Time for another KYC - 20th edition

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - The Callisto Protocol (PS4) - Preview

 

 

Developer: PUBG Corporation

Publisher: Krafton

Genre: Survival Horror

Price: 59,99€ (PS4 only)

 

 

Alright time for game number two. This one I believe is supposed to be a spiritual successor to Dead Space, a franchise that I enjoyed for the most part, so this could be up my alley. Had no idea until today, that this is from the same studio that made PUBG and to be fair the only one of the games this developer made, that I actually played was the MMO Tera (passable btw).

 

[Hemiak]

Solo Game 1

Superhot 

(I pasted the logo in here but it isn’t sticking when I post on mobile for some reason)

Time Played: 4.5 hrs or so

Trophies: 14/27, 40%
 

This will be my only review for this. I finished the “story” and played around a bit in the other modes, so I’ve got a pretty solid handle on this. 
 

If I had to put a genre on this I’d call it a first person time based puzzle shooter. I know, it’s a mouthful, but what does it mean? It means you punch, shoot, pickup, and throw things at these crystalline faceted red guys in first person mode. The catch is that time only moves when you are actively moving. And that’s where the puzzle part comes through. So you can effectively dodge bullets, jump cars, hell even cut bullets out of the air with a katana If you line it up right. The first trophy I earned was when one of my bullets hit one from an enemy on accident. Weapons take a second or so to reload after each shot and have a very limited amount of shots, so then you need to throw them away, either at an enemy to stun them and make them drop a weapon, or just into a random wall so you can grab a new weapon. 

After a short while you get the ability to HotSwitch, which essentially sends you to take over one of the red guys bodies, and your original body explodes and dies. The body you enter throws whatever weapon they had before the switch, and there’s a timer on how often you can do it that’s based on how much real time has passed. It’s useful but it isn’t quite as OP as it seems. 
 

The game has a very barebones story. It takes place through a sequence of chat interactions. First your character (unnamed) gets told about this cool game from a friend, who then sends him Superhot.exe. The main screen is an old style computer with a list of files and folders on the side. You can go into pics, and vids, and games and play around with the files there, but most of them aren’t worth checking out if you aren’t aiming for the trophy that requires opening all of them. 
 

Upon launching the .exe you’re immediately put in a VR game with a couple red guys running at you, but frozen until you start moving. After you clear a couple levels you get access denied and get kicked out. At that point you message your friend and he tells you “oh yeah I forgot, they patched it but here’s a more current version” not sure why he didn’t just send that first but k. 
 

The cycle repeats but next time he tells you the newer file is password protected and he hasn’t figured it out. He sends, you dink around, and somehow get into the game, but things take a sinister turn. After finishing the section you message your friend to tell him you got in, but something(one) starts altering your messages as they send, and he gets mad because you’re being weird and not sharing the password. 
 

As it continues you start getting messages from ??? telling you to give up and stop playing. They tell you they know who you are and are watching you, you end up in a jail cell in the game and can’t disconnect, and they prove they can hurt you in the real world. After eliciting a promise to never enter again they finally let you go. You try to talk to your friend and the messages get messed up again. 
 

Of course you eventually load it up again and go back to beating up res guys, but then they start messaging. I won’t go through it all but it your guy basically loses control and becomes a slave to the system where he eventually hot switches directly into some “core” thing, attempting to upload something to the server. I won’t spoil the actual ending, but it isn’t a a happy one. It took me about two hours or so to get through the campaign. 

 

After the game ends you get several new items added to the console. The most important of these are endless and challenge modes. In endless you’re put in a room with four spawn points around it and some cover and random throwable items around. You get waves that come with more and more enemies, with more difficult weapons as it goes. After you kill X amount of enemies you unlock a new map. Apparently there are trophies for killing Y amount of total enemies in endless, and unlock every map. So it’s more of a grind than a skill thing. My best run was like 43 enemies, but I got the notification I unlocked the next map like 3 enemies into a new run so it really is just a time commitment. 
 

Challenge is a little more interesting, though not much. You basically play 25 of the story levels with a specific set of limitations. And there are like 12-15 sets of challenges. The first one was Katana only, and the next was 2013 Superhot, so the time moves a little different, punches are one hit KO, and you can’t pick up and throw any normal items or melee weapons. The idea of challenges is cool, but having to replay the same 25 levels 14 times each sounds pretty annoying. There are two different speedrun challenges as well. The first plays like the actual game, where you have to eliminate all the enemies under X time for a red rank, but time only moves when you’re acting. The second is a lot harder. Time moves constantly at normal speed. So you can’t take your time and line up shots like normal. You need to be constantly moving and take very minimal time for adjusting. I did the first 6-8 levels on both speedrun modes and the second is much much harder. That will probably be the hardest part of going for platinum. 
 

All in all it’s an interesting game. The story was fine for what it was, but clearly just an excuse to throw the player into the simulation to kill red guys. The game isn’t overly hard, but some trial and error is necessary to get through some of the later levels. It throws a good number of trophies at you early but plat seems like it’ll be a bit of a grind to unlock all the endless maps, finish the challenges, and red rank all the speedruns. All in all about what I expected and the novelty of the idea wears off quickly once you start replaying levels. 
 

Gameplay: 6/10

Trophy Experince: 3/10

Edited May 4, 2023 by Hemiak

[Chirithy84]

Game 4:

Spoiler

Fuga Melodies of Steel Trailer

Chirithy84's Fuga: Melodies of Steel Trophies • PSNProfiles.com

So here's a little preview of  the Story of Fuga, Melodies of Steel. I was immediately thrown into the universe of this game without much explanation. Later it turns out; that these children, in front of the arriving, foreign soldiers, an enemy occupying power. fled to this cave. A place; which was always forbidden for them. In this cave; they then discovered the Tanaris. Which they then wanted to use to liberate their parents and their village. What they didn't know, however, is...that the Tanaris was a sentient weapon of war; which was never meant to be used...

[Taruta13]

Okay, I am done with Game #2 a little early, because, well...

 

Game #2
FINAL REVIEW: Asdivine Saga (PS4 edition)

 

Trophies Earned: ALL OF THEM (100% )

 

Time Played: 3 hours yesterday, 18 hours today

 

So... yeah, I earned the platinum on a KYC game, but to be fair, two other KEMCO titles are taking over killing my completion instead, Ambition Record (because the last trophies I need require me to roll the crafting roulette in the cash shop to get three items that unlock three jobs to unlock three arena courses I need to do for three trophies and I need to spend a zillion ARP to get those items ) and Legion Dragon(which I started without realizing how boring this game is going to be ?), and the latter has only one trophy for watching the introduction. True, it has dialogue speed-up but even so it's boring.

 

Much like this game is. Luckily, I don't need to use the cash shop(and it's easy to farm the currency needed for it due to special obelisks that let you spam fights which give you 10 Spirit Orbs a pop) but the boring part was walking half a million steps. Yep, you have to walk 500,000 steps in the game to get a trophy, and the in-game achievements end at 250,000.

 

Luckily, this is an Asdivine Game so you have the multiple romantic endings and true wedding endings with the three female characters(from right to left in the trophy picture, Akane the ninja, Celes the Light Deity priestess and Nisha the Shadow Deity priestess) and luckily you do not have to do any extra content. Once you save a clear game, you can load it right up and fight again. You do have two endings based on whether you use the special sword you get near the end of the game or not, but I have an Excaliber +99 which trumped it, and using the Dark Ring's effect to do damage to every enemy at the beginning of the fight and using Akane's throw ability to throw Whirlwind Shuriken, the final boss was a joke.

 

The reason I got the platinum here was because I need a quick and committed game to be #174 on my list so I could do Monster Boy for #175. (Yes, the PS5 version.) And this game was the easiest of the titles to platinum. Don't worry, I plan on having something fill in that extra day I didn't use. Yes, there are boosts that give triple EXP and whatnot, and I payed $15 for all the boosts. This game did not have an encounters control boost because the game has these obelisks in dungeons which do that(there are two in each dungeon and you can only double and halve encounter rate until you find the second obelisk to upgrade the regulation to turn off encounters. For the overworld, you need the Warding Ring in the cash shop to repel encounters. This, I feel, is a fair system and the overworld encounter rate isn't insane. Also, auto-battle is a lot less brain-dead than in other RPGs.)

 

I did also find that the arena is fair if you are decently leveled and know what the restrictions do. For example, I got wiped in the Silver Cup Round 2 because I forgot that my party was poisoned and falling into KO range but after a few grinds, I was strong enough to deal with that. Almost wiped on Maid Cup Round 2 because I forgot that enemies counter normal attacks and auto-battle prioritizes that so I turned it off and used magic and weapon skills. Maid Cup Round 3, the toughest of the bunch, is a complete joke with Akane's throwing skill and the Dark Ring's aoe that activates at the beginning of the battle.

 

VERDICT: A junk food RPG, avoid if you want a challenge.

 

RATING: 7 out of 10 crazy ninja girls

 

CURRENT COMPLETION %: 89.91% (-0.31%) Thanks to Ambition Record and Liege Dragon taking up the slack from this game's platinum clearing up the completion.

 

I'm going to put up the third game reveal very soon, because I know what it has to be thanks to my stupidity.

 

 

 

[Kevvik]

Game #1: Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion

 

Final Impressions

 

Ok, so I’m getting better at the strategy of fighting though 1 boss, which might be game optional but got me a trophy, drove me a bit crazy. It summons ground worms to help it fight but once it’s health gets low, they activate something called Petrify Breath which does exactly what you would expect but if too many worms are still alive, they all use it and you might as well write things off because they petrify you one after another so you die never getting unpetrified.  Felt a little cheap but did feel satisfying when I beat that freaking tree.  
 

The fighting is only half the battle though. You have to be able to block and I found that the timing isn’t always what you expect and that it takes me a bit to get what they think is the timing for that fight down and it’s easy to slip up, especially when a boss is raging on you and suddenly throws in a differently timed move in the cycle you’ve gotten used to. I imagine this could be frustrating if you were good at it and I’m average at best so these special moments are annoying.

 

Story-wise, it’s still nothing special. I’m almost positive I know where this is going though I’m not sure how much I have left. This is going to take multiple playthroughs to get the platinum, I figure at least 3 as there is a one life mode so I’m going to try to get the other trophies in normal mode. We’ll see if it has a new game+ as that might make things simpler.

 

Time played: 13 hrs

Trophies earned: 24/44, 44% for A rank

Final score: 5/10
Completion rate: 87.42% (-0.12% for the event)

 

Next up: Game #2: Contrast

 

I know this may not be a long game but I’m hoping to get some time out of it.  It’s been sitting there so long since being one of the first PS+ games for PS4, I figured it was well past time.  If it’s too short, maybe I’ll find another short one to add on.

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Kevvik

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - The Callisto Protocol - Final Impressions

 

Time played: about 9h

Trophies earned: 16/33

 

 

Since I'm expecting to have a buy day today, I'll wrap this one up now. I may still play some more today, if I find the time though.

 

I've now started chapter 6 (out of 8), so I've played a good amount so far. This game honestly is just a worse Dead Space in every department.

 

It's a sci-fi setting, as you'd expect, with lots of narrow corridors and some larger rooms that more often than not, end up being a survival room.

 

The visuals and sound design is pretty good. The story for me is just not really that engaging and while this game has jump scares and enemies popping up out of nowhere, it lacks the atmosphere it's original inspiration had.

 

The game so far has ticked 2 of 3 boxes of things I don't like in games, water slide dodge session and free fall dodge session (the others would be elevator fights). So it already gets a minus point for that. The big issue this game has is the pacing and the combat. New weapons are too far apart, the money you get is minimal which makes upgrading take forever and then the upgrades are not even that good.

The issue with the combat isn't that it is bad, but rather absolutely tedious. I'm playing on the highest difficulty, so enemies take 10 hits with the melee weapon to kill. Which isn't great to begin with, but gets worse halfway through the game, when damaged enemies mutate when they are almost dead, so now you gotta hit them an additional 10 times. While there is a way to interrupt the mutation (which does not always work), it just makes the combat encounters feel like there's no end to them.

 

THere are the occasional rooms with environmental hazards that you can telekinesis the enemies into (yes you also get that from Dead Space), but you can use it maybe 3 or 4 times before it's depleted and it also drains while you're holding something, so it's only useful to some degree. Again you can upgrade it, but as mentioned earlier, money drops suck.

 

What also sucks is the inventory. During the first 4 chapters you just have 6 slots available, which fill up rather quickly, From chapter 5 onward you'll get double which is better, but all of a sudden a health pack doesn't heal you to full anymore, instead you need 3, so the inventory problem remains, because you need more room for health packs than before. ?

 

 

It's a bit of a shame. Melee combat just doesn't really work with this type of game. Since you sometimes get 3 or 4 enemies at once and then you just dodge all the time and don't really have much time to attack.

 

 

6.5 for me. Almost on par with Dead Space 3, which was slightly better. Not even close to the first or second one though.

[Taruta13]

I was so busy playing Asdivine Saga for the PS5 stack that I totally forgot about...

 

Game #3: Heirs of the Kings
(PS5 version, because I need that girl's brown hair for the Kaledioscope challenge )

Developer: EXE Create

Publisher: Kemco

Genre: JRPG

 

So yeah, another Kemco title. I know very little about this game so I am going in blind. But rest assured it's probably yet another RPG with the same mechanics as every other Kemco title.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Taruta13

[Arctic Cress]

Game #1 - Digimon Survive

Time played: 4 hours

Trophies: 8/46 (11% - E)

 

Digimon Survive is a visual novel/strategy RPG hybrid. A number of high school students are exploring in the mountains, and they eventually find themselves in a world filled with Digimon, each of them having their own partner. So far, I've made it through part 2 of the story, and started a bit of the dialogue through part 3.

 

First things first - the visual novel portion of the game is much more than the strategy RPG portion. If you are looking for a new strategy RPG to play, this probably isn't the right title for you - there are a number of story battles, yes, but they are about 20% of the game while 80% is exploring and visual novel dialogue. This is fine for me, since I have plenty of visual novels on my profile, but it will definitely put off others. The story so far hasn't invested me yet - there's only been one shocking event so far - but I haven't played too much yet so I'm willing to keep at it and see how it unfolds. Speaking of which, the story portions have plenty of choices to be made, some that increase affinity with the other characters and others that increase certain statistics - and looking at the trophy list, these lead to certain routes. I haven't really been focusing on anything in particular but I might take a look later.

 

The strategy RPG portion is done on a simple grid. Most Digimon have a normal attack and a special attack (or support) that uses SP. The partner Digimon can also digivolve upon seeing a certain story event. You can also recruit other Digimon in free battles through conversations that act like a Shin Megami Tensei demon negotiation. Thankfully in these conversations, you can just restart the battle and try again if you screw up. Free battle Digimon cannot digivolve in battle, but can permanently digivolve upon using a certain item. I've only seen one of these items so far, but I assume more will turn up eventually. My only complaint is the wild difference in movement between different Digimon - some can move up to four spaces while others are limited to two, and it makes using some of the Digimon an exercise in frustration (and one of the 2-movers is a partner, so that makes it even worse). The fact that EXP is only awarded after battle split between all Digimon that participated somewhat alleviates that, though I'm hopeful their evolutions will allow for better movement.

 

In general, it's nothing I haven't seen before in a game, but I do like Digimon so I'll keep at it after the event ends.

 

Starting completion: 75.49%

Current completion: 75.49%

Difference: 0%

 

To be fair, I probably should have take the completion % after I finished Final Fantasy 1 for the RPG event and not before it, since it has all those gold trophies at the end of it, but what's done is done. Since I just played a visual novel, I won't move into Witch on the Holy Night yet and instead probably try 9th Dawn III first.

[Psy-Tychist]

Game 1: Tails of Iron

A tale of trails involving tails and lots of fails.

Current Percentage: 70.45% -0.05%

Trophies Earned: 15/30 - 30%

Time Played: Tracker says 3 hours 17 mins.

Number of Frogs brutally slain: 178

 

Tails of Iron is a 2D metroidvania from Odd Bug Studios where you play as Redgi, the young prince to the Rat Throne. The history of the game is that for generations the Rats fought each other and the Frog tribes until King Rattus united the rat tribes and defeated the frog King bringing peace. Now the old king, in his old age wants to pass the crown to Redgi, but in the midst of his sucession, the Frogs return and decimate the Crimson Keep, kidnapping Redgi's brothers and killing his father. Now, he must find his family, rebuild the Keep and take down Green Wart once and for all.

 

The game is a very pretty, if grimy looking 2D brawler with some basic combat options. Every enemy has specific patterns and they are designated with symbols and signs. If you see 3 red lines it means they are using an unblockable attack and must be dodged. If you see a red circle, the enemy will create a shockwave at some point on the arena. If you see some yellow zigzag lines, you can parry the attack and they are then vulnerable. If you see white straight lines, it will be normally a projectile which is blockable. On occasion, some enemies will attack without any warning, which can be blocked, this is normally just standard enemies that employ this. All standard enemies have a specific move set, with bosses wanting to be much more complex and painful. So far in the game, I have defeated 5 or 6 bosses and have encountered a hard optional boss which I have yet to overcome. Most of the time when I have fought them, once you understand the patterns, the fight is just making sure not to become greedy. I have encountered a couple issues with fights because what you intend to do happens too slowly and you get battered. 

 

As you progress, you follow quests given by stewards or part of the Rat tribe, or by using the bulletin boards to fulfil side quests. From these, you can acquire monster parts, masonry, weapons or armour but most importantly, gold coins. When you rescue the two brothers (imaginatively name Chef and Smith because they are a chef and a blacksmith) part of the keep is repaired and they both offer different reusable skills. The chef will make a meal which will increase your health permanently, but only with the ingredients you find in the world. The blacksmith can turn blueprints into weapons that Redgi doesn't have yet. After you have these paid for, the task I am at is to rebuild the throne room, which costs a lot of gold pieces. The keep is looking a lot better, the road is clearing and the town is not on fire but I am yet to reach the second half of the game yet. 

 

You receive a lot weaponry and armour to collect the game, the armour is broken into three types (light, medium and heavy) with the weapons broken into swords, axes and polearms. The ranger will provide you a bow early into the game to shoot the flying bugs that harass you and to break through the barricades you will find a 2-handed axe. Early in the game, the 2-handed weapons are much more powerful, but the stage I am at currently, there is no real difference besides the 2-hander can knock enemies over sometimes. So I am using the much faster spear rather than the claymore which sits on my back. Besides feeling like a scrap merchant collecting all this metal, there is another mechanic which I'm not sure how it is affecting Redgi. The weight system hasn't really affected Redgi's movement, each piece of armour and weapon adds weight. It has never passed over halfway yet, so I'm unsure how it will affect the movement or power yet.

 

Personally, this game is charming, has a simple yet fun story and has some very brutal death animations. Little touches like when Redgi gets covered in bug blood, it lights up like ultraviolet paint in the dark, when the characters speak they use wind instruments to indicate their ages and the use of the voice of Geralt as the narrator adds a certain gruffness and grit to the game that it wouldn't have if it just used pictograms to describe the action. It isn't anything overly new or special, but you don't need that all the time. If the characters and story speak to you and you can get lost in the world that will carry you through til the end and enjoy the experience.

 

Trophy-wise, it seems rather simple, most are for completing the story missions and defeating X-type of enemies. Some relate to collecting things, but from what I have played, there is nothing missable and there is a quite generous checkpoint system to use. I will have the rest of the trophies probably after the event.

 

Next Game: Dread Nautical.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Psy-Tychist

[MarkusT1992]

Game #1: Tails of Iron

 

 

Since @Psy-Tychist just wrote a good summary of the game in the post above me I'm not going to do it again. I'll just add to that and give my personal experience with the game.

First a bit more info on the weight system. It is divided in three part seperated by a line where it goes from light to medium and eventually to heavy. There's als a small image to the left that indicates at which weight level you are. A feather for light, a weight for medium and something I haven't seen for heavy. The difference between the weight levels is the distance your evasion move reaches. You can evade by pressing and double tap to roll. The roll is the part that changes depending on your weight. So far medium weight didn't make that much difference to light since you have enought distance to get away.

To add on the trophies there is at least one trophy that is missable. There is one for collecting all the gear in the game. Pretty early in the game you get to an area under a bridge that has a piece of gear hidden in some barrels you have to destroy. If you miss that gear you can't reach it anymore since the bridge get repaired, blocking the acces to that area. Also if you miss picking up a gear dropped by an enemy and leaf the screen it is gone as well.

 

Personally I had fun playing this game so far. I'm quite a bit farther than Psy-Tychist and probably close to the end. I guess it will take another hour or two to finish the game.

The only thing that was a bit annoying is that I had to replay a part of the game. After one of the side quests (which aren't really optional because you need the gold you get for them to advance the story) I got the quest completed message and the reward for that. But there was also gear dropped from the enemy you had to defeat which I picked up. On my way back to the last save point I died because of low health and no healing left after the fight. Since the game only saves when resting on one of the save points I lost the gear I picked up from the enemy. Normally you respawn at the last savepoint with your progress lost. But here the game decide to spawn me back infront the questboard with the quest still completed but the enemy drop gear lost.

That means that I wouldn't be able to collect all gear anymore in that playthrough.

 

Time played: 5h

Trophies earned: 20/30 (66%)

Rating:

 

 

Next up is The Darkest Tales

Edited May 6, 2023 by MarkusT1992

[slicknick3822]

Game #1 - Horizon Zero Dawn - Final Review

 

Time played: 8h

Trophies Earned: 18/79 (18%)

 

For not playing two of the days, this is a pretty good amount of play time for me. I forgot how painfully slow the beginning of this game is. But once you get past "The Proving" and the world opens up, it sucks you in really fast. This game is still absolutely beautiful, even compared to some newer games. Which is my one main gripe with the game doesn't make any sense. The faces on the characters lack emotion 90% of the time. The voice actors are all doing a great job of showing inflexion and different emotions but the facial animations are Fallout-esque. 

 

But other than that, the gameplay is still so smooth even if I can't aim worth a crap, but I do think my aim is better than it was the first time I played through this game. If you have somehow missed this game/series (like I have) I would highly recommend playing it and at least seeing if it's your type of game, because I think it holds up pretty well.

 

Rating: 9/10

Current %: 81.47% (-7.23%) (My % is going to be highly skewed because I only have 14 games played on my profile. I didn't think about that until after I joined, so sorry about that)

 

Game Preview

May 6th-10th

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

Developer: Insomniac Games

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Genre: Action/Adventure/Beat Em Up

 

Another first party game I have played on my main account. I actually have had this one in the pipeline for this account for a while. When I got PS Plus Premium I downloaded Miles Morales to get the Remastered version of this game for PS5 for $20. Not knowing that they were going to finally release it this month (It's still cheaper doing it the Miles Morales way). I promise this is the last game on my list that I have prior knowledge of. Fortunately it's been a good bit since I last played it so I don't remember much about the actual story but I do know that the swinging around the city gameplay is smooth and oddly satisfying so I can't way to get back into it.

 

 

[voodoo_eyes]

Short update. Progressed a good chunk through chapter 6. Far enough at least to witness it ticking the third of the aforementioned boxes... elevator ride fights (not quite an elevator, as it moves on rails forward instead of up or down). ?

 

Trophy count went to 20/33.

Edited May 6, 2023 by voodoo_eyes

[purgta]

Game #1 - The Bard's Tale IV

 

 

Bards Tale IV is a dungeon crawling rpg. This is the first game in the series I have played outside of that action rpg for ps2. The game has a lot of charm. It tries to be both serious and funny. I think it succeeds for the most part so far.

 

You explore the game in first-person perspective. Enemies wander around and don't seem to respawn. Attacking an enemy group sends you to a turn based fight. Regular fights can be quite tough but since enemies do not respawn you can just return to a saving stone to heal. You can spend skill points so I could also have just made some poor character builds or not have strong enough equipment yet. It can make you a bit nervous whenever you see an enemy with a huge amount of health. I stuck with the story characters although you can make a custom party if you want. The game has a lot of puzzles, riddles and traps.

 

The game can be a bit buggy sometimes. It crashed once or twice and I have sometimes gotten stuck going down stairs but was always able to free myself. It is a bit more linear than I was expecting. It seems like there is one correct path with treasure chests placed at dead end detours. This could change was things go on. There are a nice number of sidequests available though. Inventory management can be a real pain. There is thankfully a filter to see the type of item you are looking for but scrolling through equipment for each character can be a hassle.

 

I am enjoying myself so far. It seems like I have a lot of issues with it but nothing that will hopefully turn me away. It is early game in an rpg so things could change a lot.

 

Up next is I am Setsuna

[Kevvik]

Game #2: Contrast

 

Initial/Final Impressions

 

Contrast is essentially a puzzle/platformer set in the 30s (?) where you play the role of Dawn, a 1920s flapper who is the “imaginary” friend of a little girl named Didi. Other characters are all shown as shadows, which Dawn can move in/out of in order to traverse obstacles and solve puzzles. Didi’s mom Kat is a lounge singer herself with a shadow reminiscent of Jessica Rabbit but not the talent or confidence. Didi’s dad Johnny is a bit of a ne’er-do-well, always trying to get himself out of hock to some gangsters with this scheme or that so Kat kicked him out without telling Didi. Didi tries to help out her Dad whose latest plan is to run a circus with the centrepiece being The Great Vincenzo, an illusionist who uses shadow in his act.  As Dawn, you follow Didi around and do the grunt work of solving puzzles to help her dad.

 

The game is a sound if not exceptional puzzler. While it’s okay to have puzzles whose solutions are not obvious, occasionally where to start with the puzzles isn’t either. Not really bad but can have you wandering a bit.  There are also collectibles, some of which you need to find (little balls of light called luminaries) in order to advance past obstacles needing to be charged up. Others are required for the collectibles trophies in the games. Nothing is exceptionally hard to find but you do need to be patient is your searching.

 

The main mechanic is sound as you shift from “real” to shadow so that you can use shadows of objects to get across openings, reach certain places to keep moving towards your goal. You can also shift some objects into the shadow world with you so that they can be moved around as well.  This mechanic works well as does moving the light sources in order to facilitate the shadow placement you need. All this sets up a fairly challenging, if not overly long, puzzle game.

 

I enjoyed this game and it was a good brain teaser after the battling in Fallen Legion. I do wish there was some more story here, especially with a little bit at the end where we see that Dawn might not be imaginary after all.  Maybe this was meant to set up a sequel that didn’t pan out. Still, not a bad game.

 

Time played: 4.5 hours

Trophies earned: 21/21, 100% for S rank

Final score: 7/10

Completion rate: 87.43% (-0.11% for the event)

 

Next up: I’m going to find something else to cover in the next few days as a Game 2a so that I’m not just hitting backlog. I’ll post a review for it once I decide.

[Hemiak]

@Psy-Tychist

@MarkusT1992

The third weight symbol is two weights, one much bigger than the other. Also I’m pretty sure your equip load also introduces just a slightly longer recovery time between swings. It isn’t super noticeable but I had no issues running around just under the 2nd cutoff for the entire game. 

[voodoo_eyes]

#Game 3 - Hard West - Preview

 

 

Developer: Creative Forge

Publisher: Forever Entertainment

Genre: Tactics

Price: 19,99€ (PS4 only)

 

 

This game is a tactics game in the X-Com style, taking place in a western setting. These types of games have been a bit hit or miss for me. I enjoy X-Com, but the more budget variants have been a letdown to me for the most part (Rebel Cops, Spaceland).

 

Haven't played anything these devs have created. HOwever the publisher is not unknown to me. These guys seem to focus on indie titles and among them are Fear Effect Sedna, Agony, My Brother Rabbit, Panzer Dragoon Remake and like 30+ other titles). I played FE Sedna and it was not a good experience. Hopefully this one is better.

[Vulpine9Tails]

1st Update:

 

Game 1: Assassin's Creed Liberation Remastered 

Time played: ~8 hours

Trophies: 11/31 (30%)

 

Review:

-  sound seems rather muffled but maybe it's just me

- French accents sound terrible; characters are annoying (or more specifically meek - one character says uh or um after every line or two and speaks slower than molasses)

- graphics look good compared to vita version

- crashes (I'm on sequence 5 and the game has crashed 4 times so far)

- online crap from vita version taken out

- climbing is better than old games but not as good as new games as expected

- surprisingly responsive controls ie circle to drop feels faster and don't have to wait as long for character animation to stop but it feels harder to get going from a standstill

 

I played this first on Vita a long time ago and don't remember much about it, other than I thought the 'persona' aspect of it was neat. Basically you can play as a slave, a lady, or an assassin and your playstyle would change accordingly. The lady can't run or jump or do assassin-y things but she has a parasol gun and can charm random doofuses. The slave persona is a disguise that is used to go under cover to plantations during certain missions to progress the story. The assassin is well, everything else. Story missions tend to devolve into becoming the assassin and killing everyone once you gleaned all the info you can off them. It's a fun game; I'm about halfway through the story but I stopped after playing a mission where I couldn't figure out how to get the 100% sync. I'm pretty sure I'll have to do it after the story and come back with all my equipment as I need a gun to shoot a powder keg and I don't currently have one available to use. I would recommend this game to people who are burnt out with the current AC formula and want some classic core gameplay. It really feels like an assassin game where you tail people, acquire information, sneak up on people, and facilitate their doom without them even knowing you're there. Fun. 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Vulpine9Tails
Removed a word and added another

[Hemiak]

Wife Game 1: God of War (2018)

Time played: ~3 hrs. 
Trophies: 2/37 (2%)

 

My background on this series. I rented the first GoW from GameFly in 2007 and played about an hour. Neither my wife nor I particularly cared for that initial impression and I sent it back the same day, and haven’t touched one since. 

 

I didn’t get as much time as I wanted with this one because Wife and I were busier than usual. I do fee like I got enough time to make an initial impression but take it with a grain of salt. 
 

Story first. Kratos (although no one has said his name yet actually) is cutting down a tree, which he eventually uses to make a pyre for a woman. A little boy is with him and helps him tie it to the boat so they can drag it back to their cabin, which is way too big for three people and not at all properly insulated for a snowy area. ? The boy keeps calling him father (though I’m not 100% convinced) and calls the woman mother. 

Kratos decides to take the kid hunting to “see if he’s ready”, this serves as the tutorial section. You learn all the basic actions, and collect a bunch of hacksilver and a couple collectibles. I currently have close to 10k silver and have no idea when I’ll get to spend any of it. Couple minor fights, light puzzles, a small boss fight, and we get home. 

 

Kratos is incredibly harsh and short with the boy the entire time. He also just calls him boy the entire time, before finally deciding the kid isn’t ready. At home there’s a mysterious knock on the door and a voice starts calling out in a taunting voice. Atreus hides and Kratos answers the door. A stranger with swirling blue tattoos is out there and talks to K like he knows who he is, mocking and taunting, and finally hitting him a few times. After K has had enough he knocks the dude on his ass easily. The guy laughs, says finally, and punches K so hard he flies over the entire house, and the first real boss fight ensues. When that’s over K collects the kid and tells him they’re leaving, ready or not. 
 

They’re headed to a mountain top for some reason or another. More light puzzles, climbing, and fighting. Several new enemy types are introduced, requiring different techniques. Blue guys don’t take damage from the axe for some reason, but you can build up stun damage with fists and then just rip them in half. The most annoying enemy so far are Revenants. Dead Witches I guess who can throw poison pretty far and teleport any time K tries to hit them. You need to pop them with Atreus’ arrows to stun then for a second to get a couple hits in with K. New armored enemies, ones that throw fire, etc. 

 

Still not a huge fan of the combat. It just feels stiffer than I’d like I guess. Also certain enemies are a serious pain to get into melee and so I just end up throwing my axe and returning it Mjolnir style until they’re dead. Just feels like it’ll get super boring to do that over and over again for certain enemy types. The block/parry system works well at least. Block is super effective unless it’s an overpowering attack, and if you time the shield right it immediately parries and gives you an opening to counter that enemy. I used that a ton against the boss fight. 
 

All in all I had fun with this game. My wife commented that it’s very pretty graphically. Kratos being an absolute dick so far is annoying, but I’m guessing that’s part of the character growth arc for the game. Just not sure how he has this ten year old (ish) kid and there’s literally no warmth between them at all.  
 

Game (so far) - 7/10 (will most certainly go up or down)

 

Next up - not sure what Mim will want to play, but I think I’m going to start Assault Android Cactus for myself. What i know is that it’s a colorful twin stick that has an UR plat and isn’t ridiculously difficult. I bought this a couple years ago when I’d grab anything UR that was on sale. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Hemiak

[Taruta13]

Game #3
FINAL REVIEW: Heirs of the Kings
(PLAYSTATION 5 EDITION)

 

TIME PLAYED: 3 hours over 3 days

TROPHIES EARNED: 8 out of 31 (12%)
 1: This is Where It Begins! (Watched the opening)
 2: Impressive Skill (Deal over 7,000 damage in one attack)
 3: A Fated Meeting (Got a party together)

 4: Feet to the Ground (Walked 5000 steps)

 5: Treasure Getter (Opened 100 treasure chests)

 6: Nothing Compares to Free (try to find a way to borrow a ship)

 7: To the Great Blue! (Obtained a ship)

 8: Incredible Blow (Deal over 50,000 damage in one attack)

 

This is another KEMCO title, so you know what to expect - pay for EXP boosts and full restores after battle, grind to OP levels and break the game. You even get 1000 KCpoints to spend and I bought the best sword for the main hero and four Excellent Beans to give everyone 1000 max HP.

 

So easy peasy, right? Ha ha ha, you sweet summer child!

 

(1) Service is SLOW AS DARK NUTS. You cannot skip or fast-forward dialogue, there is no option to skip like in Asdivine Saga, so you have to MASH TEXT, which you can't, so you have to READ EVERY LAST WORD AND SEE EVERYONE. As yes, EVERY CHARACTER, EVEN CRAPPY NPCS, HAVE PORTRAITS!!!!

 

I got stuck in a ten minute cutscene in one of the shrines where the fourth character, a blonde male pretty boy, yammers on about how a monk revived him. I DO NOT CARE. AAAAAAH!!!

 

Worse, the party moves slower than they did in Asdivine Saga, and that walk speed was horribly slow. I like Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters as they give you the option to make the party move as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog. No way here, you are plodding like a muddy horse to the tune of one step every five seconds. And considering this world is freaking big...

 

Battles are also slow, as it uses the turn based system from the Tales of games where the icons of the battlers slides on a line on the top of the screen.

 

(2) They have Metal Slime variants, and you have to kill 100 for a trophy... and if you know what a Metal Slime does(impossible to damage, faster than you'll ever be and flees instantly, ending battle), you can see why I am pissed off already.

 

(3) Once again you have to pay for the DLC packs to get anywhere. Without those packs, this game would be even far worse and would get a rating of 0 and make me go crazy and create another new account. I'd gladly re-platinum all of the games I have done just to cleanse this dog dung if I had to grind, because the enemies give PITIFUL experience, and the boosts do not help much. The EXP x3? It's actually just adding 200% EXP bonus, which is... low. The enemies start from giving 1 EXP to 50 and while there are metal monsters, see #2. I did find a place which had high level monsters giving out over 500 EXP, but I am just... not happy right now. ?

 

(4) Did I mention it's slow? And to note, I added in the above mention... this is the Playstation FIVE version, the one which is SUPPOSED to be faster.

 

I went in expecting a fast-paced platinum, and I was gnashing my teeth over the three days. I couldn't even play beyond an hour as this game is slow and boring and painful.

 

VERDICT: Do I need to tell you to avoid this pile of hot garbage?

 

RATING: 1 out of 10 slowly moving Shuckles

 

This game hurts my brain. I am going to detox with more Final Fantasy 2 grinding(was going to play FFXIV but now I don't feel like it), replace my Vita(since I can't fix it due to the parts rare than hen's teeth and it costing a mint anyways) and detox from having to eat a ton of salty fries because my niece didn't want to eat them and just play with her kid's meal toy. That's the last time I ever seduce my niece into stopping at Arby's.

 

Future: I will have to complete this, but not now. Maybe when Summers Game Quick 2023 comes on and I have something to distract myself from the grind...

 

Profile % after playing: 89.25% (-0.66%, but I also blame Final Fantasy III which I just started earning trophies on. )

Edited May 9, 2023 by Taruta13

[Kevvik]

Ok, so after finishing Contrast in a day, I figured to choose another title and I did. But before that, I played through Last Day of June since it is leaving PS+ Premium this month. So a quick synopsis there…

 

Last Day of June is another puzzle game only this time you are playing with time travel.  You play Carl, who was happily married to June before the car accident which took her life and put Carl in a wheelchair. One night, Carl finds a glowing painting which makes him remember how the accident happens. Another picture lights up, of the kid that they swerved to avoid in the road and crashed.  Carl now has a chance to make the day play out differently so that the kid isn’t in the road. The accident still happens though as another neighbour does something with the same results. You eventually play through 4 neighbours trying to stop the accident and changing something for one can affect what happens with the others so you need to find a balance that works.

 

The puzzle isn’t exceptionally complex but the storytelling is well done and effective in eliciting Carl’s emotions through us. The art style is also solid, giving you an understanding of the characters even though their heads are effectively carved wood blocks. Each character affects the world differently and simple mechanics still need some back and forth between stories. The finale is satisfying though it may not be what you might expect.

 

Overall, I did 100% in about 3 hrs but it was very enjoyable.

 

Final score: 7/10

 

So from here, we have my actual replacement…

 

Game #2a: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories

 

Initial Impressions

Disaster Report 4 is an adventure game which can be played in 1st or 3rd person. A huge earthquake has hit Japan and following the destruction are numerous aftershocks. You create your protagonist by choosing gender (binary only) and customizing your appearance. There are a few questions related to what you will do to survive and your personality in general but I have no idea if this plays any part in the setup. You do have choices every time you interact with someone important. As per the genre, not everyone’s existence moves beyond one response.

 

You have a life bar and a stress bar. If your stress raises up, your health bar decreases along with your max health which needs to be recovered once you get a chance to rest and de-stress.  You go through the motions with some interactable characters but not in the dialogue tree style. You make your choice and live with it, good or bad. You do spend longer with some characters (I’ve finished day 2 so far) though the interactions feel more at scripted times and talking at them all the time elicits a couple of rote responses until you need to talk constructively.  You maintain an inventory in your backpack, some having more space than others. You can find clothes to customize your appearance during your journey.  The puzzles are fairly straightforward but sometimes it is confusing what you have to do to trigger events so you can proceed further.  This can lead to talking to everyone to get the trigger which can feel like wasted time.  You do need to explore well for collectible compasses and outfits (there are trophies related to these).

 

Graphically, the game looks ok but has a PS2 feel to it which is what the original title came out on. Characters move their arms like puppets, with minimal hand action. The tank controls, especially in close spaces will take you back to the old days when you suddenly walk in a different direction when the camera shifts from one room to another (I really thought we were past this) so controls can feel a bit wonky but I’ve only come across a couple of points where you need to get out of a certain area or get stuff collapsing on you. Since falling down decreases your life bar, it would be good to know when to just brace yourself and when stuff will fall on you.

 

Overall, this isn’t really bad but feels like a slightly upscaled PS2 game and I haven’t really seen anything yet where your decisions matter down the road but a few trophies look like they might so I hope I’m not screwing anything up.

 

Time played: 6 hrs

Trophies earned: 14/43, 18% for D rank

Score so far: 4/10

Edited May 9, 2023 by Kevvik

[voodoo_eyes]

#Game 3 - Hard West - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: 4-5h

Trophies earned: 3/36

 

 

It's another one of those days, where I'm likely to not much time to game, so I'll give my thoughts on this game now.

 

It is indeed an X-Comlike, in a western setting. However it has also some choose your own adventure elements to it.Visuals are solid for a top down game and the sound is alright. The only voice-acting in this game happens in the introduction of each campaign. I'm currently halfway through the second campaign (out of 8).

 

You essentially start out on a map with several locations you can go to. In each location you are presented with a few choices. Which sometimes are just trading, getting new information, or having to choose one option or another. The latter tends to have consequences, that on one hand can give you a big reward, but will also injure you, while the other option may give a smaller reward and you get out of it unscathed.

 

The injuries are actually a game mechanic, that either heal after time or can be healed for money, and result in scaring the wounds giving stat bonuses/perks. However until they are healed, these injuries will severely hinder you in combat.

 

Throughout each campaign you unlock and can hire some members to your group, and you get to equip them with loot from missions or buy them weapons and consumables. There is also a card system, that kind of serve as abilities  and stat boosts that each party member can equip.

 

Now the gameplay is what you expect of this genre. Turn-based combat in an isometric view, your whole team has first dibs at acting and generally you can either shoot and end turn automatically or move to cover first and then still have one shot.

You have a health and a luck bar, and the latter essentially replaces the randomness of being shot. What it does is, it depletes by the hit percentage of the attacker and once it reaches 0 the attack will hit you. Once you are hit, you get some luck back.

 

There is also a weird undead component to this game that got introduced in the second campaign, but not really explored yet. Maybe I'll manage to wrap up this campaign by the end of today still and find out mroe about it.

 

 

The game however isn't really grabbing me. It's not bad by any means, but it also sits at a 6.5 for me.

[Taruta13]

Brief warning: I can't put up my amazing preview as it's thundering and raining heavy around me and I am scared that the power will go out halfway through this post, so I can't post a preview right now. Also, I have no idea which of the remaining seven games are going to be next.

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 20

Game No. 1
 

Playing Time: 10 hours

Trophies Earned: 19/38 (36)

 Youth sports ate up my entire weekend and I’ve been trying to catch up with everything else the last few days, so sorry this is so late. Can’t wait to catch up on the game reviews too, there’s been some interesting ones featured so far! On to the review!

 

So, if you check one or more of these boxes…

• Collectible runs
• Crafting features
• first-person view exploration
• tech trees
• slow gameplay
• monotonous tasks
• breaking shit

…then Ship Graveyard Simulator might be just for you!

 

There has been a wave of simulator games that have been released in the last year, and this one seems to be one of the odder ones, so I decided to give it a go. I’m about a third of the way in and I will say I am eager to get back to busting more shit soon!

  The gameplay is part scavenger hunt, part task manager, part craft upgrades adventure. The environment you play in is pretty small, with a beach full of rusted out hulks, and a shanty town with a scattering of people. In the middle is your home, a marketplace, a tool shop, and a smelting furnace. You basically run around the map and collect scraps of stuff (steel, oil, copper, lead, aluminum, etc.), bring them back to the smelter and combine scrap to make more expensive goods, and sell for money. With the money you earn, you can buy better tools, upgrade shops, and purchase better ships to break up.

   This is the heart of the game. Each morning, you can order up a ship that needs breaking up. They cost money to order, but you can earn that money back by harvesting the scrap out of the ship. To collect the scrap, you have a variety of tools to use including the almighty sledgehammer, blowtorch, mop, and power saw. In the beginning, your tools are very basic and the hacksaw might be the biggest waste of time in the game (upgrade that asap!). As you acquire better tools, more valuable scrap becomes available for you to harvest. 
  When you approach a piece that is harvestable, a window pops up and will tell you what the piece contains (I.e. 4xLead, 2xAluminum). Everything is also color coded. Orange loot has the highest value, blue middle, and grey low. In the beginning, you will harvest everything because your tools are low grade. I am at the point where I can seek out the higher grade stuff.
When you are on the ship, at the top of the screen is a bar that will fill as you break stuff. Even if you do not want the loot in the part, you will want to break it bc you need to fill that bar up to 70% to unlock a trophy. This is where the slog comes into the game. I think the largest ships will likely take a couple hours to fully knock them out. But this is not a rush game. It’s laid back, methodical and yes,  monotonous style of gameplay. Best comparison I can make is to a Farming Simulator - of just driving back and forth in your fields to harvest crops. It’s the same routine, and yet, there’s something oddly satisfying with it at the same time.

  There are also skill points to level you up and you can spend them to make tools better, increase your backpack capacity, decrease ship costs, etc. This game is much more detailed than I thought it would be. The game is also pretty well designed. I’ve only fell through the screen once and the game instantly recognized it, and sent me back to my house. 
  My one knock on the game is the tutorial. It was very brief and could’ve saved me from wasting skill points if it explained it better. There’s also a lockpicking feature to the game where you can unload chests and doors. This is not explained at all and I wasted a number of lockpicks before figuring out the trick.

  In conclusion, I can honestly say, I like this game! BUT, this game is not for the masses. But if you enjoy tedious tasks in game and a laidback style of gaming, this might be for you. I will give it a .

 

Next Up: Last Day of June 

 

 

 

 

[Taruta13]

Well, now that I am feeling better, I can get back to...

Game #4: Yooka-Laylee

 

Developer: Playtonic Games
Publisher: Team17

Genre: Platformer, Adventure

 

After the traversty of Heirs, I had no idea what to do next and almost missed the first day of play... but then when I exited Final Fantasy II to find something, this little gem I had in the back popped out.

 

I enjoyed the Banjo-Kazooie series and this game is a spiritual successor to those Banjoo-Tooie...

 

 

Not the complete dumpster fire that was Nuts and Bolts, which was XBOX exclusive because Bill Gates kidnapped Rare and assimilated it into his company.

 

Thankfully after seeing the mess that Microsoft made out of its franchise, some of the creators defected and created their own indie company, sort of like Koji Imaeda, but unlike the poor forefather of the amazing Mega Man series(BTB, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy just came out, play it ), these people scored a hit with the new duo of a chameleon and a fruit bat.

 

The reason I didn't platinum this game before was because of some of the more annoying parts of the game, like the Rextro Arcade high scores, Kartos roller coaster rides, and... well, just those two things. Everything else is cake.

 

So I'll give my final review in two days. I'm sticking to my 'hour a day' policy so I have time to play other games. I have to platinum Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III before June.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Taruta13

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #4 - Beholder 3 - Preview

 

 

Developer: Paintbucket Games + Fantastico Studio

Publisher: Toplitz Productions

Genre: Adventure

Price: 19,99 (PS5 version only)

 

 

So I switched out Circus Electrique for this one, as it finally went on sale today. I've played the previous 2 games in the series and enjoyed them quite a bit. The second one I actually also played in one of these events.

 

I'm hoping that this third installment is at least as good as the second game. I'm a bit worried though, as Warm Lamp Games wasn't involved in the development process in this one. Reviews haven't been the best for this, but then again the original got a 63 and still is one of my favorite games and a hidden gem in my eyes. It's definitely not a type of game for everyone though.

 

I'm expecting this game to once again be themed around a totalitarian government situation. We'll see how it does in a few days.