There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 57th Maximus Cup is for the Switch 2 game Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. By getting 100 points, you can unlock it all.
I was surprised by how tough this was. i was knocked out in the first match 94th place in about a minute! It wouldn't be the first time either as at the end i showed that if i focused on building up i would be punished. what i noticed in this Cup is that the goal was to build low and focus on the combos. typically i feel like i'm able to start building up and then go lower as the match goes on. Thankfully, i got a little better as i changed my approach and ended up with a Top 10 finish!
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Lumi Master, from Bilibili Game, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
When i checked out this game's App Store page, the screenshots looked nice but didn't really get across how the game was played. So i was curious to play Lumi Master and see if it had a different take on the Monster Catching genre.
Initially, we're greeted with a download screen which is a bad first impression. there was no heads up, no warning, and even when it was downloading there was nothing on screen to say how much was being downloaded. thankfully it was over very quickly so it's not that much data, but it was still rude.
Next we're taken straight to choosing our Lumi. i went with the grass "starter" #Zorrat. the catch mechanic involves throwing cards at the Lumi. the better the through, the more your odds of catching the Lumi increases. as i played, i would obtain cards that increased the odds of catching them.
Moving from place to place was a little strange. there is no map or world we can move through. instead, there's only forward and it's done from the first person perspective. It's something i've noticed some mobile games doing this year, but Lumi Master is the first one of these that i've played.
In this video i play through the first couple of areas. the goal is simply catch all the "basic" Lumi to unlock the ability to catch "rare" Lumi from that area. once all are caught, you can move onto the next area. so in Lumi Master, the focus is more on the catching and getting them all rather than any indepth story line.
The game does have a character creator, but it's strange that i wasn't able to access it from the start. the game never pointed me to it either. i was exploring some options that the game hadn't introduced and found it. it's basic but does show signs that they're going to be adding customisations that you earn from progress or that you can pay for.
Lumi Master's tutorial was also surprising lite. Initially, it seemed useful. it focuses on the how to do something rather than any in-game "why" reason to do something. but at times it was too quick. i'd try to read the on screen messages and it was gone far too quick, so it's possible i missed an explanation or two. thankfully, we're told the basics and can play fine but when we get to the housing and battles, we may need to fail a couple of times to learn.
Lumi Master feels like a game designed for mobile use. i played it with just one hand. other than the battles, i didn't demand too much of our attention either. But if you have time, there are lots of little touches that help make it feel more "alive". for example, in the home area it's not a static picture. there's lots of little animations of the Lumi working and walking around. There's also extra information about the Lumi if you want to read it, but it doesn't feel something you have to do.
I enjoyed Lumi Master and feel it's a great 2D Monster Catching RPG. there's something for newer players, something for more experienced players, and there's still plenty left to unlock. On it's App Store page it talked about trading Lumi and that's something i didn't get to in this video.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Flamecraft, from developer Monster Couch.
Before i played this demo, i didn't know that the game was already out as a board game. i was drawn to trying it out because i liked how it looked. my only concern was that on it's eShop page the screenshots looked crowded and tough to understand.
I started by checking out the game's tutorial. whilst it's great that it goes into great length and takes things step by step, it took around 35-40 minutes. thankfully, there is an in-game reward for doing it. i am glad i tried it, but i think i would've liked a little more help or reminders in the game itself.
The match i did didn't take too long, around 15 minutes. i didn't win it though. i came second. even though i didn't win, i don't really know how i came second. the game doesn't have a way to explain what happened. i was playing against two bots and i remember a point when both of them got more points than me half way through and the only way i was able to close the gap was by using cards that granted bonuses at the end. i would've liked, on my turn, a helper that could've given me some suggestions or at the end, a helper that explains how well or bad i did and what i could try next time.
Ultimately, i didn't play it wrong. the tutorial was good and i remembered enough of the basics to not finish last. i would certainly recommend players try out the tutorial. if you already have the board game, then this is a well implemented digital alternative that's suitable for situations like travelling on a plane or in a hotel. I would recommend Flamecraft for new players and those with the board 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.
For the first time, Backlog Conquering is tackling a PC game. i have been using Steam for a long time and i have some games that i might've played a little and not finished or games i've not played at all. according to Steam, i'd played around 40 minutes of Cave Story+ over a decade ago so i really don't have memories from it.
What's interesting for me is that the PC version of the game got updated to match the #Switch version of Cave Story+. So the music and graphics were very different from what i remembered the game looking like. i was initially concerned that my low powered laptop might've struggled but it played great. i was taken aback by there not being a tutorial and the jump in this game certainly takes some time to adjust to. But the music was really nice and i do like these modern graphical style to the game. i look forward to playing more in Part 2.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Aniimo, from Pawprint Studio, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
Aniimo describes itself as an "Open-World Creature Collector" and in this video i do get to see that side of the game. But it's not without faults.
Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it immediately starts an additional data download. there's no warning, no message about doing it over wi-fi instead of a mobile network, it just starts it. The amount of data being downloaded is also large, coming in at over 11B. But even when that's finished, we still can't play the game as it has to prepare the shaders. in all, it took nearly an hour before i could even start the game. Then we're forced to sign up to the game, there is no guest option. i always prefer to sign up as a guest and then if i like the game i'll sign in with Apple.
The character creation screen is next but i had a couple of tech issues here. there is a lot of fine detail to play around with and we could spend a lot of time here. but i had trouble with the costume aspect and then when i went to start playing the game it took me back to the start of the creator with an error message. I don't know why this wasn't dealt with when i initially tried to move on from this part, rather than at the end when i want to start the game.
With how long it took to download the additional data and install it, my phone was quite warn and the game decided to set the graphics to low. i didn't realise this until near the end of the video. there are moments when the low setting really does look quite poor. often some graphics would look out of focus or too soft. But this isn't the reason for when i got stuck against a plant quite early on. the game describes itself as open-world, but there are invisible walls to watch out. i got stuck on one and the game didn't notice. i didn't know how to unstick myself and it took a little time before i opened the options and found a way to manually unstick myself.
The last thing that gave the game a bad first impression was how, at times, the game was poor at telling it's own story. right at the start there's an example where it's clear that our character can't catch anything because we don't have the equipment. But the game then makes us catch something. We do have a camera and we use it a couple of times. but then when i want to use it, for no provided reason i'm unable to. There are moments like this throughout this video and you can hear me constantly questioning what's happening.
Thankfully, Aniimo has some really interesting ideas that made me want to keep going and seeing what it has to offer. for me, i kind of stopped caring about the story by the end as it was the game mechanics that i wanted to try out. a fun one is the #Twine mechanic. this is poorly introduced earlier when we're first up against boss enemies. But by the end it's revealed that the game will automatically turn it on when appropriate. so i was able to just run into water, Twine would then activate, and now we're one of our caught monsters, one who can swim. we can Twine with them to attack, to fly, or even to help capture other monsters.
This first look wasn't able to show off the House mechanic, that was revealed by the App Store. nor was i really able to do more with research. i also had a couple of eggs that i didn't know what to do with. What's important is that i wanted to keep on going, i wanted to see these things, i wanted to explore the world and find hidden chests. I also wanted to learn more about the monsters in this world as a couple of rare and powerful ones are teased to us throughout this video.
So Aniimo makes a bad first impression. it has story telling issues, it has tech issues, and it doesn't always give the player enough information. thankfully the game mechanics are good enough to earn a thumbs up. But this mobile version needs work and i would understand if people held off and waited for a few updates to come out for it.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Another Eden Begins, from developer Studio Prisma and publisher Wright Flyer Studios.
The eShop page for this game describes it as an RPG designed by RPG fans, specifically highlighting Masato Kato who has worked on a number of RPG games either with Square or freelance.
Another Eden Begins did feel like a RPG that ticked all the boxes. though at times this did make the game feel a little predictably and troupey. I wouldn't say it made the experience bad, Another Eden Begins is a solid RPG, but it certainly didn't make the game feel special. From the 2-3 chapters i played, of the 6 available in the demo, i don't think i worked out what the game's unique hook or gimmick is. the eShop page says that New Game+ is a feature and there are multiple endings to the game.
I played on Switch and i thought the game looked great. As with many, if not nearly all, games that use character art i felt like there wasn't enough. often the character art didn't match the emotions of the scene. the characters were still on screen and often those showed more emotion that the art. But not with all characters. some characters felt like they had less art and their models had less motion and emotives. It's just another example of how fine it was to play, but how it's also not going further to get a 8 or 9 out of 10.
Some of the story didn't make sense. one part in particular made no sense as the weapon shop guy was supposed to have the day off and be closed, but the shop was open and he helped out seemingly free of charge. magic also seemed a little tact on. there were orbs floating around that we can interact with, there was an explanation of how important the orbs were, but they never did anything. And the cats, towards the end of this video, were another frustration as it seemed like they would follow us and help out but i never saw them help.
Another Eden Begins is fine to play. it's looks and music are at a higher level than the world and it's story telling. the pacing maybe a little slow, the loading a little long, but it's still a game i would be happy to play, maybe more of a PlayStation Plus kind of download rather than purchase at full price.
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.
I really enjoyed playing Puppeteer. the way it told it's story kept me very interested. there were a few gameplay mechanics that could've done with better communication as to how to do them, namely the jumping over obstacles whilst scissoring, and the basic jump. But the frustration with them was fleeting and the characters were fun and charming through to the end of the game. You may want to check out just before the credits as the game does give us one final surprise. If you can't get Puppeteer, i would highly suggest trying it via PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming service or watching a video like this one as it's a game that should be celebrated and not forgotten.
For this video, i took all 8 parts i made and cut out some of the "fluff" between curtains and acts. if i died once, i kept that in, but when i died multiple times at the same spot i showed the first death and when i respawned that's the one where i succeeded. i made a mistake with the volume, forgetting to raise it up and equalize it across all parts, so it's a little quieter than i would like.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Vampire Survivors via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Part 1 was the worst or one of the worst experiences i've had streaming a game from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service. thankfully, i do each game twice, on a different day and at a different time, to get a better average of the experience. Whilst i didn't get any disconnections in this part, it continued to be a struggle to play Vampire Survivors.
The biggest issue we have when we stream the game is the degradation of the visuals to the point where it affects gameplay. instead of the small characters, they become macro blocked which means they become larger squares of color. In Vampire Survivors, squeezing past the enemy is a legitimate way to survive but when macro blocking starts it's almost impossible as the narrow gaps are gone and replaced by blocks of color from enemies close to each other.
Another negative becomes obvious as you get better at the game. to beat a level you have to survive for 30 minutes. but there appears to be no checkpointing and no way to save during a run. If the visuals get soo bad, or if the 20 second disconnection warning appears, there's nothing we can do other than to quit and hope the game saves in-time.
It's hard to think of a useful positive reason to stream this game from the cloud rather than downloading and installing it. I did download it and have played it a few times since and it's such a better experience that i can't even suggest streaming the game if you're curious. Vampire Survivors should only be played downloaded on your console. it's such a bad experience i can't help but wonder why it's on the service at all.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Random Dice 2, from 111%, on my iPhone 17e. This was recorded using the phone's screen recorder function with my audio recorded onto my computer.
THIS GAME IS NOT OUT IN THE USA (at the time of uploading)
I quite enjoy tower defense style games. with this game having it be dice themed, i was quite interested to see how it would work. i don't think the screenshots in the app store quite got across what sort of game this would be.
It starts with the tutorial. i thought it was very good. everything was clearly explained and we were shown the basic loop of the game right from the beginning. But the first stage i played without it had weird crystals on it and the tutorial didn't come back to explain this new game mechanic. this was true for the rest of this video. i unlocked a supporter towards the end of the video, and again the tutorial didn't start to explain this new gameplay mechanic.
Random Dice 2 does try to be helpful and tell us what's happening when things are activated during a run, but they appear at the top of the screen soo briefly that i don't think i ever fully read any of them. the game really needs to pause when these appear so we can learn how things work. there were some modifiers activated throughout this video where i didn't fully understand how they worked.
Thankfully, the core gameplay loop in Random Dice 2 so well taught in the opening tutorial, that i was able to just keep on playing. it seems like you're not meant to win. you're meant to make progress forward, earn gold, and use it to level up so next time you can make progress. Thankfully, we're not on our own. in all modes i was joined by, what was probably, Ai team mates and, i'm fairly sure, real world team mates. This was a fun addition to the game. it's clearly shown which of the two is doing the most work. sometimes it was my team, sometimes it was the co-op partner. i don't know if there was a way to interact with them, but it was needed as our goal was the same, last as long as possible.
Random Dice 2 is a recent release but it's been supported a lot with updates. there were features of the game i wasn't able to check out in this video but it's clear from the skill tree that they are expecting players to play it for a long time. i don't recommend games for their potential, but with how the game currently is i would be happy to recommend this to gamers. i know i'm not going to delete it after playing it for this video.
This week's DEMO is the Switch version of Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia, from developer Ocellus Studio and publisher Microids.
When i was young, i watched some of the Marsupilami cartoon and enjoyed it. When i saw this game on the eShop i was reminded of the cartoon and i was curious about what sort of game this was going to be.
Thankfully, this is a decent demo. we get 3 lengthy stages to play through. each focuses on the unique abilities of 1 of the main 3 characters, though you are able to toggle between two of them during each stage. the first one is the most tutorial heavy but it's a good tutorial. it shows you what button to press and puts you in a scenario where you can use the move. having not paid attention to Marsupilami since the cartoon, i didn't quite know what moves to expect.
Each of the 3 levels in this demo felt well designed in such a way to show off each of the characters and how switching between them opens up further platforming opportunities. each stage has a secret level to find and beat and musical notes to collect. Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia, in these 3 levels, didn't come across as a hard core platformer but i'd put it up there with #Rayman in terms of level complexity and how well each level is designed. i thought each of the levels i played were fun and enjoyed them. none of them had sections where i thought the platforming was poor or unfair.
There are difficulty options to choose from. i kept it on normal but there is easy mode which removes damage from the game and makes it a pure platformer. this would make it a nice option for kids, especially those unfamiliar with platformers or who are younger. but even to me, i can see the appeal of playing it on easy. on platforms with trophies or achievements, it would be interesting to see if difficulty plays a factor in obtaining them.
Overall, as a demo it's good. i would've like screenshots or a trailer at the end. but it does have a link to the game's eShop page. i enjoyed playing it so i went and added Marsupilami 2 - Salsa Palombia to my wishlist!
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.
This is a compilation video showing all the races i won against the game's Top 10 Most Wanted.
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Vampire Survivors via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I had previously checked out the iPhone version of Vampire Survivors, https://youtu.be/JuPywdS5N2M, and i really didn't enjoy the experience. The reason i'm back trying it on PS4 is because i wondered if it's screen filling small graphics would be too difficult for a streaming service. YouTube, and others, have trouble streaming video with lots of small details like sand or confetti and i thought Vampire Survivors could suffer with issues.
Turns out i was right to be concerned. in fact, i could say that Vampire Survivors is soo bad being streamed from the Cloud that it shouldn't be on the service. Not only did i have stream tearing, when grey would appear on screen instead of the video, there were also frequent macro blocking issues, caused by the small details i mentioned above, and the service disconnected me twice! As well as that, we had the video crash we saw back in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind - Part 1, https://youtu.be/jLALcYNyUJc, in this part.
What doesn't help things is that there is no manual save during a run. there's no checkpoint during a run either. when i got the disconnection notices, there was only one thing i could try and that was stopping the run and getting back to the main menu in time for it to autosave, or to try a manual save. the problem is, we only get a 20 second warning before being disconnected and it takes longer than that to quit to the main menu and save. so when the message comes up, that is it.
For some games i've played, a break up or decrease in visuals isn't too bad. to some degree, i'm able to carry on playing. I know that my character is in the center of the screen, but when things got bad i couldn't see the gaps between enemies. it was also tough to work out how close to me the enemies actually were. So when things got rough, i should've stopped rather than continue.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG, from Terrier Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It was the game's App icon that initially grabbed my attention when i was browsing the store. When i checked out the game's store page i knew i wanted to try this. the art for the Spire, mixed with the game's black and white aesthetic, looked great. thankfully there was art of the gameplay too and whilst i wasn't too familiar with this style of RPG, i still wanted to check it out.
The store page also gives some nice details regarding the game's story and initially i was concerned that the game itself wouldn't be able to tell this story, that it was relying on the user to have read it's store page. thankfully the game starts with the story, going into more depth than the store page, whilst also not revealing everything.
Our character seems to be nameless with no story, but it's possible this is revealed in greater detail the further up the spire we make. there's no story as to why we're able to be reived either. but if we consider that no one seems to know anything about the spire, it's not too hard to imagine that we're coming back because it's a feature of the spire.
Each run is different. Even when the art and the scenario are exactly the same, you can pick the same outcome as before and get a different result. On one hand, this makes smart use of limited art assets but on the other it does become noticeable when we're getting the same background and text combo. It's the same with the music. it's nice, but it's very noticeable when it repeats as there's a pause. The art and music here is great, but for long play sessions, or repeated play sessions, it starts to become noticeable when it keeps repeating.
I thought Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG was quite accessible even though it doesn't have a tutorial. all the commands needed in a moment are on screen. when you fight, the controls are on screen. instead of pressing arrows to move around, we have to read the options given to us. this is usually a single button but there are time when we're given the choice to, for example, follow or head towards something or to go in the opposite direction. the first time a QTE event happened caught me a little off guard. there wasn't too much extra time to read what my choices were before they were nearly gone. But it was fun in this game that i came across a point where the best choice to make was to not make a choice.
The Roguelike aspect of the game seems lite, and i mentioned above that the why isn't explained. with each run we get a reward and when we have enough of it we can spend it on permanent upgrades for our character. my concern is that some of these upgrades are very expensive and that it may take a long time to fully level up our character. i wonder if the game is built that this isn't needed and, whether by luck or design, we're able to beat the boss/complete the game many different ways.
The art, music, approach to story, and simple combat make Ascent Spire - Roguelike RPG something i'd recommend to gamers of all experiences. it's something i'd recommend trying at least one because it's something i so very rarely see on the app store.
This week's DEMO is the Steam PC version of Astral Bounty, from developer Weepel Games.
Full disclosure, Weepel Games got in touch about Astral Bounty and brought it to my attention, but i was unable to play the demo before it came out on Steam and what i played was from the store, rather than it being sent to me.
Fans of the channel will know that i'm not great at side scrolling shooters, regardless of whether it's vertical or horizontal, but i'm always up for trying a new one as i'd like to find one that i can improve at and still enjoy playing. i knew that Astral Bounty was going to be tough as it describes itself as "Astral Bounty is a brutally hard 2D arcade sidescroll shooter" on it's Steam Store page, https://store.steampowered.com/app/4952490/Astral_Bounty/.
I didn't finish this demo but that wasn't because it's a bad demo. i was surprised how generous Astral Bounty was with it's checkpoints. one way developers make a game tough is by reducing or completely removing checkpoints. Here, they're optional. the game's store appears several times during the demo stage i played and whilst i could spend my money upgrading my ship, i also had the option to respawn at the store for a price. as i learned how to play the game and got better, i stopped using the first and then second stores as revival spots and could focus on buying upgrades and progressing further into the level.
So whilst the start of the level got easier, it always got tougher as i got further into it. Sometimes this was due to new enemies, sometimes there were level hazards, and there are times when both are combined. But it's not like i could never see a path through, my failure to progress to the end felt more like skill issue rather than the level design being unfair.
Astral Bounty ran smoothly on my old low powered laptop, but there were very short but noticeable hitches in the frame rate when a new song started for the first time. i found the controls responsive, but a couple of the upgradable attacks i tried never seemed to work right so it's possible there could be a bug or two. the game doesn't have a release date on Steam so it could also be quite early into it's development.
As a demo this could be better. at no point do i remember it ever saying that it was a demo. there were no screenshots, no links to get the game, and no trailers showcasing the rest of it. thankfully the demo runs well, controls well, and the restarts are fast. So, as a demo it may not be great, but as a game it seemed all right.
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 did it, i beat all of the Top 10 Most Wanted drivers. i think i thought it was going to be harder than it actually was. some of the other racing i had done across these 4 parts, to earn upgrades and points, had been more difficult than beating the Top 10. for a couple of drivers, it was more difficult to take them down after the race had finished. I did have fun and i enjoyed just going around and looking for cars, billboards to smash, and gates to break through.
What i'll do for next week is a video showing how i beat all 10 of the Most Wanted drivers in a race. taking them out afterwards is more difficult to edit into a video, but the races are fine. i'll cut out the mistakes, they're in these 4 parts if people want to see them.
Why not buy me a Vending Machine Bottle of Coffee over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 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.
I had a rough time with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind in Part 1 so thankfully in part 2 we didn't have a repeat of the crash.
We learned that the levels continue to be long with seemingly no checkpoint system and no manual saves. if you're disconnected, you could loose 5 minutes or more. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind isn't an easy either. after playing it across 2 parts, i'd highly recommend playing it on easy if you're streaming it from the cloud. at least this way, if you have to replay a mission, it shouldn't be too difficult to catch back up to where you were.
The music in this game is loud and comes across as an important part of the experience of playing the game. But it's often in the music where we can first experience issues with streaming the game from the cloud. So across both parts, i could often hear an issue before it happened. as the music is such a part of the experience, it meant it was very noticeable when it happened.
I'm not saying that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind is a bad game. i actually quite liked it and have since downloaded it to my PS4. it's just that it's a bad fit for the service. I turned off the filters to try and help make the streaming experience smoother, but it doesn't help much when there's a stream tear across the middle covering most of the playing area and hiding the enemies. when the resolution drops, it becomes less clear how close the enemies are and if you're on the same plane. i've already mentioned the music and the lack of manual saves, too.
So if you're curious about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, i'd suggest downloading it rather than playing it from the cloud.
Why not buy me a Vending Machine Bottle of Coffee over on https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers
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!
