Alluna and Brie Re-Tentacled

very good game. would highly reccomend. Splashdown mountain is perpetually under construction.

Great game. Slightly buggy in places, but nothing game-breaking. Works with Proton with no issues that aren't also present on Windows.

The game is interesting, it has a lot of content, the graphic is good and the battle system is basic and easily understendable. There aren't many downside to this game because it keeps things simple, the only downside could be that the battle are kind of repetitive because the aren't many characters that you can use.

At first I was weary of the time management and battle mechanics, I just wanted to read another visual novel set in this really cool setting. Over time it grew on me and reading all the scenes for all the characters was a treat. I just love the story lines of these games and how they fit together.

This review concerns [i]Alluna and Brie Re-Tentacled[/i], a comprehensive improvement update to the original [i]Alluna and Brie[/i] to bring the overall experience closer to parity with Lach's second RPG. ----- [i]Alluna and Brie Re-Tentacled[/i] is an improved version of Lached Up Game's second release. It serves as a narrative sequel to [i]Max's Big Bust[/i] despite not featuring Max as the primary protagonist. The billing this time goes to Alluna and Brie, two magical girls who get recruited by Axon City's young Magical Response Unit (MRU) to fight off monster girl invaders from a portal called a Frakk. One of these was opened in the climax to the previous game, and they've been popping up here and there ever since. While Alluna has a pretty standard "power of the Moon" power set, Brie's "magical girl" powers are actually the result of a curse and her only power is to summon cheese sandwiches out of thin air. Sandwiches that are convienently both delicious and capable of curing fatal wounds, just in case you thought the whole magical invasion thing meant that this game would be less silly. The writing here is a notable improvement over the previous game. While the mostly self contained first game aptly showed a humanity just beginning to come to grips with the existence of magic and magical creatures, it becomes clear pretty quickly here that Lach has a plan now. The world beyond the portal has significant lore, its relationship to what everyone thought was the entire Earth is well explored, and the "post magic" Axon City is well realized. Seeds were planted in this game that, as of the latest release [i]Help! I'm Turning Into a Mermaid![/i], still haven't paid off. The biggest departure of this game compared to [i]Max's Big Bust[/i] is that it's a turn based RPG. Pick a squad from what eventually grows to 8 members of the MRU, and go fight the monster girls on their turf. The game is structured similarly to modern Persona, where you swap between fighting in the dungeon, eating food to raise your morale to do better in battle, and hanging out with a large number of characters in town between engagements. The RPG aspect itself is almost trivally easy, mostly serving as a means to an end rather than a roadblock. Despite receiving second billing in the title due to alphabetical order, Brie is the point of view character for most events, and the character writing in the Heart Beat events is the game's greatest strength... except for Max. The poor thing has been brutally flanderized into a gluttonous idiot. Look how they massacred my girl. Also entering the series for the first time are minigames, of which there are two to speak of. The first is Insectivirus, a monster catching game that has you moving around the map to catch insects that vary in appearance rates with time of day and weather. They are then used in tournaments held on rainy days for some neat prizes. The actual battling, however, is completely automated and they can take forever to resolve as each tournament is 3 consecutive fights against 3 insects each. The second minigame, Mermaid Strikers, is mandatory for story progression. The store page describes it as Blitzball but with cute mermaids, a conclusion that isn't entirely incorrect. It's definitely the better minigame of the two, and has room for some decent strategy with team choice and energy management. Despite the strength of the character writing, the romance is one area where [i]Alluna and Brie[/i] falters. There are 10 romance candidates, with an 11th that'll act as a fallback if you decide to date nobody similar to the previous game. However, romance exclusive content is few and far between here, especially if you lock in a romance late in the game. The second quibble is, like last time, the art. The in-battle sprites are almost universally adorable, but despite some improvements here and there the art for the visual novel sections is still almost the same as [i]Max's Big Bust[/i] for better or worse. The UI experience is also a bit of a mess. Menus sometimes become unresponsive to anything except cancel, reading previous lines only works when the game feels like it, and the equipment screen is a chaotic list of everything you own with no real indiciator of who has equipped what. [i]Alluna and Brie[/i] is an improvement over [i]Max's Big Bust[/i] in many ways. The writing is greatly improved, and the whispers of greater plot arcs are engaging. For those worried about the RPG bits, don't be; they aren't hard and seeing all the hijinks through to the end is worth it.

LONG REVIEW AND *minor* SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED Alright after locking down a good day and a half and being i assume 80%ish done..i think i have a pretty good foundation to write a review. i'll separate it into two parts..the VN and the RPG gameplay aspects VN: i loved it overall. it feels like the first VN with witty comments fun interaction scenes and pacing. now i haven't quite finished my first playthrough but ive been going with the alluna romance path. (of course after i write this part i get a few more ineractions LOL) One of my MAJOR gripes as of now is the lack of romantic interactions. I get that alluna and brie are and have been friends forever but they achknowledge the fact theyre dating but as of this point the only picturesque moment was the kiss. now once again it is my first playthrough on alluna so idk if the other paths have more romantic dialogue throughout the game and i get that alluna and brie are a lot more casual about it but they almost never even talk about the fact theyre dating. i just hit christmas day and fully expected at least some sort of romantic evening even if it was only cuddling at night. it would have been extremely sweet to see imo. so yeah romance is something i feel could have been fleshed out a bit more AT THE MOMENT I AM WRITING THIS. other than a few spelling and spacing errors there wasn't anything else wrong with the VN side of things,,keep up the good work with that Lach. RPG Aspects (once again first playthrough): this is where it gets a bit rocky. i was originally put off by the rpg elements but decided to buy it and for the most part its pretty neat having to balance a work life and pleasure for brie. it gives you more of a gameplay experience instead of just a reading one. the very first issues i noticed though is the voice acting. its awesome yall tried it out HOWEVER the way you implemented it is kinda bleh for me. You have lori giving unneeded info on the fight opening such as "watch out theres 3 enemies" and stuff along those lines. The next thing i disliked about the VA was it seems like it was put in as a idea then just abandoned seeing as the characters all have something to say about some abilities but not more than half. i feel the VA could have been implemented either better or more fully to not seem so half done. i did quite enjoy the witty comments whenever someone got hit with a status effect though..those were enjoyable. i feel the frakk could have been changed up somehow. You are told you should complete a dungeon by the end of the month but it only took you at max a week if you even did a full 12 spots a day. i know i spent a good part of half a month just speeding through the days because i finished the dungeon within a week outside of the frakk gameplay- it was cool to implement gear and morale as part of the game...except that morale has no bearing outside of combat and that initial relationship bump. the romance options all have some sort of requirement for you to do the first major friendship act but most required you to be at a specific morale meter rank to do it (which brings me to the fact that some guidance as to what levels up certain meters is helpful) . HOWEVER after you pass that initial friendship bump all your morale is for is combat. It has no effect if you don't plan on going into the frakk anytime soon (i.e you finished it early). it would be nice if those had more bearing on your actions in your future games. equipment was whatever..pretty easy to come by and once you got rolling in the frakk and romance most gear in the shops suck. the only time i bought any gear was when i first started and ever since i used gear i earned through heart beats or the story. filler- going back to the frakk being a big monthly thing and morale not having anything to do with anything outside of combat, every time crystal activity like eating and swimming becomes next to useless. it has no bearing on anything after you get over that morale rank for your friendship leaving you with repeatedly spamming the sleep to pass the day quickly. that also diminishes the need for the shop sales. im sitting on 3k cash rn and only time ive died is with the mega boss (if you know you know) so maybe adding more use to the morale and such might help fix the filler issues as well if you have to balance it more evenly. MISC: mouse input..needed af i know a lot of people want that. it made me sad when i finished all the socializing scenes with everyone and they just vanish off my contact list. i get it cleans it up but it still makes you sad especially when you see your partner go cuz you dont have any more interactions outside area interactions i get cg animations like the first one are hard to do but they were awesome..would definitely watch a show about this tbh MORE PICTURES OF THE GROUP HAVING FUN! im sure theres more im forgetting right now but ive binged this game for almost 20 straight hours minus sleep. now for the most important part. would i recommend this to a friend? YES absolutely its a very interesting piece of literature and gaming and i love it to death. would i buy it again? yes i would. i would absolutely buy it again and help support lached up games on their next project. This game was a dive into mixing jrpg elements into a VN style game(?) and for their first attempt for such a small team they did fantastic. feedback like this is what helps these developers grow and make better games . Lached if you end up reading this..good job i love you and your teams work to death

The third entry in Lached Up Games' Axonverse series, and its first RPG iteration. The art and writing is in the same style as MBB1, so if you liked it, keep going. Technically, you might be interested in playing Robotic Battle Maiden first, considering it's AnB's prequel? Either way, the Re-Tentacled update did wonder to upgrade the game.

Hra působí jako velmi nevydařený pokus, jak přidat vizuální novele dodatečnou hratelnost a gameplay prvky. A možná největší podíl na tom má, že je hra postavená na Unreal enginu, a to hodně nepovedeně. Ovládání hry je tragické. Nepodporuje myš ani dotykové ovládání, pouze gamepad a klávesnici, ale i ty jsou velmi nešťastné, přepínání mezi vybranými prvky je nepředvídatelné. Někdy se na další prvek přesunete šipkou doprava, jindy šipkou nahoru, protože je o milimetr víc diagonálně. Šipka na druhou stranu vás pak ne vždy vrátí na předchozí prvek. Ovládání je prostě hrozné. Nepomáhá mu ani nepřehledné rozhraní, koho kdy napadlo dát jako vybranou položku tu, která je méně výrazná než ostatní? Za zmínku dále stojí, že během dialogů nejde otevřít menu, ukládat ani přeskakovat, což jsou základní funkce, na které jsou hráči u VN zvyklí. Ukládat jde vlastně jen automaticky nebo na základně, nikde jinde. Dále má hra hromadu častých a otravných načítání, její soubojový systém je repetitivní a nezáživný... Upřímně, těžko hledat něco pozitivního. Jediné, co mě motivuje tuto hru hrát, je lore a příběh kvůli dalším hrám v sérii.