Popular Post ZitMeatloaf Posted October 3, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 3, 2022 Haven't posted here since July, so here's a big fat 10 platinum update. #111 - Stray "All Done" Difficulty: 4/10 Enjoyment: 9.5/10 I love cats, and I adored this game. It's such a unique concept and amazingly well done, especially considering this is the development studio's first ever game. If not for the "Can't Cat-ch Me" trophy, this would probably be about a 2.5 difficulty. I didn't have the amount of problems with the trophy as a lot of others have reported, but it was certainly irritating. #112 - Wytchwood "Platinum Potion" Difficulty: 3/10 Enjoyment: 7/10 "Crafting adventure game" would be one way to describe this. "Never-ending fetch quests: The game" might be another. I know that certainly sounds like a negative assessment, but this game is still pretty fun. The art style is cute, the environments look nice, and story is above average. Crafting games aren't one of my mainstays, but I enjoyed this one. #113 - Telling Lies "All Done" Difficulty: 3/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Another unique game, the gameplay in this one involves piecing together the story by watching surveillance videos and video chats, and searching keywords within each video. It's a cool idea, but unfortunately a lot of the videos have copious amounts of dead air; when you watch a video chat (which make up the vast majority of the videos), you only see one half of the conversation at a time. So if one character is telling a lengthy story and you're watching the other half of the conversation, you're just looking at the person sitting there listening, occasionally raising their eyebrows and saying riveting things like "Oh yeah?", "Huh" and "Mmm." Kinda boring at times, but overall a good game. #114 - I Am Dead "All Done" Difficulty: 4/10 Enjoyment: 7/10 Must be another Annapurna published game with that platinum trophy name. I wonder what the deal with that is. Is it mandatory in all of their contracts with developers that the platinum absolutely must be called "All Done"? Anyway, this game has you playing as a dead guy (in case you couldn't figure that part out), exploring the memories and lives of both the living and the dead alike to help avoid an impending catastrophe. The riddles are the most difficult part of the game. #115 - Ghost of Tsushima "Living Legend" Difficulty: 0.01/10 Enjoyment: 53 sweet autopops/10 International trophy hunting day arrived on the 24th of September, and I treated myself to a bit of an autopop party. This was autopop #1. #116 - A Plague Tale: Innocence "Innocence" Difficulty: 0.01/10 Enjoyment: 36 sweet autopops/10 Autopop #2 for international trophy hunting day. After the 2 second autopop for Ghost of Tsushima, this one took an agonizing 42 seconds. Who has that kind of time? #117 - Bugsnax "Bugsnax Master" Difficulty: 2/10 Enjoyment: Oh yeah that's how this game works/10 The last platinum I earned for trophy hunting day, this one was only a partial autopop followed by two-and-a-half hours of remembering how to play the game to clean up the rest of the trophies. It was still pretty fun, I suppose. #118 - What Remains of Edith Finch "All Done" Difficulty: 1.5/10 Enjoyment: 8.5/10 Brought to you by our friends at Annapurna again, as you can see. I couldn't resist playing this game a second time through to get a platinum. It's still a fine piece of masterful storytelling. #119 - Horizon Forbidden West "All Trophies Obtained" Difficulty: 3.5/10 Enjoyment: 9/10 As someone who has a hard time ignoring the side quests, I spent about 90 hours in this game. Worth every minute, in my humble opinion. Although if you complete a boatload of side quests like I did, you'll reach maximum level without any trouble and as a result you'll be overleveled for the last few story missions. At level 50, the final boss wasn't much of a challenge at all. The hardest thing in this game is actually winning the gauntlet races, about the only thing in the game I did not enjoy. #120 - Moss "Together We're Twofold" Difficulty: 4.5/10 Enjoyment: 9/10 This amazing little game is my first ever PSVR platinum. I'm very late to the party in acquiring the VR headset, but now that I have one I'm very glad I claimed all those free VR games through PS Plus and the Covid "Play at Home" program. Quill might be one of the most adorable video game protagonists ever. I really enjoyed my time with this one. The no death run required for the platinum is pretty easy up until the last boss, I highly recommend backing up your save once you reach that point. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 #1,595 PS5 version of Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordguwa Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 (edited) platinum #640 Ar Nosurge: Ode To an Unborn Star (ps3) completed in 3 weeks and 8 hours (took longer than needed due to streaming fail) platinum rarity: 17.36% rare playtime: 41-43 hours platinum name: All Trophies Acquired had to redo the final boss 3 times because i didn't know what i had to pick to get the 2nd true ending but that's out of the way. going to target one of the ps extra games on one of my lists and it'll be little big workshop (ps4) seems ice age is stream only :(. Edited October 4, 2022 by Lordguwa 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 #1,596 PS5 version of The Capybara P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 539 678 Rollerdrome An action arcade shooter / extreme sports hybrid developed by Roll7, (developers of the OlliOlli games,) Rollerdrome is a game with a very specific, very streamlined design document: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater... with Guns! Set in a retro-future where corporations - in particular, the Matterhorn Corporation - have near total governmental control, a new bloodsport - the Rollerdrome - has risen as the most popular consumer spectacle. The player takes the role of Kara Hassan, a new challenger who has wagered her life on becoming the new champion, and follow her career, while also learning the Matterhorn's involvement with Rollerdrome, and their shady operations. I don't usually start by talking about visuals and presentation, but with Rollerdrome, it's fitting to do so - and almost a requirement. They scream out to be noticed! The visuals are tremendous - and arguably the greatest triumph of the game. It's a cell-shaded art-style, but one far more detailed, crisp, clean and gorgeous than virtually any cell-shaded game I have ever seen, (save perhaps currently non-Playstation game Sable.) The thin-pencil-line outlines and detailing and the pastel-shade colour-scheme look absolutely fantastic - and freeze framing the game at literally any point results in a single-frame work of art that wouldn't look out of place in the best comic books - or be worthy of framing and hanging on a wall. The style, as compared to other cell-shaded games, is closest to something like Frank Quietly's work - for examples, see his amazing artwork in All-Star Superman - with an attention to fine detail and crisp, clean lines that puts him in the very highest echelon of comic book artists... and capturing that style in an in-motion videogame is something quite breathtaking to see. Because Rollerdrome works with a time-slow mechanic to allow for the accurate gunplay while engaging in fast-paced trick-popping action, these visuals are often being slowed to a crawl and the full spectacle of them held up for scrutiny, yet not once in my time with the game did I ever experience any real glitchy or odd poses, any environmental clipping, or really anything mechanical or technical that could take away from the visual spectacle of the game. Explosions, gunfire, flames, even melee impacts look both great, and completely at home within the heightened comic-book aesthetic. The presentation elements of the game are not purely stylish in terms of visuals either - but across the board. If there is a space in the game to further the philosophy of clean, simple, stylish aesthetic and movement, you can bet it is made use of in Rollerdrome. The menus are simple and functional, yet artistically designed with the eye of a graphic artics. The intro sequences are stylish as hell, and work great. The story beats, when they come, allow the player to walk around the "green room" holding areas or certain places (a train for example) as during Kara's down-time, and explore some elements of the world-building of the society that has given rise to the Rollerdrome as a bloodsport. These look great too (the only game I have played that comes close to this art-style in first-person is Void Bastards, and Rollerdrome outdoes even that game,) but more than that, the way these sections shift seamlessly into the next round of the competition - with Kara simple moving through a doorway, the camera pulling out to 3rd-person, and the action beginning without so much as a scene transition is marvellously well done, and feels awesome every time. Hell, even the poster-art cover image on the game is something I'd happily hang a picture of on my wall! The soundtrack follows the visual style also - the fast paced action is over-scored with a thumping, visceral and very evocative electronic soundtrack, and foley work - the sounds of shots fired, audio UI elements such as pickups and indications of ammo generation etc - are all excellent. They work as pure audio-candy, but also provide all the necessary feedback the player needs, in the middle of chaotic action, where visual indicators are not enough. (It's also work noting, on the "Player Feedback" - the haptic implementations of the PS5 controller are exceptionally good in Rollerdrome too -probably the best implementation I've encountered since Returnal. different rumbles and pressures are used to indicate charging weapons status, or incoming damage type, and these become second nature very quickly.) Mechanically, the game functions really, really well. The controls are not as immediately intuitive as some games, with jumping more a case of holding and releasing buttons, and momentum carrying once begun, however, they do come to feel natural pretty quickly, and before long, impressive and death-defying stunts can be pulled off with aplomb. While Rollerdrome has a narrative, it is pushed fairly far in the background - it is a game that is certainly "mechanics forward" and those mechanics have been finessed to a very high level. Movement is fluid and sleek, and pulling off tricks is surprisingly simple - as is taking shots at enemies, or dodging incoming ones. Unlike games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, where pulling off tricks is the entire raison d'etre, there is not real "crash" fail-state - missing a jump, or even missing the ramp on a landing will not cause Kara to fall, or come to a dead stop, however, it does cost significant momentum... and maintaining that constant momentum is absolutely the key to success. The game works on a series of "push-pull" mechanics. Pulling off tricks replenished ammunition for her weapons, and increased her available "slowdown" (the meter that drops as she slows down time, to make tricky shots.) Killing enemies restores health, and keeps a combo going. As such, avoiding incoming fire, while pulling off tricks is key to having the ammunition required to kill enemies, but killing those enemies is key to clearing space to pull off tricks, and to increase the score gained from them. That kind of push-pull mechanic, of course, by its nature, works sublimely when the player is doing well - indeed, Rollerdrome is one of those games where good play results in a kind of "zen flow-state" where the player is fully engrossed, and constantly dealing with their meters in a continual ballet of carnage and movement - however, it does also operate like a Jenga-tower. If the player takes a direct hit, and loses all momentum, recovering can be tricky. If they find themselves without sufficient ammo to make a kill to regain health, and too boxed in to pull off the tricks required to recover that ammo, a good run can very quickly become unrecoverable. That isn't a massive issue in the early portions of the game, where enemies are less compounded, though it does become one in later levels. Having said that though, there is an argument that maintaining that flow state IS the game - and so that collapsing Jenga-tower of failure is a necessary side-effect of the design, and not a genuine issue. The real issue the game has, however, is simply that there isn't a huge amount of variety to it. While the game is certainly sticks to its "Tony Hawk's with Guns" approach - and is incredibly well made good fun - it is really taking cues from the first Tony Hawk's game. The variety of tricks available to perform is not enormous. There are around 12 grab moves, 12 grind moves and a wall-ride. That is probably roughly analogous to the early Tony Hawks games, however, there is no real "combo" mechanic to speak of. point multipliers are racked up via consistent killing of enemies, with the "base points" derived from doing tricks, but these tricks themselves do not combo together. There is no points benefit to combining multiple tricks in a string, and no obvious way to do so anyways. While the early Tony Hawk's games did have less tricks in the bag than the later ones, they also benefitted from much more elaborate level design. Because Rollerdromerequires the player to be visible to enemies at all times, all levels are necessarily quite contained. There is no scope for "gimmick" levels, (for example, the "downhill" levels of Tony Hawk's.) All levels must conform to a basic set of fairly rigid design layout rules, and as such, tend to blend into one another... a fact not helped by the fact that, despite there being 12 main levels, actual artistic and environmental palates are repeated across some. The game also misses certain seemingly obvious areas where additional points would make sense. For example, one might think that killing an enemy in slow motion during a trick would be worth more points, however, it isn't - the reality is that while doing so may look awesome (and it sure does!) it is actually detrimental to the player's score. Far more points can be accrued by doing the full trick, then killing the enemy once it is landed, and so once the player moves past the "oh my God this is so cool!" portion of the game, and is concentrating more on accruing high scores, the play becomes rather less interesting or impressive - doing tricks, and shooting are almost treated as two parallel games, rather than one singular one - two activities happening in tandem, but independent of one another. The fundamental issue is that, with only around 24 tricks, 4 weapons (two of which are massively more powerful than the other two,) and only some limited variety in level layout, the process of gaining a high score in each level feels broadly the same... and the game knows it. There are 4 or 5 different enemy types, but the only real way the game has to increase difficulty from level to level is by increasing the number and ratio of these enemies... and the result is that the later levels on the harder "Out for Blood" campaign (essentially a "hard Mode" unlocked post completion,) become wildly chaotic and brutally difficult. They are open to extreme frustration, where so many enemies are present at any one time, that a single slip up is never really able to be recovered from. That does lead into an area I think the game does well, however - its "accessibility" options. Rollerdrome has quite a suite of modifiers available to the player, to set the challenge level to their personal tastes. Everything from the game speed, to the health, to the amount of slow-down or ammo available can be adjusted - in fact, if the player so chooses, they could make themselves a completely invincible, infinite-ammo wielding killing machine! (These options do not negate trophies, BTW, and so I can only assume the developer intended for the player to use them at their discretion... and for what it's worth, I did. While I dod not make myself invincible or go too far, I did find that reducing the health lost when injured a little, and increasing ammo at times made the later levels more fun for me personally, without negating the challenge too much.) Overall, while Rollerdrome does suffer a little for a lack of variety, and seems to miss a few obvious areas where the "trick" elements of the game could be further built upon (in a sequel, perhaps?) it cannot be denied that the fundamental game is something quite original, extremely sleekly produced and finessed, and absolutely ruthlessly fun when being played well. It has some issues with its ability to apply increased difficulty (simply adding extra enemies, to the point of near total confusion feels a bit hackneyed,) but does have significant and well implemented granular control of the difficulty available to the player, alleviating some of that concern. Is it a game that can sustain hundreds of hours of play? Probably not - and there is a relatively low skill ceiling, given the genre, in the sense that adding to a score has a clear maximum... ...but it remains a game that has to be played for the mechanical finesse to be appreciated.... and has to be seen for the incredible visuals to be believed! (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 540 679 Yoku's Island Express A curious amalgam of pinball, metroidvania and light platformer, Yoku's Island Express, from Villa Gorilla, is one of those games that feels specifically born out of the kind of "Game-Jam" mentality. A "what if X, but Y?" scenario - in this case, "what if a regular platforming game was played with a pinball instead of a character?" Taking some cues from Sonic Spinball, but applying a much more physics-based, directly Pinball analogous model, The game sees the player take the role of Yoku - a little dung-beetle, who arrives on the island of Mokumana, to take on his role as the new postmaster. Arriving at a fortuitous time, Mokumana is in trouble - the benevolent deity that rules the island is under attack, and needs help in securing the safety of the island and its insect and animal inhabitants - and so Yoku must not only take care of his postal duties, delivering mail to the post-boxes and denizens of the island... he must also save it from calamity! Mechanically, Yoku's Island Express works generally very well. The Pinball is fun, and actually far more suitable to a platforming Metroidvania, and more deeply engrained, than one might expect. The game splits the island design between general "platforming with pinball elements," and more cavernous areas where the game more specifically reflects actual pinball - areas where Yoku becomes "trapped" for a while, and the layout is most obviously inspired by the "table" layout of real-life pinball, complete with a standard gutter, centralised left-right flipper trough, and looping tracks, bumpers and spinners above. Both area types work pretty well - the more "pinball" caverns are, of course, not anywhere near as complex or complicated as a full pinball tables, but they capture enough of the feeling to evoke them well. The ways in which the more "platforming" or exploratory sections incorporate pinball elements is quite impressive too. The game works using Pinball mechanics for all platforming and most movement - a colour coding (Yellow / Blue) denotes which flippers and bumpers are activated using which button (L2 / R2,) and the whole island is peppered with these. There is al light metroidvania element to the game, both via collectible fruit (the game's currency,) and abilities. some flippers in the environment will require an expenditure of fruits to unlock - these generally giving access to optional or side-mission-critical spots, while actual abilities (for example, the ability to swim, or to swing on flowers to propel Yoku to new heights,) are gained from narrative progression, and generally gate the more significant traversal from one area to the next. The game incorporates all the standard elements of a 2D Metroidvania - main and side-missions, collectibles, secret areas, devilish little puzzles to solve, and even boss fight. These take the form of unique, pinball instances, and are really good fun - often incorporating some of the best elements of real pinball - ball traps, multi-ball sections etc, and are a real highlight of the game, and home to many of its best showcase moments. The physics of the game feel good in motion. For the most part, the pinball play feels correct, though Yoku's Island Express is not trying to replicate a real pinball table, and so of course, does not need to replicate real-table physics either. There are quite a few spots where the game will visibly fudge real physics, in order to ensure Yoku and his ball do not get trapped, and go where they need to to traverse a space, but these are almost always in areas where it is welcome. For example, certain runs or troughs will be moved through no matter how low the players momentum is when they enter, with a phantom gust of wind seeming to "carry" Yoku to the end, but at no point do these "faked" physics feel detrimental to the player. For the most part, while not quite replicating the true "heaviness" of real pinball, the physics model feels consistent and good - the player can be confident in it, and that if failing to hit a mark, it is down to their play, and not the game itself. There is something of an issue in the sense that while the game is quite fast paced and fluid during pinball sections, or while using the flippers and bumpers that are liberally spread across the island, moving independent of them is quite slow. The game is heavily momentum-focussed, so getting Yoku moving from a dead stop does take a few seconds of acceleration to get going, and it can feel a little heavy at times - a point exacerbated a little by the odd physics of that movement. Because the player is controlling Yoku, Yoku himself is pushing his ball, but the ball is what carries the momentum, there is occasional issues with the movement at very low speeds feeling a tad hitchy or "sticky" as Yoku moves from one side of the ball to the other, and the momentum feels like it works against the player movement. It's not a huge deal, but common enough to notice - and there is one particular mechanic that tends to magnify it: Slugs. There are explosive slugs on the island, which Yoku gains the ability to "inhale" and detonate, and are primarily used to them blast through breakable blockages, opening up new or secret areas or shortcuts. This works well in the pinball sections, however, these slugs are also used with a secondary mechanics - lining the ball up just-right, will allow Yoku to "blast" himself up to out-of-reach ledges, or over otherwise uncrossable chasms. This requires quite finicky, careful lining up of the ball as precise angles, and because yoku can only "roll" the ball, and not directly spin it, getting it at the perfect angle, and the perfect position to make these quite precise jumps can be very fiddly... and frustrating, as the slugs are on a strict timer before they explode. Failing can mean travelling some ways back to collect another, but more than that, failing can sometimes result in Yoku blasting off in the wrong direction - potentially falling a long way down the island, and requiring a pretty significant backtrack to get to where they wanted to be. That element aside though, the game is very well made and well thought out. Collectibles are fun and well implemented, with currency fairly abundant, and only ever a few minutes of play on any of the "pinball caverns" away. Most are fairly easy to track, with collectible maps allowing them to appear on the overall island map, making clean-up all good fun. There is one collectible type - the rather well hidden "Scarabs" which can be a slight issue - there a a lot of these, and so to avoid Ubisoft-style "icon-vomit", they do not appear on the map until only 10 or less remain to be found, however, even these do not really require any kind of collectible guides to complete - just a careful eye when exploring. The characters in the game are charming and fun, and there is really pleasant tone to the whole game - it very much feel rooted in the Nintendo 64 style of charm - a kind of Banjo-Kazooie/ Donkey Kong style of winning, island hijinx that is consistently joyful and thoroughly family-friendly. The game looks great - the art-style is bright, cheery and tropical feeling, and the different areas of the island all look distinct, yet consistently part of a painterly, watercolour-esque whole, that rivals Rayman Origins / Rayman Legends in terms of visual pop and style. Audio is great - the music, again, feels plucked right out of the bright and breezy N64 era, and wouldn't sound out of place in a medley of Donkey Kong and Mario tracks. There isn't voice-over, all text is written (and often draws a smile, if not out-and-out laughs,) but foley work is absolutely great - the sounds of the pinball hitting bumpers, or the flipper swishes etc all sound just right, and really hit those Pinball-dopamine receptors! Overall, Yoku's Island Express is a pretty delightful little experience - a very well enacted implementation of a curiously under-used idea, and one that manages to be both quite original in the current gaming landscape, and be a charming, fun, visually lovely romp. It's a game obviously appealing to those who love Pinball, but despite pinball being saturated throughout it, is absent many of the more brutal aspects than can put people off pinball games generally. The metroidvania and exploratory elements are more than enough to draw in even the most pinball-averse, and quite possibly make them re-evaluate their pinball opinions along the way! (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 541 680 Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars A JRPG with a table-top card gaming aesthetic from Alim, and coming from veterans of the Drakenguard and Nier franchises - including Yoko Taro himself - The Isle Dragon Roars is the first of (currently) 3 titles in the Voice of Cards series. Originally conceived as a downloadable, mobile iOS/ Android series, the game minimises the animation and voice cast of a traditional JRPG, but retains most of the core elements, re-tooling them to fit a table-top gaming theme with an odd and quite unusual narrative tone and timbre. Taking the role of Ash, a young would-be-fortune-seeker, and his pet monster Mar, the player is thrust into a realm of sword and sorcery on the Island of Bliss. A dragon is terrorising the island, and Queen Nilla is offering a handsome reward to the adventurer who can slay it. Across a 20-odd hour journey, Ash teams up with various party members as he traverses the island, collecting clues as to the reason for the Dragon's appearance and its connection to the island (and to a group of do-gooders, the Ivory Order, three of whom serve as the constant foil to Ash and his friends, as they follow a parallel adventurers path in search of the dragon.) Ultimately, Ash and his party must confront the dragon and defeat it... or learn what its nature is. The game is a very strange one, in a variety of different ways - most notably, in its unique style. Card games -specifically Deck Builders - are certainly in-vogue right now, and truth be told, I actually purchased Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars assuming it was one... but it very much is not. While the aesthetic is table-top gaming, the actual mechanics are very much one-to-one with traditional turn-based JRPGs. Skills, Items, characters, enemies - there are all represented by cards, with attack and defence values much as with a deck-builder, however, the actual process of battle is not really designed around building a deck. The deck available is simply a direct version of a set of unlocked skills, items and equipment that would be available in a turn-based RPG. Where the available actions to play at any one time are tied to a pool of "action points" (crystals, in this case,) a deck-builder will always be predicated on card-synergies - on using combinations of card effects to build complex and powerful hands. In Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, that is not the case. Combat allows for some buffs / and simple synergies of that nature, but these are really no more complex or compounding than status effects or ailments in any traditional JRPG. Setting the idea of deck-builders aside though, what is interesting is both what the table-top card concept does for the traditional JRPG, both stylistically, and mechanically. Certainly, it is clear that the style affords the developer significant leeway in terms of budget. The game is actually very nice to look at - cards animate quite nicely and in a very varied manner - they take effects / ailments, attack in different ways, and these are quite beyond the level I have seen in genuine deck-building games. While Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is certainly more simple and less labour-intensive to craft than a fully animated JRPG from which it takes its mechanics, it is clear that plenty of effort has gone in to lend the signature visual style a level of visual flair seldom seen in the card-based games from which it takes its aesthetic. This "less, but more than you'd expect" philosophy applies to the audio also. While the game saves significant effort in the sense that a large voice cast is not required, all speech, and indeed, all narration, is voiced - it is simply all voiced by one actor. The game is presented - as in a table-top game such as Dungeons and Dragons - by a "Games Master", who not only speaks directly to the player, providing all the speaking parts, and reading all narrative, but he also comments on what the player is doing, how well a battle is going, what they should do next etc. This mechanic is interesting, and really lends weight to the whole notion of the game as a D&D-type campaign... but is also key to one of the oddest factors of the game: its unusual tone. That tone is... curious. Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars doesn't feel entirely self-serious, but neither does it feel entirely irreverent. It feels neither overtly parodying, nor strictly straight-laced. It seems to fall oddly somewhere in between. It is high-fantasy, yet seemingly slightly knowing, and therefore not quite as open to ridicule or issues when something feels off or unearned (as, say, Final Fantasy, or the Talesseries can occasionally stumble into.) It is, however, certainly not fully mocking or irreverent, as, say, a Deathspank-style "pure parody" game is. Because the game is presented as somewhat "at arms length" - via the descriptions and presentation of a knowing narrator, who is presenting the tale to the player, rather than purely via the eyes of the protagonist character - the game is able to be serious, yet present characters and situations who are themselves a little over the top or ridiculous, without going "fully detached" from its high-fantasy premise. It is a difficult dichotomy to articulate - however, the best analogy I can muster is that Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars feels like neither The Lord of the Rings, nor Terry Pratchett's Discworld... but closest, in tone, to The Princess Bride. That ability the game has - to be both serious, and non-serious simultaneously - comes from the same root that it does in that book and film - that while the story takes itselfseriously, the person narrating it has agency, and doesn't necessarily. While reading the game broadly "straight", the narrator is still able to convey subtle tones in his delivery, which hints at comedy, without ever directly hanging a lantern on it. When a character who's house has burned down, for example, nearly losing their mother in the fire, is presented with a bill from their landlord for a million gold pieces due to their lack of foresight in not having fire-insurance, the character takes it seriously, and the narrator says so, but his tone is what indicates the player need not. When an entire village of fisherman who are all outrageously buff and muscular, all wear loincloths, and talk about naked wrestling due to their access to a wondrous semi-mystical nutritionist, the narrators tone acknowledges the ridiculousness of the situation to the player, so the characters themselves don't have to. They can play it straight, without the game feeling like it has gone to the zoo. This mechanic allows the game to walk an extreme tightrope of tone, and it actually does so to remarkably consistent effect. The result is a game that feels bizarre at times, is serious enough to engage, while also comedic enough to forgive. It's really a smart triumph of both the writing, and the amalgamation of tone and art-style, and while there is certainly little here in terms of writing that compares to some of Yoko Taro's work on, say, Nier Automata, there is still evidence of craft in the tonal consistency and tonal balancing act the game pulls off. Mechanically, the game is, it must be said, very basic as JRPGs go. In some ways, the game is actually tilling some of the same soil as retro-throwback JRPGs such as I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear or Cosmic Star Heroine, though even as compared to them, the game is mechanically simple, and notably easy. The game is not likely to really challenge any player remotely familiar with the JRPG genre... however, its the table-top style that both sets it apart, and allows for unique interest in the way it is implemented. Everything is a card, right down to the maps being face-down cards, only unveiling the terrain when the player moves their "play piece" into the directly connecting space, to reveal a grass, or a path, or a cave, or a mountain, or an ocean card. Random events, make use of the cards in an interesting way - one, for example, where a random card can be seen very very close up, and only some small details an be seen, the player must chose whether it is a monster of an NPC card they are seeing, and act accordingly. In another, where a card shoots past the screen very quickly, and the player must identify its type for a prize. The random elements of battle in a traditional JRPG are present, but the visual aesthetic allows the "under-the-hood" elements to be brought to the forefront. Dice rolls are not a background mechanic here - the player actually rolls an actual die, and watches to see the result in real-time. While there is nothing mechanical that is out-and-out original, the implementation of the style has originality baked-in, and so the whole game feels much fresher than it would if it were simply a standard art-style JRPG. Visually, as said, the game is quite a success. The table-top style does preclude any awe-inspiring spectacle, but the look of the game is smart and fun. The artwork on the cards is stylish and lovely to look at, and the animations and overall presentation is very nice. Audio is decent - the voice work by the narrator is plentiful and very high quality, and sound effects are sparing, but well done. The actual musical score is one area that I think lets the game down a little - it is the one area of the game immune to the serious/not-serious balance, and feels a little bit grandiose and "generic-fantasy" in comparison to everything else. It is not offensive - or even bad - but I do think it is the one area of the game that feels too serious, and even within that caveat, it is not particularly rousing or interesting as fantasy scores go. Overall, Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a genuine puzzlement to me. It is a game I bought thinking it was one thing, and found another... and exactly what the tone and style of that thing I found is an oddity in and of itself. It is a game unlikely to be for everyone - it is oddly paced, strangely told, and really quite bafflingly written at time... ... but it is whimsically winning, visually interesting, mechanically simple... and curiously compelling. I suspect I will be playing more games in the series - and that more than anything else, probably makes for an endorsement of this strange little game! (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 542 681 Islanders A 2019 light City Builder, Puzzle Game and Rogue-like hybrid from Grizzly Games, Islanders takes a minimalist approach to both its mechanics and its aesthetic, pulling together the core elements of the standard "City Builder writ-large", and condensing them down from a hundreds-of-hours marathon to a manageable, sunny-day stroll - retaining the dopamine positive feelings such games evoke, while eschewing the hard-crunch numbers and byzantine complexities they usually carry. City Builders, at heart, generally work on a complex and intricate set of hidden parameters, all intermingling and interacting based on the layout of the city the player has made. Complexities such as income, tax, bills, city expenditure, infrastructure, zoning, traffic, access, electricity, gas, sewerage, transport - all these concepts must be understood, and independently and inter-operationally managed, to result in a delicate balance of ongoing productivity, maintenance and expansion.Islanders, on the other hand, looks at the basic theory of what gives the "feel-good factor" in playing such games: the creation of a visually appealing city layout, and the basic good layout of the area - and discards all the surrounding elements, to leave only those elements in place. Now, to be clear - I love complex City Builders. Cities Skylines, (in my opinion, the pinnacle of the genre,) is one of the best games I have played in recent years, and the breath-taking complexity and nuance baked into that game is both fascinating to me, and the source of genuinely infinite fun and playability. Having said that though, I cannot deny that starting a new game of Cities Skylines is a daunting task! Beginning a city form its humble beginnings is the first step in what is guaranteed to be an enormous endeavour, and a time-sink that cannot be treated lightly. Islanders takes some of the broadest elements that are fun about a game like Cities Skylines, but condenses them down in scope and scale by a magnitude - both in terms of complexity, and of land-mass... and removes the longevity of the game, making each little city created an ephemeral, fleeting puzzle to be solved, rather than an ongoing, gargantuan and sprawling monster to be tamed. Each time the player starts a game of Islanders, they are presented with a new, randomly generated small island (or crop of islands) with very little land mass, a few environmental details and eccentricities, and a very small batch of 4 or 5 buildings to create. Each of these buildings can be placed virtually anywhere they will fit within reason - the player need not worry about things like access, roads, electricity etc. They have, in essence, total freedom. However, what each different building does have, is set parameters in relation to other ones, or environmental elements. Buildings gain points for being within set distance of related buildings, and lose points for being placed within set distance of opposing ones. What the player will see, immediately upon looking to place a building, is two things: a "dome of influence" around the building (of different sizes and shapes, depending on the building type,) and a set of numbers appearing in the environment. In combination, the player can see - in real time as they hover over different potential areas to place the building - how many points that placement will net them. A lumber mill, for example, will show yellow (positive) numbers not only beside IT, growing larger the more trees fall within its dome of influence, but also on each individual tree, showing where the central number is generated from. If placing a Temple, they will not only see positive yellow numbers over each "household" that falls within their sphere... but also red (negative) numbers, for each tavern, or worksite, or other building that has a negative influence on its placement - all totalling the central number. This might seem very simple as a game mechanic - and it is - however, there are two elements that add complexity to the process: Firstly - the tiny landmass. Because of the very small area the player has to work with, simply "spreading" the city is not an option. The player must be very careful about which buildings go where. Laying multiple quarries, for example, all far from each other is beneficial, as they lose points for being too close together... but doing so too much may result in there being no available space to put a circus or temple further down the line - a building that will lose far more points for being near a noisy quarry than the player would lose from having two quarries close together. Given how few buildings are available at any one time, and how small the available lad-mass is, this can be the difference between successful expansion, and a game-over due to lack of compounding points, so that Push-Pull must be weighed carefully. Secondly, buildings or city elements are available in small "batches" - and each new batch is only available when a set points total milestone is reached. As such, the player does not have the burden of choice when choosing which avenue of city growth to pursue... but equally, they do not have the luxury of it either! Getting the points total required for each new batch to unlock requires careful use of every building currently available - and the risk/reward magnifies as the player progresses. Later in the game, buildings with powerful, high-points-value placements become available... however, these also come with significant negative points for poor placement - and with so little land available, boxing oneself in, with no way to place a building well become more and more of a risk. As a result, the game become more of a continual run-based high-score chaser, than a traditional City Management Simulator. It's a clever concept, and one that works remarkably well. The game is - in essence - a rogue-like, in that cities are fleeting, and failure is always a mere few bad placements away, but it also comes with that "Zen" rogue-like benefit. Because the cities are fleeting - and because the each one is primarily a stepping stone to the next - the player never tends to feel burdened or crushed by failure. The impermanence of their little living work of art lends them a fleeting nature, which could feel disposable in a lesser game, but tends to simply feel relaxing and calming here. Mistakes are impermanent, as well as success, and so the game becomes more about seeing how far one can progress through the building "tree"to see the later-stage buildings, and viewing the new, interesting island layouts, than it is about admiring ones own permanent city, as it would be in a more traditional "long-form" City Builder. This lends the whole game a very Zen, meditative quality - and Grizzly Games know this, and lean into it. The aesthetic of the game is great - it's a clean, simple iOS-style aesthetic, completely calming and tranquil looking. The buildings are all fashioned in such a way that even hap-hazard placement, or cramming together tends to look good no matter how it begins, and the layout of the game follow suit. The menus are simple and clear - the only option available upon loading Islanders is "New Game" or "Sandbox", and hitting new game simple sweeps the camera across a lovely looking ocean, in search of a new little island archipelago upon which to craft a village. When a set number of points is accrued on one, a simple hit of a button sweeps it away again, leaving that village to live on in memory, and swooshing to a new one to start building again. In fact, there is a Sandbox mode here - and in that version of the game, the Zen aspect is embraced completely. The game removes all points values, all semblance of "gamification" and essentially becomes simply an art-project. All buildings are available at the players discretion - with no cost - and they can proceed to build away to their hearts content without consequence. Personally, I found this mode less interesting - the mild gamification of the primary mode was more my speed - but I appreciate the concept, and imagine it would be very relaxing for some to simply build, and appreciate the artistry of it. Visually, as said, the game is very nice - its a very iPad-adjacent visual palate - soft pastel shades and clean, simply geometry - but more than that, the islands themselves, and the building designs are tranquil and lovely to look at. The game actually feels like a holiday - the island tones and sunny sky is as soothing as it is picturesque. Audio also is designed entirely around the calming, tranquil idea of relaxing on an island, and its gentle piano and calming tones feels like an audio massage for the brain. Overall, Islanders is a smart, simple, clever little game, taking what is a sometimes cumbersome and complexity-saturated genre, and simplifying it down to level that is both accessible to everyone, and relaxing, fun and endearing for anyone. The ways it introduces elements of puzzle game and rogue-like mechanics to offset the reduction in building complexity is clever, and "re-gamifies" some of the elements removed from traditional City Builders, but without reintroducing the overwrought complexity of them. Islanders is not a game likely to hold any gamers full attention for dozens of hours... but it isn't trying to. For the little time it does ask, it is genuinely innovative, interesting and - most importantly - relaxing and fun... and loading it up feels less like embarking on a task, and more like taking a gentle breath of fresh air. (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post erwint0920 Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 (edited) #67 - The Walking Dead: The Final Season HEY! Telltale! DON'T. DO THAT! longliveclementine! Edited October 4, 2022 by erwint0920 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ResiGamer_28 Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 #127 Crash Time 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 #1,597 Stroke The Rabbit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post breakdance1989 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 PLATINUM #127 - InkSplosion: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post SIick_50_ Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 Plat #96 Spiderman Remastered 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post disaster500 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 #41 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered Another very fun platinum, will do the third one next. That one bridge checkpoint in the monastery on Crushing is awful though. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ResiGamer_28 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 8 hours ago, percy547389126yv said: #1,597 Stroke The Rabbit I just spent 95p on a can of cherry coke and its worth more than any of this shovelware. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 #1,598 PS4 version of The Pigeon Quiz #1,599 PS5 version of Sushi Fun #1,600 PS4 version of Sakura MMO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post erwint0920 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 #68 Life is Strange Remastered Yes I saved Chloe! it's the only way. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megacoolermensch Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 Jumanji. After years of ezpz trashplat whoring i decided to redeem myself by plattin this hard game and it will mark the beginning of the return to normal trophy hunting for me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moridin83 Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 #232 Table Top Racing: World Tour Plat and 100% in close succession for this one. I started this way back when it was a PS Plus freebie, and recently came back to finish it up and do the DLC. It's a fun little racer, but don't be fooled by it's playful aesthetic. The higher level events and the DLC require some severe accuracy, with very little margin for error. It's not Trackmania or Assetto Corsa, but this is no cakewalk, especially after the patch that came with the DLC that made some requirements much tighter, and nerfed the donut glitch. Nonetheless, I had a good time (mostly) and am glad to add this one to the list. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NorthPaul93 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 #105 Final Fantasy 7 Remake Master of Fate Now I feel like I kinda have to replay all of them ? 26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Redgrave Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 #256: No Problemo - Terminator Resistance: Enhanced What's this? A Terminator game that isn't below-average at best? With a story that ties into the first two movies and it doesn't do some needless retcon or some other thing that completely undoes the story of those movies as a means to justify a sequel no one asked for? I can hardly believe it myself but here we are. I had looked forward to playing this for a while but figured I might as well play it on the PS5 version since I guess they added improvements over the original. As someone who watched the first two Terminator films many times since I was six years old but the only games out there on the PS2/Xbox were pretty lackluster from what I can recall. I guess there were a couple arcade ones that were supposed to be good but I don't think I got to play them unfortunately. I also never played Terminator: Salvation on PS3 even for that easy Platinum. So it seemed like getting a good Terminator game was bleak and even when this got announced I was skeptical because it was made by devs I never heard of so it could have gone either way. But thankfully despite there being some jank (I will elaborate later) this wound up basically being the Terminator game I would have adored as a kid and playing this makes me all the more excited for the future RoboCop (another movie I saw at six years old) game. As the name suggests you play as a Resistance member named Jacob Rivers in the post-Judgement Day world of Terminator which takes place after Terminator 2. So I guess technically this game is a sequel to Terminator 2 and one I would gladly accept as a sequel over Terminator 3. Throughout the game you go through the war-torn machine ridden landscape as shown in the war flashbacks of the first two movies which is basically what I expected to see in Terminator: Salvation. I guess you do see the war in Salvation but not the way it was depicted in the first two movies plus I don't even think there was a single plasma rifle in that one. But yeah, you fight the Skynet machines from what I am guessing is most of the Terminator movies since I think some enemies are from Salvation and there is a part where a character references the T-400 which comes from the PS2/Xbox game. So it is basically the ideal way I would have wanted to see the war. Plus the plasma rifle just sounds cool and so it's great to use it ? But in terms of gameplay not only is it a first-person shooter but there is also crafting as well as dialogue options that give you choices that can affect some of the way NPC's think of you. There is also a level up system where you put skill points into certain skills. Normally I would see this as a red flag because it's kind of using mechanics that are overdone at this point and mixing different genres but crafting isn't really a huge part of it and the NPC's are actually likeable and while it's not Mass Effect quality of choices mattering it still built up to a pretty good moment I think and they effect how good or bad the ending is. There is one thing about the gameplay though and that there is jank to it. It's very mild jank but still jank. Probably the biggest offender is that your character moves really slow even when sprinting. Also when you crouch you're basically crawling on the ground like a snake and at times the stealth felt inconsistent but beyond that there's only a kind of sluggish reaction to shooting with some guns but it's nothing really that bad. I don't know how different it is from the PS4 version but I assume it is an improvement. There are also levels that give you freedom to explore around. They aren't very big but there are different routes you can take and it was cool seeing the references from the movies in a couple of them. But on top of that, this game managed to have the Terminators be genuinely scary. The first time you encounter the T-800s is in a hospital and you have to sneak around them because your current weapons won't hurt them and even when you do get a plasma rifle later on that can hurt them they are still a pretty menacing threat. So you really feel like you're in an apocalyptic wasteland being hunted by robots. Accompanied with the gameplay is the soundtrack that I assume has some original songs but also has songs from the first two Terminator movies. They even have the nightclub song that plays in the first movie which was nice to hear. Probably my favorite moment though is the ending battle where you make your charge for the Skynet core and not only is there a big battle with lots of Terminators being thrown your way but it is playing a remixed version of the main theme and it basically feels like how you would as a kid playing with nerf guns or whatever with your friends pretending to be playing Terminator and fighting against Skynet ? It felt like a very fan-service ending and I really enjoyed it since it felt like a proper way to show that war and I feel like the devs really knew it. For the trophies it's pretty easy with probably the only remotely difficult trophy is one from the DLC where you have to plant bombs faster than a certain character. The only other one that is missable from the main game is one where you unlock a Hard difficulty door and you have to make sure you have enough points in Lockpicking for it. Everything else is basically just doing side-quests or story related with the only other thing being to collect 10 collectibles which isn't difficult. So yeah I really did like this game a lot more than I was expecting and after playing this I really look forward to playing the RoboCop game that they are making. So for that, I can send this game off with a very respectful Hasta la vista, baby. ? 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post StarFang7 Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 #61 The Last of Us Part 1 Difficulty: 2/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 To the edge of the universe and back; this is one of my favorite games. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ResiGamer_28 Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 3 hours ago, FeindlicheKrabbe said: Jumanji. After years of ezpz trashplat whoring i decided to redeem myself by plattin this hard game and it will mark the beginning of the return to normal trophy hunting for me. The 95 hours or so this takes to reach level 30, compared to how easy the rest of the game is, is no joke. And insanely boring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 #1,601 PS4 version of Race Journey: Nitro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NurseTatiana Posted October 5, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2022 (edited) #300 Dead Space 3 Brave New World Obtain all trophies! Enjoyment 8/10 Difficulty 6/10 Soundtracks 8/10 Time Estimated 40-45h Platinum time 5 months & 2 weeks Recommendation 9/10 My review I started this game in April and I played the first playthrough on hard in coop. It was probably a bit different than the other 2 previous titles with less jumpscares and more action for me it was not bad at all. I understand that many people didn’t like it as much or consider it as a bad game but for me it was a joy to play. The enemies seemed to be on steroids sometimes with their speed and accuracy on killing me lol. The story was fine nothing like wow but okay at least to say. I got all the collectibles with the help in the coop so I want to say special thanks to @legit712 for helping me out btw ☺️ My second playthrough I played on classic mode it was not that hard but I dropped the game on chapter 16 for few months due to things on life going on and not feeling mentally well. However I came back to it in September and October and did Finnish it once for all. Straight after I did pure survival but I didn’t like this mode the fact that have to craft the meds and enemies takes hits like a tank imao. Like can’t you just die? Noooo!! Duhhhh!! What’s wrong with you omg nooo!! Not gonna lie I did rage a bit ? but still had fun anyways!! Hardcore mode was easier imao maybe just my opinion. I am very used to this kinda off permadeaths runs from previous games experiences. I didn’t even have to backup my save or use any devil horn exploit. In this mode you can save your game and exit if you want but if you die goodbye you start at the prologue again. I died total of 6-7 times most deaths are from the stupid climbing sections on chapter 13. Then at chapter 16 I got insta killed from a rocket launcher heavy soldier and other from bosses I panic and mess up. To sum this up this was definitely a great journey. I had fun and happy to finally earn my 300 platinum trophy!! Yayyy good times! ? Edited October 6, 2022 by NurseTatiana 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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