Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Kitty_Fairy5]

On 7/6/2024 at 6:56 PM, Cassylvania said:

is there another decent western out there?

Well, it's not really a Western but Live-A-Live has a Western outlaw called Sunset Kid who has a quest where he helps a saloon town fight back against some desperados who want to invade the town.

[Copanele]

On 6/26/2024 at 11:03 PM, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #438 - Sid Meier's Civilization VI

A bit late, but congrats for this one  another game that's on my loooong list of "someday I'll conquer the world via a videogame" list!

But, you mentioned one other game that caught my attention big time. I am also aiming to complete this little Firaxis marvel:

So hope you don't mind if I browse around in your 2019 posts, because I do see you had a hell of a blast with it  hope my UFO Aftermath experience will help with this one...

[Cassylvania]

On 7/10/2024 at 11:39 PM, Kitty_Fairy5 said:

Well, it's not really a Western but Live-A-Live has a Western outlaw called Sunset Kid who has a quest where he helps a saloon town fight back against some desperados who want to invade the town.

 

I'll take a look at it. Thanks.

 

On 7/12/2024 at 12:17 PM, Copanele said:

So hope you don't mind if I browse around in your 2019 posts, because I do see you had a hell of a blast with it  hope my UFO Aftermath experience will help with this one...

 

Ah, yes. Back in the day when my "reviews" were let's plays. Did you know I've started keeping track of my word count for all these reviews? There are actually some interesting results that came from this that we'll go over sometime, but one of the hardest things for me to believe is how long it actually was before I started writing "real" reviews. I started this thread with platinum 75, I wrote zero reviews until platinum 96 (which was also a let's play of Everybody's Golf), and I didn't actually hit the 500+ word mark until platinum 147, which was Slime Rancher. I wouldn't hit 500 again until Forgotton Anne, which was platinum 169 (nice), and I wouldn't hit 1000+ words until, hilariously, Frost (platinum 193). After that, most reviews started becoming a lot longer. I think, at the time when I was doing Everybody's Golf, XCOM:EU, and The Long Dark for some reason, I saw this thread more as a journal of games as I played through them than a place to leave my concluding thoughts.

 

My longest "review" might actually be the game you're playing, if you counted up all that. I had fun writing it. I think I remember doing one mission per day for a month. Other than that...uh, most of my top 10 longest reviews were in the past year. Genshin has the most, of course (I had to break the damn thing into two posts because I hit the character limit), but my second is actually Story of Seasons: PoOT and then this year's A Plague's Tale: Requiem. All over 4000 words. Just some useless trivia.

 

I just think it's kinda neat to look back at how things have changed over the years. Wouldn't mind if Firaxis just remastered the damn game at this point. Just give me faster loading times.

 

Anyway, I have a new review for you guys. On today's episode of "Could've Been Playing Persona 5 Tactica Instead", we have...

 

Platinum #441 - Persona 5 Tactica

 

... Oh. Well, that was anti-climatic.

 

Yes, guys. We have my favorite game that came out in the past decade (Persona 5) combined with my favorite game that came out in the decade before that (XCOM). Can Atlas-do what Firaxis-can't? I sure hope so because other developers are going out of their way to remind me that we're living in the absolute worst timeline.

 

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. I know every one of you took one look at the art style in this game, said, "Ew, chibis", and pre-ordered Unicorn Overlord instead. I feel ya. World of Final Fantasy left you with a bad taste in your mouth. The thing is, though, we were never going to get the kind of animation quality that we got from P5R. They couldn't even get it right with the anime. So, in many ways, it's probably better they went for a simpler art style with this game. I actually grew to like it, even though I wasn't initially a fan. The character models are expressive and I think their personality and charm carry over well.

 

Similarly, the story is Persona 5 on a budget. I still like what they did with it. In addition to bringing make the entire cast from the original game, they introduce two new main characters: Toshiro, who is line to be the next prime minister, and Erina, who joins the Phantom Thieves early in the game. Even though there are multiple "villains" in this game, the entire plot revolves around the connection between these two characters. The reason I like that is because instead of getting a watered-down and possibly rushed version of P5R's plot, which features the Phantom Thieves infiltrating multiple "Palaces" that each center around a separate character or group of characters, we get a singular, fairly fleshed-out story. The game is technically broken down into four chapters (well, three and then a lazy rehash, but we'll get to that), but there is a connection between them that will become more obvious as you play through the game.

 

I don't want to go into detail about the story, but I will say the basic idea is that Toshiro is a politician who has been critical of the Phantom Thieves in the past, but he now must rely on them to save him. The humor comes from how utterly useless they made him. His level of self-deprecation makes me look like a gigachad. But much of the plot revolves around him growing as a person and learning to stand up against the people who have wronged him in the past, so that's kinda cool. It's definitely in the spirit of the original game, and it's actually a bit deeper than you might expect. I liked it.

 

You know the music is good. It's Persona. We're moving on.

 

There are five difficulties. I chose to do my first playthrough on the hardest difficulty (Merciless) and NG+ on the easiest difficulty (Safe). There are no difficulty-related trophies and I'm not sure what gameplay changes there are between difficulties (I think it's more than just more health... friendly fire seems to be turned off on the easier difficulties), but I wanted to judge this game based on its strategic elements. I thought Merciless was a good difficulty and I'll be basing my review on that.

 

There are 52 missions in the game. In between missions, you'll be at your hideout, where you can equip various skills/personas/weapons and talk to your teammates. There isn't a ton of side content here. I guess there are some optional conversations and quests ("optional" for the story, but necessary for trophies) and you'll eventually gain access to the Velvet Room, which has features that unlock throughout the game, but most of your time will be spent doing missions. These are turn-based tactical missions and they more or less play out the same, with similar objectives in each. Usually, kill all enemies or reach a particular point on the map.

 

Here's how combat works. You can deploy three characters per mission. That's it. You're allowed to freely move any or all of these characters as much as you want during your turn. Some of the maps have tight corridors, so you might need to move one character out of the way so that another can pass. I actually kinda liked this feature. You can test out standing in multiple spots and swap between each of your characters before taking any action. Generally, that character is done after taking an action and your turn is done after all three characters have taken an action. "Taking an action" can mean using a Persona (I'll probably refer to them as skills or spells in this review), using your Gun, or performing a Melee attack. Other actions, such as triggering an elevator or climbing a ladder, can be done indefinitely. This is neat because your turn ends up lasting much longer than you'd think with only three characters to move.

 

There are a lot of things I could explain here, but I'm just going to go over the basics. A cover mechanic exists and it affects both you and the enemies. Generally speaking, you want to be behind full cover because it protects you from most frontal attacks, and you want to try to flank your enemies or move them out of cover. Personas are often the best way to do this because your basic Gun attack doesn't do much damage to enemies in cover. Every character has access to unique skills, so the strategy in this game often comes from which characters you choose and which personas you use. For the most part, you're looking to attack enemies when they're exposed because you can do the most damage and you can potentially trigger a "Once More", which allows you to perform a subsequent action. There are no limit to how many of these you can trigger during a single turn, so you should always be looking for ways to keep the streak going. Typically, attacking an enemy twice (once to knock them out of cover and a second time when they're exposed) is enough to trigger a Once More. It's probably easiest to knock an enemy out of cover using a Melee attack, but that does require getting close to them.

 

You might think three characters is limiting (especially given the fact that you eventually gain access to the full main cast), but it ties into the combat's main gimmick: Triple Threat. I believe this can be activated by any character that knocks an enemy down (similar to how you get a Once More). What it does is MASSIVE damage to EVERY character in the "triangle" that is formed between your three characters. The further apart your teammates are, the more enemies that you can potentially capture within that space. Ideally, you want to be activating this as much as you can. It's the equivalent of finding a star in a Mario game. You're basically giving the middle finger to every enemy unfortunate enough to be in your path. You'll spend a good amount of time adjusting your position with each character just so you can maximize the carnage when you unleash this move. It's a little janky on how the system works with elevation, but it's serviceable.

 

There's also a Voltage meter that fills up as you play through each mission. When this is full, you can use a special skill that is unique to each character. These range from good to utterly broken. In fact, let's just go over every character. I'll give you my tier list.

 

Every character and team combination is viable. I know this because I used them all. However, there are two characters that are significantly better than the rest...and two that I would argue are worse. Ann is busted. Her fire spells have an enormous AoE range and have the potential to knock enemies out of cover. Because of this, she can solo huge swaths of enemies at a time. Yusuke is even more busted. He's basically the "crowd control" character, with ice spells that freeze an enemy or group of enemies in place, negating their next turn, and he has the best Voltage skill in the game, which creates clones of himself that enemies will always prioritize. Coincidentally, these are also the two characters who get a free action after using their Voltage skill, meaning they're even MORE busted. Conversely, I think Erina is one of the worst characters. She gets some OK abilities, with the best one being able to shoot enemies out of cover after not taking an action on the previous turn, but not being able to use a Persona is a huge drawback. Also, they did my girl Haru dirty. They gave her a grenade launcher with really low range and the worst movement speed in the game. That's a horrible combination. I guess she'd be OK on the one or two defensive maps, but she's going to lag behind on most missions. It's also questionable how good her Hypno skills are. The ability to move enemies towards you seems good on paper, but most of the enemies that are going to survive multiple hits are the ones that you DON'T want within striking distance.

 

Everybody else is average. It's nice that they didn't require Ren/Akira/Joker/whatever you name the MC to be used on most missions, but I found myself using him anyway. The only real incentive to switch up your team is for trophies and because you get a bit of a boost to a character if they sat out during the last mission, but you still get more characters than you need. Morgana is OK in the early game because he/she has some Sweep attacks, but I found healing pretty useless. Same reason I didn't care for Makoto. And, actually, Ryuji too. Ryuji doesn't have any heals, but he's supposed to be the game's version of a tank, meaning he has really high HP. That's great if you play your strategy games with the intention of getting hit a lot. I like to play my strategy games without getting smacked around. Maybe that's just me.

 

You'll notice I didn't mention Futaba. She's not actually playable. She helps you by healing the party (both HP and SP, which is used for personas) at the start of your turn. She has a skill tree, like everybody else, but that's the most you're going to get out of her. I hope the Futaba stans are OK with this.

 

As far as skills go... I dunno. I'm sure there are some broken combinations. I found Ambush was invaluable for taking on the bulky enemies. These guys will jump towards you if you attack them and they're extremely deadly if they're within melee range. Ambush is essentially like "overwatch" in XCOM, where you'll attack any enemy that comes in range. Here, it not only does damage, but it completely neutralizes the enemy for that turn, cancelling their movement and attack capabilities. Broken. Put it on Ann and send her charging forward into a group of enemies. You don't even have to have Ann cast it on herself. (You'd need to equip her with the right persona to do that anyway.) Instead, have Erina cast it on her. That's what Erina is good for.

 

Further making this game feel like a mobile title, you can earn up to three stars per mission. Generally, you get one star for beating the mission, a second star for beating it under a certain number of turns (the bane of XCOM 2), and a third star for not having a party member get KO'd. I managed to do this on about 90% of missions during my first playthrough on the hardest difficulty and found it to be challenging and fun. If you don't get three stars the first time, you can always replay the mission when you're a higher level and it'll be a joke.

 

That's about it, guys. Various new mechanics and enemy types are introduced throughout the game, but the overall gameplay remains the same. That's actually a bit disappointing for a strategy game. Even on the highest difficulty, the only "curveball" I was ever thrown was when new enemies randomly spawned in -- something this game loves to do without warning. At least I'll give them credit for not allowing new enemies to move or attack on the same turn they spawn in. That shit should never be allowed. However, there WERE times where this game made me feel smart. I do think playing on Merciless and trying to get three stars in every mission on your first attempt is the way to go. You're often given barely enough turns to make this work. This led to situations where I had to really think had to plan out my last turn because it'd involve triggering multiple Triple Threats or doing neat little tricks, like shooting barrels so they'd explode on my own teammates to give me an extra boost towards my goal. This is totally unnecessary for the platinum, but it made the game more enjoyable.

 

It's not a bad game, though. It's not even a bad strategy game. It just shouldn't be marketed for $60 or whatever PS5 games go for these days. This is a $30 game. The game is probably longer than it needs to be, the missions start to feel repetitive after a while, and I really think they got lazy with the game design in the final act. Fortunately, the characters and gameplay are solid enough that I didn't get bored. You really need to play Persona 5 before you play this, though. (You really need to play that anyway.) I don't think this is going to make someone a Persona fan who isn't one already.

 

I actually finished that much quicker than I expected. I didn't play any other games since I started it, which is a rarity these days. I guess, uh... I have to make a new joke about what other obvious title I seem to be ducking.

 

P5 Strikers when?

Edited July 18 by Cassylvania

[Kitty_Fairy5]

19 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

It's not a bad game, though. It's not even a bad strategy game. It just shouldn't be marketed for $60 or whatever PS5 games go for these days. This is a $30 game. The game is probably longer than it needs to be, the missions start to feel repetitive after a while, and I really think they got lazy with the game design in the final act. Fortunately, the characters and gameplay are solid enough that I didn't get bored. You really need to play Persona 5 before you play this, though. (You really need to play that anyway.) I don't think this is going to make someone a Persona fan who isn't one already.

I'll do what my gamer friend Jody does: I'll wait for a sale.

 

Also, I'm not surprised at Futaba's role. She wasn't a combatant in Persona 5 either, she was the navigator and support buffer, not a part of the fight. (Though I did like it when her all-out attack triggered. )

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #442 - SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake

 

I guess this is supposed to be the spiritual successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom? I kinda liked that game. Played it a couple years back. I think that one is generally regarded as the better game, but this game had some decent reviews when it came out last year, so you had to figure I was going to get it sooner or later. Was getting to it when it was offered for free a good idea... or a COSMIC MISTAKE?

 

I'm going to go on a little tangent here, but not the one you expect. You already know my feelings for this show. Instead, I'd like to criticize my generation for a moment. I'm a millennial, technically. I hate that term. I hate it because it references the new millennium, which is...not what I associate myself with. I grew up in the 80's and 90's. I've always considered myself to be a "90's kid". That's the term *I* use. SpongeBob here came out in 1999 -- basically, what I'd consider the end of my childhood. I watched the first few seasons, but I was getting into dating and rated R movies around this time. That's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is the failure of my generation. There are many things you can blame millennials for. The REAL reason to be mad at my generation is our inability to keep 3D platformers relevant. I blame us for this because the developers making games now are very likely around my age and grew up with games like this. How do we constantly end up with mediocre titles like this?

 

I spent most of my time playing this game trying to think of why I wasn't having fun. It does play like BfBB. There are a variety of themed levels. Bikini Bottom serves as a hub world. The voice acting seems pretty good. There are a lot of references and homages to the show that I think most fans will appreciate. The controls and camera are...serviceable. The platforming is a little jank. All of this should balance out to an OK experience at least. And I guess if "OK" is what you're going for, this might be your kind of game, but I found it terribly bland and surprisingly shallow.

 

Is it an execution problem? Maybe. It has a very jittery structure, which I don't think lends itself well to a 3D platformer. By "jittery", I mean it seems incapable of letting the player explore. I'm instantly reminded of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. You remember how I complained about your teammates never shutting up in that game? It felt like the devs purposely made it so that something HAS to be going on at all times. I actually think it's worse in this game because you can't take two steps without a cutscene happening. You go to an area, some character talks to you, you do some basic platforming or fight a wave of enemies, and repeat. Yes, occasionally you'll have some semi-open areas that you can explore, but they're generally pretty tiny and you're likely not going to have the correct ability you need to collect whatever collectible is in that area, so it's pointless. I struggle to call games like this a "3D platformer". This is an on-rails platformer. It's not the worst case of it I've ever seen -- and it's not even a bad thing, inherently -- but it's a bizarre design choice in a game that seems to want to be a collectathon. I think this is a 2D game trapped in a 3D game's body.

 

Not everybody will agree. There is charm here. I like the worlds and the costumes SpongeBob can wear. The plot is ridiculous and not even worth discussing, but that's no different than a modern SpongeBob episode. Unlike BfBB, you're stuck playing as SpongeBob the whole time, but he somehow handles worse than in that game. I can't really explain controls with words. His basic melee attack has a short range and a slightly-too-long cooldown. His pizza box flutter (as funny as it is) is slow and heavy. His karate kick can only be triggered when the icon appears over an enemy's head, but you're rarely in the air long enough to aim this. It just feels like you're moving at 0.75x speed at all times. You even lose speed when you dodge because SpongeBob freezes for a moment when the cartwheel ends. The cooldown for that is too long too. I'm testing it right now and I can press the dodge button...FOUR times between rolls. You can sometimes grab onto ledges, but other times SpongeBob will fall to his death. (Well, back to the nearest checkpoint. Deaths almost never matter in this game.) I'm not saying any of these things are bad, but they contribute to the controls feeling sluggish and unresponsive. Unless, of course, the goal was to make you feel like your character is underwater. If that's the case, then good job.

 

There are seven levels in this game. You'll need to play through each of them twice because there are collectibles you can only get on your second playthrough or after you gain access to a new ability. Fortunately, you can skip to various parts of the level after you beat it once. This is good because some sections are very annoying to get through. This game is a bit harder than you might expect. Some of the platforming can be tricky and you're often getting walloped by multiple enemies at once. There isn't a huge variety of these guys, but they coordinate well. You constantly need to be moving and dodging attacks from all sides, including above and below. Bosses can be tough too.

 

The worst part about this game is probably the repetitive dialogue. It's rarely a good idea to have the main character speak when performing an action you're likely to do several times in a minute. Imagine if you were playing Mario and he shouted "Yoink!" or "Put that jelly in my belly!" every time he picked up a coin. Not a power-up. Not a star. Just a basic item that there are hundreds of in every level. You're not getting a dopamine hit off that. You'll even hear SpongeBob repeating lines when performing basic moves. I'm convinced at this point that play testers don't play with the sound on.

 

I can't recommend this game. Maybe if this was earlier in the year when we were in that slump of below average games, I might be like, "Hey, this was decently fun," but it's been banger after banger lately. Why would you play this if you haven't played A Hat in Time? You wouldn't.

 

(Fun fact: I originally had the word "annoying" in this review seven times. I got it down to one. You're welcome.)

Edited July 21 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

Look at me. Playing a game in the same year that it came out.

 

Platinum #443 - Animal Well

 

Animal Well is a game published by...Dunkey? That guy shits on more games than I do! We're in the presence of a legend here. Well, despite me having watched a few of his videos over the years, I had no idea this game was even a thing until I saw a ton of people playing it on PSNP, so I figured I'd join in on the fun. But is this an experience that's WELL done, or is this donkey... just ass? (That's not offensive. I have "ass" in my name too.)

 

In Animal Well, you play as...a pumpkin? A piece of shit with feet? Jake from Adventure Time? I don't know. It doesn't matter. This is one of those games where you clearly don't matter and everything in this world is out to get you. It's actually very similar to Rain World in that sense. In Rain World, you played as a little slugcat and you had to try to navigate through a very hostile environment with very few resources at your disposal. There, you had sticks and stones. Here, you have a handful of literal toys that you find. We're talking a slinky, a yo-yo, a frisbee, a bubble wand, etc. The closest thing you get to a weapon is a firecracker and even that is only meant to be a distraction.

 

Unlike Rain World, though, this is more of a standard Metroidvania/puzzle platformer. You aren't given much guidance, but your basic objective is fairly obvious. There are four flames that show up on your map and four statues in the middle of the map that clearly need to be lit. You know what to do. How to reach those flames...isn't so easy. I'm actually not sure if you're intended to go after a particular flame first or if you're supposed to explore each area thoroughly so that you can find all the necessary equipment. There are approximately four paths you can take, but it feels like a lot more given how big the overall map is and how none of the paths are linear. There are some rooms that are doable without any equipment and some that get significantly easier once you have access to a few of your tools. I feel like telling you what some of the tools do would be a spoiler because part of the fun of this game is figuring that out for yourself. Most tools have more than one use, so you'll be experiment a lot to see how various creatures and objects in the environment react to each tool. Fortunately, they all have unlimited uses, except the firecrackers, which require foraging. Some items, like the frisbee, are technically single-use and have to be retrieved before they can be thrown again. This prevents you from spamming them. Moving to another screen, however, automatically resets it. This is good because it prevents you from being in a situation where you could potentially softlock yourself.

 

There's no combat in this game. Yes, some animals want you dead, but you'll have to figure out other ways around them than fighting. Sometimes that means avoiding them and other times that means distracting them. I wouldn't call this a stealth game, though. It definitely has its roots in being a platformer and you'll need to be pretty nimble sometimes to do what the game is asking you. I was actually surprised by the difficulty. There are some very tight time constraints and tricky platforming/chase sections. *I* was fine, and *you* will be fine, but knowing that this game was pushed out by a popular YouTuber -- presumably with a younger, more casual audience -- I was expecting something a bit more forgiving. This certainly isn't Rain World levels of hard, but I died a few number of times. You only have a few hearts, fruit (which restores your HP) is scarce, and there are lots of ways to instantly die. There's even a trophy for getting crushed by a chinchilla called Good Ending. At first, I didn't get why they called it that, but now I'm thinking death by chinchilla would be one of the greatest ways to go. (It certainly is in this game.)

 

I beat the game without a guide. There are 64 collectible eggs and I only managed to get about half before I broke out an interactive map and walkthrough. It would take a long time to track all of those down by yourself. Some of them are really well-hidden and others require specific items that you may not even have yet. You'd have to do a lot of backtracking. I probably spent just as long finding everything with a guide than I did beating the game on my own.

 

I want to keep this review short because I actually think it's the perfect game to play blind. I'm obviously going to recommend it. It's not going to blow you away like a AAA title, but it's good in a lot of subtle and subdued ways, much like Rain World. It's about exploring the various biomes and seeing how the different creatures interact with the world. I liked how each room was like a mini-puzzle. I'm pretty sure some of the solutions I came up with weren't even the intended way to solve that puzzle. And, like any good Metroidvania, you'll unlock shortcuts and obtain better items that will make backtracking through these rooms much easier. There's technically a fast travel system, but I think it could have been improved in a few ways. Minor gripe, really.

 

If my sleep schedule wasn't so out of whack right now, this could have replaced my fastest platinum.

Edited July 21 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

What? You thought I gave up on this one?

 

Platinum #444 - Lies of P

 

Fresh off the heels of Elden Ring, I figured I'd jump into another Souls-like. There were (and obviously still are) several candidates in my backlog, but I went straight for the jugular with another title that is widely and perhaps surprisingly considered a masterpiece. Lies of P essentially came out of nowhere, developed by a company out of South Korea called Neowiz that really hasn't made any other noteworthy games from what I can tell. It's a grim reimagining of the story of Pinocchio, where you play as the titular character in a battle against crazy people and even crazier puppets in the fictional city of Krat. But are the reviewers praising this game telling the truth... or is it all LIES?

 

You might be surprised that somebody could turn Pinocchio into a game, let alone a darker, more twisted version of that character. You shouldn't be. I've been shouting "Disney Souls" from the rooftops for years now. A lot of classic children's stories are based around some pretty disturbing themes. Try to summarize Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, or The Little Mermaid in a single sentence and you'll see what I mean. Here, I don't know that Pinocchio was used on any more than a surface level (e.g. there are puppets and they've gone mad due to something called the Puppet Frenzy), but you do have characters like Geppetto (the guy who made Pinocchio) and Gemini (pronounced "Jiminy", like the cricket). You also have Sophia, who I don't remember from the story or the movie, but I think she was a seagull in the live-action remake that came out a couple years ago. That's probably just a coincidence... Anyway, she plays the role of the Maiden in Black/Emerald Herald/Fire Keeper/your bae.

 

That's not the only similarity to Dark Souls that you'll encounter. In fact, if you had told me this game was made by FromSoft, I would've believed you. How's that for praise? This was probably the most polished non-FromSoft Souls-like that I've ever played. I could list all the ways they are comparable, but it'd probably be quicker to talk about some of the things that set this game apart. So, imagine you're playing your favorite Souls game. Here's what's different:

• In addition to leveling up the usual stats (well, they're called something different here), there's a skill tree called the P-Organ. This is confusing at first, but it's basically a way to further customize your character and tweak your build. To do this, you need Quartz, which is a fairly rare item, and you'd probably have to play through the game several times to max out the skill tree.
• Your Estus Flask (called "Pulse Cells" in this game) has a unique feature. Yes, you are limited to how many you can carry with you and they are fully replenished when you rest at a bonfire ("Stargazer"), but you can actually regain a pulse every time you run out simply by killing enemies. This is actually a huge improvement over the Souls games because you can keep a run going indefinitely if you're good enough. I'm actually embarrassed that it took another developer to come up with this because this is one of the best ideas I've seen implemented into this kind of game.
• When you run out of heals, you're put in the "Discharged" state. This also has several mechanics that can be improved or utilized with the P-Organ, such as having you take less damage when in this state or allowing your last pulse to recharge over time. Again, the latter option is amazing. That means you can put your controller down for a bit if you want to get back a potion or you can roll around like a jackass for a few minutes during a boss fight.
• There are standard weapons and boss weapons. Standard weapons have a blade and a handle and any blade can be paired with any handle, allowing you to mix and match. You can make some pretty fun weapons this way. I liked the glaive handle because of its crazy reach, but I ended up using the trident (boss weapon) for most of the mid and late game because there are a lot of narrow corridors that don't allow for wild swings. The trident was nice because it has more of a thrusting attack.
• You have Legion Arms and Fable Arts too. Fable Arts are like super attacks, I guess. There's a meter that fills up over time (I think as you land attacks) and it lets you unleash a special ability, which seems to be based on either your handle or your blade. I honestly didn't use it much because my character would constantly whiff or run straight into an attack. Legion Arms are cool, though. They're an attachment to your prosthetic arm and have their own meter, which gets depleted with use but is replenished when you rest (or over time if you have the appropriate P-Organ upgrade). There are quite a few of these, but I really liked Puppet String, which is like a grappling hook you can use on enemies. You'll want to scream "GET OVER HERE!" like Scorpion every time you use it. It's OK. I did too.
• There are some quality of life improvements over the Souls games. For example, you're shown an icon on the fast travel screen if a particular character has new dialogue to advance their storyline. Again, embarrassed for FromSoft.

Those were all positive things. There are some negatives. Parrying is awkward. Instead of tapping the block button, you have to actually hold the button down briefly, as it takes a moment for your character to raise his weapon. This requires some getting used to. Also, I really hated stamina management in this game. Even with low weight and the stamina regen ring, I constantly felt like I was always out of stamina. Some enemies have extremely long combos and you're likely going to take some hits to the face unless you're really good at perfect guarding. I was not. I don't think any moment in gaming makes me madder than when I see an attack coming and I'm spamming the dodge button to get out of the way, but my character refuses to move because he's out of breath. You're a puppet, Pinocchio! You don't need to breathe.

 

It doesn't help that some of the status ailments in this game suck. Shock, for example, prevents your stamina from regenerating for a few seconds. Brilliant. More waiting around.

 

The world and character design is really good. I liked the parts of the game where I was exploring Krat. I think the city is supposed to be based on France in the late 1800's (the belle epoque, as I believe it's called), but it felt like London to me. Maybe it's the fog that did it. The game is fairly linear because it went for more of a story-based approach (hot take here, but I prefer this greatly over open world games), but I found myself getting lost from time to time. I think one of the problems is that a lot of areas within areas look similar, so you're sometimes not sure which hallway or alley you're running down until you stumble upon either an enemy you haven't killed or one you have. This actually gets worse later in the game.

 

My biggest complaint is the boss fights. I didn't like them. I'd say my feelings vary from boss to boss, but there's a simple formula you can use for figuring that out. The bigger the boss, the worse the fight. Yeah, you know that meme that you know shit is about to get real when you see a boss the same height as you in a Souls game? Here, you see a boss the same height as you and you're like, "Oh, thank you. This isn't about to be bullshit." This mainly has to do with bosses being insanely fast and your character being insanely slow. Also, can we stop giving EVERY boss a second phase? This works if it's done once or twice in a game as a surprise (or comes naturally during the fight, such as when the boss gets more aggressive or unleashes a different skill set upon reaching a certain percentage of health), but I'm starting to just expect it now. It's annoying too because the second phase is almost always harder than the first phase. That may make sense, but what ends up happening is the first phase becomes just like the run up to the boss fight: a needless chore. How long before we start seeing THREE phase boss fights? I'm going to need an extended warranty on my controller when that happens.

 

Now, as far as difficulty goes... eh. I'd say this is generally easier than your standard Souls game. I imagine if you learned to parry/perfect guard or abused the throwing items mechanic, it'd be even easier. You can't summon other players to help you, but you can summon an NPC for most boss fights. This will keep the boss off your back for some time. In theory, you can even use items that power up or heal your summon, but I was able to beat most bosses on my first few attempts, so I rarely bothered with that. They definitely got harder in NG+, but only because most battles felt like a war of attrition. I could usually get most bosses down to a sliver of health before my summon died or I ran out of heals, so it was just a matter of surviving that last 10-20% of health.

 

I did get frustrated a lot. This game tries to be a platformer at times and that's annoying. It's also very easy to get cornered or ganked. Just expect that every sparkly item on the ground has an enemy watching it. If you've played a Souls game before, you'll already know what to expect. Make good use of ladders because the AI doesn't know how to climb.

 

I'm not sure how to rate this game. The atmosphere and lore are excellent. The gameplay is very solid for the most part. There are some definite improvements or changes to the Souls formula that I hope FromSoft and their contemporaries consider for future titles. The level design and boss fights could be improved. On its surface, I'd say this is a 7/10 title, but it's also one of the most competently-made Souls-likes I've come across. That alone makes it worth a recommendation.

 

PSNP trophy guide says 50 hours to platinum and, yeah, that's exactly where I ended up. You'll need to play through most of NG+ even if you use a guide and abuse cloud saves, but I was able to grind that out in a single day. Ended up around level 100 at the end of NG and 140 in NG+, if you're interested in that stuff. Went for a Tech build. I definitely recommend the trident and getting more amulet slots. Improve your pulses and make good use of your Legion Arms/Fable Arts. It's easy to forget you have those, but the game gives you a lot of tools to get yourself out of some pretty bad situations.

 

I think I'm done with Souls-likes for the year.

 

Oh, look. My nose is growing.

Edited July 28 by Cassylvania

[Kitty_Fairy5]

6 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I've been shouting "Disney Souls" from the rooftops for years now.

To me, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix will always be the Dark Souls of Disney to me.

[Copanele]

On 7/27/2024 at 6:47 PM, Cassylvania said:

Platinum #444 - Lies of P

Well...alright, I admit, I expected you to not like this one...guess I will have to postpone the legendary battle in realm722's thread 😂

Congrats for this one! As mentioned, I loved this game a lot, but because it vibed with me in certain ways that I can't really explain. 

As for gameplay, I just went for the Holy Sword that transforms in a spear, that you get from that weird priest turned scorpion boss, it's the weapon that kinda demolished the entire game for me, both NG and NG+  Str weapons really are busted in this game.

 

One thing I will have to half-agree with...

 

On 7/27/2024 at 6:47 PM, Cassylvania said:

My biggest complaint is the boss fights. I didn't like them. I'd say my feelings vary from boss to boss, but there's a simple formula you can use for figuring that out. The bigger the boss, the worse the fight. Yeah, you know that meme that you know shit is about to get real when you see a boss the same height as you in a Souls game? Here, you see a boss the same height as you and you're like, "Oh, thank you. This isn't about to be bullshit."

Yeah I will give, the big bosses are preeeeetty meh. Not the first ones I'll say, but this one specific fucker...

Good lord this one sucked ass. 

The regular size bosses were mad fun though, with parries. Lasaxia or whats-her-name was mad fun  

 

On 7/27/2024 at 6:47 PM, Cassylvania said:

I think I'm done with Souls-likes for the year.

I too kinda doubt that 

[Cassylvania]

On 7/27/2024 at 6:04 PM, Kitty_Fairy5 said:

To me, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix will always be the Dark Souls of Disney to me.

 

But Dark Souls is actually good...

 

I kid. KH2 was fun.

  

4 hours ago, Copanele said:

Well...alright, I admit, I expected you to not like this one...guess I will have to postpone the legendary battle in realm722's thread 😂

 

I liked Lords of the Fallen (the ORIGINAL one), so Lies of P was probably always going to be safe. In fact, I think Souls-likes are almost at a 100% success rate for me, which is amazing considering how frequently I tear into games from other genres that I love. (Farming sims come to mind...) I think the only Souls-like I straight up hated was The Surge, and I'd still consider playing the sequel. But only because I already bought it or got it for free.

 

I'd say I'm excited for a Lies of P sequel, but let's be real. I finished the game, so there's going to be DLC.

 

4 hours ago, Copanele said:

Yeah I will give, the big bosses are preeeeetty meh. Not the first ones I'll say, but this one specific fucker...

 

Exactly the one that came to mind when I wrote that. King of Puppets was a really good boss, though. He's the exception that makes the rule.

 

I think I'm the only person in the world who enjoyed the gank squad boss fight.

 

4 hours ago, Copanele said:

I too kinda doubt that 

 

It didn't even last a day.

[Rally-Vincent---]

6 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

It didn't even last a day.

 

He knows - your nose passed by all of us on its way to Saturn.

[HelixNebula_x]

6 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I'd say I'm excited for a Lies of P sequel, but let's be real. I finished the game, so there's going to be DLC.

 

I'll get to Lies of P eventually, but I still have pretty much the whole FromSoft catalogue to catch up on as well as Lords of the Fallen (OG) and The Surge already on my list. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I read that...

 

Spoiler

There's a secret ending in Lies of P that hints at them doing a Wizard of Oz souls next? Sounds pretty cool if so. I can imagine the flying monkeys as some sort of Bloodborne Lovecraftian horror.

 

[Kitty_Fairy5]

By the Twelve, Souls are popping up like weeds.

[Cassylvania]

On 7/29/2024 at 5:27 AM, HelixNebula_x said:

I'll get to Lies of P eventually, but I still have pretty much the whole FromSoft catalogue to catch up on as well as Lords of the Fallen (OG) and The Surge already on my list. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I read that...

 

Yes, they're definitely threatening us with more content. Personally, I like that direction. It would probably mean having to settle on a canon ending for Lies of P, since there are several possible endings, but it could also be a stand-alone piece. I'm fine either way.

 

On 7/29/2024 at 5:03 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

He knows - your nose passed by all of us on its way to Saturn.

 

My nose grew so big that it turned into a plague doctor mask! Introducing...

 

Platinum #445 - Thymesia

 

Yes, guys. It's another Souls-like. And a game that was on that randomized wheel thingy last year. I told you I'd get to them all eventually.

 

*ahem* ... From the developers of nothing of note (wow, just like Lies of P) and the publishers of...actually, several games I have played and some I plan to...comes a Souls-like set in an oppressive, depressing, plague-ridden world. (Actually, that's a weird phrase. Plague-ridden. If you're "rid" of something, doesn't that mean it's gone? Shouldn't that be a good thing?) Step into the swamp-filled shoes of Corvus, a physician as shrouded in mystery as the plot of this game itself, as he seeks to remember his past and what happened to the kingdom of Hermes. Naturally, you're aided by a young girl who acts as your fire keeper and you light bonfires or beacons along your way as you try to piece together the story and the controls. But will you have a good Thyme or is the only "sia" I want to get from this game amnesia?

 

I kinda liked how I handed my last review, where I started out talking about how this game differs from a traditional Souls-like. You already know the basics of how one of those game plays. You can dodge, parry, lose all your currency when you get killed but have one chance to recover it if you can return to the place you died, etc. What you don't really have is a strong attack and a weak attack. Instead, you have a saber (R1) and a claw (R2), which are both melee-range weapons. Every enemy in this game, including trash mobs, needs to be "wounded" first in order to be killed. Basically, you can think of their white health bar as a "shield" and their green health bar as their actual "health". In order to inflict damage, you first need to lower their shield, which is typically done with the saber or by parrying. You can then use your claw to inflict permanent wound damage. Once the green bar is lowered all the way, you can perform an execution. This sounds more confusing than it is. If the lower the shield to 85%, that means you can attack their health bar up to a maximum of 15%. The shield regenerates over time, but damage to the health bar is generally permanent. You also have feathers (mapped to the L2 button) that serve as your long distance attack. These allow you to block critical attacks. You can deflect with L1. Thus, every shoulder button is important in combat. It's actually one of the more strategic Souls-like I've played in that sense, despite how limited you are in your build. There is a "level up" system, but the only stats you can increase are Strength, Vitality, and Plague (your claw attack, I guess), and I more or less leveled them equally.

 

The second major difference from a traditional Souls-like is that you don't have spells. Instead, you can equip a Plague Weapon. This is mapped to the square button. These are special skills that require energy to use. There's also a cooldown. You get Plague Weapons from killing enemies or bosses and there are a lot to choose from. I personally used the scythe for most of the game because it heals you upon landing (potions are limited, as you'd expect), but some of them are really useful for dealing with more troublesome enemies or bosses. Also, you can "reave" a Plague Weapon by holding down the triangle button when you're fighting an enemy. This allows you to instantly steal that enemy's special attack. Reaved weapons can only be used once, while the equipped ones can be used as many times as you want. Again, complicated to explain, but easy to understand when you're playing. I didn't make use of reaved weapons a lot because you need to charge that attack in order to use it and that often leads to exchanging blows with whatever you're fighting.

 

There is a skill tree (several of them, actually), but you can freely change these any time you're at a resting spot. This is a game-changer for people who can't make up their mind or want to respec for a particular boss or situation. You get one talent point every level, but only up to level 25, so you won't be able to equip every skill in the game at the same time. I don't know what the best build is. I generally found it easier to dodge than deflect for most of the game, but I still put points into deflection because I found tapping L1 (to parry) right after tapping circle (to dodge) gave me twice the chance of not taking damage. I'm not sure the developers intended for this, but it was a life saver sometimes.

 

I know I've been comparing the last couple of games to Dark Souls, but Lies of P was really more like Bloodborne and this is a lot more like Sekiro. I also liked Bloodborne a lot more than Sekiro, so that should let you know how I felt about this.

 

Timing is critical. This game is generally regarded as being easier than most Souls games, but I don't know if I agree. It's shorter, sure, and the controls and builds are a lot more basic, but I found some of the bosses and even mini-bosses that are sprinkled throughout each level to be a problem. Some of the timings felt very unnatural and some of the enemies you encounter are hyperaggressive. I generally found it easier to dodge to the left or right than into or away from the enemy. Some of their attacks are designed to simply eviscerate you if you dash back. Putting talent points into either of the double dashes seems wise.

 

Performance-wise, this game struggles. There are noticeable pop-ins when it comes to the textures. I also ran into several softlocks on multiple bosses. Much like Lies of P, almost every boss in this game has a second phase, but sometimes the cutscene you get doesn't play correctly, so the boss ends up frozen in place or warped out of bounds. This would be hilarious if it could be abused, but it rendered the boss immune to all attacks the four or five times I encountered it, meaning that I had to restart the game. I think the problem comes from being too close to the edge of the map when the transition screen happens, as Corvus usually knocks the enemy back in the cutscene and thus potentially out of bounds. This could be avoidable, but bosses love to skirt the outer walls during fights, which is annoying on several levels. Also, these fights are unimaginative. Almost every boss fight is in a circular arena with nothing else of interest going on. There's one cool fight (well, I thought it was cool) that isn't like this. There's also one TERRIBLE fight that isn't like this. Picture Dragon God, but with swarms of enemies blocking your path. I don't consider that to be a boss fight.

 

Difficulty-wise... eh. Easier than Pinocchio Souls, I guess. Nowhere near as good, sadly. I don't want to make it sound like this game is awful, though. The combat is very fast and fluid. If you liked Sekiro, this is like a budget version of that. I'm just surprised it's considered a 10-15 hour (or less!?) platinum. Expect a longer and slightly harder platinum than you might initially think. One of the most difficult trophies is actually for killing the tutorial boss, which is supposed to beat you in typical Souls-like fashion. I saved this for the end and still struggled.

 

There are some neat concepts here, though. I really appreciate both this game and Lies of P switching up the Souls formula a bit. Not every Souls-like has to be or should be a carbon copy of the original. I'll stop just short of a recommendation. If you're a diehard Souls fan, it wouldn't hurt to add this one to your collection, but this isn't going to make any "Top 10 Souls-likes to Play Before You Die" lists.

 

And this actually marks an interesting milestone on the year. The platinum number isn't anything amazing, but what is amazing is that we have now completed FORTY games this year. Twenty shy of my goal and five months to go. I'll let you do the math, but I can assure you that it's completely doable.

Edited August 2 by Cassylvania

[Kitty_Fairy5]

Good luck on that, Cass! I know you can knock out twenty games in five months!

[Copanele]

4 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

My nose grew so big that it turned into a plague doctor mask! Introducing...

 

Platinum #445 - Thymesia

 

Cassy promising she won't play another Soulslike

 

Damn, Thymesia, that was an interesting game! I remember that I actually enjoyed the combat....and not much else, because most of the effort was put in the combat. I do remember deflecting being harder to pull, but also more rewarding + you got some iframes improvement upgrades. Also the weapons you could steal in this game were fun, I too abused the scythe (free health recovery lol) and I think the bow was overpowered too.

 

5 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

There's also one TERRIBLE fight that isn't like this. Picture Dragon God, but with swarms of enemies blocking your path. I don't consider that to be a boss fight.

Oh god that boss...where you had to run through the plague and had to fight some dancer enemies and oh my god that entire level was complete ass. Yeah that's not a boss, that's really Dragon God but in Plague version and multiplied by 3.

 

The circus master boss was fun though!

 

Congrats for this one, and best of luck with your goal! Will Code Vein be next?  

[Cassylvania]

6 hours ago, Copanele said:

Congrats for this one, and best of luck with your goal! Will Code Vein be next?  

 

I mean, it is on the list... along with a dozen other Souls-likes...

 

I think we're likely looking at taking on one of the big boys next. Nioh 2, The Surge 2, Lords of the Fallen...2 or whatever it's called why would you use the same name... Maybe one of Team NINJA's other titles. They seem to be pumping those games out. But I can't keep shying away from the longer games on the list. It's time we take the fight to them!

 

In other news, I picked up "Harvest Moon": The Winds of Anthos, against my better judgment. We'll see if I get to that before finally popping a trophy in Stardew Valley. I also picked up Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled because I hate myself. Annnd I got Unicorn Overlord, but I already have two tactical RPGs going on, so that might have to wait. Since we somehow avoided any major DLC drops in July, the goal this month might be to get back to the halls of Hogwarts. We're rapidly approaching spooky season and I want to get the tamer games out of the way.

 

Also, there's that game I haven't touched since January... huh.

Edited August 2 by Cassylvania

[Copanele]

36 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Also, there's that game I haven't touched since January... huh.

I saw that name, ANNO Mutationem and I thought it's part of the Anno series 😂 I was "hot damn, they made an anime economic simulator?

Then I saw the gameplay and yeah...you definitely are not breaking trade contracts with the Shogunate in that game  

 

Best of luck with the backlog, especially CTR. That will be a fun one!

[Together_Comic]

10 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

And this actually marks an interesting milestone on the year. The platinum number isn't anything amazing, but what is amazing is that we have now completed FORTY games this year. Twenty shy of my goal and five months to go. I'll let you do the math, but I can assure you that it's completely doable.

 

This is wild!  If you take any two years since I started collecting trophies in 2018  I don't know if I have 40 games completed.. much less 60!?  

[Kitty_Fairy5]

Better shout this out now since Cassy enjoyed Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin... the developers, XSeed, are having a sale of that game on their online store until the 11th so you can buy it for $20 until then, so if you too want to be like Cassy and create your own Japanese rice farm with combat exploration, you have eight days to get it for 60% off.

Edited August 3 by Kitty_Fairy5

[Cassylvania]

On 8/2/2024 at 8:10 AM, Copanele said:

I saw that name, ANNO Mutationem and I thought it's part of the Anno series 😂 I was "hot damn, they made an anime economic simulator?

Then I saw the gameplay and yeah...you definitely are not breaking trade contracts with the Shogunate in that game  

 

Best of luck with the backlog, especially CTR. That will be a fun one!

 

That one (and Crash 4, which I will inevitably attempt) are going to take me a while. For some reason, I started both Nioh 2 and "Harvest Moon": Winds of Anthos this weekend, so I think we can kiss that 98% completion goodbye. We may never see that number again.

 

On 8/2/2024 at 8:35 AM, Together_Comic said:

This is wild!  If you take any two years since I started collecting trophies in 2018  I don't know if I have 40 games completed.. much less 60!?  

 

I'm actually on pace for 69 games, which...you know, would be amazing for multiple reasons if I could achieve it.

 

You know what, though? That doesn't include the DLCs I went back this year to get. That's Cities: Skylines, House Flipper, Tales of Arise (which was like an entire JRPG), Cult of the Lamb, and, of course, Genshin's never-ending trophy list. We'd be doing so much better if I had put that time towards newer games instead.

 

I might have to start my own "30 Platinums in 30 Days" YouTube video.

 

On 8/3/2024 at 11:39 AM, Kitty_Fairy5 said:

Better shout this out now since Cassy enjoyed Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin... the developers, XSeed, are having a sale of that game on their online store until the 11th so you can buy it for $20 until then, so if you too want to be like Cassy and create your own Japanese rice farm with combat exploration, you have eight days to get it for 60% off.

 

Fitting because I just ordered my second anime figure, which was Sakuna. She's surprisingly cheap compared to some of the other ones out there. But yeah, one of the few modern farming sims (if you can call it that) I haven't ripped into. I will say that Winds of Anthos is starting out...promising enough. There's this girl that gives you a bottle of milk in the tutorial to complete a quest, but if you put the milk in your shipping bin or fridge, she'll think you used it and give you another one. I spent a couple hours yesterday filling my fridge with that lady's milk. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but this is what happens when you let me abuse a game's mechanics.

 

Also, I had unlimited stamina in the tutorial, so I cut down an entire forest and gathered all the rocks I can fit in my bag. Now I get to actually play the game.

 

...Also on sale is FF3... dang it...

Edited August 4 by Cassylvania

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

...Also on sale is FF3... dang it...

...Also on sale is FF3... yes!!!!....*

[Kitty_Fairy5]

8 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I might have to start my own "30 Platinums in 30 Days" YouTube video.

That would be interesting! I would love to hear your voice on YouTube, I bet you're a middle-aged man with a deep voice and I'd love to hear you saying weird words about the games you played. I watch a ton of those challenge videos. I'm actualy thinking of editing a "15 Platinums in 15 Days" challenge, which I intend to do in a couple of weeks.

8 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Also, I had unlimited stamina in the tutorial, so I cut down an entire forest and gathered all the rocks I can fit in my bag. Now I get to actually play the game.

I also abused a similar mechanic. In Dragon Quest Builders, the first one, in the beginning of the first chapter, Cantlin, time does not pass and you do not grow hungry until you complete certain quests for Pippin(about the fourth or fifth quest), so what I did was achieve the trophies for destroying and placing 3000 objects because I was able to spend all the time in the world tearing down a nearby hill for earth blocks and used those to turn the ruins of Cantlin into a decent sized city with a future Cantlin Garden to get the trophies.

 

If I wanted, I could have just ran around the field killing slimes to get the trophy for defeating 2000 enemies too! But I'm not insane and the Bashmobile is a far faster method for farming kills. 😜

 

(You can also rescue Rollo and put him in the town before you are given the quest to find him.)

 

Of course, you have limited materials, but one material you have plenty of is broken branches you can make oak clubs with. You can't harvest everything - stone walls are too strong for a club, you need the hammer which requires advancing the story - but I was able to get 15 Chimera Wings, 35 Healing Creams, 60 Marshrooms and plumberries for food when I started starving to death, and enough Earth Blocks to rebuild Cantlin's walls and buildings.

 

As long as you don't complete the quest to make a bedroom, you can build whatever you want without working about sleep or food. But you won't get very far as you need the wooden mallets to break stone and chop down trees for wood, so your crafts are limited. But at least you won't be starting with ruins and have time on the clock like in the other chapters. This is why the Chapter 1 speedrun is 20 days instead of 30, the devs realized you had a head start.

Edited August 5 by Kitty_Fairy5

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #446 - Jeanne d'Arc

 

Jeanne d'Arc is a turn-based strategy game developed by Level-5 (you know, the Dark Cloud and Ni no Kuni people) for the PSP in 2007. I never had a PSP. Even if I did, I've always heard this is one of the rarest titles for the system. Not sure why. What I do know, though, is that I've often seen this popping up on "Best Tactical Role-Playing Games of All Time" lists, so you better believe I downloaded it right away when it was added to PS+ Premium with trophy support last month. Gotta justify that subscription somehow. But is this the savior we've been looking for, or is it just heresy? Let's find out.

 

You know Joan of Arc, right? The patron saint of France, the Maid of Orleans, the young peasant girl who led an army against the English in the Hundred Years' War? Well, I bet you didn't know that King Henry VI was possessed by a demon as a child, magic is real, and Jeanne had a bunch of furries on her side. Yes, guys -- it's another game that takes creative liberties when it comes to historical uprisings. (Remember Banner of the Maid? Somebody really has a thing for French anime women, oh la la.) When I say this game is loosely based on the story of la Pucelle (hey, don't blame me -- that chick had like fifty names; look it up), I really mean it. In fact, the first thing I Googled when I started this game was, "Was Joan of Arc blonde?" No. No, she was not.

 

Fortunately, the story kinda takes a backseat here. The whole Jeanne d'Arc thing is just a thin coat of paint over what is honestly a fairly predictable and generic story. Your tiny village gets attacked by some monsters, you team up with your childhood friends to fight back, and you end up commanding an entire army against forces of darkness that threaten to consume the whole world. Yadda yadda. What you actually care about is the gameplay.

 

So, let's do what we've done for the last couple of reviews. Picture your standard turn-based strategy game. What sets this apart? Well, it's probably closest to Fire Emblem. There are no classes, all the characters who join your army are predetermined/pre-made, and there is no permadeath. You get an army of roughly 12-14 characters (by mid to late game), although you'll only be allowed to use about half of those on most maps. Characters are really only distinguishable by the weapon they use. Jeanne and Roger use a sword, Marcel and Beatrix use a bow, La Hire and Rufus use an axe, etc. For story-based reasons, you'll sometimes not have access to every character (or you'll be forced to use specific characters on certain maps), but there were some characters I never used because some were clearly better than others. That's the risk you take when you design a game where a lot of characters can be considered duplicates. However, one thing that sets this game apart is how skills/spells work. Every character can equip a certain number of "skill stones," which come in four colors: physical attacks (red), magical attacks (green), passive abilities (blue), and...uh, also passive abilities (purple). You get equip more skill stones as you level up and you can freely switch them around at any time outside of battle. Because you're not limited to how many of each colored stone you can equip, that gives you a lot of options when it comes to customizing your characters. You probably want at least a couple attacks on each character you plan to use (because that's what your MP is for), but I actually found the passive abilities to be the most useful because you can get bonuses like HP recovery at the start of each turn, higher movement/range, and the chance to attack more than once or counter enemy attacks. You can eventually even combine these skill stones to make stronger abilities.

 

The only other thing that really sets this game apart is that you're always limited on the number of turns per map. If you run out of turns, you automatically lose, no matter how many enemies are left. I'd say this usually isn't a problem, but I did struggle in some of the earlier maps. You can't just wait for the enemy to come to you, which is often how I like to play strategy games. You'll sometimes have to reach a certain location on the map or defeat the boss in order to advance to the next stage. Sometimes you even lose if a single member on your team dies.

 

To help you out, there's a rewind feature that lets you go back to a previous turn/move. I don't know if this was in the original game. I imagine not. I'm not even sure how it works. I think it just autosaves every few seconds and then begins overwriting the oldest save after a certain amount of time passes. That means you can sometimes go back several turns if you REALLY fucked up...or, if you spend too long on a particular turn, you may only be able to go back a couple of turns. It'll make more sense when you play. I didn't even know about this feature until about a quarter of the way through the game, but it ended up being a life saver in some of the later and post-game levels. I've heard this game is really easy, but I don't know if I agree. We'll get to that in a minute.

 

Other than that, this game plays out like your standard TBS. The map is a grid, each character can move a certain number of spaces per turn, and you generally get bonuses from attacking enemies from the side or back (and maybe higher elevation, I'm not sure). One thing I didn't like is that you can't always choose which direct your character faces when you take an action. I get that when you use an attack (because of course you'd be facing the person you just attacked), but it's weird that you can't reposition yourself when using an item. If you're retreating from an enemy and try to use a potion, that means you're likely going to have your back exposed to that enemy. That's not how I'd design a strategy game, but I'm also not a video game developer.

 

Before you attack, you'll be able to see how much damage you'll do, your chance of hitting, and the same thing for your enemy if they can counterattack. I found these numbers to be bullshit at times. You often do less damage than it says and I found lower percentage chances of hitting happened more often than I think they should. I also have no idea how you can save scum. I tried a few things, but I think "rolls" are made well in advance. In other words, you can perform a bunch of actions, reload the save, and reproduce the same results every time. This is different than XCOM, where a new roll is made after every action (or at least every action that has a chance to fail). Not a huge deal here or anything, except for maybe the post-game battles, but still something I like to experiment with.

 

One thing -- and, honestly, an impressive thing -- about this game is that it has animated cutscenes with voice acting. Both are surprisingly solid. I wish the cutscenes were a little longer, but there's a lot more than you would expect for a PSP title. The characters even have what I think are authentic-sounding French accents. I wouldn't know. I'm not French. But it does make the story just interesting enough for me to pay attention to. Without the cutscenes, I probably would've given up on the dialogue about halfway through the game, as I don't think the story is that engaging.

 

I did glaze over some things. Characters can technically have an "element" associated with them. They're called Sol, Luna, and Stella in this game, and they have a kind of rock-paper-scissors thing going on. Some enemies have these and you can theoretically take advantage of that by equipping one of your characters with the appropriate skill stone. This never made any sense to me because it seems like a wasted skill stone slot to make yourself stronger in one area but weaker in another. What's the point unless every enemy on the map is of one particular type? (They're not.) Still, it follows the Pokemon theme of red beating green, green beating blue, and blue beating red, so I played around with it until I found better skill stones to equip to my characters. I gave Jeanne the green stone so she'd be weak to fire because I'm sick like that, but you can do anything you want.

 

There's also the bracelet thing, I guess. Some characters, like Jeanne, can "transform" in battle. This is utterly broken. Not only does this fully heal the character you use it on, but it gives them access to powerful abilities and Godspeed, which allows that character to move again if they kill an enemy. You can totally abuse this by weakening a bunch of enemies on the map and then transforming and going on a killing spree. It's a great way to cover a lot of distance. Jeanne was probably my favorite character to use because of this, but I also liked Colet (has really high evasion), Rose (has really high evasion, although I think she's missable), and Rufus (is so OP in the late game that I'm pretty sure there's a coding bug in his design). I also used Marcel, Richard, and Gilles when I had to.

 

This, of course, leads me into my verdict. This game is OK. It didn't wow me, guys. I know it's an older game and it was a PSP title, but the graphics were pretty bland outside of the animated cutscenes. The story is bad. I know I made it sound like it was serviceable, but there's nothing memorable about these characters or the storyline, which is really disappointing considering the real life counterparts they had to work with. Joan of Arc is one of the most fascinating women in history. The sky should be the limit when you're bringing a person like that into a fantasy world. I hate to bring up Pepper's Adventures in Time of all games, but that game actually did something with the medium, making me feel like I actually got to hang out with Benjamin Franklin. Even Banner of the Maid did it better, and I'm not even sure Napoleon Bonaparte had a sister.

 

At the heart of it, though, this was just a very basic strategy game. I put about 50 hours into this and I'd say it was probably a 3.5 in difficulty. Higher if you're not going to abuse the rewind mechanic. Lower if you actually take the time to farm for levels and skill stones in the post-game, which I didn't. I can't recommend this. There are just so many good TBS games out there. Definitely BotM, if you haven't played it. Obviously any Fire Emblem game. Those were being released around the same time as this and were way deeper and more engaging. I criticized Persona 5 Tactica for being too simple, but I think it required more strategy than this.

 

I can't remember if we were ranking games in this genre, but I'd put this under Tactics Ogre Reborn, but higher than Phantom Doctrine. I don't know how it'd compare to that Wild Lynx game we played earlier this year. That feels like a lifetime ago...

Edited August 6 by Cassylvania

[Cassylvania]

"Harvest Moon": The Winds of Anthos - Update #1

 

We're going to go kinda old school here, guys, where I'll actually review "Harvest Moon": The Winds of Anthos as I play through it. I'm doing it because this is obviously a series and a genre I know well, and I think it'll be interesting to see how my opinions change as I play through the game.

 

I'm currently in Winter of the first year. I think I'm almost done with the main story. Unless there's some big twist coming up, the general storyline has been: (1) go to a new town, (2) help rebuild that town, (3) repeat. How do I know I'm almost done with the game? Well, for one, I've explored most of the map. The world's much bigger than I expected. But two, every town is literally themed after a season. You begin in Spring Town (it has a different name), and then I progressed to Summer Town, Fall Town, and Winter Town. I'm pretty sure that covers all of them. There's also a volcano and desert region that I've explored a bit, but I don't think there's much to do there.

 

The main thing that sets this game apart from your traditional farming sim is that you don't have (or have to have) a single farm. Each town has a field that you can use, and there are several spots out in the wild that are also available. Early on, you gain access to waypoints that let you teleport across the map, and you can literally move your entire house/barn to any field on the map. That's kinda cool. I like the idea of being able to establish your home base wherever you want. Even if you are kinda limited to some predetermined locations...

 

One thing I don't understand is why seasons exist in this game. Like I said, each major town already has a season associated with it. It's always winter in Winter Town. Summer Town is always hot and on the beach. From what I can tell, very little changes about these areas as the year progresses. I think coconuts stopped growing on the trees in Summer Town during the winter, but it's not like it snows there. Instead, you're encouraged to grow seasonal crops in the town associated with that season. So, like, carrots in Winter Town or watermelon in Summer Town. Some grow in the desert or volcanic regions for some reason. Also, the central part of the map seems to allow crops from any season to grow, regardless of the time of year. I...don't know why you wouldn't always use that region, so that's where I set up my home base. It was literally the first place I discovered after cheesing all of Judy's milk from the tutorial.

 

Maybe there's more to the game that I don't understand yet. Sometimes I get mutated versions of a crop. Like, I planted Beet Seeds and got a Snow Beet during the winter, so I'm assuming there might be other mutations during other times of the year, or maybe I have a higher chance of getting that mutation if I plant those seeds in Winter Town. I don't know. I know I need them all for the platinum, so I'll have to figure it out.

 

I also need to catch all the fish, cook all the recipes, and tame all the animals, so this is going to take a while. The main goal right now is to upgrade my fishing rod all the way since that seems to be the best way of making money in this game. All that experience from Dredge should come in handy. To do, I think I need to beat the game and then make the people of Summer Town really like me, as the people in that town really seem to love fishing. I'm also flirting with the blue-haired girl in Summer Town because she helped me with my first rod upgrade. I don't remember her name off the top of my head, but it's OK. I'm a mute anyway. I just give her crap I find on the beach a few feet away and she's starting to like me. Next stop: the altar!

 

So far, I'm not completely hating this game. Color me surprised.

 

Story is kinda dumb, though. I don't want to get into the specifics right now, but I think it's a little unrealistic that family members who have been separated for years would just be like, "oh hai" when they're reunited. I want to see some emotion, people. Even the villagers in PoOT had their stupid little dance.

 

Also, I saw Ender Lilies is free on PS+ this month. That's a GOTY runner-up a few years ago from me, if you've forgotten. Highly recommend you check it out, Metroidvania fans.

Edited Tuesday at 01:39 AM by Cassylvania