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, where you craft bouquets based on the flowers’ language. As…
Horror is such a difficult genre for artists to work with. People think it’s easy because they have memories of more-comedy-than-scary slashers and B-grade films, bad acting and all. There’s also the perception that it’s not a particularly subtle genre, and therefore must be quite easy to work with. But…
If you’re being bullied, can the ability to read thoughts solve all…
I guess, given the success of Azur Lane, Girls und Panzer, KanColle…
Otomate can always be trusted to find some way to repurpose the established otome formula for a visual novel that at least feels a little different, even if functionally it’s not. 9 R.I.P. lands at the perfect time for Halloween, and even though it’s Otomate playing it safe with the…
Read More
Valentine’s Day 2025 is shaping up to be a wonderful week for video game players: so far, Date Everything! and The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II both launch that day. But one day prior, a game that may not be on your radar (yet) will be released. Urban…
Read More
Toronto-based indie studio BancyCo has created a new IP, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad. The paramedic action drama title is a long jump from the developer’s first game, adventure horror hit Home. Don’t expect any scares here — unless you find even a hint of injury frightening. Neo Harbor Rescue Squad…
Read More
The Western release date for the latest title in the Memories Off series, SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky, if officially right around the corner as publisher PQube announced an October release date today. I explain a bit more about the series in my post about the game’s Western reveal,…
Read More
Whispers of the Luminaries is an Aussie-developed idol-themed murder mystery game inspired by the Famicom Detective Club and Ace Attorney series. It is about finding hope in the darkest of times. Following the release of the game’s demo via Steam, its Kickstarter page gained hundreds of followers waiting for the…
Read More
I’ll never pass up an opportunity to play with Tohka. She is, of course, the very best of best girls, there’s no saying otherwise (unless you want to be wrong) and I won’t hear anything else of it. The point is that Date A Live: Ren Dystopia is an opportunity…
Read More
What if Harry Potter was something that you could enjoy without the knowledge that every word you read came from someone who is deeply, aggressively hateful? What if you could jump into the body of a student of magic and fall in love with all the characters? That’s essentially where…
Read More
Four years after its Japanese PlayStation 4 launch, Date A Live: Ren Dystopia is set to launch worldwide via Steam soon. (Japan will also be getting the Steam version.) Last month a September release window was confirmed, and today’s news pins down one early September day for its launch. The…
Read More
The first trilogy of Pixel Pulps from LCB Game Studio had phenomenally pulpy narratives and retro graphics. Each game (Mothmen 1966, Varney Lake, Bahnsen Knights) stood solidly on its own, but if you play all three you also follow the story of a paranormal investigator attached to each. I deeply…
Read More
It’s amazing to think that this is the first time there has been an official release of Fate Stay/Night outside of Japan. This visual novel kicked off one of the biggest anime properties of all time, turned into one of the biggest free-to-play mobile games, and made the companies producing…
Read More