Kill Your Completion 15

ladynadiad · March 11, 2021

3 minutes ago, Gretchen27 said:

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.

Actually Liberl arc (Trails in the Sky FC, SC and the 3rd) are available in English on PC (and GOG is running a sale on all Falcom games right now). FC and SC are on PSP and should still be available to buy via the store on a Vita. The JP only ones do have fan translations though. Zero and Ao no Kiseki have a patch, Hajimari no Kiseki has a spreadsheet though I think they were working on a way to sub it on PS4, probably would need mods though. But I honestly think we're going to get a localization announcement for Hajimari by the end of this year with the current patterns NISA has been holding to.

For FC, SC and the 3rd, if you have a WIndows PC capable of running a modern browser, you can play those. They really don't need anything fancy as far as specs go. No need for a controller for your PC either, they play great with mouse and keyboard. They are pretty old games so don't expect fancy graphics like Cold Steel, but still great story and worldbuilding.

DamagingRob · March 11, 2021

Game #2- Child of Eden- Final Review

Guess these are more just "reviews," since posting on the first day of playing them hasn't happened yet.. Maybe caused by real life stuff driving my mood into a downward spiral. Or I'm just burnt out on gaming. Not a great time for that, but it means my completion will probably tank more than usual. ?

This game is... unique? There's an element of rhythm to it, which I haven't really grasped yet. But it's more of an on-rails shooter. Enemies pop up on the screen, and you move the cursor around and shoot. Pretty simple stuff at first, but gets progressively harder. I didn't actually finish my first playthrough because of that, giving up on beating the final level tonight.

You have two types of shots you can fire. fires your normal weapon, and holding it down will make it lock onto multiple enemies and fire up to 8 shots at once. , on the other hand, fires a different type of shot. Some enemies will fire projectiles at you, and this one can shoot those down. Later in the game, you'll be using both on different enemies, where one is ineffective and the other will kill it.

Getting hit will take off health, and losing it all will make you restart the level. The levels aren't super long, taking 10 or so minutes to complete. But after enough restarts, will likely get tiring. Every so often, an enemy will drop a health pickup you need to shoot to restore a portion of your health bar. They also will sometimes drop a Euphoria pickup. This is a special ability to use in a tight spot, as it clears every enemy on the screen.

The game is pretty short. There are only 5 levels. But the developers intended for you to play them many times, I think. Each time you complete a level, you unlock something. Artwork, movies, etc. And the percentage increases by ~8%. The guide says it takes 12 completions per level to unlock everything. You also need to beat levels multiple times just to progress. You get so many stars for beating a level, and need a certain amount to unlock the next level. Besides that, you'll need to get high scores, beat them on a higher difficulty, and gold rank them all if you want the plat. Which seems like a daunting task to me. :/

The game is visually stunning, though. From the opening FMV scene with a pretty girl, to the levels and enemy designs. Story is pretty barebones. I think you're supposed to save the girl after the world she's in gets twisted or whatever. But the gameplay is pretty fun, and the graphics/music are pretty neat. Might be worth checking out, even if it's on an alt. And if you have a Move, can try it with that. Another .

Time played: 4-5 hours.

Trophy progress: 14/50 for 20% and an A rank.

Completion percentage: 93.05% (-0.31%)

Game #3- Unravel 2- Preview

The first Unravel was a fun platformer, even if I struggled with some of the no death runs. ? I don't know how this one will go, though. For whatever reason, they decided to put an emphasis on co-op for the sequel. Which means I will probably be cursing at the A.I. for not doing what I want it to, since I have no one to couch co-op with. Hopefully, I will still enjoy playing through it before that point.

voodoo_eyes · March 11, 2021

Game #3 - A Plague Tale Innocence - Preview

Developer:: Asobo Studio

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Genre: Stealth/Survival Horror

Price: 49,99€

Right, so I know nothing about this game. I've only caught short glimses of gameplay, enough to convince me to buy it. I don't know the story or what the gameplay consists of. I do like stealth games though, as well as survival horror. So the only way they could throw me a curveball here, is make this game an escort quest from start to finish in which the AI is thick as a brick.

It being published by Focus Home Interactive gives me realtive high hopes, as they published the good Sherlockholmes games and the Council. This game I feel, may be less story heavy though.

Edited March 11, 2021 by voodoo_eyes

Gretchen27 · March 11, 2021

@ladynadiad

Oh, I hope they get localized in the west. It feels like since 3 or so (Cold Steel) came out on PS4 over here I run into more people talking about it or recommending them in game stores. So, their popularity would justify it if the marketing clearly explains it's in the same world & style. I wouldn't blame them if they went the norm of releases now with a regular release & then a remaster though.

I don't PC game anymore, but I can charge up my PSP. Next time I do my circuit of the retro game shop I frequent, I'll see if he's got any. If there were any released physically. If not, PSN store it is. Thank you for telling me about them!

ladynadiad · March 11, 2021

15 minutes ago, Gretchen27 said:

@ladynadiad

Oh, I hope they get localized in the west. It feels like since 3 or so (Cold Steel) came out on PS4 over here I run into more people talking about it or recommending them in game stores. So, their popularity would justify it if the marketing clearly explains it's in the same world & style. I wouldn't blame them if they went the norm of releases now with a regular release & then a remaster though.

I don't PC game anymore, but I can charge up my PSP. Next time I do my circuit of the retro game shop I frequent, I'll see if he's got any. If there were any released physically. If not, PSN store it is. Thank you for telling me about them!

Only Trails in the Sky FC got a physical release. SC is digital only. Pretty much with Zero and Ao no Kiseki, a part of why they haven't been localized yet was technical limitations, but with those being resolved now the huge hurdle is the cost for localization along with the limited market appeal for older games. Ao is going to be 10 years old this year, and it's graphics were dated when it came out. That's definitely going to be a rough sell even if there is a strong and devoted fandom for the games.

Fenrirfeather · March 11, 2021

While I’ve played a variety of ADV/hybrid visual novels on DS back in the day as that stuff is my favourite genre, the Phoenix Wright games (released from the year 2001 onwards) I’d deliberately steered clear of. The combination of the super poppy colouration of illustrations, the over-expressive character designs and what I thought was an absolutely hideous naming scheme (in English) had put me off and I glossed over these games without giving them a single fair chance. Boy, what a mistake it was!

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

My playtime: multiple hours that I totally lost track of
Trophies earned: 7/31

It’s so good. I can’t put this game down. Hook, line and sinker. I bit, can’t let go.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is true to its name a collection of the first three Ace Attorney releases. First released in Japan for GBA from 2001 onwards and later rereleased in multiple territories for the Nintendo DS (and some). The collection holds all three games but has a single trophy list, with platinum rarity hovering just around 34% at the time of this post and over 11k owners in PSNP’s database. A lot more trophy hunters than that, however, seem to have come into contact with the games in the DS era. While I’m not familiar with those versions, I want to say that the visuals in this HD collection look clean and pleasing on a TV screen and the controls are just fine with a DS4.

With that out of the way, onto the games itself!

The game does not dwell on fancy opening scenes and does not immediately introduce you to the protagonist. Instead, the game starts right with the meat: before ever murder trial, there need be a murder! Lucky you, you can lean back because you’re presented with the murderer free of charge. You also learn of his plot to evade suspicion of the crime, evade to be out on trial and risk a guilt verdict - a charitable present of greeting that the game hands you just this once.

The first case for the character you play as begins abruptly right after. It throws us into a twisted world where those unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time get arrested on the spot and put on trials that, thanks to a new regulation, may last a maximum of 3 days, though most end in one during a single court hearing. And you, you’re Phoenix Wright! A fresh, new defense attorney under the caring wing of your far more experienced and awesomely smart, hot boss, you’re bursting with energy and conviction but you’re so wet behind the ears you’re practically swimming. At least your sense of fashion as in line with your new profession.

After mere minutes into the game, you find yourself in a courtroom that, over the course of the first game, will become as familiar to you as an old friend and the very location you will hopefully be eager to return to time and again, in order to prove your spectacular skills as the defense. It’s too bad that right off the bat, that sense of familiarity seems to be far off, as you’re extremely preoccupied with your childhood friend being on trial for murder and it’s all on you to clear his name. You need to be ready from the first minute because the game showers you with a bucketful of information about its courtroom mechanics, as if you weren’t drowning in novelty already.

The 1st (and so far only) game in the collection that I played is broken up into 2 distinct phases that you are often automatically made to switch between: “courtroom trials” where you are arguing with the prosecution that bears ill will to your defendant and “investigations” that you can conduct with a chatty companion you’re joined by further into the game but with often little help from police and witnesses.

Trials primarily depend upon how well you listen to the testimonies of witnesses, as it is on you to press them for more detailed information (by pressing L1) or to point out inconsistencies with information that you previously acquired during investigations or during the trial. Thankfully, you’re not timed, can read carefully through a testimony and even scroll back and forth through a witness’ statements before you have to make your choice. Although you have a small “life bar” that depletes with wrong choices, the opportunity to save is available near all the time and allows you to play without a guide if you wanted to.

As any motivated lawyer should be, you will want to frequently check on your findings, collectively referred to in the game as “Court Records”, in order to present your evidence on the point during the trial. Make sure to keep all those photos, letters or parrots on hand that could help your defendant declared innocent and to point out liars on the witness stand. Your client depends on you!

Humour in the game is omnipresent in the form of comic relief. What I first thought would put me off became entertaining quickly and succeeded in making me smile often enough. Wright is swinging to and from despair in rapid succession, witnesses’ testimonies are generally ludicrous and characters seem to be far off their hooker. As soon as you’re on the roll and the situation feels like you finally have gained an edge after examining the testimony, your opponent prosecutor is all too happy to put a swift stop to it.

Investigations are conducted remotely similarly to those in the Danganronpa the Zero Escape series, if you happen to be familiar with some of these games, although both series place a much larger focus on interacting with your environment. Despite the similarities, Ace Attorney’s focus during investigations is on the characters and potential witnesses that you meet.

You move back and forth between static backgrounds that represent different areas of interest to the current court proceedings and question possible witnesses. Not all of them are willing to give you a breather and speak honestly and openly. You often find yourself in between a rock and hard place, needing to squeeze or bribe bits of the truth out of your questionees. A juice rumour, a secret the witness would favour not to get out into the open or an ultra rare trading card may be helpful as a bargain chip but you will have to figure out ways to acquire all of these first.

Occasionally, you point your cursor to an object of potential interest for your defense but as I played the first game of the collection, I found I’d rarely a need to examine the surroundings.

The antagonistic party you’re facing off against is the prosecution. They’re generally mean and nasty and sometimes hot.

It’s hard to talk about the most distinct and reoccurring characters as it’d give away the overarching plot woven into your day to day work as a fledging defense attorney for seemingly random defendants. Just so much for the plot that starts to unfold mid-game: in Wright’s battle of wits and trademark cries of “OBJECTION!”, he is brought up against someone familiar and precious to him, though Wright does not elaborate on this until events take a sudden, catastrophic turn around the time of the 3rd case in the 1st game. Wright’s profession as defense attorney is more important than ever before and his client is one he cannot possibly lose the courtroom battle for.

Wright himself is an easy character and compared to some other non-romance VNs, you’re rather free to read into him what you want to.

That is to say, he is not a blank slate which is proven over the span of the first game when he does react with clear concern when his comrades, and to a lesser degree his clients, are unfairly treated in the courtroom, are under pressure or even in acute danger of being on the receiving end of physical harm. In the same manner, Wright brings up and explains his just motive for becoming a defense attorney in a timely matter, his motives naive and childlike but not entirely unbelievable. Nevertheless, in the very first game that I’ve played nearly to completion, Wright is a little bland, especially when compared to other important, reoccurring characters. He does not exactly boast with personality, which leaves a fair amount of room for each player to interpret Weight’s actions to their personal liking. It makes him a likeable protagonist and his actions as an attorney worth to be invested in, if the player so wants to see him.

His frequent comical outbursts, at least, are golden.

I have doubts that I’ll be able to leave this alone completely until the end of the event, as I’m burning to follow up on the fates of the main cast in their adventures in court and I find myself wanting to keep on reading this like I’d be with a good book.

Lodbizarro · March 11, 2021

Game #2 Review Tales of Xillia

Hm where to begin I'm so glad this isn't a race on how many trophies we get each game because after 19+ hours I've only unlocked one and that was at the very end of my playthrough. Just like I figured this game is on the long side, I say that because it took me almost twenty hours to get through Act 1( which was the one/only trophy I got). The Story is alright a normal person interacts with a special being/person and events unfold pretty standard for a tales game which honestly to me isn't a bad thing, I don't really play tales game for the story but more so the experience so that's fine with me. What I do play tales games for is the Battle System and the Characters so lets talk about that first the good I really enjoyed the battle system I can see where they tweaked the graces system and tweaked it and while it wasn't as fluid to me as Graces that was probably more on me then the game, the skill web is also a new edition and while I would prefer just normal leveling to unlock skills once I got the hang of it wasn't so bad though personally glad this didn't carry over to the other games in the series. While I do usually play around with the different characters to see who's the best fit for me I stuck with Jude this playthrough and it went pretty well, first he has a amazing ability to teleport behind enemies if he sidesteps an attack. Also he's quick and has nice strength with attacks that help stagger the enemy couple that with his healing capabilities he's a pretty well rounded fighter, he's so nice at fighting I wish he was a good character(huh) what do I mean here's where I get to the bad. The main characters not just Jude but Milla as well are bland and kinda terrible while I get Milla

Spoiler

Is technically not a human but a diety in human form

hasn't interacted with many people her lack of regard or consideration for people that face consequences brought on by her is appalling, also her lack of regard for her companions or herself she wouldn't care if the whole party got wiped out as long as she succeeds in her mission. She has no qualms with people dyeing or leaving people behind if she deems they're slowing her down.

Spoiler

Speaking of slowing down why is she in such a rush anyway she almost dies doing a suicidal action chasing an opponent that almost killed her before, becomes paralyzed and is still trying to crawl to continue the mission even though she can't fight. It's nonsensical she can't complete her mission if she dies. Speaking of death since she's a spirit she won't really die but it would take another 20 or so years for another body to grow I'm sorry how is it that you don't mind waiting another 20 years to complete your mission if your body dies but can't wait another week to rest and gather strength WTF logic is that (sorry rant over).

She constantly puts the group in danger because she cant wait a few days even if it's the better/safer plan, I don't care how closed off you're from society I would think wisdom would suggest you listen to the people more knowledgeable about the situation and environments to come up with plans yet she is constantly disregarding them and Jude just enables this behavior. Speaking of Jude Mr. Bland himself he's not much better after 20 hours I feel like I still know next to nothing about him what's his motivations, why is he so hell bent on throwing away his life and following Milla on her suicidal path of destruction? They didn't grow up together, she's not particularly nice to him, he doesn't like fighting so why is he going along with her especially since he doesn't like her personality or at least how she treats people which he describes as cold( that's putting it mildly). He doesn't know himself half the dialogue involving him is why is he following her, is fighting the only way, how "cold" Milla is, how reckless Milla is, and going back in forth on joining her on her quest. In 20 hours the only question we have answered is why he wants to be a doctor.

Spoiler

because both his parents are doctors (da da) that's it

which isn't really earthshaking but after almost 20 hours I was grasping for anything. I was going to talk about the rest of the cast but that rant went longer then expected just know they play a standard role your shady rogue and cleric, mages, wise mentors they're fine though special shout out to Teepo (he's great) those of you who know you know.

Final thoughts the game is ok not the best but it is on the more worse side, but I'll be fair and wait until I finish game to make a final judgement It's only the first act hopefully the other two will have much needed character development and the plot picks up. Unfortunately I didn't get to try multiplayer yet but I will keep working on the game in my free time right now this review/rant went way longer then planned so far this will be the lowest score I've given a game though I'll give an update if it changes in the future.

Rating 6/10

Playtime 19 hours

Trophies 1/46

Completion 17.1%

Edited March 11, 2021 by Lodbizarro

PerryToxteth · March 12, 2021

KYC 15

Game No. 3

Playing Time: 3-4 hours

Trophies Earned: 15/31 (38% C ranking)

Final Review: I consider myself an Anglophile. It could’ve started watching Peter Pan soar over London as a kid, or devouring Sherlock Holmes mysteries in middle school, or watching Joe Elliott parade around in Union Jack skivvies on MTV, or consuming my first Boddingtons; but for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been enamored with the British Isles.
With that stated, how the Hell did I miss the memo on Peaky Blinders??? I mean, I watched all of Downton Abbey! I’ve been to the top of St. Paul’s! I can name all the Plantagenet kings in succession! I’ve bathed in Bath! I can tell you the ending for all of Henry VIII’s wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived)! I’ve seen the cliffs of Dover! And yet, I have never heard of this hit show on the BBC...

I will definitely give the series a try and I hope it’s as enrapturing as the video game. I couldn’t tell you when I bought this, or even why, but it’s been quite entertaining. You play as members of the Shelby family, a bootlegging family in post-WWI Birmingham. This premise has me a bit confused bc I’ve never heard of Great Britain having a Prohibition era; frankly, the mere thought of a dry Britain seems utterly absurd.
Anyways, they seem to be some sort of crime family and you run missions with members of the family. Each mission has a general goal, but there’s a lot of little quests that need to be done in a set order. The camera is overhead, as you can see:

The twist in this game is you can rewind or forward time using the and buttons and that really plays into the strategy of this game. Certain people will need to open doors at certain times for other characters; some characters have access to certain spots while others do not, some have special tools, or can beat people up, etc., etc. You will need to get your characters to coordinate, use their special skills, and accomplish your goal. So far, it’s been a fun puzzler, and although I probably made it sound confusing, it’s not that hard. You will spend a good time exploring to figure out the correct route or the specific task that needs to be done. Then just rewind and do the task precisely. I seem to love the time suspension games as I highly enjoyed Sexy Brutale and The Invisible Hours.
I got through Chapter 6 and it gets more challenging as you go. The knocks on the game is the developers must have barely got permission to use the Peaky Blinders brand. The game characters barely resemble the actors and the story is just scroll. An audio script by the actors would’ve really added to the story. Also, only 10 chapters seems too short, though for the cost of this game, I guess I can’t complain about not enough content.
There’s always one game I am bummed to leave in a KYC and this is definitely it. I won’t be all that lost in the story (bc there’s just not that much depth to the script), but I feel I am just getting into the groove of how to strategize properly. If I take a month off, it will likely feel like starting all over. And that’ll be tough because there are a few trophies tied to speed runs. Once you complete a Chapter, you get a gold/silver/bronze ranking based on time. I’ve only gotten one gold so far, though most of my times have been pretty close. Just doing some cleanup should net you a gold time without too much effort or research. I only had to YouTube one chapter, and it ended up being bc a prompt blended into the scenery and I missed it.
Anyways, a ranking for the Peaky Blinders game. I’ll start watching the show and see if it can match. Or maybe somebody can rate it for me. Anybody watch this show?

Next Up: Snow Moto Racing Freedom

ladynadiad · March 12, 2021

Game #2 Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

Trophies earned: 4/58 (6%)

Current completion: 97.75% (-0.38%)

Current unearned trophies: 222 (+44)

Current games played: 263 (+2)

Current games completed: 253 (+1)

Current unstarted games in backlog: 53 games

So going into this one about all I knew was that it was made by the same folks who made The Witch and the Hundred Knight and people had recommended it to people who had been disappointed in its sequel. So I went in expecting a game centered on witches and an action RPG. Well, this wasn't an action RPG, it's actually a dungeon crawler. It does have a lot in common story and lore wise to the Witch and the Hundred Knight though, so anyone who enjoyed that will be pleased by those similarities.

For those not familiar with the Witch and the Hundred Knight, the big thing with that game is that the main character who is a witch isn't necessarily your normal good hearted hero type. The game starts off with a witch named Dronya and her apprentice Luca arriving to a small village called Refrain. They are looking to discover the secrets of a labyrinth that is under the city. Problem is, people can't survive down there. Not even a witch can survive. The place is filled with a toxic miasma, which you quickly find out is mana and in this universe, large amounts of mana are poisonous to people.

So what is a witch to do to accomplish exploring this place? Send down some magical puppets. Though this also is a bit tricky because how is she to find out more about what the puppets experienced? Well, that comes in the form of a magical book called the Tractatus de Monstrum, which her apprentice decided to nickname Tractie and that stuck. With the book, the witch can get reports from the puppets so she can provide the puppets with more abilities and direction as needed.

So pretty much how the game works is that you create some puppets, you get to start with 3. You can pick from a few classes and do some basic customization. After exploring a bit more you can pick up some more souls to make more puppets and get up to 5 in your party. You can also further customize the puppets by selecting pacts for them which affects the sort of skills they can get as well. It's a good idea to have various types of puppets and weapons since each enemy has different weaknesses depending on the weapons. Some are best dealt with via magical attacks, others by blunt attacks, or slash attacks. You can equip the puppets with really any weapon you want, but depending on their class they will be better at certain types than others. This also can affect what pact may be better for them, since you don't want to put a rearguard character who is using a weapon with magic attacks on a fighter or attack pact, they are more suited to the mage pact.

The gameplay itself is okay. So far it's nothing special but I do like how it has some unique abilities for dungeon crawling. One of these is a skill called wall breaker. Pretty much you can break any walls that don't have a yellow border to find hidden rooms and treasures, or there may just be nothing but a huge pit. This is kind of neat because it's not a matter of just exploring what you can find, but also trying to destroy walls to find new paths. On top of that, not all of your routes are really nice and linear. Sometimes to progress you have to go fall into a pit. Or you may accidentally fall into a pit and end up a few floors down and the monsters are way too powerful. I actually accidentally got two more trophies this way since the trophies seem to amount to reaching a new level in the labyrinth. Once you make decent progress, the game then prompts to go report back to the witch so you can progress the story.

Another interesting thing is the fact that your main character is a witch but you play as her puppet. The witch herself is not the typical sort and she's also an older woman and quite experienced as a witch. She's also the sort to use her brains to accomplish her goals and she's already done things like hypnotize the mayor to get what she wants. When the story progresses, you see the witch and her apprentice about the village and interacting with people and you learn more about this very weird little village. As the story progresses, you also get new skills from the witch or can buy them with mana via a witch petition.

It seems interesting enough, but I don't seem to be far enough in for the story to really pick up or for the gameplay to get interesting. The battles amount to just use regular attacks to win because all the monsters are easy so far. The more interesting part is just trying to find your way around the labyrinth to progress the story. Not much progress trophy wise, but most of the trophy list is just progress the story and the guide I've found estimates about 50 hours for the plat, so I'll get this one wrapped up sooner or later, it just will likely be after the month is over.

And so tomorrow I'll be changing to the next game. Decided to change up the order a bit and go for Trials of Mana next.

purgta · March 12, 2021

Game #2 - Uncharted 3

The Story was not great. One and two were not exactly brilliant plot wise but this felt even weaker. Although, to be fair, the plot in Uncharted games seems more like an excuse for the characters to interact with each other and I suppose it does it well here. Gameplay wise, it plays a lot more similar to Uncharted 2 than Uncharted 1. It is one set piece after another and is very linear. I have to say though, if you do not try to explore and just move forward where your gut tells you to go, it feels a lot bigger. The shooting felt off to me in this one. I don't know if they changed something with the first stage of weapons but they felt a bit off. You didn't have any real annoying fights like the tank in 2 and the end game special enemies were better to fight than the ones in the first two games. The "Vehicle" section in this game was fine and probably the best out of the three games. I actually got worried when Elena brought out that jeep but thankfully it was not part of this game.

I thought Charlie Cutter was great and probably my favourite part of the game. The guy was way funnier than I was expecting. Marlowe is probably my favourite villain of the first three games but to be fair, the competition is not exactly fierce. Talbot was just one plot hole after another. I didn't hate him but he was not very memorable to me. Elena kind of disappointed me. The usual banter between her and Nate was missing in this game. Uncharted 3 seemed to lack the humour of the first two games. I guess it has to do with the game focusing more on Nate's relationship with Sully. I love Sully and while himself and Nate play well against each others personality, they don't have the back and forth joking that a lot of the other characters have with Nate. It was nice to explore their backstory.

It seems like I am criticising it a lot but I did really enjoy it. I will definitely play the next game in the future.

AuroraHistoire · March 12, 2021

I Have Better Games to Spend My Time On - Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

This is a game based off the Little Witch Academia anime; I have actually seen the anime and remember liking it. The game tells its own story and doesn't seem to require seeing the anime to understand it. The game gives skippable character introductions during the beginning sections so you can learn about the important characters. The story starts just before summer break starts. Main protagonist Akko gets rightfully punished for breaking a bunch of stuff (off-screen but knowing Akko, she definitely did it) and has to spend her whole summer organizing the library. One her first day, Akko and her friends, Lotte and Sucy, find a hidden chamber in the library with a giant clock and magic door. After some shenanigans, the three find out they are repeating the same day over, and over again and are the only ones who can remember it. Then Amanda, Constanze, Jasminka and Diana find the chamber too (and gain the ability to keep their memories from day to day) because Akko was acting weirder than usual and left the door wide open.

The game is split into gameplay modes, adventure and beat' em. In adventure mode, you play can only play as Akko. Adventure mode is mostly wandering around Luna Nova Academy, talking to people and doing little fetch quests. You are on a timer for the whole day and certain events happen only at certain times. You get a red event marker on the map telling you were to go to progress the main story. Sub events are a little more cryptic with their markers but opening the sub event menu and reading the description usually gives a hint. Akko can also learn spells to use in adventure mode but you need to consume a spell specific potion everytime you want to use the spell. Akko's magic abilities border the line between nonexistent and abysmal, so the game literally invented a reason that Akko can use spells and made a gameplay mechanic around it. You can buy potions at the potion store that uses it own currency that you find fairly regularly.

I found adventure mode very boring to play. It was a lot of running from point A to B with nothing of note happening along the way. The academy is very confusing to navigate and that mostly down to the map being a bit shit. Akko moves too slow for me, even when running. You do have the option of fast traveling between save points but I haven't activated most of them yet since I didn't have a potion for the spell used to activate them when I first stumbled upon them. The teleport feature is a spell and requires a potion everytime you want to use it.

The beat' em up sections of the game are kind of a mess. The playable characters are Akko, Lotte, Sucy, Amanda Constanze, Jasminka and Diana. All the characters play similarly to each other. Square is your light attack but you can actually press square some more times to do a little combo. Triangle does an attack and circle is usually a character's ranged attack (unless you're Constanze, who only has ranged attacks). There is a double jump and air attacks moves. R1 is a dash and L1 is block or a dodge depending on the character. The gameplay boils down to spamming whatever attack works best until everything dies. You are also forced to bring two AI controlled companions with you in single player (there are local and online multiplayer modes too). The AI kinda knows how to play each character to their strengths and can win fights without your help.

The beat' em up sections have some RPG elements to them as well. Characters gain experience points and level up: every level you get 4 points to assign to any of a character 5 stats, You also collect equipment for your characters. There is also a spell system in the game where you can learn spells that everyone can equip and use. Actually Akko has an exclusive skill so far that she doesn't even have MP to cast yet (there is a plot reason that Akko can use magic in the beat' em sections). Spells are either elemental attacks or support skills and they all have their own MP cost and independant cooldowns. You can equip up to 6 spells on one character and the AI will use them. My spells are mostly healing and support because they are the only kind of useful spells so far.

I had some fun with Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time but not a lot. The beat' em up sections are too easy, boring, a bit jank and not very fun. Adventure sections are boring too but some of the dialogue has some charm occasionally. The game also made everyone 3D and stuff so it doesn't look as good as the anime; most of the animations are still good and energetic, especially Akko's eavesdropping animation. Their are also some cutscenes that look like the anime and they happen semi-regularly, so I am happy occasionally for 15-30 seconds.

Static_Rook · March 12, 2021

Game 2 Review- 428 Shibuya Scramble

Hours played: 3

I'm not giving the game a rating because I didn't play it enough. My streak of bouncing off VNs continues. The first two times I sat down to play I fell asleep. The third time I almost made it through the tutorial first hour, but got bored and turned it off. I'll give this game another shot down the road, but I could NOT get into it right now. It's like the opposite of what happened with Forager.

So that makes one game I loved and put 50 hours into, and one game I could barely start. The next game up is Huntdown.

Game 3 Preview - Huntdown

I picked this game up during a sale and then kinda forgot about it. It looks like a long lost Genesis game so that's a plus. Side scrolling platformer / shooter with a cyberpunky art style and the trophy list doesn't look too bad for an Ultra Rare plat. I think this is a case of there being so few game owners more than the game being super tough, but I guess I'll find out. Onward!

Gretchen27 · March 13, 2021

On 3/11/2021 at 9:23 PM, PerryToxteth said:

Or maybe somebody can rate it for me. Anybody watch this show?

I watched the first season on a whim. It was amazing. I love the old dapper looks when men wore three piece suits with pocket watches & women wore deep, solid color dresses with beautiful hair/hat accessories. Peaky Blinders not only looks great as a period piece, it's also addicting to watch.

Business & family rarely mix well, & it's this dynamic that stirs up a lot of the problems that come up, making this show interesting. But it's gritty, dark & explicit. It kind of surprised me there, because when I see the BBC logo, I think the show will be on the tame side content wise. No offense to anyone across the pond, I don't even have the BBC channel anymore. The only things I used to watch from there were Doctor Who & Downton Abbey.

It's got a stellar cast, not your typical rotation of the same actors making the rounds. Cillian Murphy stars (obviously), I only watched him as Scarecrow in Batman & a horror/sci-fi movie called Sunrise. So I had no expectations going in. He leads well, I really like the flawed Shelby character. Tom Hardy & Sam Neill are also in it in roles I never would have pegged them for. There's more I'm sure, but I haven't watched it in about a year. I think the shows all wrapped up now, good time to binge the whole thing.

PerryToxteth · March 13, 2021

2 hours ago, Gretchen27 said:

I watched the first season on a whim. It was amazing. I love the old dapper looks when men wore three piece suits with pocket watches & women wore deep, solid color dresses with beautiful hair/hat accessories. Peaky Blinders not only looks great as a period piece, it's also addicting to watch.

Business & family rarely mix well, & it's this dynamic that stirs up a lot of the problems that come up, making this show interesting. But it's gritty, dark & explicit. It kind of surprised me there, because when I see the BBC logo, I think the show will be on the tame side content wise. No offense to anyone across the pond, I don't even have the BBC channel anymore. The only things I used to watch from there were Doctor Who & Downton Abbey.

It's got a stellar cast, not your typical rotation of the same actors making the rounds. Cillian Murphy stars (obviously), I only watched him as Scarecrow in Batman & a horror/sci-fi movie called Sunrise. So I had no expectations going in. He leads well, I really like the flawed Shelby character. Tom Hardy & Sam Neill are also in it in roles I never would have pegged them for. There's more I'm sure, but I haven't watched it in about a year. I think the shows all wrapped up now, good time to binge the whole thing.

Thanks for the endorsement!
Tom Hardy and Sam Neil are normally great in all they do. Cillian Murphy is on another level. I saw a great film years ago called “When the Wind Shakes the Barley” about Irish rebellion against the Brits and he was stunning. He could probably just nurse a beer and smoke onscreen for an hour and I’d be mesmerized.

Gretchen27 · March 14, 2021

Game #2 Final Review

Dark Rose Valkyrie
I am being super lazy & reusing the game image. By wrap-up I'll post screenshots for it, nothing really worth showing though.
Playtime: 5 hours
Trophies: 13/53 (20% complete)
Percent Change: -0.66% (No! I just realized by the end my unearned trophies will be over 1000. I haven't had that in 4+ years.)
Enjoyment: 6/10

I take it back, this game brought out the partial nudity.

For anyone familiar with Omega Quintet, there's a similar durability gauge for character's clothes. & once that's depleted, their clothes fall to pieces, leaving them to fight in nothing but their underwear.

Now, I have no interest in seeing these pale & scrawny adolescents shivering in their tidy whiteys. I only ever found that gimmick funny in Akiba's Trip, but that game has a reason for being as wacky as it is & let's me dress the male protagonist in drag. Here it just adds an unnecessary hurtle to the battle mechanics because once that clothing is gone, status ailments like freezing are more likely at night, the character takes more damage from hits, they complain on repeat how cold they are, & clothing repairs are expensive. I'm the type to defeat every enemy at least once (as they respawn after a short time), & I can't even acquire the currency to pay a quarter of the repair costs. Much less put money down to strengthen it. OQ was much the same, making early game difficult.

But here's where I think I broke through that hurtle, somewhat. I happened to check the add-ons in the PSN store & wouldn't you know, there's about a dozen freebies that give out items & money. The kids won't be going without their uniforms. Oh, & if the whole new look over the same game wasn't obvious: one of those freebies included Hyperdimension type uniforms. No surprise the twins can wear Rom & Ram colors, & so forth.

For battles, I've got a method in place that basically obliterates field enemies. You can have 4 party members in the battle, with up to 4 in the reserves. & sometimes these reserves jump in for an extra side attack. Time your moves right to have all party members attacking the same enemy & there's a near guaranteed chance for a combo attack. All 8 unleash on the main target, & hit splash damage on the rest. It works well so far. Doesn't do a thing for bosses. That's a freaking steep difficulty spike you barely survive.

I'm still only in chapter 1, but I'm starting to think that dungeon I mentioned earlier with the wonky camera angles is the main hub of sorts, leading to the other dungeons. They've introduced a climbing & crawling mechanic for certain spots. Its kind of frivolous. For that reason, combined with the uniform breaks, has knocked down the enjoyment level for this one. The story isn't catching my interest. Some terrorist group is using the chimera virus to beef up its members for who knows what (world domination?). Of course, to create a tie in to make things interesting (which it did not), the first member you run into is the main heroine's big sister. Who has been missing for years & never mentioned until that convenient moment. But there's time for side conversations with your unit about whether they sort their colored clothes or not when doing laundry.

I'd label this game busy work to remote play during commercials or something. There's no guide for it, & I haven't peeked at the hidden trophies, yet I've earned a good amount that where battle related. It's an ultra rare platinum on PSNP though, so the grind will hit at some point.

On deck for today is Muv-Luv. Another VN, give me some credit though, Danganronpa is on its own crazy train & is more involved then your typical VN, & I think Muv-Luv is supposed to be really long. I picked this one up after listening to BlueMaxima's (used to be a Vita focused YouTuber) personal ranking of Vita games. This was surprisingly his favorite. Its supposed to be a little bit funny in a slice of life setting, & then eventually ramps up to an epic sci-fi/space opera. That's the way I took it from his review anyway. I'll be starting it tonight.

MarkusT1992 · March 14, 2021

Game #2: Typoman: Revised

Typoman is a puzzle platformer with focus on words. You can see the main character on the image above. He is made out of different letters and you start only as the head. In the first few minutes of the game you assamble your body and learn about the power of words. Throughout the game letters are lying around the world you can put together to words. The game is 2D so you have to pull/push the letter together. You also can grab and carry them.

Some words you can make have special powers that help you advance in the level. To open a gate for example you can use the words 'raise', 'rise' or 'arise' and probybly more if you have the letters you need. That being said the game puts more focus on the puzzles than the platforming part.

Later you can make the word 'lie' which creates a little creature that can change words into their opposites. Sometimes an evil creature tries to stop you by creating other monsters to kill you but those part didn't happen to often until now.

There is a story in this game but it's not really important. I think it's about an evil monster and you have to stop it or something like that.

The game is quite linear with some hidden areas with quotes (the collectables in the game) that tell something about the current area or give hints about the puzzles. So far I found all of the quotes.

Time played: Around 3h

Trophies: 8/21

Rating:

Together_Comic · March 15, 2021

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

Trophies 5/51

Time Played ~8 Hours

Completion Percentage: 90.58 --> 89.42 (-1.16%)

Impression 8/10

So I got some time yesterday to spend with the game and went through Chapter 1 to get more of an idea about the game and its mechanics. Picking up from where my last discussion left off, the game introduces the social elements that were promised in Chapter 1. The game does this a bit differently from what I'm used to. In a game like Persona, the game gives you complete access to your schedule (mostly) and you can do 1 event in the afternoon and one event in the evening. This game gives you "free days" where it will assign you a couple of quests, one or two being mandatory, and one or two being optional. Completing the mandatory ones progresses the plot, while the optional ones give you equipment or items or whatever. There's also some hidden quests that you can find by exploring and talking to some of the NPCs around. During these days, the game also gives you bonding points, which you can use to spend time with various characters. You get 2 during the day and then 1 again at night and you cannot save them, but spending time with the characters doesn't advance time so you can do that and other stuff in the same day. There's also more events available than bonding points, so for example on the first day when you get 2 points you have options of Laura, Machias, and Elliot, and at night with 1 point you have the option of Alisa and Towa (the student counsel president apparently). Spending time with them gives you Link XP that goes toward maximizing your bonds with each character.

Speaking of Link XP that's the other mechanic introduced in this section. So the game allows you to link two different characters together for example Rean (your character) and Elliot. What this does depends on the bond level of your characters. So for example with the level one bond, sometimes when you attack with one of the characters, the other character will do a follow up attack on the same enemy. Whether they do or not is determined by whether or not you stagger the enemy. Each enemy can be staggered in different ways and are susceptible to different types of attacks that you can figure out by fighting that enemy often, or by using the analyze ability. So the combat system gets a little deeper than the initial run which was hold x and heal. So that's kind of neat too. Mastering this system seems to be key to defeating the enemies in this game because 1. They often have a ton of HP, and 2. the game is on the tougher side. For example, the boss of chapter 1 could one shot me with its art move with my character having buffed defense which is obnoxious. The counterplay to this is that you are supposed to be able to seal the bosses arts to prevent the attack but it would charge and attack before any of my characters had a turn. It also had 2 minions which could stun you for 3 turns with their basic attack which is nutty because if they then hit the stunned character, they can reset the stun count. I'm sure there is some items or abilities that heals stun, but I didn't have any... Another boss had an attack that stunned you for 8 turns which is basically the whole battle to the point where I just didn't bother healing that character and tried to let the boss kill him/her because reviving them took way less time.

As far as the plot, I'm kinda hooked. Yeah I mentioned the story was a bit predictable in the last section and it still very much is. I was right about one of the major plot points set up in the prologue (didn't take long to pay it off though...) and I could basically predict who was behind the conflict in the first chapter before it even happened, but it's still really well done for the most part and I want to see what happens with these characters. Either way I'm interested to see where it goes so I will probably try to come back to this right after the event closes. I think I would recommend it to fans of this type of game. It's worth a look at least

Which leads into

Game #3: Valfaris - Preview

This is probably the game that I am least excited about for the event. In a similar vein to hyperlight drifter, I basically know nothing about it up front. From just screen shots, it appears to be a platform sidescrolling shooter. In a similar vein to the old ninja turtles game except with guns. The game has both a speedrun and a don't die trophy so it looks to be a bit on the tougher side, even though the platinum is sitting at 8% so at the very least it seems very doable. I do need to pick up the pace if I'm going to get through all 5 games this month so I should be back with the review on this one pretty quickly.

Here's to all of you guys. I'm enjoying reading the reviews and write ups y'all are leaving

~TC

voodoo_eyes · March 15, 2021

Game #3 - A Plague Tale Innocence - Final Impressions

Time played: about 8h

Trophies earned: 17/36

So I've gotten about halfway through the game, finishing chapter 9 today out of 17).

I'm not going to go into the story at all here for spoiler reasons. What the game boils down to, is eactly what I feared. An escort quest that seems to drag through the entire game. It kind of reminds me of anotehr game I played a few years back, which is Shadwen and also available on PS4. A Plague tale just seems to be a more poloshed version of it, that also has better graphcs and sound.

Anyway, essentially you're going through fairly linear sections in a medieval setting. In tow you have your little brother who you have to protect. As such you have to clear the way of enemies, by killing or distracting them and remain stealthed most of the time. There are some areas where you don't have your brother tag along, in which you can move a bit more freely. This is bcause your brother goes into a fit, if you're too far away.

The furhter you get through the game, the more hinderances you come across, and subsequently you'll be uncovering more things to craft to deal with those annoyances. So while initially you'll only have a sling and rocks to kill soldiers with. Later on you'll encounter soldiers with helmets, where the rocks become useless. The solution is creating an acid that corrodes steel. You can also light torches that are out of your way with the sling or just by throwng a vial that ignites them. This is necessary for the sections with rats as they'll nibble at you otherwise, which will end up killing you.

Speaking of dying... everything is a one hit kill. This applies also to you as well as the soldiers. Thankfully the game has generous checkpoint, so dying isn't too punishing.

Overall this one has just been OK so far. I'm hoping the story evolves and becomes more interesting. Definitely not a game I would recommend at full price, so rather wait for a discount if it sounds like a game that could interest you.

Fenrirfeather · March 15, 2021

Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition
My playtime: 03:01:10
Trophies earned: 0/19

As if in tribute to popular classics on the (S)NES, Ara Fell starts in the middle of affairs and in the dark of night, when Adrian and Lita brave the soggy weather and thunderstorm on their quest to loot underground ruins for a magical artefact. Whereas the bits of conversation make it clear that Adrian is focussed on a job to retrieve the treasure, Lita’s carefree and casual comments hint at that she’s tagging along for reasons other than business. As it would be, the teenage girl Lita is the player character who you’re controlling.

In the course of Adrian’s and Lita’s conversation as they near the ruins, they briefly touch on a number of topics including the lore of the game’s world that the player isn’t acquaintanced with yet, such as vampires and the danger of being out and about after the sun went down which seems to hint at events possibly to come. Inspecting your surroundings thoroughly, both right at the beginning and also later in town, when more of the map opens up to you, is rewarded with more bits and pieces on history of Adrian and Lita’s world: Ara Fell.

Between the two characters you’re introduced to in the game’s prologue, Lita is the lively one and the spunkier of the two, whereas Adrian quickly presents as more thoughtful but also more anxious and wary. As video game mechanics would often have it, it is the player controlled and more adventurous Lita who finds a promising lead to the wanted artefact and discovers a hidden entrance that opens a part deeper into the ruins.

And although at this point the playtime hardly clocks 10 minutes, Ara Fell unabashedly throws its most charming aspect at you, the player: it’s incredible attention to detail for a game originally built in RPGMaker (2003, just a guess).

If you’re familiar with the resources used in RPGMaker in the 2000s or have been part of the scene, the chipset/maps you’ll likely have recognised right off the bat. Life is breathed into the maps by little animals running back and forth; there are butterflies and fish found all over in great number, as well as indescribable particles here and there. Besides weather effects such as rain and lightning (which you may toggle off if you so desire) there are other, overlay effects to simulate the direction of light. Interactive harvest points are designated sparkles on the maps that you can search for items. Similarly, ripples in the water serve the same purpose and your character, Lita, can dive at that to retrieve an item.

As you enter the ruins and Lita automatically notes on a sparkling harvest point on a wall in form of a crystal that you can mine, it’s nice to see that the crystal that was previously intact changes to a broken tile after having mined it.

Exploring the ruins in the prologue with Adrian and Lita, you have to overcome some minor hurdles, including jumping over small gaps which is something only Lita can do. At one point, you dive into the water and continue swimming down the path through the ruins which is a simple but welcoming change of pace during exploration.

The prologue is designed well in regards to introducing you to not only the characters but also to quests, the option of crafting and the battle system.

When Adrian sustains a minor injury soon after entering the ruins, you, as Lita, are tasked with collecting three items to help your friend in need through a special portion you brew up for him. In order to obtain all relevant items for your strange concortion, your short solo adventure handily introduces you to the battle system.

To this day I still remember clearly that the Grandia (1) battle system was held in extremely high regard (it sure was hyped in thr early 2000s) and I can’t deny that the instant I saw Ara Fell’s own battle system, I did feel reminded of certain aspects of it. That’s not to say the acclaimed DC/PS1 game that I had in mind was an actual source of inspiration for the developers, of course.

The battle system uses a turn gauge on the top of the screen which enemies and characters move along at individually determined speed, until their turn comes up and they’re ready to choose and perform an action. The range of possible character actions during a turn are standards for many (J)RPGs and personally, thanks to that adherence to standards, battle actions felt self-explaining and intuitive.

Some MP is recovered at the beginning of every turn while in battle and HP and MP are fully restored in-between battles. An “injury” sustained by dying in battle, however, lowers a character’s stats until the affliction is healed at an Inn. When dying multiple times, a character sustains multiple injuries, shown as small bandaids, that lower more stats in return. I found out when I let Lita die twice alone in the prologue and suddenly, glaring red numbers greeted me on the status screen.

Battle animation can be fast-forwarded by a toggle option in the menu. And I firmly recommend that “fast” mode to everyone who considers to pick up Ara Fell, as skills and normal attack animations are still discernible, just slightly faster.

Upon level up, you will be made to allocate points to a character’s four stats. Agility and Wisdom seem to be widely discussed as the important stars by the playerbase but I haven’t looked into it much yet.

Staring on Expert, the highest battle difficulty available, is required for a trophy. Unsure if some extra grinding would turn out to be necessary further down the line, I spent a fair amount of time levelling up Adrian and Lita in those ruins of the prologue. During that 40 minutes to an hour, the music struck me as fitting teh atmosphere just fine. The background tracks never became a bother but overall, the music felt reserved and low-key. It’s there but it’s hardly memorable.

Roughly an hour into the game, I finally managed to tear myself away from the grind, wrap up the prologue and begin chapter one which starts with a severe scolding towards Lita by her stern father, a reward for her little secret adventure along her childhood friend Adrian.

The vocabulary is modern and while that’s no quite my cup of tea in Japanese style RPGs, I didn’t find any of the dialogue objectionable (so far). The style of character dialogue changes dependent on the individual talking and Lita’s apparently not-so-young and gruff father uses distinctively different language than his loud-mouthed teenage daughter.

After several short events that have Lita returning to her home, much of the world opens up at once and harvest points and easy quests call from all over a well-sized town map.

Free to do as I please, I spent at least one and a half hours exploring, gathering the many harvest (sparkling) spots, catching fish and diving for discovery points in the water. I talked to all the NPCs to get to know the world, read books of lore about the world of Ara Fell on bookshelves in homes I snuck in and I accepted simple town quests auch as fetching items or delivering notes to certain NPCs.

NPCs with quests are easy to spot thanks to the ! above their heads. Some of these quests reward you with experience on top of gold and that pays off early in the game, when your level is low and EXP is yet scarce.

Albeit useless in the beginning where I’d discovered a single crystal only, there is fast travel in the game (between those crystal). Another modern perk in this RPG that is so reminiscent of the (S)NES era is that it forgoes save points for an autosave function on top of the ability to make multiple manual saves from the main menu at will.

My trophy count for Ara Fell is 0 at the time of this review and I dare say with that null achievement, I kinda failed the spirit of this event with what may be one of the shortest and easiest games on my chosen list. The most common trophy as of writing this is one awarded for harvesting 100 times which I don’t think I’m close to yet. The platinum trophy rarity is around 34% right now and the game is supposed to be rather short, with most playtime estimates ranging from 15 to just above 20 hours. There seem to be no missables that would require multiple playthroughs, as long as one makes sure to pick Expert difficulty upon starting the game.

The game’s design is positively gorgeous with high attention to detail, the gameplay is a throwback to the JRPGs I’d played as a child and the sole reason for why I haven’t progressed far into the game, I can’t chalk up to this gem but only to my sorry lack of time to game more and sink into the beautifully detailed world of Ara Fell.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Fenrirfeather
the bane of typos

PerryToxteth · March 15, 2021

KYC 15

Game No. 4

Playing Time: 4 hours

Trophies Earned: 5/14 (32% C ranking)

Final Review: In every KYC game I participate in, there’s always a game that sits untouched on my profile. This, will likely be the recipient of that unheralded award for KYC 15. The reason? Just not that much fun.
The spin on this game is that instead of your typical racing game, this one is on snow with snowmobiles (or if you live in the woods, sleds). There are a couple different racing disciplines; sprint, snow cross, freestyle (and for trophy purposes, time trial). Sprint seems to be the most fun where you race through an alpine landscape and go through checkpoints. A twist is that some checkpoints are facing the wrong direction so you will have to double-back from where you came from. And the shortest path isn’t always the wisest. The terrain is also quite hilly, so you want to save your limited boost for going uphill. This was the best part of the game.

The worst part was the Snowcross. It’s on a tight track, similar to the moto-cross courses from anyone who has played MXGP games. The gameplay mechanics suffer here because it requires tight turning and it is damn hard to turn a snowmobile on a dime. Snow racing is just like a water racing game in which the vehicle slides straight without the gas. It’s certainly doable to play this way, except there is always one AI speed racer who can take every turn flawlessly. You will be able to routinely beat 7 AI racers. But the one ringer might be a platinum blocker. In Snow-Cross, you race in circuits, comprised of 3 or 4 races. The good news is if you are failing, you can restart the race, BUT, you don’t have to restart the entire circuit. The bad news is, one AI is going to finish first or second pretty much every time out. So you will need to keep pace with the ringer.
Also, the game misses the valuable rewind function that MXGP has. Miss one turn and you are screwed! That can be frustrating when you have been racing for four minutes, have the lead, and now you have to start all over. Rat Farts!

There is a Freestyle element that I have briefly touched. You can do a bunch of tricks off jumps. The controls don’t seem all that friendly, but I only played a grand total of 10 minutes in this event. Finally, the time trials seem to be a long grind. There’s over 40 tracks you will need to earn a gold medal time on for a trophy. It will require some serious grinding in my opinion.
Conclusion, there are dozens of racers that come out each year. Skip this one and pick up something else.

Next Up: Irony Curtin From Matroyshka with Love

PS - I am out of town for a few days so this game will be reviewed during the upcoming weekend.

AuroraHistoire · March 16, 2021

The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same - Megadimension Neptunia VIIR

VIIR is a remake of Megadimension Neptunia VII. The story is the same. The gameplay has been drastically changed. The dungeons look slightly worse. VR events have been added but a VR headset is not required.

The VR events I found very boring. You sit around in what is supposed to be your room while a character from the game talks to you. You occasionally get to make a yes or no choice by nodding your head (or moving the right stick up+down or left+right). You unlock new items to decorate the room with as you sit through optional VR events. There are some VR events that you must sit through to progress the main story but those tend to be very short while the optional ones feel a lot longer. I was so bored that I noticed the little details like the clock on the wall is synced to your console and everyone doesn't wear shoes in your room.

The graphics in VIIR are mostly on par with the original. The only part that doesn't look as good are some the dungeons. The indoor dungeons look fine while the outdoor ones look a little crap. I think it has to do with a change in lighting.

The dungeon exploration hasn't been altered that much but you get much needed run button. The combat system has been altered to the point where it is almost unrecognizable. A turn consists of moving around the battlefield, lining up the monsters in your hitbox and attacking. Your hitboxes can now have different coloured zones. You want to get the enemy preferably in a red zone to do the full amount of damage. Any other colour will have you dealing subpar damage. Every other thing in combat revolves around having a AP cost. Characters get AP points at the start of their turn (4-5 so far) and any AP they don't spend can be carried over to another turn up to a maximum (11 is max so far). Your actions each turn are divided into 7 skills; combo, defense, special, partner, item, form and formation. Combo skills are the most basic of attacks, can chained together and never have a SP cost. I really haven't found a reason to use the higher AP costing combo skills over the cheap ones since they do the same amount of damage in my experience. Using a defense skill is how you end your turn; there are a few that use 0 AP like Defend and No Guard. There are also SP charging defend skills, healing and counters. Counters are really fun to use. Special skills are the hard hitting attacks and healing/support. They all require SP in addition to AP; SP works the same way AP in this game. Partners skills are mostly switching between coupled party members and using coupling skills (I'll explain those later). Item skills are just using an item. The unique thing is that characters can learn to transform basic items into better versions. Every character can only use a item skill a set amount of times per battle. Form skills allow certain characters to transform for better stats. Formation (and coupling) skills are powerful skills that require every member involved to have the required AP and SP to perform the skill. A coupling skill requires the 2 members involved in that skill to be coupled together. Formation skills require 2-4 party members to be alive on the field. Formations skills of 2 member require member to be on opposite sides of the monster while formation skills of 3-4 players need to make a triangle/square around the monster. To learn new skills you need to buy them once you meet the prerequisites to purchase them (usually being at or above a certain level and sometimes knowing another skill). Skills normally cost between 1,000 - 3,000 credits. I am at the start of act 2 and 3,000 credits is about 10 minutes of grinding. Hopefully credits become more plentiful since the original had at least 15 playable characters.

The crafting system has been changed to... It is different and I can't really explain it. Outfits and accessories have stats now. You can upgrade pretty much anything you can equip now. Reading the trophy list told me there is a new bounty system that I haven't even seen yet.

The scout system has been changed a lot. Scouts are basically sent to a dungeon, you wait around for 5+ minutes and hope you get something good. Scouts now get 1 skill every level that basically determine what they can find (dungeons, new scouts, items, ect.). Also dungeons have a 2 scouts limit now. I wonder if Miss Monochrome is still a scout in this game.

The story has been unchanged as far as I can tell so far. I haven't compared every line of text between the two versions but I haven't noticed a single difference. The part where Neptune heals everyone after a boss fight before another boss fight was left it despite being unnecessary, since you automatically heal up after every fight in this game. The first act is still Neptune, Neptune, Nepgear and Uzume having a fun romp around the post apocalyptic Zero Dimension.

I am currently kind of mixed on my feeling on Megadimension Neptunia VIIR. I kind of like the added complexity but at the same time it adds a lot of menus and slows things down a bit. The VR events exist and I mostly ignore them. I was happy to see they kept in the Neplunker dungeons in. Then I played it and remembered of intentionally frustrating they were designed to be.

DamagingRob · March 16, 2021

Game #3- Unravel 2 Review

So, I really liked this game. It kind of got me out of the gaming funk I was in, and I didn't want to stop playing. It also wasn't quite what I expected. There is no A.I. companion. You basically control both yourself, pressing to switch between the two. For speedrunning, this is a nightmare and will probably be why I don't finish it. Which is a shame, 'cause I really like it.. But what can you do? Don't know why this one went so tryhard with its list, and didn't just stick to no death runs. Trophies focused on co-op with no online multiplayer is kinda gross. :/ Maybe I'll try them more at a later date, but I decided to take a break last night after even a no death run wasn't fast enough for the one I was trying to do. But MLB 18 was fun, so there's that.

While the icon shows a red and blue yarny, you can pick a few different colors and style them a bit. It plays similarly to the first one, with a few new gameplay elements. 2D platformer with gorgeous graphics. This is the second visually stunning game in a row, and it really does look amazing. A lot of the music is great, too.

The gameplay consists of platforming and puzzle solving. Both yarnies are attached by a thread that only stretches so far, and you may need to do something like step on a switch to raise an object, go under it with one, climb on top and go back to the yarny standing on the switch, and then have them go through, pulling the second one up with the thread you just looped around. You can combine them, as well. Which is good for running segments, and whenever you don't need to control both.

There are only seven levels, that take a half hour or so the first time through. And then a number of short bonus levels. I only did one for a trophy. But the main levels are beautiful. And many have real life-like animals that appear to chase you, or to just spruce up the background. There's also some weird story about kids running from abusive parents or something? I don't know, I'm here for the balls of yarn.

I could gush on and on, but I hate to spoil everything that appears in the short adventure. The surprise is part of the fun. But yeah, definitely worth checking out the Unravel games. Giving this one a score.

Time played: 14-15 hours (according to Exophase; hell if I know)

Trophy progress: 21/29 for 50% and an A rank.

Completion percentage: 92.99% (-0.37%)

Game #4- Dark Rose Valkyrie- Preview

Guess I know a bit more about it now, thanks to Gretchen's reviews. Lol. Sounds like a Compile Hearts game, all right. Read it had members of Tales staff working on it, so thought it'd be more like those.

ladynadiad · March 16, 2021

Game #3 Trials of Mana

Trophies earned: 9/44 (12%)

Current completion: 97.38% (-0.75%)

Current unearned trophies: 255 (+77)

Current games played: 264 (+3)

Current games completed: 253 (+1)

Current unstarted games in backlog: 52 games

So on to game 3 and finally something I actually liked. I'm actually shocked because in previous events I played some Square/Enix stuff and thought rather poorly of both of them, with Secret of Mana being the one I disliked the most, but I also didn't think much of Final Fantasy XIII (and haven't played another FF game since). However, I found myself having trouble resisting this one because it's a remake of the very long overdue to get localized Seiken Densetsu 3 which is hailed as one of the best entries in the series and a game I've wanted to play for over 20 years. Fun fact: back in college I tried to play the original with an English patch in questionably legal methods, but couldn't get one that actually worked right. Of course still hesitant because Square/Enix has given me more flops than wins as of late and they did accomplish royally screwing up Secret of Mana but I finally caved when I found it for $20 on Amazon's Black Friday sale last year.

First off, I can say that for anyone who might be hesitating on this one because of how terrible of a remake Secret of Mana is with all its freezing issues and the slow combat, they definitely did way better this time. It actually passes my high standard for action RPGs, which Secret of Mana did not. I've played over 6 hours at this point and no freezes, no issues with the combat, it's a very solid remake. It also has very nice and colorful graphics and none of the chibi nonsense in other Square/Enix remakes. The environments are varied and pretty, but definitely don't expect a ton of realistic detail here.

So pretty much the game starts off by having you choose from one of six heroes to be your protagonist. It gives you a basic rundown of who these people are, how they fight, etc. I ended up picking Riesz who is the princess of Laurent and fights with a spear. She seemed to have the most interesting sounding story and I always preferred the spear in Mana games. After picking your main, you can pick two companions from the remaining characters. I ended up going with Hawkeye and Duran. The game overall seems to have 3 main stories linked to two characters. Riesz and Hawkeye's are linked with each other and Duran's is linked with a character I didn't pick this time around, Angela. Those who have played Adventures of Mana may recognize some of the locations mentioned, but there are also new ones. It was definitely a nice little bit of nostalgia to revisit places like Laurent, Jadd and Wendel, but locations like Valsena and Nevarl are ones not familiar to me.

So with me picking Riesz, the adventure starts in the Citadel of Laurent. Riesz is the captain of the Amazon Knights and also the princess of the kingdom and the game starts off with a simple battle to get the player familiar with the battle mechanics.. It's pretty simple overall, you have regular attacks and power attacks. You can charge a power attack for more damage as well. As you level up you can get more abilities and class attacks along with chain abilities. But onwards with the basic story. So Riesz returns to the Citadel and is trying to find her little brother. Said little brother gets duped into disabling Laurent's defenses and the place is invaded by Nevarl. Poor Riesz loses her father in the battle and her brother goes missing. She sets off to head to Wendel to ask the priest of light for assistance. In the process she meets whatever companions you chose and learns what is going on with them and she also meets a faerie from the Mana Sancturary. That gets the overall story going of her finding out that mana in the world is dwindling and bad things are going to happen, but if she can find a way to the Mana Sancturary and get the Mana Sword, her and her party member's problems should all be solved. Yeah, nothing too spectacular here, but it's engaging enough to be interesting at least.

Gameplay consists of exploring areas and battling monsters. There's of course loot to be found and a silly collectable called Lil Cactus to keep an eye out for. The game is nice and helps lead you in the right direction by showing golden stars in the direction you need to head. That doesn't mean the game is totally easy, but when it comes down to it the game isn't meant to be a huge challenge. Not a surprise, it's average completion is 59% and the plat rarity is a bit over 40% and the game requires three playthroughs for the plat and still claims 40 hours for the plat (though unless it's accounting for skipping all the story even on the first playthrough, I think that's a huge underestimate), it's clearly not meant to be a huge challenge. The game does have multiple difficulty levels so one can go with hard difficulty for a bit of challenge. However one thing is that the monsters aren't really a huge challenge. Their moves are pretty clear and easy to dodge, it even shows the area in which a skill will affect so you can get out of the way in time. I'm almost done with chapter 2 and I've needed a whole 1 healing item so far and that's because I was being lazy about dodging on a boss. The game is also extremely generous in giving out healing items and money.

Overall, I'm enjoying this one, but I'd say don't expect a challenging plat for this one. It's definitely meant to be a nice relaxing little game with you only really needing a guide for the Lil Cactus locations. The combat is nice and fluid and fast paced, but overall presents little challenge. I'm satisfied that I got my money's worth with the price I paid, but would be hesitant to say it was worth the full price. It's a fun game to play, but probably won't be anything overly memorable. I'm honestly more shocked at Square/Enix actually putting out a decent product for once because I've honestly felt most of their recent products have been lazy cash grabs banking in player nostalgia.

Edward_FOX_86 · March 16, 2021

Game # 3

Final and also only review

Dragon Age Inquisition

Hello everyone, I decided I will only do a final review since its becoming a personal trend. I didn't have much on my mind to start a preview so yeah...

This one is a Good. Very well designed and well thaught game, it follows a very well put franchise, so at the time I think it won some awards.

I think the story is sort of an independent one from the other games and It gave me a Fable 3 vibe at the beginning since your managing an empire.

Throughout the game you will find yourself with lots to do, collectables, rifts to close (some gaps between the world of dragon age and the demon world), encampments to conquer, side and mini quests, etc.

The grinding in the game is at least not that boring because the combat in my opinion is one of the best in this genre. I'm really enjoying it.

The dialogues are well made and the voice acting is very good. The world itself is very varied as are the enemies you will face, from demons , to wild animals the fun never stops.

i think I put 6 to 8 hours in this game and its been quite a fun game to play.

I've also started playing some other games and just out of pure curiosity I will mention a game I've playing called Wizard of Legend. If you guys are ineterested in a rogue-like indie game its very good.

Anyways this is my review and I would rate this a 8 out of 10.

Cheers Everyone and Happy Hunting!!!

voodoo_eyes · March 16, 2021

Game #4 - Cyberdimension Neptunia 4 Goddess Online - Preview

Developer:: Tamsoft/Compile Hearts

Publisher: Idea Factory

Genre: RPG

Price: 39,99€

Here we are again with a Japanese game that hasa long ass name. I've played several of the neptunia games by now. Only finished a couple, as a lot of them force you to grind a few hours into the game, which I don't have the time nor patience for. Most of them were decent enough though, so I'm guessing, I'm in for more of the same with this spin-off.

Maybe it'll be enjoyable enough for me wanting to finish it.

Kill Your Completion 15

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