Tag: Reviews

First, as always, I would like to thank the people over at Klabater for tossing me this one to review. Working with them is always great.

This review is going to be a little different than usual, I usually try to focus on the things I like about a game and only bring up the negative if I genuinely think they impact the ability to enjoy or play the game. This won’t change here, but there are a few key things I do think people need to know going into this.

Starting out do not do what I did at first, play the tutorials. Even with a wealth of experience to draw from this made things so much harder than they needed to be. From figuring out which buttons did what ( seriously the Y button to give orders? who does that) The game does a good job without it explaining how the game plays out however and why each unit should be used the way it should be.

The hexagonal battle screen works great for showing you where units are and choosing where you want them to be, but here is my first complaint and it is a big one. The writing is so small it seemed almost unreadable at times. I would often be unsure if I was missing important information.

This by no means made the game unplayable, but it definitely had moments of making me not want to. On the flip side having served in the military around artillery I can say from experience this game does artillery pretty well. The sound of it sailing over my infantry into cities to soften up targets for my bombers and later infantry was nothing short of spectacular.

This is important by the way because this is a war you are fighting. WW2 to be exact, and how you manage your troops and how you attack with them matters, and it feels like it. Leave your bombers unprotected and enemy fighters will shoot them down. Let your supply lines get taken out and it isn’t long before you find yourself without fuel. It also goes without saying you have scouts for a reason and you won’t want to find your infantry out in the open with tanks coming at you.

The graphics are also solid for what they are. Nobody plays these games hoping for a graphical masterpiece and you shouldn’t either. They do their job and they do them well. Units look nice, but the towns do leave something to be desired. I do appreciate the detail on the flags for each country. For the most part, however, one town was the same as another for me.

I won’t say this was a bad or a good game. It is a solid 7/10. It has a lot of great ideas and if you enjoy these games you will enjoy this. Most people won’t be into it tho and with the small writing and numbers, I have a hard time wanting to play it for long periods of time. I have certainly seen bigger offenders, but there shouldn’t be any. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always with these things I like to start out by saying thank you to the fine folks over at Klabater for tossing me a copy of this one to review. It is always appreciated and great to work with them.

Weedcraft Inc. as the name would lead you to believe is a game about learning to run a business about growing and selling that lovely Mary Jane. The ganja if you will. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just a game for stoners however,this is a very solid and detailed simulator.

The game starts with you going home to your brother,a typical stoner with a plan after the passing of your brother. A man with some knowledge and seeds. You however are the man with the knowledge of running a business. Knowing you aren’t happy about having to drop out of school he pitches the idea that this is how you will keep the lights on. Don’t worry,it’s medicinal, as long as you sell it at the market.

You will start out with a single strain of regular weed you are growing under a busted lamp with poor soil to some homeless men at the market from your stall. The game does a solid job of teaching you the ropes a little bit at a time. For example your new friend Bump that has been in the business awhile will explain that if you change the nitrogen and phosphorus levels amongst other things your weed will increase in quality and can be sold for more.

It won’t be long before you can buy new strains and better soil and sell to new clients. New clients want better and different products like Northern Lights or Haze. These better products sell for more but require more attention and better set ups.

Graphically the game is nothing amazing and it doesn’t need to be. Each plant looks different and it’s nice to watch cars drive around and wonder what the police cars will do when they drive past your house and you are illegally selling weed out of it. It may be legal to sell at the market,but it’s not legal to sling it from home but you can still do it.

It is also great to watch as you run other businesses out of town,which is something you will have to do because you aren’t alone. Others will attempt to move in and steal your clients.

Another thing to be noted,the sound is top notch for what the game is. I’ve hung out with stoners and the music in the game reminds me of some of the stuff I’ve heard them listen to.

Last but not least the reason you are here. Is the game worth playing? Absolutely. As a fan of these games I highly recommend this one. While the game can be repetitive at times and the controls take a bit of getting used to, I enjoyed my time with the game so far. I say so far because I will be continuing to play it. 8/10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always a huge thank you to NIS America for hooking us up with a copy of this one to review. It is greatly appreciated.

A little background real quick, as the name says this is a trail of heroes game connected to the other games with the same name you may be more familiar with, Cold Steel. This one takes place 3 months after Trails in the Sky the 3rd and is the first game in what is known as “The Crossbell arc.” This game actually runs at the same time as the first two games in what is known as the “Erbonia Arc” which is also thought of as the main Cold Steel games.

Now that everyone is caught up with the when everything is happening we can get into what’s important. Was it worth the wait to finally get this game in the west, as it was only ever officially released in Japan. Short answer, yes. Long answer? Definitely yes.

The combat is nothing new,and it wouldn’t be. The game was originally released in I think it was 2010 in Japan. It is a standard RPG, you travel around see monsters and try to either avoid them or sneak up on them. This will bring you into a battle with grid based movement that is turned based. We have all been there before,but it is done very well.

Graphically it has been updated but it won’t be winning any awards and the same goes for the sound. My only real issue is there are some quality of life improvements on the PC and Nintendo switch versions that simply don’t exist on the PS4 version. Nothing huge honestly,just some UI options and such so it isn’t a deal breaker but it is still a bit annoying that they couldn’t make it happen for everyone.

All in all I have no real complaints about this one. Some of the gameplay feels a little dated at times, because the game is 12 years old. However any RPG fan will enjoy this one and fans of the Trails series need to check this one out. A solid 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

God of War on PS4 is considered a masterpiece and almost a revamping for the entire series. Truthfully, this is the best God of War of them all, and it isn’t even close. Graphically, the sound, the gameplay. All of it is top notch.

I also don’t like it. The game is so repetitive. Fight monsters, pretty much by either throwing your axe or swinging your weapon of choice. Find an item, move on to the next area. I also realize I am the only person I personally know that feels this way.

The upgrade system is pretty awesome by the way with plenty of variety in upgrades and armors to choose from. Many of you will be looking forward to Ragnarok,so enjoy the trailer below.

Circus Electrique is a new RPG from Saber Interactive and they were gracious enough to toss me a review code for this one.

The game takes place, you won’t believe this,at a place called Circus Electrique. You play as the niece (Amelia) of the owner and noted journalist. As always I won’t waste too much time on the story because I don’t want to risk spoiling anything. It is safe to say it is full of twists and turns and well worth a play though.

The combat is a lot like Darkest Dungeon but replaces the dark stuff with strongmen and fire breathers. In total there are 15 different archetypes of characters. One of my favorites are the clowns. They have a mood that increases the morale of everyone and snacks people with hammers.

The game takes place over the course of days. First pick a circus act to earn money and items. They all have different sets of attributes you need to reach to be allowed to use them. They all have different requirements and each character has things they are better at and people they get along with.

Really the only thing left to cover is the graphics and sound, both of which are solid. Neither one is anything to write home about but they don’t disappoint. I also never ran across any glitches or crashing and in the era of gaming it is hard to come by. The difficulty is fantastic. It starts off simple enough but it does spike later on. It is a great 8/10 and I definitely recommend RPG fans, especially if the Darkest Dungeon sort checks this one out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Giraffe and Annika is a game NIS America gave me a long time ago and I never got around to reviewing, but hey no day like the present right?

This game is short, you could probably blow through this in five to 7 hours without trying very hard. The game does have two endings to give it some replay value.

The story itself is pretty basic. Annika wakes up with no memory and searches the island of Spica and will eventually meet Giraffe. Giraffe will need Annika to enter dungeons, five of them to be exact since he can not. I won’t spoil why for you but it is all explained to you.

The best part of the game is the looks and sound, however. Seriously if you like studio ghibli movies this is something you might enjoy. The sound most notably feels like it. Graphically it has the same feeling though admittedly it isn’t quite as good.

The game has some big downsides for me, unfortunately. The game for example has no real combat. Even the boss battles are basically just a rhythm game. I know it is technically possible to die in this game, but even if you do restart a short way back and don’t lose any real progress. There just isn’t any real incentive to worry about it. The game is actually kind of just walking around and exploring. It is not a bad game, it just isn’t a great game. It is at best a 7/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always with these I’d like to give a Huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a copy of this one. As always it is greatly appreciated.

The Prinny Presents games always feature two classic games, this time we played La Pucelle: Ragnarok and Rhapsody: A musical adventure. Both are pretty niche titles with huge fan bases within the tactical RPG realm but outside of that most people will never have heard of them.

La Pucelle is a pretty straightforward story of a journey to battle a dark prince. You battle through various levels and attempt to recruit or “purify” enemies to increase your ranks.

There are different ways for each chapter to play out that I won’t spoil,but it is worth exploring each one. It is also worth noting if you only played the earliest versions of this, it is based on the PSP version with all of the extra content such as missions and many quality of life improvements that never made it to our side of the ocean.

Rhapsody is probably one of the easiest NIS America games ever made. I don’t say this as a bad thing, the story is cute there are some cheap laughs to be had and honestly it’s a nice history lesson.

The games however do feel their age. Both are well over 20 years old and play like it. While I enjoyed my time with them, they could have used a bit more touching up. I definitely recommend playing them though. They are a solid 7/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always I would like to thank the people over at Plan of Attack for hooking me up with a review copy of this one.

Cursed Golf is as the name implies, a golf game. You will start out learning how to play during a golf tournament where your character is attempting to prove he is the best there ever was. A lightning storm takes care of that possibility however.

After this untimely death, our golfer finds himself in purgatory. This is where golfers go and play golf until they can win 18 holes and return to the world of the living. Admittedly I Couldn’t do it,my golfer is still in purgatory.

The story is simple just like the graphics, which work just fine for what the game is. The game is first and foremost a rogue like. A very frustrating one at times. You must beat 18 holes in one go, these holes will change each time you try.

There are also an assortment of bosses to play against every few holes that are broken up by assorted other spots such as treasure or cards that can be used for bonuses. These bonuses can include anything from splitting the ball into multiple and choosing which one you will keep playing with. Other abilities include making the ball change directions, not bounce at all etc

This game can be hard though and very unforgiving. A few reviewers made it to the last stage and lost and had to start all over again. I never made it that far however. I don’t admit this lightly, I greatly enjoyed the game and still do.

In fact I will even give you my score now, 8/10 highly recommend it. The game is fantastic the graphics are cute and serve their purpose very well. At the price this game is sold for,it can’t be beat. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.