Demo Play Thursday - Chants of Sennaar on Nintendo Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Chants of Sennaar. i was very curious about this game when i saw the screenshots on the Nintendo Switch eShop, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Chants-of-Sennaar-2370366.html, as they looked too good to be true. i don't mean to put down the graphical abilities of the switch, but these screenshots looked so crisp and the clear that i wanted to see if it's true.

I can honestly say this game looks amazing on Switch. The demo has it's own language and your main character doesn't know it. by using the context of when people talk to you and what you're doing, you can make notes as to what symbols of the language relate to what activity. your guess is in your language, so for me it's in English. when you're correct, the color changes and when you're wrong your guess is still used to try and understand what's being said. it worked soo well right up to when you can guess which symbol means what action. there's no hint if your guess is correct. in the demo you have a few actions and many symbols to chose from, but the game won't tell you if any of the guess are correct unless you get all of them correct. this was annoying as i don't know if i'm meant to fully understand or not. i feel that it needs a little more interaction with the player or at the very least an option for a hint for those who might obsess over it.

What made this demo stick out in my mind is how i wanted to keep on playing after it was done. i knew what i was going to do with my language notes in the next section and i wanted to see more of the world. the only issue with this in this demo was that, and i could be wrong, i couldn't see a message anywhere saying that my save would be carried over to the main game. If you're curious about the game or just looking for something different on Switch, i highly recommend trying Chants of Sennaar out.

*1st September UPDATE: rundisc have confirmed via X that "Concerning your question: yes, I can confirm that the saves from the demo will be usable in the final version of the game!"

Backlog Conquering - Gunstar Heroes - Part 1 - Completing The Ancient Ruins

Gunstar Heroes is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. it was a downloadable game that was developed by Backbone Entertainment as part of SEGA's Vintage Collection.

All the other SEGA Mega Drive games i have on PS3 i have either played on the Mega Drive or i played on PS3 when i bought them. Except this one. i don't know why, but i bought but never actually played Gunstar Heroes. I knew the game is highly regarded, but i didn't remember what the story was or what was going to happen when i started the game.

I was greeted by a screen where i could select my character's color and shooting style. the color is easy to understand but, after playing the game, i'm not sure i fully understood what the differences were between them. i chose the one that sounded like i could move and shoot. Then there's a stage select screen, again something i wasn't expecting, where i could chose between 4 stages. i didn't know if there's a "perfect" order to do them in so i just went with the first stage. I was not expecting to be dropped into a gun fight! the action starts fast and hard and it caught me off guard.

The game is fast, the action is frenetic, and the music fits. it was a lot to take in. the game then surprised me by having more than one boss in a stage! the boss battles seem to also act like a checkpoint. i found that out as health is scarce and i died often. thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a limit of continues. But i can't seem to pick up health easily. i have no idea why, but it's something that game hasn't mentioned how to do. in the menus, there are some tips but nothing that acts like a tutorial. the game does throw you in  and it was a tad intimidating. But the experience as a whole has been pleasant enough that i'll do a second video for this game and hopefully more.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Ruel Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Ruel Cup! (2023/8/28 9:00～2023/9/4 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the first "Revival", where i am doing a Cup i have played before. In fact, that Ruel Cup was the second video i ever recorded for the revival of QTE Gamers! you can check out that video https://youtu.be/YiYYxqtWpIY. it's nearly twice as long as this one, so it's nice to see that i have improved.

But it wasn't a fun cup. i don't enjoy the gimmicks where the balls change color. I only managed 1 win this week and kept getting stuck on the 5th boss. i didn't manage to beat the main boss either. i didn't play against many other players, but they were high level and made me try my best. but i don't think i quite grasped the gimmick so i didn't do well.

This week i played against:

☆REI☆ - Rank 71

HIROKUN - Rank 76

おじゃる - Rank 78

Special J - Rank 56

Bitz - Rank 55

プワゾングロウ - Rank 73

Over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers, there's an exclusive tier where members can watch individual matches of my top Puzzle & Dragons finishes before they go live as a YouTube Short. There'll be one extra on Ko-fi that won't be on YouTube as a short for the public to see.

Cloud Monday - Cursed to Golf - Part 1 - Frustrated By Wrong Button Prompts

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Cursed to Golf, a game from Chuhai Labs, on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service.

I chose to play this game as, even tho i don't play nor watch Golf, i'm surprisingly interested in new gameplay mechanics of Golf. for example, I did a video on RPGolf, https://youtu.be/s0g33alW1Go, which also has a fun RPG take on golf. I was disappointed by the game play mechanics, but a huge issue for me was that the on screen button prompts never matched what my controller did. This was a huge barrier and there's a section where it want's me to stop a ball and i couldn't. i ended up smashing all the face buttons and it worked. But this was hugely frustrating and it did sour my experience with the game.

I was a little annoyed that practice wasn't a tutorial, but thankfully the game does ask when you start the story if you want to do the tutorial. But i actually failed the tutorial and was confused when the game just let start. i would've thought that it would've asked if i wanted to try again. so by this point i had failed practice and failed the tutorial and was worried this game was going to be really difficult. thankfully i did manage to complete a couple of holes by the end of the video.

So whilst i was having trouble with the game, streaming it from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming was fine. i'd go so far as to say it was perfect. i never saw any streaming issues and controlling the game was fine, too! the game also appears to save after every hole, so if there is an issue at most you'll lose just one hole. Granted, these aren't your typical golf courses so it could take a bit of time to complete them. I don't think it's a big issue as the game seems built around playing the courses a few times and optimising them.

Switch Funday - Alien Storm - A Childhood Favorite

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week i chose to play a game i had on the Mega Drive when i was much younger. I don't think i ever beat it, but it is a game that i remember playing many times. it has a 1 player mode, 2 player mode, and even a wave based mode called The Duel, where you have to defeat as many waves of enemies as possible without, seemingly, any health or energy pickups!

In this video i try out the single player and The Duel, using all three characters as i played. It's certainly as hard as i remember it being but i also played it on normal. in the options you're able to change difficult, energy collecting effectiveness, and even if you have to repeatedly press the fire button or hold it down. So i, at the very least, recommend anyone interested in this game to change the difficulty to easy. 

For a side scrolling brawler, it has a few interesting game mechanics. there's a chase sequence mechanic as well as a shooting gallery sequence mechanic sequence. these three are used well to help give the game more depth than some recent side scroller brawlers have. I also found it helpful that my character and the enemy characters had big shadows under them so it was easier, than many recent games i've played, to judge where we all were on the horizontal plain.

I know it's not perfect, but it's not pure nostalgia when i say that this is an enjoyable side scroller and well worth playing if you have the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis app on Switch.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting August's Salmon Run Item

This month's Salmon Run item is the Retro Future Suit and like the other Salmon Run items, my goal is to get the item twice and pick the best of the two to keep. But unlike those previews Salmon Run videos, this month's challenge was the hardest i've ever done!

Mobile Friday - Campfire Cat Cafe - The First 40 Minutes

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Campfire Cat Cafe on my iPhone 14 Pro. I played the first 40 minutes, or up to where i felt the grind had begun, of this restaurant simulator. 

I have played a few of these types of restaurant simulator games now, like Animal Restaurant, Cat Snack Bar, and Cats & Soup. I would say this game is closer to Animal Restaurant than the other two as it has a story and the grind doesn't come as soon as it did in Cat Snack Bar and Cats & Soup. What all these games have in common is that the art style is great, all of them are different from each other.

As well as a story, this game also has a decent tutorial that isn't just explaining how things work but they also use it to introduce characters and their personalities. What was also fun about the first 40 with this game is how when the game started to feel a little grindy, a new character appeared and gave us something new to do, even if it's a little brief. It's difficult to say if this continues as you make progress into the game as this game is actively being supported and expanded by the developers HyperBeard. I do feel that the game could offer some information on how to get to the next story part. the game relies on stars to progress, you get stars by buying things, and you get money from customers ordering. But sometimes customers want a food you don't sell and the only way to know that is remembering the food you sell or clicking on the customer and seeing. the food icon above their head is the same color as those who want food you can make. so it seemed a little confusing.

Also confusing was when the Bakery section was opened. i was told i couldn't do anything as i didn't have an oven. so that became the goal. but i could buy things for the bakery, even tho it said i couldn't bake anything. there was a little misunderstanding between what the game was telling me and also not telling me. I feel that such empathises was placed on the oven that i was under the assumption the bakery was effectively closed until it was made. but it turns out that wasn't the case. which lead to more confusion as to what the kiosk was for. But once it was made, the story continued and the game opened up more with a new character level up section.

Even if that's cleared up in a future patch, the rest of the game is very polished and something i'd recommend. my phone didn't get that hot playing for 40 minutes and there was no additional download at the start. the game wasn't obnoxious with it's adverts either. i always had the option to view them for in-game benefits, but it was never forced upon me. If you're familiar with these sorts of games then you'll understand that it could be easier and speed things up if you do chose to watch them.

Demo Play Thursday - Oaken on PS4

This week's Demo is Oaken, by Laki Studios, on PS4. This game came out last yera on PC and this July it was brought to the PlayStation and Microsoft platforms as well as the Switch. i was interested in this game due to it's art style and i wondered how it would play. But after trying it, i don't think this is a great demo nor am i interested in the game any more.

There are positives to take away from the demo. it does look great and it's an art style that cohesive throughout the experience. Some of the gameplay mechanics on the hex grid are also very interesting. But this demo makes it almost bluntly clear that this is not an easy game.

The tutorial section at the start is very good. there are videos showing things, there is a lot of help, and it was very welcoming. Until i started to realise that the tutorial is lacking important information regarding the consequences of your decisions. This became very annoying because of how well the tutorial seemed to be doing. an example of this is when i leveled up i was given a choice of 3 abilities. but then it never explained what they did. when it came to leveling up my "cards", i was shown how to do it but there was no information about what happens when i do. If the tutorial is going to be so hands-on, it needs to commit to it all the way and maybe more as this is a demo for the game. it could offer tips on situations you find yourself in, rather than just warning about hazards and enemies. after playing this demo i came away still not fully understanding a few key things about the game. 

It was near the end of the tutorial when i started to realize this is a hard game as the difficulty ramps up quickly, as do the situtations the level kept putting myself in. once it was finished i was left with a choice, Journey or Relaxed. the game clearly details the Relaxed mode but had no information about Journey other than what we were taught in the tutorial about fatigue. i think i misunderstood Journey as i was expecting a more story focused game mode. The difficult ramps up even quicker and it has permadeath and i had 2 chances before game over.

And that's how this video ends, with a hard Game Over. i'm not sure how or why i kept dyeing. nor could i see a way to win. i came away from the demo feeling like the tutorial wasn't finished, the games difficulty was unbalanced, and so much of the game was left unexplained. i ended the video on the screen with an apparent choice between The Lady, a character i defeated, and Aya, the character i was playing as and assumed to be the main protagonist. i never felt like i understood what The Lady brought to the game, was i meant to play as her, use her, take her abilities? Ultimately, this demo helped me realise that the game isn't for me and that it may have some issues.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - My Journey - Start to Finish

This is, mostly, my journey through the RiME. i cut out a couple of sections where i got stuck for a long time, but left in moments when i was stuck for a short time or when i died. it was a difficult game to edit into one play through, especially as i had 7 parts to my journey. soin a few places, it's a little rough due to the edit or due to mistakes i made, but hopefully you'll enjoy my journey or at the very least find it useful.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition -Vajrabhairava Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Vajrabhairava Cup! (2023/8/21 9:00～2023/8/28 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

It was a very competitive cup this week. as you can see below, i played against many other players. I understood one of the gimmicks right away, making an "L" shape. but i took a little longer to realize that i could make a "+" shape, too. even tho i didn't fully get the gimmick, more scores were mostly competitive and i often finished in the top 3. But i didn't win many bonuses at the end. even playing it felt like i didn't have much Combo luck. I got to the boss several times, but i failed to do more than half damage and that's knowing what to do. maybe with another L or + the multiplier would've been enough to win. Thankfully, looking at the scores it was clear that i wasn't the only player having trouble. In the end, it was fun and i was soo relieved to get my Win. it's just a shame it was only 1 win this week.

This week i played against:

winstein - Rank 76

ころん - Rank 72

いのうえたかひろ - Rank 41

フウマ - Rank 67

あいすのけしん - Rank 67

コッペ - Rank 61

S.L.01 - Rank 87

たまねぎ - Rank 67

Elesia - Rank 66

ブロ: BR - Rank 68

しょうずにできました - Rank 45

みつるCH - Rank 70

Cloud Monday - Scarlet Nexus - Part 2 - Still Fun, But More Noticeable Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Scarlet Nexus on a launch model PS4. In part 1, https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg, streaming it via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service went really well with only one or two noticeable issues. But in today's video, there were more issues to the point where i got a connection warning. thankfully, it wasn't throughout the video, but as it was more frequent it also was much more noticeable than in part 1.

The game was still fun to play. the combat is fast paced and i didn't notice any lag due to the game being streamed to me. that was true with part 1, so at least the feel of the game holds up across both days. The story is a little slow and the world feels empty, more so in this video. near the end it says i'm free to do what i want. but, as i show in the video, there was nothing i could do. none of the shops are buildings i can go in, it was more like i was at point A and the game wanted me to go to Point B. so, in a way, the game's own story got in the way of gameplay.

Across both parts, a typical thing streaming does is reduce the resolution and i didn't notice it happening. for a 1080p system, the game looks great. but i do worry that if there are streaming issues that the resolution will drop and the game will be greatly affected. the text on screen is small, but for me fine. this and the game's unique art style and way it draws the neon stuff are the most likely to be affected by a resolution drop. We didn't get it, but what we did get in this video was just as bad. there was macro blocking, where squares of color appear instead of fine detail, and even more noticeable were the stream tearing moments as it's just light grey on screen.

I think this is a good game, but i don't think it's a great game to be streamed. i mentioned in the first video how the save system is an auto save and only at specific points. it's a system not suited to a streaming service were you get a 20 second notice of being kicked off. it's unique art style is also susceptible to streaming issues. I have this on disc and if i had to chose between playing the game on disc or streaming it from the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service, i would chose to play it from disc.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Trading Card Game - My First Time - I Had Fun

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the Game Boy Color game Pokémon Trading Card Game. I had a Game Boy Color growing up, the purple one, and i played Pokémon Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Pinball on it. but i never tried out Pokémon Trading Card Game. I didn't know much about it, other than guessing what happens by it's name. Now it's on the Nintendo Switch Online service, i was curious to give it a go and whether or not it would be worth playing in 2023.

I'll admit that i only won the tutorial battle. the other two battles i tried, i lost. but it didn't feel like i lost due to skill but rather i lost due to bad luck. The tutorial is good. it maybe a little too hand holdy for some people, but for me, someone who has never played the Card Game, it was what i needed. the only thing i would've liked is if the tutorial, or game, suggested where i should go with the deck i have. it felt like that it left it up to me, but i didn't know where to go. 

My first battle was against someone in the Poké Lab, i thought that it would be an easy battle as it's right at the start of the game. but it felt like a challenge. i had picked the Bulbasaur Grass Deck so thought the best gym to head to would be the Rock one. But i didn't really have much of an advantage. this game seems to be just Gen 1 Pokémon, so there isn't a lot of choice and my deck had Pokémon of many different types.

I'm glad i tried it out. i do think it holds up today, but i can't compare it to the modern Card Game as i've never played it. but as a strategy card game, it played really well. it's not just the tutorial that was good, but all the information you need is there, too. most of it takes a while to get to, but it's there. this game is slow, but it's what i wanted for my first time, and i could make it go a little faster in the options by speeding up text speed. Even the graphics looked great on my TV. all the Pokémon were clear and some of the card arts i looked at were also cool. If you have the service, i'd recommend giving it a go. i feel that the tutorial is good enough for those unfamiliar with Pokémon, and if you know Pokémon then i feel it'll take less time to get up to speed. i hope you're lucky tho!

Online Saturday - Tower of Fantasy - A Few Too Many Issues On PS4

Today's Online Saturday game is Tower of Fantasy from Hotta Studio. This game is out on other platforms and has been for a little while now. The game is now out on PS4 and PS5. Today, i played this free to play game on PS4 and unfortunately, there were issues throughout the video.

After playing this game for an hour i feel like it's done very little to introduce me to the world or the characters. it's fine that i have amnesia, but the introduction before that was a lot of nothing. and when we meet other characters, the game tries to introduce them to us but everything feels soo shallow. almost as if i should already know a lot of the things they are saying even tho they already know i have amnesia. This means that there are also several conversations where the other characters say things that go against what's happened in the story so far. it leaves me wondering if i'm not the only one with amnesia or if it's just poor world building.

Then there are issues with the game itself. i was expecting my PS4 to be loud, and it is. i was expecting there to be loading times, and there are. but i wasn't prepared for the stuttering that happens a lot in this video. i can't say for sure whether it's the game itself or the connection to the server as in this video that connection is lost twice in an hour. It was easy for me to tell because my PS4 would go quiet before the game realizes what happened and ask to reconnect. what has to be the game is the pop-in. it's everywhere and i'm sure there are even textures just not loading at all. there was an instance early on where there were candles. some lit up as i got closer. some waited until i was on top of them, but some stayed strangely unlit.

The pop-in is frustrating and does take me out of the world, which is a shame because the world is bright, vibrant, and impressive. and yet, it also feels small. we were able to traverse the map much quicker than i thought and the biggest tower felt kinda small and not quite matching the description of what should be on top. Something else that became distracting was animations not finishing. i set the game to playout the conversations at it's own pace. i wasn't going to interfere with them. and yet, characters seemed to be missing animation frames, seemingly going from having an animated conversation to finished in an instant. That's not the only issue with the conversation system, as sometimes it forgets it's set to auto and just stops, waiting for me to press X to continue it on the controller.

There are a few other things you may see, and hear me complain about in this video, but it all boils down to a game that fails to tutorialise, fails to build a world, and fails to be stable. it's possible over the next few hours the story and world building will continue to improve. but it's hard to ignore the tech issues and poor tutorial to get there. so for now i won't be playing Tower of Fantasy and i don't recommend it on PS4. Yes, it's free, but there becomes a point when it's still a waste of your time.

(Version 1.10 Played)

Mobile Friday - DC Heroes & Villains: Match 3 - Fun But Feels Like A Work In Progress

For DC Heroes & Villains: Match 3 i'm going to focus on the game i played rather than what it might be like in the future. In my personal experience of playing a similar game like Marvel Puzzle Quest, the game i played could be different to the game now. for example, check out the video i did of the PS4 version of Marvel Puzzle Quest, https://youtu.be/LnnYjORtSEE, and check out what the mobile version of the game is now.

Another reason why i want to make this point is that this game feels like a work in progress. the core ideas, the current gameplay loop is there and it's fairly enjoyable. But, it doesn't quite work with an iPhone with Dynamic Island, there's wasted space, and many things are not clearly explained. I also imagine that some systems, like the various "currency's" may get simplified in the future as it has far too many and none of them are explained how to earn, or buy, them. You'll hear my complaints and suggestions throughout this video and hopefully i'm able to get across my thoughts somewhat clearly.

There is a lot to do in this game, but the main focus is the story mode. I focused on that mode in this video. i tried a couple of the side stuff, but my roster of characters was very small and very under leveled. it almost feels pointless to have been able to access it this early on. The story is clearly much bigger than what i played through in this hour and i'm genuinely curious as to whether the game will have just one story or grow into many. i found it engaging and mostly plausible, but i admit i don't know too much about DC Comics' stories. But the characters where clearly recognisable. they didn't feel too childish nor too extreme.

The frustrating thing is that i was having fun and enjoying myself, but almost in equal measure i was finding it frustrating. what ultimately made this game frustrating and why i stopped the video where i did was that i couldn't workout how to level up my characters. i had taken Batman to level 3 and just couldn't workout what to do next. i wanted him to get stronger, i need him a higher level to get more abilities. But i just couldn't work it out. it ended up being one frustration too many and honestly i haven't played it since. But i haven't deleted it either as it's clear from the version history, in the app store, that it's getting changed and adapted and filled out. so i may come back to it in the future personally, but also as a second look video at all the changes made to the game.

(Version 1.0.18 Played)

Demo Play Thursday - UFO: Unidentified Falling Objects

UFO: Unidentified Falling Objects is the first game in a new series called Demo Play Thursday. The goal is to play demos of upcoming, recently released, or older games. i chose to start with UFO: Unidentified Falling Objects as i wanted to play a puzzle game.

I'm familiar with with puzzle games where blocks come down from above, or up from below, and you need to match them together. What caught my eye was the robot with a lazer weapon. This demo let's you play through a tutorial and some of, if not all, the first world of the game. online multiplayer is not enabled and i couldn't try out local multiplayer. 

The goal with your robot is to destroy blocks. the more blocks of the same color together, the bigger the reward for destroying them. you only need to attack one of the blocks as damage will be shared with all the same colored touching blocks. But this is also true with enemies! Whilst it's not explained well, if at all, in the demo how to deal with all the different enemies, an enemy block only has to be touching a block or a chain of blocks to be damaged when said blocks are shot. unfortunately, you're not able to hurt the enemies directly. So with enemies shooting you, blocks falling down, and your attempts to make chains and destroy them, it's a fairly busy and frantic puzzler. One that i'm not good at at all! 

But even tho i wasn't good, i had a good time. i feel that this is a good demo, but it perhaps needs a better tutorial or more explanations for things. There were powerups that i didn't know what i wanted as i didn't know what they did, and there was an enemy i didn't work out how to kill.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 7 - The Final Part

In part 6, https://youtu.be/1p_1m3GFPFE, i got stuck on a puzzle for around 30 minutes. if i solved it much sooner, i might've finished the game in that session. But as i didn't, i went into part 7 not really knowing how much of the game was left to play, and yet feeling like i was near the end of the game, that i was near the top of the tower i had been working my way up.

So part 7 is really short because there wasn't too much left to do in the game. I was lucky that the game, when it started, had moved me to where i needed to be. i finished Part 6 at the final statue i had awakened, but not where all 4 of their "spirits" had congregated. So when i started right where i needed to be, i did my scream, solved a light puzzle, and had to deal with the top of the tower being the bottom and then i got to the ending.

Ultimately, i don't get it. i say it in the video but the truth is i found it much more enjoyable tackling the puzzles and progressing through the world than what the conclusion ended up being. these puzzle parts of the game ended up being better than the game itself. The mystery of the king, the kingdom, the queen, and the other child were never explained, nor were the robots. if i had seen some sign of these at the end then i might've understood how or why they were in the world i had just played through. the story i had created in my own mind from my own experiences, which at times i say throughout this whole series, ended up being nothing like the actual ending. The ending i got didn't match the game i had just played. it's such a big disconnection that not only is it frustrating, it almost makes the game pointless to the point that i think of the game more as a series of puzzles than something with a story.

But that's just me and my interpretation of my own experiences. players from different cultures and backgrounds might have different feelings for the ending. I enjoyed the puzzles so much, especially that i was only stuck twice, that i would still recommend the game. probably best played on a PS5 because it really spun up the fans in my PS4!

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Ronoue Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Pixel Ronoue Cup! (2023/8/14 9:00～2023/8/21 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

I didn't win a single game this week. i played against many other players and they were really good. i managed to often get to the boss and beat it a couple of times, too. But my best result this week was only second. This week was one of, if not the most, competitive cups i have ever played in this series and it was a lot of fun. I was listening to music, @TheBTchannel's The Hopeful Machines that i had put onto MiniDisc (With Electronic Opus versions too), and i was leaning forward a lot. I nearly forgot i was recording a video as i was soo focused on trying to beat the other players.

This week i played against:

Hades - Rank 51

YUKI - Rank 87

Labin - Rank 67

ふたば - Rank 71

おちゃ - Rank 76

SWITCH - Rank 89

souta_そうた - Rank 59

アレルギーのおとこ３ - Rank 78

Dan - Rank 65

Melusine - Rank 81

エ - Rank 57

pyors - Rank 68

Cloud Monday - Scarlet Nexus - Part 1 - Fun Start, But Manual Saves Have Me Concerned

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing Scarlet Nexus on a launch model PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service. It's a game i have on disc and have wanted to play for a while as it's art style and combat mechanics look really cool.

Those two things don't disappoint during this hour. i noticed no lag in the controls, from what i pressed to it happening on screen, so the combat felt fun, fast, and dynamic. it's early on so i'm not too good at it but i 'm curious how it'll change as things unlock and whether or not there are interactions with another character. As for the art style, it's so unique and colorful with bright neon colors and particles that in some respects it was very noticeable when stream tearing happened and grey appeared on screen as it clashed with the game. But it also meant i wasn't able to notice smaller issues like macroblocking. Once or twice there were bigger issues but they only lasted for a second or two and never got in the way.

What was a little concerning for a game being streamed from PlayStation Plus Premium is how the save system works. the game does have an Autosave feature but in this hour i wasn't able to work out how frequently it saves other when entering or leaving an area or after a major battle. But the game, so far, only allows the player to save at very specific places. an example in this video is that it was about 17 minutes between these save points and a lot of story and critical battles took part during that time. I'm concerned as the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service only gives a 20 second countdown before it terminates the connection, whether your ready or not.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - August’s Tricolor - 16 Games and 11 Wins

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the  "What’s most important in life?" Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 15 games with 4 wins https://youtu.be/wUTQmGapjWE. Today was the Tricolor event and it went much better!

A big highlight for me was discovering a new weapon i like to use. after yesterday's video, i went and bought a new weapon the #Bloblobber! for the first 3 games i used my other favorite weapon, the N-ZAP '89, but all the matches after that were with the Bloblobber.

I thought that the connection issues i had yesterday were better today, in that the disconnections only happened in the lobby rather than in-game, but the waiting for matches in the lobby were just as bad if not worse. Plus, as you can see (On YouTube) in the chapters below, there were plenty of matches were it was just Money fighting with Money against Money. i put a "*" to show which team i was on.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - August's Splatfest - 15 Battles 4 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a #Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What’s most important in life?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3.

Today didn't go great for me. out of the 15 battles i did, my teams were only able to win 4 of them! there were some big losses, too. it has been a while since i last played Splatoon so i did feel rusty. But i also felt that in many of my matches i was teamed with others who simply wanted to attack, rather than do what's needed to win and that's ink as much of the stage in our color as possible.

I also felt, and mentioned it in the video a few times, that it took longer to matchmake this Splatfest than normal. Plus, there were disconnections during the game, of which i left 1 in the video at the start just to show what happens, as well as disconnections in the lobby. it has felt that the recent game updates have made things more unstable. i hope tomorrow's Tricolor event will go smoother, and better for my teams and I.

Mobile Friday - Sumikkogurashi Farm - The First Hour With Version 5.0

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Sumikkogurashi Farm, also known as Sumikko gurashi Farm: Gonna Make a Garden, on my iPhone 14 Pro. The game is also out on Android and whilst it's not new, it has been celebrating over 5 million players recently and in this video i started the game with the recently released 5.0 release.

Simply put, this is a game where you inherit a farm and it's up to you how you make it. the game's tutorial tells and shows you the basics, but stops short. once the tutorial lets go of you, the screen is awash of red exclamation marks, a huge map full of things you can interact with yet or aren't high enough level for, and it expects you to play. all the tutorial needed to do was take me to the Quest, Running Start, or Order sections, do one with me and then let me continue. so in the beginning of taking control i'm a little lost.

It also takes some time to understand the rhythm of the game. you need experience points to level up and money to buy things. but the game does a bad job of explaining how to get both regularly and it takes nearly the full 50 minutes with the game for me to get a sense of the rhythm needed to progress. before that, the game's speed had slowed down and had begun to feel like a grind. This is a game where you are meant to do things, turn it off, and come back to it later. there's very little to do with the game whilst you wait.

But these complaints are not unique to this game, they can be used to describe nearly every other farm management game, as well as other styles of games. with that said, there are many positives that set this game apart. the biggest is the theme, Sumikko gurashi (すみっコぐらし). the game is full of these characters as well as costumes to dress them up in. the world design feels very appropriate, as do the bright vibrant colors. as this is the 5.0 version of the game, there is also a huge amount to uncover as you play. 

In this video i got to level 10 and it already felt like the game was opening up. i ended the game knowing that i could buy a train station, i could help with global goals, and i had barely started to understand the Events taking place and the bonuses associated with them. And then there's my own house and decorating it, as well as decorating and designing the layout off my farm. near the end of the video i went to other farms and they were all very different from each other.

Sumikkogurashi Farm isn't a game to be played for an hour straight. it's to be played on and off. it can use notifications to inform you when it needs to be interacted with. when you do play it, there's always a few things you could be doing. I would say this would make a great commuting game apart from that there was an extra 93 MB download. the game does ask you first before downloading it. But i'd still say it's probably best to get the tutorial out of the way, as well as that download, and then play it whilst your out and about.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 6 - Taking 30 Minutes To Complete The Robot Room Puzzle

At the end of Part 5, https://youtu.be/c96t5xE35-s, i was left in a room with robots at one end. i had a look around but couldn't work out the puzzle so i left it for this Part 6. 

But i would be stuck in this room for 30 minutes! it's a little embarrassing how long it took for me to solve this room. once i finally got out of the room, the rest of the video went really smoothly. it was a little strange to have the dark creatures no longer attack or pay much attention to me. it seemed that each time i met them they'd react differently. the rainy maze looked impressive, as does much of the game, but it actually felt easy to get through. during the video i commented if i had brute forced my way through the maze like section rather than navigate it as it was intended. ultimately, whilst the maze looked nice, it seemed somewhat pointless.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 5 - Dark Creatures Attack and I Build A Robot

In part 3 of playing RiME , i didn't finish the section with the windmills and bird, https://youtu.be/lmlH4yN_1r8. I had released the storm from 2 of the 3 windmills, but still had the third and final one. So in today's Part 4, that was my first objective. Once both were done, the next area resumed underwater traversal and it wasn't too bad. there's plenty of oxygen so it wasn't too tense. 

When i emerged in the "Tree" area, then things got weird. corridors seemed to go on forever in one direction and straight ahead could also mean up! i don't know if it was luck or not, but i seemed to navigate it right the first time. this also means that i didn't do any exploration either. But the thing that annoyed me the most was getting stuck on a tree. I needed to walk up it to dive into water. i fell off the first time and on the second attempt i slid on the spot. non of the face buttons or analogue sticks did anything. all my character did was slide on the spot. i had to restart and spend time getting back to this room.

Thankfully it didn't happen again and i ended the video after restarting a robot that seemed to tease a part of the game with more of them. so far i had found other robots, but none of them worked. so i was surprised to find one that did and it was useful. there will be a part 5 as i'm curious how robots fit into this world that seemed devoid of anything technological. 

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Summer Vacation Cup 2 - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Summer Vacation Cup 2! (2023/8/7 9:00～2023/8/14 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This Summer Vacation Cup 2 was not as fun as last weeks Summer Vacation Cup 1 because i wasn't up against many other players in each game. it was only the last game when there were two other players. I also don't think i quite understood the gimmick this week as even tho i got to the boss a few times i was never able to defeat it and a couple of times some of the lower enemies caused me trouble. But i finished mostly in the top 3 and i did get a big win so it's not all bad. 

This week i played against:

ユウ - Rank 58

なおや - Rank 71

しんあゆ - Rank 52

TA KU TO - Rank 58

れ！いんい_TN_ - Rank 73

Cloud Monday - The Ascent - Part 2 - The Journey to Grinder

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing The Ascent from Neon Giant and Curve Digital Publishing. I'm playing this on a launch model Japanese PS4.

In part 2, the main goal was to get to Grinder, so for most of this video that's what is happening. there are a couple of side quests, several battles, and a couple of deaths. but all this happens so i can get to Grinder.

Much like part 1, https://youtu.be/gISw0NS3hf4, the streaming experience from PlayStation Plus Premium was near perfect. and like that video, the only issues i had happened at the end. The game has it's own small issues like stuttering, which i assume is the game loading stuff in the background, and text being too small. But as a streaming experience, across both days i feel that it was really great. up there with some of the best i've experienced so far. But, it's checkpointing system isn't perhaps the most suited to being a streaming game. 

I do recommend this as a solid choice for streaming from PlayStation Plus Premium. personally, i quite enjoyed the story and world in the game as well as most of the gameplay. But there are still issues with the game even tho it came out over a year ago and by this point will they ever be fixed. Maybe on PS5 they aren't an issue. but i'm playing on a PS4 and this is what i experienced. it's checkpoint system could mean a lot of back tracking if the service kicked you off for a bad connection. all that combined is why i say it's a solid choice, but not as perfect as Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness was in Part 1 https://youtu.be/4acBC6x5XXI and Part 2 https://youtu.be/oUmQIvOuOY0

Switch Funday - No Place for Bravery - Issues Don’t Lessen The Story in This Great Pixel World

For Switch Funday, i wanted to play a game i recently bought from Amazon Japan that had been discounted. i bought the limited edition version of the game, it came with a soundtrack, artbook, and bigger exterior case for it.

I knew that it was a pixel art game, but i didn't know the story. what was great was that when i started the game i was given the choice of a story focused approach, in that the battles weren't too difficult, a battle heavy approach, or a Dark Souls style experience. i wanted the story and was more than happy i was given the choice.

The pixel art world looks full of life and was pleasant to explore. without spoiling the video, there certainly were some extremes shown as well as calm. the characters are distinct from each other and from enemies, but there is a glossary if needed. throughout, the pixel world on display was really engaging and if anything i wanted it to be bigger. i wanted to explore inside the other houses and buildings, i wanted more world.

But exploring this world did have some issues. Most of the time when i was walking around the world it felt like the game was stuttering. instead of the screen moving smoothly as i walked, it felt like it was stuttering. and when it came to some story moments, the game had a loading screen. the issue is that the loading in this game takes a long time so it really held back the flow of the game and story.

But i'm not saying the story is bad. i was really getting into it, hence why the long loading times took me out of the experience. i felt that the game's tutorial was well included into the story and it felt natural. the only change i would make is removing the option to Buy Skills as it's really not needed and let the player know they need to hold down the A button when interacting with objects.

It will be interesting to see if the tech issues get enough in the way to distract from the story. unfortunately, there were some smaller issues like random black frames every now and then. this game has been patched already but i hope there are some more fixes to come. i'd like to continue to play this, but i may wait a little while and see if things like the stuttering can be fixed. But the world, the characters, and the story are great, tho they may be more suitable for an older audience and not the stereotypical Switch audience. 

Online Saturday - Pokémon Unite - August's Unite Weekend

Today's Online Saturday video is on Pokémon Unite. i've recently learned that the first weekend of the month is a Unite weekend in Pokémon Unite. This means i can use any Pokémon i want BUT only in the standard Unite game mode. i had to discover this for myself as it's not mentioned.

So the first video is a ranked match, which my team wins, and then i head to the shop as i wondered if i had to "buy" the free license. i checked the schedule and it took me straight to Unite mode so i guessed i had to change the game mode from Ranked Unite to Standard Unite and this worked.

So in this video, each game i play my team wins and in each match i use a different Pokémon. There's an extra Ranked match at the end as technically it was the first match i did but my recording crashed during it, so i put it at the end at there's no commentary.

Mobile Friday - Geo Gods - Minor Issues Don’t Distract From Solid Card Gameplay

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Geo Gods, another game developed by Arnold Rauers as i had previously checked out Miracle Merchant https://youtu.be/kpCxEvBWk4w, with art by Alba Ballesta González and sound and music by Marie Havemann. I played this on iOS but it's out on Android, too.

Geo Gods is an interesting card game in that it doesn't matter if you win as your score is an average taken from 6 games. each card is a god and the gods are placed onto a garden. each god has an ability that affects the field or the gods in your deck and each god has an elemental type. by the side of the field are 6 elemental power crystals, each with a power target. the goal is to get enough of each type of god on the field to activate a power crystal with bonus points awarded for getting all 6 in a round.

That was the first hint that it may be difficult to get all 6, and in the 6 games i played in this video i never got all 6 crystals. It's an interesting challenge as each god card has an ability that can have a positive or negative effect on either the garden field, your deck, or mana that's needed to put down the god cards. each spot in the garden also has a cost needed to put a card on it, but also a reward that it earns for activating a power crystal. 

This sounds difficult, and in-game the lengthy wordy tutorial does make it seem that way. but the game is still very playable. i may not have got all 6 crystals when i played and i may not have fully understood it, but as i played and tried again i did feel like i was learning and getting better. so it's very playable.

For me tho, some of the wording made things unclear. like after a game it says quit or restart. i feel that both words are wrong as quit sounds like the 6 games are ended and restart sounds like you start the 6 again from the beginning. i also felt that some of the card abilities didn't work as i expected them to from their description. maybe in trying to get the description to fit on the card, their choice of English was perhaps not clear enough.

But those are fairly minor and don't get in the way of some good card playing. what did frustrate me was learning on the home screen that i don't have all the cards because i haven't bought the game. this also meant that  mode, clearly labeled on the home screen, was also unplayable. it left me wondering if i actually can't finish the game because i don't have all the cards, whether those locked cards are more powerful. essentially, it was a bad user experience. 

But as the game has no intrusive adverts, or any adverts, nor does it have an additional download once started, i would say it's a great game to pick up and play. it's a little rough around the edges and that can be patched later. thankfully the core card game experience makes it a game that you can play one match of quickly or sit down and play 6 like i did in this video.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 4 - Bird and Windmill Finished, Game Broken, Robot Awoken!

In part 3 of playing RiME , i didn't finish the section with the windmills and bird, https://youtu.be/lmlH4yN_1r8. I had released the storm from 2 of the 3 windmills, but still had the third and final one. So in today's Part 4, that was my first objective. Once both were done, the next area resumed underwater traversal and it wasn't too bad. there's plenty of oxygen so it wasn't too tense. 

When i emerged in the "Tree" area, then things got weird. corridors seemed to go on forever in one direction and straight ahead could also mean up! i don't know if it was luck or not, but i seemed to navigate it right the first time. this also means that i didn't do any exploration either. But the thing that annoyed me the most was getting stuck on a tree. I needed to walk up it to dive into water. i fell off the first time and on the second attempt i slid on the spot. non of the face buttons or analogue sticks did anything. all my character did was slide on the spot. i had to restart and spend time getting back to this room.

Thankfully it didn't happen again and i ended the video after restarting a robot that seemed to tease a part of the game with more of them. so far i had found other robots, but none of them worked. so i was surprised to find one that did and it was useful. there will be a part 5 as i'm curious how robots fit into this world that seemed devoid of anything technological. 

Backlog Conquering - RiME - Part 3 - 2 Windmills, A Bird, And Lot’s Of Water

In part 3 of playing RiME on PS4, i feel like i continue to make good progress, but i still don't have much of a clue what's going on. Plus, in this video, i'm a little confused about the giant bird and what we're doing to subdue it. surely, if this bird has always been an issue, the fact it still exists should be worrying. especially when we're seeming painting the sky with storms. Is this a permanent thing? is this a "weapon" that was made and never used before? it brings a weird tone to the story of the game.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Summer Vacation Cup 1 - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Summer Vacation Cup 1! (2023/7/31 9:00～2023/8/7 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This Summer Vacation Cup 1 turned out to be a lot of fun. in each game i was up against some strong competition from other players. so much so that i only got 1 win! i managed to beat the boss more times than winning! as i played i managed to get better and better, which isn't always the case, but i didn't seem to have as much luck when it came to the bonus points at the end as i managed to loose out a few times.

This week i played against:

Ikh - Rank 61

Ciel - Rank 66

からす - Rank 56

Matt - Rank 58

mikey - Rank 80

りょう - Rank 62