Pokémon Champions - An OK Battle System With A Poor Story And A Poor Tutorial - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Pokémon Champions, from The Pokémon Works, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I had downloaded this on Switch but i haven't played it yet because my favorite Pokémon wasn't in the game. But now it's out on phones, i decided to give it a try, even if Jumpluff still isn't in the game. Honestly, i do think that is a negative for Pokémon Champions. there are over 1,000 thousand Pokémon now, so there are over 1,000 possible favorites. it's an unenviable task to try and get all of them in the game from the start. so they're always going to make someone unhappy with their choices.

I had heard a little of this game from PokéYouTubers but i was surprised to discover that this game tries to do a story. it's something i had heard nothing about and after trying it i can understand why. logically, even in a Pokémon world, it makes no sense. you could pretty much cut it out of the game and the game would continue as normal.

It could be argued that the story is there as an introduction for newcomers to Pokémon, unfortunately the game's tutorial makes it clear that this game isn't for them. very early on the tutorial says my Pokémon is faster than the opposition. but there's nothing in-game for me to see that information. the tutorial kinda makes it clear that to play this game you need an extra device with Pokémon stats on because this game won't provide them.

The tutorial also feels old, it's more that it tells us what to do rather than telling and showing before letting us try. having a wall of text with still pictures is something not done much nowadays, something that even console games have started moving away from, so it felt kinda old getting it in Pokémon Champions' tutorial.

This is a menu based game, though the language used in the story did make me think that i would be navigating a 3D world, going from place to place to do each thing. so when we get a menu, that's the end of the main tutorial and nothing about that screen is explained. i also found it odd that the game's language doesn't quite match that of the mainline Pokémon games. for example, i don't think i ever saw an attack be supper effective, mostly likely being extremely effective, and yet the text on the move said it was super effective.

The battles themselves are fine. the stage is fairly lifeless and the Pokémon models aren't too detailed, but some of the moves did look cool. but to get to the information you need, you have to go into menus and all of this happens within a timer. it feels like they're not taking full advantage of the screen and should give us more customisation options. Oh, i couldn't find any accessibility options for this game. not even an auto play on the story.

The start to Pokémon Champions just isn't very welcoming to new players or more experienced players. there's a lot of fluff around the main fighting and i don't know who it's for. it feels tact on and not fully realized. 

Version 1.1.2 Played

Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

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.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 3 - Backlog Conquering

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.

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

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Cloud Monday - Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien - Part 2 - Too Stuttery!

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.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/Rr3kOz--e1Q

Cosmic Royale - A Bad First Impression, No Human Players, And Poor Kart Handling - iPhone Friday

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.

Version 1.0.1 Played

Judero DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

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.

Backlog Conquering - Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 2

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.

In this part i finished the first act. it seems like each act is broken into 3 parts. in Part 1 i finished the first part of the act so in this part is completed the Act. Puppeteer is very watchable. it's so easy to watch, the characters are easy to hear, i'm really having a great time with the story. we got a lot more of the story in this video revealing that maybe one of our goals is to save 4 individuals.

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

Cloud Monday - Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien - Part 1 - Disconnected!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 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 PlayStation4.

This was recorded whilst i didn't have a computer. This was made on my iPhone 14 Pro using it’s microphone, iMovie, and the video I recorded on to SD Card.

This is a game i have previously played before when the service was PlayStation Now. personally, i really enjoyed playing this before so i was happy to show it off in this, and part 2. this rhythm game doesn't have you repeat a beat or press on a beat, instead the music is created by how well you're doing in the game. the levels are not long and typically can be completed in a couple of minutes. there is a checkpoint around half way which you'll restart to once you cross it, you'll restart at the beginning until you do. all this happens without any loading.

But there's no manual saving whilst playing these levels. the game auto saves when you leave a level, so in the best case scenario that's every few minutes. As the video quality degraded, it did get more difficult to play. whilst our character is big, and so are the enemies, as this is a platformer of sorts it's judging our jumps or blocks or attacks that becomes the biggest issues. But even tho this wasn't the best showcase of the game, i would still recommend checking it out.

iPhone Friday - MONGIL: STAR DIVE - Nice Fluid Combat, Fun Characters, And Not Overwhelming

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried MONGIL: STAR DIVE from NetEase on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I would've played this game sooner if it wasn't for my previous laptop breaking. i had always been curious about how the game would combine character summons with monster collecting and using. Whilst there is an additional data download at the start, there's little to complain about with the opening to MONGIL: STAR DIVE.

The tutorial is perhaps where things could be improved, but even here i thought that it went at a good pace and the initial tutorial about moving characters was tied very well into the story and world. as things unlocked through this playthrough, there were additional tutorials for each new thing including showing us an on screen button that previously had a red dot on it but i hadn't checked out as yet. combined with the relaxing, but not slow, pace of the game i would say the opening to MONGIL: STAR DIVE is very approachable as even though it's a big game it never felt overwhelming. as i played, it was easy to keep going.

I was genuinely surprised by how funny i found this game. i'm not say it's like watching a comedian, but the way the characters interacted with each other when the spoke was funny, some of their facial expressions matched perfectly the tone of the voice acting, and for the two main characters i started with it really came across that these are people who have been working together for a while.

In some respects, i feel that the game's combat has been undersold on the app store page and even with the in-game tutorial. the combat is fluid without feeling too fast, there's spectacle and restraint in some of the larger attacks, but what i really enjoyed was the teamwork on display. switching character to character didn't mean only 1 character on screen at a time, it meant that initial character i picked could continue for a little bit whilst this new one jumped in and attacked or i could bring in the healer to heal the first character i was before that character jumped away. i never noticed the combat stuttering because it was too much for my phone.

The overall performance of MONGIL: STAR DIVE was great. i was surprised by how fast the loading was at times. it really made it pleasant to play and keep on playing. the game has struck a good balance between visuals and performance. i've played some games that focused on great looking characters or great look world with a compromise on either the other or performance. with MONGIL: STAR DIVE, i never felt wowed by anything looking stunning, but everything looked like it had the same level of detail and the world felt cohesive.

I had a great time with MONGIL: STAR DIVE and i would highly recommend it.  

Version 1.01.10 Played

Demo Play Thursday - Night Swarm DEMO On #Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Night Swarm, from developer Fubu Games.

When you start the demo, it doesn't actually say you're playing the demo! when we get access to the Map, we get the first mention of this being a demo and we can make a guess as to what we can do in it. but as this doesn't say that it's a demo, nor give us any indication if this is from the final build of the game or something earlier, it's difficult to come away from this demo satisfied. i have other questions like does our save carry over to the retail release, if it saves at all.

In this video i experienced the start of the game and it sets up the story well enough but it doesn't really tie in some of the mechanics to it, for example when our run ends we re-spawn back at home and no reason is given for this. There is a tutorial at the start but it mostly focuses on what some of the controls do rather than also explaining how to play the game. it's frustrating, but i am able to make some educated guesses when it comes to the roguelike mechanics.

In Night Swarm, a surprising amount of stuff is carried over from run to run. in this demo, the only thing that wasn't carried over, of note, was the money earned in each run. the loop of the game seems to be that we head out into the world, we progress, we  do tasks, maybe we stumble across someone we know, and we earn stuff along the way. when we inevitably fail, we re-spawn back at base and can then take the stuff we earned and improve our stats, abilities, and equipment so we can go further next and earn more.

I quite liked the game's art style and the music worked well with it. but it did lack feedback to the player when it came to the enemies. i didn't find it too satisfying taking out enemies. there was no rumble in the controller and not much sound to indicate when an enemy has been defeated. there wasn't much feedback when we were attacked either. so i could see the action taking place but i wasn't get much back from the controls or audio. so whilst the combat and action was fine, it was noticeably lacking.

Whilst, as a demo, it's not great the game itself does come across as a solid one of these games, a Hades-Survivor-like style game. the story seemed interesting but whilst there's not too much shown in the demo there was enough for it to get it's hook into me. i'd recommend giving the demo a try or wishlisting it if you're a fan of this type of game.

Backlog Conquering - Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 1

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 Part is perhaps a little shorter than what the other parts will be. this video focuses on the first part of the first act of the game, basically it reveals the story and gives us a tutorial. it makes a fantastic first impression. it may not be 1080p, but the art style and the presentation with the stage are fantastic. it's all go at the start of the game so for quite a lot i'm quiet as i'm also trying to take it all in. i've never played this game before and after this fun first part, i'm interested to see where it goes next.

Cloud Monday - Space Ace - Part 2 - Getting A Finish, Exploring Options, And Finding Manual Saves

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

This was recorded whilst i didn't have a computer. This was made on my iPhone 14 Pro using it’s microphone, iMovie, and the video I recorded on to SD Card.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/_16gd4HBGaw, i questioned if there was a manual save. at the time i couldn't find one, but in fairness Space Ace is quite intense when you first start it and it's possible i missed it then 'cause in this part i did find that there is a manual save option. this will be great if there is a disconnection warning but also if you're trying to get all the achievements. 

I turned on infinity lives and completed the game's story, or so i thought. after i recorded this video i went back and and watched the whole movie and it turns out the story i got was maybe as little as 3/4 of the whole story. i imagine playing the game at the hardest difficulty unlocks all of the story, and that's how such high scores were recorded for this game.