Kill Your Completion - CYOA

[crimsonidol38]

Game 3, Day 2: Zero Escape: The Nonary Games (PS Vita)

 

Played the game for about 2.5 hours yesterday and I have to say that this game is so far the highlight. I hoped for the fact that I would like 999 after enjoying VLR back in 2013, but I wouldn't have thought that it would be as mindblowing as it is currently.

To give a more detailed impression: LIke I stated yesterday 9 "random" (they are still connected in one way or another) people where kidnapped and are forced to play the so-called Nonary Games in what seems to be a sister ship of the Titanic. The ship is about to sink in 9 hours starting from the point where the antagonist tells the people about the Nonary Game. In these 9 hours the 9 people have to reach one-specific door with a bloody 9 written on it. To make it there, they have to pass through several other rooms where they have to cooperate or otherwise they will die (in a quite disgusting way). The problem is that not all of the characters can go into the same puzzle room, but instead they have to split up based on the numbers they were given and which can be seen on bracelets they have to wear, cause the puzzle rooms are locked via the digital root (=repeated digital sum).
Let's say a door has the number 5 written on it. Now only amount of 3 to 5 people can pass through the door whose digital root would equal to 5. E.g. the people with the bracelets 1, 6 and 7 could pass through the door, cause:
1 + 6 + 7 = 14 --> 1 + 4 = 5

So the biggest problem is that some people are forced to be part of one group even though they don't like each other and some tend to play against each other, which as you may guess, builds up the tension and you can't be sure whom you can trust and whom you can't trust.

Overall this is rather similar to the successor VLR but what I really like about 999 so far is how is how the story, although fictional, includes references to real facts and urban myths of our world. Some examples are the story about how the author Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Futility in 1898 which has quite some similarities to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Another example is the so-called curse of the Unlucky Mummy (which whill also make an appearance in VLR), which some see as the main reason why the ship sank.

But I also like the fact that Kotaro Uchikoshi uses real world facts to build up his own myths, which are included in the game and which make the story more appealing. One example is a fictional story about the chemical structure of EDT (=Ethylenediamine Tartrate, some kind of dissolver) starting to "malfunction" in a specific way all over the world from one point on. Even though that is a hoax, the chemical process that was described in the story is totally valid, according to my gf's statement and she studies chemistry.

These moments really make the story shine as it shows that the storywriter put some effort into the game and not only added some random shit that doesn't really fit. I'm sure there are some illogical things or a few plot holes later on but I'm sure this won't spoil the fun.

I remember that VLR also had these things but overall that game and it's story were over the top, whereas 999 seems more down to the earth with the setting and more feels like a thing that could happen for real.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Crimson Idol
Wrong year: Played VLR in 2013

[MosesRockefeller]

3 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

I remember that VLR also had these things but overall that game and it's story were over the top, whereas 999 seems more down to the earth with the setting and more feels like a thing that could happen for real.

This is your first time playing 999, right? I played it on DS (well, a 3DS playing a DS game) back before I started VLR. I loved it, even more than VLR. I'm not sure I'd play it again just to get trophies (I need to play ZTD next), but it's a fantastic game.

[crimsonidol38]

25 minutes ago, MosesRockefeller said:

This is your first time playing 999, right? I played it on DS (well, a 3DS playing a DS game) back before I started VLR. I loved it, even more than VLR. I'm not sure I'd play it again just to get trophies (I need to play ZTD next), but it's a fantastic game.

 

Correct, it's my first time. I played VLR when it became part of PS+ back in 2013 in Europe, even though I knew that I would miss some parts of the overall story but it was still a really nice experience. One thing I still have fond memories of was the Luna-ending. I always wanted to play 999 but IIRC the DS-version was never released in Europe, and I wasn't willing to pay the normal price plus shipping for the game. Still I bought a retail-copy copy of VLR after platting it. (strange logic, I know)

I will read VLR a second time for sure, but mainly for the fact that I now can read the trilogy in proper order. The trophies are just bonus fluff.

[Spider5786]

I've spent about 5 hours on Sniper Elite 4 so far and completed 3 missions (the maps for each mission are quite large). The game is good, nothing spectacular but any game that allows you to shoot nazis in the balls has got to have something going for it. 

 

Also played about 3 hours on Mass Effect Andromeda which has been enjoyable. It copped a lot of flak but I think it's a good typical Bioware game.

 

Although it wasn't part of my list I have played and completed Firewatch which is an exceptional little walking simulator. The relationship that develops between Henry (the main character) and his boss Delilah (over the radio) is marvellous storytelling.

 

[DamagingRob]

Game 5, Day 1- Falling Skies: The Game

 

Ugh.. This game is going to get boring fast. I don't know if there's a way to speed things up or not, but it's just so slow-paced. Basically, you have a squad of 4-6 people. You issue commands, and they follow them. After telling every person what to do, you then have to sit and wait for the enemies to do whatever they're going to do. And this goes on till you kill all the enemies, or accomplish your objective. 

 

There are 5 total classes you can mix and match for your team. Scouts, who can cover more distance per turn, and carry sniper rifles. Fighters, who specialize in assault rifles. Berserkers, who can take more damage and carry heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and molotovs. But also can't move as far. Spiked Kids, who also carry assault rifles. And Medics, who I haven't gained access to yet. But based on the name, I'm going to reckon they're mostly used for healing. 

 

After every mission, you are returned to your base. Here you can do all kinds of things. In the War Room, you can select your next mission. The Armory lets you recruit new squad members, buy upgrades for your squad, and change their gear/appearances. In the Workshop, you can make new weapons/ammo types, armor, and other equipment. In the Infirmary, you can make new medical items. Hurt teammates will also recover here. And in the Memorial, you can view members that have died. 

 

Making anything requires supplies, which are gained from completing missions. And there is usually a wait period of so many completed missions, for an item to be made. 

 

In missions, you can order squad members to move, attack, reload ammo, defend, throw grenades/molotovs, or use various skills gained by leveling up. If a member dies, you can use a defibrillator to revive them. After a few turns, though, this will no longer be possible, and they will die for good.

 

Enemies have consisted of aliens, or people controlled by aliens. The people shoot at you, while the aliens come right up to you and melee attack, causing you to bleed in the process. When bleeding, you lose so much health per turn. 

 

Not much else to say. But yeah, this is going to take awhile, as you need to play a lot of side missions just to unlock all the story missions. Plat estimate is over 40 hours.. And then there are a number of glitched trophies to worry about. Maybe I shouldn't have bought this. :/ Curse you, 99 cent pricing! 

 

Time played: 3 hours. 

Trophy progress: 2/21 for 6% and an E rank. 

[Hemiak]

Whelp. Valhalla mode slapped me in the face past night. I knew things were going to well. 

 

Going to start one or two new games tonight to stay on schedule. 

[voodoo_eyes]

22 hours ago, DamagingRob said:

 

@voodoo_eyes Always interesting to see such vastly different opinions of the same game. Sorry, you didn't enjoy Foul Play as much as I did.  

 

 

 

54 minutes ago, DamagingRob said:

Game 5, Day 1- Falling Skies: The Game

 

Not much else to say. But yeah, this is going to take awhile, as you need to play a lot of side missions just to unlock all the story missions. Plat estimate is over 40 hours.. And then there are a number of glitched trophies to worry about. Maybe I shouldn't have bought this. :/ Curse you, 99 cent pricing! 

 

 

See, while you enjoyed Foul Play, I really enjoyed Falling Skies so it evens out . Then again I love the X-Com franchise, and this is just a dumbed-down version of it. Personally I didn't run across any glitch trophies while platting this. The only annoyance I recall, is one mission that froze every 5 minutes. I just saved every time I could and once I beat that mission it never froze again.

[MarkusT1992]

Game #5: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Day1)

 

 

My first and only Metal Gear game I played was Metal Gear Solid 2 on the PS2. And there I mostly watched my brother play and only played a few times myself.

That being said, I have no clue what's going on story wise. You have the option to read what happenedprior to this game but I still have no clue. It's too confusing for me.

All I know is that you have to rescue two children who are part of your private army. But let's start at the beginning.

 

The Metal Gear series is mostly a stealth game. You have to navigate in the levels and keep undetected if possible. That's the same with this game.

When you start the game you only can play one mission called "Ground Zero" in which you have to rescue the aforementioned two children called Chico and Paz. The are held at a military base in which you have to sneak. For that you have binoculars to scout the area for enemies and silent weapons. One lethal and one non lethal with sleep darts. If you are spotted the whole base is in alert mode and is looking for you. If that happens you should keep yourself down and wait till it's back to normal. You don't stand a chance in an open battle as the guard call for reinforcements via radio. To stay hidden you should hide dead or knocked out bodies. If they are spotted it's alert mode time again.

There's not much to say about the mission itselfe. Sneak to one point in the base, rescue the first person and sneak to the second location to rescue the other person. You can also evacuate other prisoners which gives you more points after the mission for a better rating.

After rescuing Chico and Paz the mission is over and the game is completed. At least the main game. You unlock a few sid missions after beating the only main mission. You can also play the mission again at a higher difficulty. I know that this game is only a prologue for The Phantom Pain but considering the original price fo that game it's lacking of content. I mean one main mission plus maybe five side missions isn't much for 30-40€

So far I only played the main mission and got a B rating. It took me about 1h 15 to beat the mission but you can be much faster once you know what to do.

I want to try to beat each mission once depending on how long the are.

 

I'm glad I bought the Definitive Experience of this game, which contains this game and Phantom Pain plus Metal Gear Online with all DLC, for only 15€.

 

Time played: About 1h 20min

Trophies: 2/15

[JoaoQuique]

Game Nº 5 [Tropico 5] - Expectations

 

 

What's about? What I know so far is this game is a kind of "civility simulation" (like SimCity) - actually I had not seen much videos and read infos about this game, so I cannot talk about it well...

 

My expectations: To tell you the truth, I don't know what to expect about this game... I hope this game will be quite fun to play casually.

 

My gaming plan: I will just follow what I should do on this game, probably building some "prosperity" before completing game tasks... I will play on the lowest difficulty avaliable (it's not the time to be challenged...)

 

Which grade do I think I will give to this game? 

[MosesRockefeller]

Game #5: Journey

(the forum doesn't like the image link from the trophy page... sorry)

 

Journey is an adventure game where you control a vague hooded figure as he/she/it travels towards a mountain light.

 

This game is pretty short, so I finished the story before sharing my thoughts.

 

I really like the art style used in the game. The sound is pretty minimal and nothing caught my attention there.

 

A lot of people sing the praises of this game and had an emotional response to the game. I didn't feel strong emotions while playing the game. There is one part where I started to feel something, but it was too little, too late. I think the emotional experience of the game will manifest more in people who like minimalist storytelling. I do not like that kind of storytelling, and feel like it's lazy or trendy for trendy's sake. I haven't played Flow, but I did play Flower, which I enjoyed. However, part of me dislikes thatgamecompany's design philosophy (and honestly, I think their company name is kind of pretentious) and I noticed it more with this game. I don't think the game is bad by any means, but I think I would have enjoyed it more with narration or some other clearer form of relating the plot. As it was presented, I didn't understand everything and I didn't get pulled into the story.

 

On the other hand, there is another part of me that is very glad that Sony funded games like Journey. I think diversity in game design is important, and I'm happy that games like Journey are being made. But I'm also very glad that every game I play isn't like this.

 

Despite not having an emotional experience, I did like the way the different areas were presented, and the journey itself. That part was a special experience that will stick with me.

 

The controls in the game are tight and work great. Remote Play on the Vita is flawless, thanks to not needing any of the extra buttons that Vita doesn't have.

 

Now, as to what my future plans are for this game, I want to elaborate a bit. This may not make sense on a trophy hunting site, but let me try anyway. For certain kinds of games, I don't have any desire to replay for more trophies. Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls fit firmly in that category. I think going back and choosing different choices would diminish the story experience I had while playing the first time. The weird thing is, Telltale Games don't hit that same nerve with me, so I always go back in those games (the ones that require it at least, like The Wolf Among Us). Journey is different from those games I mentioned in that in revolves around very minimal storytelling, but I have that same sense that replaying it would remove some of the fun I had. In addition to that, I don't think I would gain anything from replaying, besides trophies I don't care about. So I'm done with the game.

 

Playtime: 3 hours or so

Trophies obtained: 3/14

Completion Percentage: 14% for a D rank

Score: 7/10

My Plans after KYC: The game is finished and I don't intend to play it again

 

Next up: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on PS3

Edited July 14, 2017 by MosesRockefeller

[Kevvik]

Bonus Game: Energy Cycle

 

OK, I haven't started game #5 yet and really hadn't planned on this. I picked up Energy Cycle this week on impulse (for $4 at release, should have been an early warning) because I like puzzle games and it looked intriguing.

 

Booted it up lying in bed last night figuring I'll play a couple of levels rather than start something new after a busy day. Very no frills presentation. A puzzle mode (there is no story to speak of), a time attack and an infinity mode, the latter 2 being randomly generated. I open the puzzle mode and see a menu of 28 puzzles to choose from. My spidey sense goes off at the weird number and I think I should now look at the trophy list.

 

Yep, that's all there is for that mode. I don't care how cheap the game is, a mode like this should have at least 100 puzzles.  I also now read about a glitch which can jump you through the time attack and infinity modes. Fastest plat time less than a week after release is 9 minutes. Crap. There goes the challenging puzzles I wanted.

 

Well, I figure I'll try it out and see how it goes. The gameplay is sort of like a Go puzzle. Electric light cycling through 3 colour when you tap one. Everything in that line, vertical or horizontal changes. Change them all to the same colour, not that anything tells you to. Still has a little potential until I start flying through them. The last 6 or 7 had some challenge but I'm through all 28 in 22 minutes. WITHOUT using a guide. Double crap. Yes I'm good at puzzles like this but seriously?

 

OK, let's try time attack. You get a minute for each and your time accumulates if you finish faster. Yes they are random but they are so easy it takes me like 2 minutes for the first 10 puzzles. Screw this game, I glitch the last two time attack trophies to save myself a couple minutes.  Inifinity mode looks the same when I start up so glitch that, I just want this waste off my Vita. I did play a couple of levels at infinity level 51+ which were on par challenge wise with the later levels in story mode but the plat had already popped. 

 

Time invested (including reading after initial boot up and spidey sense warning): 45 minutes

Trophies: 19/19, 100% for S rank with a platinum

Completion rate: 78.99% (-1.22%)

 

Final rating: 2/10  A couple of puzzles with moderate challenge near the end of puzzle mode but too little, too late. For trophy hunters only.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Kevvik

[crimsonidol38]

Hemiak can be happy. His Jotun-trophies will get even rarer:

 

 

[Hemiak]

 

 

1 hour ago, Crimson Idol said:

Hemiak can be happy. His Jotun-trophies will get even rarer:

 

 

Wait, is this you purchasing the game? Why the hell are you spending $25 if so. Or is this another release of the game? I have no idea what I'm looking at.  OK just did a little research. Wonder if it will have another trophy list (which I hate BTW) 

 

OK, I've been slacking lately so I let my kids choose between Color Guardians and Abzu yesterday. 

 

Game 4, Abzu

40 min played, 3 trophies earned. 

 

I bought Flower and Journey for my kids a while back. With both games they played a couple hours, got bored and moved on, and then I ran the game 100%. Before you give me shit for my kids earning trophies know that anything they did I did multiple times by the end of the games.

 

First off, what is Abzu? As a game it's an underwater exploration/discovery game much like Journey. You have a solitary figure, my son thinks is a dude and my daughter is convinced it's a female. There is a ton of marine life, most of which you can't actually interact with. But what does Abzu mean? Is it the characters name? The world or Ocean we're in? The name of one of the developer's cats? Again, don't know and it doesn't particularly matter. 

 

Anyway, we fire up Abzu, I swim around for about 2 minutes to learn the controls, and pass the controller to Hemlet. He immediately starts swimming around like a drunken otter because apparently my kids haven't played anything with inverted directional controls yet.

 

A few minutes later he's got it mostly under control and starts exploring. Along the way he realizes you can press to make your diver flip in the water, thinks it's awesome, and uses up the rest of his time doing this. My daughter starts having control issues and he immediately starts making fun of her, completely ignoring the fact she got it in about half the time. Along the way she realized you can hit X to speed boost through the water, and jumps out of the surface like a dolphin, earning us a trophy. 

 

We explore a bit more, and find three underwater cameras/lights that follow us around. You have to hit to interact and have your diver fix them. We also find several "pools" with little gold triangles above them. Interacting causes a bunch of animals of a particular type to swim out and start inhabiting your immediate environment. We freed two types of turtles, trumpet fish, some type of shark, and a few others. 

 

There are also shark statues around you can sit and meditate on. This allows you to look around your environment and check out all the forms of life. While doing this a big fish ate a little fish and another trophy popped. To leave the area we had to find a wall with another orange triangle. Interacting caused one of my little friends to hit it with a pulse which made it dissolve. 

 

We then swam down a long corridor and out into the open water, where a shark immediately caught and destroyed one of my helpers. This caused both kids to jump, then start talking about how cool it was. We explored the next area, which was much deeper and darker at the bottom, our buddies lighting the area directly in front of us. At the end of this area we went through a door which warped us to another place, I think. We offered something (a piece of our soul or energy? Honestly I have no idea.) to a statue thing which started glowing and raised glowing water inside the normal water. This released a bunch of manta rays which may or may not have been real, since they flew into the air and away afterwards. 

 

After this decidedly confusing experience we were able to leave the area and enter the 2nd chapter. It started with us entering a strong current and being swept away. You can move around, but are kept generally moving forward at a good clip constantly. You can swim through groups of fish and they burst apart and turn white, before going back to their original color and following you for a while, kind of like the petals in flower. 

 

At the end we had another area to explore, with some replacement light friends and new animals. This area was a lot better lit and had a lot of coral and some small caves to explore. There were dolphins in this area, which my kids happily rode around on for 10 full minutes. Another trophy popped when my daughter rode a dolphin into the open air and did a barrel roll. 

 

After another fast current section we reached another deep area with a bunch of small sharks, sailfish, and humpback whales. The sailfish have a huge cloud of little fish swimming in a ball. My kids spent the remainder of their time chasing down each of the bigger animals and riding them around for a bit. Hemlet really likes when a big fish eats a little while swimming. We left the area and entered chapter 3, where we turned it off. 

 

The game is very pretty, and the sound is very atmospheric and well done. Sometimes it's hard looking for collectibles due to seaweed or the number of small fish swimming around. My kids aren't neurotic in this way, but do enjoy finding things. I'm sure I'll have to play the entire game again to get everything we missed. The kids are looking forward to playing and seeing more today hopefully. 

 

I asked each of them what they thought. 

 

MiniMim - 10/10 Awesome game (Yes she actually said this. She would happily ride a dolphin around for a few hours) 

 

Hemlet - It's pretty cool. Can I play Tidus now? (FFX) 

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Hemiak

[SyIaris]

July 1st-5th (returned)

Life is Strange

~10 hours played

57/61 (95%)

 

Couldn't decide what to start, so I went back to beat the last couple of episodes while I still had the story in mind. Wasn't expecting it to be that quick, but using a guide for the episode 2-5 photos probably sped things up. 1-3 each took roughly an hour and forty minutes, but 4 and 5 were both closer to two and a half.

Finished the fourth episode and was kind of wishing I'd never started the game, but the sheer oddity of the last one managed to cancel out enough that it's just kind of... what? 

I'll go back for the episode 1 photos sometime. Probably.

 

July 11th-15th

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando

~1.5-2 hours played

0/34

 

Well... I've tried a few times now to get into this. The graphics are definitely dated (especially Ratchet, for some reason), though that isn't a dealbreaker for me. Story seems like it'll be lighthearted and goofy, which is usually fun.

The controls, though... oh boy, the controls. After the first planet, you're introduced to space combat. That was quite unpleasant. You have enemies flying literal circles around you and nothing but a horrid little map to give you a vague idea of where they are. Using a gun is pretty funky in general, and trying to shoot an enemy that's higher or lower than you simply doesn't work well - your only option seems to be some kind of zooming feature, and attempting to use that got me shot to pieces -and the level reset- more than once.

 

It's not that I think it's a bad game, but I'm too sick to deal with these frustrating controls right now.

@Hemiak Do you want me to push through and get an achievement, or is it okay to leave it like this or replace it with something else?

 

Bonus

Assassin's Creed: Unity

~7 hours played?

10/58 (12%)

-0.91%

 

Have a friend that was irritated with the changes in FFXII and wanted to play this instead, so we started it up. Co-op AC sounded amazing to me when it was first announced, but then it was such a disaster on release... fortunately, patches have helped with function, even if it's still considered one of the worst in the series.

We've both had the game crash, he's had some minor visual bugs, and I've had some nonfunctional button prompts. Oddly, both climbing and combat seem to be worse than I remember in AC2. Not unusable, just very clunky. Snipers seem a little unbalanced.

 

No idea what's going on with the story, but jumping from 2 (and a bit of Brotherhood/3) to this is a pretty large gap; entirely my fault for being lost on the "modern" side of things. The rest of the story seems like it could be interesting enough, but I've only made it as far as required to open up multiplayer.

 

Unity adds in a relatively elaborate equip system, with different tiers and bonuses on weapons and armor alike. I imagine we'll continue fumbling around a little as we try to figure out what best suits our playstyles, but it's pretty interesting. You're allowed quite a bit more options in weapons than I've run into in previous games, to the point where said friend is happily running around with a giant axe.

 

Gotta say, though, the multiplayer is FUN, problems and all. You can roam around in the city or hop into co-op missions or heists - we haven't tried other things on the map yet, not sure if they're single or multiplayer. There's something beautiful about being shot off a roof by a sniper and dying from the fall one minute, then watching your berserker buddy lure/run away from a mob of 12+ enemies and creeping to the goal the next. The multiplayer missions seem to be well-designed and pretty meaty so far, though we've barely started.

[Hemiak]

@SyIarisYou can substitute if you want. We all come across games that just don't click. Or you could just leave it on your account at 0% and move on, you did just start a bonus game. 

 

I really like 2 though. Def my favorite of the original trilogy. Bummer it's not working for you. 

 

 

Figured I'd spent enough time with Jotun (for now) and I was probably time to start a new game. 

 

Hem's game 3

(Universe of Something <- actual title) 

Hunter's Legacy <- title on psn 

3.5 hrs played, 5/14, 23%

 

So I saw this game last week on the mid-summer sale. Did very minimal research, basically enough to see that it was a Metroidvania game, under $3, and noone had completed it yet. Never heard of it? Not surprising, the game came out in January, doesn't have a guide, and only has 82 players. 

 

I fire it up and immediately notice it has a kind of Retro feel in the splash page and menus. This doesn't carry over to the actual game so it's kind of a wierd choice. The graphics are pretty standard 2d sprites, and the world is colorful but nothing special. 

 

You take control of the great cat-person Hunter Ikki, on her quest to retrieve the fang of... Something, from the evil wizard M...... Something. You start out with a sword and the ability to jump and roll. The roll moves you pretty quickly but doesn't generate any actual invincibility or anything. Ikki will auto roll on a big enough drop, ostensibly to save the fall damage, but a few times she's gone right off the edge of a cliff because of it.

 

You're told the fang was stolen, who did it, and his general direction and you set out to find the culprit. You can jump and grab on to ledges or cracks in the wall. You can break boxes/blocks, and cut grass,  all of which can have money or fish(hp) in them. There are two special types of blocks as well, that need special moves you get later to break. 

 

Very early you find a bow, which you can carry 30 arrows for. Holding triangle allows you to aim your shot, and you can mash triangle after that to fire a bunch of shots in the same direction. 

 

After a while you meet the first boss. A large boar enemy. He moves back and forth, attempting to gore you, and occasionally becomes enraged, moving and attacking much faster. There are several ledges you can climb up on to shoot down on him, but your sword does a lot more damage. Occasionally he'll call down a bunch of caterpillar enemies, which generally get in the way, but can be used to refill health and arrows. When he dies you get the ability to charge up your arrows and imbue them with magic. This does double damage at the cost of speed, and allows you to break blocks with blue runes on them. 

 

Soon you meet the bad guy, who laughs at you, and then hides like a little bitch, locking himself behind three different colored locks. So now the goal is to find three different runes to unlock the gate. I feel like I've seen this before but can't remem.... Oh yeah, every adventure game ever. 

 

Anyway, I work through the next area and reach the boss, a huge spider. He drops from the roof and spawns several enemies of various types, none very threatening, but they distract from him. Then he climbs back to the roof and starts hanging from a suspicious green tendril. The only way to damage him is to hit this with an arrow. Regular shots do a tiny bit of damage, a charged shot will sever the tendril, sending him slamming to the floor. Then you climb on and wail away at his exposed belly. Rinse and repeat. 

 

When he dies you get the green orb, and a charged downward Slam attack that let's you break grey rock blocks. The hit detection is a bit weird and you can actually use it to break blocks next to or above where your animation displays. It also does a ton of damage to enemies. Later you meet an enemy with a ton of armor, and this is the only way to knock it off so you can hit them. Problem is it doesn't really stun them, but you're vulnerable for a second, so you pretty much always take a hit doing this. Who though that should be a thing? I hate unavoidable damage. 

 

Now came the only truly interesting and different feature of the game. It also caused a lot of frustration until I really figured it out. In this area there are both ice and heated rock sections. Stepping on these doesn't immediately damage you, but you start getting hotter or colder, turning more red or blue accordingly. When a certain point is reached you begin taking damage, which also caused some really annoying knock back. You can hop across to slow the speed of heat transfer or buy yourself some time when trying to get out.

 

Shortly thereafter you find rooms that have white or red particles floating in them. You guessed it, these areas are hot or cold and function exactly the same as their floor counterparts except climbing up on a block or jumping doesn't help. It takes about 4 seconds to become too hot or cold and start taking damage. Here's where things start to get fun. If you stand on a hot path and get yourself almost completely red, you can basically double the amount of time you can run through a cold area before you get screwed. Even still, some of these areas felt far too long and I was constantly taking damage or even dying trying to figure out how to get through. 

 

In these areas there are these wierd nest things that constantly shoot these little annoying balls at you. They don't hurt you but they stick to you and each one reduces your speed and jump by a little bit. A downward Slam is enough to send them packing, but they'll come back after a few seconds if you don't destroy them.

 

 It took me a while to notice that these balls can also become charged hot or cold and if enough red or blue ones get on you you'll start over heating or cooling. With some planning you can get 3-6 on you (more reduces movement too much I've found, and isn't that much more helpful) then heat or cool yourself and your balls. This allows you to spend quite a bit longer in these areas and, as long as you don't accidentally slam and send them all packing, survive these longer sections. The key is finding the balance between movement speed and insulation. 

 

The boss of this area is a giant eyeball with two spiked rock arms. There are multiple hot and cold sections on the floor of his arena, and a few safe zones around them. He starts out easy as hell, but I died about 10-15 times trying to work out his phase 2. At this point his balls turn blue (or red) and he gets more aggressive. He also sends out a bunch of your little ball buddies from before. At 20% he starts taking to the air and shooting a big wide blue or red laser straight down and trying to hover over you, occasionally dropping down and being vulnerable for a few seconds. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize that when his hands turn one color, he gets a cloud of the opposite color around him. I would be in a safe(ish) spot wailing away and then all the sudden I'd be dying or dead.

 

What you need to do is charge yourself to the same color of his hands, and then just attack as normal. He does switch colors pretty often, so you need to stay on your game. And watch out for your little ball buddies accidentally getting charged the wrong color. Once I (finally) understood all the mechanics I got him 2nd try. Killing him gets you the red orb and access to the dash ability. This replaces rolling for normal walking, but can also be used in the air to reach things that were previously too far to jump. 

 

I navigated through the next section, which is where my armored buddies were located. The main mechanic in this area are these big leaf glider/parachute things and wind, not too tricky. 

 

I stopped right before the boss of this area since it was way later than I had planned staying up. There are a ton of random save points and teleporters in the game. Any time you discover or use one it saves your game and you can quit. Oh yeah, there's a map but it's largely useless, since it's ncredibly un-detailed. The only things it tracks are teleporters, your location, and your current quest objective. Thankfully it tells you which teleporters you have found and activated. I think I'm probably 75-80% done with the game, depending on how long the final area and boss take. There's only one teleporter in that region though so it probably isn't very big. 

 

So far the game is good. It's not going to win any awards and Def has a few issues, but I feel like it was worth the three bucks I dropped on it. 

 

 

[SyIaris]

Just to mention, if anyone wants to try Jotun, it's temporarily free on Steam and GOG - add it to your account and you should be able to keep it.

 

10 minutes ago, Hemiak said:

@SyIarisYou can substitute if you want. We all come across games that just don't click. Or you could just leave it on your account at 0% and move on, you did just start a bonus game. 

 

I really like 2 though. Def my favorite of the original trilogy. Bummer it's not working for you.

 

Good to hear, thanks! I may just leave it in that case, but I'll definitely get back to it in the future. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[DamagingRob]

Too busy with Battlefront's double XP weekend to continue Boring Skies.  I might try to play it some more tomorrow. But after Kubanga, I think it was, said he spent over 200 hours grinding to Rank 100, I really wanted to take advantage of this. Up all the way to Rank 91 after some very successful boosting. 

[Psy-Tychist]

1 hour ago, SyIaris said:

 

Good to hear, thanks! I may just leave it in that case, but I'll definitely get back to it in the future. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

 

You decide on which RE you were going to play? And when>?

[SyIaris]

21 minutes ago, Psy-Tychist said:

You decide on which RE you were going to play? And when>?

 

Ah, I'd wondered if that post got missed. Terribly sorry if you thought I was ignoring you. 

 

On 6/27/2017 at 9:23 AM, SyIaris said:

Well then, I'd love to! Just knew you mentioned trying to work on some of the games already on your profile, so I didn't want to mess it up.

Either one of them would be good, up to you if you have a preference; I have all DLC for 5 but none for 6. Got a rough idea of when you might like to? During or after the event is fine by me.

 

I'm pretty flexible, 9 am to 11 pm pacific is more or less open most days... just preferably not the whole timeframe.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #5 - Day #2

 

 

Still not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Considering this is an RPG I didn't put enough time into it yet (just a couple of hours so far).

 

The first hour I spent pretty much with talking to people, exploring empty rooms that I can'T figure out why I can explore them in the first place if there's nothing in them to interact with. There's also no indicator on what your objective is, so if you haven't been reading the conversations, you're in for a rough time.

 

Currently I'M in chapter 2 and thus far I completed a few of side quests, that essentially gave me more quest items that will probably come to play at some point. Already had a few battles, well a lot of battles actually. Random encounters are a thing in this game, to the point where it's excessive so far. Every 3 seconds you get interrupted in what you're doing and are either forced to fight or to run away.

 

Collectibles are invisible, so unless you use a guide you will have close to no chance in ever finding most of them.

 

The combat seems to have potential and might turn out quite interesting. It seems like I might eventually get party members, but so far I'm going solo.

[ItsMeMartyy]

Game #8 - Life Is Strange

Day: 12, 13, 14 / 31

Time Played: 12 hours 

 

Graphics: I am going to be comparing this game to other story type driven games that I've played because it seems only fitting to have something to give me perspective on what the 'norm' is. Compared to all the tell tale games I must say this game looks a bit more polished and less rough around the edges. All of the animations are smooth for the most part and the colors are often vibrant, the world is beautiful and believable. However, good compared to tell tale isn't a tremendous achievement and the players faces sometimes just look null and void of any sort of life when they are saying some emotionally driven lines, I noticed even a few times that the characters mouth/face wasnt moving at all. For a game based almost exclusively on story and narrative this was a bit of a let down for me. Overall, things were better than I expected but there is massive room for improvement within this genre from what I have seen.  

 

Sound: The sound in this game is beautiful. The characters have unique and fitting voices and its sad that the facial animations weren't better because the voice actors seem to have put a ton of work into their characters lines and emotion. The music is good and all the other bells and whistles are there if you pay close enough attention you'll notice everything is unified. 

 

Gameplay: In my honest opinion there isn't a lot of 'gameplay' in these types of games. This game does have a few cool elements being that you can rewind time and change outcomes at will almost. That being said I will mostly be basing this section on the story and choices because that is the most important gameplay element in this game. I first had a review written for this game when I got past the second episode, it was so boring I actually fell asleep playing it and I thought this game was going to be an actual snooze fest. However, I forced myself to give it another shot and after the 3rd episode I was mind blown, like a good TV series sometimes you just have to wait for it to get good (think breaking bad). This game sort of had me hooked then everything I was choosing after this point I felt like it had astronomical implications on how the game would play out and I was excited to finish this game to see how it would go  . The only negative I feel I can take away from this is the very slow first few chapters and the game feeling pretty slow and sluggish in general.

 

Fun Factor: Chapters 3-5 were 'fun' but more-so interesting. The first two chapters were the exact opposite of fun. 

 

Closing Thoughts:  I am happy I finished this game so I could give a more polished review seeing as this was free in PS+ id imagine a lot of people have it and to the people who are reading this who are wondering if they should play it or not, I would say it's a decent game after you spend a few hours you'll be rewarding with a pretty rich and engrossing experience that almost made me cry (almost  ) . 

 

Rating: 7.0/10

 

Game Competition: 100% ( 1  , 1  , 59  )

[JoaoQuique]

Game Nº 4 [Hyperdimension Neptunia PP] - Final Report

 

 

First Report: Click here

 

Considering that somebody had said about this game, I'm a bit surprised, in a good way... I liked to play this game well, probably because of fact that I've "checklisted" this game and its events - I like to checklist game tasks sometimes...

 

For my first playthrough, I decided to go with Neptune - considering a trophy roadmap I was using, I should complete at least 100% of "Love" and "Day Off" events and avoid "Bad Ending" - to complete a game without having a Bad Ending, you should achieve 25% shares before 180th day (purpousely I achieved that quota on 178th day - and I completed above tasks :D).

 

This game is quite simple on its mechanics: you have some attributes (related to "idoling") which determines your performance (I think...) and can also determine about when some events will be placed (for instance: I know I have some "work events" lefting, but on my last days it's more worthy doing lessons than working because no new "work event" was being showed...), a guts gauge (you need a minimum of "guts" to perform a stage), a stress gauge (with a lot of stress, your lessons worth less and you can end with a "Game Over" if you reach 100% on stress, but there are three events which are triggered when you are with 60%, 70% and 80% on your stress gauge), and your ratio of fans and haters (you need at least 25% on your fans' ratio - known as "shares" on Neptunia franchise - to achieve Good/True Ending, and my haters ratio never was increased of decreased...). There are also some "affinity" and "friendship" gauges, used respectively between you and the chosen character, and you/your character and other characters.

 

To control these elements, you can do a plenty of actions, like Lessons (to improve attributes), Work (to improve shares), and Relax (to deplete/clean out stress and/or improve affinity/friendship gauges). Of course, you can also perform concerts - to perform concerts, you need a minimum amount of guts, and had not on a stage few days ago (there is a minumim amount of days required between stages). Maybe these concerts is the "dumbiest part" of this game, since there is a few songs to play (you start with only one, other three is unlocked as you progress on this game, and a fifth song is unlocked as a part of the Ending), and the gameplay of a concert is quite dull - rotate/change your camera, trigger some effects ocasionally (mainly when the crowd reacts to something...) and you'll be okay... Fortunatelly, you do not need to do many concerts on a single playthrough (I've done seven, including ending-related one).

 

To achieve Platinum, you need to do a minimum of eight playthroughs (a Good and a True Ending for every one of four goddesses), and I've done just the first. However, it will be quite interesting to do all these endings - it's another characteristic that makes people keeping themselves far from this game, but for me it suits well...

 

Playtime: I think it's about 3 hours

 

Trophies obtained: 15 from 39 (Completion at 24% - Rank D)

 

Personal Completion: from 71,55% to 71,58% (71,53% when I've started this game - considering also that Galaga was completed...)

 

 

Final Ratings:

 

Graphics: B- - it's a bit uglier that Re;Birth series, but maybe it's acceptable enough as a Vita game...

 

Sound: B - actually, I've played plenty of this game on mute, but I'd noticed that the sound of this game is quite similar than other games from Neptunia franchise;

 

Gameplay: C+ - this kind of game is quite weird to people which are not into Idol simulators, and for addicted probably this game is too simple...

 

Replay Factor: B - playing causally this game and with a checklist, it can be quite fun...

 

Trophy-wise: A- - trophy-wise, this game can be quite interesting for completists - there are many trophys related to each goddess, and a plenty of task-related trophies (some are quite simple, while others requires a good performance or a bit of "character stats' development"). For this kind of game, probably its trophy list could not be done better...

 

Personal grade: 

Edited July 15, 2017 by JoaoQuique

[Mesopithecus]

I've had a couple days downtime not really playing anything due to other things I've had going on.

 

Anyway, back to it for a little while the past two days with game number #4.

 

 

 

Until Dawn is a interactive survival horror centered around a group of teenagers who are spending the night at their friend's lodge in the Blackwood Mountains.  They find themselves attacked by a psychopath and must survive until sunrise.

 

The game utilizes a mechanic called the butterfly effect, showing that every action you take has a consequence further down the game.  Overall the game is focused on exploration, discovering clues and making decisions through Quick Time Events.

 

I enjoyed my experience with this game, which is obvious by the fact I have the plat in less than a days play.  Whenever I play a game where I can be good or bad, I always choose the good route however it was pretty fun to kill off some of the more annoying characters (Emily) on my "kill everyone" playthrough.

 

The visuals are pretty stunning on the game and you can tell they spent a lot of time and effort on the motion capture.  The music is tense with the intent to create a scary atmosphere.  One thing I'd say was annoying though is the over reliance on jump scares.

 

My other negative about the game is at the start of every chapter you get a "Previously on Until Dawn" scene which gets a bit old when it shows you what you've just been playing seconds before.

 

Playtime: Around 12 hours

Trophies: 19/19 

Completion: 91.48%

[crimsonidol38]

On 14.7.2017 at 6:05 PM, Hemiak said:

Wait, is this you purchasing the game? Why the hell are you spending $25 if so. Or is this another release of the game? I have no idea what I'm looking at.  OK just did a little research. Wonder if it will have another trophy list (which I hate BTW) 

 

The retail release that was available at LRG is most likely tied to the US-stack of Jotun. Personally I just bought it as I enjoyed my time with the game and wanted to have a physical version, even if it's unlikely that I will ever finish it. But the good thing for you is that the trophies will get even rarer than they are now, as I'm sure at least 100 to 200 of the nearly 5,000 copies will end on profiles tracked by PSNProfiles.

[crimsonidol38]

Game 3, Day 3 to 5: Zero Escape: The Nonary Games (PS Vita)

Previous posts:

Day 1, Day 2

 

Okay, time for the final post for this game. After working towards my first ending on day 1 and 2, I was able to trigger all the remaining endings for 999 from Thursday on. The first ending was a rather strange one as I ended up dying near a yellow submarine and all other characters were also dead.

After that I got the Axe-ending which was a bit disturbing to say at least. I guess you could also call it a Yandere-like ending.

The third ending I was able to see was the so-called Safe Ending which contained most of the major plot points and is the one ending that you need to see to unlock the True Ending. Speaking of which it turned out that I somehow activated all flags for the True Ending without realizing it during my first story runthrough. Luckily I chose the wrong last door on my first run or I would have been locked to an intermediate ending. I guess the ending I disliked most was the Knife Ending as it was rather abrupt and quite short. Somehow it felt like all those endings of Root Letter: Unsatisfying.

 

The True Ending itself was rather interesting but still I didn't like it as much as expected and it somehow felt a bit unsatisfying as the epilogue felt a bit too short and left some things unexplained which don't seem logical at first, mainly the thing who the game master aka Zero was and how it came out who he was.

 

What I liked is the fact that the puzzles were somehow the right difficulty. Most of them were rather easy but there were some which required a bit more thinking. And there was only one where I had to look up a solution as I didn't get the hang of it (one switch-puzzle in the torture room). It's IMO much better than e.g. VLR, where some rooms weren't just my type, like that Q room which I really disliked.

Another thing I enjoyed was the overall setting. A huge ship with a somehow strange mix of rooms like a casino, first class cabins, an operating room, a torture chamber and an incinerator is surely an enjoyable ride. 

 

Wouldn't it have been for the the somehow unsatisfying True Ending I would have given the game a but now it sits at a solid . My plan for the game is to complete VLR a second time after this event is over. I'm curious wheter I will jump into ZTD directly after that or not.

 

Stats:

Rating:
Total playing time: ~12 hours
Trophies earned: 8 / 38
Completion rate: 25%

Rank: D
Did the game lower my completion? Yes

 

My ratings:

 AWESOME!!!
 Fun to play, sure will continue playing these
 Good while it lasted, but let us just stay friends, kay?
 Be glad if you weren't deleted already
  Wait, who are you? I don't know you...oh shit, you are in my trophy list aka

Spoiler

 

I guess the next game will be Rime.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Crimson Idol