Cloud Monday - Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Part 2 - Side Quests Are Weird In A Known Story

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. I streamed this game, developed by, CyberConnect2, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service on my launch model Japanese PS4.

I was concerned last time that getting the game to work might be a one off, but i was wrong. once again, the game started for the first time when i wanted to play it. it's a welcomed surprise and i may check out some of the other games that refused to work.

A lot of what i said in part 1, https://youtu.be/_IdUPMR6gTE, are true in this part. but the thing that stuck out the most was actually doing side quests. If, like me, you're familiar with the story of Dragon Ball Z then the idea of doing side quests is strange as it's hard to imagine how they'd fit them into the game. the stuff in part 1 worked well as a tutorial and was before Dragon Ball Z started. In this part, the side quest on the island also work because the story hadn't kicked off.

But having to save Gohan or do a side quest just felt wrong. at this point in the game i was Goku and my son had been stolen by Raditz, so naturally my response is to go and save Gohan. it's what happens in Dragon Ball Z and it's the natural thing to do. but to have the map open up a bit and for there to be side quests just didn't feel right. i tried to do one but abandoned it to continue the story.

This game is a little difficult to review. on one hand it's got pretty good game design to be streamed from the cloud to my PS4. there are some story moments hard to skip, but for the most part it works as a cloud streaming game and in that respect it's better than quite a lot in this series. But on the other hand, it's a weird game in that i don't know who's it's audience. People who like and know Dragon Ball Z already know this story. if this game was just this story then i'd understand why they'd want to play it. but the addition of social connections, RPG elements, and side quests feel more like bloat than a useful addition. so perhaps this is aimed at those who want a different type of RPG or who recognise Goku but don't know the story.

Online Weekend - Sunday - Gundam Evolution - It's Final Weekend!

This weekend is the final weekend for Gundam Evolution. I'm playing this game on PS4. Gundam Evolution ends at the end of November so be sure to join in and play before then!

Here are 6 casual games i played on Sunday.

Online Weekend - Saturday - Gundam Evolution - It's Final Weekend!

This weekend is the final weekend for Gundam Evolution. I'm playing this game on PS4.  Gundam Evolution ends at the end of November so be sure to join in and play before then!

Here are 3 casual an 1 ranked games i played on Saturday.

Mobile Friday - Vampire Survivors - Fun Gameplay Hobbled By Everything Else

*I APOLOGIZE THAT THE QUALITY OF THIS VIDEO IS POOR. I DIDN'T NOTICE MY CAPTURE CARD WAS HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME WITH THIS GAME*

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Vampire Survivors on my iPhone 14 Pro. This game from  Poncle Games is also out on #Android and consoles

Vampire Survivors was released last year to much fanfare and praise but i held of from playing it because it looked like a console game ported to iPhone rather than being designed for it. A long time has passed and this hasn't changed so i decided to just try it.

Unfortunately for the game, it still looks and plays like a console game ported to phones. it got off to a bad start when it glitched the first time i loaded it up vertically as the final few pixels at the top failed to load and left me with a black banner. most of the game feels too small, and due to the games artstyle, not very distinct. the enemies are perhaps the only highlight because they're bigger than my player character or visually distinct from each other. tho there were some that i couldn't make out what they were.

One option would be to zoom in. but the area i saw on my phone already felt smaller than normal, more so when the game put up borders, for no apparent reason, that gave it a 4:3 feel rather than making full use of my screen. it's a baffling choice that irked me throughout my hour with the game.

This game is also not very accessible. it tells you nothing about how to play it or how to make progress in it. The garliclike genre is fairly new and the team are making some big assumptions about mobile players and the time they're willing to put into something in comparison to console gamers. it's so bad that i wouldn't recommend this game to any casual gamer unless they're playing one of the many knock off games.

the real frustratingly thing is that the gameplay is great. i've got enough experience to know what the gameplay loop is, that and i heard about this game across many podcasts. it's a bit uneven at this early point in the game and i wonder if it'll ever balance itself once you buy upgrades, but once you get going with more upgrades and abilities it gets really fun.

It's just nearly everything else around it holds it back from being truly great. it's not a complete package. But it's fun enough that i won't be deleting it either.

(Version 1.7.103 Played)

Demo Play Thursday - Snakebird Complete on Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Snakebird Complete. This game, from developers Noumenon Games is out from today.

Snakebird Complete is the combination of Snakebird and Snakebird: Primer that has been updated for the Nintendo Switch. i was unfamiliar with them and wanted to try this demo to see how they use the game Snake as a puzzle game.

This demo appears to be the beginning of the main game. we have access to both islands, tho it was never explicitly said to us how to get to the second island. unfortunately, even tho it's the start of the game, the tutorial of this game is minimal at best. the first level does put up a controller to help show what buttons do what, but i was using a pro controller and not a Joy-Con that was on screen. we are taught how to move and control, but surprisingly we're not taught that we can't move back or what the goal of the levels with fruit is. 

I'm familiar with Snake so i knew what to do, but i was surprised that the game never told us what it wanted us to do, what the goal of the game was. Thankfully, the game doesn't penalize mistakes. there are no limits on how many moves you can make either. But again, the game also fails to mention that we should use the pause menu as not only can we add a grid to the screen to help us understand where the birds can go, but there's also a hint system too.

It is possible that the demo is buggy or incomplete. for example, on the first island we were able to play level 49 for some reason. But with the game out now, i don't think so. I also don't know if our progress from the demo is carried over to the final game. 

The demo is effective in that we understand how the mechanics and puzzles work, and that there's no penalty for failing. But after playing it, i'm not that interested in playing a game that tells us so little. when we went to the second island, i had to infer that the spikes were dangerous as the game didn't tell us but it was only through playing that it became clear that it was only falling on them that was the issue. I worry that there'll be other obstacles and mechanics later that be poorly communicated about and be an added frustration to the puzzle itself. 

Backlog Conquering - CounterSpy On PS3 - My First Four Missions

CounterSpy is the new Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.

When this came out in 2014, i remember a lot of talk about how it looks and sounds. And it does, it's a beautiful game on PS3 and it's soundtrack is great. Another unique, more so at the time, feature of this game was how the levels in each mission are randomly built. So this means the levels you see me take on in this video maybe different to others in other videos.

This is a double edged sword however as i felt that the second mission, the first one after the tutorial, was much harder than i anticipated. I died and quickly learnt that i'd have to be more careful. it highlighted that whist the game is good in highlighting where the enemy soldiers are, the camera in the game actually obstructs our view in comparison to what our character sees. An example of this is how at the start of the missions there's a solider warning, but we can't see said soldier until we're very close so dealing with them can be down to reactions rather than planned or stealthy. 

So far, i enjoyed playing the game so will continue into part 2. it's a shame i'm playing this now and not when it came out as the online features have been turned off.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Valeria Cup Revival - 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 Valeria Cup Revival! ( 2023/11/20 9:00～2023/11/27 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Valeria Cup Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/TGWaHPERguM. That video took over an hour and a half for me to get the achievements for that week!

It went well for me this week. i won a few matches and i got the achievements quite quickly. but it wasn't amazing. for example, i wasn't able to beat the boss, nor could i get to it regularly. I also didn't seem to have much luck with getting the big combos needed for the big points. But it was fun going up against some human players and having some close matches against them. it looks like they were having just as much trouble beating the final boss as i was.

This week i played against:

かなた - Rank 58

ヘロ - Rank 79

こんたあき - Rank 50

$$ - Rank 73