Kill Your Completion 13

[Psy-Tychist]

As with many of the past KYC events, I like to make a theme for them to make picking the games more interesting. As we have reached the thirteenth iteration, that number is considered unlucky and invokes an irrational fear in some people. I will choose 6 games over the coming 30ish days which each have a specific fear attached to them:

 

Arachnophobia - Crimsonland

Ophidiophobia  - Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

Acrophobia       - Just Cause 2

Cynophobia      - The Order 1886

Agoraphobia     - STAY

Mysophobia      - Monster Monpiece

 

Current stats for the start of the event:

675 Games Played.

63.87% Completion Rate.

8181 Unearned Trophies.

 

Also, these are now the collated games I (might) have played for other KYC events. I'm going to trim them down and try to finish all the games I actually started by the end of the year.

Green games are completed and red games never started.

 

KYC 3.0

1. Flame Over ➡️ 14/36 - 24%
2. Grim Fandango Remastered ➡️ 100%
3. Nom Nom Galaxy ➡️ 1/32 - 1%
4. OlliOlli ➡️ 1/12 - 5%
5. Resident Evil (PS4) ➡️ 4/45 - 6%
6. Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones ➡️ 3/12 - 15%
7. The Swapper ➡️ 100%
8. The Swindle ➡️ 2/15 - 9%
9. Titan Souls ➡️ 11/28 - 20%
10. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ➡️ 0%

KYC: CYOA

1. Oddworld New'N'Tasty ➡️ 5/37 - 7%
2. CastleStorm ➡️ 0%
3. de Blob 2 ➡️ 0%
4. Sonic Adventure ➡️ 0%
5. Ether One ➡️ 0%
6. Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 ➡️ 0%
7. Kinetica ➡️ 0%
8. Styx: Master of Shadows ➡️ 0%

KYC: X

1. Inside  ➡️ 14/14 - 100%

2. Tacoma  ➡️ 13/13 - 100%

3. WRC5  ➡️ 19/38 - 42%

4. Fall of Light  ➡️  5/24 - 8%

5. Trials Fusion  ➡️ 6/16 - 30%

6. Tharsis  ➡️ 6/12 - 35%

7. Pyre  ➡️ 51/51 - 100%

8. Darkest Dungeon  ➡️ 15/53 - 21%

KYC: XI

1. Degrees of Separation ➡️ 5/10 - 52%
2. Aaru's Awakening ➡️ 0/15 - 0%
3. Ninja Senki DX ➡️ 0/18 - 0%
4. In Space We Brawl ➡️ 0/18 - 0%
5. Everything ➡️ 35/35 - 100%
6. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime ➡️ 0/29 - 0%

KYC: XII

1. The Council ➡️ 25/44 - 48%
2. Sexy Brutale ➡️ 19/19 - 100%
3. White Light ➡️ 8/34 - 12%
4. Torment: Tides of Numenera ➡️ 3/53 - 7%
5. Dishonored 2 ➡️ 5/51 - 8%
6. Bear With Me ➡️ 25/33% - 90%

Edited July 4, 2020 by Psy-Tychist

[PerryToxteth]

Pre-KYC13 Stats

Games Played/ Completed:        147/111

Trophies Earned:                              4928

Unearned Trophies:                           585

Completion %:                                  90.13%

 

   A brief update since my last appearance in KYC 11. After being a member on PSNP since 2014, I have FINALLY achieved my personal goal of hitting 90% completion on my profile! Joining 11 of the 13 KYC events haven't helped my cause, but I have used some random Covid off-work days to do some clean-up.  With less responsibility in some of my normal areas, and more responsibilities in others; life has really been turned upside-down in my occupation and household. I'm sure most here have similar stories. A strange, calming influence during Covid for me has been cleaning up long-lost trophies.  It's provided some odd motivation during Groundhog's Day house-arrest. 

  I also hit another milestone with my 100th !   Number 100 ended up being Civilization VI, an ultra rare trophy I wasn't sure I'd be able to get, but with perseverance (and ahem, a Steam guide ), I pulled it off.  Strange how when I joined PSNP, a platinum  was a genuine accomplishment; nowadays people can stack 20 in one sitting!  

The absolute last thing I care about are leaderboards, but I digress...

 

Anyways, here's a brief preview of my games for KYC 13:

- Golf With Your Friends - Any KYC vet knows I'm a sucker for golf games. This one's first-person mini-golf. I'm trying to do a theme of co-op games for this Covid KYC, because hey(!), We need to co-op together to get rid of this damn virus!!

- Overcooked - A friend recently recommended this. I'm told it's kid-friendly and co-op. I probably acquired it in the good-old PS+ Days when you'd get a half-dozen titles every month (sigh).

- Uncharted 4 - More co-op! At least for the dlc. I really enjoyed the first three, yet recently realized I had never finished the series. Oddly, my PS4 is the Uncharted 4 version so it was the first game on my console, yet I haven't got to it until five years later. I know, it's strange.

- Hunting Simulator - This, definitely not co-op. For some peculiar reason, this genre has picqued my interest, despite never hunting a single day in my life. As a child, I walked into a garage where my uncles were cleaning a pair of deer and that scarred me for a good decade. Anyways, this one doesn't look too tough, if all goes well, I'll try a more challenging hunting game down the road.

- Back to the Future - I put this on my hard drive when Telltale games were getting delisted. Not sure if they are back on the PSN Store, but now I just want to finish it and erase it.

- Adventures of Tintin - Or...not. My PS3 has been in a basement box the last year and a half and I thought this game would be a good excuse to get it back out, as my kids would like Tintin. Only problem is I found the PS3, but not the power cord.  So let's go with...

- Ticket to Ride - Not quite a co-op game, but definitely kid-friendly. My family really likes the board game, so this should be fun. I've  been waiting on this one for a LONG time as the platinum had been unobtainable due to one trophy. It finally got fixed and just went on sale for a good price yesterday. Sold! 

 

Glad to be back after missing the event in March. Not much has happened in the world since then, huh? 

[HelixNebula_x]

Okay so I managed to put in a couple of hours to my first game last night, so I thought I'd come back with my initial thoughts. I think I'm going to try and do a post at the start of the game as well as my final thoughts at the end of the 6 days.

 

Game #1: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

 

Trophies Earned: 10/39

Completion Percentage: 17%

Time Played: 2 hours

 

So where to really start with this one. First of all, it definitely feels like a game of it's time.The animations can be choppy and sometimes the movement itself can be a little floaty, with me already having multiple deaths due to stuttering off the edge of a moving platform. The default camera controls are inverted, with no clear way to change them in the options either.

It was only after a Google search that I discovered you have to go into 'Display Settings' from the menu, hold up on the D-Pad and press R3. There is no audio cue to tell you this has worked even, so extremely user friendly menus and controls to say the least. ?

 

And yet... this feels like a game of it's time. The pacing is fast and fluid, throwing you straight from the tutorial into the opening world and basically telling you,
'Bugger off and do your own thing, and don't bother coming back until you've earned 20 power cells!'

The colours are vibrant, and despite the textures not really being textures at all due to the game being nearly 19 years old, the bright environments aren't diminished by the lacklustre graphics. Naughty Dog took what they had at the time and made it look as good as it could.

The music is catchy and fits the tone of the areas expertly; funky basslines to go alongside an obstacle course through the tree tops or a dramatic entrance theme as I met the first boss. The sound mixing isn't that great though with the music often overpowering the voice work in the cutscenes, as well as there being a lack of subtitles. The voice acting itself (aside from Daxter) is nothing to write home about either. Trophies seem fairly easy, so I'm looking forward to getting back to it tonight and picking up a few more.

 

All in all, for a game that came out in 2001, I'm suitably impressed so far. It's fun, lighthearted and should be an easy ride to platinum.

 

Initial Rating: 7/10

Pros: Fun and vibrant World, Music that fits the tone, Nostalgic yet fun gameplay

Cons: Menus aren't user friendly, Sound mixing is pretty bad on the default settings, Controls sometimes feel a little floaty

Edited July 2, 2020 by HelixNebula_x

[Phantochi]

Game #1 - The last Guardian impressions

 

 

 

This is a interesting one, if it wasn't for this event, i would have probably drop out after a hour in, but now, after playing it for a while, i'm glad i didn't, because i'm loving it.

 

This is a rough game to recommend, specially for trophy hunters, controls are bad, the camera sucks, i'm pretty sure someone went to the camera guy and said: 'hey, bet you can' t make it worse than Shadow of the colossus' and somehow he did it, 'hint' mechanics are the worst, you need to hear every hint in the game for a trophy, but for some hints you need to wait and do absolutely nothing for more than 30mins, so the hint voice comes and say: 'i need to find a way to open that door', like wtf?!

 

But what's really absurd in this game is how it deals with saves, not only you can't make manual saves or save in a certain place, but the game doesn't tell you when it's making an auto save, so if you waited a hour to hear fucking sherlock giving you a hint, and close the game after, when you launch the game later you'll have to do it all over again, and let me tell you, it's not fun. This is a huge flaw of the game. You NEED to let the player know when his progress has been saved. I know they did it this way for imersion and all of that, but c'mon, a small icon in the bottom of the screen is all that is needed, not that hard.

 

The game is all about puzzles, and working through the puzzles with Trico as another layer of gameplay is really the name of the game and it often feels like trying to tell a dog how to solve a jigsaw puzzle. You can see the big picture but your dog will probably be trying to eat the pieces instead. The puzzles and level design in general only really lend themselves to one true solution and the puzzle is connecting the dots to get you there. Some “puzzles” are quite literally a switch across a bridge but the solution is something between just jumping across or yelling at Trico until he jumps across. You have a button that calls to Trico and he’ll eventually make his way to you but beyond that, the game is unclear about the controls. Different combinations will make Trico do different things but what those buttons are and what those combinations do is a mystery since Trico is his own beast. 

 

But so far, letting all those things aside, it's been fun getting to know this world and Trico alongside the boy, because he also have no idea about what's happening, apparently. I'm curious about what will happen towards the end, and the game has a intriguing charm that i can't quite describe yet

Time Played - 8~10hrs
Trophies earned - 08/24, 23%, A Rank
Score so far - 7.5/10

Edited July 3, 2020 by Phantochi

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #1 - Ghostbusters Remastered - Update

 

 

I've only played a couple of hours so far and finished2 missions. THe levels are pretty linear with a few collectibles scattered around. Some sections get artificially extended in length, because the ghosts disappear for several seconds.

 

The whole busting ghosts system takes a while to get used to, as it is nowhere near precise and quite jank.

 

I'll probably only get back to this on the weekend, but maybe I'll squeeze another hour in tonight.

 

So far it's been as I had expected... fairly mediocre.

[Kevvik]

And it begins...

 

Game #1: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Initial Impressions

Time played: 12 hrs

 

Valkyria Chronicles is a game that came out in the early days of PS3 (pre-trophies) and now it has been released on PS4. I’d seen stuff on it back in the day and wished that I had gotten around to it. Now I have.

 

Valkyria Chonicles is a 3rd person tactical action/RPG.  It takes place in an alternate reality in the country of Gallia in the early days of the 2nd European War. You get a lot of story episodes where you get a feel for the characters, the main being Welkin Gunther, a natural sciences university student who is the son of a general who was a hero in the first war. You are taken into custody by the local watch, headed by Alicia, until your identity is confirmed when you meet Isara. You are returning to your village to help your adopted sister Isara move to the capital where she should be safer as the Empire invades Gallia, hoping to take possession of the rare resources found abundantly there.  Before you can leave, advance Empire troops enter your village where you and Alicia work to repel them.  You eventually have to retreat, joining the militia in the capital where your early actions are recognized and you are placed in charge of a group called Squad 7.

 

The action takes place turn-based but in real time. Every mission has objectives for success and failure. You choose a unit, move them to where you want, get in an attack if possible, move them again if you have the stamina to do so and end the turn.  When you have used your available move, it becomes the enemy phase of action.  Different units have different characteristics, scouts have longer range of movements, stormtroopers greater attack, lancers use anti-armour lances making them ideal against tanks.  Everything is focused on how you carry out each mission.  Enemy forces can shoot at you during your movements so cover is something you need to get used to when moving.  At the start of each mission (with a few exceptions) you deploy troops chosen from your squad at the beginning. Taking over a command post allows for calling reinforcements if you have the space but take until the next turn to arrive.  You can call for a medic to evac downed troops if you can get to them quick enough.  You even have a tank though it requires using two turns for each movement but the greater firepower is offset by restricted movement in some areas.

 

Surrounding this is lots of story, not MGS lots but still a lot. Each chapter of the story has 1-2 combat missions which are the meat of gameplay but it’s a great story that drives the events forward and helps you connect with your main characters. At your HQ you can use gained XP to level up your units, obtained money to develop stronger weapons and mods for your tank.  The somewhat stereotypical female reporter (the only really weak character) writes about your squad and opens extra side story/missions to fill in back story on some of your main squad mates.

 

Additional buffs for the team are available in orders, some gained by leveling up your troop classes, others through class based skills. You also have individual characteristics for every squad member which can appear during battle, making it strategic in choosing the correct member of each class for your mission (one scout may be disadvantaged in the city but more effective in a country or wooded setting). You have a squad of 20 that you build and which can be altered at HQ between missions as additional troops are unlocked in later chapters.

 

Enough on the game front, what did I think of this?  I’m loving it!  The game is gorgeous, having that handcrafted look and everything runs really smoothly. I’ve had the odd moment where a unit gets hung up on a piece of environment but since you can save between every unit action, this can be avoided if necessary. The game saving comes in handy as your move through missions. If you don’t like how things are flowing, move back a bit with a save and rethink your approach.  The faster you finish a mission, the higher your rank and the more XP and money you earn. Additional bonuses for taking out enemy leaders, aces and armor boost this as well. 
 

I’ve reached Chapter 10 and have just started getting trophies. You can meet the requirements for them before that but every trophy is linked to a battle decoration which you can’t receive until the audience hall is unlocked by reaching Chapter 10 so don’t feel too discouraged early on. Extra side missions (skirmishes) are also unlocked as you progress the story but I haven’t tried them yet.

 

I’m really looking forward to continuing this. The story is great, the gameplay solid and I really want to find out more about these characters.  It’s should be a fun next few days.

 

Trophies earned: 3/21, 4% for E rank

Score so far: 9/10

Edited July 3, 2020 by Kevvik

[AuroraHistoire]

Remember the "5 Rs" of Racing: Run, Run, Run, Run, and uh... Run. ~ Nippon Marathon

 

Nippon Marathon is a magical fever dream in video game form. Nippon Marathon is kind of a top down racing game, maybe. The goal is to run the coarse as fast as possible, avoiding obstacles and outrun the other competitors .

 

The "races" in Nippon Marathon are a little different then normal races. Each competitor starts with 4 stars at the start of the race. The primary goal of the race is to gather as many stars as possible while achieving the secondary goals of finishing in first place and becoming popular. To gain stars, you want to be the last one ending at the end of a round. Players get eliminated by being too far behind the player in first place or falling off the stage. The first player eliminated loses 2 stars, the second eliminated player loses 1 star, the third eliminated player doesn't lose a star, and the rounds winner gains 1 star; players can have a minimum of 1 star and a maximum of 8 stars. After a round, the players all respawn at the nearest checkpoint. The coarse is a set length and there is a finish line at the end. Popularity, is gained by doing certain actions (being cased by Shiba Inu, diving, pushing backpackers, destorying snowman, pushing business men on the subway, ect.) and you lose it by doing unfavorable actions (holding a smelly mushroom, eating on the train, pushing over spectators, ect.). At the end of a race each player gets points based on their stars, finishing position, stickers and popularity. Stars are worth 50 points each. 1st place gets 100 points, 2nd gets 75, 3rd gets 50, 4th gets 25 and a DNF gets 0. Stickers (there bonuses for stuff like using the most power ups and being chased by the most Shiba Inu) are worth 10 points each. Popularity is 0-100 points.

 

Nippon Marathon has a total have 10 playable characters but they are all equal stat and ability wise. In addition to running, you also have the ability to jump, duck and dive. Jumping is for jumping over obstacles and doing light platforming. Ducking is for going under certain obstacles. Diving a risky move; it allows your jumps to cover more distance but you will ragdoll and it takes a second or two to recover after hitting the ground. During races there are power-up boxes to get a random power-up from. There the banana, that is thrown behind you in hopes the other players will slip and fall. The watermelon will tossed in the air and target the player in first place; if it hits somebody, they fall over. The pineapple is a balloon that boosts the users jumping ability and makes them fall slower until it pops. The last power-up is a mushroom. You lose popularity by holding it but it leaves a trail of bad smell behind you that will eventually make any player with the misfortune of being behind you to fall over. You also have the option to drop the mushroom at anytime and another player can pick it up. All power-ups can also be eaten for a brief speed boost (except the mushroom; you fall over if you eat that one). You can hold two power-ups at once.

 

There are 8 levels in the game and they're all very good. They all have their own them, gimmicks and all feel different from eachother. They each have their own music and the songs are all good but a few are fantastic. The bad part of the levels is that it can be a little confusing to know where to go sometimes on your first playthough. There is also an announcer with a thick Japanese accent that comments on every little thing during the race; he's hilarious and has some very funny lines. 

 

Nippon Marathon has a 1 player story mode and local 4 player versus mode. There are 4 characters with their "own" story. Well the story is the mostly same no matter who you pick. You see will see some different scenes depending on who you pick. Anyway, the story is about the character you choose entering Nippon Marathon, a annual national running competition with a huge cash prize. They befriend the other 3 characters you didn't pick and you defeat the champion with a 10 year win streak. The story is crazy and fun. A story mode run takes 1-2 hours to clear.

 

In addition to the story and versus mode, there is L.O.B.S.T.E.R and Go-Go-Trolly. They both support 8 player pass-the-controller multiplayer. L.O.B.S.T.E.R is a game similar to the main game where players navigate a procedurally generated obstacle coarse. The goal is to get farther then last play, or else you lose the round a gain a letter of lobster (or a sea creature with a shorter name). One loses when lobster is fully spelled. Go-Go-Trolley is basically bowling but you knock over the pins by pushing a shopping trolley down a hill. Between frames, the hill might change to have jumps and/or obstacles. After pushing the shopping trolley, you're also allowed to dive down the lane with your character to knock over a couple pins yourself. I really like this version of bowling, surprisingly. I dislike bowling IRL and in games.

 

Nippon Marathon's trophy list is pretty simple and a tiny bit grindy. You need to beat story mode with all 4 characters. The first playthrough was a magical experience but I skipped 80% of the cutscenes on the fourth playthrough. You also have to play all 8 levels back to back in versus mode, so that's kind of another playthrough. You also need to collect all 23 pages of Wedy's Travel Guide. They're a collectable that you find in the levels; most of them are easy to find but a few are a bit tricky. You're also able to eat a page of Wedy's Travel Guide after you find it; you get a trophy if you eat one and you fall down (the collectable still counts if you eat it). There is also a trophy for being chased by 100 Shiba Inu. It's pretty easy since only 2 levels don't have any native Shiba Inu and occasionally the game will go into a sudden death mode where it spawn never-ending waves of Shiba Inu. That trophy isn't particularly notable, I just wanted to say Shiba Inu a few more times. 

[Phantochi]

I wasn't planning for it, but i loved the game so much that i ended up getting the plat for The Last Guardian, it was one of the best experiences i had in gaming, but i don't recommend it lol. I'll probably take a day off and start my game #2 on monday, and i'll share what i'm expecting from it before i start it. Anyway, here goes my review for The Last Guardian. 

 

Game #1 Review - The Last Guardian

 

 

A magical, emotional, and as the protagonist says in the end: an extraordinary story. Last guardian doesn't hold your hands, it has only a few short and simple cutscenes, But they are more than enough to leave you intrigued and reflective. 

 

I'm not a newcomer to team ico games, so i was ready to a dark ending but.. Wow, i wasn't expecting to cry that much. Don't worry, i won't give any spoiler. 

 

In summary, You are just a mysterious boy who wound up in an unknown place together with a creature the boy named trico. Its whole campaign is both of you trying to escape together in that place while also learning the secrets behind it. What i really loved in this game is the growing chemistry and relationship of the two characters. 

 

The game mechanics are simple and focused only on the interaction between the pair. At first, the boy needs to gain Trico's trust through simple gestures. Throughout the journey, the boy teaches the animal to perform natural movements and actions, such as jumping, lying down and eating. Both need to work together, while the boy looks for a lever between the rubble at the top of a tower, for example, the animal must remain strategically positioned on the ground to cushion its fall. It is really impressive to see the mechanics working well between the player-driven character and the ai animal. 

 

After some segments, the game starts a scripted scene that feels like a cutscene during the gameplay, and those are the best moments in the game, you see the boy running from the enemies that are call suits of armor, you see him jumping from a 100ft tall tower and trico grabbing him in the air, you see both trico and the boy running and everything around them crumbling apart, that's when the music kicks in, and the game drops your jaw to the floor, those moments not only serve to bond trico and the boy, but also to show you that everything has a purpose. But those same moments is when you see how bad optimized this game is, i played on the ps4 pro, and during some of those moments it felt like i was watching a stop motion movie. It was pretty rare to noticed the game running at 30fps, and this definetely takes away from the experience.

 

A problem that comes up throughout The Last Guardian’s puzzles, is that the rules and learned information you’re building rarely transfer from one puzzle to the next. There are a few reusable mechanics, like making Trico “stomp” or “shove” things with specific commands, but they are never used to great effect. Instead, the answers often revolve around just weird ideas that might work, like having Trico jump into the water to raise it briefly.

 

The Last Guardian feels like a ps2 game. It’s mechanics feels as if it were built around the design limitations of past Team Ico games, and all of its little issues, the worst camera ever, unclear design cues, unclear buttons combination for Trico, bad controls, it takes away from what might have otherwise been an interesting, beautiful and minimalistic adventure. The point of the experience is to bond with Trico as you face challenges together, but convincing Trico to help you while guessing wildly doesn’t foster a bond, it creates resentment. 

 

It took me around 12hrs to finish the game, you can finish it way faster if you're a casual, and you'll actually enjoy it even more than i did, because the trophy list in this game is one of the worst i've ever seen, so i don't recommend it for trophy hunters.

 

This game has a trophy for beating the game in 5 hours. For a game that is mostly reliant on the responsiveness of Trico, a speedrun sounds like one of the worst things possible, and trust me, it is. Especially for the kind of game that it is. An art game where you take your time and soak up the world. 

 

On top of that, there's a trophy for never dying. Every death I've had in the game (and there's been plenty) is from the clunky controls and messy platforming. No deaths in a playthrough is a chore, and if you're going for the 5 hour run, you'll have a rough time.

 

But here's a trophy that's so bad, that i don't think there's an adjective to describe how bad it is: Listen to every narrator hint. In literally every puzzle or room, you hear the narrator eventually give you a hint, which is often frustrating because he never helps you when you're stuck. It's usually something like "With the help of Trico, I got out of the room." thanks sherlock. This means that on top of having the fastest playthrough possible, you also have to force yourself to have the SLOWEST playthrough possible by waiting in each room.

Total time played - 20~25hrs
Trophies Earned - 24/24, 100%, S Rank
Final Score - 7/10

[ladynadiad]

 

Game #1 Dark Cloud (PS4)

Trophies earned: 6/38 (12% E Rank)

 

Current completion: 96.66% (-0.36%)

Current unearned trophies: 220 (+22)

Current games played: 220 (+6)

Current games completed: 208 (+5)

Current unstarted games in backlog: 77 games

 

Goodness, where do I even begin with this?  I'd heard good things about this series but missed it on PS2.  However, my experience playing it so far has me thinking how did this get a sequel?  This is at best a mediocre to decent game that is absolutely ruined by some really terrible design choices.  There are some good ideas, but the bad ones just really drag it down a lot.

 

So let's start off with the first bad idea: weapon HP.  Pretty much not only does your character have an HP meter, but your weapon does as well.  Each time you use your weapon, it loses HP.  If it goes to 0, it breaks and is lost entirely.  To be able to recover its HP, you have to use an item called repair powder.  Well, the annoying thing is that this doesn't recover upon leaving a dungeon and it goes down pretty damn fast.  You'll be using at least one repair powder per floor on average at least in the first dungeon.  And it has at least 10 floors to it.  Now one good thing is that you can leave the dungeon once you clear a floor and return back to where you were, but having to buy and carry repair powder is annoying and if you can't beat all the enemies in time your choice is lose a weapon or use an escape powder to leave.  Also be aware that this game is very stingy with gold.

 

The next annoying feature: the thirst meter.  So pretty much there is a meter for how thirsty your character is.  If this runs out, you start losing health very fast.  This is recovered with pools of water in the dungeon or a water item.  Well the fun thing is that you don't always get a pool of water on each floor.  This means you have to buy and carry water, and as noted above the game is stingy with gold so it's pretty dumb to require buying water.  Even more so because you have access to a freaking river outside the dungeon and can't go grab some free water from that.

 

And the last annoying feature: limited floors.  So pretty much you get floors at times where you are limited to something.  On one your weapon can't gain absorption points and you can't change your weapon.  Absorption points are used to upgrade weapons and being unable to change your weapon means you can't swap to another one if you're out of repair powder.  The second one I've run into forced me to use the ally I just gained who has a terrible weapon and oh hey let's totally put a bunch of powerful monsters on this floor too when she can do at best 4 damage to them (the weakest enemies would need 3-4 hits to kill at that rate).  I pretty much need to use a repair powder about every other enemy because her weapon is so bad.

 

One other thing that is a bit annoying is that you don't seem to gain levels or really get stronger.  At least I haven't been able to gain more HP or defense yet.  The only way my character has improved is by getting better weapons and upgrading them, but upgrading weapons requires using them to kill enough enemies to max out absorption points, which diminishes weapon HP and means you need repair powder.  Pretty much you get stuck in a spiral of needing stuff that costs money and having very little money to work with.  I wouldn't mind having to upgrade weapons a bit or grind to become more powerful to progress, but this just is a very poorly designed system that makes it very difficult and annoying to grow stronger.

 

I honestly can't recommend this one.  The poor design choices take away everything the game does well.  To be honest, unless the sequel removes these poor choices, I'll just be deleting it from my hard drive and removing from my backlog.

 

Edit: I should probably add that the trophy guide does give a method to use a glitch to max out stats on a weapon fast which can be taken advantage of to get a lot of money and weapons powerful enough to make the game pathetically easy.  I got so frustrated with that limited floor forcing me to use the crappy character that I used that to get past it and now the game is pathetically easy, but the weapon HP and thirst meters are still a huge pain in my butt.  That made it slightly more bearable because I now can one shot most monsters and don't go through HP on the weapons as fast now.

Edited July 5, 2020 by ladynadiad

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #1 - Ghostbusters Remastered - Review

 

 

Time played: around 6h

Trophies earned: 36/41

 

 

So I've beaten the game and wrapped up all the collectibles. There are still a few trophies missing for the platinum, but honestly I can't be bothered with the hassle. Would it not be for the one trophy which is dealing less than 100k colateral damage, I might go back to it. Having tried to get it in my first run, I was already over 199K by the 3rd mission and that was playing really carefully. So it just seems a tedious endevour to try and go for it.

 

Anyway, about the game. It's a third person shooter within the Ghostbusters universe, that has the original actors do the VO and I beleive teh writing was also done y Dan Aycroyd. All the ghostbusters are there, the secretary and even slimer, albeit only for hte first mission.

 

There are 7 missions in total, not counting the training level. One of the locations gets revisited though. THe levels are also fairly linear, and there are only the odd areas that you can explore and on rare occasions actually find secrets. The missions are reasonably long for the most part, although there are two that drag on quite a bit.

 

Visually the game is alright. It's very minimally improved over the original, which is disappointing already, as usually that's the one thing remasters do enhance the graphics. The VO and sound effects are solid.

 

There is a decent variety of ghosts, but for the most part the way you tackle them tends to be the same. Even though you end up having 4 different versions of the proton pack, you'll rarely use two of them at all and one of the three ends up being mostly used on puzzles.

The gameplay is as clunky as expected. The beams are somewhat annoying to control when you try to capture a ghost and reminds me of the shitty fishing mini games many JRPGs have, that I hate.

 

There are also some technical problems, that still remain since tthe original. Resulting in a softlock. At least the checkpoints are frequent and there's chapter select after you beat the game. Oh and let's not forget,  the friendly AI is pretty daft

 

 

Overall it's an OK game. I don't think it justifies the 30€ price tag, considering it's a 10 year old game that had little to no improvements implemented with this remaster. Having paid 12€ for it, I don't feel too bad about the investment. On the other hand, I also wouldn't have felt like a missed out, had I not bought it. It's a

 

[purgta]

Game #1 Review

 

 

I had a lot of fun with this. I played the very beginning on PS3 years ago but bounced off it for some reason. I decided to give the PS4 version a go and am glad I did. I kind of regret not getting into the series when it first came out. The game is a third person action adventure/platformer. It reminds me a lot of Tomb Raider with the treasure hunting, third person platforming and

Spoiler

turning supernatural at the end.

 

The game is extremely linear with you travelling in straight lines for most of it. This is not really a negative as it keeps the game flowing and prevents unnecessesary backtracking. I usually dislike platformers but it was fine here. I don't think there were any difficult sections, platforming wise. I had no difficulty solving any of the puzzles and there were thankfully no puzzles that ran on a timer. Vehicles were the worst part of the game by far for me and they only decreased in enjoyment the higher the difficulty mode.

 

The story was alright. It was not anything special although I really liked the main trio. Nate is charming and has good chemistry with Sully and Elena. The banter between them was a highlight of the game. Combat was a lot of fun although I never really used CQC or stealth kills. I mostly stuck with pistols as headshots were incredibly powerful.

 

Throphywise the platinum is fairly easy. Getting 100% is a bit more challanging as you have to beat the game on its highest difficulty, Brutal Mode. I had a lot of fun in Crushing mode but brutal was unfair a lot of the time. It was a tossup if I was instantly killed if combat started right after a cutscene. The jeep section was just awful and the least fun part of the game for me. One or two shots kills you and some enemies start shooting before they come into view. Thankfully the game is very generous with checkpoints.

 

It seems like I am complaining a lot but I did really enjoy it. I would recommend it to anyone who has not tried it to give it a shot. I will not be playing the sequel soon to try to avoid burnout but I will be playing it eventually.

 

 

Trophy progress: 54/54

Completion percentage: 33.56%(+.0.16%).

 

 

 

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - Trine 4 - Preview

 

 

Developer: Frozenbyte

Publisher: Modus Games

Genre: Action Platformer

Price: 29,99€

 

 

This franchise isn't new to me, as I've played the first and third entry in the series. They tend to be gorgeous to look at, but the gameplay hasn't been the best.

 

I'm actually surprised that a 4th game has come out, as the deves supposedly went broke while making the third entry ot the series. Which was generally not well received, because it had an unfinished ending.

 

I'm expecting a lot fo puzzles, hidden collectibles, platforming and some combat. Hopefully it'll improve on the predecessors, as these games have so much potential.

 

[Kevvik]

Game #1: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

 

Day 5 Impressions

Time played: 13 hrs

 

Well after a productive first two days, I didn't get much done during the rest of this games scheduled time.  I will definitely be coming back to it.  I played another hour, got through half a chapter (this one has two missions in it of which I completed one) and none of my opinion changed.  This is a great game with a great story thus far.

 

I did get two more trophies (for completing a mission with A rank and with no one being downed/killed).  Apparently, these trophies must be done in chapter 10 or later as I definitely met the requirements for these earlier.  I also got given some weapons from the princess which have only slightly better stats than my upgraded ones.  I didn't mention earlier but if you kill Aces during the mission (slightly tougher named enemies) you also get some different weapons.  They are stronger but the main offset I've seen in them has been considerably reduced range for attack so I have thus far been sticking with my own original, yet upgraded, weapons.

 

So, a great game I will definitely be coming back to.

 

Trophies earned: 5/21, 7% for D rank

Score so far: 9/10

Completion rate: 84.41% (-0.26% for the event)

 

Next up: Game #2: The Evil Within (I hope, this is the third event I've tried to do this game in so, third time's the charm?)

[Phantochi]

Game #2 impressions - Nights of Azure

 

 

I managed to put a few hours on Nights of Azure, and it's a solid action rpg.

 

In summary you're a lesbian who is trying to save your girlfriend from sacrificing herself to kill a demon who wants to start a night that will never ends lol. 

 

The game have a decent cast of characters, theres a hub where you can level up, buy stuff, and talk to npc's, and they always have something funny to do or to say, so don't take this game too serious and you'll have a few laughs

 

Combat is ok, you got some creatures on your party that are call servans, you can have 4 at the same time and they keep the gameplay fresh, you have healers, tanks, combat and magic servans, it's reminiscent of another old underrated classic: Chaos Legion, where you lead a small legion of demons into battle while you also fight with your weapon of choice. The music is ok too, sounds just like every other Koei Tecmo game, a few tracks sounds exactly like tracks from dynasty warriors.

 

The game has you into a bunch of linear dungeons on a timer of 15 minutes, but you finish them pretty fast, so don't even need to rush, and game is super easy, you can finish boss fights without using your hands. Maybe not that easy, but it's easy, at least so far. 

 

There's also side quests, but most side quests are kill x number of monsters or find an item in an area of town, you'll ended up revisiting the same locations over and over again to complete those

 

So far it's been fun but it’s not one of Gust’s best, feels like a lack of depth is stopping it for being as gratifying as some Atelier games that came out around the same time

 

Time played: 4hrs

Trophies earned: 17/49, 25%, D rank

Score so far: 7/10

Edited July 6, 2020 by Phantochi

[AuroraHistoire]

Another Game About Running ~ Mirror's Edge Catalyst

 

Mirror's Edge is a first-person parkour platformer that is very good. Mirror's Edge Catalyst is the second game in the series that is also good. Catalyst is mostly the same as the first but the game now has a open world in addition to linear levels.

 

Okay, saying Catalyst is just Mirror's Edge with a open world is a bit misleading. The parkour gameplay has a few new moves. The jumping, vaulting, wall running, wall jumping, roll, slide and climbing moves return from Mirror's Edge. The new move are a soft landing option that's basically a worse version of the roll and the ability to accelerate to your top speed in under a second with  (it's also a sideways and backwards dash). You also unlock a grappling hook early on but it can only be used on specific grapple points. Also, I felt that a lot of your parkour moves felt faster and more fluid in Catalyst than Mirror's Edge.

 

Combat has changed a lot. You can no longer disarm enemies and use their weapons (the shooting was the weakest part of Mirror's Edge) but the melee combat is improved. You get both light and heavy attacks. Light attacks are faster and combo well but most enemy types will block them easily. Heavy attacks slower but deal massive damage and can cause knockback. Knocking enemies into the wall, objects, other enemies and off ledges will deal extra damage; I really enjoyed that mechanic. It's also possible to combine your parkour moves with attacks to deal massive damage and generate focus. Focus is basically a magic shield that protects you from damage and bullets. Focus from running at full speed, using parkour moves effectively and deafeating enemies. Focus is lost by standing still, moving slowly and taking damage. The combat is fun but kind of easy. I never upgraded my health and I can count on 1 finger how many times a enemy killed me. 

 

Catalyst has a upgrade system. It's basically a skill tree where when you level up, you get a skill point. You level up by collecting collectables, doing missions and defeating random enemies in the open world then running away successfully. A few of the more advanced parkour techniques are locked behind the upgrade system (most were standard moves in Mirror's Edge) but the upgrades are mostly combat based. Most of the upgrades are locked until you complete certain story missions to unlock them. 

 

The story in this game was definitely a story. I was really confused at first because I thought was a sequel but Catalyst's story didn't have anything to do with the original game, I think. I think it's suppose to be a prequel or a reboot (please don't tell me the answer, I want to figure out this mystery myself). It's mostly about some allegedly evil guy who owns the city and allegedly oppressing everyone. I say allegedly, because you never see any of the terrible things that the protagonist, Faith, and her friends says he does for 2/3 of the game. I don't count having the 'police' trying to kill you as a bad thing since Faith and her friends are criminals with their illegal mail service thing (they also probably don't pay their taxes). I found the story as a whole boring but I found couple of the characters enjoyable.

 

As far as my progress so far, I've completed all the story missions, none of the side missions, have done 10 delivery missions, collected a decent amount of the collectables and have completed 4 time trails. I usually don't enjoy collectables unless it's a collectathon or they're really handled well. I really can't tell if I enjoy the collectables or not yet but they haven't annoyed me so far. I really enjoy the time trials so far. 

[ladynadiad]

 

Game #1 Dark Cloud (PS4)

Trophies earned: 19/28 (12% B Rank)

 

Current completion: 96.66% (-0.12%)

Current unearned trophies: 207 (+9)

Current games played: 220 (+6)

Current games completed: 208 (+5)

Current unstarted games in backlog: 77 games

 

So I got a bit farther and decided to use the broken dagger glitch that the trophy guide gave.  Not even so much for earning a ton of gold (though that sure was a big help), but to get actually decent weapons so I'm not constantly needing repair powder.  However, the game really hasn't gotten better and there really isn't any good story that makes me want to progress further. 

 

Though I do realize I didn't really talk much about the unique aspects of the game.  This game has some stuff in common with games like Soul Blazer and ActRaiser in that it mixes an action RPG style of gameplay with simulation and world building elements.  You travel to a town that has been destroyed by the Dark Genie.  The spirits were able to save the people and their homes, but they are trapped in things called Atla.  So you have to run around in dungeons to find all the Atla and then build the town back up again.  When you do so, the people will give you clues and items to help you proceed.  It's a bit closer to Soul Blazer in overall design, but Soul Blazer does everything better.

 

The thing is, that unlike ActRaiser and Soul Blazer, it's done in such a boring and tedious way.  The only real challenge even before I used the glitch was dealing with all the poor design decisions that were bogging down the gameplay.  Like I now can tell each time I get a new ally, I'm going to get a limited floor forcing me to use them within a couple of floors.  With the second one, I had the bad luck of not getting a newer weapon for them and having to deal with a floor where I could only use them and no better weapon.Their default weapon can't be built up into a better one, so it's pretty bad to be stuck with that.  On top of that it seems like the limited floors are fond of putting that ally up against the types of enemies they are poorly suited to fight which forces you into figuring out some cheap tactic to get past the floor because of course the item you need to progress to the next floor is dropped by the monsters they aren't suited to fight.  My tactic for the limited floor that did this in the second dungeon was to buy a bunch of bombs and throw them at those monsters.  Plain and simple, the easiest way to win in this game is to get an overpowered range weapon and abuse it, which makes Xiao your best early game ally since she uses a slingshot.  Lock in on the enemy so your ranged aim is perfect and get into range and then attack and they die.  Since HP and defense increases are very rare, you don't want to be getting close to the enemies.

Edited July 6, 2020 by ladynadiad

[PerryToxteth]

KYC 13

Game No. 1

 

 

Trophies Earned: 22/37 (58% C ranking)

Playing Time: 4-5 hours

 

Overview: Well, I thought mini-golf was as American as baseball, B-29s and Biz Markie, but after my Europeon travels last summer, I found out Europeans also enjoy some putt-putt fun (and let's be honest, a bit of frustration). The courses I played in Germany, Austria and Slovenia were quite fun, and quite crowded as well. But one question to my friends across the pond: Why on earth are your putting surfaces made out of concrete??? I can't think of a more un-friendly putting surface - well, maybe marble - so is that what awaits me when I play a course in Italy someday? 

  Following the fun/frustration theme is a game that just came out last month, Golf With Your Friends. Originally a PC title - it had so much success it made the transition to console play - after playing 8 of the 10 courses in the game, I can say it follows real life mini-golf.  There are holes that make you proud, holes that make you hang your head in shame, and holes that make you want to chuck your putter into the parking lot. 

  In GWYF, there are a variety of game styles, but the Classic mode is where the majority of trophy requirements are. And that's a blessing bc the Dunk and Hockey modes, were just plain dumb. In hockey, the hole was replaced by a net that was guarded by a goaltender; gimmicky but decent. But Dunk, which consisted of replacing the hole with a basketball net was horrendous. As your putt would near the hoop, you would need to make the ball jump by hitting , but it not only required accurate timing but precise speed. Too fast and the ball would just carom off the backboard. In my one round of play, I shot a 120 on a Par 60. Thank God the only trophy in this mode was to just complete a round!

  Back to Classic mode, it plays like normal mini-golf. Line up your shot, choose how much power to hit, and wish for good things. I found the courses to be quite diverse, but the level of difficulty was inconsistent. Most courses had 12-15 holes that were fun to challenging. But there would be a couple that were downright draconian. The maximum amount of shots per hole is 14 and each course seemed to have a few holes were 14 was a near guarantee. Balls will frequently bounce out of bounds which adds up your strokes quickly, and there's a time limit of 2 minutes for each hole. If you take too long analyzing your shot or scouting the correct path, you'll get the dreaded 14. 

  The biggest gripe in the game is the free-camera. You have an option to scout out the hole before hitting, but the camera controls are so awful, that it just wastes time rather than give you an advantage. I don't think I've come across wonkier controls since that PS+ turd from years ago, Datura. Often times, I just chose to hit blindly, rather than dealing with the horrendous camera controls.

  So the game is called Golf With Your Friends, and I can hear your question, how is the multiplayer? Well, the only time I found a lobby, I got disconnected before the round even started. But that was with a random, not a "friend." You can play couch multiplayer, though strangely, you can't load up another PSN ID, and you can only use one controller (???). Playing rounds in multiplayer brings out the glitches in the game. Balls disappear, terrible camera angles, and at times, the Player names will get stuck on the screen. If those programming errors are occurring on a regular game, I can only imagine the glitchfest when playing online. There is a Party Mode which plays like BattleGolf, but there's no tutorial! I think this is the whole point of the play with your friends concept, so how did they neglect a tutorial???

  Final Thoughts: I know I spent a lot of time griping, but I genuinely had some fun with this game. The holes are well thought out, and require you to do some sleuthing to solve the puzzle of how to make par. My kids have also enjoyed it as well. I'd give this a higher rating, but this game really needed some polishing up before releasing. Glaring errors that can be attributed to programming laziness, or maybe it was a rush to release without cleaning it up. I'll rate it a -  

- On a final note; if you plan on making a platinum run in this game, YouTube will be your best (and worst) friend. There are a number of videos that will show you how to solve those diabolical holes. The catch is, most are clips from the PC. And they don't quite translate for play on the consoles. So if you copy exactly what the video shows you, it might not work as intended. I still think it won't be too much of a pain, seeing as the plat completion rate here is above 20%

 

Completion Drop: -0.32%

 

Next Up: Hunting Simulator 

Edited July 6, 2020 by PerryToxteth

[Arctic Cress]

Game #1 - Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen

Time played: 7 hours

Trophies: 13/49 (20% - D)

 

I waited for a long time to finally start this series from the beginning, but here it is - a remake of the first game in the series, which we did not get upon its original release. I have heard consistently good things about the other two games in the series, though in these KYC topics I have also seen some dissenting opinions as well. So far, I agree with the former opinions rather than the ones around here, but I will see if that holds up.

 

Utawarerumono's main character is Hakuowlo, and the game begins with him waking up in a hut badly injured and without his memory, being tended to by a girl with animal ears and a tail. He also has a mask on the upper portion of his face that cannot be removed by normal means. After dealing with a few problems within the small village he finds himself in, he ends up leading a revolt on the corrupt ruler of the country, gathering together the many villages within the realm. I have played through the entire revolt and the entire story afterwards leading up to the next battle.

 

Battles in the game are typical strategy RPG battles. It's similar to another game by this developer that is also a strategy RPG and visual novel hybrid - Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord, which I played (and never finished) on the PS3. There are a few things that are different from your standard fights - EXP awarded in battle is not boosted by killing enemies, but by doing more attacks and damage instead. As you attack and defend, a Zeal bar increases and at 100, you can use more attacks on the next enemy you attack, all the way up to a Final Attack if unlocked - at the cost of all the Zeal in the bar. So far, I have only done three of these, but they all have interesting cutscenes and deal a very large amount of damage, even when playing on Hard mode like I am doing. Zeal can also be used for co-op attacks with other characters, where a number of damage is done in a small concentrated area - dealing damage and sometimes inflicting status effects or reducing the enemy's Zeal. The second difference is that you have to move the cursor into the enemy to attack, not move next to it and then attack. This really tripped me up a number of times in the beginning where I wasted turns by accidentally waiting after moving my characters around.

 

Of course, this being a visual novel means that the story and characters remain a big focus of the game, and I have enjoyed what has happened in the story so far and it is developing quickly after what was essentially the first part of the story was finished. The characters all remain believable, even though some are just walking tropes - the knight loyal to his country, for example, and especially the cartoon villain emperor - but some of the characters really grow on you. There is a cutscene very early on that really tugs at you if you have been paying attention to the story so far. I hope the story and characters continue to develop just as well as the initial portion, as they have done a very good job so far and many new characters have been introduced recently - hopefully these characters get some time to develop as well.

 

This is definitely a candidate to continue playing after KYC is over - and I might just keep playing it as KYC continues as it is the only Vita game on the list, so I can continue playing it as I play the other four on my PS4.

 

Starting completion: 72.15%

Current completion: 72.11%

Difference: -0.04%

 

I went and completed Fate/Extella Link from back in KYC 10 this weekend by spamming Iskandar on what I still needed to do, so my completion did not move all that much. Not to mention I did do 20% of Utawarerumono itself, so it was easy to keep the completion high still.

 

Next game: I am Setsuna (PS4)

[ladynadiad]

Just giving a heads up that I decided to change my second game from YU-NO and the long as heck name to Raging Loop.  Raging Loop is also a VN that I've heard a lot of good things about so hopefully the review will be equally as enjoyable and i just hope I like it more than Dark Cloud.

[voodoo_eyes]

I was ging to make an update on Trine 4 today, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get any more time to play it during the next couple of days. So I'm going to save my feedback for the 5th day. All I'll say at this point, is that I got about halfway through the game.

[AuroraHistoire]

I Got Lost ~ Rabi-Ribi

 

I hope I don't accidentally say Ribi-Rabi. Rabi-Ribi is a metroidvania blended with a bullet hell with an amazing soundtrack. In Rabi-Ribi, you play as both Erina and Ribbon. Erina was a completely normal bunny until some magical shenanigans turned her mostly human. Ribbon is a fairy who became friends with Erina. During the story, the two are tasked with traveling to a faraway to fight the final boss. They can't just walk their because they live on a island and boats are not a thing, so they need to warp their. To warp their, they need the help of girls with magical powers. The story is mainly about traveling to different areas of the island and recruiting helpers. There is also a bunny cult running around the island being an annoyance.

 

The gameplay consists of running around, jumping and attacking enemies while looking out for hidden character upgrades. Erina who does all the acrobatics while Ribbon floats beside Erina. The normal enemies you find around the island are annoying at worst. Erina has melee hammer attacks that deal a good amount of damage pretty quickly. Ribbon has ranged magic attacks that can quickly fired for little bits of damage or charged to deal massive damage. Ribbon's attacks can also change based on the staffs you find and you can swap between them in battle. Both Erina and Ribbon have magic meters that refill over time. Erina can't attack and must wait for it to refill when her's is completely empty. Ribbon can't use charged attacks if she doesn't have the MP to cast them. Ribbon also has a 'Ultimate Attack Meter' that fills up by landing attacks (I think) and lets Ribbon do a disappointing move (in my experience) and maybe a very temporary buff. Erina also has a similar ability where she will damage the enemy a little bit while becoming invincible for 1-2 seconds.

 

Almost all of the upradges to HP, mana, your moveset, ect. are optional. There is a trophy for completing the without collet any (aside from a select few). You find most stat upgrades in the world and can buy 5 of each in the store. Moveset upgrades are found in the world and you can upgrade most of them in the shop. There are also badges to find around the world; Badges are equipable gameplay modifiers.

 

The boss fights are were the bullet hell gameplay really comes in. Every boss has attacks that wouldn't be out of place in a bullet hell. Attacks can be very difficult to dodge but fortunately Erina's hitbox is smaller then her sprite (holding  will show Erina's hitbox and slow walk). In boss fights, you have a DMC style combo meter where it when the combo meter fills, it goes up a level. You get a damage boost that grows for having a higher combo level. You gain combo buy hitting the boss with high damage attacks and mixing up your attacks. You lose combo buy getting hit. Fortunately, Erina gets 1-2 seconds of invincibility when she gets hit; Ribbon can't get hit. The boss fights are all very fun but they get very difficult, especially at the end (games usually get more difficult at the end but the diffculty shot up threw the roof and left orbit). 

 

The Rabi-Ribi trophy list is amazing. There is a speedrun, collecting 70 eggs (collectables are handled well enough), a no collecting anything run, beat the game without being damaged by spikes, beat every boss with a MAX combo rating, complete 2 boss rush modes and some more stuff I can't remember. When I get back to Rabi-Ribi, I'm going to have a blast.

 

Rabi-Ribi was a game that was a lot better then I was expecting it would be. I got lost and didn't even know where to go for 3 hours and I was still having fun. I was getting my butt put on a nice plaque by the final (story) boss for an hour and I was still having fun. The soundtrack is incredible. Every track I've heard in the game is great. The Vita version did stutter at times and had minor performance issues, outside of boss fights. Characters get their textbox colors but sometimes the text is basically the same color as the background. Aside from those minor issues, Rabi-Ribi is a great game. 

[Phantochi]

I'm going pretty fast through my games, should have added a few more to my list, that's a lesson for the next kyc. I'll take the next 2 days to work on my backlog and before i start Pillars of Eternity on the 12th, i'll write a little preview. 

 

 

Game #2 review - Nights of Azure

 

 

 

I'll start with the best part of this game: OST is super good. 

 

The Story is about a Demon who wants a night that never ends, and you trying to kill him before that happen, and there's also your girlfriend, who is a 'unique' girl that can trap the Night demon by giving her life in exchange. It's a pretty generic story with a relatively easy to predict "plot twist", it's not bad, but it could definitely be better. And this Yuri setting is thrown in your face at every opportunity, for me it's a plus, but I can see how it could be tiresome for some people.

 

It's a decent hack-n-slash combat with monster summoning where you can pick between 30 unique monsters that are call servans to fill up to 4 slots in your party and they add some variety for your party combinations

 

There's no character customization, you can equip different items in your character and your servans for stats and unique effects, but none of the equipment has any visible impact

 

OST is great

 

Boss design was actually pretty interesting, some of them look really cool and unique, but unfortunately only a couple of them have skills worth paying attention to, as the rest don't have attacks powerful enough to threaten you (Note: I always had a healer-type Servan in my party, so this might not be true if you play with more focus on offense)

 

OST. No, seriously, i don't think it would be unfair to say the soundtrack is even better than the game itself

 

Side quests are bad, they're all the same, it's either go there and kill x demons, or go there and find this item, and you can only carry a max of 3 side quests, so when you're done you need to go back to the hub, pick a new side quest, and travel to a new area, rinse and repeat

 

Trophy hunting is a hell of a grindy, there's a trophy for finishing 100 side quests, 300 side quests, killing 10,000 demons and some other stupid shit, i'm definetely not going for the platinum in this one, the end game is not fun or rewarding enough for me to waste my time on it

 

It can get repetitive, for me it wasn't an issue as I enjoyed the combat, but you'll definitely be running the same areas several times for various quests, but by the time i reached the end game, i kinda felt burned out

 

All in all, i've enjoyed my time spent in this game. It feels like a spiritual successor to Chaos Legion. It combines relatively simplistic hack and slash controls with monster summoning. And while the game's main focus is relatively simplistic (hack n slash through progressively stronger enemies while finding more monsters for your party), there's some side stuff and plenty of story content to break up the gameplay. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go listen to the soundtrack some more.

 

 

Time played - 20 ~ 25h

Trophies earned - 43/49, 87%, A Rank

Score - 7/10

 

 

[ladynadiad]

 

 

Game #2 Raging Loop (PS4)

Trophies earned: 8/31 (18% E Rank)

 

Current completion: 96.53% (-0.49%)

Current unearned trophies: 226 (+28)

Current games played: 221 (+7)

Current games completed: 208 (+5)

Current unstarted games in backlog: 76 games

 

So Raging Loop is a visual novel, but it's unlike many other VNs on PSN in that it is more of a mystery story rather than a romance story with routes for romances.  In Raging Loop you play as a male protag named Haruaki.  He's from Tokyo and after a breakup decided to go riding on his bike out in the mountains and got lost and ended up in a tiny village called Yasumizu.  Soon after he arrives, the village is covered in mist and people start dying.

 

If you're familiar with the game Mafia, the story is pretty much a version of that, but with people actually dying.  How it works in this story is that two people are given the role of wolves and during the night the two wolves kill one person who isn't a wolf.  Then the next day the humans have to try to figure out who the wolves are and they can choose to hang one person they suspect of being a wolf.  The humans have some other roles among them as well.  The spider who can protect one person, the snake who can investigate any one to determine if they are a wolf or not, the two monkeys who know who the other monkey is, and the crow who can determine if the humans chose correctly and hung a wolf or not.

 

There is also one other element that is unique to this story called the corruption.  If someone doesn't follow the rules for the game, they fall victim to the corruption.  The corruption can either kill them outright in a horrific manner, or drive them mad.  The rules themselves are pretty simple.  Only one person can die at the hands of the wolves or humans, at night all the non-wolves must cleanse themselves, shelter alone, and dream.  So pretty much they have to take a bath, lock themselves in their room alone, and sleep.  The last rule is that they cannot escape or allow another to escape.  Definitely makes it harder for the humans to solve the mystery.  However, our protag has an advantage that if he dies, he can go back in time and redo it and make different decisions and he remembers the results of his bad choices.  There are actually a few different routes based on what decisions you make in the beginning

 

Obviously being a VN there are choices to make throughout the story.  The game is pretty straightforward on the choices and most of the choices to lead to survival will be behind locks at first.  As you get bad endings, you get keys to unlock those choices.  The game also has a great flowchart system that allows you to skip around to choices so you can save a lot of time replaying it since you'll barely have any need to skip previously read sections to try a different choice out.  Once you've gotten a bad ending from a choice, the game denotes that and any newly unlocked choices have a key by them so you know they are unlocked.  It makes it pretty straightforward to get through most of the game without a guide so you can just enjoy the story.  The trophy list pretty much consists of finding all the locks, reaching particular spots in the story and finding endings.  If you feel you need a guide, there's a solid one in the game's forum.

 

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this one to fans of visual novels.  I'd especially recommend it to people who have enjoyed games like Danganronpa and Zero Escape since the plot has a lot of similar elements, but this one is definitely a visual novel with no puzzle elements or gameplay elements beyond making choices.  It's a very well done story though and I'm finding myself quite interested to see where this goes and how they solve the mysteries.

Edited July 16, 2020 by ladynadiad

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - Trine 4 - Final Impressions

 

 

Time played: around 6h

Trophies earned: 14/40

 

 

 

First off this game, like all of the previous games in the series, looks gorgeous. This has also been teh main strong point of the series, at least for me. The music is also solid, and so is the voice acting.

 

I got through about 8 of the 17 levels, although I spent quite a lot of time going back to previous levels to get the collectibles I had missed. and boy are there many collectibles.

The usual experience orbs are back, that unlock you skills.

Defeating enemies also gives you some sort of experience, which upgrades seperate abilities.

 

As in the other games, you control and switch between 3 characters. A mage and archer and a warrior. The mage can create physical object that hel with puzzles, the archer can use ranged attacks against enemies and has elemental arrows, and lastly the warrior that is the meat shield.

 

You have plenty of platforming, some combat segments and a ton of puzzls and hidden areas with collectibles. Unfortunately, very micj like it's predecessors, Trine 4 feels clunky control-wise.

The combat feels a bit rough and isn't really fun nor challenging. The platforming is alright, but becomes worse whenever puzzles become part of it. Those become annoying very quickly due to the clunky controls when palcing/ moving objects with the mage or trying to use the archers rope arrow to connect things. It's something that I've not liked since the first game, and three games later it still doesn't seem like there was any improvement.

 

Trophy-wise, it's fairly easy and similar to the third game. Essentially just beat the game and collect everything.

 

This one is another from me. If the gameplay was as good as the visuals, this would be higher up.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #3 - God's Trigger - Preview

 

 

 

Developer: One More Level

Publisher: Techland

Genre: Top-down Shooter

Price: 14,99€

 

 

This is a top-down shooter and seems to be similar in gameplay to Hotline Miami, but not pixelated.

 

As far as developer goes, I've heard of them, but don't know any of their other games. The publisher I only know from Dying Light, and well the second one if that ever releases.

 

Anyway, I tend to be bad to mediocre at these types of games, but am looking forward to it nonetheless. I do tend to have fun with them, even if it's just for a little while. Not much more to add really. From the little I've seen of the game it looks great and seems to have gotten good reviews as well.