It was only a few weeks ago that heartfelt game Hanako’s Flower Shop was announced with a release window of April, and today a specific launch date was pinned down for late this month. The game follows the titular character, a young woman at a crossroads in life. She decides to run her grandfather’s beloved flower shop. The gameplay resembles…
It’s nearly springtime in the Northern Hemisphere, and in a month nature will be well on its way from brown and muddy to green and blooming. What a great time to launch a game about flowers! Hanako’s Flower Shop is a shop management visual novel about running a flower shop,…
Horror is such a difficult genre for artists to work with. People…
If you’re being bullied, can the ability to read thoughts solve all…
Coffee Talk was a downright treasure. In fact, I’d argue it got better with each playthrough. I gave it four of five stars in my review (published in January 2020… before the world went to hell in a handcart). I’m not a do-stuff-outside-my-house kind of person – thanks, agoraphobia –…
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It’s a rare treat when a major publisher like Square Enix produces a visual novel like Paranormasight. I can imagine how it happened, though: A small team within the publisher had a cracking idea for a spooky story and, after seeing just how great the concept really was, Square Enix…
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When Five Dates – one of the first (if not THE first) FMV games filmed and made 100 per cent remotely during quarantine – came out, it was at a time people were craving human interaction. It scratched that itch quite well despite those being fictional interactions. Its sequel, Ten…
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It’s starting to feel like western Nintendo Directs are downright incomplete, because the games being shown off exclusively in the Japanese version are basically the games I need in my life. Last year, this was The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story. It turned out to be a great game (my…
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Bushiroad (the company behind the likes of Cardfight!! Vanguard) has established a console games label, Bushiroad Games, and overnight announced a bunch of games. These are largely early in development, but there’s a lot here to get excited for – if nothing else, Bushiroad Games seems committed to supporting the…
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Ebi-hime is one of the most inspiring VN authors. Specialising in two very niche genres – Yuri and “Grim” VNs, the creator behind the likes of Sweetest Monster, Blackberry Honey, and Strawberry Vinegar has been incredibly prolific for years now: the Steam creator’s page features 26 games alone, with four…
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My Mad Scientist Roommate Turned Me Into Her Personal Robotic Battle Maiden?!? Is a ridiculously long name for a game. It fits, though, because My Mad Scientist… is also a ridiculous game, and I mean that in the most delightful sense. It’s the latest release by Lachlan, of Lached Up…
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It hasn’t taken that long for visual novels to go from one of the most niche genres of all to being something that has a genuine and growing audience behind it. Where once we might get one or two efforts to localise one in a year, now dozens of these…
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I’m obsessed with the paranormal. The older I get, the more interested I am in it. It started as a mortality thing, but has expanded past that into sheer curiousity. I’ll read what I can, watch what I can, listen to what I can. I’m very open to what others…
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Wow did Lover Pretend have the potential to go places. Thankfully it doesn’t, ultimately, but there were more than a few moments on this game’s journey where I felt particularly uncomfortable about some of the flags that it was throwing up despite it being a narrative that is, by developer…
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