Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 20th November – 26th November // HonestGamers.com’s Weird Date System Strikes Again!

It’s screwed Joe over before. It screwed me last week and it’s screwed Masters over this week. On what weird time scale does HG.com exist in? No one knows. But if you’re looking to submit a last minute review to take part in RotW, be wary. It’ll screw you right over.

So, six reviews in total, two of them are mine for Rob to forget to cover next week and the rest, all bar one, are various efforts from staff. Contributions are starting to wind down a little which should make the RotW topics easier on a tiring judge rota. I guess it does, but burn out is really starting to set in. These things will limp on for the rest of the year but, after that, we’ll be taking a long hard look at seeing if this is something that continues. I might type up a separate topic later on; right now I’m just rambling.

So, then; this week:

JUST OUTSIDE THE THREE: SG/ZH: School Girl Zombie Hunter [PS4] by Zachary Walton

Zig to the multiplayer options rescue!

This is a good review that picks through the bones of a sexy zombie slaying experience. My main complaint would be how downright listy it gets at the end, such as throwing the soundtrack in at the end. If it’s one of the strongest points of the game, then the mention would have probably been better served with a better billing than the arse end of the review. Maybe even it it's mentioned was woven into the gameplay paragraphs rather than “oh, it sounds cool, too”

There’s some good stuff in there, though. The loot system sounds pretty serviceable, and the option to throw away the remains of your uniform to create a distraction seem like decent idea that are well explained.



THIRD Cat Quest [SWH] by Jason Venter

What an awful choice for a first screenshot. Find something better! Also: “The simple but complex combat” – is that a thing? How can that be a thing? ALSO! “…that should entertain even the big kids at the table” – that’s pretty bloody close to a food analogy. I live in hope that you’ll run out someday soon. Or, considering “surprisingly meaty” tucked in right near the end, perhaps not. I despair.

Aside from your ongoing quest to prod at what’s left of my sanity, there are little complaints to be had here. It’s an action RPG about cats so you talk about a cat undertaking a quest in an action RPG kinda way. It’s solid, which I realise has become a bit of a backhanded compliment these days, but it does its job, doesn’t hang around long enough to get tiresome then ends. It’s not the most gripping review you’ll ever write, but there’s nothing wrong with it. Aside from food puns. Cut it out.

SECONDSeven Sacred Beasts [AND] OD

So -- “borrowing such elements as robot moutns”

Is there nothing robots won’t robot anymore?

Where are you with this challenge of yours? Is there an end in sight, or do they pump out new games quicker than you can keep up with? You yourself know that sometimes these mobile RPG reviews of yours have a certain factory conveyor belt feel which is all but unavoidable seeing how you churn out so many reviews on often similar games so often, but I don’t get that so much here.

It’s a good takedown of what sounds to be a shallow me too. Sounds a bit like Monsterseed, and I’ll have nothing kind said about that kind of game on my watch! Some criticism sounds universal - like, I guess all dungeons are, at the base of things, just a collection of interjoining words, but some of the more unique grumbles you nailed. The IAP/gem part was especially damning. Well damned.

ALSO! Are you sure it’s the game that sent to sleep rather than that fact that you recently turned 108? EmP out!

WIN Computer Space [ARC] by Midcore

I really like pieces like this, ones that talk just as much – if not more -- about the game’s place in history rather than just run down how it plays. There’s a couple of brilliant Leroux ones I hope are still on site about Pong and Asteroids, so seeing that trend continued by someone delving even farther back has been interesting. It also holds some trivia relevance – we had to respec the database because, beforehand, we did not have the option to list games as far back as ’72. You’ve changed the site forever.

It does as described, talking about the game’s place in the history of things, which provides the stronger half of the review. I could read stuff like that all day. The review does end up a bit listy as it gets near the end, but, by that point, what you’re describing is so elementary and basic that it’s hard to write about it any other way without making it sound grander than it actually is.

There’s a few weak transitions; I’ve only read the three reviews you’ve posted on site so far but, even then, I can you’re better than “Let’s take a look, and find out” to segue into a new paragraph. It’s also a long review and it starts feeling that way in the last few paragraphs. They’re nitpicks, though, that doesn't detract from a well-researched and interesting piece I hope to see more of.

For us. For them. For you.

Ah, Jason, still righting reviews.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Thanks for this, Gary. I too, remember Leroux's historical reviews, or whatever you wanna call them. Fascinating stuff.

Also, you may as well put out your RotW is dead topic now.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

I've gotten date system'd in the past, too. And it was early evening when I posted mine, so my theory is that the date system works from an alternate dimension trapped between two time zones.

As for your question about my progress, EmP. I'd say that when I started doing this (late '15 through '16), I was, if anything, losing ground slowly, as Kemco was releasing games monthly and then a little less than so (9 games in '16, I think). At best, I was holding steady.

Right now, I'm slowly catching up. They've only done 6-7 games this year and after finishing my two reviews on backlog, I'll have done 9 reviews. I mean, I have 34 on my tablet and there are 3 I don't own, so barring them going out of business, I'll never catch up, but at least I'll go down as the #2 Kemco RPG reviewer behind Musgrave at TouchArcade! In terms of life accomplishments, that ranks somewhere near forced binge-eating until death, but it's something, I guess.

At least, with them, I can enjoy a JRPG without devoting 80+ hours of my life to ALL THE SAME DAMN TROPES BUT WITH INFINITELY MORE PADDING. After I finish Dragon Warrior VII and Shin Megami Tensei IV, I can see me taking a lengthy hiatus from any JRPGs that aren't either Kemco or 8/16 bit era. After 25 years or so of playing them, I'm just finding them to get more and more tiresome. Meanwhile, I'm preferring western-style RPGs, where the focus is on their worlds' lore and you finding ways to break the game. Like, I've spent about 600 hours with Skyrim and, previously spent 400 with Oblivion. JRPGs don't have that appeal to me any more. With Kemco ones, I can pay .99 for them, burn through them in 7-30 hours, delete them from my tablet and never think about them again. And from that genre right now, that's all I want.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle