Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 1 - Completing The Ancient Ruins

Gunstar Heroes is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. it was a downloadable game that was developed by Backbone Entertainment as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection.

All the other SEGA Mega Drive games i have on PS3 i have either played on the Mega Drive or i played on PS3 when i bought them. Except this one. i don't know why, but i bought but never actually played Gunstar Heroes. I knew the game is highly regarded, but i didn't remember what the story was or what was going to happen when i started the game.

I was greeted by a screen where i could select my character's color and shooting style. the color is easy to understand but, after playing the game, i'm not sure i fully understood what the differences were between them. i chose the one that sounded like i could move and shoot. Then there's a stage select screen, again something i wasn't expecting, where i could chose between 4 stages. i didn't know if there's a "perfect" order to do them in so i just went with the first stage. I was not expecting to be dropped into a gun fight! the action starts fast and hard and it caught me off guard.

The game is fast, the action is frenetic, and the music fits. it was a lot to take in. the game then surprised me by having more than one boss in a stage! the boss battles seem to also act like a checkpoint. i found that out as health is scarce and i died often. thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a limit of continues. But i can't seem to pick up health easily. i have no idea why, but it's something that game hasn't mentioned how to do. in the menus, there are some tips but nothing that acts like a tutorial. the game does throw you in  and it was a tad intimidating. But the experience as a whole has been pleasant enough that i'll do a second video for this game and hopefully more.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Ruel Cup - 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 Ruel Cup! (2023/8/28 9:00～2023/9/4 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the first "Revival", where i am doing a Cup i have played before. In fact, that Ruel Cup was the second video i ever recorded for the revival of QTE Gamers! you can check out that video https://youtu.be/YiYYxqtWpIY. it's nearly twice as long as this one, so it's nice to see that i have improved.

But it wasn't a fun cup. i don't enjoy the gimmicks where the balls change color. I only managed 1 win this week and kept getting stuck on the 5th boss. i didn't manage to beat the main boss either. i didn't play against many other players, but they were high level and made me try my best. but i don't think i quite grasped the gimmick so i didn't do well.

This week i played against:

☆REI☆ - Rank 71

HIROKUN - Rank 76

おじゃる - Rank 78

Special J - Rank 56

Bitz - Rank 55

プワゾングロウ - Rank 73

Over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers, there's an exclusive tier where members can watch individual matches of my top Puzzle & Dragons finishes before they go live as a YouTube Short. There'll be one extra on Ko-fi that won't be on YouTube as a short for the public to see.

Cloud Monday - Cursed to Golf - Part 1 - Frustrated By Wrong Button Prompts

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Cursed to Golf, a game from Chuhai Labs, on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service.

I chose to play this game as, even tho i don't play nor watch Golf, i'm surprisingly interested in new gameplay mechanics of Golf. for example, I did a video on RPGolf, https://youtu.be/s0g33alW1Go, which also has a fun RPG take on golf. I was disappointed by the game play mechanics, but a huge issue for me was that the on screen button prompts never matched what my controller did. This was a huge barrier and there's a section where it want's me to stop a ball and i couldn't. i ended up smashing all the face buttons and it worked. But this was hugely frustrating and it did sour my experience with the game.

I was a little annoyed that practice wasn't a tutorial, but thankfully the game does ask when you start the story if you want to do the tutorial. But i actually failed the tutorial and was confused when the game just let start. i would've thought that it would've asked if i wanted to try again. so by this point i had failed practice and failed the tutorial and was worried this game was going to be really difficult. thankfully i did manage to complete a couple of holes by the end of the video.

So whilst i was having trouble with the game, streaming it from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming was fine. i'd go so far as to say it was perfect. i never saw any streaming issues and controlling the game was fine, too! the game also appears to save after every hole, so if there is an issue at most you'll lose just one hole. Granted, these aren't your typical golf courses so it could take a bit of time to complete them. I don't think it's a big issue as the game seems built around playing the courses a few times and optimising them.

Switch Funday - Alien Storm - A Childhood Favorite

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week i chose to play a game i had on the Mega Drive when i was much younger. I don't think i ever beat it, but it is a game that i remember playing many times. it has a 1 player mode, 2 player mode, and even a wave based mode called The Duel, where you have to defeat as many waves of enemies as possible without, seemingly, any health or energy pickups!

In this video i try out the single player and The Duel, using all three characters as i played. It's certainly as hard as i remember it being but i also played it on normal. in the options you're able to change difficult, energy collecting effectiveness, and even if you have to repeatedly press the fire button or hold it down. So i, at the very least, recommend anyone interested in this game to change the difficulty to easy. 

For a side scrolling brawler, it has a few interesting game mechanics. there's a chase sequence mechanic as well as a shooting gallery sequence mechanic sequence. these three are used well to help give the game more depth than some recent side scroller brawlers have. I also found it helpful that my character and the enemy characters had big shadows under them so it was easier, than many recent games i've played, to judge where we all were on the horizontal plain.

I know it's not perfect, but it's not pure nostalgia when i say that this is an enjoyable side scroller and well worth playing if you have the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis app on Switch.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting August's Salmon Run Item

This month's Salmon Run item is the Retro Future Suit and like the other Salmon Run items, my goal is to get the item twice and pick the best of the two to keep. But unlike those previews Salmon Run videos, this month's challenge was the hardest i've ever done!

Mobile Friday - Campfire Cat Cafe - The First 40 Minutes

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Campfire Cat Cafe on my iPhone 14 Pro. I played the first 40 minutes, or up to where i felt the grind had begun, of this restaurant simulator. 

I have played a few of these types of restaurant simulator games now, like Animal Restaurant, Cat Snack Bar, and Cats & Soup. I would say this game is closer to Animal Restaurant than the other two as it has a story and the grind doesn't come as soon as it did in Cat Snack Bar and Cats & Soup. What all these games have in common is that the art style is great, all of them are different from each other.

As well as a story, this game also has a decent tutorial that isn't just explaining how things work but they also use it to introduce characters and their personalities. What was also fun about the first 40 with this game is how when the game started to feel a little grindy, a new character appeared and gave us something new to do, even if it's a little brief. It's difficult to say if this continues as you make progress into the game as this game is actively being supported and expanded by the developers HyperBeard. I do feel that the game could offer some information on how to get to the next story part. the game relies on stars to progress, you get stars by buying things, and you get money from customers ordering. But sometimes customers want a food you don't sell and the only way to know that is remembering the food you sell or clicking on the customer and seeing. the food icon above their head is the same color as those who want food you can make. so it seemed a little confusing.

Also confusing was when the Bakery section was opened. i was told i couldn't do anything as i didn't have an oven. so that became the goal. but i could buy things for the bakery, even tho it said i couldn't bake anything. there was a little misunderstanding between what the game was telling me and also not telling me. I feel that such empathises was placed on the oven that i was under the assumption the bakery was effectively closed until it was made. but it turns out that wasn't the case. which lead to more confusion as to what the kiosk was for. But once it was made, the story continued and the game opened up more with a new character level up section.

Even if that's cleared up in a future patch, the rest of the game is very polished and something i'd recommend. my phone didn't get that hot playing for 40 minutes and there was no additional download at the start. the game wasn't obnoxious with it's adverts either. i always had the option to view them for in-game benefits, but it was never forced upon me. If you're familiar with these sorts of games then you'll understand that it could be easier and speed things up if you do chose to watch them.

Demo Play Thursday - Oaken on PS4

This week's Demo is Oaken, by Laki Studios, on PS4. This game came out last yera on PC and this July it was brought to the PlayStation and Microsoft platforms as well as the Switch. i was interested in this game due to it's art style and i wondered how it would play. But after trying it, i don't think this is a great demo nor am i interested in the game any more.

There are positives to take away from the demo. it does look great and it's an art style that cohesive throughout the experience. Some of the gameplay mechanics on the hex grid are also very interesting. But this demo makes it almost bluntly clear that this is not an easy game.

The tutorial section at the start is very good. there are videos showing things, there is a lot of help, and it was very welcoming. Until i started to realise that the tutorial is lacking important information regarding the consequences of your decisions. This became very annoying because of how well the tutorial seemed to be doing. an example of this is when i leveled up i was given a choice of 3 abilities. but then it never explained what they did. when it came to leveling up my "cards", i was shown how to do it but there was no information about what happens when i do. If the tutorial is going to be so hands-on, it needs to commit to it all the way and maybe more as this is a demo for the game. it could offer tips on situations you find yourself in, rather than just warning about hazards and enemies. after playing this demo i came away still not fully understanding a few key things about the game. 

It was near the end of the tutorial when i started to realize this is a hard game as the difficulty ramps up quickly, as do the situtations the level kept putting myself in. once it was finished i was left with a choice, Journey or Relaxed. the game clearly details the Relaxed mode but had no information about Journey other than what we were taught in the tutorial about fatigue. i think i misunderstood Journey as i was expecting a more story focused game mode. The difficult ramps up even quicker and it has permadeath and i had 2 chances before game over.

And that's how this video ends, with a hard Game Over. i'm not sure how or why i kept dyeing. nor could i see a way to win. i came away from the demo feeling like the tutorial wasn't finished, the games difficulty was unbalanced, and so much of the game was left unexplained. i ended the video on the screen with an apparent choice between The Lady, a character i defeated, and Aya, the character i was playing as and assumed to be the main protagonist. i never felt like i understood what The Lady brought to the game, was i meant to play as her, use her, take her abilities? Ultimately, this demo helped me realise that the game isn't for me and that it may have some issues.