Kill Your Completion 15

[Psy-Tychist]

I have finally chosen my games for KYC XV.... I'm sorry @voodoo_eyes I'm really just a pain in the neck. RL is making gaming difficult.

 

So it goes as follows:

1. Mar 1st - 5th: Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
2. Mar 6th - 10th: Mom Hid my Game!
3. Mar 11th - 15th: Not a Hero
4. Mar 16th - 20th: Detention
5. Mar 21st - 25th: Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator
6. Mar 26th - Mar 30th: Persona 5

My review of Irony Curtain will hopefully be up later today.

[voodoo_eyes]

34 minutes ago, Psy-Tychist said:

I have finally chosen my games for KYC XV.... I'm sorry @voodoo_eyes I'm really just a pain in the neck. RL is making gaming difficult.

 

So it goes as follows:

1. Mar 1st - 5th: Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
2. Mar 6th - 10th: Mom Hid my Game!
3. Mar 11th - 15th: Not a Hero
4. Mar 16th - 20th: Detention
5. Mar 21st - 25th: Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator
6. Mar 26th - Mar 30th: Persona 5

My review of Irony Curtain will hopefully be up later today.

 

Updated the thread accordingly.

[Static_Rook]

Game 2  Preview - 428 Shibuya Scramble

 

Here's what I know going in: It's a VN that uses photos and videos of actors instead of animation. You play as different characters at different times, but I think the "main" one is a detective trying to solve a murder? Something like that. Also, apparently there a lot of ways to make bad choices and get the characters killed. It's by the Nonary Games or Danganronpa people maybe?

 

My expectations: Visual Novels are usually a struggle for me. I'm not big on anime in general, and then throw in a bunch of reading on a monitor / screen and you've got zone out city for me. I played through Steins;Gate on Vita recently and ended up fast-forwarding through most of it after a few hours. Just not my thing at all. But, I'm hoping that the different visual style and story of 428  will keep me engaged.

 

Good luck with game 2, everyone!

Edited March 7, 2021 by Static_Rook

[purgta]

Game #1 Demon's Souls

 

 

This is a remake of the PS3 game by Bluepoint. It is an action roleplaying game. If you have played Dark Souls you know what to experience from the gameplay. Rather than one interconnected world, Demon's Souls has five different worlds/levels that you can access from the hub area. You can tackle the five in any order you like as well as hop between them if you find an area too difficult for the moment. Most levels have three different areas that you can access by defeating the boss of the previous area. They are all pretty different from one another. The remake looks extremely nice. Bosses also look great. The remake also has omni rolling which makes movement during boss fights a lot easier. NPCs and some humanoid enemies don't look quite as good. They are fine, it just feels like something is a bit off about them. The game has a system where you can place messages on the ground for other players to see. You chose from preset phrases and words. They can change the atmosphere of the game heavily. You feel like you are going it alone with them off and the game has a pretty heavy atmosphere. With them on, you find out about enemy ambushes and hidden treasures before you  get to them. They do have the benefit of making it feel like you are playing along with everyone else which is very nice.

 

I have not got that far into it yet. I have been just exploring the first areas of each world and unlocking shortcuts. I chose Knight as my background and the armour is heavy. I have been running around without pants to be able to quick roll. Some of the trophies have you face bosses a certain way to get them which might be fun. Healing grass is as overpowered as ever. Ostrava is just as much of a hassle to keep alive as he was in the PS3 version. The Nexus/Hub looks great although it doesn't feel as cozy as the PS3 version. I have not played around with coop or invasions so I can't really comment on those aspects.The PS5 game also has the world tendency system from the original.

 

I am having a lot of fun with it. I keep having "oh, I remember this" moments although I think they will become less frequent as I go along.

[Gretchen27]

@PerryToxteth
What about The Sims 3 Pets or Nintendo Dogs for your daughter to play?

She could have any fur colored pup she wants in the Sims, & it has a surprising amount of quest like tasks for a dog or cat to complete. Plus there's always the added bonus of being able to customise the house any way you choose.

As for Nintendo Dogs (assuming your household has or still has a DS), I remember sinking endless hours into that game. I must have been about 11 or so, but I had to have every version released. Even though the only real difference was the breeds available. @Fenrirfeather's detailed review reminded me of it (& why I should play it for a relaxing chill game). Though nostalgia may be clouding my judgment when I say Nintendo Dogs has it beat.

Anyway, can't pass up making a case for a young gamer to experience games that were a fond part of my childhood. But you've probably already got these covered when you thought of new games for your kids to play.

[PerryToxteth]

1 hour ago, Gretchen27 said:

@PerryToxteth
What about The Sims 3 Pets or Nintendo Dogs for your daughter to play?

She could have any fur colored pup she wants in the Sims, & it has a surprising amount of quest like tasks for a dog or cat to complete. Plus there's always the added bonus of being able to customise the house any way you choose.

As for Nintendo Dogs (assuming your household has or still has a DS), I remember sinking endless hours into that game. I must have been about 11 or so, but I had to have every version released. Even though the only real difference was the breeds available. @Fenrirfeather's detailed review reminded me of it (& why I should play it for a relaxing chill game). Though nostalgia may be clouding my judgment when I say Nintendo Dogs has it beat.

Anyway, can't pass up making a case for a young gamer to experience games that were a fond part of my childhood. But you've probably already got these covered when you thought of new games for your kids to play.

Thanks for the great suggestions! Any chance Nintendo Dogs is on the Switch? Only Nintendo currently in my house is my NES from 30 years ago. And it still works (occasionally).  But I think we’ll get a Switch for a Birthday present. I will look into Sims Pets as well, anything dog-related she will nuts over. 
I’m always searching for age-appropriate games for my kids (NO Fortnite!) which leads me into...

 

KYC 15

Game No. 2

 

 

Concrete Genie

 

Trophies Earned: 25/56 36% D ranking)

Playing Time: 3-4 hours

 

Final Review: This one made it in my gaming library because it was free (PS+) and it appeared to be kid-friendly with an emphasis on painting art. I was a bit skeptical to have a protagonist as a graffiti artist, but after playing for a few minutes, it becomes apparent our hero isn’t tagging walls but painting what might be best called electric landscape art. 
  You play as Ash, an adolescent comfortable in being by himself with his beloved sketchbook, while residing in a grungy, grimy town. The town bullies come along and ruin his day, but misery somehow turns into unveiling super art powers. Ash can paint genies, which are friendly monster-like creatures, which help him liven up the town. And that’s the gist of the gameplay. Walk around town and paint away! 
  To unlock more areas of the town, you need to paint certain walls with dim light bulbs. They will turn on when you paint the wall, but some walls are locked and will require doing a few tasks to earn Super Paint before you can paint them. As you wander around, you will pick up collectible pages of things you can paint. They might be trees, dandelions, stars, butterflies, etc. So yes, not your typical graffiti artist! 
  The only problem I encountered was the unwieldy controller operation to paint. When you activate Ash to paint, a menu pops up on the left of your template of things to paint. Then you aim at the wall and begin painting, but your brush strokes are the movement of your controller. It probably looks pretty funny for a bystander to watch someone play this game as your controller is out in front of you and you fly it back and forth and up and down. Most of the gameplay doesn’t require precise aiming, but there are billboards which you need to paint with precise movements. Not terribly difficult, but it will likely take a few tries.

  The story is better than average. The bullies torment Ash, but he learns what most bullies are hiding - a tragic backstory. I’m not sure where the story is going as I only got a few chapters into the game. But it seems to work. There is a chapter select at the end so you can easily play without a guide. Sometimes the path forward isn’t apparent, so you can click on an objective button to get you back on track. The levels aren’t very big so it’s unlikely to get lost.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed this game. A nice change of pace from your glut of FPS games. 

Final Grade: 

Completion %: 89.60 (-0.38)

 

Next Up: Peaky Blinders

[Gretchen27]

@PerryToxteth

I'm a relatively new Switch owner, but check out Little Friends: Dogs & Cats. It looks to be in the same vein as the old Nintendo Dogs. I think getting a Switch will go over great with the kids. It surprises me just how easy it is to pass a joy con & drop in a couch co-op player. Just make sure to get a screen protector at the very least if it'll see more handheld use. The console can be awkward for smaller hands to hold, & even I get worried I'll drop it or accidentally clip it on something walking around. 

[MarkusT1992]

Game #1: Farming Simulator 19

 

 

Let me start my review with saying that choosing this game for an event like this probably wasn't the best choice. What I mean is time. It's a complex simulation that reqiuires time to learn and since I hadn't that much time the last week I only touched the surface of the game.

 

I started with the tutorials which you can select from the main menu before starting the real game. There are a total of 6 tutorials the teach you the basics of farming. You learn how to cultivate land, how to fertilize, sow seed and reap your crops. Also have to put lime on your fields and why plus how to get rid of weed. The last tutorial is about planting trees and cutting them. One aspect of the game has no tutorial and that is all the animal stuff. You can get cows, sheep and chicken to breed and get stuff. That's only explained in game in the menu together with a lot of other stuff.

 

After completing the tutorial you can start your new life as a farmer. You can select one of two maps to play on and once the game has loaded you can take a short tour to learn the map a bit.

You start with some basic machines and a small part of land with a total of four fields on it.

From there it basicaly is an open world where you can do whatever you want. The main goal is to make profit. So you start by working on your fields. On the map you can see the status of every field on the map. It shows if it needs cultivation, if it is fertilized or if the crops are growing and so on. Depending on the status of your fields you start with the appropriate task. If you don't want to do it yourselfe you can hire AI helpers to do it for you while you do anything else. For that you have to place the right machine on the field or start the task for the first few meters and then press a button. Just make sure that there are no obstacles or else they will stop untill the obstacle is cleared. It's not for free thought. You're losing money while an AI is working.

 

Then you have contracts you can take for other virtuel farmers to work on their fields. Those works are the same as for your own fields, so cultivate, fertilize ore reap crops. Sometimes you need to deliver something for them. For those contracts you can take your own machines or rent them if you don't have the required nachine. And there are a lot of machines. Let's take fertilizing as an example. You have  different fertilizers like liquid ones or solid ones. Each need a special machine to use. The machine for the liquid on has different types as well with different ranges, costs and what ever you need. For the beginning you probably should just take the cheapest of anything you have to buy. Also your machines are going to break with time and you need a tractor for everything to pull plus a weight for some machines on the front of your tractor. Some machines only work with a specific tractor and so on. I don't know how many tractora and machines there are but I would say it over 100. There are like 10 trailers alone to carry all sorts of things.

Back to the contracts. Renting the stuff you need will cost some of the money you earn for the job but it's not that much. It's more expensive to buy new equipment if you don't have it already.

As with your own fields you can let AI helpers do the job.

 

There are many more things like the aformentioned animals I haven't tried yet or some kind of market for crops with fluctuating prices which requires you ro decide what to plant.

Also you can buy and sell land to get more fields and probably create new fields. At least I think I saw an option to turn on/off for something to restrict on existing fields. By the way, you can turn of some aspects of the game like the requirement for lime or digging over your fields.

Last but not least you can play in multiplayer where you can create up to eight farms where the players can join.

 

Time played: Around 3h

Trophies: 4/24

Rating:

[Together_Comic]

Game #1 Hyper Light Drifter - Final Review 

 

Trophies 6/23

Time Played ~7 Hours

Completion Percentage: 90.58 --> 90.69 (+.11)

Impression: 9/10

 

So I spent a good deal more time than I intended playing this this past weekend, which I guess already bodes well for the game.  Hyper Light Drifter is a metroid vania style game that tells its story with effectively no words.  The entire game is all atmosphere, exploration, and combat.  The lore hidden between pictures from different characters in the game and short movies throughout, and the game absolutely nails this.  

 

You start with some horrifying dream of what looks like some ongoing battle with the guys from Attack on Titan and the drifter ultimately being absorbed by the darkness within himself... You awake by a campfire and the game starts.  You travel through the tutorial section and ultimately collapse someway in.  You are rescued by some person and wake up in what looks like a refugee town.  You exit and can then head one of the four cardinal directions.  So far I've gone North, East, and West.  Each of the directions is themed after a different biome.  North are snowy mountains inhabited by bird enemies that can wield magic(?).  East is a lake area with Kappa and Toad enemies.  West is a forest with Wolves and Samurai.  No idea what is waiting south but if its anything like the others it just oozes atmosphere and flavor.    

 

The exploration is also good.  In each area, there are 40ish bits to collect, collecting 4 of which will give you a coin to buy powerups back in town. There are 8 power nodes (4 of which are needed to access the boss of each area) at least 2 costumes, 4 shrines, and 4 keys.  Scattered throughout each area is also key doors which usually require you to come back after completing other areas to collect what hides behind them.  All of these are usually placed either in well hidden secret areas, or along paths that ultimately guide you to the end of the area.  I will nitpick a bit here and say that some of the secret areas are a little bit obtuse.  Like there will be a pixel on the side of the screen which will indicate that you can dash off the ledge to go over there.  Or there will be a secret area within another secret area and all that is well and good, but its really really easy to miss a bunch of stuff.  Of course for us trophy hunters, there are trophies for collecting all of everything so I guess I'd recommend a guide for collectables.  

 

That leads me to the games real strength the combat.  The combat really feels so satisfying.  It effectively revolves around dashing in and out of combat spacing yourselves out of enemy attacks and firing back when they are vulnerable.  Most of the enemy types have a different style that works well for fighting them, and will change strategies depending on whether you are close to them or far away, or how the battle is going.  For example,  There is a bird enemy that will fire magic homing attacks at you from far away while his bird colleges swoop in on you, but if you are up close, he will send out an AoE attack that does a lot of damage to try to get you to back off.  There are these little enemies called dirks that attack in groups and try to ambush you, but will run away when you start to kill all there friends.  All of these little nuances take a simple system and transform it into something that feels really satisfying.  The difficulty feels just right too.  Not so easy that you will first try everything without worrying about it, but not so tough that it makes the game feel unfair.  

 

As a miscellaneous note, the chain dashing in this game is really fun.  There is a trophy for chaining 800 dashes together in a row.  I haven't quite got there yet at 539 is my record, but I can already see myself turning this on post platinum, just to see how high I can get the number.  

 

I am definitely going to come back to and finish this one sooner rather than later, but It's already the 8th and we still have 4 more games to go this month so lets shelve it for now and instead...

 

Game #2: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Preview

 

Last summer, I unfortunately had to take 2 weeks off of everything to deal with the wonderful world of Covid-19.  During that time I decided to play Persona 4: Golden and it utterly consumed my waking time and really made the Covid not feel like such a big deal.  I enjoyed it to the point that I immediately started the sequel Persona 5, and though I enjoyed it marginally less, it still ranks as one of the most fun RPGs on the console.  You may ask "what the hell does that have to do with this game?"  and that's fair.  Well during my time actively gushing about these games on this forum, someone recommended to me the Trails of Cold Steel (note: I just today learned that it was trails and not trials oops) as a game that plays pretty similar to persona.  Well I picked the game up on a sale and here we are.   

 

If what they say is true, Trails of Cold Steel will be a sim game/RPG that rotates between the two in gameplay and tells an overarching story.  The game looks to clock in 80-100 hours to platinum and given my current backlog will probably sit on my account for awhile killing my completion (que title drop), or maybe it will be just as engrossing as P4 and I'll finish it in 2 weeks.  We'll have to find out. 

 

~TC

Edited March 8, 2021 by Together_Comic

[Edunstar84]

Game #3 First Impressions

Celeste

 

Playtime: 18 minutes, 59 deaths

Trophies: 0/31

 

Guys...I'm how you say? Sad on the Internet. Man, I suck at this game. It's fun and frustrating, but I don't think I have the patience to learn the moves and "git gud" for right now. The speedrunners make this game look so easy. 

 

Celeste is a platformer with beautiful mountainous backdrops. That makes sense since Madeline (the character you're controlling) has set a goal to climb the mountain. I'm not sure why yet, but I guess I'll find that out later. The gameplay is simple. It's easy to learn and that's where it basically ends because you have use the mechanics to traverse the many, many single rooms of doom. There are also items, like strawberries and diamonds, that you can collect. I'm pretty sure you have to collect them all for the platinum.

 

I didn't do a final review of Chaos on Deponia because I didn't feel like playing it. I didn't think a final review would matter to be honest. But now I take it back. I should've appreciated playing 2 easy games before this. 

 

 

[Lodbizarro]

Game #2 preview Tales of Xillia

 

 

I know I'm behind schedule I might have to alter my list a bit but will cross that bridge when I get there Tales of Xillia is my second game. While I'm familiar with the Tales series I started with Symphonia back on the gamecube when I was a kid and played a few of the other games as well.  My favorite in the Series that I've played so far is Graces F the game I enjoyed the least is Zestiria.This will be my first time playing Xillia believe it or not I bought this game back in 2013 and just never got around to playing it but that all changes today. As I continue on my quest to attack my PS3 backlog I will now start this game now I'm not planning on finishing before this event as Tales games generally run long I look forward to see how far I can go. I love Rpgs and I'm generally a fan of the tales games my favorite aspects are usually the battle systems and the fact you can actually play multiplayer which I honestly wish more Rpgs would do. The stories very by game but I usually like them so I'm really excited as trom what I know about Xillia is  they're actually two protagonist with different stories that I guess interact with each other so I'm looking forward to play through both in see the reactions of the events and actions of one group effect the other group in Vice versa. Will Xillia end up becoming on of my favorites in the series  or will Zestiria have some company we shall see.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Lodbizarro

[Edunstar84]

Game #3 Final Impressions

 

Playtime: 2 hours 45 minutes; 202 deaths

Trophies: 2/31

 

Plot: Not much of a story so far.  Although a part of her popped out and warned her to go back down. Still gotta climb the mountain.

 

Gameplay: I completed chapter one, and it felt really good when the trophy popped and realized this game is on my list for a long time. The second chapter added a new gameplay mechanic. There's like this starry box you can jump through that extends your jump, but it can be placed anywhere, so you have to be careful where you jump. Many of my deaths were from dashing through the box into a wall. I am getting better with the mechanics, and it was fun to actually clear a room that I had been stuck on. I was also introduced to the cassette tape (Not "introduced" per se, I had a Sony Walkman when I was a kid) for the first time, which opened another level, I guess.

 

Soundtrack: Solid beats! It's not as iconic as Mario, but it's really nice to listen to while I contemplate my next jump.

 

Recommend: Yes. For those that don't have it, and you want to try something different. I suck at platformers, but I enjoyed Rayman and would like to get better at the genre. 

 

Platinum?: I will probably plat this sometime in 2025.

[Edward_FOX_86]

Game #2 

 

 

 

 

League of Evil (PS Vita) 

 

Final Review (and only)

 

Well, this is a first for me, I platted a game from KYC  . Soooo this is why I'm only writing this review.

 

Voodoo described it as a low budget Wanna Be Super Meat Boy. Well the description fits but its more than that. Its lazyness all over from the level designers, BG Music, etc.

While its easy and simple at first sure you'll get the hang of it, sometimes the game just seems so unfair and out of pure lazyness (imo) from the creators. A way to make the impression that the game is difficult and while sometimes you get a good feeling out of some games were you want to replay the game on new game plus or whatever, in this case is, lets just get to the fuc***g chase and finish this sh**. Lol

 

For the price though I have to say I played worst and its not that bad of a game it keeps you going sure but its not a fun plat to get and you dont feel rewarded by doing it.

 

Having said that my masochist level is so high that I also plated on the Ps4  Hurraaahh me or not. its sad really but since It was a fresh game and I knew the tricky parts I thought, well I might as well get my money's worth.

 

Now I know I didn't said much about the game but for only 1,99€ you can find out by yourselves lol just kidding.

 

Well its platforming similiar to super meat boy with a double jump, and a dash option and also some random stupid enemies that seem to have the best aim ever like one shot kill you without even blinking. Its no Joke the enemies I'm telling you, sooooo annoying but oh well you get what you pay for right.

 

The story is almost non existent but who needs story when you're a Bionic Commmando right?! eheh 

 

Well this is my review hope you'll like it and yeah only buy this game for 1,99 or less.

 

A quick reminder the plat percent I found to be a little deceiving as the game is not like the other ratalaika games where you get a trophy for sneezing so yeah ...

 

I give this one a 5 out of 10 ^^

 

Cheers everyone 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AuroraHistoire]

World of Final Fantasy is a Very Good Game

 

I really want to take a nap right now. World of Final Fantasy is partly to blame for my terrible sleeping habits. I was able to accumulate about 16 hours of gameplay time in 2 days without sleeping with the game on. 

 

World of Final Fantasy is a turned based RPG. The protagonists are a pair of siblings named Lann and Reynn. They are the only ones (that are not evil) that can tame mirages (basically monsters). You can capture any non-boss Mirages and add them to your party. To be able capture a mirage, you must fulfill their capture condition; the condition could be get it their low hp, inflict a certain status ailment, ect. You have a party size of 6, including Lann and Reynn, but can only have up to 2 mirages of the same size. Mirages commonly come in 3 sizes, small, medium and large. Lann and Reynn can be either medium or large depending if they are in chibi form or not. The unique thing about this game is that your party members are stacked on top of eachother, in 2 stacks of 3 party members. Bassically, all their stats and abilities are combined into one very powerful party member, but only get 1 turn. You can unstack to have all the part members act individually but they will be a lot weaker. Enemies can stack too. Also, there are moves that can cause stacks to topple over; that is bad since you'll be forced to unstack and stunned for a bit.

 

I haven't really been paying too much attention to the story. I know the overall goal is defeating a evil empire. So far the game has been a cycle of meeting a chibi version of a Final Fantasy character or two from one of the other games and then you do a dungeon. 

 

I was worried I wouldn't like this game since it is a turn based RPG and I am kind of sick playing of those. I really like it for the most part but have a few tiny nitpicks. The game has been on the easy side so far and boss fights usually turn into be using the attack command over and over again. Bosses tend to be very weak and only have 1 move that is kind of concerning that they only use 1-2 times during the fight. I am not grinding and rushing the story by the way. I don't feel like I am using amazing tactics either. I have a lot fun playing the game in general and I really want to play more soon. Also, World of Final Fantasy has proper anime cutscenes that look really good. 

[Psy-Tychist]

Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, which do you choose?

 

Trophies Earned: 14/43

Percent Complete: 30%

Completion Percentage: 65.92% + 0.10%
Jokes about Communism: Stalin

 

I've played many a point and click games. Some classics such as Secret of Monkey Island, King's Quest and the Broken Sword series I wish I had played when I was younger because they had such great humour and mind-bending puzzles in places. I realise that the people who put their time and effort into Point and Click games are a special type of mad and I'm glad I get to enjoy them. Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love is a part satirical and part secret agent adventure with Evan Kovolsky as the unwitting and idealistic pawn in the game of subterfuge and possible assassination (I haven't got to that bit yet).

The story revolves around Evan, who is smitten with the idea of Socialism from Matryoshka over the Capitalism that is rife in his native country (the US I'm assuming) and after addressing on live TV about the benefits of such a life, is recruited to talk to the Leader of Matryoshka, to help save the country. So far, that's all the story I really have found out so far, it is quite slow to show any over arching objectives, only just finding out more about a plot to assassinate the Leader and being a patsy.... or maybe not.

 

The thing about this game that I'm enjoying is the total satire about the idea of Socialism and how that is viewed by Westerners. Everything you do when you reach the hotel involves talking to some other person to get permission or authority to do anything. Stamping forms which match your identity to gain authorisation to use the bathroom/restaurant/room. Finding security surveillance cameras and bugs in your room and behind your bathroom mirror. Having your belongings searched, torn apart, stitched together and given back to you and realising you have got someone else's belongings. The idea that you have to show your ASS for inspection at a moments notice and realising that the ink has run out when printing the PASS and they can't be bothered to change it back again. The ridiculous lisping officer stuck in 'Room 369' spelling athathinathion. These are all just in Part One of this four part story.

 

The puzzles are not that hard overall, there is just a lot of back and forth. A lot of moving from one room to another or getting things and giving to some other person but that is normal in most Point and Click games. I think that it is exacerbated by the fact that you can't double click on doors to transition quickly to areas and have to wait for Evan to amble up to the objective rather than quickly transporting to a room or next area. 

 

For trophy hunters, mindisacity has done a great walkthrough if you ever get stuck or want to complete the game in the most straightforward manner. There are a couple of missable trophies, but most are for completing tasks in your journey and for completing each part of the story. 

 

Overall, if you like a good dose of silly irreverent humour and some reasonably good writing and don't mind Point and Click games, Irony Curtain is a good time and for this type of game, quite a time sync. Don't expect to finish the game and get all the trophies in less than 6 hours. In any case, everybody loves a laugh, eh comrade?

 

Next Game: Mom Hid my Game!

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - The Mummy Demastered - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: 4-5h

Trophies earned: 14/38

 

 

Well this one sure is a Metroidvania. Especially the Metroid part stands out.

 

Visually it has the old school look, but a bit smoother and the controls sure is as stiff as back in those games from the 90s. The sound and music are forgettable, except for one thing, which is not being able to adjust the volume.

 

I've gotten to the 2nd boss now, which I'm sturggling with a bit., but it's only a matter of time until I beat him. Up to that piint it's been retalively smooth for hte most part. Currently at 37% of the map completed I think. There's been a lot of back and forth, trying to find the way I can actually make progress through, because a lot fo sections are tied to abilities in order to progress.

These abilities, as well as weapons you will end up having to find. So far there's clinging to ceilings and run speed increase. The latter you'll need for making running jumps.

 

There has been a decent variety of enemies so far and the same goes for weapons I guess (assault rifle, shotgun, machine gun and two types of grenades). Amont the things you can find are also health and ammo packs that increase your lives/ammo respectively. and there's also the relatively generously spread out save points.

 

One of hte most annoying things is that the enemies have a knockback whenever you touch them, this in conjunction with the plenty of platforming segments ihas been quite the pain. Especially because some enemies will you go through solid objects. I've also never been a big fan of the aiming in these games as enemies often come from the ground, air and ceiling at the same time and take more than just one bullet (unless it's the shotgun).

 

 

Overall it's a decent game with potential, ranging somewhere between a and a . Leaning more towards the former.

[Psy-Tychist]

How did all these people get in my house?

Trophies Earned: 7/7

Percent Complete: 100%

Completion Percentage: 66.00% + 0.18%
High Bar Stunts: 25

 

This game partly defies explanation from a British point of view. It's a very simple puzzle game that has been ported from Mobile and seems to have translated to console gaming quite well considering how short the game actually is.

The aim of the game is to find your handheld game console (looks a lot like a DS) without alerting Mom and any other hazards that appear in the rooms of your house. Simple enough to understand and complete. There are 49 levels and the 50th level which transitions into the thousandth level with a little trick in the end. Each level adds another layer of complexity or just a completely different obstacle that is never seen again to overcome. Some fun examples are making your grandfather drink a lot of water so he needs to pee and finding the console under his mat, making your sister dance so that you can find the console in her desk drawer and using an actually Hadoken (yes you have to do the literal button presses) to push your grandfather (poor dude) off his mat, where the console hides again. After reaching the last day, you don't succeed by getting your game but by 

Spoiler

opening your door and meeting your family, forgoing the never ending cycle of looking for your game

 

There is one other trophy left to get for completing the Horizontal Cross Bar mini game, which is a little bit of RnG. Everytime you spin fast enough to jump, a random ending pose will occur and your will be ranked out of 100. Some funny options include: grabbing the bar by your teeth, turning into sumo wrestler and scoring 275kg, pulling a bolt and scoring 9.58s and finally turning into a log. You won't get a new one each time, so towards the end you will keep getting duplicate poses until you get the winners podium.

 

This is a great bit of fun for about an hour or two (which is how long it will take you to do the puzzles) without losing the charm of the idea of the game. All trophies except the minigame unlock as you finish respective levels in the game (thank you @Lucas for liking my 'Veteran Gamer' trophy on my PSN, I can't tell if you were being entirely sarcastic :P) and the experience is just a little bit of lighthearted fun. Although I still don't know how those cyclists got into the house...

 

Next Game: Not a Hero

[Edunstar84]

Game #4 First Impressions

 

Playtime: 1 hour

Trophies: 1/42

 

Wow, nostalgia overload. Do you all remember the good ol' days when games had proper, full length, cinematic opening scenes? Or maybe it's just the graphics. In any case, as soon as I heard the female voice beachin' (sorry I don't curse) about Weiss, I knew I was in for a fun ride.

 

Before I describe what the game is like, I just want to point out that I fully expected my PS3 to burst into a ball of flames, or at the very least, I'd get the yellow light of doom. Not like it's been a long time. I think less than a year since I last turned it on, but it's been literally collecting dust all this time.

 

Nier is an action RPG about a world in the future that is on the precipice of destruction..The game is about 10 or 11 years old, and I'm surprised that I haven't come across any spoilers. Anyway, your main character and his very sick daughter Yonah? are trying to get by in this world. The dad's main focus and worry is to provide his daughter a better life. And so he makes a deal with a book, trading his soul for power. At the same time you learn that the shadowy creatures that the dad fights (I named him Star) have come for her. We don't know why yet.

 

Admittedly, I didn't get too far in the game. I passed the prologue, defeated the first boss, and then killed 100 sheep for a trophy. It was missable, so my spending so much of my time doing it will pay off in the end.

 

[ladynadiad]

1 hour ago, Edunstar84 said:

Admittedly, I didn't get too far in the game. I passed the prologue, defeated the first boss, and then killed 100 sheep for a trophy. It was missable, so my spending so much of my time doing it will pay off in the end.

 

At least you'll have plenty of mutton to sell for a quest.  There's one to deliver 5 pieces of mutton and nets you more gold than selling them normally.  Gold is pretty scarce and you'll have to farm for it if you're going for the plat, so every little bit helps.  Definitely don't forget the trophy guide's tip to always check for materials when you see the shiny spots because it's not kidding about that grind for materials if you want the plat.

[Gretchen27]

Game #2 Initial Review

Dark Rose Valkyrie 

Play time: ~2 hours

 

This game feels comfortably reminiscent of other Idea Factory games like Hyperdimension or Omega Quintet from gameplay mechanics, to even character design. Put character  creator on random (in a muted sort of fashion because they have to look presentable in their military garb) & place them in a real-world type setting for a new skin over the same formula. 

 

Summary: Asahi (I'm getting better with people's names), is a young Captain transferring to the new unit he'll be in charge of. On the way to his new posting, his flight gets delayed, causing him to miss the last train to base. Deciding he can make it there on foot before dark, when the monsters called chimeras come out, he naively sets off. 

 

He doesn't make it far though before the trouble he was trying to avoid finds him. In what looks to be a park no less, right in the middle of the city. The military should really look into that, but then, I doubt they have their stuff together if a high school aged looking boy can be made captain of a unit on the front lines. Most times I have to overlook these details, otherwise, I never find an RPG to play. 

 

Fortunately, he is saved by his subordinates, who came to escort him from the station. Guess it's no fluke Asahi is known for having the ultimate beginner's luck. Sound familiar? This happened to me last KYC playing games with protags that died at the start (Bad Apple Wars and Exist Archive). Now, I've got two supposedly 'lucky' protagonists. Who also look alike in their generic short brown hair, brown eyes with nondescript features. We all know these games put more effort into the girls sticking out, or at least, one pair - I mean part of them anyway... Actually, I'm being unfair here. As I haven't seen one overly busty or scantily-clad figure yet. 

 

Back to the story: the gang makes it back to base, & then it's no rest for the wicked as they jump into missions. A pandemic (if we're not all tired of reading that word) caused by the Chimera virus has transformed infected humans & animals into monsters. Hence the need for the good ol' uniformed eradicators known as ACID (just don't ask me what that stands for, I don't remember). That's as far as I've gotten in the story. Besides briefly interacting with the other team members. The unit is issued experimental weapons with side effects that sound as fun as the ones and prescription drugs. Basically boils down to it seems like you'll have symptoms in line with the virus & possibly permanent mental damage in the form of a split personality disorder. 

 

Gameplay: is real-time based that is slow enough I'd called turn-based if it wasn't for the fast forward button. I would describe it in detail, but I really just skipped over the pages of instructions piled on at the start. I hate when games info dump everything in one go like that. It wasn't required anyway. The setups the same as most any other RPG; you have your basic attacks, melee, long range, group combos, & special magical arts. 

 

I put the game difficulty on hard because my options were easy, hard, or very hard, & I swatted away enemies with minimal effort. 

 

Music: I realized I didn't talk about this in my first game. So pause on this to say, Danganronpa's soundtrack is engaging without being catchy. Dark Rose Valkyrie, I barely notice. Except in the menu (or might be dungeons), where opera music annoyingly plays.

 

Camera angle: yeah, I put a section in for that. Most of the time, the camera follows in third person, but sometimes it inexplicably zooms out to top down view. Making the minimal background detail grainy, & the monsters roaming around indistinguishable pinpricks. I've only seen that happen on one map so hopefully it's the exception.

 

Good points: I like games that let me level up & do quests. This look to fill that role nicely. Plus, the gameplay is simple enough to remote play. 

 

Meh: The characters during cutscenes have this weird breathing movement, like taking a 2D cut-out & placing it in front of a funhouse mirror. 

 

Base is just a floor plan with interactable points (when they're interactable points available).

 

Nothing bad to complain about. I'll get back to it when I find time to put Danganronpa down. There's been another murder, & it always seems to be the people I don't get a chance to hang out with during free time! 

[Together_Comic]

Game #2: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - First Impressions / Review

 

Trophies 2/51

Time Played ~2 Hours 

Completion Percentage: 90.58 --> 89.3 (-1.28%)

 

WARNING:  I will effectively be spoiling the prologue to this game and giving some guesses as to where I think the story will go. 

 

Oh no!  I've dropped back out of 90% completion ?, well Voodoo did title his event kill my completion for a reason.  Either way on to the game.  So I basically took the time to play through the prologue of the game last night and it was pretty good.  The game effectively has you (Rean) joining a prestigious military academy and being the first of an experimental "Class 7" with the punchline being that there is no class 6.  At least not one that has been introduced in the opening section of the game.  At your school orientation, you meet a colorful cast of characters in red jackets.  You are unique in that there are only 9 people in the red jackets and you are to form the aforementioned class 7.  Later you are dropped into the basement of your old school house and you have to complete the introductory dungeon which has you getting to know the characters a little bit.  

 

You start out with Elliot and Gaius, the best friend character and the student from abroad.  Later you run into Machias who seems to have some problem with the nobles in the country.  Later you meet the girls Laura who is the daughter of a famous knight, Emma. the smart girl here on scholarship, and Alisa R. who has all the makings of becoming the eventual love interest of your character Rean. I don't know why they hide the last name.  It probably spoils some later plot element.  But my guess is that she's probably the daughter of the major tech company that develops the fancy orbitals you're using (more on those later) and Fie a mysterious girl who seems to have some relation to the teacher.  A bit further in you encounter Jusis who is the son of one of the major noble families in the world and of course there's some confrontation with Machias who dislikes the nobles, because he thinks they are just handed everything.  They will probably become friends eventually is my guess. Your character also has a mystery to him.  When asked if he's a noble by Machias, he responds in an interesting manner with a carefully worded statement about him not having "a drop of noble blood" which seems to indicate that he still has noble relations.  Maybe he's adopted or some such, by a noble family.  

 

The Combat in the game is a combination of a Materia style system called quartz where you can equip a "Master Quartz" which gives you an some kind of bonuses and basic RPG combat of hold the X button till its time to heal.  The starting one for Rean is called Force and from there you can equip other smaller quartz to unlock either stats or specific powers or "rarely" as the game puts it some combination there of.  It isn't a bad system, and seems to make each character at least somewhat customizable. 

 

I intend to also play chapter 1 before giving my final review as the promise that the game is similar to a Persona style game has not yet been delivered. I can definitely see the persona style here, at least the set up for it, but the social elements of the game are basically non-existent so far and is something that I really enjoy about the persona games, so I'm hoping to see that develop in chapter 1. Also while the Quartz system is interesting in its own right, the game hints in the pre-prologue (yes, that's a thing more on that in the final review) at a linking system that will link the characters together in battle.  I'm interested in seeing how that develops as well as hoping that the plot isn't as predictable as it seems to be.  Predictable plots aren't necessarily bad, but one that hammers the tropes will get old in a 50-60 hour playthrough and a required second playthrough.... ?.

 

~TC

Edited March 10, 2021 by Together_Comic

[ladynadiad]

48 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

I intend to also play chapter 1 before giving my final review as the promise that the game is similar to a Persona style game has not yet been delivered. I can definitely see the persona style here, at least the set up for it, but the social elements of the game are basically non-existent so far and is something that I really enjoy about the persona games, so I'm hoping to see that develop in chapter 1. Also while the Quartz system is interesting in its own right, the game hints in the pre-prologue (yes, that's a thing more on that in the final review) at a linking system that will link the characters together in battle.  I'm interested in seeing how that develops as well as hoping that the plot isn't as predictable as it seems to be.  Predictable plots aren't necessarily bad, but one that hammers the tropes will get old in a 50-60 hour playthrough and a required second playthrough.... .

 

I'm going to give you a big hint to increase your enjoyment and the social aspect of the game: talk to all the NPCs every chance you can.  So your fellow students at Thors and the people around Trista.  It adds a lot of playtime, but taking that time really lets you dive into the sheer amount of detail put into the setting and makes it come alive far more.  Chapter 1 should open up the more Persona like aspects, the prologue is just an intro to the battle system and cast mostly.  Won't spoil anything else though, enjoy the ride and just be aware that it's a slow burn.  There are 4 games after all.

[Together_Comic]

8 minutes ago, ladynadiad said:

 

I'm going to give you a big hint to increase your enjoyment and the social aspect of the game: talk to all the NPCs every chance you can.  So your fellow students at Thors and the people around Trista.  It adds a lot of playtime, but taking that time really lets you dive into the sheer amount of detail put into the setting and makes it come alive far more.  Chapter 1 should open up the more Persona like aspects, the prologue is just an intro to the battle system and cast mostly.  Won't spoil anything else though, enjoy the ride and just be aware that it's a slow burn.  There are 4 games after all.

 

Thanks for the advice.  Yeah I noticed on the trophy list that there is a trophy for bonding with at least all of the Class 7 folks, so I imagined that it hadn't been introduced yet.  I generally will always talk to the NPCs, as its how I enjoy games, but it's nice to know that there is some payoff for doing so in this one.  Is 4 the last one? or is there still a Trails 5 to wait on?

 

~TC

[ladynadiad]

19 minutes ago, Together_Comic said:

 

Thanks for the advice.  Yeah I noticed on the trophy list that there is a trophy for bonding with at least all of the Class 7 folks, so I imagined that it hadn't been introduced yet.  I generally will always talk to the NPCs, as its how I enjoy games, but it's nice to know that there is some payoff for doing so in this one.  Is 4 the last one? or is there still a Trails 5 to wait on?

 

~TC

 

That's a bit complex because how the series works is that there are arcs covering individual areas.  Cold Steel 1 is actually the 6th game in the series we call Kiseki or Trails (Legend of Heroes itself has unrelated games before it), but it's the first in what is referred to as the Erebonia arc.  The series itself has an overarching plot, but each individual arc is mostly self-contained.  So there's 10 games in total right now, with the 11th coming later this year in Japan, but Erebonia's tale is completed with Cold Steel 4.  It's actually a pretty neat way of allowing for a massive ongoing plot, but giving easy spots in newer games for newbies to jump in and get in on the wild ride without thinking they need to play all these games to enjoy the shiny new game.

[Gretchen27]

9 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

That's a bit complex because how the series works is that there are arcs covering individual areas.  Cold Steel 1 is actually the 6th game in the series we call Kiseki or Trails (Legend of Heroes itself has unrelated games before it), but it's the first in what is referred to as the Erebonia arc. 

 

I didn't know that...Guess these Kiseki games wouldn't be available in English, would they? I put over 100hrs into Cold Steel & enjoyed every minute of it. Thankfully, I bought 2, & plan to pick up 3-4. But I'd go for more from this world/series in a heartbeat.