Dusk Climber - An Accessible Game With Beautiful Backdrops And Daily Challenges - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Dusk Climber, from Ivan Onoprienko, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.

The game's developer got in touch and brought this game to my attention. Dusk Climber is unlike any game we've played for quite a while and it was that aspect that made me interested in checking it out.

I was greeted by a welcome message from the developer and it came with a gift. unfortunately, the game didn't come out and say that this gift was some of the games currency. as i played Dusk Climber we learned that it's used for retrying and for cosmetics. at the time, there were no clues as to whether or not this was a good gift but after playing it and seeing how slow collecting 100 crystals could be, i can say that it was a good gift.

This lack of information, or not providing quite enough information, happens throughout Dusk Climber. the game does have a tutorial, and an option to replay the tutorial, and whilst that's useful at the start of the game it wasn't long before i was being introduced to owl nests and safety ropes. For the owls, i eventually saw in the top left that reaching those created a checkpoint. But for the safety ropes, the game never said what they were used for. Another example would be how the App Store page showed the camp and save system, but when i played the game it wasn't until the final run when i stumbled upon it that i realised the Save Progress it was talking about was the checkpoint system rather than some pause and save feature like you'd get on consoles.

The tutorial was useful though. there were on screen messages as well, an early one being that some platforms are old and unstable or reminders that we've run out of stamina and need to touch the screen three times to pull ourselves up. Retrying is very quick, or continuing from a checkpoint is quite cheap. this meant each run i did, i went further and further. I finished this gameplay video by reaching the next biome and it was satisfying. By reaching this new area, i now have the option to continue playing from the first one and working my way up or start from the second one. If i get tired from that aspect of gameplay, there are daily challenges i can try too. There doesn't seem to be a limit on how many times i can try it either. Dusk Climber also has leaderboards and after my final run i ended up 18th globally. So there are various options regarding how to play Dusk Climber, giving it some replay-ability. 

The controls are simple and relatively straight forward. you can move your character by tapping the screen. by holding the screen and sliding your thumb you can see the arc of possible jumps and when it lines up with where you want to go you can let go and then tap the screen to pull yourself up. depending on which way i was jumping meant i would switch between my left and right thumbs. With no countdown timer, there was rarely any pressure to make fast jumps. it was nice being able to play Dusk Climber at my own pace and with the checkpoint mechanic it's possible to play it in little chunks, great if you're commuting. 

As i played Dusk Climber i had some thoughts as to what could be added, what could be tweaked, and what might need a little more work done. But as it is right now, i do think Dusk Climber is worth your time. for me, it's a style of game i've not played as much so in that respect it's interesting, but the game as a whole is worth your time and it would be interesting to see where the developer takes it going forward.

Version 1.0.6 Played

Cave Story+ On PC - Part 2 - 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.

Platforming continues to be the most dangerous aspect of playing Cave Story+, it got me a few times during this video. i've mostly been OK with the enemies, defeating them in one or two tries. But it's the platforming that's still taking time to get used to. i had to do some precise platforming in this video and the momentum my character has when they land caught me out a few times. It's like my character slides just a little when they land.

I'm still not all there with the game's story. it feels like we've interrupted their story and as we don't remember ours both sides to the games story feel incomplete. but we made progress with their side in this video. I ended this part before we get to make a bomb so there will be a Part 3 where we'll try to finish the rescue attempt we started in this part.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/GVjowJ8wdYQ

My Laptop Specifications:

Dell Inspiron 15 3525

16gb RAM

AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz

Integrated Graphics VRAM: 495 MB

Tetris 99 - 57th Maximus Cup - Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave - Switch Funday

There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 57th Maximus Cup is for the Switch 2 game Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. By getting 100 points, you can unlock it all.

I was surprised by how tough this was. i was knocked out in the first match 94th place in about a minute! It wouldn't be the first time either as at the end i showed that if i focused on building up i would be punished. what i noticed in this Cup is that the goal was to build low and focus on the combos. typically i feel like i'm able to start building up and then go lower as the match goes on. Thankfully, i got a little better as i changed my approach and ended up with a Top 10 finish!

Lumi Master - A 2.5D Monster Catching RPG With Great Graphics And Simple Controls - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Lumi Master, from Bilibili Game, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.

When i checked out this game's App Store page, the screenshots looked nice but didn't really get across how the game was played. So i was curious to play Lumi Master and see if it had a different take on the Monster Catching genre.

Initially, we're greeted with a download screen which is a bad first impression. there was no heads up, no warning, and even when it was downloading there was nothing on screen to say how much was being downloaded. thankfully it was over very quickly so it's not that much data, but it was still rude.

Next we're taken straight to choosing our Lumi. i went with the grass "starter" #Zorrat. the catch mechanic involves throwing cards at the Lumi. the better the through, the more your odds of catching the Lumi increases. as i played, i would obtain cards that increased the odds of catching them.

Moving from place to place was a little strange. there is no map or world we can move through. instead, there's only forward and it's done from the first person perspective. It's something i've noticed some mobile games doing this year, but Lumi Master is the first one of these that i've played.

In this video i play through the first couple of areas. the goal is simply catch all the "basic" Lumi to unlock the ability to catch "rare" Lumi from that area. once all are caught, you can move onto the next area. so in Lumi Master, the focus is more on the catching and getting them all rather than any indepth story line.

The game does have a character creator, but it's strange that i wasn't able to access it from the start. the game never pointed me to it either. i was exploring some options that the game hadn't introduced and found it. it's basic but does show signs that they're going to be adding customisations that you earn from progress or that you can pay for.

Lumi Master's tutorial was also surprising lite. Initially, it seemed useful. it focuses on the how to do something rather than any in-game "why" reason to do something. but at times it was too quick. i'd try to read the on screen messages and it was gone far too quick, so it's possible i missed an explanation or two. thankfully, we're told the basics and can play fine but when we get to the housing and battles, we may need to fail a couple of times to learn.

Lumi Master feels like a game designed for mobile use. i played it with just one hand. other than the battles, i didn't demand too much of our attention either. But if you have time, there are lots of little touches that help make it feel more "alive". for example, in the home area it's not a static picture. there's lots of little animations of the Lumi working and walking around. There's also extra information about the Lumi if you want to read it, but it doesn't feel something you have to do.

I enjoyed Lumi Master and feel it's a great 2D Monster Catching RPG. there's something for newer players, something for more experienced players, and there's still plenty left to unlock. On it's App Store page it talked about trading Lumi and that's something i didn't get to in this video.

Version 1.5.4 Played

Flamecraft On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Flamecraft, from developer Monster Couch.

Before i played this demo, i didn't know that the game was already out as a board game. i was drawn to trying it out because i liked how it looked. my only concern was that on it's eShop page the screenshots looked crowded and tough to understand. 

I started by checking out the game's tutorial. whilst it's great that it goes into great length and takes things step by step, it took around 35-40 minutes. thankfully, there is an in-game reward for doing it. i am glad i tried it, but i think i would've liked a little more help or reminders in the game itself.

The match i did didn't take too long, around 15 minutes. i didn't win it though. i came second. even though i didn't win, i don't really know how i came second. the game doesn't have a way to explain what happened. i was playing against two bots and i remember a point when both of them got more points than me half way through and the only way i was able to close the gap was by using cards that granted bonuses at the end. i would've liked, on my turn, a helper that could've given me some suggestions or at the end, a helper that explains how well or bad i did and what i could try next time.

Ultimately, i didn't play it wrong. the tutorial was good and i remembered enough of the basics to not finish last. i would certainly recommend players try out the tutorial. if you already have the board game, then this is a well implemented digital alternative that's suitable for situations like travelling on a plane or in a hotel. I would recommend Flamecraft for new players and those with the board game.

Cave Story+ On #PC - Part 1 - 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.

For the first time, Backlog Conquering is tackling a PC game. i have been using Steam for a long time and i have some games that i might've played a little and not finished or games i've not played at all. according to Steam, i'd played around 40 minutes of Cave Story+ over a decade ago so i really don't have memories from it. 

What's interesting for me is that the PC version of the game got updated to match the #Switch version of Cave Story+. So the music and graphics were very different from what i remembered the game looking like. i was initially concerned that my low powered laptop might've struggled but it played great. i was taken aback by there not being a tutorial and the jump in this game certainly takes some time to adjust to. But the music was really nice and i do like these modern graphical style to the game. i look forward to playing more in Part 2.

My Laptop Specifications:

Dell Inspiron 15 3525

16gb RAM

AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.10GHz

Integrated Graphics VRAM: 495 MB

Aniimo - A Bad First Impression, But Has Some Interesting Gameplay Mechanics - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Aniimo, from Pawprint Studio, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.

Aniimo describes itself as an "Open-World Creature Collector" and in this video i do get to see that side of the game. But it's not without faults. 

Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it immediately starts an additional data download. there's no warning, no message about doing it over wi-fi instead of a mobile network, it just starts it. The amount of data being downloaded is also large, coming in at over 11B. But even when that's finished, we still can't play the game as it has to prepare the shaders. in all, it took nearly an hour before i could even start the game. Then we're forced to sign up to the game, there is no guest option. i always prefer to sign up as a guest and then if i like the game i'll sign in with Apple. 

The character creation screen is next but i had a couple of tech issues here. there is a lot of fine detail to play around with and we could spend a lot of time here. but i had trouble with the costume aspect and then when i went to start playing the game it took me back to the start of the creator with an error message. I don't know why this wasn't dealt with when i initially tried to move on from this part, rather than at the end when i want to start the game.

With how long it took to download the additional data and install it, my phone was quite warn and the game decided to set the graphics to low. i didn't realise this until near the end of the video. there are moments when the low setting really does look quite poor. often some graphics would look out of focus or too soft. But this isn't the reason for when i got stuck against a plant quite early on. the game describes itself as open-world, but there are invisible walls to watch out. i got stuck on one and the game didn't notice. i didn't know how to unstick myself and it took a little time before i opened the options and found a way to manually unstick myself.

The last thing that gave the game a bad first impression was how, at times, the game was poor at telling it's own story. right at the start there's an example where it's clear that our character can't catch anything because we don't have the equipment. But the game then makes us catch something. We do have a camera and we use it a couple of times. but then when i want to use it, for no provided reason i'm unable to. There are moments like this throughout this video and you can hear me constantly questioning what's happening.

Thankfully, Aniimo has some really interesting ideas that made me want to keep going and seeing what it has to offer. for me, i kind of stopped caring about the story by the end as it was the game mechanics that i wanted to try out. a fun one is the #Twine mechanic. this is poorly introduced earlier when we're first up against boss enemies. But by the end it's revealed that the game will automatically turn it on when appropriate. so i was able to just run into water, Twine would then activate, and now we're one of our caught monsters, one who can swim. we can Twine with them to attack, to fly, or even to help capture other monsters.

This first look wasn't able to show off the House mechanic, that was revealed by the App Store. nor was i really able to do more with research. i also had a couple of eggs that i didn't know what to do with. What's important is that i wanted to keep on going, i wanted to see these things, i wanted to explore the world and find hidden chests. I also wanted to learn more about the monsters in this world as a couple of rare and powerful ones are teased to us throughout this video.

So Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it has story telling issues, it has tech issues, and it doesn't always give the player enough information. thankfully the game mechanics are good enough to earn a thumbs up. But this mobile version needs work and i would understand if people held off and waited for a few updates to come out for it.

Version 1.0.3 Played