 |
|
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
read all entries for this GameLog 
- add a comment 
|
|
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Legacy of Ys Books I & II (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:03:27) |
Can you believe that I capped out on character level? I hit level 24, with plenty of game to go (I checked a guide, though I had reached the last 20% or so) and that's it. No more levels. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, and I also started to tire of having to backtrack all over the place to talk to different characters and so on. It was fun, and surprising to me in many ways, it's an action RPG with real-time combat, but no real challenge or interest in the combat - limited items and gear, no significant shopping or upgrading...there's boss fights (which are much harder than the regular game), but there wasn't much there to continue to keep my interest. So, I've decided to bail.
I did also spend some time on the Wikipedia page and it looks like the game has been re-released a million times across different formats, and rebundled with new content, and stuff touched up and more. I'm kind of surprised because I wasn't all that impressed to be fair. As in, the game was fun and I enjoyed it for a bit, but I'm not entirely sure that it merits THAT much attention in the re-releases? Maybe I'm missing something and this game really resonated strongly with lots of people?
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Legacy of Ys Books I & II (DS) by jp (Apr 26th, 2026 at 10:06:39) |
I need to look up more info on this. I had assumed it was a bundle of the two first Ys games, but upon starting the first one (Book I), the 3D graphics make it seem like it's a newer game? So I'm really curious what the backstory here is...
It started out pretty frustrating - because I wandered into a field outside of town and died immediately. I had to start over which was a drag - lots of text to skip past, and died again! Sigh. I eventually figured out how to save your game, which helped. So, I decided to then book it, dodge enemies and made it to a city! Here I bought a sword and some armor...and figured I wouldn't die again immediately but I did! It turns out I hadn't figured out how to equip the items and that solved EVERYTHING.
I've been playing since, and the game's quite interesting in its camera perspective - it's a very unusual sort of 3D isometric view, but it's not at an angle, but rather it's sort of straight? (like vertical/top to bottom). It's a weird perspective because there's lots that gets occluded (if you walk down towards a wall, the wall blocks you from seeing what's close to it when you come from the top part of the scree). I mean, it makes sense spatially, but it's a weird perspective in a game - you also cannot rotate the camera AFAIK.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
Pokémon TCG Pocket (iPd) by jp (Apr 26th, 2026 at 09:59:12) |
I'm still "playing" - I stopped going for the competitive ladder mostly because I was playing the same deck all the time, didn't have the cards for a new competitive deck and...well, it's gotten a bit boring.
That being said, the collecting part is still fun and there's a new set coming out so we'll see how excited I get. I've been opening packs from older sets hoping to finish sets from which I'm still missing a bunch of cards. No real luck so far. Sigh.
read all entries for this GameLog
- add a comment
|
|
|
|
|
GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
[latest site fixes and updates]
[read more]
|
view feed xml
|
 |
|
2323 registered gamers and 3356 games. 7893 GameLogs with 13387 journal entries. 5125 games are currently being played.
More stats
|
 |
|
Radiata Stories (PS2) by dharmon |
| No comment, yet. |
|
most recent entry: Saturday 9 February, 2008
|
GAMEPLAY
The further the game progressed I came in contact with actual monsters. When got down to actually battling such enemies as giant badgers, I figured out that the funny characters and upbeat music belies a very complex battle system that requires you to use combination attacks in tandem with special attacks and to follow orders from the team leader. It added a complexity to the random battles I faced on my mission which kept them from being redundant or boring.
However, Once I had finished one half of my mission I was forced to stroll around town for the better half of an hour to wait for the right time because of the game’s real time system. The town was small and could be fully explored in about 5 minutes, leading to a handful of time where I was forced to talk to the same five or six NPCs while waiting for the time to pass. These lulls in game play seem to come in between missions, which breaks up the game play.
DESIGN
The tone of this game was very different from the other games I’ve reviewed. From the very beginning, the game had a very funny and happy storybook feel. The environments used very bright, pastel, colors and the music is always upbeat and jazzy, even during battles. Even the special attacks and enemies add to the comedic tone, all of the enemies are simple creatures such ass pigs, ants, and mosquitoes. All of this combines to form a bright gameworld.
Despite the artistic environment, the gameworld is extremely linear, with at most only two ways to go, which all comes to the same place, and at worst you are stuck on a narrow path with only one way to go. The most that you are allowed to explore is throughout the small towns that you come across, which only consist of a handful of houses.
The game did, however, have some very interesting aspects to them, such as the kick option and party commands. There are no treasure chests in this game, instead they are kept in every day objects such as bureaus and closets. This allowed me to immerse myself more into the game without asking why there are treasre chests everywhere. Your party in this game is also very intelligent and self sufficient, they also will set them self up to achieve combination attacks with you.
The best part of the game was the comedy. In most games there is a comic relief character, however in Radiata Stories, all of the characters could fit that profile. It made some of the linearity of gameplay more bearable.
All in all, this game was a surprisingly good RPG with a great sense of humor. It is best for younger audiences or for some lighthearted fun.
[read this GameLog]
|
|
|
