Gurei On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Gurei, from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio.

When you start the demo it mentions that the game will auto save, but at no point does it actually say that the demo's save data will carry over to the final game. This demo doesn't say much at all about what it is. it wasn't until i died the first time that it became clear that at most there were 4 monsters to fight, and by dying later it was then revealed that even tho i couldn't face off against a boss, the game still counted it as defeated. this meant what ever boss you faced third, it'd actually be as tough as the 4th.

It's revealed that you can face off against any of the bosses in any order. i tried a few different combinations in this demo. each of the defeated bosses grants our character an ability or power. i personally found the shield to be very useful but by getting that first it makes the scythe and bow even more difficult to obtain.

The more bosses you defeat, the more chances of trying to beat the next boss you get. your health is also recharged before a boss fight. so there is a real element of strategy behind the order you try bosses. i found the snake to be a challenge so did that first. i thought the shield was useful against the bird so i did that boss second and the bird third.

Gurei looks great on Nintendo Switch. the controls felt fast and responsive, too. the only downside i felt in this demo was the loading times. typically in games when you can respawn and face off against the boss, the time between death and respawn is short. but here it's a long black screen. maybe they could've done something with the black screen to make it feel like it's taking less time. the example i came up with was our mask offering advice, back story, or general information.

Boss fighting games like this, Furi, or even Mega Man aren't typically games i enjoy playing. i enjoy their music and graphics for sure, but the gameplay style doesn't do it for me. that being said, Gurei didn't come across as a bad game. it's just the demo could've done more to sell it to me. i would've liked more information about the story, maybe a trailer showcasing examples of what happens later in the game.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 7 - Backlog Conquering

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

This was a mix bag kinda part. the first curtain call was tough with platforming that kept changing, for example sometimes you had to move quickly whilst other times you had to wait. The boss fight wasn't too bad. the other two curtain calls weren't as tough but the cut race section was still frustrating. But the story kept me going and i liked the kinda twist at the end. the next part could be the final part and i'm excited to play it!

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Part 4 - Act 3 - https://youtu.be/HFUUYC04mV0

Part 5 - Act 4 - https://youtu.be/0jql54duy8A

Part 6 - Act 5 - https://youtu.be/B6Gwpk6vgks

Sonic X Shadow Generations - Part 1 - Re-Released Nostalgia - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I played Sonic Generations on PS3 and finished it, so this is game i could've been familiar with. but as this is Sonic X Shadow Generations, i thought that this might've been more of a director's cut or remaster. from this part, it feels like they just re-released the PS3 game and attached a Shadow section.

In this part i focused on the Sonic Generations part. unfortunately, it's not 1080p on PS4 but it does look better and more crisp than i remember the PlayStation 3 version looking. It does feel dated. it talks about aspects of gameplay and then never tells us how to do it or where to go, or if it does it's late. the game's difficulty spike at Sky Sanctuary is still here, too. so i'm just disappointed this is it, but what's here is fine.

Sonic X Shadow Generations allows you to manually save in the home area, but whilst you're doing a stage there isn't an option to save. so if you get the 20 second disconnection warning, you can save in the hub area or quit the level and save.

I didn't have this issue much in this part, but there's a high chance that any video issues could impact my gameplay. visually, when things are going fast there doesn't seem to be an issue keeping track of what's happening. but i can imagine that things might be tough if there's macro blocking. the camera zooms out with Classic Sonic making the character smaller on screen which could also be an issue if the video quality degrades. We'll have to see what happens in Part 2 if i come across some issues.

POINPY - Re-Released As Free to Play, Could Do With A Better Tutorial - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried POINPY, from Ojiro Fumoto and Devolver Digital, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

It wasn't until after i played POINPY that i knew that the game had been re-released. i can't say i knew about the game before i started, but i did know Downwell and have it so as this game was from the same person i wanted to see what they came up with.

The App store page made it clear that this is a free to play game with no ads. the store page also mentioned about the game using a tip system for those interested. but i was surprised that inside the game itself there was no mention of this. i stumbled upon the tip feature rather than having the game point it out.

POINPY doesn't really explain that much about itself. the tutorial shows how the basic controls work but when you start the game it frustratingly adds elements not in the tutorial. this is probably a sign of the game's real age as it came out in 2022. the best games nowadays will have mini tutorials or information about the new stuff as we uncover it. here, there's nothing. this applies to the left and right of the screen. i'm sure i might've discovered them by accident, i only aimed right to see if the rabbit was something i could interact with.

It feels like POINPY has been re-released with little to no modernisations. the gameplay idea is still great, which is why i recommend it. but what's been built around it already feels a little dated and has been done better by quite a few games. it's unclear if there'll be any other updates to POINPY or if it's just been re-released as is. i've checked the latest press release i have for the game and it's not clear.

So as a quick pick up and play game, POINPY is good. but it falls behind the better games released nowadays with it's dated tutorial and general lack of information. this "souls-like" approach was more common on consoles whereas on mobile it's much less common now.

Version ? Played (Launch version)

Disgaea Mayhem On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Disgaea Mayhem, from developer Nippon Ichi Software.

On the eShop the game is described as an action RPG, but after playing this demo i get the sense it's closer in style to something like a Muso (Dynasty Warriors) or Poison Control, which i played on PS4 and completed as part of Backlog Conquering https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdgikQqtoXRk. That's not a negative as the controls in this game were very responsive and our character was quite fast.

This Disgaea Mayhem says it's bespoke made. we're given 3 maps to practice combat on. each map has a different location and different monsters to go up against. when we're on the map, it's clear that we're playing in a small area as most of the map is off limits. the task is simple, defeat 20 monsters from each wave and then defeat a much bigger boss monster. There is no tutorial, nor an onscreen prompt as to what the controls are. i don't mind a small bespoke demo, but it's a big miss to not detail the controls as in a couple of the areas the monsters attack quickly after we arrive on the map.

This demo really needed a trailer or screenshots as what we got to play didn't quite match up to what is described in the eShop. for example, it's eShop page has a screenshot showing off a game board looking location. the description talks about the female main character and what we've been tasked to do. But that's not included in this demo. If i hadn't read the eShop page first, i would've come away from this demo thinking that it's Dynasty Warriors Disgaea.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 6 - Backlog Conquering

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.

Our new game is the #PlayStation3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

it'd been a few weeks since i last played this game, as my copy is from PlayStation Plus and my subscription ran out, but thankfully it didn't take too long to remember the basic controls. during the first curtain call i didn't even loose a life. But that doesn't mean this part was easy. i don't think i quite understood the first Dog boss fight and a couple of times i found it difficult to do an accurate slam attack. Thankfully, the story continues to be fun and i really am enjoying it as well as the gameplay.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Part 4 - Act 3 - https://youtu.be/HFUUYC04mV0

Part 5 - Act 4 - https://youtu.be/0jql54duy8A

Digimon Story Time Stranger On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Digimon Story Time Stranger, from developers Media.Vision Entertainment.

The Digimon Story series of games has been reasonably well received, i have Cybersleuth myself. so i personally was interested in checking out the latest game in the series. as far as i'm aware, the games may not be tied together via story or location but i can't say for sure so please let me know in the comments how these games tie together, if they do.

This is a long demo that seems to take place from the start of the game. what's nice is that the game clearly tells us the save will carry over to the purchased copy of the game more than once. this video starts with the first message and ends with the message being repeated. What's also nice about this demo is that when you complete it there's a trailer for the game showing off many locations and a lot of Digimon.

We get to do the game's tutorial but it's presented in an old way. there's text on screen and when there are pictures used they're not gifs or videos. the tutorial feels basic, more so in comparison to many games i've played over the last couple of years. at least we're given a chance to use what it's telling us more than once. the game also reminds us to do a few different things. But the tutorial really doesn't cover most of the game's items.

Graphically, the game's main characters and Digimon look nice. but everyone else has no faces and their clothes are typically one color plus that color with shadow. thankfully, with these cut backs and more, the game does seem to run stable and i found the controls very responsive. it seems like a fair trade off, but the bright areas of the game might be a bit too bright for non-HDR tv's.

I think the demo fails to provide the "hook" to draw players back to it. it's a long demo, but i couldn't tell you the game's story or what seems to be a time travel mechanic. i don't think it gives enough hints as to what could be happening either. if i had to guess, the events at the start of the demo were "now" and the events at the end of the demo were before the wall was erected and a loop exists between these two points in time. i say it in the video that there was a better moment to end the demo because it would've left the player wanting to know what happened.

I do think this demo is worth checking out and it's possible your playthrough might be a little different to mine because of how the evolution mechanic works. i know i enjoyed the game enough to Wish List it.