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 Part is perhaps a little shorter than what the other parts will be. this video focuses on the first part of the first act of the game, basically it reveals the story and gives us a tutorial. it makes a fantastic first impression. it may not be 1080p, but the art style and the presentation with the stage are fantastic. it's all go at the start of the game so for quite a lot i'm quiet as i'm also trying to take it all in. i've never played this game before and after this fun first part, i'm interested to see where it goes next.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Space Ace via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
This was recorded whilst i didn't have a computer. This was made on my iPhone 14 Pro using it’s microphone, iMovie, and the video I recorded on to SD Card.
In Part 1, https://youtu.be/_16gd4HBGaw, i questioned if there was a manual save. at the time i couldn't find one, but in fairness Space Ace is quite intense when you first start it and it's possible i missed it then 'cause in this part i did find that there is a manual save option. this will be great if there is a disconnection warning but also if you're trying to get all the achievements.
I turned on infinity lives and completed the game's story, or so i thought. after i recorded this video i went back and and watched the whole movie and it turns out the story i got was maybe as little as 3/4 of the whole story. i imagine playing the game at the hardest difficulty unlocks all of the story, and that's how such high scores were recorded for this game.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG from 5minlab on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG is a combination of a few different popular mobile games into one. it has the limited item spot mechanic tied, there's a merge mechanic, there are RPG mechanics, and there's a strategy mechanic. what also caught my attention about Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG is that it was available for pre-order here in Japan. that's not too common so i had the presumption that this wouldn't be just any old Ai made game, that this had the possibility of being something different.
It starts strong with a tutorial that details some of the game's basic mechanics but i feel that it fails as a complete package. there are aspects of the gameplay that it doesn't quite cover and Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG suffers from the home screen problem that soo many games do in that not all aspects of it are detailed. at least it's not all unlocked at once and when something is unlocked we're pointed towards it. but this does feel a little ruder than the early tutorial in that we're told what to do but not really why. Something that this game did well was tell us what to do when we lost, that we should level up and get stronger.
The gameplay loop in Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG isn't too complicated. you pay, earn money, use it to level up, go further next time and earn more money, level up, and go further next time. but there are some nice ideas here. when you level your character up 10 levels, their rank changes, their base stats increase and reset to that new higher level, and you level them up again another 10 ranks. Later in the video we unlocked the gear mechanic which further makes us stronger, and near the end we unlock the pet mechanic which also makes us stronger but the pets themselves have their own stats, levels, and abilities. all these aspects are simple but i think they've been woven together in such a way that they compliment each other and don't feel overwhelming.
With the randomness of what weapons appear, there's the chance that Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG could feel unfair and purely luck based. but there are some cool ideas here to help mitigate that. you're able to re-roll the store or even use a power-up to make better items appear. you can fill your inventory but you still have a separate inventory that doesn't interact with the gameplay. so you're able to be more defensive or more attacking when needs be. items can be combined or you can lock an item to prevent this. Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG feels like a game that's easy to play but tough to master.
In all, i had a great time with Overgeared Hero: Merge RPG and will be keeping it on my phone. i feel like it's one of the better games i've played this year and would highly recommend people check it out.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Rune Dice, from developer Smart Raven Studio.
Rune Dice initially comes across as a great demo. we're greeted with a warning about it being early in development, we're told that the save file won't carry over, we're even teased by what the full game will have and that there's a bonus in the full game for those who play the demo. that's the best approach to take to a demo and i really do appreciate it.
The demo starts with the tutorial. but quite quickly it becomes clear that it's not so much telling us what buttons do what, and rather just telling us how it plays. quite quickly after the tutorial we're faced with dice and options we've not seen before. whilst it's not that difficult to work out what to do, the fact this happens so quickly after the tutorial really puts how poor the tutorial was into context.
In this video i played until i lost. i don't know how much longer the demo goes on for, but i guessed that the level i was playing on might've been the only one in the demo. the dice aspect of the game is simple to understand but i'm not too sure it's possible to really master it as we don't seem to have any control of them after our initial launch. there were times when the slight miss made sense and felt fun. but there were other times when it looked wrong and made it feel a little unfair. ultimately, i did have fun with the dice merging mechanics, but throughout the video i kept on thinking of ways that it could be done better, hoping that these ideas were in the game and were unlockable.
On the more positive side, i did enjoy the art style and i thought the music was good, too. even though it wasn't explained, i did enjoy the reveal when my run ended of how the game's unlock system worked. by doing things in a run a certain number of times, you're able to unlock all sorts of items to help the next run. it gave a reason for why you'd want to go back and try again.
overall, it starts out as a good demo but when it switches the game itself, there are aspects of the game that are lacking. i do think the game is fun, but maybe not in long play sessions. i could've tried again in the demo, but by the time my run was over i had had enough for today.
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 Classic version of James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod played on PlayStation 3.
I think 2 parts is enough for me to have an opinion about this game. i said it in the video that if i had this on Mega Drive there's a good chance i would sit and play it because we had few other games. but nowadays there are plenty of other games i could play. i wasn't really enjoying the graphics, music, art style and level design! basically, there was very little about this game i was actually enjoying. i will keep it installed and keep the save file, so never say never, but for now i'm done.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Space Ace via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
This was recorded whilst i didn't have a computer. This was made on my iPhone 14 Pro using it’s microphone, iMovie, and the video I recorded on to SD Card.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Card Crawl 2 from Tinytouchtales on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I've played a couple of games from Tinytouchtales, like Miracle Mart https://youtu.be/kpCxEvBWk4w and Geo Gods https://youtu.be/SeqUTw1sL_o, and i've always enjoyed the art style and characters in the games. with those two, the gameplay has always been solid but perhaps felt like it maybe lacked a little depth. But with Card Crawl 2 i feel like this has it all, it has the art, the music, the gameplay, the tutorials, and the depth that makes it a card game that's easy to play but hard to master.
Firstly whilst i did just praise the tutorial, it does fall just a bit short. it explains how to play the game and it's mechanics very simply. we're told what to do and it makes us do it. we're then tasked with beating a character using what we know before moving onto learning something else. that's done great. the tutorial also introduces some of the home screen, as by completing different parts of the tutorial more of the game opens up and more icons appear on the home screen. But it doesn't explain all the buttons. the Challenge Mode needs a tutorial as, from what i played, it seems like that if you don't play on Monday, it's pointless to play the other days of the week because there's a weekly bonus. also, the eye symbol was very unclear and i wasn't impressed that it launched into an advert with no warning.
Other than that shortfall, it's hard to find much else wrong with Card Crawl 2. maybe those who are great at the game may feel like they're being held back by having to complete tasks before things are unlocked, but personally i appreciate this approach. i agree that it may feel like it artificially lengthens the game, but it opens up the game in such a way as to not overwhelm the player. the better a player gets, the more they can unlock. if things are tough, it'll take longer but the player is also able to replay the easier stuff whilst retrying the harder stuff.
the gameplay is a little different to other card games i've tried out. in Card Crawl 2, you have a hero card. the goal is to defeat all the tavern's cards whilst making sure your hero card has health. the Tavern's Cards consists of monsters you have to beat, shields and swords you're able to equip onto each of your two hands or put into your one backpack slot, health potions, coins, and there are spell cards. so simply, use the swords to attack enemies, shields to defend from them, and spell cards to do both. just remember to heal when you need to, there are times when your hero must attack the enemy themselves. The coins act like a high score, so the more you're able to collect the higher the score. But what's really interesting with Card Crawl 2 and that adds a lot of depth to the gameplay is that you're able to remove any of the non monster cards and get money from them. this means you can get a higher score, but it also means you have less cards to deal with the enemy so the risk reward is real for those chasing a high score.
Overall, i highly recommend this game for those looking for a card based game. i'd also recommend this for those looking for some strategy. the art is great and will appeal to gamers, too. some may not get much more out of the game than the easy levels, but there's a lot here to unlock and master for those who enjoy it.
