Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon – What a Wild Ride

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Mar 172025
 

It took me a while, but I finally finished playing Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon.

I played the Switch version, but it’s also on PS4. There’s no Steam version yet, but Witch on the Holy Night eventually came to Steam, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Tsukihime does eventually.

While I might refer to this as the Tsukihime remake, it would be more accurate to say it’s the first part of the Tsukihime remake. Yes, to remake this visual novel, they decided to split it into two parts. A Piece of Blue Glass Moon covers the first two routes.

Now, let me tell you my Tsukihime story.

I was excited for Tsukihime because I enjoyed Witch on the Holy Night. I knew it was in the same universe and also linked to the Fate series, and that’s basically all I knew about it. I did see people say it had some spooky elements and involved vampires, so I started playing it in October (although I didn’t finish it nearly in time for our spooky celebration).

So I started playing Tsukihime not really knowing what to expect, and it seemed pretty straightforward at first, there was some humor, some mystery, some hints of supernatural things at work, and I was just settling in for a quiet slow burn when Shiki (the protagonist) passed a woman walking down the street and I quickly realized I had no idea what sort of wild ride I was in for.

Click for Tsukihime Chapter 3 spoilers
Everything seemed so normal right up until he followed her to her hotel, broke into her room, and dismembered her.

I was staring at the screen thinking, “WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” It was amazing. I cannot describe the shock of hitting that scene without any idea at all that it was coming.

Shortly afterwards I learned that Tsukihime doesn’t just involve vampires; it’s about vampires. The vampires and all the zombies, ghouls, and other monstrosities they bring with them are actually a core part of the story, so not only did it blindside me with its plot events, but it also turned to be even more my sort of thing than I thought it would be.

So, why did it take me so long to finish? I can answer in a single word: Arcueid.

Arcueid, Arcueid, my beautiful vampire princess. She’s so funny, they’re so cute together, everything about them brought such a smile to my face.

You know, I’ve heard people talk about playing a galge or otome and falling so in love with one character that they couldn’t move on, and I always thought that was silly, so it’s really ironic that it finally happened to me with a girl instead of a character I’d be personally attracted to. But it’s true! I was so invested in Shiki and Arcueid and that the thought of starting the second character’s route felt like heresy.

Click for Tsukihime spoilers
Especially because of the way Arcueid’s route ended. Ohhhh where is my happy ending??? Those hints that Arcueid is eventually going to get a true route had better be true, because my heart broke at that ending.

Anyway, I finished Arcueid’s route in early October and didn’t start Ciel’s route until January because I was still so hung up on Arcueid. To make matters worse, Ciel’s route is full of Arcueid moments that did not dampen my preference for Arcueid over Ciel one bit.

But despite my complaining, Ciel’s route is also really good and has some incredible moments that stood out to me even more.

Click for major Tsukihime spoilers
Those scenes when Roa is awakening are so creepy and so good. It also makes great use of the medium. Shiki’s narration saying one thing while the visuals show something else creates such an unsettling disconnect, and the visual novel format makes it work so well.

I know I’m raving about what’s a comparatively minor part of the story, but that part was so well-done that it instantly elevated Ciel’s route to be on par with Arcueid’s in terms of enjoyment for me.

And when I went back through afterwards to see other choices and got the branch where Shiki/Roa has killed everyone in the mansion? That was so disturbing.

Tsukihime has a flowchart that makes it convenient to see what scenes and branches you’ve missed (although I wish you could move forward on the flowchart to scenes you’ve already seen instead of just backward from your current save), so I went back through after getting the main endings to see all the alternate choices and branches and bad endings that I’d missed during my playthrough.

I thought maybe my feelings would have changed – but nah, every new Arcueid scene was still pure gold that left me cheering for Shiki/Arcueid as the only true answer.

Now, if you see every ending, Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon ends with a teaser for Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden, the second half of the remake. It seems like it might be a long wait, since they’ve barely said anything about it so far, but I’ll be looking forward to it for sure.

You might feel wary of playing a remake that only has part of the original content, but Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon definitely has enough content for a full visual novel on its own. Its two routes might not cover everything (and there were a lot of little hints that made me curious about the other routes), but they feel like complete stories in their own right. It’s definitely worth playing, and I’m happy I gave this one a try.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is an Excellent RPG

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Feb 052025
 

It took a long time, but yesterday I finished playing Metaphor: ReFantazio.

I was intrigued by Metaphor even back when it was “Project Re Fantasy,” the mysterious new Atlus JRPG it seemed like we might never see.

Once it was officially unveiled as Metaphor: ReFantazio, I loved everything I saw and named it one of my most-anticipated games of 2024.

And even though I hadn’t played my other anticipated titles yet, I started it right away.

My first reaction to Metaphor was, “So this is just Persona after all.” After all, it’s a turn-based JRPG with a lot of features reminiscent of Persona. There’s a calendar system with deadlines, you can choose an activity each afternoon and night to pass time, you spend time with allies to improve your rank with them, and party members even have a similar sort of “awakening” scene when they learn to use their powers.

But the more I played, the more I saw aspects that really do help Metaphor stand out as unique despite those clear similarities. For example, Archetypes. These are essentially character classes, which give you access to different abilities and combat styles. Not only can you change any character’s Archetype, but you can also equip a certain number of skills from previously-learned Archetypes to do a little mix-and-matching. I loved that sort of system in Final Fantasy V, and I loved it here, too.

Traveling also plays a big role. You travel to different areas, both as part of the plot and for side quests. There are even a lot of side dungeons you can visit, which was fun, although I wish they had more varied designs.

Best of all, not only does the calendar system still come into play while you’re traveling, but some activities are only available on the road. This really helped to break up the formula and made it feel unique.

I found Metaphor to be difficult at times, although more often than not this was because I needed to rethink which Archetypes I was using and switch things around. The Archetype system really opens up a lot of strategic options. I also ended up using a different approach to deadlines than in Persona. In Persona, I almost always do the main dungeon right away, but because of Metaphor’s side dungeons, I often found it more beneficial to do some of the side content first.

Now, it’s a curious thing when it comes to the deadlines and time management. Throughout the game, I never felt like it was being lenient. I felt like I had to carefully manage my time to get everything done. But when I reached the end, I had plenty of time left over. There were a couple of minor missable activities I’d overlooked along the way, but for the most part I got everything I wanted to done and still had time to spare.

That let me enjoy the world even more, and that’s great because I love the world. It’s a fantasy setting, inhabited by various races that don’t get along. You play a young man from the tribe considered the lowest, the elda, on a secret mission to break the curse on the prince. As you travel, you learn more about the world, and there are even these beautiful detours where the characters stop to take in especially interesting landmarks.

While the plot has its share of surprises and a few pretty intense sections, it was a bit more straightforward than I expected and a couple parts felt a little rushed. However, it made up for any shortcomings with its characters. I love this cast of characters, and I really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them.

Click for Metaphor party member spoilers
Especially Basilio. I love him. I’d do anything for him. Hulkenberg had been my favorite character up until then, and Heismay too, but then Basilio came into our lives. He’s everything.

I spent over 115 hours playing Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it was a great experience. While it hasn’t become one of my all-time favorites, I’d love to see another game in this style in the future.

That marks my first completed game of 2025. Not a bad way to kick off the year!

Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode is an Emotional Experience

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 152025
 

In all the excitement of starting a new year, I almost forgot to cover the last game I played in 2024, Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode.

This is the latest entry in the To the Moon series, following the strange and emotional Impostor Factory from 2021.

Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode came out in September, but I put off playing it for a while because I did not believe for a minute it was just a happy beach episode. At the end of the year, I decided to finally dive in.

It’s shorter than the others, taking me around two and a half hours instead of the roughly four hours main entries in the series have taken. It also notably doesn’t follow a new story with original characters like the main entries have. Instead, you play as Eva, going on a trip to the beach with her co-workers. It should be fun and lighthearted… and it is, except for the sense that something just isn’t quite right.

There’s humor and lighthearted antics and even a couple of mini-games, and of course it all culminated in an emotional scene that left me feeling sad even though I’d already had a good idea of what it was leading up to.

Now, I can’t really talk about too much without spoilers, so I’ll just finish by saying that if you’ve stuck with the To the Moon series all this time, it’s worth playing Just a To the Moon Series Beach Episode to see this next piece in the overarching story.

It’s been implied that this is the ending of the series, but we also have The Last Hour of an Epic To the Moon RPG to look forward to. The director once said that the two games are both endings to the series, with one being the good ending and one being the bad ending. Which one was this? Well, I’m sure we’ll have a clearer view of that once the second game is out to compare it to.

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