aschultz's Gegege no Kitarou 2: Youkai Gundan no Chousen (Import) review

This is a really oddly structured review that actually works quite well. It's interesting how you flit from beginning, to middle, back to the beginning in chronological order --- but in doing so, you present concepts in the order that they need to be introduced to follow the final path of the game.

This was an interesting read. I've had Kitaro on my mind ever since I read about the SNES game, I just didn't realize there were other games out there too.

//Zig

Thanks for your comments, Zigfried. It's a pretty intuitive game to start off, and I managed to really enjoy it without knowing much about the anime series itself. The translation patch is good, though I was still confused as to what Yokai were afterwards.

I try not to set too much of a template when I write reviews these days, because that can put me in a rut. You probably know the drill.

Parts of it seemed a bit awkward, but maybe that's just me. In any event, I think I understand how this game works even though I never played it before. That's always a good sign for a review.

I agree that you can't rely on a template. It seems no template will fit all the different genres perfectly, so you end up making exceptions anyway.

Which parts do you feel were awkward? I know that when I try to convince myself a part of a review is not awkward, it's time to give up the argument and straighten it out again. Problem is, I'm so dreadfully biased I'm not awkward, so I need to find these blind spots when I can. I don't mean this as defense of the review per se, more a sort of "pick a sentence/segue or two I really need to fix, and it'll be worth it to sit down and fix it." Because I think that is a great exercise for me.

The formulated process is great for starting out reviews--a lot of early efforts were this way--but yeah, eventually you have to break it. Ironically, I have a bit of a formula now for stuff I better not do. Maybe it's more like a checklist. But given that I had more fun writing this review than others, I'm more up to revising the review, if you have the time for specifics.

Edited to add: Zigfried, Gegege 2 is translated into English by aishsha at romhacking. It is a good translation. If you have an emulator that speeds things up, the game can go really quickly, if you don't mind plowing through the spoilers.

Along the way a fellow called Botchi. Well, all over the way, really.

Some of the castles are a bit on the dumb side, with the exception of the final one--a vicious 4x4x4 room deal with silent teleports--but it is tough to follow the mazy outside.

Thanks very much. It's good to get this sort of feedback. I think you located two parts where I knew what I was saying and didn't catch a blind spot others have because, well, they are unaware of the game. Plus the joke about Botchi doesn't quite work as stated(though it should,) and I think I can compact the other observation, too. Let me know if you'd like close reading of any particular review of yours...

I'd love to get feedback on my reviews. There was a thread on my review for Crystalis, so I have kind of a general feel for what I need to work on.

Outside of that, I really have no idea if people found my others helpful.

Well, I've kind of been throwing a lot of reviews at the site, and I've gotten some feedback, so maybe it is time for me to do the same. It seems like critiques come in bunches here, so the more someone throws a random one out, the more likely it'll snowball into others. It looks like we have some reviews in common(Hamtaro,) and you have some of games I'd like to play and one I bought but never did(Wheel of Time.) So I'll try and give some help back in return.

The opening to this review is awesome. "... the world, or in this case, an island shaped like Japan." Ha ha ha. And having the final showdown in pseudo-Korea? SO Japanese.