Mobile Friday - King Smith: Forgemaster Quest - It's Buggy And Has No Tutorial But It's Still Good

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out King Smith : Forgemaster Quest from Cat Lab on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

I mention it at the start of the video, but i'll repeat myself here, the recording of this video didn't go to plan. my recording stopped halfway and i lost that file. i restarted the recording and continued my first playthrough of King Smith : Forgemaster Quest. the start of this video is that continuation and it uses the gameplay i recorded. after that, i have included my audio from when i started playing the game. as that video recording is lost, i have included "B-Roll" of King Smith : Forgemaster Quest's App Store Page. 

I was interested in trying out King Smith : Forgemaster Quest because i wanted to see how it would combine forge, dungeon, and shop keeping. i have played a few games similar to this in the past and really enjoyed them so i came into this with some hope of finding something cool.

Unfortunately, King Smith : Forgemaster Quest lacks a tutorial and my first 30 minutes or more were frustrating as i tried to work things out. it's not just a lack of a tutorial that makes starting King Smith : Forgemaster Quest frustrating, some of the UI just doesn't make sense. one of the bigger culprits was levelling up our heroes, on that screen the information on how much of an item we'd use to level up must've been a pixel or two high.

Another frustrating aspect of this first hour were the bugs. you'll hear when the gameplay video starts that there's no BGM. that stopped within the first 30 minutes. when the boss levels start there's a splutter of sound before it starts and fails. when i went into a portal, one of my characters got stuck a floor ahead of my team and just spun in circles. sometimes there were sfx, some times there weren't.

but despite these issues, i did have a good time playing King Smith : Forgemaster Quest. there is something to it's gameplay that's simple but effective. the graphics are good and there are some nice little animations here and there. when i heard the music, it wasn't too bad. I would say the good outweighs the bad, it's still possible to have a good time with it.

But all these issues do mean i won't be considering King Smith : Forgemaster Quest for Mobile Game of the Year. i would still recommend it to people looking for a fun new idle game, but i'd also tell them to watch out for updates via the app store.

Version 1.0.13 Played.

You can try out Tiny Cafe by using my invite code is: BA09G11D

Demo Play Thursday - Crystal Breaker On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Crystal Breaker, from Terarin Games, but it's also coming out on Steam.

Regulars to the site will know that i'm not good at #shmup style games, but i am keen to try them to see if i can find one for me. What made Crystal Breaker interesting was how zoomed in it looked and how focused on close range attacking it was.

I don't know how common this is in the genre, of Shoot 'em ups, but for me i haven't played one quite like Crystal Breaker. the Demo starts with one of two cool pixel art start screens and it clearly says that it's a demo. it's a bit of a shame there's no link here, or elsewhere, to the game's eShop page. there's also no music and i wonder if that'll be true when it comes out. the main menu also has no music, but if you go into options there are sound options. when you pick one, it plays so you can hear when you raise or lower volumes. i recommend keeping voice under 50%, you'll be hearing it a lot but it sounds like an emotionless Ai.

But other than the annoying Ai voice, the music in the game is good. But it's weirdly unbalanced. each of the two stages i played have their own music and i enjoyed them. but in Crystal Breaker you're continuously powering up your weapons and when you reach full power you get the same song continuously playing. so even tho the stage songs are nice, i didn't really get to hear them often.

Crystal Breaker doesn't have a tutorial, it has a digital instruction manual that you can access via the main menu. unfortunately, this manual didn't have any moving pictures but there are pictures and i found the English clear enough to understand what's happening. i highly recommend checking this out first before trying to play the game if you're unfamiliar with this type of game.

Crystal Breaker doesn't complicate the gameplay with various mechanics. whilst this may make the game seem simple, for me i quite liked this approach and found Crystal Breaker somewhat good for newcomers. hitting/crashing into enemies doesn't damage you but their bullets will. This is fantastic and what's more Crystal Breaker isn't a Bullet Hell shmup, so it's not too difficult to dodge enemy attacks. our ship even has a booster option that can help us avoid incoming fire.

The goal of Crystal Breaker seems to be to get the highest score. to help the player achieve this there are plenty of power ups, plenty of things to shoot to help prolong and/or increase a combo, and there are crystals to pick up that some ships and things drop when hit. There are also various stage bonuses to find, targets a certain color to hit, and hidden targets that offer big points. simply put, Crystal Breaker encourages players to destroy as much as possible and gives players high scores for doing so. But there doesn't seem to be online leaderboards to compare scores with friends. in this demo it all seems local, or there's no obvious easy way to check what scores your friends got.

For me, what i found to be lacking in Crystal Breaker was a sense of story. i wanted more from my time with this DEMO, i wanted to be grabbed by a story but there isn't one here and i don't think there's one in the final game either. i don't know who the characters are, i don't know why we're doing this, and i don't know why there are crystals. I wanted some answers to this and didn't get any. So for me, i won't be getting Crystal Breaker, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game, nor does it mean this is a bad demo. it's a simple arcade Shmup that's designed to be a score chase and i guess i'm looking for more than that on a console. if Crystal Breaker came out on a pocketable portable like PSP, then i might be more interested in the pick up and quick play style of this game.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 9 – Finishing The Third Circle Of Hell

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Part 8 was unique in that it was the first part that didn't add to the story, we only did a couple of Belle's Hells. Going into this Part, i expected there to be story but i was surprised that we got some back story for the Black Poisonette. It makes me wonder if it'll become an enemy we have to deal with, but i also wonder if it's partner got to heaven or had a far worse fate.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/DNYEIWBChQA

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/eO_uzz3XnD0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/1sfrvextYrc

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/qGCgasaYvpM

Stories on Tuesday - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - Part 3

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.

We left Part 2, https://youtu.be/hQJtjsH3jeo, on a bit of a cliffhanger. we knew something was about to happen and in this Part it did. But there was more as a second big event started in this video.

Mobile Friday - The Get Out Kids - A Highly Recommended Great Looking Free Narrative Puzzle Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Get Out Kids from Frosty Pop on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've not been great at narrative puzzle games. there are times when the game's logic and my logic don't match and it can become frustrating trying to solve long winded puzzles. an example of this is when i played When the Past Was Around on Switch. some of the shorter puzzles in that game were fine, but there were times i just didn't understand what it expected me to do. Ultimately it was the story that kept me going, and you can check out that video at https://youtu.be/DAdBca0e-mI.

The Get Out Kids starts with a fairly unique characterful home screen. when i hit the Let The Adventure Begin button i was pleasantly surprised by how many chapters there were to this story. it gave me hope that The Get Out Kids was going to be more story focused than puzzle based. it starts with a prologue that tells a rather sad story with text on screen. for me, i had no issue with the size of the font, but it would've been nice to have a font size option for better accessibility as other aspects of the game allow us to zoom in to see things better but this part doesn't.

With the sad story finished, we time skip to what i assume to be the game's present and a couple of the main characters. After some story and introductions to them, we start with Molly's room and it looks great. there's a lot of character in the room, the same with Salim's room too, but it's not overwhelming. everything was nice and clear and easy to work out what's what. in this room and the next, our goals were simply find stuff and maybe do a light puzzle or two.

It's now Chapter 3 and this was a very short chapter that had a simple puzzle before we got some story from the town about a pet goat. then it's Chapter 4 and the final chapter i did for this video. in another beautifully rendered location we're tasked with making a noise and creating an escape. each puzzle happens in turn so it never felt overwhelming but what stood out the most to me here, other than the floating heads, was the text for Molly's dog Moses. the game didn't need to give the dog some character, it would've made sense by what had happened in the story for the dog to go when it was told to. but the developers wrote 3 sentences about this dog's character and temperament that weren't needed but really added to the game.

Back at the home screen, on the left side there's an icon for Computer Games and i tried out the 7 bite sized games that come free with The Get Out Kids. they're retro styled but have some modern ideas. i really liked the first one, Spaced Out, and think it could be it's own separate game in a Bit.Trip or Geometry Wars style game. the game i didn't understand was SeeSaw.

i really enjoyed my time with The Get Out Kids. one reason why i stopped playing the story when i did was because i wanted to take my time with it, maybe record the story as part of my Stories on Tuesday series because i was enjoying it. but it wasn't just the story, i enjoyed the tasks needed to progress the story. it really felt like a game crafted for a mobile experience. The Get Out Kids is a game i would recommend to anyone with an iPhone and it's seriously making a challenge as one of my Mobile Game of the Year games. if i could make a suggestion to the developers, it's that i'd like an option to turn the background music down. at present, there's only on or off but i'd like a halfway level of volume. other than that, i can't think of anything else The Get Out Kids needs.

Version 1.0.2 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Time Walker: Dark World On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Time Walker: Dark World, from the developers Heartfun and publisher 2P Games.

I had seen this game on the eShop and i was curious how it all worked. the screenshots looked busy and i couldn't understand from them what type of game it was. i was really curious how the game would teach us, the player, how to manage such busy screens.

The demo's home screen doesn't mention that it's a demo and by the end of the video we also learn that out of the 5 options we have on screen, only Start and Settings work. for some reason the developers chose to keep the other 3 options highlighted even tho they don't do anything.

when i started, i was at a screen with four characters. i knew from the eShop page that the game had classes, but what i didn't understand...even now...is whether i started playing the game with 4 regular people who gained their class when i found it in the level or if they kept their class and i had to remember which of the same looking characters was which and give them the correct class.

Time Walker: Dark World, before i had started playing the game, hadn't given me enough information to understand what was happening and then when i started playing it dumped me straight into a combat situation with no tutorial. i had to pause and look around the screen for some hints as to what was happening but all it really said was press Y to fight.

once the fight was finished we're greeted by one of the worst tutorial screens i have ever seen, a screen that used the term "ability" when the only other term we had seen is class, and offered just 3 short sentences, one of which was "Then Fight". Needless to say i had no idea what was happening and my short time with Time Walker: Dark World was mostly one of confusion and frustration.

Atrocious tutorial aside, Time Walker: Dark World does have nice graphics and i was enjoying the music. but it's not enough to make up for the poor user experience i had playing this demo. i finished it, earned some purple stuff the game never told me about, unlocked stuff i seemingly couldn't access, and was given 3 choices. "Talent", "Play Again", and "Back to Start". i guessed Talent might have something to do with abilities or class, but wasn't sure as it wasn't explained. i thought play again would restart the game at the first dungeon and back to start would take me back to the home menu. i was wrong, Play Again took me back to the home menu and i was done with Time Walker: Dark World.

The demo told me little about the game and i might even argue the demo was a waste of time. i would've got just as much from watching a video on the game than playing the demo they released for it. i don't recommend people try the demo, and if this is a representation of the final game i don't recommend people get that either.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 8 – Thirteenth and Fourteenth "Belles' Hells"

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

We didn't get much story in this week's video, but the hells we visited were somewhat interesting. the first one had the saddest, and most confusing, story so far whilst the second saw us facing off against enemies wearing dessert themed hats or back packs, similar to how the flower themed enemies were dressed during the hay fever hell.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/DNYEIWBChQA

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/eO_uzz3XnD0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/1sfrvextYrc

Stories on Tuesday - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - Part 2

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.

The thing that stood out the most from Part 1 were the characters that the game kept introducing. it felt like not a lot happened in my first hour with the game. in this part, time wise in the game's story, more time has passed and it felt like we got to have some character growth for ourselves and we got a better look at how the game world works. We also got to make a couple more choices for ourselves and how they were handled in the game was how i imagined the choices i made playing out.

Switch Funday - Banjo-Kazooie - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week's game is Banjo-Kazooie and this is my first time playing it! I've heard people talk about this game for a long time and most often they've spoke highly of it, putting it up as one of the best on the N64. I've always been curious about it, but i never got it when it came out on Xbox 360. With it's sequel, Banjo-Tooie, being released i was reminded that Banjo-Kazooie was already out Nintendo Switch.

having tried out other N64 games, i knew that the controls might be the most annoying part of playing this but thankfully they weren't too bad. it wasn't great but it was manageable enough. that's not to say that Banjo-Kazooie doesn't have it's own quirks, i found it's momentum to be frustrating when it came to doing big jumps and trying it's roll attacks. but by the time i was finishing this video i was starting to get to grips with that aspect of the game.

Having heard people talk about this game for so long, things like the puzzle pieces or music notes weren't a surprise to me. But there were still things, even after all this time, that surprised me. you'll hear after i finish the first level how surprised i am that Grunty's Castle isn't linear, that it's full of secrets and small puzzles. i was also kinda surprised by how small the first stage was. i was worried that with all the collectables the stages would be massive and it'd be a pain to find everything. but i fond that first stage to be the right size and it's puzzles not too difficult. things could change with the later stages, but for this first hour or so it was very pleasant.

Banjo-Kazooie really makes a great first impression with it's introduction "movie", the tutorial area, and the first area we visit in the castle. i enjoyed the quips between each character, too. for me, i had such a great time with Banjo-Kazooie that i do want to play more. i'd prefer to play more with modern controls, but with the XBLA closed and Rare Replay not on a console i own, i may have to learn to tolerate the controls on the Switch Pro Controller...but i think it might be worth it!

Demo Play Thursday - Angel at Dusk On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of  Angel at Dusk, from the developers Akiragoya and publisher Sanuk.

I'm not good at shmups so when i saw a demo for this one on the eShop i was interested in trying it as i hoped that the demo would give me a good idea on how it's difficulty is. but honestly, i wasn't expecting it to be as approachable as it was.

Angel at Dusk has a great tutorial that i would recommend to anyone interested in shumps. the game makes the point that this tutorial isn't just for this game, it's designed to teach players the basics of the genre. Angel at Dusk does have it's own game mechanics and not only does the tutorial tell us how to use it, it gives suggestions on how best to use it against enemies in game.

The demo consists of the tutorial, which is about 20-25 minutes, and the first two stages from the game's story mode. unfortunately, i can't really comment much on the story as it passes really quickly. there are text boxes, but as i'm not good at shumps my focus was on the action rather than the story as the game doesn't pause to tell it.

after trying out the demo, i would recommend Angel at Dusk to anyone curious about the shump genre and who are looking for a game to try. the demo is worth trying, but i'd recommend wishlisting the game and when it's at a price that's good for you i think it'd be worth getting. it has a fantastic tutorial, the options are cool as well as let you customise colors for many things, and whilst the game has it's own mechanics they never felt overwhelming. they were simple but effective, and due to the tutorial i was confident on how it all worked.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 7 – Eleventh and Twelfth "Belles' Hells"

*There's no commentary from me, my audio software crashed 3 times and i couldn't save it.

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

The two Belle's Hells i did in this video went fairly quickly and felt mostly fine difficulty wise. what was interesting were the little bits of story that helped flesh out how hell works but also that we didn't deal with the "big bad" when going to the second circle of hell.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/DNYEIWBChQA

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/eO_uzz3XnD0

Stories on Tuesday - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - Part 1

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.

This is a game i have started before, but i don't remember doing more than maybe the prologue and chapter 1. It's been so long ago i don't really remember the story, tho after playing this part some of the backgrounds and character designs did look familiar.

In this part i finished the prologue and did the first month of Chapter 1. there were a lot of introductions to, what seem to be, the main characters of the story. There wasn't a lot of back story revealed, but the interactions between the characters did reveal a little of the relationships/standings/friendships between them. so far, we've only had to make one choice in our story, but i'm expecting to make a lot more in the future.

Demo Play Thursday - Amedama On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Amedama, from the developers IzanagiGames and Acquire Corp.

The first thing that struck me when playing Amedama is it's visual style. throughout the video i try to say what it reminds me off, but i never succeed in doing so. in some respects, Amedama looks so familiar, but it also looks unique. the real question is does it actually look good, does it work visually. that i'm less sure off. i'll be honest and say that i didn't mind the character artwork and i thought that the backgrounds looked good. but i didn't like the character art, tho i do appreciate that for the most part people were visually distinct.

The trouble is, there's not enough variety. early on i started to notice that character art was being reused over and over again but it kinda got in the way of story telling. for gang members one type of artwork would be used, and then it would be used again for someone working with the samurai. it started to take me out of the world and the story telling and by the end of this video, it was starting to feel cheap or not finished because it just kept on happening. 

By the end of this video, i don't think i understood the game. in the hour i played, i was following the story, but the game itself never presented itself as anything more than a brawler with a unique character control mechanic. the day system did hint that something was up with the game but i never got to the end in this video. there was one kinda bug near the end during the final fight i had where the boss character was able to hit me up and seemingly into the rafters. i would be stuck up off screen and unable to attack until i moved and fell to the floor.

Ultimately, i would recommend people try out this demo but they'd have to play more than me to get a better sense of what it is. the idea of controlling over people's body's isn't new, but i did enjoy how they used it in this game. But Amedama isn't for me. it feels cheap/unfinished to such an extent that it started to get in the way of the story telling and the world they were trying to build.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 6 – Ninth and Tenth "Belles' Hells"

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

we're six videos in and i'm starting to predict when things are going to happen, like i knew there would be a story update in this video and it was a very interesting update. But it's not been an issue as Poison Control has, so far, been able to break the monotony by changing things slightly or by revealing more of the story. one gameplay change came in the 10th Belle's Hell where not only did we have the regular enemies wearing a costume, there were other cardboard cut out enemies to deal with. in the previous video there was another change where money was the goal. Poison Control has done great in changing things up slightly to feel fresh and exciting whilst also dishing out at the right times updates to it's story.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/DNYEIWBChQA

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Mobile Friday - Pokémon TCG Pocket - Open Packs With Minimal Flair, Get To Level 3 For Card Battles

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pokémon TCG Pocket from The Pokemon Company on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've always been a bit of an admirer of Pokémon TCG, not so much because of the game but because of the artwork. i have never collected Pokémon cards before so i was looking forward to trying this out. 

But Pokémon TCG never really matched my enthusiasm. it's a somewhat sterile experience. the excitement i felt of getting a cool looking card was never matched by the experience of getting it in the game. By having little to no fanfare, it comes across as a generic app even tho the experience of collecting is quite personal.

Thankfully, getting the cards is mostly straightforward with a decent enough tutorial on how things work. But there are Ui aspects that give the impression that not everyone was communicating with each other. the home screen has buttons on the top left that look like we can do something, but when you click on them it opens up and we can't. i don't understand why it looks like it's something we can use when we actually can't. it should be greyed out on the home screen or not there at all. 

This lack of unity appears when battles are unlocked. i don't understand why some parts of the battle mechanics require us to touch a card, when others require a hold and press motion. there are times when you have to go from one style to another. so when the battle section starts, you'll see i get more frustrated with the overly complicated controls.

But to get to this part of the "game" you have to get to Level 3, something that can easily take 2 days due to the pack cool down timers, which are 12 hours. This feature is locked on the home screen, whereas the example i mentioned above isn't as clearly locked. i don't understand why such a big aspect of the game is locked behind player level, when it doesn't matter.

When you start the battle mode, you don't use the cards you've unlocked. you have to do the tutorial first and for this you're given cards. when you complete it you're given a deck of 20 cards, tho for some crazy reason i wouldn't be able to check out this deck for a while to come. when i stumbled upon the deck menu, i was given the opportunity to create my own deck with my own cards. This is what should've been put behind player level, not the whole game mode but this aspect.

Pokémon TCG Pocket isn't a great user experience. it doesn't feel cohesive, it doesn't match the emotion we the player feel, and it kinda feels a little old. If you want to collect packs, then it's fine. if you want to battle, it's fine. unfortunately, in it's current state Pokémon TCG Pocket is nothing more than fine.

Version 1.0.5 Played.