Backlog Conquering - Teslagrad On PS4 - Part 3 - Frustrated By Puzzle Platforming

This is part 3 of playing the PlayStation4 version of Teslagrad, from developers Rain AS, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

In Part 2, https://youtu.be/IeRdNjMTaLU, I battled through some tough puzzle platforming and got a new power up. i had hoped that this would open up the game and perhaps bring a change to the puzzle platforming. It didn't really change anything and just added a new element to the puzzle part.

I was already finding it difficult but what made Part 2 feel good to play was that i got a couple of important pieces of story and some good world building. it felt like there was a payoff for it. But in this video, it's one frustrating section after another with no payoff at the end. There's no environmental story telling to help out, no smart Ai seeing that i'm in trouble and adjusting things. This game is very much leaving it to me to figure out.

I don't mind that concept and there were times i was genuinely happy i solved the puzzle. But when platforming is involved, the controls had better be good and in all 3 parts of playing Teslagrad so far, the platforming controls haven't matched the platforming they've been tasked to do. In this part, the level design also got in the way of the platforming more than once. Our character is able to look up and down, but not far to the right or left. so at the start we're faced with a blind jump to the left because we can't see what's on the other side. nearer the end of the video there's a section i get stuck on because i couldn't tell that what looked like a section fenced off is actually a fenced off section i can move behind when i use a move.

At the moment, i'm in two minds about doing a part 4.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 2

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/-TKTpBnYw5c, i played through Chapter 0 which acted like a tutorial in a game sense but also a prologue for the story itself. it was very well done. In this Part, we start playing through Chapter 1. we start off in New York meeting up with some old friends, catching up over a meal, and then whilst reminiscing we seemingly start playing through the story of one of the older games, if not the first game, of this game series. This video ends with Chapter 1 not finished.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 2 - A Good RPG To Stream From The Cloud

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Tales of Arise via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1,https://youtu.be/9O7-F5v3kF0, we quickly learned about the auto save and how quickly we were able to manual save. 2 important pluses for a service that can give you a 20 second warning before it disconnects you. In Part 2, we learn at the beginning that the game keeps 2 autosaves! This is a big win for people using the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming platform as it provides comfort as if you're unable to save before you're disconnected, there's a high chance the game has saved itself.

Playing the game itself also continued to be fun. i do enjoy how the game uses different methods to tell it's story. after this part, i felt i liked the comic book style method more than in Part 1. A nice little touch was that the game makes it clear when you have or haven't talked to someone. Plus, you're able to stack side quests. so you can chat with everyone in a village, collect all their sidequests, and set out and do them all. This also works for a cloud game. For example, if you're playing during a stable period you can collect all the sidequests and talk with everyone, save, and now it doesn't matter as much if you're disconnected when compared with tackling each quest at a time.

Like Part 1, there were very brief moments of Stream Tearing, where grey appears on screen most likely due to a frame of video arriving incomplete. the controls also felt sharp and i couldn't feel any lag from them. If anything was holding the game back it's the fact this is the PS4 version of the game. there was texture pop-in, loading, and the world and characters just lacked the finer detail.

Tales of Arise is not only an RPG i would recommend people play via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service, it's also just a good game to play. it does look great on PS4 and the loading doesn't feel too bad. So i imagine it'll be better on PS4 Pro or PS5. Whilst playing it, i noted how it reminded me of Final Fantasy X in a positive way. I'm personally curious about the story and the rest of the game so i may continue it in my own time.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Unite - 6 Matches From March's Panic Parade

Panic Parade is back so for Switch Funday i had to play it and start levelling up my stats. As everything has been reset from the previous Panic Parade, these 6 matches are a little slow and show me progressing up the difficulty rankings as i reach certain Wave targets. 

Online Saturday - Pokémon Unite - March’s Unite Weekend

Today's Online Saturday video is on Pokémon Unite. This is the first full weekend of March so it's a Unite Weekend. this means i'm able to use any Pokémon i want in the unranked online modes. my goal with these weekends is to try out several new Pokémon i don't have and hopefully find some new favorites. 

This might be the last of these videos for a while as i only have 2 Pokémon who i haven't played as. For today, the real surprise was Gyarados. i had a lot of fun using it. as Magikarp, it's not very powerful but once it evolved it dominated. it honestly feels a little broken and will probably be rebalanced, either as Gyarados or perhaps making you use Magikarp for a couple more levels. I didn't enjoy playing as Mew or Gengar, they were a bit too frail for how i like to play and Gengar in particular didn't seem to hit as hard as i expected it would. Zacian and Urshifu were strong as you'd expect for legendries and i had some fun with them. It was kinda more fun to play as Metagross's previous evolutions as they moved much quicker than it did. but overall it was fine to use. Out of all of these, there wasn't a Pokémon that stood out as a must buy. 

Mobile Friday - Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage - An Approachable Roguelike That Needs More Tutorials

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage from Rainbow Rabbit Games.  I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

Typically, i'm not a fan of roguelike games. often, they can be quite difficult and not very accessible. But on the Appstore, Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage lists itself as a "Hyper Casual Shooting Roguelike" and i was very curious about this claim so that's why i wanted to try it.

For the most part, i think that it does succeed. it starts with a "cute" video and carries that into the tutorial with a Slime acting as your teacher. graphically, it's not highly detailed but it all works together. Even the music comes across as casual. So in playing it, i didn't feel the pressure and frustration that often comes with roguelikes.

But where this game stumbles is another important aspect of roguelikes, it fails to explain the loop. In roguelikes, there's often a reason why your character fails. sometimes it's how you learn what comes next, whether that's in a level or what a boss does next. in other games, you use the time between loops to level up and improve your stats by spending a gathered material. In Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage, you're collecting money, equipable items, and materials for those items. But the game never tells you to go and equip, it never tells you to level up items, and it never shows you how to do either. 

The tutorial had been so good so the fact it stops at such a critical point in the game is a big mistake. Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage's loop is simple, you do a level and get as far as you can. If your character levels up, you can improve your stats. if you have collected an item, you can equip it, and if you have collected materials you can use them to improve those items you've equipped. Once that's done, you go back in with the aim of going further.

During these journeys in the dungeons, the controls are nice and simple. your character will shoot it's weapon when it's not moving and you move your character with a single finger touching the screen. by double tapping, tho sometimes i felt like this didn't work that well, it activates a super attack. This one handed gameplay is great for those commuting but also means it's very accessible for a larger audience. Helping you are relics. at certain points in these dungeons, you will unlock 3 relics and get to choose 1 to equip. there's a large variety of them and they affect gameplay in different ways, but typically either attacking the enemy or boosting your stats. These are random so each run in a dungeon is going to feel different and helps mitigate the repetitive nature of roguelikes.

I do recommend Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage. it is disappointing the tutorial stops at the critical point of explaining the loop of the game. this will put some people off. but with a little exploration of the menus, many will work out what to do. It's a recent release so there's a good chance things will get even better. So i would recommend it to play now but also to keep on your phone and check out it's updates to see if they do improve the tutorials and make things easier enough for you.

Demo Play Thursday - Master Key On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Master Key, developed by the solo dev Achromi .

Master Key is a black and white, tho there are other color palettes to choose from, RPG where you play as a fox who uses a key to attack. the game's e-Shop page made it clear that the aim is for us, the player, to go and explore the world ourselves rather than have the game lead us. This was true with the demo as well. it appears that the game wasn't changed for this demo as there was no mention that we were playing a demo, no mention of whether our progress carried over, and no tutorials.

The game relies on using pictograms to help explain what you need to do in some instances, but i personally found them a little difficult to read once they moved beyond faces that some NPCs would have, or my interpretation of them wasn't right. This lack of information also meant that there were instances where i just didn't understand what was happening, the biggest one being the cup of coffee. the music was faster, but other than that i just couldn't work out if it did anything or not. I also found the shop to be difficult to understand. not every item is labelled with a picture of what it does so i simply had to guess. I highly recommend players get the map as soon as you can. there was a point in the middle of this video where i felt like i was going round in circles and making no progress until i had enough money and worked out one of the items was the map. once i got it, i was finally able to make progress once again.

I understand this is a stylistic choice but clearly a con of it was how it made playing and making progress in the game more difficult. for some players this won't be a negative thing whilst for me and others it made the game more frustrating than it needed to be. But that's why Master Key having a demo is a great thing. It gives people a chance to actually try before they buy, for them to work out if this is something they want to play or not. for me, i'm actually glad i played the demo as there is a lot to like. the music for one is fantastic, i wouldn't say no to getting the soundtrack. the art is also really good. our character looks different from all the other characters. the world isn't overly busy and yet every place we went to looked really good with more than enough detail to make out houses, shops, fountains, and coffee carts.

So even tho Master Key isn't for me, it's still a game i'd recommend people try and this demo is a great way to try it.