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.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - August’s Tricolor - 16 Games and 11 Wins

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the  "What’s most important in life?" Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 15 games with 4 wins https://youtu.be/wUTQmGapjWE. Today was the Tricolor event and it went much better!

A big highlight for me was discovering a new weapon i like to use. after yesterday's video, i went and bought a new weapon the #Bloblobber! for the first 3 games i used my other favorite weapon, the N-ZAP '89, but all the matches after that were with the Bloblobber.

I thought that the connection issues i had yesterday were better today, in that the disconnections only happened in the lobby rather than in-game, but the waiting for matches in the lobby were just as bad if not worse. Plus, as you can see (On YouTube) in the chapters below, there were plenty of matches were it was just Money fighting with Money against Money. i put a "*" to show which team i was on.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - August's Splatfest - 15 Battles 4 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a #Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What’s most important in life?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3.

Today didn't go great for me. out of the 15 battles i did, my teams were only able to win 4 of them! there were some big losses, too. it has been a while since i last played Splatoon so i did feel rusty. But i also felt that in many of my matches i was teamed with others who simply wanted to attack, rather than do what's needed to win and that's ink as much of the stage in our color as possible.

I also felt, and mentioned it in the video a few times, that it took longer to matchmake this Splatfest than normal. Plus, there were disconnections during the game, of which i left 1 in the video at the start just to show what happens, as well as disconnections in the lobby. it has felt that the recent game updates have made things more unstable. i hope tomorrow's Tricolor event will go smoother, and better for my teams and I.

Mobile Friday - Sumikkogurashi Farm - The First Hour With Version 5.0

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Sumikkogurashi Farm, also known as Sumikko gurashi Farm: Gonna Make a Garden, on my iPhone 14 Pro. The game is also out on Android and whilst it's not new, it has been celebrating over 5 million players recently and in this video i started the game with the recently released 5.0 release.

Simply put, this is a game where you inherit a farm and it's up to you how you make it. the game's tutorial tells and shows you the basics, but stops short. once the tutorial lets go of you, the screen is awash of red exclamation marks, a huge map full of things you can interact with yet or aren't high enough level for, and it expects you to play. all the tutorial needed to do was take me to the Quest, Running Start, or Order sections, do one with me and then let me continue. so in the beginning of taking control i'm a little lost.

It also takes some time to understand the rhythm of the game. you need experience points to level up and money to buy things. but the game does a bad job of explaining how to get both regularly and it takes nearly the full 50 minutes with the game for me to get a sense of the rhythm needed to progress. before that, the game's speed had slowed down and had begun to feel like a grind. This is a game where you are meant to do things, turn it off, and come back to it later. there's very little to do with the game whilst you wait.

But these complaints are not unique to this game, they can be used to describe nearly every other farm management game, as well as other styles of games. with that said, there are many positives that set this game apart. the biggest is the theme, Sumikko gurashi (すみっコぐらし). the game is full of these characters as well as costumes to dress them up in. the world design feels very appropriate, as do the bright vibrant colors. as this is the 5.0 version of the game, there is also a huge amount to uncover as you play. 

In this video i got to level 10 and it already felt like the game was opening up. i ended the game knowing that i could buy a train station, i could help with global goals, and i had barely started to understand the Events taking place and the bonuses associated with them. And then there's my own house and decorating it, as well as decorating and designing the layout off my farm. near the end of the video i went to other farms and they were all very different from each other.

Sumikkogurashi Farm isn't a game to be played for an hour straight. it's to be played on and off. it can use notifications to inform you when it needs to be interacted with. when you do play it, there's always a few things you could be doing. I would say this would make a great commuting game apart from that there was an extra 93 MB download. the game does ask you first before downloading it. But i'd still say it's probably best to get the tutorial out of the way, as well as that download, and then play it whilst your out and about.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 6 - Taking 30 Minutes To Complete The Robot Room Puzzle

At the end of Part 5, https://youtu.be/c96t5xE35-s, i was left in a room with robots at one end. i had a look around but couldn't work out the puzzle so i left it for this Part 6. 

But i would be stuck in this room for 30 minutes! it's a little embarrassing how long it took for me to solve this room. once i finally got out of the room, the rest of the video went really smoothly. it was a little strange to have the dark creatures no longer attack or pay much attention to me. it seemed that each time i met them they'd react differently. the rainy maze looked impressive, as does much of the game, but it actually felt easy to get through. during the video i commented if i had brute forced my way through the maze like section rather than navigate it as it was intended. ultimately, whilst the maze looked nice, it seemed somewhat pointless.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 5 - Dark Creatures Attack and I Build A Robot

In part 3 of playing RiME , i didn't finish the section with the windmills and bird, https://youtu.be/lmlH4yN_1r8. I had released the storm from 2 of the 3 windmills, but still had the third and final one. So in today's Part 4, that was my first objective. Once both were done, the next area resumed underwater traversal and it wasn't too bad. there's plenty of oxygen so it wasn't too tense. 

When i emerged in the "Tree" area, then things got weird. corridors seemed to go on forever in one direction and straight ahead could also mean up! i don't know if it was luck or not, but i seemed to navigate it right the first time. this also means that i didn't do any exploration either. But the thing that annoyed me the most was getting stuck on a tree. I needed to walk up it to dive into water. i fell off the first time and on the second attempt i slid on the spot. non of the face buttons or analogue sticks did anything. all my character did was slide on the spot. i had to restart and spend time getting back to this room.

Thankfully it didn't happen again and i ended the video after restarting a robot that seemed to tease a part of the game with more of them. so far i had found other robots, but none of them worked. so i was surprised to find one that did and it was useful. there will be a part 5 as i'm curious how robots fit into this world that seemed devoid of anything technological. 

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Summer Vacation Cup 2 - 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 Summer Vacation Cup 2! (2023/8/7 9:00～2023/8/14 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This Summer Vacation Cup 2 was not as fun as last weeks Summer Vacation Cup 1 because i wasn't up against many other players in each game. it was only the last game when there were two other players. I also don't think i quite understood the gimmick this week as even tho i got to the boss a few times i was never able to defeat it and a couple of times some of the lower enemies caused me trouble. But i finished mostly in the top 3 and i did get a big win so it's not all bad. 

This week i played against:

ユウ - Rank 58

なおや - Rank 71

しんあゆ - Rank 52

TA KU TO - Rank 58

れ！いんい_TN_ - Rank 73