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Before any questions are asked about the title, Doujins are fan-made works of a franchise in Japan. Because this is Japan, most of these “works” happen to be of the “ero” genre hence why doujins are associated with “that” stuff. Moving on, in this post I’ll be reviewing a couple of games I’ve stumbled upon.

1. RosenkreuzStilette Review & RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel Preview
2. Magical Battle Arena Review
3. Trouble Witches Review
4. Scarlet Symphony Review
5. Cave Story Review
6. Combat Kinryu vs Xentex DX9 Review
7. Gadget Trial Review

While only being fan-made games they’re in the same stream as indie games meaning that they’re high quality minus the uniqueness of indie games. Most of these could pass off as commercial games as long as you don’t look too hard.

RosenkreuzStilette

First off RosenkreuzStilette. 2 words describe this game. Megaman Clone. It’s a platformer with extremely similar mechanics to megaman so if you liked megaman then the only thing that’ll put you off this game is the anime-style of it. To those who don’t know what megaman is, it’s a platformer which you just go through the level dodging/killing enemies and avoiding environmental hazards until you reach the boss at the end and repeat until you beat all the bosses. While this does sound boring each of the levels brings a unique feel to it so it doesn’t feel repetitive. What was also a trait of Megaman was its punishing difficulty. Sadly, RosenkreuzStilette inherits all of these qualities though YMMV with the difficulty.

There isn’t much that sets RosenkreuzStilette apart from Megaman. The gameplay is similar enough that you could just say that it’s just Megaman with a palette swap. The levels have similarities such as spiked floors, bottomless pits and the dreaded ice floors. The only difference is that RosenkreuzStilette plays much like a Megaman with parodies of other franchises. Such as Zorne throwing bombs which explode in four directions which is similar to bomberman and Sichte who is essentially a parody of Izayoi Sakuya, even down to her boss area taking place near a clocktower (IaMP). The redeeming qualities which stop it from being Megaman is that it feels unique enough that you won’t feel like it’s Megaman all over again although the similarities are blatant. There is a story mode which features a text-heavy story (for a megaman-like game) but it is basic enough that you can just play through arcade mode which removes all the text from the game after playing through the prologue and you would still understand most of what is going on. At the end of the day it’s still a Megaman clone albeit a very good one.

What about RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel? As you can tell it’s fairly obvious that this is the follow up game to RosenkreuzStilette. Whether it’s a prequel or a sequel is unconfirmed as far as I know however judging by the character designs it looks like a sequel to me. Instead of Spiritia the main character from the first game, it stars one of the bosses, Freudia. Alot about Freudenstachel is the same RosenkreuzStilette with only one difference, the environment hates you. From two of the preview levels there are blood rain (ice) floors and vanishing platforms which are quite annoying and ramp up the difficulty to get to the bosses immensely. While it doesn’t deviate from the formula it does do enough things right that its going to be more of the good things so if you liked RosenkreuzStilette, its worthy enough to be looked foward to. If you’ve played a Megaman game or enjoyed the series then I highly recommend you check this game out.

Magical Battle Arena

In contrast to this Magical Battle Arena is an original 3D fighter (Similar to the GUNDAM series of games) featuring characters from many franchises with girls that have magical powers (Lyrical Nanoha, Slayers, Card Captor Sakura..) duking it out. While this does sound like an awesome idea, the game isn’t too special with many flaws in the execution which exercise frustration instead of enjoyment. Many of the gameplay mechanics need tweaking for balance as many of the attacks are impractical especially the melee, leaving the game to just be a beamfest.

Many fan-favourite characters appear as selectable characters such as Sakura, Nanoha, Fate and Lina. The lyrical pack update adds Hayate and Vita and StrikerS Nanoha. There isn’t a huge roster of characters though so after a while it starts the game does start to get repetitive. The balance issues in this game aren’t serious but theres alot of dead weight in many of the attacks. Melee is almost useless due to the flunky targetting system when flying around and trying to get close, most of the time you’ll miss unless you fly at a straight line at them. Even if you don’t, at least 4-5 hits are required to hit-stun somebody with most characters averaging a 6-7 hit combo string so it takes a long time, not to mention the fact that while comboing somebody they only need 1 hit to hit-stun you which they can do in the middle of being comboed. However if you aren’t lucky enough to time your button press right, it’s possible to get combo stringed into the 20′s. To remove this problem there is a teleport function when up close to somebody so you can teleport behind or infront. Sadly this renders the block button useless as it only guards in one direction and because you can teleport behind somebody almost instantly, it’s rediciously easy to cancel a combo-string while you’re banging on their shield to teleport behind someone and nail them when their back is turned starting another combo string. What also constitutes a balance issue is how spammable many of the special magic attacks are. Many of them can be executed instantly and have a recharge time in the single digits of seconds and because of the protection shield thats activated when charging a special magic attack, it’s really easy to use one in the middle of getting comboed to break out of it and deal alot of damage and because of the lack of charge-up time its impossible to hit a character out of it if they use it in your face while you’re meleeing them. Moving on. A guide on how to play the game can be found here.

Ignoring the gameplay faults, the game is graphically decent. While it doesn’t look spectacular and the characters look extremely blocky, considering it is a fan-made game, it doesn’t look too bad. The stages are extremely similar that it doesn’t really matter which stage you play as it ends up all the same in the end. I would’ve preferred some variety in the stages such as in the city stage, being able to dart around the streets and behind buildings would’ve been nice as it provides cover from beamspam and brings a different element to the game. Sadly this isn’t the case with all stages being wide open air fields for easy beam spam. The soundtrack is quite good featuring many vocal songs which sound like they’re taken from the shows although they are original compositions. The network mode is a bit wonky as its a bit hard to work out how to use it initially but once you do there isn’t much problems with it. Although I noticed alot of game issues stemming from the netplay, I’m quite sure most of them were caused by the large ping differences between my opponent and myself.

In the end while being flawed, the game is quite fun. It’s easy to look past the balance issues and enjoy it but it’s hard to ignore that there could’ve been so much more that could’ve come out of this game. With the Complete Form edition coming out around the corner hopefully they fix a few balance issues but that’s highly unlikely. Unless you really like GUNDAM type games or love the characters which appear in this game, there isn’t much of a reason why you should bother to try this game as there are other games which are so much better. Ultimately this is a flawed game that doesn’t live up to its potential but good enough that if you can find a group of people to play with you’ll have a good time.

Trouble Witches

On the other hand, Trouble Witches is a game that is nearly flawless in its execution. Everything about this game spells high quality. It is a side-scrolling 2D shooter similar to Air-Rade or Touhou as a side scroller so if you don’t like this genre of games it’s best to steer clear however it’s good to give it a try. The game follows one of the four playable characters as they go on to defeat the titular trouble witches, the Sisters of Amalgam. Each character plays uniquely. While its hard to deviate from the formulatic playstyles of shooters, each character plays in a different way that they require different play-styles. What makes this game a bit different is the use of a magic shield to absorb enemy shots and turn them into coins to purchase spell cards for special attacks. While it may seem gimmicky for Touhou players who dodge everything it does breath fresh air into the formula.

Everything in this game reeks of quality. Every character’s line of dialogue is fully voiced in such a way that its hard to tell if they aren’t professional voice actors as they bring out their character’s personality. The graphics utilize a palette of bright colours to represent the light-hearted tone of the game and it shows. From the fluffy creature that follows you around to the piranha plants to the overly cute character designs, everything is designed to be cute. Each of the levels takes place in a vastly different environment which, while making no difference in gameplay, feels fresh enough that it isn’t the same thing over and over again. The gameplay is extremely simple to grasp with a good difficulty curve with Level 1 being quite easy and good for beginners ramping up the difficulty every successive level. With the large variety of spell cards all of them are balanced pretty well by their cost/efficiency, with some better in situations then others. While it is possible to clear the game without using a spell card, the game isn’t easy enough where this would be possible without hours of practice or hard enough that you have to be spamming spell cards to get past until you memorize the patterns (unlike a certain other game).

If you don’t like 2D shooters then you should stay away from this game as being a side-scrolling 2D shooter, there isn’t much different about it other then you’re going horizontally instead of vertically. For anybody who has an interest in the touhou series or 2D shooters then I highly recommend at least giving this game a look. While it isn’t as hardcore as the touhou titles, it more than makes up for it with its unique charm making it much more fun than it should be.

Scarlet Symphony

On the stream of touhou games, Legend of the Crimson Magic Castle – Scarlet Symphony, is a castlevania clone with touhou characters. Having never really played the castlevania series, I’m not going to compare them however I will be judging this as if it were part of the castlevania series. The game is a 2D platformer which requires you to go from one end of a map to the other while beating up enemies and taking on the bosses to get to the end. My initial feeling of this game when i first played it is that it’s a horrendous game with crappy game mechanics but after a while I appreciated it to what it is though I would rather not play it, it’s a decent game in its own right.

The gameplay is rather simple utilizing 2 weapons, a short range whip and a longer ranged danmaku attack. While this may seem simple enough, suprisingly, I had a hard time grasping the controls until a while after I started playing. While the controls are responsive, it felt strange having the wierd hitboxes of the whip and being unable to hit chest height monsters without ducking. The jumping mechanics also take a while to get used to since because this is Touhou, characters can fly and this complicates things about. Pressing the jump button makes your character jump and pressing it again lets you float however you can’t go upwards to prevent you from breezing over the level however if you jump and accidently hit jump again, you end up floating at a low altitude which is a bit wierd. What annoyed me a bit was that when you’re floating, you’re unable to turn around so if you go backwards, you fly backwards while looking the same direction. I found that quite annoying in the boss fights where I would fly over the boss then I’d have to drop to the bottom and jump back up so I can look in their direction to attack them but realizing that I can’t jump high enough to hit them. The boss fight themselves are quite tricky as they tend to shoot lots of danmaku which, while following simple patterns, were quite hard to avoid though that might’ve been my inexperience.

The game itself runs in a very low resolution so all the graphics look very pixelated but it runs fluidly. The pixelation seems to be standard for most touhou games though as other than the unique sprite design of your playable character, it’s hard to make out what they are. The bosses seem to lack a variety of animation frames which looks quite odd in this day and age however it isn’t much of a prevalant problem. While I’m not a fan of the soundtrack, it was decent enough though it tended to get quite annoying after a while. Personally I would recommend this game only to Castlevania fans since if you wanted a more accesible 2D shooter, RosenkreuzStilette would be a much better choice however to each his own. I have mixed feelings for this game, I can see how the game would be popular but it doesn’t hit the right notes for me so if you’re going to get it, I recommend proceeding with caution.

Cave Story

However Cave Story is a game everybody should play. It is a simple 2D adventure shooter with gameplay mechanics similar to Megaman. The game is simple enough to play and rather easy for most of it allowing everybody to slide into the game with relative ease. What sets it apart is the story and atmosphere. It starts off as a simple predictable story but eventually there’ll be so many twists and turns it borderlines on epic and it is paced so well that barely any of it feels like dead weight. Apart from the “usual” silent protagonist, every character has a unique personality that stays away from typical character archetypes.

The gameplay only serves to justify how great this game is. The levels are crafted intricately enough that it actually feels like an adventure not a tedious stage grind like Mario and with enough environments paced so well that when you come back to one area, you won’t feel annoyed by the backtracking. The controls are responsive although they feel a bit slidy however it only takes a bit of getting used to. The game offers a little thing for everybody with its lenient difficulty curve for people who aren’t used to the game ending up at the bonus levels which are only for hardcore players with its extreme difficulty. The quests aren’t too difficult with most of them staying on the simple side generally reduced to key and lock quests where you have to fetch a certain object to access the next part. The graphics itself aren’t great and look reminiscent of a NES/SNES era game however its easy to look past this considering how great the gameplay is but it’s hard to take out the kiddy feel from some parts of the game where it doesn’t need it.

It’s kinda hard for me to praise this game as I’m struggling to find words which describe how great it actually is. If you haven’t played it, I suggest you go play it right now and give it a fair amount of time to prove how good it is. Winning many awards for the “best freeware game” it definately deserves its title.

Combat DX9

Combat Kinryu vs Xentex DX9 is another 3D shooter though this time similar to the Virtual-ON or Armored Core series where you kit your own mech. The only difference being that instead of giant mecha, you’re kitting out battle dolls which is just a fancy word for lolis. A mecha game about lolis doesn’t really sound like a great game but Magical Battle Arena managed to make it remotely fun so this should be given a chance. Sadly it’s an unremarkable mediocre game. While it is a decent well-made game, theres no lasting appeal to it and coupled with its relatively shallow gameplay, theres not much of a reason to play it.

While there is a story, it’s not important, infact I can’t even remember if there were any dialogue scenes in the game at all. What made Virtual-ON and Armored Core unique was the vast array of customization options present in all of the different mech types allowing you to cater to different playstyles whether you wanted to be a fragile speedster or a glass cannon, the possibilities were there. With Combat DX9, most of this is tied to your loli type meaning the only thing you can customize is your weapon loadout and boosters. So with the same loadout each loli will play the same with only differences in health. The only reason to play the low health models are the fact that they’re wearing transparent lingerie. Yeah. The amount of customization in weapons isn’t much anyways since they generally fall down to the rocket launcher + shield combo since a clean hit with a rocket launcher kills most of the doll types however the beam saber is fun to play with and dual wielding just seems awesome. Sadly it’s a case of awesome but impractical as you’re just asking to get shot. Unlike in Magical Battle Arena though, the shields in this game actually work and do stop you getting turned into slag within half a second. What it doesn’t stop is you quitting the game after half a second as there aren’t any redeeming qualities to this game. There is a 4 player network mode which works pretty well but it just helps to remind you that you could’ve been playing a game much better. So while this may be a decent playable game, theres just so many better games out there that you shouldn’t bother playing this.

Gadget Trial

Lucky last is my personal favourite, Gadget Trial. Unlike the other games in this list, this isn’t a doujin game however it is a take on another franchise’s successful formula, this time being the Advance Wars series of games. Advance Wars is an obscure series of TBS games for the Gameboy and DS. Those familiar with the Advance Wars series would be aware that the game was heavy on the tactical aspect of the game requiring alot of strategy to complete as you were pitted against equal to vastly overwhelming odds. This also carries onto Gadget Trial although to a lesser degree as surprisingly Gadget Trial is mainly a Visual Novel with the TBS gameplay to supplement its story.

In many ways this game is a more childish mirror to Advance Wars. While Advance Wars painted a dark gritty story, Gadget Trial is the opposite, following a new experimental humanoid-robot soldiers as they prove their worth. The story lacks much depth and could be considered light-weight compared to most VN standards however the characters more than make up for this through their distinct personalities. Although they fall into typical anime character archetypes they’re portrayed in such a way that they satirize their roles leading to a light-hearted story. Through certain plot points it does get a bit darker however these lack much explanation, instead preferring to be hand-waved.  If you’re going to play this for the story, you aren’t going to get much out of it other than the interesting characters.

The gameplay itself is quite easy to understand though it takes a while to explain but it’s deep enough that it’ll take a fair few hours before you work out what is best against what as the game plays like a giant rock paper scissors with 5 unit classes, 3 class types and 3 type variations in each type with each type having its own strength and weaknesses and each variation having its ups and downs. Luckily the game notices this and introduces each variation slowly so as not to bog down the player in elemental baggage. The gameplay itself is balanced for the most part but its hard to shake the feeling that aircraft rules in the game, which is partially lampshaded by the fact that one of the characters ingame states this herself. Bombers destroy almost everything in 1 hit meaning the only thing that can take them on are units that can’t be attacked by Bombers, Fighters. Artillery tends to be useless for the most part as their range is quite pitiful coupled with their slow movement speed and their inability to attack and move on the same turn with a mininum range weapon preventing them from attacking point blank enemies, it’s quite hard to get them into the action before it dies out. Even then, the only use you’ll be getting out of the artillery type would be the AA gun’s and they’re only effective in groups as they’re easily taken out by a bomber. Other then that, most of the classes would get some use time every now and then. The only downside to the refined gameplay is the turn order. It’s really hard to understand who gets to go first as theres no real method to check how fast somebody’s turn counter is going down as units tend to shuffle all over the place randomly.

The graphics are in a similar style to Advance Wars with tiny representations of units on a large grid. The character designs don’t fall out of anime standards and are of a decent quality while the interface is pretty intuitive. There really isn’t much to complain here as it does its job well. As an added bonus the game comes with a map editor and a multiplayer option though the multiplayer option is kinda tricky as its hard to find somebody who would want to play with you a whole game considering how long each round takes. Last time I played with one of my friends we clocked in at just over 2 hours taking over 1 hour to break a stalemate.

So most people should be sick of reading by now and my brain has shut down a long time ago so I’ll sum this up. If you liked Advance Wars then you should check out this game for its unique charm. The story is mediocre at best and the gameplay is solid but basic and not as complex but both of these combine to make for a fun game. If you haven’t played a TBS game like Advance Wars then download the demo and patch and check it out as its a good way to spend a few hours of time. Good luck finding somebody to play with though. The single player campaign is quite lengthy, I’m up to ~15 hours and still going. So this should be a good time waster. It’s not a great game but it does enough things right that if you’re even the least interested in this genre you should take a look.

My Recommendations (Summary)

1. Cave Story

A long 2D adventure platformer with an engaging story that will keep you occupied for hours.

2. Gadget Trial

Grid based TBS similar to Advance Wars with a light-hearted charm. Gameplay is solid and engaging with an enjoyable campaign mode.

3. Trouble Witches

Side Scrolling 2D Shooter with a lot of detail put into it. Simple game with an exponential difficulty curve. Story is light-hearted and fun if you understand it. Easy to play, Hard to master.

4. RosenkreuzStilette

Slightly easier Megaman clone. Lots of bottomless pits to fall in, ice/rain floors to slip off and lasers of death to dodge. More anime-ish than Megaman and easier to play.