Demo Play Thursday - Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero.

Unfortunately my main audio recording stopped working so in this video i'm using my backup, but my MiniDisc ran out of space during the goodbyes so that's why the audio is odd this week.

I wasn't familiar with the Phantom Brave series but i could tell from the art that it was from the developers behind the Disgaea games. i've got a couple of them and played several others so i was looking forward to playing Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. the PSN store page for this game reveals that the save from this demo will carry over to the main game. the demo itself didn't mention this at all during the hour i spent with it. at least there was a link to the PSN Store page to pre-order the game.

This demo felt like it was the actual start of the game. some demos will be bespoke and have some changes to avoid spoilers, but not this demo for Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. this makes me a little concerned for the retail release as i encountered some small technical issues. the biggest of which being when my character stopped walking. 

Other than that, the hour i played went smoothly. i appreciated that the game's designers brought in the camera closer to the action. this made the characters look real good. there is a downside to this and it's that it was clear the none of the characters in this game had moving mouths. 

i thought the game did a great job of not only introducing the world and the main characters in Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, but it also had a way for the main character to be underpowered, even tho Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero isn't the first game in the series.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 2 - Getting To The Western Keep

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. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

For Part 2 i wanted to try a different approach. normally, i show everything i do in a playthrough. but with the large number of random battles in Final Fantasy, i wanted to try cutting them out and only showing story progress. so whilst my recording was around 1 hour 20 minutes, with most of the random battles cut out it's less than 50 minutes! Let me know in the comments if this is a welcome change or if you'd prefer i stick to how it used to be. i may put up a community post asking for opinions.

Part 2, in terms of story, was also interesting as we got some things to do. We started in Matoya’s Cave and got a quest there. we visited Pravoka and defeated pirates, earning ourself a boat! next i visited Elfheim and we learned about their Prince and that became a quest. and finally we got to The Western Keep and found a King, who gave us our final quest.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Backlog Conquering - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - From Start To Finish On PS3

I have combined all 10 parts of my playthrough of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi into one story. This ended up being the story that gets the "normal" ending. there are many other endings available.

I have increased the volume of all parts considerably as the volume for this game was surprisingly low. You may have to turn down your volume a little

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/H-TuXJyK05Q

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hQJtjsH3jeo

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/DTXxfdyFOrg

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/Mu7t-UIiecg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/1olfaNjwmHM

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/h2Ut7OM9bA4

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/hH4X7IveNVE

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/3y6O0LYkyAU

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/qMTqhn8H4qk

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/54LofduFvBM

Cloud Monday - SkyGunner - Part 1 - A PS2 on PS4/PS5 Game Which Means You Can Save At Any Time

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing SkyGunner on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

SkyGunner originally came out on PS2 back in 2001 so this is the PS4/PS5 emulated version of it that is available to download or stream. These emulated classics are great for streaming from the cloud because of the ability to save at any point by pressing the "Option" button on the controller. 

The big question is whether or not the games are worth playing. SkyGunner is a game that looks familiar but not one i really remember. that could be due to the animation studio behind the cutscenes doing the Final Fantasy: Unlimited anime. it's safe to say it's somewhat obscure so having it come out as a PS2 on PS4/PS5 game is good. but after my first hour with it, i didn't enjoy the gameplay that much. 

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 1 - Getting To Matoya’s Cave

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.

The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. I  have played most Final Fantasy games that came out on PlayStation or later but i haven't gone back and played the first 4 games. i have them on PSP so i thought it'd be fun to try out the first Final Fantasy game. this version came out from 2007 and it kept a lot from previous versions. for example, it's mostly built upon the GBA version but updated with the PSOne cinematics, changed to widescreen, and with improved graphics and sounds.

To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. a great example is how the guide told me about going to the shops at the start of the game before i set off on my mission. i might've spoken with people in the town, but going shopping from the start wouldn't have been my first move.

Not too much happens in this part. i show off the XMB first before starting the game. then there's a cinematic that means nothing right now, and then it came to squad building. this i wasn't prepared for, i'm so used to playing a set team i wasn't quite ready to pick my own. so i took a few minutes to think it over and then the game started.

This Part shows the journey from meeting the king, saving the Princess, and journeying to Matoya's Cave.

Stories on Tuesday - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - Part 10 - The Final Part

Part 10 was the final part. because this game takes place during an historical event, the ending was always going to be a little sad. it was just going to be how sad would it end up being. first we had to deal with our Dad and his plans for Edo and with that done we chased after the Shinsengumi, but ultimately we only ended up finding out the end of their story. 

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/H-TuXJyK05Q

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hQJtjsH3jeo

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/DTXxfdyFOrg

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/Mu7t-UIiecg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/1olfaNjwmHM

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/h2Ut7OM9bA4

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/hH4X7IveNVE

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/3y6O0LYkyAU

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/qMTqhn8H4qk

Cloud Monday - Sonic Frontiers - Part 2 - It's Fine To Play In The Cloud But ...

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Sonic Frontiers on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Part 2 was a little rougher than Part 1 in terms of the streaming quality. When we checked the internet speed test at the end of the video it was better than Part 1. It was mostly Stream Tearing, when instead of a video we get grey instead. there were also instances of audio breaking up. it's not something i've noticed too much in past Cloud Monday videos so i'm not too sure if it was a result of the streaming or something the game was doing, like loading for example.

None of these were a big issue when it came to playing the game. with the wide open spaces sparsely populated by enemies, we're not likely to come across something if there's an issue. standing still and waiting for it to pass also won't be an issue as nothing hunts us down unless we get close to them. so the games deficiencies make it suitable for streaming, but it'll be up to you whether or not that's actually a good thing or just making the best of a bad situation.

QTE Gamers official rating is that Sonic Frontiers is FINE to stream from the Cloud but beware that you won't be able to do a manual save for nearly the first hour. the platforming is difficult regardless of the quality of the stream, and i kept stumbling upon springs and such. the lock on camera is rough and often requires manually readjusting. i have other issues with the game, but as it is some of it's negatives can work with being streamed from the cloud whilst others are already bad and would get worse.