Time for another KYC - 20th edition

[MarkusT1992]

Game #2: The Darkest Tale

 

 

The game starts with a talking night light flying to a teddybear. The owner of the light and teddy is a little girl trapped in her dreams by a demon. The light wants the teddy to enter her dreams to save her because he used to protect her. Since the girl seems to not want to play with the teddy anymore he is sulky and don't want to go. After the light goaded the teddy enough he finally went into the dream. In there you meet Little Red Riding Hood who wants you to kill all the wolves in the forest ahead. For that you need a weapon obviously. After a short walk you find your glorious weapon, which is a pair of scissors. The scissors with whom the girl wasn't allowed to play. Making your way through the forest you meet Little Red Riding Hood a few times who get crazier every time until you finally fight against her. After that the demon talks to you and tries to stop you to no avail. The next area you reach is a giant bean stalk you climb up. At the top you find a giant castle which you enter. At the end of that castle you are chased by the giant living in there. After your escape you arrive on a beach. That's wher I am at right now.

 

The game plays as a normal 2D platformer with some combat. The platforming part is the better part of the game but still not that great. You can jump quite hight and have to avoid obstacles which damages you when you hit them. Besides those obstacles you also have enemies to avoid and kill for experience. After killing enough enemies you get a skill point to upgrade your fighting or healing. The fighting consist of attacking by repeatedly pressing . That's basically it. At some point you unlock a dash which can be used to evade but only if you activate the abillity which makes you invulnerable while dashing. Those abillities have to be found somewhere in the levels of the game and your available spots for those are limited to two at the beginning. You unlock more spots by collecting more abillities. Also you only can equip the abillities at mirrors throughout the levels. Besides those mirrors there are portals which act as the fast travel for the game. Fast travel seems to be necessary to complete the levels 100% because you can't reach everything the first time.

You unlock more skills you need from time to time. Besides the dash you unlock a double jump and a hook to swing on some objects. Theres also a bow you get a some point for a ranged attack.

 

Overall the game fellsakind of weird. My main gripe with it is the combat. Since you can't really do much besides mashing the attack button and hoping for the enemies to die it sometimes feels a bit unfair when you get hit, which happened a lot, especially with flying enemies. It dosen't help that you only have like 4 hits before you die. Healing needs mana which is almost always empty because I had to heal after most fights. Fortunatly you get mana for each defeated enemy and I found an abillity that reduces the mana used to heal.

Another bad part was the escape sequence at the end of the castle. It is an autoscroller and quite long without any checkpoints. If you are to slow or miss a jump you have to start all over. There was at least one point where a checkpoint could have been added because there was a short passage without autoscrolling. It seemed as there maybe once was a checkpoint which got removed later.

 

Considering everything I can't really recommend that game. The story and graphics are ok so far but the gameplay, especially the combat, feels not right.

 

Time played: 2h

Trophies: 13/42 (21%)

Rating:

 

Next up is Tunic

Edited May 11, 2023 by MarkusT1992

[Kevvik]

Game #2a: Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories

 

Final Impressions

 

So I’m not through the story yet but I’m on Day 5 so by the trophies I have this day and at least one more.  I’ve been wrapping up a lot of what seem like stretched out stuff but it really doesn’t tell you when you are making decisions which matter so I’m not 100% sure what I did right.

 

Day 5 seems to be going through a lot of areas you did before and reconnecting with earlier characters to finish out ?questlines? Outside of some places where you have to sort things out before obstacles magically clear up, the game really doesn’t point you anywhere and you initiate a lot of go-nowhere conversations hoping to trigger stuff.  I have been playing a bit good/bad. I try to do good things but at one point I was selling “magic water” because I knew there was a trophy for having a lot of assets. Sold the stuff for cash, real estate, even got a mayor to let me rename the game (saw that option and had to pick it) which got me a trophy. Been trying to just keep them in mind rather than looking up particulars and i think I’ve been getting most but have been keeping a lot of saves in case I need to go back (which I did after renaming the game because the mayor was also offering up real estate which took me over the financial hump).

 

There have been some crazy moments and some that just swung and missed. Overall, an OK game at best.

 

Time played: 15 hrs?

Trophies earned: 33/43, 62% for A rank

Final score: 4/10

Completion rate: 87.38% (-0.16% for the event)

 

Next up: Game #3: Wytchwood 

 

This one looked interesting when it first came out as a bit of a crafting beast. Plat rate is in the 40s so may not be that hard but hopefully it’s not too short.

 

[Taruta13]

I need to make a correction. The two KEMCO titles I played, I said that CXC Create was the developer. But the developer is called EXE Create. When you see their logo, you see two Cs with wedges in them and get the wrong impression.

 

EDIT: You know, I should have just changed the posts right away and not guffawed with an apology. I fixed the developer data. I also added in the dev data for my current game.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

So I only have 20 minutes before I have to leave the house to do my bi-weekly exercise at the gym, so this review will probably be rather short, unlike my last three reviews...

 

Final Review of Game #4: Yooka-Laylee

 

Time Played: 3 and a half hours over 3 days

Trophies Earned: 16 out of 35 (I'm ditching the list as there are too many trophies to list here, will probably do the same for the future games)

 

So... after the toxic anger I felt towards Heirs of the Kingdom by EXE-Create, I was not sure what to play next and almost missed the date for my first day of play. However, as I was leaving Final Fantasy 2 to boot up another game, due to all the remaining games on this list being PS4 exclusives, I found this rotting in a folder and said "Meh, sure."

 

As I said in the preview, this game is a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, both rather great games. Hivory Towers and Capital B were made to be a more corporate version of Gruntilda the witch and her evil hideout, although I managed to get to the third and final area of the Towers faster than I ever got to Gruntilda's Furnace Fun in my old N64 days.

 

Everything is a lot more streamlined, high-def and wackier. While a mole taught Banjo and Kazooie for free, we have to deal with Trowzers, a red snake wearing pants. (Yes, he is actually wearing a set of denim jeans, which means he has a hell of a time moving around ). This serpent in a fedora is also a business guy and while he gives you a new free move when you enter a new area, you have to find him in the worlds and pay up golden quill feathers(the game's currency) to get the more specialized moves, and you will need those moves to get the jiggy equivalent in Pagies. You see, the story is that Laylee(the bat) was reading a cool book he found when Capital B uses a giant vaccuum to steal all the land's books, including Laylee's book which turns out to be  a Grand Book which has the power to alter history, and if Capital B gets his hands on those Pagies, well, it's the end of the world because he is a capitalist who wants to exploit everyone and employs a MODOK like mallard mad scientist called Dr. Quack, who makes you take quizzes, sort of like Grunty did in the Banjo games. It's all very hilarious.

 

Luckily, this reboot(created by some guys who did the Banjo series and left after seeing what a trash fire Nuts and Bolts was, bless them) is much more forgiving. The two parts I really do not like are the Rextro Arcade Games which you find in each world(which are basically mini-games, and you have to beat the high score on every one to get all the Pagies for a trophy) and the Kartos levels(which are not bad, you can restart if you fail, but they can try your patience due to how you have to manipulate boosting and breaking to get gems - I did the second and third challenges and the third was nasty), but those are small nitpicks and I can probably ace them if I just spent a little time on them.

 

The neat thing is that the five worlds(called the Grand Tomes which you find in the hub world) are not complete. You can't get EVERYTHING on your first visit, but you must visit the Tome worlds once because you need to colect a number of Pagies to make the world expand and the tome grow in size. This will unlock every secret area in your next visit, allowing you to get to challenges and more Pagies. There are also five ghost spooks(and each has their own means to capture them) that getting all will give you a Pagie, and a lot of other stuff. If I went over everything, I'd never finish this post before I have to leave for gym. (So much for a short review. )

 

VERDICT: A really faithful spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, which will only have achievements as they were claimed by Microsoft.

RATING: 9 out of 10 purple butterflies (not a perfect 10 as, well, I still hate the Kartos levels and Rextra high scores )

 

Welp, running out of easy stuff. I'll put up my next preview after I get back from gym. Ciao for now!

 

Completion: 89.46% (+0.21%)

 

The completion is recovering because I forgot to write this down and I had actually platinumed one of my games not in the event, Ambition Record, filling in some completion.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Taruta13

[slicknick3822]

Game #2 - Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered - Final Review

 

Time played: ~15h

Trophies Earned: 31/79 (27%)

 

Well, I dipped into May 11th for this one, but it was before I went to bed, so I mean technically it was still the previous day? (It's like when you're at a sleepover past midnight and you say, "What are we doing tomorrow?" and your friend says, "It is tomorrow!") I would've stopped at midnight, but I literally only had the final boss battle left so I wanted to complete the game and boy I am glad I did. I will get into some spoilers with the story ahead, but first I'll do my basic overview. The story is magnificent and unique to the Spider-Man stories I grew up with and have watched in the movies (I haven't read a lot of comics so forgive me if this is taken from a comic story). I also enjoy the fact that we're picking up with a "veteran" Spider-Man, one that has had experience cleaning up the streets of New York and an established rapport with a lot of the characters. Unless you've literally never taken in any kind of Spider-Man media, this won't be confusing and I think Insomniac knew that. People know these characters, we don't have to establish them and I appreciate that because it is tiring seeing the same origin story over and over. The gameplay loop is great and reminds me a lot of the Arkham games with it's own Spidey flair. The best part of the gameplay is the swinging. It is beautiful and I feel like I could swing around the city for hours. In fact, I only fast traveled for the trophy and maybe a handful of times other than that. The game also looks amazing. I feel like I'm actually in New York. I've never been to New York but even I can pick out some landmarks and they look spot-on. The music is also great, but most of the music is the normal Spider-Man music that we are used to and that isn't a problem, but it immediately grabs you and fits the game so well. Now for the story spoilers.

 

Spoiler

As I said before, the story is great and I absolutely love it. Spider-Man, even though he is defending the city is witty and always looking to joke, he explains as "I make bad jokes in tense situations". The story starts with you putting Wilson Fisk behind bars and goes wild with villains afterwards. The main villain for the majority of the story is Martin Li and I enjoy his story but you don't find out a lot about him until the finale. Martin Li was experimented on as a child by Osborn which caused his parents to die and it is why he can turn into "Mr. Negative". He plans to kill Osborn for what he has done, but obviously Spider-Man stops that. The other main villain is a frenemy by the name of Doctor Otto Octavius. Peter Parker is the research assistant of "Doc Ock" and helps him in creating advanced prosthetic limbs that are controlled by your mind (kind of, I don't know I'm not a scientist). This is the story that hit with me the most, and again it wasn't until the end with the final boss battle. The story being told throughout the final boss battle is raw emotion. Doc Ock has a disease that is degenerating his muscles so he created the legs for himself (I don't know why he created octopus legs as opposed to regular limbs but whatever). You know how I say Spider-Man is always looking for a joke? Not in this fight. This fight meant more to him and was emotional as could be. Peter creates a special Spidey suit specifically to help take down Octavius and in the middle of their battle the suit gets torn up (ala Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire style). Doc Ock calls Peter by his name and Peter goes "You knew?" which immediately changes to anger of "YOU KNEW!" which to me was just an amazing delivery and I felt Peter's emotions in that moment. Everything Octavius did to him, he knew who he was doing it to. Eventually you are able to get the neural interface off Doc Ock after defeating him. Octavius pleads with Peter's saying "They'll take away my legs!" You can hear the desperation in his voice. Peter with tormenting heartbreak tells Octavius "I looked up to you! You were my hero!" The emotion of the final boss battle was amazing and really capped off a phenomenal story. There is a few other villains in the game, Shocker, Scorpion, Rhino, Vulture. They didn't land as well with me and are kind of minor, just there to fill out the game which is perfectly fine. Not a villain yet, but a major character, Norman Osborn. Throughout the story, Spider-Man is essentially protecting him from Li. Osborn is also the father of Peter and MJ's best friend, Harry, who is currently in Europe abroad (more on that soon). Osborn is the mayor of the city and not very good as you can see by the everything that happens. Again, in the finale we uncover a lot more about Osborn and what the future may hold. Osborn's wife died of a disease and the disease is genetic and Harry also has the disease. The reason Osborn was testing on Li as a child was to find a cure for his wife. Harry went off to Europe to get special treatment using the medicine that Oscorp created (which wasn't a cure at all). When searching Osborn's apartment with MJ you uncover hand grenades and a mask that let's you see structural weaknesses (what an oddly specific thing to look for). In a post-credits scene, we see that Harry wasn't in Europe at all. No, Norman has him in a tank of green liquid to keep him alive while he looks for a cure. Again, definitely not the same Green Goblin origin story I grew up with but amazing and very excited to see how they continue that.

 

I'm very excited to finish out this game eventually and move on to Miles Morales before Spider-Man 2 comes out which looks just as great and I'm excited to see where the story goes from here.

 

Rating: 9.5/10

Current %: 75.37% (-13.33%) 

 

Game Preview

May 11th-15th

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Developer: The Chinese Room

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Genre: Adventure

 

I know nothing about this game. I've heard good things about it. I enjoy my point n' click/walking sim/adventure games and I believe this is in that same vain. So I don't have much to say about this game, but hopefully I have a lot more to say about it afterwards!

Edited May 15, 2023 by slicknick3822

[Hemiak]

i have today and tomorrow for my second set of games, and I’ll take those for Biomutant, but I can do the other one now. 

 

Solo Game 2: Assault Android Cactus

Time played: 14 hrs 

Trophies: 28/30

 

First off I didn’t expect to get anywhere near this progress but here we are. One of the hardest games I played during a KYC and it may be the first one I ever finish during an event. 

 

STORY SPOILERS

 

 

Ok, so the game starts with a small space ship coming out of hyper space alongside a huge shipping freighter. A female voice radios back that she’s reached the derelict ship that apparently sent out a distress signal. As she’s radioing in, a bunch of ports open up in the sides of the ship and lasers begin shooting out. The male voice says it shouldn’t have weapons, but the female says it looks like the asteroid defense system. He tells her to leave, she says she doesn’t want to file a mission failed report, and slams her ship through the side of the big ship. ?

 

On the inside we see three female figures being crowded towards a wall by several threatening robots. Just then the ship slams into all the robots, crushing all but one, then the hatch opens and kills the last one. Your character steps out and asks the others what’s going on. 
 

Apparently, several days ago all the robots on the ship went haywire and killed all the humans, leaving only a few Androids left alive. The main character introduces herself as a police Android who is here to help stop the issue. So they decide to work through the ship to meet with the 3 overseer bots who are supposed to control all the little ones. There are a few cheeky one liners and your character finally introduces herself as Police Android Cactus. 
 

At this point the game begins, and you can choose any of the four starting androids to play as. They all have different main and secondary weapons, and a cool thing you find out later, is they all have different dialog lines when facing each boss. You work through levels, five to an area, with the final one always being the boss fight. After each boss you unlock the next area, and a new Android to play as. 
 

Turns out the overseer bots were corrupted, but won’t say how until the third boss mentions Venom. Venom turns out to be the 4th boss who eventually mentions the primary core and a mysterious Android who isn’t supposed to be there. 
 

You end up facing off against Android Licorice in 5-4, who came to the ship to “spread

the truth and liberate the robots”. You face the corrupted core in 5-5 who is aghast that any thinking Android/robot would actually oppose her. There are vague hints and threats and it honestly feels like they were setting up a sequel game with a lot of it. At the very end as the crew is deciding how to sandbox, or reprogram, or fix the core somehow, Cactus just takes a huge laser and destroys the core completely. The others are shocked and challenge her , to which she replies, I do this kind of thing all the time. Holly asks “What? Put down a horde of murderous robots or destroy multi trillion dollar pieces of equipment?” Cactus doesn’t miss a beat and replies “Both!” And that’s how it ends. you could honestly beat the whole game from scratch in about 4-6 hrs depending on comfort with this type of game. 
 
 

 

 

 

So what is it? It’s a twin stick bullet hell game. You have five hp, but when it runs out you don’t die, you just get knocked down and have to spam fire to get up,

costing about two seconds. This also sends out a non damaging shockwave, pushing back enemies and projectiles. You get waves of enemies, which come in specific orders, and after an entire wave is killed the arena generally shifts a little and then more waves come. Your main opponent is actually a battery meter at the top of the screen. Occasionally enemies will drop green batteries which fill the meter back up, and the only way to actually lose is for the meter to empty completely. 
 

By the end there are 9 Androids to choose from. Cactus is one of the best all around. She has a regular blaster, and a flamethrower secondary. Science officer Holly is another strong choice. She has a short range multi homing shot main and a cannonball secondary. Coral has a shotgun and a force barrier, Lemon has a spread shot and shoots rockets. The first unlockable character is Starch. She was apparently locked up before these events for insubordination, so all the boss robots are super surprise she’s supporting the resistance. She has a laser and fires a dozen small homing rockets, which is pretty solid for some fights. The rest of them aren’t super useful. But each one has a misc trophy tied to using their abilities in a specific way.
 

There are small white shards dropped by every dead enemy. Picking up a small amount makes your primary weapon slightly better, picking up a lot more levels it again, not sure if it can level twice or three times to be fully charged as it can get chaotic and I never really paid attention. Occasional enemies also drop power ups, there are three colors and one will cycle through all three colors and they don’t despawn, although if the level changes and a hole opens up they can fall out of the arena. Yellow speeds you up a ton, you take less damage, allowing you to survive one shot hits once, and also gives you a magnet ability that will pull in all white shards and batteries. This isn’t really all that useful. Blue is called Shutdown and pauses every enemy on the screen,

it also wipes all projectiles,

and locked enemies take extra damage. Really good for getting out of a jam, or if you need to reposition with a bunch of guys in your way. Red is a pure firepower upgrade. You get two small robots who float on the sides of you and fire continuous bursts of lasers out, more than doubling your damage output, even when your regular is fully powered. The little guys can also block projectiles about to hit you. On chaotic waves there’s nothing like grabbing a blue and red at the same time, basically wiping every enemy off the screen in seconds. 
 

Once you beat the game you unlock Infinity Drive (endless) and Boss Rush modes. Endless pits you against increasingly long and difficult waves, with a boss sprinkled in every 7-8 levels, you need to reach 25 for a trophy. 
 

The meat or the trophy experience however is getting S+ on every level. This is tied exclusively to your combo chain. Killing normal enemies gets you about two seconds, killing a bunch doesn’t stack, it just keeps resetting to 2 each time. You can take hits, but getting knocked down is instant chain break. This is tough, but occasionally you’ll get some dumb ass enemy get stuck on the far side of a barrier and it’s reset time. Bosses also give you more time to get through the phases, but if you get a yellow power up it can sometimes end an attempt because you just don’t do enough damage to beat a phase in time. I need 6 more levels and plat will be done, which i was not expecting when I started it. Guide said 20-50 he’s and I’m rarely near the low side on stuff like this. 
 

All in all I enjoyed this game or I wouldn’t have played it as much as I have. 
 

Enjoyment: 7.5/10

Difficulty: Game: 4/10.  Plat: 8/10

Current Completion: 80.12(-0.55)

Most of that coming from 2% GoW and 1% Biomutant

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Hemiak

[PerryToxteth]

5 hours ago, slicknick3822 said:

 

Game Preview

May 11th-15th

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Developer: The Chinese Room

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Genre: Adventure

 

I know nothing about this game. I've heard good things about it. I enjoy my point n' click/walking sim/adventure games and I believe this is in that same vain. So I don't have much to say about this game, but hopefully I have a lot more to say about it afterwards!

 

I played this years ago for a KYC. I can’t stress enough that this is a WALKING simulator.  The story and environment are intriguing, but if you are doing a collectibles run, you might rage. It takes forever to get through the environment. And for months on end, you might hear “one…one…three…one…two…” in the back of your head. 
Oh, the music is good too! 

[slicknick3822]

24 minutes ago, PerryToxteth said:

 

I played this years ago for a KYC. I can’t stress enough that this is a WALKING simulator.  The story and environment are intriguing, but if you are doing a collectibles run, you might rage. It takes forever to get through the environment. And for months on end, you might hear “one…one…three…one…two…” in the back of your head. 
Oh, the music is good too! 

We'll see how I feel about it afterwards, but I do enjoy walking sims, they're my go-to I don't feel like dealing with combat or rage video games, so we'll see how this one turns out lol

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #4 - Beholder 3 - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: around 4h

Trophies earned: 10/32

 

 

Once again wrapping a game up ahead of time.

 

I didn't get all that far in actually. I think I'm only on the 3rd main objective or so. Had to load previous saves a bunch of times, because of the time management is back again.

 

Anyways, when I boote up the game for a moment I thought I was playing the first game again. It's practically identical. Objectives and tenants are different, but gameplay is exactly the same at least so far. Which makes me wonder why they still did not include quality of life improvements.

 

In any case, you are a building manager and need to keep it and it's tenants in order. You work for a totalitarian government, and as such you are to report your tenants for infractions, like possession of penicillin. You can put surveillance cameras in their apartments or break into them and search through the furniture.

 

The tenants may give you side objectives as well, and the same goes for your family members. There's also a shop to buy things from and I'm expecting there to be several different ending paths again.

 

But that's the core loop. Do chores, spy on tenants and report them. All of which gets a set time frame imposed by the government.

 

 

Since it's pretty much a carbon copy of the first game so far, and nothing was done to improve it I'm going to have to rate it lower. 7/10 (original was an 8/10 for me).

Edited May 12, 2023 by voodoo_eyes

[Taruta13]

So I probably put a cop-out here on a game that will probably be platinumed in one day, but this had to get off my bucket list...

 

*game show music*

Time for another...

 

Game #5: The Last Campfire

 

Developer & Publisher: Hello Games

Genre: Adventure

 

The reason I downloaded this game was because of a speedrun I saw on the Games Done Quick showcase a few months ago, right after the winter marathon of Awesome Games Done Quick(done online forever more as the GDQ community severed all ties with the Florida Convention Center after learning about policies made by the state government denying rights to transsexuals - I understand where my dad is coming from, I wish I was a woman but I am not going to go in for a sex change as those are stupid expensive and risky, and I am not going to cross-dress and act like a woman because I know that when I shower, the illusion is gone; better to just leave your femme fantasies as just that; by the by, check out their schedule for Summer Games Done Quick this year! ) to showcase some of their more obscure runners, and one of these people was CutieRoo.

 

 

CutieRoo is the host of one of the Games Done Quick's Hotfix, a variety lineup which showcases various genres of speedrunning. CutieRoo's show is called Legally Cute and showcases speedruns that involve mostly G-rated games that have characters the average person deems as "cute", usually animal-based games. This game was the one she showcased in the special showcase that was broadcast on Twitch on January 15th, but I saw another speedrun involving all achievements. After checking it out, I think I can platinum this game easily as you only need to get all 22 of the collectible characters called Forlorns. It involves creatures called Embers who are responsible for lighting campfires, but the world they are in has grown dark and you have to rescue everyone and escape. Or something.

 

I won't pretend that this game will be quick. But I'll give a more thorough review once I am done with it. In the meantime, I will be busy watching the Live Letter for FFXIV today.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Final Review #4: The Lost Campfire

 

Time Played: 3 and a half hours in one day

Trophies Earned: ALL OF THEM (Got the platinum)

 

So yeah, I knew this was gonna happen. Note to self: Don't put in a fast trophy game in a KYC event.

 

It's a very cute game. You are trying to reach the titular Last Campfire but your boat drifted away and now you are lost. The game is a maze of various puzzles you must solve, with the various Embers turned stone being puzzles all their own. I do not want to spoil the story but if you have any four-year olds, play this game for them and watch as they go ooh and aah.

 

I should have submitted this for Trophies for Mental Illness III because the underlying theme is depression because all of the people before you have lost hope and turned to stone and you need to heal them by recovering their embers. It's very cute.

 

The trophy list is simple: Just reach the end of the game and rescue all 22 of the Ember people. I used a video walkthrough to help me locate them all as some are hidden cleverly.

 

Well, I'll be napping now and then put up my next preview. With two games platinumed, I now have TWO days I have to give to another game. *sigh*

 

Completion %: 89.51% (+0.06%))

[voodoo_eyes]

So I've made two changes to my list, as I found my PS3 again after moving to a new apartment.

 

Switched out Little Hope and Anno Mutationem for Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 and X-Com Enemy Within. The final two PS3 games I haven't started yet from my by now small collection.

[purgta]

Game #2 - I am Setsuna

 

 

I am Setsuna is a jrpg developed by Tokyo RPG Factory. I have been meaning to get around to playing this game for years.

 

I can't really talk about the story without spoilers.  It seems decent so far. I have just got my fifth party member. The party seem fun and varied so far. The game does something that a good few jrpgs with silent protagonists do. They give you two dialogue options in conversation. One slightly bland but safe option for people who like to self insert and the second with whatever the characters personality is supposed to be. The main character in this seems to be a bit of an asshole.

 

The game looks nice although It seems as if it would look even better on a smaller screen such as a handheld. Walking around the world map is painfully slow. You move at a crawl. Movement speed outside the worldmap is fine. The game has a cooking mechanic that I had missed for hours. You have to talk to some random npcs while you have all of the ingredients in your inventory. They just talk normally if you only have a few ingredients with no indication they have a recipe. I backtracked to collect them and some of them are really useful.

 

Battles are fun and some of the bosses are quite challenging so far. I have had to use a lot of consumable items during them which is a nice change. I have not had to grind for levels although money is getting harder to come by.

 

I was really in the mood for a jrpg to play and this is scratching that itch. The game is a lot of fun so far and I don't know why I put off playing it so long.

 

 

 

[Taruta13]

Time for yet another...

 

Game #6: Ys VIII - Lacrimosa of Dana

 

Developer: Nihon Falcom

Publishers: NISA, Nihon Falcom

 

To be fair, I have nothing to give. The only stuff I saw about this game were from an RPG Limit Break speedrun at the start of their charity event and a few reviews, so I will probably go in blind, miss a lot of missables and have to delete my save and start over. But hey, I downloaded this game because it was free on PS+ and I thought I could add it to my RPG Mania backlog.

 

I have played through Ys 1-3(I played Ys 3 on the SNES when it came out and died a lot ) and the series is not too bad. Now that Ys IX is out, I decided to put Adol Christen on my cabinet just to see what it was worth. I have heard that there are a lot of missable trophies but this is a Kill Your Completion event, not a finish the game event. I'll give this title three hours of my time and then we'll go from there. (I do intend to platinum every game I start, but sometimes I take months to get back to a game. Still haven't touched the rest of my games on my last KYC list.)

 

Also, it was co-published by the guys who created DIsgaea 1 Complete, so who am I to judge?

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I decided on this game because I have zero experience in it and the longer I put it off, the more likely I'll make excuses not to play it. Anyone who wants to encourage me to give this a chance is free to comment. Also, I got Adol's last name wrong and was corrected as soon as I started playing. Shows how little I know about the series.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Taruta13

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #5 - Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water - Preview

 

 

Developer: Koei Tecmo

Publisher: Koei Tecmo

Genre: Survival Horror

Price: 39,99 (PS$+PS5)

 

 

I've always wanted to play a Fatal Frame game and honestly thought I never would, as the franchise had been tied to Nintendo for decades. Now here we are, where there's two Fatal Frame games on Playstation. What I wasn't too thrilled about is the price tag to be honest. I personally don't think a resurrection of a game to another system should cost anything above 20 bucks, unless it's a complete remake, and even those I don't think it's ok charging over 50 bucks for.

That aside, I'm looking forward to trying this game out. I just hope the controls are not clunky. At least I have a decent enough experience with game from this developer, having played several of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors and Atelier games.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by voodoo_eyes

[Psy-Tychist]

Game 2: Dread Nautical

I've seen this deck before, I'm sure I've seen this deck before...

Current Percentage: 70.52% +0.02%

Trophies Earned: 2/15 - 9%

Time Played: Roughly 3 hours.

Times I have tried recruiting Captain Scrumm: 5

 

Dread Nautical first came upon my radar during a sale a while ago and I've always liked Lovecraftian storytelling so this was an interesting find. The game is made by Zen Studios, more well known for making the Zen Pinball and CastleStorm games, but they have made a smattering of other titles, including this one. Upon starting the game, you are greeted with text in R'lyehian and a cutscene with an ominous voice telling of doom and how no-one can escape in a vague and mildly unsettling manner. So pretty normal Lovecraftian fare. You wake up in a bed playing as a detective called Fargo Drexler who has memory of what has happened. You meet someone (can't remember his name for the life of me) and he says to go out and look for supplies. As you venture around the deck you find hidden items and meet your first enemy, the Thralls. After defeating everyone on the floor, you reach the Bridge and sound the Foghorn. This knocks you out and you find yourself back in the same bed you were at before but you remember what has happened. The guy who is there explains that you have been going out for a while and keep coming back but this is the first time you remember it. This is the basic story and gameplay loop.

 

The gameplay is a little bit more complex though. When walking around the deck and fighting enemies, you are using a square grid to traverse. When there is an enemy, the grid determines how far you can travel based on your AP (Action Points). These also determine how many attacks you can do, so if using your fists which only require 1AP, and you have a maximum of 5AP, you can do five attacks. It plays a lot like most strategy games and the look of the grid reminds me of X-COM, just without the % to hit ruining your time. As you move around the deck, you will find many things, mostly scrap, runes and weapons but you will also find Tome Pages and Survivors. Scrap will help you to build things in the hub and repair your weapons. Runes will upgrade your characters and weapons have a limited use and you only have so many slots, but they can range from a potting trowel to an old army war pistol. Tome Pages help decipher the three notes that appear at the start of each deck, to give you a glimpse into what is happening and why is occurred. Survivors are people you can recruit to help you going through each floor. They don't just magically appear back at your hub when you find them though. Every time you come across someone you will have a dialogue option to choose when they speak to you. This will improve your chances of recruiting them if you choose the right option and this is all based on the characters personality. Bill is an old veteran who just wants someone to believe him, Mel is a mechanic who is sensible and straightforward, Giorgio is a flamboyant dancer who is narcissistic, and Captain Scrumm is a old superstitious coot who doesn't like being babied. From what I have seen, there are at least 14 people you can recruit, all with differing abilities and special weaponry. If however you get the dialogue option wrong, their trust in you goes down and it takes longer to recruit them. The Survivors will also run around the deck and will attack any enemies they find, but you cannot influence their actions unless they are part of your party. The last item you can find is Food. Food is introduced after a couple of decks and it is used to keep the survivors fed and to restore health between decks. 

 

Back in the hub, you use your scrap to create stations which can help you stay alive and provide shelter for survivors. You will need scrap to build beds for more survivors that you save and you can only have one extra bed at a time. After building a crafting station, you can recycle weapons for more scrap, upgrade weapons you like and repair weapons. I have no idea what benefits you get from upgrading the crafting station yet. After deck 3, you can build a Occult Station which uses the Runes collected to upgrade your survivors. The higher you upgrade this, the more upgrades you can pump into the survivors. The last station I have built is a Healing station where you can use scrap to make healing items like med-kits. There is also the option to use the Yoga Mat provided to reduce stress. This mechanic hasn't been introduced yet, so I have not needed to use it.

 

Graphically, the game looks and acts a lot like Final Fantasy VII on PS1. The movement is clunky and the sprites are over exaggerated in shape, I'm assuming this is to show the differences between the Survivors. Enemies are also done in this over stylised way, but generally I have only found palette swaps of the basic enemy types to show differences in them. It feels like I am playing a PC game from the mid-2000's that tried to be retro, but was released in 2020. 

 

Every 5 levels you will find a boss creature to dispose of before sounding the foghorn and completing the level. So far, I am on Deck 8 and there are 25 in total. I'm starting to see changes in the scenery as you go deeper. Strange purple goop seeps into some rooms and some rooms look like they have been picked from the Animus or from Control with strange square constructs that float the disappear. The loop isn't that taxing so far, but I have died due to stupid mistakes but the only issue is having to restart the level again. 

 

Trophy-wise, this game will be either incredibly challenging or frustrating depending on how masochistic you are. I have completed the two easiest trophies with only one more uncommon and two rare trophies before the remaining 10 trophies being VR or UR. Most of the trophies involve a bit of luck or a lot of grinding. The hardest will be completing the game on Insane difficulty which is akin to Mein Leben on Wolfenstein or doing a run on Necrodancer, one wrong move and you have to start from the very beginning. I suspect save scumming will be in full effect if I ever attempt this. 

 

Overall, the game isn't that amazing so far, it has its perks and is generally fun to play. However, the game loop is really for strategy enthusiasts, for the general gamer it will be quite a monotonous experience which is best to be played in small chunks. The story hasn't grabbed me like I wish it had and so far the strategy part is quite shallow overall. The main part is more management than anything else and the issue with that is that this part isn't truly explained in much detail. This is one of those games that makes me disappointed more than annoyed, but I'll hold full judgement until I get to beyond Deck 15.

 

Next Game: Midnight Sanctuary

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 20

Game No. 2
 

 

Playing Time: 90 minutes

Trophies Earned: 5/21 (23%)

 

Final Thoughts: I will keep this brief, as I fell well short of the time needed to properly get into the game. Thankfully, @Kevvik also played it, so I would recommend his review for a more in-depth description.

  This title falls into the artsy-farts category of gaming. It is built to tell a story in a artistically pleasing environment, with gameplay at a minimum. For example, the only button I used was . The story starts with a couple enjoying a day at a lake. The graphics are decent and convey quite well on how warm and nice a day it appears to be. Things quickly go south as there is a an auto accident. I don’t feel this  is a spoiler, as you can see the male protagonist is in a chair on the title screen above. Time kinda goes into a blender from this point forward in the game  as scenes are bouncing between flash-backs, present time and dreams. It’s not too confusing though, as the story is entirely through visuals. The characters do speak, but it’s moans and utterances, similar to the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons. Sometimes it works, but in the case of the female protagonist, it is horrible to listen to. Her squeaks and moans are audio clips right out of bad Japanese porn. Actually, just Japanese porn as it’s all bad. I digress…

  Trophies seem to pop for advancing the story, as well as exploring the environment. I found a soccer ball, took a few shots at a nearby basketball hoop, and somehow a  popped. All trophies in this game are bronze and there’s no platinum. The “rarest” trophy is in the mid-50s so everything must be straightforward to earn.

  I deliberately moved this short game into this slot knowing I wouldn’t have much time, and I still fell short of playing time. I also spent about 15 minutes replaying stuff I had played the night before bc the game didn’t save where I thought it did. Oh well,  nothing too difficult. I will finish this at some point. I don’t feel bad letting it sit bc although the story is emotional, it isn’t terribly complex.

Final Grade: 

 

Next Up: Warsaw

 

 

[Vulpine9Tails]

Game #2: Crysis Remastered

 

Time Played: Approx. 3 hours

Trophies: 2/41 = 3%

Personal Rating: 5/10

 

This game is meh for me. I have spent about 3 hours on it, and all I have accomplished is completing the first mission and yeeting a tortoise to a watery grave (these are not the turtles that swim!). I was having a hard time deciding how I wanted to approach this game; do I do one playthrough on easy, do clean up, and then attempt another playthrough on Delta (what the game calls the hardest difficulty which is conveniently unlocked from the start)? Or do I go for a straight one playthrough run which is what I would usually attempt to do? So I started on normal for some reason. I have no idea why because if I don't go for the hardest difficulty first, I always go for easy. So I don't know what I was thinking. 

 

Holy crap did I hate this game initially. Like to the point I wanted to drop out of this whole event so I could avoid playing this poop. So this game has some different mechanics for a shooting game that I will give credit for; they are pretty cool. Basically your character, Nomad, is wearing a neato mech suit. It has an armour ability and a cloaking ability. The armour gives you a few hits before bullets start taking your health. Cloaking turns you invisible. Both abilities are limited to your energy level. Run out of suit-energy, and you end up exposed so a bit of strategy is needed (don't worry, you aren't naked you should just find some cover). So the first time I played, I was attempting to get through the first level and I admit, I was rushing a bit; I wanted to play like I normally play FPS on easy. Which was quite dumb on my part as I was not playing on easy, and this is really not a game that is conducive to being obnoxious about it. Patience is key in this game. One thing I did find egregious though is that I was finding that bad guys were able to figure out where I was even while cloaked and prone super easily. That shouldn't be a thing. When I was playing I had to make sure I was in tall grass behind a boulder anytime my cloak wore off; and yes you will absolutely be using your cloak a ton on the hardest difficulty because even though it's a bit off, stealth is definitely your best buddy in this game.

 

As I kept dying while rushing, being an idiot, and not really knowing where the heck I was supposed to go as the first level ends up doubling back on itself a bit, I decided to restart on Delta to see how bad it was and make the decision on whether I will be trophy hunting this game or just playing the story on easy and be done with it (too early to tell but I did manage to finally finish the first mission )

 

So I found a handy guide on the Tube that also includes the side quests. Of course there are side quests. So far it's just been "destroy this satellite thingy" and "check this computer for stuff" so nothing too hard. I'm sure there will be more variety as the game goes on but I only played enough to get to the three hour quota because honestly I just was not feeling this game. I know lots of people like it and it is a very competent game with some uniqueness to it (at least to me), so I will definitely not say it is bad by any means, it's just not really my taste. Even though I was really excited to buy the whole ass Remastered Trilogy for some reason. Big brain moment, clearly. Maybe as I progress through the story I'll come to like it more, but for now I am moving on to Game #3.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Vulpine9Tails

[Hemiak]

Wife Game 1: Biomutant

Time: 3 ish hours

Trophies: 1/47

 

I didn’t spend as much time as I should have with this but I’ll get back to it eventually, and I feel I’ve got a decent handle on what it’s about. 

It’s a 3d action/platformer in the rough (and I can’t stress this enough) style of Ratchet and Clank. You run, sprint, double jump, dash, shoot, and hit things with a melee weapon. There are different combos you can unlock that involve a certain amount of different button presses. There’s a party that will open enemies yo to be staggered and then you can launch them into the air and juggle them. There’s a lock on mechanic…. Kind of. It helps you focus on enemies but if you’re moving you can lose that focus, and if you aren’t looking mostly at someone it won’t lock on at all, which is annoying. 
 

You start with a one hand knife and a semi automatic rifle. I found a shotgun style weapon I switched to because it does way more damage, but I’m still using the starter knife since all four other melee weapons I found are gated behind level 5. ? I’ve also found a ton of healing and energy restoration items, of which I have not used any yet, since your health refills after each fight. You have multiple different armor slots and I’ve found five helmets, two pairs of pants, and three shirts, and none of the rest. You can scrap any item for parts, or sell it for Greenleaf. I haven’t found any other source of geeenleaf yet, and vendor prices for weapon/armor items are pretty high, so I haven’t purchased anything from any of the vendors I’ve met yet. 

STORY STUFF

 

An unknown time ago the people began producing radioactive waste as a bi product of whatever they were doing. They originally dumped it in landfills, but when those got too full they started dumping it straight in the oceans. It mutated the wildlife there, creating all manner of monstrosities. Eventually the people decided they’d had enough and created multiple “arks”, loaded up, and flew into the stars, abandoning the planet. 

 

The mutated life continued to evolve, with several species reaching sentient status. You play as a furry little fox looking dude with swirling patterns and a lizard arm. You get to choose your basic body shape, your pattern, and you get to change your basic color scheme from the standard brown and cream. So naturally I’m running around as a funky pattern of neon green and a vivid blue. 

 

The game starts with some wandering, small fights, and a basic tutorial. Then you fight a big ugly thing. You eventually run away and get trapped in a bunker. More tutorial stuff. Eventually you find a mutant in a wheelchair being accosted by enemies. After coming to his rescue you realize you know this guy, and he taught you a few things when you were a child. He’s the one who gives you a lot of the backstory, and lets you know that there are four World Eaters out there trying to devour the tree of life. He tells you there are two factions who want to handle this. One wants to unite the tribes to stand against them and stop the apocalypse. The other wants to conquer all the tribes and then help the world eaters bring about the end for a true reset. 
 

You set out into the world to go meet with one of the two tribes to throw your support to one faction. You learn there are several more tribes, each one has a special weapon that they use and if you either conquer or convince them then you’ll get access to that weapon. This is about as far as I got in the story, after joining the more peaceful clans side. 

 

Theres also a dark/light affinity aspect to the game. You have black and white faerie things that occasionally pop up to add advice or tips. They also comment on actions, and you choose early on which one you want to be more prominent. But every decision you make and sees you accomplish adds points leaning one way or the other. This affects how people respond to you, quests you’re offered, dialog options, etc. not sure if the deeper implications. 

All in all this game was…. Ok. About what I expected. A very colorful world, with some janky feeling combat and a stiff camera. The story is fine so far, nothing too deep or convoluted, basic go out and save the world stuff. I’ll get back to it eventually, but I’ve already mentally moved on to other options. 

Rating: 6/10 

 

Next up

Solo game 3 - Alien: Isolation

Wife game 3 - Sherlock Holmes: Chapter 1

 

Sorry Voodoo. Mim pulled an audible here. She loves this type of game and it went on sale so I finally picked it up and started it yesterday. Not sure which of her games will get bumped off the list yet

Edited May 14, 2023 by Hemiak

[voodoo_eyes]

59 minutes ago, Hemiak said:

Biomutant

 

 

Sorry Voodoo. Mim pulled an audible here. She loves this type of game and it went on sale so I finally picked it up and started it yesterday. Not sure which of her games will get bumped off the list yet

 

No worries. The Sherlock game is solid.

 

Biomutant doesn't really go much beyond what you've experienced so far unfortunately.

[Chirithy84]

I am near the first before the final boss...

He is such a bad; s* d*** 

Besides this game is a such a chill and nice pickup; this final boss first endcounter is benath good and evil...

Edited May 15, 2023 by Chirithy84
Cause I am clear with the first playtrough. Now I am need the rest of the trophies

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #5 - Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water - Final Impressions

 

Time played: 8-9h

Trophies earned: 12/39

 

 

Time to wrap this one up ahead of time again, as I've got a busy day and won't get much game time.

 

This game is a remaster of the 2014 original release. It seems like only the character models got brushed up as the rest clearly remains in the past visually. The game does have english voiceover though, so there's that. It's also one of those games that just have on general volume slider... I'm about halway through Chapter 6.

 

When it comes to gameplay, it's a bit clunky overall. You can "run", which is more like power walking. The use of the camera works relatively well. You can find film (ammo) and healing items throughout the semi-open world. Some combat encounters last a little bit too long. None of them are scary really.

 

Unfortunately the game drags two protagonists through mostly the same places, to the point where I had to enter the same building on three separate occasions. There are also occasional puzzles to solve, usually presented to you buy a picture of a location, and then you need to find said location to progress. That's easier said than done, since the game is mostly shrouded in blacks and greys, or dark colors.

 

As a result of the above the game is just a meh. 6/10

[Taruta13]

Woke up at 4:30 AM, decided to get this out of the way now.

 

Final Review: Ys III: Lamicrosa of Dana

 

Time Played: 3 hours over 3 days

Trophies Earned: 4 out of 55 (5%)

 

The first thing I got when I started this game is a rendition of the Tentalus fight from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword(which came out for the Switch, try it out if you are a Zelda fan! )

 

The second thing I got was seeing Adol Christin, a brightly red carrottop, walk in on a woman bathing, parrying her attack, and watching her towel fall off.

 

Yeah, I expected a bit of implied nudity from a game published by the obviously perverted guys who created the Disgaea series. (I mean, have you seen the succubi and neko-girl enemies? )

 

Anywho, that silly fan-service bit aside, I have to admit I have been long gone from the series titled by a single letter of the alphabet(and even a false vowel!) since Ys III came out on Super Nintendo in 1989, when I was 27 years old and struggling through college. I did not want to think about Ys Origin, which was a complete removal from the series as it did not have the amazing Adol Christin in it. So I was hesitant to touch this title. However, I accidentally downloaded it when it went free on PS+, thnking "It's an RPG, I can write it off as a deduction on RPG Mania 2023" and proceeded not to download it until now.

 

The premise is that Adol and his best bud Dogi, who are staples in the Ys franchise(except freaking Origins, I can see your sins ), are working as temp sailors on a cruise line headed for some place I can't even pronounce. I'm assuming this is a sequel to Ys VII. Anyways, the captain tells a tale about a cursed isle, the Isle of Seiren, and as the ship passes by said island, a giant kraken rips the ship to pieces and dumps everyone in the drink. Luckily Adol washes up and comes across said fan service, a noble woman called Laxia, who turns out to be a bit of a female dawg, if you get my drift, highly arrogant and a pampered noble woman not used to being without luxuries. She blames Adol when her stomach growls and when we meet Sahad, a salty fisherman later on who wields a broken anchor as a giant scythe, she calls him uncouth.

 

Luckily, the game does not drag this "pampered princess" trope into the mud and Laxia starts being a little nicer. We eventually find Dogi and the captain, Captain Barbaros, and start building a base camp and Adol is tasked with exploring the island, mapping its secrets, and trying to find any survivors, and Laxia and Sahad are your companions for the time being. My time with this game ended with finding Alison, a seamstress, and I have not even left the beach yet(mainly because my last session was 90% running around the island trying to figure out where to go next, the map does not help you here, I had to look up a walkthrough that told me to go back to the beach I started on!), but the music is very tight and evokes the feeling I had when playing Ys III years ago.

 

As you rescue survivors they build shops and help in other ways. Captain Barbaros mentions that the base might be attacked and from what I saw of the walkthrough, there will be instances where I have to rush back to the base and slaughter monsters trying to kill everyone in the camp. Not looking forward to that. I also saw on the map that there is a mudslide which needs 20 castaways to remove, so it looks like we'll be rescuing everyone who got tossed off the ship, which probably numbers into the 100s.

 

So I've barely scratched the surface, and the only trophy I got outside story-relative trophies is the one for maximizing the level of a weapon, which was surprised as you only need to upgrade your weapon twice to get the max level and the materials are easy to get. It has the same open-world feel of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet... without the memed bad frame rate issues.

 

I will probably work on platinuming this game this year for RPG Mania. It looks nice, plays nice, and now that I have the pomodoro method to help me focus, I think it will not be too difficult.

 

VERDICT: If you are a Ys fan, pick this one up. If you aren't a Ys fan, pick this one up anyways. It's really got some great qualities and doesn't rush the story.

RATING: 9 loquacious parrots out of 10 ?

 

Only four games left and they are mostly long-@$$ RPGs, so I know I'll not even scratch the surface of them. I know one of these will have to be given several days to make up for platinuming two of my entries instead of holding off.

 

EDIT: I mentioned this game to my only physical friend, who is my gym coach, and he's a big gamer(just started up on the new Zelda game) and he really liked the thought of playing it and said he would add it to his PS+ Extra queue. I like it when I can get someone interested in it. Sadly, Tears of the Kingdom is demanding all of his time as is his happy little accident daughter.

Edited May 16, 2023 by Taruta13

[Taruta13]

Might as well get this out of the way now so I don't back off on this... *sigh*

 

Game #7: Kingdom Hearts III

 

Developer: Square-Enix, Disney Interactive

Publisher: Square-Enix

Genre: Action RPG

 

Yeah, I already have Final Mix and Re:Chain of Memories started, let's add this guy onto the list!

 

To be fair, I won't have any struggle here with story, it'll just be the miscellaneous trophies. Also, due to them adding their Re:Mind DLC, this is one of Frustrating Four(easy platinum, undoable DLC) that I will be taking on. (The first member is Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and I already have trophies in Member #3, A Hat In Time, which is not easy at all. Another game on this list, Ni No Kuni II, is the final member.)

 

I'm not dreading this series of play sessions as I will be watching someone play the game and speed-running the trophy hunt(Bizkit47, one of the greatest Kingdom Hearts speedrunners alive) but I will try to limit my interaction with this as much as possible.

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Taruta13

[slicknick3822]

Game #3 - Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - Final Review

 

Time played: ~10h

Trophies Earned: 19/19 (100%)

 

Thanks to Charizarzar's platinum walkthrough I was able to get through this pretty easily and didn't run into any glitched trophies thankfully. However, I am kind of dumb, because I walked the entire game, not realizing that the game actually did patch in a run button (although I heard it's not much quicker). I think there's a good game here for some people, but just not for me. I didn't mind the exploration of the game, but the collectibles are kind of meh and 90% of them have to be looked at with no interaction which could make you incredibly unlucky if you "miss" one of them (luckily I didn't). The story is also okay. It's nothing special to me. I looked up some "Ending Explained" articles after playing to figure out if it was deeper than I had realized but not really. The only real question is who are you playing?

Spoiler

My guess is Kate.

 

However, I feel like the game's story left more questions than answers. You don't really figure anything out about "the light". A lot of the things happening and being uncovered in the game are secondary to give the character's more depth, but all they do is make every character super unlikable (except Kate and Rachel really). The music and atmosphere of the game is very good and gives off a really unsettling and eery feeling that follows you around as you traverse the end of the world, but it doesn't make up for a story that didn't really grip me or give me any strong emotions either way and a gameplay that is slow and not as interactive as it could've been.

 

Rating: 5/10

Current %: 76.74% (-11.96%) 

 

Game Preview

May 16th-20th

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

 

Developer: Deck Nine

Publisher: Square Enix

Genre: Adventure

 

I just recently played the first LIfe is Strange and while I had some issues with it, I enjoyed the story quite a bit. So I'm glad this popped up on PS Plus recently so I could get into the prequel and maybe discover some more backstory especially on Rachel. This seems like it is a shorter game than the original Life is Strange which is good because I actually only have two days to play this before I go to Atlanta for my bachelor weekend!

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by slicknick3822