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.
We didn't get much story in this week's video, but the hells we visited were somewhat interesting. the first one had the saddest, and most confusing, story so far whilst the second saw us facing off against enemies wearing dessert themed hats or back packs, similar to how the flower themed enemies were dressed during the hay fever hell.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.
The thing that stood out the most from Part 1 were the characters that the game kept introducing. it felt like not a lot happened in my first hour with the game. in this part, time wise in the game's story, more time has passed and it felt like we got to have some character growth for ourselves and we got a better look at how the game world works. We also got to make a couple more choices for ourselves and how they were handled in the game was how i imagined the choices i made playing out.
This week's game is Banjo-Kazooie and this is my first time playing it! I've heard people talk about this game for a long time and most often they've spoke highly of it, putting it up as one of the best on the N64. I've always been curious about it, but i never got it when it came out on Xbox 360. With it's sequel, Banjo-Tooie, being released i was reminded that Banjo-Kazooie was already out Nintendo Switch.
having tried out other N64 games, i knew that the controls might be the most annoying part of playing this but thankfully they weren't too bad. it wasn't great but it was manageable enough. that's not to say that Banjo-Kazooie doesn't have it's own quirks, i found it's momentum to be frustrating when it came to doing big jumps and trying it's roll attacks. but by the time i was finishing this video i was starting to get to grips with that aspect of the game.
Having heard people talk about this game for so long, things like the puzzle pieces or music notes weren't a surprise to me. But there were still things, even after all this time, that surprised me. you'll hear after i finish the first level how surprised i am that Grunty's Castle isn't linear, that it's full of secrets and small puzzles. i was also kinda surprised by how small the first stage was. i was worried that with all the collectables the stages would be massive and it'd be a pain to find everything. but i fond that first stage to be the right size and it's puzzles not too difficult. things could change with the later stages, but for this first hour or so it was very pleasant.
Banjo-Kazooie really makes a great first impression with it's introduction "movie", the tutorial area, and the first area we visit in the castle. i enjoyed the quips between each character, too. for me, i had such a great time with Banjo-Kazooie that i do want to play more. i'd prefer to play more with modern controls, but with the XBLA closed and Rare Replay not on a console i own, i may have to learn to tolerate the controls on the Switch Pro Controller...but i think it might be worth it!
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Angel at Dusk, from the developers Akiragoya and publisher Sanuk.
I'm not good at shmups so when i saw a demo for this one on the eShop i was interested in trying it as i hoped that the demo would give me a good idea on how it's difficulty is. but honestly, i wasn't expecting it to be as approachable as it was.
Angel at Dusk has a great tutorial that i would recommend to anyone interested in shumps. the game makes the point that this tutorial isn't just for this game, it's designed to teach players the basics of the genre. Angel at Dusk does have it's own game mechanics and not only does the tutorial tell us how to use it, it gives suggestions on how best to use it against enemies in game.
The demo consists of the tutorial, which is about 20-25 minutes, and the first two stages from the game's story mode. unfortunately, i can't really comment much on the story as it passes really quickly. there are text boxes, but as i'm not good at shumps my focus was on the action rather than the story as the game doesn't pause to tell it.
after trying out the demo, i would recommend Angel at Dusk to anyone curious about the shump genre and who are looking for a game to try. the demo is worth trying, but i'd recommend wishlisting the game and when it's at a price that's good for you i think it'd be worth getting. it has a fantastic tutorial, the options are cool as well as let you customise colors for many things, and whilst the game has it's own mechanics they never felt overwhelming. they were simple but effective, and due to the tutorial i was confident on how it all worked.
*There's no commentary from me, my audio software crashed 3 times and i couldn't save it.
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 two Belle's Hells i did in this video went fairly quickly and felt mostly fine difficulty wise. what was interesting were the little bits of story that helped flesh out how hell works but also that we didn't deal with the "big bad" when going to the second circle of hell.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.
This is a game i have started before, but i don't remember doing more than maybe the prologue and chapter 1. It's been so long ago i don't really remember the story, tho after playing this part some of the backgrounds and character designs did look familiar.
In this part i finished the prologue and did the first month of Chapter 1. there were a lot of introductions to, what seem to be, the main characters of the story. There wasn't a lot of back story revealed, but the interactions between the characters did reveal a little of the relationships/standings/friendships between them. so far, we've only had to make one choice in our story, but i'm expecting to make a lot more in the future.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Amedama, from the developers IzanagiGames and Acquire Corp.
The first thing that struck me when playing Amedama is it's visual style. throughout the video i try to say what it reminds me off, but i never succeed in doing so. in some respects, Amedama looks so familiar, but it also looks unique. the real question is does it actually look good, does it work visually. that i'm less sure off. i'll be honest and say that i didn't mind the character artwork and i thought that the backgrounds looked good. but i didn't like the character art, tho i do appreciate that for the most part people were visually distinct.
The trouble is, there's not enough variety. early on i started to notice that character art was being reused over and over again but it kinda got in the way of story telling. for gang members one type of artwork would be used, and then it would be used again for someone working with the samurai. it started to take me out of the world and the story telling and by the end of this video, it was starting to feel cheap or not finished because it just kept on happening.
By the end of this video, i don't think i understood the game. in the hour i played, i was following the story, but the game itself never presented itself as anything more than a brawler with a unique character control mechanic. the day system did hint that something was up with the game but i never got to the end in this video. there was one kinda bug near the end during the final fight i had where the boss character was able to hit me up and seemingly into the rafters. i would be stuck up off screen and unable to attack until i moved and fell to the floor.
Ultimately, i would recommend people try out this demo but they'd have to play more than me to get a better sense of what it is. the idea of controlling over people's body's isn't new, but i did enjoy how they used it in this game. But Amedama isn't for me. it feels cheap/unfinished to such an extent that it started to get in the way of the story telling and the world they were trying to build.
