Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Ishida Mitsunari Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Ishida Mitsunari Cup! (2023/2/27 9:00～2023/3/6 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week was much easier and you can see from the time it was quicker, too. But that doesn't tell the whole story as a big aspect of this, much like the other recent cups, is that there were few players online. I don't play the game at the same time on the same day, so there is an element of randomness. But i also play in Japan, a country where Puzzle & Dragon's is really big. so it is surprising that once again i had very few matches with anyone else.

As i was mostly up against the computer, i won most of the time. the gimmick this week was to get a full row of one color, and that was fairly easy to do. what i did find difficult was defeating the boss. i got there many times, but i couldn't seem to do enough damage. in a way, the boss felt unbalanced compared to the run to the boss. it also felt that my luck in getting combo's was poor, too. a few times i was able to nearly clear the screen only to get no further combos. i think i was only able to get a combo of 10 or higher once through the whole video.

Cloud Monday - Marvel Puzzle Quest - Using My Old PS4 Save Data

Today's Cloud Monday continues from last weeks video on Split/Second, https://youtu.be/eNBKyboS-3k. In that video the goal was to try and use my old PS3 save data that was saved in the cloud with that game. i showed how to do it and that it worked. at the end of that video i said i would try it on PS4 and show how it works.

It was difficult trying to find a game suitable for this as i still have most games and saves still installed. Marvel Puzzle Quest is a game that i finished on PS3, got all the trophies too, and tried on PS4 to see if there were any differences. as there weren't any i stopped playing it and didn't have it installed any more.

Before i could do that i had to deal with my PS4 and PlayStation Plus Premium having issues. you get to see some of them in this video, but to save time i skipped ahead to when things started working again. it would be great to know if the service works better on PS5 than on PS4.

When it came to importing the save file on PS3, it was not automatic. i had to go to the XMB, by pressing the PS button on the PS4 controller and scrolling down to the XMB option, then go to the save file, then exit the game, then go into my Cloud Saves, find the save, copy it over, exit the save menu, which restarted the game and then the game loaded that save file. With the PS4 it was so much simpler. it prompted me asking if i wanted to use my save file in the cloud. i said yes, and it went ahead, grabbed it, and started the game for me. this was a much more user friendly experience and one that would be useful on PS5 where storage is a bit of an issue as it could be quicker and easier to simply stream the game instead of downloading it.

Online Saturday - Gundam Evolution - Changing "Matchmaking Area" Fixed My Issues With Matchmaking

Previous to today's video, in my first video with Gundam Evolution, https://youtu.be/mslLmo9mTTs, in the hour i spent with it i got into one game and had one game fail. In the second more infamous, video https://youtu.be/2UyzdhVjI4Q, i spent an hour trying to matchmake and failing. so in around 2 hours of game time, i had played 1 game and had 1 game fail very near the beginning.

But in the training and that one game, i did enjoy it. it's a different experience from Splatoon 3, or any other online shooter i've tried. so i've wanted it to work and be good because i think there's something to it. so i went back for a third time and that's when i noticed it, in the top right corner, "Matchmaking Area". I hadn't noticed that before but when i was getting set up and watching the Earth in the background, i had a look at it and saw that it defaults to North America and Europe. If you're unfamiliar with my videos, i live in Japan and the time difference between this region and those can be big. so i decided that the goal of this video was to see what happens when i switch that to Asia, does it result in more games.

AND IT DOES! In this video i get matched to 4 games. one of them fails right at the beginning, but i do get to play 3 full games! in this one video i get to play more games that my previous  two videos combined. i had a good time with this game. it's not up there with Splatoon 3, but then again i don't think anything is, i feel it's the best online shooter out there. but i did enjoy it more than nearly any other shooter i've played in this series. i won't be deleting the game now.

Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade - Simon's Cat: Story Time - The First 50 Minutes

This twelfth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Simon's Cat: Story Time. I Played this as part of my Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series, i think this game is exclusive to the service.

i was curious how a "match 3" game would work in Apple Arcade as games on this service don't seem to have mechanics that you would associate with a match 3 game. these typically include a limit to how many games you can play at once, for example a life system. 

This game does not have a life system. it seems like the limit is purely down to the time the player has. there is a mechanic that uses the coins you earn in the game. when you run out of moves, you can spend some coins and gain some moves. but you're also given a choice to retry the level at no cost.

This meant i was able to sit and play for 50 minutes, except for when it crashed. the app crashed to my phone's "desktop". this was the first Apple Arcade game to do so, but it's difficult to put the blame on the game itself as i had used my phone to play other games and use other apps. Simon's Cat: Story Time was also updated the day i recorded this video so if there is an issue there's a chance it'll be fixed in a day or two. so whilst it crashed, i'm not worried about it as it could be due to any number of reasons.

the game looks amazing, the world is so much bigger than i anticipated, and it's fully of animation. the game makes good use of the phones vibration motors, too. it was easy to control with my finger or with a controller, but when i switched to the controller there were no on screen prompts as to what the buttons did. this would've been useful as it wasn't as obvious how to move the screen.

There is soo much more to this game. when we unlocked the trophy room, each one was for some part of the game i had yet to unlock. i have no idea how many hours it will take to play it all, but in the first 50 minutes i played i only managed to finish the first chapter! so let me know in the comments how big this game actually is.

Backlog Conquering - Pyre - Part 12 - Getting to the Fourth Liberation Rites

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 12, of playing Pyre on PlayStation 4.

Even tho this video ended up over an hour long, not too much actually happened. one reason why this was longer than expected was because of technical trouble i was having with my PS4 where the game would freeze for long periods of time. this video is actually the second time i tried to record this as the first time crashed my PS4 due to an issue like this.

As for the game itself, perhaps the most surprising thing was how quickly the fourth Liberation Rites started. i think i completed two rites before it was in the stars. I'm not fully sure who i want to try and send back, but i think it'll be Ti'Zo. the game is doing well at establishing relationships between characters to such a degree that it's possible to come up with reasons to not send many of them back to the commonwealth.

It's the story that's kept me playing the game. the rite aspect has been a little tedious at time and in this video i say that i would've liked easier rites so that i could've got to the story easier. but thinking back, i would've missed out on the story due to the result of the rites. it's quite possible that i was never meant to win all the rites. whilst probably possible, the game has never seemed to have punished me for losing. the one aspect i still don't understand is the reason for crashing into other team's wagons. other than annoying them, it doesn't seem to serve a purpose.

Backlog Conquering - Pyre - Part 11 - Breaking a Losing Streak

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 11, of playing Pyre on PlayStation 4.

Today's video has two big highlights. firstly, i finally won a game again. in part 10, https://youtu.be/a1AfjDxkSyQ, i chose to lose a ritual but didn't win afterwards. Today's video started the same with 2 more losses before i finally managed to win in the Liberation Ritual. it was such a relief to finally win again. i can't say for sure either way if it's down to the game lowering the difficulty or my own skills improving, i'm just glad i've stopped losing.

The other big highlight is perhaps the revelation that the rituals are coming to an end. one of my concerns was that we would have to do the whole thing over and over again until we were down to a final 3. but it's been revealed that there aren't many Liberation Rituals left. tho we don't know for sure, my guess would be 2 or 3. The thing to think about is, not only are we not able to save all our team members, there maybe enemy team members we have to consider.

it could be argued the surprise return of a familiar face could also be a big surprise, but that's yet to fully play out.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Takamimusubi Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Pixel Takamimusubi Cup! (2023/2/20 9:00～2023/2/27 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

Even tho this video isn't too long, it doesn't tell the whole story. by looking at it you may assume that it was a decent week for me. But in reality that's not the case. the big problem this week was that i didn't grasp the gimmick this week. this meant i didn't beat or even get to the boss this week. when i was up against other players, i didn't win either. but the reason why it's a shorter video this week is because i didn't play against other people that often. i had several games against the computer AI. but even then i couldn't win each time.

I should mention that after the latest Switch firmware update, my game was not playable. i had issues with the SD Card and Switch. this meant that i had to redownload the game before i could play it. let me know in the comments if anyone else had this issue after the firmware update.