Samantha Lienhard

No Celebrating All Things Romantic 2025 (But It Could Return Next Year)

Feb 032025

February is here… and Celebrating All Things Romantic is not about to start.

For the past few years, I’ve focused on romance games in February in honor of Valentine’s Day. Last year, I shifted that focus to just the first two weeks, to make more time for my backlog.

But this year, my backlog is so out of control that I decided Celebrating All Things Romantic has to be pushed aside for 2025. (I still haven’t even finished the games I shortened the event for last year! I’d really like to finish Infinite Wealth in time to play Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii not too far after its release.)

There’s another reason, as well – a lot of the best romance games are on the longer side, which makes it even more difficult to play so many of them in a single month. I might still try to do something for Valentine’s Day itself, but it won’t be a whole event.

If you’ve been looking forward to the contest, don’t worry. I expect to have another round of mystery games to discuss in May, so you can expect Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2025 to go ahead as planned.

And it’s not gone forever. Assuming I can figure out a good way to handle it, I have every intention of bringing Celebrating All Things Romantic back next year.

In the meantime, are there any romance games you’re planning to play this February?

Capcom Spotlight Set for February 4 (Is There a Chance?)

Video games 3 Responses »

Jan 312025

Where would we be without some unreasonable Ace Attorney hopes?

Capcom has announced a new Capcom Spotlight for February 4 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET.

It will feature Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Street Fighter 6, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, and then be followed by a Monster Hunter Wilds Showcase.

So of course, since this is a Capcom live stream, I have to cross my fingers that we’ll get Ace Attorney news there.

On on hand, it’s unlikely. The last time they had an event called a Capcom Spotlight, it only focused on already-announced titles, and this one’s description lists those specific games without implying anything else will be there. On the other hand, there’s always a chance they could include a new announcement, right?

I’m full of hope that this is our year for a new Ace Attorney announcement. Between Capcom saying the series would continue and the Investigations Collection being released within a year of the Apollo Justice Trilogy instead of being spaced out more, it feels like the time is right. And I certainly haven’t let go of my hopes for more Great Ace Attorney content with 2025 being its 10th anniversary. We probably won’t get a new game announced in this Capcom Spotlight, but that won’t stop me from hoping.

I’d be tuning in regardless for Onimusha, so at least I have that to look forward to. Do you think we’ll see anything about Ace Attorney?

Saintess of the Golden Bow is an Upcoming Isekai Otome

Video games No Responses » Tagged with: otome, visual novel

Jan 292025

Today we’re going to talk about something new – a demo for an upcoming indie otome game.

I recently had a chance to play the demo for Saintess of the Golden Bow, after the developer provided me with a Steam code to preview it.

Saintess of the Golden Bow follows a young woman named Celine who gets hit by a truck and wakes up in a fantasy world she recognizes as the setting of one of her favorite web novels, with her taking the place of Celeste, a minor character who was supposed to die early on.

Yes, it’s a standard isekai premise through and through, and Celine’s knowledge of the original story means she has plenty of questions about how her survival will change things.

Celine is chosen to be the Saintess who must fight the Demon Queen, in place of her devoted knight Levi who was chosen as the Saint in the original story. The demo is fairly short, but long enough to provide a look at the world, basic plot premise, and a decent introduction to each love interest. The final game is supposed to be 30 hours long, with three romance routes and a fourth planned as DLC.

None of the love interests completely grabbed my attention at this point, but a couple did enough to intrigue me.

The art is quite nice, and it especially stood out to me that there were a fair number of CGs even in this short demo. I don’t know if the quantity of CGs will stay that way for the whole visual novel, but it would be nice to see.

CG scenes also have voice acting, which felt a little jarring to me. I’d just as soon have the whole thing be unvoiced rather than have voices just for CGs. That’s just me, however. Other players might feel differently and appreciate the partial voice acting.

My only real criticism is that part of the premise left me with an odd feeling. You see, the web novel Celine was a fan of was a BL story. The three love interests were the hero and his love interests originally, and her survival has changed that. That… does set up three convenient love interests, and the story acknowledges the fact that her role breaks up the original relationships, but something about it just feels odd and makes me wish the premise had taken a different direction.

But overall, I’m intrigued enough by the world and characters of Saintess of the Golden Bow to see where it goes from here. A public demo will be available during Steam Next Fest on February 23, so you’ll be able to check it out for yourself if the concept interests you.

Older Entries Newer Entries