Demo Play Thursday - KAMiBAKO on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of KAMiBAKO.  This DEMO, from developers Gravity Game Aris, is also out on PC via Steam.

The listing for this game on the PSN store is light on detail so it would only be once i started playing that i would learn about the game. or so i thought. in this hour i played, i didn't learn as much of the world and my character as i expected i would. but at least i did learn how to play the game.

That's where this game gets interesting as it has a few unique elements. the first one you'll encounter is how the world map is a flat 2d thing that your 3d character stand on. until you move onto a square, that the 2d map is broken up into, as then that square becomes 3d and stays 3d. it's fun what it happens but it also means it's easy to see where you've been or not.

The other interesting thing about this game is that you don't battle. instead, you manage the mana of your team mates. each turn of battle you can give mana to a team mate. once they have enough, they can unleash a powerful attack. but whilst they're waiting for the mana or instruction to use their powerful attack, they are still attacking the enemy. personally, i've not seen a game do this before but i have seen card games do something similar in that by using up a gathered energy you can put cards down. as it's different it did take a little bit of time to get used to, but now i've played it i'm interested to see how that mechanic works in practice.

The game wants you to use the mana and special attacks so makes it easy to gather it. you earn a small amount each turn in battle but you can also farm it from each square on the world map. it's here that we get the final interesting aspect of this game's mechanics and story. the world is suffering from fragmentation, this leaves areas of the map unpassable until you've fixed it. when you try to fix it, the world shifts to a room and the square becomes a puzzle on your desk. you need to match a certain amount of colors within either a time limit or move limit. once you're successful, the square on the world map returns to normal and you can travel on it.

This demo for KAMiBAKO does have some issues. they range from technical ones where the frame pacing feels all over the place to issues with the English script not reading right or even not appearing at all. there was one time where another language was on screen. But despite the many issues with the demo, i do feel it's a good demo as i'm interested in the game because of it's uniqueness. but the game itself does have issues, too. the demo shows there's a lot of copy and paste, whether it's map tiles, city buildings, or even character models and character art. the story isn't told that well, there's still a lot unknown and due to the English script not being great it even contradicts it self a little. so whilst the demo was interesting, the game could potentially still have these issues and that's why i'd wait and see if the reviews highlight them. it's possible that as this is a demo, the game will have been improved. but i have a feeling that the game will be largely similar to the demo.

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 6 - Completing The Empire's Space Craft

Part 6 of playing Gunstar Heroes on PS3 was interesting as it introduced a new gameplay mechanic. the first part of this video takes place in space. i'm in my space ship and the game is a side scrolling shoot-'em-up. for the most part it's not too bad nor too difficult. but it has one very weird control method. my ship always faces forward, so to change the direction of the guns i have to move the ship in the direction i want the guns to shoot and then fire the guns. i didn't really master it, instead i changed tactics to avoid incoming fire more than destroy them. 

the second part of the video takes place on the ship. it looks like it has crash landed so the action is similar to the previous parts. it's a short sequence before i had to fight 3 new bosses! each one, technologically speaking, looked great and interesting, but they all had their own frustrations. especially the first boss who had an annoying attack where it swept across the bottom of the screen, getting faster and faster, whilst machines attacked from above.

Defeating the 3 bosses is the end of the Space Craft section. so, to end this video i had a quick go at what looks like the final level of the game. it's a boss rush mode with some tricky platforming between each boss. it looks tough!

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Athena Helios Cup Revival - Achievement Run

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 Athena Helios Cup Revival! (2023/10/2 9:00～2023/10/9 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Athena Helios Cup Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/Axk_VmmcLE0. back in the day, this was one of my shorter videos.

This week was as competitive as recent weeks, as you can see below there weren't too many other players online when i was playing. the rules this week were simple, make a + shape. But it also felt like the enemies health was also upped so i didn't seem to make too much progress. a couple of games didn't go well for me, but for most of it i was still competitive and finishing in the top 3. It didn't look like many other players managed to beat the boss this week, i didn't, but i did get to the boss a few times.

This week i played against:

マロン - Rank 69

ころん - Rank 72

ほれぁ - Rank 76

キグナス - Rank 67

Cloud Monday - West of Dead - Part 2 - A Great Game To Stream From PlayStation Plus

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing West of Dead from Upstream Arcade. I'm playing this game on the PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service.

Part 1 did go too well. you check out that video at https://youtu.be/KltyL6NREyA, but long story short, the game was fine, it was the cloud streaming service that caused me a lot of issues. i'd recommend giving that video a look as it'll contrast greatly against this video as part 2 was almost the polar opposite of part 1.

As streaming it was soo much better, i was able to sit back and enjoy the game more. i already recognised that the game design worked well on the service, so it was nice to simply play and trust that even if i got kicked off the service, the loss wouldn't be that great.

I made more progress and went deeper into purgatory. it was fun trying out different weapons, i particularly enjoyed a flare fun, and when i got the rune to travel from save point to save point i felt like it really opened up the possibilities and gave more reasons to explore.

There are a lot of positives with this game. the obvious one is just how great it looks. even when the stream drops to 720p or less, the game still has it's unique look. It controls well and is very responsive. the only issue i have is perhaps more a skill level complaint in that i just find it difficult to aim and hit enemies. i feel that i would've liked more of a lock on or perhaps a slight rumble with the controller. across both videos, my aim isn't great. the stories a little light, but i can give the game some benefit of doubt as it could also be that due to not being great at it i've maybe not gone far enough, or because the rooms are randomised each run i've just not found the place where i learn more about the game's story.

It's not the perfect game to be played from PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service, but it's certainly up there as one of the best. it suffers when the resolution drops and things become unreadable. but other than that, it works well. save points are frequent, but as it's a run based game, the only progress you'd loose at worst is just 1 run. as a rouge lite, i'd recommend it over Rogue Legacy 2 simply because of the more frequent saves.

Switch Funday - Tetris 99 - 35th Maximus Cup - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

For Switch Funday i went back to Tetris 99 to take part in the 35th Maximus Cup. This cup has a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 theme for those who get the 100 points needed to complete it. it took me 5 games to get the theme, with the 6th game being a bonus game where i tried to commentate and also play.

It's great to see how popular Tetris 99 continues to be. it took very little time to find a game. it's also fun to see how competitive the game continues to be. i didn't get to the top 10, but i got top 25 a few times. some games felt like they took a long time whilst others went by very fast.

Online Saturday - My Hero Ultimate Rumble - Bad Online Ruined The Fun I Was Having

Welcome to Online Saturday.

For today's video i tried out the newly released My Hero Ultimate Rumble on PS4 from BandaiNamco and Byking.

Other than what was written on the PSN Store page, i knew nothing about this game. but as battle royale style games are something i don't really play, i saw this as a good choice for giving the genre a go. i'm a little familiar with My Hero Academia/僕のヒーローアカデミア so i wasn't going to be too lost with who's who.

What's great is that the game starts off with two tutorial sections. they each take their time to explain, have an image of what buttons on the controller are used, and a little image showing what'll happen. it's very approachable. then the second section is a little battle against the computer where you get to try out all the moves you learned. the CPU opponents weren't dangerous no smart, so again it's accessible for people to try out stuff without the fear of other people. But, the first online issue occurred after completing the battle. it kicked me out of the game to the start menu and when i logged back in i had to do all the tutorials again, so i cut that from the video.

Once the tutorials are completed, we're introduced to the main home screen. each section has it's own small tutorial information box which is very welcomed. it also feels welcoming as it lets you chose whether you want to go straight into a game or explore the options. i wanted to check out the other sections and other than a sparsely populated store, it was all fairly standard with no surprises nor was i left with any questions. 

Getting into a game is not as straight forward as i expected. When you start looking for a game, it first tries to find two other players. when it does, it waits for all three to ready up. But, the game is often unresponsive for long periods of time. in this video, two of us were ready and the third wasn't. But there's no way to kick them from the team or to give up matchmaking. i was stuck waiting for the other player. it truly felt like i would have no other choice but to quit the game and this is a very big oversight from the developers. Once all three players are ready, the game then tries to find a lobby for our team to join. once it finds one, it places in it with all the other players, but only briefly as then it loads up the map. from this screen you can choose where you want to spawn in. once everyone has, it then reveals where all the other players are! i've not played battle royales before i so don't know if this is something unique to My Hero Ultimate Rumble, but it was fun when it was revealed.

Once i was playing, it was quite fun. we're all new to this game so it was also chaotic. thankfully, it's easy to communicate with your teammates by putting markers down and we used it quite well. the stages seemed big with different terrains and heights. as everyone was moving so fast, it took a little time to adjust and learn a new play style. but after a few minutes i felt like i was having fun and that each of the other characters were quite different from my own. And then, more connection issues as our game was ended early and i was logged out and kicked to the start screen. then i had to wait before the game was ready for me to get to the main screen.

That was the only online gaming experience i had. the game would fail to join a game and then would disconnect a third time, logging me out. by this time, i had been playing for nearly an hour and a half and i was getting frustrated so i called it a day. but i will return to the game.

It did soo much right. the tutorial is great. the home screen isn't cluttered and is fairly logical in it's layout and what each section does. the graphics on my launch model PlayStation 4 were great. loading times were about what i expected and so were the fans. i felt like it was similar to the Gundam Evolution games in that the character models look fantastic and accurate, in this case to the anime, whereas the world is a bit generic but still looking like as you'd expect. the controls felt tight and it felt and looked like each character was different. But the online experience wasn't great. you can play this game offline versus the computer, but i just can't recommend this game with the online as bad as it is. it's either due to demand being so high or the online just being a buggy mess. maybe wait a month or news via social media before giving this game a go.

Mobile Friday - Dice Kingdom - An Accessible Tower Defense Game Playable With One Hand

For Mobile Friday this week i tried out Dice Kingdom – Tower Defense on iPhone 14 Pro. this game is from 111% and is also out on #Android.

I wanted to play this game because i was curious how the dice element would work in a tower defense game. i had played Crystal Defenders not too long ago, https://youtu.be/CPxDtTKcWJY, and even though it's an older game in a different style the basic elements between the two of them seemed very similar.

So the dice are your units. they have different types. at first these are elemental, but as i progressed in this video i unlocked rarer types like sniper. so far, that's fairly typical for a tower defense game. the cool way that the dice are used is that the number on them reveals what level they are. it's a very easy way of visually seeing the levels of your units. Other than that, the dice theme seems more of an aesthetic choice rather than something that affects gameplay. 

the biggest surprise for me is how accessible the game is to play. it has useful tutorials, you're able to click on the dice and get a video showing how they attack, and it guides you very well through the opening stages of the game. it doesn't feel patronising either. a very cool way the game is accessible is managing your dice units. the game shows this in a tutorial, too. you can press a button and the game selects the best team and puts them on the map. a second button clears the map of your units. the final button auto merges your units. for example, two level 1 fire dice can be merged into one level 2 dice. When you can't merge the units any more, you hit the first button and your best team is placed onto the map. 

Whilst i was playing the game i realized that i was only using one hand. the game smartly uses the space available on the screen. there's nothing up top that the dynamic island could get in the way off, and it's the same at the bottom. everything i needed to click was down in the lower half of the screen and before long i was playing the game singlehanded. this coupled with how sort each of the monster raids are make this a great game for commuting. 

I recommend players get Dice Kingdom. it's very accessible, easy to play one handed, and not a bad introduction to the tower defence genre. the game has other game modes to help pass the time and by the end of this video i hadn't unlocked them all. there are a lot of dice units to unlock and find so it's a game you can come back to again and again.

(Version 1.1.0 Played)