Online Saturday - Battle Crush - Looks Good On Switch, Has A Great Tutorial, But No Sense Of Speed

For Online Saturday i tried the Nintendo Switch version of Battle Crush from NCsoft.

I haven't heard much about this game even tho it's doing well on Mobile Charts. i didn't know anything about it going in so i was hoping for a decent tutorial to help guide me. Battle Crush has a great one. starting the game for the first time, we're taken straight into the tutorial. each aspect of the basic controls were explained and shown before we get to do it. But what's also great is that once the basic stuff was finished, we're given the choice as to whether we want to do more advanced tutorials or start playing. for a game that's out across different platforms, this is great for players who know what to do.

But the tutorial does end a little quick. When i get to the home screen, i would've appreciated a quick message pointing me to the online matches. Those matches are also not labelled as to what the game mode actually is. i tried out all modes, but i guessed wrong what i thought one or two of them might've been. Then when you get to the character select screen, i also had to guess as to why some characters had purple logos on them. in that case, it's similar to what Pokémon Unite does in that you get a limited time with characters you don't have. 

I didn't mind the characters i played as, but when i was up against other characters it never felt balanced. we all seem to go the same speed when moving but attack speeds, ranges, and powers seem all over the place so when i was defeated by one character it immediately felt unbalanced and not in a player experience way.

Another aspect of the gameplay that bothered me was the speed of gameplay. characters move slower than i expected, weapon firing was slower than expected, and in a level the concept of time was weird. it's hard to describe. because we see soo little of the game stage and we move so slow across it, it felt difficult to judge how long it would take to get across the stage, how long it would take to get into a save zone. 

Battle Crush looks great on Switch and is very welcoming to new players. but the game itself isn't quite what i'm looking for. it reminds me of Fat Princess in how zoomed in both games are. but things move faster in Fat Princess, the levels were smaller, and they were designed in such a way to funnel opponents to each other. maybe the stages are either too big and open or too small in Battle Crush. But i do think it's well worth a try.

Mobile Friday - The Demonized: Idle RPG - Great Art But No Tutorial And Inconsistent Mechanics

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Demonized: Idle RPG, from #Gameduo, on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

The video and screenshots on the app store caught my attention. the #PixelArt looked great and the action looked good, too. i was wondering if the game could deliver on what it said in the store, that there are Unlimited Evolutions, Unlimited Items and Skills, Amazing Boss Stages, Amazing Upgrades, and Various Reward Events.

After my hour with the game, it's fair to say i have some thoughts. unfortunately for The Demonized: Idle RPG, there isn't much to praise so lets do that first. the pixel art doesn't disappoint. the monsters, the bosses, the stages, the weapons, the skills, the accessories, it all looks good. as i say in the video, it'd be great if there was a button i could press to clear the screen so i could watch it all in action. The music is limited, but what it does have is good. tho i wasn't sure how appropriate it was for the setting and what was happening on screen. And that's about it.

The Demonized: Idle RPG has many issues but they mostly stem from one big fault, inconsistent game mechanics. for a game with no tutorial, it's not just confusing but also frustrating having to work out how to play it when the rules change depending on what you're doing. for weapons, there's an auto equip, but for accessories there aren't. for minions, combining extra of the same makes them stronger but with accessories they combine any extra into something else. levelling up your character's stats uses Stat Points, but upgrading them uses monster meat.

The Demonized: Idle RPG's translation into English also causes some issues. The Attack Skills are easy to understand but the Buff Skills seem more like magic. Then there's the whole issue with "Level Up" as there was no tutorial to explain it to me i thought it meant levelling up an item, weapon, accessory, etc. but in The Demonized: Idle RPG it refers to the fact you have collected said item and getting a reward. you're levelling up your Collection and getting buffs from having obtained items.

Even making progress in the game isn't straight forward. most idle games like this would have you complete a set amount of stages in a level before coming up against a boss you must defeat to progress to the next level. In The Demonized: Idle RPG, each stage in a level has a boss and to face that boss you have to press the orange boss button as it's separate. it's almost like a boss rush. when you fail to beat a boss, you start playing through that level. so if you fail to beat the boss of stage 6, you play stage 6 on repeat until you chose to face that boss again. None of this is explained so there are times i'm stuck repeating stages as i didn't know about the bosses.

There are many other examples in the video, but ultimately The Demonized: Idle RPG is not greater than the sum of it's parts. Gameduo need to rework or at least unify the game mechanics to make The Demonized: Idle RPG even the slightest bit approachable for more casual players. As it is, i can't recommend it. there really is some good ideas here, but they've failed to make something cohesive. 

Version 1.4.6 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, from Toybox and Millennium Kitchen.

This has just come out and had received a little bit of fanfare so i was curious as to what all the fuss was about. these vacation style games are somewhat common in Japan and something i've known about for a long time, but i've never played one. So again, i was keen to give it ago.

The game makes it clear that it's a demo on it's main screen but just as impressively it has a link to pre-order the game from the eShop, something that many games don't include. What isn't made clear is if there have been any changes to the game for the demo or how long, or what we're going to do in the demo.

We start with a nice video sequence that helps set the scene. but i wasn't blown away by the visuals. this is true for the rest of the demo. i liked what they've done for the characters but in a way it's too good in comparison to the rest of the game. the characters have style and a unique look about them but the rest of the world feels plain and not as impressive. it feels like the Switch couldn't pull off what they were trying to do with the art.

I was also disappointed with how long the demo is. being so short means there's not a lot for us to do. so much of the demo is scripted, we're only able to briefly explore the town before it's night time. we're encouraged to interact with town people, bug hunt, and investigate a mysterious apparition, but they never felt that connected to the story. so in the short time we had to play, it felt like busy work rather than something that helped flesh out the world and the story.

So i came away from the demo for Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid not really wanting to get the game. i don't think this demo has done much to put it in a positive light. and there's some weird conversation stuff, too, that really took me out of the experience. there were two occasions near the end where i said something to another character, but couldn't end the conversation. i had to do all 3 interactions with them. that's not something that happens in story games, you say something and the story moves on. And one of those people was some random guy i'd never seen before who seems to be a private detective, but why were they in the guest house and why were they talking to a young kid.

After my brief time with Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, i honestly can't recommend it right now. wait for reviews and see is all this confusion is a bug or a result of how short the demo is.

Backlog Conquering - Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - Part 1 - The First 3 Missions

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN. i have played maybe the tutorial level before, as i had the trophy for transforming, but it was so long ago i didn't remember anything. it felt like playing the game for the first time.

What i've done is chose the easy difficulty level as the game suggested this is best for those interested in it's story, and i typically am in any game. It starts, as does this video, with an interesting story segment telling the story of earth and it's colonists. it reveals the tensions between them, the end of an uneasy peace, and the war we're currently playing in that both want to win but both can't afford to wage.

The tutorial was effective and there are prompts afterwards that help remind what buttons to press. Graphically, it looks nice and the space backdrop has some cool moments, but there's a lack of detail throughout. it doesn't get in the way nor detract from the game. the music is a little more epic and worldly than i was expecting but overall i've enjoyed what i've heard so far.

As for the missions, they're telling the story effectively but there's not been too much variety in what we do. But playing it overall hasn't been bad and i would say i've enjoyed myself and i'm looking forward to where the story goes in part 2. we have an Ai that's calling the shots but are they on our side, on our enemies side, or do they have their own agenda!?

Stories on Tuesday - Star Trek: Resurgence - Part 5 - Act 3 Part 3 to Part 8

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the #PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from  Dramatic Labs.

Part 4, https://youtu.be/yZBHupuQcfU, ended on a rescue mission so the first thing to do in Part 5 is save as many as we can. but it gets tricky and it becomes clear that the Bioforming is far more widespread than i imagined. unfortunately, our captain appears to be loosing control and that's putting us in a difficult position.

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

This month's Splatoon3 Salmon Run item is the Octavio Dome. The goal for this video was to get 1,00 points. that way i get the item twice and have a go at defeating a King Salmonoid. 

This Salmon run was quite good. in all but one job, my team mates and I managed to get to the third wave. unfortunately, we only managed to beat the the third wave once!

Online Saturday - Pokémon GO - Mega Lucario Raid Day In Shin Yokohama

This Saturday, July 17th 2024, was the Mega Lucario Raid day in Pokémon GO. I went to Shin Yokohama!

It didn't quite go to plan. there was a Twice concert at Nissan Stadium so Shin Yokohama was packed full of people. so i wasn't able to record as much as i wanted because recording people isn't the thing to do in Japan. It was also meant to rain so i didn't bring my other camera and had to use my phone.

It's also the first time i've tried something like this, even tho i've been playing Pokémon GO since it came out here! so i may do something like this in future, kinda two birds with one stone. i get to do the day and i get a video out of it! Any suggestions are welcome!