Demo Play Thursday - Outlanders On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Outlanders from Pomelo Games and Big Games Machine.

I'm a bit behind schedule when it comes to demos so Outlanders is already out now, but i am glad i played it. It's one of my longer videos and yet i only completed the tutorial and 2 scenarios. i don't think i finished the demo nor do i know how much more there was to it. I never saw this demo say it was a demo

I appreciated that the demo came with a tutorial, but it wasn't as comprehensive as i expected. it taught the basic controls of the game but never went into how this game can be won. what's particularly frustrating is how the first scenario i played differed from the tutorial. i think the first scenario should act as a tutorial, too. there appears to be a village elder/leader that doesn't really have any interactions with us, so they would've been great offering some advice and tips.

That's not to say this is an overly complicated game. Outlanders tells the player what their goals are for each scenario, but not how to get there. this does mean that even tho i achieved and completed the first scenario, i do think i could go back and maybe do it 5 minutes quicker, if not more. This is also true for the second scenario, which i barely finished in the time limit. as this is a demo, i don't know if there is a reason to go back and re-do past scenarios. if this game was on a PlayStation or Xbox console then perhaps there would achievements to get by re-doing past levels, but here on Switch i don't know.

Personally, i enjoyed my time with Outlanders. it does have that "one more turn" appeal to it. if it had leaderboards where i could compare my completion time with my friends, then it could become a chill game to play and a competitive one to play, too. if you're curious about this, i would recommend trying out the demo. it isn't as complicated as a Civilisation game, but some of the core Outlanders mechanics are different enough that it may take some time to adapt. the key mechanic i understood was dismantling and moving gathering jobs. for some aspects of village life, you do need to move things around and more people from job to job.

Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - From Start to Finish

The playthrough of the Stories on Tuesday PS3 game XBlaze Lost: Memories, from Arc System Works and Aksys Games, is now finished.

The only editing i had to do to get this video under the 12 hour limit was to increase the speed of the majority of the loading to double it's normal speed. so this video does have the post credit scene.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fPjjATSfhcM

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/sY-nYy_MXxQ

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/w28xapHoB5w

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/_fXKI60OVu8

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/dM2MF4rEMWY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/3ZWKSu685X0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/pfw0d4SU9n8

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/_EoAXrMH-C0

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/Qj-RbugUJmc

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/P24kH_GSjPQ

Part 11 - https://youtu.be/48QBEpqc-kk

Part 12 - https://youtu.be/ilXAW6n7mT8

Cloud Monday - Legasista - Part 2 - The Cloud Is An OK Way To Play If You Don't Have A PS3

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Legasista via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

After over 2 hours of gameplay, i wasn't able to finish the tutorial for Legasista so there are still some questions i have about this game that i wasn't able to answer, the main being whether you're able to save in the dungeons or not. during the tutorial, i wasn't able to, but i wondered if in longer dungeons if there would be save options. if you know, please let me know in the comments.

You're able to manually save before you enter dungeons in the hub world. there is an auto save option that has to be turned on. it will save when you return from a dungeon but as we found out in this video it won't save until character conversations have finished. there is an option to press Start to skip the conversations to try and trigger the auto save or manual save, but there doesn't seem to be a way to read the conversation that was skipped.

Having some way to manually save is better than nothing. Legasista is also a game that hasn't been re-released on other platforms, it's only on PlayStation 3. so streaming it from the cloud is an OK way to play the game if you don't have access to a PS3. but it's not perfect and a disconnection could set you back a lot if there's no way to save in a multi level dungeon.

Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - Part 12 - The Final Part

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 version of XBlaze Lost: Memories from Arc System Works and Aksys Games.

This is the final part of my playthrough. it includes the credits and post credits scene.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fPjjATSfhcM

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/sY-nYy_MXxQ

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/w28xapHoB5w

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/_fXKI60OVu8

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/dM2MF4rEMWY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/3ZWKSu685X0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/pfw0d4SU9n8

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/_EoAXrMH-C0

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/Qj-RbugUJmc

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/P24kH_GSjPQ

Part 11 - https://youtu.be/48QBEpqc-kk

Cloud Monday - Legasista - Part 1 - Unable To Save In The Starting Slow Tutorial Dungeons

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Legasista via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Legasista is a game i own on PlayStation 3 but not one i remember starting so whilst this isn't a Backlog Conquering video it's adjacent to that playlist as well as this Cloud Monday playlist.

Some of the PS3 RPG's i've played for this playlist have done well and been fine streamed from the cloud. in Legasista, you're able to save before you go into a dungeon and, if you turn it on in the options, the game will auto save when you come out of the dungeons. but at the moment i've been unable to save whilst i'm in the dungeon. so far, i've only been doing tutorial dungeons so there's a chance that when i get to the "real" dungeons the situation will change. you'll have to come back for part 2 where i hope to make it that far into the game.

I had a solid stream from the cloud today and noticed no visual artifacts in the video we were watching. there was maybe 1 or 2 slight audio blips, but other than that even the controls were good today. If i were to get macro blocking, there's a good chance it wouldn't matter too much. the background assets repeat frequently, so if some of them were a bit blocky because of the macro blocking, i would still be able to understand it as those assets are used elsewhere. The characters don't have fine detail, but they do make great use of lighting and are quite big on screen, so whilst it would be noticeable, we would still be able to understand what's happening. the text tho is my main concern. there doesn't seem to be a way to make it bigger and i've been unable to bring up the text log of what's been previously said, even tho it's in the options. with the game audio in Japanese, and no way to change that, macro blocking in the text could be detriment to the story.

Demo Play Thursday - Nuclear Gladiators 3000 On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Nuclear Gladiators 3000 from Turbo Napalm.

I've played a few games like Vampire Survivors on mobile as part of Mobile Friday and just in my free time, but Nuclear Gladiators 3000 is the first time i've played one on consoles. the big concern i have with these games is that things can get crazy, not just in terms of difficulty but also in terms of explosions and stuff happening on screen and the worry is always can the platform i'm playing it on handle it. thankfully, after playing the DEMO i can say that the Switch was fine playing Nuclear Gladiators 3000.

With it's rocking soundtrack, it makes a good first impression. it's going after a certain 80's vibe and i think pulls it off, tho i would've like the odd sax solo or something similar to The Transformers Movie.  Nuclear Gladiators 3000 also does a good job in explaining what the goals are and how to play. i do feel that for the first couple of runs, this could all be simplified and then when you get your first sponsor things could then open up more.

The goal seems simple enough. you defeat wave after wave of enemies until trying to survive for 3 minutes to get to the next stage. by blowing things up and doing combo's, the audience gets more enthusiastic. by defeating enemies, you're able to level up weapons and abilities in a run. when the run is over, you're scores and audience values are converted into Freedom Bucks. these can be spent on permanent upgrades which will help you go further in the next run. But as you'll see in this video, i was never able to survive for 3 minutes on the third stage. the leap from second to third stage seemed a little too big.

As a demo, it's fun to play and worth checking out. But there is a downside to it. there is no trailer nor any screenshots. there's not even a message from the developers. so all i get to use is one character. i don't know how many others there are, how many stages there are, or sponsors. the demo succeeded in showing me the game mechanics but failed in showing me what the game has to offer.

Backlog Conquering - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy HD On PS3 - Part 8

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from the 2012 The Jak and Daxter Trilogy that remastered the games and brought them into HD. This series is my first time playing any of the games from the initial trilogy, tho i have played the PSP game Daxter.

Check out the other parts of this play through:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fvi6KUY0vD8

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/bf7Obhhh8K4

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/oMqaSd8rB4k

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/OCL0AqLHW-o

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6fpsgoVY6cY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/sTmZpFlQ1Ps

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/jlGBporjYVw

Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - Part 11

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 version of XBlaze Lost: Memories from Arc System Works and Aksys Games.

This part started with me choosing the other option from Part 10, that gave us the game over. this is a bit more of a happier part, in comparison to the previous few, but it's still frustrating watching Es make the same mistakes as before and not trusting those around her enough. But it does seem like she has forgotten why she's back so maybe we can cut her some slack.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fPjjATSfhcM

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/sY-nYy_MXxQ

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/w28xapHoB5w

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/_fXKI60OVu8

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/dM2MF4rEMWY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/3ZWKSu685X0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/pfw0d4SU9n8

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/_EoAXrMH-C0

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/Qj-RbugUJmc

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/P24kH_GSjPQ

Cloud Monday - Digimon Survive - Part 2 - Streaming From The Cloud Is A Good Way To Play It

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

In the first Part, https://youtu.be/kjyaV_4XsyY, it was clear how good the game's save system was. it was an Auto save that's pretty clear to see on screen when it's in action, typically before/after a talking set piece, and there's also the manual save option which can save the game at a specific point in a conversation. when we start this Part, we load right in to the middle of the conversation we left the game before.

When there's only a 20 second window to save before being disconnected from the service, being able to save and knowing when the game itself last saved is crucial and Digimon Survive does a great job at it. One of the reasons i feel like it's one of the better games we've played via the Cloud also comes down to the game's art style. none of the Digimon we've encountered so far has fine detail. their art style is simple and relies on expressions. if the game was to suffer from macro blocking, so instead of fine detail we get larger squares of color, there's a higher chance of such squares not getting in the way of the Digimon's design. their character models are large so there's a higher chance of the squares appearing in color anyway. the subtitles on screen are also rather large. if macro blocking were to occur in the subtitle box it would be obvious, but it's unlikely to obscure the whole world due to the size of it so for the most part text should be legible enough. if things did get rough then it's easy enough to pause and maybe even save and wait for this macro blocking to pass.

The visual novel style of gameplay also lends itself to being played from the cloud. this game has a "Backlog" feature, something fairly common amongst visual novels, where you're able to look back at text already spoken. so if there was macro blocking obscuring text you're able to check what it actually said. I think you're also able to check what was set in a cut scene, if you had to end it to save, but i haven't tested that out. 

Digimon Survive isn't a large install, the PSN Store say's it's 6.34GB so for many installing it will be a sensible option. but i do feel that playing it from the cloud is just as good of an experience. there is one added benefit for those who sometimes forget what they've installed on a console and that's whilst the icon will be on the home screen no space is taken up. so if you do forget to uninstall it when it leaves PlayStation Plus, it'll take up no space and you can add the icon into a "To Buy" folder as a Wishlist" of sorts on your console.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - November's Eggstra Work – 139 Top Score!

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is November's Eggstra Work Event in Splatoon 3 on Switch. I have felt terrible since Friday with a migraine and general queasiness, so i was unable to Live Stream during the weekend. i got out of bed for a little bit to take part in the event. i got 10 matches done before i gave up due to general fatigue. my highest score was 139 in my tenth and final match. i don't know if this is good enough for bronze. let me know in the comments what your scores were!

Mobile Friday - Seven Knights Re:Birth - A Good Turn Based RPG That You Can Control Or Watch

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Seven Knights Re:Birth from developer Netmarble on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've had Seven Knights Re:Birth installed on my phone for a while and had noticed that the game was constantly being updated. But at 251.4 MB, there's even more to download once you start the game. to it's credit i did appreciate that the game let me start with a guest account and it gave me a heads up about the additional 5GB download, warning that it was best to download it over Wi-Fi. what surprised me was that the game was able to tell me that i was currently connected to Wi-Fi. Games have warned that these data installs should be down over Wi-Fi, but this was the first time i remember a game saying what my current connection was.

The install section is just a short slideshow with 1 song playing on loop. but when it stops and you launch the game we're greeted by a cinematic intro that looks cool. again, the game surprised me by then seamlessly transitioning from the cinematic to a gameplay tutorial to back to the intro, to gameplay story telling. it makes a fantastic first impression.

With such a spectacle for an introduction, the bar is high for the game to reach during normal gameplay and for the most part i think it reaches it. Seven Knights Re:Birth is a turn based RPG that gives players the choice to control the fight or to watch it happen. personally, once the ability to watch was unlocked i never went back to controlling the characters manually because it was such a pleasure to watch. It's a similar effect to Football Manager, a game where you spend time building the team and then watch them in action. in Seven Knights Re:Birth i was assigning characters to the team, equipping them, and then watching them attack enemies.

Between the action stuff is the story stuff. i'll be honest, i kinda saw the direction it was going to go and correctly guessed it. So the story maybe a little generic, but the presentation of said story is well done. the character interactions on screen remind me of larger console games. for a game like Seven Knights Re:Birth, this video isn't long enough to get a sense of the true story but for now there's enough here for me to want to continue playing.

Version 1.08.06 Played

Demo Play Thursday - Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit from Retroware, Mega Cat Studios, and Programancer. 

Whilst i have been watching their video content probably from near the beginning, i have never played any of the videogames. when i recorded this video i thought that this was just a port of a previous Angry Video Game Nerd game but i have since learned that this is a brand new game. so apologies if things get a little confusing in the video.

My history with videogames starts more from the 16bit era with the Mega Drive, but i did play a few 8bit games on the Master System and i've played pixel looking sidescrollers before so for me it wasn't too unexpected when the game started with no tutorial. But as this is a demo there's a chance that the final game has a tutorial of sorts. you'll have to let me know in the comments if this game does have one or not.

Graphically, it sure is an 8bit looking game and it comes with some of the gameplay limitations i expected from such a game. an easy example is how you can only shoot horizontally. there's no up or down shooting. But what was unexpected and very welcomed was how the game isn't sticking to the rules i was used to back then. it was common in games to have jumps into the unknown but here the stages have been built in such a way that you can always see at least 1 platform to aim for when jumping down.

Personally, i found the normal difficulty to be hard and changed it to easy to beat the demo. difficulty in game's like this are rather subjective so whilst i'd recommend starting on easy then going up to normal, for those who like a challenge and like learning pattens the normal difficulty could be a good start.

There was a bug at the start of the game. the FMV sequence featuring the Nerd himself was out of sync. when i changed difficulty and started again, the same sequence played but it worked fine. i don't know if this is unique to the demo or a bug in the PS4 version. you'll have to let me know in the comments. but i will send an email out to the developers to let them know what happened.

Backlog Conquering - Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy HD On PS3 - Part 7

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.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 version of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from the 2012 The Jak and Daxter Trilogy that remastered the games and brought them into HD. This series is my first time playing any of the games from the initial trilogy, tho i have played the PSP game #Daxter.

Check out the other parts of this play through:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fvi6KUY0vD8

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/bf7Obhhh8K4

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/oMqaSd8rB4k

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/OCL0AqLHW-o

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6fpsgoVY6cY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/sTmZpFlQ1Ps

Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - Part 10

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 version of XBlaze Lost: Memories from Arc System Works and Aksys Games.

This is the tenth part. I got a Game Over in this part, it was quite unexpected. there are more choices to be made now!

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/fPjjATSfhcM

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/sY-nYy_MXxQ

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/w28xapHoB5w

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/_fXKI60OVu8

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/dM2MF4rEMWY

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/3ZWKSu685X0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/pfw0d4SU9n8

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/_EoAXrMH-C0

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/Qj-RbugUJmc

Cloud Monday - Digimon Survive - Part 1 - It's Easy To Save And Has Frequent Auto Saves

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

Digimon Survive will be leaving the PlayStation Plus service this month so i wanted to see if playing it from the Cloud would be a good way to play it before it's removed. When it's removed from PlayStation Plus, unless you've bought it, it'll stop working on your PS4 or PS5.

Digimon Survive is a Visual Novel style game that uses that style of game to tell it's story whilst also combining a tactics style fighting mechanic and also have a Mobile Phone explore your location feature. in this hour and a half i played for Part 1, all these different styles work well together and feel cohesive.

How a game saves is important when playing a game from the Cloud. PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service gives users a 20 second warning before disconnecting. it's important to know when the game autosaves and how to do manual saves. in Digimon Survive, the auto save is clearly mentioned on screen and happens before cinematics, where manual saves aren't possible, and after chapters. during typical Visual Novel sections, we're able to pause the game and save manually.

the stream quality was great during Part 1. this helped highlight the graphical style of Digimon Survive which i quite enjoyed. there may not be a lot of small details, but the art style and and use of colors is nice. we saw in the first battle at the start of the game that the Digimon are drawn in a flat 2D style whilst the battle stage is 3D. everything was clear to see and importantly I didn't notice a lag in the controls during menus, story, or battle sections, unlike during the previous game with Cyberpunk 2077.