Popular Post Kevvik Posted November 23, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2019 RL has been pretty crazy lately. Finished the Neptunia game I was working on but felt like most of my time was playing while waiting in the car or in offices at appointments. Console gaming was pretty minimal as I was hardly home but I managed 3 hrs on each of Game 6 and 7 so I'm finally catching up and here are the reviews... Game #6: Child of Light Initial/Day 3 Impressions Time played: 3 hrs This is a game that I was looking forward to possibly the most out of this event. A 2D RPG, you play Aurora, a princess who appears to have died right at the start of the game and who wakes up in a world that sort of looks like hers but is populated with fantastic creatures. She basically wants to wake up, only to be told that she is in her land, the Land of Lemuria and that darkness has fallen across it. Aurora needs to save the world (essentially). You pick up a spritely little light that talks and accompanies you on your journey. You start off with a sword and attack in a turn-based style though you and your foes work on the same meter, moving at different speeds towards your turn. You can influence the speed of your enemies by having your sprite delay actions of one enemy (though this ability drains his power) and can interrupt actions (and be interrupted) if you complete your attack on an enemy that has initiated, but not completed, theirs. This knocks them back in the turn meter. Besides attacking and using learned skills, you can defend which reduces/negates damage from your opponent and gives you a really fast build towards your next action. Later, a second party member can do the same. I've recruited a jester who is a healer and a gnome-like mage, though both also have physical attacks as well. After beating the first big boss, you also gain the power of flight which aids in exploration for moving forward in the game as well as finding chests containing items. You can buff as well with oculi, gems that you find and which you can combine into stronger oculi, buffing you with elemental aspects of your attacks or defense. Foes also have elemental weakenesses/strengths which can be played against. Fairly standard but the game's characters are interesting, speak in rhyme (or blatantly avoid doing so) and the charm is a plus. Looking forward to having time on the consoles to move this forward when I get the chance. Trophies earned: 7/20, 33% for D rank Score so far: 8/10 Game #7: Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter Initial/Day 3 Impressions Time played: 3 hrs If you have played any of the previous Sherlock Holmes adventures games (The Testament of..., Crimes and Punishments), you'll recognize this for the most part. A (usually) 3rd person adventure game where you play (usually) as the great detective, it is divided into cases, the first of which I completed. You make observations about people, explore to find clues for later putting together to make deductions. Once you work your way through and solve the case, you have moral options (condemning the villain or letting them go) which give slightly different endings to the case. You can use a Sherlock mode at times which highlight the environment in greater detail to allow for clues or paths to be discovered. It's been a while since I played Crime and Punishments but I found I still fell into routine here fairly quickly. My only issue is that I seemed to be using a different gimmick everytime I turned around. I make a deduction, then I'm suddenly Wiggins following a suspect. Then I'm Holmes again doing a lockpicking mini-game, then Toby the dog following a scent, then back to Holmes again making deductions followed by a (crappy) safecracking mini-game. It just feels like they are trying to shoehorn in as many different mini-games as they can and you never really find a groove for the story. The case story wasn't bad but was glaringly obvious what direction it was going and painfully predictable. In a mystery, if my journey takes me exactly where I expect, the journey should be more enjoyable. Short review, I know, but this was frankly a bit disappointing so far. It just feels like a mess that is making things more complicated than it needs to be. Trophies earned: 4/25, 15% for E rank Score so far: 3.5/10 Completion rate: 83.72% (-0.91% for the event) I'm currently playing Game #8: Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas and it's not bad. More detail to follow later. If my life doesn't start clearing up a bit, I may change the last 2 games on my list as I can at least get some Vita time done if I'm never home and my last two games are both console titles. We'll see how it goes. Really enjoying all the reviews that everyone else has been putting up though. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MarkusT1992 Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 Game #7: Punch Line This is the weirdest game I played for any of the KYC events so far. That's probably because it is from the guy who made the Zero Escape series. At its core it is a VN with some parts where you have to do stuff. The gameplay part consists of playing tricks on people to scare them or to get them to do what you want. The story is about a boy and starts during a bus hijacking. After some time a girl comes to the rescue but seems to have problems winning. You then transform (kind of) after seeing panties (yes, you read correctly) and throw yourself and the hijacker out the window into a sea. Back on the shore you see panities again and pass out. After waking up again you discover that you are a ghost. A ghost cat is also there who tells you what happened. It seems your body was stolen by somebody and you have to get it back. Unfortunately your room is protected with seals so you can't enter. To get inside you have to find a special book. As an astral being you can't interact with anything or anybody but you can play tricks. That's how you can lead the characters to do the things you need to be done. During the trick parts of the game you can visit the differents rooms of the house you're at and interact with some items to knock them over or move them. If the person sees your tricks you gain points that will raise you spirit power. I'm not sure what that exactly does but you need a higher spirit level to do things. Then there are the trick chain sections where you have to prepare before starting the chain. One trick will start the chain but it will end if not all preparations are done. During the trick sections the girls are in theire rooms where you move around. You have several possitions in each room you can switch with and . In one position you will see panties. As long as panties are visible the camera will be drawn towards them. Also an exitement bar is rising. If it reaches it's maximum you have to resatart. If it happens again afterwards the world will go extinct because you will pass out if you see panties twice. I'm not sure why the world will go extinct if you pass out but who cares. Time played: Around 2h Trophies: 12/50 Rating: 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 (edited) Game #8, Final Review- X-Men Destiny Well, it didn't take long for me to finish my first playthrough. Only about an hour more, if that. There's a lot of customization options, that will give you various bonuses. And you can level up abilities with your XP. But it still largely boils down to punch all the things.. I did get one more ability, which turns you into a giant robot. But you just move around at a snail's pace with that, and... punch all the things. I don't have much good to say about this one. You can dress your character up in different X-Men outfits you pick up (randomly?), so you can pretend you're playing as one of them.. I've seen my girl's face clip through the scarf she covers it with. And Colossus deserves all the shit Deadpool gives him for stealing my kills, the rat bastard! There are 99 other enemies; don't kill the one I'm replaying this mission for! After beating it, you can replay the entire thing. Why anyone would want to is beyond me.. But if you want the Plat, a second playthrough is a must. I tried to get smarmy with it, and used chapter select. Don't do this. Lol. Or at least be very aware of how it works. I couldn't play one challenge mission, until I went back and replayed the previous chapter, ending it by choosing the opposing faction. At least I didn't have to play the entire game on the hardest difficulty, thanks to learning about a glitch. Just beating the final level was enough of a pain in the ass on that difficulty. So yeah, pretty dull and repetitive game. Unlike Dissidia where I could still recommend it to hardcore fans, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Lol. But it's playable and an easy Plat, I guess.. score. Time played: 10-11 hours. Trophy progress: 50/50 for 100% and an S rank. Completion Percentage: 91.76% (-0.84%) Edit: How could I forget to mention you can't skip dialogue? Any level replays mean sitting through those again. Edited November 24, 2019 by DamagingRob 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MidnightDragon Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 Time played: 3 hours Trophies earned: 4/58 If you've played Civilization before, you know what to expect here. They did a nice job moving it over to console. I have played it on PC, but it's been a while, so a lot of my time was spent just getting my bearings. There is a tutorial in the main menu, so if you've never played Civilization or need a refresher on how it works, that would help out a lot. I did cheese the Deity trophy so I didn't have to worry about that. The online portion isn't working correctly currently. Fortunately, you can get the multiplayer trophy on a local multiplayer game. Another negative is this game seems to have pretty long load times. I've read several reports of the UI being cut off on TVs, but didn't have that issue. I know this review isn't quite as long as my first three, but I didn't really do much besides fiddle around and figure out some of the mechanics. Updated stats Games Played: 125 Games Completed: 96 Trophies Earned: 2706 Unearned Trophies: 830 Completion Percentage:79.37% (-2.23%) Next game: Afrika @voodoo_eyes Obviously add Afrika as my last entry on the list please. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arctic Cress Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 Game #6 - Worldend Syndrome Time played: 4.5 hours Trophies: 1/23 (1% - E) Worldend Syndrome is a visual novel created by a collaboration between Arc System Works and Toybox, Inc. While Arc System Works is much more influential and has many more games under its belt, Toybox Inc. may not be as well known - though they did just release a trailer for Deadly Premonition 2 as the original game's producer (Tomio Kanazawa) is one of the founders of this company. In addition to that, he also happens to be the scenario designer for this game. Worldend Syndrome follows a 17 year old unnamed male protagonist (you choose a name yourself) who moves into the quiet Mihate Town. Sometime before the story begins, the protagonist ends up in an accident that costs his sister her life, and he decides to move away from his original area and find a way to forget his past. Of course, Mihate Town is not the paradise he may be looking for, as early on in his move into the town, a student of his high school is found dead, killed in what is believed to be an accidental death. Mihate Town is also home to the legend of the Yomibito, where the dead come back to life and attack the living every 100 years, and the year the protagonist moves in is 100 years after the last known incident (because of course it is). I am not a fan of high school settings in visual novels and to be honest there are way too many in many VNs, and usually the time spent in the school is the worst part. It is definitely the least exciting part in Fate/stay night, Root Double, and the Muv-Luv series, to name a few, while Steins;Gate and 428: Shibuya Scramble have none and are some of my favorite VNs. So far, from what I've read, this VN is currently trending in the wrong direction in regards to this. It's July in-game though, so they are approaching summer vacation at least. I'm also concerned with the lack of saving in this VN. You can't save everywhere, and being the person who likes to save before almost every choice in most visual novels, this is a huge annoyance for me. There are frequent save points, one after almost every scene, but I still don't like it as much as I could. The characters are all pretty much anime tropes - you have the blank slate protagonist, the protagonist's idiot friend, the tsundere, the rich girl, the quiet girl, the teen idol, etc. It feels tiring to read some of this because it feels like I've seen it all before. So far, this game gets a big NOPE from me, but I'll keep at it as this is one of my friend's favorite VNs and he was the one who recommended it to me in the first place. Hopefully it gets better because these 4+ hours were not a good first impression. Starting completion: 71.83% Current completion: 70.99% Difference: -0.84% 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) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: 7/45 (10% - E) As you can see, Shenmue II took the completion percentage and pushed it back the other way, so completion actually went up despite me only getting a single bronze in this game. I am definitely behind in game reviews, but as I have a shortened week due to Thanksgiving it should be no problem to finish the rest of the reviews (and Shenmue II) during the next week. On to Team Sonic Racing next! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Fnee2000 Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 (edited) Game #4 - Uncharted : The Lost Legacy Played on PS4 Time Played - Just over 2 hours Trophies earned - 9 out of 50 (12%) Let me start off by saying this is by far the weakest Uncharted game of them all. It is true what @voodoo_eyes said before, this game lacks the quality action the other games had. This game definitely put more emphasis on exploration. I left the game in the large open world section of Chapter 4. The combat is 100% Uncharted, if you know it, you'll like it. Not too difficult to aim and shoot. The story is a bit ho-hum, been there, done that type. It goes, here is an artifact that leads to a bigger treasure, let's go hunt it. Meanwhile, a bad guy they took it from chases after them. Now you must kill said bad guys goons while looking for the treasure. It would be better if the bad guy seemed like someone you could hate, but he got all of 3 minutes of screen time so far and felt a bit one note. Now the AI, the bad guys have a set pattern and you can plan your stealth attack, or you can go all out and shoot it up. They may hide behind cover, but nothing that can't be handled. It is just silly, that to escape being detected, you can just run right around a corner and they won't see you or even look around the corner. They just give up and go back to their patrol. Oh and Nadine, she is about as useful as Big Smoke on the back of the bike in GTA San Andreas. Can't shoot a target that is 3 feet in front of her. Graphically this is up there with the same quality of Uncharted 4. Beautiful vistas, excellent lighting, and a great amount of little character details. Definitely a game that is nice to look at. I wish I had more will to want to get further into this game, but at this moment, it just wasn't doing it for me. Which is a shame, because I like the Uncharted games. Uncharted : The Lost Legacy - ??? out of 5 A ho-hum addition to the Uncharted franchise. It gets good marks for technical achievement, combat prowess, and decent main characters. However, the AI and story just don't cut it and hold this game back from being as great as the other Uncharted games. Next game up... Game #5 - The Outer Worlds I originally had Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered as my final game, but having just spent over a month with AC Odyssey (and still needing to do the DLC), I came to the decision to switch to a game I really want to play. I do hope this is ok... Edited November 24, 2019 by Fnee2000 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted November 24, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 (edited) Game #8 - Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner (PS3) - Final Impressions Time played: close to 2h30m Trophies earned: 7/25 This game isn't doing it for me. I need to get that out of the way right away. There have been few games where I've struggled to keep pushing forward, as it has been the case with this one. It is just so incredibly bland and boring. Let's start with the visuals. Anime cinematics, which are fine. The lip sync is all over the place though, making it quite distracting. Graphically the game itself is decent enough for a PS2 game. Not really going to complain about the fact that it's pretty much just shades of grey and brown. The menus are subpar. Lacks controller mapping, and it's not possible to load a game from the pause menu. Having to quit the game to the main menu in order to load a save is not the way to do it. The story is alright, but nothing to write home about. While the gameplay is OK overall, it's a bit bland. All you have is a melee attack a ranged attack and then charged variations of those that are situational. Grab is just an ability among a bunch of others that needs to be cycled through in order to use it. Grab is also the most powerful ability, as it destroys 2 or more enemies in one go. My major gripe comes from the absolutely daft lock-on system. It locks on automatically on the nearest target it also locks on to frindly targets - why? Changing target uses the right thumbstick. You know what also uses the right thumbstick? Moving the damn camera, that's what. Deselecting a target requires holding a button pressed - Why not just hit the button once to deselect the target? it's not used for anything else after all I can't think of a worse implemented lock-on system. Now considering that this game constantly throws multiple enemies at you, it becomes an absolute mess. One of the missions has you defend structures and allies, while throwing a bunch of enemies at you. While trying to change targets, it kept selecting friendly units (there's friendly fire btw). There were times when the camera actually seems to throw a fit, because it keeps selecting a new target once the current enemy is destroyed. Even during boss fights, the targeting gets in the way. Since all bosses have a gimmick to them, and as a result you need to use items from the environment to defeat them. Can't pick up items while targeting something, so the ordeal of deselecting target, picking up item, then re-selecting target begins. It's not a good game, and it doesn't deserve the high scores it got under any circumstances.. It's a at best, and that's only because Assault Gunners exists, which is actually worse. Conclusion... there still isn't a better mech game than Mechwarrior 3 from 1999 (and Mechcommander from 1998, I guess). Edited November 24, 2019 by voodoo_eyes 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post SixyLove Posted November 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2019 Review "It's Just Puyo Puyo" Puyo Puyo Champions Playtime: 3+ hours Trophies Earned: 14/45 22% Why this game? Despite no being very good at Puyo Puyo, I enjoy it a lot. This Puyo Puyo title came out relatively recently and I saw it on sale for $5. Story There is no story mode in this game. Gameplay The game features both the Puyo Puyo 2 & Puyo Puyo Fever rule sets. If your familiar with how Puyo Puyo is played, you can skip ahead a paragraph or two. Puyo Puyo is a easy to learn, hard to master puzzle battle game. The game will give you 2 Puyos at a time and it's your job to stack them without having them reach the red X at the top. Puyos are different colors; if you place 4 or more Puyos of the same color adjacent (any formation is fine as long as all Puyos are connected [no diagonals]) will pop and disappear. While you playing, there is opponent doing the same thibg you're doing. Popping Puyos will send over Garbage Puyos to their side. Garbage Puyos can't pop themselves but popping Puyos of any color adjacent to them will remove them. If you pop Puyos when your opponent is sending Garbage Puyos, you'll reduce the number, cancel them entirely or counter attack depending on how many you pop compared to you opponent. Popping 4 Puyos at a time won't send many Garbage Puyos to your opponent. You want to chain pops together to send more Garbage Puyos. A chain is have a pop, drop Puyos so at least 4 more connect and pop and hopefully another 4 puyos connect and pop. Chains get stronger the longer they go on. The game will get excited if you get a chain of 3 but characters have voicelines for a chain up to 20. I think that is most of the Puyo Puyo 2 rules. Fever rules are mostly the same as Puyo Puyo 2 rules with a few additions. Sometimes you receive 3 or 4 Puyos at once. You have 2 red X's at the top of your screen. You will slowly fill up a fever meter from blocking Garbage Puyos and enter fever mode when it's full. In fever mode, the game will set up boards of Puyos that are easy to get long chains in and you have a reasonable amount of time to set as many chains off as possible. The board will get reset to a new configuration once you get a chain. You have a single-player mode, local multplayer and online. Single player will let you face of against 1-3 AI opponents in whatever custom game mode can think up. You also have a endurance mode where opponents will keep coming until you lose. There are a few challenge modes that are score based challenges against a timer. I haven't played the local multplayer but I assume it's just the single player. Online has both a ranked mode and rooms where you can just mess about. The ranked mode has a few players and nobody was hosting any rooms in my experience. The game also has lessons you can do if you want to be better. Graphics & Sound The game looks pretty nice. You can customize the appearance of Puyo's, set the background, have so many options for a custom player icon and 24 playable characters to choose from. The characters are only cosmetic as far as I can tell. Fever rules suggest there may be different but in my experience, I saw no difference. The game plays one song during every match despite having 47 tracks (I saw in the sound test menu). That song is pretty good, but it will eventually get old. Trophy Thoughts Most of the trophies are things you'll naturally do and will probably earn eventually if you're decent. You have to play 2 hundred online matches. You need to complete a match for stats to be recorded and get trophies to pop. Final Thoughts You should just buy Puyo Puyo Tetris. Puyo Puyo Tetris has a actual story mode, more gameplay modes and has Tetris in addition to Puyo Puyo. Puyo Puyo Tetris is a bit more expensive and I believe is physical only for some strange reason but it's worth it. I would only recommend Puyo Puyo Champions over Puyo Puyo Tetris if the mere sight of Tetris is enough to throw your body into a rage so intense, only the sight of 1000 doggos can save you. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted November 25, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2019 Game #9 - The Council - Preview Developer: Big Bad Wolf Publisher: Focus Home Interactive Genre: Interactive Adventure Price: 24,99 Alright, so this one I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy. I saw about an hour of the first episode when it came out and it looked right up my alley. The only thing that worries me somewhat, is that the episodes seem to drastically drop in length halfway through the episodes. Could mean it lacks content or was rushed, or both. As someone who enjoys mistery tories and investigations in games, this should be great. Looking forward to starting it sometime later today. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevvik Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 11 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said: Conclusion... there still isn't a better mech game than Mechwarrior 3 from 1999 I got to this point of the sentence and then my brain said "But what about..." 11 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said: (and Mechcommander from 1998, I guess). and then I finished the sentence and felt satisfaction... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoo_eyes Posted November 25, 2019 Author Share Posted November 25, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, Kevvik said: I got to this point of the sentence and then my brain said "But what about..." and then I finished the sentence and felt satisfaction... Yeah, I wasn't sure if I wanted to include that one at first, as it's more of a strategy game with mechs. Not to mention that it's even older than the other game, which is even sadder. Edited November 25, 2019 by voodoo_eyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamagingRob Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 (edited) I haven't played either of those, and kinda surprised me with the negative 2nd Runner review. That's supposed to be the better one, from what I've heard. Guess I'll just assume it'll be on par with the first game, and either be right or pleasantly surprised. And while I'm here, I have been slowly chipping away at this Dissidia grind. The Summon fight I was struggling to beat on Hard before, only took me a couple of tries yesterday. My offline rank had been maxed out by then, so that could have made the difference. Except for Leviathan and Bahamut (who I had beaten already), they all only took one or two tries, in fact. So maxing out your offline rank before tackling them may be a good idea. Guides say a certain level, but you'll be grinding for treasures anyway, so might as well make it easier. 30 more Ranked wins to go, and I'll just have the treasure grind left. Already over 100 hours with some idling and waiting to get into matches.. Don't know how long it will take to level up 130 more times for the final trophy. :/ Edited November 25, 2019 by DamagingRob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoo_eyes Posted November 25, 2019 Author Share Posted November 25, 2019 2 hours ago, DamagingRob said: I haven't played either of those, and kinda surprised me with the negative 2nd Runner review. That's supposed to be the better one, from what I've heard. Guess I'll just assume it'll be on par with the first game, and either be right or pleasantly surprised. That's what I heard too, which is why I picked the supposedly better one. Considering the first is sitting at 78 and the 2nd at 82 on metacritic (for whatever that is worth) , both should be equally good (or mediocre when it comes to my view on them). To be fair, I have not yet finished the game, so at least when it comes to the environments being bland, it could change depending on what is still to come. Thing is I actually ended up watching a few reviews on 2nd Runner, and none referred to how bad the targeting system is, which I find very odd. That's not even opinion based, as it's a problem with the game mechanic. Funnily enough most also referred to the first one being a lot worse, yet the scores for both aren't too far off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post PerryToxteth Posted November 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 25, 2019 KYC 11 Game No. 3 AER: Memories of Old Playing Time: 3 hours Trophies Earned: 5/21 (21% E ranking) Final Thoughts: Easy to sum up this game with a mathematical formula: Journey + Flight Simulator = Puke Bucket. I fired this up and played for about 45 minutes when the queasiness began. I tried to fight through, but that just made it worse. Ugh...how the hell am I going to plat this ?!? Like I said above, this is similar to Journey, where you explore the ruins old an old civilization. Only you get the benefit to fly around and explore. Great concept, but it turned rough for me. Not sure why this game affected me so much, when first-person action games like Battlefield 1 cause no queasiness for me. But then a slow-motion moving game like this or Blackwell Crossing caused a wave of nausea to sweep over me. There is a story here, but it really didn't grab my attention. Something about an old civilization and animals? The civilization has ruins spread across floating islands and you can fly from place to place and explore. It's quite pretty to look at as the developers really concentrated on colors rather than substance. The world isn't filled with much, and for what's there (like trees), are rather cookie-cutter similar in appearance. Anyways, on the bigger islands, you can land and run around to explore old temples. There are elements of old Tomb Raider games where you might need to light up a couple symbols before a door will open up. But these aren't difficult to figure out. Just a bit time consuming. I like the concept for this game, but it wasn't as engaging as I thought. Even if I wasn't feeling the urge to lose my lunch, I'm not sure I would give this one a high recommendation. Next Up: Out of the Box - I decided to drop Kona because it's story-driven and I wasn't going to have much time with it. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Psy-Tychist Posted November 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2019 Ninja Senki DX Time Played: 1 hour 30 mins Trophies Earned: 0/18 - 0% Levels Completed: 4/16 Completion: 62.10% - +0.10% Ninja Senki was an NES inspired platformer released on Steam/Windows in 2010. Six years later, a re-release was made for consoles under the additional DX name, which prompted newer enemy types, remixed music, and a new colour palette. The game is a basic platformer with all the trappings of a traditional NES game. There are short levels with meager checkpoints. A time limit on the level. Small amount of lives with no chance of getting any more. The only difference is that when losing all your lives, you start from the beginning of the level instead of being put back to the start of the game. You start each level with 5 hits you can take from enemies, but if you fall into any of the pits like Mario it is an automatic loss of life. I liken the game to be a Gameboy version of Ninja Gaiden, platforming with difficult enemy placement. The game is very simple but it has a variety of enemy types, each of them have different move sets or ways of being killed. Over the 4 levels out of the 16 (based on the trophy guide), each level has all different enemies which is a nice touch along with a different level theme. All the music is chiptune and quite funky, it doesn't outstay its welcome considering how many times you will die on the way through each level. I have fought one boss battle so far and was quite simple, but it is early in the game so I expect that the bosses gain more attacks and are much more difficult as it goes on. Trophy wise, this game is evil for the uninitiated. You only get trophies for completing the game (3 relating to how many points you earn), beating bosses under a certain time (5 trophies) and completing challenges and Hardcore mode runs. Less than 500 tracked players have even finished the game out of the 28,500 players who have started the game. I like the game itself, but I feel that it maybe a step too far for me to complete the trophy list. Reminds me of trying to complete the Pantheon of Hallownest... Next Game: In Space We Brawl 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoo_eyes Posted November 26, 2019 Author Share Posted November 26, 2019 Just giving a quick update on Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner, as I've finished the game now. It took under 4 hours to complete, and my opinion didn't really change on it. There is little variety in environments even later on. Most of the game is either in barren canyons or corridors/hangars and their colour tone is still held in grey and brown. The only good mission was one that took place in the air where you had to take out 5 massive battleships. The rest was just slashing through hordes of similar looking mechs and the odd boss battles. Those while having some interesting mechanics on occasion, are still underwhelming. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted November 27, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2019 Game #8: Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas Initial/Day 3+ Impressions Time played: 17 hrs Oceanhorn is a top(ish)-down RPG of the Zelda style but actually not too bad for a clone. You play a young lad, left behind by his father who heads out to face a huge creature that terrorizes the seas and who had claimed the boy's mother some years before. Dad disappears into the storm, leaving behind the mother's necklace for the boy. Boy gets taken in by a hermit until he sets out to find/avenge his father and kill the big monster. You fight with a sword, defend with a shield and eventually learn some spells (fire, ice, create an object to hold down switches, that sort of thing). There is also equipment like arrows, bombs and special boots which allow you to jump across small gaps. You progressively explore islands looking for info and three emblems to help you to face the end monster. As we gain spells and equipment, you can backtrack to further explore previous islands. Blood stones are your main collectible but one island also has cursed skulls. Finding 4 heart pieces creates a container which expands your health. Enough of this sound familiar? While it doesn't do anything really to break the mold, it does most of it fairly well and is in the middle road (not too much, not too little) when it comes to the games charm. The only thing I found exceptionally frustrating was a fishing mini-game that was fairly straightforward but which messes with the mechanics for the last two fish you need to catch for the "catch all fish" trophy. One fish reverses your controls (because it's a ghost fish, you know). This was workable with a bit of practice. The last one de ides to add a timer to the mix by electrocuting you every 5 seconds and damaging you half a heart each time, eventually killing you. This would be fine except that it's movement patterns seems almost deliberately screwed up most of the time in order to drag things out so you die before catching it. This felt really cheap and I caught the stupid fish after about 1.5 hrs of trying to catch it (feeling more luck-based than skill), decreasing my opinion of the game as I went. That minigame aside, I enjoyed Oceanhorn a fair bit. The combat felt smooth, the exploration not overly padded and the story serviceable. Trophies earned: 37/37, 100% for S rank Final score: 7/10 (still pissed about the fish) Completion Rate: 83.78% (-0.85% for the event) Next up: subbing in Game #9: Dragon Fantasy Book II in place of Chronicles of Teddy as it's going to be more Vita time and no console. We'll see what happens with Game #10. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightDragon Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 37 minutes ago, Kevvik said: Next up: subbing in Game #9: Dragon Fantasy Book II in place of Chronicles of Teddy as it's going to be more Vita time and no console. We'll see what happens with Game #10. Pretty fun and easy game. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arctic Cress Posted November 27, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2019 Game #7 - Team Sonic Racing Playtime: 3 hours Trophies: 12/52 (17% - D) Team Sonic Racing is the newest Sonic racing game after the Sega crossover ones that were also developed by Sumo Digital back on the PS3 and Vita. This game breaks the Sonic characters into three-character teams and has them participate in races setup by a tanuki named Dodon Pa. At the moment, I've cleared through chapter 2 of Team Adventure Mode and looked around at some of the other areas. Besides the team aspect, Team Sonic Racing is a basic kart racer with items (which are all different kinds of Wisps, from previous Sonic games), making it more similar to Mario Kart then the past games in the series. The team aspect allows for some boosts you can use with your partners, including the Skimboost, which gives a racer a boost of speed after being spun out, and the Slingshot, which gives a boost of speed when following a teammate that is currently ahead of you. There's also Team Ultimates, which give a large boost of speed to the entire team for a short duration. I found these to be relatively overpowered as they frequently pushed my team up to 1st/2nd/3rd without much trying, but it's helped a lot with getting through the story mode so far. The story mode also has certain challenge missions, which involve certain things like collecting a large amount of rings on the racetrack or playing a slalom-like race with gates on the track. As for the customization of the karts, the game has you get these items at random from a vending machine via credits that you get from playing races. Most items received don't give that much of a boost to the karts, to keep the playing field more balanced - which is important when you have online play as well as leaderboards for time trials. Though considering the top of the leaderboard for many of the time trials, one character may be a little bit more imbalanced than the others. There isn't much else to say about this one, not be cause it's bad, but more because it's very average overall, and underwhelming when compared to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed back on the PS3/Vita. I'll still probably finish it out when I have the chance. Starting completion: 71.83% Current completion: 70.70% Difference: -1.13% 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) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: 7/45 (10% - E) Worldend Syndrome: 1/23 (1% - E) I also started Deemo Reborn this week, so my completion percentage finally took a big drop. Up next is Shenmue III (which I already started a bit of, but didn't gain any trophies). 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AuroraHistoire Posted November 27, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2019 Dopamine Overdose ~ Lapis x Labyrinth Form a party ????, stack your party on your head and run through dungeons while hoarding all the treasure ?. You only get five minutes ? to hit enough purple gems ? to open the gate ⛩️ to the next floor. Take longer and the phantom ? shows up. The phantom has instant death ? cooties, so don't let them touch you. Everything else you can kill with whatever weapon you want. Massive sword ?️, magic ⛄, guns ? so powerful they're illegal in all civilized countries, sharp sticks ?, police baton ⛏️, frying pan ?, it doesn't matter. Just keep killing until you enter fever mode ?. In fever mode, everything with or without a pulse will bleed an eruption ? of gems ? so massive, it make Scrooge McDuck's pool of gold look like a glass of water. You get massive amounts of free stuff in fever mode. You eventually reach the boss floor ?, kill the boss and get massive amounts of treasure ?. Then you open disappointing loot boxes but you didn't pay $2.99 for the privilege of opening so it's okay. You return to base, eat some food ? , equip your new weapons and armour, do it all again 100+ times for platinum . Lapis x Labyrinth is so flipping cute it should be illegal. It's a simple yet fantastic game. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted November 28, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 28, 2019 Game #9, Jydge- Final Review Jydge is a pretty good game. It also reads like "Judge." I thought it'd be "Jidge." :/ And it really is Neon Chrome 2.0. Is it the same devs? Because it plays exactly like Neon Chrome, and Neon Chrome is even mentioned when you start it up. The only real difference between the two, is this one lets you keep all your upgrades, and you select levels to go to. Neon Chrome had you climbing a tower, upgrading as you went along, and then you'd start all over again when you finished/died. There's not much to the story. You're Jydge, and there to clean up the city by fighting crime. That's it. And fight crime you shall, killing many enemies, and saving hostages. It's got a pretty nice soundtrack, too. The gameplay is that of a top down shooter. The levels are pretty small, and can be completed in minutes. Each one has a set of 3 objectives to complete. Things like collecting all the loot or evidence in the level, finishing in so many seconds, not getting seen by enemies or taking damage from them, saving all the hostages, or simply killing enemies. Each completed objective gives you points, and those points unlock the next level. Then higher difficulties are unlocked, and you can get 3 more points per difficulty. Hostages can be killed by enemies, or your own gunfire (unless you have certain perks equipped). If one of them dies, you fail the mission. So you need to be smart, and prevent this from happening. Sometimes by shooting an enemy through some glass, or smashing through a wall behind them. Money you get from kills/chests can be spent on all kinds of upgrades. New weapons, perks, and more. Too many to list them all, but you can be invisible to enemies with some when standing still/in a shadowy area. Decrease damage to yourself or hostages, get a hacking tool that can open some doors/chests, have a little robot buddy accompany you and shoot enemies, etc. I made it through the first couple of acts, and decided to stop. I need more points to unlock the third act, and I couldn't be arsed. It's kinda tough already, so I don't know what the other difficulties will be like. Have only played Normal and Hardcore, leaving Grim and Nightmare. But yeah, it's pretty fun. Probably another , I guess? Time played: 3 hours. Trophy progress: 3/16 for 7% and an E rank. Completion Percentage: 91.65% (-0.95%) Limping to the finish line. :/ Haven't been super motivated to play anything the past couple of days, and then today the power went out right after I woke up for a few hours... But finally put some time into this one. @voodoo_eyes I am also going to make a last minute change to my list, and replace the Touhou game with NieR: Automata. End the event with a bang, rather than a wimper. I don't even know what Touhou is, and only paid a couple bucks for it. It can stay in the backlog, so I can play something that's long overdue (NieR was a Black Friday purchase last year :/). 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuroraHistoire Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 9 minutes ago, DamagingRob said: @voodoo_eyesI am also going to make a last minute change to my list, and replace the Touhou game with NieR: Automata. End the event with a bang, rather than a wimper. I don't even know what Touhou is, and only paid a couple bucks for it. It can stay in the backlog, so I can play something that's long overdue (NieR was a Black Friday purchase last year :/). Aww, I was looking forward to Touhou Double Focus. ? That's okay. Play what you really want to play. I'm sure you'll play Touhou Double Focus next time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted November 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 28, 2019 (edited) Game #9 - The Council - Final Impressions Time played: a bit over 9h Trophies earned: 25/44 I'm currently nearing hte end of episode 3 (out of 5), So I'm a bit over halway through I'd say. With that in mind and with this bein an episodic title the quality of each episode may very by quite a bit. So far the first 3 episode have been good, although it's been starting to go in a weird direction. Not going to get into it, as the whole game is essentially spoilers. It starts out as a mystery novel in which your mother disappeaers and you're invited to a mansion where she was last seen. While searching for her, you'll be gradually introduced to more and more characters (some of the mquite recognizable). It's an interesting setting with an intruiging story developing , that will keep you interested in what might happen next. At leat up until the end of episode 3, where the story seems to go completely off the rails. It's still interesting, but sort of is starting to lose it's intrigue. Visually it's good when it comes to the environments and the mansion's interior. It becomes passable when it comes to the characters. Exaggerated features make them look quite silly. The animations are a bit wonky as well. Then there are a few glitches as well. So far I've found a glove floating in the air and then disappearing all of a sudden. There are also some audio issues, that apparently haven't been patched. There are two situations where the dialogue slows down into slow motion, when interacting with an object. It's always only those specific objects though. Gameplay-wise, you'll be walking around the mansion alot, exploring several floors and rooms. Part of which is also solving puzzles and picking up clues and collectibles. The main shtick though, are the RPG elements. There are different personality traits that you can put points in, in order to become knowledgeable in it. Evenutally applying said knowledge in conversations with the other people habitating the mansion. Some will not be affected by a few traits, while others end up giving you new information . It's an interesting mechanic that's a bit tricky to balance, especially at hte beginning. You'll be locked out of a lot of potential dialogues, because you may not have the skills required. You'll get skill points after every chapter (3 per episode) and can find and read books to improve the stats as well. They also gradyally increase by interacting with people and objects though. I'm enjoying it so far, but am becoming wary of might lie ahead. As for now it's definitely a . Edited November 28, 2019 by voodoo_eyes 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamagingRob Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 14 minutes ago, AuroraHistoire said: Aww, I was looking forward to Touhou Double Focus. ? That's okay. Play what you really want to play. I'm sure you'll play Touhou Double Focus next time. Sorry to disappoint. But yeah, I'll be sure to give that one a go in the next KYC. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arctic Cress Posted November 28, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted November 28, 2019 (edited) Game #8: Zanki Zero: Last Beginning Time played: 3.5 hours Trophies: 2/38 (2% - E) Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is a dungeon crawler made by Spike Chunsoft, creators of the Danganronpa series and also my own personal 2018 Game of the Year, 428: Shibuya Scramble. Initially, this was the game I was most interested in to play. While I found it interesting story-wise so far, I'm definitely not completely as enthusiastic as I was when starting it. Zanki Zero has no set POV character - rather, during each chapter, each party member take a turn as the lead character. The eight people there are the last survivors of humanity, and are tasked with investigating certain ruins nearby of places familiar to them by a mysterious TV show called Extend TV that plays from unplugged in TVs located all over the islands they explore. It sounds weird, and that's normal for a Spike Chunsoft game. Each of the characters represents one of the seven deadly sins (plus one representing "original sin" since there are eight characters) and the ruins they explore is tailored towards the POV character for that chapter. The first chapter is for the character representing Sloth, and to be completely honest, I thought the connection to Sloth was completely ridiculous and not at all as the story claims it is. And also - given the amount of text in the game, you would expect like most visual novels to have a log of the conversation. There is nothing for this. Missed a line of text because you pressed a button too quickly? Too bad, you'll never know what it said now. That's inexcusable for a visual novel developer like Spike Chunsoft who should really know better by this point. Anyway, the survival elements are pretty dull. You have a health and stamina bar, but you'll get so many items (especially meat) from enemies that you can get topped up in stamina at any time you want, and you can rest anywhere to recover health. There's a bladder system as well, but I've never seen any of the characters have an absolute need to use the bathroom as of yet. The big thing here is age; characters only live 13 days through their lifespan as clones - going from a child, to a young adult, a middle-age adult, and a 'senior'. Each period lasts a few days, and a character's stats will differ depending on what stage of their lifespan they are in. Young Adult obviously boasts the highest statistics, but the other stages can also pitch in depending on the skills you assign them. While this is a dungeon crawler, the game uses actual real-time combat and enemies are all visible from the field. However, this becomes very boring - most enemies are slow enough that you can hit it with all four of your characters, then move back to dodge the enemy's attack, then hit it again when it follows. I beat the first boss with a similar tactic - it uses a range attack that has a large wait time afterwards, so I bait it to use that attack, then ran up to it and hit it. Rinse and repeat. It eventually died. There's also one of the main mechanics with the game called Shigabane, which gives each character multiple rewards based on how the character dies. You died to the first boss? Well, now you'll take less damage from him! It's a very intriguing mechanic, though it kind of loses its whole thing considering dying just doesn't happen too often (though it might on higher difficulties). Revives are made from the Extend machine in your base, and cost Score points that you collect from defeating enemies. Speaking of the base, there's a lot of different facilities you can build based on the materials you collect outside of the main island. It's good to periodically check and see what you can make every so often. Now I've criticized the game a lot already, but my main complaint is this - you have eight characters. All eight of them do the exact same thing in combat. I basically gave each person a piece of driftwood and had them hit enemies with it to win the entire first dungeon. There were some other weapons I found in the dungeon, such as a knife and an umbrella, but they weren't as powerful as the driftwood, so I rarely used them. As for the skill trees, they are all very similar as well. I'm not expecting them to start using magic or something, but each one is the same - one skill for each stage of their lifespan, some skills that further strengthen a stage, a skill that strengthens a kind of weapon, then a number of general skills for survival, surprise attacks, and base building. That's it. Barely any character customization to speak of, which is almost a bare necessity of any dungeon crawler video game. The one highlight is the story, which despite the problem I noted above with the first chapter, is actually interesting as it continues. I might just set it to the easiest difficulty and just play out the story if it comes down to it, because the rest of the game just isn't very good. Just have to make sure I don't rush too fast and miss lines because I'll never see them again. Starting completion: 71.83% Current completion: 70.48% Difference: -1.35% 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) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: 7/45 (10% - E) Worldend Syndrome: 1/23 (1% - E) Team Sonic Racing: 12/52 (17% - D) Yeah, I ended up not playing Shenmue III because having rushed through II real quick I'm not in the mood for more Shenmue right now, but in a few days I'll get to that. I'll be moving onto AI: The Somnium Files next, and then I'll restart up Shenmue III on Saturday to finish off the KYC. Edited November 28, 2019 by Arctic Cress typo 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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