Happy New Year 2025! With gaming resolutions I actually mean to achieve this time!

Festive happy new year 2025 with golden confetti, new year 2025Happy New Year, everyone! I can’t get over how quickly the years are moving these days. At this rate I’ll be retiring next month! I’ve gotta work even harder and save even more. This is what I get for spending my twenties and thirties gaming…

This year, for the first time in like 5 years, I feel like I can actually achieve the gaming targets I’m about to set. First off, I’m wiping out my entire backlog. Gone, finished. It doesn’t exist any more. If there’s anything I haven’t played so far, that means I wasn’t that interested to begin with, so I’m not going to worry about it, even if I’ve bought it already.

Secondly, I’ve realized from this year’s experiences that I still have it in me to play non-gacha, non-mobile games to completion (okay the only traditional JRPG I finished this year was Persona 5 Royal, but it was a doozy). On the other hand, none of the mobile games released or scheduled for release recently piqued my interest except Infinity Nikki, which my potato PC can’t even play.

What that tells me is that I need to dial back on the mobile games and focus more on the offline games – which means I probably won’t be re-installing Genshin Impact in 2025 like I said I would. Actually I felt an indescribable sense of relief and joy once that thing was off my computer and I have no desire to go back to it, but maaaybe if they ever add a text skip option, I’ll consider it. I’ll also be taking yet another break from Epic Seven at the end of January, leaving only Another Eden and Love Nikki as my mobile games. Those two don’t demand a lot of time on a daily basis, so I can fit other games in pretty easily.

And for the games I actually mean to play, I’ve realized that it’s easiest for me to play things on my Switch these days. My eyesight isn’t great and my back hurts when I sit up too long, so gaming is most comfortable when it’s on my bed with the screen a few inches from my face. This is not advisable, btw, please don’t copy me. I’ll be seeking proper medical advice in a bit, and definitely ramping up exercises to strengthen my core. Still, at present, I gotta be realistic about what I will actually do: play more Switch games. Here’s what I seriously mean to try this year:

1. Triangle Strategy: I’ve been discouraged from starting it because I heard it has over an hour of cutscenes before you even get to play anything. But it comes really strongly recommended, AND I made it through the Xenosaga trilogy, so I’ll give it a shot. Get some popcorn and coke for that first hour and take it from there. And if I can’t stand it, I’ll drop it. “It is enough to play just an hour of Triangle Strategy.”

2. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & The Secret Fairy: While the first Atelier Ryza game wasn’t perfect, I had a good time with it and rediscovered my love for the Atelier series through it. I haven’t finished Ryza 1 yet, but if it ends well, I’ll let some time pass and then give the sequel a try. I paid $17.99 for the first game, so I’ll be watching and waiting for the second one to sink to that price as well. If I could wait five years to play Ryza, I don’t mind waiting a while for Ryza 2.

3. Persona 5 Strikers: The post-game experience kinda soured me on Persona 5 Royal or I would have played Strikers already. I’m not as gung-ho about the Persona 5 world as I was before the sucky post-game, but I still have fond memories of it, and I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I figure Strikers can’t be that bad, and it should tide me over while I wait for Persona 6 in 2030 or whenever. I wouldn’t mind replaying Persona 3 FES at some point either, assuming my PS2 still works.

4. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Day one buy, of course. What took Nintendo so long?! Although my playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fizzled to a halt after a while, I still got over 100 hours of fun exploration along the way. As long as the story of XCX is not too cringey and there’s plenty to explore, I think it’ll be great.

5. Ring Fit Adventure: I played it for a while but stopped because of unexplained ankle pain. I need to review my running form and get proper shoes for it, but after that I’ll be back in the saddle. I probably tried to move through the stages too fast as well, so I’ll be going a lot slower and focusing on getting comfortable at each level before pushing further. More on that once I get everything in a row and restart, God willing before the end of January.

6. Monster Hunter Rise: An unexpected addition, eh? I decided to step outside my comfort zone just a tiny bit this year, though to be honest I don’t know how far I can get in this. My nephew is very eager to teach me how to play it, so it’ll be useful for bonding with the niblings, if nothing else. TBH I don’t usually let them touch my gaming stuff because I’m not an idiot they’re not always careful, and their parents are broke. But I’ve occasionally had good experiences by trying things I don’t normally play – like Phantasy Star Portable – so I’m going to give MH Rise an honest try. I might try The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well, for the same reason, but let’s see how this goes first.

And there you have it. Six resolutions aren’t too many IMO, especially interspersed with my usual Picross sprees and other miscellaneous games. In a gone-by era, I could have finished them all in three months and come back for more, but that’s life for you. For personal resolutions, I wasn’t as careful with my health as I should have been last year, so I’ll try to work on that more in 2025. I’ll also try to read at least one full book a month in a vain effort to reclaim my lost attention span. And I might try to pick up a new language to keep the ol’ grey matter sharp. I’ve dabbled in several over the years, but it’s about time I got serious with one.

That’s it for the new year’s greetings and resolutions. I hope everyone reading this has a “happy” new year as well! All the best with your own resolutions!

Merry Christmas! And Atelier Ryza late game impressions

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It’s a bit belated, but I guess I was waiting to feel the Christmas spirit first. I don’t think it’s coming this time, so I might as well post. December 2024 is probably the blandest Christmas I’ve experienced in living memory, largely by choice. IIRC I came back from church and zonked out till like 6pm then ate breakfast for dinner and slept again a few hours later. I may or may not have done my gacha dailies, but that’s about it. Five days later and my holiday still looks largely like that because I don’t have the energy for much more. I’ve been working like a maniac since January on both personal and professional projects, so it’s nice to relax a bit to prevent burnout. I hope you guys are having a more exciting Christmas with all the snowball fights and eggnog and whatever else you young people like to do. 👍

I feared the worst when the game started out like this, but it’s not a fanservicey game, really.

Now, on to Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout. I’ve been playing it for about a month, currently about 30 hours of game time, everyone’s level 45 and the game is muttering something about the final battle. Already?! The game flew by in a flash. I usually post updates on my progress in a game every ten hours or so, but in the case of Atelier Ryza I was having so much fun with the alchemy that I never got round to it, and now the game is almost over. In fact, the only reason I’m taking a break now is that I finally synthesized shoes that let me fly, so I’m going around the maps grabbing the chests I had missed last time, and that has slowed my momentum a bit.

Still, it’s a good thing I didn’t make an early post, because a lot of the things I would have complained about were fixed sooner or later, usually sooner. Early on, traveling was a pain because you had to take a boat every time, but very quickly a warp option was unlocked that lets you return to places you have been to before. The maps are also quite small once you get used to them, so navigation quickly stopped being a pain. The tiny size of my inventory was irritating, but then I got a knapsack recipe that fixed my inventory issues. The secret hideout was super ugly, but later you get upgrades to make it less hideous. Ryza’s running speed was sluggish, but now with the Wind Shoes, she zooms everywhere. Wish I had gotten those sooner.

And so on, and so forth. The ability to fix things that are bothering you with alchemy is a big plus in the game, though IMO it would be better if those issues weren’t there in the first place. Fixing issues also applies to the sidequests, which were tedious to do (and I say this as someone who likes sidequests) but which had permanent consequences by the end of the game. Too bad Ryza didn’t use her alchemy skills to help her parents on their farm, eh?

My favorite part of the game, and the reason why I’ve been playing it so avidly, is the alchemy system. Unlike previous games like Atelier Sophie and Atelier Shallie, it didn’t take me long to get the hang of the alchemy system. The system is super flexible so you can use a lot of different items to achieve the same result, and you can keep improving an item even further until it’s super top quality, as long as you have the gems. And then you can even duplicate that item if you want more copies, though this can be super expensive and IMO not really worth it. It’s nice to play an Atelier game where I can get the effects and traits I want on an item without struggling too much, and even if I can’t, the number of quests that require a particular trait is vanishingly small, so there’s no pressure there. For the alchemy alone, I give Ryza top marks.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to finish the game, though.😅 The alchemy may be nice, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun, but after 32 hours, the shine has worn off while the annoying parts are even more annoying than ever. Firstly, the story is like, “That’s it?!” Maybe there’s more after what I think is the final dungeon, and that would be okay. Otherwise it’s reminding me a lot of Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki where the whole game was spent talking up this massive threat that was going to overrun the world, but then in the end… It made sense in the end but… I was very fond of the story in that game because the stakes appeared to be so high, but that end was a bit…

Back on topic. Another reason I doubt I’ll finish Atelier Ryza is the last (?) dungeon. Sure, the dungeons were never exciting to begin with, but the violent fuschia last dungeon is both hideous and hard to navigate. Plus it’s packed with annoying enemies to fight. And speaking of fights, I never really liked the battle system or the limits on item use. Huh, it just occurred to me that I could switch to Easy mode and finish this quickly, and then I can write a proper review with both the good (plenty of that) and the bad about Atelier Ryza. Okay, that’s what I’ll do. See you guys next year, then!

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4th Heart – Not sure what I was hoping for, but this wasn’t it

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 4th Heart cover imageI used to like the Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side series of otome games. I still kind of do, in my head, but when it came to playing 4th Heart, I realized the games are far too long and the characters are far too childish (or the gamer is far too old, IDK) to make the experience enjoyable. I did one playthrough that IMO took far too long and came away quite disappointed and bored.

1. Raising stats was too easy. Maybe it was like this all along and I didn’t notice. But in the past it felt like you had to make trade-offs to get the stats you wanted, e.g. raising Academics would ding your Athletics stat, raising Athletics would affect your Academics and Attractiveness, etc. Here the penalties still exist, but they are extremely mild, so it doesn’t take much effort to get really good in all subjects. And I mean, it’s more realistic, yeah? Like why should jogging a bit turn me into a drooling idiot? But a stat raiser game isn’t fun if the stats are too easy to raise.

I like the different rooms in TMGS4

2. The love interests are all flat and one-dimensional. Sassa like sports. That’s literally it. Kazama is your childhood friend who thinks he can waltz back into your life 10 years later and pick up where he left off. Honda is a nerd. Nana is a model who doesn’t want people to know he’s a model even though it’s totally obvious to anyone with eyes. And so on and so forth. That’s fine as a setting, but no change or development over the course of three years? I don’t need super drama, but at least something should happen, or they should realize something about themselves, perhaps overcome a challenge or two? And you know, maybe that did happen but I never triggered those events for any of the characters, so they were static all the way through.

You like running, I get it. So how did you do at the nationals?

3. There are a lot of date spots and a wide variety of things to do, which is really cool. Buuut, the dates at each place largely play out the same way. Meet, go inside, watch/do whatever, give a closing comment, hang out a little more if he likes you, home again home again jiggety-jig. Same expressions, same reactions, same events. I get that the game wanted to encourage you to visit places with different characters and even date widely for the lulz a la Storm Lover, but the dating process has to be fun (and the characters have to be interesting) to begin with to encourage the player to want more of it.

4. No complaints about the graphics, but the character designs were a bit… uh… not quite ugly, but very plain. A definite step down from the previous game. The designer who looked at Mikage-sensei’s goofy hair and honestly thought “Girls are gonna go wild for this!” needs his head and eyes examined. In fact, it’s not just one designer: there was a whole raft of them in the credit plus art directors and other people who should know better. The only conventionally attractive love interest in the whole game was Nanamori, and even he would barely stand out in the average otome game. Konami really brought their Z game for this one.

Hikaru and Michiru from Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 4th Heart

No need to worry about this lot stealing my man.

5. After two and a half boring years of boringly dating boring Sassa, I didn’t get his ending. It’s probably because I never gave him a birthday present, or maybe because I didn’t paw him enough during the “skinship” events that interrupt your date every five second. Either way, it was disappointing to spend so much time with a guy who was obviously in love with you only to have him pull a complete 404: Date not Found after the graduation ceremony. And not just him but all your friends as well – you’re all so buddy-buddy right up to the final moment and then complete radio silence. Were we ever friends to begin with?

I have that issue with other otome games like La Corda d’Oro as well. Yes, the ultimate point of the game is romance, but surely the friendships we made along the way have to count for something, right? (muses the person who hasn’t spoken to any of her friends(?) from high school and college since she deleted Facebook over 10 years ago)

Well anyway, despite all the negatives I just listed, I do intend to play TMGS4 one more time. This time by following a guide and doing things “properly” so I can see at least one guy’s ending and so I won’t be accused of not giving the game a fair chance. Not that it deserves one, TBH. And not that it will get that chance any time soon, because I’m currently playing Atelier Ryza and having a blast. I missed non-weird Atelier with lots of alchemy. More on that next time!

Picross Records of the Shield Hero, Murder by Numbers, Balatro and other puzzle adventures

So last time I said I was playing Tokimeki Memorial Girls’ Side 4 and I wasn’t sure it was for me. I kept at it, though, and slowly managed to get quite into it again. I was rooting for them like a Grandma watching over her grandkids… which is pretty accurate beecause they’re young enough to be my grandchildren (if I had been a very stupid teen).

So I thought my next post would be about that game. But then I idly went on Nintendo’s page and checked for new Picross games like I always do and discovered a new Picross game was out: Picross Records of the Shield Hero. It’s based on the irritating isekai manga, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (Rising of the Shield Hero), and you’re not missing anything by not reading it because it’s just rage bait. Everyone’s horrible to everyone else and the hero is angry, bitter and whiny as a result. I presume he softens up and gets better as the series goes on (or dies of a heart attack from all of that pent-up bitterness) but the 30-or-so chapters I read to set the stage for playing Picross Records of the Shield Hero were quite frustrating. I dropped it after that because I respect my time.

Picross Records of the Shield Hero: I’m a simple gamer. I see Mega Picross and Color Picross, I click. Nintendo could save us all a lot of time by sending Picross titles directly to my Switch and taking the cash from my account. It is really just like all the other Picross games based on franchises, like Picross Sega and Picross Lord of Nazarick (Overlord) in that you’ll get a extra kick of enjoyment from knowing what is being depicted, but it doesn’t really matter otherwise. Picross pictures don’t even look like what they’re supposed to be showing until they’re animated, anyway.

I finished all the Color Picross puzzles almost immediately, still wondering why they only give us 30 puzzles every time, and I’m done with the majority of the Mega Picross puzzles… Now what? Now I work on the last few ones slowly while waiting for the next Picross to come out. I’m a simple gamer.

Murder by Numbers – Phoenix Wright meets Picross. You explore areas and solve mysteries by completing nonogram puzzles. The idea was good, the characters are lively and the banter between them is interesting. If you like colorful characters (maybe even too colorful), a less common setting (Hollywood) and mysteries, Murder by Numbers should be right up your alley. And I thought I liked all those, which is why I got the game, but I’m struggling to play it for the same reason I don’t play Ace Attory these days: too much talking.

Murder by Numbers is a visual novel with occasional puzzle games, not a puzzle game first and foremost. Moreover the puzzles are just normal nonograms, nothing challenging or unusual like Mega/Color/3D Picross. I know they can’t copy those formats wholesale, but they could add something unique to the formula at least? Or maybe have a hard mode with super big puzzles for the veterans among us. …Or I could just admit that this game isn’t for me and give up. I’m only on the first murder case so I’ll try to force myself to get through that one and see if I still feel the same way by the end of it, but it’s not looking hopeful right now.

Picross Logiart Grimoire (demo) – Booooring. Not only did the puzzles lack challenge but the story was poorly translated and the wider idea of creating new items from smaller elements didn’t make a lot of sense (no, you don’t get humans from monkeys, WTH). All that, AND they didn’t have Mega/Color Picross even though the game was made by the same Jupiter that made all the other Picross S and e games. And as with Murder by Numbers, the game just wouldn’t shut up and let me get on with it.  Massive waste of time. I couldn’t even finish the demo. And can you believe the full game costs $19.99 versus $9.99 for the proper ones? Utterly ridiculous.

Balatro – It’s just gimmicky poker, what’s all the fuss about? I mean it’s not bad for gimmicky poker, but I tried it because of all the fuss about how “addictive” it was, and I’m not seeing that at all. For me to find a game addictive, especially when it’s a roguelike and all my progress resets on losing, the gameplay loop must be fun and there must be hope that I’ll actually get somewhere if I play long enough. With RPG roguelikes there’s a story, there are characters, there are changes of scenery, etc. Balatro is just about trying to beat your high score in dumbed down poker.

It’s decent enough, but almost everything boils down to the Jokers and other cards and multipliers you pick up in each run. This makes it feel more like the game playing you than vice versa. My memory is fuzzy, but I feel like I’ve played regular poker either as an RPG minigame (Dragon Quest?) or on the PC and had a much better time there, so it’s not like I have anything against poker. I don’t even have anything against card games in general. It boils down to this: Balatro is more work and less reward than I care for when I turn on the Switch. More work than brain dead Picross, less fun and rewarding than an RPG or action game. In short, too much work. At least I played it for free on my brother’s account, so I don’t feel too bad. Deleted for now.

Voxelgram – Can’t remember if I mentioned finishing it or not. It’s the closest we’ll ever get to Picross 3D, so I enjoyed it well enough, but the controls needed work and the puzzles were too easy. And of course the game wasn’t as snazzy and polished as the one on the 3DS, but no one can fault a one-man indie studio for that.

And that’s it for the games I’ve been playing recently (not including the usual gacha fare like Another Eden, Epic Seven and Love Nikki). Next on the agenda is finishing the Tokimemo GS4 route I’m working on and then starting Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout before the end of the year. I bought it on a whim and it’s taking up a lot of space on the Switch. I really really hope I like it.🥺.

Quick update: Right after posting this, I learned that Atelier Ryza will be collabing with Another Eden from December 5th.

I low-key hate it when artists contort a character so they can show off both her breasts and her buttocks in one pose. It looks so unnatural and uncomfortable.

Unlike most games, Another Eden collabs are either permanent or super long-lasting, so there’s no rush to play Ryza right away, but on the other hand, it’s a good catalyst to get me to finally start this thing. I’m usually good at continuing games once I can get through the first few hours.

And although they say you don’t need to play the original game to enjoy the collab, I felt a big difference between when I played the Persona 5 x Another Eden collab long ago before playing Persona 5 Royal and when I replayed it recently after playing P5R. In the “after” version, I actually knew what Shadows were, what Mementos was, who the Phantom Thieves were and what they were trying to do, etc, so it was a way more enjoyable experience. It’s the same with the Tales games collabs – I’m enjoying the stories with the characters I’m familiar with more, even if I just played a little bit like with Tales of Vesperia. So yeah, I’m definitely going to try at least an hour or two of Ryza before the weekend just to set the scene.

BTW, Infinity Nikki is coming out tomorrow… Can’t decide whether to play it or wait a bit first, because there are bound to be crashes and bugs right at the start and I don’t wanna deal with that, but at the same time, more Nikki! Meh… Update 2: turns out my potato PC can’t even run Infinity Nikki, and I don’t want to install it on my phone, so that’s that.

Ranshima Monogatari Lairland Story – How to get the true ending (spoiler free)

Despite its cutesy look, this game can be unexpectedly dark.

Some years ago… wait, how many years is that?! So, uh, many many years ago I played an obscure Princess Maker-like game called Ranshima Monogatari Lairland Story on the PSP. I played it and played it, got a number of endings and had a great time in general, but I never did get the “true” ending that tells you the story behind your mysterious charge Chilia.

Time passed, and I moved on to other games, but then I heard the game had gotten a Switch port and an English translation, so I decided this was a good chance to support the brave (but clumsy) localizers and also get a few more endings. Playing it again after 13 years, I found it rather more tedious and childish than I remembered, so after one playthrough just to get the hang of things again, I made a beeline for the true ending to put the game behind me once and for all.

*Note, it’s mainly so tedious for me because 1) I played the heck out of it years ago and I’m really not into replaying games, 2) I dislike visual novel-type games even more than I did long ago, and 3) I don’t like flag-type “buy the strategy guide” games where you have to be at the right place at the right time with the right stats or that route is closed off for that playthrough. If you don’t have any of those problems, Lairland Story is a nice, affordable little game that will keep you busy for a couple of days. The characters are (mostly) nice and each playthrough is just the right length to allow for multiple playthroughs, unlike, say Princess Maker 5, which I liked a lot but simply can’t play again because it was waaay too long.

I couldn’t stop giving her crazy outfits and hairdos even though it was a waste of money

Anyway, on to the title: how to get the true ending of Lairland Story. Spoiler free. The spoiler free part is important, because I got all these steps from a YouTube video, which was awesome and very easy to follow BUT it spoiled the whole thing in the video. Here’s a link if you don’t mind spoilers: Lair Land Story – how to get the True good ending (not the marry Chilia one)

Personally I like to spoil, but I only like to be spoiled when I’m actively looking for spoilers. For the sake of people like me who want to see the game’s true ending for themselves, here’s the step by step guide to which events you need to trigger and which stats you need to raise (only one).

Preparations

It is recommended that you aim for the true ending on at least the second playthrough so that you can set bonuses like the card that gives you 2000 Eve to start with in order to make your life easier. Set your room ambience to the highest (50 Eve) so that it rises quickly. This will enable you to reach ambience 400 quickly so you can hold 2 parties a season. The goal of doing this is to raise Chilia’s affection as high as possible, so be sure to travel with her every chance you get and try to choose answers that raise her affection. You will also need 3000 Eve quite early on and 2000 Eve at another point, so try to keep those funds at hand at all times. Having Chilia work high-paying jobs is good, having her do lucrative research is good too.

Now to the events proper. To get Chilia’s true ending, you need really high affection (I had 999 at the end) and to see certain events in order.

1. Meet Dark Mage in the Streets in Spring 885. Reset until you find him. He might appear in early, mid or late spring, but keep visiting the Streets until you find him. Let Chilia decide what to do with the necklace.

Meet the Dark Mage again on another day in Spring and pay him 3000 Eve. There will be an automatic event shortly afterwards.

Screenshot of Chilia and the Dark Mage in Lairland Story

This is not the time to be stingy, Herol!

2. In Fall 885, visit the Church to learn more about Chilia’s pendant from Fay. BTW for all these events, there’s often flexibility in when exactly in a season an event will occur, so don’t despair if you don’t get an event in a particular outing, but do despair if you haven’t gotten it by the end of that season. Keep multiple saves just in case.
3. Summer 886, there will be a bard in the Plaza singing about the First Hazard.
4. In early Fall 886, visit the Church until you see an event with Fay dropping books. There will be an option to help her and another option to ask about the First Hazard. Ask about the First Hazard instead of helping her, because you’re a jerk.

Don’t look at me, I’m a jerk.

5. Visit the church in Late Winter 886 to talk to the priest. The guide I read said to find Fay in the Bathhouse first, but I never did and I still got the true ending.
6. In Early Spring 887, meet the Dark Mage in the Streets again and pay him 2000 eve.
7. In Late Summer 887, the priest should pay you a visit at home.

8. There will be an automatic event around or before Winter 887. Hug Chilia when given that option.


9. Affection should be around 800 in Winter 887 if you’ve been traveling with Chilia, holding parties, decorating the house etc. to raise her affection. A Mysterious Man will pay Chilia a visit.


10. Keep raising Chilia’s affection until it reaches 999. You might not need it that high, but that’s what is suggested both by the video guide by a Japanese guide I checked.

11. Late Spring 888 is the end of the game and your evaluation. Play through till the credits roll to get a post-credits scene.
12. Do NOT start a new game plus. This is where many people trip and fail. Reload your last save like nothing happened and play everything again up to the end of Late Spring 888. Try to save close to the end of that period to minimize the amount you have to replay.
13. Keep watching till the end and enjoy the changes in the new, true ending.

Non-spoiler comments about the true ending

I wanted it, I got it, so how do I feel about Lairland Story’s true ending? Well, it’s good to finally get some closure on Chilia’s past, where she came from and who she was before losing her memory. Some parts of her background still aren’t fully explained, like why she appeared in the church in front of Herol, how she deleted the monsters with her song, why she called herself Chilia (I feel like that was explained elsewhere but I forgot), etc. But you do get some solid answers about her past, and that’s enough for calling it a day.

On the other hand, the true ending isn’t a very happy one for a lot of people. Her past was really tragic, so I can’t help feeling that Chilia’s better off in the endings where she never recalls her past and instead blithely moves on with her new life and new friends. A certain tragic event that happens in 891 (three years after the end of the game) doesn’t seem to happen in any of the other endings either. Maybe Chilia’s sunny personality kept everyone so happy that nothing bad happened, or maybe her presence acted as a protection for the kingdom… or maybe everything goes to hell after the regular endings, but they don’t tell us. The true ending calls a lot of things into question if you want to dive deeper into it… which I don’t.

All’s well that ends well. I’ll definitely play the sequel if they ever release it, otherwise it’s time to put Lairland Story behind me. Next up, I’m playing Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side Fourth like I said I would, but… 😑 I think I’m too old for otome games now. More on that another time.