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.
With Part 10 being as shocking as it was facing off against the Black Poisonette, i wasn't surprised that Part 11 was a little more back to normal. there wasn't any story stuff for our characters, but there were some interesting stories in the Hells we visited.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.
Part 4 ended with revelations and surprises so i wasn't expecting Part 5 to be just as exciting and yet it also had it's moments. there was a moment that was significant for the Shinsengumi, but it didn't go well for us. then we had someone appear who we were looking for way back in Part 1. and Part 5 then finished with more trouble for us. all in all, the story is still interesting but i do have a number of questions yet to be answered.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure from Super Planet on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The game's art style caught my attention in the app store but it was the game's Guild Mechanic that made me want to try it. unfortunately, i was not able to try out the Guild feature in The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure as i wasn't able to progress the game enough to unlock it. when i checked out the App Store page, i was concerned that this game may have an additional download but thankfully that wasn't the case.
Right from the start, The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure is a great looking and great sounding game. the intro cinematic/tutorial also makes a great first impression. but after that it's almost relentless. The game doesn't have a tutorial that most other games do, it's similar to last week's King Smith: Forgemaster Quest, https://youtu.be/Jdjm2JGh3xE, in that the game has a mission system that helps teach aspects of gameplay. when there's a mission, you press it and it takes you to where you need to go to complete it. But this means that the main screen starts filling up with icons quickly and at times it can feel somewhat overwhelming.
Other aspects of the game's design have made the game feel streamlined and easy to play. the first example i came across was with the loot. when i obtained a better item, instead of having to go through menus to equip it i could tap a notification on the screen and it automatically equips it. i can visually see the item on my character, too.
But whilst decisions like that make The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure easy to pick up and play, i played most of it one handed, it also means that there are aspects of the game that are not tied into the game's story. the one that stood out the most was the summon system. it doesn't feel tied into the game world at all.
I think The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure would be a great idle game for many players. the ease of play would be good for those who commute, the story helps elevate it above many other idle games, and it will take time to unlock all the features of the game. But it's the game world and how disconnected it feels from the game's story, the tutorial, and the missions, that will probably mean The Crown Saga: Pi’s Adventure won't win many, if any, awards. However i think it does more than enough right to be a pleasant gaming experience.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Dog Man: Mission Impawsible, from Mindscape.
Dog Man: Mission Impawsible looks like a licensed game from something aimed at kids, and i mean that in a positive way. the art style in the game matches the box art!
The demo starts well with a fun story sequence that sets up the game's story. once we start gameplay, it also starts with a basic tutorial that has good level design built around it so that by the end of the level we're good at the controls. unfortunately, i did find the tutorial to be a bit lacking. for example, i only knew of one button to change character when there was a second.
We only get two stages to play. the first sets up the story and is a solid tutorial level. i assume that the second stage we get to play is maybe the third in the game. it had some nice simple puzzles but i think i got soft locked and had to restart the level again. there appears to be no way to restart from a checkpoint so i retried the level. i still kept the item i had made, but i had to collect the icons once again.
Overall, i don't think Dog Man: Mission Impawsible is great for a young kids first platformer. the jumping in the game doesn't have much room for error and isn't too satisfying. but for older kids i think it would be a good time. for someone older, it's more difficult to say as the two levels we played were quite repetitive and i worry that we may do the same things over and over again. this demo was a bit too short to get a sense of what the final game would be like, but i think it's decent enough to judge how well someone younger may cope with it's platforming.
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.
In Part 9 we learned more about the Black Poisonette and it was very weird. it looked like we would have to defend ourselves but thankfully the White Poisonette team arrived and we were fine. But the situation wasn't over and in this part it took a turn for the worse and things got even weirder. we did get some new story about the Black Poisonette and about ourselves, but it didn't make things clearer.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.
Part 4 was really interesting. it started with the end of the attack that dominated part 3, then there was a time skip, and it finished with the group expanding, news about our father, and a surprising act that nearly cost us our life.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
*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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the first screen we're greeted with not only makes it clear that we're playing a demo but also provides a way to pre-order/but the game from the Switch eShop. it's always surprising when a game doesn't have a way to pre-order it or buy it from a store. there could've been a message saying this is a short demo, maybe saying outright or giving a hint as to what we can do, either on the first screen or before the next Character Creation screen. very few games do something like this but here it might've helped as i was surprised when the demo finished as abruptly as it did.
the character creation is limited but what we can make looks like it's part of the world. Out of the Buffalo, Rat, Cat, Dog, and Lizard options, i chose to create a cat character and i was satisfied with what was made. then we're thrown straight into the game and the beginning tutorial section. for the most part i found the tutorial section to be good. but it did feel like they were missing out on incorporating the family more into it. and then the tutorial seems to suddenly end right when new things are opening up. the big example in this video is how the game works with 4 robots. i didn't realize that only 3 can be on the field at a time, so it was confusing why we now had a fourth that did nothing.
The fighting aspect of the game is a real highlight. it's simple enough that the games tutorial covered it well enough that i knew what to do, but there's also depth in what we can do. by the end of the demo i was already thinking about how to strategically place my robots to work around the enemy robots. it's too early to tell how this part of the game will grow and change, for example it would've been nice to see how we could swap out a robot for another one in a way to change our strategy. a nice touch was how we, the player character, to interact with the fights and attack.
But i don't think i ever understood how to change my own loadout. i either missed it in the tutorial or there wasn't one for it. the game also failed to have a tutorial for upgrading our robots. it did introduce upgrading them with material we found. but i don't remember it ever telling us to upgrade their Ai or how that system worked.
The demo for Botworld Odyssey is good and after playing it i would be happy to continue playing the game. i just feel that it's disappointing that the tutorial works so well until it doesn't. it's very noticeable when something new happens in the early tutorial part of the game, but there's no tutorial for it. But it's not a big complaint when compared to how good the rest of my experience with the demo was. i'd recommend people check out the demo for sure.
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.
Now the story is continuing, after being stuck in Part 3 and getting unstuck in Part 4, i managed to do 2 Belle's Hells. the first one was simple and similar to other one's i've done. but the second one had a bit more of an interesting design and requirement to finish so it was a pleasant surprise.
Today's video ends at the shop and a discussion had there gave my character some answers but left more for my companion. the way the story is being teased out at a decent pace is really keeping me engaged with it so i look forward to the next video.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Tiny Cafe from Nanali Studios on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I have played a few of these animal themed restaurant simulators for Mobile Friday. Campfire Cat Cafe, https://youtu.be/Zhz5-EKj2NM, has been one of the ones i would recommend but i can now add Tiny Cafe to that list, too. These games all tend to have great art style, but then suffer with issues like they're too grindy, Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4 and Cats & Soup, https://youtu.be/B5_zo0ov4IM and https://youtu.be/hCvATMGu-9g, being too big examples of this. or if they try to have a story it feels like a side thought and isn't too in-depth, Animal Restaurant https://youtu.be/DZhTicMX4Bo is an example of this.
In the hour i played with Tiny Cafe, i do think i was at the beginning of the grind in terms of the basic gameplay but the story aspect of the game was just getting started and i was interested in where it would go. we not only have the story of our main character, but there's the story of his friend, and the stories of those who visit our shop. these stories are an effective way to get us to come back to play the game.
The start of the game does well to incorporate the games story into the tutorial and it takes us through basic gameplay in a way that's a little handholdy but not in a patronising way. the tutorial was soo good that i was surprised when it failed to do some basic things. there are icons on the screen that the game doesn't tell us about but there was also a way to take a screenshot of your cafe and the game hadn't told us about it.
the characters and their animations are great. For the most part, i enjoyed the art style of the characters and the cooking equipment. but the background details seemed a bit too flat, basic, and not quite in the same style as other stuff. it's noticeable but not distracting. the game does something a little unique where you can not only zoom into a specific piece of equipment but you can also rotate around it a little. Tiny Cafe doesn't just have traditional cooking and cafe stuff, there are some fun things as well like a bath.
I would recommend Tiny Cafe. it's one of the better restaurant simulation games i've played but also one of the better ones with a story as well so i'm interested in returning to see what happens next.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Ys X: Nordics Demo from Nihon Falcom.
Ys is a series that i've heard about but not one i've ever played before. so trying out this demo wasn't just for the site, it was for me too. i was curious about soo many aspects and hoped that the demo would let me know if i want to get the game or not.
Unfortunately, my time with the demo got every increasingly frustrating and i didn't enjoy my time with it. nearly every aspect of the game felt outdated or that it was built for a different console, whether that's the #Switch or maybe if the initially started planning this on Vita. graphically, the PS4 version feels like a downgrade. the lack of shadows make certain items in the game look like stickers, but there's the opposite problem where there are shadows that make characters look like they have scars.
The artwork for buildings looks so bland, and the draw distance is so close to the camera that later on islands in the background started to blend in with the sea so it looked like a wall of a single color. the characters were the best looking thing in the game, but don't look to closely as their mouths don't sync up with their speeches.
I also found the game's story wasn't syncing up with what i was doing and that was probably the most frustrating thing as it meant i was having to pick what to say from a choice of something that makes no sense or something that makes only a little sense. very rarely did the game offer me something to say that i, the player, wanted to say.
The demo also hit a technical issue where i had single digits of frames. this started with the dual battle with the "Princess" and maybe a combination of luck and low difficulty setting meant we could defeat the wolves even if nothing was moving on screen.
Unfortunately, i can't recommend the PS4 version of the Ys X: Nordics Demo, and as my experience with the game was so negative i can't really recommend people getting the game. it felt like it's only for the hardcore fans who are maybe used to the outdated designs and complaints i had through most of this video.
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.
In Part 3, i got stuck in the first major "Dungeon" of the Second Circle of Hell. i tried twice and was defeated twice, right at the end of the Dungeon. so going into this part i thought that would be my first goal. Unfortunately, i seemed to have forgotten to manually save after recording Part 3 so when i started the game for this recording, i realized that i had to basically re-do Part 3 all over again.
Thankfully i was able to defeat the dungeon, which had previously bested me, on my first attempt. This lead the the story twist that i didn't see coming. previously, our goal had been to collect stickers. we get stickers by solving personal hells. with 5 of them, we're able to get to heaven. well, by finishing the dungeon today i got all 5 and headed off to the shop to redeem them. that's when it's revealed that 5 stickers are needed to get 1 Gold Sticker, and it's 5 Gold Stickers that are needed to get to heaven. so our goal, and the amount of videos in this series for this game, as now grown.
I am still enjoying the story and the gameplay is mostly fine. the camera tends to fight me now and then and sometimes the lock-on seems to be aiming at ghosts or just off the enemy. thankfully the story is keeping me going so i am looking forward to the next couple of videos at least to see where things are headed.
This week's game is Blast Corps and this isn't my first time playing this N64 game. back when it came out, my sister either rented or borrowed this game and we played it a little. the problem was, we only played it a little because we got stuck. my hope about revising Blast Corps is to try and make progress but also to understand why i probably got stuck as a kid.
As ever, some of the journey with N64 games on Nintendo Switch is working out what the controls are, how they've been brought over to the Pro Controller. unfortunately, i think that even after my time with the game, i still didn't fully understand all the controls. i understood enough, but for example i couldn't work out how to do the dump truck drift.
The controls throughout were always a little weird, not just in how they've been brought over to the Pro Controller, but in how responsive they are in game. at times, i was impressed with how responsive and accurate it was. then there were times where i kept getting stuck on buildings as the controls didn't quite work as expected.
out of the different modes i played, i enjoyed the timed destruction ones the most. having a set level, a time limit, and a target was nice and was like a puzzle. it did feel like there was only one answer to this puzzle, but it was mostly fun and a nice way to try out each of the machines you can control. Racing had potential, but i think the course design didn't match well enough with the vehicles and the short cutting mechanic. the second race i did came close. but other than that, i didn't really enjoy the other game modes.
I came away from Blast Corps with the feeling that this was an XBLA game before such a thing existed. for me, there's not enough here for a full game release. not just in terms of gameplay, but also with the menus, music, and basic lack of any information.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out BLEACH Soul Puzzle from KLab, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I'm a fan of Bleach and have been for a long time. i've played a few games from Bleach, like the PS3 game Bleach: Soul Resurrección https://youtube.com/shorts/2ml6Ik5EuqI, and KLab's Bleach: Brave Souls on PS4. looking at the screenshots, i knew that it was going to be a Match 3 game, but because it was Bleach themed i wanted to try it so that's why i gave it a go this week.
Maybe i'm a little jaded with Match 3 games, but going in i wasn't expecting too much from BLEACH Soul Puzzle. it does make a nice first impression. i thought that it's tutorial was simple but effective and it got across the basics of gameplay. the graphics looked HD and appropriate for Bleach, and while the music was repetitive and a little generic it also felt appropriate. BLEACH Soul Puzzle didn't feel like a match 3 game that was reskinned to be Bleach themed.
the biggest surprise, in a nice way, was how simple BLEACH Soul Puzzle was. Match 3 games tend to add mechanics to try and differentiate themselves from each other. whether that's challenge mechanics, score mechanics, or something with the power-ups. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, as long as their tutorials are decent enough to get it all across then i have no issue with them. But BLEACH Soul Puzzle has none of that. it's goal is simply erase a set number of things, whether that's a gem, gems, or other stuff on the game grid.
As the game's tutorial is solid, the goals are explained, and the overall presentation being polished, BLEACH Soul Puzzle works very well. i'd even recommend it to Match 3 fans, who like myself, may find the simplicity of the experience refreshing.
BLEACH Soul Puzzle does have one or two issues. the game did have an extra download. it wasn't huge, 107 MB, but i wasn't expecting there to be one at all. i also think the game should explain some of the menus, like collection and gallery, before they're unlocked, and that the Exchanges menu should be locked until a little later in the game. as there's no icon for a Store, the game should direct players to the coins.
With BLEACH Soul Puzzle being based on the current Thousand Year Blood War and that series not being finished, i feel that this game is going to be around for a while, maybe even years. once that series is finished, it's possible they'll rebrand the game for the next story arc or even go back to previous arcs. BLEACH Soul Puzzle is well worth playing now and it could be a game you return to on and off for a lot longer.
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.
Things got more difficult in Part 3. i was able to get into the second circle of hell, but i failed to beat the first dungeon there twice. you can see that in each attempt i get to what seems to be the final fight, but i was unable to successfully clear away the poison whilst defending myself from the never ending swarm of enemies.
It's a shame as this video starts with a new character, some new questions being asked, and there was a nice boss fight. i wanted to beat this dungeon to see what would happen, would this have been enough to get us to heaven.
Last week i checked out the free to play game The New Denpa Men, https://youtu.be/8VjQxmvSxrY, but after my first hour with it i wasn't sure the game had showed me enough of what it is. The New Denpa Men is a slow game and it's mechanics and design feel old so i came back for a second hour thinking this would be enough time for the game to fully show me what it is.
My second hour with The New Denpa Men added little, if anything, to the overall game. it continues to not detail how to do things, i guess how to do the fishing after some annoying tries, and the big new addition of decorating felt poor, more so when you compare it to other games that came out on the 3DS. I tried out a couple of special events towards the end of the video and whilst it was nice to have something different to do, i got jewel pieces and there's meant to be someone on my island to give them to, but there wasn't.
Whether it's the jewel pieces or the fishing, it's frustrating that the game hasn't cornered off these aspects of gameplay until it's ready for us to deal with it. Many games will curate the start of the game in such a way that it feels random but in fact it's been designed so we're introduced to each gameplay mechanic. in The New Denpa Men, it feels like the start of the game hasn't been curated, it feels like it's been left as open as possible for all players to engage with. so i've been put into a scenario where there's a fishing mechanic that's not been explained and i have items to give someone on my island, but they're not on my island.
It was nice to get access to more Denpa Men in my party and i felt that it made the combat a little more easier. but it's still frustrating that the game doesn't specify what each of their abilities until they're used in combat. You can only do combat whilst on a mission. so if there's someone in your party that's not needed, you have to either finish the mission or quit.
The New Denpa Men continues to not be very accessible to new players and this second hour reinforces my statement that this is perhaps designed more for fans of the series rather than new ones. It's design feels like it was initially made for phones and was ported to the Switch, maybe Nintendo changed their mind. when starting the game i had to download additional game data which updated the game and it restarted. i had, earlier in the week, updated the game from the Switch home menu. this behaviour of downloading data to update itself is again something more common on mobile games than consoles and not a pleasant experience.
For today's video i'm back on Switch. It's been about a year since i last checked out the Switch version of Disney Speedstorm. https://youtu.be/8az0B7vEXGs. This weekend is the first weekend with Season 10. this season is themed after The Nightmare Before Christmas.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Disney Pixel RPG, from GungHo Online Entertainment, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
There was a lot of excitement surrounding this game when it was announced so i took a step back from it and didn't learn what it was. so i go into this not knowing much more than what the screenshots in the app store show.
Unfortunately, Disney Pixel RPG starts with a bad first impression as i had to download extra data. it wasn't as much as some other games, but it was more than i would want to download over a mobile network. it did warn that the game was going to do this download, but it didn't warn about this eating into mobile data, some games have started to provide that warning and recommend that such a download be done over wi-fi.
Next is a basic avatar creator and then we're thrown into gameplay. it's here that the game tells us what it's story is and i think it does this fairly well. once we're told about it we're put into a combat scenario and shown how to fight in Disney Pixel RPG. the controls can be set to auto or each character can be given instructions. a cool feature is that we're shown is that you don't need to go into a menu to set a command, you can flick the screen in a certain direction to command a character. But it also shows how basic some parts of the game are. there's no "battle music" or "victory theme", it all just feels generic music when you're in a world.
After this the tutorial mostly stops. it's weird that Disney Pixel RPG's tutorial had been great up to this point but then just drops us in the home world. other than some basic party stuff, there's a lot of the menus not talked about. an example is how i was completing missions throughout this video but had no idea where that section was. things were happening in combat that weren't being explained, mainly status conditions. things like this were making the game feel old, like it should've come out a few years ago.
The Gacha mechanic is another example of this. games still have it, but some of the better games find a way to incorporate it into the game world. In Disney Pixel RPG, it feels like a separate thing from the game's story, just like how games used to have such a feature. It's also not as flashy as most modern mobiles games.
a weird thing about Disney Pixel RPG is how it uses abbreviations. none of them are detailed. some can be worked out or at the very least guessed, like i did with LBrk Eff guessing it was Level Break Effect. but next to it is a "i" button that doesn't show what the abbreviation meant. There were some others i had no idea what was being abbreviated.
In it's current state, Disney Pixel RPG is playable and fine. but it's not hard to see issues. i found the High Graphic mode seemingly broken, what looked like place holder text behind final text, and sounds far to loud and annoying. i highly recommend tuning the sounds as Disney Pixel RPG has some basic sounds that can be piercing and annoying. there are aspects of it's design that are also frustrating, like it never shows in numbers how much health we have left. Or that our team has a power level but the enemy doesn't so we don't know if we're about to waste energy fighting an enemy we can't win.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Card-en-Ciel, from the developers Inti Creates.
Reading the eShop listing for the game, i was interested in the game. i thought the story idea was different and i was curious how the card mechanics would work. this demo seems to be from the start of the game and i think it's a great start. the tutorial, the story, the mechanics are all introduced smartly and in a way that feels right for the universe.
After playing an hour, the only thing that felt off was that the text on screen didn't auto scroll and that there didn't seem to be an option to turn it on. This is an older demo but it felt quite polished, which leads me to think that perhaps the Japanese release of the game has already happened.
One great feature of this demo is how it does the tutorials. it doesn't just put up a block of text, there's a video showing it in action. the text could have multiple pages, each with their own video. but what i thought was really cool and something i don't remember seeing else where was how the videos could be made full screen. i've played plenty of games where the picture/gif/video used in the tutorial is small, but here, the ability to make it full screen really felt modern and something that other developers should be looking at implementing.
This first hour is basically the tutorial for the game and each point seems to add a new mechanic to the game. each one isn't huge, but by the end it did feel like there were quite a few things to think about each turn. i don't know if it's a case of too much too soon or just too much in general. i enjoyed the simple mechanics at the start where each card could either do an action or move your character. i thought this was an interesting twist but then the game adds cards which, for example, can be used to avoid an enemies attack and counter them.
After my hour with Card-en-Ciel, i'm genuinely impressed with it. this demo is the start of the game and it shows that Card-en-Ciel is an approachable game that has a good first hour. i would recommend people trying out the demo first. this is a game that ties together a few different genres like card battling, visual novels, and rpgs. fans of each of those may like Card-en-Ciel and this demo is a great place to start.
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 2 continues on with the story. we previously did the first two Belles' Hells and they weren't too difficult, nor were the stories behind them that bad. the two I did today, they were much harder. not just in difficulty of playing them but also the stories behind them. There will be a Part 3 as i expect there to be more twists and turns in the story as we progress further deeper into hell.
This week i checked out the free to play game The New Denpa Men, from Genius Sonority. The Denpa Men series is something i'm vaguely aware of from the 3DS but i've never played any of the games. going into this Nintendo Switch version i didn't know what to expect so i was surprised when it revealed itself as a free to play game.
After playing it i looked it up and my thoughts whilst playing the game make sense. something i say a few times is how the game feels old. graphically it's fine, but for a free to play game the tutorial is surprisingly light and very little of what the game is is explained to us. the way the game works and why is not explained to us in a way that makes me think it's a console game and part of a series, whilst the free to play mechanics and microtransactions make it feel like a mobile game.
It's also slow, with an introduction that does little to get across what the world is. all i know is that there is legendary loot, which appears to be from the earlier games, and we're after it so we won't be bullied any more.
The gameplay aspect is more similar to a dungeon crawler. the two locations we've been to so far are varied and give the game a more casual feel. But the game makes it very clear, repeatedly, that if you are wiped out in the dungeon you loose all the loot. if you teleport out of the dungeon you can keep your loot but as you haven't finished it you can't continue the story.
Combat is not explained, but thankfully it's not too difficult except that resources at the start are scarce. so i immediately ran into issues of health and AP (magic abilities). this is kinda compounded by the choice of Denpa Men in my party, but seeing as it wasn't explained to me who i should bring with, let alone which ones i should catch, i imagine this is a situation that many may find themselves in. most modern mobile games rarely leave the start of the game to such luck
After an hour, i've come away feeling like i've not really even started the game. so i may come back next week to see if things improve with an extra hour of play time. but if i was to judge the game after this hour, i wouldn't recommend The New Denpa Men. it doesn't bring anything new whilst also feeling old and unwelcoming, designed for those who played the 3DS games. The Denpa Men's celebrations, or lack there off, when winning a battle sums up my feelings after playing this.
For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from SquareEnix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.
The game is now Free to Play. not only is the game free to download, it doesn't require PlayStation Plus to play it. the game has been updated a few times since i last played it back in May, https://youtu.be/SCjUS_FTOKk, so i also found the recent changes beneficial. the biggest change i appreciated were the regular game modes being grouped together so when you're looking for a game it can be any of those modes.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Punko.io: Tower Defense, from Agonalea Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It's a combination of a Roguelike and a Tower Defense game. it's always interesting to see which elements of a roguelike are used and how they're used in combination with tower defense. At first glance it may look similar to Kitty Keep, which we previously looked at https://youtu.be/aQNjKxIjSJg, but Punko.io: Tower Defense is not an idle game and each of the roguelike and tower defense elements are controlled more by the player than the computer.
The roguelike element of the game makes criticizing it a little difficult. one of the goals with that play style is repeatedly dying and working out what elements are repeated, learning how the loop works, and slowly making progress. But, seeing as Punko.io: Tower Defense starts off with telling us something wrong, i think it's fair to criticize the game's poor tutorial. Punko.io: Tower Defense starts straight into a level and we're soon instructed to choose a card or upgrade, but we can't upgrade as there's only 1 playable card. then the tutorial stops. if the game is going to have a tutorial, it should be correct, but for it to then stop and leave us alone is unfair to new/unfamiliar players. it may work on a console market which has more "seasoned" players but the mobile market is more casual. the game should at least ask if we want a tutorial, fix the first command, and offer some extra information to help new players.
The tutorial for the home menu is better than the gameplay one, but itself still has issues. near the end of the video i get a key, but at no point does the game tell me where or what to do with it. i thought i would be unlocking some sort of gatcha area but the forth unlock was evolution. i had to guess that the key unlocked a chest and that chest was in the shop. but i was surprised that i had two sets of keys for another chest. i can understand, to a point, why the gameplay may have less information, but the home menu aspect of the game needs to be better.
When it comes to equipment i'd argue that Punko.io: Tower Defense gives us too much information. the way the equipment aspect of the game works feels old and poorly executed. when you get 1 item, then it's fine, but as soon as you get more than one of the same item, it's difficult to manage. in the video i showed an example with shoes. i had one equipped and then got a second one. both were "good" quality. but there's no way to compare their basic stats. you have to look at one, remember, close, click on the second, and then compare. that might be manageable for HP stat, but both items have a long list of "Grade Skills" that unlock as you upgrade them, leaving us with much more to remember and making a quick task take longer. Many games have Quick Equip button that'll simply equip the items with the highest stats and that would work here. but the game needs to present the Grade Skills better.
Punko.io: Tower Defense's core gameplay loop is simple and effective. the character art is stylised and cool. graphically it's nice to look at, play, and it didn't heat up my phone. it mostly does ok with the Dynamic Island but at times it's off by a few pixels. for a lot of players it's a good game to have. but it's not the most approachable game, it feels like it was designed and made for a more experienced audience. the non-gameplay side of the game feels too basic and not as well designed as the rest of the experience and so sticks out because of that. i would recommend Punko.io: Tower Defense as no two runs would be the same, but it does need a little more work.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Metaphor: ReFantazio - Prologue Demo from Atlus.
Going into this demo, i didn't know anything about the game. i had somehow missed previous trailers and news about it. so other than it being an RPG, i didn't know what to expect. So i went in with no real expectations, it was all up to the demo to showcase itself.
And it did a fantastic job at that. the demo appears to be the first few hours of the game, tho it admits there are some changes from the retail game. The demo is quite open about it being a demo and that the aim is to showcase many aspects of the game. it's also clear that our save from this demo can be carried over into the final retail version.
one of the cooler features of this demo is the difficulty choice. if your focus is story, then choose that mode. the demo makes it clear that you won't die from battles. the other difficulty levels revolve around how difficult the battle aspect of the game becomes. i did this demo on normal and after this hour and a half i'd say it's probably fine to keep it at Easy and focus more on the story. the fights are fine, but they don't add much to the game beyond the style the game already oozes.
This game has soo much style and design i would argue that perhaps it has too much. there were a few moments where there was a load for some flashy stylish thing that only lasted a few seconds before there was another load back into the gameplay. On a PS5 where load times may not even exist this may work better, but on PS4 it felt more like a waste of time.
For me, the biggest shock was how poor i thought the story telling was for most of this video. but this could be explained due to Atlus cutting some story elements from the demo. But the story bounces from the present to the past, from one group to another, and often there was very little linking anything that was happening together. it took about an hour for all groups to be tied into the story together and for things to start feeling more harmonious. But once it got going i really got into it and enjoyed it
I would recommend the Prologue demo for Metaphor: ReFantazio. beyond the main story that's told, we get glimpses of something entirely different teased as the game asks for our name like we were another part of it's story, rather than us controlling characters. Having many difficulties makes it approachable to a wide audience, and there seems to be a lot here to play.
On PS4 i'd say that it plays great. there are some cutbacks that are noticeable but they don't really affect gameplay. for example, the main city we're in at the start looks big and interesting, but there aren't as many people around as you'd expect. the loading was better than i expected and the game uses a very short walking anime to help cover the loading of a new area of the city, so it feels like this PS4 version itself got attention rather than it being a straight port from PS5.
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.
Poison Control is a surprise pick for a series that focuses on Backlogs. it came out in 2021 so it's one of the more recent games i've bought. But the thing is i don't remember buying it, so i don't know why i have it. it's not a PlayStation Plus game so my Backlog Conquering series is the perfect place to try it as whilst it's not an old game, it's still in the backlog.
This weekend is the first weekend of Season 3 in Star Wars Hunters. I've been playing the Switch version of this game. For Online Saturday i tried out the Matchup Clash game mode and played 10 games, winning 4, https://youtu.be/mM-AylzecFI. For Today i played 10 games in the ranked game mode and my team mates and i were able to win 6 of them.
Unfortunately, there were two failed multiplayer matches. i showed the first one as it happened right at the beginning of the video, but there was another before the second match. what's frustrating about it is how long it can take for the game to sort itself out and get back to the home screen. the example i included was one of the faster examples of this.
For this weekend's Online Saturday video i played the recently released Season 3 in Star Wars: Hunters on Switch, from developers NaturalMotion Games and Zynga.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Power Rangers Mighty Force, from East Side Games , on my #iPhone 14 Pro.
I'm familiar with the recent games that East Side Games have released, i checked out Star Trek Lower Decks, https://youtu.be/5rA9Fb4SVhI, and have personally played their Doctor Who game. both of these are idle games based around an established franchise so going into Power Rangers Mighty Force i had a basic idea of how the idle part of the game would work. what got me interested is something they showed in the app store, the fighting.
the start of the game gets across the story premise and tutorial with both being told mostly fine. i'm familiar with the early Power Rangers and i found the Rita Repulsa in this game isn't quite the Rita i remember. but other than that, in this first hour the story we get mostly works. it does feel like they're trying really hard, maybe a little too hard this early on, introducing the idle mechanic.
Having played two of their recent releases, i was a little disappointed that East Side Games hadn't done much to differentiate this from them. It's the same idea in a new skin and the battle mechanic doesn't do enough to make this feel unique. The battle mechanic feels too bare bones and isn't explained as well as other aspects of the game. in this video i talk about how i have to remember how each character attacks as the game doesn't tell me. Plus, there are traits introduced that can help in fights and i've already got to the point where it's asking for characters with traits and i don't have them.
What also comes across as somewhat lazy is the music. apart from the odd guitar riff, it doesn't feel like any Power Rangers i've seen in the past. it's possible this music style is relevant to newer versions, then if that's the case why isn't there a large selection of musical styles for each era of Power Rangers.
Ultimately, Power Rangers Mighty Force isn't a bad game but i would only go so far as to say that it's Fine at best. the basics are solid but there's not much more than that. it treats the Power Rangers Fine, but doesn't seem to go over and above with it. for example, as someone who's only familiar with the earlier stuff, i wanted the game to celebrate the other eras with something like a Wiki or just simply saying on the character screen which show they're from. Power Rangers Mighty Force doesn't do anything to reinvent the genre and feels a little old nowadays. but if you're a Power Rangers fan it's a fine Idle Game.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Reynatis, from the developers Natsume Atari and FuRyu.
Going in, i didn't know what to expect from Reynatis. But i know of Natsume Atari and FuRyu so i was expecting an RPG. the icon art for this game is really cool and even on Switch i was expecting something vibrant. i can say that after playing this demo, Reynatis is this and much more.
The demo itself is well designed. it's from the start of the game but it's been changed slightly because it's a demo and it lets us know this. but other than not being able to go to some areas i never really felt like i was playing something lesser. at the end of the demo, it also details that our saves will be used in the final game and unlock bonuses for us and then makes us save before it goes to the main menu. A lot of care and attention went into this demo and it showed. this is one of the better demos i've played this year.
It also highlights the start of the game and how good it is. in the hour i played, the demo introduced a lot of the gameplay mechanics, the story concepts, the main characters, possible twists in the story, and also left a few things unanswered, some hooks that'll keep us playing.
The tutorial at the start is good as well. it takes us through the basics of gameplay. what helps is how responsive the controls are in the game. i might argue that the controls are a little too responsive as a couple of times during battles i felt the camera couldn't quite keep up. the combat is in the style of Devil May Cry in how you attack and the rating you get afterwards. there are clear bonuses for getting high ratings, tho it's not always obvious what you need to do to achieve a 3 star rating.
The only other knock against Reynatis from this first hour with it is that it felt like there were too many mechanics. aside from the mechanics for combat and the overworld using witch powers or not, which i consider to be essential to the game, there was a stress mechanic and social mechanic introduced that never really got to be used in this demo so felt unessential and superfluous.
Overall, i had a great time with the demo for Reynatis and i feel that it does well at showing the game. Playing the demo got me interested in the story and having now played it i'm comfortable with how it plays and controls. i would recommend this demo to anyone looking for an action RPG or someone looking for some fun with combat, much like Devil May Cry. i may suggest waiting for some reviews just in-case the rest of the game falls apart of gets weighed down by the mechanics, but it's well worth wish listing.
