Mobile Friday - KAIJU NO. 8 THE GAME - An Approachable Great Looking Game With An Anime Feel

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried KAIJU NO. 8 THE GAME from developers Akatsuki Games on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I'm a little familiar with KAIJU NO. 8 having watched some of the first season, but i wasn't up to date with it so i was wondering if this was a game that covered the entire anime story or not. turns out, this takes place after the entrance exam ark from the first season.

Another thing i was curious about was the game's size. i knew that there would be additional data installed as the app store page showed the app was only 190.3 MB. Over 3 GB of additional data was installed. but this game was polite and honest about it. it installed about half a gig to get to the tutorial and whilst we're in the tutorial it downloaded and installed the rest of the data. so you really do need to be playing KAIJU NO. 8 THE GAME on wifi when you start it for the first time.

The tutorial is pretty decent, slowly showing and telling you to perform more and more moves. i found it quite accessible. the presentation of this game is also great. it looks like the anime and when you turn on the auto play function, it's actually enjoyable to watch the fights happen by themselves. this is also a useful feature for those commuting. as someone who uses buses and trains to get and from work there are times when i may not have both hands free so to have the game able to play itself is rather nice.

When you do want to play, the combat has some nice depth to it. you can have up to 4 people in your team, and they're paired up. you're able to do automatic combo attacks with your pair.  these are initiated when you destroy an enemy's plate. once this defensive plate has been broken, you'll automatically summon your teammate to attack and that enemy, if it survives, will be weakened. But the enemy, much like you, have special attacks that charge up. it's clear on screen how much time you have before the enemy unleashes their special attack and you're able to target different enemies. by defeating an enemies plate, you're able to reset that charge timer. so the combat is fine for simple attacking, but if you're paying attention you'll be able to stop enemy attacks, do combos, and unleash your own special attacks.

This first hour with the game only got me to the start of the game's main story. what we played was essentially a retelling and tutorial. but it was enough to keep me interested and wanting to know what happens next. i would recommend KAIJU NO. 8 THE GAME for fans of the anime/manga but also to action combat fans, too. the game makes a great first impression and is well worth trying regardless if it's based of an anime or not.

Version 1.0.4 Played

Mobile Friday - Tribe Nine - A Polished Debut For An Action RPG With A Cool Graphic/Art Style

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Tribe Nine from developers Akatsuki Games on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

Tribe Nine had been available as a pre-order on the app store for a little while now and i admit i kinda forgot about this game until it downloaded itself onto my phone. it's launch was the 20th but as i'm recovering from being sick i decided to wait a day. that decision might've helped as on the 21st the game got an update to help with server issues. during my first hour with the game, i didn't notice any server issues.

But what was a huge frustration was the additional data download. it was over 5GB. many of these games have them but what was frustrating with Tribe Nine was how it dealt with it. a recent example is the Infinity Nikki and in that video, https://youtu.be/hrqBnBzDM8w, we're given a music video to watch and listen to. with Tribe Nine, there's nothing exciting. there's just a near static screen and a progress bar. no music either. it took over 13 minutes to download this data as well.

So starting the game for the first time, the first impression from Tribe Nine isn't great. then it gets weird as we start to play an 8bit style rpg and our screen gets a crt filter put on it. but this is a nice weird as the app store screenshots show nothing like this. then there are people walking in the sky, and then this world all falls apart and reality starts to take over.

With this change of story it's also made clear that a mix of graphical styles are going to be used. when talking face to face, animated 2.5D characters appear on screen and look really quite good. when it comes to battles, it's full 3D characters in a 3D world. and when you're walking around in the world you're 16/32bit looking pixelart characters. i think it works, but it does take a little bit of time to get used to.

Combat is interesting, but i don't think they quite explain it well enough. there's the standard attacks of light and hard and their typical pros and cons. you have team mates fighting along side you and they seemed to be doing so smartly. as this is an action RPG, we're all running and moving around the arena dodging and attacking enemies. but there's another system at play called Tension. it's used by both us and the enemies, but for them it's a little different. for the enemies, as battles go on they get more tension. when their tension bar is full, the enemies attack full power and also randomly. this was clear to see when we had our first boss style fight. the enemy had been easy to dodge and counter, but as soon as their tension bar filled they were much harder to read, they attacked us randomly, and it really changed up how we fought against them. for us, this is where i don't think the game successfully explains or demonstrates the tension system well. everything up to this had been decently explained and clearly shown in battles. but after using it i don't know how the tension system works for us good guys. there's a combo system that's introduced first and that seems clear. when it's possible to use it, top right of the screen the heads of our team mates appear and you press them and they attack. the tension seems to add to this. i think when our tension bar becomes full we're able to use the combo system and then end with a super attack. but i don't know how to charge the tension bar or what the blue squares next to the floating heads mean.

Even tho Tribe Nine has an extra data download, the rest of the gameplay experience has been great and i'm really curious about the rest of the game, the world, and more importantly i want to experience more of the story. i do recommend it, BUT you have to download it and start it at home first to get that big data download.

Version 1.0.2 Played.