Mini reviews: All in Abyss: Judge the Fake and Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth

Sometimes I try out a few games that don’t quite warrant a full review on their own. Either due to their short length, lack of standout aspects, or (in this case) a combination of both. So, that’s where these mini reviews come in.

Now, I don’t think either of the games I’m featuring here are awful. However, despite highlighting one of them earlier in the year as a title to keep an eye on, neither fully delivered for different reasons.

All in Abyss: Judge the Fake

All in Abyss: Judge the Fake combines Texas Hold‘em Poker with some light RPG mechanics and a visual novel story that goes in a weird direction. You play as Asuha Senahara, a degenerate gambler who manages to stumble her way into “The City”, a place that also happens to be filled with gamblers and cheats.

At the top of the City’s food chain are Witches, rulers of each district who use trickery to crush their opponents. Asuha decided to take on the Witches, not for any altruistic purpose, but to prove herself as the best gambler around.

It’s a solid setup for a game centred around poker and gambling, though it manages to fumble most of the main plot points. There’s a small cast of named characters, with most only relevant for the chapters they’re in. The plot also falls off a cliff by the end, and not in a particularly fun way.

This wouldn’t have been too bad if the main gameplay was fun, but All in Abyss: Judge the Fake has some odd balancing. Completing poker matches gives you points that let you buy new skills, but most of them aren’t that interesting. The main ones are stopping your opponent from being able to fold, and the ability to influence the last card drawn.

Both of these skills pretty much guarantee you’ll win, outside of the many times you’re locked into losing thanks to the story. From there, it’s just a case of slogging through the mediocre story and boring “exploration” sections where you just go back and forth between menu options.

Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth – Hololive Alternative

Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth is a vtuber fangame featuring the titular Shirakami Fubuki, loosely based on the lore surrounding the multimedia project Hololive Alternative. The plot isn’t important, and the game never tries to make it seem otherwise. Instead, it’s an excuse for Fubuki to encounter a number of other Hololive vtubers during her brief journey.

Hololive games are spread across a number of genres, with Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth taking the form of a Megaman Zero style platformer. You start with a number of sword attacks, adding various summons and side weapons to your roster as you complete stages.

It’s actually a pretty decent take on Megaman Zero’s basic gameplay, with Fubuki dashing around each stage and cutting up both enemies and projectiles. Being able to destroy most projectiles is a key mechanic, as the dash offering no invincibility frames — an option for this actually got added in right after I finished my playthrough.

Unfortunately, while the basic core is there, everything surrounding it is less impressive. Difficulty is all over the place, with some enemies being complete pushovers while others are overly tanky and take forever to kill. Visability can also be poor at times, with projectiles occasionally blending in with the backgrounds (not to mention the strange UI).

There’s also the fact that this is far shorter than a typical Megaman game, offering only a short training stage, four main stages, and a single final level on top. Furthermore, one stage inexplicably gives you a separate currency from the rest, with some items and upgraded tied behind it.

Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth is an alright time despite its issues, but one that barely lasts a few hours (assuming you can deal with the difficulty). It also doesn’t offer that much for Fubuki fans outside of small scenes at the end of stages, and even these only use a few stock voice clips instead of full voice acting.

I suppose my disappointment comes in part from HoloCure – Save the Fans! Its quality far surpasses any other Hololive games that have come since, and all for no price at all. It’s hard to fully recommend an alright game when an excellent one is already available, and likely going to get even more added to it this year and beyond.

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Both games were sent by their respective publishers for these reviews.

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