Demo Play Thursday - Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land.

Atelier from Gust is a series i've been aware of for a long time and i even have the PS3 version of Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland, tho i've not really played much if any of it. i've always been curious but never given the series the time it deserves, so when the DEMO for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land came out i was keen to give it a go and i'm glad i did.

This PS4 version of the game didn't feel like a downgraded version of the game. it looked fantastic, sounded great, and the controls felt responsive. the loading times were perhaps the only thing that felt a tad long but they weren't too frequent. going in and out of battles was seamless and when i got to the second part of the demo, the open world had no loading as i moved from place to place.

As a demo itself, and as the opening to Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, it's very welcoming to new players. the demo, and probably the start of the game, goes step by step introducing how the game is played by modern feeling tutorials. more and more, games are moving away from just text on a screen on how to do something and this game is a great example as it shows videos of what should happen. the level design is also smart enough so that you're able to try out each new thing one after another instead of having to do it all at once. the first part of the demo is also always pushing you forward, with stuff happening to the level meaning you're not able to back track and that you're unlikely to damage yourself going forward.

It wouldn't be until the second half of the demo when it tries to explain the Atelier powers aspect of the game that i feel like the tutorial kept things simple but tried to explain too much in one go. story wise, it made sense, but for us unfamiliar with this aspect of the series it was a lot to take in all at once. i feel like they could've made it simpler or broken it up into more steps over a longer time instead of the lore dump it felt like at the time.

But i said this did fit into the story as our character does come across, more so in the second half of the demo, as someone what excitable and keen to share Atelier Alchemy. as we find out, there are a lot of others less keen on it and her so when two people come along to assist our character it makes sense why we get a lot of it all at once. 

I didn't finish the demo in this video, but i did end it just after a story tease by the game. the title of the game, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, has been shown to tie into the game so when the possible tease of more story happened, it wasn't shocking but it did feel appropriate.

There are a few things about this demo for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land that feel a little stereotypical or tropey, but from what i played it's not in a negative way. i enjoyed the gameplay, the story, and the world this demo introduced. the only thing slightly disappointing about this demo was how it failed to detail what each of the difficulty settings do. even tho it's tutorial was modern, this did feel like an oversight. personally, i like playing for the story so i would keep the difficulty at easy. but after playing this demo and seeing how fun the combat is, if i were to get the game i'd actually play it on normal.

I think this demo for, and most likely the start of, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is great and well worth trying for those who are curious. i tried the PS4 version and it played great, i didn't feel like i was getting a lesser version of the game.

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 5 - September 30th and October 1st

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 5.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/pe15t9oNvsk

Cloud Monday - Hotshot Racing - Part 1 - Fast, Retro Style Arcade Action With Attacking Racers

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotshot Racing

on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I haven't checked out many racing games as part of this Cloud Monday series so when i was looking for one to try Hotshot Racing caught my eye as i felt that it could not only be fun to play but it's arcade racing style and fast gameplay could be an interesting challenge for a game being streamed from the cloud.

Now, the first thing that will become apparent is that my PS4 controller started playing up as i started playing this game. it appears i now have stick drift in my right analogue stick and in Hotshot Racing that stick controls the camera. so i'm unable to use the boost much in this video but after the initial confusion things do seem to become manageable.

This issue i had did highlight a big issue or reveal that Hotshot Racing does not have control customisation. this will mean that the game isn't the most accessible. combined with the fact there was no tutorial, no introduction race, and only the controller layout as a screen, really highlights that perhaps the developers stuck a bit too close to the retro style for the good and bad of the user experience. 

Here, there was a thunderstorm outside but for the most part my internet connection remained stable. whilst playing Hotshot Racing, the main issue i noticed with the video stream was some macro blocking. this is when instead of fine detail, colours become larger squares. but in Hotshot Racing, this never became a problem because of the retro graphical style. there's not much fine detail anywhere in the game so when there was macro blocking it really wasn't that noticeable. it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at other moments during gameplay and i just didn't notice it.

I didn't notice any issues streaming the game during this play time. the controls were responsive, there were no drops in bitrate, no lowering of the resolution, no artifacts, and after the beginning of the stream no warnings about the stream.

But playing Hotshot Racing wasn't the true retro arcade experience that i thought it would be. it looks like games from the late Mega Drive to PlayStation 1 era, but the music didn't quite feel right for this type of game. at times, it felt like the music might've been more appropriate for a WipeOut style game. but the thing that i noticed immediately were the other racers. older racing games of this style usually start of with easy opponents and as you progress through the cups the ai of the other racers gets progressively more and more difficult. i did all my racing today on normal difficulty and i thought the other racers were out to wreck me instead of racing against me. 

This works against Hotshot Racing and combined with the lack of an intro race or controller customisation really does make Hotshot Racing feel like it's not that accessible for friendly for those who are curious. You'll hear me say that i tried out racing styles and cars similar to Ridge Racer because i have that experience. for those who don't have that experience, i honestly think it could take several attempts to finish the first race, let alone try to win it.

Mobile Friday - Remi Zeros: Card Defense - Good Looking Wave Based Game That Gets The Basics Right

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Remi Zeros: Card Defense on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There were a few things on Remi Zeros: Card Defense's store page that caught my attention. the art style certainly stands out but the screenshots and video also seemed to show how simple the game was to play.

I wasn't expecting the story sequence at the start and because i enjoyed it i was a little disappointed that i never saw anymore story stuff during this video. it's possible that as we progress to other stages there maybe story between them, but i can't say for sure.

The graphical style extends from the story intro into the main menu and into the gameplay. i really thought it was cool how the summon sequence works, taking our character lurking in the background and brining them to the front and they themselves do the summoning. so it was a shame that by the end of the video, with my home screen filling up with icons, that the devs seemed not to be taking full advantage of the phone screen and instead clogging up the middle and detracting from what had once been a cool sequence.

Thankfully the gameplay remained solid throughout. Remi Zeros: Card Defense starts with a good tutorial that makes it clear what to do but also reveals from the start what the basic gameplay loop is. what i will say is that there were a couple of times when the tutorial was trying to be useful but was also dumb because i didn't have the materials to do what it was trying to show me or it wanted to show off a powerful attack but i had already cleared the screen of enemies.

I do have a possible concern and that's making progress in the game could take a long time. it's not clear how much content is in the game but on the home screen it only mentions two stages. i'm wondering if the slow progress is going to be because of how little content there is and that whilst the start may move at a decent pace, it'll require more and more playing to earn more and more souls to level up just once or twice. the game does offer some incentives to watch adverts to gain boosts or daily logins to get rewards, but i'm unsure if it's enough.

But for now, as the game is, i would recommend Remi Zeros: Card Defense. it's great for new players, has a bit of strategy and luck to it which means it differs run to run. everytime you play you earn something that'll help you progress and for now that progress is fine.

Version 1.3.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Bubble Ghost Remake On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Bubble Ghost Remake.

Whilst i have played on an Atari ST, i haven't played the original version of Bubble Ghost so i wasn't really sure how it played going in. the eShop page tells the features of the game, but i didn't read that it was about managing a bubble so i was surprised by that gameplay feature. i wasn't expecting the character to be the thing that rotates either, in my mind i was expecting something akin to LocoRoco when you rotate the stage. so the start of the game is a little rough whilst i adjust to how it plays.

Bubble Ghost Remake looks great on Switch. the character art is also great to. playing this on a TV was a great experience. even tho it looked so good, i didn't notice any slowdown either. the game also uses a mix of a comic/book style at the start to tell it's story and that looks just as good. 

But there are aspects of the demo that feel a little dated or not as modern as they could. the first one i came across was the inability to change the difficulty in a level. i can understand why part way through a level it would be difficult to do so, but they could've reloaded the stage at a different difficulty. Bubble Ghost Remake is a difficult game but it's hard to gauge how difficult it is as it's a remake of such an old game. having a demo helps and it really is something i'd recommend people try before playing it. But once you've started, if you think it's too hard your only options are to loose all progress and start over from the beginning at a different difficulty level, quit completely, or just try over and over making slow progress. The other weird thing was having the leaderboards for the speed running aspect of the game not in the speed running section of the game.

I did complete the demo and i can say that at no point does the demo say if the save data carries over into the retail version of the game. there isn't a trailer, artwork, or screenshots once you finish the demo either. but i do recommend people play the demo as there is a lot to play and it'll help you understand how difficult it is, what the gameplay style is, and just how great it looks. personally, after playing the demo i'd set it to the easiest difficulty level as for me i'm interested in seeing the art and the story rather than the gameplay mechanic. 

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 10 - Getting The Airship And Citadel Of Trials

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

There were to big things that happened in this part. the first was getting the Airship. whilst it looked cool on screen, i can't help but think that this scene could've had an fmv sequence. the music whilst in the airship is nice. once we had it, the guide pointed us in the direction of the Citadel of Trials. but i don't know why and i feel that it's either the guide of the game, or both, at fault for the lack of why we're going where we're going. for example, it's the game fault if there's no one telling us to go there or the games not pointing us there. it's the guide's fault if the guide is not getting us to talk to the people who would be telling us where to go. so whilst i'm following the guide, i'm not sure about the why we're going where it's telling us.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

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

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

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

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

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

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 4 - 28th and 29th of September

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 4.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk