Harmonia PC Game Reviews

Harmonia

Harmonia is a short kinetic novel featuring an emotions-capable robot, or Phiroid, waking up in a decayed factory with no memory. Players view the story through the eyes of this robot named Rei, as he is taken in Shiona, a kindhearted woman living in a small town. Rei attempts to be helpful to the townspeople while learning about emotions, which he feels he lacks. The story is set against a post-apocalyptic backdrop, and as is usual for a title by Key, it has its fair share of drama and heartbreak. Unfortunately, the pacing is a bit off, and despite the short runtime, some players will guess what some of the story twists are before the end. Nevertheless, the game is certainly worth a playthrough for fans of the genre and is also a good entry point for newcomers.

Gameplay: The story and characters are intriguing, but the pacing is a bit off.

Graphics: The backgrounds and sprites are good, but even with the limited number of characters, the men look a lot more bland and generic compared to the women.

Sound: Harmonia features plenty of great background tracks as well as Japanese voice acting for three of the four central characters

planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ PC Game Reviews

planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~

Planetarian is set 30 years after a devastating war pretty much ended the world and follows the story of an unnamed man entering the ruins of a dangerous city looking for things to scavenge. Instead of supplies, he finds a friendly robot waiting with unwavering optimism for customers to return to the planetarium where she works. The story is rather bleak, but like other titles by Key, it is very moving and quite memorable.

Gameplay: Planetarium is a kinetic novel so there are no choices or branching paths, but although short and linear the story is very good.

Graphics: The visuals show their age with static backgrounds and limited sprites, but the overall art style is still good.

Sound: The game features full voice acting for both its primary characters and is accompanied by a melancholic soundtrack that is quite haunting

Pretty Girls Tile Match PC Game Reviews

Pretty Girls Tile Match

Pretty Girls Tile Match tackles the match-three genre and combines it with Mahjong titles and kawai anime girls. The game features 120 levels that increase in complexity with twenty levels allocated to each girl. A combo feature incentivizes players to make matches as quickly as possible, but the addition of help functions and difficulty options keeps the game accessible. While it doesn’t do anything extraordinary it is fun and addictive enough to recommend to fans of the genre.

Gameplay: Match three identical Mahjong tiles to remove them from the board and then continue to do so until everything is cleared.

Graphics: The character designs look great and overall the game is very bright and colorful.

Sound: The soundtrack is quite catchy and all six of the girls are voiced in Japanese

Legends of Talia: Arcadia PC Game Reviews

Legends of Talia: Arcadia

Legends of Talia: Arcadia is a short kinetic novel that sees a legendary female knight trying to deal with some demons from her past. The game features a thought-provoking storyline and Arcadia is an interesting protagonist, but the whole experience is over in less than two hours depending on your reading speed. This leaves very little room to flesh things out, so it feels like a lot of potential the game had was wasted. Nevertheless, the story is interesting while it lasts and the game is affordably priced for what it offers.

Gameplay: This is a kinetic novel, so the only interaction required is sitting back and reading the story.

Graphics: The visuals look good, but the fan-service-heavy character designs are at odds with the much darker storyline.

Sound: The game features no voice acting or sound effects, but the soundtrack is decent

Japanese School Life PC Game Reviews

Japanese School Life

Japanese School Life follows an American exchange student named Brian as he experiences life in Japan for a year. Most of this time is spent in the company of Chiyoko and Arisa, two girls in his class who take him under their wing to show him around. The game is mostly a kinetic novel, apart from a few instances where players can choose which girl Brian likes more. However, these choices do not lead to any type of romantic encounters and the focus of the game is on educating players about Japanese culture. It is a familiar concept to games like Go! Go! Nippon, but not quite as memorable, unfortunately.

Gameplay: Apart from a few choices that don’t change much about the story the game is mostly a kinetic novel.

Graphics: The only sprites in the game are for the two girls, but the e-mote system and lots of CGs make up for it.

Sound: There are only a handful of music tracks, but the Japanese voice acting for Chiyoko and Arisa are really good

Pretty Girls Klondike Solitaire PLUS First Look Video News

Pretty Girls Klondike Solitaire PLUS First Look Video

Pretty Girls Klondike PLUS by Zoo Corporation is a solitaire game with Klondike rules that is now available in a powered-up version. It features eleven beautiful girls ranging from cool beauties and tsundere ladies along with three difficulty levels and a full range of hint functions. Players can also use the Diorama mode to create their own scenes featuring multiple characters with different expressions, costumes, and stamps. Check out the video below for a quick look at the Easy and Hard modes of the game

Pretty Girls Breakout! PLUS First Look Video News

Pretty Girls Breakout! PLUS First Look Video

Pretty Girls Breakout! PLUS by Zoo Corporation is a batting action-type breakout game featuring new game modes and new gimmicks. Players can take on Pretty Battle mode to earn points to unlock new costumes or test their skill in the never-ending stages of Eternal Challenge mode. Check out the video below for a quick look at both of these modes

Pretty Girls Escape First Look Video News

Pretty Girls Escape First Look Video

Pretty Girls Escape by Zoo Corporation is a puzzle game where players must eliminate blocks of the same color. As an added twist, players must also lead character blocks to the exit while avoiding all types of obstacles. The game features a stage mode with six stages for each of the eight characters, as well as a 20-stage challenge mode. Check out the video below to see Pretty Girls Escape in action

Pretty Girls Rivers PC Game Reviews

Pretty Girls Rivers

Pretty Girls Rivers stays true to the series tradition and features six different girls with a variety of outfits to unlock. This is done by playing Shisen-Sho, which is an easy to learn Mahjong-style tile-matching game. The addition of time limits keeps the pressure up, but the game also has an “easy” mode that is perfect for casual players. Overall, fans of the series will enjoy this game even if it doesn’t stray very far from the original formula.

Gameplay: The tile-matching gameplay is easy to grasp, but strict time limits can make later levels challenging.

Graphics: The usual assortment of beautiful 2D character sprites and colorful backgrounds.

Sound: The characters are voiced in Japanese, and the soundtrack isn’t bad either

Pretty Girls Rivers First Look Video News

Pretty Girls Rivers First Look Video

Pretty Girls Rivers by Zoo Corporation is a puzzle game that challenges players to find and eliminate the paired Mahjong tiles on each level. Doing so within the time limits unlocks new costumes for each of the six girls in the game. Thanks to an “easy mode,” which eliminates the time limit and adds a hint function, Pretty Girls Rivers is also very beginner-friendly. Check out the video below to see a few rounds against the first girl, Riche, in action