Mobile Friday - AFK Journey - With Good Graphics, Music, And Story It's Well Worth Playing

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out AFK Journey, from Farlight Games, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There had been a little fanfare about this game, with it being available for pre-order on thee iOS store. looking at the screenshots and video on the app store, it was clear the game had good graphics but i was also interested in the character creator and how or if they would incorporate it into the story.

Unfortunately, we start with a download choice. we can either download everything, about 2.5GB, or we can download about 94MB and have the game continue to download in the background when it needs to. i don't recommend this as it's not clear when this will happen or how much it'll download. you really should play the game on Wifi first and then play it out and about once the download is finished. there's not much to do whilst you wait either, other than some good music that is.

We get a cool opening cut scene that hints as to our purpose in the game and once the game starts its also clear that it's a good looking game. it's not long before we're set to leave for the outside world and then the game introduces the character creator as a way for us to hide that we're Merlin. this was such a great way to incorporate a character creator feature within the game's universe.

AFK Journey also introduces it's "Loot Box" mechanic in just as a smart way, too. the premise is that we're going to need support on our journey so letters are sent out requesting help and when we get a reply it's either items that help or characters that can join our party. 

The tutorial starts off being useful, with the game using our amnesia as a way to give us a tutorial. it's a clever way of incorporating it into the story, but it doesn't pay off as well as the two previous examples. it feels more bare bones. i feel like it could've leant into the amnesia more, giving us reminders to upgrade, or asking us if we'd like reminders. The tutorial does a poor job at explaining the busy UI around the edges, too. it's not incorporated into the story, and when the AFK button was introduced i didn't understand what it was for. 

With how well so much of the game works, having such an average to poor tutorial really sticks out. but there are some other things that became noticeable. a big one was when we were going between two locations. there are optional battles and the enemies have their level above their heads. but this is a meaningless piece of information as it doesn't tell us how strong they are. it's not one on one battles, it's a group vs a group. the information we want is the strength of the group as well as the strength of ours. that information is only present when we're on the set-up before a battle, and it's not overly clear if we're about to retreat or not, there's just some non-descript arrow.

It's great that the game has amazing graphics and music, i'm also enjoying the story. but there's just enough wrong with it that it doesn't automatically leap to game of the year. thankfully, i found the story engaging enough that i do want to come back to the game, but maybe not right away. But AFK Journey is well worth downloading and trying out, just be aware that there are a few little issues with it.

Version 1.1.173 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Guayota On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of #Guayota , from developers Team Delusion and publisher DearVillagers .

The screenshots on the web eShop page made the dungeons look really cool and that was the main reason why i chose to play it. i also thought the look of the characters was quite interesting and wondered how it would be incorporated into the story and world as a whole.

This demo is rather short and at times it feels like pieces of the story have been cut from it as things don't make too much sense at times. for example, we start on a big boat, and the next thing is we're on the beach with two small boats. at first i thought maybe we're dreaming or ship wrecked, but the other people who have landed are busy working. so did they leave us behind? did they let us rest, and if so why were we on the beach. 

Even tho the demo is short, it's full of inconsistences like this that really detract from the story as a whole. we're told our job is to record, and yet the first interesting thing we see on the island we don't record. nor is that something we can initiate ourselves, it's only at specific points the game wants even tho the island is full of new and interesting things we would never have seen before. there are other character interactions too that don't make sense with what they say to us and what they do.

It sticks out a lot as the point of the game is to tell a specific story of the indigenous peoples of the Canary Islands. with the demo as short as it is, i can't say if this carries into the final game, nor can i say if this is specific to the demo. most demos will say that some things are cut to avoid story spoilers, but this demo says nothing. 

The gameplay is something worth praising. the graphics are great, it's a stunner on Switch. the areas we visited looked interesting, unique, and clear. then there's the way light moves around the dungeons, too. the controls are tight and simple, and the puzzles were introduced in a way that was simple to understand.

After playing the demo for Guayota i'm left with the impression that it's a fun game to play, but with a forgettable story. it could be described as a good podcast game. if this demo isn't a representation of the final game, then they've failed with it 'cause after playing the demo i'm not interested in getting Guayota. the puzzle side of the game doesn't interest me and with the story being a mess, i'm not interested in that either.

Stories on Tuesday - Star Trek: Resurgence - Part 7 - Act 3 Part 13 to Part 19

*Both my main commentary recording and my back-up failed. i record on my laptop, but it's a Lenovo AMD that blue screens at least twice a day or simply restarts and that's what happened. my back-up recording is done on my MZ-RH10 MiniDisc. that file is just silence. i have no idea what happened, my guess is maybe the microphone wasn't fully plugged in. So this Part has no commentary.*

 

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the #PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from  Dramatic Labs.

A lot happened in this part, it was very exciting. Our crew on the Xeldi had some great ideas to solve their issues. Whilst on the USS Resolute, we discovered there was yet another Bioformed Scion onboard. the conclusion to that story was unexpected and both of these stories ended in a location that could be bad news for the rest of the galaxy. but how bad, we'll have to wait for Part 8 next week

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - August's Weekend Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 10 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

It's day two of August's Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. 

In yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/WRXA1rH6tRY, i never played against any Team Pasta teams so i was unsure what would happen today. So i was very happy at the end of this video that all 15 matches were up against Team Rice and Team Pasta. it also went very well today, my team mates and I managed to win 10 of the 15 games we played.

The weapons i used today were the Bloblobber, Bloblobber Deco, and the Explosher. i didn't enjoy the Deco variant of the Bloblobber but the other two weapon were quite fun. 

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - August's Weekend Splatfest Battle - 15 Battles 8 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday!

This weekend is a Splatfest weekend in Splatoon 3 on Switch. the question being asked this Splatfest is "Which would you eat every day? Bread, Rice, or Pasta?"

I picked Team Bread and played 15 matches for them. My team mates and I never played against any Team Pasta, all 15 games were against Team Rice. it was a very competitive Turf War with some close games, but we managed to win 8 of the 15 games against them.

I was in the mood to use Splattershot weapons so today i spent 5 games each with the Tentatek Splattershot, the Splattershot, and the Splattershot Nova.

Mobile Friday - Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution - More Of The Same

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution, from NimbleBit, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Playing Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is more of a personal choice. it wasn't clear when it came out globally, but as someone who has played most of the games NimbleBit have released, i wanted to try it.

Because i'm a fan of NimbleBit games and still play their Trains and Planes games, whilst also thinking about getting back into Tiny Tower, i'm in two minds about Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution. The headline for this review is "More of the Same" which is both a positive and a negative. i know how the games plays, i know the rules and what's expected. but that also means there's no evolution, there's nothing new.

Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution feels like an old game. the tutorial is poor at best, the use of the screen is poor and feels like it was carried over from a different device, and there are some choices here and there that leave me more confused. a quick example of something small is how the button to upgrade your truck is on whilst the truck is driving, but you can't actually go to that screen. so why isn't it off like the City button is when your driving.

I recorded this video earlier in the week and have played it a little on and off since then and there are still aspects of the game that feel unbalanced. i have no idea why so many trucks are available when so few jobs are. i don't understand how the scrap/upgrade system work or how/when you get said items. And i have added the ice tyres to those trucks that can get them, but still don't know if there are negatives to using them on regular roads.

If Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution had come out years ago when the other hits from NimbleBit had, it would've felt like a natural fit. But now, it just feels old and not really in a positive way. games are much clearer now, either through an initial tutorial or additional smaller help boxes or tutorials as and when things unlock. I feel like games have much more animation, an example is how the animals clearly visible on screen don't move. if you're not going to animate them, why show them, why not have some cool crate for them. 

As it is, Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is fine. it does nothing to evolve the genre nor does it really harm it. the gameplay look is as fine as it ever was. For better or for worse, it's more of the same and sometimes that's enough.

Version 1.2.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Trinity Fusion On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Trinity Fusion, from  Angry Mob Games .

I didn't know anything about this game going in, after i played the demo i saw that it has already come out on other platforms. so for me, i was looking to the demo as being my introduction to the game.

It starts well by telling the back story of this universe. i thought it was interesting. it ends on a character called Maya who seems to the the main character. But then when the tutorial starts we're a new character called Naira with no explanation as to who we are, where we are, nor what we should be doing. at least on screen there are basic tutorial instructions telling us how to control her.

But this lack of "Why" permeates throughout this demo and is what was the most frustrating part of playing it. When i died, in what was a cool death sequence, we get a brief bit of story before the gameplay starts up again and i'm someone new. again, not this Maya character we've been introduced to and not as Naira as before. the level was also different and you can hear in my commentary that i was very confused by the situation. But it doesn't end there as when i died a second time i was sent back to some sort of hub world, again with no context as to what was happening. it was a little difficult to know what to do here and it was more by accident that i worked out how to continue playing the game. as well as a lack of Why, the tutorial also is surprisingly limited in this demo. 

The lack of why and what our purpose is is such a let down because the gameplay itself is really good. combat is varied, the controls are responsive, the levels look great and there's some variety in where and how you navigate them. the music is fantastic and just as impressive where the decent load times, too. there is soo much to like about how it plays, that this demo gives the impression that they came up with the gameplay first and then tried to build a story around it, that's just how separate they fill.

The Switch demo for Trinity Fusion is well worth playing and a lot of people are going to enjoy how it plays. as i say i the video, with it's lack of story it'll be a great podcast game. But it's not for me. It teased a world that i wanted to play in, a story where there seemingly are going to be losses on all sides and no one is the winner. that sounded really interesting. But they gave me none of that here.