Demo Play Thursday - Boxville on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation4 version of Boxville. This game from developers Triomatica Games was already released on other platforms but recently came to the PS4.

I'm not very good at point and click adventure games, but i'm willing to try them 'cause maybe i'll find one that i enjoy or don't immediately get a guide out for. I wanted to try Boxville because the graphical art style caught my attention. it didn't look like anything i've played before and looked more akin to a stop motion cartoon/movie than a video game.

The Demo starts with a message from the developers saying we're not playing the start as they don't want to ruin the story. that's fine, i have no objections about that. But then they just drop us into a level with no tutorial. you'll hear me complain that if they can add a screen to tell us about not playing the start, then why can't they give us a screen telling us what buttons do what. if we're not playing the tutorial at the start of the game, why can't they put a simple message or diagram showing what buttons do what. they could've put effort to make it accessible.

The video then is mostly me trying out different buttons and being confused. as there's not story context for what we're doing other than go down the city, this didn't feel like a demo for the game. it felt like an escape room. a great looking one for sure. i feel that the demo could've made some allowances to help. like the cursor didn't seem to interact with anything but perhaps it could've pulsed to signal something we can interact with. again, as i didn't know the controls, i was unfamiliar with the items being kept above and it really slowed my progress until i worked that game mechanic out.

The point and click gameplay was mostly logical but it did feel like a couple of times it wanted me to do things a little unexpected but that were perhaps introduced earlier in the game. so at times things went fast and other times things went slow, so slow that it became a tad frustrating.

I'm not sure if it's in the final game, but i had a couple of technical issues where the demo seemed to freeze on me. but the most annoying thing was that the cursor would stay when we moved screens. this often meant it was no where near where i wanted it to be. it would've been soo much better if when the screen changed, the cursor reset it's position to where i was at the very least.

Ultimately, i don't think it's a great demo. it does show off the graphics, but it's not as accessible as it should be and the tech issues and some design choices make the game feel not finished even tho it was released last year on other platforms. Playing this demo does not make me want to play the final game, but i will say that's also in part because i'm not great at point and click adventure games and i didn't really enjoy this one.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 3 - Completing The Flying Battleship

Part 3 of playing Gunstar Heroes on #PS3 went better than part 2, https://youtu.be/Fjbreik3bTU, but it was still difficult. In part 2, it was a boss rush and in part 1, https://youtu.be/dfgBhdeJriE, the bosses were spaced out across the whole level. In this video, The Flying Battleship, it's a combination of both!

So the start wasn't too bad. going up and then across was fine. the first boss was easy, too. then there's a little more platforming before the next two bosses, one after each other. the first of these two bosses wasn't too bad and i managed to defeat him after a couple of tries. But the final boss was much more difficult. He does much more damage, has many more attacks, and can navigate the small stage the battle takes place on faster than i can. So for this video, it took nearly 20 minutes to finally beat him!

There will be a part 4 as i'm interested in what the fourth stage will be like and whether or not it's the final level in the game.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Kali Cup Revival - Achievement Run

#PADSwitch #パズドラ #パズドラSwitch #ドットカーリー杯開催  #ドット・カーリー杯開催 #switch #puzzleanddragons 

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 Pixel Kali Revival! (2023/9/11 9:00～2023/9/18 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Pixel Kali Revival Cup. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/O755kjT9oWU, but that was very bad for me. it took nearly 3x as long as this video! even tho it went better the second time, i didn't really understand the gimmick or couldn't seem to activate as much as i wanted. i simply tried to make as many combos as possible whilst also making the longest connections. There were more players this week, nearly everyone i played against got a win! i also got a win but i couldn't beat the boss. it looked like most players i was playing against could beat it either.

This week i played against:

イフ (イつ?) - Rank 74

ふんた - Rank 52

タクマ - Rank 73

はるひさ - Rank 68

キグナス - Rank 67

しゅうさ - Rank 63

ふたば - Rank 72

カズちゃん - Rank 69

YUKI - Rank 87

Cloud Monday - For the King - Part 1 - Great Design For Cloud Streaming, Bad For First Time Players

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing For the King, streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium. This game was developed by IronOak Games and published on PS4 by Curve Digital Publishing. I wanted to try this game as the screenshots made it look very interesting and cool looking.

But, i had such a difficult time playing it. It's a shame, too, as this game is designed in such a way that it works well as a game being streamed from the cloud. It say's it saves after every turn, tho it doesn't define what it means by turn so i'm left to assume it saves after every character is finished with their turn. It's art style is unique and distinct but critically it doesn't rely on small intricate details, so if there is any macro blocking or resolution drops the impact on how things look would be lesser than other games. Plus it's slow pace and turn based system are less impacted by a poor connection.

So on paper it's a great game to be streamed from the PlayStation Plus Cloud, but in reality it's almost impenetrable for newcomers. And even when there is a tutorial it's either late, out of place, or tells the player to look it up. I would go so far as to say i found the tutorial to be so bad it's borderline rude. I have NEVER played a Table Top RPG before and after my experience with this game i'm not particularly keen on trying one in the future.

I had such a negative first impression from this game that i'm debating whether to do my regular Part 2 or not. 

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - September's Tricolor - 15 Games and 6 Wins

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the "Who would be the best leader?" Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 15 games with 6 wins https://youtu.be/k9yyT8DdPVU. Today was the Tricolor event and it went just as well, again with 6 wins out of 15 games.

What didn't go well was the opposition. the idea with Tricolor games is that you're facing the other two teams. but out of the 15 games, i was only up against Fyre and Big Man teams 4 times! So this Tricolor day got a little boring by the end. it's a big reason why i changed from Bloblobber to the Gold Dynamo Roller. I don't typically play offensive with rollers so to make things interesting for myself i changed weapon and tried to be defensive and offensive. it was a nice challenge and it's not that bad. it is a bit too slow to fire so i'll probably change to something else.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - September's Splatfest - 15 Battles 6 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "Who would be the best leader" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. our choices are between Fyre, Shiver, and Big Man. I chose to join team Shiver.

This Saturday's Splatfest went much better than the previous Saturday's did, https://youtu.be/wUTQmGapjWE. I wouldn't say any did was doing a lot better than the other, tho maybe Fyre's teams tended to get the bigger wins. i had a lot of fun and i'm thinking 15 games is the right amount for these Splatfests.  

Mobile Friday - Tailed Demon Slayer: RISE - Cleverly Tries To Hide The Grind

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Tailed Demon Slayer: RISE on my iPhone 14 Pro. This game from CookApps is also out on Android. i haven't played the original Tailed Demon Slayer so this was my first time playing in this game world.

The start of this game is great but also a little weird. It's great because it does a good job of telling a story, putting the game and the game world into context. it's simple approach to world building is effective. so much so that i was waiting for more all throughout this video. and that's the weird thing about this game, so much effort is put into creating context, telling a story, and then the game does nothing else with it. Early on, i was always expecting the game to slow, or even stop, to tell more about the story. but once i realised that it wasn't going to, i was a bit disappointed.

That's kinda true for other aspects of the game. there are times when so much effort has clearly been spent on something and then it stops. the tutorial is a good example of this. the start of the game does a good job slowly introducing the game right up until it stops doing that and as this video goes on i found myself asking more questions. For those who have watched my Mobile Friday videos, you'll know that i appreciate games that slowly introduce themselves even if it means stopping players from accessing parts of the game. and whilst this game did a good job of that, i was able to get clothes and equip them long before the game's clothes tutorial. there's also an instance later of the game starting a tutorial, then showing an advert for said item in the store, then finishing the tutorial. putting an advert half way through the tutorial made no sense.

Ultimately, this aren't huge complaints. they only stick out because of how well the rest of the game is designed. This is one of the better autobattler RPGs i have ever played. having a good start of the story helps, as does a good tutorial, but one of the smartest things the developers did was trying to hide the grind. it took around 45-50 minutes before the grind became noticeable and i applaud all the clever ways they designed the game to try and hide the grind. There is the main "story" battle, then there are dungeons, there's also improving the stats of your character, there's summoning equipment, and then improving your current equipment. there are also quests to aim for, and when you do you can collect the earned items. But if you want more rewards, you can watch adverts. you can also earn things from the Battle Pass, Season Pass, 7 day missions, Quests, Album, and the Advance System. all the while, the game is still progressing, you're still earning money and experience. Essentially, the game is grinding in the background but it's hidden by everything else there is to do in the game.  

It was a little much at the start, but once i realized what was happening and that there's no rush to do things it did become easier. For example,  the Repeat Quest keeps track of your progress. so if you've completed a quest a few times, you'll still get the correct amount of reward. By the end of this video, i still had a lot left to unlock so there could be other ways the developers have tried to hide the grind.

The core gameplay is good, the graphics are good, the music is good, and the tutorials are good. there is a lot to like in this game. it also doesn't force adverts upon us, nor where there any additional downloads before we could start playing. Oh, the music is also good too. there's soo much to like about this game that it's easy for me to recommend this game to fans of the genre, to those curious, and to those looking for a new game to play.

(Version 1.3.02 Played)