Stories on Tuesday - XBlaze Lost: Memories - Part 1

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 version of XBlaze Lost: Memories from Arc System Works and Aksys Games.

This is the first part and it covers the start until we're on our way down for the first time.

Cloud Monday - Bluey: The Videogame - Part 2 - Frequent Auto Saves Work Well With Game's Design

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Bluey: The Videogame on #PS4, via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model #PlayStation4.

Returning to Bluey, after Part 1, let me focus more on the game's design. we learned that it does not have a manual save and we know what to look for when it auto saves. Now i could focus on the gameplay, it was clear just how frequent the Auto Save in Bluey actually is.

There is a story in Bluey and each part of that story is broken up into segments. each of those segments is broken up into small gameplay chunks. a good example in Part 2 is when we went looking for treasure. the story was we went looking for it with our family and grandad. but that is broken into walking sections, platforming, and cleaning sections. each of these is tied together by conversations. so you'd walk for a minute, some talking would happen, then it auto saves as you start the next platforming section.

When PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service is going to disconnect you, it only gives us a 20 second warning. across both parts it's clear that if this happens during the story there's a high probability you've just triggered the auto save or are about to. if you're disconnected, your only going to loose a minute or two of gameplay.

Walking around and collecting stuff outside of the story mode is even better as each time you pick up a collectable, it auto saves. early on this means you're saving very frequently. if you get the disconnection warning, i don't see it as much of an issue. you have either just picked up something, are about to pick up something, or are looking and now know where not to look.

I will say that Bluey is a great game to stream from the cloud. But, whilst the game's design works well on the platform, it's fair to say the game itself comes with it's own amount of jank. so whether it's worth playing or streaming is up to you.

Check out Part 1 for more:

https://youtu.be/wtJFAazufNE

Mobile Friday - Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense - A Recommended Tower Defense Game With Replayability

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense from developers Aloha Factory on my iPhone 14 Pro.

i've always been interested in Tower Defense games, i've uploaded a video of the Square Enix PS3 Tower Defense game Crystal Defenders https://youtu.be/CPxDtTKcWJY. but when these games get difficult it often feels like we're unable to make a change and we're stuck with the choices we made earlier on. Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense is great because we have the ability to change things.

Actually there's more to playing Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense that makes it a great game. it has one of the better tutorials i've played recently across any of the playlists i record for. the game doesn't try to add a story in, to then forget about it, the game is simply tower defense. so the game starting with a tutorial makes sense and this tutorial has 4 different sections to help with most aspects of the game. i'll say there's still room for improvement, but for the most part the tutorial is very useful. what surprised me a lot, is that the tutorial isn't over. when the game lets you take on the first section by yourself and you eventually loose, the game will then present you with a screen titled "Clear Guide" which will offer more hints and tricks for your next run. 

In this video, i completed the tutorial and then did 2 runs. after the second, i leveled up the area i was in. it's not just the location that levels up, each of the characters i use can also be leveled up, as can items. so they go into the next run stronger, and in that run you're able to combine 3 one star characters to make 1 two star character. the challenge is making use of the character limit. you need stronger rarer characters, long rang and short range characters, and characters that can use magic.

The tag line for Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense in the App store is "Pure Strategy, No RNG, No Luck" and managing how many characters on the field is part of this. The more important aspect of this is placement of these characters. once they've been put down, they can be moved again. a circle is laid out showing their area of attack. game over is when time runs out, there's a time limit to take out the boss. so moving characters around to keep attacking the boss is critical.

But as well as leveling up characters, getting a balance of different characters, and moving around characters, there's another thing to consider, Mythic Heroes. these are much stronger than your own characters, and can also be upgraded in the home area outside of battles. but to summon them you need a certain number of select characters. In the first run, i didn't summon a mythic character but in the second i did and it was very noticeable how much stronger they were and how useful they were when it came to bosses. you can hear in that second run how i try to level up my characters to 3 stars, get a balance, and summon the mythic. but whilst it may sound complicated, i felt that i could do it and i did.

Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense is one of the better Tower Defense games i've ever played and it's one of the most accessible free to play mobile games i've played. i highly recommend people trying it, whether you're into tower defense or not. 

Version 1.2.27 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Discounty On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the #NintendoSwitch version of Discounty from Crinkle Cut Games. 

I didn't know much about this game beyond the shop aspect when i started. i have since learned that the developers are based in Denmark, so the location the game's set in makes more sense and makes it more believable. tho i imagine some of the story stuff may not be real life events, this demo does tease them and introduce them in such a way that by the end i wanted to know more about some of the personal history between characters and what was up in the cordoned-off area.

Whilst that side of the story worked, the story of the shop got me completely confused. was this the one and only shop that had been there for years, was this a brand new one that was opening, was this one that had been open for a little while but was being renewed...i honestly can't say. i feel like the story gave an answer for each in this demo.

That wasn't the only thing rough with this demo. when i returned to the port, so my second time there, the game had some very noticeable graphical bugs to the point where i was concerned that the demo itself would crash. 

Other than the bugs, i thought the world looked nice. the graphics and the music worked well together to create a pleasant relaxing time during this demo. there is a time mechanic and whilst i was aware and observant of it, i never really felt the pressure of it. i felt like there was time before work and after work.

Working the shop was easy in this demo. i can imagine how it'd get more difficult later, but for now using the gamepad worked fine. whilst i was playing i thought that using the touch screen would've been faster, like when typing on the PS Vita screen in Crazy Market.

Backlog Conquering - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - From Start To Finish On PS4

The Backlog Conquering game was the PS4 version of Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition from DrinkBox Studios. During the 10 part playthrough there were many times when i died and had to retry sections. for platforming, i edited out retries when it took longer than a couple of minutes. as for the fights, i included the first death, but like the platforming i cut out many of the other deaths if it took more than a couple of attempts.

You can check out the previous parts of this playthrough:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/y20ZZ5IllmY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/OxoUuZ8dYno

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/aSABHs1VrF4

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/RkrZPlBT1f4

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/WZHkHZEaD0Q

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/VMNT2XpjDhE

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/RX5hM88wIyM

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/TJZAYKYTjrM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/8-_eQuHzpB4

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/mL2gvTXoNLA

Stories on Tuesday - Visual Novel: I.B. - From Start To Finish On iOS

The Stories on Tuesday game was the iOS game Visual Novel: I.B. from Entabridge. 

With the story concluded, i have put all the parts together into one long story, from start to finish, including the credits and post credits scene. 

You can check out the previous parts of this playthrough:

Chapter 1 - https://youtu.be/yclMfGCp1Uo

Chapter 2 - https://youtu.be/pKZdQNymjhk

Chapter 3 - https://youtu.be/I0W5ejOVq6I

Chapter 4 - https://youtu.be/TenlvcJHmDk

Chapter 5 - https://youtu.be/I7g8FoFqT1Y

Chapter 6 - https://youtu.be/0V-653R46BU

Chapter 7 - https://youtu.be/Ku5QkKPTuFI

Cloud Monday - Bluey: The Videogame - Part 1 - No Manual Saves But Very Frequent Auto Saves

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Bluey: The Videogame on PS4, via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

It's been a while since i had a look at a kids game as part of this series, and a modern one at that. The emulated PSP games on PS4/PS5 include kid's games like Up and we have seen with Daxter, https://youtu.be/5-KKF2d-rv4, that those games are easy to recommend to stream from the Cloud. i was wondering if a modern PS4 release would be designed with the Cloud in mind itself.

The quick answer is I don't know! Whilst Bluey: The Videogame doesn't have manual saves, it does save very frequently. it's possible this design decision was made with kids in mind rather than streaming it from the Cloud, but what ever the case streaming it does benefit. It would be nice if the game said what the auto save icon was. after playing a while i noticed a green insect appearing in the bottom right so i tested it. i quit the game after it appeared and reloaded the save. i was right back where i was with all progress.

So, if you're curious about Bluey: The Videogame, but don't want to download it. it does seem that streaming is a good way to play it. an added bonus to streaming is that the game is already up to date, so i was playing with all the additional content and fixes. but Bluey: The Videogame is still a bit rough and jankey. it's not the best game playing experience.