Demo Play Thursday - Sand Land On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Sand Land, developed by ILCA.

From the PSN store page, it was made clear that this is more of a sandbox rather than a demo that follows the story. this was so surprising that i actually included the store page to highlight this. If you play this demo before buying Sand Land, then you'll get some in-game bonuses when you start the game. unfortunately, these bonuses do not apply to games that have already started. 

I haven't read nor watched anything about Sand Land before, so one of the draw backs about this demo's approach is that it doesn't introduce anything. i knew that there's sand because of the game's icon and name. but i was a bit surprised by how much of it there was. The characters look familiar because of Akira Toriyama's style. This meant it was clear that two of them weren't human whilst the third was. But with this demo not having any story, it was kinda irrelevant.

As this demo is set sometime into the game, we also miss out on a tutorial(s). what we get is text in a box on the screen. no videos, no practice, just text and maybe a picture. I have played a number of Bandai Namco games and i believe this maybe the case in the final game to. this is a shame as i found the on screen buttons missing a crucial reminder that Triangle is how you dismount the vehicles. A proper tutorial would've also helped remind me that right on the D-Pad brings up the vehicles screen and that most of the enemies in the game should be dealt with by one of your vehicles.

One of the reasons why this video is so long is because of the time it took to understand the controls and what the game expects you to do. i imagine that this becomes apparent naturally when playing the final game. But after my time with the demo i'm actually thinking of going back in my own time to try again some of my mistakes and to see what happens.

The demo does have a few limitations. we're unable to enter the town that's directly next to us. in exploring the map, we also came across invisible boundaries. I also imagine the issue we had with the #Icharbe Ruins is also due to demo limitations. there's no levelling up, no improving skills, and we came across a gap that we just couldn't cross which i imagine is due to those limits.

Exploring was fun. the dessert had a few enemies to tackle, with the humans being the most difficult as they use machines like us. it wasn't all sand dunes, there were canyons, rocky outcrops, and a few ruins.

for a PS4 game, this certainly looked great. it had the look of an anime but it controlled very well like an action game. i imagine the PS5 version might be able to use HDR to take advantage of the beautiful day night cycle as well as better shadows and maybe even ray tracing. But on PS4, Sand Land is more than good looking enough. in some ways, this demo felt too small for this game and i'm genuinely interested in the final retail game.

I do recommend people try out this game. it feels more casual than an RPG, but more involved than some other games made from an anime. Sand Land is a single story, so this has the chance to be a much more complete game. The demo has other benefits as it gives in game items to new saves in the retail game after this demo has been played. I would've liked a bullet point or two of things i could do or even a hint like "try heading east". i just didn't enjoy the open sand box approach, especially when learning how to control the game.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 2 - A Good RPG To Stream From The Cloud

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Tales of Arise via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1,https://youtu.be/9O7-F5v3kF0, we quickly learned about the auto save and how quickly we were able to manual save. 2 important pluses for a service that can give you a 20 second warning before it disconnects you. In Part 2, we learn at the beginning that the game keeps 2 autosaves! This is a big win for people using the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming platform as it provides comfort as if you're unable to save before you're disconnected, there's a high chance the game has saved itself.

Playing the game itself also continued to be fun. i do enjoy how the game uses different methods to tell it's story. after this part, i felt i liked the comic book style method more than in Part 1. A nice little touch was that the game makes it clear when you have or haven't talked to someone. Plus, you're able to stack side quests. so you can chat with everyone in a village, collect all their sidequests, and set out and do them all. This also works for a cloud game. For example, if you're playing during a stable period you can collect all the sidequests and talk with everyone, save, and now it doesn't matter as much if you're disconnected when compared with tackling each quest at a time.

Like Part 1, there were very brief moments of Stream Tearing, where grey appears on screen most likely due to a frame of video arriving incomplete. the controls also felt sharp and i couldn't feel any lag from them. If anything was holding the game back it's the fact this is the PS4 version of the game. there was texture pop-in, loading, and the world and characters just lacked the finer detail.

Tales of Arise is not only an RPG i would recommend people play via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service, it's also just a good game to play. it does look great on PS4 and the loading doesn't feel too bad. So i imagine it'll be better on PS4 Pro or PS5. Whilst playing it, i noted how it reminded me of Final Fantasy X in a positive way. I'm personally curious about the story and the rest of the game so i may continue it in my own time.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 1 - Manual And Auto Saves Are A Great For A Cloud Based Game

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Tales of Arise via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I had previously looked at another BANDAI NAMCO RPG to see how it worked as a game played in the cloud, but across Part 1 https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg and Part 2 https://youtu.be/japHcD6uFlA it was clear that Scarlet Nexus wasn't designed with the cloud in mind. the biggest issue that game had was that you could only save at specific points, there were no auto saves and no manual saves. it worked out that there was about 20-30 minutes between the save points in the first couple of hours of the game.

Tales of Arise is a newer game and i was really curious if it was designed with the cloud in mind or if it followed the formula in Scarlet Nexus as that game seemed to have been a success. Tales of Arise is a game i had heard a lot of good things about across videos and Podcasts, but i couldn't remember anyone talking specifically about it's suitability as a game being played in the cloud.

i can say that yes, there are auto saves and there are manual saves. it takes a few minutes before we get access to the menu and manual saves, but the auto save seems to be fairly regular. Saving itself is also really quick. the only issue that i can see playing this game in the cloud is the large amount of cutscenes, whether that's the anime style ones or the comic books ones. there is a lot of story and the game tells it fairly quickly and often in Part 1. If i were to get the dreaded 20 second warning before i was disconnected, there's a good chance i would have to skip a cutscene or two and therefore some of the game's story.

I had a good time in Part 1. it's refreshing how successfully Tales of Arise incorporated anime style animation from the beginning so when it's used later it's not jarring. the comic book style tho uses in-game graphics and it doesn't look that great. i think i understand why they did it as it's typically used when characters are just standing and talking to each other. it's a different way to show a conversation between characters. The only criticism i have with the anime style is that it's perhaps a little too different to the art style used in the game. The #PS5 version could be a bit closer, but i doubt it as characters look a little too different.

Graphically, i don't think the game runs at 1080p but it looks like it does. it does lack the finer details but often it's not an issue because the art and design of the game make up for it. the coloring throughout is impressive. The PS4 does let it down a little with textures sometimes taking longer to load. there were a couple of instances where the game had finished with a story beat, given us control, and then finished loading in the textures.

This isn't an issue with streaming the game from the cloud. the only issue i noticed was screen tearing. this is when grey appears on the screen. often it appears for less than a second, but because it's grey it sticks out soo much and is very noticeable. I didn't notice any lag controlling the game and it managed the transitions from gameplay to animation without any issues. So combing these positives and the great saving features, Tales of Arise looks to be one of the better RPGS to play in the cloud.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Part 2 - Side Quests Are Weird In A Known Story

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. I streamed this game, developed by, CyberConnect2, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

I was concerned last time that getting the game to work might be a one off, but i was wrong. once again, the game started for the first time when i wanted to play it. it's a welcomed surprise and i may check out some of the other games that refused to work.

A lot of what i said in part 1, https://youtu.be/_IdUPMR6gTE, are true in this part. but the thing that stuck out the most was actually doing side quests. If, like me, you're familiar with the story of Dragon Ball Z then the idea of doing side quests is strange as it's hard to imagine how they'd fit them into the game. the stuff in part 1 worked well as a tutorial and was before Dragon Ball Z started. In this part, the side quest on the island also work because the story hadn't kicked off.

But having to save Gohan or do a side quest just felt wrong. at this point in the game i was Goku and my son had been stolen by Raditz, so naturally my response is to go and save Gohan. it's what happens in Dragon Ball Z and it's the natural thing to do. but to have the map open up a bit and for there to be side quests just didn't feel right. i tried to do one but abandoned it to continue the story.

This game is a little difficult to review. on one hand it's got pretty good game design to be streamed from the cloud to my PS4. there are some story moments hard to skip, but for the most part it works as a cloud streaming game and in that respect it's better than quite a lot in this series. But on the other hand, it's a weird game in that i don't know who's it's audience. People who like and know Dragon Ball Z already know this story. if this game was just this story then i'd understand why they'd want to play it. but the addition of social connections, RPG elements, and side quests feel more like bloat than a useful addition. so perhaps this is aimed at those who want a different type of RPG or who recognise Goku but don't know the story.

Online Weekend - Sunday - Gundam Evolution - It's Final Weekend!

This weekend is the final weekend for Gundam Evolution. I'm playing this game on PS4. Gundam Evolution ends at the end of November so be sure to join in and play before then!

Here are 6 casual games i played on Sunday.

Online Weekend - Saturday - Gundam Evolution - It's Final Weekend!

This weekend is the final weekend for Gundam Evolution. I'm playing this game on PS4.  Gundam Evolution ends at the end of November so be sure to join in and play before then!

Here are 3 casual an 1 ranked games i played on Saturday.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Part 1 - Good Game Design For Streaming, Unsure For Playing

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. I streamed this game, developed by, CyberConnect2, via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a game i've been trying to stream for a while now. I try it each week, and since it came to PlayStation Plus it's never worked. Until now! I was really surprised and very unprepared for it, i've been saying for a long time that i couldn't get it to work and, at least this one time, it did.

My thinking behind trying this game is that it's slower pace might make it more suitable for it being streamed. i had hoped that, as a RPG, we'd be able to save more frequently. And it looks like we can. the game also has a decent auto save feature that seemed to be fairly active. so in comparison to Scarlet Nexus, i was more confident that i could either manually save, hit an auto save, or get to a save point in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot than Scarlet Nexus.

A welcome bonus is how big and simple the characters are on screen. they look very much like their anime counterparts, so when there was some macroblocking i was still able to work out what was happening and wasn't really hampered. this is a great looking game and it feels like you're playing in the anime. so when there is macroblocking or stream tearing, it takes you out of the experience, more than anything else, because it looks so much like what it's based on.

But, whilst there are many positives about the game design and how suitable it is for being streamed from the cloud i can't ignore how other parts of it weren't great for actually playing. In, nearly, every section of this first part there was something that i found annoying or something that made the game less accessible. 

The way it introduces anything new with tutorial cards of screen is simply lazy and something i'll always complain about. it's something that's not that accessible to new players. i'd expect the cards if i was looking for a reminder on how to do something. They have Goku and Gohan at the start, Goku could simply be telling Gohan the basics of fighting and that could've been out introduction. The way they introduce the social aspect of this game is also baffling and a part of the game i didn't know about.

The controls were often slightly worse than i expected, for example the dash is super fast and difficult to use or when you're on Nimbus and there are collectable orbs but you have to seemingly touch them to collect them but that's difficult because Nimbus is slightly more difficult to control than expected. Also, why  can i collect items from afar but not these orbs?

Maybe in part 2 there'll be more context for everything and with more practice things will improve. but as it's been near impossible to play this game just once i'm not sure if/when Part 2 may be.

Online Saturday - My Hero Ultimate Rumble - Bad Online Ruined The Fun I Was Having

Welcome to Online Saturday.

For today's video i tried out the newly released My Hero Ultimate Rumble on PS4 from BandaiNamco and Byking.

Other than what was written on the PSN Store page, i knew nothing about this game. but as battle royale style games are something i don't really play, i saw this as a good choice for giving the genre a go. i'm a little familiar with My Hero Academia/僕のヒーローアカデミア so i wasn't going to be too lost with who's who.

What's great is that the game starts off with two tutorial sections. they each take their time to explain, have an image of what buttons on the controller are used, and a little image showing what'll happen. it's very approachable. then the second section is a little battle against the computer where you get to try out all the moves you learned. the CPU opponents weren't dangerous no smart, so again it's accessible for people to try out stuff without the fear of other people. But, the first online issue occurred after completing the battle. it kicked me out of the game to the start menu and when i logged back in i had to do all the tutorials again, so i cut that from the video.

Once the tutorials are completed, we're introduced to the main home screen. each section has it's own small tutorial information box which is very welcomed. it also feels welcoming as it lets you chose whether you want to go straight into a game or explore the options. i wanted to check out the other sections and other than a sparsely populated store, it was all fairly standard with no surprises nor was i left with any questions. 

Getting into a game is not as straight forward as i expected. When you start looking for a game, it first tries to find two other players. when it does, it waits for all three to ready up. But, the game is often unresponsive for long periods of time. in this video, two of us were ready and the third wasn't. But there's no way to kick them from the team or to give up matchmaking. i was stuck waiting for the other player. it truly felt like i would have no other choice but to quit the game and this is a very big oversight from the developers. Once all three players are ready, the game then tries to find a lobby for our team to join. once it finds one, it places in it with all the other players, but only briefly as then it loads up the map. from this screen you can choose where you want to spawn in. once everyone has, it then reveals where all the other players are! i've not played battle royales before i so don't know if this is something unique to My Hero Ultimate Rumble, but it was fun when it was revealed.

Once i was playing, it was quite fun. we're all new to this game so it was also chaotic. thankfully, it's easy to communicate with your teammates by putting markers down and we used it quite well. the stages seemed big with different terrains and heights. as everyone was moving so fast, it took a little time to adjust and learn a new play style. but after a few minutes i felt like i was having fun and that each of the other characters were quite different from my own. And then, more connection issues as our game was ended early and i was logged out and kicked to the start screen. then i had to wait before the game was ready for me to get to the main screen.

That was the only online gaming experience i had. the game would fail to join a game and then would disconnect a third time, logging me out. by this time, i had been playing for nearly an hour and a half and i was getting frustrated so i called it a day. but i will return to the game.

It did soo much right. the tutorial is great. the home screen isn't cluttered and is fairly logical in it's layout and what each section does. the graphics on my launch model PlayStation 4 were great. loading times were about what i expected and so were the fans. i felt like it was similar to the Gundam Evolution games in that the character models look fantastic and accurate, in this case to the anime, whereas the world is a bit generic but still looking like as you'd expect. the controls felt tight and it felt and looked like each character was different. But the online experience wasn't great. you can play this game offline versus the computer, but i just can't recommend this game with the online as bad as it is. it's either due to demand being so high or the online just being a buggy mess. maybe wait a month or news via social media before giving this game a go.

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - 4 Matches, 0 Wins!

Gundam Evolutions 6th Season has just started and the game has been recently updated. It's been a while since i last played this game, but here on PS4 in Japan there were still players online and getting into a game didn't take too long. It's not as fast as Splatoon 3, but then again no game is, but at least here the online is healthy enough to get some games.

Unfortunately, all 4 games i played with Gundam Evolution ended with losses. i wouldn't say they were close either. in all 4 games, the opposition seemed to dominate. But i still had some fun. i managed to get some kills and some revives. i also bought a Gundam, Gundam Dynames, but didn't get to use it much as other players also wanted to use it.

Cloud Monday - Scarlet Nexus - Part 2 - Still Fun, But More Noticeable Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Scarlet Nexus on a launch model PS4. In part 1, https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg, streaming it via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service went really well with only one or two noticeable issues. But in today's video, there were more issues to the point where i got a connection warning. thankfully, it wasn't throughout the video, but as it was more frequent it also was much more noticeable than in part 1.

The game was still fun to play. the combat is fast paced and i didn't notice any lag due to the game being streamed to me. that was true with part 1, so at least the feel of the game holds up across both days. The story is a little slow and the world feels empty, more so in this video. near the end it says i'm free to do what i want. but, as i show in the video, there was nothing i could do. none of the shops are buildings i can go in, it was more like i was at point A and the game wanted me to go to Point B. so, in a way, the game's own story got in the way of gameplay.

Across both parts, a typical thing streaming does is reduce the resolution and i didn't notice it happening. for a 1080p system, the game looks great. but i do worry that if there are streaming issues that the resolution will drop and the game will be greatly affected. the text on screen is small, but for me fine. this and the game's unique art style and way it draws the neon stuff are the most likely to be affected by a resolution drop. We didn't get it, but what we did get in this video was just as bad. there was macro blocking, where squares of color appear instead of fine detail, and even more noticeable were the stream tearing moments as it's just light grey on screen.

I think this is a good game, but i don't think it's a great game to be streamed. i mentioned in the first video how the save system is an auto save and only at specific points. it's a system not suited to a streaming service were you get a 20 second notice of being kicked off. it's unique art style is also susceptible to streaming issues. I have this on disc and if i had to chose between playing the game on disc or streaming it from the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service, i would chose to play it from disc.

Cloud Monday - Scarlet Nexus - Part 1 - Fun Start, But Manual Saves Have Me Concerned

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Scarlet Nexus on a launch model PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service. It's a game i have on disc and have wanted to play for a while as it's art style and combat mechanics look really cool.

Those two things don't disappoint during this hour. i noticed no lag in the controls, from what i pressed to it happening on screen, so the combat felt fun, fast, and dynamic. it's early on so i'm not too good at it but i 'm curious how it'll change as things unlock and whether or not there are interactions with another character. As for the art style, it's so unique and colorful with bright neon colors and particles that in some respects it was very noticeable when stream tearing happened and grey appeared on screen as it clashed with the game. But it also meant i wasn't able to notice smaller issues like macroblocking. Once or twice there were bigger issues but they only lasted for a second or two and never got in the way.

What was a little concerning for a game being streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium is how the save system works. the game does have an Autosave feature but in this hour i wasn't able to work out how frequently it saves other when entering or leaving an area or after a major battle. But the game, so far, only allows the player to save at very specific places. an example in this video is that it was about 17 minutes between these save points and a lot of story and critical battles took part during that time. I'm concerned as the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service only gives a 20 second countdown before it terminates the connection, whether your ready or not.

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - 4 Matches, 2 Wins!

Even tho this is my 6th video on Gundam Evolution, it's the first one since it was announced that the game will be closed on 29th November, https://gundamevolution.com/en/news/195.

It's sad to see it go soo quickly. it's not perfect, i'm complaining in every video. but there is something to it, there are many aspects of the game i enjoy. it feels like a good first attempt and i genuinely would be excited to play the sequel. but i doubt it'll come anytime soon, if at all. Here in Japan, there is still a good number of players on PlayStation. it doesn't take too long to get into games. 

So what went wrong. well, in my opinion after spending nearly 8 hours with it, i do think the name is bad, i believe the roster of Gundams is far too small, the number of maps is too small, having 3 unbalanced economies is just frustrating as it doesn't feel like a free to play game i can complete without spending large sums of money. the loot box system is ruined by the sheer numbers of different items it can unlock meaning as players we'd need to get far too many of them, but getting the loot boxes is difficult without money.

when it comes to gameplay, a lot is done right so it's the little things. respawn times are a tad too long whilst the amount of time it takes to kill you feels too short. many of the special moves seem like a waste and many attacks don't have weight behind them even tho you're in a Gundam. like the guns are fine, but i wouldn't say they're satisfying. there's a disconnect between the movement of the Gundams on screen compared to those from anime as well as the Gundams being far too fragile in comparison.

If i could help with a sequel, i'd firstly put in many many more Gundams and leave customisations as pay things to unlock. i'd lean into it being not soo serious so we could get mechs from other games or other anime or even crazy ones, like a Hello Kitty Mech! More maps, bigger maps where you move across them going from area to area as you complete objectives similar to Star Wars Battlefront. to make a better sense of scale, battles could be similar to Warhawk, which i might've got wrong in the video, where there are those in mechs, those on the ground, those up in buildings, or it could do what Eve and Dust 514 tried of battles across space and land.

the point is, there is a lot to like about this game but it's not without it's faults. it's up against some heavy hitters, games that are sequels in a series like Splatoon 3 and Overwatch 2, and games that have been around for a while which have a made a name for themselves and are far more polished, like Apex Legends, Fornite, and many others. I will keep playing as for me it's one of the better online games i've played. but who knows, will loosing this game mean i try Fortnite?!

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - 4 Games, 3 Losses!

It's been a little while since i last played Gundam Evolution. since i last played there have been a few game updates and a new season has started, too. Whilst this game session wasn't any more successful than normal, i still had fun.

My goal for today was to try out a new Gundam in each game. for the most part it worked out well, but i didn't have fun with the Gundam that uses a mace. it's a melee focused Gundam that doesn't work too well in a game which has a far greater number of mid to long range Gundams that use guns.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 - The First 50 Minutes

Today's Cloud Monday is back to me trying out different genres of games on the PlayStation Plus Premium Service. for these next two videos, i wanted to try out a fighting game. the only problem is that i'm not good at the typical Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive style of fighters. So i went with a game in the vein of Naruto Shippuden Ninja Storm Games, a style that i'm familiar with and tend to do better with.

Unfortunately, i didn't get to do much of the game. not because of the online streaming service, it ran mostly fine. but the game's own design stops you from doing anything other than creating your own character for like the first 20 minutes. then you're thrusted into a world, tasked with finding the old Kai, and given the run around. the people give you hints and tell you where to go, but they suggest i should use my map to find specific places and none of the buildings are labelled on my map. the only way i knew where to go was because of a different mark showing quest locations. this could be an annoying thing later if i have multiple quests on the go.

The game does introduce the rules for the hub world in an amazing way by using cinematics to show what you can't do. but when they try to go into the tutorial stuff, they're not as elegant and you're forced to do specific things before the tutorial will continue. instead  of many small tutorials, it felt more like one very long tutorial with a fight at the end that i seemed to have won through little effort on my part.

So whilst the game is a little rougher than i would like, streaming it was fine. it wasn't perfect as i still had to go into PS4 account management and restore my licenses, which i always do before recording, and when i went searching for the game the PlayStation Plus "App" on PS4 crashed once. but streaming the game itself was great. i didn't notice any issues from streaming it, nor did i notice any sort of lag with the controls. the game has some rough spots with pop-in, but that's an issue with the game rather than the streaming service. 

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - Changing "Matchmaking Area" Fixed My Issues With Matchmaking

Previous to today's video, in my first video with Gundam Evolution, https://youtu.be/mslLmo9mTTs, in the hour i spent with it i got into one game and had one game fail. In the second more infamous, video https://youtu.be/2UyzdhVjI4Q, i spent an hour trying to matchmake and failing. so in around 2 hours of game time, i had played 1 game and had 1 game fail very near the beginning.

But in the training and that one game, i did enjoy it. it's a different experience from Splatoon 3, or any other online shooter i've tried. so i've wanted it to work and be good because i think there's something to it. so i went back for a third time and that's when i noticed it, in the top right corner, "Matchmaking Area". I hadn't noticed that before but when i was getting set up and watching the Earth in the background, i had a look at it and saw that it defaults to North America and Europe. If you're unfamiliar with my videos, i live in Japan and the time difference between this region and those can be big. so i decided that the goal of this video was to see what happens when i switch that to Asia, does it result in more games.

AND IT DOES! In this video i get matched to 4 games. one of them fails right at the beginning, but i do get to play 3 full games! in this one video i get to play more games that my previous  two videos combined. i had a good time with this game. it's not up there with Splatoon 3, but then again i don't think anything is, i feel it's the best online shooter out there. but i did enjoy it more than nearly any other shooter i've played in this series. i won't be deleting the game now.