Long Live the Queen
The Dark Souls of anime styled visual novels. Long Live The Queen game is punishingly difficult. You play as a princess whose mother was just slain. This leaves you as the prime matriarch, except you were totally unprepared for the role. As such, it’s your duty as future queen to learn as many skills as you can and prepare for your coronation. Without getting killed, of course.
That’s the easy part. This game has approximately a billion different stat points (42 to be exact, spread across 14 skill trees). As you play through the game, it will force skill checks upon you. Failing a check may be as simple as Elodie not being offered a multiple choice, or as dangerous as her getting bitten by a poisonous snake. While the game is forgiving in the first few in-game weeks, the difficulty ramps up as the game intends you to pursue an optimal build strategy, balancing a few skill trees in tandem with one another. Moreover, a mood system forces you to continually monitor Elodie’s mood in order to most optimally learn the skills you wish.
And if that wasn’t hard enough, the game forces traditional skill checks upon you. Forget to level up your Poison skill and you won’t be offered that skill check if someone taints your drink; forget to rank up your reflexes, and you won’t be able to dodge that knaves dagger that punctures your heart. This game is stupidly complex in the best way possible, and one tiny mistake can ruin an entire run. This gives it great replayability, and although the story and skill checks never change from run to run, learning to find the most optimal builds and reaching your coronation with the fantastic climax gives this anime game easy praise.
Check out our review here!
Hatoful Boyfriend
Touch all pigeon butts. You know what Hatoful Boyfriend is by now: it’s a bird dating simulator. But is it? The answer is no. Not only is Hatoful Boyfriend one of the best anime styled visual novels there has ever been – I don’t say that lightly – but the level of self-awareness the game has is unprecedented. It knows it’s a game about romancing pigeons. The manners with which it deviates from your expectations is how this game truly shines.
And this game is more than just anime styled characters with silly photoshop bird art. Hatoful Boyfriend features some of the best writing you’ll find in the genre. Lots of choices are available with multiple characters and endings to pursue, and most of these choices end up being either extremely meta, immensely heartfelt and tear-jerking, or completely mind-blowing. Hatoful Boyfriend gets incredibly dark and deep the further you delve into it, and it’s worth pursuing the true ending known as the “Bad Boys Love” ending. Although this requires multiple playthroughs, an actual run of the game takes perhaps 1.5 hours per ending depending on reading speed and saves, and the climactic “Bad Boys Love” ending is one of the best resolutions in gaming narratives you may ever experience.
Either that or Okosan’s ending. Just saying, that pudding-loving bird is a hoot. COO!!!
Check out our review here!
Ys Origin
Bastion, except with an anime flair by a Japanese studio. The impossible to pronounce name (it’s “eese,” like geese or fleece), Ys Origin takes punishingly difficult, fast-paced, movement based hack-and-slash and dungeon crawling to the extreme. Tremendous and challenging bosses are coupled with a combat system that relies on precise slashes and movements will have you pulling your hair out and coming back for more.
And, of course, a fantastic story comes with the Ys series. The entire series is worth your time, and brings on the nostalgic feels by the bucketload. But Ys Origin is particularly exceptional for its fluidity and bullethell styled bosses. The climaxes near the end of the narrative are remarkable, and the surprisingly deep and moving story will have you experiencing all the feels by the end. Also, yes, for you masochists out there, there is a Nightmare Mode difficulty.
Agarest: Generations of War
This turn-based, Japanese TRPG uses a classic mechanical style similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, with great anime art-style and a blend of dating sim elements. Using a square-based field of combat, the game takes an interesting approach of using blind movements before combat begins, as well as a positioning system which allows for multi-character moves (similar to Kingdom Hearts except turn-based). This allows for a huge diversity of combat and strategies to employ.
Between combat, you’ll be adventuring though towns, exploring the very well-written story, and experience the dating sim elements. Using a moral choice system, your choices affect the way various characters interrelate with you. If you want a dating sim experience with great art, but with actual game elements, then this is your jam. This game can be extremely grind-oriented on higher difficulties, so those looking for a narrative-focused experience may want to tone it down a bit during their playthrough.
100% Orange Juice
Mario Party with a heaping dose of anime. Combining dice rolls and card draws with a faux turn-based combat system, you navigate a board-game styled map, fighting smaller enemies, and gain of stars. Collecting the most stars by the end of the match classically ends the game.
The enjoyment in this game is that it is brutally hard, which makes this the perfect party game. Getting a group of friends together and battling your way around a board with extremely adorable characters and a gorgeous color palette will no doubt have you raging at each other in the best way possible.
Check out our review here!
Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale
Meta-gaming brilliance. You know how you’re usually the dutiful adventurer, wandering the fearsome dungeons and selling all that leftover crap to the humble item shop vender? Ah yes, they’ll buy every plop of Slime Goo and every Rusted Sword you throw at them. Recettear flips the concept of JRPG adventuring on its head by putting you in control of the item shop!
Take one part Diner Dash where you manage your store with an intricate economy and bartering system (buy low, sell high always applies), one part dungeon crawler where you gather items to sell with an adventurer in tow, and one part adorable anime plot-line with chibi artwork, detailing the parasitic teamwork of the duo who is charged with running the item shop. The mechanics run pretty deep in this game, and Recettear is one of those titles that will suck you into a time vortex because of how immediately engaging and rewarding it is.
Analogue: A Hate Story
An extremely complex piece. To call Analogue: A Hate Story an anime-styled visual novel would be doing it an injustice. This highly technical visual novel uses dense choices with a heavy narrative to puzzle players. It’s a mystery at its heart, as you are tasked with interrogating an AI to find out what happened to a starship that met a terrible fate in the far-future of space travel.
This is just a framing device for the social and tragic commentary the game’s mystery unfolds to you over the course of the gameplay. Your back and forth commentary with the various characters, your analysis of the mystery at hand, and the tough choices you have to make all present compelling moments in the gameplay. Moreover, the sequel Hate Plus is also available, which became notable for having one of the only achievements on Steam that nobody has ever earned.
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