So here we go again, another month has passed and with it, another review shall be written!
Let's take a look at what games I beat last month:
Games completedGem Smashers Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
After a third of the month with no completions at all, I decided to try and kickstart it by playing this little game.
In this game, you take control of either Toki from Toki Tori, Crawdaunt from Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog.
Alright, Bam, Bom and Bum...err...actually, forgotten that last one's name now. :P Oh, Bau, right...lol.
Anyway, that doesn't really matter, the game is a short, casual: "puzzle" game, where the objective is merely to destroy blocks, rescue your friends by smashing the gems that they're being held in and leave the level or beat a boss if it's the last level in each world.
There are some other mechanics at play, such as switches to change the colour of your character so you can hit certain gems but besides that, nothing too taxing.
It does, however, have a very short and easy Gold Rush Plat (GRP) attached so if you don't feel like playing anything more involving, you could do worse than this game.
Just be warned that the
is potentially glitched in some way. I think I had to boot up the game again to get it to pop.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 2/5
Final Fantasy XV (EU) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
I FINALLY managed to finish this one and it's still only one of a handful of JRPGs I've ever managed to get 100% in. Probably because it's pretty easy and little grinding was required!
Anyway, I had an absolute blast with this one overall, many people seem to hate on this game for some reason but then again, the FF fan base is like the Sonic one, it would seem: quick to slag the game off before they've even played it, let alone when they have, then they just end up saying: "it's not as good as *insert FF game here* but I digress.
It's not without its faults for sure. Besides minor technical issues, the single most annoying thing for me was the Costlemark Tower dungeon, seriously, appalling design in that.
Basically, it's to do with the block puzzle at the end. While technically, it's relatively easy to get through, provided you don't mess up (if you follow the natural path, you should make it), it hinges on going through one particular block (and you can actually take a shortcut to it if you're lucky) but you don't really have any idea where you're going during the whole thing so it amounts to fumbling in the dark.
That, coupled with a truly STUPID set of enemies that no matter how well-versed you are with the combat will sap you of your items pretty quickly, even if you're much higher-levelled.
Besides that, the only other quibble was with the plotholes/loose ends of the story. I obviously can't go too much into them here but some were explained in Chapter 13, others weren't and the ridiculous length (imo) of that Chapter was another setback for me.
However, despite this, it still remains a great game imo and the tagline at the start: "A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers alike" is not all too inaccurate imo so I would definitely recommend it to you, though be prepared to question its billing of: "JRPG" as it feels the least Japanese of any I've ever played!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 4/5
Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Another Artifex Mundi release and there's bound to be more, I think!
Anyway: this is yet another hidden object/point and click affair from there and if you've read my previous blogs, you'll know that I like them a lot but how does this one fare?
Well, I'd say it's probably my joint favourite alongside Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart Trophies, tbh, another pretty good story and interesting puzzles, though you start to see a recurring theme with them after you've played a few of the AM games, they still somehow remain quite fresh.
The only thing I wish they'd improve (though I doubt they will seeing as all these PS4 releases are ports of year old releases) is the voice acting. It is very hit-and-miss in all of them and while this is one of the stronger showings imo, there's stiil room for improvement.
It should also be noted that I didn't get
when I beat the game on Expert the first time, however, it might've been a one-off glitch as no-one else seems to have had the issue. Given that you have to go through the game twice for the Plat anyway, though, it was kinda a moot point, really.
Onto Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call Trophies in April!!!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 4/5
So Many Me*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Onto the next game: this one is a pretty cool puzzle game that was actually originally free with Games with Gold on the Xbox One.
I had a quick play of that, decided I liked it and then promptly bought this version for the juicy GRP!
Anyway: the idea behind this is you have to use the (So) Many Mes to solve puzzles with various abilities, hitting switches and using enemies/the environment to your advantage.
There's also some platforming to be done in the Chrono Castle section of the game but for the most part, it's not *too* bad, besides level 3, anyway, that one took a while to master lol.
The dialogue is also pretty funny at times imo, if somewhat cheesy.
There's very little wrong with this game that I could find, though I didn't like the luck element in the sequence after defeating the Final Boss, plus sometimes, the return mechanics sometimes resulted in my Me falling to their doom (mainly in Chrono Castle #3 loll) but other than that, pretty solid, not *too* difficult but will give you a decent workout.
So if you didn't get this for free on Xbox One and/or you just want that juicy GRP, then I would recommend this one to you!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 5/10 w/o guide (3/10 with guide) Personal Game Rating: 4/5
Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
(Apologies that I couldn't find a trailer for this one that was any good, this was probably the best video available that showcased the game fully...)
Anyway: I decided to revisit a game I'd already beaten on 360 as I didn't really feel like playing anything else at the time. :P
This is a pretty good reboot of the classic Arcade game, which if you're not familiar with that, sees you guide your frog across a road and river to their home, possibly picking up a nice lady friend along the way.
There's a multitude of modes, the main classic mode, battle modes, paint mode, challenge mode and even a twin frog mode (guide 2 frogs at once).
Most of these modes are pretty fun imo and if you're not familiar with the gameplay style, it could take you a while to 100% but it's not really all too bad with practice.
Unfortunately, this version seems to have some nasty lag going on at times. I had to redo a few of the challenges because I'd guided my frog into the home, the game would lag and next thing, instead of going into the home, he would hit the wall. :(
Despite that, I would recommend it to you if you were a fan of the old-school game for sure. If you weren't, then it might not be for you.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 3/10 Personal Game Rating: 3.5/5
Typoman: Revised (EU)*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
This one was a very unique game, for sure! Basically, LIMBO Trophies but with letters lol.
The aim of the game is to spell words in order to progress, such as: "ON" to flip a switch, "LIFT" to raise a platform etc. There's also some flexibility with the words you can use as well.
Another cool feature is the use of the: "LIE"s, basically, spell that and you get a little fellow, who gobble up eligible words and spit out the antonym of that word (so YES = NO, for example).
It really does have a lot going for it, which is why it's such a shame I have to give it such a low score for a few pretty bad flaws, some of them fatal.
Firstly: the game never really explains to you that you can use other words to carry out functions (RAISE instead of LIFT, just as one example), which you could argue is the player's fault for not having mental agility to work that out but USUALLY, in a game such as this, you'd have standard commands so while the idea of having different words itself isn't bad, the lack of explanation is imo.
Secondly: the Antonymiser mini-game, which you need to beat to get a trophy...is probably the most boring trophy I've ever gotten, save for perhaps something like
You have to spell 165 different words with the use of the LIEs, which is honestly a pretty cool concept, the execution of which is the problem.
It takes FOREVER to get through, longer than it took me to beat the game the first time and then do the 5 or less death run, I'd say. Even when you know what words you need, it can take a long time but then when you figure into it that some letters are very tough to get, you will be there ages doing it.
All for some Easter Eggs that are often identical to one another (like DISCO and RAVE, for instance), though some of them are quite funny. :P
Without a cheat sheet (one is available on TA, hint hint) and some mental agility, you will struggle with that mini-game for sure.
Not to mention some of the antonyms literally made zero sense (seriously, how do you get CRITERION from EYE???)
The biggest problem, though, is that mini-game is VERY prone to crashing, despite a couple of patches that supposedly fixed it.
Plus when I did my low death run after it, the game would semi-frequently crash in between chapters or triggering words occasionally, whether that mini-game caused it, I'm not sure but I don't believe it happened before.
I wish they'd have used the other mini-game for a trophy instead (Word Count, I think it was called) as that was FAR more fun to come up with words quickly!
As such, it's with a certain amount of COURAGE (LIE = TREPIDATION, sorry, couldn't resist. :P) that I would recommend this one in its current state. With patches, it'd be a no-brainer but right now...maybe wait for a huge sale. Really disappointing that this great concept, horrible execution thing keeps happening with indie games.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 4/10 with guide (7/10 w/o) Personal Game Rating: 2.5 (3.5 w/o glitches)
Eekeemoo - Splinters of Dark Shard (EU)*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
They say that you should never judge a book by its cover: "How do you know it's bad if you haven't played it yourself?", they'll say?
In a handful of instances, though, you just know...that gut instinct that you're born with that has been honed over many, many years of exposure to a particular medium having played countless games in your life will tell you...this...will...SUCK!
This, my friends, is Orc Slayer 2017! Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
OK, enough melodrama now (well, apart from the Orc Slayer remark) :P I'll try and be fair about this....
This is a hack and slash game, where you control the eponymous character to free the...err...giants from some random curse and also your friends so that you can...err...save the world, I guess?
Seriously, it's not really clear why you're doing it, not just saying that.
Most of the time, you'll be battling the countless hordes of Zomblings, which, unless you have a heal point near to you, you'll often have no hope of beating without losing your character and being as Eekeemoo is the only one with any real combat ability (seriously, IDK how Yum Yum isn't good considering he's a big brute with a club...), lose him and you're as good as done.
The built-in hint system is bordering on terrible as well. Not so bad in the first level (though it does a piss poor job of telling you you can recall a raft if you mess up...more on that in a bit), it'll pretty much say: "you're on your own" for the rest of the game thereafter or be largely ineffective at explaining when it isn't AWOL.
So, how could it get any worse? Oh, right, you can totally LOSE progress with the enemy kill trophies if you quit out the game at any time! (Using the Close command)
This is what happened to me because I thought I couldn't progress with the raft so quit out and started again...so after having gone through the game 1 and a half times (I missed a splinter carelessly in the Ice level...), I then had to delete my save and start over.
Plus I had a game-breaking glitch happen in the Cave level, where I died on the lantern section, got spawned outside of it and couldn't get back in again. Well, I could restart the whole level, I suppose to reset it but you know what I mean, semi-game-breaking, I suppose.
There's basically just one tune with slightly different arrangements that plays through the whole damn game as well.
I think you get the picture. This is possibly the worst game available on PS4 (besides Mayo and Life of Black Tiger...), though strangely, the actual gameplay is probably more enthralling than the aforementioned Orc Slayer, everything else considered, I think it's actually WORSE!
Also: the devs ignore your messages on Twitter. First time I've had that happen to me personally.
So, unless you REALLY want an easy GRP (2 if you CBA to stack it), avoid, avoid, avoid!!! Read the comic that this spawned from instead, it would surely be better!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 (1/10 minus glitches) Personal Game Rating: 0.5/5 (1.5 w/o glitches)
Ghost Blade HD Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Only my 2nd bullet hell Platinum, I believe, though I don't really think Prismatic Solid Trophies really counts when you can cheese that with a particular weapon.
Anyway: this game pretty much does what it says on the tin: bullet hell shooter, nothing particularly remarkable about it and very generic imo.
Once you get to grips with it (I'm not that familiar with the genre personally), it does end up being fairly fun but compared to the few I've played in recent years, it's honestly the weakest one I've played.
Nonetheless, it's decently challenging and will give you a good workout unless you 1CC/No Miss Black Label difficulty of other BH Shmup games for fun. :P
Only minor issue I had is when doing practice mode for
the game would switch the difficulty back to Normal after every 2nd game but seems to do this AS YOU START THE 2ND GAME because I'd definitely got a 599 combo but didn't get the trophy despite it saying Hard when I selected it.
Thankfully, the next game, I managed to get it.
Pretty much hard to recommend or not because you'll either like this genre or you won't but from a challenge perspective, it's probably one of the easier ones to play once you have some credits accumulated from playing for an undefined amount of time and learn that you can manufacture more bombs from the focus shot ()
Personal Difficulty Rating: 6/10 (3/10 for genre experts) Personal Game Rating: 3/5
The Little Acre Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
My assessment of this one might prove a bit divisive (it has already in my feed) :P but hear me out:
It's a point and click adventure game where there isn't any *real* objective as such, it all just kinda happens as you go along, really and one gets put in there after a bit: to find the protagonists' Dad/Grandad, then ultimately, to save the world, as usual. :P
The graphics and animation are easily this game's best aspect, really well done! The music for what it is was also pretty nice, though pretty forgettable.
There were also some genuinely humerous moments in this, starting from the moment you boot the game up, actually. My favourite part was when you sidle along an edge the 2nd time, couldn't believe that! XD
The puzzles themselves, though, are very simplistic, the hardest part is occasionally not finding something you can pick up or interact with, though even that doesn't happen too often.
That, coupled with how short the game is even on a first playthrough (took me just over 2 hours, I'd say minus breaks), means that I feel you don't really get good value for your money and unlike Her Majesty's SPIFFING Trophies, the writing is nowhere near as good overall, at least imo, though to be fair, that one is more expensive.
Nevertheless, for what it is, it's not a terrible game and some enjoyment can be had from this for sure but I feel it's more aimed at children (not a bad thing in itself, though) and as such, it will seem quite a shallow experience to some when compared to the obvious master of the genre (Monkey Island). You might like it more than me and it certainly has its fans from what I've seen others rate this on my feed!
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 Personal Game Rating: 2.5/5
The World of Nubla Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
I just couldn't help myself, could I? I just HAD to D-D-D-D-Double Up!! with the easiest completion on PS4. :P
I think most people know about this one but this is basically a VERY simplistic puzzle game that makes The Little Acre look complex. :P
About the only real positive aspect for me personally is the art style and some of the music, though none of it is particularly memorable.
The: "story" and gameplay are severely lacking, though. It pretty much says at the end of the game that a bunch of students did it so really it's the sort of game that many will say shouldn't be released into the mainstream, at least not with a price attached.
This version included a demo of the 2nd game, which was very strange. It's designed with 2 player in mind but you can play solo with each half of the controller being used for a character.
Unfortunately, the demo crashed on me and I didn't have the will to try again but what I did see of it COULD be promising...but I doubt it as it was as clunky as the first game.
This, coupled with the glitchy lock puzzle (sometimes, it won't receive commands properly) means that this is only a game I could recommend for an easy GRP...and definitely wait for a sale if you possibly can as the full price is not worth it imo.
Personal Difficulty Rating: 2/10 w/o guide (1/10 with guide) Personal Game Rating: 1.5/5
Phew! 10 completions last month and 9 Platinums! Score!
Now onto the games I played but didn't beat...
Games PlayedHorizon Zero Dawn Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
Most obscure game I've ever played in my blog! There, that's my April Fool joke, great, wasn't it? XD
So, then...what do I think of this one?
It's an RPG where you play as Aloy and have to basically find out where you came from and what's going on with the machines that roam the world.
Other than that, I can't say a whole lot because I haven't got to the point where I've found most of it out yet.
This one is a toughie: it's a REALLY well-made game, it's pretty fun at times but IDK, something just doesn't quite click with me. It's got a LOT to offer and there have been moments that have genuinely moved me but IDK...this nearly always happens with me with mainstream titles, IDK what it is.
Though I did have a bit of a gap in between playing, maybe that didn't help?
Most of you have probably already played this or are thinking of doing so so I don't think there's any point me saying whether you should play it or not anyway but I would definitely recommend you consider it from what I've seen so far!
Hope to beat it this coming month!
Chime Sharp (EU) Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
One of the more pleasantly surprising games to pop up on the Store in recent times imo.
I did dabble with the original game on the Xbox 360 and quite liked it, though I wasn't much good at it lol.
For Silence by Paul Hartnoll was EPIC, though, was humming it for ages after playing it and even occasionally years later before this game came out.
Anyway, this version from what I can tell has been expanded upon. More songs and a new Sharp Mode, which I haven't done a WHOLE lot of yet because I'm still terrible at the game lol. XD
I hope to change that this month but we'll see...would recommend this to anyone who likes Tetris and Lumines in particular!
Battle Princess of Arcadias Trophies*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***
To finish the month, I decided to start this game having wanted to for quite some time.
Firstly: what the hell, Nintendo? How did you miss them putting Groudon in the game??? XD
Anyway: from what I've seen of it so far, it's a pretty decent hack and slash game. Can't really comment too much on it yet, though the story seems a bit wishy washy atm.
The core gameplay is pretty fun, though it's very text heavy for long periods, it seems. Of course, it's all skippable but how would I know what was happening if I did that?
The only real issue I had with the game was that it didn't clearly explain how to save the game (press and go to System on the Map screen) and auto-save was turned off by default, meaning I had to do a couple hours' worth of work again.
Of course, as most of that was reading text, I got back there within 15 minutes, I think lol.
Might be worth checking out as it's had its moments dialogue-wise and the music at times has been pretty good but we shall see once I hopefully beat it this coming month!
So that's my progress for March! A few too many easy games perhaps but oh well.
Onto the stats:
12 games started, 13 games played, 10 completed
246 trophies for 10,845 XP worth 14,875 TT!
Milestones achieved
155 completed games
250 games played
340,000 TT score
Playstation Level 34
160 completed games
6,000 trophies won
Games I'll possibly play in AprilWell, I shall hopefully be finishing off all 3 games I didn't in March, though with Chime Sharp, we'll have to see... :P
Other than that, expect
Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call Trophies to feature, HOPEFULLY
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (EU) Trophies as I opened the game and put it into my PS3 but haven't started it yet.
REALLY been wanting to play that for quite some time now.
Besides that, this might be the month I FINALLY get some other region games and do some major doubling up, been putting that off, plus getting some games that disgracefully STILL haven't surfaced, such as
Linelight Trophies and
Volgarr the Viking Trophies. Might even try
Attacking Zegeta Trophies and the 2nd game, which doesn't have its list here (it's a GRP, which I believe NO-ONE has even got one trophy in yet...are they even possible??? LOL)
I would also LOVE to start playing the Touhou games,
Touhou Double Focus Trophies has a BEAUTIFUL drop-down menu tune, my favourite to date. I'm gonna place a bet and say it's the credits theme, it sure sounds like one but we'll see.
Finally,
Yooka-Laylee Trophies and
Persona 5 (JP) Trophies comes out this month!!!
Other than that, who knows?
Final thoughtsSo yeah, that blog took a while to write, I still haven't played anything yet today, must change that in due course!
I am now within touching distance of European #1 and the Site Top 10 in Puzzle games so I'm looking forward to getting that soon! :D
Might even start aiming for some other genres soon, more on that later, perhaps...
I'm nearing my goal of 1,000 Gold trophies now as well, that's exciting for me!
I REALLY need to tackle some harder games, though, esp. after last month. Obviously, the ones I've set targets for but also in general. Whilst it's fun in its own way to get a load of easy Plats, nothing beats the sense of accomplishment you get from overcoming something TRULY challenging, at least for me. :D
Are you guys still enjoying my blogs? Any way you think I could improve them, if applicable? Be it content or presentation?
Finally: HUGE congrats to
Badly_Worn_Toy on the arrival of a baby boy recently!
So how was your March and what did you get up to! As ever, those who leave comments are sexy! (Non-commenters aren't too bad, though!) :P