(I recorded this before the 2.01 update came out but decided to share it nonetheless as i enjoyed trying out a Ranked mode, something i very rarely do)
For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the #PlayStation4 version of it.
I rarely play ranked modes in multiplayer games but with #Foamstars i was curious how it would work. Overall, i found the whole experience not as clear as i wanted it to be. for example, i was surprised that there were two modes being used, Smash The Star and Happy Bath Survival. i don't remember it ever being clear that this was the case. I thought progression was interesting in that you play 3 games, earn a score from them. If you have enough, you can take that score and use it to play 2 games that you have to win to rank up.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC from Drecom. I Played this on my iPhone14Pro, but it's also out on Android and PC via Chrome.
This is much more complicated than i expected. i didn't fully read the App store page for Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC, so i went in just expecting a dungeon crawling clicker game. But after recording the video and looking more into it, there's much more about this game than i thought. But, in a way, this confusion is also a criticism of the game that in the near hour i played in this video it failed to convey what it actually is, but it's also praiseworthy because what Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC also is didn't get in the way of gameplay.
The gameplay is what i came to the game for. in the App store what caught my attention and why i wanted to play it was the claim that "...you can play endlessly with strategy and taps." i wanted to see how that would work. The game starts like many clickers i've played, with one character on screen doing damage and my clicks doing damage. what's striking is the character art and the style of the game. the backgrounds work well with the theme of the game, the monsters all look interesting, but our character design did remind me of My Sims Heroes with how square the heads are.
But it works and it does look great. the U.I is a little busy and cramped. One reason is that this game doesn't make full use of the iPhone screen. It's a little surprising how little it uses. On one hand it might be to make it easier to click on the screen where the action is taking place, but i would also say that it kinda works with the top of the screen and sets the mood for a dungeon game. But i feel the bottom of the screen could be used better.
Another issue the U.I has is that it isn't fully explained. The game does have a tutorial that, for the most part, offers help through to the end of the first play through. But then it stops just as more icons appear. I also started to unlock new things and there wasn't even a simple finger pointing, like it had been doing. I'd argue that the tutorial needs to continue for the second play through to explain not just all the new things but also to help offer some reminders on how the gameplay loop works.
The loop is typical of a clicker game. in Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC you go into a dungeon and defeat monsters. you earn money from it which can be spent making your clicks more powerful or you can make your heroes stronger. Like typical clickers, there becomes a point where you're unable to make any further progress. In Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC, you're meant to leave the dungeon and go back to town. this will earn you rewards which can help improve your team for the next dive into the dungeon.
What i noticed about how Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC differed from other clickers i've played is that in this whole video i never found anything that would click for me. Nor did the game indicate that there would be anything that would be click for me. there was only the damage my team mates were doing.
But there's a whole another aspect of the game that it only teased when i played it. i wondered why it wanted me to make a wallet, but i thought it was perhaps something to do with an in-game bank mechanic that it failed to tell me about, like how in some roguelikes you're able to bank money. But actually it has something to do with the Blockchain!
It's surprising how this unique feature of the game was never explicitly mentioned in my video. It's possible that i just didn't reach where the blockchain stuff becomes a part of gameplay. But i would argue that after an hour and a couple of returns to the town, it should've been part of my game already. it feels like a pacing issue or possible a balancing issue. It could also be a tutorial issue, or a lack of a tutorial issue.
As i didn't come across the blockchain in the game, i don't fully understand it. You'd have to go to Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC's website, like i did, to discover what it's all about. Or try to. the website tells but rarely explains the how, why, or how it's incorporated into gameplay. It could be a translation issue, but it's frustrating as a casual player how it's not incorporated into gameplay, not explained or detailed in a "casual" way.
So, as a clicker Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC is fine. it has some nice graphics, but there are many aspects of it that haven't been detailed so it feels like i'm not getting the full experience of the game. this is doubly true when it comes to the blockchain also not being detailed or part of gameplay. It is a new release, but even the roadmap on their website doesn't make it clear if improvements to the basic elements of gameplay are coming.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Princess Peach: Showtime!, developed by Good-Feel and Nintendo.
This demo starts immediately, and so does this video, with an introduction cut scene that helps get the game to where everything takes place. once finished, your able to move around and talk to everyone. once you do, then the game starts. In this demo we get 2 stages, 1 acts as the tutorial and lets us use the Swordfighter costume and the other introduces a different game style and the Patisserie costume.
It's surprising how poor the game's tutorial is. it doesn't "hold your hand" nor take you step by step how everything is done. instead, the characters in the background are often saying things to hint as to what you should be doing. For greater help, sometimes on the bottom right of the screen a "Controls" prompt appears and pressing X will pause the game and give you more indepth information about how things work. As this is a demo, i kinda expected that to be on as default, especially for the first stage of the game. The controls aren't complicated, but there are other interactions in the game world that might be missed. But even this section isn't perfect. it told me about a dodge and counterattack system in the game but not how it works or the timing for it. Princess Peach: Showtime! is similar to Mario vs. Donkey Kong, https://youtu.be/aHf200xu5EM, in being surprisingly less accessible than expected.
But i would recommend the demo because i enjoyed my time with Princess Peach: Showtime! to the point that i actually wish-listed it and wouldn't mind getting it. at first glance, everything seems so simple. that includes the art, the graphics, the controls, and even the story. But as i played, it was easy to notice a lot of the finer details in the art, to appreciate the bold colorful graphics, to play in two completely different costumes each with completely different controls and play styles, and to understand that there are many more costumes and stages to play. I got the impression after playing this demo that Princess Peach: Showtime! is a beatable game, one that's neither too difficult or too easy, and one that has enough variety to keep me interested from start to finish.
As for the story, we don't really get much of a hint how it'll go. what's in the demo is simple and perhaps that'll be the case throughout. it's possible gameplay and mechanics will help make up for an average story, if it is indeed average. It reminds me of the Cat Quest series. i have platinumed both games, had a fun time with the different mechanics, characters, and places we visit. but i wouldn't say their stories are the best ever. but playing them, like playing this demo of Princess Peach: Showtime!, was enjoyable.
Oh, when you finish the demo there is a gameplay trailer. A downside to the demo is that whilst we often see it saving, there's no mention if our save is carried over to the main game.
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.
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.
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.
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.
