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.
It looked like Part 8 would start a little slower but it wasn't long before we're accused of assassinating someone controversial, but important. our retaliation was quick, decisive, but we ourselves fell into someone else's trap and it was costly, causing someone close to join the Furies. once again we're saved from being kidnapped, too!
The Finals is a game i've heard people talk about, but as i don't have a PC good enough to play it (not just in terms of specs, but also the fact that my Laptop likes to restart/crash) and i currently don't have a PS5 it's not a game that was on my radar. i was surprised to see that it got a PS4 release a year after it came out and i was keen to give it a go, but also keen to see if the PS4 version felt noticeably lesser.
I decided to Live Stream my first playing of the game, but i did start it before to do any sign ups and log ins that might be necessary. So this Live Stream is my thoughts of the game as it happens. it starts off well with a decent tutorial on the main game mode. it ran well, looked great, and the loading times weren't bad. so it makes a great first impression. But it's second impression is rough.
We went from a simple, tiny tutorial map that showed how the game mode worked, to an actual game on a, in comparison, ginormous map with other teams and players. the tutorial hadn't told me what all my buttons do and it wasn't with team mates. the enemies in the tutorial were also extremely easy. This was too much and safe to say not only did my team lose, i personally felt terrible because of my own performance. Playing that game did unlock a character type, but again there was no tutorial. the third match was just as intimidating as the second. it was on a different map, too. and once again we lost and i was having a bad time with The Finals.
The fourth game was on another map but this time it felt like i had been matched with players closer to my level/skill level or that having someone higher levelled on our team really did make a difference. i hadn't worked out tactics, something again the game hadn't talk about during the tutorials, so all i knew was i had to get a vault to a cash out point. that was my main focus and it started well. this was the first game i had played where i felt like had contributed something.
But after this i was finally able to try something else, i wasn't being forced/coerced into doing what the game wanted. whilst this was great as i had the chance to play Snowball Blitz, it again also felt like i was being dumped into the "deep end," so to speak. thankfully Snowball Blitz was fun and a very welcomed break from banging my head against the game's main mode.
I did play more Cash Grab modes and more Snowball Blitz games, but it felt like i was getting better in spite of the game rather than because of the game's tutorial and helpfulness. but it shouldn't take an hour or more to get the basics of a game and start to feel useful. especially when The Final's came out in 2023. there was more than enough time to create a tutorial that builds up the game, one that introduces the game mode, the character types, and the home screen. i did not appreciate going from tutorial to game. i was not ready and i only kept on playing because i was live streaming it and making a video. if this was my own free time, i would've bounced. i wonder how many people had that same experience as me and just said no and stopped playing.
The thing is, The Finals isn't bad. there is something to it's gameplay look. there's just enough destruction to the environment to make things a little unpredictable and useful. one i enjoyed was using a rocket launcher to break a roof so the player from the opposing team running on it fell to the the floor and had to take a different route to an objective. momentum isn't quite as good as Titanfall or Mirror's Edge, but it's ok. i would've liked a little more aim assist/lock on with the guns but it often looked like i wasn't the only one having trouble. i also liked how, at the end of a game, i was able to see the game stats of my team mates and it was easy to not only compare my stats but also get a look at their customisations.
The PS4 version of The Finals is a great version of the game. in 2 hours of playing, the only issues i noticed were stuttering/buffering videos and one noticeable freeze. other than that, it worked great. But is The Finals a great game, that i don't think so. i would go so far as to say it's good, but that tutorial start to it is soo very rough it leaves a lasting negative impression that'll take time to get over.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried Wizardry Variants Daphne from Studio 2Pro and Drecom on my iPhone 14 Pro.
This is the final Mobile Friday game of 2024 and this year ends with a good one. i'm not familiar with the Wizardry series, only really hearing about it earlier this year when Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord came to consoles. So going in, i didn't know what sort of RPG it was or what to expect, but the screenshots on the app store did help as i realized that it might be a first person camera style game were you navigate an area step by step.
It starts off with a tutorial that's simple but it gets the basic controls across and it gives us a little time of using the them before the twist happens and we start the game proper! Then, around 8 minutes into the game we're greeted with an extra data download scenario. i'm not a fan of these and Wizardry Variants Daphne has good and bad points about this. the bad point is that for those who download the game, start it to check for a download and find there isn't one, they're going to find out that there's extra download once they've left Wi-fi. most games with extra data do it before the game starts, having it around 8 minutes into gameplay is different and maybe not something mobile players will be used to. on the other hand, the way it's incorporated into the story is brilliantly done and not only that they have smartly covered up the extra download with a questionnaire that helps with creating your character. my character creation was done just moments before the download finished so i got to see some of the trailer that runs afterwards. it's a risky move having such a different extra data download section and i commend the devs for trying it. but i can't help but thing that letting players download it from the start, before the game starts, would also be an option.
Another one of these is seemingly the inability to change the game from right handedness to left hand. i played most of this video with just my right hand and it feels like the game's been cleverly designed around mobile play with a single hand. so not having an option to switch things up from right to left does seem a little weird. Another odd choice is how the text and speech are done. i was surprised by how much of the game is voiced, but when you start the text appears in the bubbles far slower than how it's spoken. it's so much slower i started to get frustrated by it and it really slowed down the gameplay. i think this needs to be clearer in the options or even something that we can choose before it starts, like the handedness i mentioned earlier.
Other than those mostly small things, the game is great. in a way for me, surprisingly so. for how good i thought this game was, i'm surprised that i've heard no one talking about it. i thought the music was great, from the background stuff to the fighting music, it was all nice to listen to. the controls are simple and accessible, to the point where the game's basic tutorial was actually all i needed. gameplay is also simple to understand and graphically it was great. there's some fantastic art, in game graphics, and i actually thought some of the character art was the best looking stuff in the game.
This video is longer than most Mobile Friday videos because the story grabbed me. it's a fantastic first hour with an very early twist to keep our attention and we were in two different areas. i wanted to see what happened next and something kept happening. there's our first story, our second story, what ever happened to our companion, what happened to the king, and the overarching story of what happens every 100 years.
One nice thing i didn't know was in the game was it's Gacha mechanic. like most good mobile games, they found a way to have one if Wizardry Variants Daphne that fits into the game's story. our character has an ability and we pick up bones early on. by the end of the video we find a place where we can use both and there we have new party members. in a way it's a little strange, but the video we get to watch as it happens is unlike any other gacha i've seen and yet it all fits into the game we've been playing perfectly.
I highly recommend Wizardry Variants Daphne. i think it's an approachable RPG for newcomers, it's well designed for mobile gamers, and for someone like myself who's never played a Wizardry game i never felt like i was missing something. you'll need to play to get the extra data download out of the way, but after that it makes a fantastic commuting game.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Fantasian: Neo Dimension, from Mistwalker and Square Enix.
In January 2023 i played the Apple Arcades version of Fantasian, https://youtu.be/RV_P04gnnKI, and i had two main issues with that version that have been fixed with this new console version. i found the touch controls to be too restrictive on my iPhone screen and with the screen being so small i found the text bubbles to be in the way. thankfully, neither are an issue at all. Fantasian: Neo Dimension does retain the save crystal mechanic and whilst it feels appropriate for the era of RPG the game seems to be aiming for it still feels old. the does appear to be a decent checkpoint system that i hope is also some sort of autosave, but i didn't get to try that out in this video.
As a demo, the save system has another frustration in that at no point does the demo say if the save file will carry over to the final retail version. the home screen clearly says that this is a demo and there's a link to get the game from the #eshop. but we, the player, don't know how long this demo is, if it's the full start of the game or an edited experience, nor do we know if our save will carry over to the final game.
And that will probably be important as like the time when i played it on Apple Arcade, the first hour of Fantasian: Neo Dimension is quite decent. i know after playing it i'm interested in continuing the story. i didn't get to the end of the demo in this video but i do feel like i got to experience quite a lot, enough to make a judgement call on whether i want to get the game or not.
Graphically, this Switch version doesn't feel like a downgrade. at no point playing this version did it feel like i was playing a lesser version of Fantasian: Neo Dimension. one great way this comes across is the quality of the video in the cut scenes. another way is how crisp and clear the text is on the screen. it feels like effort was made to make sure things were clear on Switch, and not small due to the resolution difference the PS5 version might have.
Saves were quick, loading was acceptable, and i found the controls to be simple and decently enough explained. the tutorial aspect of the demo does have text on screen but at least this time there are a couple of pictures to go along with the text. This way of doing a tutorial is starting to feel old as more and more games either use videos or gifs to show what the game is trying to teach. there were only two instances where more tutorial would've been nice and that's when there was a down arrow on the text box in the tutorial when it actually wanted an "A" button press and when the hand symbol appears on screen, again pressing "A" is required.
I think this demo for Fantasian: Neo Dimension is successful, not because it's a bespoke demo made for the game but because the start of the game is quite accessible and offers enough story and tutorials to keep the player going back for more.
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.
Part 13 feels like the beginning of the end. the animosity i felt from the White Poisonette at the end of 12 carried over and developed into a full on fight. but then it took a turn that i didn't see coming, a character appeared we all thought was long dead. the story of White and their Partner tugged hard on the heart strings, but with this new character there wasn't time to mourn as we had to try and survive. this is a much longer video than normal as the story kept on coming.
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.
Part 7 was just as busy as Parts 5 and 6. it starts with the repercussions from Part 6 and the Shinsengumi suffering from it. next a surprise guest comes to visit and just tells everyone the secret we've been suspecting. they do offer to keep us safe but we disagree, and that might've been a mistake as once again our life ends up being in danger!
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried Age of Empires Mobile from TiMi Studio Group on my #iPhone 14 Pro.
I’ve known of the Age of Empires series for a long time, it’s always been a game I’ve been curious about but I’ve never really had a PC/Laptop that could tackle it. When I saw there was a mobile version, I was really curious as to what they were going to do. Would it be a straight up PC port, would be a bespoke version of the game. Well, after trying out this mobile version, what ever it is I’m no longer interested in trying out other games in the series.
I say it in the video, but this must be one of the best looking bad games I’ve played all year. Bugs aside, the game has issues throughout. However, it starts really strong setting up what I expected to be an interesting story and that’s essentially the last time I saw the story in this one hour video.
Age of Empires Mobile has this issue where it introduces something and then never brings it up again or never explains it. I’ve mentioned the story, but there are gameplay elements. There was a need for a scout, and it never happened again. There are bodies strewn about that we talk about but never acknowledge. We start in someone’s abandoned house but only spend a few minutes there as suddenly a whole town, with castle has been built, but not by us. Tho later we are able to put down things to be built, but it’s once everything has been built.
Another issue is the game failing to answer the question “why”. This happens throughout this video so I’ll keep it to two. The first gameplay mechanic is our boat. I never built it. It was never introduced. It was just there and were tasked to go to an island and beat the bad guys there. Once done, we start earning a coin. Again, it’s never introduced what that coin is used for or that we earn it per hour.
We start the game with a French hero. We have play as that character in a very medieval European world. The game has built a medieval European town for us. And then the game stops and we can change civilization. WHAT? I don’t know why, it’s never told. I have no idea why and it was extremely frustrating at the time. I picked England, as I’m from England, and the game continues as if nothing has happened and it’s not discussed.
Age of Empires Mobile feels like a game with many parts that are not connected. It doesn’t feel like an accessible game for new players, either. I don’t know how fans of the series would react to this game, it doesn’t feel like it was designed for them either. So I don’t know who this is built for, and as it is it’s not worth playing as in a way, do we even play it beyond pressing a button to complete a mission.
