Review – Genso Rogoku

No Japanese firm announced a PSVita game after Genso Rogoku was released in December 2020, making it the last physical game to hit Sony’s handheld there. Iwai Hime Matsuri made me like Ryukishi07’s narratives, but unfortunately this game didn’t get the same kind of attention.

Genso Rogoku has a intriguing rule : four girls are held in basement and are forced to take part in a death game to get out. The trouble is that the game only lets three persons out. Survival or friendship, such is the dilemma set by Entergram’s game over a dozen of hours.

Each chapter, the player chooses a role for Karin, Mizuna, Fûka and Doremi. Funnily, the first kanji of each heroine corresponds to the elements fire, water, wind and earth. That said, the roles they received are “prisoner”, “pierrot” and two “judges”. The prisoner is, very sadly for her, stuck on a iron chair. One of the judges can swap her situation with the pierrot, or declare her “guilty”. In this particular case, the other judge just has to pull a lever and everyone goes free.

As you can expect, it doesn’t happen that easily : the lever inflicts severe pain to the guilty person. Also, all of them have only five minutes before the whole room is engulfed in fire. Therefore, the tension goes high quicker than in a street demonstration. If you enjoy hearing girls argue at each other, this game is made for you. The story is just a flurry of invectives and spine-chilling stares.

But despite scare being the big theme of Genso Rogoku, it’s far less efficient than Iwai Hime Matsuri in that aspect. You can already notice the boxart having a CERO D rating when Iwai Hime Matsuri was Z. I see a sign that Entergram only did half the job. There’s next to no artwork to illustrate the fear and violence. Often, those are silhouettes of the characters on a red background, which doesn’t show much and leaves your imagination do the rest. Genso Rogoku doesn’t really express fear, there was a lot more to be done for that.

The other issue of the concept is its annoying redundancy. You try every prisoner/pierrot combination but every time the scenario is more or less the same. One of the girls is going to recall some unfullfilled promise, blame, and ultimately sacrifice another for it. It is, regrettably enough, literally twelve times the same story. Let’s stress that the author tries a contrast between cute childhood scenes and the killings. It kinda make sense and cleverly prepares the happy end at the close.

I honestly can’t believe that anyone in this project really gave its best. Genso Rogoku is too short, shallow and definitely not scary enough. However painful it may seem, it was far from being the dream-like last Vita game we hoped for.

My games of the year 2018 (GoTY 2018)

Best Action game

Senran Kagura Burst Renewal (PS4)

Although it could certainly have delivered more, the remake of Senran Kagura Burst on PS4 keeps the good gameplay basis of Estival Versus. DLC was rather good and some new stuff like the reworked ending make it an enjoyable installment for series fans.

Runner-up : none

Best Shooter

Battlefield V (PS4)

Since Battlefield 3, DICE has constantly put efforts in fine-tuning the console experience. With the new generation, console versions have been closing the gap with the PC version and now PS4 offers the promised all-out war showdown. Gifted with a brilliant solo campaign while others reject this game mode, EA’s game also stays the best for multiplayer.

Runner-up : none

Best Fighting game

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (PS4)

Quite a few nice fighting games this year, but none that could claim victory on the generation. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle was the most surprising, the best balanced and the most enjoyable of those overall. The tag system offers deep gameplay and instant fun at the same time, not to mention the game itself is splendid.

Runner-up : SoulCalibur VI (PS4) & Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4)

Best RPG

Caligula Overdose (PS4)

Caligula Overdose shows how remakes and remasters should be done. Improved in animation but no so in graphics, Furyu’s title however boasts twice more scenario content and lots more characters. The charismatic bad guys are playable and fully inegrated in the new storyline.

Runner-up : Zanki Zero (PSVita)

Best Strategy/Puzzle game

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)

The return of the king. What else could be said when Valkyria Chronicles comes back in its former glory? The unmatched game system still gives the tactical ecstasy thanks to a formidable challenge and great variety in the gameplay.

Runner-up : The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (PSVita)

Best music

Fate Extella Link (PS4)

I had first chosen Caligula Overdose for this award, but at listening to the music of the Fate Extella Link, the magnificient symphonies of the latter made me change my mind. Ultimately, Fate Extella Link is a game that failed on pretty much everything except its soundtrack

Runner-up : Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4) & Caligula Overdose (PS4)

Best narrative

Zanki Zero (PSVita)

I haven’t had the time to clear Zanki Zero yet, but the narrative style had been extremely good so far. Each chapter focuses on one character through some sort of quite fascinating animated storyboard. Progressive reveals within the story made it very hooking, especially towards the end.

Runner-up : Caligula Overdose (PS4) & Death End re;Quest (PS4)

Best atmosphere

NG (PSVita)

Experience knows that they did Something great with Death Mark. Logically, NG sticks to the same formula, sometimes a bit too much, but keeps the terrifying atmosphere that made its predecessor so fantastic. Crimes are onimous, pressure is high and fear is everywhere.

Runner-up : Transference (PSVR) & Zanki Zero (PSVita)

Best design

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)

One great thing about Valkyria Chronicles is its lovable characters. The 4^th game of the series is no different as party members are as diverse and charming as before. The player has no problem in making its own dream team. Depiction of Europe at war and the unique technology were once more remarkable.

Runner-up : Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night (PSVita), Persona 5 Dancing Star Night (PSVita) & Death End re;Quest (PS4)

Best game you might never play

Idol Death Game TV (PSVita)

Gaming UFO without a specific genre, I had a rather enjoyable time with Idol Death Game TV on Vita. The gameplay was quite simple but the story turned out to be surprising in such a good way that I couldn’t put down the system before the end. The animated «death sentences» of the heroines were also very amusing.

Runner-up : Sakura Sakura (PSVita)

Best graphics

Battlefield V (PS4)

Little suspense here since Battlefield 1 was already a technical prowess. DICE merely had to re-apply the same super realistic rendering to the following war, and they just did that. Battlefield V offers breathtaking conflict in massive and complex environments where up to 64 soldiers, tanks and planes clash at the same time.

Runner-up : Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night (PSVita), Persona 5 Dancing Star Night (PSVita)

Most disappointing

Mary Skelter Nightmares 2 (PS4)

Collapse. It’s the only word that comes to mind to define this 2018/2019 transition regarding Compile Heart. The people of that company are traitors, liars and now swindlers. By calling Mary Skelter Nightmares 2 a sequel, they deceived their fans and produced their most pitiful product to date. It does nothing but destroy the original and ruin the gameplay balance.

Runner-up : Gal Gun 2 (PS4)

Game of the Year

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)

The Valkyria Chronicles series comes back from deeper than hell : years into oblivion and then an unanimously rejected action-RPG spin-off. Against all the odds, Valkyria Chronicles 4 brought back the thrilling challenge, the tactical mastery, the lovable characters, the compelling story that had made its initial glory. Its perfectly executed return to its roots is one of the beautiful stories of 2018.

Battlefield V (PS4)

NG (PSVita)

Caligula Overdose (PS4)

Press Round-up – Autumn 2018

Reviews posted on VGchartz from October to December 2018. Click on the titles to access the reviews.

Transference (PSVR)

First real killer-app of the PSVR I played, Transference invites us in a disturbing journey full of anguish and beyond sanity. You share the past and present of Raymond Hayes, a neuro scientist who has devoted his life in creating a strange helmet to penetrate the human mind. Hayes’s family was torn apart and his memories turned into eerie phenomenons. The player faces those in virtual reality : the fear and threat are just beside you…

Caligula Overdose (PS4)

Caligula was one of the best surprises in PSVita’s life. Its striking narrative and innovative combat system made a huge impression on me, so I was curious about what Furyu could do with Unreal Engine 4 on PS4. This version doubles the content by giving the player the possibility to side with the bad guys : the wicked but charismatic Gakushi. That means a full new scenario, new playable characters, plenty of funny subevents, different endings… everything as fascinating and memorable as the original.

NG (PSV)

After the astonishingly great Death Mark, Experience finally released its spiritual successor NG on the PSVita. While sometimes it tries to emulate the previous game a bit too much, NG once again delivers a deliciously terrifying atmosphere, onimous supernatural investigation and now more choices and endings.

Battlefield V (PS4)

With Battlefield V, DICE has succeeded in bringing the quintessence of the Battlefield experience in both single and multiplayers. The campaign is great, audacious, moving, and multiplayers modes and maps are ideally structured in every aspect. The absolute best FPS I have ever played.

Review – Shin Hayarigami

Now that Vita’s release schedule is becoming lighter, I can finally start doing something I’ve been wanting to do for some time : find the hidden gems in the long history of PSVita games in Japan. Shin Hayarigami is certainly one of those. Released in 2014, it was the first of this somewhat known horror/investigation series in this generation.

The first contact with Shin Hayarigami is still not truly exciting. The first hours let me think of a standard visual novel of generic design and dull story-telling. Graphics are nothing impressive, the art being very average. Music and sound also could fare a lot better. Dark themes are too rare and the jazz used in the investigation parts doesn’t help building an atmosphere. Sound effects are next to non-existent.

The soundtrack gets better in the second part of the story though. Eerie melodies become more frequent and the player starts to really get into the narrative. Another big letdown is that screenshots are completed blocked. I had to use that good old method of taking photos of the Vita screen.

After digging a bit, I found in Shin Hayarigami some interesting gameplay and interactivity. NIS’s game asks the player to make choices all the time.I n regular talk, but also and especially in secquences called Liar’s Art. Those parts are a clash of ideas between you and one of the characters. Depending on your answers, you’ll gain his/her trust… or lose all credibility!

The trouble is that everything goes a lot too fast. You barely have 3 or 4 seconds to answer in Liar’s Art, not enough to even read the different choices. I had to start over quite a couple of time, which is a bit too bad…

The Logic Chart asks you to find out the role and personality of each character, as well as the relationship between them, from what you read in the story. Ultimately, you also have to pin the real culprit. All those choices contain a lot of traps, game over screens and different endings.

The extensive interactivity eventually helps the narrative. The woman inspector you play as is chasing a murderer called Blindman, who cuts off the victims’ eyes. Here’s the trick : Blindman is an urban legend. How to catch a killer who doesn’t even exist? The list of suspects is quite long and you’ll have to make some theories before reaching the shocking truth. However, the story turned out to be fairly linear. Being CERO Z, Shin Hayarigami has equally shocking depiction of death and agony. It’s so violent that I almost wanted to put the console away at times.

But the biggest point of the story is that actually… there are many stories within it! Once Blindman’s scenario is completed, you are invited to go back in the timeline in order to look for hidden choices leading to entirely new cases. The characters stay the same, but their roles vary : some secondary characters become important characters, the type of crime changes, the bad guy changes and all the logic gets modified. You have to rethink the situation every time and that’s giving the game a lot of content. The best thing about it is that you can go to any moment of the timeline anytime. This way you don’t need multiple saves. It’s extremely convenient!

All that makes Shin Hayarigami a game a lot more interesting than it looks. True, the lesser effort in graphics, design and sound hurt the experience a bit, but its innovative gameplay mechanics makes it an enjoyable investigative visual novel.

Enough of E3! Let’s talk about other games #2018

Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists (PS4/PSVita/Switch)

This is fresh of this week. As promised by Gust, the Atelier series takes a different path this year. Nelke, the protagonist, is not an alchemist but an aristocrat ! She’ll have to ask the services of famous heroines of the series (Meruru, Ayesha, Marie…) to help her develop her land. It would therefore be an Atelier game played from the client’s perspective instead of being the alchemist ! Rather refreshing, and another Vita version is more than welcome.

World End Syndrome (PS4/PSVita/Switch)

Still no news of Arc System Works’ visual novel, which is supposed to mix dating and mystery. Delayed to summer quite a while ago, it’s high time we knew when we’ll be able to solve the cases of the coastal town of Mihate.

Tokyo Chronos (PSVR)

Another visual novel full of eerie murders, but in virtual reality this time. The details are kept for Anime Expo, the biggest western event for Japanese AA games. For now, we just have this sentence « I was killed, who’s the culprit ? ».

NG (PSVita)

Here it is ! The spiritual successor to the glorious Death Mark is being finalized for PSVita at Experience. No less spooky than the latter, NG puts away fantastical places and aims to juxtapose daily life and horror. A rather interesting mix that will put maximum pressure on characters themsleves eerie enough, but risking an horrible fate.

Bullet Girls Phantasia (PS4/PSVita)

Gone missing for 8 months, Bullet Girls Phantasia finally comes back to us with a release date in August. The girls of the airsoft club are going to be warped (with their equipment) in a heroic-fantasy world where they’ll meet no less attractive females. Elves, magic user, knight, catgirl will fight along in battles mixing blades, magic and 7×62 ammo.

Utawarerumono Zan (PS4)

Aquaplus finally cuts ties with the strategy/RPG genre with this new episode called Zan. The old engine is replaced by beautiful technical assets created by Tamsoft. The developer is preparing another superb beat’em all, which will undoubtly gather new series fans.

Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel IV (PS4)

Lots of games are planned for release on September 27^th in Japan, but only one has the attention of JRPG fans. Trails of Cold Steel IV comes swiftly to give some answers to the insane events sorrounding the end of the third one, and offer us the greatest perspective Legend of Heroes has ever known.

Review – Iwai Hime Matsuri

CERO Z. The ultimate edge of the Japanese video games rating system, the one that separates what can be sold and what cannot. Usually used for realistic violence as in Call of Duty or other western shooters, it is rarely applied to domestic software. Stricter than our French PEGI18, it is impossible to buy such a game without proving your age. For example, you cannot purchase Iwai Hime Matsuri from the Japanese Playstation Store with a prepaid card, you must register a Japanese credit card! Then the question is more pressing than ever : what the hell is in this game ?

Within the first minutes, Nippon Ichi Software’s game makes the subject very clear : it starts by mentioning a suicide. From the very strart, the game features some hypnotic writing capable of immersing the player in the story and a make him share the psychological condition of the characters. Struck by this first scene, you’re later introduced to the courageous protagonist Suzumu and his classmates. Toe, a silent girl always holding a Japanese doll, is one of them. It is said that the doll is cursed, and Toe with it. The truth behind that is the point of this adventure.

Iwai Hime Matsuri is strictly a visual novel : the only thing you do is reading, there is no choice, branch of scenario or interactivity. The trophies (all gold, thanks for the jackpot!) also happen to all have “… chapter read“ in the description. Reviewing such a title is therefore in-between literature and cinema review, but the game gathers qualities from both.

Iwai Hime Matsuri is a game constantly wandering between dream and reality. Most of the time, the narrative happens in some hallucination seen by the the five girls close to Suzumu. It is so confusing that in the first half of the game, it is nearly impossible to find out what really happened and what is fictitious. But that’s actually what is great about NIS’s game, because the atmosphere is darker than dark and the suspense thrilling. The great soundtrack, full of harrowing or mysterious themes, is a perfect fit to throw yourself in the story, try to distinguish the truth in the character stories. There is something really hooking about the psychological evolution of the characters that can only deeply strike the reader.

The last point to be developed (to answer the question left in the introduction) is that Iwai Hime Matsuri is gruesome, in both what it tells or shows. For example, chapter 2 features a rape scene very slightly disguised in order to make it less obvious that it’s a sex scene (I remind you that this title originally comes from DMM.com). That wasn’t the only hard scene : horrible bullying, agony, mutilation… the game is rife with unbearable story parts. There’s also that reccuring misshapen character, not precisely identified to keep the mystery deep, which reminds Kafka’s Metamorphosis with the exact same icy feeling. The last chapter reaches a level of cruelty very close to hentaï and goes far beyond what you’d expect to find in a console game. For consenting (and interested) users ONLY.

With Iwai Hime Matsuri, the brilliant novelist Ryukishi07 invites us to wander between dream and harsh reality in a fascinating visual novel, despite its uneven pace. It’s not very easy to judge a game made of only text and images, but Nippon Ichi Software’s game mixes suspense, gruesome pictures and breathtaking scenes so well that I do think it’s a great pick in the genre.