April Fools! - God of War: Ascension - Downloading And Installing The Game

No Switch Funday Today!

It's April 1st, so i thought lets show how to download and install God of War: Ascension from the PS3 PSN. 

Here it is, uncut, from start to finish.

Online Saturday - Hawked - Unique Bugs Stopped Me From Even Starting A Game

For Online Saturday i wanted to play the free to play online game Hawked on PlayStation 4. unfortunately, as you'll see in this video, i came across two bugs. the first one left me stuck in the options menu and i was forced to exit the game and restart it. the second bug meant i couldn't even start a game because the on screen commands said that X was both select and cancel. So pressing it Cancelled and nothing Selected. i couldn't start a game! In both situations, i went through all the buttons on the controller before giving up.

I have sent an email to the publishers, My.Games, and will leave a pinned comment if they have a solution to this issue. i'd rather it be something fixed in-game rather than something i have to solve by going through PS4 settings. I'm fairly sure it's because of the unique situation i'm in. I have a launch model Japanese PS4, where the O and X are switched when compared to American and European commands, and i imagine this game hasn't been designed correctly to deal with this. the best example is at the end when i can't start a game, the in-game graphics say X is Cancel whilst other in-game assets say X is select.

Version 1.12 Played

Mobile Friday - Block Cat Jam - A Simple Puzzle Game With Repetitive Audio And Many Intrusive Ads

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Block Cat Jam, also known as Box Cat Jam : Block Match, from developers Actionfit. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

I had been wanting to play a puzzle game for a little while now and i was curious about this one. it was being regularly updated and the screenshots in the app store showed some interesting ideas. But it turned out to be a bit more basic than i anticipated.

One of the first things i noticed was how the Dynamic Island got in the way of the icons at the top of the game screen. it was clear that this game had been designed on another platform and then brought across to the iPhone, or an older model of iPhone at the very least. For some reason, the music was turned off by default and what i assumed to be the vibration never seemed to work, tho it's possible it was soo weak that i just didn't notice it.

What tutorial there is is fine. it's just text across the screen. it could've been more in-depth with videos or even a gif, but at first this is fine. where this hands off approach goes wrong is when power-ups are introduced. it wasn't clear until the level they're introduced was over that you have to pay for them. often, games will have special built levels and force you to use one as an example, saying that this first time is free to practice and then you'll have to pay for them. this is a simple thing this game misses out on as each level has 3 stages, so they could've introduced the power-up on the first stage and got us to use it as practice on the first and second stages, leaving the third stage to see if we could work it out for ourselves. 

This type of missing out is noticeable throughout this demo. there are soo many areas where things could've been improved or added to. for example, the cats on the home screen can't be interacted with, nor can you interact with the cat tree. one easy change would be to interact with them, but there's more you could do like having collectables in levels that can be used to customise the home screen. The music and sound effects are far too repetitive, and the cats are mostly the same base design with different colors.

But the thing that frustrated me the most are the adverts. if this game had kept the bottom adverts, i would've probably been fine. i would've liked the bottom buttons brought up a little higher away from the adverts to avoid mis-clicks, but for the most part those adverts were simple pictures or gifs. things that typically won't eat much into mobile data plans. but then the game introduced full screen video ads or ads you can play. these came with no warning whatsoever so already it came across as rude. but the frequency of these adverts was also frustrating. everytime you went from the home screen to a level, there's an advert. every time you finished the 3 stages in a level and moved to the next level, there's an advert. There are so many that i'm concerned that they'll eat into mobile data plans.

Having two sets of frequent adverts, especially the full screen ones rudely interrupting my gaming experience, coupled with the basic nature of the game and repetitiveness of many of the assets, made me come away from Block Cat Jam feeling disappointed and frustrated. i can't recommend this game, the gaming experience is just too negative and there maybe other games doing this style of puzzle better. best to avoid it.

Version 9.0 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Sand Land On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Sand Land, developed by ILCA.

From the PSN store page, it was made clear that this is more of a sandbox rather than a demo that follows the story. this was so surprising that i actually included the store page to highlight this. If you play this demo before buying Sand Land, then you'll get some in-game bonuses when you start the game. unfortunately, these bonuses do not apply to games that have already started. 

I haven't read nor watched anything about Sand Land before, so one of the draw backs about this demo's approach is that it doesn't introduce anything. i knew that there's sand because of the game's icon and name. but i was a bit surprised by how much of it there was. The characters look familiar because of Akira Toriyama's style. This meant it was clear that two of them weren't human whilst the third was. But with this demo not having any story, it was kinda irrelevant.

As this demo is set sometime into the game, we also miss out on a tutorial(s). what we get is text in a box on the screen. no videos, no practice, just text and maybe a picture. I have played a number of Bandai Namco games and i believe this maybe the case in the final game to. this is a shame as i found the on screen buttons missing a crucial reminder that Triangle is how you dismount the vehicles. A proper tutorial would've also helped remind me that right on the D-Pad brings up the vehicles screen and that most of the enemies in the game should be dealt with by one of your vehicles.

One of the reasons why this video is so long is because of the time it took to understand the controls and what the game expects you to do. i imagine that this becomes apparent naturally when playing the final game. But after my time with the demo i'm actually thinking of going back in my own time to try again some of my mistakes and to see what happens.

The demo does have a few limitations. we're unable to enter the town that's directly next to us. in exploring the map, we also came across invisible boundaries. I also imagine the issue we had with the #Icharbe Ruins is also due to demo limitations. there's no levelling up, no improving skills, and we came across a gap that we just couldn't cross which i imagine is due to those limits.

Exploring was fun. the dessert had a few enemies to tackle, with the humans being the most difficult as they use machines like us. it wasn't all sand dunes, there were canyons, rocky outcrops, and a few ruins.

for a PS4 game, this certainly looked great. it had the look of an anime but it controlled very well like an action game. i imagine the PS5 version might be able to use HDR to take advantage of the beautiful day night cycle as well as better shadows and maybe even ray tracing. But on PS4, Sand Land is more than good looking enough. in some ways, this demo felt too small for this game and i'm genuinely interested in the final retail game.

I do recommend people try out this game. it feels more casual than an RPG, but more involved than some other games made from an anime. Sand Land is a single story, so this has the chance to be a much more complete game. The demo has other benefits as it gives in game items to new saves in the retail game after this demo has been played. I would've liked a bullet point or two of things i could do or even a hint like "try heading east". i just didn't enjoy the open sand box approach, especially when learning how to control the game.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 5

Hello and welcome to Part 5 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part, i continued near the end of Part 4, https://youtu.be/P6wRke544uk, just before i was killed. i was a little surprised i continued so close to when i died. it showed that out of the three choices, i probably picked the one that resulted in my death. I picked a different conversation path and was fine from that point onwards. there wasn't much story before our characters finished reminiscing and we were back to the "present" in this game. with the flashback to an earlier game finished, the game ended Chapter 1 and began Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 introduces the police characters and fleshes out our grandfathers life. we learn about his favorite places to visit, to eat, to drink, and we meet some of his friends along the way. i was taken aback by a little bit of racism which reminded me that this is a serious story being told. I''m still eager to continue playing and to see how things shake out with the suspect that was introduced near the end of this part.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Death Stranding - Part 1 - Good Cloud Game With Skippable Cutscenes And Manual Saves

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Death Stranding via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

This game is a bit of an enigma. it's not new, and yet the podcasts i listen to haven't spoiled the story. many haven't really explained what you do in the game beyond the simple delivering and building routes. I do know that it's fairly cinematic with a decent amount of cutscenes so i was very curious as to how it would work as a game being played from the cloud.

In this video, the connection to the cloud does get rough a couple of times. in the first half, there were a couple of moments when we got a very brief bit of Stream Tearing, where grey appears on screen. the second half got a little rougher with more Stream Tearing and a couple of instances of Macro Blocking. Overall, it didn't get in the way of gameplay, but they were noticeable because of how good and real world the game looks.

Very early on it was clear that there are a lot of cinematics. i saw no suggestion of an autosave which isn't reassuring. you can press Option and end the cutscene, but if it's your first time like it is for me then that's not an option you want to take. The issue with skipping, so far with just Part 1, is that there doesn't seem to be an option anywhere to watch the skipped cutscene. 

PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is a platform that will only give you a 20 second heads up before they terminate the connection. with the cutscenes being skippable it's good but what's great is that there is a manual save option when pressing Option. The save is fast, too. So the game does have ways around the limitations of the platforms.

But if i'm unable to catch up with cutscenes and the story that's told, then it may not be the best way to play the game for the first time. There are still things in-game that i don't have access to so it might be possible that option does exist. But for now, playing Death Stranding in the Cloud is a decent option.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - March's Weekend Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 5 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

It's day two of March's Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. 

Unfortunately, the headline of disconnects and long waits matchmaking continued into Sunday. this video took nearly 1 hour 40 to record, so even longer than yesterdays! There was only one game disconnect but what was surprising were the two back to back lobby disconnects which meant from match 13 to match 14 was a 10 minute wait! (tho i say 5 in the video it was purely a guess)

The three weapons i used today weren't new, they were familiar to me. I started with the Recycled Brella 24 Mk 1, then switched to the Foil Flingza Roller when i realised my teammates still weren't inking, and finished with the Bloblobber as it's one of my favorites and i wanted to have some fun for the final 5 matches.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - March’s Weekend Splatfest – 15 Battles 3 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "'Which instrument would you play?' Drums, Guitar, or Keyboard?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. I chose to join teamkeyboard.

This wasn't a successful Splatfest for me. i tried out 3 weapons i had bought after my last #Turfwar video, https://youtu.be/AAbH0XWU2jc, using each for 5 games. The Clash Blaster Neo worked well as a shotgun style weapon and i got quite a few splats with it. The Range Blaster wasn't great as it took too long to shoot and could track enemies quick enough. the Splattershot was my favorite out of the 3 i used and was a decent fit for Splatfest. Another reason why i got so few wins was because my teammates didn't know how to play the game. the goal of Turfwar is to ink the most. but in many games i would be splatted and get a look at the map and just sigh with how little of it was inked, especially our home area. the first two weapons i used were not great at inking, they're better at attacking. it's frustrating that my teammates could see the situation and just keep on attacking.

My recording for this video is 1 hour 37 minutes. it's soo long because the matchmaking was much longer than normal. typically, it's 30 seconds or under but today the matchmaking was a long as 3 minutes. i also had 4 games that were abandoned due to disconnections as well as a lobby that was stopped due to a disconnection. This was the latest 7.10 version of the game, but the last few Splatfests have all suffered from longer matchmaking times. it'll be interesting if tomorrows Tricolor mode will have the same issues. 

Friday - Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile - An Unwelcoming Experience For New Mobile Players

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile from Activision. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

Whilst the game had beta's and a limited release, it has now received a world wide release so i would consider this game for 2024 Game of The Year. Except, it has the dreaded extra download. it's already a 3.93 GB download from the app store but then there's an additional 3.3 GB to install before you can play it. There's no warning about this additional download so do not play this game for the first time on a mobile network. But throughout the game it reads as if the game is downloading higher quality graphics to your phone as you play it. It's possible that because i'm using an #iPhone 14 Pro, it had to downloaded higher quality graphics whilst i played. This is a big mobile cap killer which makes it even more difficult to recommend as a mobile game.

Call of Duty: Warzone is out across PC and Consoles, i gave it a go on #PS4 https://youtu.be/-F5LygJiO2U, when the 2.0 version came out over a year ago. the biggest takeaway from that video was that it wasn't welcoming to new players like myself. I genuinely hoped that time, a new platform, and a new audience meant that Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile was going to be a much better experience. Unfortunately, it's still unwelcoming.

The extra download at the start is one hint that perhaps #Activision wasn't going to maximise the potential of this new player base. that feeling continued throughout playing the game. the only tutorial was the controls, even tho it asked me twice if i played this games and i knew Warzone. i said i didn't know either so what i wanted was an in-depth tutorial of the controls, home screen, menus, goals, etc. what i got was how to control the game.

There is a positive in that i was allowed to play the game as a "Guest" and not link any Activision accounts to the game. But there aren't many other positives about the game. The graphics didn't wow me, the controls are fine but there's no rumble feedback. The user interface was crowded and it felt like the icons were poorly placed. the game never pointed us to the options to help fine tune the game to our needs, but there wasn't a way to try out the changes even if we did make some.

I could go on, but what Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile feels like is a tool for Call of Duty: Warzone on other platforms. It isn't a mobile Call of Duty: Warzone game but rather a Call of Duty: Warzone on mobile game. It's really hard to recommend this to new mobile players, but for those who already play Warzone and are looking to play on the go, then this is fine as it's what they play but on mobile. 

Version 3.3.4 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - UNABLES On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game UNABLES, developed for consoles by Forever Entertainment.

From the eShop page, i mostly knew how this was going to work. It reminded me of puzzle games back in the PS3 era, in a good way. I wanted to play the demo as i was curious just how well it would actually control.

There are two ways to control the game, the default is via the analogue sticks and there's an optional gyroscope (motion controls) mode. i stuck with the default but there were no options to finely tune them. with motion controls, you can tune the sensitivity. but there's nothing for the default. i personally found them to be too sensitive and not offering fine controls. the first couple of stages can be a bit of a blur because of how fast the camera is moving and swinging around the stage.

I can imagine it'll get easier with time, but this demo only offered 3 stages. each one awards stars for completing tasks in each level. I'm not a fan of these sort of games, gatekeeping the game behind ability seems like a waste of game. especially when you get stuck like i did. i couldn't do the final stage of the demo. i did enjoy the other two, but if i'm getting stuck so early on i worry that i won't be able to complete the first set of levels as i wouldn't get enough stars. there doesn't seem to be a way to play the locked levels in easy mode either. so if i can't progress and i can't play them in easy mode, my guess would be i'd stop playing. Even the demo locked the second and third stages behind star requirements!

Each of the three stages looked very different from each other and what we had to do in them were very different. in the first stage, our goal was to interact with the environment in very simple ways. but in the second stage we  had to interact with our opponent and the referee. The third stage was the most difficult as we had to manipulate a victim across their crime scene. The problem i had more than once was that if the victim gets to their chalk outline, nothing else interacts with them. but i still had a tommy gun and no idea what to do with it. the level didn't finish until i told it to or until the time ran out.

But that incident highlighted that this is a tough puzzle game. there is no hint system and seemingly there is a correct order to solves the puzzles in. I enjoyed the idea behind it but i wanted to play this casually. the ramp up in puzzle difficulty was far too steep even for this demo. i appreciate the creativeness and ideas in each level, but it does feel like difficulty became even more difficult for them to manage. after playing the demo i feel like i wouldn't be able to progress and i would get frustrated that level design got in the way of the puzzle.

UNABLES is a great looking game and i did enjoy the music. i recommend people try out the demo, it does a good job of getting the puzzle ideas across and what is possible. But as for the getting the game, i could only recommend it for those who like a challenging puzzle game and play for that challenge and not for those who play puzzle games casually.

Backlog Conquering - Kamiko On Switch - Part 1 - The First Two Stages

This is part 1 of playing the Nintendo Switch version of Kamiko, from developers SKIPMORE, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

I decided to move on from Teslagrad as i just wasn't enjoying the experience. I'm glad i did as this video on Kamiko was much more enjoyable. This is a game i've had for a long time. i remember hearing about it on a podcast where they highlighted the excellent soundtrack and that it can be beaten before the battery on the Switch dies. But since then, all i remember doing is starting the game, enjoying the soundtrack, closing the game whilst i looked for the soundtrack, and i don't think i ever came back to it.

For this series, i've started a new save file rather than use the existing one. I would've preferred a bit more of a tutorial, but as it only uses two buttons it didn't take long to work it out so it's not that bad. The only other thing i would've liked is a map, but again as the stages aren't too big it wasn't much of an issue as it didn't take long to sort myself out.

It's clear that Kamiko isn't designed to be a challenge. It may stop and make you think for a bit, but often you'll be fine. It does mean that when you do get stuck, it is a little frustrating as you feel like it should be easier than you're making it look.

The music is definitely a highlight, but i also do enjoy the art style. They're using a 8/16 bit esthetic very smartly. all the enemies are distinct, the world is clear and easy to navigate, and each of the two stages i've played so far looked different from each other and yet familiar enough to feel cohesive as a game world.

I look forward to part 2 of playing Kamiko as i had a lot of fun with Part 1.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 4

Hello and welcome to Part 4 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part, i died! I'm as surprised as you are. the sequence that lead up to it was obviously quite perilous and i thought i was making some smart choices. But when my in-game character failed to do what i expected them to do, i genuinely didn't know what was the correct choice . This is probably the worst outcome of the game as it's the first time you can die and i died. But i will continue as this is just a flashback and in the game i'm still alive. But once we get back to the "real world", maybe i won't continue if i die! If that's where my story ends, then so be it.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Resistance: Retribution - Part 2 - The Streaming Experience Is Better Than The Game

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of the PSP game Resistance: Retribution  via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I have this game on #PlayStationPortable but it's been a very long time since i last played it. Playing Part 1, https://youtu.be/jEs97ouESk8, felt nostalgic but it was a different experience for me as i played it on the PSP rather than on TV using the Dual Shock 3 on PSP option. The only way to make that work well was to adjust the controller speed and overall it felt more difficult and intense than you would've expected for the start of the game.

Knowing that, i did think that part 2 was easier. not just that i had adjusted the controls to make it easier to play, but also it felt like the level design got a little easier. Still, it continued to be an intense experience with game design that made me wonder if this was a PS2 game that got switched to the PS3 because of how much of a console experience it felt like not just in levels design but also with how infrequent the auto save is and how long some sequences are.

Streaming it tho continued to be a great experience. If this was just the PSP game, i wouldn't recommend it. but because it's been ported to the PS4 and got manual saves and rewinds, it's something i can recommend. in this video there was a moment where the stream quality dipped and i got the connection warning but i didn't panic as i could use the manual save and quickly did so. 

So this still comes to down the game itself. like last week, streaming it from the cloud to us is great but is the game itself worth playing. across both parts there have been more technological issues with the game than streaming issues. with the controls being as bad as they are, this basic port makes a bad first impression and i wonder if they could've done more like automatically setting the control options faster. If you're a fan of Resistance, then this is the best way and easiest way to play this game. in that case it's easy to recommend. but i wouldn't recommend this game for people if this is their first Resistance game. I probably wouldn't recommend this to causal shooter fans either. But, personally, i am glad this does exist on PS4 and hope that it'll be further fixed and improved.

Switch Funday - Mario Tennis - My First Time Playing This Super Hard Game That I Couldn't Beat

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the Game Boy Color game Mario Tennis. I've always wanted an arcadey tennis game that's more on the casual side and i initially went into this thinking it would be one of those games with popular #Mario characters, but right at the beginning i realized that Mario Tennis is not like that.

Even tho i had a Game Boy Color, i had the purple one, i never looked at the Mario sports games on them. i was more into Pokémon, racing, Loony Toons,  and platformers. I knew of them, but never bothered trying them. i kept thinking i would play these sort of games on the GameCube. So i was really surprised as to what this game actually is.

And what it is is a super hard tennis game that i couldn't beat. i couldn't even beat the tutorial practice stages! I can't believe how difficult it is. it's like the "Dark Souls" of tennis games. the tutorial practice stages offer no hints how to play and when you fail it's the same canned response. playing against other players is also a very long battle against a CPU that seems to want to win even tho it's a practice game.

Mario Tennis is a Game Boy Color game and yet it feels built around a console experience. it's surprising that a handheld game would have such a long introduction and such long tennis matches without even mentioning if there are manual saves, auto saves, or even how to do it. When i found the save function under "Start" the only thing i could do was save and quit. i couldn't seem to find a save and continue function.

the two highlights for Mario Tennis are the graphics, except for the characters as there seems to be no design language as everyone looks different, and the music. Even the minigames weren't fun and that's what i ended the video with. Mario Tennis is the Dark Souls of tennis games and not one i would recommend to anyone other than people really into tennis and Dark Souls, if such a Venn Diagram exists. 

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Feeling Sick So Here's 15 Games Of Turf War Where I Try 3 Weapons

Welcome to Online Saturday.

I'm not feeling well today and wanted to relax with some gaming. i chose Splatoon 3 as it's a favorite of mine. There won't be any commentary, other than an intro and outro, as i wasn't feeling great and wanted to just relax. But after 15 games it was time to put it down as it started to be anything but relaxing as i was getting far too into it!

I used this time to try out 3 weapons. The Recycled Brella 24 Mk 1 came out with the 7.0.0 Patch and i was eager to try it as i like using Brella weapons. i had fun with it and will probably use it a lot going forward. i just don't like the Angle Shooter and Big Bubbler it comes with. I didn't enjoy the Foil Flingza Roller as much when attacking with it, but for inking it was very impressive and i managed to get some splats with it's Suction Bomb. The Nautilus 47 is a style of weapon i rarely use outside of #SalmonRun so i used it more out of curiosity than anything else. it did allow me to be more attacking and i got more splats with it than the other two combined. it's not bad so i may look at the other Nautilus variants to see if there's one a better fit for how i like to play.

Mobile Friday - Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games - It Looks Great But The Grind Comes Too Soon

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games, also known as Lumbercat: Cute Idle Tycoon, from  @treepllainc6467 .  I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

This isn't the first game from treeplla that i've played for Mobile Friday. Last year i tried out Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4, but the grind in that game came fast and it started not being fun to play. i wanted to know if things had changed after a year in terms of their game design.

From the beginning, it's clear that their character design hasn't changed and i personally think that's a good thing as it helps their games stand out more against all the other idle games with animals as part of the story. I like how bold and bright the colors are in the background and how clear everything is. Whereas the cats themselves are a little more muted or pastel in color. they're also not as clear and sharp as the background but i think it works as it gives them more of a "fluffy" feel.

But by the 10 minute mark i was already feeling the grind. there is a lot of depth to this game and much more to unlock than what is shown in the video. but it's that initial pacing that they don't get right. Many idle games have the same problem, but i feel they tend to succeed in hiding the grind through things such as an expanded tutorial that helps the player not only through the first stage but also into the second stage, using the second stage for reminders.

Whilst i was making some progress, it was also starting to be clear that progress was slowing down to such an extent that it was like the game wanted me to put it down. the amount of money needed was just getting too much. But there's another element that didn't get enough of a tutorial and that's the mangers. I don't know if you can only get them via loot boxes or not. I'm not even sure how or when i can get loot boxes in game outside of the store. The store wasn't introduced and when i opened it there wasn't another tutorial detailing what each of the currencies were and what they did. These are things that could be delt with better that would also help cover the grind.

The only obtrusive advert i came across was from the game itself. i don't mind self promotion, but if that promotion has currencies and things we've yet to be introduced to then it's poorly timed. I do like that there are optional adverts and the game has some interesting benefits for the player when using them. i felt that these were rarely obnoxious and mostly clear. so some room for improvement but what they have is good.

Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games is a fine idle game. it's pacing makes it feel like it wants the player to play in short bursts and that would be good for people who are commuting. there is a lot left to unlock, i just worry that it'll take a long time and feel like it took a long time.

Version 1.0.13 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Unicorn Overlord On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Unicorn Overlord, developed by Vanillaware, published by SEGA, and also released on PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series.

This seems to be one of the biggest releases of the year with the amount of buzz it's been getting. This is a genre that i've played a couple of games in, but i wouldn't say i'm great at it. So trying out the demo for Unicorn Overlord

was actually quite appealing so when it came out i quickly downloaded it and gave it a go.

The demo, and i assume the game, starts of strong with a colorful video showing locations and characters in the game and it looked like a cross between Vanillaware's Dragon Crown design and the design from Final Fantasy Tactics. so, somewhat familiar but also someone different. There's a title page and a decent options menu that details what each option does at the bottom. i only changed sound effect volume before starting the demo and watching the opening story play out.

After about 3 minutes of in-game cinematics it's our turn to take control and unfortunately the game uses on screen prompts for a tutorial but at least the music during this sequence is very epic and great to listen to. what's a little strange is how during this tutorial section it's telling us what to do but then fails to tell us to attack of how it works before our first fight. So there were a lot of unknowns going into the first and then second fight, the main being were the characters attacking automatically because it's a tutorial, because it's the demo, or because that's how it normally is.

We wouldn't find out for a while to come. so the tutorial we got wasn't really a tutorial but rather it was a set of instructions to make the story proceed. once it's over, we get more story, and then comes a time skip to the "present". We get another intro sequence before the story picks back up and we're fighting once again. This tutorial also uses information on screen and i'll be honest, i don't think i fully understood it all. it felt like there was a lot to take in and it was clear by the end of this video that there was a lot left to teach. After playing this demo i'm a little concerned with the tutorial and that this game might not be the most accessible.

But once this section is finished and we set off away from the island with a new old friend the game does give us the option how we want to play the game. do we want to play for the story, do we want to use more tactics, or do we want expert difficulty. So whilst the tutorials might be average at best, by choosing story i know that they're now not as difficult to manage so i feel more confident that i have the time and space to learn without the punishment.

I only played a little bit of this next section but it did reveal even more elements of gameplay like castle management. this demo didn't feel close to finishing, but it also never said how long it is. It was saving along the way but again, it never said if the save is carried over to the retail game. I hadn't read the PSN Store page, i saw it was out and downloaded it so i can play it. it's a shame that a game with this much attention got such an average demo.

So whilst as a demo it's fine, the experience playing the game was great. even on my base PS4 it looked stunning. there's soo much attention to detail, so much movement, and things like the backgrounds and lighting made it all look cohesive rather than great looking characters on top of a background. And the music is fantastic, just from this demo alone i know i want to get the soundtrack. the soundtrack outshone the gameplay more than once in this demo.

So whilst it's not the best demo, the game itself does enough to still shine and i would still recommend people try it out but i would also recommend people just get the game as this is something special.

Why not buy me a Vending Machine Bottle of Coffee over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers

Backlog Conquering - Teslagrad On PS4 - Part 4 - Continued Platforming Frustrations

This is part 4 of playing the #PlayStation4 version of Teslagrad, from developers Rain AS, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

In the 3 parts i've recorded so far, what i've enjoyed the most was learning about the world and trying to understand the story. sometimes the game told it's story via theatre productions, other times it was like looking at cave paintings. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the main focus of the game. in Teslagrad, the puzzle platforming seems to be the focus and it's this that i've enjoyed the least. 

Across the previous 3 parts and this video, i've often felt that the puzzles are doable but the platforming itself isn't good enough for what the game is often requiring you to do. It feels like a control issue as it's hard to replicate things when they happen as planned but also difficult to replicate things when they don't work as expected. this makes learning the puzzles really difficult as it's hard to know what works, what doesn't work, and why. so in all 4 videos there are moments when i'm stuck trying to do something basic because i can't work out what's going wrong or what's going right.

It's a shame that this game is let down by it's controls. some of the level design has come across as filler whilst other aspects are poorly telegraphed, if they are at all. These are minor in comparison to the control issues, but all together they've sapped away my enjoyment from playing the game to the point where it feels like i'm playing more out of stubbornness than actual enjoyment of Teslagrad.

At the moment, i'm undecided about continuing. i may check to see how far i am, and if i'm close to the end i may give it a go. but if the end isn't near, it's possible this part, Part 4, will be my final video playing Teslagrad.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 3

Hello and welcome to Part 3 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In Part 2, https://youtu.be/MO_1BiBcDq8, our characters reminisced about the past and we began to play as them when they first met. This is actually the story from an earlier game in the franchise. This continues in this Part 3. But it's starting to get a bit tedious with a couple of characters coming across as annoying and pathetic. i do complain a little how the game seems to be sending us around in circles whilst adding nothing to the mystery or story. it all felt like padding and this whole sequence could've been "edited" better with the adult versions talking in the restaurant and skipping the unnecessary sequences.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Resistance: Retribution - Part 1 - Adjust Controller Speeds To Make It More Playable

This week's Cloud Monday video is part1 of playing the PS4 version of the PSP game Resistance: Retribution  via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I have this game on PlayStation Portable but it's been a very long time since i last played it. I don't remember much of it on PSP so i was eager to play it again. But i was also curious if this game, being designed around the portable nature and limited battery life of a handheld, would also share game design qualities that would make it a good game to stream from the cloud. 

It does and it doesn't is the simple answer. As a PSP game, it doesn't work well being streamed from the cloud for many reasons. the cutscenes are very long and numerous, the auto save is very infrequent, and there appear to be no manual saves. these don't work well on a service that can kick you off with just a 20 second warning.

But it does work because it's a PS4 and PS5 game. the upgrades the game has received isn't just to the graphics, but Resistance: Retribution now gets access to a rewind feature and manual saves. I showed numerous times that there was no issue using the rewind feature, and when the connection got rough and the warning appeared i was able to very quickly do a manual save from the PS4 game rather than from in side the PSP game.

So, if it's a game that's a great choice to play in the cloud the question then becomes is it a game worth playing. That's tough because Resistance: Retribution has a few issues. this PS4 and PS5 version has already received a patch and needs a few more as it's rough in places. what stood out the most was how out of sync the audio seemed. whether it was the voices, sound effects, or even the cutscenes, at times it didn't match what was happening on screen. then there are other technical issues like screen tearing. As a PSP game, it has another issue regarding the controls. it was a game that could be controlled via a Dual Shock 3 (PS3 controller) and that's how it's played on PS4 and PS5. but the controls are very slow and heavy and really need to be adjusted much faster. The in-game tutorials haven't been adjusted for this either so there was some real trial and error learning how to control it.

With all this learnt in Part 1, part 2 will be interesting as i can focus more on the streaming experience and hopefully play around some of the quirks of the game and this port. 

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - March's Big Run Event

Welcome to Switch Funday

This weekend is March's Big Run Event in Splatoon 3. The event takes place on the Eeltail Alley map. 

My goals during a Big Run event are to get this month's Salmon Run item twice, get 1,000 points, and try to get the bronze award. so far, getting the item twice and 1,000 points hasn't been an issue. It's getting the bronze award for eggs collected that's been a big challenge. This month's item is the SplatJack 5000 and i got that in my first Big Run match as my time and I got a good 70 eggs collected. 1,000 Points was also easy to reach as we only lost 2 of the 7 games we played today. And i can say that for the first time, i got a Bonze Award!

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Ranked Party TribeVibe Mode

THIS IS FROM VERSION 1.6 OF FOAMSTARS

(I recorded this before the 2.01 update came out but decided to share it nonetheless as i enjoyed trying out a Ranked mode, something i very rarely do)

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the #PlayStation4 version of it. 

I rarely play ranked modes in multiplayer games but with #Foamstars i was curious how it would work. Overall, i found the whole experience not as clear as i wanted it to be. for example, i was surprised that there were two modes being used, Smash The Star and Happy Bath Survival. i don't remember it ever being clear that this was the case. I thought progression was interesting in that you play 3 games, earn a score from them. If you have enough, you can take that score and use it to play 2 games that you have to win to rank up.

Mobile Friday - Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC - A Blockchain Clicker With Cool Style And Poor Tutorial

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC from Drecom. I Played this on my iPhone14Pro, but it's also out on Android and PC via Chrome.

This is much more complicated than i expected. i didn't fully read the App store page for Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC, so i went in just expecting a dungeon crawling clicker game. But after recording the video and looking more into it, there's much more about this game than i thought. But, in a way, this confusion is also a criticism of the game that in the near hour i played in this video it failed to convey what it actually is, but it's also praiseworthy because what Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC also is didn't get in the way of gameplay.

The gameplay is what i came to the game for. in the App store what caught my attention and why i wanted to play it was the claim that "...you can play endlessly with strategy and taps." i wanted to see how that would work. The game starts like many clickers i've played, with one character on screen doing damage and my clicks doing damage. what's striking is the character art and the style of the game. the backgrounds work well with the theme of the game, the monsters all look interesting, but our character design did remind me of My Sims Heroes with how square the heads are.

But it works and it does look great. the U.I is a little busy and cramped. One reason is that this game doesn't make full use of the iPhone screen. It's a little surprising how little it uses. On one hand it might be to make it easier to click on the screen where the action is taking place, but i would also say that it kinda works with the top of the screen and sets the mood for a dungeon game. But i feel the bottom of the screen could be used better.

Another issue the U.I has is that it isn't fully explained. The game does have a tutorial that, for the most part, offers help through to the end of the first play through. But then it stops just as more icons appear. I also started to unlock new things and there wasn't even a simple finger pointing, like it had been doing. I'd argue that the tutorial needs to continue for the second play through to explain not just all the new things but also to help offer some reminders on how the gameplay loop works.

The loop is typical of a clicker game. in Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC you go into a dungeon and defeat monsters. you earn money from it which can be spent making your clicks more powerful or you can make your heroes stronger. Like typical clickers, there becomes a point where you're unable to make any further progress. In Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC, you're meant to leave the dungeon and go back to town. this will earn you rewards which can help improve your team for the next dive into the dungeon.

What i noticed about how Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC differed from other clickers i've played is that in this whole video i never found anything that would click for me. Nor did the game indicate that there would be anything that would be click for me. there was only the damage my team mates were doing.

But there's a whole another aspect of the game that it only teased when i played it. i wondered why it wanted me to make a wallet, but i thought it was perhaps something to do with an in-game bank mechanic that it failed to tell me about, like how in some roguelikes you're able to bank money. But actually it has something to do with the Blockchain! 

It's surprising how this unique feature of the game was never explicitly mentioned in my video. It's possible that i just didn't reach where the blockchain stuff becomes a part of gameplay. But i would argue that after an hour and a couple of returns to the town, it should've been part of my game already. it feels like a pacing issue or possible a balancing issue. It could also be a tutorial issue, or a lack of a tutorial issue.

As i didn't come across the blockchain in the game, i don't fully understand it. You'd have to go to Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC's website, like i did, to discover what it's all about. Or try to. the website tells but rarely explains the how, why, or how it's incorporated into gameplay. It could be a translation issue, but it's frustrating as a casual player how it's not incorporated into gameplay, not explained or detailed in a "casual" way.

So, as a clicker Eternal Crypt – Wizardry BC is fine. it has some nice graphics, but there are many aspects of it that haven't been detailed so it feels like i'm not getting the full experience of the game. this is doubly true when it comes to the blockchain also not being detailed or part of gameplay. It is a new release, but even the roadmap on their website doesn't make it clear if improvements to the basic elements of gameplay are coming.

Demo Play Thursday - Princess Peach: Showtime! On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Princess Peach: Showtime!, developed by Good-Feel and Nintendo.

This demo starts immediately, and so does this video, with an introduction cut scene that helps get the game to where everything takes place. once finished, your able to move around and talk to everyone. once you do, then the game starts. In this demo we get 2 stages, 1 acts as the tutorial and lets us use the Swordfighter costume and the other introduces a different game style and the Patisserie costume.

It's surprising how poor the game's tutorial is. it doesn't "hold your hand" nor take you step by step how everything is done. instead, the characters in the background are often saying things to hint as to what you should be doing. For greater help, sometimes on the bottom right of the screen a "Controls" prompt appears and pressing X will pause the game and give you more indepth information about how things work. As this is a demo, i kinda expected that to be on as default, especially for the first stage of the game. The controls aren't complicated, but there are other interactions in the game world that might be missed. But even this section isn't perfect. it told me about a dodge and counterattack system in the game but not how it works or the timing for it. Princess Peach: Showtime! is similar to  Mario vs. Donkey Kong, https://youtu.be/aHf200xu5EM, in being surprisingly less accessible than expected.

But i would recommend the demo because i enjoyed my time with Princess Peach: Showtime! to the point that i actually wish-listed it and wouldn't mind getting it. at first glance, everything seems so simple. that includes the art, the graphics, the controls, and even the story. But as i played, it was easy to notice a lot of the finer details in the art, to appreciate the bold colorful graphics, to play in two completely different costumes each with completely different controls and play styles, and to understand that there are many more costumes and stages to play. I got the impression after playing this demo that Princess Peach: Showtime! is a beatable game, one that's neither too difficult or too easy, and one that has enough variety to keep me interested from start to finish.

As for the story, we don't really get much of a hint how it'll go. what's in the demo is simple and perhaps that'll be the case throughout. it's possible gameplay and mechanics will help make up for an average story, if it is indeed average. It reminds me of the Cat Quest series. i have platinumed both games, had a fun time with the different mechanics, characters, and places we visit. but i wouldn't say their stories are the best ever. but playing them, like playing this demo of Princess Peach: Showtime!, was enjoyable.

Oh, when you finish the demo there is a gameplay trailer. A downside to the demo is that whilst we often see it saving, there's no mention if our save is carried over to the main game.

Backlog Conquering - Teslagrad On PS4 - Part 3 - Frustrated By Puzzle Platforming

This is part 3 of playing the PlayStation4 version of Teslagrad, from developers Rain AS, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

In Part 2, https://youtu.be/IeRdNjMTaLU, I battled through some tough puzzle platforming and got a new power up. i had hoped that this would open up the game and perhaps bring a change to the puzzle platforming. It didn't really change anything and just added a new element to the puzzle part.

I was already finding it difficult but what made Part 2 feel good to play was that i got a couple of important pieces of story and some good world building. it felt like there was a payoff for it. But in this video, it's one frustrating section after another with no payoff at the end. There's no environmental story telling to help out, no smart Ai seeing that i'm in trouble and adjusting things. This game is very much leaving it to me to figure out.

I don't mind that concept and there were times i was genuinely happy i solved the puzzle. But when platforming is involved, the controls had better be good and in all 3 parts of playing Teslagrad so far, the platforming controls haven't matched the platforming they've been tasked to do. In this part, the level design also got in the way of the platforming more than once. Our character is able to look up and down, but not far to the right or left. so at the start we're faced with a blind jump to the left because we can't see what's on the other side. nearer the end of the video there's a section i get stuck on because i couldn't tell that what looked like a section fenced off is actually a fenced off section i can move behind when i use a move.

At the moment, i'm in two minds about doing a part 4.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 2

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/-TKTpBnYw5c, i played through Chapter 0 which acted like a tutorial in a game sense but also a prologue for the story itself. it was very well done. In this Part, we start playing through Chapter 1. we start off in New York meeting up with some old friends, catching up over a meal, and then whilst reminiscing we seemingly start playing through the story of one of the older games, if not the first game, of this game series. This video ends with Chapter 1 not finished.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Tales of Arise - Part 2 - A Good RPG To Stream From The Cloud

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Tales of Arise via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1,https://youtu.be/9O7-F5v3kF0, we quickly learned about the auto save and how quickly we were able to manual save. 2 important pluses for a service that can give you a 20 second warning before it disconnects you. In Part 2, we learn at the beginning that the game keeps 2 autosaves! This is a big win for people using the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming platform as it provides comfort as if you're unable to save before you're disconnected, there's a high chance the game has saved itself.

Playing the game itself also continued to be fun. i do enjoy how the game uses different methods to tell it's story. after this part, i felt i liked the comic book style method more than in Part 1. A nice little touch was that the game makes it clear when you have or haven't talked to someone. Plus, you're able to stack side quests. so you can chat with everyone in a village, collect all their sidequests, and set out and do them all. This also works for a cloud game. For example, if you're playing during a stable period you can collect all the sidequests and talk with everyone, save, and now it doesn't matter as much if you're disconnected when compared with tackling each quest at a time.

Like Part 1, there were very brief moments of Stream Tearing, where grey appears on screen most likely due to a frame of video arriving incomplete. the controls also felt sharp and i couldn't feel any lag from them. If anything was holding the game back it's the fact this is the PS4 version of the game. there was texture pop-in, loading, and the world and characters just lacked the finer detail.

Tales of Arise is not only an RPG i would recommend people play via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service, it's also just a good game to play. it does look great on PS4 and the loading doesn't feel too bad. So i imagine it'll be better on PS4 Pro or PS5. Whilst playing it, i noted how it reminded me of Final Fantasy X in a positive way. I'm personally curious about the story and the rest of the game so i may continue it in my own time.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Unite - 6 Matches From March's Panic Parade

Panic Parade is back so for Switch Funday i had to play it and start levelling up my stats. As everything has been reset from the previous Panic Parade, these 6 matches are a little slow and show me progressing up the difficulty rankings as i reach certain Wave targets. 

Online Saturday - Pokémon Unite - March’s Unite Weekend

Today's Online Saturday video is on Pokémon Unite. This is the first full weekend of March so it's a Unite Weekend. this means i'm able to use any Pokémon i want in the unranked online modes. my goal with these weekends is to try out several new Pokémon i don't have and hopefully find some new favorites. 

This might be the last of these videos for a while as i only have 2 Pokémon who i haven't played as. For today, the real surprise was Gyarados. i had a lot of fun using it. as Magikarp, it's not very powerful but once it evolved it dominated. it honestly feels a little broken and will probably be rebalanced, either as Gyarados or perhaps making you use Magikarp for a couple more levels. I didn't enjoy playing as Mew or Gengar, they were a bit too frail for how i like to play and Gengar in particular didn't seem to hit as hard as i expected it would. Zacian and Urshifu were strong as you'd expect for legendries and i had some fun with them. It was kinda more fun to play as Metagross's previous evolutions as they moved much quicker than it did. but overall it was fine to use. Out of all of these, there wasn't a Pokémon that stood out as a must buy. 

Mobile Friday - Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage - An Approachable Roguelike That Needs More Tutorials

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage from Rainbow Rabbit Games.  I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

Typically, i'm not a fan of roguelike games. often, they can be quite difficult and not very accessible. But on the Appstore, Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage lists itself as a "Hyper Casual Shooting Roguelike" and i was very curious about this claim so that's why i wanted to try it.

For the most part, i think that it does succeed. it starts with a "cute" video and carries that into the tutorial with a Slime acting as your teacher. graphically, it's not highly detailed but it all works together. Even the music comes across as casual. So in playing it, i didn't feel the pressure and frustration that often comes with roguelikes.

But where this game stumbles is another important aspect of roguelikes, it fails to explain the loop. In roguelikes, there's often a reason why your character fails. sometimes it's how you learn what comes next, whether that's in a level or what a boss does next. in other games, you use the time between loops to level up and improve your stats by spending a gathered material. In Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage, you're collecting money, equipable items, and materials for those items. But the game never tells you to go and equip, it never tells you to level up items, and it never shows you how to do either. 

The tutorial had been so good so the fact it stops at such a critical point in the game is a big mistake. Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage's loop is simple, you do a level and get as far as you can. If your character levels up, you can improve your stats. if you have collected an item, you can equip it, and if you have collected materials you can use them to improve those items you've equipped. Once that's done, you go back in with the aim of going further.

During these journeys in the dungeons, the controls are nice and simple. your character will shoot it's weapon when it's not moving and you move your character with a single finger touching the screen. by double tapping, tho sometimes i felt like this didn't work that well, it activates a super attack. This one handed gameplay is great for those commuting but also means it's very accessible for a larger audience. Helping you are relics. at certain points in these dungeons, you will unlock 3 relics and get to choose 1 to equip. there's a large variety of them and they affect gameplay in different ways, but typically either attacking the enemy or boosting your stats. These are random so each run in a dungeon is going to feel different and helps mitigate the repetitive nature of roguelikes.

I do recommend Slime Hunter: Monster Rapmage. it is disappointing the tutorial stops at the critical point of explaining the loop of the game. this will put some people off. but with a little exploration of the menus, many will work out what to do. It's a recent release so there's a good chance things will get even better. So i would recommend it to play now but also to keep on your phone and check out it's updates to see if they do improve the tutorials and make things easier enough for you.