iPhone Friday - MOCHI-O - Defending The World With Your Hamster Monster In This Fun Rail Shooter

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried MOCHI-O from zxima on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I had previously played Flat Machine, https://youtu.be/Hob5TyE_BWE, and really enjoyed it so i was looking forward to trying something new from these developers. the app store page did make it look like the game was going to be very busy so i was also curious how the game would handle things when it got chaotic.

The answer to that question came immediately as when you start the game you're thrown into the action. it took a second or two to understand what to do, i would've liked it to pause, highlight what was being said in the bottom left, then the top right, and then started the action. but ultimately, the game takes over fairly quickly as we're not as yet playing as our character. from this bit we're introduced to our monster Hamster weapon and that's it.

Our character comes in and things are slower and much more manageable. we're introduced to the characters better and what our goal is. the menus are mostly clear to understand and so is how the upgrade mechanics work. but i didn't realise that the upgrade menu was scrollable, so perhaps that needs to be made a bit clearer. but other than that, the game looks great and even among the chaos things are still legible, with things like health big and clear in the top left, and the danger zone clearly labeled.

the gameplay and what you have to do is simple, but the controls may take a bit to get used to. thankfully, you're able to replay levels if you make a mistake or go back to them when Mochi-o is leveled up and has more weapons and abilities. this is a rail shooter game. we can move left to right and our goal is to aim a reticle at the enemies and Mochi-o will attack that space. when you defeat an enemy, or use an enemy's explosion to take out other enemies, sunflower seeds will be dropped. you need to take time out of shooting to suck these seeds up. regular black and white ones give Mochi-o experience and when it has enough you're able to pick from 3 upgrades. picking up the pink ones help level up Mochi-o back at base. and there are other items dropped you can suck up like money, health, and blueprints. each run i did were different lengths of time and had variations of enemies to defeat.

I really enjoyed my time playing MOCHI-O. it doesn't take itself too serious and yet built an interesting world. it looks great, sounds good, and the English translation seems fine. i would recommend this game, it's one of the best free to play mobile games i've played this year so far!

Version 1.43 Played

iPhone Friday - Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG - Solid And Fun Crane Gameplay But A Little Buggy

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG from Hexpion on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I had seen adverts for games with a crane mechanic for a few weeks now. it's an idea i hadn't thought of before and i was genuinely curious about it. the games i had seen didn't look like the originator of the idea and were just copies or spam. i think Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG might be the first game to have had the crane mechanic but if i'm wrong please say so in the comments, and i'm a little unsure if this game came out this year or right at the end of 2025.

The game starts with a decent tutorial but like many games i've played recently it ends a little too soon whilst new things are still appearing. it's possible it'll come back when new features are unlocked. it's also possible that the game crashing might've caused the tutorial to end but i doubt that.

Whilst the music and sound effects are fine at best, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed the game play mechanics. there is actual strategy to the gameplay. Claw Quest: Roguelike RPG is smart by showing what the enemy is going to do on their turn. because of this, we know what items we should focus on trying to obtain. when the enemies are going to focus on shields, we can focus on picking up weapons or healing ourself. when the enemies are going to attack us, we need to focus on picking up shields. what i found fun, though i can understand if you find it frustrating, is that there's a little unpredictability with the claw as to how many items it'll pick up, will it hold, or will we have some crazy luck.

Version 1.1.2 Played

iPhone Friday - Tank Pack Attack - A Grindy Economy And Low Quality Music Hold Back This Merge Game

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Tank Pack Attack from Fattoy Game Technology on my iPhone14Pro. 

There are a lot of merge styles games on phones. many have you combine items to make a new item. i'm seeing more games that have taken that merge mechanic and applied it to levelling troops. in both instances, there's often a large play area so there are a lot of things to merge. with Tank Pack Attack the space to place items and troops is much smaller and requires a little strategy and luck.

The tutorial at the start is quite good. it goes step by step explaining how to play the game and takes you through your first run of the game. when the run ends, it continues by explaining what to do with the loot you got. once things are leveled up, it's back to do another run. it's a simple enough routine and as you can play this game one handed Tank Pack Attack is a decent game to play whilst commuting. the problem is that the loot you get is quite slim and the amount you need to upgrade means you may have to do 5 runs to upgrade something from level 1 to 2. i remarked whilst playing that the game's economy doesn't feel quite balanced.

One issue is that whilst the game has a good tutorial for the gameplay side, it failed to point me to the daily achievements and the rewards you get from doing them. had i known earlier in the video about it, i would've been less frustrated with the game's economy. but i didn't know about it until right at the end and so for me it felt unbalanced.

There's one more thing about Tank Pack Attack that felt noticeably bad and that's the quality of the audio. as someone who grew up in the MiniDisc and MP3 era, i'm familiar with low bit rate music and in this game it sounded like it was 64kbps at best! i'd recommend turning the music off, it sounded far to rough to enjoy.

It's unfortunate that these two issues are as big as they are as the game was fun to play. i wanted to see more, but i would've had to grind several runs to level up items to progress to the next area. Tank Pack Attack uses an energy system, but doesn't say how long it'd take to recharge it, so there's always the chance i'd run out of energy trying to get to the next area. Tank Pack Attack is fine for the daily commute. the little and often approach would probably work well with this game.

Version 1.2 Played

iPhone Friday - Heartopia - It Has A Good Tutorial And Is Welcoming But The Start Is A Little Slow

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Heartopia from XD Entertainment on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

Heartopia is a highly rated game that is top of the family charts here in Japan and people in my Live Stream chats have mentioned it. but it's not a type of game i typically play. i have played Animal Crossing before but rarely any other similar style of game. graphically, Heartopia seems to be a mix of Animal Crossing but also the My Sims games from EA. i actually like the style they use here.

The introduction to Heartopia feels welcoming. my guess is that the developers have targeted this game towards a more casual gaming audience and in doing so the tutorial in Heartopia feels well considered without coming across patronising. But this does also mean that the start of Heartopia is much slower than i personally needed. i feel that even by the end of this video i was still in the tutorial faze of the game and hadn't made any meaningful progress.

Heartopia is labeled as a cozy game and i do get that feeling from it. there's no urgency from the game but there's always a sparkle trial lighting the way when you do want to continue. the world map is huge and there's clearly space for DLC additions to it. one way the game manages this size is by having a bus route around the central town area. whilst being novel, to get back home i still needed to walk a little bit. it's hard to say whether the bus route will grow as our playthrough of the game continues or not.

As the game is taking things slow, it's also not really explained where things could be going. the store page helps provide some extra information but the game itself, in my time with it, doesn't showcase what you can do with it. the game has an additional data download at the start but does nothing with that. the music and background image remain on screen, there's no video, no trailer, not even screenshots. the developers missed an opportunity to show what's possible.

I have rated the game as worth playing, shown by the up arrow, as even though i feel like i haven't made much progress what i have done was easy to do and understand. 

Version 0.4.5 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - From Start to Finish

With my playthrough of Underworld Office: Ghost Story finished on iOS, i have put all 7 chapters of this story into video. this is a vertical video. i have included the credits.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/izLKYJgJtiQ

Chapter 4 - https://youtu.be/OF6IQKLat9E

Chapter 5 - https://youtu.be/rUVifyzOhpw

Chapter 6 - https://youtu.be/C_sUVnUVOoA

Chapter 7 - https://youtu.be/9QwoTfGi5to

iPhone Friday - Arknights: Endfield - Style And Good Combat Don't Make Up For A Dull Opening Story

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Arknights: Endfield from Hypergryph and Mountain Contour on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I had seen many adverts for this game on various platforms, but i was always intending to try it out. But when something is seemingly being advertised so much i can't help but being a little weary why. 

Our immediate impression of Arknights: Endfield isn't great as the game starts downloading an update without warning, without permission, and then forces us to restart the app, which itself took longer than expected. i appreciate that the game gave us the option to chose which language the audio is in, but then it never said that it was going to download other stuff as well as that audio. so instead of the 786.06MB that Arknights: Endfield advertised it was going to download, it actually downloaded 17607.41MB (or 17.6GB) and it took about 25 minutes. Once that was finished, the game then had to install shaders which took an additional 3 minutes or so. 

So after 30 minutes we finally get to the game's home screen. It's an impressive looking screen, but it gets better when the game starts. the character select option looked cool but in terms of the game's story it also doesn't really make sense in hindsight. but once we go outside the tutorial begins and it's quite good. it introduces how to control the character step by step and for more complicated stuff the tutorial uses videos to show us how to do things. I also commented in the video that i thought the game's button placement was quite good, better than in Destiny: Rising, https://youtu.be/i4OljQxqzyg, because there was smart use of the same buttons and space for camera controls with my right hand.

Whilst the introduction to gameplay was good, in terms of story i have no idea what happened. i don't think it's ever explained in this video what we went through or even if it's normal. my issues with the game's story extend throughout this video and not just this opening tutorial segment. Our character is introduced as having amnesia and whilst we get a little bit of pity everyone is seemingly determined to talk to us and bombard us with information like we know what they're talking about. the game's story needs it's own tutorial to help give us context for it all. for example, key terms and names should be highlighted a different color and when touched we should be given a little bit of information to help us, the player, understand the context and story.

For me, from what i understand of it, i'm not enjoying the game's story. it's had nearly two hours to try and hook me and it's just not doing it. from what i understand of the story it seems like our character created or found a way to take advantage of a material what lets us create stuff, kinda like a replicator from Star Trek. we're at a planet and we're going to Terra Form it into something more suitable for mass production of stuff using this technology. But the local wildlife and seeming people already living there aren't too happy about this. it's possible i missed something, but i don't seem to remember any "why" being given. i don't know if we're a part of any Empire or not. i also don't remember any reason given for why we were away for ten years.

Thankfully, even though i'm not enjoying the story the gameplay is great. the combat is fluid and fast, maybe a little too fast for the camera controls so perhaps a tweak to the lock-on with a semi automated camera might help. the graphics are good and the video sequences look great. so the gameplay aspect of the game is fine, it's just the story aspect that i'm not getting into.

So that's why i've rated this game so-so. there's stuff to enjoy, but if you're like me there may not be enough to hook you. but it's probably worth checking out. just beware, it could take about 30 minutes after starting it to get to gameplay so maybe trying it on PC or console might be a better option.

Version 1.0.13 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Chapter 7 - The Final Part

The current story i'm playing is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on #iPhone14pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

Chapter 7 is the final chapter. the previous chapter teased that what was happening could only be delt with by other mortals and so it comes down to us to try and save the day ... or not. both choices exist.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/izLKYJgJtiQ

Chapter 4 - https://youtu.be/OF6IQKLat9E

Chapter 5 - https://youtu.be/rUVifyzOhpw

Chapter 6 - https://youtu.be/C_sUVnUVOoA

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Chapter 6

The current story i'm playing is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

Chapter 6 saw us being teamed up with the Boss, but before that in the real world we continue to open up to Luke and once again we came across the mysterious man. thankfully the Boss agreed to help and we checked out that person as ghosts and the story took a turn, one that legit gave me goosebumps!

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/izLKYJgJtiQ

Chapter 4 - https://youtu.be/OF6IQKLat9E

Chapter 5 - https://youtu.be/rUVifyzOhpw

iPhone Friday - The Land of Boggs: Decor Dash - A Runner That Feels Light On Content And Incomplete

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried The Land of Boggs from Buzzfeed on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've been a fan of The Land of Boggs for many years now and enjoy watching their videos. when i saw, in their videos, that they have a new mobile game and that it was a runner i was keen to play it as i do like runner games. But The Land of Boggs: Decor Dash has some issues that prevent me from recommending it.

The initial presentation looks great, but it's a shame they couldn't get the voice actors to reprise their roles. the game does start with a tutorial for the basic controls, and then immediately stops whilst new things are still happening. as i've played a number of runners before i have a rough idea what's happening and what power-ups do, but the developers are making big assumptions here as there's a lack of information for the player throughout The Land of Boggs: Decor Dash.

For example, the game introduces an upgrade screen but never details what the upgrades do. do we need to upgrade an item 5 times to level them up or can the items only be leveled up 5 times to max. does levelling up the items make them stronger or does it only increase the time they're in use. i have no answers to this and the game makes no effort to tell me.

The same applies to the decorating aspect of the game. there's a tutorial on how to do it but the tutorial didn't mention that by doing it you increase your score multiplier. some items also have a +0.3 mark next to the and that's also not explained. i'd guess that's something to do with the score multiplier.

The running aspect of the game is fine but i'm concerned that there's only two stages. if there are other stages, i don't know how to unlock them. throughout this video i tried to run as far as i could in the main city stage and jungle stage to see what other stages would open up to me but i never encountered another one. In the city stage, because of the angle of the camera, there are moments when i couldn't see a car coming straight at me because of coins in the way and on both stages it was a little difficult to judge whether there was a gap i needed to jump or if it was just a different color. so even the running aspect of the game needs work.

I mentioned that the game doesn't have the voice actors from the video series but it may be more accurate to say actor as i didn't see anyone else from the show, just the Bogo character we play as. throughout the video i come up with ways that characters could be introduced and i kept waiting for one to show up. i don't know if there are other Bogg characters in this game and it's not made an effort to let me know.

For as much of a fan of the YouTube channel i am, i can't recommend The Land of Boggs: Decor Dash in it's current state. it feels incomplete and that  i played a Beta version of the game that wasn't feature complete. it may be worth downloading and checking out what the updates bring to the game. but after 45 minutes with it i think i've seen all there is to see for now.

Version 0.1.3 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Chapter 5

The current story i'm playing is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

Chapter 4 had a plot twist and i was very interested to see where it would lead in Chapter 5. i was pleased with how things turned out. it would've been easy to allow our character to wallow in self pity and thankfully that didn't happen. it seemed like things were going to be ok until he came across the ghost energy on the subway once again. Whilst dealing with it didn't quite go to plan, the character growth of Eugene was nice and we got to see some backstory for Joan, who had some really cool moments. the next Chapter has us and The Boss together so i'm really interested in checking that out next.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/izLKYJgJtiQ

Chapter 4 - https://youtu.be/OF6IQKLat9E

iPhone Friday - Inkvasion - A Stage Based Bite Sized Town Builder And Defender With Great Art

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.

Version 1.2.0 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Chapter 4

The new story is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 Pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

This chapter was now only shorter than i expected, it also took a turn that i didn't expect. i don't want to spoil what happens here but there's a plot twist. there were a couple of instances where the game seemed to be trying to funnel us to where it wants us to go so i disagreed with a couple of the choices i was presented with. What was nice was being able to see that Sean's mother does seem to be doing better now, as i was unsure my choices in Chapter 3 would've lead to her happiness as we only saw the conclusion from Sean's point of view.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/izLKYJgJtiQ

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Part 3

The new story is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

The result of Chapter 2 was great for the ghost and the human. in this chapter, Sean, i feel that i didn't get a result for the human character and even though the game said i got a result for the ghost character it felt like a light result, more by accident than what i was aiming for. i'm very interested in knowing what happens if i took the other branching story option, so let me know in the chat if you took it.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/DTE_yWs9UHU

iPhone Friday - FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle - A Simple Gacha Focused Idle RPG With A Good Tutorial

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle from developers GooDRoiD on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I used to watch the FAIRY TAIL and i really enjoyed it. i haven't seen it lately but after playing this i'm interested in checking out what i've missed. I've not played a FAIRY TAIL game before, tho i think in the video i say i've played a PS4 game and i think i mistook a Black Clover game i played for FAIRY TAIL.

At the beginning, there was a bug or two. an error message would appear on screen and most of the time i could clear it, but there was one occasion where i couldn't and i had to restart the game. since i recorded this video the game has been patched but this bug still remains. it's much less frequent now but i have had to exit the game because i couldn't clear the error message and access the screen. as for the the missing apostrophes, they haven't been patched into the game.

There is a data download before you start the game, so it's best to start FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle on Wi-fi before playing it. The video that plays seems to be taken from the anime but because the anime is horizontal and the game is vertical, it doesn't look the best and is often awkward looking.

I enjoyed the character art, it looks HD in quality. it's a shame none of it seems to be animated and that each character maybe only has 1 picture each. the rest of the game's graphics aren't too impressive but it's fine. I did enjoy the game's tutorial. it's simple without being patronising and uses an in-game character smartly to explain things. it's a pretty comprehensive tutorial that's paced to match what's happening in the game until things with red dots start appearing on the main screen. it's at this point the tutorial slows down and we're left to work things out ourselves. What helps with this pacing is that game modes and features are also locked and not accessible until they should be. this helps with us not being overwhelmed in the beginning. 

One of the risks of an Idle game is it's grind. at their worst, i've played games which have hit the grind in less than 30 minutes. with FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle i only just starting hitting it at the end of the video. there are some game mechanics that can delay this grind a little, but for the most part it's a traditional idle game. the gacha and RPG mechanics are more tied together. often, the reward from the gacha has a benefit to our team. you collect characters to unlock them, and collect more of them to increase their star rating, their character rpg stats. these and levelling up characters are tied into missions/quests. so it does feel cohesive and well thought out. it may seem a little much at the start but because it all flows together it's really easy to understand. another thing that helps is that if you touch the current mission, a hand will appear showing where to go to complete it.

I enjoyed my time with FAIRY TAIL Wizard Chronicle. it doesn't do much revolutionary but it certainly is a good solid example of an idle rpg. there's enough here for fans of the series but i'd say it's very playable for those who don't know much about it. because it's an idle game it encourages pick up and play so for commuters it's a good one to play and as it's a vertical game it's fine to play one handed. i'd recommend giving it a go.

Version 1.0.7 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Part 2

The new story is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 pro.

Now i've played it, i understand how it works. so each video from this one going forward will be it's own chapter in the game. i will continue to blur out the advert at the bottom of the screen. there are full screen adverts during my playthrough and i will edit them out. this will mean that occasionally the music will skip or go from on to off abruptly where i've made the edit.

This Chapter focused on Luke and it can be quite sad at times. i really liked it and i'm glad that any comic relief there was didn't detract from the main sad story. Our character, Eugene, had some personality growth in a positive direction.

Check out the previous Chapters of this story:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/Gte27gt0KuQ

iPhone Friday - Where Winds Meet - It Looks Great With Fluid And Fun Combat, But It's Story Is Slow

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Where Winds Meet from developers Everstone Studio on my iPhone 14 Pro.

When you start Where Winds Meet you really have to play it on Wi-Fi as the game will, without any warning, immediately start downloading extra content. Even when you start playing, there's extra content that can be downloaded at the character creation section and you even have the option to download the 12GB+ data for other regions in the game. it might be worth spending the time now to install everything rather than using up your data as you go.

For me, the other annoying thing about this extended look at the game is it's story. it starts with a great cinematic intro where we're able to join in with, and then it's over and we're with 2 other characters. it's never mentioned, or if it is i completely missed it, who exactly we are in relation to the two other characters we were just playing as. Is the girl we're with the baby from the previous sequence? the story progressed so slowly in this video. our initial goal of getting home wasn't completed. I didn't even finish the side goal we were to do before that. this slow progress really felt slow whilst playing it. i could feel how slow it was. it wasn't helped by how annoying the girl was. i found no redeeming qualities of her and every interaction with her pretty grating. 

The developers did a great job of bringing a console like combat experience to phones. it feels smooth, fluid, and is a spectacle to be hold. But there are soo many icons on the screen that my phone's screen felt really crowded and throughout this video, when i had unlocked it, i was accidentally pressing the tai-chi button.

Version 1.0.4 Played

iPhone Friday - Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond - Highley Polished, Welcoming, And Has A Great Tutorial

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond from developers Cygames on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Version 1.4.10 Played

Stories on Tuesday - Underworld Office: Ghost Story - Part 1

The new story is Underworld Office: Ghost Story. i'm playing this on iPhone 14 pro.

At the moment, i'm unsure if this will be a chapter each video or not. there is some sort of credit system that's not explained. so in this video, i played through until i ran out of credits, which was the start of Chapter 2.

Mobile Friday - Hungry Hearts Ramen - An Easy To Play Restaurant Game With A Nice Community Story

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Hungry Hearts Ramen from developers GAGEX on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I have seen these restaurant games from GAGEX in the App Store for a while and have nearly reviewed a few of them, but Hungry Hearts Ramen is the first one i have and i'm glad i did as it was a fantastic time. i didn't set out to record a video this long, i was just having such a nice time with the game that i lost track of time as i played.

Time is perhaps the only issue i have with Hungry Hearts Ramen. throughout the video you'll hear me say how i would like a pause button or want the game to pause during the story segments. there is a day mechanic here because customers come to the restaurant on different days but this isn't explicitly said by the game, rather i inferred it from the customer menu section.

For the most part, Hungry Hearts Ramen does a great job at getting across how to play the game and what does what. the tutorial is simple, telling us what to do via text and pictures rather then showing via a gif. but what was nice and surprising is how they use the customers, the Shrine Maiden in particular, to help remind us what to do.

I've highlighted the community aspect of this game in the title because i feel like each of the characters we've met so far in the game are very well written. they come across as genuine and interesting. mistakes and assumptions are made by our main characters but no one seems to get angry. as we played, we got to know a few of them better than others and in doing so this unlocks more food and drink options in the game. there are also customers who make delivery requests. the game makes it clear there's no pressure to fulfil them if you can't and these customers will call back in the future. but if you're able to their requests, we get even more story.

As well as the community aspect, there is another story that we've barely touched upon in this video. i won't go into spoilers, but this seems to be the second time we've opened a restaurant in this town and there seems to have been more of us the first time we did this. i speculate in the video what might have happened but there's no reason why it can't be sad or happy as the stories we've encountered so far have been both.

Graphically, i enjoyed the art in Hungry Hearts Ramen. it's a simple design that seems to look right for the era. the music is nice, too. but after the hour and a half i played the music was starting to get a little repetitive. 

Hungry Hearts Ramen does have adverts. i don't mind mobile games, especially the free to play ones, having them. but what really impressed me was how well Hungry Hearts Ramen deals with it. there's a TV in the restaurant that will play an add if you want and that'll restore your characters energy. As our characters are old, and they themselves mention about getting tired, the energy mechanic is well tied into the game universe. There is a banner advert at the bottom of the screen throughout this video. but it doesn't get in the way, it's not distracting, and my focus throughout was in the middle of the screen. And then there are the full screen adverts. thankfully the game put's up a little message that we're going to an ad break, plays the ad, puts the break screen up, and then get's us back into action. it's that attention to detail that makes this simple restaurant game feel really polished and something great.

After playing Hungry Hearts Ramen, i can say that it does make it into my top free to play games of the year list. i won't say where, but it's that good and well worth checking out. there's something for a lot of players here and it's all good.

Version 1.0.1 Played

Stories on Tuesday - High School Dog Simulator - 4 Different Endings Played

For a one off video, i played the iOS Visual Novel High School Dog Simulator from Shibamaru.

The game has 16 endings, but for this video i played through 4 of them. You'll have to let me know in the comments what happens in the other stories.