Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade - Fantasian - The First Hour

This fifth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Fantasian. This is an exclusive game on Apple Arcade from Mistwalker and Arzest.

This game is perhaps one of the most famous games on Apple Arcade. it's an exclusive game from Mistwalker, a Japanese studio, and features staff who have worked on Final Fantasy games. It's also the game i've seen the most about so going in, i knew roughly what to expect.

It does make a great first impression, it looks impressive on my phone's screen and right from the start the game's user interface keeps the main character in clear sight and doesn't feel cluttered, even in the menus. there's a good use of art through to help make menus clear.

Controlling it though, it really is a tale of two halves. as usual, i started the game using touch screen controls. there is no onscreen analogue, you have to leave pins for the character to follow. there are on screen prompts and to the top and bottom are pictures showing who's in your party and the attacking order. at best, i'd say this works fine with touch controls. But, the biggest issue was with the Dynamic Island as it covers, probably, 95% of an arrow that's needed to open the menu. you can open the menu, but the Dynamic Island will react. thankfully, it just vibrates. 

Switching to a controller was where this game came into it's own. controlling the character via the left analogue stick felt natural and at the bottom of the screen it said what other buttons do. i didn't feel any lag using the bluetooth Xbox One X Controller, if anything things felt faster as i was no longer having to drop a pin for the character to follow.

There was one major sticking point for me that bugged me throughout the game and that was the speech bubbles. they looked out of place. they didn't feel like they were from the same world. they often covered up parts of characters, too. This game uses the camera and UI to highlight the characters and make the world feel big an open. but when the speech bubbles appear that's largely ruined. thankfully it has a great story with multiple threads already mentioned. it is a little stereotypical in places, but this game does ride the line of being a stereotype of a PS1 era JRPG.

The most frustrating place this happens is the game's save system. you can only save the game at specific large crystals in the game. there does seem to be a auto save system but i've not tried that out. the save system as it is seems like an unnecessary relic of the past that doesn't help the game be a mobile game that's easy to pick up and play. Also at these crystals you can use a specific item to heal your whole party in one go, health and MP. you can use potions to heal during the game, but this feels a little dated.

I did have fun, but i'm also a little familiar with the JRPGs of it's heritage. i do wonder if these nods, or embraces, to the past do more harm than good. for now, for the first hour, it's an awkward first impression but good enough to keep going for a little longer. But it maybe one i only play on TV.

Backlog Conquering - Eat Them! - The Fourth And Final Part

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 4, of playing Eat Them! on PS3.

With part 3, https://youtu.be/2OtBPMfJk1c, ending on a low with me being stuck on a level and not making any progress, i was concerned that this video would be me still stuck on it. And for a little bit, i was still stuck. but i slowly started to make progress and eventually i succeeded.

It wasn't a big win, but it was enough to progress the story. the rest of the levels weren't too bad and before long i was on the final stage. the game throws all the enemies at you and i was stuck for a little bit. but i had a great idea, to try and avoid being hit by ... well ... everything, i would try to go behind buildings. it worked! they shielded me just enough to finish the final level and the game.

So this is the final video. i'm not worried about getting the PS3 trophies or the gold medals. i've done enough. ultimately, it was a fine videogame. it had a few difficulty spikes and it didn't always control great. but as it was a shorter video game, i felt like whilst they do exist they never really got too in the way. it's a great looking game and the story is easy to follow. i'm glad i played it.

Backlog Conquering - Eat Them! - Part 3 - An Easier Time

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 3, of playing Eat Them! on PS3.

Today's video went smoother than part 2, https://youtu.be/naNvLj4k9dQ, mostly because i died less. Tho, that isn't true for the whole video.

What was also surprising was that it wasn't until this video that i fully understood how the level system worked. Sure, i could visually see that there were comics. but what i had failed to grasp was that one comic would act as the story and the following comic acted as the playable stages. when i started today's video, i was somewhat confused as i was doing a comic ahead of where i remembered i was. It wasn't until i double checked that i realized how the comic books and stages system fully worked.

I finished two comic books, a comic with story and the following comic with stages, and went on to try the next story comic. But i couldn't do it. i tried a few times and even made a new character. but i found it really difficult. the video was going really smoothly until i hit this stumbling block and honestly, i'm not too sure if i'll be able to do it in a part 4.

There will be a part 4, but if i'm unable to get past this story segment, it may also be my last. if you've got this far, feel free to give me some tips on how to complete this stage.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - New Year's Cup 1 - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from the New Year Cup 1! (1/1 4PM - 1/8 4PM (PST)) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This was a much better week than the last couple, especially last week. out of the 6 matches i played, i got 4 wins, a third, and i finished with a second place. That's also why the video is much shorter than in recent weeks. One reason why it was soo good was that the gimmick this week was to make an L shape. it's easy to do and often i tried to make more than one. combine this with the other gimmick of a combo greater than 4, i was often able to defeat a stage in one hit. the final two matches, tho, were tougher because a new player joined and, even tho i got good scores, out scored the rest of us human, and Ai, players.

let me know in the comments how this week's Cup was for you.

Pokémon Violet - The Twenty-Second Part – Defeating Poison Team Star And Exploring Tagtree Thicket

This is a longer video than normal mostly because i was simply enjoying myself. I try to keep the videos around an hour mostly for editing and uploading purposes. But for this video it was a combination of levelling up, wanting to try and evolve Pokémon, and defeating Team Star that kept me going.

The first part of the video is mostly me trying to level up some pokemon, but i soon move onto Tagtree Thicket and go about exploring, catching, and levelling up in preparation for what i thought would be a difficult Team Star battle. i had assumed that the Team Star base might be around level 40, but when i came across a level 50 Tera Pokémon in the wild, a Grafaiai, i didn't think i would be able to defeat Team Star in this video.

After a while longer i decide to try out the grunt outside the Team Star base to find out what level it is and i was surprised to find that the grunt was only level 30. i was way over leveled and after a quick change in my team, mostly because to deal with the Revavroom as they have all been a pain to defeat, i set about defeating the base and it's leader Atticus.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - An Hour Of Splatting!

Welcome to Online Saturday!

I'm back with Splatoon 3 to try out the Big Run. I had hoped this video would be for the Splatfest Sneak Peak, but when i went to play the game it wasn't running. I live in Japan and Asia is my region so it's possible i just missed when it was running here.

So i decided to keep on playing. Splatoon 3 is a lot of fun so i didn't mind playing for an hour. I'm glad i did as i used a few weapons and played on some new maps, including Brinewater Springs and Scorch Gorge.

Overall though i only got 4 wins and 8 losses. still, it was a lot of fun so i hope you enjoy it too.

Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade - Rayman Mini - The First Hour

This fourth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Rayman Mini. This is an exclusive game on Apple Arcade from Ubisoft and Pastagames.

When searching for games to play on Apple Arcade, Rayman Mini wasn't one that had turned up when looking through the charts nor had it been recommended to me before. So when i found it i was genuinely surprised as i hadn't heard about this game before.

this meant i came into this video a little excited and definitely intrigued. thankfully, this game doesn't get bogged down with a tutorial as it incorporates it into the adventure mode. it is a little light, it just says where to touch and what it does. there's no letting the player try it out before the level starts. i wouldn't say the levels are easy, but the first couple have no hazards that can kill Rayman. Plus, restarting a level is really quick so it's a useful way to acclimatise to the controls.

But it's not an easy game. you're tasked with collecting all the Lums in a level as doing so unlocks a new version of the main characters. but i only managed to do this in a couple of levels. Rayman Mini is a runner, so it's very difficult to go back if you miss something and some levels simply block off the past areas of a level. Which means, Rayman Mini is a puzzle runner. 

Because of this, i came away from this game thinking that it was more difficult that i expected it to be. getting into the game and replaying levels is really quick, so replaying isn't an issue. but there is an element of frustration in being unable to solve the puzzle that is the level. there are no check points, at least so far, and they can go by too fast to see it all. there were more than a couple of levels where i couldn't work out how to get all the Lums.

Another issue i had with the game was the controller lag, or what felt like to me a lag between what i wanted Rayman to do and Rayman actually doing it on the screen. i tried both handheld and bluetooth controller and the lag felt like the same using both controller methods. the speed of the game, especially the music level, made timing actions really hard. To the point where it felt like i had to learn the level rather than react to the level.

Rayman Mini is a beautiful game and is one that can show off the power of the platform. it continues the art style that Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends popularized, and arguably revitalised the series, as well as the music stages and challenges. it's worth downloading and trying. but it's not an easy game and one which could be more frustrating than fun. for me, i ultimately found it frustrating and i probably won't be heading back to it.