Demo Play Thursday - Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf DEMO On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, from developers Wishfully Studios.

I hadn't heard of this series before so i hadn't played it. with it being a sequel, there's always the concern that you need to have played the first game to fully understand what's going on. but with this demo, that's not important as the developers have given us somewhat of a unique demo, or at the very least a style of demo i have rarely come across.

In the Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf DEMO, instead of spending a lot of time at a specific point in the game, we're treated to 5 segments from the game. the first four focus more on the game's puzzle platforming mechanics and are set outside but the final one has us using that knowledge and more in an indoor setting.

i thought it looked great and the music was nice too. the puzzle platforming wasn't too hard to work out either. often, things of interest are slightly highlighted by light. what also helps is that the section you're in is often small so there aren't too many factors to worry about. but as this demo isn't from the start of the game, there were a couple of times where it took a bit of time to work out what to do. i have to imagine those who played the first game and those who start this game from the beginning will have a greater understanding as to what both characters can do. as i didn't, there was a fair bit of trial and error and process of elimination. for me, it wasn't troublesome as the game has a very quick restart and very generous check pointing. but i wonder if an easy difficulty could be introduced that would offer more hints as to how to interact with the world. for example, i didn't realise my companion could use their powers and become/take over other animals but a prompt, perhaps shown as a memory, would've helped a lot.

I did enjoy my time playing Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf. the difficulty felt right and the characters and world were interesting. the demo ended with a trailer showing much more of the game. but i do come away with little to no idea what the game's story is all about but i don't think that detracts from the experience. i'd recommend trying this demo if you're interested in the game.

Backlog Conquering - ToeJam & Earl On PS3 - Part 2

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 PS3 version of ToeJam & Earl. this version came out in 2012 as part of the Sega Vintage Collection and was developed by M2. Prior to this playthrough, i hadn't played ToeJam & Earl before but on Mega Drive i had played ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. 

Part 1 was mostly me learning what the game is. i knew that it was different to ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, i just didn't know how. after that video, i understand better what it is i need to do and how to play it. So in Part 2 i set out to find all my spaceship parts. i made quicker progress this time and still found new power-ups. I'm also saving more during this playthrough. i haven't edited that out of this video so let me know in the comments if you'd prefer that i cut when i save in future parts.

Check out the previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/AA7N46YYLbQ

iPhone Friday - Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG - Solid And Fun Crane Gameplay But A Little Buggy

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG from Hexpion on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I had seen adverts for games with a crane mechanic for a few weeks now. it's an idea i hadn't thought of before and i was genuinely curious about it. the games i had seen didn't look like the originator of the idea and were just copies or spam. i think Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG might be the first game to have had the crane mechanic but if i'm wrong please say so in the comments, and i'm a little unsure if this game came out this year or right at the end of 2025.

The game starts with a decent tutorial but like many games i've played recently it ends a little too soon whilst new things are still appearing. it's possible it'll come back when new features are unlocked. it's also possible that the game crashing might've caused the tutorial to end but i doubt that.

Whilst the music and sound effects are fine at best, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed the game play mechanics. there is actual strategy to the gameplay. Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG is smart by showing what the enemy is going to do on their turn. because of this, we know what items we should focus on trying to obtain. when the enemies are going to focus on shields, we can focus on picking up weapons or healing ourself. when the enemies are going to attack us, we need to focus on picking up shields. what i found fun, though i can understand if you find it frustrating, is that there's a little unpredictability with the claw as to how many items it'll pick up, will it hold, or will we have some crazy luck.

Version 1.1.2 Played

Demo Play Thursday - Back to the Dawn DEMO On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Back to the Dawn, from developers Metal Head Games.

Back to the Dawn is a style of RPG that i'm not familiar with so it having a demo is welcomed. going into this demo, i didn't know what the expect other than that it would take place in a prison and that there's some sort of "relationship" mechanic.

i'll admit that i came away from this demo not wanting to go and get the game. in this long video, essentially one day had passed. the pace was very slow and whilst i had no issues with the setting of the game, the things we had to do seemed a little boring. i also felt that there was little guidance,. for me, someone who has little to no experience of this style of RPG, i would've welcomed as much help and hints as possible. with no way to change the difficulty, i feel that Back to the Dawn isn't best for new comers. i don't know how much longer this demo was, nor do i know if this demo had cut any story from the start of the game. very little information is given that this is actually a demo. a final example of how the game could do better with messaging is the options. there is a color blind toggle but no information or examples on what the changes are.

the art and the music were great. i would've liked a little more animation from the characters though. it did feel like stuff was happening but the characters weren't animating it. an example in the hospital is that on screen it says one character is using the intercom to talk to us, but looking at them it looks like they're doing nothing. the same applies to when characters talk, it didn't look like their in-game models were actually talking. there's such a high level of detail in the characters and art style that meant that this was more noticeable than expected.

Backlog Conquering - ToeJam & Earl On PS3 - Part 1

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, now that Anthem is finished, is the PS3 version of ToeJam & Earl. this version came out in 2012 as part of the Sega Vintage Collection and was developed by M2. I have not played ToeJam & Earl before but on Mega Drive i have played ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. Going in to this, i knew that the two games were different, i just didn't know how different they actually were.

So this part is mostly me exploring what ToeJam & Earl is. i try out all the buttons, make mistakes and learn from them. i mostly worked out what to do and how to play it. unfortunately, i did die but i hope to take everything i learned in this part and make a proper go of it from Part 2.

Stories on Tuesday - Fatal Twelve - Part 4

The new Stories on Tuesday game is the PlayStation 4 Disc version of Fatal Twelve from Sekai Project and aiueoKompany.

Part 4 starts of slow but we soon find another individual taking part in the Divine Selection. thankfully, this time things are less violent but they're still sad. we hear their story and i choose to take care of them for a few days. When it comes to voting, things get a little heated and when we're done our friendship looks to be in danger.  

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/U-1z9NQScOI

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/4to_h0qQNJk

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/DABu5Oz2hJY

iPhone Friday - Tank Pack Attack - A Grindy Economy And Low Quality Music Hold Back This Merge Game

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Tank Pack Attack from Fattoy Game Technology on my iPhone14Pro. 

There are a lot of merge styles games on phones. many have you combine items to make a new item. i'm seeing more games that have taken that merge mechanic and applied it to levelling troops. in both instances, there's often a large play area so there are a lot of things to merge. with Tank Pack Attack the space to place items and troops is much smaller and requires a little strategy and luck.

The tutorial at the start is quite good. it goes step by step explaining how to play the game and takes you through your first run of the game. when the run ends, it continues by explaining what to do with the loot you got. once things are leveled up, it's back to do another run. it's a simple enough routine and as you can play this game one handed Tank Pack Attack is a decent game to play whilst commuting. the problem is that the loot you get is quite slim and the amount you need to upgrade means you may have to do 5 runs to upgrade something from level 1 to 2. i remarked whilst playing that the game's economy doesn't feel quite balanced.

One issue is that whilst the game has a good tutorial for the gameplay side, it failed to point me to the daily achievements and the rewards you get from doing them. had i known earlier in the video about it, i would've been less frustrated with the game's economy. but i didn't know about it until right at the end and so for me it felt unbalanced.

There's one more thing about Tank Pack Attack that felt noticeably bad and that's the quality of the audio. as someone who grew up in the MiniDisc and MP3 era, i'm familiar with low bit rate music and in this game it sounded like it was 64kbps at best! i'd recommend turning the music off, it sounded far to rough to enjoy.

It's unfortunate that these two issues are as big as they are as the game was fun to play. i wanted to see more, but i would've had to grind several runs to level up items to progress to the next area. Tank Pack Attack uses an energy system, but doesn't say how long it'd take to recharge it, so there's always the chance i'd run out of energy trying to get to the next area. Tank Pack Attack is fine for the daily commute. the little and often approach would probably work well with this game.

Version 1.2 Played