Twofold On PS4 - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of Twofold, from developers Studio Coattails and Salty Salty Studios.

Twofold is a visual novel that originally came out on PC back in 2023. this demo has a unique short intro, that may not be in the main game, what maybe the first 5 chapters of the game, plus a quick look at where a choice will lead.

the demo does feel bespoke and it's clear it's a demo. but it's not clear if the game saves and if it does whether or not that save will carry over to the retail game. there was also a weird thing with the game's settings. at the start we can prefigure a few things which is nice, but when it started the game didn't have auto play on. when you pause the game and go into settings, there are more things we can customise. but the changes at that screen don't seem to carry over from gameplay session to session.

Any demo is the game trying to sell itself to you. When it comes to games like Visual Novels, the challenge is also for the game to sell it's story and characters. i did like Olive's story and the choice she had to make did make sense. at the end of the demo i was interested in seeing where her story would go. unfortunately, i didn't like many of the other characters we had been introduced to. so after playing the demo, i'm in no rush to continue playing Twofold if at all because i didn't like most of the characters.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 8 - The Final Part - Backlog Conquering

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

This is the final part, this is the whole of Act 7 and the credits. whilst this is the longest video i did for this game, i wouldn't say this was the most difficult Act. i died a few times but it never took long to make progress. it was nice having some older mechanics come back and i liked how, in the final boss fight, the combined my attacks and the cinematic QTE attacks into something more seamless. I wasn't surprised by the character reveal at the end, i assumed it was the case, but it was nice to unlock one final head just before the credits.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Part 4 - Act 3 - https://youtu.be/HFUUYC04mV0

Part 5 - Act 4 - https://youtu.be/0jql54duy8A

Part 6 - Act 5 - https://youtu.be/B6Gwpk6vgks

Part 7 - Act 6 - https://youtu.be/7r6ybvGyc9I

Sonic X Shadow Generations - Part 2 - Playing It In The Cloud Is Fine For Some - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1 i focused on the original Sonic Generation levels, something that i was familiar with. In this part i tried the new Shadow levels. we start with Shadow's story, something i was only vaguely familiar with as i haven't played a Sonic game where Shadow is a major character but i seemed to have picked up his story over time. This is told via a slideshow style cinematic. this feels very cheap with no effort to tie it into the game, like they could've had a chao watching it or something. 

When you start Shadow's game we have another cinematic that tries to tie it into the story we saw from the Sonic Generations group. it's fine but it really does feel like DLC. Shadow plays quite differently from the other two hedgehogs we tried in Part 1. as i progressed through the video i was unlocking new powers that could not only defeat enemies in new ways but also unlock new level traversal mechanics.

As i'm unfamiliar with Shadow, i didn't know the levels we were unlocking, some of the enemies, or the music. the music was great to listen to, i wonder how much was changed from the originals. But the levels were a bit hit and miss. i'm not used to Sonic levels taking nearly 10 minutes and there were additions to the level that hadn't been introduced and even after playing i'm not sure i can describe how they really worked. So out of the 4 i played, one was long, one was short, one introduced new mechanics in a way i didn't grasp, and i don't really remember the other. fair to say they're a mix bag and as i haven't played the game they're from they hold no nostalgia for me.

There are positives and negatives when it comes to whether you should stream this game from the cloud or not. for me, someone who's familiar and finished the Sonic Generations part of the game, streaming the Shadow stuff saves space. if your internet is great and very reliable, then streaming it would be good. But if you have a little trouble with your connection, the visual artifacts it would create could make navigating really difficult or the delay it adds to the controls could make playing is frustrating. 

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/8nnq2mPHlI8

Tetris 99 - 56th Maximus Cup - Splatoon Raiders - Switch Funday

There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 56th Maximus Cup is for the Switch 2 game Splatoon Raiders. By getting 100 points, you can unlock it all.

For those who have caught the Live Streams this weekend, you'll know that i've had a bad headache so going into this i of course hoped for the win but i wasn't expecting much. However, i started with a top 30 finish, then a top 10, then some poor results, and i finished with a top 20. so my finishing positions were all over the place! i made a few too many mistakes. I finish by going theme shopping! there's a special on at the moment where you can buy missed Maximus Cup themes for only 2 tickets. you can see where i stopped playing Tetris 99 and where i picked it back up again. unfortunately, i didn't have enough tickets to get all the themes i'm missing. i was 6 tickets short. this offer runs until August 17th, so i have until next Monday to earn those 6 tickets in-game and get the remaining themes i'm missing.

Wish Upon A Cat - A Quirky Dimension Hopping Story With Nice Art And Music - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Wish Upon A Cat, from Odencat, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

Wish Upon A Cat was originally released on PC in 2025, you can pick it up on Steam for free. this is the iOS release of the game. i haven't played the Steam game yet, but my guess is that the two big differences between this and the PC version are the addition of adverts and a vertical screen. I do hope to check out the PC game in the future, but i'm unsure if that'll be something i record or not.

Wish Upon A Cat's App Store Page lists the game as being short so for this video i played maybe 1/3 to half of the game, judging upon the reveal that there were 5 adverts and i had seen 3 by the end of this video. But even by this point, i wasn't totally sure what was going on. i don't think that's a negative for this game as there seems to be a general sense of confusion all around. but at the very least we had the hints of understanding between my character and the other cat.

Graphically it feels similar to Deltarune and Undertale in terms of character design but i'm unsure if i'm familiar with the landscape art style. each area we went looked quite distinct and they also had their own music, which was also really cool. i also enjoyed how the game tried to answer simple questions like the mouse can see what's happening because the headset has a camera. that mouse is far to calm about the crazy stuff that's happening. there are plenty of strange characters throughout but as we're travelling between dimensions it all fits in with the game.

Even though i may not fully grasp the story, i have started to have some thoughts about it and i do want to continue playing to see what happens next. Wish Upon A Cat is one of those rare story games that are free to play and tell a story in a playthrough, or two. i would recommend checking it out.

Version 1.0.4 Played 

Gurei On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Gurei, from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio.

When you start the demo it mentions that the game will auto save, but at no point does it actually say that the demo's save data will carry over to the final game. This demo doesn't say much at all about what it is. it wasn't until i died the first time that it became clear that at most there were 4 monsters to fight, and by dying later it was then revealed that even tho i couldn't face off against a boss, the game still counted it as defeated. this meant what ever boss you faced third, it'd actually be as tough as the 4th.

It's revealed that you can face off against any of the bosses in any order. i tried a few different combinations in this demo. each of the defeated bosses grants our character an ability or power. i personally found the shield to be very useful but by getting that first it makes the scythe and bow even more difficult to obtain.

The more bosses you defeat, the more chances of trying to beat the next boss you get. your health is also recharged before a boss fight. so there is a real element of strategy behind the order you try bosses. i found the snake to be a challenge so did that first. i thought the shield was useful against the bird so i did that boss second and the bird third.

Gurei looks great on Nintendo Switch. the controls felt fast and responsive, too. the only downside i felt in this demo was the loading times. typically in games when you can respawn and face off against the boss, the time between death and respawn is short. but here it's a long black screen. maybe they could've done something with the black screen to make it feel like it's taking less time. the example i came up with was our mask offering advice, back story, or general information.

Boss fighting games like this, Furi, or even Mega Man aren't typically games i enjoy playing. i enjoy their music and graphics for sure, but the gameplay style doesn't do it for me. that being said, Gurei didn't come across as a bad game. it's just the demo could've done more to sell it to me. i would've liked more information about the story, maybe a trailer showcasing examples of what happens later in the game.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 7 - Backlog Conquering

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

This was a mix bag kinda part. the first curtain call was tough with platforming that kept changing, for example sometimes you had to move quickly whilst other times you had to wait. The boss fight wasn't too bad. the other two curtain calls weren't as tough but the cut race section was still frustrating. But the story kept me going and i liked the kinda twist at the end. the next part could be the final part and i'm excited to play it!

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Part 4 - Act 3 - https://youtu.be/HFUUYC04mV0

Part 5 - Act 4 - https://youtu.be/0jql54duy8A

Part 6 - Act 5 - https://youtu.be/B6Gwpk6vgks