Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu!（CHAOS;HEAD らぶChu☆Chu!）

I was curious about these harem spinoffs that appear to be almost obligatory at this point for the Science Adventure series, especially for a game as dark as Chaos;Head Noah. Even though this game follows the events of the first game, it was easily able to sidestep the issue of what happened in Shibuya with the whole delusion "science" (emphasis on the quotes) thing. Unfortunately, in the real world, being delusional doesn't affect reality (unless of course, you're a Trump supporter).

All this science is what I love about this series

Takumi has matured a bit after the events of the first game so he's ever slightly less annoying (but still pretty damn annoying). As you would expect from a harem fan-service love comedy, the story is far more light-hearted compared to the first game. To be honest, the gore in the Cero Z version of Noah was a little too much even for me. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about dead babies, etc. this time around. Also, this was before the Soyney Cali era so you could still get away with Cero C for a sliver of fabric without holy rays of damnation.

There is a button to hide the text but... are you really that desperate?

This game does get the obligatory +0.5 Jhipster smugness bonus point. I'm not sure why but they didn't even localize the original game much less this fan-service sequel. I suppose non-Jhipsters could try to do whatever non-Jhipsters do if you're that desperate to see a tiny bit of panti. I mean, I won't judge (you sicko).

But if I hide the text, how would you know what's being said here? 

As for the story, I suppose it was a decent follow up adventure to the events of the first game. This time, it's a standard galge ADV where you just have to choose the Mousou triggers that corresponds to each girl's route. In that sense, the story does get a bit boring as it follows the same main narrative just with a different girl. I got so tired of reading the same but slightly altered events and explanations from Erin. Oh yeah, speaking of Erin, she's the sole new character stuck in your computer. I liked Erin's concept and VA and had a few chuckles especially when you scroll up. However, I felt her lack of involvement in the events of the story was a missed opportunity.

2014 when you could still joke about being a lolicon

Speaking of dubious behaviors around fictional underage characters voiced by adults (I feel like I have to point this out), yes, there is an imouto route. There is no incest of course though for reasons I won't go into due to spoilers, the game does bring up some valid points as to why they might not be related. Genetically though, it's a pretty weak argument.

Remember kids, Cero C is ok if you're 15 or older!

As you can imagine for a consumer title, the whole thing is just a big tease. The fact that the routes all follow the same major plot does make the game feel a bit lazy and requires quite a bit of text skipping. Two routes were especially disappointing because they were practically identical. If you played the first game, you could probably guess why since it's Yua.

Yeah, they don't do jack. Not even censored non-sex.

Score: 3.5 What's wrong with imouto naked apron? She just wants to feel comfortable while cooking! out of 5 (24 hours to beat)

Overall, I would say the game is fine. It has some funny moments and it was entertaining enough. The quality of the game is pretty high like the rest of the series so it does get a slightly above-average score. Now, I just need to delete all these screenshots from my sister's computer since she's all complaining about hentai porn or something.

This was NOT the reaction I got when my sister found these pics

If this got localized, do you think they'll go with "mouth rape" for the translation?

I know you are but what am I?

The tips are very helpful, never knew what NTR meant. No, really!

No, don't talk about the law! It's called plausible deniability!

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

Binary Domain（バイナリー ドメイン）

This may come as a surprise to regular readers of this blog (all 2 of you) but I'm actually a pretty big fan of FPS and 3rd person shooters (TPS?) or at least I was while devs still cared about the single player campaign and not whatever battle royale garbage they're trying to hawk these days (damn kids). Yes, I played Wolfenstein and later the free shareware part of Doom probably on somebody else's computer. I played the Quake games, Unreal, Half-Life (including the original), blah blah blah so I have probably well over 10 if not 20 years of shooting enemies dead. And yet somehow I have no urge to own guns in real life and would be perfectly happy not having to worry about what other idiots might do with them but let's not get into that cause it's fucking depressing, not even joking.

It's not fucking Doom (1993), it's Doom. I hate it when they steal the original name.

Anyways, for reasons I can't begin to fathom, most of these types of games are American so I didn't talk about it here as a Jhipster but here we have a 3rd person shooter by the Ryo ga Gotoku studio. I played it in English because Japanese dub for English speaking characters is meh (don't confuse Jhipsters with weebs). It takes place in Japan and logically, the Japanese characters speak in Japanese amongst themselves so the "English" dub is definitely way to go.

She's Chinese but Asians all look the same, right? #racist

I play all my shooters on PC because I'm old school and will always play with keyboard+mouse unless it's a console exclusive. This one is a pretty standard over the shoulder Gears of War cover system type of game but the damn robots suck up a lot of damage at least on Hard difficulty. It's actually harder in the beginning until you upgrade your weapon.  Near the end, you'll be popping robot heads like Trump's doctor pops pills.

Damage being like 0.01%. Prepare to pump hundreds of bullets to take this puppy down.

The distinctive feature of this game is the whole voice command thing which I turned off cause I'm not going to be saying "Yeah" into a mic like an idiot. In fact, I had to Google the fact that you HAVE to turn off the voice command in order to use the keyboard to pick your reply. Picking the right answers and also playing well will raise affection levels with your team members while friendly fire will do the opposite, which is annoying because they're constantly running into your line of sight. Parts of the story will change depending on how well you get along with the characters which makes this game feel definitely Japanese.

You can't have a Japanese game without a geisha, right?

Of course, I didn't give a fuck about the guys or Rachael (pretty much also a guy in my book) and spent most of the game with Faye and Cain. Having only one hottie definitely does NOT feel Japanese so I was stuck with Cain as the third wheel. I don't think getting chummy with Cain does anything for the story but I don't care about Steam achievements so I'm happy with the ending I got and have little urge to play through it again.

As for the story, the whole robot vs human thing has been done so many times, it's almost impossible to have an original story. The only thing I would say is that the game tried to be a little bit original and didn't do anything too cliché like Blade Runner or something. The main character was a bit fishy being called the Survivor and all but I won't give anything away. Overall, like the rest of the game, it was fun enough.

You only kill robots so I guess that doesn't make you a murderer #BeAllYouCanBe

Score: 3 but wait, what if we were all robots in the Matrix in somebody's dream? Whoaaaa, deep. out of 5 (14 hours to beat)

I always have a shooter on the side as an outlet after hours of hardcore RPGing or hours and hours of ADV reading. I still play on hard mode because hardcore gamer here of course. This game does unlock yet another level of difficulty after you beat it. It was fun and all but I got my fill and won't be going for a replay. It was an average enjoyable experience and not much more than that. At the very least, it was WAY better than my previous shooter outlet: TimeShift (sigh, the shit I play).


Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

Steins;Gate

I just finished Steins;Gate and yes, it is 2018. So yeah I guess I'm a bit late to the party. I would've called this a "missed classic" but I didn't really "miss" it, I just happened to watch the anime before I knew anything about visual novels. So if you're also one of those who already watched the anime and are wondering if it's worth playing the game, well, read on to find out!

Yeah, the original art style is slightly different

Of course by now, everybody already knows about this super mainstream title and you can find reviews from all the major outlets including the typical diarrhea job by our good old, ignorant, and kind of retarded SJW champion white knight: IGN (I'll spare you the link). However, only a Jhipster like yours truly or I guess one of those fan translation filthy pirates can make observations after having finished the previous entry Chaos;Head.

Unfortunately, no imouto underwear this time around...

While you don't need to know anything about Chaos;Head to play this game, there are tons of references to the first game, including for example FES singing on the UDX display. This game takes place around a year after the events of Chaos;Head. You would think there would have been a much bigger societal impact from the crazy events in that game, considering the new gene murders such as the guy with the human baby fetus sewed into his belly. (Yeah ugh. I did say that game was Cero Z.) But hey, that was all the way in Shibuya and Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara which is like a whole 12 stops away on the Yamanote-sen so no worries, eh?

Everything is FINE

Fortunately, Steins;Gate is not nearly as dark and gory and while the first game had barely any science, this game really does live up to the Science Adventure moniker. The network security part was total bunk so I'm sure if I was a theoretical physicist, I would be rolling my eyes, but it seemed believable enough to my laymen eyes. The only junk science that really annoyed me was the whole vegetables vs meat theory for Ruka's D-mail. You'll know what I'm talking about if you play the game but yeah, genetics, people! Still, at least it was really cool how the series tied the Visual Rebuilding technology of Noah II from Chaos;Head to Chris's research and ultimately the final modification to the denwa-renji (kari).

Now with 200% MORE SCIENCE!!

Obviously, the game isn't just about worm holes and string theory. The real highlight is the emotional and bitter-sweet story brought to life by the top A-list voice acting including the classic tsundere treatment by Mingos, the timeless loli princess Yukarin, and of course the iyashi-kei soothing sweetness of Kana-chan. Oh, and Okabe's voice actor was great too though I didn't bother to look up his name. (Pfft, males.)

Kidding aside, some powerful story telling right here

In addition, the cell phone mechanic (yay flip phones!) was a lot more interesting than the mousou trigger from the first game which only really had a binary choice between negative and positive delusions. It was especially neat in certain spots when a character reacts if you pull out your phone while they're talking to you. However, it was a bit cumbersome to figure out the exact words to reply to in order to reach the true ending. I'm sure it's possible without a guide if you like that trial-and-error kind of thing but I had better things to do. Still, I appreciate the effort and it's always good to have an ADV game that tries something new instead of the vanilla menu like every other ADV title out there.

A clear case of Facebook addiction...

Score: 4 Bill Murray totally raped and killed some people in Groundhog Day. C'mon, you know he did, don't be naive out of 5 (48 hours for platinum)

Whoa, I don't remember THIS in the anime...

Overall, this is truly a classic in every sense of the word. A great story and a fully polished, fun experience from beginning to end. The music, while not mind-blowing, does a great job of enhancing the mood and the OP of course is great.

Never gets too old for another listen

Honestly, I kind of regret watching the anime first as the visual novel is a much fuller experience. I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if I hadn't watched the anime. I also much preferred the highly stylized art style of the game. In fact, I don't really see the appeal of playing the game with the anime style so I'll probably skip on the upcoming Steins;Gate Elite.

Please step on my face too, Kurisu-sama!!

Would I say this game is worth playing even if you already watched the anime? I think so but I would probably wait at least a few years to make the story feel a bit more fresh as a lot of the mystery is lost. The alternative endings are pretty short and only add a bit more to the main story.

Totally nothing of interest happening here!

While the true ending was a bit too Hollywood happy times for some, they did address this with a surprise alternative ending in a niconico stream of the anime. This was, of course, a tease for Steins;Gate 0, a game I'm excited to dig into sometime hopefully in the near future.




Some bonus screenshots totally not for clickbait revenue. May want to avoid if highly spoiler sensitive.

LOL on the Index reference

Based on their English skills, SERN doesn't seem much of threat?

No audit logs for login attempts? Sys Admin FAIL

This completely unnecessary attack on women is the cherry on top of a thinly veiled attempt to degrade anime girls into mere animated drawings whose sole existence is to satisfy the disgusting needs of our male patriarchy. Score: 0/10 Awful - IGN 

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

Chaos;Head Noah

I started Chaos;Head Noah a long time ago on the 360 and didn't get very far mostly because my 360 is in the closet of shame™. My media cabinet can only fit like 4 systems and that's with the WiiU and PS2 vertical. And god forbid, don't even CONSIDER leaving an unsightly game system out, visible to the naked eye!! Think about the decor!!! #MomSoAnnoying

Umm yeah, anyways while the 360 version is way cheaper, I took a payday loan to lease a new truck (a slick 99' Tacoma) and sold my old one to my brother-in-law in order to afford Chaos;Head Dual on the Vita. I guess it's not that expensive given that you get two games for the price of one. I'll be covering the second game in a separate post when I get to it one of these days.

Which do I like more? Yeah um, I think the non blood-covered one?

But enough about my personal finances, the important question is, "If you are God, and the delusion becomes reality. About what kind of the noids you get?" I mean personally I prefer the sensual noids but I guess some might go for the destructive sanctions. Or...

No thanks, not a big fan of Domino's pizza...

This is one of those rare titles that actually went up in age requirements from the PC 15+ version all the way to Cero Z. Then they must've censored all the disgusting gore and violence down to a Cero D for the PSP and PS3. Fortunately, they went back to the Cero Z full gore package for the Vita. Unfortunately, this version also comes with some serious issues with lag and pauses.

What did the PSP port look like then? 256 colors?

It's actually kinda pathetic that they couldn't make this port work smoothly on the Vita, which I guess is now no more powerful than a Pocketstation? After all, real portables didn't exist until the Nintendo Gods blessed us with their mighty Switch. Anyways (rolls eyes), while the character portrait and dialogue would lag, thankfully the sound doesn't skip a beat. Since I play these mostly like an audio book anyways, it didn't bother me too much but purists might want to go for the 360 OG version.

As for the story, I have to give it credit for at least keeping me interested until the end. As I mentioned, while some of the gore and violence is seriously disturbing, it doesn't actually show the gore in pictures. So you mostly visualize in your head based on the voice acting and text description. But even still, some real sick shit is going down. It's especially ironic because the main character is into games (MMO and eroge hack, not a REAL gamer) and constantly wonders whether he himself is in a game and why all this shit has to be happening to him. Seriously man, if I had the choice to be in a game, the last fucking one I would ever pick is Chaos;Head. Poor dude.

The irony of saying you're not interested in this 3d girl in a 2d game.

And of course, how can I not mention how the poor protagonist tries to google everything. Pretty much exactly what you or I would do in these internet days with so much information on valuable websites such as WE-KEY PEDOPHILIA. LOL

I think the image speaks for itself

I thought the part that you have to take a medical questionnaire was super cool if it had some effect on the game. Unfortunately, it only appeared to matter for unlocking two trophies and doesn't affect the story in any fashion. Lame.

I totally, never, ever masturbate... EVAR. No wonder this wasn't localized.

The game even has a Patched option that shows all the female characters in their underwear. My favorite was of the cutest character in the game, the nurse.

You won't get this with Obama care! #MAGA

SJWs need not worry though, it has fat women as well. Or would it be better if the game showed some dick bulges? I dunno how their agenda goes these days.

SJW friendly?

The routes were pretty easy to find after the first play through. I did have to consult the digital (ugh) manual to read about the delusion system. I also looked at a guide to unlock the last couple endings but it wasn't too onerous.

Score: 3.5 man, if I was in a game... 2d imouto harem time... out of 5 (44.5 hours to beat)

While the main premise of the game was pretty damn Chuunibyou, it was at least interesting leading up to it. The science portion of the story was total bunk though and unconvincing.

However, except for the Vita port issues, the game has good production value. The character design is nice and the voice acting convincing especially at making Takumi annoying as hell. The OST was definitely a level above the generic ADV stuff. I was especially impressed that every ending had a separate ED theme song.

LOL, gotta love the tsundere comments

So yeah overall, I thought it was a pretty good game. Not a great game but it at least kept me interested enough to plow through. Bonus Jhipster smugness point for no official English translation, even for the toned down smartphone version.

Why not just learn Japanese? LOL

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely