Mobile Friday - Postknight 2 - More Difficult Than I Expected

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Postknight 2 on my iPhone 14 Pro. i haven't played the original Postknight game, but it is available on the iOS App store. i was a little concerned whether this  game would assume i had played the original and not give much context for what's happening.

In a way, i think i was right. But it could also be a result of the game's tutorial being lacking and the difficulty being so much higher than you'd expect for the start of the game. My character died a few times in this first hour! If this was the first game or a standalone game, my instinct would be that the game is a little unbalanced at the start and the tutorial isn't thorough enough. But as this is a sequel, i do have to wonder if the game makes some assumptions about the players knowledge about the world and how things work.

The game makes a great first impression. graphically everything's nice and colorful and clear. the character creator is also simple and every change appears on your character instantly. then, after some introductions, the game asks if i'm familiar with Postknights. i thought this was the game checking if i had played the first game or not. so i said i wasn't familiar. But i don't think it made much difference. i never felt that the game did extra world building or that the tutorial more in-depth. it almost felt like that option wasn't working as intended, or what my interpretation of such a question must be different to those of the developers.

There were quite a few little things like that throughout the first hour with Postknight 2 that added up enough to outweigh the positives of the game. it is charmingly cute, with a good soundtrack, and a combat mechanic that's great for mobile phones. the screen is used well and buttons are often nice and big. it's clear a lot of thought has gone into this game and it is noticed. But for me, someone who hasn't played the first game, the contrast between the good parts and where it's lacking was stark and frustrating. a classic example, for this series, is how i was able to get into menus for things that the game hadn't introduced, hadn't tutorialized, and that i couldn't actually use. 

There are enough positives where i can recommend people try it. if you watch the video, understand the shortcomings, but really want to try it, i'd say go and download it. But, on the other hand, if you watch the video and think the shortcomings would be an issue then i'd say you're probably right and should try something else.

(Version 1.9.3 Played)

Demo Play Thursday - Chants of Sennaar on Nintendo Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Chants of Sennaar. i was very curious about this game when i saw the screenshots on the Nintendo Switch eShop, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Chants-of-Sennaar-2370366.html, as they looked too good to be true. i don't mean to put down the graphical abilities of the switch, but these screenshots looked so crisp and the clear that i wanted to see if it's true.

I can honestly say this game looks amazing on Switch. The demo has it's own language and your main character doesn't know it. by using the context of when people talk to you and what you're doing, you can make notes as to what symbols of the language relate to what activity. your guess is in your language, so for me it's in English. when you're correct, the color changes and when you're wrong your guess is still used to try and understand what's being said. it worked soo well right up to when you can guess which symbol means what action. there's no hint if your guess is correct. in the demo you have a few actions and many symbols to chose from, but the game won't tell you if any of the guess are correct unless you get all of them correct. this was annoying as i don't know if i'm meant to fully understand or not. i feel that it needs a little more interaction with the player or at the very least an option for a hint for those who might obsess over it.

What made this demo stick out in my mind is how i wanted to keep on playing after it was done. i knew what i was going to do with my language notes in the next section and i wanted to see more of the world. the only issue with this in this demo was that, and i could be wrong, i couldn't see a message anywhere saying that my save would be carried over to the main game. If you're curious about the game or just looking for something different on Switch, i highly recommend trying Chants of Sennaar out.

*1st September UPDATE: rundisc have confirmed via X that "Concerning your question: yes, I can confirm that the saves from the demo will be usable in the final version of the game!"

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!