Cassylvania Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 7 hours ago, AJ_Radio said: Ender Lilies is a game on your list I really want to try out, but the $24.99 price tag is a bit much. Had to go back and check my review. I said $25 was a fair price for a polished product, but if you ever see it on sale in the $15-20 range, I'd say buy it for sure. It's probably still my GOTY for 2022. (Granted, it's going up against the likes of Sanic Racing and Spongeboob. My quality of gaming really dropped after January...) 7 hours ago, AJ_Radio said: You’re not much older than me, though I’ve already noticed I’m not as exhilaratingly quick as I was 10 - 14 years ago. One of the only advantages of having multiple accounts over the years is that I have a way to directly compare myself to past me. I like to occasionally go back to games I either struggled with or breezed through to see if I've improved or if I really am slowing down. I'm happy to say that I think I could kick my past self's ass. I don't know if I have another litmus test in me. Doing Rocketbirds co-op trophy solo was one of my earliest trophy hunting achievements, and it made me appreciate how utterly ridiculous this spectacle can be at times because I was trying to juggle two controllers for a piece of virtual recognition. I've obviously done harder stuff since, but gaming and trophy hunting was very different 10 years ago. That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 8 hours ago, Cassylvania said: One of the only advantages of having multiple accounts over the years is that I have a way to directly compare myself to past me. I like to occasionally go back to games I either struggled with or breezed through to see if I've improved or if I really am slowing down. I'm happy to say that I think I could kick my past self's ass. I don't know if I have another litmus test in me. Doing Rocketbirds co-op trophy solo was one of my earliest trophy hunting achievements, and it made me appreciate how utterly ridiculous this spectacle can be at times because I was trying to juggle two controllers for a piece of virtual recognition. I've obviously done harder stuff since, but gaming and trophy hunting was very different 10 years ago. That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate. It was different 10 years ago because EZPZs for the most part didn’t exist. I don’t remember exactly when they started creeping in but Steam was definitely ushering them in with the Early Access bullshit and just allowing shovelware to make it to their store. That’s why I often say 100 platinums doesn’t mean shit anymore. They are what you make of them. The leaderboards mean nothing to me at this point, I just care about my own personal goals. As far as hardcore gaming achievements go, it would definitely be putting around 9000 - 10000 hours on RuneScape. I became an addict to the game which ended up affecting me mentally during my high school years in the early - mid 2000s. Played for a time in circa 2009 - 2011, then quit and came back to Old School RuneScape from roughly 2013 to 2015. I also rolled with some raiding clans in World of Warcraft back in the day. It was the first time I ever “boosted” with a group so to speak. I was some 18 - 19 year old kid who didn’t know much, and some of the dudes in the clan were pushing their late 30s - 40s who had a family. I looked up to those guys, because it showed me that even with real life throwing you curveballs, you can still go back and enjoy the hobbies you love doing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted July 21, 2022 Share Posted July 21, 2022 (edited) On 20.7.2022 at 3:21 PM, Cassylvania said: That's probably a good topic of conversation. What are some of your guys' most hardcore gaming achievements? Not necessarily something trophy-related, but moments when you were really in the zone and did something that would be hard to replicate. Many years back, a couple of guys from a message board started a F2P game called Travian, and because I hat time, I joined in. The game was a typical F2P - you settled and conquered sqares, developed the spots for resources and build armies. People joined guilds, and guilds allied into factions. In the endgame, factions would race to build a "World wonder" first, which used up insane amount of resources. It was a "harmless" F2P - spending money to build instantly instead of waiting two days, you couldn't buy overpowered units or the like (I think - I never spent a cent and didn't explore what you could get for money). It went as you might expect at first - in three weeks, the forum people dropped out until only two of us were left. Yet, we played on and actually finished the campaign (which lasted short of a year). Both of us didn't pay any money, while many others must have been whales. We stayed independent until the endgame, while all around us guilds were either destroying or subjugating the smaller players. In the endgame, there was no neutrality, obviously, so we joined a faction (which won the server in the end). Every week, the game awarded ribbons for the 10 best attackers and defenders. Of course, those would always go to the big players in the alliances who spent money, yet one week, I got a ribbon (8th best attacker that week). So yeah; a competetive achievement in a F2P game way into the server without money spent. I was amused. Edited September 1, 2022 by Rally-Vincent--- 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted July 25, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 25, 2022 Platinum #321 - Rocketbirds 2 Unlike the original, I have no rose-tinted glasses for this one, so I'm going to be a little more critical in my review. Rocketbirds 2 picks up right where the first game left off, pitting Hardboiled Chicken against the evil Space Owls. Levels are longer this time, the platforming has been improved, you can now aim with the left analog stick, and yet...it somehow pales in comparison to the original. Rocketbirds was campy. It referenced the dangers of a totalitarian government and the horrors of war, but used cartoon animals to make the situation more palatable to a younger audience, similar to Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus. The music felt like it was designed specifically for the game, as the lyrics mirrored what was happening in the cutscenes. It wasn't just a silly game about a souped-up chicken trying to stop a penguin overlord. It seemed to be an allegory for something more. Rocketbirds 2 IS a silly game about a souped-up chicken trying to stop a penguin overlord. They didn't even try with the story. They gave more characters dialogue, which I guess is interesting, but they all sound like Danny DeVito trying to do a Sylvester the Cat impression. The music is here, and it's good they brought back the same band, but they re-use some of the songs from the first game (with some remixes thrown in) and none of them fit the story at all. The levels are significantly longer now, which you think would be an improvement, but it just means more backtracking when you need to mop up trophies and collectibles. If you're going to play this, do yourself a favor and try to get all the trophies on your first time through each level. There is a chapter select, but this is one of those games that needed a mid-chapter select as well because you might have to play through 30+ minutes of content just to get to the part you need. Several of the trophies require performing a specific action during a boss fight, including at least one that you're almost certainly not going to do on your first try. And the signs from the first game are back, which are annoying because they only appear in order, which means backtracking through the whole level once you find the first sign because now the second could be anywhere. On top of this, a good chunk of your time spent working towards the platinum will be in Rescue Mode, which is similar to Resident Evil: Revelations' Raid Mode (you know, the thing that almost made me quit video games). This isn't so bad because it only takes a few hours, but it's tedious because you'll be playing through the same levels over and over again to rescue budgies, find artifacts, and farm money for upgrading your weapons and accessories. You also need to three star each world, and I couldn't find any clear directions on how to do this. I think you just need to get a lot of headshots and search every room. Not dying is probably important too. Anyway... Play it if you want, but you're not missing anything if you don't. This was a freebie, so I can't complain. I literally spent the whole review complaining. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted July 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 27, 2022 (edited) Let's keep 'em coming... Platinum #322 - Maneater Did I ever tell you guys I went to school for marine biology? Yeah, you probably thought that was a meme every time I play some aquatic-themed game, but I've always been fascinated by the ocean -- and bad horror movies, which is what this game seems to be paying homage to. Unfortunately, it only succeeds in being bad. Let's start with the good. The shark handles surprisingly well underwater. Some of the eating animations are cool to watch. The story is...stupid, but purposely so, and I actually liked the villain, Scaly Pete. Not much of a spoiler here, but he kills your mom at the start of the game and you're out for revenge. You start as a baby shark and you have to work your way up to an adult shark and eventually a megashark (which is extinct, by the way, but this game doesn't care about historical accuracy). It's...presented in an interesting way? I like the idea that the cutscenes with Scaly Pete are shown as a film documentary. The narrator sounds like something you'd hear on the discovery channel. Some of the pop culture references (found as landmarks) are funny. I liked the different "evolutions" you can use. Unfortunately, none of that matters when the substance is as deep as a puddle. That stuff you do in the first hour will be the same stuff you do in the tenth hour, and it gets old fast. They should've called this game "R2 Simulator" because you'll be mashing that button the whole time to eat every fish, turtle, and human you come across. You need to in order to grow. You need proteins, fats, minerals, and mutagens, and you use them to increase the level of the parts you use for the shark. Each evolutionary form has its advantages (bone parts are better at attacking boats, shadow parts at better at fighting sea creatures, etc.), but you can swap body parts and organs at any time. This is a bit of a letdown because I was hoping I'd get to make an entirely unique shark from everybody else. The controls in the water are okay, but out of the water is terrible. And unfortunately, you DO need to go out of the water from time to time to attack humans or grab a collectible. The first problem is the camera, which sometimes snaps back, forcing you to face the water instead of allowing you to move further inland. The bigger problem is when you're asked to jump. For some reason, your shark has the ability to double (and eventually triple) jump, but trying to leave the water at the right angle and perform those jumps at the precise moment is aggravating. Most of the time you won't gain any height from the initial jump or the shark will fall backwards. Trying to attack ships is annoying too. I just spammed my way through the game and it seemed to work well enough. You can eat smaller fish to regain health, so you have a better chance of the R2 button breaking than dying at any point in the game. Despite having an "open world" map, the game is mostly linear. You can technically reach some areas earlier than you're supposed to, but there's no real point. The game seems to want you to stick in one region until you've completed all the quests, reached a certain Infamy level, and fought the Apex predator. That just adds to the tedium. I will say they at least tried to make each area look unique (the use of a trawl as an outer wall "boundary" for the ocean was a nice touch), but the gameplay remains the same. I would not recommend Maneater to anyone. I got it for free and I feel ripped off. Oh, wait... Maybe that's because I actually shelled out $12 for the DLC, which I'm starting now. Wish me luck. I will not be updating this review when I finish. We're gonna need a better game. EDIT: Did I mention it crashed 14 times? Edited July 27, 2022 by Cassylvania 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted July 28, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 28, 2022 Those last three games were for the birds or belong with the fishes. This one's less of a cat-astrophe. Platinum #323 - Cat Quest 2 In a world of easy games, I've always appreciated the original Cat Quest. It's generally regarded as one of the most fun sub-10 hour platinums, and it's nice to have a trophy list that doesn't require a guide because nothing is missable and everything is straightforward. That's something you expect from a VN or Telltale game, but not usually what you get with an action RPG. Well, I'm happy to report that CQ2 is more of the same. There is an emphasis on co-op here, with two controllable characters on the screen at any time, but you can easily complete the game by yourself. Your AI companion does a good job at dealing damage and not getting hurt (although if you play as a ranged character, they may ignore the enemy or warp back to you if you get too far away). You can pretty much build your characters any way you want and easily swap between them and their builds. I generally played with the cat as a tank and the dog as a mage/healer, but it's fun to experiment. Combat feels about the same as the original. You have a dodge roll and can equip up to four spells. Later, you get a more powerful ability by attacking immediately following a roll. Even though I played on the easiest difficulty (hey, I'm not always looking for a challenge), I actually died a few times. It was almost always my fault because enemy spells are clearly indicated to you, but it's not uncommon to get cornered or overwhelmed. Some of the enemies hit like a truck too. The story is cute, I guess, and serves its purpose. There's a war going on between the cats and the dogs and it's up to you to save Felingard. You have the main storyline and a plethora of dungeons and side quests to complete. If you liked the cat puns in the original game...well, they're back, but now the writers have dogs to work with as well. You can imagine how that goes. If there's one thing that really impresses me about this series, it's its simplicity. I'm not just talking about the combat or the story. I love the graphics and the idea that you are moving around on an actual map. That was neat in the original game, but I really liked it here. Most games that have an overworld map either use it as a stage select screen or have random battle encounters, but putting the entire game on the overworld (save for the dungeons) is such an organic solution to avoid loading screens that I can't believe more games don't do that. Plus, I like seeing long stretches of font. Maybe that's the cartographer in me. Not much else I want to say. This is obviously just a prelude to the big new cat game that is out, but this is well worth a pickup if you liked the original or have a friend to play with. And if you haven't played the original...yeah, check that out. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 I just platinumed Nexomon: Extinction myself and boy howdy, I am assuming you got this platinum BEFORE the dang DLC update, because the Abyssal DLC for this game(which was hard-wired into my copy) added 46 new Mons that you HAVE to get to get the trophy for Owning all Nexomon as it increases the cap from 381 to 427 and you can only get half of these guys by exploring the new area and fighting a ton of new Tyrants that are huge HP truck-smackers(my team was all max level and even them I suffered some deaths) and finishing the DLC story. Spoiler However, to be fair, if you ever saw that creepy treant and did his quest, the DLC causes said creepy tree to trade you points(which you get by releasing Nexomon - yes, this feature encourages you to clean your boxes out, something Pokemon needs to get on ASAP as I had no reason to horde Pokemon) and two of the rewards you can trade for these points are - get ready - a Portable Storage Space that lets you access the PC from anywhere(where you can store Nexomon) and a Portal Warpstone that let you use the warpstone fast travel from anywhere, which was a blessing as (a) walking to a warp stone is slow and (b) some areas in the new DLC island are a PAIN IN THE (Yoshi!) to navigate. One area slowly drains your health(it won't kill you) and burns your entire party if you fight there, and another area is a huge freaking maze similar to Hilda's Maze in the original Nexomon. Oh, and you can craft really strong cores you can equip on your Nexomon to make them stronger and tougher. It took me all day to get that final trophy because I had to capture all 29 normal new Nexomon(which are final form Nexomon from the original game like Bedam and Resonic) and do the quests to get the remaining 17 legendaries(including Luhava from the original game which is a 0.8% encounter in the Lost Woods area near Parum City). On 12/12/2020 at 3:48 PM, Cassylvania said: Can't remember her name, but she made me laugh the most. Spoiler You mean Videll? Yeah, she's one freakin' crazy miner chick. It's funny because she shows up in the Abyssal DLC, most of the characters you meet join forces to stop the Abyssal Tyrants. Also, it's terrible that you played the original Nexomon after this one as the bad guys of the original (the children of Omicron) show up as capture fights in post-game due to your character's ability to resurrect the dead aka Jesie C. This game also has a custom mode you unlock after you beat Vados and get the credits which let you create a custom game with settings for challenges like "Randomizer"(randomly place Nexomon in spots they shouldn't be, like instead of fighting Graloon, you fight a Hohopi ) or rules similar to a Pokemon Nuzlocke(perma-death, losing any battle outside of story-relevant ones deletes your save file, can't use items in battle, etc). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 7, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 7, 2022 Platinum #324 - Stray Meow meow meow meow meow. Mew meow. Meow meow. Mew. Spoiler Translation: In Stray, you play as a cat exploring a cyberpunk city in yet another post-apocalyptic world. One thing I immediately liked about this game -- besides the fact you're playing as an adorable feline, which is obviously its main selling point -- is its world-building. There is a surprising amount of lore here and it's revealed to you mostly through exploration, which means you can soak up as little or as much as you want. That's how it should be. I actually think the developers did themselves a disservice by putting dialogue in this game. Most of the characters you interact with are robots, and their expressions are revealed to you by monitors where their heads should be. Wall-E is one of Pixar's best movies and there is essentially no spoken dialogue at all. If kids can sit through a silent film and fully comprehend the story, I think you could trust an older audience with the ability to manipulate the camera and control the speed at which the game takes place to do the same. Mew... meow meow. Spoiler Translation: Sorry, I jumped right into critiquing the game. I should finish describing it first. Meow meow. Meow mew, meow! Meow meow meow mew meow. Spoiler Translation: Stray can best be described as a puzzle/walking sim. I've heard people say that this would be an average game at best if you weren't playing as a cat, but again, that's the selling point. Let me stress how important of a point this is. If you're going to make a game or a movie or a book where your main character is something unique, like an animal or a robot, take advantage of that. Again, let's look at Spongebob. Spongebob is (or was) a great cartoon for a number of reasons, but one of the best things it had going for it is that every character took advantage of being whatever kind of sea creature they were to make that story work. Where stories like that fail is when you can take those characters, make them human, and the things that happen or can happen are more or less the same. If you're going to have a sponge as your main character, use the fact that he's absorbent and yellow and porous to tell a story or to give him personality traits. If you're going to use a cat, let him jump and sleep and scratch things. That's what cats do. This game nailed what I imagine it's like to be a cat, and I think the developers did a good job in showing us the world through the eyes of one. I don't think this story could have been told with any other animal. Meow meow. Meow. Spoiler Translation: The cat handles well. You can run with R2 and he controls like a cat would. Meaning if you turn too quickly, he'll slide around like he's wearing wool socks on a freshly-waxed floor. You can also meow with the circle button, which...kind of serves a purpose in the game, I guess? You'll mostly be pressing X to jump on stuff. You probably jump over a thousand times in the game. There are only certain things you can jump on, though, and you can't really miss a jump, so most of the gameplay revolves around puzzles and exploration. Meooow! Mew mew. Spoiler Translation: The trophies are straight-forward. I recommend a mostly blind playthrough, either using a collectibles guide or going back later using chapter select, followed by a fairly easy speedrun. Took me about one hour and 38 minutes, whereas you're given two hours. I probably could've done it quicker if I hadn't taken a week-long break in between Chapter 10 and the end of the game. There's probably only one trophy that will piss you off... RAAAAAAAWR! HISS! Meow meow! Meow meow meow! Mew mew meow meow! MEOW MEOW! Spoiler Translation: That trophy is Can't Cat-ch Me. It requires not getting caught by these bug-like creatures named zergs in the first chase sequence. I'm going to assume a lot of people had trouble with it given a thread dedicated to that trophy that has over 220 replies right now. I wish I could bitch about it for a joke, but it only took me ten minutes. It took me longer to get that guy to drop the paint bucket because I didn't understand the timing. Meow... mew meow. Meow meow. Mew meow meow, mew meow? Mew... Spoiler Translation: There's not much else I can think to say, unless I want to go into spoilers, which I don't. I'll just say I was getting Wall-E vibes the entire time, which isn't a bad thing. But is that enough to recommend the game? Well... Meow meow meow. Mew meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow. Meow. Mew meow meow meow meow meow meow mew. Mew mew, meow meow. Meow, mew mew meow meow meow. Meow meow. Meow mew mew mew meow meow meow. Meow... Mew mew meow meow? Meow. Meow mew mew. Mew! Meow meow meow meow. meow. Meeeeeow! Meow mew. Mew mew... Mew meow, meow. MEOW. Meeew, meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow. Mew. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow. Mew mew. Spoiler Translation: Yes. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 14 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Platinum #324 - Stray Meow meow meow meow meow. Mew meow. Meow meow. Mew. This one right here takes my vote as "best 2022 game review". Yeah I know the year hasn't ended yet I know what I'm about! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 That was one crazy review. I've been on the fence about this game but I am a cat person. Sadly had to give away my own cat because, well, I'm going to be in a very small house and didn't think Serena could handle it. She was already jumping on my PS4 a lot... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 12, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2022 On 8/8/2022 at 7:06 AM, Copanele said: This one right here takes my vote as "best 2022 game review". Yeah I know the year hasn't ended yet I know what I'm about! I was actually going to leave it at just the first line, but I had 60 minutes to waste thanks to the sleep-for-an-hour trophy... Ready for the next not-a-milestone? Platinum #325 - Fe If you want to drive yourself crazy, try searching for this game on PSNP... Let's just jump right into this one. In Fe, you play as Tony Stark's favorite element a fox (?) on a quest to save forest animals from shadow monsters (?). At least, that's what I could gather. The intro cutscene is very short, there is no dialogue through the entire game, and you are given very little direction on where to go or what to do. This is what I thought Stray could have been, if the developers were willing to trust their audience a little more. You could tell the shadow monsters are not friendly because they kill you, just like the zergs in Stray. You could tell the forest creatures are your friends because you can communicate with them by synchronizing your voices. I don't think dialogue is necessary to tell a story. (It also helps that, despite a decade of the internet asking, we still don't know what the fox says.) That said, you can't expect the level of world-building that you got from Stray. There are hieroglyphics in the game that give you the vaguest idea of what happened to this world or how to solve nearby puzzles, but they're about as complex as that platinum image. I'm not against this method of story-telling, but it reminded me very much of N.E.R.O. (a game I've regularly confused with this one because they have a similar art style and a dark purple color scheme), and that's a contender for worst game of the year for me. This one is better, but it's not perfect. I guess it could best be described as a puzzle platformer, but it's probably closer to 80% platformer and 20% "How do I get there?" Puzzles are generally find the bomb to open the door or figure out how hard to press the R2 button to synchronize your voice. That's pretty much the main gimmick in the game. There are a variety of animals in the game and you can communicate with them so they can help you on your journey. The deer, for example, can impale the shadow monsters with their antlers. The lizards can work as a distraction. It's actually pretty cute the way they'll follow you around or call out to you. I dunno. I like that kind of stuff. I actually think the difficulty in the guide is a lie. I'd give this a 3 or maybe even a 4/10, thanks to some very floaty controls when it comes to jumping and gliding. You could completely miss a platform or collectible right in front of you because you overshoot it. And unfortunately, despite getting a variety of skills as you advance through the game, you never get a double jump. I think that's a sin. It gets really frustrating because you'll be doing a lot of backtracking to get all the collectibles and you might have to take the long way to get somewhere just because the fox can't jump over what looks to be a small ledge. (And not to spoil anything, but you get the best ability in the game once you find all the collectibles, but that's almost certainly going to be your last trophy...which means you don't even get to use it.) The graphics are worth mentioning here. I like them for the most part. They use a lot of polygons and bright colors. The environments are nice to look at it and I felt there was a good variety of sights to see, but it's also very easy to get lost or miss something because some of the collectibles are very well-hidden. You can't even reach some of them until you unlock abilities later in the game, so you might as well do a blind playthrough first and then use a guide to find them all. There's something like 75 crystals and a dozen boxes or "helmets" or whatever the game calls them. You'll find most of those along the main path. I have to think if I want to recommend the game. I don't think it's something worth going out of your way to play because so many games do this concept better (e.g. Seasons After Fall, Spirit of the North, Never Alone), but it's better than N.E.R.O. and I finished it in like 8 hours. That's going to be my new measuring stick. "Better than N.E.R.O." I'd say it's worth playing if it comes to PS+, but be aware the collectibles are a pain (even with a guide because the map isn't great). 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 16, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 16, 2022 Platinum #326 - Bubsy: Paws on Fire Before we get into this review, I want to direct you to some of the trophies and their descriptions. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?!You've earned every trophy? You must be Bubsy's biggest fan! Sit Back and Relax! You beat a Bubsy game! Time to update the resume. Credits Where Credits is Due Watch the credits at the end of the game without skipping them. They made Bubsy's latest adventure possible, you know! The developers are laughing at us all. I want to take you back to 1994. Times were different. Whether it was because I was a kid or because the only thing you could do on the internet was check your e-mail until your 100 free hours of AOL were up, there wasn't this concept of "good" or "bad" games. I think we all knew there were some amazing franchises, like Mario and Sonic, but most other games seemed to be on a respectable tier directly below that. If you had asked me at the time, I would've ranked Bubsy alongside Earthworm Jim, Gex, and Boogerman (the early 90's were all about gross-out humor), despite never getting very far. I just assumed I was bad at the game or not smart enough to figure out the controls. It wasn't until later that I realized bad game design is a thing and quality assurance is not. While most other failed video mascots from that time have died out, Bubsy continues to live on, like some kind of cancerous tumor. Somebody made this game. Somebody funded it. I don't know if I'm doing the world a favor or a disservice by playing it and leaving my review, but here we go. This is the five year anniversary of this thread and this is where it's gotten me. First, let's discuss the gameplay. Despite what you might be thinking, this is NOT a platformer. The gameplay actually depends on which of the four characters you're playing as. (Yes, Bubsy brought friends this time around.) You can play through every level as either Bubsy, Virgil, or Woolie. If you collect all the armadillo tokens in that level (three per character), you unlock a bonus stage that lets you play as Arnold the Armadillo. Since you have to do all that for the platinum, that means you're going to play as each character approximately 25% of the time. Now, I'm a bit rusty on my Bubsy lore, but I'm guessing all these characters are either from the previous games or from the cartoon that fared just as well, because they don't take the time to introduce any of them. Oh, and spoiler alert: Bubsy is an uncle now. (Or...not really? The game is very vague on this. Some kids who sorta look like him just randomly start calling him "uncle" at the start of the game and he insists he isn't. Funny...?) If you play as Bubsy or Virgil, you get a 2D auto-runner. The only difference is how they control. Bubsy can glide and do a charged attack, while Virgil can double jump and slide under obstacles. If you play as Woolie, you get a 2D side-scrolling shooter that fortunately lets you hold down the attack button to fire. If you play as Arnold, you get to witness the worst controls in video game history, as you're put into a tube reminiscent of some of the Sonic bonus stages and have to collect objects that appear above or on either side of you. To say any of these stages are "fun" would be a gross misuse of the word, but I'm going to say the Woolie stages are the most passable as a video game level and the Arnold stages are the best because you can literally just put the controller down to beat the level. Sure, you won't collect everything, but that's the great thing about this game. For the most part, collectibles aren't required. There are a few exceptions to this (the armadillo tokens for one, but you'll need to buy some of the things from the shop, and there's a trophy for collecting all the yarn balls in a single level), but this is a godsend because I honestly think the difficulty of this game would get into the 8 or even 9/10 territory if you needed to make a clean sweep of every level. This is partially due to the fact that taking a single hit will put you back at the previous checkpoint, but it's exacerbated because there's no way to stop your character in mid-run or revert back to an earlier checkpoint. If you miss something and want to go back, you better hope there's an enemy or pit up ahead or else you'll be doing the whole level over again. And the devs know about this because they'll be complete assholes about the armadillo token placement. They LOVE putting the last token right before the finish line, but somewhere that requires making a tricky last second jump. And when you miss it and are forcibly sent across the finish line, you better believe you're going to have to collect all the tokens again in order for them to count. So, yeah. The best part of the gameplay is the part that doesn't require you playing it. If you'd believe it, the rest of the game is somewhat competent. The graphics are fine. The music is pretty catchy. I like the costumes you can buy in the shop. The...font is neat? The game is mercifully short. (Three worlds, each with nine levels and a boss.) Bubsy is uncharacteristically quiet, outside of the intro cutscene and the final cutscene, where he threatens yet another sequel. I don't know why the characters say completely unrelated things before the start of each level, but this game at times felt like an actual game. Not a good one by any means, but a serviceable time-waster, which is a standard I never thought Bubsy would reach. The problem is it's 25 years too late and there are a plethora of better games on the market. Have you played Stray? or Cat Quest? Hell, even Fe is a better cat game and I'm pretty sure foxes are more closely related to dogs. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted August 16, 2022 Share Posted August 16, 2022 I have no idea who or what Bubsy is. I just wann say I would have earned the credits trophy because I always let the credits roll by after finishing a game first time. On 12.8.2022 at 7:40 AM, Cassylvania said: I (And not to spoil anything, but you get the best ability in the game once you find all the collectibles, but that's almost certainly going to be your last trophy...which means you don't even get to use it.) Bit like getting the best sword after beating the hidden Super-Boss in a JRPG. There is absolutely no use for the best sword hidden behind the strongest enemy. Give it to me after beating the second worst boss. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 On 8/15/2022 at 6:50 PM, Cassylvania said: I want to take you back to 1994. Times were different. Whether it was because I was a kid or because the only thing you could do on the internet was check your e-mail until your 100 free hours of AOL were up, there wasn't this concept of "good" or "bad" games. I think we all knew there were some amazing franchises, like Mario and Sonic, but most other games seemed to be on a respectable tier directly below that. If you had asked me at the time, I would've ranked Bubsy alongside Earthworm Jim, Gex, and Boogerman (the early 90's were all about gross-out humor), despite never getting very far. I just assumed I was bad at the game or not smart enough to figure out the controls. It wasn't until later that I realized bad game design is a thing and quality assurance is not. Much of that gross-out humor from the likes of Ren & Stimpy and Beavis & Butthead would be considered far too edgy and offensive by today's standards. I can remember other shows like The Tick which would also be regarded as too edgy. Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures are are in a similar camp, though they were geared towards a younger audience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 19, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 19, 2022 (edited) On 8/16/2022 at 1:24 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said: Bit like getting the best sword after beating the hidden Super-Boss in a JRPG. There is absolutely no use for the best sword hidden behind the strongest enemy. Give it to me after beating the second worst boss. Probably one of the most nonsensical tropes in JRPGs. The only thing stupider would be if a game locked you into a difficult boss fight on your way to the true ending with no way to return to stock up on healing items if you only have one save file. ... Platinum #327 - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA I don't know what it is about this series. This is the game I intended to play last year, when I accidentally started Memories of Celceta instead. This year, I wanted to use this game for the Gaming by Numbers event, knowing the NA version was going to count for a 7. Well, apparently the physical copy I bought came from overseas because I ended up with the EU version, which has the only number I didn't need. Not to mention all the trolling I've gotten from Ys Origin, the longest-standing game on my account that I haven't platinumed, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is I don't think these games are very good... Sorry. I'm bitter. Let's get to the review. I'll begin with a confession. I didn't pay attention to the story. If you want to say that invalidates my review, that's fine. I feel like I gave it a fair shake. I got to the part where Adol Christin (the main protagonist in all these games, it seems) stumbles across a strong independent woman bathing in a creek, surprises her, and causes her towel to fall to the ground. At that point, I figured I had seen the best the game has to offer. So, instead, I made up my own plot, which I will now share you with you. Enjoy. You are adrift on the high seas in a mighty pirate ship! A storm rages and a giant tentacle monster appears, which knocks you and the rest of your crew into the ocean. You wash up on a strange island, where you meet a nudist, who beats you senselessly for being a pervert, despite the two of you having near-death experiences and not knowing if anybody else from the wreckage survived. You find a safe place on the island to build a home base. The rest of the island seems uninhabited, except for bats, crabs, wasps, some mutated creatures, and FREAKIN' DINOSAURS. Throughout your journey, you must rescue the other castaways, with the help of your playable companions: the nudist, a fisherman, Van Helsing, a 12-year-old girl, and a blue-haired belly dancer from another time. (Her name is Dana, but apparently not spelled in all caps like the title.) You must also build up your defenses to keep your base safe and build a new ship so that you can escape this island. Also, you have to destroy the god of all creation. This is a JRPG after all. (I'll let those of you who played this before tell me how close I am to the actual plot.) Now, conceptually, I like this idea. This game does at least three things that I think are neat and somewhat unique for this genre. Setting the entire game on a (mostly) deserted island is something I'd expect from a survival game, not a JRPG. That actually gets rid of one of the things I get tired of in most JRPGs, which is running from town to town. Here, you have a single base, which you build up over time. As you find new castaways, you unlock new options (e.g. shops), new quests, and the ability to unlock new areas on the map. See, some obstacles can only be moved if you have a certain number of characters available to help you. This is actually a pretty clever way to gate you out of certain areas. I think there's something like 24 castaways, so you have plenty of people to find. Second, dinosaurs are awesome. It's refreshing to see a JRPG go there. Between The Flintstones and The Jetsons, I've always been more of a Flintstones person, but futuristic games have always dominated the market. You want to know why Far Cry: Primal is my only Far Cry game? It's because it did the only thing I'm interested in. We need a better representation of ancient Earth history. You know how cool a game set in the Cambrian would be? There are some horrible monstrosities from that time. Dinosaurs get all the attention, but I wish they weren't treated as the only kind of prehistoric life. Third, obviously, the time travel concept is there and I probably would've paid more attention to Dana's segments if I knew what was going on. There are some "puzzles" that require doing something in Dana's era so that it appears in Adol's era (for example, unlocking a door), but nothing too novel or complicated. I prefer how Ocarina of Time or even Majora's Mask handled the time travel mechanic. At least you can always replay Dana's segments if you miss something. Combat in this game is fairly standard. It actually won an award. Basically, you control one party member and the AI controls the other two. You can equip up to four skills per character, which require energy to use. You regenerate energy by attacking. The L1 button does a dodge roll -- like you know what -- and the R1 button does a quick block, but timing is crucial. If you dodge or block at just the right moment, time slows down and you're able to wail on your opponents freely for a few seconds. You can also equip armor to boost your abilities. Now, because you control a party of three but there are six playable characters, it's really up to you who you use and who you bench. Occasionally, the game will force you to use a certain character or take some away from you, but I generally always had Adol, the nudist, and Dana on my team. Later, I started using the fisherman a lot because he has this one skill where he throws out a net and brings all enemies in range closer, which is really good for taking on large groups. I didn't like Van Helsing or the 12-year-old girl. Van Helsing looks like he would be a ranged fighter, but he's not, and the 12-year-old girl has slow attacks because she uses a giant hammer, despite being a 12-year-old girl. (The skill where she falls on her butt and can't move for a few frames is particularly annoying when you're trying to max out every skill for a trophy.) While we're on the subject of trophies, you're looking at either an Easy/Normal playthrough, followed by NG+ on Nightmare difficulty, or a single Nightmare playthrough. Because there are missable trophies, I chose the two playthrough approach, which is easier and probably equal in terms of length of time because gaining experience is a lot slower on Nightmare. I guess that's what I'd recommend. I generally didn't struggle with anything except some of the final bosses on Nightmare. You also have to get the true ending on Nightmare for a trophy, which requires beating the final boss and then completing one last dungeon. The problem is that you cannot restock on items once you beat the final boss...so if you burn through all your healing items and revives during that fight, forgetting that's an even harder fight later...yeah, you're kinda screwed. But that's the Ys way. The game's OK. I'm in the minority in not loving this series. I found the combat to be repetitive, some of the bosses to be sponges, and I had more fun coming up with my own story. There's one quest, which is an escort mission, and it's probably the worst thing in the game. For one, you're escorting a nun and she moves about 0.2 times your speed. Then she randomly loses the bottom half of her dress. I thought it was a glitch at first, but then it happened again on NG+, so I assume that's something NIS America wanted us to see. Oh, and the base-building was nothing special, considering what it could have been. It basically just serves as a hub with some minor cosmetic changes as you advance through the game. You have no control where anything goes. Increasing your "defenses" makes raids a bit easier, but raids are just quests that you can start at any time and take place in a separate queue. I think it would've been cool to see dinosaurs invade your base and start flinging castaways around the village. I'll play Ys IX at some point, guys, but I'd be lying if I said this series impresses me. I find these games to be wholly average, which in any other genre would be fine, but this is going up against the likes of Persona, Dragon Quest, and Atelier (and if you're going to argue those are all turn-based games, it pales in comparison to Genshin Impact too). At least it's fun to run into enemies with the Gale Feather. Edited August 19, 2022 by Cassylvania 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidVictorious Posted August 20, 2022 Share Posted August 20, 2022 On 8/17/2022 at 10:35 PM, AJ_Radio said: Much of that gross-out humor from the likes of Ren & Stimpy and Beavis & Butthead would be considered far too edgy and offensive by today's standards. Mike Judge just brought Beavis and Butthead back. It never stopped being funny. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 20, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 20, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, VoidVictorious said: Mike Judge just brought Beavis and Butthead back. It never stopped being funny. Now we just need King of the Hill back. My favorite show of all time. Platinum #328 - Kena: Bridge of Spirits I asked for Disney Souls and Ember Lab delivered. But is this game a kindred spirit or should this bridge just be burned? (Sorry, working on my intros...) In this game, you play as a medium-sized country in Eastern Africa on a quest to save a tiny forest village from malevolent spirits. Right off the bat, I'm going to say this is one of the most visually-appealing games I've ever played. It looks like something a high-end animation studio would put out for a feature-length film, and I'm not just talking about the cutscenes. The environments you explore in this game are gorgeous. There's also a really good soundtrack to go with it. I know it's hard to talk about graphics and audio in a written review like this, but I like to give props where props are due. If there's something that's missing from the Pixar experience, it's that the story in this game is...rather basic, all things considered. You're essentially just "freeing" three corrupted spirits so that you can face an even bigger and badder corrupted spirit. Each of them has a storyline that is revealed to you through a short cutscene, but it actually reminded me of the clips I've seen from Balan Wonderworld, which probably isn't the best comparison you want me making with your game. I would've liked more background into these characters or a more comprehensive story overall. We actually learn very little about Kena throughout the game. She's surprisingly quiet most of the time, and the ending doesn't exactly answer any questions you might have. I'm not against this approach -- I actually argued for it in Stray, if you'll remember -- but the developers seemed like they had a story they wanted to tell. It's strange that they kept so much of it a secret. So, what kind of game is it? Well, it has platforming, puzzles, and Souls-like combat. Let's start with platforming. Kena can jump, double jump, and shimmy across ledges like Nathan Drake. She also gets a bow midway through the game that can work like a hookshot if you come across any giant blue flowers. Sometimes you have to string together multiple hookshots, which can be tricky, but you also get an ability to slow down time. Puzzles generally involve finding things you can shoot with your bow or move/activate with the help of your Rot buddies, which are adorable creatures that you can find throughout the game and join you on your journey. Combat is...yeah, we're going to need a separate paragraph for this one. Kena has a number of tools at her disposal. She has a light attack and a heavy attack. She can dodge roll. She has a shield that she can also parry with if you time it right. Later on, she gets a bow and eventually bombs. The little Rot creatures can also help her out by doing special attacks, such as binding enemies in place or boosting one of her existing skills. Oh, and she can slow down time, like I already mentioned. Basically, all of these abilities are on a timer so you can't spam them, but they get replenished over time. This encourages you to mix up your attacks, which is honestly pretty clever now that I think about it. You can't hide behind your shield all the time because it'll eventually run out of juice, and you can't just stick to ranged combat because you'll eventually need to wait for your arrows to refill. This means combat is good, right? Well, the enemies have a few tools at their disposal too. Their favorite is outnumbering you. Their second favorite is the camera, which is almost certainly being controlled by somebody on their side. When these two combine, you're going to find yourself getting pummeled by enemies you couldn't even see. I really wish there was some kind of notification or audio clue that an enemy is about to do a leaping attack. If there is one, I didn't notice it. They just cover so much ground and they're constantly regenerating in some fights, including boss fights. You're often fighting in cramped quarters too, which doesn't help the numbers situation or the camera situation. The biggest flaw in the combat, though, is the dodge roll. You have to unlearn what other games have taught you. In this, Kena does NOT get invincibility frames through the entire roll. It's essentially the same as a parry. If you dodge right before you're about to get hit, you'll survive. If you try to roll through it, Kena will get her face bashed in. That means you're honestly better off parrying all the time because, if you're early, you can just hold the button to keep your shield up. I probably shouldn't call this a flaw because it's technically just a feature and certainly more realistic than the alternative, but some habits are hard to break. It'd be like playing the original Super Mario Bros. and using the B button to jump. I point this out because this game is legitimately difficult. I played on Normal difficulty and got my ass handed to me repeatedly. There's a trophy for beating this game on MASTER difficulty, which is two difficulties higher and not even unlocked until you beat the game once. If you look at the time difference between me beating the game once and then beating it again on Master, you can see I'm either a gaming god or that I resorted to the out-of-bounds glitch that lets you skip 95% of the game, including the ridiculous final boss fight that has three phases and no checkpoints. (Hint: I'm not a god.) I have two reasons for being OK with this. First, I've beaten enough hard games in my time. I didn't know you could cheese Uncharted 1-3 Remastered on Brutal difficulty. I did that shit legit. Second, I just found out they're about to drop DLC for this game. I'll probably end up having to play through it on NG+ anyway. Probably on Super Mega Ultra Master+ difficulty. Isn't that punishment enough? But I don't want to steer you guys away from this game. It's good. I recommend just playing it on Easy, which is what I ended up doing around the third boss and I don't regret it. The only annoying thing might be finding all the collectibles because there are a lot of things to watch out for. The good news is that the in-game map tracks all of the collectibles you've found. The bad news is that it's not always clear how to reach a certain location or what you need to do, so you might have to use a visual guide or walkthrough for the rest. Edited August 20, 2022 by Cassylvania 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 21, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 21, 2022 (edited) Platinum #329 - Tails Of Iron It turns out I AM a goding god. I beat Uncharted 1-3 Remastered on Brutal difficulty, platinumed every Soulsborne game that released before 2022, survived 500 days in The Long Dark, waited three hundred hours for a blue tornado, did every possible thing there is to do in Dragon Quest Heroes 2, stared at Phil's white screen until my eyes went numb, and now I completed Tails Of Iron on Bloody Whisker difficulty. If you were wondering why I was fine with cheesing Kena, it's because I was playing this game alongside it. Before we go any further, I think it's important to mention the DLC. The platinum rarity for this game (currently 57.5%) is extremely misleading. When the DLC was released, it introduced two new difficulties: Fairy Tale, which is easy mode, and Bloody Whisker, which sets the difficulty to max. Originally, there was only one difficulty. I don't know what the platinum rarity was like at that time, but I imagine the DLC boosted it tremendously while simultaneously killing the 100% completion crowd. This is because neither difficulty is required for (nor prevents you from getting) the platinum, but there is a trophy for beating the final boss on Bloody Whisker. I am proud to be the 75th person to complete this. The main reason I point this out is because my method of playing through this game was unorthodox. I had two save files. One of them was on Bloody Whisker and the other was on Fairy Tale. What I would do is play on Bloody Whisker until I got stuck -- usually at a boss -- and then switch to Fairy Tale, get to the same spot, and then practice the next fight. This was also nice because I'd sometimes take a break from the game for a few days, so I could play on Fairy Tale to remember what I was doing. It does mean, however, that I never played the game the way the developers originally intended, so you should take this review with an even bigger grain of salt than usual. (And, boy, is there going to be a lot of salt...) So, what kind of game is this? The PS5 menu describes this game as "an epic RPG Adventure with punishingly brutal souls-like combat." (I like how "souls-like" isn't even capitalized. I know you know where the Shift key is, devs, because I see you capitalizing random prepositions in the title of your game.) I think that's a fair description. I might also call it a Metroidvania because there's a lot of backtracking and you're navigating a beautifully hand-drawn 2D map. That's the first thing that impressed me about this game. I was a little worried at first because hand-drawn animations don't usually lend themselves well to platforming or combat that requires precise movement, but I later realized that was the least of my problems. There's also a very fitting soundtrack to accompany the game. Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt of Rivia from that game I've never played, does a fantastic job at narration. In fact, he's the ONLY voice in the game. When you talk to other characters, they only speak in gibberish, followed by a few pictures for you to piece together what's going on. For example, you might see a picture of a villager being impaled by a frog and then an arrow pointing to the right. (Even if you somehow can't figure it out from there, Doug Cockle will tell you.) Let's put this under "good storytelling" methods. I don't need fourteen dialogue boxes just to tell me to kill some trash mobs. Unfortunately, it isn't used enough. This might be the only time I've ever wished for more of this kind of dialogue. It could've been fun to try to decipher what the NPCs were saying, maybe as a means of a lore dump, but it's usually so obvious and unnecessary that it's like, "Why bother?" So maybe slide this under "good storytelling but poor execution"... Did I mention you play as a rat? That's where the pun in the title comes from. I think this is paying homage to the Redwall series, which I haven't read but has always appealed to me. I like when games feature anthropomorphic creatures -- especially tiny ones -- and put them into roles usually reserved for humans. Ghost of a Tale (see, those devs missed the obvious pun) did that wonderfully. That game was more about stealth, though, while the focus of this game is combat. You play as Redgi, heir to the Rat Kingdom, and it's up to you to stop the evil Green Wart Warchief and his clan of frogs from invading your home. There's a lot to unpack here. First, the story serves its purpose. It's dark at times, but also has some light humor, usually revolving around animal puns. ("Auto-mole-bile" being my favorite, for the mole-like creatures who live underground.) I'd say it does a decent job at balancing the two. I never felt emotionally attached to a character, but I also didn't want them to get wrecked by a dinosaur. Second, the game does a good job at making you hate the enemies you're fighting. This is where the combat comes in, and it's going to take up the bulk of this review. Redgi has all the usual abilities you'd expect from a game like this: light attack, heavy attack, ranged attack (eventually), shield, parry, and dodge roll. This is the third review in a row where I've repeated that line. You also get something resembling an Estus Flask, which slowly restores your HP, but only while you're drinking it. Later on, you get a toxin, which causes any enemy hit with it to take increased damage. You can also hold your light and heavy attacks. I'm not sure if it does increased damage, but it's a good way of delaying an attack until an enemy is in range. That's basically what you have to work with. Now, combat always takes place in a closed arena. Usually, you'll enter an area, an enemy or group of enemies will spawn, and the screen will remain static until you defeat them. I think Guacamelee was like this. This is good because it means all of the enemies are on the screen (for the most part) at the same time. This is bad because it means it's not like a traditional Metroidvania, where you can abuse the AI's leash mechanic or run away if your health gets low. This is uncomfortable because it means you are usually fighting in a very tiny arena. This is where the problems begin. Every enemy in this game went to Kena's school of cheap combat. You will be flanked, swarmed, comboed, and blindsided at every turn. The game pretends to be nice by notifying you of an attack with a flashing color prompt. White attacks can be blocked, yellow attacks can be parried, and red attacks must be dodged. It's those red attacks that will kill you most often, and they're easily the most common attacks you'll see. You see, it's not enough just to hit the dodge button. You must also choose your direction AND time it correctly. On the easiest difficulty, this isn't a problem, but the AI is extremely aggressive on Bloody Whisker and there is very little downtime in a fight. You also die in about two hits. Some of the bosses can even put you into a combo that will drain your HP immediately. There's something like...25 bosses in this game? I'm not sure what constitutes a boss fight. I'd usually say when a health bar appears, but there are some trash mobs that I'd consider just as hard as a boss (especially when you have to fight multiple waves of enemies) and one "boss" in an arena that doesn't have a health bar. This was actually the hardest fight in the game for me because you're fighting two enemies at once. They have actual names in the game, but I called Oratstein and Smouse, which honestly should've been their names because they were already making a pop culture reference with Hulk Molgan... Anyway, Oratstein has speedy attacks that can be very difficult to dodge, while Smouse has slower attacks and this ANNOYING charge attack that I could never figure the timing out on. You have to like...delay your dodge until he's almost on you and then quickly slide under his legs. (Like other games in this genre, you have a light, medium, and heavy roll, but don't kid yourself. You'll always be wearing light armor.) It's frame-perfect timing, as it is with a lot of things on Bloody Whisker. Factor in Oratstein dashing from one side of the arena to the other and you're basically screwed. This was the first major hurdle in the game for me. The second was the final boss. That may not sound like much, but I'm speaking relatively here. Most bosses were 20+ attempt fights. In some ways, the game is merciful. Checkpoints (which are benches, similar to Hollow Knight) are usually very close to boss fights. One weird thing is that there are containers strewn throughout the map that refill your flask, arrows, and toxins, as well as a box that lets you switch your gear, but they're only near some benches. Like, you might find one bench that lets you refill your health, but you'll have to run back to the previous one to refill your arrows. Enemies don't respawn in this game, so it's just an odd decision. I just got into the habit of running back to the nearest bench after every fight. If you're playing on Bloody Whisker, you'll always want to be topped out on everything. Combat is all about timing. I found it's better to play defensively, waiting or baiting out certain attacks before you make your move. With some enemies and bosses, you may only have one or two attacks where it's safe to punish your opponent. For example, for the final boss, I found it was better to always roll through him. During his first phase, he only has four attacks. Two of them are red, one is yellow, and the last is white. Enemies usually having a deceptively long range, so it's very possible you'll take damage from an attack if you're in front of your opponent, even if you're on the opposite side of the screen. By sticking close to the boss and always rolling through him, you'll dodge all the yellow and red attacks. White attacks seem to hone in on you, so you'll need your shield for that. The problem is that there's a delay after you roll before you can put up your shield, and there's another delay in how quickly you can roll a second time. In fact, if you try to do a consecutive roll, Redgi's second roll is like a fat roll. You might say, "Well, just don't do that," but sometimes a double roll is necessary to avoid taking damage. You're even taught that in the tutorial. I could bitch a lot more. I want to bitch a lot more. I got angry at some of the bosses in this game and I saw red a few times. There is a lot to like here, but this is yet another game that I think is held back from some poor and questionable decisions... In this case, I can forgive some of it because I imagine playing on the default difficulty is a better experience. If you just want the platinum, do that and tell me what you think. But I think even if the difficulty was toned down, I think some more polishing would be necessary. The platforming is not very good. Redgi has a meager jump that you only really use to reach some ledges, and the hit detection is bad. Fall damage is also present and I don't know why. You seem to take damage from even short falls and there were a few times where I didn't see any other way. It's not much damage, but...why? I'm torn here, guys. I always want to give you an honest review. If I'm judging it on the way I played it -- which, to be fair, is the most complete version of the game -- I think it's too frustrating to be fun. "Souls-like" does not have to be synonymous with "punishingly brutal combat." Souls-like can mean rich lore told through item description and environmental storytelling. I'd like to propose a challenge to developers to design a "Souls-like" that has no combat at all. Could it be done? I'd say, if you wanted to play through this game purely for the platinum, go for it. You could play through this game on Fairy Tale and finish it in under 6 hours. (I know because I have 6 hours on my Fairy Tale playthrough.) On the other hand, I have over 20 hours on my Bloody Whisker playthrough, and I was very close to putting my controller through my TV screen. Edited August 22, 2022 by Cassylvania 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 17 minutes ago, Cassylvania said: I'd like to propose a challenge to developers to design a "Souls-like" that has no combat at all. Could it be done? Maybe with a pure platformer. Or would that turn out as a rogue-like instead? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 On 8/18/2022 at 10:19 PM, Cassylvania said: This year, I wanted to use this game for the Gaming by Numbers event, knowing the NA version was going to count for a 7. Well, apparently the physical copy I bought came from overseas because I ended up with the EU version, which has the only number I didn't need. This is why I never platinum anything but good only NA games. (Also, I am not going to create foreign accounts and spend money on game cards just to buy games on those accounts. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 (edited) On 8/21/2022 at 3:47 PM, Cassylvania said: did every possible thing there is to do in Dragon Quest Heroes 2 Can I be your apprentice, sensei? I put that game down as my 7/10 difficulty game on the Platinum Difficulty 2022 event and now I am regretting it as I only played up to getting Maribel and Ruff. (Seriously, WTF were Square-Enix and their distributor thinking when they renamed Gabo the wolf boy in Dragon Warrior VII THAT? ?) (If you were joking, then I apologize. I was technically joking too. ) Edited August 23, 2022 by Taruta13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted August 28, 2022 Author Share Posted August 28, 2022 On 8/22/2022 at 10:37 PM, Taruta13 said: Can I be your apprentice, sensei? I put that game down as my 7/10 difficulty game on the Platinum Difficulty 2022 event and now I am regretting it as I only played up to getting Maribel and Ruff. (Seriously, WTF were Square-Enix and their distributor thinking when they renamed Gabo the wolf boy in Dragon Warrior VII THAT? ?) (If you were joking, then I apologize. I was technically joking too. ) I was joking only in the sense that I played that game for so long that I think I exhausted the list of things to do. I didn't realize it was a 7/10 in difficulty. I remember that one annoying boss with the dark attacks, but I've encountered worse. Such as... Platinum #330 - Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream The Atelier series is a strange one. Typically, I associate these games with trilogies. Since the PS3, we've had the Arland trilogy (Rorona, Totori, and Meruru), the Dusk trilogy (Ayesha, Escha & Logy, and Shallie), and the Mysterious trilogy (Sophie, Firis, and Lydie & Suelle). The trilogy of trilogies, if you will. Before that, I guess you had the Salburg trilogy, the Iris trilogy (no, "Iris" is not a character in the game), and the Mana Khemia duology, but I've never played those (and we're going to ignore the last one because it doesn't fit my narrative). Then Lulua came out in 2019 and added a fourth game to the Arland trilogy (tetralogy?), along with whatever the hell Nelke was supposed to be... When Ryza became the first character in the series to get a direct sequel ("Mana Khemia" was not a character either), I figured that's just how Gust was going to do things from now on. Then they went and gave a sequel to a game that already had two sequels, which had me saying, "Why...?" Chronologically, Sophie 2 takes place between Sophie and Firis, which is probably less confusing than it could have been, so thanks for that. I won't bother trying to explain the plot since (a) there's no reason you would play this before Atelier Sophie, and (b) you haven't played Atelier Sophie, but it does the whole "parallel world" thing, which is rarely done well. I think the only time I've ever really liked that was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. But here, I think it works fine. You get an interesting cast of characters too, and a younger version of Plachta, who was the talking book from the original game. (I guess she's like a novella now?) Jokes aside, the story and characters are about what you'd expect. These games have always had good graphics and music, so I won't touch on those. As always, our main focus should be gameplay. That means we need to discuss combat and the alchemy system. (There is no time limit in this game. I don't expect that to ever return to this series, for better or worse.) Combat is turn-based. Unlike previous games in the series, where you can only have access to a few characters in your party at any one time, all six playable characters have an active role in your party. They are simply split between three "front row" characters, who can attack and be attacked, and three "back row" characters, who provide support. Those six characters are: Sophie (now my favorite girl in the Mysterious tetralogy), Plachta (the younger version...before she was turned into a book...and later a doll), Ramizel (Sophie's HOT grandmother), Olias (generic male character #1), Diebold (generic male character #2), and Alette (don't do drugs, kids). Sophie is locked to the front row, but you can freely move anybody else around. During combat, each character can attack, use a skill, use an item (each character is limited to how many items they can have equipped and not every character can use every item), block, or flee. You can also generate Technical Points (TP) in battle, which is used to perform Twin Attacks, allowing a back row character to use a skill or item during the same turn. Eventually, you gain access to Dual Triggers (DT), which allow a front row and back row character to perform a unique powerful attack. My favorite was Olias x Diebold, because Einzelkampf is ridiculously overpowered (in every Atelier game), but Plachta x Alette is funny to watch because they climb onto a giant floating hand that's shooting across the sky and start raining down presents on you like Santa Claus. All the animations in this game are very well done. They even have unique victory animations at the end of battle if you performed a DT attack. Seeing Ramizel ruffle Sophie's hair was oddly satisfyingly. There is no timing to combat. In past games, if an enemy is about to attack, you'd only have a brief moment to try to block it or perform another action. Here, the game freezes and lets you decide whether to switch to a different character or face-tank it. Switching to another character is the only way I know of to put a back row character in the front row during combat, but it also changes what TP and DT actions you have to work with. Fortunately, I didn't have any trouble with the combat in this game. I chose to play through most of it on the default difficult (Normal), but switched to Easy to see how much grinding would be required. I found that playing on Easy, even making minimal use of the alchemy system, was enough that I never had to go out of my way to farm for experience or better gear. Of course, there is that one damn trophy. Here, it's Ruler of the Dream, which requires beating the final boss on Very Hard difficulty. You can switch to Very Hard right before fighting her and still get the trophy, but this would be a massive step up in difficulty for somebody who's never played an Atelier game before. I don't think it would be doable without understanding at least the basics of the alchemy system. So, I actually do remember a bit of the original game's alchemy system, and this retains some of its aspects. At least, in the sense that you're moving Tetris-like pieces around and trying to complete rows of the same color. The problem is that there are different "catalysts," which affect the size and effects of the board you're using, and I never did quite figure out the advantages or disadvantages of each. It can also be tricky to unlock all of the different gauge levels. For example, you might have an item that has four gauges: fire, wind, fire, and light. By adding more fire pieces to the board, you're increasing both the first and third gauge. Add enough pieces and you'll reach the next "level" on that gauge, which results in a better synthesis (e.g. if it's a healing item, it might go from a low heal to a medium heal or add in a buff, such as MP recovery). If you only care about the wind gauge, you could just focus on adding wind pieces to try to get that gauge maxed out, but each item has a unique combination of pieces and elements available. It can be a bit of pain to try to get the pieces you want, while also trying to carry over the traits you're interested in (which are also unique to each item). If that sounds confusing, let me just say this was actually one of the easier alchemy systems to comprehend. The search function and the ability to see what you're making BEFORE it's made are godsends. It also helps that you can only carry over three traits. I didn't drive myself crazy trying to figure out how to get a certain trait onto the piece I wanted because the in-game mechanics were designed with the alchemy system in mind, and I greatly appreciate that. Still, it took me a few hours last night to fully grasp what I was doing so that I could make the proper gear and items for my characters. I wouldn't say I was OP by any means, but I thought the final boss on the hardest difficulty was a fair fight, requiring a good amount of carefully selected moves and several retries. It was a nice change of pace from either steamrolling the final boss or being steamrolled. One last thing is Sophie has the ability to CONTROL THE WEATHER. This actually plays a role in two ways. In the overworld, it's used to solve what I guess could pass for puzzles. You can switch between sun, rain, snow, thunder, and...gravity (everybody's favorite kind of weather). Certain paths are only available if the right weather conditions are met. It's not always obvious what you need, though, and it can be annoying to have to go back to your atelier to fill up on the special stones you need to change the weather, which can only be done at specific statues. I recommend spending some time just crafting a ton of these as soon as you gain access to them. 30 or 40 of each should be enough for the whole game. (I guess the one way these are used as a puzzle is sometimes you need it to rain so it will fill in a basin, which you can then freeze over with snow.) You can also sometimes switch weather in combat, which can make certain encounters much easier. I never really bothered with this, though. I mean, this game's idea of logic was making a fire dragon weak to fire, so how am I supposed to know if sun or rain makes him stronger? If you couldn't tell, I liked this game, which really shouldn't come as a surprise. I've played them all at this point. At least, the ones that are available on the consoles I own. There are no English voiceovers -- same as Ryza, so we can probably consider those another relic of the past with this series -- but I didn't mind. This is definitely on the shorter end too, with only about 30 hours of gameplay and a single playthrough. (The only missable trophy is the one I already discussed.) I also think it was the perfect game in the series to have a sequel to. It didn't make sense to me at first, but I think it's a good way to capitalize on the success of Ryza and provide an entryway for new fans to get into the older games, with the Mysterious sub-series probably being the most immediately accessible... And now...officially, I am done with this series. For the second time. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted August 29, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 29, 2022 Platinum #331 - Coffee Talk Come. Sit down. Have a (non-alcohol) drink. This is a long thread and we have many more games to play. Every now and then, it's good to relax with something simple. So, what is Coffee Talk? Well, I guess it could be as described as a "slice of life" visual novel, making it pretty unique in an already unique genre. You play as...well, you can choose your name at the start, but I went with the default name of "Barista", which is also your role in the game, if the title didn't already give it away. You don't really matter, though. Much like you, your character takes a backseat to the coffee house regulars, to the point that you sometimes forget you're even there. Now, this is the hardest genre to review because what am I really supposed to say, without giving away spoilers? Actually, quite a bit. There are two parts to the game that are worth discussing. (There's also a challenge mode that isn't worth discussing because it was too stressful for a game like this.) The first is the story. The game takes place in modern day Seattle, but in a universe where fantasy races (e.g. orcs, vampires, werewolves, etc.) exist. The game never makes it clear how many of these races exist or how prominent each of them are, but it's clearly an allegory to the various races and cultures that exist in our world today, with many of the same fears and prejudices. The game takes course over the span of about two weeks. Each "day" in the game (technically, night, since you have the brilliant marketing strategy of being the only all-night coffee shop in the city) features one or more characters entering your café and talking about their lives or relationships. I think there are a total of ten of them, with only two humans (Freya the journalist and Jorji the cop). A lot of them seem to be writers or artists in some way, which I guess are the kind of people who might live in Seattle or frequent coffee shops. I wouldn't know. I've never even had coffee. Many of these storylines play out over several days, with the characters who are present in the café offering their advice to those talking about their problems. Your character will speak up every now and then, but there are no dialogue options, so you can basically set the text speed to Auto and just listen (well, read -- no voiceovers here). My favorite storyline is between Baileys and Lua, who are a young couple going through a rocky relationship because their families don't approve of each other. Baileys is an elf and Lua is a succubus, and I guess those two races don't get along in this universe. In most other games, you would be tasked with helping them out, but all you can do here is listen to them and hope they make the right decision. The second part to the game is the gameplay, which is very limited. Generally, whenever a character enters the café, they will order a drink. You have a few options for a base and a few options for a primary and secondary ingredient. If you mess up, you can start over, and there is no time limit. (There's no real penalty in giving them the wrong drink either. I think you'd just have to replay that chapter at some point to get the trophy for serving everybody the correct drink.) If the drink is a latte, you can even do a little bit of artwork with the milk. Completely optional, though. It's honestly one of the simplest games I've ever played. If you skipped the text, you could probably finish the game in a couple hours. If you read it, probably closer to 8-10 hours. There are a few other things that I want to mention. First, I really liked the pixel graphics. The character models are pretty good, and they have some nice (but limited) animations that make them seem more lively. Some of them don't seem scaled properly, though. Next to Jorji, Freya looks like a giant. I don't think they're supposed to be different races. Also, the background is very chill. It's always raining in Seattle apparently, but I think that made the café seem more inviting. One of the nicest touches is that you can actually slightly move the camera while dialogue is happening. There's no reason to do this, but I always like when a game gives me some options when text is happening. (I guess you could check your cellphone. There are some menus and options there that you can scan through.) The music is swanky. I'm not going to go out of my way to recommend this game because it's such a niche experience, but the charm isn't lost on me. I will always appreciate simplicity when done right. If you're tired of slaying monsters and want something to chill out to this fall, you could do a lot worse. Now, let's go kill some fuckin' demons. Spooky season is upon us. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 7 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Now, let's go kill some fuckin' demons. Spooky season is upon us. Whoa, you're a couple of months too early. Great reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serrated-banner9 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 13 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Platinum #331 - Coffee Talk Come. Sit down. Have a (non-alcohol) drink. This is a long thread and we have many more games to play. Every now and then, it's good to relax with something simple. So, what is Coffee Talk? Well, I guess it could be as described as a "slice of life" visual novel, making it pretty unique in an already unique genre. You play as...well, you can choose your name at the start, but I went with the default name of "Barista", which is also your role in the game, if the title didn't already give it away. You don't really matter, though. Much like you, your character takes a backseat to the coffee house regulars, to the point that you sometimes forget you're even there. Many of these storylines play out over several days, with the characters who are present in the café offering their advice to those talking about their problems. Your character will speak up every now and then, but there are no dialogue options, so you can basically set the text speed to Auto and just listen (well, read -- no voiceovers here). My favorite storyline is between Baileys and Lua, who are a young couple going through a rocky relationship because their families don't approve of each other. Baileys is an elf and Lua is a succubus, and I guess those two races don't get along in this universe. In most other games, you would be tasked with helping them out, but all you can do here is listen to them and hope they make the right decision. wow. i want to play that now lol. i kinda of like visual novels, they tell good stories 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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