[東方二次] Senran Meisuishu Tactics / 戦乱命萃酒タクティクス

That's the second Touhou doujin game on Steam (well, third if we count NitorInc, but it isn't full yet), and, even if this one isn't as good looking or polished as The Disappearing of Gensokyo, it still plays good, and looks at least servicable. This game is apparently a pack of two scenarios which were sold separately in Japan before it came on Steam. Kinda explains why this game is relatively expensive, which might seem jarring when you look at the screenshots. But that's not important. What is important are mechanics. Those are heavily inspired by two powerhouses of Japanese tactical RPGs, Fire Emblem and Super Robot Wars, and work well. There's the classic Weapon Triangle, and two more for damage modifiers. There are eqippable abilities, enchantable weapons, Supports (or rather, as they are called in the very Engrish manual, "couplings"). And various MP-powered abilities, for some resource management. pros and cons, while I played up to the first boss of Youkai scenario: + mechanics - simple yet deep. Fire Emblem fans will find their place here easily. (although there is no permadeath here) + flow - as in Fire Emblem, battles are pretty fast. Play your metaphorical cards wel…

Senran Meisuishu Tactics is a turn-based SRPG where you move the Touhou girls under your control over a playing field and defeat monsters or other hostile Touhous. It's solid in its gameplay, there is a big character roster and a lot of content with the two campaigns (youkai and human version) that the game includes. For youkai version, I had to throw in the towel at mission 13. At least for human version, I'm still going strong at mission 18. The latter is more casual and more balanced in its difficulty, I recommend you start on it. Despite giving up on one of the campaigns, I enjoyed my time with the game so far. It's rewarding to beat a tough mission here. Even outside of combat, there are many complex decisions to make with all the equipment you find and the shop purchases you make. If you're a Touhou fan and looking for an RPG meant for the more experienced, go for it.

(The game seems to only be counting my playtime from the game/language select menu, so the playtime is very inaccurate. As of this writing, I'm at chapter 16 of the Youkai path) The game is a vaguely Fire Emblem-esque tactical RPG with a steep difficulty curve and a heavy reliance on passive skills you can equip/unequip at any time, and, thankfully, no perma death. Both the player and the enemy are clearly made to abuse these passives, so it's easy to create 90% crit rate monstrosites, but the game sort of expects you to and caters to that, for better or for worse. The game gives you an interesting variety of units to work with, each with their own set of unique passives and spells that range from reducing damage taken by neaby allies to guaranteed critical hits when at low HP, which does a lot to make each character feel unique. Overall, the balance feels a bit off to me, especially when your 30 attack party members run into 50+ def/res enemies that can only be killed through gimmick and status damage a little more often than I'd like. Even on normal mode, I feel incredibly paranoid about whatever terrifying instant kill gimmick the next enemy might be hiding. However, it's s…

new darkest dungeon expansion looks great

(Note that I have spent more than 5 minutes with this game, but as others have noted Steam only tracks time spent in this game's launcher, not the game itself. Totalling my save files I've spent perhaps 10 hours with it.) There are some fundamental weaknesses that prevented me from really enjoying this. The most basic one is the user interface, which is almost entirely mouse-driven and that makes the most basic task of moving your units a slow and clunky affair of moving back and forth across the screen to click through menus. The next is a severe lack of readability that also slows the game down: Enemies with the same sprite have the same sort of attacks, movement profiles, and abilities, but other important things like their weapon type, attribute, and passives vary and aren't as easily readable. The passives are where the game really falters: Enemies can have passives ranging from complete immunity to statuses, complete immunity to types of damage (even complete immunity to physical or special damage!), and worst of all abilities that do automatic damage to enemies that they attack or that attack them: A particularly terrible mission has enemies with a passive that causes them…

This is a Tactical RPG set in the Touhou universe. There are two scenarios, human-based, and youkai-based. Gameplay is fun, combat is... interesting... and the characters seem to have a large sense of humor... Some of the translations are a bit spotty, but you can assist... Might recommend getting on discount, but still a decent game.