that in between the chaos of notes and the gate opening. To then move on to the more negative comments about Sixtar, the mapping seems to be anywhere between a bit off and completely not like the songs I know so well. To clarify I do NOT mean the hit detection but just the mapping of the song itself, where the notes are placed compared to the song is wonky enough to keep me from playing Sixtar over osu!Mania. At least Sixtar is less harsh with there for example being no penalty for holding a hold note too long unlike osu!Mania where the release of a hold note is a trigger itself but it's not enough to offset just how picky Sixtar is every now and then with the precision of hitting a note and I'm used to 30ms error margins.

In terms of the soundtrack I was VERY impressed (especially for a game with a fixed soundtrack!) with the great selection of artists like Sound Souler, Silentroom, Niwashi, Noma, Tatsh and even T+Pazolite which is perfect for a whacky control scheme like this game. One nitpicky thing would be that the result screen music gets kinda samey and draining, same with the song start animation which didn't need such an in your face loud glorified loading screen. In terms of the sound effects I love the hit-sounds being helpful in letting you know when you're off beat without needing the widget to muddy up the screen.

So in conclusion I'm very close to not liking Sixtar enough to recommend it because it's just straight up too clunky, limited and visually over the top to be enjoyable. However, with all the customization and Lunar Mode option and all of those quality of life things I'd say that if you can get the game in a sale and just pick it up for a casual enjoyment game and not as a die hard accuracy focused Rhythm Gamer of nearing two decades (and a Piano player of over two decades) I can get behind recommending Sixtar for a purchase. Do keep in mind however that even on "normal" difficulty after a song or 10 the difficulty is already well beyond "casual inexperienced player" levels.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870360968
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870360864
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870361062

Normally I write lengthy and well structured reviews and skim over games that don't have a lot to say about it but for this one I'll make an exception.

First off, it's a free game so nothing is keeping you from giving it a go!

To start with the least enjoyable part of the game: Yes the controls of needing to keep running back and forth to try combinations because dropping an item resets it back to it's original place is a bit annoying.
That said, the serene premise of a musical call and response between junk creating instruments and with said instruments complex chords to suss out made the game enjoyable in a uniquely specific way that I haven't experienced since Wii Music where sound and chord theory came to play made me at least want to write this review.

To sum it up: Very short game (<15 minutes) if you have some musical knowledge and know what you're doing, otherwise the resetting items and lengthy cutscene telling you NOPE you got it wrong could make the game a bit longer. That said, the serene visuals and mood made the game absolutely worth a play, especially because it is free.

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

Project DIVA Mega Mix+ is a blend of button based rhythm games and Stroop Test in which you have to match the prompts and time them well.
Friendly disclaimer: I haven't written a review in ages but this was such a shocking revelation that I just had to write one now (p.s. don't mind the total playtime, I have played this before and this review is just based on this Steam port)

In terms of visuals these games are always fantastic but what baffles the mind is that (while it looks much better than it) the max resolution in the settings is 720p, I have a 4K HDR so while it looks like that quality it's a max of 720p!? In terms of the mechanics this game has always tested the limits of your ability to opposite cross eye and see everything happen on all sides of your screen which I appreciate, it's a wonderful challenge on top of the vast amount of different prompts and combinations it could throw at you.

One of the first things I noticed, as I pretty much always start with settings after the tutorial is that there is NO calibration mode, and it's sorely needed in this game because the hit detection is woeful. After the 720p thing and the calibration missing I started looking for controls, especially since they offer keyboard prompts I expected a way to change them aaaaand IT'S ALSO NOT THERE!? which is made even more stupid by the fact that the Elite Controller that I use has it's paddles by default mapped to A, B, Y and you guessed it A SECOND Y!? In terms of playing actual songs (if you navigated to a song with the d-pad because the thumb sticks make the menu jitter about and no I don't have drift) it's as fun and challenging as it always was on the handheld versions. I genuinely appreciate the vastly different control scheme compared to other genres of rhythm game and the mountain of possible inputs between single notes, hold notes, slide notes, multi notes etc. that you can solve in even more than two ways. The core essence of adding a layer of difficulty through readability is not my favourite method but the note prompts flying in from all over the place sure makes for an aesthetically impressive looking thing that you're playing even if in essence it's not as hard as it seems as a spectator.

Let's be real, if you don't like Vocaloid why would you even... Ok that said, I do love Vocaloid and have listened to Miku for over 10 years so I genuinely think the soundtrack of this game is pure awesome however on the side of sound design, and especially for a rhythm game that is this flashy and stylistic the hit sounds and such sound really lackluster and samey.

So in conclusion I wrote this because of my disappointment and I hate that I have to say it because 1. I really like this game but not the port 2. I've been a musician and diehard rhythm gamer for decades so I looked forward to this on Steam and 3. I have a few friends that are going to kill me for this but just because of how much Sega ruined this specific port to such an extent that I can't bring myself to deal with the half-assery at this point in release that I honestly have to say (for now) stay far FAR away from this port and I would've genuinely rather have put my 25 bucks towards getting it back in it's original handheld glory.

Okay so for full clarity, you can fiddle with the lag but it's literally a selection menu with -1/+1 for audio and video. Nobody is ever going to figure out what offset they have by manually changing settings by 1 and then try it again and again and again until by miracle you fixed both video and audio together at the same time.

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE is a first person dungeon crawling shooter with the major difference that everything in your arsenal works on the beat (and offbeat) of the soundtrack.

The visuals of BPM are a stylized dark and gloomy dungeon with Nordic visuals (and also for your skills and equipment) that slowly degrades into mossy overgrown dungeons before reaching literal hell and everything being overrun by lava. In terms of the mechanics it's not that hard to be fair on paper. Moving is free but everything else like dashing, shooting and skills are on the beat or where allowed also the offbeat.

One of the first things that will hit you in the face is that if you put the beat detection on strict that it's not that great (and especially on slower bits) and yes it's better on normal but as a musician I inherently feel the rhythm and should be able to play on strict if I wanted to. Besides that the second biggest letdown of the game is that you get stuck on the scenery SO OFTEN needing to dash away or sometimes not even being able to dash which against the wrong enemy like a Guardian or Spider Queen will end in instantly dying (I will say that after Vanaheim when the dungeons disappear that the scenery gets a LOT better).A smaller con is that the game sometimes gets WAY too dark and red tinted to even see properly, sure it's largely only the case on special Dark floors but occasionally in Vanaheim it gets ridiculous at all times. On a more positive note a very nice subtle detail is that a hit target shows up on the enemies when in range so that you don't need to waste ammo is you pay attention. That said though the hit detection on enemies isn't always perfect, especially the flies can be magically immune to you hitting them sometimes. Lastly there's a good variation of heroes to play as, some have health, some only have armor, some start with awful guns and some with great guns but always from the starting pool which allows for a real sense of growth with absolutely amazing guns to get and even better equipment.

The soundtrack to BPM is an absolutely amazing soundtrack that I wouldn't mind listening to even outside of the game although admittedly to my taste, I dislike Vanaheim I's soundtrack. A REALLY cool addition that will probably never happen would be the option to add your own music (especially songs with a generic 4/4 never changing beat would just require telling the game what BPM it is, and even if the BPM would change, even MIDI editors like 3MLE can handle this so why not a full fledged game). On the side of the sound design it doesn't let you down and it is nice and oomphy with an extra layer being added to the music in the shape of a heartbeat when on 1 hit left making the music even more intense!

So in summary would I recommend BPM? Absolutely! It's a fantastic game to play despite the irksome troubles that it has. And is it frustrating to play? Also yes! Because in the end it stays a crap shoot whether the game will give you good weapons / equipment or not but it's still really fun though but the struggle of being slightly underpowered until you get something better can be fun as well and believe me, things do get better as the improved weaponry is NUTS. In terms of the price however, I'd say wait for a sale as this isn't everybody's cup of tea.

I forgot to mention in the original review that on a more serious note BPM completely destroys my PCs lighting effects. While playing BPM the lighting in my case will start freaking out and until I reboot the PC iCue reports devices missing and firmware unavailable which means that until a reboot nothing looks like it should. Is it permanent, no? Is it a really bad thing to be happening, yes!

FIXED!: The way to solve this is to manually upgrade to iCue version 4 from the website because this one does not get affected at all. If you're still using iCue 3, which is highly likely as it will also never mention that it can be upgraded to 4. Shut it down and download the update package to do it yourself.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2690300941
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2690301517

A Bird's Eye View Curator 🦜

S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters is a quick math solving game to dungeon crawl your way through the game and unlock more and more, uh, well. Math.

S.U.M. has a cool old-school 8bit pixel artstyle. On the side of mechanics it's an interesting take on math and a spin on type to kill but of course it's math to kill which gets harder and harder while keeping how to play as simple as click the correct integers.

The immediate first thing I noticed is that the mouse feels super sluggish which doesn't give you the confidence of accuracy while under the stress of beating enemies to the punch (and there is no adjusting it). I absolutely find the gameplay interesting in the sense that it gets more difficult in three side chained ways. One is harder operations mixed into the fun, two is more integers to equate to the answer and three is not instantly killing enemies after a while which elongates the amount of time you need to focus for. Do have to say though that the interface and overworld don't feel that intuitive where you don't walk into a stage but walk up to it and then need to click on it anyways (which you can also do by not walking or even just bypass it entirely with R). A big bummer for old-school gamers is that there's no real satisfying YOU LEVELED UP! cheerful jingle so the sense of getting stronger just lingers in the background because even when you don't level up the stat increase of 0 is there on every result screen. And finally I like that there's a balance between being quick and efficient, there's often more than one right answer but not all are equal as you're juggling your characters optimal hitzones for increased damage, biggest amount of coins earned and even trying to make rows of the same numbers for a huge bonus.

The soundtrack to S.U.M. is terribly basic but it's not annoying for sure, I just wouldn't listen to it for any longer than half an hour or so as it does get dull. As for sound design it's quite satisfying old school splats, thumps and coinage jingling.

So in conclusion would I recommend you to play S.U.M.? Well yes! Even though the clunky mouse and unintuitive overworld make it flow less satisfyingly it is very enjoyable and it does start to challenge you after a while, in a sense this game reminded me of the fun we had in primary school playing the card game 24 Game in which you had to use any operators to use the 4 numbers on the card to all together equate 24. Let's also not forget that besides the (cheap) DLCs that change up the core gameplay efficiency that S.U.M. is entirely free to play! So why not give it a chance? If there's ever an update or sequel I would have liked to see gold do more in the game however besides just unlocking gates and healing, you get to infinitely retry stages to grind money after all so why not also give gold a cosmetic purpose or something like that.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2672780358
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2672780510
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2672780640