Switch Funday - Pokémon Unite - December's Unite Weekend

Today's Switch Funday video is on Pokémon Unite. as this is the first full weekend of December, it's a Unite Weekend. this means i'm able to use any #Pokemon i want in the unranked online modes. my goal with these weekends is to try out several new #pokémon i don't have and hopefully find some new favorites. 

I got a bit confused at first and did a quick match before realizing that i wanted to do standard match. so the first part of the video is different from the next 5.

As for this Pokemon Unite weekend, i went in wanting to give a few Pokémon a go. one of them was Clefable. it's a Pokémon i used to use a lot in Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow, so it was a nostalgia pick. Scizor was a Pokémon i was curious about. i wondered if it would be a strong physical attacker and it was. i enjoyed my time with it and may get it in the future. up next was, what i thought, a sillier choice but also one that uses ranged attacks. Cramorant is a Pokémon i've never used before in any game and i didn't expect much from it here. but i was pleasantly surprised how useful it became. It's #Unite move is a little risky as we essentially become a turret stuck in place, but i had a much better time with it than expected. it's another Pokémon i wouldn't mind having. Delphox was a Pokémon i was curious about as to whether the game would lean into the physic or fire moves. ultimately, i didn't have a great time using it. But whilst using it i was reminded about Mr. Mime and that's what i used in the 5th video. i have played against many Mr. Mimes and they all seem to use barriers. i wanted to see what other moves it got and i had fun using Physic and Power Zap, it was great being able to attack and move a lot. i didn't take full advantage of it's Unite move, but it's now a Pokémon i wouldn't mind having. I finished with Sylveon as i'm making my way through the Eeveelutions. I didn't have as much fun with it as i have had with Leafeon and Glaceon so i probably won't be getting it any time soon.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - December's Big Run Event

Welcome to Online Saturday!

This weekend is December's Big Run Event in Splatoon 3. The event takes place on the Barnacle & Dime map. Throughout the video i'll make the mistake and think that this is the eggstra event and talk about this video https://youtu.be/fohHFUg29QU. i hope this wont be too confusing for you.

This went really well. I aimed to get the item twice and as that seemed easy and the recording was under an hour i went for 1,000 points! it only took 7 games and my teams and i came up against the new Salmonoid boss Megalodontia. we faced off against it twice but it's a very tough boss. the first time was at high tide and with the boss being so big, it was tough to avoid whilst also dealing with the other enemies. the second time started better but as a team we got wiped out fairly quick. having it appear from below is tricky to deal with as the ink put down is rarely ours. by this point, there's so much enemy ink that getting around is slow. it's tough to ink, attack enemies, dodge the boss, and attack the boss. in that second game i also had a weapon i didn't like to use.

Mobile Friday - Honkai: Star Rail - A Good Console Game On Mobile, But Not A Good Mobile Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Honkai: Star Rail on my iPhone 14 Pro. This game from miHoYo and Cognosphere  is also out on Android, PS5, and  PC.

Honkai: Star Rail is Apple 's iPhone game of the year for 2023 so as i'm thinking about my own top 5 games of the year, i was keen to play this game that i somehow missed when it first came out.

But, you must play the first hour of this game on Wifi as there are TWO content downloads you must do to play the game. there's a small, in comparison to the second one, download before the game starts and there's a second that's 12GB in size before we've even finished the first tutorial part of the game! I'll be clear, this means the game won't be my Number 1 game of 2023 as these additional downloads mean the game isn't designed for mobile players. Such things are from MMO's on PC and Consoles and are tolerated there because they have an online connection. but on Mobile where people have data caps, it's not acceptable. 

Something else about how the game plays makes me think that the game was developed first on consoles and/or PC first is how the camera works, especially in comparison to how the character moves. the camera is much slower to move, often requiring greater thumb movement, whilst the player character moves much faster. In this video you'll see and sometimes here how i have to move my thumb on and off the my phone to try and keep up. This makes playing the game handheld a little less stable. there's no Bluetooth controller support either.

Something we see more and more on current gen consoles and that has existed on PC for a long time are graphical options. they're here, too. But implemented in a much poorer way. there's no information provided as to what changes each option does to the game, how much performance is lost or gained, or even what's recommended for the phone you're playing it on. So far, all these things make the game feel like a so-so port of Honkai: Star Rail from console and PC to iPhone.

I'll be the first to admit than an hours look at this game isn't enough. i don't know if there are other additional downloads, for example, nor do i know if the game's story improves over the issues i had with it in the beginning. One of the things that stood out the most was how the games describes what's happening to the station we're on whilst what i saw didn't match that. the station is under attack, there are enemies and fights, and i just saw a couple of enemies hanging out. there seemed to be no damage to the station, no alerts or alarms, and no real haste from the characters. This issue came up near the end when one character says they're going to check up on another. we later meet up and they tell us the situation with that character. then we meet that character and how it looks in-game doesn't match the description and then it goes on to act like this is it's first time meeting any of us. It's like the story telling and the designers aren't talking to each other, or it could be a translation issue. what ever it is, it took me out of the game.

The game does look amazing. the heat on my phone gives the impression that it is being pushed somewhat hard by this game. the music is good, too. the design is bright and clear, and the UI is generally smart if a little small at times. the game does make great use of the screen and the dynamic island never got in the way of things. So there are many positives about this game, but if i was given the choice of playing this on phone or console, i'd go with console. 

(Version 1.5.0 Played)

Demo Play Thursday - Knight Vs. Giant: The Broken Excalibur On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Knight Vs. Giant: The Broken Excalibur. This game, from developers Gambir Studio is already out not only on Switch but also on PS5, Xbox, and PC.

The demo for Knight Vs. Giant: The Broken Excalibur is good and bad which makes talking about it difficult. the game i played was good. it looked great, controlled well, and wasn't too difficult. the tutorial used cards but levelled them up with videos and sometimes it would introduce a second card and video showing another use for the move! I've not seen it before and in that respect it's impressive but those videos looked low resolution and a bit dark. the small details were hard to see.

The demo is from the start of the game so we also get to watch an interesting intro movie that not only explains everything but also hints as towards something being up with one of the main characters. But the intro video is compressed and looked maybe 480p. it was noticeable how bad it was when the gameplay started as the game looks great and crisp, with lots of color and high amount of detail in the art.

So the demo is good at establishing the world, the characters, and what the controls do. But what it fails to do is to convey clearly what the loop is. Knight Vs. Giant: The Broken Excalibur is a run based game, something that to me makes me think or Rouge Legacy. In those games the character typically starts of weak so the initial runs are very short, but usually we're able to make small progress and learn enough to understand the loop. Here, the game seemed to have got close to revealing the loop, but stumbled. 

I got a demo over screen when the demo wasn't over. if i stopped when the screen came up, i would've understood less than i do now as i continued playing the game. By continuing i found new characters, did more in the home area, and tried out new powers. But i still don't clearly know what the loop is as i never completed one. i died at the beginning, which i'm mostly sure i'm supposed to do, and right at the end of the game. all the time in-between felt like one loop. i don't know if it is or if it isn't. i don't know if i'm meant to go out and explore repeatedly, or just do it once and move one. 

It's hard to say whether it's just the demo that failed to get across this critical aspect of the game or if it's just the game itself. on one hand, i'm much more interested in the game than i was and wouldn't mind playing it. but on the other hand, i don't fully know what the game wants me to do. So yeah, the demo is both a success and a failure.

Backlog Conquering - CounterSpy On PS3 - Part 2 – 3 More Missions

CounterSpy is the current Backlog Conquering Wednesday game. i'm playing this version of the game on PlayStation 3. It came out across the PS4, PSV and even mobile in 2014 from developers Dynamighty.

This part felt more difficult than the first part. CounterSpy is randomly generated and today's video felt like it was suffering with the increase of difficulty. the game is adding more enemies as well as different types of enemies so by the time i got to the end of the level it felt like i had no choice but to shoot them. With ammo being so expensive, up to this point, it felt like the goal was stealth takedowns, but now the game seems to want me to do more shooting. So when it comes to money, a lot is being spent on ammo and not leaving much to unlock new guns or equip new potions.

There will be a third part to this game. whilst the gameplay is getting difficult, the story is getting interesting. 

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Mille 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 Mille Cup Revival! ( 2023/11/27 9:00～2023/12/4 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week is the Mille Cup Revival. i have played this cup before, https://youtu.be/jUXjI8TCz3Q. That video is shorter than this one and is the first time where i did worse in a Revival Cup than the Original Cup!

This wasn't a good week for me. the gimmick this week wasn't too difficult either. i just couldn't seem to keep the big scores coming right until the boss. so whilst i got to the boss a couple of times, i was never able to defeat it whereas it felt like the other human characters were able to beat the boss. I also had bad luck when it came to the bonus points so i wasn't able to climb the scores that way.

This week i played against:

みーど - Rank 55

ゆきぎけ - Rank 66

⊂＝＝＝( • ω • ) ⊃ - Rank 53

Marty - Rank 67

アオトロ－ル - Rank 67

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.