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 that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
This part was easier than Part 2, https://youtu.be/FApVNW8XBXo. i didn't even die once! tho i came close. i did forget what some of the button's did, but overall it was nice coming back to the game. the story is getting a little difficult to follow, but it has always been a little difficult as it's spread out across the menus between missions and during missions.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from Dramatic Labs.
The repercussions from Part 7, https://youtu.be/w-SnRuAjouY, were still being dealt with through most of this video and we quickly got some new issues to deal with. The Scions of the Flame got their big ship and it has an interesting ability that didn't damage the USS Resolute, but internally it's messing things up. And that's not all, there were also staff changes related to actions i took in this part. A lot happens in an hour!
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team has just been added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. On GBA i played the "mainline" Pokémon games on Game Boy Advance but i never tried the Mystery Dungeon games. they were something my cousins had so i thought of them as games for younger children and never tried them.
Going into it, i new that there would be a personality test that would determine the Pokémon you'd start as, tho i didn't know what possible Pokémon i could be, but other than that this was all new to me. even the style of game, a descending dungeon explore, is fairly new and something i haven't got much experience with.
If i'm honest, i was expecting more from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team than what i got. the Pokémon look good, the graphics are good, and the music is somewhat good. but i found the gameplay to be slow, repetitive, and confusing. i was expecting a tutorial that just never came, tho there's a chance this was in the game manual, and there were terms and ideas i just never understood. Like the whole hunger thing, why did it only apply to me?
I also think i had controller issues as i was pressing buttons only for nothing to happen on screen. i can't believe that this was the actual game's fault and think it's the emulator being used to play it. But the game did have it's own issues, like the missing newspaper in the mailbox, poor UI, and too many menus.
I strongly recommend using the services suspend point option and save frequently. the difficulty spiked so fast i was completely unprepared for it. i feel like the game does a poor job at explaining how to prepare for missions as by the #Diglett mission i was ill-prepared and saving every floor. the difficulty is also hard to manage as Pokémon just keep respawning. it's easy to get into a poor matchup, and with the controls as slow as they were i was often missing or miss clicking.
As a part of Pokémon history, it's worth trying. but don't force yourself. it's a poor example of a Pokémon game and a poor example of a dungeon explorer. By the time i finished the Diglett mission, i wasn't having fun and i won't be coming back to it. i would be interested in trying out the remake, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, or a later title, like Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, as i'd hope they would be better in every respect than Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team.
There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 42nd Maximus Cup is for the Switch game Splatoon 3. By getting 100 points, you can unlock a Splatoon 3 theme which includes sounds and a background.
The side quest, as ever, is to try and win. unfortunately, i didn't manage to make it to the top 10 at all during this cup. in the first couple of games i managed to get into the top 30, with the first game being especially difficult. but other than that, i wasn't able to score too highly.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out AFK Journey, from Farlight Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
There had been a little fanfare about this game, with it being available for pre-order on thee iOS store. looking at the screenshots and video on the app store, it was clear the game had good graphics but i was also interested in the character creator and how or if they would incorporate it into the story.
Unfortunately, we start with a download choice. we can either download everything, about 2.5GB, or we can download about 94MB and have the game continue to download in the background when it needs to. i don't recommend this as it's not clear when this will happen or how much it'll download. you really should play the game on Wifi first and then play it out and about once the download is finished. there's not much to do whilst you wait either, other than some good music that is.
We get a cool opening cut scene that hints as to our purpose in the game and once the game starts its also clear that it's a good looking game. it's not long before we're set to leave for the outside world and then the game introduces the character creator as a way for us to hide that we're Merlin. this was such a great way to incorporate a character creator feature within the game's universe.
AFK Journey also introduces it's "Loot Box" mechanic in just as a smart way, too. the premise is that we're going to need support on our journey so letters are sent out requesting help and when we get a reply it's either items that help or characters that can join our party.
The tutorial starts off being useful, with the game using our amnesia as a way to give us a tutorial. it's a clever way of incorporating it into the story, but it doesn't pay off as well as the two previous examples. it feels more bare bones. i feel like it could've leant into the amnesia more, giving us reminders to upgrade, or asking us if we'd like reminders. The tutorial does a poor job at explaining the busy UI around the edges, too. it's not incorporated into the story, and when the AFK button was introduced i didn't understand what it was for.
With how well so much of the game works, having such an average to poor tutorial really sticks out. but there are some other things that became noticeable. a big one was when we were going between two locations. there are optional battles and the enemies have their level above their heads. but this is a meaningless piece of information as it doesn't tell us how strong they are. it's not one on one battles, it's a group vs a group. the information we want is the strength of the group as well as the strength of ours. that information is only present when we're on the set-up before a battle, and it's not overly clear if we're about to retreat or not, there's just some non-descript arrow.
It's great that the game has amazing graphics and music, i'm also enjoying the story. but there's just enough wrong with it that it doesn't automatically leap to game of the year. thankfully, i found the story engaging enough that i do want to come back to the game, but maybe not right away. But AFK Journey is well worth downloading and trying out, just be aware that there are a few little issues with it.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of #Guayota , from developers Team Delusion and publisher DearVillagers .
The screenshots on the web eShop page made the dungeons look really cool and that was the main reason why i chose to play it. i also thought the look of the characters was quite interesting and wondered how it would be incorporated into the story and world as a whole.
This demo is rather short and at times it feels like pieces of the story have been cut from it as things don't make too much sense at times. for example, we start on a big boat, and the next thing is we're on the beach with two small boats. at first i thought maybe we're dreaming or ship wrecked, but the other people who have landed are busy working. so did they leave us behind? did they let us rest, and if so why were we on the beach.
Even tho the demo is short, it's full of inconsistences like this that really detract from the story as a whole. we're told our job is to record, and yet the first interesting thing we see on the island we don't record. nor is that something we can initiate ourselves, it's only at specific points the game wants even tho the island is full of new and interesting things we would never have seen before. there are other character interactions too that don't make sense with what they say to us and what they do.
It sticks out a lot as the point of the game is to tell a specific story of the indigenous peoples of the Canary Islands. with the demo as short as it is, i can't say if this carries into the final game, nor can i say if this is specific to the demo. most demos will say that some things are cut to avoid story spoilers, but this demo says nothing.
The gameplay is something worth praising. the graphics are great, it's a stunner on Switch. the areas we visited looked interesting, unique, and clear. then there's the way light moves around the dungeons, too. the controls are tight and simple, and the puzzles were introduced in a way that was simple to understand.
After playing the demo for Guayota i'm left with the impression that it's a fun game to play, but with a forgettable story. it could be described as a good podcast game. if this demo isn't a representation of the final game, then they've failed with it 'cause after playing the demo i'm not interested in getting Guayota. the puzzle side of the game doesn't interest me and with the story being a mess, i'm not interested in that either.
*Both my main commentary recording and my back-up failed. i record on my laptop, but it's a Lenovo AMD that blue screens at least twice a day or simply restarts and that's what happened. my back-up recording is done on my MZ-RH10 MiniDisc. that file is just silence. i have no idea what happened, my guess is maybe the microphone wasn't fully plugged in. So this Part has no commentary.*
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the #PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from Dramatic Labs.
A lot happened in this part, it was very exciting. Our crew on the Xeldi had some great ideas to solve their issues. Whilst on the USS Resolute, we discovered there was yet another Bioformed Scion onboard. the conclusion to that story was unexpected and both of these stories ended in a location that could be bad news for the rest of the galaxy. but how bad, we'll have to wait for Part 8 next week
