Kill Your Completion 11

[MidnightDragon]

Slight update to my stats since I earned one more trophy in Tropico 6.

 

Trophies earned: 11/41 (19%)

 

Games Played: 122

Games Completed: 96

Trophies Earned: 2,667

Unearned Trophies: 740

Completion Percentage: 80.93% (-0.67%)

 

Starting my next game tomorrow evening. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by MidnightDragon

[AuroraHistoire]

Prepping ~ The Long Dark

 

I saw a let's play of this title a year or two back. I was half asleep while watching it but I pretty much know what to expect. This is a hardcore survival game set in winter. You will be cold, miserable, wet, hungry, thirst, tired while being chased by a pack of unrealistically bloodthirsty wolfs. The Long Dark is about survival, not fun. I don't expect to like this game very much or get most of the trophies. I don't play survival games, who knows if I'll like the genre or not.

 

My PS4 has downloaded many updates for this game recently.

Aurora 

 

Edit: I just booted up the game and there was a disclaimer that acknowledges wolfs don't typically attack people. I'm happy they acknowledged that fact but I still will bring that fact up every chance I get. ? 

Edited November 8, 2019 by AuroraHistoire

[DamagingRob]

Game #3, Day 1/Final Review- Dissidia Final Fantasy NT 

 

Well, this one is a pretty mixed bag. I played one of the PSP entries, but I don't remember it being quite like this. You basically start the game grinding, and not because of trophies. The Story Mode requires unlocking areas on a grid (PTSD FFX flashbacks..), and you need to level up in other modes to get the items needed to unlock them. So yeah, not an enjoyable way to start things. And the way you grind is painful. :/

 

What you do is play a mode where the goal is to destroy the other team's core. If an enemy is near it, it won't take damage. And if you enter the circle surrounding it, the A.I. will be on you in a hurry. So, since the A.I. is dumber than a box of rocks, you sit just outside the circle and fire projectiles at it. Them and your A.I. teammates may still go into the circle, and you may get attacked some. But I haven't lost once with this method, so... pretty easy. Just dull as hell. 

 

Once you've gotten enough items to unlock all the nodes in the story, the game isn't so bad. Story isn't the greatest in the world, but it's fun seeing all your Final Fantasy favorites interacting with each other. And it being Final Fantasy, you already know it looks good. The Summon fights are kind of annoying, though. Normally, you have 3-on-3 battles, but these are just your team versus a giant Summon. And they can be aggravating, especially on Hard. Might be what stops me from getting the Plat.. But I was very close to beating the final one on Hard last night, so I think I can do it. Hopefully all the earlier ones are easier, though. Because fuck me, I am starting to hate the game with these.

 

This isn't your typical fighting game, as you fly around pretty large battlefields, and aren't too confined. Controls are fairly complex, and I don't know if that's a good thing. I'll literally have to stop moving to activate my EX Skills, because you have to point an analog stick up or down AND press triangle. Trying to activate them has sometimes put me in a world of hurt. 

 

Dealing damage is different, too. Circle attacks hit your opponents bravery, which recharges after a short period of not taking damage. And square attacks actually hit their HP bar, taking off however much their bravery has been lowered. After a few seconds, you or defeated enemies respawn from a K.O. Whichever team gets 3 K.O.s first wins, unless you're playing the core destruction mode.  

 

Different EX Skills and attacks can be equipped. EX Skills can raise attack, defense, or bravery temporarily. Poison foes. Restore HP. And many other things. Then you have Summons that can turn the tide of battle. Another kind of core will randomly appear on the field for those. Whichever team destroys it first will get part of their Summoning bar filled. 

 

Then there's treasures and gil your receive when leveling up, or performing certain tasks. You can unlock new icons, costumes, titles, music, and other things. 

 

And... that's basically it. About all I have left now is pointless grinding. Winning 300 (!) Ranked Matches, getting A++ ranks with each and every character in Ranked Matches, and obtaining 300 treasures. Without the MTU trick, the online stuff would likely be impossible. For me, anyways. With it, probably doable. But you'll be waiting a long time for matches with this method.

 

Might as well slap this one with a score here, since I don't think I'll be encountering anything new.  sounds good. Not bad, but not great. And unless you love Final Fantasy, or just like mindless grinding, going to be a tough one to slog through.

 

Time played: 40+ hours. I've just been letting it run, so who knows what my actual time played is. Plus, the aforementioned waiting an eternity for a Ranked Match with low MTU settings (have now found it takes a long ass time, regardless).

Trophy progress: 41/56 for 61% and an A rank. 

Completion Percentage: 92.22% (-0.38%) 

Edited November 10, 2019 by DamagingRob

[BlackSquirrell1]

Game #3: AER: Memories of Old

 

Difficulty: 2/10

Motion Sickness: 4/10

Use as a Flight Simulator: 3/10

 

My next entry into KYC is AER.  Pretty basic game where you fly around these floating islands helping spirit animals.  A couple of caves that you could wander around forever trying to trigger doors opening and stuff like that, but probably a great game for a kid or someone that needs a game without any drama.  A few people asked me questions about the game I'd like to answer:

 

1. Do you get Motion Sickness in this game?  Well, no, I didn't experience it.  But the person next to me turned a bit green and had to run down the hall for some reason.  Never asked why.

 

2. Can I use this as a flight simulator?  Um, you DO fly around a lot.  It probably would be a great flight simulator if you have problems trying to get your plane out of a hangar, can't figure out runways or always forget about putting down your landing gear.  It worked out pretty well for me as I just aimed for a tree or wall and I landed pretty quickly, just like I do when I ski.

 

Flying and moving around was wonky because the camera kept realigning and shifting around so I either crashed into a mountain or fell off a bridge.  Only had one glitch where I got stuck in a mountain, but reloaded and was able to continue again without losing too much progress. 

 

On to the next game!

[Psy-Tychist]

I finally have my games picked out by strange random choice @voodoo_eyes.

 

Nov 8th - Nov 11th - Degrees of Separation

Nov 12th - Nov 15th - Aaru's Awakening

Nov 16th - Nov 19th - Ninja Senki DX

Nov 20th - Nov 23rd - In Space We Brawl

Nov 24th - Nov 27th - Everything

Nov 28th - Nov 30th - Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

 

Stats at the beginning of KYC XI:

Games Played: 622

Games 100%: 298

Completion %: 62.00

Trophies added: 125

Edited November 11, 2019 by Psy-Tychist

[AuroraHistoire]

Trees? You can eat trees right? ~ The Long Dark

 

The Long Dark wasn't the miserable experience I expected. I actually had a good time playing. I'm a little mixed on how I feel about the game. It does everything it is trying to do very well, I just don't like it.

 

The Long Dark is a survival game. The setting is a backwoods island in Canada (probably) and it is the apocalypse. Not the typical zombie, angels & demons or nuclear apocalypse you're probably expecting; the electricity is just out, forever. It sounds easy enough to survive without the threat of zombies nomming your face and players in ghillie suits sniping you from 400 meters away. All you have to do is eat, drink, sleep and not freeze to death (Canada is very cold). The developers decide to turn wolfs into bloodthirsty killers, so you have wolfs to worry about. The game also has bears but I have not seen any.

 

You have 3 gameplay modes to choose from. You have a episodic story mode, survival and challenges. The story mode has currently has 3 of 5 planned episodes, and episode 3 was added a week or two ago. The Long Dark is a indie game, so the remaining 2 episodes may take a long to be released. Fortunately, the episodes are included with the game for free. I played through episode 1 and I thought the story was alright. Survival mode is just exploring the map while trying to not die. Survival has 4 different difficulty settings + the option to make your own custom setting. I haven't played any of the challenge modes but I think they're just survival with certain goals you need to achieve to win.

 

I played survival mode on the hardest difficulty, with the goal of surviving 1 day for a trophy. On my first attempt, I ran into a ice cave, got lost in the dark and froze to death. On my second attempt, I found some houses, it was too dark too see so I couldn't loot them and I froze to death. On my third attempt, I climbed a mountain, found a cabin, made a fire and hunkered down until I survived on day. After that I ran outside and saw a wolf coming right at me. I threw rocks in the wolfs general direction before it attacked me. I hit it with a hammer and it ran off after breaking my leg. I decide to climb a mountain and sprain my wrist. I get to the top and another wolf wants a Aurora sandwich. I decide to stand on the edge of a cliff with the desperate plan of hoping Mr. Wolf misses the lunge and falls off. Wolfy-Chu didn't miss.

 

I had some fun. The Long Dark can be a bit of a walking simulator sometimes and can get very dull. The trophy list seems like a odyssey to complete. I plan to get back to this one in a year or two. Maybe episodes 4 and 5 will be released by then.              

Aurora 

 

                                

[MidnightDragon]

@voodoo_eyes I was going to go ahead and start Wasteland 2, but there’s an issue with the disc (tried others, there was no problem). I won’t be able to replace it at the moment, so if it’s OK, here’s how I want the list to look now. I won’t ask for it to be changed again....except the last slot. I have a good idea of what I want it to be. Just not sure if it’ll happen yet, so leaving it blank to avoid another change. 

 

November 1-6-Tropico 6

November 7-12-Birthdays: The Beginning

November 13-18-Harvest Moon: Mad Dash

November 19-24-Civilization VI

November 25-30-TBD

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #3 - Yooka-Laylee - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: around 6h

Trophies earned: 19/36

 

 

One of the visually most appealing 3D platformers, due to it's vibrant colours. It definitely is nice to look at. Playing it however isn't the smoothest experience.

 

First thing I had to do was submit myself to listening to the gibberish for about 10 seconds, before I made the decision to set the voice slider to 0. I suggest anyone who inted to play this, to do the same. Something else that felt immediately obvious was it taking things from every platformer imaginable and wanting it to make their own.

 

There's a spin move to defeat enemies, that I'm pretty sure even has the same sound effects as the one in Jak & Daxter games. THere are minigames like in the Sly Cooper games. There are several abilites from Mario games like spitting fire and gliding. Then there are also sidequests that you need to complete in order to progress the game.

 

SO yeah, the basic jist is, you get to a hub from which you will be able to access the various worlds you need to colelct items from in order to progress the story.  The worlds you unlock are fairly generic so far. I've only unlocked 3 though, as it takes quite a lot of time to get the required number of collectibles to unlock the next one. One of the gimmicks is that you only have access to half of each world and then need to expand it to reveal new areas, as well as the boss location. Progress also gets hampered by requiring specific abilities, which may only be purchasable in the next world. As such, you better be prepared to backtrack a whole lot. Speaking of a lot of walking, the levels are too big for their own good, with entrances littered through them that lead you to other new areas it's a pain to keep track whre you've been or where you need to go back to. Another thing that's annoying is that the somecollectibles aren't tracked per world, but total amount aquired in the game. So it tells you that you've collected 400 something feathers of 1001, with no way of knowing whether or not you've gotten them all in world 1,2 or 3.

 

The controls are where most of the issues lie. Once again the camera is absolute arse more often than not. Although I've seen far worse in other games of the genre. Some other things are annoying in their mechanic. For example, the little green shite can't walk up a slope, but it can roll up instead (because that makes sense). If you're not rolling, it'll slide you back down. Now while sliding down you have no control over your character, so it'll hit every hazard on the way. First boss fight is a perfect example of this.

 

 

It's really just a medicore platofrmer in the end. One that looks good and has a decent amount of different abilities, even though those are mainly used to solve puzzles. Should've spent more time polishing the gameplay aspect instead of wasting time and resources on putting the gibberish in the game. A bigger variety and more condensed levels would've been preferable as well. Therefore it's only a .

Edited November 10, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[Kevvik]

 

Game #3: One Upon Light

 

Initial/Day 3/Final Impressions

Time played: 8.5 hrs

 

One Upon Light is a puzzle game where you play a researcher in an industrial lab where some form of great accident has occurred. The lab/factory is a shambles and you need to find your way out. One big problem arises when you realize that light touching you for more than a second or two will kill you. Why?  That gets explained slowly by finding reports/newspapers at the end of levels you work your way through.

 

You move slowly through the lab, using shadows of stationary, moving and movable objects to traverse lethal areas of light. Later, you find a glove which allows you to create echoes, areas of shadow which persist once whatever cast it has moved or been moved. It sounds simple but is still challenging and your deaths don't feel cheap. While some obstacles leave room for error, others require tight timing to get past.  One late puzzle involving a timed sequence while passing under rotating beams bordered on too tight but there was considerable satisfaction after completing it. Generous checkpoints keep deaths from becoming frustrating and they never left me backed into a corner.

 

For some reason these checkpoints disappear completely in the last (20th) level, a collapsing tunnel where you must stay ahead of the devastation behind you, clearing obstacles quickly to continue advancing. It's about 4 minutes long but restarting at the beginning each time you misread an obstacle and how to deal with it does get frustrating. The majority of the obstacles aren't difficult but a few sequences leave you toast the first few times you go through. Your vision doesn't allow a lot of foresight for solving them so repeating two minutes of easy obstacles to get to the tight ones each time is out of character with the rest of the gameplay.

 

Overall, a fun experience for puzzle lovers and a pleasant little challenge.

 

Trophies earned: 7/7, 100% for S rank

Final score: 7.5/10

Completion Rate: 84.17% (-0.46% for the event)

 

My completion rate took a bit of a hit on the side as I needed something casual for the Vita as I was on the go a fair bit the last couple days so I started Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed. I needed something I could just slide in and out of and a mindless Neptunia hack n slash seemed like just the ticket. It's nothing special but does the job I needed it to. This will float in the background of most things this month until I get to the event Vita games later.

 

Next up: Game #4: Shenmue

[MarkusT1992]

Game #3: Judgment

 

 

Judgment was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku who developed the Yakuza series since Yakuza 5 and was part of CS1 R&D. CS1 R&D was split and Ryi Ga Gotoku was born and made the Yakuza games since then.

Why am I telling you that you ask? Because Judgment is a spin off of the Yakuza series.

You play as Takayuki Yagami, an ex-lawyer, who now is a detective. That's because he won a case in court a few years ago. His defendant, for whom he got a not guilty verdict, murdered his wife and burnt down her house the day after the process. That led him to give up his job.

The game is set in Kamurochi, the same city as in the Yakuza game. It starts with a murder case the defense asks you to help investigate in. A Yakuza suppossedly killed a man from another Yakuza clan and was arrested. Your job includes investigating different clues, talking to people and running through the city a lot. At important places you enter investigation mode, a first person mode where you have to find something like a surveilance camera. In each of those sceens is a cat you can find. You have to find all of them during the main case for a trophy. Fortunately you have unlimited time to search. At one point I had to enter a hideout of a Yakuza clan. Therefore I had to use a disguise as a mechanic after demolishing the heater of the building.

Other things to do during your investigations includ picking looks, using the right key for a door, using your drone to find something, chasing after people and fighting off enemies.

During fights you can switch between two styles. One is a bit faster and better against a group of enemies, the other is slower but hits harder. You can pick up almost anything to use in fights lying around. There are normal weapons like bats but also bikes and traffic cones. With those objects you can perform an EX attack that does more damage than normal attacks but you need your EX gauge filled.

 

Besides the main case you can do a few things in the city. First you can go eat in one of the many restaurants. That also refills your health. Then you can play various minigames I haven't tried yet except for two. One was an arcade machine and the other was a crane game where you can win things to decorate your office. There are many people around tow you can befriend by doing stuff for them. That's the stuff I can do but there are some more things like getting girlfriends and drone races. There also should be side cases somewhere in the game but I don't know how I get them yet.

 

Having only played a bit of Yakuza 0 before this was basically my first time playing a "Yakuza" game. The gameplay is similar to Yakuza 0 as well as the things you can do.

It being a detective game is a plus because I like those game. Investigating is pretty simple with what you have to do but the fights might get difficult, especially on higher difficulties.

You have to spend skill points to upgrade your character and learn new attacks or things that help during the general game.

All in all I like the game. The story seems to be interesting. So far I only completed chapter 1 which took around 5 hours. I don't know if every chapter takes that long or if some are shorter.

One thing that bothers me a bit is that you are running through town a lot. You have to run from location to location with some fights in between during your travells. Since you only can walk very slow or run, you always are running which leads you to bumb in every pedestrian what slows you down. At least you don't have to push the button the whole time. It's enought to press it once.

 

Time played: 5h 30min

Trophies: 2/47

Rating:

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #4 - Torment: Tides of Numenara - Preview

 

 

Developer: InXile

Publisher: Techland

Genre: CRPG

Price: 49,99 (again, it's way cheaper as a physical version)

 

 

For those who don't know the dev team, they're some of the former Interplay employess that were behind the original Fallout games, as well as Baldur's Gate. As a result I'm a fan of their work, so I might be biased to some degree. This game was on the list for the previous KYC, but I ended up replacing it by another game of the genre.

 

This one is a spiritual successor of Planescape: Torment, another staple of the CRPG genre, one which I've never finished. As per usual with these games, I expect great writing an character development. A good story and solid combat.

 

Not much more to say about it really. It's a game in one of my favourite genres, so I have high expectations.

[AuroraHistoire]

What Box of Pandora am I Opening? -  Azure Reflections

 

 

I took a quick look at the trophy list and I feel like I may be making a terrible mistake by starting Azure Reflections. I think the game's full name is Touhou (some japanese I can't read, but I guess it is japanese Azure Reflections)  Azure reflections. The Touhou part of the title is import, because it will let me know what to expect. I only know 3 things about Touhou.

1. They are bullet, pardon my language, hell games.
2. There is an old may-may saying you should be ashamed about playing them on lower difficulties.
3. The music is very good.

I'm not good at these type of shooter games, so I'll probably struggle to accomplish anything. At least the 10 seconds of music I get to listen to before I die will be good.

Aurora            

[BlackSquirrell1]

Game #4: Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game

 

Difficulty: 2/10

Faster than reading the book: 10/10

 

So, I am too cheap to pay for HBO, so I haven't seen the GoT series.  Not at all.  So, I have this nifty game here, sort of like a CliffsNotes version of the series and/or book, that I can play and join in on the witty conversation at parties about GoT.  Basically, this is a visual novel (VN) like Psycho-Pass (see earlier review), but not really like Psycho-Pass.  You have more dialogue options, but during my play through I didn't really see where any of your decisions are going to prevent you from earning any trophies.  There are a few QTEs, and if you fail them the game has generous checkpoints that are reloaded so you can move the game along. I'd say the game is approx 10-12 hours along, not too long, and the difficulty is pretty low.  I gave it a 2/10 because sometimes the X button didn't respond, due to the Psycho-Pass carnage.  Not one of my favorite type of games, but better than Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space.

[Arctic Cress]

Game #2 - Super Neptunia RPG

Time played - 3 hours

Trophies - 6/36 (10% - E)

 

One of the first RPGs in the Neptunia series not developed by Idea Factory themselves, Super Neptunia RPG is the first game developed by the Canadian company Artisan Studios. Unlike most of the RPGs in the series, this spinoff is a 2D sidescroller outside of battles with a more basic turn based battle system than the main series.

 

The game starts out with Neptune waking up and having amnesia (again). She wakes up in a house and a soldier comes by to collect tax. Taking pity on her due to the amnesia, he offers her to join Bombyx Mori, the group he is a part of. After a few events, a mysterious girl named Chrome shows up and takes Neptune away from Bombyx Mori, stating they are an evil group. She gives Neptune a book known as Histoire before leaving the party.

 

Anyway, as stated before, the game is entirely in a 2D sidescrolling world. Neptune has a jump and a dash with the button, both of which are used to navigate through the world. As I am entirely trash with platformers, I found myself jumping into bottomless pits more than I would like. Even worse is that you respawn right at the edge of the ledge you fell off on, so your immediate response is to move... right back into the pit again. This happened way too many times to count.

 

The battle system is pretty basic. Enemies and yourself have a gauge in the corner of the screen. Neptune needs the gauge to fill up with 2 points to attack, while Chrome in her brief party appearance required 3. There's also an additional gauge for Break attacks, which are more powerful, but the gauge resets before each battle so the only time you will realistically use these are during boss battles.

 

Of course, the dialogue so far is the main highlight - almost all of the game is voiced, and Neptune is hilarious as ever in most of her lines. I do wish it was possible to turn off some of the in-battle lines as after three hours they were getting somewhat annoying, unlike in the main series.

 

I think my dislike of platforming really makes me like this game less than most of the Neptunia spinoffs I've attempted to play through. Regardless of how much I liked the platforming challenges in Sword & Fairy 6, there hasn't been a platformer on any of my KYC lists and for good reason - I just do not like the genre at all. This game will probably be one of the ones I do not go back to after the event.

 

Starting completion: 71.83%

Current completion: 71.66%

Difference: -0.17%

Sword & Fairy 6: 6/46 (10% - D)

 

I did get the Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 platinum, which prevented a big completion drop and also delayed this review a little bit too much. I'll concentrate on catching up moreso during this week so I'm back in line with how the month should go. Probably will tackle one of the VNs next.

[DamagingRob]

Game #4, Day 1- Mafia III

 

Damn.. In this game you play as Lincoln Clay, a just returned veteran from Vietnam. The story jumps around a bit in the beginning, starting with a bank robbery. Then it'll show when Lincoln first comes home from the war. And it also goes far into the future, showing people that are telling this story. You kind of get the feeling from those, that some bad shit is about to happen. And it does..

 

After turning down the local mob boss, by refusing not to take his foster father's position, things go... very bad. Now, Lincoln is on a mission to take over the city, and eventually put the mob boss down. But not before he takes everything from Sal, the way he took everything from him. Which makes total sense, 'cause losing your loved ones equals losing your criminal empire. /s

 

Gameplay is that of an open world 3rd person shooter, similar to GTA. You'll either need to take cover a lot, or be stealthy. Because even on Easy, it doesn't seem to take many shots to kill you. Enemies will have a white bar that fills when they can see you, and it will turn into a shootout if it fills and they go on alert. 

 

I've only taken over the first place, so far. I only had one partner to assign it to, so I gave it to her. Apparently, you need to keep it balanced, or they'll get offended and leave, locking you out of side missions. To make it easier to take over an area, you can perform wiretaps. Which makes it possible to see enemies through walls, somehow. These will show collectibles and other things on the map, as well. Don't know if they're required for trophies or not, but who can resist collecting Playboys?

 

Driving is kinda atrocious, and why I ended up getting a trophy for escaping a 2 minute plus police pursuit. There's an ability where you can slow time down, and turn more precisely. But why the handling is so bad without it, is beyond me. 

 

Already encountered a couple of funny bugs. Upon leaving a place, there were some dead people and cash floating a little bit above the ground by the exit. And then some woman appeared to be glitching out, vibrating intermittently. Nothing gamebreaking, but amusing to see. 

 

Not much else to say, at this point. Game is pretty fun, though. And with it set in the 60's, you can hear a lot of music from that time period on the radio.

 

Time played: ~4 hours, I think.

Trophy progress: 7/86 for 7% and an E rank.

[Psy-Tychist]

Degrees of Separation

Time Played: 4 hours

Trophies Earned: 5/10 - 52%

Scarves Collected: 66/133

Completion: 62.04%   -   +0.04%

 

Degrees of Separation is a 2D puzzle platformer like most of Moondrop's games. Considering they only have three games on their catalog and two of them have actual releases, this Norweigan developer seems to have an area they want to specialise in. I recommend looking at Amphora if you can find it on Steam.

 

The game centres around Ember and Rime, two people somehow brought together but can never touch. This part is not explained by the narrator, although the assumption is that Ember being of Summer and heat and Rime being of Winter and cold meaning they are both opposed and can never meet in the middle. As the game progresses, you learn a little more about the world, a supposed catastrophe that is happening or has happened and a dragon which you help escape at the end of each respected world.

 

The main mechanic of the game is that Ember and Rime affect the environment around them. This is needed to solve the puzzles to collect the scarves that are littered around each world. As with most puzzle games to progress you need to collect a certain number of scarves to open up doors in the hub world labeled as the Castle. Ember makes the background warm and summery, this makes lanterns rise with heat and water is liquid. She also seems to be able to infinitely breathe underwater which is helpful. Rime brings a cold glow to the area, making water freeze, lanterns fall and can create snowballs when rolling logs. Depending on where they stand will be where their respective powers will affect the environment.

 

As you progress through each of the worlds, they each have a unique mechanic related to using the pair together. In the second world, they can create a bridge that is impassable but can also walk on it through thin air to reach areas high up or block vents created by heat. The third world makes whenever they come together to create an explosion which can break rocks or in puzzles use each other like a trampoline to reach higher areas. The fourth world I haven't come across a specific mechanic but their individual area of effect has shrunk to be a sphere just around themselves. That might be the mechanic but I haven't got further in the game yet.

 

Overall the game itself is calm, there is no threat of death (even in the face of a dragon) and the puzzles can be challenging but the main issue is making sure you have the characters doing what you want them to do. I played the majority with my partner and they don't have the same dexterity with a controller as I do and it can be frustrating. When playing as both characters and switching between them, some parts can be easier but the AI is terrible at following you when requested and gets stuck often or just doesn't move to your level when requested. There also isn't a small map to help you around places you've visited so you know what you have and haven't visited which is a little annoying as the characters when moving screens seem to shift closer and further away, making the background seem more claustrophobic and difficult to navigate.

 

Trophy-wise the game is very simple, 7 trophies for collecting all the scarves and 3 trophies for doing a very small non-sensical things in the castle. There is no trophy for completing the game, so you can collect all the scarves and get 100% without seeing the ending (a bit like Teslagrad). I will come back to this and finish the story, but it's not one that particularly sticks out overall.

 

Next Game: Aaru's Awakening

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #4 - Torment: Tides of Numenara - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: 6h51m

Trophies earned: 10/53

 

 

While this game is certainly in the CRPG genre, it is actually quite different to other games of the genre (Sword Coast Legends, Pillars of Eternity). It feels a bit more complex and seems to lack some structure. It has a lot of layers to it, and the tutorial onlu covers the very basics.

 

This game seemes to be much more focused on the interaction with NPCs than combat. While games like PoE tend to have a good balance between exposition, character development and combat, this game made it's prime focus character development. This isn't necessarily bad, but it just isn't as gripping.

 

Visually it looks great. The view is isometric, as it generally is with these games and you can zoom in and out . All the NPCs that have something to offer are named, and there's a ton of them. There is very little voice-acting and a lot more reading htan in any of the other titles mentioned in the paragraphs above. So you better like reading.

While you can technically skip through the dialogues and just read and pick your prefered answers, on accasion you will miss out on extra bits of infomration if you choose to do so. As an example I was doing on quest that had me go talk with an NPC, who ended up mentioning another NPC, who was not really related to the quest and as such the quest log did no mention of him. When I happend to come across said other NPC, I was able to get an item from him due to having that one conversation prior.

 

The first major flaw I came across is a game mechanic that is referred to as Tides. Essentially your answeres determine what type of person you are and how NPCs will react to you. This is done by getting a coloured notification whenever you pick an answer that qualifies for a Tide shift. The issue here is that it doesn't give you an indication on what tide will be affected by which answer. You can kind of guess from the phrasal structure of the answer, but since there are many different types of Tide, it makes it tricky to steer into the direction you want to go. So far thre's gold, silver, blue, purple, red Tides. This should've had it's own tab in the character menu, as it's literally impossible to keep track which Tides are dominant.

Another gimmick for this game is that you actually use your attribute points (might, speed, intellect) to increase the chances of success on specific actions. Be it searching rubble, or deceiving an NPC. The more points you use, the higher the chance of success. Those used points will be gone though, until you rest. The caveat to resting is that events may progress and thus result in you missing out on certain quests.

 

The gameplay is pretty much like other games of the genre. You explore a map, interact with NPCs and transition to another map. Which brings me to another small gripe I have with this game. There doesn't seem to be a fast travel option between areas, like PoE has. Which means a whole lot of walking and additional loading screens to go through. There also isn't an option to increase movement speed, which is a shame.

 

The combat is another thing that seems a bit flawed. It seems strucutred in a really basic manner, but then becomes unnecessarily finicky. Moving and attack will take turns. Holding out on a turn may grant you two turns in a row. Things like that feel completely out of place for this genre.

 

Being almost seven hours in, all I managed to do was the tutorial, get 3 companions (which the game kind of throws at you from the get-go), and clear 2 out of 4  areas in the very first city. That's without even counting the various additional zones in all those areas. There are just so many NPCs to talk to and quests that make you run back and forth between areas multiple times.

 

 

It's definitely a game that has potential, and maybe once the game opens up more it'll improve on some of the issues I've had with it. For now it's a , but it's running iwth scissors.

Edited November 12, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[AuroraHistoire]

The Game is Great, I'm Just Bad at it ~ Azure Reflections

 

 

Azure Reflections is a sidescrolling bullet-hell game. Every stage is split into brief a section where you shoot a bunch of small enemies and then you get a boss. Bosses have 4 or 6 phases (maybe they have more phases on higher difficulties). Azure Reflections is super fast paced so bosses shouldn't take more then 2 minutes. You have a shooty-shoot attack that can be fired both right and left. You have the option to slow your movement, useful for grazing between bullets. You also have a barrier, it absorbs bullets, you can move while it's active, it also an attack that gets stronger with the amount of bullets it absorbs (can 1-shot bosses) and is the only way to defeat a boss. Your barrier takes a long time to recharge between uses but it will recharge instantly if you bring a boss' HP to zero.

 

Your best defense is not getting hit. Fortunately, your hit box is tiny. Every boss will fire more bullets then the entire United States Military could, at you, constantly. Fortunately, you don't in one hit  (you can turn that setting on after you clear the game on that particular difficulty), kinda. When you get hit, you get knocked back and stunned. If you get hit while stunned, you die. It is usually luck if you die or not, but you can move very slowly while stunned. You only get 3 lives and 2 continues. You can find get extra lives but they're uncommon. You can also buy and equip accessories that give you good passive effects. The number you can equip depends on how many you own; I can currently equip 4 accessories.

 

I can clear normal difficulty consistently but when you turn it up to hard, I can barely get past the first boss. Azure Reflections is very difficult and the trophy list requires near prefection from you. I have been talking about what the difficulty is like on normal; I haven't earned the privilege to play on lunatic yet. I have to go into 1000 IQ Histoire mode quite a lot to survive normal. I currently believe getting 100% is beyond my current skill level.

 

I did do a better job then I thought I could do. I was able to listen to more then 10 seconds of music, it was hard to listen while trying to not die but what I heard was really good. The gameplay was so good that I forgot about the story. The overall plot is basically just a bunch of very piety reason to battle and then everyone has tea at the end. The dialogue between the characters is pretty funny and there were a few really great lines.     

 

I'll definitely return to this game. It's going to be awhile but I know the perfect spot this title could make a second appearance. ?      

Aurora

                    

[SixyLove]

Update

"Having Dessert First"

Code: Realize - Future Blessings

Playtime: 8 hours (guesstimate)

Trophies Earned: 6/32 11%

 

I bought Code: Realize - Future Blessings almost a year ago. I really liked the first game, so I bought the second one despite only finishing one route in the first. I only played the first game because it was a PS+ title back in 2016. I feel so strange talking about something that happened 3 years ago. My life was so different back then. Anyway, I was most interested how the plot would continue from the first game. There was at least 5 different endings and you couldn't make them all cannon because there would have been 5 different plots to destroy the would going on at once. Well, I haven't actually started the sequel, yet. Not the "main campaign". The game lets you play the side content first if you want to. I decided to be a rebel and do that.

 

I played the Finis route first because I don't like Finis. Finis was second least favorite character. All I can really say without spoiling anything, he went from being a little brat to a decent character. The next route I played was the Herlock Sholmes one. It was quite refreshing to actually be the correct side of the law for once. Both the Finis and Sholmes route feel like additional routes for the first game. I don't mind that myself but I see how that could be confusing to new players to be dropped in the middle of story. 

 

Code: Realize are visual novel games. You get to made a decision every half-hour that will effect how the story plays out. I usually don't have trouble figuring out the correct choices for the endings I want by myself but I do die on occasion. I remember to save my progress before every decision, just in case.

 

I don't really have any excuse for never finishing this game. I take visual novels slowly, so it will take a while. I hope I don't miss a glossary word again and have to search through the entire game with a microscope again. 

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #5 - Yomawari: Midnight Shadows (PS4) - Preview

 

 

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software

Publisher: NIS America

Genre: Survival Horror

Price: 29,99

 

 

I playedt the first game(Yomawari: Night Alone) in a previous KYC iteration, which I found to be alright. I liked the setting and atmosphere, but really disliked the mechanics and the map was a disaster. So here's me hoping for improvements in those aspects. I usually prefer psychological horror games, but generally don't mind the survival kind too much either. So yeah, not much to say on this one, as I'm kind of expecting it to be very similar to the first game, as such I'd rather leave the more extensive writing for the 3rd day.

 

 

I'll probably go back to Torment: Tides of Numenara as well for hte remainder of hte event, whenever I find the time.

[AuroraHistoire]

Coronation ~ The Princess Guide

 

 

I got The Princess Guide in that one sale with all the other games on my KYC list. I just saw it in the PSN store, watched the trailer and bought the game because it looked neat. All I really know about the game is that there are four princesses. One is a boring knight, another is a mage, the third has a flipping minigun with a bayonet attachment and then you have one that is part dragon. Would I rather have a really big gun or be a dragon? I never thought I would have to make that choice.    

[MidnightDragon]

 

Time played: Around 7-8 hours

Trophies earned: 7/43 (11%)

 

In this game, you play as a litte red guy brought to a cube-shaped world to shape the land and determine how the plants and creatures of land and sea will evolve. This probably will offend some people, but that's the concept of this game.

 

Seeing that the platinum is clocked in at 600 hours on the guide (though much of it is idle grinding), I obviously didn't get too deep into it. Your cube guide, Navi (not of Zelda fame), makes a very annoying sound when it speaks (much like the Navi of Zelda fame), but you can hit X to skip most of it. The game isn't the best at explaining things. I don't mind figuring stuff out for myself, but this is a bit much! The graphics are cute, but the sound is bad and Navi's "speech" is annoying. On top of that, the game is kinda boring. I really don't think I'm going to be going any further in this.

 

Updated stats

Games Played: 123

Games Completed: 96

Trophies Earned: 2674

Unearned Trophies: 776

Completion Percentage: 80.15% (-1.45%)

 

Next game: Harvest Moon: Mad Dash (I mean it this time!)

Edited November 13, 2019 by MidnightDragon

[Fnee2000]

Game #2 - God of War

Played on PS4

Time Played - Around 6 hours

Trophies Earned - 3 out of 37 (4%)

 

A little of history of why I held off so long to play this game. See, I felt a little jaded from the time I played God of War Ascension on PS3. As that game felt like an expansion for God of War 3 than a quality self contained sequel. Add in the fact that the tower at the end of the game was neigh impossible by even the best players, I never platinumed it. Though, they did patch it to make it a little easier on Hard. I may one day finish that one.

Anyway, all that led to my jaded feeling toward another God of War game. Now, I heard all of the stories of just how great this new God of War game was. Saw many many people call it the game of the year last year. I still decided to wait until I felt like playing it. That feeling never really came. I guess I just had to force myself into the situation of playing this game. Boy am I hating myself for waiting. So far this game has been great. The story of a newly single dad, who has some anger issues, and must find a way to teach his son the ways of the world as quick as possible.

 

The core gameplay is so simple, yet can be made so robust. You have 4 main moves, light attack, heavy attack, block, and dodge. All of this is made more robust by skills you can pick up and runic attacks you can get along the way. You also have your rage attacks that can turn the tide in battle if you are getting beat.

This is a very beautiful game graphically. So many different colors used make each area even more interesting than the last. You can go from deep dark caves to the colorful forest.

 

The one downside for me is the large amount of collectables that need to be found. I am not a big fan of collectables, never have. they always seem to be there to force you into playing for longer than needed if you want that shiny platinum.

 

In all, this is a great game and well worth playing if you are even remotely interesting in a 3D action game with an interesting story. I know I didn't go into the story much, because I don't want to give anything away. Just think of it as a father and son bonding adventure, but the father has some rage issues.

 

The trophies seem to be pretty straight forward. Beat the game, beat the end game, get all of the collectables, level up gear, and get 1000 kills. Easy but grindy and lengthy, which seems to be people's complaints in the end game.

 

God of War - ????? out of 5

Simply amazing, beautiful, and brilliant. Combat is intuitive and easy to pick up and will be fun to master. The end game grind and collectables are what I won't be looking forward to. However, those downsides are not enough for me to take a goat away from this great game. Yes, great even at only 6 hours played! I will definitely go back to this game to finish it.

 

Next game up...

 

Game #3 - Fe

 

[DamagingRob]

Game #4, Final Review: Mafia III 

 

While I'm enjoying this game, there are a lot of things I dislike. I had a side mission where I was collecting boxes of weed, while driving to them in a boat. I went a little too far and pressed down on the d-pad, because that's how you pick them up. But it also can drop a grenade if you're not in range of the item. The result? My boat blew up.. I was unfortunately fine, though. Meaning I had to swim all the way back to shore. After that, and not seeing another boat around, I decided to skip that side mission. It just would have increased by kickback revenue, which isn't all that great. 

 

Too much driving. There is no fast travel, so getting anywhere takes using a car or going on foot. And when things keep popping up on far away sections of the map, it becomes a bit tiresome and time-consuming. Not to mention, you have to play through it twice for the Plat. Open world games should not be like this. With all the side activities and stuff to see and do, I at least don't usually want to play through them again.. 

 

Lockpicking minigame, ugh.. This reminds me of AC: Unity, which was about the only thing I disliked in that game. At least I learned you can just kick open doors (but I still have to do it anytime I wirehack). And it alerts nearby civilians, who will not hesitate to run and call the cops. A small price to pay to avoid doing it, though.

 

Speaking of the civilians, they will call the cops on you for a lot of things. Killing somebody, firing a gun, breaking down doors, or stealing a car. With the last one, it seems to be breaking the car window that sets them off, though. Jumping into a hoodless vehicle has never resulted in someone calling the cops. And to call the cops, they will run to the nearest payphone. No cell phones in this time period. Lol. You have time to run and take them out, if you please. This can sometimes spiral into multiple people running for payphones, though. And at that point, it might be time to just get the hell out of there. 

 

Something I didn't mention in my first review, is that this takes place in Louisiana. Somewhere in or around New Orleans. And there is a lot of racial tension. Being an African-American, you can be trespassing by just going into some establishments. There are also gators. Lots and lots of gators. You can actually feed dead bodies to them, and get eaten yourself. Which you can get a couple of trophies for. Was a bit nerve wracking later on, when swimming across and one came after me. 

 

Another thing is, any money you have will be cut in half anytime you die. Since you need to save up 500k for a trophy, this would be a major problem if not for the safe. Once money is placed in the safe, it's well... safe. But driving there all the time could have also been an issue. Thankfully, you will eventually be able to call someone at any time to come pick up your money and deliver it there. You can also call a weapons dealer, but I can't spend money until I reach 500k, so haven't bothered. 

 

And I think that's about it, unless I think of something else. But the game is still pretty fun, and I'm not really tired of playing it yet. Looks good, sounds good. Little buggy. Probably go with just in case there's something else on the list better than it, but not quite as good as Prey.

 

Time played: I have no idea. Between 10-15 hours probably.

Trophy progress: 20/86 for 20% and a C rank. 

Completion Percentage: 92.04% (-0.56%)

[PerryToxteth]

So much for starting this KYC on time! I intended to play Old Man's Journey the last couple days but projects, youth sports, and life got in the way. I guess I'll try and find time for it at the end of the month. 

Here's my starting stats:

 

 

Pre-KYC11 Stats

Games Played/ Completed:        138/103

Trophies Earned:                              4621

Unearned Trophies:                           624

Completion %:                                88.27%

 

 Since KYCX, I've only earned 72 trophies, and considering I earned 70 trophies in July, it tells you how neglected my PS4 has been. In the brief sessions of playing, I've been inching along for the AC Origins platinum. Last time I checked, I had put in over 80 hours into the game, which feel like 10-15 hours too much. It's a great game, just way too repetitive with such an enormous map. 

  Sadly, I haven't even had time to get back to The Invisible Hours, which I enjoyed immensely at the time. 

 

But excellent reviews everyone! I've already added a few game titles to the Wish List. 

 

First Game: Life is Strange; Before the Storm