Hello and welcome to Part 13, the final part, 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.
This is the final part, the conclusion to the story we've told whilst we play this game. We managed to complete this part with only one more death. but it was the "True Evil" ending which means we never found out who killed our Grandfather, the reason why we came all the way from Japan to New York. The point of this series isn't to get the perfect ending, it's to tell the story we get from the game. so whilst i'm a little sad that we didn't solve this final mystery, i'm happy to have got a story.
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 1 of playing the PS4 version of Far: Changing Tides via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
One of the reasons i wanted to play Far: Changing Tides was because of the art in the icon. i really like it. i also have a memory of people talking about this game when it came out positively. as a game being streamed from the cloud, one aspect i wanted to look at was if the water, and possible water spray and particles, would degrade the video much like how confetti can hammer the bitrate of a YouTube Video.
This part didn't go as expected. right from the beginning i had some issues with the game being streamed to me. Part 2 will be interesting to see if this is a common issue with this game or just a one off due to my internet itself. we had all the issues; Stream Tearing, when there's grey on screen as the video frame lacks information, Macro Blocking, where instead of fine detail we get larger squares of color, Zebra Striping, where there's black and white lines appearing, Color Banding, where there are noticeable bands of color as it changes shade, and the stability warning on the right side of the screen.
But because of the game's design, many of these weren't anything more than noticeable and didn't get in the way of gameplay. for example, when there was macro blocking or zebra striping i was able to adjust the camera down in the water or zoom it in and out. this changed the background and the issues went away. There's no text so macro blocking didn't get in the way. the backgrounds are large and distinct so they were always clear. so whilst these were distracting, they didn't stop progression in the game.
I was nervous tho as we quickly learned that this game doesn't have a manual save. there didn't seem to be anything in-game i could do to trigger a manual save. we were relying on the auto save. it does tell us when the last auto save was, but it seemed that the auto save only triggers when reaching set pieces and kinda like at checkpoints whilst solving the set piece puzzles. The problem is, there's travelling to these set pieces. so when the 20 second countdown starts to when we're kicked off the service, you're most likely stuck with what ever the last auto save was.
Or, like me, you're stuck waiting for an autosave so you can quit the game. that's one reason why this video is a long as it is. i was waiting for an autosave but at the end of the video i was seemingly travelling to a set piece. there's also no quit game/exit option.
So that's why the title of this video is that there are positive and negatives. on one hand, the game's design meant that whilst there were streaming issues, they never got in the way of progression. the music sounded great, the controls were fine tho platforming could've been better but i think that's more down to the game rather than streaming issues, and i could use things like the zoom and camera to remove some of the visual issues. and yet on the other hand how this game saves just isn't suitable when there's only a 20 second warning before being disconnected. if there was a quick save option, this would be easy to recommend. but as it is, it's starting to look like Far: Changing Tides would be better downloaded than played from the cloud.
It's day two of May's Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3.
The goal of Tricolor is for all three teams to play in the same match. Often this isn't that successful. when Splatoon 3 is unable to make such a match, it'll default to 3 teams of the same team. So in this Splatfest, that's Same Ol' and Same Ol' Vs. Same Ol'. What i'm shocked to say is that this only happened once! i can't think of another Splatfest where we played soo many matches with all three teams.
As ever i played 5 games each with 3 different weapons. i bought some new ones after yesterday's video so this Splatfest was the first time using them. First up was the Forge Splattershot Pro. i enjoyed the extra power and inking potential, but it didn't seem to damage the enemy as much as i'd hope and used a lot of ink. and for some reason my aim with it was terrible. Next was the Nautilus 79. I had a great time with this weapon. it inked, it hit, and it didn't use a lot of ink. i had a 5 game winning streak with this weapon! Finally was the Ballpoint Splatling. This was much more difficult as it switched from close up to long range. it was fine, but the results weren't great and i'll need more practice with it in the future.
It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What would you do at the world's end?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. I chose to join Same Ol'.
This weekend's Splatfest started poorly as i tried to use the Luna Blaster for the first 5 games, but it just wasn't working out that great for me. it might've been my first time really using it and it just didn't have the range or inking ability that i needed. i tried to be more attacking, but the opposition were often able to deal with me as their weapons often fired quicker. so the first 5 games weren't great for me, but they were bad for my teammates too as we lost the first 5 games.
i switched to an old favourite of mine for the next 5, the N-Zap '89. this time we got more wins, but the 4th game, 9th overall, saw my teammates and I win by 0.1%! i can't remember the last time i've had a game that close before. it was nice using a weapon i enjoy and we got 3 wins out of the 5.
The final weapon i used was the Foil Flingza Roller. i had noticed that many of my teams weren't doing a great job at inking our areas and after being attacking for 10 games, i decided to be more of an inker for the final 5. These games ended up being the most successful as we got 4 wins out of 5. this means i got 7 wins out of 15 today.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Solo Leveling:Arise, from developer Netmarble. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.
This game is based on the South Korean Web novel 나 혼자만 레벨업, Solo Leveling in English. unfortunately, i've not read this web novel nor have i seen any of the anime episodes. so i can't say how closely this sticks to the story or how much of the story is being told. But this does mean i'm relying on the game to tell it's story and it does a fantastic job of introducing us to the world.
the first 50 or so minutes of this game is the tutorial. it may sound like a long time but i was grateful for it. i felt well prepared for the different gameplay styles. it's not just us playing as the main character of the game. there's a gameplay mode where we play as the support characters. this plays differently as we can switch between them and combo attacks together during the switch. there's a gate mode that's separate from the story where we're clearing out specific areas of monsters. then we can send people to farm those cleared out areas for resources. and that's just what i got to experience as there are more things to unlock as we level up.
The story is told in a couple of different ways. there's animation, that i don't think is from the anime, but it suffers from compression and whilst it's effective it's not that impressive. there's a comic book panel style and there's also a version of that that has moving pictures. and then there's the traditional character models talking on screen.
But for me one of the highlights has to be the soundtrack to the game. i thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that it's more rock style worked well with the story and gameplay.
The biggest downside to Solo Leveling:Arise is that it's another mobile game that requires an additional download before you can play. this time it's 1.6GB, so it's not the biggest. but it's still too large to download via a mobile network so you must start the game on wifi. It's possible it could stop Solo Leveling:Arise reaching the number 1 game of 2024, but it doesn't stop me recommending the game. i had a lot of fun playing it and it's well worth checking out.
Right from clicking the game icon on my PlayStation4, Tearaway continued to impress me by putting me at the last checkpoint from Part 1, https://youtu.be/E3WqJ6MF2Rg. This was impressive because the game didn't ask to continue, there was no menu, all there was after clicking the game's icon was a loading screen and there i was in game. i included the end of that load, as this is a PS4 so the loading took around 45 seconds.
In part 1, we never used jump because it didn't exist. the X button did nothing but raise a question mark above our heads. instead, the game was mostly designed around us not having it. tho there did seem to be a couple of places where it looked like we'd need it if we were out exploring. Thankfully we got it back and the game feels much better and less limited now.
Jumping wasn't the only new thing we got access to. after creating clouds, we now are able to generate a gust of wind in any direction we want. we use this in a couple of interesting ways like blowing enemies when they jump or using it to generate or manipulate platforming. near the end of this part, we got access to throwing. our character #iota was able to throw, but now they can pass an object to us and with the motion controls and touch panel we're able to throw things much stronger and much farther.
Tearaway: Unfolded continues to be a fun game to play. the story isn't anything outstanding at the moment, but it's enough to get us to places. but the platforming, light puzzling areas, and even hidden collectables make it one of the most accessible platformers i've ever played. i'm looking forward to what comes next in part 3.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Blade Jumper, developed by bit paradigm and published by CFK.
The #eShop mentions that this game has one button that does the jumping and the attacking. i was very curious as to how this would work and whether or not it would make the game difficult or not. the eShop page also talks about the game's story and i wondered if it is a difficult game would they be able to tell that story. So having a demo is great for this kind of game as it could answer many questions.
It starts with a cool song that really sets the mood, we find out at the end of the video that this song doesn't loop so don't be surprised when it stops. it also mentions that this is a demo and has a link to the eShop page, something that few games actually do so it was welcome to see.
Once you start, you're immediately introduced to the story, your main character, and what you're task is. there is a tutorial and it's mostly blended into the game's introduction. but with everything using just one button it does take a bit of time to get used to. thankfully, there is graffiti across this first stage that'll help with how to line things up and what force to use.
So far so good, but it's not long after this that i personally started to have issues with the game. i don't enjoy the core gameplay mechanic, i found the jump system to be a chore and when it's coupled with respawning monsters it was frustrating. the whole experience took nearly 50 minutes to complete what turned out to be a short demo. i imagine this could easily be done in less than 30, maybe less than 20 minutes. but i found the learning curve so high and the level design unforgiving so it simply took a long frustrating time.
But i wouldn't say the whole game is frustrating. i actually found myself really interested in the story and the music. i talk about how i would like this game to have a story focused mode, instead of the game focusing on it's jumping mechanics. so the demo did it's job. i got to try out the core mechanics and i learned that it's not for me. it's not a style of game i would enjoy, and whilst i did like the story and would like to see what happens i've also learned that i don't want to experience the story how it's currently being told. i recommend people check out the demo before buying the game as it's more hardcore than it lets on to be.
