Demo Play Thursday - SaGa: Emerald Beyond On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of SaGa: Emerald Beyond, developed by Square Enix.

I've known about the SaGa series of games for a long time. But the only game in the series i know i played was Unlimited Saga on PS2, and even then i don't think i played too much of it. This recently released demo is a great way for me to check what a new game in the series looks like.

SaGa: Emerald Beyond does a poor job of presenting itself as a demo and what is included. near the start, at the character select screen, i didn't know if i was limited in character because it's a demo of it's a game where you need to unlock characters. I don't know how big the demo is in general and it doesn't say. so i don't know if i came close to the end or not.

A big highlight from playing this demo was the fantastic music from Kenji Ito. i really enjoyed listening to it and there are periods in this video where i'm not talking mostly because i'm listening to the soundtrack. The second highlight for me was the battle system. Whilst it wasn't explained the best, i did find the game's timeline based party focused combat system to be fun to engage with and by the end of the demo i was trying to add strategy to the commands being issued to make best use of it's timeline system. But it was the other systems related to combat that the game did a poor job in conveying and the commands available really needed a more in-depth explanation as to what each did. As did the level up system as i never really understood how it all worked and the game never explained it.

There were a few little frustrations with SaGa: Emerald Beyond but for the most part i could live with them. The one that annoyed me the most, and i complained about the most in this video, was the story taking place in the latter third. It was unrealistic, even for a fantasy RPG, and honestly came across as cheap. my character is an alien and yet no one treated him like one. the world was engulfed in ice, but the way my character talked made him seem callous like he only cared about his mission. it was like two stories were taking place at the same time and little to no effort was made to combine them into anything looking realistic. 

For me, the highlights of this demo weren't enough to get other the lows. It's a poor demo and i don't think it shows off the game great. there are too many unknowns as to whether this is just the game we were playing or if certain parts of the game have been removed from this demo. If you're interested in this game, maybe you've played one of the earlier games in the series, or maybe you're interested the battle systems, then this demo is worth playing. But for most others it's not one i recommend trying out.

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Season 3 And Chloe Noir Gameplay

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation4 version of it. 

Season 3, MYSTERIOUS SWING, has just started so i went back into Foamstars to check it out. In this video i was able to try out the new character Chloe Noir, she can be bought as part of the Season Pass or can be earned in-game for free by reaching Season Pass level 31. Everyone can use her in the Extreme Party Mode and i played 4 games of 4 Vs. 4 where everyone is Chloe Noir!

Other than that, i warmed up with a couple of Smash The Star games and once again tried Rubber Duck Party in my attempts to win that mode but once more my teammates and i failed to win it. it is still the only mode i've played where i've yet to get a win.

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Ranked Party TribeVibe Mode

THIS IS FROM VERSION 1.6 OF FOAMSTARS

(I recorded this before the 2.01 update came out but decided to share it nonetheless as i enjoyed trying out a Ranked mode, something i very rarely do)

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the #PlayStation4 version of it. 

I rarely play ranked modes in multiplayer games but with #Foamstars i was curious how it would work. Overall, i found the whole experience not as clear as i wanted it to be. for example, i was surprised that there were two modes being used, Smash The Star and Happy Bath Survival. i don't remember it ever being clear that this was the case. I thought progression was interesting in that you play 3 games, earn a score from them. If you have enough, you can take that score and use it to play 2 games that you have to win to rank up.

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Smash The Star, Happy Bath Survival, Rubber Duck Party, And Extreme Party PVP Modes

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation4 version of it. 

Foamstars got a 1.05 update today and has had a couple since i last played it so i was curious if i would be able to notice any differences. One thing i noticed quickly were the free gifts i received. i don't think these are for those who played in the launch week, i think these are available for anyone who plays in this launch window.

I focused on some PVP modes today and was created with the message about a new mode. thankfully, i was able to try out Extreme Party in this video. Unfortunately, the only thing that made it extreme was that everyone was invisible. it wasn't that much harder than the real modes as everyone went to the middle and shot out a lot of foam or used their super modes. only a couple of times did someone sneak behind or i noticed a team mate doing that same strategy. The more interesting difference was that the winner was the team to chill the opposing team 10 times.

Smash the Star is the default mode for Foamstars and it's fine. today was the first time i became #MVP and it was exciting. we didn't win that match but i do get a win in Smash the Star. i didn't win in either Happy Bath Survival or Rubber Duck Party. i don't mind about Happy Bath Survival as i already have a win, and the trophy for doing so, from the Online Weekend. But i've now played Rubber Duck Party and lost each one. One of the losses today was 100% to 0%!

As for the Patch, there was nothing major i could point to and say that had changed. waiting times were often long, but that's typical for online games. only Splatoon 3 seems able to have consistent short wait times, tho even that has it's off days like last week's #Splatfest. i was playing as The Baristador and if i had to guess, it felt like his attack had more range and would last longer between reloads. thinking about it, maybe the enemy foam slowed me down more too.

Foamstars continues to be a fun free to play game and it's still one i would recommend anyone with a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 try.

Online Weekend - Foamstars - Launch Weekend – Smash The Star, Happy Bath Survival, Rubber Duck Party

We have an Online Weekend for Foamstars! It's the debut weekend for the new free to play "Shooter" from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.

In yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/ycbDurdOG_w, i did the tutorial and tried out the PVE, Player vs. Enemy(ies) Solo missions and online missions. Today's focus was in the PVP, Player vs. Player(s), modes. i didn't have expectations going in as even tho it's easy to compare Foamstars with Splatoon 3, they are quite different so i was really curious to see how the PVP mode was going to be done. Turns out it's not Mode but rather Modes!

The basic PVP mode is Smash The Star. Each team gets 7 Chill-Outs, that's when you're knocked out of the game and are waiting to respawn. once all 7 are used, the best player on that team becomes the star player and gets some bonuses. the other team's goal is now to Chill-Out the star player. helping the star player, on top of the bonuses that character gets, is the fact that their team mates get unlimited respawns. I played this mode 5 times and it's not bad. probably the best of the three i played. But it drags on a little if the two teams are evenly matched. There is an overall match timer that's maybe a minute too long. But overall it's good mode. i was a little surprised that there aren't many stats presented to you after the game. i tried a few characters but i don't have the stats to say which performed better than the other.

The other mode that was available when i started was Happy Bath Survival. This is a best of two mode where there are two players from each team in the arena and two others above. those in the arena are still trying to chill-out the opposing team. those above are trying to help. Like Splatoon, your team mates move quicker on their color so those above are trying to lay down as much. those above are also trying to aim at the enemy players. But of course, so is the enemy two players above. Even tho we won, i didn't enjoy it that much. i found the lack of information of when your team mate is coming back and what's happening above to reduce my enjoyment and it just felt chaotic rather than teamwork.

I couldn't play the third mode until Happy Bath Survival timed out and was replaced. That's one reason why this video is long. But once it did time out i was able to try out the third PVP mode called Rubber Duck Party. Unfortunately, the other reason why this video is soo long is because i couldn't get into a Rubber Duck Party match as it kept having connection issues. the first time it happened it dumped me back into the start menu at the beginning of the game. thankfully the other times it happened i was put back into my social space. It's the most broken the online had been this weekend. 

In Rubber Duck Party, there are two goals. firstly, it's still PVP so you have to deal with the enemy. The second goal is escorting a DJ Rubber Duck to the enemy's section. Some of this is familiar, you have to capture the duck for it to go in the opposite direction. What's unique is that because it's a DJ Duck, there's a stage for your character to dance on. completing a dance will speed up the duck, but it leaves you open to attack so the risk reward is high. This was frantic and it looked like we were going to loose really quickly. but we were able to fight back so it's great to see that it's possible and that things can change. But everyone felt soo overpowered compared to the task at hand. I feel like Foamstars is missing out on a mechanic. For Example, the Duck is a DJ. so if it changes the song, maybe new rules can be added like no abilities, no supers, or something weird like no jumping.

Rubber Duck Party wasn't that fun because it felt unbalanced. it's something different and maybe each time i play Foamstars i may play it once or twice whilst i focus on Smash The Star. That feels like the most solid PVP mode but it's not perfect either. But i prefer both of those over the  Happy Bath Survival mode. with Foamstars being a game where modes can be put in and taken out, i'm encouraged that PVP is something that'll be kept fresh and experimented on.

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Launch Weekend – Tutorial, Solo, And PVE Missions

We have an Online Weekend for Foamstars! It's the debut weekend for the new free to play "Shooter" from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.

I didn't play the beta version of Foamstars as it only came out on the PlayStation 5 so today's video is my first time starting the game. thankfully, after a cool cinematic the game starts with a simple tutorial. As the game doesn't have too many or complex mechanics, the tutorial is fairly short but also robust. after it ended i felt like i knew how to play it, what i didn't know were the game stages.

It's easy to compare this game to Splatoon 3 and the level designs in that game are very varied with a mix of hights, moving things, and more. So i was wondering if the levels would be the same. unfortunately, i didn't find out as i only tried out the PVE missions in this video. Like Splatoon 3, Foamstars does have a method of travelling fast in the foam you spray on the stage. there are other similarities like your character having a normal shooting mode and a super. one difference is that Foamstars have 2 extra moves as well as those two. These are called skills and each character have different ones. visually, they are impressive and are good at dealing with enemies.

Even tho this is the PS4 version of Foamstars, the game looks very impressive. You probably could hear my PS4 in the background as the game does push it really hard. It'll be interesting to see if tomorrow's PVP video will be even noisier as during the missions, most of the foam is cleared between waves of enemies. there is a weird dithering on the foam on it's edges when looking far away and all over when up close, but it's not really an issue. the only thing thing about the PS4 version that i imagine is lower quality than the PS5 version would be the loading times, oh and maybe the city background. Everything else feels high quality and not a compromise. 

Another plus is how quick matchmaking was. Splatoon 3 is well known for how quick matchmaking is. Pokémon Unite is also up there as one of the quickest games for matchmaking. But many other online games i've played have suffered from waits a minute or more. the wait for Foamstars was 30 seconds or less, so it's very good. it'll be interesting to see if it does get longer as the game gets older.

It's not all great with Foamstars. In trying to be different from Splatoon, the free to play nature of the game uses the character, weapon, and social areas aspects and puts them mostly behind a paywall. one of the more fun features of Splatoon 3 is how you can customise your character using money you've earned, how your levelling up dictates the weapons you can choose to buy from or the items in the store. In Foamstars, nearly everything is behind a paywall, with just a few things available via the free version of the season pass. It'll be easy to see who has paid for things and those who haven't.

So for my first time with the game, i had a great time. i'm excited to try out the PVP in tomorrow's video and maybe more into the future.

Cloud Monday - Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Part 2 - Decent Cloud Gaming Experience

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Square Enix's Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PS4.

With Part 1, https://youtu.be/2O-V6qgzcrw, i began to understand the game's quirks so in this part, i was able to focus more on the experience of playing this game in the cloud. We had already seen in Part 1 that the game does a lot of auto saving in the background which is great. it means if we're going to be disconnected from the PlayStation Plus Cloud Game Streaming Service then we won't have lost too much progress in the game. With Part 2 it also became clear that the manual save points at this point in the game are also strategically placed before big, story moments or significant points in your progress through a section. this once more highlights that if you are kicked off the service, the amount of progress loss shouldn't be too significant.

Playing this on PlayStation 4 is both good and bad. the obvious bad part is the graphical quality. there were more than a few points where i could see how low resolution or how little detail elements of the levels were. from that point of view, it would be easy to recommend that Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin should be played on a PS5. but this helps with the game being streamed via the cloud because it means the impact to the game from things such as macro blocking isn't too significant. it'll be somewhat easy to see, but it shouldn't detract too much from the overall gameplay experience as there isn't always too much finer detail on PS4 anyway.

Ultimately, a game being decently well designed to be played via the cloud won't be enough for some players. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has it's fair share of quirks and frustrations as a game itself. thankfully, with streaming being an option, it can act as a decent demo of the game and what to expect. but i would recommend giving it a couple of hours like i did to play through what felt like a tutorial heavy introduction to the game.

Cloud Monday - Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Part 1 - Useful Frequent Auto-Saves

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Square Enix's Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PS4.

Even tho this is a somewhat recent release, it has been in development for a long time, probably so long that it originally wasn't set for PS5. So i was wondering how this game's design would work if it was streamed from the cloud to me. For example, would it have a traditional save system like Scarlet Nexus did and thus be a poor choice because of how the save system works or would it have a more "casual" approach letting you save everywhere, like Disgaea D3 did. turns out it's both.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has fixed save points in the environment and this isn't great for a game being streamed via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service as there's only a 20 second warning before you're kicked off it. However, the game does appear to have an Auto-Save system that is frequently saving in the background. The Auto-Saves appear to be the same as a manual save, but the whole system is shrouded in mystery as we, the player, get no choice as to what save slot is used. both the manual and auto saves just save. Ultimately, the positive is that we will probably loose some progress but in the end not too much.

The quest you have to ask yourself is are you willing to replay bits of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin again. Even after this first part, i'm not excited to go back because of how clunky the whole thing is. the tutorial is bad, the controls have issues, the story is nonsense so far, and graphically playing it in performance mode makes everything look so soft it might as well be PS3 graphics. 

One interesting issue the game has that is streaming related is that the in-game cutscenes are visually stunning and full of intricate small details that the bandwidth being used to stream this to me from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is having a hard time to keep up. A little early on there's a moment when the camera is spinning around the main character in a field of wheat and things stop being highly detailed and crisp and instead go a little blurry. i say in the video it's like the bandwidth needed is just a little short for sequences such as that, whereas for the rest of the game it's fine.

Demo Play Thursday - Star Ocean: The Second Story R On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Star Ocean: The Second Story R.  This DEMO, from developers Gemdrops, is also out on PS5, Switch, and PC.

Star Ocean is a series of games that i've never really played. i think i have a couple of the games, but even then i've maybe only played an hour of each. There's something about them that doesn't seem to grab me, but it's been so long since i last played one it's difficult to remember exactly why. But seeing this remake of the second Star Ocean game, especially with it's unique art style, had a DEMO got me interested as it offered a way to try the game without buying it.

As a DEMO, it's great. before the game starts, it clearly says what this DEMO is, what it's limitations are, and where/when it ends. It's most of the start of the game, which means that it also includes the tutorials for the game. So in this DEMO we get the backstory to what i presume is the first game, Star Ocean: First Departure R, first before it moves onto telling this game's story. in the hour i played we also got a lot of world building and some useful, tho not great, tutorials. the last tutorial i got was how to parry but i couldn't get it to work. the game tells us how to do something without showing us. it feels like a waste of screen space that could've been used to show us rather than just telling us.

The standout feature of this DEMO, and the game itself, are the graphics. it's a mix of pixel art, similar to the style introduced by Octopath Traveller, and 3D environments. it mostly works fine, but on PS4 there are moments where it looks like the characters are floating on the world as there's a lack of shadows by their feet. also, near the end of the video i did find navigating the overworld a little tricky as it was a bit difficult to know what our character could and couldn't walk over. One nice addition, that i didn't go into in this DEMO, is the ability to switch the game soundtracks from the original PS1 version to this new one's soundtrack.

As a DEMO, i felt that it works well. it could've been a bit better here and there as a DEMO, but as a representation of the start of Star Ocean: The Second Story R i feel that i does a good job in highlighting how accessible the game is to new players whilst also slowly introducing us the world without it feeling overwhelming. it's a very accessible DEMO which leads me to suspect that at the very least the start of Star Ocean: The Second Story R is also very accessible and maybe even a decent choice for people new to Star Ocean or new to RPG's in general.

Demo Play Thursday - Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. This game, from developers Tose, is set to come out near the end of 2023.

I've never played a game in the Monsters series but i've known about it and seen enough videos to have a general understanding of how it works. I was curious about how much of a DEMO Square Enix was going to release for the game as they have released some big demo's in the past.

This is a great demo. it has an announcement at the very start explaining clearly that there are limits, that not everything will be carried over to the final version of the game but there are things that will be carried over. And yet whilst i played it, i never felt that the restrictions impacted my enjoyment of the demo. i could see some things greyed out, but as it's the start of the game they are things i wasn't really going to interact with anyway.

With these videos, i try to keep them an hour or less and most games in this series have finished before an hour. I didn't finish this demo and i wanted to keep on playing. for me, that's a good sign of a demo in that when it was over i wanted to keep on playing.

Another sign that this is not only a good demo but also mostly likely to be a very accessible game is how good the tutorial is. it came step by step smartly in the story and throughout this video more and more was slowly being revealed at a nice pace that didn't feel overwhelming. the demo came across in such a way that i feel like the game itself will focus more on story telling rather than mechanics and will do so by making the game very approachable. 

The demo did have some technical issues that seemed separate from the issues the #Switch was having in general. there were some slight hitches where the framerate and fluidity of gameplay felt noticeably off for a brief moment. there was also a moment where a monster seemingly spawned half into the environment. But it was also clear the Switch was struggling a little to run this game. the fans in my Switch were noticeably going, the pop-in was too close to the camera and very noticeable, and some of the graphics just looked like they had a low level of detail and in some instances they looked copy and pasted together. But the game isn't out yet so i can't say for sure if those issues will carry over to the retail version of the game. But as a demo, i do recommend it. it's a fantastic demo and a great look at a game.

Cloud Monday - Dragon Quest Heroes - Part 2 - A Much Better 45 Minutes, But Not Perfect

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS4 game Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

throughout most of part 1, https://youtu.be/F6vjq33ZTf8, the streaming experience from PlayStation Plus Premium wasn't great. thankfully in this series i do each game twice so we can get a better sense of what to expect. This game is a great example of that because today's video shows how much better it can be streaming the game. to help, i will now include the PS4 Internet Speed Test at the end of the video, taken immediately after the game, so we can see how good or bad my wired connection is.

The title does say, however, that it wasn't a perfect experience and it wasn't. the main thing that happened when playing it the second time was stream tearing. a few times, briefly, grey tears would appear on the screen where there was no data to be displayed. as they were brief and covered a much smaller area of the screen than in part 1, they didn't impact playing the game. Yes, they were a distraction and mostly fairly obvious.

So after two videos, playing Dragon Quest Heroes isn't the smoothest experience. but, the games design, art direction, and game style do help to mitigate the issues in such a way that the game is playable. even when things were bad in part 1, i was mostly able to play it like normal. that's not to say these things are distracting when they happen, they are. but in making the best of what we have, it's certainly more playable that what happened with Assassin's Creed Origins.

Nintendo Switch Funday - Harvestella: Prologue Demo

Today's Nintendo Switch Funday video is on Square Enix's Harvestella: Prologue Demo. This demo was revealed in this week's Nintendo Direct. The game, like many demos, allows your progress to carry over to the main game when it comes out. I played over an hour and a half of the demo and was maybe less than halfway through it. But i'll say i doubt i'll dive back in, i wasn't really clicking with the demo. watch and come to your own conclusions tho.

Square Enix Have Released A Launch Trailer For Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut

Square Enix have released a launch trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut. the game is out from 25th October across Europe and already out in the USA. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut was released across PS3, PC, 360 and Wii U.



Press Release

Nintendo Reveal The UK Bravely Default 3DS Collectors Edition

Nintendo have revealed the UK are getting a collector's edition for Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. this 3DS game by Square Enix is set to come out on 6th December and the Collectors Edition will be avliable from ShopTo.net. it contains:

• Bravely Default (Nintendo 3DS Game Card)
• Agnès Figurine
• Deluxe Artbook
• 34 AR Cards
• Original Soundtrack CD

Screenshots


Press Release

Square Enix Have Released A 6 Minute Walkthrough Video For Deus Ex: Human Revoluion Director's Cut On Wii U

Square Enix have released a new video for Deus Ex: Human Revoluion Director's Cut. this walkthrough is for the Wii U version of the game and whilst it shows in-game action it also highlights the Directors Cut features and Wii U specific features, an early example shown is how the radar map is on the Game Pad and it's more detailed than the previous release of Deus Ex: Human Revoluion.

Square Enix Detail Upcoming Halloween Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Event And More

Square Enix have revealed some details on upcoming Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn events and features. first up is this years Halloween event, it runs from 18th October to 1st November and it's All Saints' Wake. the streets of Eorzea cities will be decked with ceremonial lanterns and there'll be costumes, a travelling circus, and a special quest.

Coming 21st October is the World Transfer Service. this will be free and it'll let you move your character to another world. instructions will be in your Mog Station.

Coming later this year is Patch 2.1 and it will bring the Wolves Den PvP Battles, new housing, a new Primal Battle, new dungeons, treasure hunting, hard mode boss battles, beastmen daily quests and The Crystal Tower. more specific details on this patch will be revealed at a later date.

In November is the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII special event. from 14th November, you can undertake special FATE Events with Lightning and get Final Fantasy XIII themed gear and weapons. Square Enix have teased a future event which celebrates Final Fantasy XI whilst Japan will celebrate Dragon Quest X's first year.

Press Release

Square Enix Have Released A New Game Play Trailer For Kingdom Hearts III

Square Enix have released a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III. the game is still early in development and this video features Japanese text, which doesn't affect viewing of the video at all, but it does show in-game action from two portions of the game.the first part is simple hack and slash action whilst the second part shows a fight against a Titan from the movie Hercules. 

Square Enix Have Released A New Game Play Video Demonstration For Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix have released a new video for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. this is a demonstration of a quest from the game and it's narrated by Yuji Abe, with English subtitles and the in-game action is in English. the video shows how in combat you can change your "job" to perform different attacks and how you need to use this skill as each job needs to recharge. the video shows how you can go into the pause menu and customise which jobs you take into a fight, which equipment you have and even what colour clothes you are wearing.

Square Enix Announce KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.5 ReMIX, Coming Next Year To PS3

Square Enix have revealed KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.5 ReMIX for PS3. coming next year, KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.5 ReMIX is a full remaster of the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix on PSP and HD Remastered cutscenes from the DS game Kingdom Heart Re:coded.

Press Release

Square Enix Have Released A New Game Play Trailer For Thief

Square Enix have released a new game play trailer for thief. this video shows a way how you can complete what appears to be an early mission in the game. it shows you having to use parkour skills, like Mirror's Edge, and how you can combine them with stealth. the video also shows that it's not just the finding the treasure and stealing it, you also have to try to escape and watch out for traps.