Hello!

I'm Won Jeong-jae, a member of the 3rd Stove Crew!

I've been really into the visual novel genre lately.

The game I'll be reviewing this time is 

[GINKA] !

Genre: Visual Novel 

Price: 27,000 KRW

Even in the Stove Store, which is full of domestic visual novels, 

it gives off a slightly different, mysterious atmosphere,

a Japanese visual novel! 

The unique sensibility and atmosphere of Japan.

Japanese summer and festivals, and the wishes people send to the gods. 

And the summer promise

that a boy anda girl shared.

The summer 5 years laterwhen the boy and girlmet again. 

What will happen that summer? 

And what kind of fun does this game have to offer? 

Let's set off for Himejima Island, where their story unfolds!

 The meeting, parting, and reunion of a boy and a girl  

One day, a boy heads to

Himejima Island, where he lived as a child. 

A boy who moved to the island as a child and then returned to the city.

The protagonist, Ryusei,heads to Himejima Island for the first time in a while

for summer vacation. 

Himejima Island, where a ritualto deliver people's wishes

to the godsis held at the end of the summer festival.  

Ryusei, who saw the festival for the first time after moving to the island,

falls in love with the girl in the role of the 'Summoner',

Ginka. 

The two, who became close like that,

build memories of their childhood together

and grow their feelings for each other. 

And on the last day of the summer festival, 

just as Ginka passes through the sea torii as the 'Summoner' 

to deliver wishes to the gods and returns. 

Ryusei decides to confess his feelings to Ginka.

He prepares the apple candy that Ginka said she wanted to eat.

But the boat Ginka was on never returned,  

and the promise they made to meet was never kept. 

<Kamikakushi>

The superstition that gods take children away. 

After Ginka was taken by Kamikakushi, 

Ryusei left the island,

and now, 5 years later, he was visiting alone. 

What Ryusei met on the island he returned to 

was Ginka, exactly as she was 5 years ago. 

Without even remembering her own name, the girl 

appears before Ryusei once again. 

To make matters worse, even

a Ginka who has become a high school studentjust like him appears.

In this strange and mysterious summer vacation,

can Ginka and Ryusei overcome the impending death,

uncover the island's secrets, and be together? 

Or will it remain only as a bleak story 

with a bitter aftertaste due to a wrong choice?  

 A 'Visual Novel', not a 'Dating Sim' 

The biggest difference between [GINKA] and other visual novels on Stove

is that it is a visual novel, not a dating sim.

The player doesn't try to romance the Ginka they met again

to get a happy ending,

but rather follows the flow of the story

to reach 'one complete story'. 

It's not a game where you worry about

who to choose among several heroines. 

You must enjoy the story, be surprised by the twists, 

find the hidden truths, 

and reach the ending through the right choices. 

It reinterprets Japanese faith and culture 

and unfolds it into a mystery story,

and I even got a feeling similar to <Higurashi When They Cry>. 

The shocks, twists, and truths revealed one by one 

gave me the greatest pleasure in enjoying the story. 

It's not that there is direct interaction 

or various endings.

However, while focusing on the story,

I thought it was a game that truly fits the name 'visual novel',

giving off a strong 'novel-turned-game' vibe.  

But that doesn't mean the characters aren't charming!

There is a heroine(?) who is happy when she receives a confession 

but also cuts hair with a knife. 

When she gets angry, she even points a knife at her parents.

It took me about 7 hours to see the whole story,

and it was fun to see Ginka

change throughout this long story. 

Her appearance of watching and following along with the gymnastics broadcast

is the same in elementary school and high school, 

but the secrets and emotions hidden inside appear as twists and shocks. 

Just like the saying 'the end of tuning is stock',it is 

[GINKA],

which conveys the atmosphere of midsummerthrough a charming story rather than romance!!

These days, when it's getting very hot, 

why not meet thepromise and love story

of a boy and a girlthat took placeon an exotic summer sea a bit removed from reality?

You can enter Himejima Island via the link below!

https://store.onstove.com/games/102664

Finally, I will end this review by summarizing the <arc of fun> that [GINKA] has.

I hope you feel a story like a first love that is poignant yet a bit bitter! 

The arc of fun that [GINKA] has:The fun of a visual novel focused on its essence, twists, and the unique sensibility of Japanese culture

Hello.

Today, I will briefly discuss how to effectively use the newly released hero, 'Rift of Waves Elvira,' based on my experience using her in the regular Arena.

For reference, I am not very good at RTA, so this guide is written based on the regular Arena. 😢

Skill Analysis

Skill 2

Skill 2 is a passive and is the core skill responsible for both Elvira's survival and damage output.

First, since it has 100% defense penetration, you don't need to worry too much about Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage.

Also, because the 'Encroach' effect increases Effectiveness and Critical Hit Resistance by 100%, there is no need to over-invest in Effectiveness, and thanks to the Critical Hit Resistance, it didn't seem necessary to push survival stats to the extreme.

Additionally, since her Combat Readiness increases when an enemy is inflicted with a debuff, there is no need to be greedy for Speed over 300.

Skill 3

Skill 3 inflicts Curse with a 70% chance.

Since the base probability is a bit disappointing, the Weakness setfelt like the best fit.

Also, seeing that there is no mention of scaling with Max Health in the skill description, she appears to be a dealer that scales with Attack.

Skill 1

Skill 1 inflicts Seal and has a 40% chance to trigger an additional attack.

However, the 40% chance for an additional attack was a bit disappointing. 😢

Recommended Settings

Looking only at the skills, based on the Weakness set,

Speed / Health / Attack / Effectiveness / Defense

seemed sufficient to focus on.

For the artifact, I used the recently buffed 'Disaster of the Setting Sun'.

It was an artifact that fit Elvira very well because it provides both Attack increase and Effectiveness.

Regular Arena Review

I set her up with about 4000 Attack and as much Speed as possible  and used her for a few hundred matches.

To summarize in one sentence,

Notos-tier She is not an overpowered character, but she is a fun hero that performs well enough in the top tier.

That is how I would summarize it.

Pros

■ The damage is impressive.

The damage of Skill 3 itself is quite high, and with the added Curse effect, heroes with low health other than the target were often wiped out at once.

■ Thanks to the Combat Readiness increase, it can almost be used like an extra turn.

Even if the enemy survived after Skill 3, the Combat Readiness would increase immediately, making it easy to finish them off with Skill 1.

It feels especially effective when linked with a turn-one debuffer.

■ If she takes a turn, the destructive power is immense.

Because the damage itself is strong, once she takes a turn, she could almost certainly take out one enemy.

■ Great synergy with combo-oriented characters.

When paired with a turn-one hero who applies debuffs first, you can reliably secure Combat Readiness, and if an Attack buff is added, her ability to clear enemies in one turn increases significantly.

Pros Summary

She can be summarized as a combo-oriented character with very powerful damage.

Cons

■ Lacks debuff management.

She has no debuff cleanse or immunity in her passive, so it was quite difficult to perform if she lost the initiative.

■ High dependency on Attack buffs.

The difference in damage depending on whether an Attack buff is present was quite noticeable.

Without an Attack buff, heroes with high health survive better than expected.

■ Survivability is not overwhelming.

Thanks to Critical Hit Resistance, she can withstand some attacks from extreme damage dealers,

but recently there are many heroes with guaranteed critical hits, and defense penetration, so her perceived survivability was not exceptionally high.

■ Low utility of 'Surge'.

Personally, this was the most disappointing part.

She is a hero who takes the initiative and strikes first, so the 'Surge' that triggers upon death was hard to feel in actual combat.

■ Higher operational difficulty than expected.

She was not a hero you could just throw out without thinking like Notos.

She only performed at her best when you carefully managed combos and support.

■ Weak against damage-sharing combinations.

Since she has no damage-sharing ignore, defense teams with Aurius or similar setups were quite tricky.

Recently, there are many Zio and Liana units in defense teams, so taking the first turn or securing the initiative was not easy.

Cons Summary

The biggest drawback was that she is a pure damage dealer who struggles with lack of survivability and damage sharing once she loses the initiative.

Good Heroes to Pair With

■ Sea Phantom Politis

The hero I used most often with Elvira.

She can reliably apply debuffs with non-attack skills, making it easy to trigger Elvira's Combat Readiness increase.

Also, since she has Effect Resistance ignore, she boosts Combat Readiness to ensure Elvira can use Skill 3 reliably.

■ Shepherd of Darkness Dienne

When using Soulburn, she uses non-attack skills to apply debuffs and follows up with dual attacks, so her synergy with Elvira was excellent.

It was also a good combination to maximize the firepower of Skill 3 as you can receive an Attack buff as well.

■ Other Recommendations

Basically, any hero that supports, non-attack skills, Attack buffs or debuff skills will show good synergy.

Elvira felt more like a combo-oriented dealer who gets stronger with the help of teammates rather than a hero who carries alone.

Good Heroes to Face

■ Liana & Luciella

When cursed, they could be cleared more easily than expected.

They don't have high health, so they were often finished off with one Skill 3.

■ Seolhwa

Since she is a hero who uses defense penetration attacks, I could reliably defeat Seolhwa, who relies on evasion.

■ Frieren

Both Seal and Curse were quite troublesome debuffs for Frieren.

Once I took a turn, I could deal with her relatively easily.

■ Notos

As a Light element, Skill 3 damage increases, and thanks to the Combat Readiness increase, it was also good for quickly finishing off Notos revived by Holy Sacrifice.

Difficult Heroes to Face

■ Master of Scales

The most difficult opponent.

Since there is no damage-sharing ignore effect, the front line takes all the damage, so I couldn't get the desired firepower.

■ Skyward Ilinav

She grants penetration resistance that counters Elvira's core defense penetration, so the damage was greatly reduced.

She was quite tricky to deal with.

■ Liana & Luciella

Since they are very fast, it was difficult to take the initiative, and with the addition of Skill 3's fear, they were a very burdensome opponent for Elvira, who is vulnerable to debuffs, unless I could secure the initiative.

Overall Review 

Rating: 7.0 / 10

She was not an overpowered character that shakes up the meta like Notos.

However, after using her myself, her damage performance was better than expected, and her destructive power when she properly took a turn was significant.

However, there were many cases where she lost momentum against damage-sharing combinations or in situations where she lost the first turn, and she was a hero that required some strategic operation.

Personally, while using her, I kept thinking, 'She's a really good character, but is it necessary to use this hero?'

I tested various settings, and if you give up too much Attack, the damage was lower than expected. So, I recommend setting Attack to at least 4,000.

I also tried an extreme damage setting, and the one-shot firepower was definitely fun. However, in reality, a setting that also included moderate Speed was much more stable and felt better to use.

She is not a hero that can be used easily like Notos, but if you like combo-centered play, I think she has performance that will satisfy you enough.

She is not a must-pick, but I would rate her as a top-tier hero with performance you won't regret pulling for.

Well, I'm off to use Elvira….

If there are any better combinations after using her, I will add them to the bottom of the post.

It just released today in the neighboring community too, so there aren't many reviews yet, but the ones there aren't bad. Plus, it's a deck-building roguelike? Since that's the genre, I'm buying it for now!

By the way, lately, even when I press 'like', it ends up like this, so I end up pressing it multiple times wondering if it didn't go through, and then I end up canceling it;;

Episode 1

Episode 2

(Click the image to go to the review video!)

I heard that the story for Kazena Act 1, Chapters 1-5 has been completely revamped,so I played through it again.

There was a lot of talk about the previous story,

and I hope this change brings a fresh breeze to Kazena.

Let's dive right in!

The most disappointing part when playing the old story was the protagonist's presence.

You are definitely called 'Captain' or 'First', but from the user's perspective, the feeling of being a mere observer was strong.

Even when incidents occurred, the agents handled them on their own, and it often ended with outside help,

"Am I really the protagonist?" was a thought that often crossed my mind.

However, after the revamp, this part has changed significantly.

Most of the dialogue has been changed to focus on interaction with the protagonist and

the Captain has become more rational in various situations.

Since it's a title like Captain, it seems they emphasized a more competent image.

Scenes of having personal conversations with Ray and Theresa have also been naturally added.

Getting to know these characters in detail from the beginning

increased immersion and I definitely felt like the protagonist.

The protagonist's role is also clearly revealed in the process of resolving the final crisis.It emphasizes

"We won thanks to the protagonist" more than before, and overall, I got the impression that

the protagonist's presence, which was lacking in the original story, has been greatly supplemented.

Lenore's feelings toward the Captain are also expressed more clearly. The "main wife" behavior

and full voice support were also satisfying.

The characters' emotions were conveyed much better, making it easier to immerse myself in the story,

and the characters' charm was further brought to life.

This story revamp was a successful change that scratched the itch and highlighted the protagonist even more.

I enjoyed the story very satisfactorily.

I enjoyed the story very satisfactorily.

For reference, my favorite is Maribel. Thank you.