Demo Play Thursday - Europa On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Europa, from developers Novadust Entertainment and Helder Pinto. This is the most recent update of the DEMO. i don't know when it was updated, but it did update before i played it.

I had seen a little of this game before i downloaded the demo, but i hadn't worked out if this was just a generic title or if it related the the moon of Jupiter. So part of me wanted to try out this demo because it looks good, but i also wanted to see if i would be able to answer if it is related to Jupiter.

Going in, i didn't know what the story is or what the point was. the demo does give us a little bit of story via collectable pages to a diary. i think i found them all, they're yellow beacons you can see as you explore the world, but they never told me what my point was. Nor did playing the demo itself. i came away intrigued by the story and wanting to know more, but i also had no idea what the point of any of it was.

This is a little surprising not only because of the length of the demo, and i imagine the it's direct from the start of the game, but also because such focus is put on us from the story we've collected. It's clear we're important to someone and there was a plan. But i don't know if that plan has failed or worked, or as i assumed that we're actually further into the future than expected. the story starts with us at a grave but with no real sense as to who this grave belongs to. either i missed it or it's not explicit enough.

There's much to like about the game. graphically it's impressive and whilst it doesn't look the sharpest, i actually liked the smooth look to it as the art design looks like it was chosen with this, probably due to the limits of the Switch in mind. i enjoyed the music, too. Our character looks a little like an animated hobbit but that's fine. the animals and robots look great and distinct. i did feel that some of the buildings tho looked a little Star Wars.

Except for one place, the game does a great job of leading you from place to place, from beacon to beacon, and even helps show there are other collectables to find. But it did faulter when it came to finding the third energy ball thing. 

another little missed opportunity is that there is no link to get the game from the eShop. this is more surprising when the demo ends with a trailer for the game and takes us back to the home menu. we've played it and watched a trailer for it, so why no have a link to the eShop to Wishlist it or buy it.

My concern is that there are these little things throughout this demo. i can't say one way or another now if the game itself will have many other little things that would take away from the overall experience with the game. It is a good demo and one i'd happily recommend to new and experienced players. but i think i would also recommend Wish-listing first and waiting to see how polished the game ends up being.

Backlog Conquering - Tearaway: Unfolded On PS4 - Part 4 - A Surprising Twist

Near the end, i genuinely thought that Part 4 of playing Tearaway Unfolded on PlayStation 4 was going to be the final part. there had been hints of trees in the clouds and i thought that might be cool to see and be the final step. but when we were catapulted towards the entrance/exit i thought this was it. and then it wasn't and then i ended the video.

I honestly wouldn't have minded if the game ended there. i didn't feel that the story of our character was complete, but i would've accepted that the game had shown everything it was going to. Now it's not finished and who knows how much more there'll be, i'm a little concerned. i'm wondering how the game will be able to keep things fresh or if it'll just repeat everything we've learned so far.

Tearaway Unfolded continues to be a fun game. i really enjoyed swinging my controller to sound the bells and discovering the hidden area with the Elk was nice. But the camera is starting to annoy me. the game should've either taken full control like the early God of War games or let me take control. right now we're both in control and we seem to have a differing opinion of where it should be. Ai should be used for things like that, it should learn how i play and where i want the camera. Also, how would have you made a snowflake?! 

Stories on Tuesday - When the Past Was Around - Part 1

*Apologies for all the noise in the background. it's been a very windy and rainy day here in Japan. i did try waiting a few hours before recording, but the weather never improved so i had to start. Even now, around 4 hours later, it's still rough outside. The noise is from my audio, so over on Ko-Fi from tomorrow there'll be a version that's just game audio.

Hello and welcome to Stories on Tuesday. we have a new game and it's When the Past Was Around. I'm playing this on PS4.

I'm not a big fan of point and click adventure games so once i saw the pointer appear on the screen i was a little concerned. i often find the game logic is different to my own logic and it can be frustrating trying to work out what the game wants me to do, when all i want is story.

Thankfully in this part, there was only once where i was truly stuck but there were a couple of times i needed to think about things. I think we're about half way through the story so maybe next week's part 2 is all i need to finish the game.

So far, the story telling has been done with no audio commentary from anyone in the game. it's been told via pictures, sometimes moving, on the screen. i don't mind this approach too much, but it does mean how i interpret the story and what the game's story actually is could be different. I'm hoping that by the end of the game i'll get a complete picture. but at the moment, i don't think i'm quite grasping the story they're trying to tell.

Cloud Monday - Far: Changing Tides - Part 2 - It Needs Manual Saves As A Cloud Based Game

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Far: Changing Tides via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1, https://youtu.be/fELEYPvIhEc, i talked about how some aspects of the game's design work well as a game being streamed from the cloud and other aspects didn't work well. that holds true after Part 2, but what has solidified for me is that the lack of a Manual Save feature in Far: Changing Tides is too much of a hinderance to the point where i wouldn't recommend streaming this from the cloud.

I do think that Far: Changing Tides has some other gameplay issues, namely the platforming, but it's the save system that holds it back. it does have an auto save feature and we saw in this video that it puts you right back where it saved. The only issue is, i didn't fully know what was about to happen. so when it started and we're heading straight for a wall and i was carrying something, i kinda had to just let it happen. i don't know why there couldn't have been an auto save as the boat game to a standstill or not something in the boat itself that could do a manual save, like a hammock. 

It's hard to trust the auto save when i see it saving in the middle of the ocean for no apparent reason and then not saving when we reach once populated areas.  we're only given a 20 second count down before we're kicked off the service if there's an issue. and in a game where not much happens for long stretches of time, or there are periods of non story related busy work, i feel that we're going to end up having to do a lot of it again because of the auto save.

I'm not saying that Far: Changing Tides is a bad game. the music is good and atmospheric. i'm enjoying the art design and watching the world pass by. but actually playing it can feel a bit of a chore sometimes when all i want is the story, and it's not been great at telling it either. it's left it up to interpretation via environmental story telling and i'm not sure i've understood it fully. 

if you want to play Far: Changing Tides, i'd recommend downloading it as it's only 2.12GB. i feel that loss of HDD space is better than the possible loss of progress due to the auto save.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Unite - Using All 6 Dragons In The Dragon Carnival

In Pokemon Unite there is a dragon Carnival taking place. this brings items to buy, challenges to complete, and new game mode. In this video i use all 6 available dragon type Pokemon in the new "Full-Burst Battle! Dragon Dustup" quick battle mode.

In this mode, it's only dragon types. i already have Duraludon so i started with it, but thankfully all the other dragon types are free to use in this mode. Out of the 7 matches i took part in, my teammates and I won 5 out of the 7!

Online Saturday - Foamstars - Rubber Duck Party Win And “One Man’s Dream” Story Video

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 PlayStation 4 version of it. 

My goal was simple, win a Rubber Duck Party match. it's the last game mode i've yet to win, but it's difficult to get a match. the two games in this video took a long time. here in Japan, it doesn't seem to be a popular mode. it took two rotations of this mode to get these two videos, and i tried a further two that day and a couple of other rotations trying to get more games for a longer video. Even with the new 4.1 update, i've been unable to get another Rubber Duck Party Game.

I chose to remove nearly all the commentary as it was mostly me complaining about not getting games and complaining about my team mates. in the end, i felt like just listening to the games cool soundtrack was best.

A positive is i somehow unlocked the One Man’s Dream story video. it looks like you need to sit down on a couch for 5 minutes before the game begins the story. i've included that so you can see what i did to trigger the video.

Mobile Friday - Wuthering Waves - Too Broken On iPhone To Recommend

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Wuthering Waves, from developers Kuro Games.

This game only came out this week, but after playing it maybe it came out a bit too soon. i played it on my #iPhone 14 Pro and i had rough time. the most frustrating part for me was the framerate. when it worked, the combat was fast and flowed well. it was great working with my partner and doing combo attacks. but there were far fewer of those fights. often the combat, and most other aspects of the game, were plagued by slowdown and stuttering.

Other annoying issues included the sound. at times, the sound would get ahead of the video. so the sound would then stop, the video would play until it caught up with the sound, and then they'd continue. i also found the controls to be weird in that when i put my finger back on the screen there was a second or two where the character wouldn't move in the direction i wanted before then stopping and going where i wanted them to. it also got in the way of the soundtrack. it's hard to relax and enjoy the soundtrack when it pauses so frequently or, once or twice, seemingly doesn't play at all.

There were minor issues with pop-in with textures and when we got to an area with grass it was noticeable where the boundary was between the grass being drawn and not. those kinda issues i don't mind and understand. what i couldn't understand were some of the game design choices. Wuthering Waves says a lot in this first hour. there's near constant talking. most of it is well timed and well controlled so we get to hear all of it. and then there are sections where the talking is tied to places on the map. so i found myself starting one conversation and then abruptly ending it with another conversation as i moved across the map. 

The subtitles couldn't help as they too had issues. in the beginning there's small section where the subtitles get in the way of the Home Bar. those subtitles are also much bigger than the typical ones, but there were also some smaller than that. some subtitles scroll, whilst others need you to manually scroll them. and once or twice some of the subtitles looked incomplete.

Between looking at the beautiful world Kuro Games have made and the fun to play combat, it often felt like there was too much being said too quickly. i couldn't take it all in, i was being overloaded with information. it felt like this came at the cost of a tutorial as what the game had seemed basic and barebones. for example, i picked up a sword and yet the game never showed me how to equip it. the weapon screen mentioned upgrades, but again there was no tutorial telling me what to do. i can understand if these are done later, but if you're going to have gameplay mechanics that use them from the start then they need to be tutorialized from the start. i also feel that combat needs to be paused when new items are introduced. when a new button appeared in the middle of combat, with so much happening at once, it was difficult to hear what they wanted me to do and too easy to hit the new button before it was explained. if there was a pause when the button was introduced, they could tell me what it does and then un pause and let me do it.

with the game in such a state on iPhone 14 pro, i can't recommend it for anyone with the same phone or later. the iPhone 15 pro might have enough power to force a stable framerate and fix other issues. the new #ipadpro might be able to do the same. but for now, for everyone else, i don't recommend starting the game. Oh, and if you do start the game do it on wifi as the game will not warn you that it'll download over 6GB of data. in this video you'll see that it forced me to restart the game. and when i did it didn't work correctly. i HDMI out the video so i can capture it, and you'll see black from the capture as what i saw on my screen wasn't being outputted. and then i got stuck as the sign up appeared on TV and not my screen. so i had to restart it a second time for everything to work.

Version 1.0.0 Played.