This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Talespinner, from developer Flash Cat Games.
From the eShop page, i new going in that Talespinner was a roguelike RPG Deckbuilder. But after playing this demo, it's like the game wasn't aware.
First up, this is another example of a game not mentioning it's a demo. it also didn't have links to it's eShop store page. i could see the game saving at times but there's no mention whether or not the save would carry over to the retail version. The only times i encountered any mention that this was a demo was when it was telling us about features we couldn't use.
After playing the DEMO, i'm probably not going to wishlist the game. For me, i found the progression of this Roguelike to be too slow for me. I do like the art and music, i also enjoy the way they let us build our own path through each story section we play. But it's the Roguelike aspect of the game where it falls short.
Another great example of how the game falls a little short is what is and what isn't explained. there is a tutorial and some aspects of it are very useful. But when you start looking at what all the buttons do you realise how little of the game's mechanics have been explained. Thankfully, i found the tutorial to be quite good. there was only one aspect of the game i didn't understand fully, but eventually worked out for myself. some things have legends explaining what things mean, but then there are times where i wanted more legends for things that haven't been explained.
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 Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I was surprised that there were no major copyright issues with the music, except for a couple of countries. So not only enjoy the racing but also enjoy the music. You can see in the top left, when the track changes, what song is playing.
I continued looking out for cars to drive, secrets to find, and of course challenging the Most Wanted. I managed to beat all of them up to Most Wanted 2, so i finished this part with a car i hoped would be fast enough to challenge the final 2 Most Wanted drivers in the next part. The Porsche Concept i spent most of this video driving was not that bad, just not a lot of colors. And of course, i made some silly mistakes and had some bad luck with the local drivers!
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the #PS4 version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Growing up when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first came to TV in the UK and having played arcade side scrollers back then, this combination really interested me and i was keen to try it.
The big takeaway from this first part of playing it from the cloud was the issue that happened. i've not seen it before, or don't remember seeing it before, and i still don't know what happened. for some reason, the video being sent to me stopped by my controls and the game's audio was still happening.
What was nice was how each level i played had something different. the graphics were spot on for a 90's sidescroller of this era. the music was a wonderful surprise. But the difficulty was higher than expected. i felt like it started hard and kept getting harder. i was expected more of a ramp up than this.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG, from PocketHaven Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The App store page for Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG initially looks like any other idle RPG kind of game. but when i browsed the screenshots, the board game aspect of the gameplay really grabbed my attention. all to often these games have a scrolling background and our main character running into enemies or enemies running into us. But the addition of a board really means each run could be different, which is useful in a roguelike game.
Unfortunately, there was an odd 5 minute initial load to start the game. this clearly has to be a bug of some sort as this is something i've only experienced with games downloading data and Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG never mentioned it was doing this. I'll try to send the developers an email about this bug.
The tutorial for Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG is lite. there is a tutorial finger which shows us where to go and then stops. Or it'll point out a new feature and then stop. It could be done a little better. thankfully Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG doesn't overload it's home screen with buttons from the start so newcomers or those unfamiliar with these sorts of games probably won't feel overwhelmed.
The game's art does look simple, but when you look closer you'll see our character has a lot of animations, more so when we're on the board and fighting. once you notice this you'll see there are other nice animations on enemies and board pieces. This is so nice that it's just as obvious when the wider world map doesn't move. for more powerful phones it'd be nice if this also animated.
The board gameplay was great. each time we got around the board, it'd refresh itself and the enemies got harder. the only 4 pieces that didn't change were the corners. the steps between each corner could change from a monster tile to a buff tile, a debuff tile to a digging tile, a enemy tile to a double enemy tile, etc. There is another element, our character has to survive 30 rolls of the dice. on the first board, there was a mini boss after 15 rolls. on the second board there were two mini bosses.
To help, one of the corner tiles is a shop that we can purchase abilities from. there are other tiles that can grant up a power up, level up a power, heal us, or let us gamble for a chance of a power up. My first and second runs on the first board were very different, not just on the tiles i landed on but also what power ups were available for purchase.
Much like how lite the tutorial was, the game does lack little finishing touches. for example, the Battle Pass screen has a Collect All button, but no other screen does. the equipment screen doesn't have a Equip All button. The idle aspect of the game doesn't say how long it'll collect coins and stuff. thankfully the main game is very well done and i really enjoyed myself.
As Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG is a Roguelike, we get money after each run whether we succeed or fail. The Roguelike mechanic in this game is that we spend the money on improving our stats via a level up screen. Money also comes in from the idle aspect of the game. there are also chests where we can win equipment or items that'll upgrade equipment. there seems to be some free stuff daily. So Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG doesn't demand your attention all the time, it needs to be put down in order to get more gold to help with the levelling up.
I really enjoyed playing Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG. the Roguelike loop is solid, the board gameplay was refreshing and interesting, and the game doesn't feel too complicated with too many systems. it's great for those curious about the genre and something new for those who have played a lot. I would go so far as to say that Rogue Legend: Roguelike RPG might even make it on to my download and go top 5 of the year!
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Kusan: City of Wolves, from developer CIRCLEfromDOT.
Kusan: City of Wolves is a top down shooter where you're scored on how well you beat a level, similar to the Hotline Miami games. As much as defeating enemies is a priority, there's a puzzle element in how best to accomplish this. In this demo i get to use my fists, a knife, and a gun to clear all the enemies from a set level. The enemies also have weapons, some which can hit the player before the player can attack them.
This puzzle element initially was quite interesting. i'd enter an area and have a knife wielding enemy Infront of me. i could punch them, but that alerts the gun wielding enemy and they immediately shoot me. the puzzle element is how to get past these two. in the video you'll see me try to punch and hide, punch and go backwards to where i came from, or even punch the knife guy into the gun guy taking out both in one go.
Kusan: City of Wolves has a fast retry system so if you fail it's very quick to start again. But this stopped being fun when the gun was introduced. the ammo wasn't unlimited so instead of just working out how best to take out the enemy, i now had to try and manage my 5 bullets. it wasn't clear, not explained, how or where i got them back and the randomness of when it happened was frustrating. Maybe if it explained things clearer, then i wouldn't have as much of an issue with it.
But another issue is that we had a knife at the start and then never got to use it again. so what was the point of the knife? Maybe the game's story explained what happened, but as the default speed for telling said story was so fast, it's quite possible i missed how or when i lost my knife. We start the game trying to save someone's sister and then we're trying to save a bunny, but i thought the sister was taken again, and by the time i finished playing the demo i got a little confused with the game's story.
I feel like Kusan: City of Wolves tried to do too much too soon and it ended up frustrating me much quicker than i expected. As a demo, it also fails to mention that it's a demo or clearly explain what's in it. i don't know if my save will carry over to the final game either. So it's not a great demo but i'm glad i tried it as i know i don't mind this style of game, it's just i would rather play something simpler or something that ramps up slower than Kusan: City of Wolves does.
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 Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Due to music copyright issues, there maybe times in the video when there is no sound due to it having to be muted. if this is the case, i'll turn the music off in Part 2 and we'll just have car sounds instead.
My goal for this part was to try and win some of the Most Wanted races. By the end of the video i had won races 10, 9, 8, and 7 but it wasn't straightforward. the Alfa Romeo in 10 was difficult because when i won the race the car crashed before i could take it out. it never respawned into action so i had to do the race again until i won and then i shut it down just before it took itself out once again! Race 7 was against a Lexus and whilst i won it i wasn't able to shut it down so it appears throughout this video as a black symbol on the map and appears now and then.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Part 2 of playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged was interesting for me as it was all new. i had talked about my previous experiences with the game in Part 1 and how i didn't get far at all. SO it was nice to leave all that behind and explore more of the game's story.
I was still fighting with the game's logic at times, i tried to explain my reasoning as i went, so i'm very grateful that there's a hint system. if i had to think of something that could possibly be affected by a degraded streaming experience it would be this system. when it's activated, sparkles appear on screen but these aren't too big nor are they very flashy. they're just noticeable. but out of the whole game they would probably be affected the most by any issues from the stream.
With that being the only main issue i can see with the game, this means i do recommend playing Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service. it has a robust auto save and manual saves are quick and easy , too. Combined with the larger more colourful art design, rather than finer smaller details, i think Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged would hold up well if the resolution dropped or if there was macro blocking.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Banecraft: Idle RPG, from Game Duo, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The App store page for this game caught my attention. the pixel art looked great but it was the story, where you were the top demon only to wake up the following day as a lowly human, that interested me the most. I thought that this game might lean more towards the RPG elements of it's name with a deep story, rather than the idle elements, but after my time with Banecraft: Idle RPG it feels like the App Store page has more story than the game itself.
There's a general lack of information given to the player from this game. There's a soul mechanic that's just there, and i never really fully grasped it. sometimes it makes noises, sometimes numbers go up, but the only thing that i understood from it was the merging mechanic, and for some unknown reason the higher the merge level the better our attack.
There's an instance where the game tries to introduce a really interesting team up mechanic where summons can be shared. but i didn't understand it. for something this different, more information or examples were needed. maybe even a "fake" group should've been offered so we'd fully understand how it works. from the sounds of it i thought it worked like sharing in the Dragon's Dogma games.
The other thing that annoyed me about Banecraft: Idle RPG was a bug that happened 3 times. in each time, the majority of the screen dimmed, apart from the top, and none of my touches worked. the game continued playing in the background but wouldn't accept inputs from me. so each time i had to quit and reload the game again. I'm not sure if the light at the bottom of the screen was also a bug or something happening in the background. there was also an instance where the guide pointed to something and then almost immediately pointed elsewhere.
Banecraft: Idle RPG has got a lot of the basics for this sort of game right. there's magic, fiends, and dungeons which work as expected. there's summoning and equipping. So the game works. but it's the extra stuff where it falls short. for example, there's the idle mechanic but i have no idea how long it'll collect money for as most games cap it, forcing the player to interact with the game and restart the collection.
There is more to this game than what we saw in this video as there were more things left to unlock, like alchemy. for what it is, Banecraft: Idle RPG is fine. but the potential is there for something really interesting. The game isn't quite there yet and may never reach it. but if you like the music, the art, and the mechanics, then Banecraft: Idle RPG is still a fine game to play. but it's closer to the middle score than most games which received the top score.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Turnip Mountain, from developer JanduSoft.
This is a climbing game where you control the left arm with the left analogue stick and the right arm with the right stick. This demo only has, what seems to be, the first two stages from the game. there's a very basic tutorial that shows how to control each arm and how to go up. But once you start a stage you're immediately faced with new scenarios the tutorial has failed to prepare us for.
Even though there are only two stages to play. each stage is very long. there's no mention if there's a checkpoint or save but thankfully if you do end up falling off the map you restart on the same screen you started last. a downside to the stages being so long is that the music starts off really nice but by the end of the stage it's been repeated so many times that on both stages i played it started to grate a little.
i don't think i fully grasped the controls to this game. going up is easy enough, but sideways was always tough. there's a move where you can jump up high and fast, but i wasn't consistent at it and found doing the same move on the diagonal really tough. a video plays on the home screen showing off future areas of the game and after what i went through in the first two stages i didn't find what's coming exciting.
There is a story to this game and the starting animation shows us how we got to where we start the game and where our ultimate destination is. but i can't help but wonder if the gameplay is getting in the way of telling that story. i wondered in the video if maybe the game had an easy setting which cut the stages into smaller sections or cut them in half so we could progress the story faster.
At no point did Turnip Mountain say that i was playing a demo. there's no mention if there is a save, or if said save would carry over to the retail game. But i'm glad i tried out this demo because i now know that this isn't a game that interests me.
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 Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Due to music copyright issues, there maybe times in the video when there is no sound due to it having to be muted. if this is the case, i'll turn the music off in Part 2 and we'll just have car sounds instead.
For me, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a PlayStation Plus game that i got a long time ago. i've never played the PlayStation 3 version of the game but i do have it on PlayStation Vita and have played it quite a bit on there. So this may not be a series of videos where i complete the game, but i'm going to race around and get cars for a few videos.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is a game i've tried to play on #PS1 and #GBA but i never made much, if any, progress in the story as i never truly understood how it was trying to tell it's story.
The option is there to play the game as it used to be, not just with original graphics but also with it's original gameplay. I went with the mode called Story as this had some modern benefits like removing items from conversation once they've been used but more importantly it adds a hint system.
The hint system helped me a lot in making progress. it's possible i got further in this video than i have in my previous attempts. but the hint system also highlights the game's logic isn't quite syncing up with mine. i don't think it's that the game is set in the early 90's, it's probably more down to my lack of experience with such point and click story games.
The game works well being streamed from the cloud. the auto save seems fairly robust but it's the ability to do manual saves, and that the saves themselves are quick, that's great. when you only get 20 seconds to save before being disconnected, accessible and fast manual saves are a great thing to have. With this being a point and click game, progress only happens when the player wants it. so if there are issues with the stream, you can wait it out, save, or do both and the game is waiting.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Metal Slug Rush, from Revive Contents, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I've had Metal Slug Rush on my phone for a little while, but it wasn't until it got a big update this week that i decided to give it ago. ever since i downloaded it, the game has had a low review score but it was surprised that even with this update the score hasn't improved, if anything it might've gotten worse.
I was also surprised that there was an additional data download. at least it gave a heads up about the download but we didn't have much to watch in the background. thankfully it's not big and didn't take very long at all. But this did give a hint as to how strange the gameplay area might be. the video that plays doesn't fill the iPhone screen vertically or horizontally!
Once the download is done we're taken to the home screen. there is no tutorial, nothing to guide us on where to go. all the icons are on, there's nothing locked. i've played enough games to know what each of these mean, but for someone unfamiliar with modern mobile gaming this could easily be overwhelming.
Starting a mission takes us straight into a mission. i initially didn't move my character, assuming there'd be some sort of tutorial or guide as to what to do but there's nothing. the game has started and expects you to know what to do and how these sort of games work. thankfully i do and it quickly became apparent that this is a basic one of these. in the hour of this video, i didn't come across any gameplay mechanic that seemed overly new or interesting. In some respects, Metal Slug Rush feels like a cheap cash grab rather than a game that has had substantial development time behind it.
It is also in the mission where we can see the bizarre gameplay screen. there's soo much space up top and down at the bottom but what's even weirder is there's space on the sides, too. the analogue controls appear when you touch the screen so you can see where i initially put my thumb on the screen. but my thumb kept moving around and i often got into the situation where my thumb was covering my character, an enemy, or both.
I did enjoy the look of the characters and enemies. i've never played a Metal Slug game so i'm not familiar with any of it and the game doesn't have any sort of encyclopedia to help introduce them to us. but the maps these missions took place on were often really quite bland. i don't know if this is true to the games, but playing it they stood out as boring in comparison to the characters, weapons, and enemies on screen.
I didn't really enjoy my time playing Metal Slug Rush. even when i thought i knew what to do, i missed things like Auto Equip, i thought the loot boxes were dull, even simple things like item fusion didn't seem to work right. when you level up things, there's nothing showing what the improvement was. having everything unlocked on the home screen meant i was woefully unprepared for any of the dungeons i tried. But what i really found strange and annoying is the inability to play past missions. from playing it, i don't know how i'm meant to level up and beat levels if i get stuck. it feels like my only option is going to be trying the same level i can't beat over and over again until i get enough of what ever it is i need to improve something.
In the end, there are better games of this style. there are specific franchises like My Hero Academia and Medabots who have their own versions of these sort of games. i think i can only recommend this game to fans of Metal Slug, but even they may find the game a little offensive to their memory of the series.
This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of Twofold, from developers Studio Coattails and Salty Salty Studios.
Twofold is a visual novel that originally came out on PC back in 2023. this demo has a unique short intro, that may not be in the main game, what maybe the first 5 chapters of the game, plus a quick look at where a choice will lead.
the demo does feel bespoke and it's clear it's a demo. but it's not clear if the game saves and if it does whether or not that save will carry over to the retail game. there was also a weird thing with the game's settings. at the start we can prefigure a few things which is nice, but when it started the game didn't have auto play on. when you pause the game and go into settings, there are more things we can customise. but the changes at that screen don't seem to carry over from gameplay session to session.
Any demo is the game trying to sell itself to you. When it comes to games like Visual Novels, the challenge is also for the game to sell it's story and characters. i did like Olive's story and the choice she had to make did make sense. at the end of the demo i was interested in seeing where her story would go. unfortunately, i didn't like many of the other characters we had been introduced to. so after playing the demo, i'm in no rush to continue playing Twofold if at all because i didn't like most of the characters.
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 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
This is the final part, this is the whole of Act 7 and the credits. whilst this is the longest video i did for this game, i wouldn't say this was the most difficult Act. i died a few times but it never took long to make progress. it was nice having some older mechanics come back and i liked how, in the final boss fight, the combined my attacks and the cinematic QTE attacks into something more seamless. I wasn't surprised by the character reveal at the end, i assumed it was the case, but it was nice to unlock one final head just before the credits.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 1 i focused on the original Sonic Generation levels, something that i was familiar with. In this part i tried the new Shadow levels. we start with Shadow's story, something i was only vaguely familiar with as i haven't played a Sonic game where Shadow is a major character but i seemed to have picked up his story over time. This is told via a slideshow style cinematic. this feels very cheap with no effort to tie it into the game, like they could've had a chao watching it or something.
When you start Shadow's game we have another cinematic that tries to tie it into the story we saw from the Sonic Generations group. it's fine but it really does feel like DLC. Shadow plays quite differently from the other two hedgehogs we tried in Part 1. as i progressed through the video i was unlocking new powers that could not only defeat enemies in new ways but also unlock new level traversal mechanics.
As i'm unfamiliar with Shadow, i didn't know the levels we were unlocking, some of the enemies, or the music. the music was great to listen to, i wonder how much was changed from the originals. But the levels were a bit hit and miss. i'm not used to Sonic levels taking nearly 10 minutes and there were additions to the level that hadn't been introduced and even after playing i'm not sure i can describe how they really worked. So out of the 4 i played, one was long, one was short, one introduced new mechanics in a way i didn't grasp, and i don't really remember the other. fair to say they're a mix bag and as i haven't played the game they're from they hold no nostalgia for me.
There are positives and negatives when it comes to whether you should stream this game from the cloud or not. for me, someone who's familiar and finished the Sonic Generations part of the game, streaming the Shadow stuff saves space. if your internet is great and very reliable, then streaming it would be good. But if you have a little trouble with your connection, the visual artifacts it would create could make navigating really difficult or the delay it adds to the controls could make playing is frustrating.
There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 56th Maximus Cup is for the Switch 2 game Splatoon Raiders. By getting 100 points, you can unlock it all.
For those who have caught the Live Streams this weekend, you'll know that i've had a bad headache so going into this i of course hoped for the win but i wasn't expecting much. However, i started with a top 30 finish, then a top 10, then some poor results, and i finished with a top 20. so my finishing positions were all over the place! i made a few too many mistakes. I finish by going theme shopping! there's a special on at the moment where you can buy missed Maximus Cup themes for only 2 tickets. you can see where i stopped playing Tetris 99 and where i picked it back up again. unfortunately, i didn't have enough tickets to get all the themes i'm missing. i was 6 tickets short. this offer runs until August 17th, so i have until next Monday to earn those 6 tickets in-game and get the remaining themes i'm missing.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Wish Upon A Cat, from Odencat, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Wish Upon A Cat was originally released on PC in 2025, you can pick it up on Steam for free. this is the iOS release of the game. i haven't played the Steam game yet, but my guess is that the two big differences between this and the PC version are the addition of adverts and a vertical screen. I do hope to check out the PC game in the future, but i'm unsure if that'll be something i record or not.
Wish Upon A Cat's App Store Page lists the game as being short so for this video i played maybe 1/3 to half of the game, judging upon the reveal that there were 5 adverts and i had seen 3 by the end of this video. But even by this point, i wasn't totally sure what was going on. i don't think that's a negative for this game as there seems to be a general sense of confusion all around. but at the very least we had the hints of understanding between my character and the other cat.
Graphically it feels similar to Deltarune and Undertale in terms of character design but i'm unsure if i'm familiar with the landscape art style. each area we went looked quite distinct and they also had their own music, which was also really cool. i also enjoyed how the game tried to answer simple questions like the mouse can see what's happening because the headset has a camera. that mouse is far to calm about the crazy stuff that's happening. there are plenty of strange characters throughout but as we're travelling between dimensions it all fits in with the game.
Even though i may not fully grasp the story, i have started to have some thoughts about it and i do want to continue playing to see what happens next. Wish Upon A Cat is one of those rare story games that are free to play and tell a story in a playthrough, or two. i would recommend checking it out.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Gurei, from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio.
When you start the demo it mentions that the game will auto save, but at no point does it actually say that the demo's save data will carry over to the final game. This demo doesn't say much at all about what it is. it wasn't until i died the first time that it became clear that at most there were 4 monsters to fight, and by dying later it was then revealed that even tho i couldn't face off against a boss, the game still counted it as defeated. this meant what ever boss you faced third, it'd actually be as tough as the 4th.
It's revealed that you can face off against any of the bosses in any order. i tried a few different combinations in this demo. each of the defeated bosses grants our character an ability or power. i personally found the shield to be very useful but by getting that first it makes the scythe and bow even more difficult to obtain.
The more bosses you defeat, the more chances of trying to beat the next boss you get. your health is also recharged before a boss fight. so there is a real element of strategy behind the order you try bosses. i found the snake to be a challenge so did that first. i thought the shield was useful against the bird so i did that boss second and the bird third.
Gurei looks great on Nintendo Switch. the controls felt fast and responsive, too. the only downside i felt in this demo was the loading times. typically in games when you can respawn and face off against the boss, the time between death and respawn is short. but here it's a long black screen. maybe they could've done something with the black screen to make it feel like it's taking less time. the example i came up with was our mask offering advice, back story, or general information.
Boss fighting games like this, Furi, or even Mega Man aren't typically games i enjoy playing. i enjoy their music and graphics for sure, but the gameplay style doesn't do it for me. that being said, Gurei didn't come across as a bad game. it's just the demo could've done more to sell it to me. i would've liked more information about the story, maybe a trailer showcasing examples of what happens later in the 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.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
This was a mix bag kinda part. the first curtain call was tough with platforming that kept changing, for example sometimes you had to move quickly whilst other times you had to wait. The boss fight wasn't too bad. the other two curtain calls weren't as tough but the cut race section was still frustrating. But the story kept me going and i liked the kinda twist at the end. the next part could be the final part and i'm excited to play it!
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Sonic X Shadow Generations via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I played Sonic Generations on PS3 and finished it, so this is game i could've been familiar with. but as this is Sonic X Shadow Generations, i thought that this might've been more of a director's cut or remaster. from this part, it feels like they just re-released the PS3 game and attached a Shadow section.
In this part i focused on the Sonic Generations part. unfortunately, it's not 1080p on PS4 but it does look better and more crisp than i remember the PlayStation 3 version looking. It does feel dated. it talks about aspects of gameplay and then never tells us how to do it or where to go, or if it does it's late. the game's difficulty spike at Sky Sanctuary is still here, too. so i'm just disappointed this is it, but what's here is fine.
Sonic X Shadow Generations allows you to manually save in the home area, but whilst you're doing a stage there isn't an option to save. so if you get the 20 second disconnection warning, you can save in the hub area or quit the level and save.
I didn't have this issue much in this part, but there's a high chance that any video issues could impact my gameplay. visually, when things are going fast there doesn't seem to be an issue keeping track of what's happening. but i can imagine that things might be tough if there's macro blocking. the camera zooms out with Classic Sonic making the character smaller on screen which could also be an issue if the video quality degrades. We'll have to see what happens in Part 2 if i come across some issues.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried POINPY, from Ojiro Fumoto and Devolver Digital, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It wasn't until after i played POINPY that i knew that the game had been re-released. i can't say i knew about the game before i started, but i did know Downwell and have it so as this game was from the same person i wanted to see what they came up with.
The App store page made it clear that this is a free to play game with no ads. the store page also mentioned about the game using a tip system for those interested. but i was surprised that inside the game itself there was no mention of this. i stumbled upon the tip feature rather than having the game point it out.
POINPY doesn't really explain that much about itself. the tutorial shows how the basic controls work but when you start the game it frustratingly adds elements not in the tutorial. this is probably a sign of the game's real age as it came out in 2022. the best games nowadays will have mini tutorials or information about the new stuff as we uncover it. here, there's nothing. this applies to the left and right of the screen. i'm sure i might've discovered them by accident, i only aimed right to see if the rabbit was something i could interact with.
It feels like POINPY has been re-released with little to no modernisations. the gameplay idea is still great, which is why i recommend it. but what's been built around it already feels a little dated and has been done better by quite a few games. it's unclear if there'll be any other updates to POINPY or if it's just been re-released as is. i've checked the latest press release i have for the game and it's not clear.
So as a quick pick up and play game, POINPY is good. but it falls behind the better games released nowadays with it's dated tutorial and general lack of information. this "souls-like" approach was more common on consoles whereas on mobile it's much less common now.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Disgaea Mayhem, from developer Nippon Ichi Software.
On the eShop the game is described as an action RPG, but after playing this demo i get the sense it's closer in style to something like a Muso (Dynasty Warriors) or Poison Control, which i played on PS4 and completed as part of Backlog Conquering https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdgikQqtoXRk. That's not a negative as the controls in this game were very responsive and our character was quite fast.
This Disgaea Mayhem says it's bespoke made. we're given 3 maps to practice combat on. each map has a different location and different monsters to go up against. when we're on the map, it's clear that we're playing in a small area as most of the map is off limits. the task is simple, defeat 20 monsters from each wave and then defeat a much bigger boss monster. There is no tutorial, nor an onscreen prompt as to what the controls are. i don't mind a small bespoke demo, but it's a big miss to not detail the controls as in a couple of the areas the monsters attack quickly after we arrive on the map.
This demo really needed a trailer or screenshots as what we got to play didn't quite match up to what is described in the eShop. for example, it's eShop page has a screenshot showing off a game board looking location. the description talks about the female main character and what we've been tasked to do. But that's not included in this demo. If i hadn't read the eShop page first, i would've come away from this demo thinking that it's Dynasty Warriors Disgaea.
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 #PlayStation3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
it'd been a few weeks since i last played this game, as my copy is from PlayStation Plus and my subscription ran out, but thankfully it didn't take too long to remember the basic controls. during the first curtain call i didn't even loose a life. But that doesn't mean this part was easy. i don't think i quite understood the first Dog boss fight and a couple of times i found it difficult to do an accurate slam attack. Thankfully, the story continues to be fun and i really am enjoying it as well as the gameplay.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Digimon Story Time Stranger, from developers Media.Vision Entertainment.
The Digimon Story series of games has been reasonably well received, i have Cybersleuth myself. so i personally was interested in checking out the latest game in the series. as far as i'm aware, the games may not be tied together via story or location but i can't say for sure so please let me know in the comments how these games tie together, if they do.
This is a long demo that seems to take place from the start of the game. what's nice is that the game clearly tells us the save will carry over to the purchased copy of the game more than once. this video starts with the first message and ends with the message being repeated. What's also nice about this demo is that when you complete it there's a trailer for the game showing off many locations and a lot of Digimon.
We get to do the game's tutorial but it's presented in an old way. there's text on screen and when there are pictures used they're not gifs or videos. the tutorial feels basic, more so in comparison to many games i've played over the last couple of years. at least we're given a chance to use what it's telling us more than once. the game also reminds us to do a few different things. But the tutorial really doesn't cover most of the game's items.
Graphically, the game's main characters and Digimon look nice. but everyone else has no faces and their clothes are typically one color plus that color with shadow. thankfully, with these cut backs and more, the game does seem to run stable and i found the controls very responsive. it seems like a fair trade off, but the bright areas of the game might be a bit too bright for non-HDR tv's.
I think the demo fails to provide the "hook" to draw players back to it. it's a long demo, but i couldn't tell you the game's story or what seems to be a time travel mechanic. i don't think it gives enough hints as to what could be happening either. if i had to guess, the events at the start of the demo were "now" and the events at the end of the demo were before the wall was erected and a loop exists between these two points in time. i say it in the video that there was a better moment to end the demo because it would've left the player wanting to know what happened.
I do think this demo is worth checking out and it's possible your playthrough might be a little different to mine because of how the evolution mechanic works. i know i enjoyed the game enough to Wish List it.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Digimon Up, from Bandai Namco, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I'm a fan of Digimon so i was interested in giving this new game a go. the App store page for Digimon Up wasn't too clear as to what this game would actually be. In the end, it turns out this is a very similar game to FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle, https://youtu.be/vp2RVOPPaMU, which i checked out last year.
This Digimon game lets you choose your partner Digimon, you can train them, watch them level up, and when the time is right you can Digivolve them. there are cards, there are other Digimon who can support you, and crests too. But most of that is hands off for us as this is more of an idle game where we do more behind the scenes management work than anything really hands on. the #App Store calls this an #RPG but it feels more like a management sim than that.
The game that it is, is well made. there was a point earlier in the video where i was beginning to feel the grind and perhaps the need to put it down so it can play idly in the background. But because it's a new game, there are a lot of bonuses being given out to players and this meant i was able to continue playing and trying out new things as they unlocked. It's hard to know how long these gifts will last for so players starting the game in 6 months might have a very different experience with the start of Digimon Up.
Before i got those gifts, the game was progressing nicely. i felt that at the start the Tutorial was doing a good job of not only explaining how things worked but also saying we should return to things to get more and level up. i really appreciated the game offering tips on how to make progress when we first stopped beating the boss. But with a tutorial as good as this, it's always noticeable when it fails. in Digimon Up the tutorial does a poor job of dealing the home screen U.I. It's also tied into the game's quest system and uses that to measure progress. so when i was making more progress than the quest system, i was unlocking features like Dungeons and there was no tutorial.
As an RPG, Digimon Up doesn't offer us much control. as a Digimon game, it has the music and the looks, there are familiar Digimon and an encyclopedia explaining them. but the interactions with them are basic and few and far between. as one of these Idle RPG's, it's fine. i don't think, at least at this point in to the game, that the Digimon factor adds much to the experience. it's possible that we'll be able digivolve and undigivolve, but i don't think the game's hinted at that. So it's entirely possible that Bandai Namco take this engine and style of game and just reskin it and release a new game, much like how East Side Games released Star Trek: Lower Decks, POWER RANGERS: MIGHTY FORCE, and Doctor Who: Lost In Time which were all reskined variations of each other.
This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X, from developers Bliss Brain.
Although i wasn't sure at the start of playing this demo, 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X is a #PS1 game that was only released in Japan that aimed to play like a 70's robot anime. there are opening credits, advert breaks, end credits, music, as well as a side scrolling shooter where we control a robot that's formed by combining 3 piloted machines together.
This new release of the game seems to be a lite remaster of the original that seems to upscale the original videos to HD, add some new content, and the ability to rewind gameplay. it seems like a decent package. But as this game never came out in the west, a demo like this is a great way to see if this style of sidescrolling shooter is for you.
Unfortunately, i don't think this is for me. one of my issues are the controls. they don't feel responsive enough. you'll hear me complain throughout this video that my robot doesn't turn fast enough. it seems possible that the gameplay hasn't been changed from the original release. There was an odd audio glitch where it seemed to peak and cut out for barely a second before returning.
One of my bigger issues with side scrolling shooters is how the game can feel unfair, like we're meant to take damage. i played this demo on normal and felt like it was on hard. some of the basic enemies came across as bullet sponges and the main boss enemies weren't much better. these bosses are much bigger and fill the screen more, but when they jump around and move i wasn't really able to avoid them as there was no where to go.
Outside of gameplay, i also found the music and sound effects to be grating after a while. initially it was all rather cute and charming. the original #PlayStation1 team did a great job with what they set out to do. but that charm faded fairly fast and i found myself skipping the stuff that was repeating.
70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X isn't for me. i do like what it did and can say they did a great job. but it feels like the gameplay took a hit and didn't get the same amount of love. This remaster doesn't seem to address those gameplay issues and focuses more on adding English and upscaling the gameplay and videos.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Tavern Tale, from chillyroom, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I was curious about Tavern Tale because even though the art style looked "cute" the app's description made the game sound more darker. i was curious how they would achieve this balance between the art style and game world. after an hour with it, i can say that the developers have done a great job.
There's nothing, so far at least, about Tavern Tale that's complicated. the way the developers made the game world and art style feel cohesive was via the game's story. there's an opening story segment that makes it all work together. but what's even better is that during gameplay there are reminders that we're playing a game when the evil queen's hand appears to move her game pieces.
The tutorial is thorough and i felt ready for the battles when it came. it explained not just what buttons do what, but also most of the game mechanics and more importantly some of the UI too.
After an hour of playing Tavern Tale i hadn't finished the second tutorial segment. i was going the introduction quests. i think it could take maybe another hour to reach the end of it. but it never felt slow, the game's pace feels right. when that's finished, there are many characters we would then be able to interact with.
The roguelike element to the game is simple but it does have it's own risk reward. you're able to deposit money and that money will come with you after a run. but, you also need money during a run to upgrade weapons, get potions, and what not. so there's a balance between saving for the world and saving for the run.
I think Tavern Tale would work well as an introduction to roguelikes for players less familiar with the concept but also it'd be nice for gamers who know about the genre because of it's art style and story. i'd recommend checking out Tavern Tale.
This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of HYPERWIRED, from developers SIDRALGAMES and publishers Selecta Play and Entalto Publishing.
The main gameplay element to HYPERWIRED is it's plug mechanic. your ship does not have infinite resources, so it has to plug into satellites to refill. once each satellite has been visited, you're then able to move onto the next stage. it feels like each stage is procedurally generated.
On the start screen there is an option to do the tutorial so i start this video doing that. but i wouldn't say it's that great of a tutorial. it goes over some basic controls but i feel like it fails to explain how the game works. more could be done to highlight aspects of the UI, too. HYPERWIRED is another example of a game that shows an aspect of the game's mechanics that wasn't covered in the tutorial quite soon after said tutorial is completed.
This demo doesn't have a link to the PSN store, nor does it have any trailers or screenshots showcasing other aspects of the game. from this demo, HYPERWIRED comes across as a run based game where we go as far as we can until we're stopped. what's not clear from this demo is what happens next. there were no upgrades for me to buy and nothing i collected seem to carry over. so, from the demo, i'm left with wondering if we're waiting for good luck to find a run that'll take us further than before or if there's other aspects to the gameplay that the demo didn't highlight.
I did enjoy the music and overall aesthetic of the game, but i came away from this demo having not really enjoy it. i had questions it wouldn't answer, and as it never really explained what we're doing in game it quite quickly got boring doing the same thing over and over.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG, from Pomenest Studio, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It starts with a great tutorial. it may feel a little hand holdy but it's great for more casual players or people new to the genre. the problem is that when the tutorial is over, we're very quickly greeted with a choice that wasn't covered in the tutorial. it's a mistake i see happen quite frequently, but it stands out here because of how well the tutorial was doing up to this point. there are moments later where we unlock new things and the expected tutorial doesn't arrive to show it to us, but when we access them ourselves the game does then provide information.
For as much as Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG gets right, there are quite a few things missing from the experience. the game is basic in many ways and for the most part it works out well. but here's a frustrating example when it comes to combat. you don't know what your enemy is going to use, there are no hints until the fight starts. But even when we do know, at the match screen there's no way to change your team. you have to back out back to the home screen, go into a different menu to change your team, to then go all the way back and start the fight. we also don't know how strong the enemy is nor what moves they are going to use. instead of strategy, it felt like we were winning the fights by luck or brute force.
Some of the art looks low resolution, some of it looks nice. some of it fills the screen whilst others leave the top and bottom empty. the home screen is sparsely filled with art that's completely different from the game's style, and there was a moment when one of the characters we've been introduced to, and have seen with wings, appears with no wings. it does feel like this game used AI, which might account for some of the strangeness.
Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG does have adverts. i didn't know that until it started happening. unfortunately, it's not handled well with the adverts just randomly appearing during loading after battles. the adverts themselves are also frustrating, and i know that's not in the hands of the developer, but when the advert just randomly appears and then is annoying, it's not a great experience.
Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG is a fine game. the basic mechanics are done right. but there's not much else to it. this means it's deficiencies stand out more. it's the same problem the tutorial has. it's great until it's not. it's fine to play, but it needs more work, more content, and more cohesiveness.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Rhythm Heaven Groove.
I came away from this demo disappointed. the music and art style are still great, but this felt like a game designed for fans rather than something for newer or more casual players. Basic things like auto playing the computer talking wasn't here and i felt that the game did very little to help the player get good or just even better.
this demo only has 4 unique stages and a 5th which is a remix of all 4 together. But before all that, there's a calibration with the game and the TV it's being played on. but even here i wasn't completely sure i was doing it right, clicking the button on the sound rather than the video, and no feedback was provided.
There's a lack of feedback in Rhythm Heaven Groove. there were stages i could see i wasn't performing well on, but the game offers no solutions on how to improve or even goes into much detail just how bad i was. i don't know if i was pressing buttons early or late. the game just offers a simple word appraisal at the end.
So with poor onboarding for new players and a lack of feedback overall, i came away from this demo not wanting to get the game nor even Wishlist it. but as a demo i do think it works well as it seems to give a fair impression of the game, and it's one i don't want to play.
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 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
Another new Act and another new location, this time a Wild West kinda place. In previous parts i was getting a little frustrated with the platforming in the game as it's not quite great. there was less of that here as we were introduced to some new powers, some new mechanics with those powers, and a particularly fun top down racing sequence that took me longer than i'm proud of to fully grasp how to play. the style of boss fight in this part was similar to that in Part 4, but the final boss fight and QTE finish was interesting.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Gitaroo Man via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 1 of playing Gitaroo Man it became clear that this was going to be tough to play in the Cloud and in Part 2 i was unable to make more progress. i did get better with more practice, but it still wasn't enough to complete the level and move on to the next one. with no training and no option to practice, all i could do in this part was try and try again to beat it. there were a couple of times where i got close, but the game's mechanics meant i would have to play long stretches without making a single mistake, even if the enemy seemingly had no health. it's a combination, with the lag in the controls seen in Part 1, that just make it too difficult to play in the Cloud.
There is a chance with practice that you could get better, but then there are other problems with playing this game in the cloud. for example, we saw across two parts of Gitaroo Man and Runner 2 that there are occasional stutters on top of controller lag. but this often presented itself in the audio or video not being clear so i would miss the button prompt completely.
Unfortunately, there's another issue which is related to the game's aspect ratio. it's a 4:3 designed game that, when it comes to the button prompts, doesn't take full use of it. with Runner 2, as it's a 16:9 Widescreen game, you can see the enemies, gold, and platforming sections coming so even if there is a stutter of visual issue like macro blocking, there's time to react. but with Gitaroo Man, the action happens in a small area in the middle so there's much less time to react to the prompts without the issues mentioned above.
As much fun as the art and music was, i wouldn't recommend playing this game in the cloud. i can only recommend downloading Gitaroo Man.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker, from #cookapps, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The game's App Store page listed it as a Roguelite Pinball Defense game, but from the screenshots i wasn't so sure as it reminded me more of Monster Strike. either way, i did like the art style and i was curious about it so i decided to give it a go.
Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker isn't a pinball game, but i can understand why the developers might have picked that as it's hard to describe what genre of game this is. there are elements of Puzzle Bobble, for example, too. it's an auto shooter where our character could just as easily be a turret. waves of enemies are approaching us and we have to fight back with balls.
we start with normal balls. when we defeat an enemy we get experience and after a certain amount we level up. this grants us access to a power-up which is either an active skill like different balls to attack with or something passive. there is a limit of to each at first but there are other upgrades which enable us to fuse balls together into something new, but critically that free's up a space for a new ball to be used.
It's easy to play and i did most of this video with one hand. the only tricky part is that the game expects you to touch where you want the ball to go. but there's also the ability to touch and drag for more accurate aiming. but that initial press on the screen could be wildly off if you're not careful.
the rogue element of Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker is very generous. in a run we collect money and ball scrolls. with enough of each you can upgrade your balls. by the end of the video i was approaching the point where i would need to grind a little to get the resources needed to level up, so i could make progress.
With the simple mechanics, controls, and a fairly decent tutorial, Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker is a very approachable mobile game. the graphics are nice, the music is a bit repetitive, but overall i enjoyed it and will be keeping it on my phone.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Unrailed 2: Back on Track, from developer Indoor Astronaut.
This game looked easy from the screenshots, but after reading the #eShop page it was clear that this was more than just a track laying game. the tutorial is helpful until it isn't. it tells us the controls and some of the basics, but in this demo you'll see that i fail a couple of times because i kept being blocked. i also found that the tutorial didn't quite cover the ai of my companion that great and i mostly found out by trying.
By the end of this video, i got a basic understanding of how to play Unrailed 2: Back on Track, how to manage access, and how to progress through a level. But by this point i wasn't having too much fun. it felt like i had solved a problem and was waiting for the next thing that didn't quite come.
There are rogue elements to the game where if you fail you carry over some progress into the next attempt. for example, you no longer have to start right at the beginning if you accessed a new biome and some of the currency you obtained can be spent before your next run.
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 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
The location in this part was fun and unique. playing on a ship has been done before, but not quite like this. the same with inside a whale, under the sea, and on an island. the bosses in this part were different to what has come before, too. instead of one and done, they were a persistent threat throughout. the only thing holding back the game is how the platforming isn't quite as good as i'd want. but so far it's been a lot of fun.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Gitaroo Man via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Gitaroo Man is a different style of rhythm game to Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, that i previously checked out for Cloud Monday. Runner 2 lets you finish the level as long as you cross the finish line. but with Gitaroo Man, it's more of a "traditional" rhythm game where you finish when you beat set conditions. In this game that means beating an enemy.
I found Gitaroo Man to be a lot harder than expected. one of the disadvantages of the game is that there is nothing else to do but replay levels you have completed. but because it's soo tough to get the timing right, i could only replay the tutorial and first boss.
the timing of button presses in Gitaroo Man is very tight. i'd go so far as to say that it's tighter than in #Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, a game i've lived streamed on this site. there is no easy mode to increase it, there's no calibration mode in the options to help with the timing. Gitaroo Man feels old in how bare bones it is.
If it was easier and that i could make progress and see more of the characters and story, it wouldn't be much of an issue. but streaming it from the cloud, in this part at least but we'll see in Part 2 for sure, seems to be introducing additional delay/lag in the controls which means i can't rely on when the the prompts are on target. i have to judge it slightly earlier. Gitaroo Man is one of the very few games where i've not only noticed the lag in the controls from playing the game in the cloud but couldn't compensate for it. if the game had a practice mode where i could do levels over and over i feel like i could get close.
But there's another downside that did hit Runner 2 and that's the odd stuttering. every now and then, the game would stutter and i'd completely loose any rhythm i had. you can see at the end that i had a great internet connection, but of course i'm unable to check for bandwidth.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker, from developer Gentle Troll.
the only other one of these style of games i've played before is Coffee Talk, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEBkNKW1vypuMv71F7pUPRIiSjqdAmDV, and whilst that was an interesting experience there were aspects of it's gameplay i wasn't fond off. having a demo for Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker is useful for me because i get a chance to see how it's gameplay compares with what i've experienced before.
Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker starts off by saying that this is a demo, but at no point during it is there any mention as to whether or not the save file, if there is one, will carry over to the retail game. but the start and end of the demo does make it clear that this is a demo and it does have a somewhat personalised touch that was nice. but that extra information at the start or even a trailer at the end would've been nice.
i enjoyed playing Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker. it seems to be a demo of the first day. we have an optional tutorial for the 2 main gameplay mechanics we came across. the first one shows how the drinks are made. in Coffee Talk i kept on forgetting how to make the drinks, but in Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker you're able to not only bring up the list of drinks you know, you also have an assistant that'll let you know what you've made or if it's correct. if you make a mistake it's fine to discard it and start again. this calm approach to the drink making was greatly appreciated. But there was a point where i misunderstood what i was required to do and the game didn't seem to notice what i was doing so offered no reminders or additional help.
The second tutorial we got is for a game mechanic that sets this apart from Coffee Talk, but it's also one i never really got to fully experience. when we chat with customers we hear rumours. at the end of the day we're able to combine related rumours into a quest. but as the day ending ended the demo, i never saw how this worked out. but it seems like customers would be able to take on these quests. only the correct rumours would combine into a quest and for the rumours we didn't use we can still keep, as i imagine they might combine with others later on.
the only aspect of gameplay that wasn't explained was our HUD. for me, it was quite obvious what does what. but seeing as the two other mechanics had optional tutorials, it felt a little strange that this aspect of the game had nothing. i tried the pause menu and could see any save options so i don't know if or when the save system works. my guess is that it saves at the end of the day, but i don't know if there's an auto save as we go. that, too, wasn't explained at all.
This first day was nice. we were introduced to several characters. they seemed well written and even the final two who came across as a bit of a stereotype were nicely written that it was still fun. i don't know what the overall story is for this game, though i did have a guess in the video. but so far it's all quite pleasant and i wishlisted the game when i was done with 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.
Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.
the first two parts cover the first act of the game. in this part i decided to see how long a video would be if i did the whole of an act so this is Act 2. as ever, it was just fun to watch the story unfold. i did find some of the platforming a little awkward. it's not quite as satisfying as i would like. thankfully, the combat and puzzle element to the game is good. the boss fights here are all very different from each other and just as fun. they're not overly complicated but still quite epic to be part of.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I lost the original Part 2 recording, so i had to do another recording. that's why more progress has been made since part 1. this was the first Cloud Monday video to be recorded via my replacement laptop so hopefully things like volume will become more consistent now.
In Part 1, the experience was good when conditions were perfect but on the whole it wasn't a great streaming experience. things were better in this Part but it seemed to highlight a different problem. i don't actually own the game to do the comparison, but i thought that the game seemed to suffer from stutters more in this part. this meant that my timing was off more than i would like but also that the audio wasn't as good as it could've been. this means that, across both parts, it's difficult to recommend streaming Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien for those who have a PS3 as you can buy the game from the PSN store. But if you'd rather not pay or don't have a PS3, streaming it is perhaps fine at best and not really worth it if your streaming conditions aren't great. the game is built around timing and audio, and when things are perfect it feels amazing to pull it off. but when things begin to stutter or when the audio isn't quite as good, it does eat into the overall experience. Runner 3 isn't available to stream, but if it's available to download, i'd recommend doing that more than this.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Cosmic Royale from Eden Games on my iPhone 14 Pro.
My search for another good racing game on iOS continues, with EigenGauge https://youtu.be/AeqoQvM7STs still probably the best i've played, as Cosmic Royale has little about it worth recommending. It's a Fall Guys style game but in karts, so it's not even a true racing game.
The only tutorial the game has are skippable pictures that barely cover the controls and what to expect from the game. each stage, as you enter, gives a basic hint as to what will happen, but ultimately the game fails to tell us how to play the game and expects us to find out as we play. but playing the game wasn't that great.
with no tutorial at the start, we're dumped on the home screen where nothing is explained. i went to start hoping that a tutorial will be there but instead i ended up on an empty track with another countdown starting and then i was whisked away to another track, this time with other riders on it, and expected to race.
Once the track was finished i noticed something strange. as soon as i crossed the finish line, the game immediately stopped the race and moved onto the next one. the top 16 would progress to the next round but i didn't finish 16th so i began to think that it stopped because i was the only human player to in the race. this was confirmed later when i tried Rank mode and did 1 race. the points i got for it were enough to take me top of the leaderboard...of one...just me.
The game hasn't been updated in 4 months and with my experience i'm guessing that the player count has dropped significantly or is non existent. I'd like to say i found a hidden gem, but the only positive i could think of were the tracks themselves. i was surprised by how bland the karts and characters were. it started to feel like that maybe they were ai designed because of how generic and simple they looked. I didn't enjoy how the karts controlled either. i tried changing the controls in the options, but the handling characteristics of the karts just didn't work for me. i found them too twitchy and hard to control, and when you pair this with track hazards that move quite quickly, it started to become easier to just bang the kart against the wall and wait for it to go rather than try to dodge it.
I can't recommend Cosmic Royale and i can say for sure that it won't be replacing Squad Busters, a game that's not longer being supported by it's developers, as the Friday live stream game on #iPhone.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Judero, from developer Talha and Jack.
one of the most striking things about Judero when you first see it is the art style. everything in game was originally hand made and animated using stop motion. this was then put into the game and used as assets. so it certainly has a unique feel about it, when compared to the vast majority of games released. the thing that didn't quite work for me were how the characters looked. the enemies being as they are was fine, but for most of the characters we saw it just didn't work for me.
Whilst i'm talking about things that didn't work, i found that a lot of the conversations we had were people felt needlessly wordy. i genuinely questioned in this demo whether we were getting story stuff, philosophy stuff, or just crazy stuff. Even though i'm from England, some of the English used wasn't too familiar so i would've appreciated somewhere there being a quest list to help me better keep track of what's what. in the town i visited in the demo i was chatting with one guy and i'm not sure if they gave me a quest to do or if it's banter. again, even if it's an optional thing, i would've liked something telling me if it's a quest or not just to help me keep better track of things.
One thing Judero did well was the tutorial. when we start the demo we have a companion and because of how it's written it feels like we've been together for a while. our companion helps out as our tutorial guide and for the most part they're good. but when the tutorial is over, the game uses the in-game world and a bit of story telling to make this change feel natural in a way i greatly appreciated.
Combat was mostly fine and it felt quite fluid. but every now and then i'd get caught up in trees and it became less clear what was happening, or it was difficult to spot the spawning bugs in dark areas. the boss fights were a little challenging at first but i managed to defeat all of them in the demo in a satisfying way.
For me, the demo could be better as i don't have an idea what the overall story is, if there is one. for a game being based on folk tales, i didn't learn if this is a game where i deal with individual stories with no overarching story or if this has one overarching story and the folk tales are used to tell it. so whilst the combat was fun and the enemies were cool, because i don't know how long it is or what the story is i come away from this demo with it being on a wishlist rather than an immediate buy for me.
