Mobile Friday - Campfire Cat Cafe - The First 40 Minutes

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Campfire Cat Cafe on my iPhone 14 Pro. I played the first 40 minutes, or up to where i felt the grind had begun, of this restaurant simulator. 

I have played a few of these types of restaurant simulator games now, like Animal Restaurant, Cat Snack Bar, and Cats & Soup. I would say this game is closer to Animal Restaurant than the other two as it has a story and the grind doesn't come as soon as it did in Cat Snack Bar and Cats & Soup. What all these games have in common is that the art style is great, all of them are different from each other.

As well as a story, this game also has a decent tutorial that isn't just explaining how things work but they also use it to introduce characters and their personalities. What was also fun about the first 40 with this game is how when the game started to feel a little grindy, a new character appeared and gave us something new to do, even if it's a little brief. It's difficult to say if this continues as you make progress into the game as this game is actively being supported and expanded by the developers HyperBeard. I do feel that the game could offer some information on how to get to the next story part. the game relies on stars to progress, you get stars by buying things, and you get money from customers ordering. But sometimes customers want a food you don't sell and the only way to know that is remembering the food you sell or clicking on the customer and seeing. the food icon above their head is the same color as those who want food you can make. so it seemed a little confusing.

Also confusing was when the Bakery section was opened. i was told i couldn't do anything as i didn't have an oven. so that became the goal. but i could buy things for the bakery, even tho it said i couldn't bake anything. there was a little misunderstanding between what the game was telling me and also not telling me. I feel that such empathises was placed on the oven that i was under the assumption the bakery was effectively closed until it was made. but it turns out that wasn't the case. which lead to more confusion as to what the kiosk was for. But once it was made, the story continued and the game opened up more with a new character level up section.

Even if that's cleared up in a future patch, the rest of the game is very polished and something i'd recommend. my phone didn't get that hot playing for 40 minutes and there was no additional download at the start. the game wasn't obnoxious with it's adverts either. i always had the option to view them for in-game benefits, but it was never forced upon me. If you're familiar with these sorts of games then you'll understand that it could be easier and speed things up if you do chose to watch them.

Demo Play Thursday - Oaken on PS4

This week's Demo is Oaken, by Laki Studios, on PS4. This game came out last yera on PC and this July it was brought to the PlayStation and Microsoft platforms as well as the Switch. i was interested in this game due to it's art style and i wondered how it would play. But after trying it, i don't think this is a great demo nor am i interested in the game any more.

There are positives to take away from the demo. it does look great and it's an art style that cohesive throughout the experience. Some of the gameplay mechanics on the hex grid are also very interesting. But this demo makes it almost bluntly clear that this is not an easy game.

The tutorial section at the start is very good. there are videos showing things, there is a lot of help, and it was very welcoming. Until i started to realise that the tutorial is lacking important information regarding the consequences of your decisions. This became very annoying because of how well the tutorial seemed to be doing. an example of this is when i leveled up i was given a choice of 3 abilities. but then it never explained what they did. when it came to leveling up my "cards", i was shown how to do it but there was no information about what happens when i do. If the tutorial is going to be so hands-on, it needs to commit to it all the way and maybe more as this is a demo for the game. it could offer tips on situations you find yourself in, rather than just warning about hazards and enemies. after playing this demo i came away still not fully understanding a few key things about the game. 

It was near the end of the tutorial when i started to realize this is a hard game as the difficulty ramps up quickly, as do the situtations the level kept putting myself in. once it was finished i was left with a choice, Journey or Relaxed. the game clearly details the Relaxed mode but had no information about Journey other than what we were taught in the tutorial about fatigue. i think i misunderstood Journey as i was expecting a more story focused game mode. The difficult ramps up even quicker and it has permadeath and i had 2 chances before game over.

And that's how this video ends, with a hard Game Over. i'm not sure how or why i kept dyeing. nor could i see a way to win. i came away from the demo feeling like the tutorial wasn't finished, the games difficulty was unbalanced, and so much of the game was left unexplained. i ended the video on the screen with an apparent choice between The Lady, a character i defeated, and Aya, the character i was playing as and assumed to be the main protagonist. i never felt like i understood what The Lady brought to the game, was i meant to play as her, use her, take her abilities? Ultimately, this demo helped me realise that the game isn't for me and that it may have some issues.

Backlog Conquering - RiME - My Journey - Start to Finish

This is, mostly, my journey through the RiME. i cut out a couple of sections where i got stuck for a long time, but left in moments when i was stuck for a short time or when i died. it was a difficult game to edit into one play through, especially as i had 7 parts to my journey. soin a few places, it's a little rough due to the edit or due to mistakes i made, but hopefully you'll enjoy my journey or at the very least find it useful.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition -Vajrabhairava 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 Vajrabhairava Cup! (2023/8/21 9:00～2023/8/28 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

It was a very competitive cup this week. as you can see below, i played against many other players. I understood one of the gimmicks right away, making an "L" shape. but i took a little longer to realize that i could make a "+" shape, too. even tho i didn't fully get the gimmick, more scores were mostly competitive and i often finished in the top 3. But i didn't win many bonuses at the end. even playing it felt like i didn't have much Combo luck. I got to the boss several times, but i failed to do more than half damage and that's knowing what to do. maybe with another L or + the multiplier would've been enough to win. Thankfully, looking at the scores it was clear that i wasn't the only player having trouble. In the end, it was fun and i was soo relieved to get my Win. it's just a shame it was only 1 win this week.

This week i played against:

winstein - Rank 76

ころん - Rank 72

いのうえたかひろ - Rank 41

フウマ - Rank 67

あいすのけしん - Rank 67

コッペ - Rank 61

S.L.01 - Rank 87

たまねぎ - Rank 67

Elesia - Rank 66

ブロ: BR - Rank 68

しょうずにできました - Rank 45

みつるCH - Rank 70

Cloud Monday - Scarlet Nexus - Part 2 - Still Fun, But More Noticeable Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing Scarlet Nexus on a launch model PS4. In part 1, https://youtu.be/z4pOFUlwWsg, streaming it via the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service went really well with only one or two noticeable issues. But in today's video, there were more issues to the point where i got a connection warning. thankfully, it wasn't throughout the video, but as it was more frequent it also was much more noticeable than in part 1.

The game was still fun to play. the combat is fast paced and i didn't notice any lag due to the game being streamed to me. that was true with part 1, so at least the feel of the game holds up across both days. The story is a little slow and the world feels empty, more so in this video. near the end it says i'm free to do what i want. but, as i show in the video, there was nothing i could do. none of the shops are buildings i can go in, it was more like i was at point A and the game wanted me to go to Point B. so, in a way, the game's own story got in the way of gameplay.

Across both parts, a typical thing streaming does is reduce the resolution and i didn't notice it happening. for a 1080p system, the game looks great. but i do worry that if there are streaming issues that the resolution will drop and the game will be greatly affected. the text on screen is small, but for me fine. this and the game's unique art style and way it draws the neon stuff are the most likely to be affected by a resolution drop. We didn't get it, but what we did get in this video was just as bad. there was macro blocking, where squares of color appear instead of fine detail, and even more noticeable were the stream tearing moments as it's just light grey on screen.

I think this is a good game, but i don't think it's a great game to be streamed. i mentioned in the first video how the save system is an auto save and only at specific points. it's a system not suited to a streaming service were you get a 20 second notice of being kicked off. it's unique art style is also susceptible to streaming issues. I have this on disc and if i had to chose between playing the game on disc or streaming it from the PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming service, i would chose to play it from disc.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Trading Card Game - My First Time - I Had Fun

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the Game Boy Color game Pokémon Trading Card Game. I had a Game Boy Color growing up, the purple one, and i played Pokémon Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Pinball on it. but i never tried out Pokémon Trading Card Game. I didn't know much about it, other than guessing what happens by it's name. Now it's on the Nintendo Switch Online service, i was curious to give it a go and whether or not it would be worth playing in 2023.

I'll admit that i only won the tutorial battle. the other two battles i tried, i lost. but it didn't feel like i lost due to skill but rather i lost due to bad luck. The tutorial is good. it maybe a little too hand holdy for some people, but for me, someone who has never played the Card Game, it was what i needed. the only thing i would've liked is if the tutorial, or game, suggested where i should go with the deck i have. it felt like that it left it up to me, but i didn't know where to go. 

My first battle was against someone in the Poké Lab, i thought that it would be an easy battle as it's right at the start of the game. but it felt like a challenge. i had picked the Bulbasaur Grass Deck so thought the best gym to head to would be the Rock one. But i didn't really have much of an advantage. this game seems to be just Gen 1 Pokémon, so there isn't a lot of choice and my deck had Pokémon of many different types.

I'm glad i tried it out. i do think it holds up today, but i can't compare it to the modern Card Game as i've never played it. but as a strategy card game, it played really well. it's not just the tutorial that was good, but all the information you need is there, too. most of it takes a while to get to, but it's there. this game is slow, but it's what i wanted for my first time, and i could make it go a little faster in the options by speeding up text speed. Even the graphics looked great on my TV. all the Pokémon were clear and some of the card arts i looked at were also cool. If you have the service, i'd recommend giving it a go. i feel that the tutorial is good enough for those unfamiliar with Pokémon, and if you know Pokémon then i feel it'll take less time to get up to speed. i hope you're lucky tho!

Online Saturday - Tower of Fantasy - A Few Too Many Issues On PS4

Today's Online Saturday game is Tower of Fantasy from Hotta Studio. This game is out on other platforms and has been for a little while now. The game is now out on PS4 and PS5. Today, i played this free to play game on PS4 and unfortunately, there were issues throughout the video.

After playing this game for an hour i feel like it's done very little to introduce me to the world or the characters. it's fine that i have amnesia, but the introduction before that was a lot of nothing. and when we meet other characters, the game tries to introduce them to us but everything feels soo shallow. almost as if i should already know a lot of the things they are saying even tho they already know i have amnesia. This means that there are also several conversations where the other characters say things that go against what's happened in the story so far. it leaves me wondering if i'm not the only one with amnesia or if it's just poor world building.

Then there are issues with the game itself. i was expecting my PS4 to be loud, and it is. i was expecting there to be loading times, and there are. but i wasn't prepared for the stuttering that happens a lot in this video. i can't say for sure whether it's the game itself or the connection to the server as in this video that connection is lost twice in an hour. It was easy for me to tell because my PS4 would go quiet before the game realizes what happened and ask to reconnect. what has to be the game is the pop-in. it's everywhere and i'm sure there are even textures just not loading at all. there was an instance early on where there were candles. some lit up as i got closer. some waited until i was on top of them, but some stayed strangely unlit.

The pop-in is frustrating and does take me out of the world, which is a shame because the world is bright, vibrant, and impressive. and yet, it also feels small. we were able to traverse the map much quicker than i thought and the biggest tower felt kinda small and not quite matching the description of what should be on top. Something else that became distracting was animations not finishing. i set the game to playout the conversations at it's own pace. i wasn't going to interfere with them. and yet, characters seemed to be missing animation frames, seemingly going from having an animated conversation to finished in an instant. That's not the only issue with the conversation system, as sometimes it forgets it's set to auto and just stops, waiting for me to press X to continue it on the controller.

There are a few other things you may see, and hear me complain about in this video, but it all boils down to a game that fails to tutorialise, fails to build a world, and fails to be stable. it's possible over the next few hours the story and world building will continue to improve. but it's hard to ignore the tech issues and poor tutorial to get there. so for now i won't be playing Tower of Fantasy and i don't recommend it on PS4. Yes, it's free, but there becomes a point when it's still a waste of your time.

(Version 1.10 Played)