Tag: Games

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny Nintendo Switch Review

As always I want to thank the people over at NIS America for tossing me a review code for this one. Always a pleasure to be tossed a game to review and it’s an even bigger honor when it is a series I love.

Disgaea 6 is one of those bitter sweet games I get to play and share with you. In some ways for me, it is the epitome of the series, in others it is a huge step back. Graphically for example while still looking pretty good, it does look worse than 4 or 5 in my opinion, and at times the camera angles can be atrocious. Neither is a deal breaker tho, they are just things to be aware of.

There are things I absolutely love however. For example you can set up the game to auto fight battles and to replay them automatically, this means what can normally be a deep and painful grind at times to level up characters has become a simple matter of setting it up while you watch a movie and you can level up all the characters you want easily into the hundreds of even thousands.

For me this let me and even encouraged me to play sound with characters I usually never bothered with because by the time I unlocked them I was already pretty well set up. The addition of the juice bar is also beautiful. That essentially collects experience, mana and even actual stat points and you level up and do missions that you can then pay HL to in order to give levels, mana or even pure stats to anyone you want.

They have truly embraced much of what makes the Disgaea series what it is in all of it’s craziness of weird characters and insane stat boosting and numbers. This brings is down to the all important story, which honestly is essentially a low level zombie on a quest to destroy the god of destruction as he dies over and over again,well as much as a zombie can actually die. It’s put together nicely and I enjoy the characters and their names that are mostly bad puns or play on names.

This is far from the best game in the series because the low points are pretty low such as the graphics and the camera angles being a bit difficult to deal with at times, but the quality of life improvements left me wondering more than once how I played without them. As I fan of the series I was more than happy with this solid 7/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings / Stranger of Sword City Revisited

As always first and foremost, huge thank you to NIS America for tossing me a code to review this one. I am well aware it comes with two seperate games, both are fun in their own right but I will be reviewing Saviors of Sapphire Wings first. Stranger of Sword City (originally The Stranger in Alda) while worth playing is an older title that deserves it’s own review and playthrough and I felt it would be wrong to try to do them both at the same time.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings starts out weird compared to many games because you actually start out at the end of your previous adventure,and you will fail miserably. Not the kind where you get laughed off stage at the 6th grade talent show failed, the not quite as bad but still horrible die and the world falls into darkness failed.

That is essentially the story of this adventure. You will be reincarnated? Reawakened? Pick a word, because you are back to give the saving the world thing another try. As you recruit more people to help you and awaken a long sleeping flying castle that was apparently yours and you forgot how to use. Cook meals to get to know your new friends (they all have favorite dishes) and boost how close you are because if you don’t, they will be open to the big evils influence. Seems like that is where you messed up last time.

The combat is typical turn based stuff and is honestly so repetitive and slow. There is an option to basically fast forward all the moves, I recommend you use that. All the enemies will have weaknesses and strengths just like you and you can pick classes and sub classes for everyone each with different moves and strengths and weaknesses as well.

The first person dungeon crawling aspect of it is also well done and I do appreciate the map and how easy it is to get around. That being said, it is still a grid based first person dungeon crawler. I’d you aren’t a fan of these games, this won’t change that. The battles are repetitive and slow even by RPG standards (and remember I love RPGs, especially turn based) the story pretty much offers nothing we haven’t seen before,but thankfully the characters are very well done and are mostly likeable. One or two are pretty much impossible to like but they are made that way.

As for a score, gonna have to go 6/10. Any RPG needs a passable story, fun combat and interesting characters and truth be told the characters are the strong part here and the story is passable, but the combat really drags it down for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Storm Ground (PS4 Review)

Before we go further you guys know the routine. Huge thank you to my long time friends over at Focus home Interactive and Gasket Games for setting me up with this one. It is always appreciated.

   This is one of those games that going into it I had no clue what to expect and I mean that in the sense of I actually had known it by name and nothing else. Obviously I know of Warhammer and such, just this game I hadn’t seen much on. But going into it blind was actually fun.

  You play as a hero from one of the three factions, the Storm last, the Night haunt or the Maggotkin. As you play you can unlock hundreds of cards, heros weapons skills etc to power people up and do your bidding. Die in the campaign and it’s game over, sort of. You start your run over again, pick a couple of your troops and start all over again with some of your stuff.

The graphics in the game are nice,but not earth shattering. For a tactical turn based game tho they are exactly what they should be. The characters are beautiful, the attacks look great and there aren’t any real glitches or graphical tears that I noticed on my PS4 pro. The sound and music also did a wonderful job.

The story is pretty standard stuff, some quest for revenge type stuff, some don’t touch my things stuff going on. All th stuff you would expect and enjoy.

The combat is simple and easy to understand as well. You never have massive Armys to contend with controlling so you will never have that feeling of being overwhelmed with stuff to do, and each attack will do exactly what you expect. There is no randomly missing attacks when you had a 99% chance to hit either. If an attack says it will do to damage, it will do 2 damage provided the enemy doesn’t have armor. If the enemy does, take away the armor amount and that’s the damage it does. Or it will do 0-1 damage.

My biggest issue and one that took a huge toll on the fun factor for me tho was how oddly balanced the game felt at times and how much that made you grind for new items and gear. The first few battles may be VERY easy then suddenly you hit a brick wall of a battle you never had a chance to win. So you will grind out battles until you gain some levels and items then boom, cake walk, until you randomly hit another battle that you again never had a chance of winning.

I did enjoy my time with the game, and if you like that rouge like style of game give this one a shot. Nothing here reinvents the wheel, but they weren’t trying to. A solid 7/10 game that fans of the style will like but others may want to pass on. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ara Fell Enhanced Edition (PS4)

Myself and the guys at Stegosoft Games actually have an odd history that I am 100% positive they don’t know or care about. A lot time ago when this game was about to release back on PC, believe it or not I asked for a copy of this to review and they politely and professionally said no I wasn’t big enough for them to do that sort of thing.

I’m not bitter about that, it’s totally understandable, the funny thing was however, my social media at the time was bigger than theirs. I just thought it was a funny story I would share.

Now for Ara Fell, this clearly retro inspired turn based RPG. The story is of a world above the ground in the clouds. A world where vampires hide in the dark and people live in fear of them starting a war.

The world is full of people and life and places to explore and lore to be found. All this would mean nothing if the combat was awful. Happy to say that is not the case. Every character has a sort of class with moves to learn and be upgraded. They also have set equipment and rather than trying to find new equipment you will be finding the materials to upgrade those items.

There are of course downsides to this JRPG style. The combat can get repetitive and the story while interesting does have all the usual clichès you would expect. But of you are looking for an older style JRPG that feels new, this is worth looking at. It took a few extra years to play this one, and I don’t mind that I waited a bit longer to get the full experience. Worth the time and money. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Road Fury Review (PS4)

Road Fury is one of those simple concept games with simple controls. There are only two options in fact, you can either use the movement controls of the controller itself or switch it in the options to work of the thumb stick/D-pad.

From there it is a simple matter of blowing up cars, collecting power ups, avoiding a few obstacles and killing bosses. You don’t even have to fire weapons, the game does this automatically for you. Just focus on the driving. Collect we much money as you can before you die and use that to upgrade your cars weapons, armor and power ups and do it again. You don’t even restart the game. If you make it 3 levels and die you will start on level 3. Go another 2 and die, restart on level 5.

This doesn’t make the game easy however. I found myself sometimes dying on the same board 6 or 7 times until I had enough money to upgrade my car enough so I could cause enough damage to beat a boss or simply hitting stuff because I wasn’t moving fast enough.

The game does have it’s limits of fun tho. With only 3 cars to choose from, 2 of which need to be unlocked and each far more powerful than the last I found the game far too repetitive around level 50, and I don’t believe there is an ending. The game is cheap tho so that helps. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World Release Date

Today we have the happy news to give that both the digital and phsycal versions of Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World from ININ Games and STUDIOARTDINK will be coming west on May 28th 2021.

The retail editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 will be available for €39.99 / $39.99 / £34.99 and include the original Monster World IV exclusively.

I would like to point out there will be a Steam version, however that will be coming a month later on June 29th.

Limited and exclusive physical editions

Three limited editions for Switch and PS4 can exclusively be pre-ordered at Strictly Limited Games. All three editions include the original Monster World IV:

  • The Limited Edition is available for €39.99 and includes exclusive color manual & reversible box art.
  • The Collector’s Edition includes terrific items like the Monster World Map, 2x soundtrack (Original & Remix), Artbook, a Squishy Ball Pepelogoo and more (€99.99). 
  • The Mega Collector’s Edition celebrates the origins of the game and includes everything from the CE and even more fantastic items like the Asha and Pepelogoo Figurine (18cm / 7.1″), Asha Pixel Pin, a Vinyl Sticker for your console and more (€179.99).

On The Road (PS4) Review

There is some good news and bad news that comes with this truck simulator. For example if you don’t have access to a PC or simply don’t like PC gaming but want an in depth truck simulator that allows you to drive all over a country delivering goods in a pretty realistic way and even manage a company, On The Road is the best you will find.

The bad news is, the bar is not very high at all. Graphically the game is unimpressive and the sound leaves a lot to be desired and the controls aren’t very good at all. I gave driven actual semi trucks with trailers,and backing up the real thing is a million times easier. And if you have double trailers forget it.

The news isn’t all bad, it is a relaxing experience and if you do want that truck driving experience without the PC this will do it. You will be planning routes and picking up loads from multiple places that you can drop off in one, or two in the same city and buying me trucks and hiring new drivers and planning their routes before you know it. The system for doing this is also pretty simple to get used to.

You just have to know going into this that American and Euro truck simulators on PC are still far superior games, but this will scratch that console itch, and I did enjoy my time with it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chicken on The Road (PS4)

This review will be short and sweet, and honestly is more for the achievement hunters in the group.

The game doesn’t really look good, though it isn’t bad. It doesn’t stand out in the sound department either. It doesn’t even stand out in gameplay. You will simply run over chickens to score points and try not to get into an accident. The game cost 99cents (united states) and you can get the platinum in about 15 minutes, or less.

This game however isn’t fun or good. Unless you are chasing platinum trophies, skip this one. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Renegades Limited Edition Available for Pre-Order (PS4/Switch)

  One of the newest games coming from my friends over at ININ games and Raw Fury you can pre-order Star Renegades physical  limited and collectors edition over at Store / Pre-Order Link

 

Screenshot 1

 

Star Renegade is a rouge-lite strategy RPG where you are tossed into the middle of a war interplanetary war against The Imperium, a force that wants to rule the galaxy. The follow comes straight from the press release itself.

The game comes with a fast-paced, tactical, turn-based, timeline battle system that offers a variety of options and strategies to bring the opponents to their knees! The more the game progresses, the stronger the squad becomes. Players can unlock, trade and upgrade the rebels with tons of weapons, loot, and gear. But defeating the enemies will not be a piece of cake! Strategy and experimentation are required to beat the opponents and save the universe!
These moments of success will reward the player, as well as the beautiful look of the game.
Star Renegades features a pretty pixel style, the journey through the planets and the varied, challenging battles are accompanied by superior sound design and an awesome synth-wave composition.

  • Fast-paced tactical turn-based timeline battle system
  • Hauntingly beautiful landscapes and ruins
  • Pretty pixel art style
  • Procedurally generated dungeons
  • Unique enemies and bosses
  • Epic synth-wave compositions and excellent sound design 

As you can see the game itself seems to have a lot of things to go through and replay value as the procedurally generated dungeons can usually make for a reason to dive back in for multiple play throughs. As a fan of rogue-lite and RPGs I am actually curious to see how this one turns out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Limited Edition Features:

  • Game for Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4
  • Manual
  • Individually numbered

The Limited Edition is available for €29.99 and limited to 2.500 copies for Nintendo Switch and 1.500 copies for PlayStation 4 worldwide

The Collectors Edition Features:
 

  • Game for Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4
  • Collectors’ Edition Box
  • Manual
  • Modular Diorama
  • Artbook
  • Soundtrack
  • Large Poster
  • Character Cards
  • Sticker
  • Individually numbered

The Collectors’ Edition is available for €49.99 and limited to 2.500 copies for Nintendo Switch and 1.500 copies for PlayStation 4 worldwide

Curse of The Dead Gods (PS4 Review)

As always the first thing I want to do is thank the people at Focus Home Interactive for tossing me a review copy of this one. It is always a pleasure and this time is possibly more than ever.

First, this is one of those classic rouge-likes that is easy to pick up and play. In fact the first level will really give you a false sense of security. It isn’t overly difficult and with the controls being as simple as they are how bad can it be? You simply dodge with one button counter with another and have different attacks with different weapons or hold them for charged attacks.

This quickly turns on you as different enemies have different timing to defend or dodge, and many will attack you at the same time so you will have to choose what is about to happen to you. Do you just take one hit and dodge another? Do you block one and hope you times it right to avoid the damage all together?

There isn’t exactly a right or wrong answer, it all comes down to your play style and what rooms are coming up. Some rooms allow you to heal, but just like entering each room builds up corruption so will healing in this way. The more corruption the more curses you get hit with. Some are minor like you can no longer collect gold from chest, others are worse like you lose health every few seconds.

The graphics and sound are solid but nothing to brag about, but I also wouldn’t complain. The enemies are nice and having to get yourself some light to hold off enemies doing extra damage is a nice touch. The game is both fair and unforgiving of your mistakes with plenty of weapons and such to unlock but not so many locked to start that you are handicapped to start. Your skill will matter we much we your load out.

Death also isn’t much of a punishment, in fact it is expected. Each run gives you random weapons to start and allows you to spend assorted currencies to upgrade your game permenently. There are even daily events for when you want something new. This was one of the better rogue-likes I have played, and will keep playing it. A solid 8 out of 10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.