SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘My Next Life as a Villainess’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales

SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘My Next Life as a Villainess’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales

Time Stamp: January 9, 2024 5:01 PM

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 9th, 2024. It’s another slow one today, friends. I have a nice-sized review of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance-, whose title alone does a good job of filling out the column inches. There’s one new release today, but it’s total litter box liner. We also have some sales! A few of them! And some expiring ones. Well, it is what it is. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- ($49.99)

This game has been a bit of a problem child to review. First, we had to decide whether Mikhail or I should handle it. Mikhail is our usual otome visual novel reviewer, but he has almost no experience with the license this game carries. I, on the other hand, only rarely formally evaluate games in this genre these days, but I’m quite familiar with the adventures of Bakarina and friends as I am an avid reader of the manga adaptation. In the end, I ended up taking this one on. I was already playing it, after all. Bit of a fan, as mentioned.

The second problem that I have grappled with is in how I should score this game. You see, this is a somewhat mediocre otome visual novel. It’s written well enough, the production values are good, and you have plenty of routes to follow. But it’s shackled to an extent by its license, and you can see a clear difference in how the existing characters are handled versus the ones created for this game. If you have no affection for this property, I think the game is merely fine. It’s been made well enough that even if you have no prior experience with Catarina Claes (Bakarina is an affectionate name some fans use) and her friends, you’ll be able to follow things without any issues. But I don’t imagine it will impress many in that position.

On the other hand, if you are a fan of the light novel/manga/anime this is based on? This is a lot of fun. Yes, it’s a bit predictable when it comes to the familiar love interests. No one is going to suddenly act out of character, so you aren’t going to get surprised by any twists. The two new love interests are a bit more novel, which adds a bit of spice. The writing fits perfectly, and Catarina is just the way she should be. Her internal monologue is hilarious thanks to her penchant for misunderstanding situations, and the Council of Catarinas never fails to amuse. The art mainly takes after the anime, and all the Japanese voice talent is here. It looks and sounds terrific, and it’s obvious this was no small effort. Hamefura fans will not be disappointed with this game at all.

The premise of My Next Life as a Villainess is that a woman is reincarnated in the fantasy world of her favorite otome game. Unfortunately, she isn’t the heroine but rather the sharp-eyed villainess Catarina Claes, who faces her doom in every single route of the game. Catarina more or less resigns herself to this fate, but immediately starts preparing for her eventual fall. She does so in absolutely ridiculous ways, like learning how to garden so she can survive when she gets exiled, or keeping a can of surprise snakes on her person in case she needs to scare off one of the love interests who might try to hurt her. Of course, in being a totally different person from childhood, Catarina ends up being kind and she’s well-liked by everyone around her. She seems somewhat oblivious to this, however, leading to comical misunderstandings.

Pirates of the Disturbance is a spin-off story, taking place during the spring break following the ultimate event where Catarina finally dodged all of the doom flags from the original game. She has nothing to worry about now, right? But then she remembers a fanbook story that was cut from the original game, which presented some new bad endings for Catarina during an escapade at sea. And wouldn’t you know it? Her and her friends (and love interests) all end up on a luxury cruise liner together, one that gets attacked by pirates. Can Catarina avoid all these inevitably bad endings? I mean, yes. Easily. Obviously. There are bad endings here, but Catarina is as usual way more worried about them than she should be.

From these descriptions, you can probably see part of the problem for newcomers. Catarina has established history with most of the included characters, and the romances in particular are very much in-progress when this game starts. For fans, you know how most of these dynamics work. For non-fans, you’ll be filled in but you won’t have all of the emotional pieces of the puzzle to fully enjoy things. I think the game has done as good a job as it could have to satisfy both audiences, and while it leans more into pleasing the existing audience I think that was probably the best call.

I came into this already a big fan of these characters, and ultimately I got a kick out of going through each of the routes of Pirates of the Disturbance. It does justice to the original property, and I would recommend it to anyone who has gotten hooked on the series in any of its forms. On the other hand, while I don’t think non-fans will be lost trying to play it, I also don’t think the game is going to shine all that much for them. If that’s the bucket you fall into, you might be better served by another visual novel from this publisher. Catarina cronies should climb aboard immediately, though.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

The Bin Bunch

Farm Knight Adventures ($8.99)

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Nothing particularly unusual in today’s list, but there are some good games in there if you feel like picking something up. Have a look through the outbox, too. The latest sale from Circle/FlyHigh is wrapping up, with good discounts on games like Kamiko and Fairune Collection on offer.

Select New Sales

Kingdom Rush ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/15)
Kingdom Rush Origins ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/15)
Kingdom Rush Frontiers ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/15)
Strike Team Gladius ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/22)
Torn Tales: Rebound Edition ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/22)
Rise: Race the Future ($6.59 from $16.49 until 1/28)
Dungeons of Dreadrock ($2.00 from $10.00 until 1/29)
Jet Kave Adventure ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/29)
Moonlighter: Complete ($7.24 from $28.99 until 1/29)
This War of Mine: Complete ($7.99 from $39.99 until 1/29)
Children of Morta: Complete ($10.79 from $26.99 until 1/29)
South of the Circle ($9.09 from $12.99 until 1/29)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, January 10th

Alchemic Dungeons DX ($3.19 from $7.99 until 1/10)
Backbeat ($17.49 from $24.99 until 1/10)
Cat Tales ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/10)
Cave of Past Sorrows ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/10)
Curious Cases ($3.24 from $4.99 until 1/10)
Damascus Gear Operation Tokyo ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/10)
Danmaku Unlimited 3 ($6.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
DEEMO ($11.99 from $29.99 until 1/10)
Dissolved: Chapter One ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
emoji Music ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Escape 2088 ($2.60 from $4.00 until 1/10)
Escape First ($3.24 from $4.99 until 1/10)
Escape First 2 ($3.24 from $4.99 until 1/10)
Escape First 3 ($3.24 from $4.99 until 1/10)


Fairune Collection ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Fantasy Hero: Unsigned Legacy ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Fluffy Horde ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Gear.Club Unlimited 2 ($1.99 from $24.99 until 1/10)
Great Ambitions of the Slimes ($10.79 from $11.99 until 1/10)
Guilty Gear ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/10)
Hexagroove Tactical DJ ($13.99 from $19.99 until 1/10)
It’s Kooky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Kamiko ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/10)
Longhead ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Mariozza Cops ($1.99 from $9.80 until 1/10)
Ninja Smasher ($6.39 from $7.99 until 1/10)
Ninja Striker ($1.99 from $3.99 until 1/10)
Once Upon a Time on Halloween ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)


Picontier ($22.49 from $24.99 until 1/10)
Railed Up ($2.39 from $5.99 until 1/10)
Santa Throw ($1.99 from $9.89 until 1/10)
Shinobi Non Grata ($11.99 from $14.99 until 1/10)
Stay Cool, Kobayashi-San! ($1.99 from $13.99 until 1/10)
SubOcto ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Syberia 3 ($1.99 from $24.99 until 1/10)
The Companion ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/10)
The Experiment: Escape Room ($2.59 from $3.99 until 1/10)
The House of Da Vinci 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
The Missing: JJ Macfield ($7.49 from $29.99 until 1/10)
Tiny Dragon Story ($1.99 from $12.99 until 1/10)
To Leave ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/10)
Transiruby ($10.49 from $14.99 until 1/10)
UFS League ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/10)
Worldless ($15.99 from $19.99 until 1/10)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. The news at the hospital today was not bad, and not bad is about as good as I can hope for anymore. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Time Stamp:

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