Kill Your Completion 11

[Fnee2000]

I am a little behind myself. Was supposed to have Fe done, but I haven’t started it yet. Been trying to finish the platinum for AC Odyssey and I am 1 episode away. I should get that platinum tonight and then I will put some time into Fe tomorrow. Then I will be back on track with Uncharted Lost Legacy sometime this weekend.

[DamagingRob]

Game #6, Final Review- Tales of Zestiria

 

Well, I didn't put much more time in. Just an hour or so to hit the time minimum. But there is a lot more going on with the equipment than I'd like.. Now I can fuse same equipment items together, and I think they level up as you fight. Going to wing it and hope for the best, I guess. 

 

In battles, if you hit an enemy with an elemental art they're weak to, all of the hits in that combo become power hits and do more damage. Then you can fuse with a character, and use combined arts. And you don't even have to perform a silly dance!

 

Entered another dungeon, and this one had some really simple puzzles. You just use your fire ability to light some things up, and the door opens. Still early, so they may get more challenging in later dungeons. 

 

Skits return. These appear in every game in the series (as far as I'm aware), and are activated with the L3 button. They provide some additional voiced story bits, sometimes funny, and sometimes just adding to the narrative/lore. 

 

Graphics are about what you'd expect. Not as amazing as a AAA game, but good enough. The animated cutscenes look great, though. Music and voice acting have also been good, so far. And that's about it. I guess a ? With such little time invested, and it being a pretty long game, that score could change. I don't have a great track record with finishing Tales of games, though. I'll hopefully beat it, at least.

 

Time played: Over 3 hours.

Trophy progress: 3/56 for 4% and an E rank.

Completion Percentage: 91.88% (-0.72%)

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #7 - Iron Crypticle - Preview

 

 

Developer: Confused Pelican

Publisher: Tikipod Ltd

Genre: Twin-stick shooter

Price: 8,99

 

 

Well, here we have a game I know almost nothing about. It's supposed to be a twin.stick shooter with RPG elements, which sounds good to me.

 

I've played a few games in this genre, among which are Livelock, Tesla vs Lovecraft, Riddled Corpses EX, Jydge, Neon Chrome, Alienation, etc. Most I enjoyed so my hopes are relatively high for this one. I mean it's kind of time for another good game to reveal itself from the games I picked.

 

 

In other news, I got the plat in Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. THe collectathon, was somewhat frustrating, as some areas were quite tricky to get to with all the monsters that showed up post-game. It has some neat little throwbacks to the first game though.

[AuroraHistoire]

Aim High in Life and Watch Out for Flying Plates ~ Little Dragons Café

 

I spent my morning playing this lovely little game. I was going to change things and not name my character Aurora. I picked out Rin for my name beforehand but Rin was the default name. That was very convenient but I also need to pick another name for a NPC. I was unprepared and unwilling to be creative, so I used Aurora. I played through the tutorial taught by my in game mum, with the tought of that something bad will happen to mum in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, I was right. Mom is asleep and can't wake up. Fortunately, a magic old man gave me a dragon egg and told me to raise it into a full dragon. I named my dragon Kevin. 

 

Little Dragons Café is a adventure game with some management elements. You run a Café in a remote region of some island. You have some assistance from your employies. You have your twin brother (or sister), the emo teen-age reincarnation of Link (from Zelda), a girl who goes super saiyan and breaks all your plates when she gets mad to be your servers/diaswashers. Your chef is a orc with endless wisdom. Your staff can run things alright on their own but things go better if you help out directly and talk to them when their having personal issues or slacking off.

 

Your main priority is to go adventuring and bring back ingredients for the dishes at your café. Your dragon will adventure with you and help you on your journey. He (or she or whatever gender Kevin wants be) will gain new abilities as he grows to help you adventure. Your adventures will mostly take you to various gathering points for food but you will also find recipe scraps. You collect 4 scraps to learn a new recipe. You can cook any recipes you learn to make food for your dragon. You need to have the proper ingredients to cook a recipe. The quality of the food depends on the quality of the ingredients you use and how well you perform the cooking rhythm game. You will sometimes find better quality versions of ingredients during your adventures. The best ingredients have the prefix shiny before the ingredient; I always pretend to freak out like I found a shiny Pokemon everytime I get a shiny ingredient. I find the cooking rhythm game to be quite easy and it's lax will how precise you have to be. Any recipes you make can be added to the café menu and the chef will replicate your food prefectly (unless he is sad) for customers, provided you have the ingredients.

 

Your café is also a inn. So far the story has been about having a eccentric guest stay at your inn and you watch events for a week or two until you get a quest to make them food that will solve all their problems. Taking a look at the trophy list, I feel this will go on for awhile. I don't mind because the story has been good so far.

  

I've been feeding Kevin a lot of pudding. There is a game mechanic that your dragon will change color depending on what type of food you feed them. Kevin was red to begin with and pudding will turn him blue over several meals. Currently he looks like a cheap Spyro knockoff because he is still a small dragon and dark purple. 

[Arctic Cress]

Game #5 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Time played: 3 hours

Trophies: 7/45 (10% - E)

 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the latest game produced by long-time Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. This meant nothing to me though, as I have never played any games in the Castlevania series and my knowledge is limited to the What is a man? cutscene. Anyway, enough about that.

 

You play as the Shardbinder Miriam, who utilizes demon shards embedded within her body to use magical powers. She is one of the two Shardbinders left after the Alchemists' Guild sacrificed the rest of them in an attempt to summon demons, however in instead wiped out most of the Guild itself. The other living Shardbinder, known as Gebel, is trying to summon demons himself for his own purposes, so Miriam and an old member of the Alchemists' Guild, Johannes, set out to the castle where Gebel is located in order to stop him from doing so.

 

The game itself is a typical Metroidvania. Miriam can use a whole assortment of weapons, including short swords, greatswords, whips, axes, guns, and many others. As the above paragraph states, she is also able to use magic via demon shards. Several of the enemies in-game will drop a shard, and the shard will fuse with Miriam's body, either giving her a new magical ability or powering up her existing ones. These include elemental spells, passive abilities, and different summons. I find the combat to be fun, but I am not very good at it and have seen the GAME OVER screen a bit too much, especially when facing the first boss. I brought enough healing so that I didn't die against Zangetsu, but he would have wiped the floor with me had I not done so.

 

With this being a Metroidvania and the fact that I haven't exactly liked platformers in previous reviews in this topic, it's not that big of a deal so far and I haven't been annoyed by any of the platforming that needs to be done so far, which is definitely welcome. Speaking of which, I do enjoy the freedom that this game has to explore a lot, as I've spent a lot of time just wandering around despite there being some areas that are somewhat inaccessible at the moment. I assume I'll be able to find ways to reach these areas later on. The quest system in-game is pretty barebones so far - there's one long questline for collecting certain equipment and another for killing a number of a certain demon. I did find a single quest while exploring the castle that required a waystone, but that was it so far. The lady who gives out the demon killing quests has a great voice actor doing her lines - one of the highlights so far.

 

The game is very fun to play even if I do tend to die a lot, but I'll make sure to keep at it (and bring many healing options) as I press further into the castle after the KYC month has completed.

 

 

Starting completion: 71.83%

Current completion: 70.98%

Difference: -0.85%

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

Super Neptunia RPG: 6/36 (10% - E)

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World: 6/41 (10% - E)

Crystar: 14/51 (20% - D)

 

If you think the completion % dropped a bit too much, you would be correct as I did in fact start Shenmue II in preparation for III. I plan to finish it this weekend, then start Shenmue III for this topic right afterwards. The only thing that stopped it from reducing my % too much was the One Piece platinum that I got for my 9,000th trophy milestone. Though before I get back into the Shenmue world I have more KYC games to go through - next up will be Worldend Syndrome, and then Team Sonic Racing before Shenmue III starts.

[MarkusT1992]

Game #6: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

 

 

A bit late but it was a busy week so far with no time to write the review.

Trails of Cold Steel is the latest sub series in the "The Legend of Heroes" series. I haven't played any of the other Legend of Heroes game so this is a first for me. However I played the demo for Trails of Cold Steel 3.

 

The game starts right in action. You are part of a group whos mission is to stop a cannon from being fired. Nothing is explained to you and you are supposed to know what to do. That's especially difficult in the battles as you can do a lot of different stuff that have a lot of different effects. Again, nothing is explained. At the end of that section of the game you have to fight a boss.

You also don't know who any of the characters is. This section is the only thing I didn't like. I want to know what I can do.

After you're done the game jumps back 5 months and starts to introduce you to it's mechanics.

You play as Rean Schwarzer, a new student of the Thor Military Academy. You're on the way to the academy by train. After ariving at the train station of the town the academy is in you meet a girl with the same uniform as yours. Most students wear green uniforms but you have a red one. During the entrance ceremony you get to know why your uniform and the ones of eight other students are red. You nine form a new class called Class VII. That's the sixth class after I II III IV and V and the first year this class exist. Right after the entrance ceremony you are treated to an orienteering exercise in an old school building.

There you get your ARCUS, a device that let's you use Orbments. Through those Ormbents you can cast magic. It also functions as a communicator.

The group splits up and you stay behind with Eliot and Gaius. You three then start to explore the dungeon your in to find the exit. It's in this dungeon where you learn how the battles work, but more on the battle system later.

During this dungeon all of Class VII's members get introduced. At the end you fight another boss before finally exiting the dungeon. The game then skips roughly two weeks.

Back in class you have to answer a question. Answering correctly will give you APs which will rais your rank. That means you should familiarise with the history of the land and other stuff that might get asked in class, a bit like in the Persona series.

The next day start your free day where you can do what you want. That's where I am right now. I have three quest of which two are required to advance the story.

 

In battles you fight with up to four members. On the left side you have a timeline that shows you whos turn is next. In your turn you can either just attack, use magic, called Arts or use Crafts.

Attacks are free, Arts use EP and Crafts use CP. CP are gainedby attacking or being attacked. Attacks, Arts and Crafts have a range. Some hit all enemies in a line, some hit in an area and some only hit a single enemy. To allign your attacks you can move in your turn but that ends your turn. Then you can use items, which also ends your turn. That are the things I can do right now.

Other things you can do that I saw during the first part of the game are link attacks, but I don't know how they work exactly. Then there are S-Crafts which seem to be a special attack you can use once.

 

Time played: 5:45h

Trophies: 2/51

Rating:

[Fnee2000]

Game #3 - Fe

Played on PS4

Time Played - Around 6 hours

Trophies Earned - 8 out of 13 (62%)

 

I have just completed the main "story" and all I have left is to mop up the collectables. So, I figured this would be a good time to write this, since the game is fresh in my mind. I would have to classify this game as a stealth/platformer. You do have to a lot more platforming (and more on that later) but there is a small amount of stealth involved.

 

As for the story, or what I could make of it. There isn't any dialogue, so the story is told through cut scenes. From what I could gather it is an environmental story about protecting wildlife and forests. You also have to look out for what appear to be robots that hunt the animals and you (hence the stealth). It's a pretty thin story, so you just have to roll with it.

 

The gameplay is typical platforming with some lite puzzle aspects. Your character doesn't really have an attack and really can only make sounds to help it on its journey. The sounds are your abilities that you must use to help you with the puzzle aspects of the game. Now, as for the platforming, the character moves and glides like they were trying to copy Spyro the Dragon. Even the character design kind of looks like Spyro. Not to say that is bad, it just felt a bit off. Several times I went to jump, only to fall all the way down and have to jump back up. In all, it wasn't a difficult game at all. I am sure I would have been done sooner, if I hadn't made some user (jumping) errors.

 

This is a fairly pretty game for being an indie title. A lot of it felt like a painting told through purple, blue, and black. They do throw in some yellow, orange, and red to help distinguish what ability is needed.

 

All around, it was a good looking game, but just felt like it was lacking innovation gameplay wise. They tried with the different abilities you can choose from but that wasn't enough to make the gameplay stand out.

 

Fe - ?? out of 5

An atypical platformer with some simple stealth thrown in. Having different abilities was nice but didn't add to the overall experience.

 

Next game up...

 

Game #4 - Uncharted : The Lost Legacy

[dizzyshadow]

Ok, so as is normal with these events i find myself well behind with the reviews, however this is possibly my worst ever.

 

Game 3 :Kingdom New Lands

 

It actually took me a while to get my 3 hours in on this game, I've ended up fitting it in around the other games i've been playing.

 

This is a sidescrolling survival game, you are the ruler of a kingdom, you ride around on your horse and are in charge of recruiting workers and building the tools and buildings they need. All of this is done by spending gold, which you acquire (mostly) through the activities of your workers. So it becomes a fairly rudimentary resource management game, where the survival elements come in is that every night you are attacked by monsters who are trying to steal all your gold and tools, If they steal all your gold then the next thing they go for is your crown and if they escape with that its game over. You can't fight yourself so its down to the defenses you have put in place through your workers to see if they hold.The attacks grow stronger as time passes meaning it becomes harder to survive, the aim is to rebuild a broken boat and to escape to the next island. this requires a lot of gold to complete, and often the rebuilding must be undertaken in a dangerous location. There is no time limit as such but the ever increasing attacks together with the arrival of winter (if you delay to long) which severely limits your money making ability means that if you don't complete it quickly enough it can be very challenging.

 

Whilst i enjoyed the premise i haven't particularly enjoyed the game itself. The problems i have with it are you can't control what you workers do and regularly they prioritise the wrong things, the same with your defenders, its very frustrating when they choose to guard a tower which is no where near where you are being attacked. The game is also very poor at recognising when you are trying to spend money the ruler regularly throws money on the floor instead of assigning it to the thing you are trying to build, meaning you have to pick it up and repeat the process. The apacing of the game is also a bit slow for my liking.

 

Overall fairly mediocre game and not one i'll be in a hurry to go back to

 

Playtime: 3 Hours

Trophies : 7/35

Rating : 

[dizzyshadow]

Game 4 : Medievil

 

 

So another remake of a PS1 game, i had seen lots of hype around this similar to previous release (spyro, crash bandicoot) i've not played any of these games before as i didn't own a console back in then so they are all new to me and don't come with the nostalgia factor and i'm never quite sure what to expect. Personally i loved spyro & hated crash bandicoot, so where did this one fit well to be honest somewhere in the middle.  

 

For anyone who isn't aware toy play as Sir Daniel Fortesque a knight who died in the battle against an evil sorcerer he was labelled the hero but in reality was struck down by the first arrow., now 100 years later the sorcerer has returned and cast a spell to raise the dead, however in doing so he resurrects Sir Daniel, who must now save the kingdom. This is his chance at redemption and to become a true hero.

 

Not really sure how to describe the genre of the game, its a 3d platformer but with the emphasis on fighting not platforming, and to be honest this is where its problems are there doesn't seem to be much that can be done to avoid enemy attacks, you have shield buts its fairly ineffective at blocking attacks, so the best approach appears to be hacking wildly to "get them before the get you". I also have a problem with the health system, as your health carries over from level to level, which effectively encourages you to replay the first level lots of times in between levels in order to restore your health, which to be honest really shouldn't be necessary, and finally the checkpoint system, or rather the lack of one. If you die you start the level again which is frustrating given the length of some of them. and even then you don't get full health you get the health you originally started the level with. 

 

The remake appears to be good quality and i understand they have added some new content that wasn't in the original game. I've quite enjoyed my playthrough so far however now i'm on to the harder levels its feels like the lack of checkpoints could start to get frustrating.

 

 

Playtime : 6 hours

Rating:  (for now could see this being downgraded)

Trophies: 10/39

Completion: 60.07% (-0.1%)

Next Up : Erica

 

[dizzyshadow]

Game 5: Erica

 

A game that's almost entirely story so i don't want to spoil it here, it follows a young girl (Erica) and the aftermath of father's murder. Its told through the medium of FMV which is quite unusual in this day and age. Its very short (approx 1.5 hours long) but what i like is that you don't see everything on one playthrough, in fact you have so little information at the end of the first playthrough it really is difficult to know what is going on who you can trust. For me this added realism and puts you in the position of having to judge what you think is best. It also makes you more want to play it again to find out more. According to the trophy guide there are 6 playthrough minimum to unlock all the trophies, this is particular because none of the trophies unlock until you finish the playthrough as they all contain the requirement "and finish" which is something i hadn't seen before.

 

Not sure how this will hold up after all those extra playthroughs but for now i've really enjoyed it. If you are into story driven games then i'd recommend trying to pick this up in a sale sometime.

 

Playtime: 3 hours (2 Playthroughs)

Rating: 

Trophies 13/34

Completion: 60.14% (boosted by progress in non event games)

Next Up : Resident Evil 2

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 11

Game No. 1

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

 

 

Playing Time: 2+ hours

Trophies Earned: 11/35 (30% E ranking)

 

Final Thoughts: Either I forgot to read a review, or I somehow had convenience amnesia and subconsciously chose not to remember, but this game's main character is not Max from the first game, but her sidekick Chloe. 

 For those not in the Arcadia Bay loop, Chloe is a teenager who is the snarkiest, mouthy, sassiest, annoying, brattiest character in existence. I hated the scenes she was involved in Life is Strange. Now a whole game revolves around her. I thought I had escaped her by 

Spoiler

Choosing to off her, rather than the whole town

but, this is a prequel! 

  Anyways, for those new to the series, the first game of Life is Strange took place in a Pacific Northwest town called Arcadia Bay. You play the role of Max, a camera-loving teenage girl who is smart, witty, and tom boy-ish; along the same vein as Joey Potter from Dawson's Creek (Shh, I was a closeted Gen Xer fan of the show). Max has a best friend named Chloe, and they are pretty much complete opposites. Among the plots in the original game, Max and Chloe are searching for clues on the whereabouts of a missing girl named Rachel Amber.

 Now backtrack, or go "Before the Storm', and you have this game. Max hasn't moved back to Arcadia Bay yet, so it's just Chloe, and you get to follow her around while she does her rebellious acts, and has a snarky thought about ALL things around her.  As she goes around her daily routine of trying to piss people off, she befriends...you guessed it - Rachel Amber. Her character is essentially Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks fame. In fact, this game has so many allusions to the TV show/movie that it's not even a fan boy acknowledgement, but a borderline blatant rip-off.

  I felt I couldn't write a review without getting to a good stopping point, so I completed the first chapter (out of three, and a 'bonus'). Ironically, when Chloe drops the hard-ass, nothing is cool, I hate everything attitude; the story really takes off. The writers do a great job of conveying to the audience that age-old theme of teenage insecurity and adolescent angst. It's a Millennial setting on the subject, but it's done so well that any generation can relate. Texting and social media is incorporated into the gameplay/ story, and as someone who didn't grow up with that, you can really see the added strife today's youth have to go through. No longer are you safe from peer pressure, social insecurities, bullying, etc., once you leave the school grounds. It's  24/7.

  With as much dread as I had when I saw Chloe as my character, I've completely switched and now look eager to continue the story through the remaining chapters. The trophies in the game aren't tough. Similar to the first game with Max taking photos of things, this game's trophies involve Chloe finding spaces in the environment to write graffiti. And of course, her tags are snarky as hell.

  The story has just begun, but at this point, I will give it a .

 

Next Up: Old Man's Journey

Edited November 20, 2019 by PerryToxteth

[DamagingRob]

Game #7, Day 1- Earthlock

 

Earthlock starts you off playing as a woman named Ive. Who passed her flight exam with flying colors, and should have been selected. But her dad's an overprotective man, and left her off the list. One of her fellow students tells her to take his place, saying as much. Nice guy. It then switches you to different characters, though Ive will return again probably. 

 

Amon and his uncle, who I'm a little unsure if by blood (he's a frickin' hammerhead shark-man!), are investigating some ruins. They find an artifact, which Amon intends to sell for medicine for his uncle. Before he can sell it to the local shop, however, Gnart convinces him to bring it to the Great Archive where he will paid a lot more. Gnart is another animal-like person. A white bat? 

 

Before you embark for the Great Archive, though, Gnart has to find Olia, a red-haired woman he has to deliver a message to. Once found, she then needs your help before she'll take the message. This seems to be becoming a theme.. 

 

This game resembles an old school JRPG. In other words, there is no voice acting, and the combat is turn based. You may need to grind here and there to progress, as well. At Level 3, I was quickly decimated by the last boss I faced. But at Level 4, I managed to beat him. Still had one party member get K.O.ed. Party members can also switch between two types, which results in having different abilities available. Amon, for example, can switch from a melee attacker to a ranged one. 

 

The dungeons and open world map allow you to switch to different party members, and you will do so a lot. Each one has unique things they can interact with. And enemies show up on the screen, as well. They will chase after you, and a battle will start if you're touched. Kind of like my previous game. A slight difference is how you get preemptive strikes. You literally just press when an enemy is in range, and you get to attack first. Also, if multiple enemies are alerted to your presence and chasing you, you will start a fight with all of them. Fighting multiple enemies at once gives you more XP, so it can be worth it. Leveling up gives you a point to spend on a board, unlocking new abilities and/or increasing stats. 

 

You'll also encounter a frog boy early on. It kind of seems to me like he's a person wearing a frog mask on his head, but who knows with this game. He takes you to a place where you can plant stuff and craft things. And to return, you can warp to it from any save point. With the plants, you'll want to water them. But not over water them. A line shows how much. Then wait a bit, and they'll be ready to harvest.

 

About it for now. Doesn't seem too bad, so far. But not wowing me, either. 

 

Time played: 2 and a half hours.

Trophy progress: 3/35 for 4% and an E rank.

[dizzyshadow]

Game 6 : Resident Evil 2

 

I'l l start with a confession, i'm not a fan of the horror genre (be that games, movies, books) i always try and stay clear, largely because i'm a big wimp, to give you an idea of how much when i played the last of us before bed time it gave me nightmares, so i had to resort to only playing it in the middle of the day. Now i have kids i don't get that option so it evenings only so i tend to steer clear of anything even remotely horror based, so why am i playing this well my brother in law considers this the finest game series in existence and this is his favourite of all of them, so when the remaster was released earlier this year i had to give it a go. Its not one i had been looking forward to but given the review i wanted to give it a fair shot.

 

I'm sure most people already know this but the game is split into 2 stories Leon's story and Claire's Story, the characters do briefly meet in the prologue and then get separated. I've chosen Leon's story first. Leon is new police officer reporting to his first job out the academy. on arrival he discovers the town has been overrun by some sort of outbreak, after a brief skirmish he makes it to the police station and discovers how bad the situation is, what was the last safe refuge has also been overrun and the only survivor is barricaded inside. They soon discover an escape route but they need to place three medallions into a statue to open a secret passageway, to find the 3 medallions he needs to venture into other areas of the police station and face the dangers that lurk there.

 

Game play involves exploring new areas to try and find clues, supplies or just the way forward. Its done form the 3rd person perspective and is pretty standard in that regard.You are relatively free to do as you wish although the game is subtly guiding you towards a certain route. The main challenge is ammo, or rather lack of it, you have to be very careful with your supplies and choose which monsters to take out otherwise finding yourself unprotected at a key moment. There are also some pretty neat puzzles based on what i have seen so far and I must say that they have done an excellent job with the remaster, it looks particularly gruesome, i'm not usually one who appreciates graphics but it is really noticeable here.

 

I'm pretty sure there is a great game here, what i'm still not sure is that its one i will enjoy. Suspect this will sit on the shelf being ignored as there is always something better to play.

 

Playtime: 2 hours

Rating: 

Trophies: 8/42

Completion: 60.04% (-0.13%)

 

Next Up : WarGroove

[SixyLove]

Update

"Sweetness and Lightning"

Mary Skelter: Nightmares / Puyo Puyo Champions

Playtime: 40 hours / 30 minutes

Trophies earned: 20/34 28% / 8/45 12%

 

Mary Skelter: Nightmares is my favorite game of the event so far. Since I last talked about this game, I have gotten both Gretel and Rapunzel on my team. Gretel is probably the best character in battle since she can restore the whole parties SP by a ton. Gretel's blood meter when licked, has a very powerful SP healing effect. Gretel has a mimic skill. I don't fully understand how that skill works but it gives you access to a list of skills so long, it probably has more skills then all my other party members have combined. She has more then enough skill variety to always be able to use an attack a enemy is weak against, create blood, and create a endless supple of SP for the party. SP is my most important and limited resource in battles, so this discover was a really big deal. 

 

Outside of battles, Gretel is my favorite character. She is so smart that she is playing 5-D chess while everyone else is playing checkers. She was living and co-existing with the monsters for her whole life, so she isn't the best at following social customs. Rapunzel was a "feral child" before you find her in the wild. Rapunzel is a child, 7 years old at most, and has survived the harsh environment of the jail on her own. Rapunzel isn't a very intelligent by child standards and will probably try to eat anything, including Jack. I'm surprised that she can even say Japanese words.

 

I'm at the point now where I have 1 dungeon left to complete and a tower to climb. I'm raising everyone's affection levels so I get the good ending. I never looked up if that was required for the good ending in a guide or something, but a tutorial told me that affections levels will effect the ending. The good ending usually require to do extra stuff and to not snitch on your friends to the detective that will shoot you in the face. As far as the trophy list goes, I need to register some more monsters in my Pokedex, do more quests for the sun worshipers, level up some more and...

Spoiler

recruit the secret party member I'm not suppose to know exists yet but I do because I looked at the trophy list. 

 

Puyo Puyo Champions

I only played the game for a half hour and I've already seen almost everything. I like Puyo Puyo, there just isn't much content in this game. It is like Tetris on the Gameboy. The game is really good but you've seen all the content in 5 minutes. The trophy list will keep you busy for a while and requires a good amount skill with a side of luck. 

 

[Psy-Tychist]

Aaru's Awakening

 

Time Played: 1 hour

Trophies Earned: 0/15 - 0%

Balls Collected: 21/??

Completion: 62.10%   -   +0.10%

 

Aaru's Awakening is a 2D puzzle game in a hand-drawn style. The game consists of 23 levels overall, which has 3 tutorial levels to show how the general mechanics work. Each world has 5 levels and the 5th level is a boss fight. 

 

The game itself is a very basic platformer with an unusual art style which certainly makes it stand out. The story of the game is scant at best, but the basic gist is that you play as Aaru, a ward of Dawn who is one of the four original deities who fought for centuries against his brothers Day, Dusk and Night. Gods brokered a truce between them all which allowed one of them to rule while the others rested. Night has been making plans to overthrow all the others but Dawn created Aaru to put Night back in his place and keep the peace.

 

Aaru has 2 main mechanics at its disposal, a jump into a dash that breaks light rocks and a teleporting bouncy ball of light. Using these moves and the basic jumping to complete levels as fast as possible. Throughout the levels, there are mostly environmental hazards to avoid (falling platforms, poisonous pits, deadly sunshine, golden quicksand pools) but occasionally there are enemies that wouldn't go amiss in a Lovecraftian novel. The enemies and Aaru will die in one hit, but the game respawns you quickly, expecting that this is the normal issue you will have.

The boss I fought was hard enough as you had to activate light balls on the main screen and a large one would show up and then the boss would do an attack. The attack was randomised, but as with everything in the game, you get hit, you go back to the start.

 

I couldn't get into the game very well. I found the controls floaty but unresponsive and that the levels were designed to intentionally be awkward and not free-flowing. Design-wise for the characters and the actual backgrounds, it is quite unique and I know that the colour palettes change the further you get into the game  (I've only got to the boss of Day so far)  to provide more variety. I might go back to it and really try to attempt getting the Gold times, but I think it will be a while before I attempt this.

 

Trophy-wise, all relate to getting the best times in all the levels. Only 12% of people have ever even finished the first world of the game. A good run of the game and you can finish the story in about 6 hours, but getting the gold times will take a good amount of trial and error.

 

Next Game: Ninja Senki DX

[MidnightDragon]

 

Time played: Around 11 hours

Trophies earned: 18/28

 

This is a puzzle game spinoff of Harvest Moon. The simplest way to describe this is Harvest Moon meets Tetris. You have to rack up the highest score you can farming as quick as you can. You mostly gather crops, but you also collect milk, eggs, and wool and you can also fish in some levels. You can combine crops to make larger crops and get more points to get that elusive three star rating. It starts easy at first, but gets harder. There isn't much story: the island has been turned into a jungle and you have to gather all eight time seeds to restore things to normal. In order to get the time seeds, you have to go to the sky world and underworld, which has some annoying obstacles. The underworld has fire that can burn your crops, but you can place crops after the fires die down temporarily and use it to grow it huge. In the sky world, snow falls and freezes your crops, fish, etc. You have to run around the ice to shatter it, but it fully matures any crop. There's also boars and falling coconuts that destroy everything in their path. You also can unlock "helper sprites" to make things easier. However, using them takes energy, which you get by playing through the worlds. The more stars you get, the more energy you get. 

 

This is more fun than I expected and surprisingly addictive. That being said, I can tell that getting three starts in all levels is going to be a pain in the ass. You can play with up to four players, which would probably make getting all three stars simpler, but I don't have anyone to play with. That said, I know at least one got the plat solo, so just need to be persistent. 

 

Updated stats

Games Played: 124

Games Completed: 96

Trophies Earned: 2693

Unearned Trophies: 785

Completion Percentage:79.86% (-1.74%) 

 

Next game: Civilization VI

Edited November 23, 2019 by MidnightDragon

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #7 - Iron Crypticle - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: a bit over 3 hours

Trophies earned: 25/39

 

 

This game turned out to be more than just a twin-stick shooter. It also has 2d platforming and at it's core, it's a rogue-like. Had I realised that this was in the rogue-like genre, I would probably not have bought it, as I am not a fan of the genre. (rogue-lite I do enjoy though). My problem with this genre is that I dislike it when a game nullifies all my progress, effort and time I've put into the game. While it's similar to the schmup genre in that regard, the major difference is that you at least get credits  to continue progressing in that one and there is no character build-up of any kind.

 

Anyway... In this game you select  out of 4 available charactes, that seem to have no notable difference except the colour. It has pixelated graphics with a top-down view. The levels consist of various paths that you can go, after you've cleared the room you're currently in. Essentially you have one start point, thatgives you 2 ways to go, then you get another 1 or 2 choies in the next path and so on, until you eventually reach the boss chamber. All the rooms in.between the start and the boss are randomly genereated, or at least their location on the map is. The rooms can either be enemies, a 2D platforming level, a mini-boss or a shop.

 

The stock at the shop is random and you only get 4 items to pick from. Each cost gold, which you earn from defeating enemies anddestroying breakable objects. The items range from stat upgrades to objects that have no use until they are combined gems and runes, each of which needs 5 to do a thing).

 

Now the gameplay is something I've had an issue with right from the start. The thing is, you can't shoot in a 360 degree angle, like it's usually the case with twin.sticks. You can only shoot in the following directions + and x. Anything in.between is not happening, so you need to adjust the line of fire by moving your character as well.  The issue is that sometimes you just can't adjust the position, because the path is either blocked by enemies, projectiles or a blockade.

Enemies will be dropping weapons and items that help you out, as well as food and treasure, which is mainly used for points (that have nomeaning) or increase your XP, resulting in a health increase. Once you die, you lost all of those and have to start back from the very beginning of level 1. There are a total of 6 levels which may not seem like a lot, but will feel like they take forever to get through.

 

There's also up to 4 player local co-op, which is a nice option to have, but at the same time I'm not sure how the balancing will work, if there is any.

 

 

In the end, this was another bust for me.

Edited November 21, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[AuroraHistoire]

I Spent a Week Searching for Scallops ~ Little Dragons Café 

 

I was progressing through the game at a brisk pace until I needed to cook at certain dish for a sad girl with a dead mother. The dish required scallops but I had no idea idea where to find them. I spent a in game week searching every possible location just to find them a short distance away from Little Dragons Café. The old saying of finding things in last place you look held true again; probably because I usually stop looking for things after I find them. After going through the awful experience of getting those scallops, the girl was like, "My mom didn't put scallops in her version." I got a little pissty after hearing that but the scallops were required for a great heart-warming reason, that I won't spoil, that calmed me down.

 

The music in the game is very good. I really like the music that plays when you're in the forest. It sounds like the music in those rifts from A Hat in Time. Visually the game doesn't really disappointment. Everything looks hand drawn and vibrant. The food looks really good but it is just a 2D image. The game does a slight issue with spawning objects in the overworld. You will constantly see object appearing from thin air in the distance while you walk; it's not a big issue but a slight annoyance. Sometimes when you defeat a animal, it will drop it's meat on a tall rock or on a wall and you can't grab it. Also a animal spawned inside a rock that one time. 

 

I have discovered 4 animal species so far. Eggbirds (their actual name)  can be caught in the wild, teleported back to Little Dragons Café and will lay eggs for every morning. Eggbirds will wander back to where you found them in a few days because you can't be asked to build a fence. Shybirds (I forgot their name) will explode and drop meat if you walk into them. Meat-with-legs (I forgot their name too) will eat whatever food you are carrying if they touch you. You can all Kevin to attack them but you have to sneak up on them because you have to be close enough to get the prompt and the call Kevin animation takes so long, that Meat-with-legs will steal your food during the animation. Meat-with-legs will also be "defeated"  if they run into a rock. I use the rock method more often since Meat-with-legs will run directly at you if they spot you and they can't turn well. The last animal is called Seagull-cat! (they haven't been given a name in the game yet) and they will fly away when you get too close to them.

     .   

I was successfully able to change Kevin's color to blue. He looks alright. Kevin also sounds more like a bird or cat or dog more then a dragon. I actually don't what dragon sounds are suppose to sound like, but dragons don't usually sound so fudging adorable. ?     

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 11

Game No. 2

Old Man's Journey

 

 

Playing Time: 2 hours?

Trophies Earned: 9/13 (73% C ranking)

 

Final Review: I knew this game would be easy, and probably short, given the percentage of platinums it's given out (close to 80%), but I had hope that it would be about "the journey" of the game, rather than the free trophies it entices gamers with. After completing the game, I can unequivocally state this game was made for a  90% focus on trophy whoring, and 10% focus on story/ artistry/ etc. All the shiny, gold trophies it hands out like Halloween candy should have made that obvious from the get-go.

  Gameplay involves traveling through a landscape with...you guessed it, an old man. You don't really move him; instead, you have a on-screen cursor and you just tell him where'd you like him to move to. Somehow, you have the ability to manipulate the scenery by moving hills and mountains up and down. Only catch is you can't move the place you are standing on. By definition, it might qualify as a platformer, but barely.  I guess it also qualifies as a puzzler, but again, you don't need to be a Mensa Club member to figure out the solutions. Just move the guy from one platform to the next and the solution comes up pretty quick. 

  If you're making an artsy-fartsy game, you better have a combination of an engaging story, stunning visuals, and/ or dynamic audio. Few developers  hit all three, but most can hit two of those parameters and produce a decent game. These guys missed the mark on all three. If fails most abundantly in the story. The only way the story is conveyed to you is periodic still shots of the Old Man's life. There's no audio, and no text, which isn't always needed to engage with an audience; Submerged is a great example of a developer pulling a story off without sound, dialogue or text. But here, it's just a glancing nod as to what's happening on the screen.  Basically the Old Man has a dilemma of responsibility vs. freedom. He ends up regretting his decision, but the ending fall flat as he bears no consequences.

  After completing the story, I went for the one "hard" trophy in the game, which involves getting a train across a certain segment of the game, and not having it stop. Again, you are moving landscapes up and down to do this, but the catch is, the train is moving so you need to be quick. Took me 4-5 tries but once I started memorizing the course, it was nothing difficult.

  Final Verdict: Jonesing for some easy trophies? Get your fix with this game! It's not as bad as Burly Men at Sea, but it comes close. 

 

Next Up: AER

[DamagingRob]

Game #7, Final Review: Earthlock

 

Well, I'm becoming more and more convinced that you will have to stop and grind every so often in this game. I think it would be a very short game, otherwise, so this is probably how it takes 30+ hours to get through. Battle Chasers was similar, and I ended up dropping that game. To be returned to God only knows if or when. Thankfully, it's not quite as annoying with the group XP boosts you can get. Gather up large groups of enemies, and you'll be leveling up in no time. Of course, it can be kind of a slog to fight so many foes at once, but what can you do? Well, I'll tell you.

 

One great way to speed up a fight with a ton of enemies, is to use your charged abilities. A bar fills over time when you're fighting. And when it's full, you can unleash some pretty powerful attacks. And a few characters can hit every enemy on the field. You can really save a lot of time with this, since enemies are damage sponges. Can take quite a bit of time to kill 7 or 8 of them, and trying to keep your health up. 

 

I have been doing a lot of gardening, too. The materials you get from that are used to make ammo for ranged weapons. And I don't want to run out of ammo, so I probably went a little overboard with it. But expect to be sitting around some, waiting for your plants to grow. It doesn't take too long (less than a minute probably), but depending on how much ammo you want to make, it can add up. But that also leads to me not wanting to use it, unless I really need to. So not sure this was the best mechanic..

 

One of your characters can decipher treasure maps, which will place a red X on the World Map. You then have to control the dog, who is also a party member you can fight with, and dig for it. His tail will wag when you're close. 

 

Dungeons have been interesting. Some have had switches, that you need to light up the colored mechanism to activate. But you have to first absorb the color into your ring. A certain type of enemy drops them when defeated. Sometimes they'll have multiple colors in one mechanism, and you'll need to activate each layer one by one. 

 

Then there was the desert dungeon. If you stand in the sun too long, you will literally pass out and return to the last shady spot you were at. So you have to move from shady spot to shady spot, trying not to stay in the sun too long.

 

Another thing is characters will form "bonds" with each other, depending on who you have them paired with. The stronger that bond becomes, the more extra abilities and points you'll get to unlock spots on the talent board. So it's wise to shuffle your party members around whenever two get maxed out.

 

And that's about it. I did learn Gnart is a "hogbunny," though. Not a white bat. I guess a pig and a rabbit one day decided to experiment... But anyways, I think this is another . If it wasn't for needing to grind levels every so often to get past a tough boss, I'd probably think higher of it. Dying might as well give you a Game Over screen, by the way. Continuing just resets you at the last place you saved, with anything you did after saving now erased. 

 

Time played: 10+ hours.

Trophy progress: 9/35 for 15% and a D rank. 

Completion Percentage: 91.74% (-0.86%)

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #8 - Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner (PS3) - Preview

 

 

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Genre: TPS?

Price: 14,99 (bundle only)

 

 

Another game I essentially know nothing about. Kojima was partially involved though, so it might be a wild ride. I haven't played the first game, so this game better be able to do it's own thing, wihtout relying on referencing the predecessor all the time. If a sequel can't stand on it's own, it's not a worthy sequel, simple as that.

 

I know that it's primarily a mech third-person shooter with some hack-and-slash elements in it as well. I'm really curious about how it controls though. Whenever flying is involved and fights in the air in particular, the controls tend to go to hell, because the camera can't keep up with the action and just tends to swirl around.

 

Has potential to be fun, but it could also be an absolute disaster.

Edited November 22, 2019 by voodoo_eyes

[dizzyshadow]

Game 7 Wargroove

 

If you've ever played advance wars on a nintendo system then you will know exactly what to expect here. The game "borrows" a lot of its core mechanics from that series, and plays very similarly. If that means nothing to you then read on.

 

WarGroove is a turn based tactical battle game, you are the princess of the cherrystone kingdom who becomes Queen when her father is murdered in the introduction. Starting a war, being forced to flee her kingdom the princess must fight to reclaim her kingdom and keep her people safe.

 

The game is split into lots of missions, typically requiring you defeat the enemy commander or stronghold. But some have more varied objectives like survive, escape or protect certain units. Side missions give more variety as well allowing you to play as other characters and gain access to different races units (although they do seem to be just a re-skin of your own units) There is also a cute story line where you are in command of a dog. However basic gameplay is very similar through out.

 

Within a battle its turn based, units can move attack or both depending on the type of unit. Results of battles are displayed before you commit to them which adds to the strategy of deciding what course of action to take, there are also benefits and penalties for some some units against other types (e.g. pikemen against knights) and the terrain type can also offer benefits or penalties. Commanders also have a Groove (A special power which needs to be charged up before it can be used) these vary between commanders but generally only seen to provide a minor boost so aren't actually that crucial. Winning the battle progresses the story which told through basic cut scenes. 

 

Outside of campaign mode there is arcade mode (basically battles without the overarching story) There is also a puzzle mode which i'm looking forward to seeing what that is like, but i haven't got far enough yet to unlock it.

 

While I'm a big fan of the genre but personally i found this a little simplistic and a bit repetitive, i still prefer the RPG type elements in fire emblem and haven't found anything that comes close to that (i'll keep looking through, maybe one day i'll get lucky) and my biggest complaint is the sound effects in particular the phrases the characters repeat, they are very annoying.

 

If you loved advance wars then you should defintiely pick this up, if not maybe wait and see if you can get it cheap in a sale.

 

Finally don't play this for the trophies,Earn 3 stars on every level will be very challenging (particularly as this can only done on Hard)

 

Playtime: 5 Hours

Rating:

Trophies: 4/24

Completion: 60.11% (-0.06%)

 

Next up: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

 

[DamagingRob]

Game #8, Day 1- X-Men Destiny

 

Well... it's a game and it exists. Lol. Can't tell if I'm playing an X-Men game, or a really poor man's Lollipop Chainsaw. Guess I could have picked one of the guys as my playable character, but naaaaah.

 

At the start, you get to choose from 1 of 3 people to play as. Unfortunately, none of those are the actual X-Men. There are two guys, and one girl. I don't know if the guys play any differently, or if it's just for appearance. I chose the girl, Aimi. Who really looks like a palette swapped Juliet Starling. And she has some backstory of being sent away by her parents or whatever.

 

Meanwhile, the X-Men are holding some peace meeting, and they get attacked. Unsure if by Magneto or some other foe. And your character gets swept up in things. Making choices along the way, that determine whether you are with the X-Men or the Brotherhood.

 

There isn't a lot to the gameplay. Run here, beat up a number of enemies, rinse and repeat. There's a bit of odd platforming, where you jump up ledges and wallrun while holding them. But other than that, it's just a beat 'em up. You do get some powers, and those are also chosen by you. I can only say what mine do, which is put up a wall and turn into a rolling ball of stone. The former I don't think is that great. But the latter is pretty cool. Can run over a lot of enemies with it. These powers also cost energy to use.

 

There are also some collectibles scattered throughout the game. I already have enough of one, but didn't know what the other looked like for awhile. :/ And challenge rooms can be found, too. Usually have to defeat a number of enemies with a time limit. 

 

So yeah, I don't know if this is good.. It's okay, I guess. But probably shaping up to be the worst game of the event, so far. Part of a Buy 4 for $20 sale at GameStop, is the only reason I own it. 

 

Time played: 4 hours.

Trophy progress: 24/50 for 35% and a D rank. 

[MidnightDragon]

Started Civilization VI tonight and got 2/3 of the levels 3 stars in Harvest Moon: Mad Dash. Tomorrow, will continue with Civilization VI a little bit, then continue working towards the three stars...also decide what my final game is! 

[AuroraHistoire]

It's Just Decent Enough I Can't Call it Bad ~ School Girl/Zombie Hunter

 

 

School Girl/Zombie Hunter is just your standard third-person shoot a ton of zombies game. The gameplay is a little awkward sometimes while being hectic fun. The story is a dumb zombie game story, that gets really boring sometimes. The game looks alright and the music is pretty generic. The game game runs well and the multiplayer runs pretty well with a tiny amount of typical multiplayer jank. The game supports 5 player online multiplayer. The online portion of the game doesn't have any exclusive trophies.

 

The plot is about 5 schoolgirls being trapped in a school with a bunch of zom-zoms. This Japanese school has elite firearms training as a requirement to even take the entry exam, so everyone is well prepared for this event. The plot has been kind of boring so far and I don't really like any of the characters. I haven't finished the story yet but I don't see it getting much better. It has the potential to go off-the-wall crazy and that is the only direction I see the game going, that could salvage it.   

 

The gameplay is the best part of the game. You're given a simple objective and completing it is your priority. The objectives range from killing all the zombies, walking to a certain location without dying (I have a lot of trouble with those missions), defeat a boss or just survive until the timer reaches zero. Zombies in this game are supernatural. In addition to the slow moving zombie, you have ones that run, use guns, explode when they die, skip leg day, crawl on the ceiling and there are many more abominations you need to purge.

 

Guns are great for killing abominations and you have options. Pistols (if you want to make the game harder), assault rifles, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles (❤️), shotguns (???) and rocket propelled grenades (surprising not overpowered). You have infinite ammo, so go nuts. You're still required to reload. The shooting is a little awkward since your "aim better" button is ; just don't use that button, ever.. You can also run, dodge roll and melee attack. Those actions all use a stamina meter. Each character has a passive ability. One girl has a the ability display objective markers on every collectable in the level and the other 4 have abilities that I never noticed. Characters will gain experience and level up after a successful mission. Levels give you more health and stamina. One certain missions, the other characters will tag along and shoot zombies with you. Their AI is alright and they do their best to follow you. Sometimes they get stuck on something or trap you in the bathroom. I feel obligated to mention that this game has a button that has that will make a character (you or a party member) throw their clothes off, as a distraction, and only be in their underwear for the rest of the mission. I never thought I would ever have to talk about a game where stripping was a game mechanic, again. ?

 

School Girl/Zombie can be a bit of dumb fun. It is not worth playing instead of any good game. The trophy list requires a good amount of effort. If you see it on sale for cheap, it may be worth a look.