Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
I looked up whether i had to face the twin sister boss thing that i got stuck on at the end of Part 5 and it turns out that's an optional boss battle. so for this video i decided to skip it and continue the story. It looks like i got an early chance of ending the game but i decided not to as it seemed like not the best choice. i had fun climbing up the island on the outside, the cat ghost like enemies were adorable. but then i got to the Plantations and once again i'm stuck. i know there's meant to be a secret place, there's also a tube that i can somewhat ride in, and there's more up top but i don't know how to get back up there. Any help in chat would be welcomed but i may also read a guide to help get myself unstuck.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY, from Square Enix, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my laptop.
As a fan of the series, more so the PSP games than the PS4 version, i was eager to try out this mobile version. from the screenshots on the App Store page it seemed like some aspects of the gameplay had been simplified and built around mobile play. but the icons on the screen did give me some doubt about whether the mechanics were complicated.
There is a data download at the start. thankfully there's a cinematic video to watch whilst it's happening in the background. i enjoyed it but felt that it finished too soon as i wanted to see more of the fight, like with the PSP games having fighting cinematics at the start of them. the video is also too short, i had to skip over the rest of the download.
The way the game starts is a little weird. we're introduced to the story and just before it gets to the fight, it stops and the game begins it's tutorial. When that's finished, the game returns back to the story and instead of it being another video we're now in control of one of the characters. With the fight done, the game opens up and reveals it's home screen. most of the icons on the screen are detailed and when we go into them there's a decent tutorial.
For some, i can see how this tutorial might feel lengthy and at times it repeats itself as a reminder to the player. But when it's compared to some of the other tutorials in mobile games it's up there as one of the best. it will help people adjust to this game's mechanics, which are different from those on PSP and PS4. If i were to pick a fault with the tutorial is that it doesn't offer suggestions. for people new to Final Fantasy or the Dissidia series some terms may not be familiar. When the game asks us to equip moves to our character, it will auto select the passive ones, but when it comes to the active moves it's down to us. in there's not a lot of choice but there's also no suggestion as to what's best out of what we've got. if the game isn't going to auto pick our active moves it would be nice if it could suggest some, explain why they may work, and maybe even give us a training room to test them out.
the music is a different spin from previous Dissidia games. the PSP ones were a little more heavy, leaning into the Black Mages style of music. the PS4 version felt more like remixes that kept things sounding familiar. in DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY the music feels a little "brighter" or "happier" whilst also sounding familiar enough to be recognised. i did enjoy this take on the music enough to want to get the soundtrack to the game.
The one aspect of gameplay i don't think DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY has got quite right is the camera. i fully understood how to control and do moves and such, but the one thing i had trouble with throughout this video is the camera. i wonder if gyro controls would be one way to alleviate some of my issues with it. I found the camera awkward to control and at times a little unpredictable. it's such a issue that it may be the thing that takes DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY out of Game of the Year contention. it gets soo much right and it does feel like it's been designed from the bottom up for phones. and yet it's camera feels like an issue that's not yet been solved.
There is a lot to like with DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY but at times it does feel a little too dense. there is a tutorial but because the game's mechanics are dense it too can feel dense. for those who have played previous Dissidia games, most of it makes sense and is similar to what has been before, even the bad camera as on PSP it was rough at times. so for fans, DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY is a must play. but for new comers it may take some time and effort to fully get it.
This week's DEMO is the PS4 version of Rhythm Roll, from developers Dinomore Games.
As a demo experience, Rhythm Roll isn't great. it doesn't mention that it's a demo, has only one setting, and doesn't even track progress during the demo. we do get to see a list of music in the game, but we can only play 3 of them, each having a short or long version of the song.
There is no tutorial and whilst the controls are simple it did take time to learn how to play the demo. i do think that the first music stage on offer is too hard and i found the other two much more easier and better warm ups for the first stage, which i did beat by the end of this demo.
Personally, i did like the music. i liked the aesthetic, too. i like to play music games that are quite simple. in Rhythm Roll all i need to do is get my ball over the highlighted sections as they appear. there are no power-ups or leaderboards in this demo but there are lives and it's not too hard to recharge them as you play. it was nice to listen to the music and simply move the ball. it reminds me of other rhythm games i play like Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line where it's button presses. in this and that game, the music is already playing, i just need to get to the end.
So whilst the demo experience for Rhythm Roll isn't great, i did have fun with the game. if you're not a fan of this style of music then it's not for you. i don't know if there are other styles as the demo doesn't offer any hints as to what the other tracks are like.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
I had hoped that by exiting through the door i would've left the labyrinth. i was wrong, there was still more to go. The Boss Fight with the water was tough but i never thought that it was the core. my companion seems to die during it and we act like it's nothing. i did like the side scrolling boss fight in the water, that was unexpected and not that bad. But i did get stuck at the end on what seems to be an optional boss fight against 2 dragons. let me know in the comments if it's worth beating them or if i should skip it.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Queen's Blade Re:Build, from developers SE Mobile & Online and Creek & River.
Queen's Blade Re:Build has some interesting ideas for a card based battler. i've played several as part of my Mobile Friday series, and a few on consoles, and there's a couple of interesting ideas here but i don't think the game has the polish it needs to successfully pull them off.
The first idea is real time card battling. so the clock is counting down so you have a set period of time to complete your turn before it's the computers turn. initially this isn't much of an issue in the demo as we only have a few cards and the computer enemy isn't too difficult. But there is a point in the demo where i turned it back to turn based battling as it was starting to get a little overwhelming and i wasn't really able to explain the moves i was making.
The other mechanic that i don't remember seeing before is that cards are not always instantly activated and used on the turn they're played. Cards that give other cards a boost will activate on the turn they're played. But cards that attack the enemy have a set amount of turns that must be played before they are activated. This adds some interesting elements to the battling, for example if the enemy places an attack card that has a higher attack than any of my card's defense i can either play the card and get a card that can buff it on the next turn or play a different card elsewhere and pull a card that is strong enough. another way this is shown in this video is that i may have a card that requires a certain amount of energy to play, more than i currently have. if none of the enemy cards are going to attack this turn, i don't have to play anything, gather more energy, and then play my card.
What i mean by this game needing more polish is that nearly all the fights in this demo felt like they were decided by luck rathe than skill. None more so than the final boss i attempted. i feel like there was nothing else i could've done in the fight, like i was destined to loose it with how my cards were delt.
The music is nice and the art is big and clear. it runs well on Switch. But after playing the demo, i'm more concerned about the fighting and i'm no eager to give it another go. If i was playing it wrong, then maybe the tutorial needs to be re-worked. if i really never stood a chance, then how the cards are dealt needs to be re-worked. Queen's Blade Re:Build has some nice ideas but doesn't quite pull it off. i think some more hard core card battlers might be up for the challenge, but for more casual players like myself i think i'm going to pass on it. But i am glad i checked out the demo and it's take on card battling.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
I was stuck at the end of Part 3. i wasn't sure where to go. so i had a quick google and saw the clue that i needed to look for paw print blocks. i checked my video from part 3, cringing at the poor platforming, and saw that i walked past two different sections. so in this part, the first thing i did was explore those two sections, get the dogs, and continue the story. i felt like i made quite a bit of progress in this part and ended it at what i think is going to be the end of the labyrinth. i do wonder if the two characters who turned into a cloud of dust are actually gone or not.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow, from Square Enix, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow is a game i've had on my iPhone maybe since it came out and yet i've not really heard anyone talk about it or seen much buzz for it. So i'm glad i checked it out as it could easily make the Game of the Year list for games which have an additional download.
The way DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow handles to additional data downloads is refreshingly polite after some recent rude games. there's a tiny initial download before the character creator and tutorial part of the game and then there's a much larger download before the main game. both times the game asks before downloading them and suggests using Wi-Fi. for the first one you're probably fine using mobile networks but the second download was over 1GB so use Wi-Fi for it.
From the tutorial, it's clear that the controls are very simple and more importantly they don't change when we go from the tutorial to the main game, which has happened in some games this year. there is a joystick control to move our character, there's a "super" move button, and there's the option to switch between characters. in battles the screen is uncluttered and it's clear to see enemies. What was nice was how clear it was to see when the enemies were about to attack. for simple attacks the enemies have an obvious tell and for big attacks a red line appears showing the area that will be hit from the attack.
As you defeat enemies, you get to level up your attacks where you can choose between different power ups. sometimes these grant you new powers like ice arrows and other times it grants power ups to those abilities like seeking so the ice arrows now seek out enemies.
The only thing that DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow stumbles with is the roguelike aspect to it's gameplay. it's mentioned on the game's App Store page but after nearly 2 hours of gameplay i have no idea what it means by roguelike. if i had to guess perhaps it's the choosing of different power ups. when a run fails, we don't keep any items or experience gained from that run but we don't loose stamina so maybe that's why it calls itself a roguelike.
In the near 2 hours i played of DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow, i didn't get to see it all. there is a surprisingly huge amount of story. there's story for the main quest and there's more unlockable story that i never got to see. Each stage is short and it's clear that the game is designed around mobile devices. so whilst there's a lot of content, you're able to tackle it little by little or in larger goes. I feel that DRAGON QUEST Smash/Grow is great for new comers or more experienced players and is well checking out.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
The Platforming was, again, a little tricky. once i worked out what i needed to do it didn't take too much time to get the bomb and progress the story. There was a lot of information in this part for most of the characters, including us. What caught me by surprise was when we discovered another robot. This part ends with me getting a little stuck in terms of where to go and frustrated with the platforming. i may have to look up where to go next. maybe there's some gaps in walls as i can see a dog and a teleporter but i'm not sure how to get to them.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Dusk Climber, from Ivan Onoprienko, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
The game's developer got in touch and brought this game to my attention. Dusk Climber is unlike any game we've played for quite a while and it was that aspect that made me interested in checking it out.
I was greeted by a welcome message from the developer and it came with a gift. unfortunately, the game didn't come out and say that this gift was some of the games currency. as i played Dusk Climber we learned that it's used for retrying and for cosmetics. at the time, there were no clues as to whether or not this was a good gift but after playing it and seeing how slow collecting 100 crystals could be, i can say that it was a good gift.
This lack of information, or not providing quite enough information, happens throughout Dusk Climber. the game does have a tutorial, and an option to replay the tutorial, and whilst that's useful at the start of the game it wasn't long before i was being introduced to owl nests and safety ropes. For the owls, i eventually saw in the top left that reaching those created a checkpoint. But for the safety ropes, the game never said what they were used for. Another example would be how the App Store page showed the camp and save system, but when i played the game it wasn't until the final run when i stumbled upon it that i realised the Save Progress it was talking about was the checkpoint system rather than some pause and save feature like you'd get on consoles.
The tutorial was useful though. there were on screen messages as well, an early one being that some platforms are old and unstable or reminders that we've run out of stamina and need to touch the screen three times to pull ourselves up. Retrying is very quick, or continuing from a checkpoint is quite cheap. this meant each run i did, i went further and further. I finished this gameplay video by reaching the next biome and it was satisfying. By reaching this new area, i now have the option to continue playing from the first one and working my way up or start from the second one. If i get tired from that aspect of gameplay, there are daily challenges i can try too. There doesn't seem to be a limit on how many times i can try it either. Dusk Climber also has leaderboards and after my final run i ended up 18th globally. So there are various options regarding how to play Dusk Climber, giving it some replay-ability.
The controls are simple and relatively straight forward. you can move your character by tapping the screen. by holding the screen and sliding your thumb you can see the arc of possible jumps and when it lines up with where you want to go you can let go and then tap the screen to pull yourself up. depending on which way i was jumping meant i would switch between my left and right thumbs. With no countdown timer, there was rarely any pressure to make fast jumps. it was nice being able to play Dusk Climber at my own pace and with the checkpoint mechanic it's possible to play it in little chunks, great if you're commuting.
As i played Dusk Climber i had some thoughts as to what could be added, what could be tweaked, and what might need a little more work done. But as it is right now, i do think Dusk Climber is worth your time. for me, it's a style of game i've not played as much so in that respect it's interesting, but the game as a whole is worth your time and it would be interesting to see where the developer takes it going forward.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Platforming continues to be the most dangerous aspect of playing Cave Story+, it got me a few times during this video. i've mostly been OK with the enemies, defeating them in one or two tries. But it's the platforming that's still taking time to get used to. i had to do some precise platforming in this video and the momentum my character has when they land caught me out a few times. It's like my character slides just a little when they land.
I'm still not all there with the game's story. it feels like we've interrupted their story and as we don't remember ours both sides to the games story feel incomplete. but we made progress with their side in this video. I ended this part before we get to make a bomb so there will be a Part 3 where we'll try to finish the rescue attempt we started in this part.
There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 57th Maximus Cup is for the Switch 2 game Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. By getting 100 points, you can unlock it all.
I was surprised by how tough this was. i was knocked out in the first match 94th place in about a minute! It wouldn't be the first time either as at the end i showed that if i focused on building up i would be punished. what i noticed in this Cup is that the goal was to build low and focus on the combos. typically i feel like i'm able to start building up and then go lower as the match goes on. Thankfully, i got a little better as i changed my approach and ended up with a Top 10 finish!
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Lumi Master, from Bilibili Game, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
When i checked out this game's App Store page, the screenshots looked nice but didn't really get across how the game was played. So i was curious to play Lumi Master and see if it had a different take on the Monster Catching genre.
Initially, we're greeted with a download screen which is a bad first impression. there was no heads up, no warning, and even when it was downloading there was nothing on screen to say how much was being downloaded. thankfully it was over very quickly so it's not that much data, but it was still rude.
Next we're taken straight to choosing our Lumi. i went with the grass "starter" #Zorrat. the catch mechanic involves throwing cards at the Lumi. the better the through, the more your odds of catching the Lumi increases. as i played, i would obtain cards that increased the odds of catching them.
Moving from place to place was a little strange. there is no map or world we can move through. instead, there's only forward and it's done from the first person perspective. It's something i've noticed some mobile games doing this year, but Lumi Master is the first one of these that i've played.
In this video i play through the first couple of areas. the goal is simply catch all the "basic" Lumi to unlock the ability to catch "rare" Lumi from that area. once all are caught, you can move onto the next area. so in Lumi Master, the focus is more on the catching and getting them all rather than any indepth story line.
The game does have a character creator, but it's strange that i wasn't able to access it from the start. the game never pointed me to it either. i was exploring some options that the game hadn't introduced and found it. it's basic but does show signs that they're going to be adding customisations that you earn from progress or that you can pay for.
Lumi Master's tutorial was also surprising lite. Initially, it seemed useful. it focuses on the how to do something rather than any in-game "why" reason to do something. but at times it was too quick. i'd try to read the on screen messages and it was gone far too quick, so it's possible i missed an explanation or two. thankfully, we're told the basics and can play fine but when we get to the housing and battles, we may need to fail a couple of times to learn.
Lumi Master feels like a game designed for mobile use. i played it with just one hand. other than the battles, i didn't demand too much of our attention either. But if you have time, there are lots of little touches that help make it feel more "alive". for example, in the home area it's not a static picture. there's lots of little animations of the Lumi working and walking around. There's also extra information about the Lumi if you want to read it, but it doesn't feel something you have to do.
I enjoyed Lumi Master and feel it's a great 2D Monster Catching RPG. there's something for newer players, something for more experienced players, and there's still plenty left to unlock. On it's App Store page it talked about trading Lumi and that's something i didn't get to in this video.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Flamecraft, from developer Monster Couch.
Before i played this demo, i didn't know that the game was already out as a board game. i was drawn to trying it out because i liked how it looked. my only concern was that on it's eShop page the screenshots looked crowded and tough to understand.
I started by checking out the game's tutorial. whilst it's great that it goes into great length and takes things step by step, it took around 35-40 minutes. thankfully, there is an in-game reward for doing it. i am glad i tried it, but i think i would've liked a little more help or reminders in the game itself.
The match i did didn't take too long, around 15 minutes. i didn't win it though. i came second. even though i didn't win, i don't really know how i came second. the game doesn't have a way to explain what happened. i was playing against two bots and i remember a point when both of them got more points than me half way through and the only way i was able to close the gap was by using cards that granted bonuses at the end. i would've liked, on my turn, a helper that could've given me some suggestions or at the end, a helper that explains how well or bad i did and what i could try next time.
Ultimately, i didn't play it wrong. the tutorial was good and i remembered enough of the basics to not finish last. i would certainly recommend players try out the tutorial. if you already have the board game, then this is a well implemented digital alternative that's suitable for situations like travelling on a plane or in a hotel. I would recommend Flamecraft for new players and those with the board game.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
For the first time, Backlog Conquering is tackling a PC game. i have been using Steam for a long time and i have some games that i might've played a little and not finished or games i've not played at all. according to Steam, i'd played around 40 minutes of Cave Story+ over a decade ago so i really don't have memories from it.
What's interesting for me is that the PC version of the game got updated to match the #Switch version of Cave Story+. So the music and graphics were very different from what i remembered the game looking like. i was initially concerned that my low powered laptop might've struggled but it played great. i was taken aback by there not being a tutorial and the jump in this game certainly takes some time to adjust to. But the music was really nice and i do like these modern graphical style to the game. i look forward to playing more in Part 2.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Aniimo, from Pawprint Studio, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
Aniimo describes itself as an "Open-World Creature Collector" and in this video i do get to see that side of the game. But it's not without faults.
Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it immediately starts an additional data download. there's no warning, no message about doing it over wi-fi instead of a mobile network, it just starts it. The amount of data being downloaded is also large, coming in at over 11B. But even when that's finished, we still can't play the game as it has to prepare the shaders. in all, it took nearly an hour before i could even start the game. Then we're forced to sign up to the game, there is no guest option. i always prefer to sign up as a guest and then if i like the game i'll sign in with Apple.
The character creation screen is next but i had a couple of tech issues here. there is a lot of fine detail to play around with and we could spend a lot of time here. but i had trouble with the costume aspect and then when i went to start playing the game it took me back to the start of the creator with an error message. I don't know why this wasn't dealt with when i initially tried to move on from this part, rather than at the end when i want to start the game.
With how long it took to download the additional data and install it, my phone was quite warn and the game decided to set the graphics to low. i didn't realise this until near the end of the video. there are moments when the low setting really does look quite poor. often some graphics would look out of focus or too soft. But this isn't the reason for when i got stuck against a plant quite early on. the game describes itself as open-world, but there are invisible walls to watch out. i got stuck on one and the game didn't notice. i didn't know how to unstick myself and it took a little time before i opened the options and found a way to manually unstick myself.
The last thing that gave the game a bad first impression was how, at times, the game was poor at telling it's own story. right at the start there's an example where it's clear that our character can't catch anything because we don't have the equipment. But the game then makes us catch something. We do have a camera and we use it a couple of times. but then when i want to use it, for no provided reason i'm unable to. There are moments like this throughout this video and you can hear me constantly questioning what's happening.
Thankfully, Aniimo has some really interesting ideas that made me want to keep going and seeing what it has to offer. for me, i kind of stopped caring about the story by the end as it was the game mechanics that i wanted to try out. a fun one is the #Twine mechanic. this is poorly introduced earlier when we're first up against boss enemies. But by the end it's revealed that the game will automatically turn it on when appropriate. so i was able to just run into water, Twine would then activate, and now we're one of our caught monsters, one who can swim. we can Twine with them to attack, to fly, or even to help capture other monsters.
This first look wasn't able to show off the House mechanic, that was revealed by the App Store. nor was i really able to do more with research. i also had a couple of eggs that i didn't know what to do with. What's important is that i wanted to keep on going, i wanted to see these things, i wanted to explore the world and find hidden chests. I also wanted to learn more about the monsters in this world as a couple of rare and powerful ones are teased to us throughout this video.
So Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it has story telling issues, it has tech issues, and it doesn't always give the player enough information. thankfully the game mechanics are good enough to earn a thumbs up. But this mobile version needs work and i would understand if people held off and waited for a few updates to come out for it.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Another Eden Begins, from developer Studio Prisma and publisher Wright Flyer Studios.
The eShop page for this game describes it as an RPG designed by RPG fans, specifically highlighting Masato Kato who has worked on a number of RPG games either with Square or freelance.
Another Eden Begins did feel like a RPG that ticked all the boxes. though at times this did make the game feel a little predictably and troupey. I wouldn't say it made the experience bad, Another Eden Begins is a solid RPG, but it certainly didn't make the game feel special. From the 2-3 chapters i played, of the 6 available in the demo, i don't think i worked out what the game's unique hook or gimmick is. the eShop page says that New Game+ is a feature and there are multiple endings to the game.
I played on Switch and i thought the game looked great. As with many, if not nearly all, games that use character art i felt like there wasn't enough. often the character art didn't match the emotions of the scene. the characters were still on screen and often those showed more emotion that the art. But not with all characters. some characters felt like they had less art and their models had less motion and emotives. It's just another example of how fine it was to play, but how it's also not going further to get a 8 or 9 out of 10.
Some of the story didn't make sense. one part in particular made no sense as the weapon shop guy was supposed to have the day off and be closed, but the shop was open and he helped out seemingly free of charge. magic also seemed a little tact on. there were orbs floating around that we can interact with, there was an explanation of how important the orbs were, but they never did anything. And the cats, towards the end of this video, were another frustration as it seemed like they would follow us and help out but i never saw them help.
Another Eden Begins is fine to play. it's looks and music are at a higher level than the world and it's story telling. the pacing maybe a little slow, the loading a little long, but it's still a game i would be happy to play, maybe more of a PlayStation Plus kind of download rather than purchase at full price.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
I really enjoyed playing Puppeteer. the way it told it's story kept me very interested. there were a few gameplay mechanics that could've done with better communication as to how to do them, namely the jumping over obstacles whilst scissoring, and the basic jump. But the frustration with them was fleeting and the characters were fun and charming through to the end of the game. You may want to check out just before the credits as the game does give us one final surprise. If you can't get Puppeteer, i would highly suggest trying it via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming service or watching a video like this one as it's a game that should be celebrated and not forgotten.
For this video, i took all 8 parts i made and cut out some of the "fluff" between curtains and acts. if i died once, i kept that in, but when i died multiple times at the same spot i showed the first death and when i respawned that's the one where i succeeded. i made a mistake with the volume, forgetting to raise it up and equalize it across all parts, so it's a little quieter than i would like.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Vampire Survivors via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Part 1 was the worst or one of the worst experiences i've had streaming a game from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service. thankfully, i do each game twice, on a different day and at a different time, to get a better average of the experience. Whilst i didn't get any disconnections in this part, it continued to be a struggle to play Vampire Survivors.
The biggest issue we have when we stream the game is the degradation of the visuals to the point where it affects gameplay. instead of the small characters, they become macro blocked which means they become larger squares of color. In Vampire Survivors, squeezing past the enemy is a legitimate way to survive but when macro blocking starts it's almost impossible as the narrow gaps are gone and replaced by blocks of color from enemies close to each other.
Another negative becomes obvious as you get better at the game. to beat a level you have to survive for 30 minutes. but there appears to be no checkpointing and no way to save during a run. If the visuals get soo bad, or if the 20 second disconnection warning appears, there's nothing we can do other than to quit and hope the game saves in-time.
It's hard to think of a useful positive reason to stream this game from the cloud rather than downloading and installing it. I did download it and have played it a few times since and it's such a better experience that i can't even suggest streaming the game if you're curious. Vampire Survivors should only be played downloaded on your console. it's such a bad experience i can't help but wonder why it's on the service at all.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Random Dice 2, from 111%, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
THIS GAME IS NOT OUT IN THE USA (at the time of uploading)
I quite enjoy tower defense style games. with this game having it be dice themed, i was quite interested to see how it would work. i don't think the screenshots in the app store quite got across what sort of game this would be.
It starts with the tutorial. i thought it was very good. everything was clearly explained and we were shown the basic loop of the game right from the beginning. But the first stage i played without it had weird crystals on it and the tutorial didn't come back to explain this new game mechanic. this was true for the rest of this video. i unlocked a supporter towards the end of the video, and again the tutorial didn't start to explain this new gameplay mechanic.
Random Dice 2 does try to be helpful and tell us what's happening when things are activated during a run, but they appear at the top of the screen soo briefly that i don't think i ever fully read any of them. the game really needs to pause when these appear so we can learn how things work. there were some modifiers activated throughout this video where i didn't fully understand how they worked.
Thankfully, the core gameplay loop in Random Dice 2 so well taught in the opening tutorial, that i was able to just keep on playing. it seems like you're not meant to win. you're meant to make progress forward, earn gold, and use it to level up so next time you can make progress. Thankfully, we're not on our own. in all modes i was joined by, what was probably, Ai team mates and, i'm fairly sure, real world team mates. This was a fun addition to the game. it's clearly shown which of the two is doing the most work. sometimes it was my team, sometimes it was the co-op partner. i don't know if there was a way to interact with them, but it was needed as our goal was the same, last as long as possible.
Random Dice 2 is a recent release but it's been supported a lot with updates. there were features of the game i wasn't able to check out in this video but it's clear from the skill tree that they are expecting players to play it for a long time. i don't recommend games for their potential, but with how the game currently is i would be happy to recommend this to gamers. i know i'm not going to delete it after playing it for this video.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia, from developer Ocellus Studio and publisher Microids.
When i was young, i watched some of the Marsupilami cartoon and enjoyed it. When i saw this game on the eShop i was reminded of the cartoon and i was curious about what sort of game this was going to be.
Thankfully, this is a decent demo. we get 3 lengthy stages to play through. each focuses on the unique abilities of 1 of the main 3 characters, though you are able to toggle between two of them during each stage. the first one is the most tutorial heavy but it's a good tutorial. it shows you what button to press and puts you in a scenario where you can use the move. having not paid attention to Marsupilami since the cartoon, i didn't quite know what moves to expect.
Each of the 3 levels in this demo felt well designed in such a way to show off each of the characters and how switching between them opens up further platforming opportunities. each stage has a secret level to find and beat and musical notes to collect. Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia, in these 3 levels, didn't come across as a hard core platformer but i'd put it up there with #Rayman in terms of level complexity and how well each level is designed. i thought each of the levels i played were fun and enjoyed them. none of them had sections where i thought the platforming was poor or unfair.
There are difficulty options to choose from. i kept it on normal but there is easy mode which removes damage from the game and makes it a pure platformer. this would make it a nice option for kids, especially those unfamiliar with platformers or who are younger. but even to me, i can see the appeal of playing it on easy. on platforms with trophies or achievements, it would be interesting to see if difficulty plays a factor in obtaining them.
Overall, as a demo it's good. i would've like screenshots or a trailer at the end. but it does have a link to the game's eShop page. i enjoyed playing it so i went and added Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia to my wishlist!
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I was surprised that there were no major copyright issues with the music, except for a couple of countries. So not only enjoy the racing but also enjoy the music. You can see in the top left, when the track changes, what song is playing.
This is a compilation video showing all the races i won against the game's Top 10 Most Wanted.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Vampire Survivors via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I had previously checked out the iPhone version of Vampire Survivors, https://youtu.be/JuPywdS5N2M, and i really didn't enjoy the experience. The reason i'm back trying it on PS4 is because i wondered if it's screen filling small graphics would be too difficult for a streaming service. YouTube, and others, have trouble streaming video with lots of small details like sand or confetti and i thought Vampire Survivors could suffer with issues.
Turns out i was right to be concerned. in fact, i could say that Vampire Survivors is soo bad being streamed from the Cloud that it shouldn't be on the service. Not only did i have stream tearing, when grey would appear on screen instead of the video, there were also frequent macro blocking issues, caused by the small details i mentioned above, and the service disconnected me twice! As well as that, we had the video crash we saw back in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind - Part 1, https://youtu.be/jLALcYNyUJc, in this part.
What doesn't help things is that there is no manual save during a run. there's no checkpoint during a run either. when i got the disconnection notices, there was only one thing i could try and that was stopping the run and getting back to the main menu in time for it to autosave, or to try a manual save. the problem is, we only get a 20 second warning before being disconnected and it takes longer than that to quit to the main menu and save. so when the message comes up, that is it.
For some games i've played, a break up or decrease in visuals isn't too bad. to some degree, i'm able to carry on playing. I know that my character is in the center of the screen, but when things got bad i couldn't see the gaps between enemies. it was also tough to work out how close to me the enemies actually were. So when things got rough, i should've stopped rather than continue.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG, from Terrier Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It was the game's App icon that initially grabbed my attention when i was browsing the store. When i checked out the game's store page i knew i wanted to try this. the art for the Spire, mixed with the game's black and white aesthetic, looked great. thankfully there was art of the gameplay too and whilst i wasn't too familiar with this style of RPG, i still wanted to check it out.
The store page also gives some nice details regarding the game's story and initially i was concerned that the game itself wouldn't be able to tell this story, that it was relying on the user to have read it's store page. thankfully the game starts with the story, going into more depth than the store page, whilst also not revealing everything.
Our character seems to be nameless with no story, but it's possible this is revealed in greater detail the further up the spire we make. there's no story as to why we're able to be reived either. but if we consider that no one seems to know anything about the spire, it's not too hard to imagine that we're coming back because it's a feature of the spire.
Each run is different. Even when the art and the scenario are exactly the same, you can pick the same outcome as before and get a different result. On one hand, this makes smart use of limited art assets but on the other it does become noticeable when we're getting the same background and text combo. It's the same with the music. it's nice, but it's very noticeable when it repeats as there's a pause. The art and music here is great, but for long play sessions, or repeated play sessions, it starts to become noticeable when it keeps repeating.
I thought Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG was quite accessible even though it doesn't have a tutorial. all the commands needed in a moment are on screen. when you fight, the controls are on screen. instead of pressing arrows to move around, we have to read the options given to us. this is usually a single button but there are time when we're given the choice to, for example, follow or head towards something or to go in the opposite direction. the first time a QTE event happened caught me a little off guard. there wasn't too much extra time to read what my choices were before they were nearly gone. But it was fun in this game that i came across a point where the best choice to make was to not make a choice.
The Roguelike aspect of the game seems lite, and i mentioned above that the why isn't explained. with each run we get a reward and when we have enough of it we can spend it on permanent upgrades for our character. my concern is that some of these upgrades are very expensive and that it may take a long time to fully level up our character. i wonder if the game is built that this isn't needed and, whether by luck or design, we're able to beat the boss/complete the game many different ways.
The art, music, approach to story, and simple combat make Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG something i'd recommend to gamers of all experiences. it's something i'd recommend trying at least one because it's something i so very rarely see on the app store.
This week's DEMO is the Steam PC version of Astral Bounty, from developer Weepel Games.
Full disclosure, Weepel Games got in touch about Astral Bounty and brought it to my attention, but i was unable to play the demo before it came out on Steam and what i played was from the store, rather than it being sent to me.
Fans of the channel will know that i'm not great at side scrolling shooters, regardless of whether it's vertical or horizontal, but i'm always up for trying a new one as i'd like to find one that i can improve at and still enjoy playing. i knew that Astral Bounty was going to be tough as it describes itself as "Astral Bounty is a brutally hard 2D arcade sidescroll shooter" on it's Steam Store page, https://store.steampowered.com/app/4952490/Astral_Bounty/.
I didn't finish this demo but that wasn't because it's a bad demo. i was surprised how generous Astral Bounty was with it's checkpoints. one way developers make a game tough is by reducing or completely removing checkpoints. Here, they're optional. the game's store appears several times during the demo stage i played and whilst i could spend my money upgrading my ship, i also had the option to respawn at the store for a price. as i learned how to play the game and got better, i stopped using the first and then second stores as revival spots and could focus on buying upgrades and progressing further into the level.
So whilst the start of the level got easier, it always got tougher as i got further into it. Sometimes this was due to new enemies, sometimes there were level hazards, and there are times when both are combined. But it's not like i could never see a path through, my failure to progress to the end felt more like skill issue rather than the level design being unfair.
Astral Bounty ran smoothly on my old low powered laptop, but there were very short but noticeable hitches in the frame rate when a new song started for the first time. i found the controls responsive, but a couple of the upgradable attacks i tried never seemed to work right so it's possible there could be a bug or two. the game doesn't have a release date on Steam so it could also be quite early into it's development.
As a demo this could be better. at no point do i remember it ever saying that it was a demo. there were no screenshots, no links to get the game, and no trailers showcasing the rest of it. thankfully the demo runs well, controls well, and the restarts are fast. So, as a demo it may not be great, but as a game it seemed all right.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I was surprised that there were no major copyright issues with the music, except for a couple of countries. So not only enjoy the racing but also enjoy the music. You can see in the top left, when the track changes, what song is playing.
I did it, i beat all of the Top 10 Most Wanted drivers. i think i thought it was going to be harder than it actually was. some of the other racing i had done across these 4 parts, to earn upgrades and points, had been more difficult than beating the Top 10. for a couple of drivers, it was more difficult to take them down after the race had finished. I did have fun and i enjoyed just going around and looking for cars, billboards to smash, and gates to break through.
What i'll do for next week is a video showing how i beat all 10 of the Most Wanted drivers in a race. taking them out afterwards is more difficult to edit into a video, but the races are fine. i'll cut out the mistakes, they're in these 4 parts if people want to see them.
Why not buy me a Vending Machine Bottle of Coffee over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I had a rough time with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind in Part 1 so thankfully in part 2 we didn't have a repeat of the crash.
We learned that the levels continue to be long with seemingly no checkpoint system and no manual saves. if you're disconnected, you could loose 5 minutes or more. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind isn't an easy either. after playing it across 2 parts, i'd highly recommend playing it on easy if you're streaming it from the cloud. at least this way, if you have to replay a mission, it shouldn't be too difficult to catch back up to where you were.
The music in this game is loud and comes across as an important part of the experience of playing the game. But it's often in the music where we can first experience issues with streaming the game from the cloud. So across both parts, i could often hear an issue before it happened. as the music is such a part of the experience, it meant it was very noticeable when it happened.
I'm not saying that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is a bad game. i actually quite liked it and have since downloaded it to my PS4. it's just that it's a bad fit for the service. I turned off the filters to try and help make the streaming experience smoother, but it doesn't help much when there's a stream tear across the middle covering most of the playing area and hiding the enemies. when the resolution drops, it becomes less clear how close the enemies are and if you're on the same plane. i've already mentioned the music and the lack of manual saves, too.
So if you're curious about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, i'd suggest downloading it rather than playing it from the cloud.
Why not buy me a Vending Machine Bottle of Coffee over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Talespinner, from developer Flash Cat Games.
From the eShop page, i new going in that Talespinner was a roguelike RPG Deckbuilder. But after playing this demo, it's like the game wasn't aware.
First up, this is another example of a game not mentioning it's a demo. it also didn't have links to it's eShop store page. i could see the game saving at times but there's no mention whether or not the save would carry over to the retail version. The only times i encountered any mention that this was a demo was when it was telling us about features we couldn't use.
After playing the DEMO, i'm probably not going to wishlist the game. For me, i found the progression of this Roguelike to be too slow for me. I do like the art and music, i also enjoy the way they let us build our own path through each story section we play. But it's the Roguelike aspect of the game where it falls short.
Another great example of how the game falls a little short is what is and what isn't explained. there is a tutorial and some aspects of it are very useful. But when you start looking at what all the buttons do you realise how little of the game's mechanics have been explained. Thankfully, i found the tutorial to be quite good. there was only one aspect of the game i didn't understand fully, but eventually worked out for myself. some things have legends explaining what things mean, but then there are times where i wanted more legends for things that haven't been explained.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I was surprised that there were no major copyright issues with the music, except for a couple of countries. So not only enjoy the racing but also enjoy the music. You can see in the top left, when the track changes, what song is playing.
I continued looking out for cars to drive, secrets to find, and of course challenging the Most Wanted. I managed to beat all of them up to Most Wanted 2, so i finished this part with a car i hoped would be fast enough to challenge the final 2 Most Wanted drivers in the next part. The Porsche Concept i spent most of this video driving was not that bad, just not a lot of colors. And of course, i made some silly mistakes and had some bad luck with the local drivers!
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the #PS4 version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Growing up when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first came to TV in the UK and having played arcade side scrollers back then, this combination really interested me and i was keen to try it.
The big takeaway from this first part of playing it from the cloud was the issue that happened. i've not seen it before, or don't remember seeing it before, and i still don't know what happened. for some reason, the video being sent to me stopped by my controls and the game's audio was still happening.
What was nice was how each level i played had something different. the graphics were spot on for a 90's sidescroller of this era. the music was a wonderful surprise. But the difficulty was higher than expected. i felt like it started hard and kept getting harder. i was expected more of a ramp up than this.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG, from PocketHaven Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The App store page for Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG initially looks like any other idle RPG kind of game. but when i browsed the screenshots, the board game aspect of the gameplay really grabbed my attention. all to often these games have a scrolling background and our main character running into enemies or enemies running into us. But the addition of a board really means each run could be different, which is useful in a roguelike game.
Unfortunately, there was an odd 5 minute initial load to start the game. this clearly has to be a bug of some sort as this is something i've only experienced with games downloading data and Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG never mentioned it was doing this. I'll try to send the developers an email about this bug.
The tutorial for Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG is lite. there is a tutorial finger which shows us where to go and then stops. Or it'll point out a new feature and then stop. It could be done a little better. thankfully Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG doesn't overload it's home screen with buttons from the start so newcomers or those unfamiliar with these sorts of games probably won't feel overwhelmed.
The game's art does look simple, but when you look closer you'll see our character has a lot of animations, more so when we're on the board and fighting. once you notice this you'll see there are other nice animations on enemies and board pieces. This is so nice that it's just as obvious when the wider world map doesn't move. for more powerful phones it'd be nice if this also animated.
The board gameplay was great. each time we got around the board, it'd refresh itself and the enemies got harder. the only 4 pieces that didn't change were the corners. the steps between each corner could change from a monster tile to a buff tile, a debuff tile to a digging tile, a enemy tile to a double enemy tile, etc. There is another element, our character has to survive 30 rolls of the dice. on the first board, there was a mini boss after 15 rolls. on the second board there were two mini bosses.
To help, one of the corner tiles is a shop that we can purchase abilities from. there are other tiles that can grant up a power up, level up a power, heal us, or let us gamble for a chance of a power up. My first and second runs on the first board were very different, not just on the tiles i landed on but also what power ups were available for purchase.
Much like how lite the tutorial was, the game does lack little finishing touches. for example, the Battle Pass screen has a Collect All button, but no other screen does. the equipment screen doesn't have a Equip All button. The idle aspect of the game doesn't say how long it'll collect coins and stuff. thankfully the main game is very well done and i really enjoyed myself.
As Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG is a Roguelike, we get money after each run whether we succeed or fail. The Roguelike mechanic in this game is that we spend the money on improving our stats via a level up screen. Money also comes in from the idle aspect of the game. there are also chests where we can win equipment or items that'll upgrade equipment. there seems to be some free stuff daily. So Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG doesn't demand your attention all the time, it needs to be put down in order to get more gold to help with the levelling up.
I really enjoyed playing Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG. the Roguelike loop is solid, the board gameplay was refreshing and interesting, and the game doesn't feel too complicated with too many systems. it's great for those curious about the genre and something new for those who have played a lot. I would go so far as to say that Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG might even make it on to my download and go top 5 of the year!
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Kusan: City of Wolves, from developer CIRCLEfromDOT.
Kusan: City of Wolves is a top down shooter where you're scored on how well you beat a level, similar to the Hotline Miami games. As much as defeating enemies is a priority, there's a puzzle element in how best to accomplish this. In this demo i get to use my fists, a knife, and a gun to clear all the enemies from a set level. The enemies also have weapons, some which can hit the player before the player can attack them.
This puzzle element initially was quite interesting. i'd enter an area and have a knife wielding enemy Infront of me. i could punch them, but that alerts the gun wielding enemy and they immediately shoot me. the puzzle element is how to get past these two. in the video you'll see me try to punch and hide, punch and go backwards to where i came from, or even punch the knife guy into the gun guy taking out both in one go.
Kusan: City of Wolves has a fast retry system so if you fail it's very quick to start again. But this stopped being fun when the gun was introduced. the ammo wasn't unlimited so instead of just working out how best to take out the enemy, i now had to try and manage my 5 bullets. it wasn't clear, not explained, how or where i got them back and the randomness of when it happened was frustrating. Maybe if it explained things clearer, then i wouldn't have as much of an issue with it.
But another issue is that we had a knife at the start and then never got to use it again. so what was the point of the knife? Maybe the game's story explained what happened, but as the default speed for telling said story was so fast, it's quite possible i missed how or when i lost my knife. We start the game trying to save someone's sister and then we're trying to save a bunny, but i thought the sister was taken again, and by the time i finished playing the demo i got a little confused with the game's story.
I feel like Kusan: City of Wolves tried to do too much too soon and it ended up frustrating me much quicker than i expected. As a demo, it also fails to mention that it's a demo or clearly explain what's in it. i don't know if my save will carry over to the final game either. So it's not a great demo but i'm glad i tried it as i know i don't mind this style of game, it's just i would rather play something simpler or something that ramps up slower than Kusan: City of Wolves does.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Due to music copyright issues, there maybe times in the video when there is no sound due to it having to be muted. if this is the case, i'll turn the music off in Part 2 and we'll just have car sounds instead.
My goal for this part was to try and win some of the Most Wanted races. By the end of the video i had won races 10, 9, 8, and 7 but it wasn't straightforward. the Alfa Romeo in 10 was difficult because when i won the race the car crashed before i could take it out. it never respawned into action so i had to do the race again until i won and then i shut it down just before it took itself out once again! Race 7 was against a Lexus and whilst i won it i wasn't able to shut it down so it appears throughout this video as a black symbol on the map and appears now and then.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Part 2 of playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged was interesting for me as it was all new. i had talked about my previous experiences with the game in Part 1 and how i didn't get far at all. SO it was nice to leave all that behind and explore more of the game's story.
I was still fighting with the game's logic at times, i tried to explain my reasoning as i went, so i'm very grateful that there's a hint system. if i had to think of something that could possibly be affected by a degraded streaming experience it would be this system. when it's activated, sparkles appear on screen but these aren't too big nor are they very flashy. they're just noticeable. but out of the whole game they would probably be affected the most by any issues from the stream.
With that being the only main issue i can see with the game, this means i do recommend playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service. it has a robust auto save and manual saves are quick and easy , too. Combined with the larger more colourful art design, rather than finer smaller details, i think Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged would hold up well if the resolution dropped or if there was macro blocking.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Banecraft: Idle RPG, from Game Duo, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The App store page for this game caught my attention. the pixel art looked great but it was the story, where you were the top demon only to wake up the following day as a lowly human, that interested me the most. I thought that this game might lean more towards the RPG elements of it's name with a deep story, rather than the idle elements, but after my time with Banecraft: Idle RPG it feels like the App Store page has more story than the game itself.
There's a general lack of information given to the player from this game. There's a soul mechanic that's just there, and i never really fully grasped it. sometimes it makes noises, sometimes numbers go up, but the only thing that i understood from it was the merging mechanic, and for some unknown reason the higher the merge level the better our attack.
There's an instance where the game tries to introduce a really interesting team up mechanic where summons can be shared. but i didn't understand it. for something this different, more information or examples were needed. maybe even a "fake" group should've been offered so we'd fully understand how it works. from the sounds of it i thought it worked like sharing in the Dragon's Dogma games.
The other thing that annoyed me about Banecraft: Idle RPG was a bug that happened 3 times. in each time, the majority of the screen dimmed, apart from the top, and none of my touches worked. the game continued playing in the background but wouldn't accept inputs from me. so each time i had to quit and reload the game again. I'm not sure if the light at the bottom of the screen was also a bug or something happening in the background. there was also an instance where the guide pointed to something and then almost immediately pointed elsewhere.
Banecraft: Idle RPG has got a lot of the basics for this sort of game right. there's magic, fiends, and dungeons which work as expected. there's summoning and equipping. So the game works. but it's the extra stuff where it falls short. for example, there's the idle mechanic but i have no idea how long it'll collect money for as most games cap it, forcing the player to interact with the game and restart the collection.
There is more to this game than what we saw in this video as there were more things left to unlock, like alchemy. for what it is, Banecraft: Idle RPG is fine. but the potential is there for something really interesting. The game isn't quite there yet and may never reach it. but if you like the music, the art, and the mechanics, then Banecraft: Idle RPG is still a fine game to play. but it's closer to the middle score than most games which received the top score.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Turnip Mountain, from developer JanduSoft.
This is a climbing game where you control the left arm with the left analogue stick and the right arm with the right stick. This demo only has, what seems to be, the first two stages from the game. there's a very basic tutorial that shows how to control each arm and how to go up. But once you start a stage you're immediately faced with new scenarios the tutorial has failed to prepare us for.
Even though there are only two stages to play. each stage is very long. there's no mention if there's a checkpoint or save but thankfully if you do end up falling off the map you restart on the same screen you started last. a downside to the stages being so long is that the music starts off really nice but by the end of the stage it's been repeated so many times that on both stages i played it started to grate a little.
i don't think i fully grasped the controls to this game. going up is easy enough, but sideways was always tough. there's a move where you can jump up high and fast, but i wasn't consistent at it and found doing the same move on the diagonal really tough. a video plays on the home screen showing off future areas of the game and after what i went through in the first two stages i didn't find what's coming exciting.
There is a story to this game and the starting animation shows us how we got to where we start the game and where our ultimate destination is. but i can't help but wonder if the gameplay is getting in the way of telling that story. i wondered in the video if maybe the game had an easy setting which cut the stages into smaller sections or cut them in half so we could progress the story faster.
At no point did Turnip Mountain say that i was playing a demo. there's no mention if there is a save, or if said save would carry over to the retail game. But i'm glad i tried out this demo because i now know that this isn't a game that interests me.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Due to music copyright issues, there maybe times in the video when there is no sound due to it having to be muted. if this is the case, i'll turn the music off in Part 2 and we'll just have car sounds instead.
For me, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a PlayStation Plus game that i got a long time ago. i've never played the PlayStation 3 version of the game but i do have it on PlayStation Vita and have played it quite a bit on there. So this may not be a series of videos where i complete the game, but i'm going to race around and get cars for a few videos.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a game i've tried to play on #PS1 and #GBA but i never made much, if any, progress in the story as i never truly understood how it was trying to tell it's story.
The option is there to play the game as it used to be, not just with original graphics but also with it's original gameplay. I went with the mode called Story as this had some modern benefits like removing items from conversation once they've been used but more importantly it adds a hint system.
The hint system helped me a lot in making progress. it's possible i got further in this video than i have in my previous attempts. but the hint system also highlights the game's logic isn't quite syncing up with mine. i don't think it's that the game is set in the early 90's, it's probably more down to my lack of experience with such point and click story games.
The game works well being streamed from the cloud. the auto save seems fairly robust but it's the ability to do manual saves, and that the saves themselves are quick, that's great. when you only get 20 seconds to save before being disconnected, accessible and fast manual saves are a great thing to have. With this being a point and click game, progress only happens when the player wants it. so if there are issues with the stream, you can wait it out, save, or do both and the game is waiting.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Metal Slug Rush, from Revive Contents, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I've had Metal Slug Rush on my phone for a little while, but it wasn't until it got a big update this week that i decided to give it ago. ever since i downloaded it, the game has had a low review score but it was surprised that even with this update the score hasn't improved, if anything it might've gotten worse.
I was also surprised that there was an additional data download. at least it gave a heads up about the download but we didn't have much to watch in the background. thankfully it's not big and didn't take very long at all. But this did give a hint as to how strange the gameplay area might be. the video that plays doesn't fill the iPhone screen vertically or horizontally!
Once the download is done we're taken to the home screen. there is no tutorial, nothing to guide us on where to go. all the icons are on, there's nothing locked. i've played enough games to know what each of these mean, but for someone unfamiliar with modern mobile gaming this could easily be overwhelming.
Starting a mission takes us straight into a mission. i initially didn't move my character, assuming there'd be some sort of tutorial or guide as to what to do but there's nothing. the game has started and expects you to know what to do and how these sort of games work. thankfully i do and it quickly became apparent that this is a basic one of these. in the hour of this video, i didn't come across any gameplay mechanic that seemed overly new or interesting. In some respects, Metal Slug Rush feels like a cheap cash grab rather than a game that has had substantial development time behind it.
It is also in the mission where we can see the bizarre gameplay screen. there's soo much space up top and down at the bottom but what's even weirder is there's space on the sides, too. the analogue controls appear when you touch the screen so you can see where i initially put my thumb on the screen. but my thumb kept moving around and i often got into the situation where my thumb was covering my character, an enemy, or both.
I did enjoy the look of the characters and enemies. i've never played a Metal Slug game so i'm not familiar with any of it and the game doesn't have any sort of encyclopedia to help introduce them to us. but the maps these missions took place on were often really quite bland. i don't know if this is true to the games, but playing it they stood out as boring in comparison to the characters, weapons, and enemies on screen.
I didn't really enjoy my time playing Metal Slug Rush. even when i thought i knew what to do, i missed things like Auto Equip, i thought the loot boxes were dull, even simple things like item fusion didn't seem to work right. when you level up things, there's nothing showing what the improvement was. having everything unlocked on the home screen meant i was woefully unprepared for any of the dungeons i tried. But what i really found strange and annoying is the inability to play past missions. from playing it, i don't know how i'm meant to level up and beat levels if i get stuck. it feels like my only option is going to be trying the same level i can't beat over and over again until i get enough of what ever it is i need to improve something.
In the end, there are better games of this style. there are specific franchises like My Hero Academia and Medabots who have their own versions of these sort of games. i think i can only recommend this game to fans of Metal Slug, but even they may find the game a little offensive to their memory of the series.
This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of Twofold, from developers Studio Coattails and Salty Salty Studios.
Twofold is a visual novel that originally came out on PC back in 2023. this demo has a unique short intro, that may not be in the main game, what maybe the first 5 chapters of the game, plus a quick look at where a choice will lead.
the demo does feel bespoke and it's clear it's a demo. but it's not clear if the game saves and if it does whether or not that save will carry over to the retail game. there was also a weird thing with the game's settings. at the start we can prefigure a few things which is nice, but when it started the game didn't have auto play on. when you pause the game and go into settings, there are more things we can customise. but the changes at that screen don't seem to carry over from gameplay session to session.
Any demo is the game trying to sell itself to you. When it comes to games like Visual Novels, the challenge is also for the game to sell it's story and characters. i did like Olive's story and the choice she had to make did make sense. at the end of the demo i was interested in seeing where her story would go. unfortunately, i didn't like many of the other characters we had been introduced to. so after playing the demo, i'm in no rush to continue playing Twofold if at all because i didn't like most of the characters.
Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
This is the final part, this is the whole of Act 7 and the credits. whilst this is the longest video i did for this game, i wouldn't say this was the most difficult Act. i died a few times but it never took long to make progress. it was nice having some older mechanics come back and i liked how, in the final boss fight, the combined my attacks and the cinematic QTE attacks into something more seamless. I wasn't surprised by the character reveal at the end, i assumed it was the case, but it was nice to unlock one final head just before the credits.
