Stars of Icarus Public Playtest

Romancing Saga Minstrel Song Remastered International

A game that calls itself an rpg but in what sense let’s talk about it.

First I wanna thank red art games and square Enix for sending me a copy its greatly appreciated so let’s dive in.

When you think of rpg’s you think of xp grinds lots of missions levels and items to get you through and thats what I thought of when I received this game but boy was I wrong. Theres 8 characters so I thought awesome 8 different views to experience so my first pick was a character called Gray I started out talked to people learned the basics from a kid that has tons of info then left the area into the wide open world to do a mission this was my first red flag as once I loaded in I find dinosaurs in front of me im like ok let’s do this I attack then they hit me and boom I get one shotted im like ok must be a fluke try again and nope I get one shotted so I figure im to weak and need to avoid them boy was I wrong as the npcs are so fast you cant run away I played a good hour in the same area before I raged quit and started over.

Next character was sif a female warrior who had the most hp and a variety of weapons she starts out in a frozen tundra first mission is clear out the caves from monsters running a muk in the area ok no problem I leave the village and make my way into the world find monsters in the way I fight them there manageable so I make it pass until I get to the first boss in the first cave I visit we start the fight I hit him he hits me and boom red flag number 2 as im once again one shotted I give it another 2 tries same outcome at this point I take a break and message my friend about my dilemma he was also sent a key.

And this is where the game starts to ruin you as my friend tells me that out of the 8 characters only 2 are begginer friendly so of course I have to restart for a 3rd time by this point the games already left a sour taste in my mouth but I proceed as I really wanted to experience the game so the character I pick is Albert literally the weakest health points wise so his story starts I explore a bit then find my first mission with my sister and guards we manage it no problem I learn more of the combat system and see that your stats increase during combat progression so im like cool this I can manage but boy am I wrong.

You see in a traditional rpg game you are rewarded for grinding you level up its how you learn new spells and attacks so I put that knowledge into this game and start grinding a bit when I come across monsters that are in my way but here’s where the game screws you over again you see the game has a mechanic called the event rank. And that ladies and gentlemen is the biggest middle finger this game gives you you see the game wants you to strictly follow the story and keep exploring and monster hunting to a very small minimum if you fill that event rank to much the monsters you find start getting stronger and stronger and then your shit outta luck as you start to struggle again. Now you would think no problem let me go to a store and buy new spells and weapons maybe some armor but nope red flag number 4 pops up everything is super expensive and you earn peanuts from monsters you vanquish. So now all traditional rpg sense is out the window what kinda game is this even the souls games let you grind for levels and money without any consequences so what do you do? Well I kept pushing and raging and little by little ive progressed the story and I gotta say this game is absolutely not for me I dont know who designs an rpg that punishes the players but this shouldn’t be allowed to use that title this game will be for a very niche crowd which saddens me as I really wanted to experience it and enjoy it the code they sent me was for the nintendo switch version and the game fits perfectly on it ive had no issues that might happen with other titles but sadly this game just isnt for me I hope they find there crowd but I cannot in good faith recommend this game it is to difficult and after a while feels more like a chore then an actual game.

I hope there able to find there crowd it plays wonderfully on the switch and could be a great handheld experience but thats all for now thank you all for stopping by take care and game on.

Aska

First off big thank you to sand sailor studios and thunderful publishing for the code to aska its greatly appreciated and gave me the opportunity to check out there game let’s talk about it.

First off survival games are not my forte the last survival games I played were rust and Conan exile years ago and haven’t touched the genre since, so color me surprised when I received this code to check out aska and there new sailing update.

The game starts you off washing up on shore of your random generated island you wake up and see the remains of your ship and trust me remains they are in the ocean just feet away you this giant stone golem which im a million percent sure is responsible for you being stranded just looks at you does a loud roar and disappears into the distance like some figure trying to walk away from its crime no sir you get back here and fix my ship.

So my first run starts with me on the beach I walk around a bit looking at my surroundings I grab some fancy blue rocks off the carcass of my ships and wandered around so you will come across some blue wisp that will randomly appear telling you what to do next which im guessing is this games idea of a tutorial which trust me its not compared to other survival games the tutorial leaves much to be desired, after managing to figure out the basics I built myself some tools and started getting to work on my base camp by building a fire which for some reason the game decided to make hard by placing a phantom fire down then you bring the items needed to it give it to the phantom fire then actually build it but it doesn’t get marked done until you add fire wood go figure. So during my exploration I came across these floating monsters I took them out and they dropped some much needed materials for me to progress. What I do like about the game though is if you press the letter Z a pulse is emitted from you that pushes outward and paints everything that is usable and able to be harvested in a golden glow that last a couple seconds the good thing is you can use this pulse as often as you want which works wonders for finding smaller items on the floor when your in grassy areas. Now back to the game with no tutorials I spent a bit of time walking around now the game has a section in the menus that acts as there tutorial section but let’s be real a tutorial should guild the player through the basics of gathering and building until you have a decent home base set up.

So I wandered around found wood and sticks from small trees I was able to chop down and had a hard time finding stone since nothing small had generated near by just my luck so I layed out my first building needed which is the hut for sleeping my make shift home then I started work on the eye of oden which is the device that summons new villagers in exchange for 5 blood stones fair trade I suppose well my first run was a disaster with not knowing what to do I ended up dying of thirst this one made me mad as I had an ocean of water and yet I couldn’t drink out of why I dont know.
So I took a break from the game and went on YouTube looking for begginer videos and tips on how to play and thank lord youtube exist cause it helped me out greatly so that my next runs wouldnt be a disaster as for water turns out until you build a well or water catcher you must find small stones on the floor that have water deposits for you to drink why they would do this makes no sense but thats my 2 cents.

So in my next run I managed to get a small village going I also had a better starting location being surrounded by trees and stone and a decent amount of food so I got my tents up the fire pit going which I then upgraded with a shield to protect it from the rain as well as a bar b q stand to cook I also managed to build a gatherers pit a wood and stone pit as well I managed to summon some villagers to help me out and so far controlling them isnt hard but there interaction menu is very deep and is something you take your time to learn. When summoning villagers your able to see what there first 2 perks are which you definitely want some that will benefit your early game. I went for some that had gathering stats so I could move them around to different areas.

Aska has a lot to learn and a good amount of content to work with I still haven’t gotten to the new sailing content im sure that will take me a few dozen hours of play time. Don’t let my experience deter you this game is really worth playing and giving it a shot the graphics are beautiful for a survival game no bleak deserts and no guns either you get a bow and arrow as well as some clubs for early game you also have a large amount of buildings to build through and expand your village as well as walls and gates to keep your village enclosed and safe which trust me villagers will tell you about it and if you dont manage to fix stuff guess what they leave.

Aska is a viking based survival game that gives its own take on the genre of survival and village management I highly recommend it to players that know the genre well and to new players please watch some YouTube videos first going in blind sucked and I wasted so much time only to end up dieing of thirst of all things the game does have hostiles in the form of wolves and skeletons you also get invaded so there’s a good amount of survival to be done but thats all for now thank you for your time take care and game on.

Lightyear Frontier

Hello everyone, first off I wanna thank Framebreak for sending me a copy of Lightyear Frontier its greatly appreciated so let’s jump in.

Lightyear frontier is a crafting survival game in outer space on another planet you crash land on the planet after your ship malfunctions leaving you stranded with no way to get to your original destination if there is one. So you walk around trying to find your stuff from your ship and when you find everything you got a bad ass mech suit waiting for you to use it and use it you do.

So your tasked with finding a good spot for your home base and starting to build a homestead and yes its a homestead cause there’s a lot that makes it one after some initial questing you get free rain and can do what you want and here is where the game shines.

So again the game is a survival game you build a house and make some furniture and on the top right you notice a cozy meter that goes up the more stuff you place in your house and around the stuff you build the cozy meter has 4 levels which each offer its own rewards which in return gives you some benefits. You also have an inventory meter tracking how much your carrying and lastly is the day watch which cycles through the day and night times telling you what time of day your in as well as what weather is going on around you.

Since this is a survival game your wondering where does it kick in and well it kicks in now you see you harvest trees, bushes, fruits, ore and water in order to progress your missions and home stead the biggest problem I came across was the farming you spend most of your time finding fruits using a machine to turn them into seeds so you can plant them and multiply now this wouldnt be so bad but the problem is you spend most of your time farming instead of adventuring out of my over 30 days of in game time ive spent most of it farming and gathering food then doing much exploring which I have explored ive discovered about 30 percent of the map.

Now as a survival game you would e,pest a hunger and thirst meter but this game doesn’t have one so your wondering why do I gotta farm and to this I say look up… when you look up you see your planet is surrounded by other planets and a space station and apparently there all in desperate need of help so help you must and this is how the farming comes into place your making tons of food to send to these planets using an awesome delivery cannon you build. Sadly which each mission of help you complete they double in request leading you into a never ending cycle.

The map as I said earlier ive e,plowed about 30 percent and personally I feel this map is way to big for single players but thats my honest opinion the game does offer multiplayer but sadly I wasnt able to try it out as my friends schedule never matched up with mine but I do hope to try it out in the future at some point. The map has 4 areas that you discover and each area has a bunch more that you need to discover is it easy no are there hostiles around the map just 1 this floating yellow spiked orb that if your not paying attention will rush you and explode now it doesn’t do much damage but careful cause they usually float in bunches of 10 or more. The map has plenty to discover and to explore and all I say is wow this game is beautiful.

The game has a beauty that makes you just feel at ease and vibe out no worry about if your gonna die or lose stuff, I loved some of the flora around the map beautiful trees that reminded me of cherry blossoms and colorful plants and bushes the best part are the wild animals you find along the way that you can feed yes you read that right you can feed the wild life and show them love.

The mech is also cool since your using it 100 percent of the time the mech has different modes to help you on your journey i tried to play with these modes but sadly I couldn’t drive them properly they felt way to sensitive on the turns but in normal mech mode it worked fine for me.

The game offers mods and upgrades to help make your survival better and trust me you will need em as when your gathering materials your bag fills up very quick, the mods range from more bag space to more sprint speed as well as mods for the tools you use from the mech to give them different abilities.

This game isnt your traditional survival game its offers a relax feel to the genre instead of stressing out constantly you can vibe out and go at your own pace and dont need to worry about food shortages or crafting materials.

They also just added more content to the game adding new machinery and more raw material sizes to make things a bit easier for you.

All in all lightyear frontier is an amazing cozy survival game that I highly recommend yes you can play it alone but I would suggest some friends to make progress a little easier I give this game a solid 8/10 again I wanna thank frame break for sending me a code have a great day everyone and game on.

Night Swarm

Hey everyone hows it going today I wanna talk to you about a little gem called night swarm a vampire rougelite thats actually interesting with its own twist, let’s talk about it, But first I wanna thank Fubu Games for sending me a copy its greatly appreciated.

So night swarm is another one of those vampire survivor like rougelite you are Roderic a vampire assigned with bringing back the glory of your people and castle against the war that threatens to engulf everything. So the game feels like a giant board game the characters all have a base like a board game and they walk the same by jumping around I thought this was awesome it made me smile seeing something different.

The game has a skill tree, relics, artifacts and a bunch of other stuff you discover along the way there’s a giant map divided into parts you must unlock and make your way through but after selecting which part you wanna go to you have a path that has many choices and those are the levels you will be playing in this war. The levels have a lot of different factors to them some are boss fights others you fight against elites but there’s also quest to progress the story and so forth.

You also have companions that will offer different boost to you during your runs so your not alone sadly they dont attack which would have been more helpful then just a buff but thats just my 2 cents. Theres also a bunch of companions you unlock using the reputation you earn.

For mission progression you continue along until you see exclamation points floating around certain lvls so far the story seems interesting from the little bit ive gotten from it i do hope more is explained since now I have vampires and werewolves trying to kill me go figure

If your a fan of rougelites and love vampires then this game is for you there’s no price yet as the release date is December 4th but there is a demo live right now give it a shot and enjoy thanks for stopping by take care and game on.

Digimon CyberSleuth

So I recently started playing my first digimon game cybersleuth and its been a fun experience so far let’s talk a bit.

So as the main character you and your friends start off meeting up in eden after only talking in game but you guys get attacked by this monster and thats where the fun starts a cut scene takes over showing the real world and a crowd of people crowding around a digital being that just so happens to be you the main character. Suddenly you get helped by a random women who’s a detective and she helps you out through out the games progression.

So the game takes place in both the real world and digital world and this being my first digimon game i wasnt sure what to expect i had so much to learn and learn i am. You see the digimons have types and weaknesses that are critical for combat, its not like in other games where you can brute force what you do here you actually need strategy and I had to learn that quick as ive come close to having my ass handed to me plenty of times.

Items are crucial in the game as you actually must use them in order to survive fights and some of the fights ive had have been very hard.

You have a good amount of people helping you along the way as you find some crazy story plots that leave you wondering how is that possible after only about 7 chapters I can say this game takes a lot of commitment and work to progress and for my first digimon game im actually happy with it.

Ive been playing on the nintendo switch which I gotta say this console really shines with rpg games being able to just sit and relax the game runs perfectly so far no issues that ive noticed haven’t had any stutters and the load times aren’t that bad coming from a gamer that plays mostly on pc.

All in all im having fun with cybersleuth and will post an update once I get further into the game itself thank you all for stopping by take care and game on.

Pokemon Legends Z-A

Hello everyone hows it going today we talk about pokemon legends za and if its worth it and guess what short answer yes its worth it long answer its absolutely worth it and then some so let’s talk about what game freak, nintendo and the pokemon company gave us.

So where do I start well at the beginning of course so the game starts us off with us the player getting off a train and the grand lumiose city where within seconds we are greeted with the first of many characters that we will encounter taunie after some talking the game continues taking us on a bit of a mission until finally we get to selecting our starter pokemon between chikorita totodile and tepig and yours truly picked my favorite funny boy totodile. Soon after we are dropped into our hotel where we stay during the whole journey of our game. The game starts with a bit of hand holding until maybe after the first 20 minutes give or take where you finally get control and freedom.

So why legends za i dont know but za is the rank tournament that we as the player enter and take part of now i for one was excited about this using you skills in a ranking system instead of the normal badge system and I got behind it the game also introduced a day and night cycle which helps with different adventures in the game during the day you explore the city catching pokemon in the wild zones and at night you battle it out for glory in the za tournament battle royal and it only gets harder as you progress.

Alpha pokemon from legends arceus are back not as big and scary but still big and scary and boy can they hold there own but if you manage to get them down and catch them you have yourself and extra extra large pokemon who dwarfs there normal selves. You find the alpha pokemon in the wild zones there the bosses of the area and in the early game they are a handful.

The starters you actually get to find them in the wild zones at later points in the game and you dont know how happy that makes me to finally be able to catch them and not need to trade for them over and over this is a feature they need to keep moving forward.

Mega forms are back and I for one love the mega evolutions they added flair to the pokemon and some megas just looked so damn cool definitely couldn’t complain about it.

My new favorite feature of this game is the battle system its a real time battle the moves recharged so your no longer stuck to the pp system of old games thank lord and the battles are hectic but fun running around trying to dodge moves and reposition yourself its a blast I dont care what anyone says this new system is top tier and needs to move forward with future games.

I do hate the evolution system pretty sure its the same one from legends arceus where you actually click on the pokemon then click on the option to evolve i for one am not a fan of it one bit.
The trainers in this game are definitely a handful not only are they close to your level but there strong and this is the first game where typing and move types are a huge factor I remember in the old games you could just brute force your way through most fights but in za everything is calculated and moves matter your pokemon type and move type matter but its fun because for once I actually use all 6 pokemon unlike in old games where I mostly stuck to my starter or whoever was my strongest so keep that in mind for your play through.

You will see some familiar faces from the past and there involvement in the story is slowly exposed but so far the story really doesn’t start coming out until near the end where a certain legendary becomes more known.

So the game has 38 main missions 42 post game missions and over 100 side quest missions so you have a good amount of stuff to explore and enjoy.

Now onto the biggest gripe I have with this game is literally after almost every conversation there’s a fucking pokemon battle and sometimes its 2 or 3 battles in a row I got to the point I had 6 battles in a row to progress my story then if I need some info guess what you guessed it another fucking battle by the point im at now I am sick of the game and battles I wanna get the story over with just so im not forced into battles and I can enjoy everything but thats my 2 cents I know pokemon is all about fighting but come on give me a break.

But all in all I’ve enjoyed every aspect of the game and I’ve had fun with all the wild zones and checking out all the stores for the latest fashion I wish they would add a pokeball customization option even if it cost money cause im close to the end of the game and have over 400k in money since I earn 40 to 60k a night I think that would be a cool add on but thats just me anyways guys thanks so much for stopping by hope you enjoyed take care and game on.

Reus 2

Reus 2 the city builder were you are a god and control elemental giants to help your planet grow and flourish let’s talk about it.

First i wanna thank Abbey Games and Firesquid for sending me a copy of this game to check out i greatly appreciated it.

So in reus your god the game starts you out with a tutorial to teach you the ropes but I played on the switch so it was definitely a bit of a work out to figure everything out even with the tutorial. So you start in space and select create a planet from there you choose 3 giants to help you out from 6 total. At the start you get a forest water and rock giant and they are what build each biome and everything in it. You start with a group of nomads and place your first area either a lush forest or a harsh desert then off they go they slowly build and evolve as time goes on then similar to civilization you pick deities to help further your progression as well as unlock a new town in total so far you max out at 3 towns and you help complete missions to get them through the ages.

You only control the giants sadly so you have no control what happens and trust me things will happen so far I’ve seen my people attack one another over selfish motives such as a better castle, each smaller deity has missions for you thats how you progress and there not easy if you dont manage to finish they get upset and angry at the giants. The giants play a crucial role in everything they create the biomes along with the trees and animals the special stones and irons you find in a desert but they can also attack the cities if you want them to which I did when one city attacked the other for no reason I showed no mercy sadly they will just rebuild and get angry at the giants even tho it wasnt the giants fault.

Ive been playing on the switch and the controls were confusing at first but after some play time I started getting the hang of it the one area where they completely failed to integrate which woulda worked wonders for this game is the touch screen there’s no support and thats a let down as the touch screen coulda been a huge help for selecting things and placing them but maybe further down the road one can hope.

They also dropped a new dlc for the game called ice age where it adds a frozen tundra biome to the game i haven’t gotten that far so I cant talk about it but im sure it adds levels of difficulty to the game.

Reus 2 has so much to offer and to do and is a fun game to play if you wanna pass time and just watch the game play itself I recommend it if your a fan of sim style games its available on steam and switch i am not sure about the other consoles.

Again I wanna thank the devs for sending me a copy to check out and wish them nothing but the best I hope you enjoyed thank you for stopping by take care and game on.