Kill Your Completion 15

[Gretchen27]

Game #1 Initial Review

 

Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc

Playtime: ~1.5 hours

Trophies: 1/38 (1% complete)

 

Okay, I think I have a grasp of the gameplay mechanics & where this story is going, so initial review time! I’d like to change my approach to reviews this year & divide it into self-explanatory sections. Original, right?

@Lodbizarro Ah, no pressure then to leave a misleading review. 

 

Summary:

The main protagonist (I’m horrible at writing Japanese names), I’ll just refer to him as ‘Generic,’ is starting high school. Now at this point, I had a dreadful moment remembering one of my last KYC games, Bad Apple Wars, & worried if this would be a similar disappointment. I’ve been burned once by a VN set in a high school setting, & it’s not a main story setting I typically like. Exceptions of course for Persona & Trails of Cold Steel, but they’re the pinnacle.

 

Anyways, Mr. Generic, & that is by his own descriptor (see screenshot section), is starting at an elite school for the exceptional. & how you may be wondering, did Generic manage that? He was exceptionally lucky, or as soon to be the case, unlucky enough to win the school’s admission lottery.

 

Generic shows up to his first day of class only to fall into: by my estimation, a warped parallel dimension of the school. Where the windows are metal plated shut, cameras dot the corners, & Harvey Dent’s bedside plushie runs around as headmaster. But our unassuming boy is not alone, as the rest of the incoming class has been brought into the hellscape as well. & what an eclectic group of characters they are. You’ve got everything from a fanfic writer, baseball player, gambler, pop idol, novelist, programmer, prodigy, gang leader, clairvoyant, martial artist, fashionista, swimmer, moral compass (aka wannabe army brat), an unknown, & that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. It’s 15 in total though, but that number is likely to start dwindling.

 

See, the name of the game is: 1) live out a Big Brother life forever in this school, or 2) kill a classmate, without getting caught, to graduate. I’ve just started chapter 1, so no one has died, yet.

 

The Good:

Right off the bat, I like the art style. I like the 3D room approach that breaks up the VN segments. None of the characters seem superfluous or annoying to me, even you, Moral Compass. The biker gang leader is looking to be my favorite for hot-headed energy, but I did get a good laugh out of Byakuya, the affluent prodigy. My first thought was Byakuya from Bleach, & I can’t stop making the correlations. Rich, grumpy, loner type is just like Byakuya.

 

The Bad:

Random voice inserts when characters have dialogue. They’re quick little one to two word sound bites that frustratingly don’t always match what the character is saying. Ex: a character is cussing someone out saying FU, but the accompanying sound bite is SOB. It’s not overly a big deal. I get the same enthusiasm meant.

 

Sidebar that’s not really bad as in the game’s fault, more my hardware. I’ve had my Vita for 6+ years. I get analog drift, & it was particularly bad last night when I started this up. As such, I had little control over the character when traversing the school, & the touch screen feature was unusable as the reticle was stuck at the top of the screen by analog input. I’ve since taken compressed air to the sticks & restarted the system. It’s behaving a little better for the moment.

 

Expectations:

I’d like to see how choices you make effect the story. Eventually, I’ll get around to the murders, because there just have to be for this game to proceed, & I wonder if you can get different culprits for different runs.

 

In another Vita game called Lost Dimension (look it up, it wasn’t bad), there was a similar set up of figuring out who the traitor was among a group of people. Except, every playthrough a culprit was randomly selected. I think even you could be the culprit if I remember right. The point was to work it out. I saw this game had a puzzle difficulty setting, which I set to kind, or medium. So I hope something like this will be the case. I’m still very early in the story, but I’ll see if I can’t do a chapter a day or every other day before the final review.

 

I’m in the process of backing up all my screenshots/captures across my systems. A little spring cleaning if you will. So I posted a few screenshots.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Gretchen27

[MarkusT1992]

@Gretchen27

Danganronpa became one of my favourite games after I played the first one. I hope you have fun playing/reading it.

You can look forward to an interesting story and characters.

I probably should continue Danganronpa 3 soon.

[Edunstar84]

Game #1 Final Impressions

Gris

 

I can't really get over how atmospheric this game is. I think most of my time was just enjoying the game instead of getting a bit further into it. It's just really nice not to manage my resources or do something that leads to a title that leads to another title that leads to a trophy (looking at you Tales of Vesperia). And maybe because of this I'm a bit biased towards the game. 

Soundtrack: So amazing! I'm listening to it as I type. I don't know how to explain it. It sort of reminds me of Child of Light.

Visuals: Everything is pretty. I'm pretty sure it's watercolor. Lots of reds, blues and greens so far. 

Gameplay: I really like that it's a light puzzle-platformer. Your character has to travel around a temple of sorts to try to find little lights to help guide yourself higher. I'm guessing higher means that she overcame a particular stage of grief because she falls down a great distance and has to climb again, so to speak. None of the jumps or the puzzles seem too difficult to solve. I have a few supers, like transforming into a heavy block to destroy rocks/statues, to help me traverse the game and will probably get more. 

Recommend: Yes! A super chill, easy, short game to help any gamer break up longer games. 

Platinum: It's a short game with 19 trophies. An easy game to platinum. I haven't looked into it yet, but I do hope there's chapter select, even though I wouldn't mind replaying the whole game again.

 

Playtime: 3 hours 10 minutes

Trophies: 4/18

 

 

I haven't done a KYC event in a long time and find it hard to write such a short review of the game, so bear with me. I don't think I've written anything substantive in the past year.

 

20 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

Welcome back! Looks like you were on a quite a gaming hiatus according to your profile. 

 

 

It's been awhile! I've only been playing Tales of Vesperia and a lot of irl stuff has taken me away from gaming generally. I'm not back fully yet, but I was sort of tired from playing that one game.

[AuroraHistoire]

The Dragon Take a New Form - Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

 

This is a Fist of the North Star game made by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the developer behind Binary Domain and the Yakuza series. Fist of the North Star is a manga and anime series that I have never seen but have heard of. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise can be described as a Yakuza Game with a Fist of the North Star skin slapped on top of it. While it feels and looks like a Yakuza game, it plays around with new ideas and has a lot of unique features. 

 

You play as a martial artist named Kenshiro. Kenshiro knows a style of martial arts about hitting pressure points on the human body to heal others and make his enemies heads (and other body parts) explode. The story is about Kenshiro trying to find his fiancée, Yuria, after they got seperated. Kenshiro gets a lead that brings him to Eden, a paradise in the sandy post-nuclear apocalypse world of Fist of the North Star, with such luxuries as food, water, electricity, alcohol and a casino.

 

The combat system is similar to Yakuza but with some major differences. This game is a 3D beat 'em up where you attack primarily with square and triangle. You press square to do light attacks and to chain combos. Triangle is primarily used to end a combo with a heavy attack; holding triangle will do a charge attack that will break a blocking enemies guard. If you hit a enemy with light and heavy attacks semi-frequently, a skull icon will fill up next to their health bar. When it is full, you can press circle to stun the enemy, then use a powerful and flashy finishing move that is instant death to any enemy (at least on normal difficulty) that is not a boss. You also have quick time events to do during those moves but hitting them only does extra damage (that I never needed) and the feature can be turned off. Early in the game you unlock a technique that allows you to skip the stun and the short QTE by pressing circle and then circle again with the correct timing. Your defensive options in comat are blocking with L1 and dodging with X. While fighting, you also build up "burst" that when full, can allow you to enter a burst state (at your own volition) where your dodge will turn into a jump and you'll be stronger all around. Also, entering burst in a enemies face will deal a massive amount of damage.

 

While the game is primarily a beat 'em up, there are a quite a few RPG elements as well. You can equip various bit of equipment to improve your defense and may have passive benefits and/or detriments. You also gain experience points to level up. Leveling up mostly justs give you a skill point to use in one of the 4 skill tress; there are 5 types of skill point and I am unsure of how to earn most of them. Most skills unlock new moves or improve your stats. 

 

The city of Eden is comfy size with a good amount of things to do. There are a several shops to buy healing items and equipment at. There are a few activities to do like bartend, fight in the coliseum, manage the hostess club and a surgery rhythm game. I haven't unlocked all the activities yet but looking over the trophy list there are buggy races and an arcade with fully playable Sega games. In addition to Eden, there is a massive wasteland to explore in your customizable buggy. There isn't much to do out there aside from pick up crafting materials (there is a lot of crafting in the game that I haven't even started to get into) and visit a few towns. Your buggy needs gas to function and walking is not a option; fortunately there are many gas stations. 

 

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise feels like a Yakuza game but different enough to be refreshing. I have played 5 Yakuza games in the past 6 months and I really like the series. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise could of been a cheap reskin of Yakuza 0 and I would have had a good time but I am surprised how different the game feels. Even the mini-games they took from Yakuza (like the hostess club and batting center) have their own spin on things. The combat feels good to play and you are pretty much a unstoppable against random thugs on the street while boss fights feel balanced. I played the bartender mini-game for what felt hours but was probably actually an hour; it my favorite mini-game so far. There is so much content to talk about that I also didn't mention the substories. Substories are what the Yakuza games call side quests and they're famous for being some the best in all of gaming. From what I have played, the substories seem to be on par with the ones in the Yakuza series. I also din't really have any problems enjoying the story despite know next to nothing about Fist of the North Star. I liked this game a lot more than I thought I would. As far as I can tell, this game will take and long time to platinum, like pretty much all of the Yakuza games.  

 

 

 

[Fenrirfeather]

 

PlayStation Vita Pets 
My playtime (at the time of this review): just over 1 hour 

 

Writing an extra post about my initial impressions is not something I planned to do beforehand. Even so, I ended up with a bunch of notes I’d jotted down throughout the beginning of the game about the adoption process and the first couple steps with the brand new virtual dog. Few minutes into the game, I realised that in a pet simulation game for children/preteens, the very beginning is of bigger interest than it tends to be in other genres. So without further ado, here’s a pre-final review that focuses upon how child-friendly Vita Pets comes round the corner and how it introduces itself. 
 

We’re starting the game in first person perspective on our way to an unknown location. A location that quickly turns out to be the adoption centre, from wherein we’re greeted by a jumble of childlike voices frantically calling out “pick me!” in anticipation. The pups must have had polite “moms”: they don’t swear or pressure the player, albeit their constant demands for adoption are mildly annoying.

 

To get out a few words in respect to the younger audience that this game seems to be aimed at: the game offers use of the touchscreen to get around and exclusive use of it works extremely well for me so far. Alternatively, the left stick serves the same purpose. Although the pups are walking chatterboxes that are more than happy to guide the player along, I’d say reading (ability to quickly decipher short, unfamiliar sentences) is mandatory to avoid frustrations. The game is very orientated towards meeting objectives that are primarily presented in and explained through text in small pop ups, often several at once are displayed on the VITA’s small screen. 

 

By default, no subtitles of the pup’s speech will be displayed but there’s the option to toggle them on from the menu. All speech is then transferred 1:1 into onscreen text. The downside to turning on subtitles is that there’s even more clutter on the screen when the pup has something to say right at that same moment when multiple other small text boxes also pop up at once. 

 

Let’s get back to the pups that are waiting for to become part of a new family at the adoption centre. There are only 4 breeds, each breed coming in 3 distinctly different colours and (what seem to be) vastly varying personalities, ranging from the loyal male companion to the bubbly shopping-girl. 2 breeds are all male, 2 all female. I’m able to look at all of them without being forced to make a choice right away and each and every pup is excited to present itself as the one best friend or me, in-between surprisingly serious reminders that a puppy dog is not just for today - it’s for forever.

 

 

 

Too bad there’s no Shiba or Wiener Dog but I’ve an easy time to decide on one anyway: a tough-sounding husky pup with a boasting personality and dark grey pelt. Without further explanation or cutscenes to sit through, we’re then warped to “Home”. 

 

 

 

Vita Pets may or may not be a game you want to play in public. Or that you want your children or younger relatives to play within your hearing range for prolonged periods of 30+ minutes in order to limit exposition to noise pollution. Initial naming of your brand new pup is done by speaking the name OUT LOUD and clear into the microphone. The pup can be called by shouting its name into the microphone at any time later on and can also be given commands to sit, roll over or to “give paw” in the same manner. The pup cheerfully encourages the player and loudly comments on everything and nothing. Occasionally, the pup barks excitedly. 

 

 

 

Waking my pup, naming him and feeding him all earn me buddy points. Note that you’ll also be forced to take a photo of yourself for your new companion and many gamers are likely all too familiar with cameras having a pronounced dislike of bad lighting. A child may require the help of an adult at this point. An adult may end up with a photo of their grim scowl while trying to find just the right light source behind their back. 

 

Right outside the single room that is “Home”, there’s a small backyard garden with two doors but my dark Husky pup, lovingly named Husky with pure creativity, is unable to pull them open. It would seem he needs experience with a “Tugging Toy“ first. So back into the house and right to the incredibly modern online store display on our TV we go. Purchases on the store are made by tapping pictures of the items that are easy to recognise. The game clearly dictates progress and limits the ability of the player in the beginning by locking all but a very small number of basic purchases behind sky high prices. Whatever adventures lie beyond the high fences of “Home’s” small garden, they’re not initially available. 

 

It’s a shame we’re (yet) too poor a household to afford that tugging toy! For now, Husky and I will have to make due with the free ball toy and improve his “Fetch skill”, whatever it does. It’s too bad that Husky is most vocal about his limited satisfaction of my throwing skills. I’m beginning to think that the Husky is a rough one. 

 

 

 

Every couple of throws, Husky starts complaining about thirst, so one bottle of water after the other he receives upon prompt. He chugs the water down like a dried up tourist traversing the Sahara. I’m starting to think that it’s a little painful that I can only buy and hold a single small bottle of water in my inventory at a time. Fair enough, that’s an easy, nice mechanic to keep younger players busy.  

 

 

 

And that is how I spent my next hour: pouring water into the bottomless pit on four legs that I’d adopted, petting (done by rubbing my finger across the screen) highlighted spots across his entire body for buddy points and improving his fetch skill for even more buddy points. Gaining a good stash of buddy points to widen our radius of action seems to be the very first overarching goal of the game. All the while, the adopted pup never runs out of things to remark upon in his overly cheeky manner. I already came to conclusion: the Husky is a mean one. Not mean enough to send him back to the adoption centre yet, though. 
 

As an adult, the endless chatter gets tiring quick and at the time I wrote this, I was still stuck in the four walls of the small room that is “Home”. 

 

I’ve since escaped my confinement and ventured out into the vast woods behind “Home” where the focus of the game changes from simulated pet care to RPG-like adventuring, exploration and simple puzzle solving in loose relation to the pup’s skill level. More of that to come.

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Fenrirfeather
formatting

[Together_Comic]

Game 1:  Hyper Light Drifter - Initial Impression

 

Coming into Hyper Light Drifter, I had no idea what to expect.  However, in the hour and a half that I have spent with the game, I can already tell I am going to be finishing it. The game is really simple, but  the atmosphere is really wonderful.  So far, it has been told entirely through just pictures.  No text (other than the occasional, press L1 to Heal, etc.) No words, just pictures.  Gives an interesting dynamic to show don't tell.

 

The gameplay is also really well put together.  You have a dash button, an attack button, a interact button, and a little ways in you get a gun button.  Using your melee attack refills your ammo encouraging you to get in close and the dash keeps you safe if you are skilled enough to dodge all the enemy attacks.  The controls feel really good. Everything is fluid.  If you get hit, its because you messed up, not because the controls are wonky.

 

I'm about halfway through exploring the first area of the game and I definitely want to finish it and the boss and get an idea of how that goes before I give my final review, but I am extremely optimistic.

 

Trophies 2/23

Time Played ~1.5 Hours

Completion Percentage: 90.58 --> 90.41 (-0.17%)

 

~TC

Edited March 4, 2021 by Together_Comic

[voodoo_eyes]

I've decided to switch "my pick", which was Moons of Madness as the 6th game and replace it with A Plague Tale Innocence.

 

I'll still end up giving a recap on Moons of Madness at the end of the event, as I'll be playing it on the side.

[ladynadiad]

 

Game #1 Date A Live Rio Reincarnation

Trophies earned: 3/37

 

Current completion: 97.71% (-0.42%)

Current unearned trophies: 202 (+34)

Current games played: 262 (+1)

Current games completed: 252

Current unstarted games in backlog: 54 games

 

So Date a Live Rio Reincarnation is a visual novel and it actually contains 3 games: Rinne Utopia, Arusu Install and Rio Reincarnation.  Since we never got the first two in English, this definitely is nice for newcomers to the series.  The trophy set is the usual for a VN, complete all endings, get all CGs, etc.  So until I actually start completing routes, trophy progress will be slow going.  Now the fact that I've not yet finished a route is probably telling of what my opinion on this game is.  With a good VN, I typically can get absorbed enough to finish one route a day.

 

So pretty much I started with Rinne Utopia, that's supposed to be the first game according to the guides I've referred to.  The game takes place on an alternate Earth in a city called Tengu City in Japan.  In this world they have things called spacequakes that happen when a spirit appears.  Those spacequakes typically cause massive destruction and many deaths due to the powers of those spirits.  Of course each of the spirits is a cute young girl, go figure right.

 

Now of course we'd not have a VN with romance routes without some reason why we're romancing these cute girls.  In the case of Rinne Utopia that excuse is that the protag has the ability to keep the spirits from going beserk and destroying things or killing people.  To do so he has to get them to fall in love with him and go on dates with them.  They also have to live with him.  Plain and simple, typical harem anime plot sort of deal. 

 

Now, my issues with the game.  For one, the story so far is incredibly bland and the pacing is very slow.  About the most exciting thing that's happened is a boy at school told them about some silly ghost story and they stupidly believed every word he said.  The ghost story wasn't even that good.  Another thing that I'm really disliking is how young the protag is (he looks like a little kid, game makes cracks about him being just past puberty apparently, no age has been given but I'd be shocked if he's over 13).  Now I don't mind young characters in romance stories, teenage crushes and puppy love can be very cute and a good read.  The issue I have here is some of the very blatant sexual undertones with such a young cast.  There's a scene where one of the girls sneaks into the protags room and climbs into his bed.  Another where one of the girls strips him and gives him a sponge bath basically.  While there hasn't been any outright fanservice in the CGs yet, the implications of some of the actions combined with the relatively young age of the cast is kind of offensive.  The game only seems to get away with as much as it does because there aren't CGs for the stuff that could be offensive.

 

But I make it a point that no matter how bad a VN seems to be that I'll try to read one route and if I'm still not interested then I'll be skipping on the rest of the routes.  So far this game makes Song of Memories look good, and that's one of the worse VNs on PSN in my opinion as well.  However, if I end up seeing overly fanservicey CGs or visual expressions of some of the blatant sexual overtones, I'm done with this one and won't be reading the rest.  I definitely think it would have been better if the protag was a bit older and also if the girls didn't look like children themselves.  This sort of content just doesn't work unless the cast is at minimum older high school students, but college aged is better.

[Static_Rook]

I forgot to write up some initial impressions of Forager, but I've put 20 hours into it over the last 4 days so, uh, I think I'm enjoying it. I also added it to my Spring challenge list because I know I'll want to keep playing after these initial 6 days with it.

 

See ya in a couple days for the review!

[Lodbizarro]

Game 1 Review: God of War HD

 

 

Impressions: Where to begin this was a pretty fun nostalgic way to remind myself why not only this game created a phenomenon when it debut but also laid down the foundation that many games after would borrow and some out right copy from this series. The use of QTE, platforming, and puzzle solving all mingled together was unlike any game I can recall before it (though I might be wrong) but it went together very well and made for great gameplay. Also a compelling story and T.C. Carson doing a stellar job of voicing Kratos made for a wonderful lead character. I love how despite being the protagonist the game shows that Kratos is not a good guy he's not a hero (Anti-hero at best). Which was very refreshing at the time I can't remember the last morally grey protag before Kratos, replaying this reminded me why I fell i love with this series back in 2005 when I was just a teenager. Graphics: while this originally came out towards the end of ps2 and utilized every bit of that hardware and I'm sure they probably did a bit of re-texturing for ps3 the graphics still look pretty good I was impressed at how well they held up. As long as your not expecting 1080 or higher textures or really high resolution I don't think the graphics will bother you to much. Issues: While I did enjoy most of my play-through the one thing that did not age well that might have been fine for Ps2 should have definitely been implemented for ps3. This resulted in more deaths, was more challenging then any boss or puzzle the true big bad of GOW (da dada da)... The Camera my gosh I can't tell you how many times I fell to my death or missed a platform because when I made a jump the camera decided to switch prospective and I had to quickly change directions or just outright missed the landing it was seriously frustrating while this might have been acceptable for ps2 the lack of some sort of camera control for ps3 is ridicules especially since there are buttons they don't have a use for. The other major issue I had was not the fault of the game but my choice of how I was playing it I was using Psnow to stream on my ps5 so it was purely internet based and even though I had a direct line on my system I often experienced lag when it came to the game responses to the button I was pressing so there would be delay in my jumps or attacks which also led to some frustrating experiences. Honestly if it wasn't for this event motivating me I would have rage quit more then a few times especially the parts that required precise button timing. While this is no fault of the game itself this did effect my play-through and while I was excited that Psnow had all the previous GOW I'll have to reconsider in the future how I attend to play these games. Psnow is a great way to play older games and I'm sure for games that don't require such button precision it'll be fine but for GOW and games like it I wouldn't recommend. Conclusion: Like I said earlier I had fun reliving a game whose influence you can see in games today even in different genres more than once I was playing and I thought of another game that came out years later. Unfortunately the internet went out before I could finish so I didn't get to end this run the way I hoped I only made it about 75% before technical difficulties prevented me from finishing the game. If it wasn't for my issues with the camera I would have probably given the game a 9 but as it is I'll give it a 8/10 though I'm deducting a point because of my Psnow experience.

Rating 7/10

Playtime 10 hours

Trophies earned 27/36

Completion 17.40%

 

@Gretchen27 haha No pressure It's on my list so I'm a going to play it anyway only thing that would change is if its number 3 or 8 on the list ?

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Lodbizarro

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #1 - Adventure Time The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: around 3h

Trophies earned:8/36

 

 

I've put myself through about 3 hours of misery, which will ahve suffice for this game. Can't say I've enjoyed it.

 

It's very similar to Zelda A Link to the Past, which by the way is not a game that I enjoyed when I played it on the SNES. That probably should've been an indicater for me generally not enjoying RPGs that are in an isometric setting and have scrolling screens. So yeah, This Adventure Time game feels like a dumbed down cartoony  version of that other game.

 

Anyway, visually it looks like a cartoon (go figure eh?) and suffers from odd graphical bugs at times. Nothing that doesn't fix itself after a few seconds though. THe audio is passable and basic. On the plus side everything is voiced.

 

I only ended up finishing the first dungeon, which took me ages to get through, because I couldn't find the way to the next section, or died because the hit detection is kind of bad.

Similar to that Zelda game, you have an overworld with hidden items and areas that you can only get to once you've unlocked or found a specific piece of equipment. In this game there are also many NPCs that give you quests and offer items in return for completing them.

Then there's the dungeons, and cave areas which also have secret areas and paths blocked until you get certain items. I've never been much of a fan of that mechanic, as it's predisposed to make you backtrack, which is something I'd rather not have to do.

 

The combat is what bugs me the most though. You have that word swipe like in Zelda, and that's it initially Sometimes it feels like it should hit an enemy abd it doesnt. Then there's enemy attacks that it you, when they shouldn't. This makes something that is already bare-bones combat  quite annoying.

There are some abilities you unlock through gameplay, buying items. Like being able to store dynamite to blow up certain walls, and an attack that reflects projectibles, doesn't come close to the variety that the popular game series offers. The other isue is also buying items, as they are fairly expensive and killing enemies/destructible objects only has a chance to yield 1 currency point at a time. There are the odd chests, that will sometimes offer more though.

 

In any case... this was not for me, although I beleive most people would enjoy this game more than I did. It gets a .

Edited March 5, 2021 by voodoo_eyes

[Edunstar84]

Game #2 First Impressions

Chaos on Deponia

 

Time Played: 50 minutes

Trophies earned: 2/35

 

I know what you're thinking Star is going from one easy game to the next. Before I would've said, "But I earned it! Platting Tales of Vesperia is taking too long". Now, I think I should've saved this for later. Not to say I want to play something more difficult; it's just that I want to play a game that's far more interesting. 

 

Chaos on Deponia is a point-and-click adventure which follows Rufus' (the main character) many efforts to get into Elysium from the planet Deponia. What makes this game fun is that Rufus is a bumbling idiot who just can't help getting himself and others in trouble. In the previous game, Chaos is the 2nd game in a 4 game series, Rufus met Goal who tries to warn the officials that there are still people living on Deponia because they want to blow it up, I think. It's been a while since I've played the first game. 

 

In the beginning of the game, Rufus is still stuck on Deponia, the officials don't know that there are people living on Deponia, and Goal has not only lost her memory, but she's broken...again. Since it's an easy game, I will continue playing it, but I'll probably finish it after the event. 

[ladynadiad]

 

 

Game #1 Date A Live Rio Reincarnation

Trophies earned: 5/37

 

Current completion: 97.73% (-0.40%)

Current unearned trophies: 200 (+32)

Current games played: 262 (+1)

Current games completed: 252

Current unstarted games in backlog: 54 games

 

So I know I just recently posted my review on this and felt I should go ahead and update it.  I swear, not even maybe 5-10 minutes after loading it up again to continue on the route I was playing I got a CG that crossed the line into I'm not tolerating this any longer.  Fanservice usually doesn't bother me, but this cast is just so young looking that it feels wrong.  So that means I couldn't even get through reading one route before I noped out of this one.  I'll be skipping text all the remaining routes since it feels dumb to leave a VN incomplete.  I hate doing that, but I feel I gave the game a fair shot to grab my interest and it left me bored and offended.

 

Edit: Got to the second game, Arusu Install and I'm not even reading this and I'm just thinking I've seen more tasteful hentai doujins.  I'm just shocked that this actually got worse when I was hoping that maybe it would improve.  I'm purposely doing multiple routes in one sitting just so it's very clear that I'm not reading this.

 

I swear, I have such a bad track record for my first games in KYC events.  I just keep picking the duds.  Hopefully my next game will be better.  Next up is Labyrinth of Rerain: Coven of Dusk which about all I know about it is that it's supposed to be a lot like the first Witch and the Hundred Knight game, and I did like the first Witch and the Hundred Knight so I hope it will meet my expectations.  But I can only go up from here at this point with my first game being such a massive dud.

Edited March 6, 2021 by ladynadiad

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 15

Game No. 1

 

 

Playing Time: 3-4 hours

Trophies Earned: 11/14 (76%)

 

Final Review: So the primary reason for purchasing this game was so that my kids could have something to do over Spring Break. They enjoy kart racing games and it keeps my oldest from asking for Fortnite. I was secretly hoping they could earn most of the trophies for me (like Paw Patrol on A Roll) but alas, a few trophies will require a decent amount of effort.

  A quick breakdown of the game;

- 8 characters (the regulars with Garfield, Odie, Jon. A few more thrown in that I had never heard of but my kids knew from the TV show).

- 8 car varieties, and they seem to perform better with a certain character driving.

- 16 tracks (pretty pedestrian, a couple are slightly difficult).

- 3 circuits (50 cc, 100cc, 150 cc. Cars are faster, but AI is harder)

- 3 play modes (single race, Grand Prix and Time Trial). There is online racing but no trophies require you to play MP! 
 

  When you start the game, all characters and cars are unlocked so you can be the fat, lasagna-craving cat for every race if you desire (I’ve always preferred Odie). What is locked are spoilers and hats. These two items when equipped, will give you perks in racing whether it be more speed, more shots with weapons, etc. I chose to go after unlocking all the hats, as that could be done in the Time Trial mode. 

  There are only 8 hats in the game, but for the trophy you need to earn a medal on ALL 16 tracks. I thought I had encountered a glitch but after some digging, I found some help on TrueAchievements.  Once I unlocked all the hats, and equipped them for bonuses,  I went after the one gold trophy in the game by earning gold medals on each Time Trial track. There are five medals you can earn for your time, thankfully just gold will net you the , because the platinum times are absolutely ridiculous. That said, it was a challenge to get gold on all 16 tracks. Not rage-quit difficult, but a good solid challenge that will require a few tries. 
  The driving aspect in this game requires some decent drifting skills. Drift long enough and you will earn a short speed burst. Drift a few seconds more and you will get a longer speed burst. In order to win gold medals in the time trial, I was drifting through 60-75% of the track. It’s not overly hard, but does require some practice and feels like you are driving on ice. 
 The second unlockable item are the spoilers, and this is where the ball-buster trophy resides. Spoilers also give you perks, but you need to earn them in Grand Prix racing, which is a four-race event with the AI. The catch for these trophies though, are that you need to win EVERY race in the Grand Prix, so that’s four races in-a-row. And there is some serious Mario Kart BS involved in this game! 
   It seems no lead is safe because when you start the final lap, the AI unleashes a Somme-like bombardment.  Every bomb, homing missile, will begin to pelt you and strip away your lead. The biggest problem is the weapons in this game are really lacking. Most are projectiles, and there are no shields. It would be nice to have some protection, but unfortunately, you are going to get smacked with everything the AI throws at you. The only weapon that slightly helps preserve your lead is a slice of lasagna, that gives you a short speed burst. 
  As this game has no platinum, I suspect there will be one silver trophy that will remain elusive on my profile. Trying to string together four consecutive wins against a problematic AI seems too much trouble. Lose one race, it’s a complete restart. The game also won’t save your prior wins. 
 In the end, this game is fine. Nothing great, nothing garbage. For Kart racers, I think the Nickelodeon Kart game is pretty comparable, with a slight nod going to that one. I still think Cars 3: Driven to Win is the best Kart racer my kids and I have played on the PS4.

 

Final Grade: 

Completion %: 89.94 (-.04%)

 

Next Up: Concrete Genie

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by PerryToxteth

[Arctic Cress]

Game #1 - Dragon Sinker

Time played: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Trophies: 3/31 (4% - E)

 

I bought this and Antiquia Lost in a PSN sale a few years ago, and ended up playing the latter game of those two back then. It was very underwhelming and I figured most Kemco games would be similar so I put this one off for a long time, only eventually getting to it here despite being downloaded on my Vita for a few years. It turns out had I played this one first that I might have had the opposite impression of Kemco's titles.

 

Dragon Sinker follows a group of three heroes, a human, an elf, and a dwarf and their companions as they traverse through the world to find the three legendary weapons that they can use to slay a dragon threatening to destroy the world. Pretty standard fantasy tale, so that's pretty much the same as Antiquia Lost was, just swap a few nouns and it would fit that game as well. Dragon Sinker uses an 8-bit style for both its graphics and music, and it works very well. Having played the first Dragon Quest finally only last year a lot of the sound effects and music sounds like it could have been produced back then as well.

 

Where Dragon Sinker best shines is the job system. While the three heroes have only their special class that they can't change out of, all the companions can freely change their job to any one that you have unlocked at any town in the game. You unlock them as more companions join the party, and the ones you get are pretty standard - villager, bard, warrior, priest, mage, etc. Looking ahead at some of the other ones in the DRP menus are pretty ridiculous, like the Baker class. Each class has ten levels and when maxed out, whatever the class's personal passive skill is now learned permanently even when switching to another class. This can range from healing HP or MP every turn in battle (and this happens at the start of every battle as well) or giving some passive stat boosts. Furthermore, the game rewards you with a scroll for the class which allows you to give that same passive to one of the three heroes as well. Sadly you can only get one scroll of each class per game, and there's a trophy for using them all on one hero so there's little chance for customization here. I've already given five scrolls to the main human hero and he regenerates MP every turn, has his parameters boosted by 10%, critical rate boosted by 33%, reduces magic damage by 15% and causes an enemy drop if he kills the enemy personally. This will definitely get ridiculous by endgame, but it should still be fun then.

 

Speaking of the DRP menus, the game allows you to purchase some overpowered items (or possibly get them in a lottery) at the cost of premium currency that you accumulate at 5 DRP per every 3 battles you fight, and you start with 1,000 to begin. Antiquia Lost did something similar, but I'm pretty much going to ignore this for the time being. I did, however, bump the difficulty all the way to the highest (Expert) based on how easy Antiquia Lost was even at that difficulty, and it's been a good challenge, especially even some random encounters, with some random cloud enemy doing enough damage to take off half of the HP off my entire party. The bosses have been challenging as well, I got a game over against a wolf boss but manage to wreck him in the retry.

 

I'm pretty impressed this one, mostly because of the job system and how well it works, which is a fantastic addition to a game that would be just a basic jRPG otherwise. I'll definitely be playing this sometime later after the month ends.

 

Starting completion: 74.01%

Current completion: 73.83%

Difference: -0.18%

 

A slight drop. It's not going to be much for any game unless I drop a huge amount of DLC, and none of these games in my list have any to begin with.

 

Time to jump over to a visual novel for the next title, so I'll be playing The House in Fata Morgana next.

[ladynadiad]

1 hour ago, Arctic Cress said:

I bought this and Antiquia Lost in a PSN sale a few years ago, and ended up playing the latter game of those two back then. It was very underwhelming and I figured most Kemco games would be similar so I put this one off for a long time, only eventually getting to it here despite being downloaded on my Vita for a few years. It turns out had I played this one first that I might have had the opposite impression of Kemco's titles.

 

That's kind of a shame because Antiquia Lost is one of the weaker titles.  Glad you didn't let that put you off entirely and gave Dragon Sinker a shot because Dragon Sinker is a solid one that is far more reflective of the general level of quality you'll get.  I so love Kemco titles because they are fun little RPGs with nice stress free trophy lists.  Always a nice break from longer JRPGs with tons of missables.

[Fenrirfeather]

 
 

PlayStation Vita Pets 
My playtime: 04:28 
Trophies earned: 13/34

 

Last time I promised that I’d have stories of doggy adventures to tell and the focus of this review is going to be on the vast map filled with a forest, tunnels, ruins and some more that player and pup traverse during the course of this adventure pet simulation hybrid game.  

 

 

 

Right after adopting your new pup of choice and while still learning the ropes of care for him (or for her), the game already hints at your future task of exploration by the means of a picture-book story that is presented to to you in text as well as read to you out loud. 

 

(mild spoilers for the overall plot from the first hour of the game)

 

After some sad, violent destruction passed, the king and Cosmo buried their most prized treasure that my newly adopted digital pup believes is ours for the taking.

 

After we’d gotten rich for a “Tugging Toy” and built up Husky’s skill during playtime to pull objects, the garden gate to freedom finally opens and allows exploration of the forest beyond “Home”. The forest map is initially a blank parchment with a red X marking the point that Husky and I are tasked to reach; pathways, tunnels that provide the means of fast travelling across the map, “sniffing points” and other discoveries appear on the map as we set up through the forest on set dirt paths that we cannot deviate from but that never feel too restrictive and are well designed (for a semi-indie(?) 2014 VITA game aimed at a younger audience). 

 

 

 

The general travel speed is on the lower end of the speed spectrum, however. Some patience is needed when uncovering previously blank map areas for the first time, before fast travel becomes available. Where gates and toppled trees are obstructing the pathways, the pup’s various learnable skills, the instructions utilisable exclusively by making use of the touchscreen, come in handy.

 

 

 

Sometimes a rabbit or squirrel scurries from side to side in font of us. The attention to detail positively surprises me and I try to prepare myself to capture the next small animal in a screenshot to get a better look at its design. When I do, I start to think that the rabbit looks decent.

 

 

 

The paths are littered with collectibles, some of them royal stone monuments called insignias that you’re simply made to see and take a “photo” of but most of them are points to sniff’n’dig. Husky’s nose tells him of treasure and in turn, he happily tells me to assist him sniffing, as the game then immediately shifts to an overhead perspective for the new sniffing mini game. 

 

 

 

Digging yields fancy new sunglasses to put on Husky, as well as beanies, skirts, golden coins I’m tasked to collect or plain junk such as old cans and dirty, rusty license plates to cash in at the online TV store. I suspect that it’s the game’s subtle way of conveying a message: littering is bad. Digging points are everywhere and an opportunity to stop for one presents itself almost every minute while outside.

 

Upon reaching the next designated mark on the map, player and pup are tasked to scrutinise the location for new leads on the king’s (and his loyal companion’s) hidden treasure. The puzzles primarily rely on using the pup’s multiple skills and tricks to solve them and are generally very simple in nature and easy to solve (for an older or adult player). One of these locations are “the tunnels”, a new location on the map that my loyal pup Husky and I uncovered on our most recent adventure together and where, to our both surprise, we were already expected by an unusual travel guide.

 

(mild spoilers for an early in-game area and puzzle)

 

The king’s loyal companion: a ghostly, glowing Cosmos!

 

Our guide demands that we follow him through the tunnels and although the mini-map is taken away from us without warning and our guide seems to lead us in circles, we’ve an easy time following him. The section is not timed, there’s no penalty for losing sight of the guide or going the wrong way and glowing paw-steps illuminate the path and serve to help (younger) players find their way. (Luckily, when we come back later to this particular location, the mini-map is accessible again as usual and there’s all the time in the world to discover the stone monuments, collect our sniff’n’dig points and to stop frequently for no reason other than to take in the ghastly, underground-like scenery of the tunnels.)

 

The puzzle we arrive at eventually is the last obstacle between us and the treasure - and a simple one it is. Lucky for me, it’s Husky doing all the work after I spent all that time previously to build up his strength with the “Tugging Toy” at “Home”.

(mild spoilers for an early puzzle)

 

 

A huge treasure chest with a certain loyal companion’s cap and hints for the next location and puzzle await us at the end. From here on out, Husky’s rocking a fancy new look. 

 

 

 

There’s no doubt in my mind that Vita Pets is targeted at an audience much younger than a fair amount of trophy hunters and it does well to keep that mind when considering to purchase this game. The pup’s more silly than serious, puzzles are much more simple than thought-provoking, some typical pet simulation tasks can be neglected without negative consequences. But if you want to avoid constant moaning and demands of your new adoptee, occasional feedings, showering after returning from a trip outside and taking care of dogpoop are matters you will want to attend to in order to keep the pup’s chatter to a minimum. 

 

 

 

The trophies are easy and only mildly grindy, the platinum rarity is currently hovering at 23% (PSNP rarity) but with not even 4500 game owners, this game isn’t exactly a popular hit on VITA. This may or may not be in part due to the warnings of some suspected glitches related to sniffing points (possibly related to turning off your game mid-adventure, other than at home where it autosaves) and even a game-breaking bug in a later portion of the game (a bug related to the “mine cart” puzzle that’s possible to avoid, thankfully, if you know of it beforehand). 

 

Although the lack of cats in a game called “Vita Pets” - not Vita Pups - is disappointing if perfectly reasonable in regards to the focus on exploration and “(wo-)man’s best friend”, the game is nevertheless quite charming with its relaxing gameplay, its attentional to detail, the huge amount of voice-acting and the cheeky and distinct personalities the 4 kinds of chatterbox pups conveyed clearly through the well done voice-work and lighthearted dialogue. 

 

 

 

If you’re fine with a somewhat childish dog companion (or don’t mind doing a “trophy list clean-up” after an older kid played around), the game’s simple premise and easygoing mechanics are surprisingly entertaining. 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Fenrirfeather

[PerryToxteth]

@Fenrirfeather - Great review! I’m sad this game is only available on the VITA because my daughter would love that game! She is 7 and still plans to marry our dog when she grows up. I’m not sure any future partner of hers will be able to match the lofty standards our beloved Winston has set.

 I purchased Good Dog, Bad Dog for her, but the entertainment factor in that game lasts for about 20 minutes. You can only barf and pee on so many people before it quickly loses its luster. 

[DamagingRob]

Game #1- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus- Final Review

 

Well, I just barely pushed to 3 hours of playtime. ? Don't really know why I didn't feel like playing it, other than maybe the start not being super enjoyable. Today's session was more fun, but I still didn't play for too long. 

 

Blazkowicz is back, which is fairly evident from the game's cover. But you start out in a wheelchair, which is just a weird opening segment. After a bit, gameplay returns to normal, and it becomes more fun. Though I still continued to die, and started to think that was a way to make a short game feel longer. I probably won't enjoy this on higher difficulties. 

 

Shooting works similar to the previous games. You can aim and fire with one gun, or dual wield and unleash hell. Peeking around corners/cover is also possible with . If you'd prefer to be more stealthy, you can do that, too. And may want to when commanders are about, who will sound the alarm and have you surrounded by enemies. Perks are also a thing, where they level up by killing enemies in specific ways. And since you can save anywhere, anytime, can be farmed. 

 

After a few levels of shooting nazis, I was back at the base. This part was a pretty chill section, where you just walk around and see what everyone is up to, can engage in optional conversations, look for collectibles, and do some sidequests. There was also an arcade machine to play an old school Wolfenstein game. The only sidequest available this time (that I found) was to find food for Max Hass's pig. 

 

And that's about it. Graphics haven't really impressed me like The New Order did, so far. But it looks good enough. No complaints on the sound. Guess I'd go with a score, as of now.

 

Time played: 3 hours

Trophy progress: 6/81 for 6% and an E rank. 

Completion percentage: 93.16% (-0.20%)

 

Game #2- Child of Eden- Preview

 

Oh, boy. A rhythm game. This can only end well. :/ I think someone (possibly Hemiak) played this in a very early KYC, but I don't remember much about it. But it's another I don't have a lot of confidence I can complete. ? Time to dust off that PS3 I haven't used in over a year..

 

Might have to shuffle things around a bit, too. Killzone is on there, because I'm probably going to start boosting it. Which may happen sooner than the 21st.

Edited March 6, 2021 by DamagingRob

[Static_Rook]

Game 1 Review - Forager

 

Time played =        32 hours

Trophies earned = 16 / 23

Completion PCG = 69% (80% base / 0% DLC)

 

I didn't know much about Forager going in, just that it was another one-person indie ode to Harvest Moon. The first time I fired it up on day 1, I only planned to check it out for an hour or so to learn the basics. Well, I started the game and then the next time I looked up 5 hours had gone by. I've been neglecting other games for a week just to keep playing this, and it's only now after six days and 30+ hours that the spell is starting to wear off a little.

 

Imagine the old Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons games but with all the "life sim" aspects removed. No towns, no NPCs to befriend /marry, no day / night cycle or schedule to keep. While those things can be fun, they can also lead to trying to micro-manage your time to squeeze everything you can into a single game day. Forager lets you just keep going, and you only need to eat to replenish your stamina. This game takes one aspect of those farming games and makes it the entire game, and it works really well. You're plopped on an island with just your trusty pickaxe and a very brief tutorial and then away you go.

 

Those first hours are key. It's dull to wack away at a single rock or tree, but the game only makes you do that for a very short time before the upgrades and level ups start. And once they start, you want them to keep coming. After gaining a few levels and upgrading your tools, almost every action you take grants a bit of XP, which in turn lets you do more to level up more and get more skills. Soon enough you're a resource harvesting machine with a steady source of food so it's time to explore and expand. There are 48 other islands to buy, with 4 different biomes that hold slightly different resources and secrets. Plus some puzzles and dungeons thrown in, too. And then the "endgame" area of The Void.

 

Like I said, progress remains steady throughout. At first you're just setting up your basics, then you start trying to pump out coins to buy more land, and the first big hurdle is being able to produce Royal Steel and Royal Clothes. Once you hit that, everything is smooth sailing until you reach the late game tools and structures. I mentioned the spell starting to wear off, and it's because of this late game resource bottleneck. Once you start needing a steady supply of Electronics, Plastics, and Fiberglass progress slows down, and then getting into the next tier of Void, Cosmic, and Nuclear stuff grinds everything to a halt. At least for me. I made it through those first 30-ish hours without looking up any guides or farming tricks, but now that I'm needing some of the rarest resources to continue I've been looking up every trick I can find. So now I've been Lighthouse farming and taking regular trips to the Void, and doing those just isn't as fun. Grinding for Legendary Gems and Kraken Eyes isn't as exciting as the progress to get to this point. 

 

As of writing this I've got all the skills and finished most of the in-game feats. I estimate I'll need another 10 or so hours to get the rest of the trophies, so I'm going to keep playing it even while I move on to the next game. I don't think I'll enjoy them as much as the first 30, but I'm still liking it enough and glad I gave this game a shot. I even added it to my Spring backlog challenge list to keep me motivated to finish it out. One feat I'm worried about is the one you get for clearing a dungeon without taking any damage. I guess I cleared the dungeons too early because all the guides I've looked up say to wait until you're strong enough to one-shot the bosses. Oops. Hopefully if I start a new save it will count the feats I've already unlocked, since of course there's a trophy for getting all the in-game feats.

 

Edit- Turns out you can replay the dungeons to get the Unscarred feat. So that's good!

 

Next game - 

 

428 Shibuya Scramble

Edited March 6, 2021 by Static_Rook

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 15

Game No. 2

 

Concrete Genie

 

First Impressions: Paint Shop gets turned into a game! If there are trophies tied to painting inside the lines, I am screwed...

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - The Mummy Demastered - Preview

 

 

Developer:: Wayforward

Publisher: Wayforward

Genre: Metroidvania

Price: 19,99€

 

 

Another Wayforward game. Didn't realize it's from the same Devs as teh Adventure Time game. Well at least their track record with metroidvania style games seems to be better, at least if I go by the Shantae game I played.

Since it's a genre I tend to enjoy for hte most part, unless it becomes too convoluted, I'm in fairly high hopes for this game. Can't be worse than the reimagining of the movie.

[AuroraHistoire]

I Was Expecting Worse - Zero Escape: Nonary Games

 

I have some history with the Zero Escape series. I completed Zero Time Dilemma and my feelings on that game are a confusing mess. I have watched most of 999 (Nine Hours - Nine Persons - Nine Doors) in a stream about 6 months ago. I remember 999 being a miserable time with a gimmick of digital roots and there was a lot of math.

 

Zero Escape: Nonary Games is a collection of 999 and Virtue's Last Reward. I am not brave enough to touch 999, so I played Virtue's Last Reward for 17 hours. That time is very inaccurate since I fell asleep a couple times. The plot of every Zero Escape Game is 9 people are kidnapped and are forced to solve puzzles. There is this guy called Zero that sets the whole thing up as a hobby I guess. The games tend to have branching paths with multiple endings. There is a very convenient flow chart feature that lets you skip to whatever parts of the story you have already seen easily. 

 

In Virtue's Last Reward, you play as Sigma. Sigma doesn't have voiced dialogue while everyone else does. They only noteworthy thing about Sigma is that he is the only who gets to make the important decisions. Every unwilling participant has a bracelet on their wrist that will kill them if they break any rules and will remove itself it the wearer's heart stops. The bracelet also has everyone's point totals. The goal of the game is to get 9 or more points to leave through the only exit that can only be opened once for 9 seconds. The nine unconsenting contestants are broken up into 3 teams. The bracelets can display 1 of 3 colours and either solo or pair. A pair of the same colour must stay together, while the solo players have a bit of choice. Every puzzle room has a coloured door and the bracelet colours of a pair and solo player must blend together to match the colour of the door. After the puzzle room, the pair and solo player have the opportunity to gain or lose points. The pair and solo player can either vote ally or betray. If both sides pick ally, they both get 2 points. If they both pick betray, both sides get zero points. If one side pick ally while the other picks betray, betray gets 3 points and ally loses 2 points. Also, if any players points got to 0 or below, they die. 

 

The puzzle rooms in Virtue's Last Reward have been kinda all over the place for me. I either solve them relatively quickly and efficiently or get stuck for hours. Most of the individual puzzles involve picking up a item and using it on something or solving a code. You have the option to combine items in some cases. You control a cursor with the analog stick and if feels okay for the most part with a few awkward moments. You also have a note taking feature but writing with the analog stick is a mess. You start in a room completely not knowing what to do then slowly piece things together. There are usually clues to solve the puzzles but there have been cases where the clues flew over my head and I brute forced my way forward. I did give up on one room entirely because I couldn't figure out the last part. Every puzzle room ends with finding the code to the safe that contains the key to the door out, but it is possible to get a different code if you solve the code giving puzzle differently. You'll get a prize of a gold file (silver if you're playing on easy) if you solve the puzzle in the alternate way. In 3/4 rooms I played I accidently got the alternate solution and cried because I just wanted I just wanted to leave. I don't know if the files are useful or anything yet. Also, the difference between hard and easy difficulty is that the character's dialogue have more hints, I think. 

 

I went into Virtue's Last Reward expecting to have a terrible time. I didn't have a great time and I spent most of the last 3 days avoiding the game as much as I could get away with. I did play it for a few hours this morning. I spent a hour or two on a dart puzzle and hours on a long story section. I was enjoying the story but eventually the game decided the ending of the route I was on was locked and I can't unlock it yet. I don't feel like I'll be playing this game again anytime soon. I don't have any major complaints about the game itself; the Zero Escape games are not my blend of tea is all. 

[Edward_FOX_86]

Game #1 

Final Review 

21 of 39 trophies

42% completion.

 

This review Will look kinda Simple and goofy but that is because Im doing this on the phone. Im not at my Home Base lol so I have to improvise. 

 

Now lets talk Jak.

I really think its a game that has aged well and its still fun to play nowadays.

 

I Wouldnt recomend the Vita version though. I played a little and some mini games are a pain to do, I wont say which so I dont spoil anything, even though its an old game and everybody has played it.

 

The graphics live on and look good on the PS3. Gameplay is fun and the camera hasnt been a big issue (for now).

 

The story is ok but really its not about the story that we play these games.

 

Overall I would rate this 7 out of 10.

 

Happy Hunting! Cheers Everyone!

 

 

[Gretchen27]

Game #1 Final Review

  

Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc

Murder. Oh, the horror, I went from 15 to 12 in a blink.

Playtime: ~ 5 hours

Trophies: 4/38 (5% complete)

Percent Change: -0.44% (nothing can tank my percent as Hitman already has)

Enjoyment: 8/10

 

Since the game is obviously story heavy & I don’t know yet if events are linearly fixed or randomized per playthrough, specific talk on the story will be kept in the spoilers (for those like me that are late to the party for this series). 

Spoiler

 

Sayaka’s death surprised me. I wasn’t buying her act for a minute, flashing that charming smile, drawing on their previous acquaintance attending the same school. Even electing herself the protag’s assistant was fishy to me. I had the feeling she was going to use Generic until an opportunity turned up where she could dispose of him. But then, karma struck first I guess.

 

It was instant in the case of (Junko), who broke a school rule by attacking Monokuma. This lends more into my expectations becoming a reality. If their dead so early on, when was there any time to learn their backstory or befriend them?

 

 

During the daytime, there’s free time to roam the school or talk to people. There’s plenty of different areas to explore on the first floor on the school, not all of which I’ve unlocked, yet. Where you can find coins that can be used in the school store’s capture ball machine. It gives out little gifts (in the menu there’s shockingly 114 listed to collect), which can be given as presents to your classmates to boost their affection. Exploring doesn’t seem to have an effect on time, but choosing to spend time with people will. There’s also the option to just go back to sleep of a day, skipping these events to get on with the story (what psycho would do that?).

 

Then the inevitable happened & I was finally able to reach what is likely to be the bulk of the gameplay: class trials. Remember, to graduate out, you have to murder someone with the stipulation of getting away with it. In my mind, I was expecting this to turn into a Battle Royale until last man standing. The game has more extreme ideas then that.

 

Once a murder has been committed, a trial to find out who the killer is will be held. The group must make a unanimous decision on who they think the murderer is. If they’re right, the murderer will be executed. Get it wrong though, & everyone except the murderer will die.

 

I was quick to assume I had the gist of gameplay, then a host of trial related mini games began cropping up. The students take their places in circle, so everyone has a clear view of everyone else & the discussions can quickly bounce off one another.

During the argument process, people begin voicing their opinions on a specific aspect of the case, one after the other. You’re given 10 seconds each quick fire round to find a contradiction, or weak point in someone's argument. It's visible to spot since the person's words are scrolling erratically in front of the screen in orange for the possible weak point you need to attack. I say possible because there's only one true weak point per round, but there may be multiple texts of similarly weak accounts. The best judgment must be made within the time limit & the tries you're given (I think it's a generous 5 or something). & here is where those sleuthing skills come into play. If you don't skip out on your due diligence to find clues & talk to everyone, then you'll come into the trial with plenty of evidence. Evidence that becomes truth bullets. Not actual lethal bullets, these truth bullets are fired at the orange colored weak points I mentioned earlier. & your shot has to be accurate. I struggled with this mini game with my analog drift. It was a bit frustrating, but I didn't lose a try for it, possibly because I have the difficulty on kind. But I was worried this would keep me from progressing (& just when I was getting to the good part)!

 

Keep rehashing the evidence & everyone's involvement this way until at last it becomes crystal clear who the murderer is -& boy, if I didn't feel a cheeky Columbo moment when the how & whodunit clicked- then you build a comic (yes, comic) of the events. Cornering the guilty will result in a rhythm based mini game to snuff out the last futile denials they make.

& then it's time for judgment.

A brutal, yet oddly befitting death takes place immediately. Plus side, the next morning, more of the school becomes available.

Heavy story spoiler discussion:

Spoiler

 

I swear I was writing in my notes the distrust I was feeling for Sayaka before she died. In case the story is not linear & there's different outcomes, I'll recap what happened: Sayaka came over to Generic's room the night they received their 'motivation' videos claiming it had really shook her up & she would feel safer if they could trade rooms for the night. Love struck, manipulated Generic swapped keys like the little knight he dreams he was, & spends the night in her room. The next morning she's found stabbed to death in the bathroom.

 

Skipping over the evidence search, we worked out Leon was the murderer. Having been invited over by Sayaka (in Generic's room), attacked in an attempt to kill him & frame the protag, & then murdered when Leon got the upper hand.

 

Now this is where I had a 'just one more thing' moment that went unanswered. What was Sayaka's motive to kill Leon? Target him over the easy mark the protag would make. Out of everyone, it seems logical to pick a diminutive victim like the novel writer. The only viable connection I could see between the two is Leon's dream to be a singer. Which would have given her the opportunity to offer him advice, get him alone for her shot. But nothing like that was brought up. I felt I was thorough enough in my investigation, if the motive was brought up, I had it covered with that. It's only the first trail though, maybe more will come out for even dead characters.

 

 

I haven't had a chance to play since Thursday, & I really misjudged my ability to finish a play through this week. It's taken me 5 hours to reach chapter 2. So there's no telling if I'll be able to complete the story by events end, but I'd sure as hell like to. I started with a strong one this round.

 

Next on deck is Dark Rose Valkyrie. I bought it years ago because I liked the art style displayed on the box, & the fact it's a real-time RPG from !f Idea Factory. Which was a good enough indicator for me to think this'll be a grind, my kind of game. I finished cleaning out the capture data on my PS4, taking it from 8GB of free space to 70GB. That's the highest I've seen it in ages to be sure I had the room for this one, & of course, just reading the case it says it only needs 7.5GB. Least I shouldn't expect a problem there starting it tomorrow.