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.
For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Inkvasion from ChillyRoom on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I'll be honest, the name for this game doesn't really do it justice. i saw the name and thought it was going to be some sort of Splatoon style game on phones and that got me really interested. but when i checked out it's store page it revealed the game to be something else entirely. that's not a bad thing as i really enjoyed my time with this game.
From looking at the pictures, you'd assume that this is a city builder and you have to fight off enemies. that's kinda right, but you don't build one city in Inkvasion. the game is broken up into stages, like 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and bonus extra stages. each stage has it's own requirements to complete it. each stage has you start from scratch in a different location. in this video the basic goals were the same, build farms to get food, use food to get people, use people to get troops, use troops to defend your town to complete the stage. to get 3 stars for completing a stage there will be an additional task, and each stage will give you a ranking based on your score.
The game smartly has a pause button. the stages are all kinda bite sized and suitable for mobile playing, but having a pause button is great for when you have to put your phone down. it's also great as it allows the player to take stock. what is the stage like, how long until the first wave hits, and what do you have to do to get 3 stars. you're able to start building things whilst it's paused and when you go back to play things start. that aspect of it's design almost reminds me of the PSP/DS era where games tended to be bite sized or could be paused as you put the system to sleep.
Another aspect of it's design i liked was the art. the app store page describes it as a wood block art style and i can see it. Inkvasion does have an Asian feel about it. the music helps with this, too. the game was developed in China but i found the English translation to be great. but Inkvasion does have a few issues. the first one happens quickly, there is no guest account. you must create an account to sign in to play it, i chose to go with Apple. the game also did a data download without asking for permission or warning. thankfully it was around 28MB, but still it's kinda rude. I did think the tutorial was good and gave us some tips, but the first level you play after it isn't quite the same as the tutorial. the tutorial shows you using 3 troops but when you start the level you only have 2. so i went back to the troop menu to see if i missed something and instead of troops there were buffs, something that the tutorial didn't mention. As with many games, the home screen also didn't have a tutorial but it wasn't overly complicated to work out.
The biggest disappointment with Inkvasion, in comparison to other issues mentioned above, is that the game feels like a straight port from Android. the main difference between the Android and iOS platforms is that iPhones have a Dynamic Island and most Android phones don't. it seems like Inkvasion has done nothing to mitigate this on iOS so it often is covering something. most of the time it doesn't seem too important so it's mostly just visually jarring.
As i said at the top, i enjoyed my time playing Inkvasion. i barely made a dent into the game's content. i was playing in the first few stages of the first world in the first game mode. there is a lot of content here and the game is being supported with new content being added. i do recommend Inkvasion as i feel like it'd be good for beginners and for those who know how these sort of games work. it's design is great for mobile players, maybe more so for those familiar with portable games on other past platforms. Inkvasion may even make it into my Game of the Year list i enjoyed it that much. i certainly won't be uninstalling it anytime soon.
