The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Arcade Spirits from Fiction Factory Games. this is the disc version of the game, published by PQube.
This is Part 3 of my Arcade Spirits story and it takes place during our visit to MAX, the Mega Arcade Expo. most of our interactions revolve around Ashley and Teo and the hijinks the happen with one and a cool opportunity that happens because of the other.
You can check out the previous parts of this playthrough:
This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures on #PS4 via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model #PlayStation4.
In Part 1 we discovered that there was no way to do manual saves in the game. As i said back then, this is bad because with PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service you only get a 20 second warning before being disconnected and without manual saves you are relying on the game's auto save. we have seen that the game will save when you buy collectable cards, but other than that it's been somewhat mixed. With this in mind, this Part 2 look at the game let me focus more on the game itself.
Thankfully, the streaming experience this time was much better than in Part 1. this means that the lag in the controls i noticed are likely game based and not a result of the game being streamed to me via the cloud, but i should also admit that being streamed isn't helping. when this is combined with the obvious poor draw distance, on a technical level it really does feel like i'm playing a worse version of the game, tho i don't have a PS5 to compare it to so it could be equally as bad on there as it is on the PS4.
But it's not just the technical issues that make playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures a bit of a chore. i learnt between parts 1 and 2 that the movie voice cast didn't return for this game so my thought that the voices were a little off was correct. there are gameplay elements that make the game frustrating, too. combat shouldn't be a grind like it is. i have a powerful move that seemingly does little to the enemies, all whom can attack me quicker than i can use that move. the character also gets stuck in animations as they seem to have priority or take a fraction to long. i unlocked the high jump move and when i initialise it i jump up straight vertical, but in order to actually move forward to the ledge i have to wait for the jump animation to finish and then transform into a bat to get some forward momentum. the timing for such a move is tighter than it needs to be.
The premise of the game is good but the execution falls far to short to make it a fun experience. it's also not designed for being streamed from the cloud. not only do i not recommend streaming this from the cloud, i don't really recommend playing this version, at least, of the game. maybe you can try downloading the PS5 version of the game. but as it stands, on PS4 i can't recommend Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures.
For this week's Mobile Friday i tried LEMON HOUSE: ROOM ESCAPE, from developers APARTMENT BACON, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I've never been good at point and click games, nor have i ever done an escape room. i've seen many of the games from APARTMENT BACON in the charts over the years but not tried one so with LEMON HOUSE: ROOM ESCAPE being the latest release in the series i wanted to finally give it a go.
As this video will show, i'm just not good at LEMON HOUSE: ROOM ESCAPE. there was nothing i found easy. I'm not saying it's a bad game, unfortunately i'm not the right person to judge that. all i can say is that i personally found it tough.
The simple graphics weren't an issue for me, but the music and sound effects didn't add anything to the experience and were a little distracting. for the most part, i thought the game handled the screen space well. there were no additional downloads, making this a decent choice for playing on the go. But there was a banner at the bottom for most of my time playing the game. it mostly only showed a picture for advertising but every now and then it was a moving picture. with this banner being at the bottom of the screen, it was out of the way but it was still distracting.
A smart use of advertising came when i finally wanted to get a hint about the puzzles, as i was stuck. we're given the option to get a hint in return for watching a video. the advert was a minute long, but then it turned out it wasn't just one hint but hints for all puzzles! Honestly, i think this was a bit too generous. i would've liked 1 hint for the first puzzle for free, and then the game could've offered hints for the next 3 puzzles for an advert watch.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.
This video is longer than many of the other Demo Play Thursday videos as this demo, and most likely the game too, had a weird mechanic in that it's almost impossible to pause the game during the story telling. I say almost as the player can turn off the auto play of the story but this doesn't give the player access to any of the menus. as you'll see in this video, i was only able to access the menus at very specific points. the start of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a very long story sequence with only a couple of moments where the player has control. i don't know if this will be the case going forward in the game, but as someone who's not played many visual novel style games this was the first time i've encountered such game design.
Now with that out of the way, i really enjoyed my time with the demo for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. i liked the music, i liked the art style, and i especially enjoyed how the game didn't bog it self down with backstory and world building. the demo starts with an apocalyptical event taking place, goes back in time to shortly before it, and then carries on from the event. i wasn't expecting some of the scenes we got or how gruesome some of them were. but it didn't take me out of the story telling either.
graphically, other than some banding i think it holds up well on Switch. but with how long some of the story sequences are, it was disappointing that the game was unable to turn off the Switch's Screen Dimming feature which other games like Loopers has done. You'll see it in this video where it catches me out a couple of times and you may also hear the analogue sticks being pressed but nothing happening on screen as this was my attempt to prevent the dimming.
As a demo, the game doesn't have a link to the eShop page on it's home screen. As a story focused game, the demo has a bigger role to play as it has to try and sell the game's story and hook into the player so that they would want to get the game to carry it on. For me, i was interested in the story enough to want to know more. as i didn't finish the demo, i don't know if it ends on a cliffhanger. but i feel like i've seen a lot of what the game has to offer, initially at least, to want to keep playing it. i'm not just curious as to where the story will go, i'm also interested in the character interactions and the world in general.
The demo for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy isn't the best demo i've played, but i'm glad i've played it. i was curious about the game before i played it but it didn't really grab me. i would probably have done nothing more than Wishlist it. but now i've played the demo, i'm much more interested in it, even if it does have some quirks that could get annoying down the line. i'd recommend people giving it a go, just beware it's age rating does seem well earned.
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.
By the end of Part 14 we were ready to take on the final boss(es) of the game, but the guide i'm using suggested going shopping for magic i might've missed. So that was the first thing i did. the guide also suggested taking on the Soul of Chaos dungeons. the one closest to the Chaos Shrine was the first one that unlocked, The Earthgift Shrine. i didn't look at the guide to see what to expect, but ultimately i wasn't too impressed with the dungeon and it's rewards. maybe if i had tried to defeat it earlier in the game it would be satisfying. but in this part, it ended up being a bit of a waste of time. so i left the dungeon and i'm back at the Chaos Shrine ready to take on the end game.
The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Arcade Spirits from Fiction Factory Games. this is the disc version of the game, published by PQube.
This is Part 2 and it covers the second chapter in the game, with Part 1 being our first day on the job and this chapter happening around two weeks later. With Part 1 focusing on setting the characters and us doing our basic job, this Part was able to focus on other things and it felt quite natural. i really got into the story and the new characters. i also felt i was able to understand Gavin, Naomi, and Percy better, but also i felt like i could understand my character more and hopefully we're going to go forward with real hope.
For this week's Mobile Friday i tried #Catstaurant: Cat Chefs, from developers Superbox, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I've tried a few of these animal restaurant idle games but often there's a compromise which makes the overall experience less than it could be. sometimes it's amazing animations at the expense of something, or a good story but somethings off, or it's just poor overall. Going into Catstaurant: Cat Chefs i wasn't really sure what i was going to get.
It would be easiest to say that Catstaurant: Cat Chefs doesn't stick the landing, to such a degree that it almost feels like it's only half complete and they released what was playable. for example, the tutorial starts great but then just stops. the art is nice, but it's very repetitive. the music is fine, but you can hear the loop. the story looked interesting, but was never mentioned again. but the weirdest one was that i don't really know what the idle mechanics are for this idle game as at no point did it tell me. whether that's the tutorial's fault, the story's fault, or the developers simply forgot, it fits into the thought that perhaps Catstaurant: Cat Chefs wasn't finished but released anyway.
As it is, i can't recommend Catstaurant: Cat Chefs. there are elements about it that are good and work well as a commuting game, but they're not enough and i can't recommend it on it's potential as there's no guarantee it'd ever be reached.
