Dragalia Lost

So this is a game that came out last month for mobile devices that kept popping up on my Facebook feed after a few of my friends started playing.  The first thing I noticed is that it's an original mobile game that has a big fat Nintendo logo on it and along side that a big fat Cygames (Shadowverse, Grandblue Fantasy) logo.  After umming and arring about it for a while thanks to it's MASSIVE 2.5gb download size from the app store I decided to just give it a go.

Dragalia Lost has absolutely NO BUSINESS being this good of a game since it's just your typical mobile gatcha affair but for some reason I just can't get myself off the damn thing.  I have no idea what the story is since following a mobile story is like choosing to eat a bowl of shit but the game play is fun and the amount of stuff there is to do is just staggering.  The sheer amount of content is important considering the games recent release since usually newly released mobile games are a little thin on the ground at first and flesh out later but Dragalia is going all out right out of the gate.

The game itself is the same gatcha bullshit you see on the app store all the damn time.  Pull stuff, power up stuff, do dungeons to power up stuff even more rinse and repeat and grind grind grind ad nauseam.  There's two cool things about it though that set it apart from other games in the genre which is one, combat that's actually more interesting than just tapping until everything falls down and two, a level of polish that is rarely seen in the entirety of mobile gaming.  The combat has you using the touch screen to actually move characters and have them hack, slash and dodge through the environments.  When enemies attack the game will put these sort of markers on the floor, something I've seen done in other MMOs like Final Fantasy 14 which means that paying attention to things like positioning is very important. 

There's a lot going on in Dragalia that would take far too much time to type out so instead I'll just recommend that you go download it and give it a whirl.  It's free so worst case scenario is that you'll just be unimpressed by yet another gatcha title and best case is that it drags you in and holds your attention as violently as it has mine.

Nihilumbra

So here's another one of those games I got for free as part of my PS+ subscription.  When I downloaded it and fired it up I had absolutely no idea what to expect but what I got was pleasantly surprising.  At time of writing I'm on the final world and I've not finished it but I was so elated to play this game that I had to talk about it early. 

Nihilumbra is a puzzle platformer developed by BeautiFun Games and was originally released for iOS back in 2012 but later ported to Windows, Vita, WiiU and Android.  The game follows the adventures of a little creature as he tries to run from an all consuming void.  The character itself is mute but bits of story are given to you by a narrator as you travel from screen to screen and I'm dropping that voice actor along side the guy from Bastion in my bag of "sexy narrators".  The game itself revolves around using colors to solve the various puzzles in each world.  For example the first color you get is blue which makes the surfaces slippy allowing for faster movement and increased jumping to scale large gaps.  As you get further and further you have to use all these colors together to defeat enemies and make it through the traps that stand in your way.  At the end of each stage you get a sequence where the void chases you.  In game play terms this is a auto scrolling section which tasks you with solving puzzles on a strict time limit.  These sections are probably my personal favorite parts of the game since they create a sort of intensity and pressure that I really enjoy.  It's also got a really nice soundtrack composed by Álvaro Lafuente which is worth going and looking up even if you haven't played the game.  It's ambient and I can see myself using the tracks from this game to accompany my study or writing.

My only real complaint about Nihilumbra is that it's WAY too easy.  I don't want to toot my own horn and say that I'm some kind of big brain Mensa bad ass (because I'm not) but none of the puzzles in Nihilumbra really taxed me.  The solutions all seem extremely obvious and when it does throw a difficult section at you the checkpoints are disgustingly nice and will never set you too far back.  There was an extra mode which I've not tried out yet so I'm hoping that there will be some more challenge there but the main story is VERY easy.  The game is also quite short which may be a put off for some but considering it's only £5 on Steam it's a reasonable length for the price.

If you're into your dark indie platformers and you're looking for something new then absolutely give Nihilumbra a try.  It's a short, sweet and satisfying experience and given you can get it for a series of portable systems it suits short commutes perfectly.  Pick it up and give it ago, jump into the void.  

Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Liberation First Impressions

I never thought in my life I'd be impressed to the point of gushing HARD on a mobile game but it's finally happened and OF COURSE it's a fucking Shin Megami Tensei game that has me frothing at the mouth with excitement.

I've talked about it before but just in case I'll cover once again what Shin Megami Tensei is before I continue in case a new reader has stumbled across this post.  Shin Megami Tensei is a long running series of RPGs that has been going since the old NES days.  It has its roots in tile based dungeon crawling but as the series has progressed that style has dropped in and out.  The big gimmick of the series is the whole "demon negotiation" thing where you can convince your enemies to join your ranks and use their skills in order to reach the end.  The series has seen some massive success recently with it's spinoff series Persona and at some point a Shin Megami Tensei 5 has been cited for release on the Switch.  In a VERY basic way just think of it as sort of Grimdark Pokemon.

So I woke up on Sunday with a big fat hangover and grabbed my phone only to find that Dx2 SMT Liberation was on the front page of the Japanese app store and despite my pounding headache I did a little squee and downloaded it.  As far as mobile games go it's not all that different from any other RPG where you collect monsters and battle them but if you're a fan of the series, especially the mainline series, the look and feel of the game will have you hooked pretty quickly.  EVERYTHING you expect from a tried and true SMT game is present in this title just sort of simplified a little bit because it's on a phone now but presented in a way that makes it perfect for short burst plays on a train, bus or while you take a shit.

 I'm not going to go into too much detail about how it all works because there's A LOT going on and I've not levelled up enough to see it all but curiously the game has only 2 out of 5 stars on  the app store.  Addressing some of these complaints I've seen in the review section will help you to understand something about how the game works though so here I go.

The first big complaint I've seen is that they say (in Japanese) that the demons and the artwork look like crap.  The game has opted for the older SMT look as opposed to the more modern art direction that they have used in games like Persona so this is more of a taste thing.  I started the series with Lucifer's Call on PS2 when it was still using that sort of older look so it doesn't bother me really, this is just a taste thing but be aware the art style looks a bit "dated" which will be nostalgic for some and hard on the eyes for others.

The one thing I can't forgive though is people complaining about the fucking "gatcha".  If you don't play mobile games then a gatcha is the way most games give you new items or characters.  You pay a number of whatever currency it may be and the game randomly gives you a character.  If you're lucky you'll get a rare thing and if you're not lucky you won't, it's the main way these free to play RPGs make cash by making people pull lots of gatcha for mad rare shit.  These are usually a big part of mobile RPGs but in Liberations case it's not such a big thing.  The complaints state that the gatcha is too expensive and the rate of rare shit coming out is too low, which is fine I guess but that's not really how your supposed to expand your roster of demons.

As you play levels, occasionally a demon will offer to talk with you and you enter a negotiation.  If you complete the negotiation successfully the demon will join you, this is how SMT has worked basically since the beginning.  From there, you have you fuse the demons together to make new ones in order to strengthen your ranks and this is the main way that the player in Liberation gets rarer things.  For example today I took a 1* demon and a 2* demon and fused them into a 3* demon with some sick fire skills.  The gatcha does give you rare shit but the game wants you to focus on negotiation and fusion, you know, the thing where you actually have to understand how the game works, rather than just dumb luck.  While paying your way into the rarest demons is an option and probably how Sega plan to make profit, doing it the old fashioned way is preferable and series fans will probably enjoy this more than just "push button, receive demon".

I've never been this hooked by a mobile game before so if you're a SMT fan then absolutely try it out and if you've never played one before then this free outing into the mainline may be a good place to find your feet. 

Dragon Quest Rivals First Impressions

Japan loves its card games.  Very close to my house there are about 4 stores dedicated to the buying, selling and playing of trading cards of which there seem to be hundreds of different games but you can also just hit up a used book store to buy individual cards for games like Yu-gi-oh and whatnot.  As well as that there are a bunch of digital trading card games some of which are exclusive to the arcade.  But the arcades not only have digital based card games but also games that actually spit out physical cards for use in the game, it's crazy.  Japan LOVES card games.

Japan also loves a bit of Dragon Quest which is basically one of the big boss boys of the RPG genre.  So of course Dragon Quest, like Warcraft, The Witcher and DotA have come out with their own card based video game for mobile platforms.  I usually avoid all the other card games on the IOS since I'm balls deep into Shadowverse and the idea of playing two different card games at the same time seems a bit pointless but the gameplay in DQ Rivals seemed different enough from something like Hearth or 'Verse to at least give it a go.

It's not completely unique, there are a number of similarities to Hearth.  The way the cards looks is pretty much identical and the idea that the character that you pick have their own special ability and cards sets seems ripped straight from that model.  Also the ranking system is basically the same as Hearthstone and of course it has that thing where you can earn "dust" in order to create individual cards if you're trying to make a specific kind of deck.  Basically out of the actual card combat they are fucking identical.

But the card combat itself is where things get interesting.  Each player has 6 blocks on their side of the field where they can play monsters and the positioning of your monsters is pretty important when it comes to battle strategy.  So for example, in Hearthverse you can attack the enemy directly pretty much anytime unless they play a monster with a defender ability.  In DQ rivals, you have monsters with that kind of skill but you can also put all your monsters in a row which will create a wall in order to defend your character.  Then on top of that, if you have a monster with a cool ability you don't want getting murdered you can play another creature in front of them in order to defend.  It's a cool mechanic that means that you not only have to worry about what monsters you have but also where you put them on the board in any given situation.  Your hero also has an ability that they have to charge but I wont go into detail about that because it's pretty much the same as Hearthstone.

Right now I'm pretty sure its exclusive to Japan but it seems like there has been a decent amount of effort made to make a game that's familiar enough to fans of this mobile card  game genre so they don't have  to relearn a fuckton of new systems but different enough to make it worth playing past the tutorial.  If you can get hold of it, give it a go.  Shit is free so you have nothing to lose

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage

I'm not above playing a phone game that has anime girls plastered all over it, quite the opposite.  After having a friend of mine talk my ear off about this game for a good while I finally decided to give it a try and I was actually pleasantly surprised with what I got.

Cinderella Girls is a rhythm game for you phone which boasts a pretty hefty number of tracks.  You hold the phone sideways and tap the 5 buttons at the bottom of the screen in time with the music

Taking a phone screen and hitting a note are pretty much impossible

While all the rhythm game stuff is going on you have a fully 3D dance routine going on in the background and each character in the game has their own 3D model.  This puts it above it's competitor Love Live because last time I played that it only had static backgrounds which made playing songs a little visually unappealing.

Like every phone game and it's dog though Idolmaster has a collection element and it comes in the form of collecting performers for your group.  This is done on the usual "gatcha" system where you pay some form of currency and then get given performers and items at random

From there you can arrange a team of whoever you like and using them in songs will net them fans and affection which you then use to gain special story sequences or "evolve" them to their next idol form.  It is worth noting as well that this game gives out premium currency like it's candy so finding yourself with a team of rare idols doesn't actually take all that long and finding items to level them up with is equally easy so you can see a decent amount of progress in a very short time.  While normal idols just have a mugshot for an image rarer idols have big fancy artwork so if you're the kind of person that likes their anime CG then you'll get a kick out of that.

My one real complaint about this game is that it seems to download content every 10 fucking seconds.  Phones have limited data and I use mine up fairly quickly watching stupid YouTube videos during my train rides so this game may not be a good idea if you're the kind of person who is concerned about their date usage.

Still, it's not a terrible title and for a free to play mobile rhythm game it's pretty fun.  It's not going be better than anything you could play in an arcade but not bad if you need a quick rhythm fix.

Super Mario Run Is Dumb

This game isn't even available to me just yet on the Japanese app store but it's already disappointing.  You could argue that I shouldn't be chatting shit about a game I've not even played yet but I'd argue that I played Temple Runner and Sonic Runners and every game in this genre is essentially the same goddamn thing.

Anyway, in case you're not familiar with these type of games, a "running" game is a genre that's pretty popular on mobile platforms.  The idea is that your character will just run forward through the stage without stopping and it's up to you to tap or swipe the screen in order to make them avoid obstacles and not die.  There are usually items for you to collect in order to boost your score and other items that you can buy or find in order to facilitate longer running times.  After that it's just a case of seeing how many points you can get.  Sonic Runners tried to incorporate a story where running a certain distance would progress a plot but at the end of the day it's all the same shit.

Now Super Mario Run looks, from the screen shots, exactly like that.  The game isn't going to be crap per se but it is going to be another forgettable running game.  The kind of game that you'll download, play for about a week and then delete in order to make space for a different stupid weekly top pic game off the store.

It's disappointing that Nintendo have resorted to this and not because it's suddenly Mario on an iPhone but because they just went for a dime a dozen running game.  Nintendo are famous for always trying something new, weather it's successfully with the Wii or the DS or unsuccessfully with the WiiU, the point is the are pretty much always trying new things.  So it's sad to see that the debut game on the iOS is just a running game.  Like I said, I can't get it right now so what's the fucking point?  It's not like I'm going to get excited for a game like this and if I REALLY wanted to play a game exactly like it I could just go and download one of the THOUSANDS of these games available on the store.

What's even more disappointing is that back when Iwata was alive he said that this would never happen, that Nintendo wouldn't just sell out their shit for fast profit.  He DID once talk about how Nintendo had plans to use smart phones as a platform to attract users to the main line Nintendo systems and the piece of software that came from THAT plan was Miitomo.  If Iwata saw THIS shit floating around the app store he would be rolling in his grave.

This is like watching a loved one get sick, deteriorate rapidly and start to die right in front of your eyes, it's just sad.

Dragon Quest 1 and Fairune iOS Double Bill

So recently I've been getting some use out of my iPhone of all damn things.  Usually games on the iPhone are complete and total garbage.  They are either stupid shit game coded by some beginner trying to get some experience (which is fair enough I guess) or some kind of monster collecting bullshit fest with micro transactions out the arse.

Well I said fuck all that and I'm going to look for some fucking mobile games that have some kind of ending.  None of this endless fucking bullshit with daily dungeons and seasonal things to collect, just a straight up normal game with a start and a finish.

So I started by playing it safe and going for a game with a bit of a legacy behind it and that was Dragon Quest.  If you've somehow not heard of Dragon Quest it's the big motherfuckin' granddad of JRPGs.  You thought FF1 was basic? HO BOY YOU AIN'T SEEN SHIT.  We're talking a time when the games entire combat system was focused on one on one battles and the plot was basically "find and kill the bad thing"

Obviously there's more to it than that, the game focuses a lot on exploration and it's up to you, the player, to seek out hints and uncover  the secrets of the world in order to gain access to a big castle and shove your legendary blade in some assholes face.  It's pure, simple, somewhat challenging and a hell of a lot of fun.  Usually I play mobile games when I'm out and about and too busy to bust out the Vita or 3DS but I found myself logging in time on Dragon Quest while sitting around my fucking house.

It's a fucking classic and the iOS version comes with fancy graphics and a nice easy to use interface.  So if you don't want to deal with all that archaic crap then this is a good place for you to find out what all the fuss was about back in '86.  While it's not free it costs so little money on the app store that it may as well be so I highly recommend checking it out.

The other game that got to eat my phones battery life like candy was Fairune, a strange little action RPG type thing that is free to download and play.

Whoever made this game must of been a big fan of the Ys series because the game involves a read headed protagonist running around a world killing enemies by running into them like a Beyblade that's been on fire.  Like Dragon Quest the game has a simple plot of go and kill the bad thing and it also involves a lot of exploration and puzzle solving in order to reach the big bads lair so you can shove a sword into his face.

The game is short and easy but when you're dealing with mobile games this is pretty much exactly what you want.  There are a couple of moments that will stump you for more bullshit reasons rather than good design but you won't need a guide to find out what's going on and when you do make progress you'll want to slap yourself for not trying that method earlier.  There are even leader boards for completion time so if you're the speed running type then maybe you'll get a kick out of that but I found the controls to be a bit shitty so I didn't want to bother.

I've heard that it's had a release on 3DS but why pay for it when you can just get it for free off the app store.  Maybe the 3DS has some extra features, I'd be surprised if it didn't but I'd just stick to the free version for your phone. 

I did have a weird issue where the game would crash constantly on launch unless I launched it from the app store which is weird but you'll finish it in a few sessions so it's not too big a deal.  Go give it a download, you have nothing to lose and it's probably better than that shitty monster collecting game you've had collecting dust for a long long time.

So yeah, iPhone is still mostly complete and utter trash when it comes to games but there are a few titles hidden on the store that are worth playing.  Check these two out and I'm also down to try some others if anyone has any suggestions.

Sword&Dragon

This is a game I would have initially never have heard anything about if it wasn't for a friend of mine asking me to play it and say a few things about it for the blog.  Of course, I agreed and what I got was a pleasant little surprise for my phone.

Sword&Dragon is a free to download and play puzzle game for iOS.  The game contains 100 levels with each stage presenting you with a 4x4 grid and some pieces for you to work with.  The pieces involve things like swords used for killing dragons, dragons for killing you, a heart which represents your life and finally treasures to collect which act as level goals and points.  There are other things too but I've not beat the game so I'm just listing the things that appear in every stage.

The idea is that you sweep the pieces across the board in order to kill dragons and collect loot.  Each level has a number of goals which may be "kill x dragons" or "kill x dragons and collect y gold bars".  While the game starts out fairly simple the game throws obstacles at you as the levels go on throwing things like fortresses to break your swords on and move limits to make your life hard.  On each board there is a heart piece that will die if it collides with a dragon which also results in a game over.  You can prevent this by collecting potions but it's surprisingly easy to get overly focused on the objectives and get yourself killed despite the small size of the stages.

My playtime over the weekend was fairly limited due to being busy testing new capture equipment but the 35 levels that I did play were very fun and it's a title I'll keep coming back to when I have some time to kill with my phone.  I do have one little complaint which is that the new pieces that spawn in each turn seem to be random, so sometimes I feel like I'm getting lucky rather then figuring out a puzzle but this doesn't detract from the overall fun of the game.  Levels will fly by so having a bad run or two doesn't waste too much time and it doesn't happen enough to be overly frustrating.

If you are looking for a new game to play with on your phone then I'd absolutely tell you to give Sword&Dragon a go.  It's not going to revolutionise anything but it's some good, simple fun for your mobile device and you could do a hell of a lot worse.  Check out the website for more information here

http://www.i-yoda.com/products/iphone/sworddragon_ios.html

and go get the game off the app store if you're interested.  Happy dragon slaying!

Shadowrun Returns

Right, I literally just beat this thing, so let's talk about it!

Shadowrun is originally and it's essentially the same sort of thing as Dungeons and Dragons.  The difference between this and Dungeons and Dragons is that it's not all high fantasy swords and sorcery stuff, it's set in the future where people have guns, explosives and cybernetic implants.  However the swords and sorcery stuff is still there, so you end up with this really cool mix of DnD fantasy stuff being played out in slums filled with drug addicts shooting at you.

Anyway, Shadowrun Returns is an RPG avaliable on multiple formats that attempts to provide you the Shadowrun experience but without all the pens, paper and need for 5 or 6 people to get a session going.  Obviously, there isn't going to be as much freedom because if the developers tried to mimic the table top game completely then this shit would never get released. 

The story follows your character who is some kind of down and out in a slum somewhere in Seattle.  One day your dude gets a call from a dead friend saying "hey, go kill the guy who killed me for big bucks", and being poor you decide that this is about the best chance you have to earn some money and so your adventure begins.  The story in Shadowrun Returns is actually really good and the writing is really good and helps generate a good atmosphere of being on an epic quest in a run down shit heap part of Seattle.  Everything moves along at a good pace and keeps you interested and by the time you finish one chapter, you won't wait to wait to play the next one.  The game also looks pretty nice too with well designed areas with lots of detail even if they are a bit small sometimes.

Game play wise, Shadowrun Returns is basic yet functional.  You basically do everything with the mouse and with turned based combat you need to worry more good strategy than having to micro manage 4 players at a time.  There is also some degree of character creation as you get a bunch of classes to pick at the start and over the course of the game you gain karma so that you can upgrade your various stats.

But it's not all sunshine and daisies with this game.  I have a problem with Shadowrun Returns and it's a pretty big fucking problem.

Now I wasn't following this game when it was development at all, but if you ask me this fucking thing just wrecked a lot of its potential.  The game was released for iPad and Android systems and my problem with Shadowrun Returns is that it feels like it was designed specifically for these platforms rather than PC.  The game is really linear giving you a straight path from A to B with very little to explore.  Side quests are barely existent and really have no impact on anything and neither do the dialogue trees.  Also the lack of a save system is really annoying because I can't go back and play my favourite sections of the game now, I have to replay the whole damn thing if I want to get to that area.

Anyway, despite my gripes with this glorified tablet game, it's actually quite fun.  I really enjoyed playing it through and the plot kept me interested enough to see it through to the end.  Also the pen and paper esque part of the experience has been preserved in the form on a campaign editor where you can make your own adventure and then make it available for download so everyone else can play your quest, so if you're into user generated content then there is a lot of game here for you.  As long as you don't have soaring expectations of a true pen and paper experience, Shadowrun Returns is a good RPG that's worth at least one play through.

Beating Dead Horses: Ultima Forever

What is this shit?  It's Mythic Entertainment dragging a relic of PC gamings past to try and squeeze money out of its legacy.

For those that don't know, Ultima is a big long line of old school RPGs that were created by a crazy dude known as Richard Garriot who went by the name of Lord British.  Quest for the Avatar was the 4th game in the Ultima series and it was pretty revolutionary for its time.  It did away with a big bad, and instead had the player focus on trying to become "The Avatar", which in the games world basically amounts to being like Jesus.

So what is Ultima Forever?  From what I can tell in the trailer, it's a dungeon crawl hack n' slash. WRONG! FUCKING, SO GODDAMN WRONG!  Ultima always had its fair share of combat but it was never a hack n' slash dungeon crawl.  It was the fucking opposite, where I think it was the virtue of honor meant that you had to leave fleeing foes and allow them to live because stabbing a dude in the back while he's running away crying is about as dishonourable as it gets.

But this trailer just has a guy smashing the fuck out of everything on screen, and all the depth and brilliant design to be found in the original Ultima 4 appears to be gone. This leads to another problem I have with the gaming industry.

Stop dragging up old names just to make sales on new games.  X-Com got lucky as that game ended up being pretty good.  But Syndicate took it right in the ass, going from an awesome tactics game to a shit first person shooter.  Now Ultima is ready to put its ass in the air and get fucked but the problem here is that Ultima already took it pretty hard after 9.  So Quest for the Avatar, a great game, is now going to have its legacy shit on by turning into an ARPG.

Ultima Forever may actually end up being a really good Action RPG, but there is no reason it should carry Ultimas name, fuck off Mythic.