Tag: bit

First Impression: Trinity Trigger (Nintendo Switch – eShop) ~ Just A Bit More

Wikipedia page – Official site – Official microsite

I love how the store credit system works on the Nintendo eShop. When you purchase games, you get golden coins that you can use as a discount for other games. If you have enough coins, you can even buy the game outright. One of the games I have bought with this system is Trinity Trigger. From the description, it sounded like an interesting and unique action JRPG, and I’m always interested to play new and unique games. Especially since key staff on this game worked on amazing games like Chrono Cross and the Mana series. Now, is it any good and should you pick up this game, or is it a game that you should skip? Well, in this first impression I have after playing 1/4th of the game, I want to tell you my opinion so far. I’m also curious to hear your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article in the comment section down below. And with that said, let’s dive right into Trinity Trigger.

Just A Bit More

In this game, we take on the role of Cyan. Cyan is an average boy from a small village. He is also a treasure hunter that one day learns he is chosen by the God of Chaos as his Warrior of Chaos.

In the fantasy world of Trinitia, there are two main Gods. The God of Order and the God of Chaos. In ancient times, they used to wage war for control of the lands. Now, they chose a warrior each to represent them and fight the other warrior to the death for dominance. Cyan doesn’t know what that even means, but it might explain why he has amnesia, those weird dreams and that special glowing mark in his eye. In search for answers, he sets out on a journey, and that’s how this game starts.

When this game was originally teased, the main setup for this game was to create a game and story that was nostalgic to those who played old school JRPG’s. A lot of talent who worked on other big titles like Xenoblade, Pokémon and Bravely Default II were working on this game as well. I always find it dangerous to mention these things, since it might set the expectations of players way too high. What if this isn’t going to work out or when the story just doesn’t hit the mark?

You can never predict how the chemistry is between people, and it’s possible that they are unable to work together. But, it’s also possible they hit it off big and make something extremely unique and special. I remember how a game like World’s End Club could have been so much more with two amazing directors behind it, Kazutake Kodaka from Danganronpa fame and Kotaro Uchikoshi from the Zero Escape fame. Yet, that game was decent but could have been so much more if it had more depth and polish.

If I’m honest with myself, Trinity Trigger falls into the same boat then World’s End Club. Take the story, for example. When I started playing this game, an amazing world was being setup and I started to get interested and immersed in this new world. But, it didn’t take long before I noticed that this game hits all the familiar story beats you expect from a JRPG. But the biggest issue in this story is that it doesn’t do anything special during its journey. I have already visited a couple of towns and each time it’s the exact same basic premise that happens.

The best way I can describe the story is that it’s unoffensively bland. It does what it’s supposed to do, but nothing more. It’s a shame, since the amazing voice cast behind this game brought this game to live so much. I have nothing to critique there. The only thing that can be a bit annoying is hearing the same grunts over and over again while you are fighting in the dungeons, but that’s part of the course in JRPG’s.

Playing it safe

For some people, having a bland story in a JRPG’s is a dealbreaker. But, I can handle that if the main gameplay loop is enjoyable. In this game, you go from town to town and explore the town dungeon to become stronger and get new unique abilities.

The battles in this game aren’t turn based like in other JRPG’s. This is an action JRPG, after all, so you have to dodge and time your attacks well. You can even choose to ignore battles if you want to, apart from scripted fights or boss battles, that is. The combat system is decent and does the job. The only complaint I have is that your stamina drains a bit too fast, making your attacks quite weak against enemies. So, you have to use other mechanics like having better damage when you dodge roll an attack in time.

After each dungeon, you unlock a new weapon that has a slightly different playstyle. You can choose between which weapon you use on the fly with a weapon wheel. It works quite well, and it’s fun to figure out which enemies are weak against which weapons. Especially the bosses, since hitting them with the right weapon creates even more damage.

During your exploration, you can find hidden chests with items. Underneath the mini-map, you can find a counter with how many hidden treasures are still left in the area. I find it quite enjoyable to explore the whole map to find these hidden treasures. Some of the hidden passages are hidden away extremely well, and finding them was a blast.

Something I also really enjoy is that you can easily choose between which character you control. Some characters have unique skills and being able to quickly switch between them is amazing. Since, some enemies have a long range attack, and then it’s a blast being able to switch to a character that can use a bow to take them out more easily.

Enemies also drop various items that you can use to craft items in shops or at special stations. And crafting these items actually cost in game money. The amount you have to spend for crafting is a lot lower, but this is a mechanic I’m hesitant about. It would have been quite a lot of fun to be able to craft healing items during your exploration. Maybe these healing items were less effective than the potions you can buy in the shops. But then again, it might break the balance of the game and make you a bit overpowered.

You can only carry so many potions and to be very honest, I never really had problems with a boss battle or a dungeon when I was stocked up on potions. When you don’t do anything crazy and keep your stock high and manage your stat boosting items well, this game becomes quite easy. So easy in fact that boss battles become an endurance test and extremely repetitive.

Each boss battle has the same basic premise. You have to dodge their attacks and use the right weapon to break the shield of the boss. In most cases, this is the newly unlocked weapon. After you have broken the shield, you can damage the boss. If you have broken the shield 4 to 5 times, and kept hitting the boss, you have beaten the fight.

Now, the dungeons play like your typical The Legend of Zelda dungeon to a degree. There is one main theme and puzzle mechanic for you to solve. Once you reached the final room of the dungeon, you fight a final boss and progress in the game. When I think about it, the structure of this game resembles 2D Zelda games here and there. And maybe, the structure of a Zelda game would have fit the game better than an action JRPG. Since, I wouldn’t be surprised if players drop this game and call it repetitive. Since, it really is. I tried to play this game in longer sessions, but I started to feel bored after playing it for an hour or two. Yet, I kept enjoying myself with the game while playing it on my 30-minute train ride from and to work.

Middle of the Road

The more I play this game, the more I feel like this game could have been so much more. The basic foundation of this game is rock solid, and I barely have anything to critique there. Like the controls and the UI for example. The controls are extremely responsive and a blast to work with.

Now, the other characters are AI controlled. Overall, the AI does an okay job following you and aiding you in combat, but it can do some brain-dead actions as well. One of the dungeons where it frustrated me to no end was the ice dungeon, where your AI allies slid into the spikes every single time.

Visually, this game looks pretty decent. There is quite a lot of detail put into this world and the underused area exclusive mechanics are quite a lot of fun to play with. For example, I love how in the forest area the mushrooms can have different effects depending on the color. Especially the one that allows you to light up the area.

But then you have moments where some textures are bland and look like they are from an earlier generation, creating a mismatch. And on top of that, some battle animations can’t be canceled. And the final attack of the bow is just silly. Yet, if a certain attack is in progress, you can’t switch weapons. This is something that annoyed me quite a lot as well.

The soundtrack of this game is quite enjoyable. It fits the atmosphere of the game like a glove. Overall, this orchestral soundtrack is a joy to listen too. But, there are some tracks that are a bit too short and the rather repetitive melody isn’t it doing any favors. Thankfully, these tracks don’t appear to often so I don’t mind it too hard.

The sound effects are pretty good too. I’d recommend that you use the option menu to tweak the sound balancing to your liking, since the basic sound balancing is a bit off when it comes to the balance between sound effects and music. I had to lower the music a little bit so I could hear the important sound effects better during battles.

This game really feels like it’s walking the middle of the road here. My biggest complaint with this game is that it lacks depth in almost every aspect of the game. And it’s just that lack of depth that’s hurting this game. This game has a lot of great idea’s like how easy to read the UI is, but it barely does anything with the stat boosting items.

The game also has local co-op, but I don’t see a reason why to play this game in co-op. There aren’t enough elements to justify for me to have a friend over and play this game. It’s just too bland for that. It’s a shame, since if the combat system was more in depth, it would have been an amazing feature. Now, it’s just another ticked box of features this game has.

Just like how some of the monster design is amazing and sometimes even looks somewhat creepy. They also telegraph their attacks quite well, so you can easily dodge them. Dodging attacks in time is quite important, since you can do special attacks or even more damage. Now, you also have your typical enemies like your slimes and bees, but they look unique and fit their setting quite well.

To be honest, this game is the perfect entry game for young childern to get into roleplaying games. I think that if you have played other more expansive JRPG’s, you will notice the cracks this game has and feel mixed about the game like the whole reception is for this game.

This brings me to the price. To be honest, I wouldn’t pay the full price for this game. The asking price for this game is 40€. And if you want all the DLC, it’s even more. Around 50€. Now, I don’t recommend buying all the DLC apart from the one that comes with the Deluxe edition. The other DLC is just a one time booster pack you can buy to make the game even easier than it already is.

The asking price is too high for this game and it’s length. This game can be beaten in 15 hours and it doesn’t really have replay value. I personally feel that 25€ would have been a better price for the base game and Deluxe edition should have been 40€. If you are interested by this game, I’d buy it if it were on sale. While this game isn’t doing anything new or innovate, it still manages to be enjoyable.

I’m happy that I gave this game a chance. While I expected a lot more from it, I don’t think it’s a bad game. I can totally understand why people don’t like this game or drop it. Since, it’s a very basic middle of the road JRPG that could do something unique but doesn’t. Now, the Japanese publishers of this game FuRyu have developed a game that became the basis for another larger game (The Legend of Legacy feels like the basis for The Alliance Alive). Maybe this game is creating the basis for another larger and better game.

If that’s the case, I’d love to see more unique puzzles in the dungeons for a start. The dungeons were so easy to beat and didn’t provide too much challenge. Maybe some puzzles were only the unique dungeon weapon has to be used to progress or even exit the dungeon.

I’d also love to see more expansion on the armor and stat items. I felt they barely had any impact in this game and I often forgot you could change the stones in your equipement to increase the damage output in certain cases or decrease the taken damage in certain cases.

The biggest thing I’d love to see improved is more depth in the game. Develop the town more and make them more memorable, instead of just a stop to stock up on supplies to go to the next dungeon. The side quests were introduced too late into the game.

I could go on for a while giving examples of what they can expand or improve, but I want to avoid that you get the impression that this game is bad. This game is decent, but not great. That’s the best way to describe this game. I’d recommend it to younger players who want to give an action JRPG a try. If you are in love with the action JRPG games, I’d highly advice you to lower your expecations. I’d compare to that animated summer blockbuster movie that everybody forgets about in a few months. It didn’t do anything memorable but it a fun time while it lasted. It’s a great snack inbetween games for me and I’m curious to see what the developer does next. Since, the potential is there.

With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about the game for now. I want to thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care.

My favorite gaming music #29 ~ Nostalgic Times

More in this series

Sometimes life gets extremely busy. One of the main reasons why I don’t write so many articles lately is because I’m placing my focus on so many other things, and I end up feeling too tired or too creatively drained to write an article. From streaming with my friends to finishing things up in my new apartment. Those are just two things that I have been doing. My day job and personal life are keeping my busy as well, and I have also started spending time with my other hobbies, so I have been playing fewer games lately. But, last week, my old computer that I used to play my Windows98 games on died. I bought a new computer via eBay and in the meantime I have been playing games I used to play when I was a child/young teen. When I heard some of the music of those games, I thought to myself… You know what, maybe it’s a great time to bring back that gaming music series on my blog one time to talk about some of these nostalgic tracks while I’m replaying these old games. So, let’s do right that. In this series, I talk about one track per franchise per article and why it’s in my list of favorite gaming music tracks. I’m trying to do my best to not have repeat tracks in this series. Feel free to write a comment on my choices in the comment section down below, or comment with your own favorite tracks. Now, before I ramble on too much in this introduction, let’s dive right in with the first track.

Nightmare Reaper (PC) – Psyche Surgery

My article about Nightmare Reaper

If there is one game I have been playing since 2020, it is Nightmare Reaper. I just love booting up this game once in a while and playing one or two rounds… Well, I say one or two. But those quickly turn into 10 or more in most cases.

I always know that whilst playing a game, when a game is going to become a classic I’m going to replay in the future. Especially when the flow of the whole game just clicks into place for me, and when I don’t mind restarting the game just to experience it again. And Nightmare Reaper with it’s procedurally generated levels is doing the trick for me. It was also one of the first games I have heard Andrew Hulshult’s work, and let me tell you… It’s always a blast to hear his work in boomer shooter games.

The heavy metal soundtrack in this game fits the chaotic nature of the gameplay where you have to dodge various attacks and do crowd control to the maximum. The soundtrack of this game is that well crafted that even I listen to the soundtrack during work, I sometimes can see the game in my mind and just feel like I’m back home playing it. It’s a blast to listen to too casually and in-game. Highly recommended, and I’m so glad I was able to get the soundtrack on Steam so, I can put it on my phone and even listen to it while I’m in the train from and to work.

Age of Mythology (Titans Expansion) (PC) – Hoping For Real Betterness

My review of the remaster

I just adore games that have a unique twist. Especially when that twist is something that turns on the whole core mechanics of the genre on it’s head. Now, we all know our real time strategy games like Age of Empires or Command & Conquer. Now, some of you might also know the game I want to talk about now, and that is Age of Mythology.

Image, if you will, that while you are playing that RTS match… Everybody has access to 4 godly powers they can use to change the tide of the match. And not only that, depending on if you installed the expansion pack or not, that you can summon huge titans to aid you in battle. This makes playing the game even more unique. Oh, and let’s throw famous mythical stories in the mix as well.

Man, the dilemma back in the day was real. I never knew if I wanted to play through Age of Empires III or Age of Mythology. I was always doubting which one to play and most of the time I had to leave it up to a coin toss and even then picked Age of Mythology sometimes.

The more clam soundtrack while outside of battle is a perfect way to build the tension that is the calm before the storm. The tracks during battles ramp up, of course, but I enjoy them equally much as the more calm and relaxing tracks. Something I adore as well are the cute names that some of these tracks got. Like, the main theme is called: “A Cat Named Mittens”. Just give this soundtrack a listen, you’ll find it equally hard to pick your favorite themes out of this masterclass of an RTS soundtrack.

Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver (DS) – National Park

A wild Pokémon retrospective appears

Since last year, I have started to learn myself how to program. I’m doing it step by step, and I’m actually learning a lot. So much, I’m able to create various solutions to lighten the workload of my coworkers in the school I work for.

One thing that also pulled my interest while learning programming is how you can use it to do crazy things. When I saw Pimanrules’ video about how each trainer in the Pokémon games stacks up against the other trainers… I was fascinated by the concept. Recently, the video about the 2nd generation got published. And me being in such a nostalgic mood made me pick up my copy of Pokémon HeartGold to replay through the 2nd generation of Pokémon once more.

There are several tracks that pulled me back to my childhood, but the one that even got me a bit teary-eyed was the theme that plays in the National Park. I have a weak spot in soundtracks when it comes to music with a calm piano track, and the National Park theme hits the nail right on the head.

Memories came flooding back from me playing Pokémon Gold on my Game Boy Color and abusing the cloning glitch on my 2nd playthrough. Also, memories from my childhood how my mind was blown that we suddenly had a whole second region to re-explore after beating Jotho. And after that, memories of the hype when the remakes got released and how everybody was walking around with a PokéWalker in my school. I even saw a few teachers using the PokéWalker for their kids, it was amazing. Trying to talk about all my memories with Pokémon can be a whole article in itself, but if you read this and think: “I should pick up one of these old Pokémon games…”, do it. Relive your childhood and just let the memories flow back. And just play without using a guide. Let your mind wonder, let it be lost again. Try to find that imagination again, the relaxing nature of the adventure and how life was back then.

The Legend of Zelda – The Minish Cap (GBA) – Palace of Winds

My review on the game

In my review of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, I talked about how I have a soft spot for the 2(,5)D Zelda games. While I totally understand that there will be a small chance we will see a new Zelda game like that in the future, I’m glad that there are so many of them released.

I personally expected that I’d replay the Oracle games in my current nostalgic mood, but I restarted my journey through the Minish Cap again. The first time I played through the Minish Cap was when my local game store still rented out games. For the yearly family trip to the seaside, I rented The Minish Cap and NickToons Volcano Island on the Game Boy Advance. I got hooked so bad on the Minish Cap that I re-rented the NickToons game after I had beaten The Minish Cap. Yes, in the three weeks I had the game, I had beaten it.

Of course, I didn’t play it all the time since as a child on holiday in a child-friendly holiday park, I played a lot outside with my friends. But, on rainy days or on shopping trips, I always had my Game Boy Advance SP with me. And yes, I even snuck it underneath my sheets sometimes to play it during the nighttime. Everybody my age has done that.

One track that stuck with me is the Palace of Winds. It’s an amazing, bombastic track for the final dungeon of the game. Exploring through that dungeon was so much fun. I felt that it was the final challenge before tackling the final boss of the game. I can’t wait to replay it since I have forgotten most of how the dungeon works, and I’m playing through the game again with some vague memories. But, this is the newest game I restarted playing, so it’ll take me some time to reach that dungeon. But, I’ll get there for sure… If I don’t get distracted by other games, that is.

Stella Glow (3DS) – Shop

My review

If there is one game I really want to restart playing, it is Stella Glow. Let me tell you a story. Currently, I have been writing this blog for a little bit over 10 years. Before that, I have been writing a now deleted personal blog for a few years. Now, when I started to write in English, I met another blogger by the name of LpGardian. He ran his own website that is now grown quite a lot.

He had amazing connections with some developers and one time I dropped in a call that I played the Stella Glow demo on my 3DS, and I was quite interested in playing the full game to review it. To my surprise, Atlus actually approached him with a review code for the game, and he gave me the chance to review this game for his website.

Honestly, at first, Stella Glow felt as one of those turn based JRPGs that I wanted to give a chance because the concept and world sounded fascinating. I never thought that it would be that good. The story was better than I imagined and oh boy the soundtrack of this game is just perfect. They are all so catchy and if you look through the previous entries of this series, you’ll find other tracks of this soundtrack as well.

While me and LpGardian went our separate ways since we just grew apart, because we had different life goals… I’m still thankful that he gave me this chance to write a review for this game. Since, it was the final game by Imageepoch, an amazing developer of JRPGs on the Nintendo (3)DS/Wii, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. Their swansong was a hit right in the bullseye and I hope that Atlus creates a remake to the Nintendo Switch or other platforms since this is a hidden gem for turn based JRPG fans. The only grudge I have with this game I that I haven’t beaten the final boss since I’m so underleveled… I have the same problem like with Suikoden Tierkreis, unable to beat the final boss since I focused on the wrong skills and characters… But, I’ll get my revenge.

In any case, just give the soundtrack a listen and know that this soundtrack just hits all the right notes and is a one that I play on repeat during work here and there. Maybe the memories and the chance I got to review this game, which gave my blog a huge boost and being lost in the story might cloud my judgement a little bit but still… reading the comments just proves to me that this is one beast of a soundtrack.

Closing words

Sometimes I feel guilty when I’m in a nostalgic mood and when I’m replaying games I have either already reviewed or reviewed in some sort of way. In the past I used to pressure myself in playing a new game each and every week to be able to write about a new game each and every week. This mindset pushed me close to a burnout and it was anything but healthy for my mental health.

Now, only writing two articles each month and not forcing myself in playing a new game each and every week is just a breath of fresh air. I feel that the quality of my articles just rose by a lot and I enjoy writing again. I also feel way less quilty to replay games I have played since it sometimes helps me in writing.

Being in this nostalgic mood made me realize what gaming means to me. It’s a way to relax and wind down after a long day at work. I get reminded to the simple days that after school and homework, I was able to just put on a game and play for hours. While as a 30-year old, those days are behind me, I still enjoy the hobby quite a lot. And, I’m also quite happy that I made the changes in writing less for my blog and focus on writing better articles. It made me connect with so many amazing people in the blogging and content creation sphere, I just love it.

Thank you everybody for going on this journey with me. Thank you first timers for reading my blog and people who are reading my blog for quite a while now. Thank you for the comments I receive and the interesting discussions about the games I reviewed. Thank you to everybody who helped me or collabed with me to create this blog. While I have been in this nostalgic mood, I also have been scrolling through my older articles to not only see how much I have grown as a writer but also to reminisce.

Don’t read the previous paragraph as a sort of goodbye. Read it as me being thankful and happy on the support. I really meant what I said in this closing paragraph. I’m so glad that I’m able to do this hobby. As a kid I was always creating content, writing my own stories and trying to entertain people. And now I have found my niche and I can’t be happier.

So, that’s everything I wanted to talk about in this article. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care!

Game Music: My Favorites – Numbero 24: The Return

1771904_3356_6The previous articles in this series.

While I’m preparing my move, I’m playing less and less new games. I started to play a ton of games that I have already taken a look at but I’m now trying to finish since I packed most of my games already. Next weekend is my final weekend in my current house and the weekend after that, it’s moving weekend. Now, during packing my stuff and my games, I played a lot of music and that inspired me to bring back this series and talk about my favorite tracks in gaming. For those new to the series, in this series I talk about game music I really like and I use the opportunity to either talk about the games’ music OR talk about the game itself. Except for some special articles, I don’t allow remixes or music about games in these articles and I limit myself to one track per franchise per article. So, let’s dive right into today’s selection and if I notice that I re-use a track from a previous entry, let me know and I’ll change it.

Nightmare Reaper (PC) ~ Nightmare

nightmare reaperMy first impression article about this game

This soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult is just amazing. The guitar riffs and the drums give the game a tense metal feel. 

Honestly, I tend to enjoy the combat more when the soundtrack is playing. I love that each area has it’s own track for battle. I’m extremely bummed out that only one or two tracks are available on YouTube right now, but I’m patiently awaiting the full release of the game or a soundtrack DLC. 

If you at all enjoy soundtracks like DooM 2016 for example, you will feel right at home. Also, Andrew just composed part of the music for the DooM Eternal DLC, The Acient Gods. If only my CPU was strong enough to run the game so that I could enjoy the amazing work as well. But then again, I’m playing through Nightmare Reaper which might be one of my favorite games in 2020.

Horizon Zero Dawn (PC) ~ Years of Training

horizon zero dawnI know that this port is plagued with a lot of issues. While I’m glad that the developers are listing to the community and fixing the biggest issues. I’m even happier that this PS4-exclusive game got ported to the PC for even more players to enjoy. When I first played the game, I was hooked right away. 

Since there is no new Tomb Raider game to look forward too and we don’t know when Breath of the Wild 2 is coming to our Switch… I’m looking for my next big adventure game fix. 

And Horizon Zero Dawn scratches that itch for me perfectly. I’m so glad that my PC can handle this game on low to medium settings so that I experience this new and interesting adventure that almost made me buy a PS4. 

Anyways, this article is actually about the gaming music. So, I want to talk about the track I have chosen from this game called “Years of Training”. I choose this track for a reason. Because this track really pulls me back to the memories of playing the reboot Tomb Raider series and Breath of the Wild for the first time. It pulls me into the world of this game even more. 

The soundtrack also has it’s own unique identity. I listened to the Horizon Zero Dawn and Tomb Raider soundtracks side by side and while I hear similar things, both have their own unique tones and styles. The adventure-rpg lover in me is extremely happy with amazing music like this. 

Phoenix Wright – Ace Attorney 6 – Spirit of Justice (3DS) ~ Pursuit: Cornering Together

phoenixwrightspirit_boxFirst impression of this game

Man, I still remember back in 2016 when this game got released. Three years after the amazing Dual Destinies game, we got this game. 

While some fans aren’t too pleased with some parts of the story, I think it’ll make the sequels quite interesting. 

The iconic music in this game sounds amazing. When I’m listing to the Ace Attorney soundtracks, I always have a hard time picking the game or the tracks I want to listen to. There aren’t many tracks I dislike in all of the soundtracks, I find them that good. 

The reason I have chosen for one of Spirit of Justice for this article is because I’m finally finishing up the DLC case of this game. This game released in late 2016 and during that year, I have been playing so many other games as well, I simply forgot about that one unfinished case and I kept forgetting and forgetting. Now, I decided that I want to beat that case before I move into my new apartment. So, being re-exposed to the soundtrack after 4 years… Man, it has been a nostalgic trip to say the least. 

Now, I was quite sad when I learned that Takeshi Yamazaki, the director of the series, left Capcom. Does that mean we won’t see another Ace Attorney game in the future or will the series take a drastic new direction? While my gut feeling is saying the former, I’m hoping for the latter. So yeah, Capcom, we are waiting. Where is our next installment of Ace Attorney since the last new game we got that weren’t remakes is 4 years ago now… 

Persona 4 Golden (PC) ~ Time to make history

persona4

The Persona-series always interested me. I have heard a lot of my favorite YouTubers like NitroRad talk about the series and ever since I wanted to play it for myself. 

When the enhanced remake of the 4th game got ported from the PS Vita to the PC this summer, I took the opportunity to finally start playing one of the Persona games. And all I have to say is: I wish I was less busy and that there were less interesting games releasing lately since I fell in love with the story and setting of the game. 

I think I might start playing a bit after finishing up this article. I’m also planning to write an article about this game in the future, so stay on the lookout for that. But, for now, let’s enjoy the amazing joyful soundtrack of this game which is in strong contract with the themes of the game. 

I’m even considering hunting down the original PS2 release of this game just to see the biggest differences between the original and the Golden remake. Maybe that would make for an interesting article. So yeah, time to get thinking about how I’m going to write that article…

The end

And with that last track, I want to wrap up this article. I found it quite refreshing to be able to talk about several games instead of focusing my whole week on one game to write an article. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to leave your opinion on the chosen tracks and/or games in the comment section down below. 

With that said, I hope to be able to welcome you in another article. Have a great rest of your day and take care. 

 

First Impression: Nightmare Reaper (PC – Steam) ~ Can You Sleep Through This?

nightmare reaper.jpg

Steam store page – GOG page

I can’t tell you exactly why, but I’m a big fan of old school 3D shooters. Last year, I took a look at Ion Fury and Wrath. Honestly, I think that it’s because these games stuck the right balance between modern game design and old school gameplay. Now, one day I stumbled across this game. A game in Early Access that released last year to GOG and Steam. A game that presents itself as a game inspired by Blood, Doom, and Duke Nukem 3D. That’s quite interesting in my eyes. Currently, only the first episode has been released and episode two is coming in the near future. At the moment of writing, the developer said that they are aiming to release the second episode at the end of the summer. But, is this game worth your time and money? Let’s take a look at this game while I invite you to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

Can you sleep through this?

ss_b7e8b7e313a53c7bf3c33a58c248e23c44b7b9bd.1920x1080You play as an unnamed girl who is stuck in a psychotic ward. Her story is being told through small notes that you unlock after beating each level. In order for you to enjoy the game, you don’t need to pay any attention to the story, at all. But, I can tell you out of the experience that it enhances the game tenfold. My imagination and the spare bits of story that I got gave the world-building quite a lot of meaning. My imagination filled in some gaps that made the story quite interesting.

Now, I can understand that some people won’t enjoy a story that is this bland where it’s quite clear that you need to protect yourself on the character or fill in some of the gaps yourself. But, I didn’t find this a problem at all. Since this game focusses itself a lot more on the gameplay than on the story and in that case I don’t mind a “weaker” story.

I always find it quite difficult to review or criticize a story when I know that you don’t have every piece of the puzzle. A story can start off strong and end up quite weak. Currently, I’m quite interested to see where the story is going to go and if it wraps up with a nice conclusion or if it leaves it up to the player to figure out.

As I said before, the story is mostly told through small notes that you can read on your table after beating a level. You unlock one note for every level you beat. Each note builds on the previous note painting a more complete picture of the situation. There is no voice acting during these notes, but that doesn’t mean that there is no voice acting in the game.

The girl you play as is voiced by Marie-Claire Lavertu and I haven’t found anything about her. Now, this might raise some red flags but don’t you worry. The voice actor nails the voice acting of the main character flawlessly. The grunts, the smirks, the laughs… It’s all done pretty well. She did a pretty amazing job of bringing this troubled character to live without saying one line. I wonder if she also did the screams of the other patients you hear when you are in your room.

So, how do you play this game; since you start off in a hospital room? Well, as the name of the game suggests, you are going to reap some nightmares. So, it’s time to go to sleep and you get transported to a randomly generated level where your goal is to beat your enemies and reach the goal.

Retroception

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This game features randomly generated levels. Well, to a degree. The developer created a whole slew of rooms and the random level generator just fits them together in random order.

So that means, that you might find the same layout once or twice but in most cases, each level and each playthrough is quite different. But, this isn’t the only thing that stands out in this game.

The Steam Store page boasts that this game has over 32 weapons and is going to have 80+ weapons. Now, before you think that this is going to be an overload to manage them all… You don’t have to manage them all. That’s because you can only carry over one weapon from one level to the next. Yes, one weapon.

It gets even better, each weapon might have special abilities and has a certain level. So, you need to think and strategize about which weapon you want to keep and which weapon you want to sell for those precious coins.

These coins can drop from destroying the environment, defeating enemies, selling weapons at the end of a level, finding treasure, and playing the Gameboy Advance Skilltree minigame. Oh yes, the minigame. One doesn’t simply unlock new powerups in this game, you have to earn them by first having enough coins and then beat the mini-platform level. Only when beating a level, you lose your coins and earn your sweet powerup. Trust me, these power-ups are worth it! After defeating some levels, I felt more equipped and stronger to beat my enemies.

If I would take a look at all the enemies and weapons, I think I would be here all day. Let’s first talk about the weapons. You have swords, staffs, shotguns, rocket launchers, tomes, pistols, rifles… It’s a whole lot. Personally, I rarely used the bows since I found their fire rate a bit too slow since this game can get pretty hectic and intense with some enemies and a strong gun fits my playstyle more in these types of gameplay situations. And my preferred weapon was a double-barreled shotgun with the chance to shock my enemies I picked up in one of the earliest levels.

Obviously, I’m going to talk about the enemies right now. You have a whole range of enemies. From hit scanning enemies to enemies that take you with melee attacks. It’s essential for you to learn the patterns of each enemy so you can play accordingly for which enemy you should take out first.

There are some enemies I absolutely hated during my playthroughs. These Dragon Plants that not only spit acid but also spit little egg projectiles that hatch smaller dragons. These didn’t die fast enough for my liking. And then I’m skipping over the enemies who throw what I assume mutated blobs of themselves to you and these blobs track you and when they explode… You lose a LOT of your health. And these blobs are so freaking small and annoying to kill…

Now, would I remove these enemies? Absolutely not. They ramp up the difficulty of this game to a very rewarding level. For having so many different possibilities, I’m surprised how much work there has been put into the balancing of the game. New enemies are introduced one by one so you can get used to them, learn their patterns, and try to manage them in the chaos of a whole enemy filled room.

The “punishment” for death in this game isn’t that harsh. Thankfully, since you will die quite often since this game can be quite rough. But I mean that in a good way. The punishment is that you have to restart the level with the weapon you choose to keep from the previous level. But, you don’t lose your gold. So, if one level is a bit too tough, you can grind up your coins, beat a few skill tree mini-games and try again with some new powers.

During my playthrough, I regularly felt the urge to play just one more round, to try to beat that annoying level. I found that most of this game is quite fair and balanced apart from the fire boss. I’m sorry but I find that boss battle just too difficult. That boss hits a bit too hard. My biggest complaint is that this boss appears after quite a challenging level and then you have to try and beat quite a difficult fight. Thankfully, the developer said that he is going to take a look at how the fight can become a little bit easier. And also, he has given us some helpful advice to beat it. It’s the biggest frustration I have with this game since I have gotten so close several times… But one of these days, I’ll do it and defeat that – CENSORED –

So, would it surprise you if I said that I’m not even done talking about all the mechanics yet? Oh, I haven’t mentioned the power-ups, the random events, and the possible bonus gold you can earn by killing all the enemies, finding all the gold and secrets… Well, I’ll leave these interesting and fun game mechanics up to you to find out. There must still be something to discover when you play this game after reading this article, right?

Shoot everything

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You might have noticed by looking at the screenshots, that this game doesn’t have the most modern graphics. This game goes for a more retro aesthetic with some modern vibes. And the game succeeds in that quite well.

In the visual presentation, I find this game quite exceptional. I really like the visual presentation and animation of this game. From the enemy design to the animations on the weapons, I really think they are well done. Especially, when I saw some early footage of the game and compare it to what’s on offer now, it’s impressive how far this game has come. The only minor complaint I have in the visual department is a timer. Yes, a timer of how long your power-up is lasting. Since there is no inventory in this game for power-ups and health pickups, so it would have been nice to see how much a powerup is going to last when you want to use it to rush a boss or a difficult room.

To finish up my thoughts on the visual presentation, let’s talk about the UI. Overall, it’s quite well done but there are a few minor things that I would change. First of all, the “Reset Default Settings” is a great future but I would rather have that feature reset for example only the game features instead of resetting everything. Another minor complaint I have about the UI is there are no page numbers on the achievement page.

Speaking about achievements, it’s lovely that these give you coins in-game but I find them to also have them as Steam achievements. I mean, there are over 80 already. Maybe this is just me, but I almost got an achievement in every round, if not two or three. Maybe I look at achievements in a totally different light but I found them not rewarding to earn at all.

There is one thing that I haven’t talked about yet and I usually talk about quite early in my articles and that’s the audio of this game. First of all, let’s talk about the sound effects. The sound design of this game is close to perfect. On quite rare occasions, I didn’t hear some trap or pickup sound effects playing, especially during fights but that isn’t such a big deal. These fights are hectic enough when you try to manage large groups of enemies, the sparse health pickups, and the great sound effects of the enemies and weapons.

But I want to talk about the amazing soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult. Now, if this name doesn’t ring a bell. Well, let me just say he created the soundtrack of a little game called Dusk and Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin. Let me just say, if you enjoy the DooM 2016 soundtrack, oh man you are going to enjoy this quite a lot.

Overall, I would recommend this game to people who enjoy retro games and shooters. At its current state, I found this game quite addictive and I had a hard time putting this game down during my summer holidays. Before I knew it, I had put in 11 hours in this game and I’m not bored with it yet. I can’t wait to see what the second episode will bring to the table.

To be honest, I had a really hard time finding negatives to say about this game apart from the fire boss being too tricky for my liking. All the other things are things that are either quite minor or can change because this game is still in active development. I’m going to keep an eye out on this game and maybe you too.

And with that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in a future one but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Publishing: Beta Test Spo-Bit, a Fantasy Sports Game, and Get Free 1,000 Gold!

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March 15, 2018 — Aman International, Inc. has announced today that Bitcoin-based fantasy sports and eSports, Spo-Bit, has entered CBT! From March 15, 10:00 AM GMT to March 22, 2018, 09:00 GMT, players who created an account will receive 1,000 Gold for free!

Spo-Bit is an online fantasy sports and eSports game available through the website. Fantasy sports fans can participate in daily contests of skill, products, services, and other content and promotions. What separates Spo-Bit from the rest is instead of waiting for a week for the results, in Spo-Bit, as the name suggests, results are provided daily, allowing for a fast-paced fantasy sports game never seen before!

Game Features

  • Free Entry! Join free contests! Win Gold and Bitcoin
  • More Sports and eSports!
  • Bigger Prizes!
  • Grand Events!
  • Player Lineup Profiles
  • Android and iOS App (coming soon!)

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From March 15, 10:00 AM GMT to March 22, 2018, at 09:00 GMT, players who join during the CBT will receive 1,000 Gold for free upon sign-up to test the game and provide feedback. Players can build their NBA lineup and join as many contests as they want. In the near future, more sports and eSports will be made available.

Sports and eSports Coverage

  • NBA
  • PUBG
  • SOC
  • LOL
  • MLB
  • GOLF
  • NAS
  • MMA
  • NFL

What’s Coming?

A unique feature of Spo-Bit is it will expand to fantasy eSports in the near future! If traditional sports like the NBA, MLB, Golf, MMA, and NFL, are not your thing, players can pick eSports like PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) and LOL (League of Legends), and have the same exhilarating fun playing fantasy eSports! A mobile application will also be released in the future which will allow players to keep tabs on their teams and matches anytime, anywhere.

Registration is now open for a limited time!

Fantasy sports and eSports fans can register for free today!

Don’t forget to Like Spo-Bit’s Facebook Page for the latest news and beta updates!

Official links

ABOUT SPO-BIT

Spo-Bit by Aman International, Inc., is an online fantasy sports and eSports game where fans can build their dream team and compete with other players to determine the best team manager. In Spo-Bit players don’t have to wait for a week for the results as these are provided daily for all sports and eSports matches!

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First Impression: Dragon Of Legends (PC) ~ DRAGONS!

dragon of legendsSteam page – Official website

Today I wanted to talk about a game that drew my attention instantly when I saw the pitch. The name of the game is “Dragon of Legends”. Now, I can’t explain why, but I have a big fascination for dragons if they are used right in stories. This interest led me to play a lot of interesting games like the before mentioned Legend of Dragons. So, when the developer of this game and I mailed a bit back and forth, he gave me a Steam Press key to try out the game. I want to make one thing clear, he said that he didn’t want to read the article before it went up since he didn’t want to influence me or my opinion. So, this will be my opinion. So, this game is still in early access and under active development. So, that means that the issues and things I talk about in this article will be irrelevant or changed when you read this article in the future. For this review, I played version 1.01 released on 22nd December 2017. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the content of this article and/or the game.

PS: on this date, the game has been released on Steam for one month! Congrats to the developers!

Signs of things to come

20180107181728_1In this game, you play as a character you make and name yourself. In this game, you shipwreck on a beach and you find your mentor, Aldar dying. He provides you with his book and you set on a journey to unlock the secrets of that book. In addition to that, you must clear you and your mentors’ names for a big disaster.

That’s the story of the game for now. I wonder if the introduction will be changed in the final version, but I honestly like that there isn’t too long of an introduction. You get right into the game without any delays instead of having to sit through a long-winded introduction.

Before I talk about the game, I wanted to mention a strange issue I had with the main menu. The game usually boots in a windowed mode. If I full-screened the game in the main menu or the adventure menu, the UI glitches out and made some buttons hard to click. Yet, after I loaded my character, it fixed itself. This was so strange. It’s something you will only experience in the main menu and the character menu. Since the issue was back when I went to change the character on the load screen.

20180107173913_1In any case, in this version, we can choose between three character classes. A mage, a warrior, and a ranged character. The editor to create your character has quite a few options, but the female characters aren’t in the game at this moment in time.

After I created my character, I was on my merry way, exploring the beaches my character just stranded on. A short explanation happens when your mentor dies and you must take his place. This is how your quest starts.

The story is far is rather enjoyable. The writing in this game makes the world come alive and has a unique atmosphere. You really get the feeling you start your adventure small and you work your way up to improve your skills.

While the controls of this game are currently hardcoded into the game, the developer actually said in the Steam Forums that you will be able to rebind the keys in a future version. So, for now, I must awkwardly switch between AZERTY and QWERTY. This isn’t a big problem at all since it will be fixed in the future. So, the game will be polished in the future.

Balancing combat & polish

20180106173521_1Something I found surprising is that in a single-player, the game isn’t paused when you open the pause menu. This will be most likely a bug, but I hope this will be fixed in a future version of the game. If you want to play this game, remember that you will be playing a very early build. The game lacks a lot of polish and not everything is implemented into the game yet.

Something that should be polished is combat. Maybe it’s just me or the way how I play RPG’s like this but the combat is broken in my opinion. One of the first quests is to defeat 5 wolfs and 5 boars. Both enemies charge at you, making range combat difficult.

Something that could help is that you aim where you point your mouse instead of where your character is oriented. This could avoid unnecessary damage, in my opinion. Since I feel that it is cheap hits if you have a mouse pointer and you attack in the direction you are facing. It would make a bit more sense in my opinion.

Also, the difficulty for the first quest is might be a bit too high in my opinion. The enemies hit a tad bit too hard for the introduction quest of the game. Or that might just be me.

If you died during a quest, you need to restart that quest. I think that it would be a bit more interesting if the stakes were a bit higher. What I mean is that you should lose some items or some money instead of just respawning at the latest spawn point you activated.

20180113162841_1Gameplay-wise, this game plays an RPG. While it’s currently quite rough around the edges, the game is still in early alpha. While it was tricky to figure out how I could equip armor and find things in the UI at first, as soon as I got used to it, I was able to do everything.

Another thing the developer could do to improve this game is by adding more sound effects. In the build I played, there was a huge lack of sound effects. I can understand that it’s an alpha build, but the world and game come way more to life if the right sound effects are used.

Some additional visual effects might be a great idea too. For example, you get a sound effect that plays when you level up, but a visual effect would be nice too. To remind the player that they leveled up and can spend points to upgrade your character.

I touched upon this earlier, but the game isn’t paused when you press “ESC”. Well, this is a lot of the UI. If you open the quest menu, you open a book with your quests. I understand the design choice since it has a story context. But, at least, pause the game so the player can read what to do.

In this version, some bugs are present. Of course, it’s an alpha build after all. For example, you can walk next to the doors and you enter the building. While you are doing this, you clip through the building.

Another example is, if you start a dialogue with somebody and you run into another direction so the character is off-screen, the dialogue box will follow you and disappear after a while. This can be fixed in two ways, either you lock the movement of the player until the dialogue is over OR you avoid that the textboxes move when they are off-screen.

The final example I want to give is the fact that you can use potions to heal when you died. I can go on for a while, but these things are things you can patch out in future development versions. That’s why this game is released in alpha, to iron out the bugs and add additional content. (Like, where is the potion shop?)

So far, I have beaten the first quest and tried to find as many bugs or issues with the game as I could. While there are a lot of things that could improve, most of them are not that game-breaking. The game that’s currently here is solid and enjoyable to play.

DRAGONS!

20180106173045_1The visual presentation of this game is right up my alley. The pixel art and 16-bit inspired look, I find amazing. It’s no secret that I enjoy playing a retro game occasionally, and I get nostalgic seeing this artwork.

There is one minor thing I would change in terms of the UI, and that is the portrait in the top left of the screen. It would add so much if that portrait changes into your character’s face. If that’s planned for a future release, please do it.

If I could change one thing in the game, that would be the font. I mind opinion, in some places, the font looks blurry or badly rendered. Also, it made me think of some places there were some black bars or white spaces between the UI.

The animations are good. While some of them lack impact due to not having sound effects yet, some require just a bit more work. Like, the stunning animation. I would think it would have more impact if the character wobbled a bit.

So, in terms of the presentation, you also have the music. The music is rather calm and melodic. I really enjoy this music and I think it really fits the game quite well. Maybe this might be just me, but it makes me nostalgic for the MIDI-music from back in the day. If the soundtrack would be sold for a cheap price on Steam, I wouldn’t mind buying it and add it to my playlist when I’m relaxing.

The game does autosave, I think. I have no idea at what points it autosaves though. So, I think adding an animation for that would be nice. Like a map screen, that would be a handy feature to have as well.

20180113162841_1Trying to review an early access/alpha game is a tricky thing to do. On one hand, you know that there still some work that needs to be done to finalize the game while on the other hand, I want to review the experience I just had. At its current state, the game needs a lot of improvement, but it’s on the right track.

Personally, I believe that if the developer continues with the development and improving the game, I think this game might become even better. At this moment, the game is a bit rough which makes the 10€ asking price a great price to try the game out.

If you enjoy or find interesting what I have talked about, give this game a shot. It comes recommended from me. It has quite a lot of potential. I’ll certainly keep an eye on this game while it develops further since I enjoyed this game quite a lot.

That’s everything I wanted to say about this game for now. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to see you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Preview: Griff – The Winged Lion (PC) ~ 5th Console generation inspired game

Developers’ Website

Another retro-inspired game? I know, we have seen quite a lot of them lately. But, this time, it’s quite different. Today, I want to talk about Griff the Winged Lion. A retro-inspired game by major titles from the 5th console generation. Games like Spyro and Crash are two of the biggest inspirations for this game. So, in this preview, I’m going to talk about the released press and promotional materials, the provided demo and what my ideas are for the game. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

If you want to support this game to see it completed, you can help the developers on KickStarter!

The promo & press materials

If you want to check out the press kit for yourself, you can do it right here. In the provided press kit, we can read the story. The story is about Griff, a king’s son who goes on a journey to find answers about his mysterious fate.

I think that there is a lot of potential in the story. Since my experience with gaming stories and writing stories myself in the past is telling me that there is going to be more than just that. I’m convinced that the story presented in the press kit is just going to be the tip of the iceberg. Something is going to happen that changes everything. I’m quite curious to see what it will be.

So far, the characters that get described are an amazing throwback at the characters from the games they took inspiration from. I can’t wait to see how everything will fit together into one story.

When I keep reading in the press kit, I see some features that get me excited to play the full version of this game. First, the fact that there will be 5 playable characters gets me excited. I enjoy adventure platformers where you have to switch between characters to solve puzzles.

Second, the fact that this game is based on mythological creatures, I can’t wait to see which mythologies get covered. I have a soft spot when it comes to mythology in games…

Third, the voice cast for this game is well-known actors in the scene. The 4 names that are listed are impressive. If an indie project like this has such a great voice cast, I can’t wait to see the result.

I really urge you to look at the press kit since there are a lot of screenshots to be seen to give you an idea of the final product. Also, check out the KickStarter page, since you can download the demo right from there. Speaking of the demo…

The Demo

I looked at the demo provided in the Kickstarter. While I know that the demo isn’t a great representation of the final representation of the game, but I would like to say a few things.

The demo of the game is quite short. Maybe a bit too short in my opinion. I think it would be fun if there were one or two levels available to play in the game. Since now I only got a basic understanding of how the controls will feel and how the game will look visually.

There was one issue in the demo that I found very annoying. The fact that the “enter” button was used to select and both go from full screen to windowed mode was annoying.

One thing I would love to see changed in some parts of the UI still looks a bit too modern and out of place in the 5th console generation. Especially the character portraits in the top left corner. But then again, this is an early build so I can excuse that.

Something I really didn’t like was the swimming controls in the game. I’m under the impression that the camera controls flip under water. That moving the mouse up, moves Griff more under the water. While above water, moving the mouse up, moves the camera up.

Something else I didn’t like was the fact that you could get yourself stuck when you go to the king. There was no way back up, so I had to restart the demo to explore the rest of the game. There is a way to get out there, but it took me a bit too long to figure that out.

One minor detail that you could change but would make it a nice touch is to change the XBOX controller into a PS4 controller on the control screen. Since you draw inspiration from games that are published on Sony systems. See where I’m going with this? It is in the details.

And that’s everything I didn’t like about the demo. The music, the visual presentation, the controls and everything else looks quite promising. While there isn’t too much to do in the demo and you can “finish” the demo in 15 minutes, I really want more. I want to see more and see this game get fully developed. Since, after I played this demo, I’m bursting with ideas. Speaking about those ideas…

  My ideas for the game

Okay, it’s that time of the preview articles again. A time where I throw around ideas that I would love to see in the finished product. Keep in mind, that these might not even get implemented. These are three ideas I have after seeing all the press materials and playing the short demo.

I think it would be amazing if there is a level where you must use the “turn your enemies into gold” mechanic that is promoted. What I mean is, that you turn enemies into solid gold and must use them as platforms to reach other platforms.

Another idea I had was, give the game a speed run feature. What I mean is, build in a feature that speed runners can use to help them time their in-game time when playing the game. I can see a lot of potential in this game for speed running. So, seriously, grab that chance.

Since this is somewhat of a coming of age story, I think it would be amazing if there is a level where you must guide younger lion cubs to safety from hunters. From what I understand of the plot, the story is about Griff proving that he can become king when his father would pass away.

Overall, I’m quite excited for how the game is going to turn out. I’m crossing my fingers that they reach their Kickstarter goal. Also, if they are unable to reach that goal, I seriously hope that they don’t drop this project. This game has quite a lot of potential and it would be a shame if it died.

If anything interested you in this article, go and look at the Kickstarter page. I seriously think you will enjoy it. You can download the demo I used to base my article on. This can become an amazing tribute to the early PlayStation games and much more.

I have said everything that I wanted to say about the game for now. Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

Demo: Bravely Second – The Ballad Of The Three Cavaliers (3DS) – First Impressions

bravelysecondSo, in the near future… A new RPG will release. One that I’m really looking forward too. It’s called “Bravely Second”. It’s a sequel to Bravely Default that I played a while ago. When Nintendo actually told me that there is a demo of this game, I directly went to the eShop and downloaded it. I’m just too hyped for this game. And as usual, I try to avoid any media that hypes the game to avoid spoilers or overhyping the game for me. In any case, in this article I’m going to talk about the demo and what my expectations are for the full game. As usual, feel free to leave a comment on this article with your opinion on the content and/or the game. 

Demo

The demo is only in English. The other languages will be available in the full game. The game starts out with an AR cutscene. While I haven’t seen this yet, I find this a very nice way to start the game. It draws you into the experience more then all the other methods.

The music, sound effects and presentation of the menu really gave a familiar vibe for me.

In the first cutscene, you can let it autoplay. Which is very handy for me at the moment. So I can listen to the story and write this article at the same time. Also, the skip button has a “Are you sure that you want to skip this” feature. This is really handy if you press the X button by accident. I only wish that this feature was also implemented with the party chat.

I have skipped the cutscene after a few lines because I wanted to experience the story in the full game. I hate it when a story gets interrupted because the demo comes to an end. I was surprised that some characters return.

bravelysecondThe voice acting is decent. It works fine in this game but I only wish it had more emotion put into it. It feels acted, which isn’t a bad thing. I prefer the voice acting more realistic as if you are in the situation itself.

Visually, the game looks great. Personally, I don’t like that the game zooms out when you don’t push any button. While this gives an amazing view of the first area, it doesn’t click with me.

A minor nitpick I hoped was fixed is that when the B button was shown to progress in dialogue or in tutorials, the A button works too until the final screen. Why is that? This is something minor that they can easily fix.

The combat system has some changes. At the start of the battle, the party can feel brave which gives you certain advantages. Also, the speed up feature is missing from the demo. I just wish it isn’t missing from the final version.

So, according to other articles… This demo is 10 hours long. And not only that, it’s an introduction to the full game. The most shocking fact to me is that this part of the story comes before the main game. So, this is sort of free DLC.

Best of all, it will unlock things in the full game when it arrives. I learned this after reading about the demo. Now, I’m going to restart the game in order to have the full experience and the cut scenes as well.

What I expect

bravelysecond2I haven’t fully beaten the demo so, I can’t give my full opinion yet. When I beat the demo, I might write a full review article about it.

From what I’m seeing after a small half hour of playtime… well, it’s pleasing me.

It’s going to be a great sequel. I just hope that they don’t make the same mistake that they made in Bravely Default.

In that game, there is a point where you need to fight the bosses again. The once you have beaten already. It wouldn’t be a big problem, but they buffed the bosses to such a high level, you have to grind.

Also, they managed to make a RPG more linear then usual. They closed off some areas with the characters saying that they don’t have any business there yet.

Those two things were the reason why I actually stopped playing the original. Which is quite a shame, since I was really into the story and the gameplay. So, I expect that this game is as epic as the original, with the same features but only with the two flaws I mentioned fixed.

Other things I expect is that this game has similar locations then the original but mostly new locations. I hope to see a grown world. If it could be at all possible, do something like Golden Sun Dark Dawn did. Were some exposition words are underlined and when you tap them, you get more information. This way, people who play it can quickly catch up with the events from the first game and it can also serve as a great reminder for those who played the original.

So, that are my initial thoughts of this demo after playing it very briefly. Next week, I’ll be able to pick up the full game. So, you will see more articles about this game in the (near) future.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Tell me in the comments how you experienced this marketing move and such. Since this gives me few ideas for some future articles. Okay, before I truly sign off… I have a question for you guys as well. Would you like more of these articles. Where I look to a demo of a game and talk about how I think the full game will be? I could do that for games that are going to release and games that are already released. Any feedback on that is welcome.

That said, I hope you guys and girls have a wonderful rest of your day and I hope to be able to welcome you in another article in the future! Take care and game on.