KYC 777

[Toogie53]

Trophies: N/A

Time: 2 hours

Rating: 4/10

 

I thought I'd throw in a bonus game. The game is The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. This is more like a demo or teaser than a game and it's very short. I knew that going in though so I am not rating it low because I thought I was somehow hoodwinked by the free game. I have played the original Life is Strange game. I actually kind of enjoyed that one. In a lot of ways this was more of the same. You play a boy that is around the age of 10. He's living alone with his father. The mom is out of the picture. You find out right away the dad has a drinking problem. He's cracking open a beer while he's cooking breakfast for you and switches to hard liquor when that task is done. He promises to spend some time with you after the game is over, but you know that promise is shit as soon as he speaks it. After that, you are kind of left to your own devices.

 

You have a vague plan of tasks for the day. They all involve super hero stuff. Assembling costume, defeating villains, etc. The title of the game is a big let down here. I guess they were trying to be cute, but basically the adventures pretty much involve a kid being bored all day. You do something that sounds kind of awesome, and you get to figure out what kind of shitty, hodge-podge, replica experience you might be able to put together in real life to make it happen. Think like Calvin and Hobbes being in a rocket and having some kind of crazy space adventure. Then at the end you see he's actually inside of a card board box. There is that sense of wonder, excitement, and humor that Calvin exudes that is super charming. These super hero tasks are very similar, except replace the wonder with desperation, replace the excitement with apathy, and just remove the humor. Its a sad ho-hum tale that even the kid himself doesn't seem to be enjoying. Your left wondering why you're putting yourself through it. 
 

I'm not trying to just crap all over this game though. It does some things very well. It has the same artistic and music style of the original game. It sets scenes very well. It's pretty. It's artfully directed. There's also a good tease at the end that has actual implications for Life is Strange 2. It does that stuff very well. It doesn't dash my hopes for Life is Strange 2, but it failed to get me hyped for it. It basically demoted it to the "Wait for a deep sale" level of interest. I think the big problem is that they simply didn't give me a story I cared about here. The emotional tone struck here didn't resonate with me, but I could see it being more impactful for others. I did enjoy the background story that was presented in the read between the lines fashion. Overall though, for me, it felt like I was playing a bored child simulator, and, that's... well... pretty damn boring. I never got interested in figuring out how to do everything on his list. I was underwhelmed at what each tasks turned out to be. It just didn't deliver. 

Edited July 9, 2018 by Toogie53

[crimsonidol38]

Game 3, Review
Ys Origin (PS4)

Previous Posts:

Day 1

 

Okay, time to write a review as I found a good place where I can stay for the next few days/weeks without forgetting what I have left to do (--> fighting the last few bosses)

 

After having such a below-average time with Lumines Remastered it was surely a good decision to play a game from one of my most favorite series. Combined with a few hours I spend in FF X (yay, Rikku joined the team  ) I had a real blast the last few days, slashing my way through hundreds, if not thousands of demons just to find a glimpse of the two twin goddesses.

I solely focused on my Yunica-playthrough and I'm more or less in the final part of the game and all that's left to do in slay all those baddies (the big demons are all dead). I made it through the flooded section, the fire pits, the horrible sand/desert-section and one with quite a few toxic enemies. The sand/desert-section is my least favorite as there are a few enemies you can't kill until you obtain a specific item shortly after and it also features an annoying boss which comes straight out from an shoot 'em up/bullet hell-game.    The boss also led to my third game over. The second one was due to some clumsy acting in the flooded section where I underestimated the damage done by spikes.  

 

As I decided to do my first playthrough on normal difficulty it's rather tame overall. There are a few sections where you might get overrun by hordes of stronger foes (mainly ones flashing red which indicates that they are a stronger version of a regular enemy) but with the help of the three different attacks you can perform with  (a whirlwind, an electrical column, some fireball-like move) enemies can easily be kept under control. Only challenging part may be the fact that you aren't allowed to get a game over at all for one specific achievement but this simply means that you aren't allowed to choose the retry-option. Instead you have to exit to the title screen and reload your last save. As the main parts where you tend to die are the boss battles (which always have a possibility right before them) it's only a minor inconvenience.  

 

The challenging trophies still come, though. The game requries a minimum of 6 playthroughs and at least 3 of them have to be on the highest difficulty. Normally this wouldn't be that annoying as quite a lot of Falcom's games have the possibility to carry over your stats between your playthroughs but this ain't the case for Ys Origin. So doing those will surely be a bit more annoying as you not only take more damage, you also get less experience and AFAIK the bosses also learn some new attacks. To top that there's also the requirement to do a Boss Rush on that same difficulty and unlike the main game, you will have a fixed level. Yikes. As I never played the Boss Rush-mode in the Steam-version I'm not sure what to expect. I just know for sure that I never liked those modes and avoided them if there's no need to go for them (like it's the remaining trophy... :/ )

 

I will try to go for the plat, but even if I can't make it because I lose my patience (or lack skills) I still enjoy this game. It's by no means my favorite entry in the series as I honestly prefer the ones where you play with a team but it's still a good action-oriented JRPG. it surely has it's flaws but I don't mind. The only rather annoying thing is that the port by DotEmu feels rather lazy. Like I already mentioned I dislike the UI and the rather blurry menu but I also dislike the fact that there's no possibility to see all controls or rearrange them. I just learned by surprise that  activating those skills can also be done by  and that you can switch between the type by pressing either or . I first thought you could only do it via the menu (which is blocked in boss battles).   At least I had no crashes so far. 

 

Stats:

Rating: 

Total playing time: ~7.5 hours
Trophies earned: 8 / 31
Completion rate: 13%

Rank: D 
Did the game lower my completion? Yes

 

My ratings:

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

 

Don't know what game will be the next one. Might just let a randomizer decide...

[crimsonidol38]

4 hours ago, xFalionx said:

Yeah, that's exactly where I'm struggling right now. The last 16 challenges require you to do hot laps with the supercar which is extremely fast and slows down to a crawl whenever you touch a wall. Now with the rather extreme nature of the courses and the shitty camera angles it's next to impossible not to hit any of the barriers in your turns, which would be fine if the ghost times weren't that precise. If you mess up a single turn it's basically over for any of the short courses, even if you only touch a barrier slightly it's almost impossible to make up the difference afterwards. If this happens at the start of the race you're faced with the decision of restarting or just keeping going as both take a similar amount of time. The annoying thing about restarting is that you're just sitting there waiting for that damn traffic light to count down. Keeping going is equally annoying as I tend to ace the rest of the race, nearly catching up to the damn gold time, cursing at myself for messing up the beginning. On the longer courses a single mistake doesn't make that much of a difference and it's often possible to win even after making a minor mistake.

 

I guess the most annoying part is that I spend as much time, if not more, waiting and/or doing useless things as I do for meaningful attempts to win. This leads to a bunch of frustration and my usual comparison to Super Meat Boy, the only game I know of where you can die countless times and still have a fun experience because each death loses you seconds and you can instantly start over. No need to wait for an arbitrary countdown or to finish a lost race. Of the 40 minutes I spend on a single challenge, I spend around 20 waiting and that's just not fun, especially if you've been repeating the same 11 seconds over and over again during those 40 minutes. 

 

Things like this can sure be infuriating. If I realize that I hit such a roadblock I tend to take a break from the game as I prefer to not spoil my mood. And loading times can surelby be more annoying than they already are if you just want to do another retry after messing up for the umpteenth time. That's also why I got so frustrated about Lumines as the loading times where longer than they needed to be. 

 

4 hours ago, xFalionx said:

Anyways, I hope you're having fun with Ys, I've been considering some of the earlier games of the franchise for a while.

 

I wouldn't replay it if I wouldn't have fun with the game.   If you want to play any of the games I would say that you might be better off with playing the versions released on PC. The games are normally a bit cheaper on there and the system requirements are quite low. There's also a demo for Ys Origin so you can test how good the performance is on your own devices. Otherwise I can't really recommend which game you should give a try as I like them all more or less the same. Only thing I would say is: Stay away from Ys 1 & 2 as the battle system ain't fun at all.

 

2 hours ago, Fidel said:

Well, I'm not super obsessed with Platinuming every game I play, though I do often try. Lol. If I don't feel like playing it 6 times, it'll just meet the same fate as Chain of Memories.  But I haven't been one to shy away from a challenge as of late. 

 

 

I'm well aware that you aren't afraid of a challenge. Just wanted to warn about the many playthroughs. Even if they are rather short (especially compared to Chain of Memories) it can still be a dull experience that spoils the fun. 

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #4 - Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth - Preview

 

So I did some research about the game and apparently it's an "adult tactical role-playing visual novel". Well this is an original approach to the genre to say the least. This being the second game, it's supposed to be a bit more tame than the first one.

 

I've also figured out that if you played and finished the first game first, you can import the characters and get double XP, which would make this game a lot easier and cut down on the time to plat this game immensely. Tough luck that I don't have the first game, which leaves me with a 100ü hour game.

 

 

Expectation:

Having played very little of the tactical-RPG genre (a couple of hours of Disgaea 3 and a few hours of Hyperdevotion Noire), I'm hoping that it's more in the line with the former. I also hope that it's not filled with fan service and that the visual novel aspects won't constantly interrupt the gameplay.

[Beyondthegrave07]

Game #2 - Yakuza 5 - Review

 

Time spent: 5-6 hours

2/57 trophies - E rank

Current Completion %: 68.03 ? 0.32% since the beginning

 

Impressions

I actually wanted to sink in a few more hours into this before writing a review because I wanted to get through more of the story, but with time constraints and all, I thought that I played enough to get a good grasp on how the game plays and enough to warrant a full review.

 

Anyways, the series is called "Yakuza" for a reason. The game follows 5 separate characters whose stories are all woven together revolving around the Japanese mafia, Yakuza. I only played as Kazuma, who was the previous head of the Yakuza before passing on the torch to the next head and going off the radar to live an honest, decent life as a taxi driver. That's about the gist I got of what is currently going on without spoiling anything. The story is interesting; I just wish I didn't have to read so many walls of text (a Japanese class in college could have helped me out here XD).

 

I first want to just start off by saying that the graphics for this game blew my away for how old it is. The facial expressions look real, the environment is well-polished, the textures of everything is realistic, and the cut scenes are just a joy to watch (check out the opening cut scene if you've never seen it).

 

The gameplay overall is excellent and leaves me excited for more. I like the combat system that was pretty much an all-out brawl where you can pull out weapons, use weapons in the environment, or just beat the thugs bloody with your fists. Any way you choose works and each one of them is equally satisfying. When I first jumped into the combat system, I was afraid it was just going to be a beat-em-up where you can just bash  constantly, but the AI will punish you if you swing too early and leave yourself open, and the game does a great job of making you think about your next move by having to worry about the consequences of your actions. I know at one point I was thinking, "Well, if I punch this guy, the thug behind me will get a clean shot at me or grab me. Maybe I should circle around or grab one of the guys and throw them. into someone else" Having to think a little in a fighter is a good thing in my book.

 

However, perhaps the best part of the game is everything you can do besides fighting and playing through the story mode. This is the reason why I wanted to sink more hours into this game. I probably spent 2-3 hours fumbling my way through playing pachinko and being just as confused (if not more) than when I started to play, playing darts in a bar, fishing, running around and taking pictures like a total tourist, getting my ass handed to me in Shogi (while simultaneously learning how to play shogi if you get my drift), and helping random strangers with their daily problems in which I still question why Kazuma should really give a F___ if he is trying to avoid trouble in the first place. Yet, he somehow, someway, finds himself in a fist fight at the end of it. Just by looking at the trophies, I can tell that I merely scratched the surface of the game, and can't wait to dig into both the story and the gameplay more. As of now, I would give it:

 

⭐ ⭐⭐⭐✴️

Great

 

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Beyondthegrave07
Grammar

[ladynadiad]

2 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

The challenging trophies still come, though. The game requries a minimum of 6 playthroughs and at least 3 of them have to be on the highest difficulty. Normally this wouldn't be that annoying as quite a lot of Falcom's games have the possibility to carry over your stats between your playthroughs but this ain't the case for Ys Origin. So doing those will surely be a bit more annoying as you not only take more damage, you also get less experience and AFAIK the bosses also learn some new attacks. To top that there's also the requirement to do a Boss Rush on that same difficulty and unlike the main game, you will have a fixed level. Yikes. As I never played the Boss Rush-mode in the Steam-version I'm not sure what to expect. I just know for sure that I never liked those modes and avoided them if there's no need to go for them (like it's the remaining trophy... :/ )

 

Boss rush on nightmare is nothing in this game compared to the Steam version.  It's only required to do it with one character, thus you can feel free to cheese it and use EX Hugo to your heart's content.  The only difficult trophy was beating arena mode on nightmare.  Boss rush may take some practice if you've never done it before, but since I 100%ed the Steam version the plat was easy for me, just time consuming.  The bosses don't outright learn new attacks, but the attacks have some different patterns to them.  If you have trouble with Nightmare, just grind a bit and you'll be fine.  Time attack requires actually learning the patterns, but Hugo has his wind shield, so time attack is more forgiving with him.  EX Hugo has a bit more range too, so he's the easiest to beat time attack with.

 

DotEmu also hadn't fixed the very lovely glitch with arena mode when I got the Vita plat.  If you play arena mode, then go and play story mode, the SP drops are the same as arena mode, thus you get insane amounts of SP on nightmare difficulty.  Keep a normal mode save handy though since you'll want it for the grind to level 60.

 

If you ever need any help feel free to ask me since I've got the plat and 100% on Steam and know the game well and maybe someday I'll be nuts enough and grab the plat on the PS4 stack.

[Kevvik]

Game #3: Until Dawn

 

Initial/ Day 3 Impressions

 

Time played: 7.5 hrs

 

Until Dawn is essentially a horror/slasher interactive movie. You cycle through a number of characters, the story dictates who, of the typical teen psycho-bait we all recognize. After an initial section which serves as tutorial ends in tragedyat a secluded mountain lodge in northern Alberta, we shift to having an unseen character meeting with a psychiatrist. You answer some questions which influence how things play out for you later in the game. You then return to the story, picking up a year later as these things do, when all the players return to the lodge to try to put the previous year's events behind them. Things do not go as planned.  Between a creepy lodge, abandoned mine and sanitarium located nearby (take off, how convenient), the setting is ripe for a scary tale.

 

Controlling your character in 3rd person, you navigate the environment, interacting with items which could be clues (read collectibles), totems which give you glimpses of what could be in a variety of themes (death, loss, guidance, etc. read more collectibles). You work your way through a fairly linear path, dealing with obstacles along the way. You also decide, in tone, how you express yourself at points of conversation when interacting with other characters. As is usual with stories/films like these, there are half decent characters and utter dicks/bitches who make being nice harder than it might otherwise be. Most horror tropes are addressed but it brings them across well, feeling more self-aware than stereotypical lazy writing. At the end of each chapter, which usually have a cliffhanger of sorts, you have the interview with the shrink, followed by a summary video as per lead-in to the next installment.

 

Lots of jump scares again call back to the genre but overall the story stays reasonably fresh as the focus shifts between characters. The acting is surprisingly good, the atmosphere tense and the soundtrack appropriately unsettling.  The butterfly effect is placed to good effect here, introduced early as a concept, giving the understanding that events can change depending on choices.  I'm working hard to try to keep everyone alive and so far I seem to be succeeding. I haven't seen a couple of characters for a while but I'm not definitely sure of their fate yet.

 

Not quite through the whole story yet (at the start of chapter 9, think there are 2 left as there are 2 hours until dawn, each chapter seems to be an hour) but really enjoying it.  Here's hoping I can save everyone this time so I can run through again afterwards and kill everyone (for the trophies but I really want to kill Emily, I mean really).

 

Trophies earned: 3/19, 13% for D rank

Score so far: 8/10

Completion rate: 80.36% (-0.43% for the event)

 

Next up: Game #4: Valhalla Knights 3

 

[eigen-space]

On 7/6/2018 at 10:17 AM, Beyondthegrave07 said:

@eigen-space, I played that game on my cousin's Xbox and it's definitely fun to play with friends. I thought the trophies would be easy, but the RNG gods have to be on your side for this plat!

 

I just found out that the achievements on the xbox are wayyyyyyyy easier... the phrase that has the highest rarity doesn't need the nudge nudge on xbox -_-;

[eigen-space]

Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye Despair

 

Completion - 22% - D Rank

Playtime - ~8 Hours

 

Almost done with the story on this game. Wasn't feeling so great over the weekend so didn't get as much done with this as I wanted. I was actually hoping for a speedrun considering that I already had this game completed in Danganronpa 1-2 Reload. But it wasn't meant to be.

 

Danganronpa is set in high school (or a beach in this case) where the students are being held against their will. In order to be set free, they must kill their fellow classmates and not get caught. But if the killer isn't caught, all remaining classmates will be killed, so everyone must figure out whodunit by investigating the murders.

The story is intriguing, but it does kind of drag toward the end; I felt this way even during my first playthrough. I know this game has a huge fanbase, but I just don't really get it...

 

Game play is kind of puzzle + point and click + visual novel. Some of the puzzles require a little bit of action... with some "shooting", "slicing", and "snowboarding" in the puzzles. The puzzles aren't terribly difficult, but at least they were a little more challenging than the first game.
The game also has kind of like a material collecting mini-game at the end, which I actually prefer better than the real game
There's also another mini-game that's kind of like a hack and slash? I don't really know how to describe it....

So... from a second playthrough perspective... I'm really not enjoying this much. I played Danganronpa 1-2 Reload back in February and only mildly enjoyed it then. The mechanics aren't that fun, and you already know all the answers to the puzzles. And because the story was only barely good enough the first time around, this time just seems like a chore.

 

Overall Difficulty - 2/10

Enjoyment - 6.5/10 (for a first time), 3/10 (replay value)

 

Completion at start of the event: 92.16%

Completion at last update: 92.69%

Current Completion: 91.83% (-0.33 / -0.86)

[dmland12]

Game #3: Titanfall 2

Trophies: 46/51 (77%)

Completion: 94.57% (-0.19%, -1.71% from start)

 

Titanfall 2 is a first person shooter with large robotic mechs called titans.  Apparently the first game was multiplayer only, but this one has a single player campaign as well as a pretty interesting multiplayer.  I got through the single player portion of the game during my three days, since it's fairly short and rather easy on Regular difficulty.  Seriously, I don't think most of the CPU guys could hit the broad side of a barn and checkpoints are generous if you do mess something up.  I felt the story was kind of bleh... just stop the big bad from destroying everything for no good reason while bonding with your robotic titan.  I'll admit it was fun stomping through enemies or mowing them down in your titan, but in general there just wasn't much challenge for most of the game.  I'll have to go back and try it on harder difficulties when I go for the platinum and see if it's any more engaging.  I probably should have played it on at least Hard for my first playthrough as it turns out.

 

I also played some multiplayer and feel that there's more to the game there (although just a few trophies).  There's several different types of matches, although one called Attrition seems to be the most popular (I just let it auto-match any of them and every time it was that mode that I got a game on).  You start out on foot and as you kill other players and enemy CPU soldiers you earn points and eventually are able to call in a titan and play that way.  The team that gets to 650 pts wins.  It was pretty interesting compared to most other FPS because of the huge difference between playing as a titan or not.  You can see what that's like below if you're interested.

 

 

Overall, I feel like this was a solid game and I've probably been too negative on it.  I liked the general concept and gameplay as well as the multiplayer.

[voodoo_eyes]

3 hours ago, eigen-space said:

Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye Despair

 

 

 

Do you recall, if there is also a "school mode" in this game? I liked the first one well enough, but I won't put myself through that nonsense again.

[crimsonidol38]

9 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Game #4 - Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth - Preview

 

Expectation:

Having played very little of the tactical-RPG genre (a couple of hours of Disgaea 3 and a few hours of Hyperdevotion Noire), I'm hoping that it's more in the line with the former. I also hope that it's not filled with fan service and that the visual novel aspects won't constantly interrupt the gameplay.

 

IIRC the Utawhatever-games tend to focus more on the Visual Novel-aspect than on the actual gameplay, but from a review I read that Mask of Truth has a bit more gameplay than Mask of Deception.

 

8 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Boss rush on nightmare is nothing in this game compared to the Steam version.  It's only required to do it with one character, thus you can feel free to cheese it and use EX Hugo to your heart's content.  The only difficult trophy was beating arena mode on nightmare.  Boss rush may take some practice if you've never done it before, but since I 100%ed the Steam version the plat was easy for me, just time consuming.  The bosses don't outright learn new attacks, but the attacks have some different patterns to them.  If you have trouble with Nightmare, just grind a bit and you'll be fine.  Time attack requires actually learning the patterns, but Hugo has his wind shield, so time attack is more forgiving with him.  EX Hugo has a bit more range too, so he's the easiest to beat time attack with.

 

I guess I just have to get familiar with Hugo. I'm normally not the type of person that prefers to stay in the background but instead I prefer the more frontal assault. That's always my playstyle somehow. But I'm well aware that his long range is crucial for surviving against some bosses as I have to admit that I took quite a bit of damage while fighting them.

 

And thanks for the offer.

 

3 hours ago, eigen-space said:

So... from a second playthrough perspective... I'm really not enjoying this much. I played Danganronpa 1-2 Reload back in February and only mildly enjoyed it then. The mechanics aren't that fun, and you already know all the answers to the puzzles. And because the story was only barely good enough the first time around, this time just seems like a chore.

 

How did you like Dangan 1 in comparison? Personally I really liked it, besides the horrible school mode. Wasn't really enjoying the second game, too. I don't know the exact reason but I guess it was mainly due to the cast which felt rather unsympathic and the plot didn't really catch my interest. Not to forget those "improved" minigames which more felt like a downgrade. It's surprising to read that you enjoyed the school mode, though.

[voodoo_eyes]

26 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

IIRC the Utawhatever-games tend to focus more on the Visual Novel-aspect than on the actual gameplay, but from a review I read that Mask of Truth has a bit more gameplay than Mask of Deception.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to notice that. It's been roughly 30 minutes of dialogues per 5 minutes of battle so far.

[jasondm300]

Games 2 and 3 are below.  

 

Battlefield 1

1/51 trophies for 1%

E ranking

3 hours

 

As I stated earlier, I just didnt like this game.  I really wish I did.  It plays a lot like Star Wars Battlefront, but I think that hame was a better layout.  I only played the multiplayer portion on BF1 and it never clicked for me.  I might try some more with other classes or other guns, but I just was not having a lot of fun with this game.  For FPS I usually only like the story diven ones, like Doom or Titanfall 2.  I will say the game looks really nice.  

 

Game 3

Hustle Kings

2/17 trophies

C ranking

4 hours

 

Hustle Kings is a pool game.  There isnt much to say about a story.  I spent most of my time on the tutorial missions as I could not jump over the one ball to save my life.  I tried for over an hour, but I finally did it exactly as ot was supposed to do.  I played a few missions in the campaign, and tried to find someone oneline to play with, but to no avail.  I personally would rather just play pool irl.  The presentation seemed nice, but nothing to fancy.  The vita touch controls felt a little off to me when I slid my finger back and forth to hit the cue ball.

 

I'll probably so Switch Galaxy as my next game and Star Ocean for the weekend

2 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

 

Do you recall, if there is also a "school mode" in this game? I liked the first one well enough, but I won't put myself through that nonsense again.

Yes there was.  It was island mode.  But it wasnt as bad as the Magical Miracle Girl Monomi minigame.  That was awful

[voodoo_eyes]

13 minutes ago, jasondm300 said:

Yes there was.  It was island mode.  But it wasnt as bad as the Magical Miracle Girl Monomi minigame.  That was awful

 

So... I just googled that minigame and feel like I've landed in someone's LSD trip.

 

Well, school mode alone is enough for me to give it a pass. The story apparently not being that great is another reason to skip it, and well then there's said minigame.

[crimsonidol38]

1 hour ago, jasondm300 said:

Yes there was.  It was island mode.  But it wasnt as bad as the Magical Miracle Girl Monomi minigame.  That was awful

 

I totally forgot about that crap minigame. IIRC there was also a Tamagotchi-like one? Things like this always make me wonder why the devs even bothered to add that in. Probably the only reason was to make the player feel some despair, too.

[ImBossy83]

#3 Game

 

The binding of Isaac: Rebirth

 

So i'm back home after my short Trip to Bavaria. For the trip i picked the critically acclaimed Binding of Isaac. With a Metacritic of 88 and a stable Vita Port this seemed to be a good pick. 

 

Why haven't i played this game already?

 

Well i started it a few times and made single runs. It never drew me in as i could never figure out what i'm actually supposed to do. But for this event i wanted to dive in so that i might understand why so many people like this game. 

 

The verdict

 

I still don't understand the game. This game is a kind of twinstick shooter/ Rougelike that has you explore randomly generated levels and pick up Upgrades on the way.  I have the feeling that i got a little bit better but still it felt like my success was pretty much down to RNG. As most Rougelikes the game is punishing. Whenever you die you pretty much loose all your progress. The combination of loosing all progress and beeing dependent on RNG didn't really appeal to me. So that in between I returned to play Spec Ops the line which is also punishing especially if you're not too versed in cover shooters but i could see and understand the progress i made. 

 

I played binding of Isaac for about 5 hours and got 2 trophies. My completion is currently at 54.41%(-0.98%). 

 

Next up #4 Game Resident Evil. 

[eigen-space]

4 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

How did you like Dangan 1 in comparison? Personally I really liked it, besides the horrible school mode. Wasn't really enjoying the second game, too. I don't know the exact reason but I guess it was mainly due to the cast which felt rather unsympathic and the plot didn't really catch my interest. Not to forget those "improved" minigames which more felt like a downgrade. It's surprising to read that you enjoyed the school mode, though.

 

The first time around it dragged toward the end... this second time is boring me to tears.

I feel like they went a little more wild with the cast, which is maybe why they felt unsympathetic... like the first game, everyone has their personalities, but they weren't overbearing. This game they picked personalities but hyperbolized them.

I do think the puzzles are sightly improved. I had every murder solved before even going into the class trial in the first game... this one, not so much. Though I hate the truth sword and logic drive mini-games...

 

@voodoo_eyes, I actually think school mode was the best part of the game

A bit repetitive, but it felt kind of mathematical in a way. 

Magical Girl Monomi was pretty.... silly.

[MarkusT1992]

48 minutes ago, ImBossy83 said:

#3 Game

 

The binding of Isaac: Rebirth

 

So i'm back home after my short Trip to Bavaria. For the trip i picked the critically acclaimed Binding of Isaac. With a Metacritic of 88 and a stable Vita Port this seemed to be a good pick. 

 

Why haven't i played this game already?

 

Well i started it a few times and made single runs. It never drew me in as i could never figure out what i'm actually supposed to do. But for this event i wanted to dive in so that i might understand why so many people like this game. 

 

The verdict

 

I still don't understand the game. This game is a kind of twinstick shooter/ Rougelike that has you explore randomly generated levels and pick up Upgrades on the way.  I have the feeling that i got a little bit better but still it felt like my success was pretty much down to RNG. As most Rougelikes the game is punishing. Whenever you die you pretty much loose all your progress. The combination of loosing all progress and beeing dependent on RNG didn't really appeal to me. So that in between I returned to play Spec Ops the line which is also punishing especially if you're not too versed in cover shooters but i could see and understand the progress i made. 

 

I played binding of Isaac for about 5 hours and got 2 trophies. My completion is currently at 54.41%(-0.98%). 

 

Next up #4 Game Resident Evil. 

Binding of Isaac is one of my most played games on Steam with over 450 hours. I could explain the game to you.

If you want to watch an (outdated) story theory you can watch a video from Game Theory about it. The develoers more or less approved the theory.

[voodoo_eyes]

@eigen-space To me it felt like a tacked on chore that added nothing of value to the game. It's a shame as I'd like to play the whole series, but can't justify paying for it, if it includes something I know I won't enjoy. Trigger Happy Havoc was an impulse buy back then, because it seemed to have an original concept, and I'm a sucker for murder mysteries in general.

 

Oh well, I guess there's always the possibility of Danganronpa 2 coming to PSplus. (Yeah, I won't be holding my breath )

Edited July 10, 2018 by voodoo_eyes

[eigen-space]

@voodoo_eyes, I agree that it added no value.... well, apart from witnessing the origin story of a particular mascot (can't put spoilers on mobile... hopefully that was vague enough).

I kind of like mindless mini-games though. Actually pretty excited to finish the story to open up "island mode" on this game

 

[Beyondthegrave07]

1 hour ago, MarkusT1992 said:

Binding of Isaac is one of my most played games on Steam with over 450 hours. I could explain the game to you.

If you want to watch an (outdated) story theory you can watch a video from Game Theory about it. The develoers more or less approved the theory.

Interesting. I always thought about getting this eventually if I can get it at a good price. Unfortunately, I didn't have a PS4 when it was free on plus.

 

Does the game theory spoil the game? I might have to watch it...

[MarkusT1992]

3 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

Interesting. I always thought about getting this eventually if I can get it at a good price. Unfortunately, I didn't have a PS4 when it was free on plus.

 

Does the game theory spoil the game? I might have to watch it...

There are some spoilers about some bosses and the ending videos you unlock IIRC.

Maybe try to finish the game once completely before watching. And with that I mean completing a full run.

Spoiler

Maybe you reached Mom already. At first the game ends there but you can unlock some more chapters with more won runs.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by MarkusT1992

[Metal Slime King]

Game #2 - Gravity Badgers ()

Picked this game up off PSN for a buck, figured I couldn't go wrong. The game is alright for what it is, an Angry Birds rip-off (with no unobtainable server based trophies unlike Angry Birds, so I guess in that regard it is a superior game) that is some simple pick up and play for the Vita. Works perfect for the touch screen. You tap your space cadet badger and pull back to launch him at the angle you specify, the objective is to shoot him at the wormhole to progress to the next level. For 100% completion you need to get him to the wormhole in one shot and pick up all three of the glowing orbs en route. Each level has a boss encounter at the end, which switches things up a bit. The boss sits there and waits for you to move, once you start moving he'll start firing at you and you'll start firing automatically at him. You'll have to launch yourself quickly between anchor points while avoiding his shots. Again, for 100% completion you will need to kill the boss without ever getting touched, there are trophies specifically for beating and for no-death runs on the first four bosses. Not sure why the last boss got left out. There are 5 main levels with 25 stages each, there is also an easy tutorial prologue that introduces the gameplay elements and a challenging bonus level. Both of these bonus levels have less than 25 stages each and all 7 levels have to be completed entirely with 3 stars on each level for 100%. So there is a fair amount of content, particularly if you pick the game up on sale, which I would recommend.

 

You can scale the stages in and out by putting two fingers on screen and pulling them together or apart. If you scale the stage all the way in or all the way out then you can replicate shots by aiming at certain stars, that way you can make small alterations to your shots until you find the perfect trajectory to clear the stage. Then you can replicate that shot to get all three orbs in one shot. This makes the game less difficult and less annoying than say King Oddball which was a similar game that dropped on PS+ a couple of months ago. In that game you were a weird moon like creature that had to lob rocks with your tongue and destroy everything on the screen. So there was a pendulum like mechanic with your swinging tongue which made replicating shots exactly more difficult. I 100%'d that game on Vita and was in no rush to do the free stack on PS4.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Metal Slime King

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Well, if I can get enough work done today (Wednesday), I foresee being able to spend several hours on gaming today or at least tomorrow, meaning I can finally start participating in this event, and actually read other people's progress as well. Need to remember to de-privatise my trophies so I can check my starting stats.

 

No clue which game I want to start on yet. Any people have any strong opinions on any of my games?

Transistor - Valley - SOMA - MagRunner - Rayman 3.