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Phantom Abyss (PC) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 19:14:27) |
I'd heard of the game's hook (or gimmick if you will) as, everyday it's a different 1st person platforming game/run, and if you die - that's it. Play a different run later.
I'm guessing stuff changed along the way, though the concept is still here - it's a reasonably challenging rogue-like 1st person platforming game. I've had fun, you have a whip to help you climb and each level has different modifiers (the whip has an ability) and you can pick up boons in your run (if you have enough coins to afford them) and hopefully make it to the end. BUT, you see a bunch of ghosts for everyone else who played this level - if someone died, you can collect their spirit or something for a small heal! During each run you collect keys you can use to buy permanent upgrades, and so you go up the progression ladder of many roguelites...
Someone described this as first person temple run, which is close enough? I mean, the levels themselves are a lot more interesting than the "mere" reaction times that temple run goes for, here you can side-step/etc. stuff - and there are different paths, and in all you can be a bit creative for how you approach stuff...I've had fun so far - unlocked all the green levels and I've started on the blue ones!
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Cuphead (Switch) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:37:03) |
I only get to play this when my son comes around - and we play together and I realized, yeah - I need to either start practicing seriously or just give up. And, I enjoy playing it co-op, so there's not much sense in practicing, so I decided to give up.
We did make it to the 2nd island(?), and played some of the levels there - but I was clearly starting to see a steeper path to success. As in, it too us (mostly my fault) more and more tries to make less progress. He's already played it, beat it too? So, not much point for him really.
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Sonic Rush (DS) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:34:08) |
I started playing this from the saved game - with new(?) character Blaze on "area 2" (I don't remember the exact name). And, I just could not beat the level - it was set in the casino world, and everything was moving super fast and on "automatic" - so, you just press move and the character zips along, bounces, etc.
It's actually quite boring! Because you just do this, at some point you hit an enemy (very few enemies in the game!), lose your rings, and then carry on. But, I'd lose because I'd fall into a bottomless pit, lose three lives and then out.
I'd say it wasn't so much frustrating as it was a disappointment. Yes, the point of Sonic is that it's "fast" - that's it's thing. But I find that there's little interaction to the game for most of the levels - you just "go along with the direction". It's neat when sometimes you get bounced around automatically, but for the most part I like to control the character.
So, I deleted the save file and started a new one, this time with Sonic in the equivalent of green hill zone. This level has two areas and then a boss. So, it's like 3 levels make up a level.
And, the experience was pretty similar - run on automatic for a while, lose rings suddenly or die, repeat with a bit more caution...etc. I did make it all the way to the boss fight - which I almost beat one too many times, and I just realized - ok, this is dumb - at least the boss fights have more gameplay ( you dodge, make an attack when the weak spot is open, etc.) - but it's still a pretty boring/uninteresting platforming experience.
So, off to the shelf it goes!
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Secret Files: Tunguska (DS) by jp (Apr 4th, 2025 at 19:16:25) |
I think there's a weird moment in time when everyone thought that point-and-click style adventure games were dead, but they were not. And, I think this game is an example of a game that was under the radar of "mainstream" games press at the time? Or at least under the radar of the average consumer of videogames...
This particular game is also a strange little time capsule - it's a port of what I think was a PC game...also at a time when people where porting all kinds of things to the DS. And, it works! Well, from a UI perspective at least. And it works pretty well. At least compared to another adventure game I played recently on the DS whose name I'm blanking on as I write this. I bounced on that one because it had some character/3D interactions that were awkward and unintuitive. Here, they were much smarter about it (I'm assuming they made UI "concessions" because it's on the DS). So, while you have a 3D character that navigates a static space - you don't actually have to move the character around directly in order to interact with objects/places in each scene. Press one button and all the interactive spots highlight, and you can just tap on them directly. I LOVE this solution - especially because I was never a fun of the "hunt for the pixel" approach that many games had (on PC) - and I'm super glad it didn't come across into this DS version (for all I know, the "here's all the highlights" was also possible on PC).
But, the UI triumph aside, I still kind of bounced off this. I got stuck on a puzzle (how typical!) - and what I had to do was leave a location to visit another location and then continued...this seemed really "unfair" to me - as in, unintuitive - mostly because I had assumed I could not leave the locatio in the first place. It wasn't entirely unintuitive - but it was the sort of puzzle where I was sure I should be able to (in this case) get the key out of the aquarium - but it turns out that no, I had to leave the place, do some other stuff, and then come back. At this point I was well into the tried-and-true "try all the things with all the things", except that I did not know I could leave the location I was at. Sigh.
So, from glancing at my list of DS games I still need to play...well, I wasn't THAT interested in the story so far and the puzzles didn't feel particularly interesting either..so, it was an easy game to put on the shelf.
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Shogun Showdown (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 4th, 2025 at 18:33:00) |
Clever little tactics roguelite. It reminds me of Into the Breach and other tactics games where you are given clear information about what enemies will do each turn. It's also reminiscent of Into the Breach because of the small play space. Basically, the game takes place on a 2d plane that is divided into like 8 or 9 spaces. Any given character occupies 1 space and can move left or right. You build a "deck" of "tiles" that include attacks and other special abilities, many of which involve movement (e.g., a forward dash that moves to the nearest frontal enemy and deals 1 damage). Your goal is to build up your tiles and progress stage by stage until you kill the Shogun.
During each run, you can purchase and upgrade tiles, mostly increasing their damage or decreasing their cooldowns, purchase passive abilities, use items, and other standard roguelite stuff--make yourself stronger by strategically handling whatever random things you get.
Most every action you do takes a turn, and all characters take turns at the same time. So, you move right (1 turn) and all the enemies do a thing (one might move left toward you, one might queue up an attack). Then you queue up an attack, and those two enemies might queue up an attack and attack, respectively. Actually, it also reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer, which works like this, where all characters act simultaneously. In that game, when you move, everything else moves. Shogun Showdown is like that. When you do something, the enemies do something.
I beat the Shogun for the first time this evening, which was maybe my fifth run or so. I had what felt like extremely overpowered weapons, a sword that I'd leveled up to deal 5 damage with only a 2-turn cooldown. I also had a bow-and-arrow with 4 damage and a 3-turn cooldown. The kicker though was a curse that doubled the next damage on an enemy. So, I'd just queue the curse, the sword, and the arrow. That took literally half the Shogun's health bar. Did it again, dead and into phase 2. No problem. Did it two more times. Dead. Easy. When you beat the Shogun, you unlock "day 2", which is the next difficulty level. You can also unlock additional characters with different skills, and you can keep unlocking new tiles and stuff. I consider it beat after taking out the Shogun once. It's a fun game, really tight, and makes you think ahead. It doesn't do much that you haven't seen before though.
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they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
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2285 registered gamers and 3255 games. 7787 GameLogs with 13264 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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Parasite Eve (PS) by Incognegro |
| I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I feel that the story could have been tweaked a bit here and there, but overall it was pretty good. |
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most recent entry: Tuesday 29 March, 2011
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Parasite Eve is a Playstation game that was developed and published by Squaresoft, and was released in Japan (March 29, 1998) and North America (September 9, 1998). It is a sequel to a horror novel of the same name. How they choose to tell the story this time around is by constructing the game as a real time RPG that tried to utilize a survival horror feel.
=Story=
The overall story focuses on the premise that the capabilities of the mitochondria in the cells of all living organisms are actually limitless in their powers. One night Officer Aya Brea, the lead protagonist, went to an opera for a date. All seemed to be going well until the lead actress mutates into a grotesque shape of something only seen in imaginative minds. During this process, the people in the opera house begin to be set ablaze by this new threat that calls herself Eve. Coincidentally, Aya is the only person that is not affected. This incident, along with a few others, set New York City into a wide spread panic during the 6 days the game takes place. It’s up to Aya to stand up to this menace and save the world.
=Gameplay=
The game unravels itself as a real time RPG with slight realistic symbolisms. Aya is able to use typical weapons you’d normally expect to see a police officer with such as pistols, batons and occasionally a few weapons that may not be standard issue such as rifles, rocket launchers and grenade launchers. Every weapon, with the exception of the batons, has ammunition and do run the risk of depletion, but depending on which weapon the player decides to use, the chances of this happening are rather slim. In typical RPG fashion, as Aya progresses through the game and kills more enemies, she is able to level up and increase her stats such as: HP, Parasite Level (think MP), item capacity, etc...
Unlike most typical RPGs, Aya’s strength doesn’t really increase since she is reliant on her weapons. Due to this, there is also a weapon customization element to the game. There are items strewn about the game that can increase the weapons and armors’ effectiveness. Depending on how the player decides to upgrade their weapons will greatly affect Aya’s effectiveness in combat. Lastly, the game takes place in Manhattan Island and Aya is able to visit multiple locals at any time after she has visited them once. This is only seen in a grid setup with the locations names highlighted as she’s not able to literally roam through all of Manhattan.
=Play Session 1=
When I first booted the game up, I was actually surprised to see that the game was a real time RPG since I didn’t recall too many RPGs during this time that was real time. Even though I knew about Parasite Eve, I didn’t know too much about the elements of the game itself going into it. It took me a little while to get used to, but after going through the first batch of enemies I slowly felt like I was getting used to it. At this time I was pursuing Eve whom had fled from Aya to go underneath Carnegie Hall. This actual level of the game was not too long so it didn’t take me too long to find her. Once I did, it only took a couple of shots to promptly end the mission.
=Play Session 2=
Day 5 was probably the longest of the days in the game and was undoubtedly pretty close to reaching the climax. This day had Aya going through multiple areas such as a warehouse, China Town, Museum of Natural History and the Statue of Liberty. For the sake of time, I’ll talk about the warehouse. By this point, the game had been relatively easy for me as I hadn’t died up to this point. Even so, I wasn’t getting bored with the game since I still found some fights to have been challenging in their own rights. When I stepped foot into the warehouse things seemed to be flowing similarly as the previous 4 days. The enemies difficult went up a bit, but it wasn’t too much I couldn’t handle.
Not until I get close to the end do I reach my first choke point. I step upon a catwalk that would take me to the end of the level when I’m surrounded on both sides by these spider-like creatures. I had faced them throughout the warehouse, but due to the actual set up of the battle things were a bit more difficult. Like most RPGs, when hit in the back, players tend to take excessively more damage. This happened quite often since at least one of the enemies would always be positioned directly behind me. Not only did they have this advantage, but they had the ability to slow my character’s movement and attacking speed down which made it even harder to dodge them.
Because of these natural advantages, they bested me roughly 5 to 7 times. After becoming frustrated, I eventually was able to overcome the situation by watching their movements closely and dodging their attacks at the right time. Once I overcame the obstacle I *thought* I was in the clear. This was a mistake. Shortly after this fight was the boss of the level. This was the only boss in the game that killed me more than 2 times (the other two being the last 2 bosses of the game). To be honest, it’s not that the way to beat the boss was hard, it just wasn’t as obvious as most of the others. It was a giant crab that had a habit of running away from the character. The attacks that it would do were best dodged when the character was positioned directly next to it, but initially it didn’t seem that way do to their wide reach.
Normally I wouldn’t be too terribly frustrated about this, but because the closest save point at this point was directly before the spiders on the catwalk it probably shouldn’t be said that I wasn’t the least bit happy. It took me quite a few tries but eventually after I learned the tricks of the crab I found that either scenario wasn’t too terribly challenging.
=Overall=
I actually rather enjoyed the game. It made me rather interested in the story overall even though, admittedly, there were some scenarios in the story that seemed rather unrealistic in terms of character reactions. For example, to help Aya escape a barrage of questions from a news reporter, her partner Daniel strikes the reporter while he’s on camera. Granted, it’s a game, but it’s still a game that is based in a relatable scenario. It’s not the biggest issue, but things like this (and there are many) kind of break the immersion slightly. Regardless, it wasn’t anything too big to keep me from continuing with the game long enough to beat it.
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