Showing posts with label Toylogic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toylogic. Show all posts

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Now Free To Play, No PlayStation Plus Needed!


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.

Saturday, May 25, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Rubber Duck Party Win And “One Man’s Dream” Story Video


For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it. 

My goal was simple, win a Rubber Duck Party match. it's the last game mode i've yet to win, but it's difficult to get a match. the two games in this video took a long time. here in Japan, it doesn't seem to be a popular mode. it took two rotations of this mode to get these two videos, and i tried a further two that day and a couple of other rotations trying to get more games for a longer video. Even with the new 4.1 update, i've been unable to get another Rubber Duck Party Game.

I chose to remove nearly all the commentary as it was mostly me complaining about not getting games and complaining about my team mates. in the end, i felt like just listening to the games cool soundtrack was best.

A positive is i somehow unlocked the One Man’s Dream story video. it looks like you need to sit down on a couch for 5 minutes before the game begins the story. i've included that so you can see what i did to trigger the video.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Normal And Hard Squad Missions


For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it. 

For this video i wanted to try out the online Squad Missions. These take place on specific maps and have a team of 4 players work together to defeat 10 waves of enemies. i tried out the Sunny Funny Factory, Rap Wrap Scrapyard, and Bath Vegas Marina Bay maps in Normal difficulty and i also tried out the Lucky Funky Street, twice, in Hard difficulty.

when you finish your attempt, you're awarded points towards the current season, i went up from 3 to 6 during this video, your own personal level, i went from 19 to 21, and Miracle Dust. This dust is important as you use it to level up your stats, that are used by any character you play with. I didn't realise this so my first attempt at Hard Difficulty didn't go well. but that's also down to the stats of my team mates. to upgrade your stats, head to the "Upgrade Energy Core" section, to the right of Squad Mission, and chose which stats you want to upgrade. during this video i put everything up to Lvl 1 and then a few others up to Lvl 2.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Season 3 And Chloe Noir Gameplay


For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation4 version of it. 

Season 3, MYSTERIOUS SWING, has just started so i went back into Foamstars to check it out. In this video i was able to try out the new character Chloe Noir, she can be bought as part of the Season Pass or can be earned in-game for free by reaching Season Pass level 31. Everyone can use her in the Extreme Party Mode and i played 4 games of 4 Vs. 4 where everyone is Chloe Noir!

Other than that, i warmed up with a couple of Smash The Star games and once again tried Rubber Duck Party in my attempts to win that mode but once more my teammates and i failed to win it. it is still the only mode i've played where i've yet to get a win.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Ranked Party TribeVibe Mode


THIS IS FROM VERSION 1.6 OF FOAMSTARS
(I recorded this before the 2.01 update came out but decided to share it nonetheless as i enjoyed trying out a Ranked mode, something i very rarely do)

For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the #PlayStation4 version of it. 

I rarely play ranked modes in multiplayer games but with #Foamstars i was curious how it would work. Overall, i found the whole experience not as clear as i wanted it to be. for example, i was surprised that there were two modes being used, Smash The Star and Happy Bath Survival. i don't remember it ever being clear that this was the case. I thought progression was interesting in that you play 3 games, earn a score from them. If you have enough, you can take that score and use it to play 2 games that you have to win to rank up.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Smash The Star, Happy Bath Survival, Rubber Duck Party, And Extreme Party PVP Modes


For Online Saturday i'm back with Foamstars, from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation4 version of it. 

Foamstars got a 1.05 update today and has had a couple since i last played it so i was curious if i would be able to notice any differences. One thing i noticed quickly were the free gifts i received. i don't think these are for those who played in the launch week, i think these are available for anyone who plays in this launch window.

I focused on some PVP modes today and was created with the message about a new mode. thankfully, i was able to try out Extreme Party in this video. Unfortunately, the only thing that made it extreme was that everyone was invisible. it wasn't that much harder than the real modes as everyone went to the middle and shot out a lot of foam or used their super modes. only a couple of times did someone sneak behind or i noticed a team mate doing that same strategy. The more interesting difference was that the winner was the team to chill the opposing team 10 times.

Smash the Star is the default mode for Foamstars and it's fine. today was the first time i became #MVP and it was exciting. we didn't win that match but i do get a win in Smash the Star. i didn't win in either Happy Bath Survival or Rubber Duck Party. i don't mind about Happy Bath Survival as i already have a win, and the trophy for doing so, from the Online Weekend. But i've now played Rubber Duck Party and lost each one. One of the losses today was 100% to 0%!

As for the Patch, there was nothing major i could point to and say that had changed. waiting times were often long, but that's typical for online games. only Splatoon 3 seems able to have consistent short wait times, tho even that has it's off days like last week's #Splatfest. i was playing as The Baristador and if i had to guess, it felt like his attack had more range and would last longer between reloads. thinking about it, maybe the enemy foam slowed me down more too.

Foamstars continues to be a fun free to play game and it's still one i would recommend anyone with a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 try.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Online Weekend - Foamstars - Launch Weekend – Smash The Star, Happy Bath Survival, Rubber Duck Party


We have an Online Weekend for Foamstars! It's the debut weekend for the new free to play "Shooter" from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.

In yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/ycbDurdOG_w, i did the tutorial and tried out the PVE, Player vs. Enemy(ies) Solo missions and online missions. Today's focus was in the PVP, Player vs. Player(s), modes. i didn't have expectations going in as even tho it's easy to compare Foamstars with Splatoon 3, they are quite different so i was really curious to see how the PVP mode was going to be done. Turns out it's not Mode but rather Modes!

The basic PVP mode is Smash The Star. Each team gets 7 Chill-Outs, that's when you're knocked out of the game and are waiting to respawn. once all 7 are used, the best player on that team becomes the star player and gets some bonuses. the other team's goal is now to Chill-Out the star player. helping the star player, on top of the bonuses that character gets, is the fact that their team mates get unlimited respawns. I played this mode 5 times and it's not bad. probably the best of the three i played. But it drags on a little if the two teams are evenly matched. There is an overall match timer that's maybe a minute too long. But overall it's good mode. i was a little surprised that there aren't many stats presented to you after the game. i tried a few characters but i don't have the stats to say which performed better than the other.

The other mode that was available when i started was Happy Bath Survival. This is a best of two mode where there are two players from each team in the arena and two others above. those in the arena are still trying to chill-out the opposing team. those above are trying to help. Like Splatoon, your team mates move quicker on their color so those above are trying to lay down as much. those above are also trying to aim at the enemy players. But of course, so is the enemy two players above. Even tho we won, i didn't enjoy it that much. i found the lack of information of when your team mate is coming back and what's happening above to reduce my enjoyment and it just felt chaotic rather than teamwork.

I couldn't play the third mode until Happy Bath Survival timed out and was replaced. That's one reason why this video is long. But once it did time out i was able to try out the third PVP mode called Rubber Duck Party. Unfortunately, the other reason why this video is soo long is because i couldn't get into a Rubber Duck Party match as it kept having connection issues. the first time it happened it dumped me back into the start menu at the beginning of the game. thankfully the other times it happened i was put back into my social space. It's the most broken the online had been this weekend. 

In Rubber Duck Party, there are two goals. firstly, it's still PVP so you have to deal with the enemy. The second goal is escorting a DJ Rubber Duck to the enemy's section. Some of this is familiar, you have to capture the duck for it to go in the opposite direction. What's unique is that because it's a DJ Duck, there's a stage for your character to dance on. completing a dance will speed up the duck, but it leaves you open to attack so the risk reward is high. This was frantic and it looked like we were going to loose really quickly. but we were able to fight back so it's great to see that it's possible and that things can change. But everyone felt soo overpowered compared to the task at hand. I feel like Foamstars is missing out on a mechanic. For Example, the Duck is a DJ. so if it changes the song, maybe new rules can be added like no abilities, no supers, or something weird like no jumping.

Rubber Duck Party wasn't that fun because it felt unbalanced. it's something different and maybe each time i play Foamstars i may play it once or twice whilst i focus on Smash The Star. That feels like the most solid PVP mode but it's not perfect either. But i prefer both of those over the  Happy Bath Survival mode. with Foamstars being a game where modes can be put in and taken out, i'm encouraged that PVP is something that'll be kept fresh and experimented on.

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Launch Weekend – Tutorial, Solo, And PVE Missions


We have an Online Weekend for Foamstars! It's the debut weekend for the new free to play "Shooter" from Square Enix and Toylogic. Foamstars is out across PS5 and PS4. I'll be playing the PlayStation 4 version of it.

I didn't play the beta version of Foamstars as it only came out on the PlayStation 5 so today's video is my first time starting the game. thankfully, after a cool cinematic the game starts with a simple tutorial. As the game doesn't have too many or complex mechanics, the tutorial is fairly short but also robust. after it ended i felt like i knew how to play it, what i didn't know were the game stages.

It's easy to compare this game to Splatoon 3 and the level designs in that game are very varied with a mix of hights, moving things, and more. So i was wondering if the levels would be the same. unfortunately, i didn't find out as i only tried out the PVE missions in this video. Like Splatoon 3, Foamstars does have a method of travelling fast in the foam you spray on the stage. there are other similarities like your character having a normal shooting mode and a super. one difference is that Foamstars have 2 extra moves as well as those two. These are called skills and each character have different ones. visually, they are impressive and are good at dealing with enemies.

Even tho this is the PS4 version of Foamstars, the game looks very impressive. You probably could hear my PS4 in the background as the game does push it really hard. It'll be interesting to see if tomorrow's PVP video will be even noisier as during the missions, most of the foam is cleared between waves of enemies. there is a weird dithering on the foam on it's edges when looking far away and all over when up close, but it's not really an issue. the only thing thing about the PS4 version that i imagine is lower quality than the PS5 version would be the loading times, oh and maybe the city background. Everything else feels high quality and not a compromise. 

Another plus is how quick matchmaking was. Splatoon 3 is well known for how quick matchmaking is. Pokémon Unite is also up there as one of the quickest games for matchmaking. But many other online games i've played have suffered from waits a minute or more. the wait for Foamstars was 30 seconds or less, so it's very good. it'll be interesting to see if it does get longer as the game gets older.

It's not all great with Foamstars. In trying to be different from Splatoon, the free to play nature of the game uses the character, weapon, and social areas aspects and puts them mostly behind a paywall. one of the more fun features of Splatoon 3 is how you can customise your character using money you've earned, how your levelling up dictates the weapons you can choose to buy from or the items in the store. In Foamstars, nearly everything is behind a paywall, with just a few things available via the free version of the season pass. It'll be easy to see who has paid for things and those who haven't.

So for my first time with the game, i had a great time. i'm excited to try out the PVP in tomorrow's video and maybe more into the future.