Hello and welcome to the new series here on QTE Gamers!
The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.
Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.
In this first part, i play until Chapter 0 is finished. Going in, i didn't know anything about the game or that it's actually part of a series. The voices are in Japanese and the text is in English. This was not something i could change.
If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, i take no offense. from Wednesday February 28th i'll introduce a new tier on my Ko-Fi page. this will have Part 1 as well as Part 2. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Tales of Arise via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I had previously looked at another BANDAI NAMCO RPG to see how it worked as a game played in the cloud, but across Part 1 https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg and Part 2 https://youtu.be/japHcD6uFlA it was clear that Scarlet Nexus wasn't designed with the cloud in mind. the biggest issue that game had was that you could only save at specific points, there were no auto saves and no manual saves. it worked out that there was about 20-30 minutes between the save points in the first couple of hours of the game.
Tales of Arise is a newer game and i was really curious if it was designed with the cloud in mind or if it followed the formula in Scarlet Nexus as that game seemed to have been a success. Tales of Arise is a game i had heard a lot of good things about across videos and Podcasts, but i couldn't remember anyone talking specifically about it's suitability as a game being played in the cloud.
i can say that yes, there are auto saves and there are manual saves. it takes a few minutes before we get access to the menu and manual saves, but the auto save seems to be fairly regular. Saving itself is also really quick. the only issue that i can see playing this game in the cloud is the large amount of cutscenes, whether that's the anime style ones or the comic books ones. there is a lot of story and the game tells it fairly quickly and often in Part 1. If i were to get the dreaded 20 second warning before i was disconnected, there's a good chance i would have to skip a cutscene or two and therefore some of the game's story.
I had a good time in Part 1. it's refreshing how successfully Tales of Arise incorporated anime style animation from the beginning so when it's used later it's not jarring. the comic book style tho uses in-game graphics and it doesn't look that great. i think i understand why they did it as it's typically used when characters are just standing and talking to each other. it's a different way to show a conversation between characters. The only criticism i have with the anime style is that it's perhaps a little too different to the art style used in the game. The #PS5 version could be a bit closer, but i doubt it as characters look a little too different.
Graphically, i don't think the game runs at 1080p but it looks like it does. it does lack the finer details but often it's not an issue because the art and design of the game make up for it. the coloring throughout is impressive. The PS4 does let it down a little with textures sometimes taking longer to load. there were a couple of instances where the game had finished with a story beat, given us control, and then finished loading in the textures.
This isn't an issue with streaming the game from the cloud. the only issue i noticed was screen tearing. this is when grey appears on the screen. often it appears for less than a second, but because it's grey it sticks out soo much and is very noticeable. I didn't notice any lag controlling the game and it managed the transitions from gameplay to animation without any issues. So combing these positives and the great saving features, Tales of Arise looks to be one of the better RPGS to play in the cloud.
This month's Splatoon 3 Salmon Run item is the Trevally Derby Rollers. Today, and going forward, my new goal will be to get 1,000 points. I had already been doing this for the past few videos but i'll make it official.
This Salmon run was one of the best ones i've ever done. My teams and I frequently managed to beat all 3 waves so i was able to get the 1,000 and do a bonus run. we weren't able to defeat the Horrorboros.
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.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Boori's Spooky Tales: Idle RPG from SuperPlanet Studios. I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.
I was really interested in trying out this game after seeing it in the app store. it's name got me curious is if was an idle game broken up into stories or if story telling was a big part. Idle games do have story, but often it's just a basic premise to justify the idle game play. Looking at the screenshots, it was clear that it looked like a good game, too, with some ideas and themes from Japan or the Asia region. I was really interested in how it would bring it all together.
The main menu screen was the first hint that perhaps it wasn't as polished as i had hoped as the background animation didn't loop. it gets to a point, stops, and restarts from the beginning. This is something that happened with the music in the sections where you learn magic as it's really noticeable.
After, there's a nice introduction that got my hopes up as it seemed to align with how i thought the game was going to tell a story. we're an exorcist who's trying to defeat ghosts and find their body. Whilst there are some specific boss level ghosts we encounter, what it actually meant was the enemies we're fighting are all ghosts.
One little quirk about the idle fighting is that if you get to a level you can't beat, instead of repeating that level over and over again as i expected would happen, you actually end up being sent back a few levels and have to work you're way back. It's not a big deal, just something that caught me off guard.
In general, the idle part of the gameplay is solid. you earn money from defeating ghosts. the money can be spent on getting stronger and gaining more health, which in turn means you can defeat more ghosts. defeating them also completes missions which earn you gold, as do other specific things. you spend the gold on "loot boxes" to try and find better gear. by equipping said gear, you get stronger and can go further. There's another currency that can be spent on upgrading the gear.
There's also another currency that unlocks magic. these seem to fire out at when their cooldown has finished but they seem to fire randomly and during the boss encounters they didn't seem too useful compared to our main staff attack that seemed to have better lock on and Ai behind what it targeted. Another aspect of the game that seemed to suffer from bad Ai was the ninja style teleport move. Like a lot of things in this game, it wasn't really explained or given an in-world explanation. so pressing the button seems to move our character to a random near by location. i tried to use it when my character was getting swarmed, but it rarely sent me anywhere i thought was useful.
Whilst the gameplay was fine and mostly easy to understand, the lack of "why" and in-game reasons did start to get annoying. Our teacher is also the tutorial character and whilst they are useful in pointing us the to the right things to press, they're painfully silent and it just feels like a wasted story telling opportunity. The further into the video i got, the less useful that character became until he stopped showing up leaving me to try things out for myself. For example, the equip menu has something called "Synthesis" and i have no idea what it does. maybe it gets rid of duplicate equipment, but if it does i don't seem to get anything for doing so. there was simply too much left unexplained. other games put it in a tutorial, others put an "i" on it so the player can press and read what it does. this game, at a certain point, just seems to stop helping the player. it really sticks out because the game tries to help out early on.
And there's the story. we get a bit at the intro, and that's about it. when we're given tasks to defeat bosses, it never felt like we're being given story. it just felt like we're given a quest. The is titled "Spooky Tales" but other than maybe our goal to find out body, i don't remember any other tale being told. i can't workout how the game's title applies to the game. Maybe it's a translation error?
Boori's Spooky Tales: Idle RPG has got the basic gameplay correct. it's just the game built around it doesn't quite match it in quality. there only seems to be one song but thankfully it's decent. the art is mostly fine. i do like our character, but there are a few enemies who don't seem to look quite right in this style, namely the fox ghosts. If you're into gameplay, something quick to play for a few minutes then Boori's Spooky Tales: Idle RPG is a good choice. but if, like me, you came to it expecting something unique and deeper, you'll probably be disappointed.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Promenade, developed by Holy Cap Studios, published by Red Art Games, and also released on PS5 and Switch.
The reaction online to this game has seemed really positive and i was eager to try it out and then this demo was released and i jumped at the opportunity to give it ago. In recent videos i've had some not so great times with platformers due to their difficulty so i went into this demo a little apprehensive and not letting the "cute" visuals make me think it would be an easy game.
It starts by acknowledging it's a demo, but it doesn't lean into to it like some of the great demos we've tried. those games tend to be a bit more personal and sometimes offer some explanation as to what's in the demo. here, there was just a list of 4 stages. i tackled them in the order they're presented and i think that's best. the first stage is a simple tutorial, tho perhaps a little too simple as it tells you what you should do but not how to do it. Like, if our pink friend could say/think the "X" button to jump or "ロ" to throw/pick up that would've saved me some time.
The second stage seems to be mostly a full level and it was much bigger than i anticipated. here again, i found out from pressing buttons that "△" brings up a book of sorts showing how many collectables we've found. the platforming felt really good and the puzzles were interesting and fun. i enjoyed the "escort mission" that the game never told us to do but because of the environmental story telling i knew i should do it. There were some technical issues with reflections popping in and out and it was a little distracting mostly due to how great the game looks. there's plenty of small animations and little touches that make this level, and all the others i played, feel high quality.
The third stage also fell victim to the lack of a tutorial. it's probable that in Promenade it's explained, but here it wasn't. This level is a race that i never felt like i could even come close to winning. i never quite got the grappling into jumping mechanic. But it also didn't feel impossible. Even tho i didn't come close to the time, the game let me continue the level so it was nice that i could get some practice in.
The final stage was bigger but i also didn't finish it. it introduced new hazards and mechanics that seemed fine. again, there's no tutorial but it's quick to learn what to do. It was the Monkey boss fight where i decided to call it a day. My first attempt was more data gathering than actually trying to beat it. The second attempt was where the biggest bug happened. i could no longer see the bombs the monkey was throwing. i realised i could see their shadow, but it meant that it was impossible so i naturally died. Thankfully, there's a checkpoint right before the boss and it's quick to load. I got further on the third attempt but i couldn't see a way to beat the Monkey Boss. with the demo not offering tutorials, it's difficult to know if i was meant to be doing something or not. an example was that the bombs the monkey threw seemed to explode up more so i could no longer be safe above them. they're thrown so fast, i couldn't see a way to escape the blast zones. So i ended it there.
A great highlight of this demo is the addition of a well made trailer. we get to see many locations, objectives, and that there's more play styles than just the platforming. It's a fine way to show off the game. It's a bit of a shame that the trailer isn't viewable from the main home screen and only found when beating some of the levels.
But as a demo, this works great. i've played it and know that i would be happy to own Promenade. But this isn't the best demo. the bugs are frustrating with the lack of tutorials/instructions an even bigger oversight. But there's enough here for me to say you should try this out and maybe even to say that this demo has showed me that this is probably a decent buy without even needing to play the demo.
This is part 1 of playing the PlayStation 4 version of Teslagrad, from developers Rain AS, as part of Backlog Conquering. From looking at my Trophies, after i finished this video, it looks like i played the game a little back in 2015 probably on PS Vita. But as you'll see in this video, i clearly had no memories of it. But it could explain why i maybe didn't get some trophies.
The game starts by showing us the story rather than telling us. For the most part it works, but it cuts straight to gameplay without even explaining what the jump button is. I've played enough games to know what to do, but it's surprisingly unwelcoming to new players. Visually, i really like the art style and the presentation and i was able to look at the world and understand what i needed to do.
This first section makes it clear where you need to go. The woman points you to the right, you're chased to the right, and it all feels natural. i'm going where the game wants me to go but it feels like a natural way to do it. After that tho, it really did feel like i was on my own. And it's the biggest complaint i had throughout playing this part. Once the game let me go, it all felt aimless. not once did the game tell me where the map screen was, and when i found it, it was next to useless.
Some games are built around you exploring and discovering the world. But they also excel at the story being told this way. Teslagrad may be set in a nice looking world with strange creatures and technology, but it's failing to tell that story with gameplay alone. I don't know what's happening but worse than that is i don't know where to go. once again, the game fails in driving the player to the next goal.
But it is early on in the game. it's possible that the pacing, story telling, and player direction will improve once i get to a next section or new area. So there will be a part 2. But if it continues to frustrate, i don't know if i'll do more than 2 parts.
