Chalgyr's Game RoomChalgyr's Game Room
  • Home
  • About us
    • Staff
    • Cookie Policy (US)
    • Privacy Statement (US)
  • Articles
    • Interviews
    • GamingThoughts
    • Game Of The Year(s)
      • Games of the Year 2021
      • Games of the Year 2020
      • Games of the Year 2019
      • Games of the Decade
      • Games of the Year 2018
      • Games of the Year 2017
      • Games of the Year 2016
      • Games of the Year 2015
      • Games of the Year 2014
    • Jaggy’s Corner
    • Memorable Music
  • Review Database
    • Hardware & Software
    • Retro Reflections
    • Beeps and Beers
  • News
    • News Archives
Search Chalgyr's Game Room
DreamController.com – Affiliate

DreamController Summer Sale
Code SUMMER20

  • Full article feed
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Policy (US)
  • Privacy Statement (US)
© 2022 Chalgyr's Game Room All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Punch Line – PS4 Review
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
Dying Light 2 Free Gameplay Chapter Adds New Progression System and More!
June 27, 2022
PC Games Show Reveals Puzzle Adventure Backfirewall_!
June 24, 2022
Summer Showcase: Upcoming Titles, Release Dates, and More from Freedom Games!
June 23, 2022
SpellForce 3 – Reforced Review
June 23, 2022
Announcing Demonschool by Necrosoft Games Releasing in 2023!
June 22, 2022
Aa
Chalgyr's Game RoomChalgyr's Game Room
Aa
Search Chalgyr's Game Room
  • Home
  • About us
    • Staff
    • Cookie Policy (US)
    • Privacy Statement (US)
  • Articles
    • Interviews
    • GamingThoughts
    • Game Of The Year(s)
    • Jaggy’s Corner
    • Memorable Music
  • Review Database
    • Hardware & Software
    • Retro Reflections
    • Beeps and Beers
  • News
    • News Archives
Follow US
  • Full article feed
  • Contact us
  • Cookie Policy (US)
  • Privacy Statement (US)
© Chalgyr's Game Room 2009-2022. All rights reserved.
PlayStation 4ReviewReviews and Previews

Punch Line – PS4 Review

Richard
Richard November 6, 2018
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

With slapstick humour and plenty of fanservice, Punch Line can aptly be summed up by stating its title. Punch Line came out as an anime in 2015, and I watched it back then, and have the same thing to say about the game now: “this is ridiculous”. Not a bad ridiculous mind you, just…ridiculous.

In case you were curious, the show/game is, for the most part, a series of gags and “punch lines’ (title drop). In fact, every characters name is a pun on their personality/role in the story if you know enough Japanese to pick up on it, or bother to google it. Even more so because the title “Punch Line” sounds like “Panty Line” when said in English with a Japanese accent, which brings us to the plot!

You play as Yutan Iridatsu, who got involved in a bus jacking incident, and then became an astral spirit, while somebody else is using his body. With the help of the spirit of the cat Chiranosuke, Yutan needs to find a way back into his body by using his meagre spirit power. How does this relate to the title, you may ask? Well, if Yutan sees panties twice in a row (or for too long for the purposes of the game), then he gets too excited and a meteor crashes into the earth killing everybody. Yes, really. Thankfully, as a spirit body, Yutan isn’t tethered by the pesky laws of spacetime, and can return to certain points in the past to try and reclaim his body.

Punch Line plays in episodic segments that consist of: visual novel style plot advancement, a “scare people for points” segment, and a “trick” segment. At least for the first half of the game, the second half is almost exclusively story time. The idea behind the spooking people is that you need soul fragments in order to increase your power as a spirit, so you need to literally scare them out of people. Don’t worry though, they’ll be back to normal after a good nights sleep.

You can scare the tenets of Korai House (the boarding house where Yutan lives) by messing around with stuff with your spirit powers, which you use by pointing and clicking. Similar for the “trick” segments, you have a goal that you need to accomplish by setting up various pieces in order to create a domino effect that will end in your desired result, although the logic jumps for those can be pretty ridiculous at times, but that’s just par for the course with Punch Line.

There’s not a whole lot more I can really say about Punch Line without just giving the story away, but I will say that it was genuinely funny, and there were a lot of fully animated cutscenes too, which was really nice to see. The music was good, and some of the character songs were absolutely hilarious. The characters themselves are also all really unique and entertaining.

The quicksave function during the story segments is really useful, and almost TOO quick. Unfortunately, the game really feels like it was truly meant as low budget episodic segments. Well done low budget episodes mind you, but the feeling is still there. There are a lot of chapters, but they’re all pretty short, and the trick segments barely last any time at all, and feel more like they were added in just to keep from having to call Punch Line a “Visual Novel” instead.

This is really unfortunate because I do really enjoy the type of gameplay they were advertising in the trick segments. If you’re looking for more of that, try playing “Ghost Trick”, the only mobile game I’ve ever actually paid money for. Back to Punch Line though, the character polygons would snap to different poses a lot during dialogue, and while the characters were all really animated, it really gives you a sense of disconnect.

All in all, I came away pleased with the experience. While I did know all the plot twists from the anime, the game was still fun and short enough to pick up a chapter here and there. While Punch Line really feels more like a handheld or mobile experience, it’s still a lot of gags, fun, and good music. If you haven’t seen the anime, now you can play it, so get out there and don’t stare at the panties!

Score: 7 / 10
TAGGED: 5pb./Mages, console, playstation, PlayStation 4, PQube, PQube Limited, PS4, review, Sony, Visual Novel
Richard November 6, 2018
Share this Article
Facebook TwitterEmail
Share
Posted by Richard
Obscure JRPG Specialist—Currently a reviewer for Chalgyr's Game Room covering all platforms
Previous Article Valthirian Arc – PS4 Review
Next Article Valeguard – PC Review

Stay Connected

Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Instagram Follow
Youtube Subscribe
Member of
Ad imageAd image

DreamController.com – Affiliate

DreamController Summer Sale
Code SUMMER20

AllKeyShop.com (UK) – Affiliate

You can also check out

SpellForce 3 – Reforced Review

8 Min Read

The Amulet of AmunRun Review

16 Min Read

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Review

5 Min Read

fault – StP – LIGHTKRAVTE Review

7 Min Read
//

We at CGR are a team from various backgrounds that have come together to bring you what you want to know most about a game. Is it worth it? Or not?

JenEricDesigns – Coffee that ships to the US and Canada

JenEricDesigns Coffee website
Light, Medium and Dark Roast Coffee available.

Renaissance Press

Renaissance Press
Diverse Canadian Voices - Printed, Ebook and Audiobooks available.

Contact us

We try to stay up to date with all gaming news but as you know that can be really hard to do.

So if you think that we could be interested in your title reach out to us at Nick@chalgyr.com!

Chalgyr's Game RoomChalgyr's Game Room
Follow US

© Chalgyr's Game Room 2009-2022. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?