For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from SquareEnix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.
The game is now Free to Play. not only is the game free to download, it doesn't require PlayStation Plus to play it. the game has been updated a few times since i last played it back in May, https://youtu.be/SCjUS_FTOKk, so i also found the recent changes beneficial. the biggest change i appreciated were the regular game modes being grouped together so when you're looking for a game it can be any of those modes.
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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
In Part 5, https://youtu.be/Y9rd6TzgSv8, i attempted the final mission. we ran out of time and failed it. i thought i got close to beating it then, but after trying it again in Part 6, i was a second or two from beating it in Part 5. I did complete Mission 13 and beat the game, but it looks like i got a "bad" ending. i haven't looked up what i needed for the better ending, but the trophy hints that the outcome of Earth is important.
This Director's Cut version of Strike Suit Zero comes with some extra missions that aim to tell stories from the war. i tried the first two. the first one was simple and over in 13 minutes. it was a scenario and whilst it told the story of an individual, it didn't really tie-in with the story i had just finished well enough. this section felt tacked on and not really fleshed out. the second mission gave us the opportunity to do better than what actually happened in the war and that felt a little weird when compared to Part 1. it almost felt like Mission 2 was from a "What If" game mode. i didn't beat it and it didn't make me want to try again so this is probably the end of the Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut.
With that in-mind, i played the credits and was shocked that it was a Kickstarter game and how long that section of the credits ran for. poor use of screen space aside, i could believe that the credits took nearly an hour and there was no reward, like an upgrade or weapon, for watching it from start to finish. I will take all 6 parts and make a Start to Finish video for next week's upload, then i'll move onto a new game for this series.
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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
Missions 11 and 12 were action packed. it was fun but also hectic. thankfully the fights didn't feel too long and we were moved from target to target quite effectively. Mission 13 didn't quite go to plan. i managed to call out the story, which was a pleasant surprise, but then it doubled down on it and introduced time travel. it got a little confusing as we were being told this whilst also navigating a tunnel system whilst also being time constrained. I failed Mission 13, so there will be at least 1 more video, but it was such a narrow loss. i needed just a few more seconds!
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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
I once again came close to dying as i was getting too close to enemy ships. i've played all 4 parts on easy and i'd recommend that to anyone who plays the game. but that doesn't mean i can stop paying attention to what's happening around me. i need to keep checking my shields and armor and where i'm flying. but when it works, flying through an explosion is really cool in this game. the story is still difficult to follow but the Ai twist really makes it difficult for us to trust it. i can't help but think there's more twists to come!
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Visions of Mana from Ouka Studios and Square Enix.
The series is famous so i have heard of it but it's not a series i've played much. i think i bought a recent remake, or played it a little via PlayStation Plus, but i don't know the overarching story of it all. so essentially, i'm going into this "fresh".
The game's PSN Store Page does a good job detailing what this demo is and what it's designed to do. it's a shame the game itself couldn't get that across whilst we played it. but it does try so if you don't check out the store page, you'll get some basic idea that this isn't exactly the retail version of the game and that it contains select moments from the start. i've included at the start of this video the store page so you can check out the extra information.
Starting the demo, it's clear that this is a good looking game. the demo tries to info dump too much information before letting us continue and then more info gets dumped. It's a demo that's designed to show off fighting, traversing, the graphics, the characters, but not in a cohesive way that we would naturally get from the retail version. essentially, it's a bit of a mess and i had to just try, explore, and use some common sense to navigate the whole thing.
Visions of Mana is clearly a good looking game. everything is bright and colorful but not really in a distasteful way. the world, the people, and the animals all seem to work. the music is a little subdued and could be a little louder, and i think i did right by lowering the sfx sounds. it does feel like it came from a near final version of the retail game, there are very few technical issues with it.
I would go so far as to say that after playing this demo i think it would be fine to get the PS4 version. it doesn't feel like a lesser version. loading doesn't feel long, the controls feel solid, and even the draw distance is respectable. the only issue that i had with the demo were some bad shadows on character faces and one or two things not finished loading in even tho the loading screen had gone and gameplay had started.
it's difficult to comment on the fighting. the demo ends with a tough boss battle, but because it's a demo designed to showcase the game, i can't say whether i didn't die because i was good enough or because i just couldn't. it seemed chaotic and difficult at times to pay attention to health and mana. but thankfully my team mate A.I seemed good enough to help me, help each other, and do meaningful attacks.
I would recommend people try out the demo for Visions of Mana. not only because you get some items in-game a little early, but because there's still more to do in it. i didn't do any sidequests, and yet by the time i got to the boat i had maybe 3 i could've done. the open world area is massive and well worth exploring. It's also a good demo and i do think it does a good job showcasing Visions of Mana. i think having a trailer or artwork at the end for those who finished it would've been a smart move, but as it is it's a good showcase for the game. after playing the demo, i would think about getting the retail version of Visions of Mana. i'm intrigued by some of the story elements brought up, but overall i had a good time playing 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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
This part was easier than Part 2, https://youtu.be/FApVNW8XBXo. i didn't even die once! tho i came close. i did forget what some of the button's did, but overall it was nice coming back to the game. the story is getting a little difficult to follow, but it has always been a little difficult as it's spread out across the menus between missions and during missions.
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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN.
I feel that the mission length and difficulty has gone up from the first 3 missions i did in Part 1, https://youtu.be/zBNkDWAqsXc, but that's not entirely the fault of the game. i made mistakes which saw my ship crash into another ship causing my shields, and armor, to fail. this means i died twice in this video and i came close a couple of other times, too. I feel that the story telling isn't happening as great as i'd like it to. there's a lot of chatter over the radio during the game but my focus is on the action so i'm not really taking it in.
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.
Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN. i have played maybe the tutorial level before, as i had the trophy for transforming, but it was so long ago i didn't remember anything. it felt like playing the game for the first time.
What i've done is chose the easy difficulty level as the game suggested this is best for those interested in it's story, and i typically am in any game. It starts, as does this video, with an interesting story segment telling the story of earth and it's colonists. it reveals the tensions between them, the end of an uneasy peace, and the war we're currently playing in that both want to win but both can't afford to wage.
The tutorial was effective and there are prompts afterwards that help remind what buttons to press. Graphically, it looks nice and the space backdrop has some cool moments, but there's a lack of detail throughout. it doesn't get in the way nor detract from the game. the music is a little more epic and worldly than i was expecting but overall i've enjoyed what i've heard so far.
As for the missions, they're telling the story effectively but there's not been too much variety in what we do. But playing it overall hasn't been bad and i would say i've enjoyed myself and i'm looking forward to where the story goes in part 2. we have an Ai that's calling the shots but are they on our side, on our enemies side, or do they have their own agenda!?
I have stitched together all 10 parts of my gameplay of Tearaway: Unfolded into one video, from start to finish of the game. I tried to cut out all instances of when i accidentally used the Pause/Option button, but on my limited computer and how many hours it already took to make this video i wasn't able to cut out the many many times when i was sent back to a checkpoint or had to re-enter a fight.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PSP version of Daxter on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
It quickly became clear in Part 1, https://youtu.be/8O1Ue63OQ7Q, that the PlayStation Portable game #Daxter holds up today just like it did back in 2006. After that part and this, i can comfortably say that this is one of the best PS1/PS2/PSP games emulated on PS4 and PS5. Daxter was already well designed for a portable system, and things like great checkpoints, immediate respawns, and manual saves carry over into streaming this game from PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service.
It's not perfect, there are some issues due to it's age and original platform it was developed for. there were times when i felt i was moving the camera and doing button presses faster than the emulated game could keep up with. this meant i was walking of ledges and not hitting enemies as i thought. this wasn't a huge issue, but something i noticed. something else is that it felt hard to walk in a straight line with Daxter. whilst out and about it wasn't a big issue but many levels have narrow ledges and platforms and more than once i ended up walking off and falling. thankfully, the emulated software has a rewind feature so i was able to quickly get back and try again.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PSP version of Daxter on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
Daxter originally came out on PlayStation Portable back in 2006 and it's a game i have played and finished. but it's been such a long time, i was excited to play it again. I've been looking at the new PS1, PS2, and PSP games that have been added to PS4 and PS5 via emulation, trying to find one that still holds up and isn't a novelty or a nostalgia recommendation. Daxter maybe the first one of these games that i've played that i would recommend as a game that still holds up.
Daxter is smartly designed for the PSP. it's level's aren't too sprawling that they take ages to complete. there's a decent amount of platforming and things to do, but it can take 15-25 minutes to complete it. this may sound like that there'd be a lot of loss progress if there's a disconnection from the cloud streaming service. Daxter also has a great check point system and auto save system which helps alleviate those worries. The service does give us a 20 second warning first and Daxter seems to let us save anywhere in the game and it saves quickly.
These features are similar to what the emulated games can do. via the Options button you can chose to save or load at any point in the game. what the emulation software adds is the ability to rewind. but this isn't as big of deal as in other games because the game checkpoint frequently and is very fast to put us back in to the game.
Other benefits are that the game looks great. it was already a great looking PSP game, but it still holds up well in 1080p on PS4. our character, Daxter, is quite big on screen, as is other characters and things like text boxes and enemies, which mean if there are issues with stream tearing or macro blocking it's still fairly easy to work out what's happening and continue playing like nothing's wrong.
Today's gameplay was a little rough with my connection. i imagine it was a bandwidth issue more than anything. i would say that the camera does take a little getting used to. the emulation software has done a great job of mapping the controls to the right analogue stick and i found them responsive. but maybe they're a bit too responsive for the game itself. it was made with different controls in mind and sometimes i found myself fighting the game. this meant that there were moments where i failed to land a jump as i couldn't work out the 3D space well. But with the rewind feature, i wasn't too concerned. it's just a little frustrating quirk of the game.
I finally finished Tearaway Unfolded. i would argue i had seen at least 3 possible end game moments before i got to the actual end game moment. for that, that's the only blemish this game has. for me, the fun and story ended when the scraps were delt with. post that, the story lost me and i don't think i got what the developers were trying to say. it almost feels that the stuff after the scraps could've been DLC for the messenger in our controller.
I never really got that whole there's another messenger part of the game. the idea of being in our controller is cool, but it didn't look anything related to Sony or the games, it was generic. there was no talk about how the messenger got in there either. any why was it that i only became aware of the other messenger right before we met them. it would've made much more sense if my controller would play their song every now and then. like i said, it would've made a lot more sense if this last section was DLC to let us help get the other messenger out and to safety.
For Online Saturday i tried out The First Descendant on #PS4. i had heard some good first impressions of The First Descendant from Nexon , and i was keen on playing an online game similar to Destiny. but i knew next to nothing about The First Descendant so i was hoping for a good tutorial.
I can say that the tutorial in The First Descendant was fantastic. it smartly used gameplay and instructions to teach me the controls. for the more simple stuff, it was a text box on screen. but for more difficult stuff they'd stop gameplay and put up a bigger box with a video showing what you need to do. but with the gameplay stopped, i didn't feel a rush to read everything and could take the time to slowly read it and try to understand. for the most part, the tutorial was smartly implemented throughout this video whenever something new would happen either in-game or in menus. only once did it get in the way when it tried to teach me how to equip better items in the middle of a shootout and i had to dismiss it was gameplay didn't stop as this was during the online section.
I didn't know when the online section was going to come. in the beginning, the game was focused on telling it's story and world building. and then, we were online with everyone! after the story, we were dropped into a hub world full of other players. it wasn't clear which region i'm playing in. i didn't see anyone with Japanese or Asian names and the game didn't ask me what region i wanted to play in.
Whilst this section took me by surprise, the game was much more explicit when it came to the next mission. it used a quick tutorial to talk about public or private play, tho it i must've missed in the tutorial where that selection was. so for the second half, it's all online. the open world elements had enemies randomly attacking and i could engage with them with others in the world. then there were story sections where i could choose to play said section publicly or privately. i chose public each time and each time i either joined someone else playing or someone joined my game. each time was seamless with a simple addition of a player name to my screen.
the first thing i noticed about the gameplay was when i pressed L2 and zoomed into the enemy. it felt much quicker than i expected and there wasn't any lock-on to the enemy either. this isn't a bad thing, it's just one way shooters differentiate themselves. what i found odd was how my character was a big bulky guy and yet moved like someone much nimbler. i may not have fully got used to it during this video, but i was overall satisfied with my progress and the shooter in general.
i had a great time with The First Descendant. it does very well introducing the world, the story, the characters, and the gameplay mechanics. as a free to play game, it's easy to recommend to anyone looking for a shooter in a similar vain to Anthem and Destiny. I'm looking forward to playing more of this game in the future.
This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.
This is one of the better demo's i've played this year. the video starts with it saying this isn't the final game, some things may not work, and there's no support. it's making it clear this is a demo. after some options, we're greeted with the main menu and it also says it's a demo. what's great is that there's an option to go to it's PSN store page. Capcom have made it clear that it's a demo and made it easy to pre-order the game.
At the end of this video, there is the first ending to this demo and once again Capcom have given us a link to pre-order the game. the only way the end could've been better was if Capcom added screenshots and/or a trailer for the game. It knows it's a demo, we know it's a demo, so we can focus on the game itself.
i assume this is from the start of the game, maybe with the opening cutscene and story cut from the demo. the tutorial and initial stages are very well done and work well together. i never felt overwhelmed nor did i feel that things we too easy. there were a mix of tutorial methods, ranging from the basic box of text on screen, to a check list to help you try out different attacks. later in the video, we'll get access to new moves and a little gif plays showing what it does. overall, i was surprised how accessible the game is for new players.
My time with Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was so positive it made me wishlist the game after playing. if you're unsure, playing this demo will be great for you. but i do think that Capcom has a good game here and for some they should simply pre-order. i would've liked more of the story, more of the why, but in terms of gameplay its good.
For the second time, i thought i had finished Tearaway Unfolded. i didn't play the PSV version of it so i don't know if it's the same on there, but this PS4 version has tricked me twice now. the first time it wasn't too bad as i felt that they worked it into the narrative of the story very well. but this time, it feels cheap.
After beating the scraps, we ended up between stories in a section that looked cool but didn't offer much different in gameplay mechanics. but visually it was very different. the same is true when we reached the desert looking area. there were some cool visual and audio moments, but this feels like the first video we've done where nothing special was added to the gameplay.
This helps add to the thought that this third story feels a little unearned and cheap and that perhaps i would've been more satisfied with the game ending than what i have played so far.
There's no commentary with this video as my computer locked up during recording and i lost it all. Frogun Encore itself also crashed on PlayStation 4 and i kept that in the video. i've had demos be buggy, but this demo was the first one to actually crash and take me back to the PS4 XMB. Thankfully it was saving my progress, tho i don't remember the game actually telling me it was, so i could continue the demo and finish it.
I haven't played the original Frogun game from Molegato, but it's one i knew off and did want to try. going into Frogun Encore i wasn't sure whether it was a sequel to the original or a re-release of it. I think it's a sequel from what was said in-game. but this demo itself does little to promote itself. there's no link to the PSN from the home screen, no trailer or screenshots when you finish it.
Even tho things were going wrong whilst playing it, i actually had a good time with Frogun Encore. i feel like the initial level and tutorial aren't a great match. the tutorial is great, but the start of the level is a little full on whereas we've not had time to adjust to the jumping or getting around the level not just by walking but by our frog's tongue.
But it doesn't take long to get up to speed. thankfully the game isn't too demanding when it comes to lives. we get 6 hits on us and if we do die, we're sent back to the checkpoint quickly with little to no punishment for it. it felt like #Tearaway #Unfolded, as i've been playing that as part of Backlog Conquering, in that the levels had little puzzles that were easy to understand and complete. the levels weren't expansive, but are well designed. and the overall design is full of charm and it very clear what it what.
One surprise was the soundtrack! just from this demo i know it's one i wouldn't mind owning. i hope they make it easy to get or at the very least stream. This demo is one i would recommend as it's just a fun platformer. since i played the demo, i've gone on to #Wishlist the game and i think for some people, they could just go ahead and do that 'cause it's just that good and fun.
We finished Part 7, https://youtu.be/-XtICrIrFek, in The Caverns and that's where we spend most of our time in this video. Visually, The Caverns was kinda cool, but the gameplay wasn't as inspired as other sections of the game.
there were no new gimmicks and the new uses of the controller were quite short lived. the Minecart section was fun and it was interesting pressing buttons to move the track, but it was far too short. it was used once and not again.
There didn't seem to be much progression in the story. the only highlight being when we finally reunited with our companion. but this to was short lived as the freed Wendigo either looked after it as a pet or maybe it's a baby Wendigo. unfortunately, we won't know happens to them because we finished Part 8 reaching the Liar of the Scraps and they couldn't follow me.
*Apologies for the microphone issues. i'd understand if you don't want to listen to me in this video. So i have uploaded another video which is just the racing and no commentary. you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/-JWYdT-rPlg.
For Online Saturday i played the PS4 version of Rocket Racing from developers Psyonix. it's an online racing game built on Fortnite tech. It was my first time playing it. i was surprised that the install for it was over 60GB! it must've downloaded the whole Fortnite game. however, i don't know for sure as there's a lack of information on the PSN Store page.
This lack of information from the game to me was frustrating throughout this video. it's a shame because the actual gameplay was fun and the tutorial was great. but there's no tutorial outside of the game. and for me, who's never played this before and never used this lobby before, it just wasn't intuitive enough. this happened early when i ended up doing the tutorial twice as i thought pressing up meant doing the tutorial instead of it meaning choosing game mode.
I also had an issue with my first try of the Metalica stage as there was no audio and no sound effects! i quit the game to change settings on my PlayStation 4 so i don't know if it was quitting the game that fixed it or the settings. but this, combined with no tutorial for the lobby screen just gave a bad first impression.
There were also issues when trying to play some levels made by other people. none of them would load and i don't know why. i could only get the Metallica stage and the Ranked Mode stages to load. Again, Ranked mode wasn't really explained. i don't know what stages are on it, i doubt i played against real people in a couple of stages, and progression wasn't explained nor do i know where any of that stuff is.
Gameplay is good, tho i would have liked the game to explain how to do boost starts, is just that everything else about Rocket Racing was a frustrating mess and just not welcoming to new players. all it needed to do was, when the game takes me back to the lobby after the tutorial, ask if i wanted a lobby tutorial or not. it's hard to recommend Rocket Racing for new players. but if you have time to figure it all out, the gameplay is fun. but there aren't many people playing it so waits could be long.
We continue Part 7 at The Lab. In Part 6, https://youtu.be/afEhpxT5Eag, we had ended it at The Lab leaving Part 7 for us to explore it, and we do for most of this Part.
What i'm excited for when playing Tearaway: Unfolded is that in each part we're introduced into some new mechanics. It's very interesting to see what they will come up with next. what's equally as impressive is how well it works with the game. and in Part 7, it doesn't disappoint.
But instead of a new ability, we get a weapon! it really shakes up the game. we loose the ability to control the wind, but we gain a weapon that's amazing for battling the Scraps and for solving the puzzles. whilst we have it, it's a lot of fun. But by the end of this part, we seemingly loose it!
This Part ends with us falling into caves that look fantastic and i'm excited to explore in the next part.
