Space Invaders Forever - PS4 Review

 

Space Invaders Forever by developer Taito Corporation and publisher ININ Games—Sony PlayStation 4 Review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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Space Invaders Forever is less a game and more a handful of remixes of the original great. With a trio of different takes on the familiar formula, Space Invaders Forever may not be the deepest video game title out there – but it is a good deal of fun.

By now if you’re unfamiliar with the premise of Space Invaders, I can only assume you’ve spent the last several decades under one of those barricades from the game and I’d like to welcome you to the world of electronics. But seriously, the core gameplay has always been an addicting one that has seen so many variations over the years (I even played a very blatant rip-off called TI Invaders on my Texas Instruments 99/4a nearly four decades ago). Rows of cranky aliens line the top of your screen, randomly dropping bullets / bombs down on your lonely tank that can only dodge or hide under barriers for coverage, while trying to shoot back up at them to eliminate them. They continually creep down the screen towards you, making it easier to hit them but also harder to avoid getting hit. The tension continues to ramp up until you run out of lives, with several small wrinkles being introduced as you progress.

You don’t ‘win’, you survive and build the best score up that you can along the way.

Space Invaders Forever brings us three different variants of this classic formula. The first is Space Invaders Extreme, which had been released on other platforms in the past. Updated visuals and sound make for considerably less repetition in the audio and flashier graphics right out of the gate. But there’s more to it than the classic gameplay. Over sixteen stages you wind up with much more variety in enemy attack patterns, weapons and leaderboards to encourage you to figure out how to best boost that score. That same ‘one more game’ addictive gameplay that helped Space Invaders become such a classic is still alive and well here, with getting the best score possible still the primary motivator. If you want games with true endings and don’t find high scores a good reason to play a game, then likely none of these titles is going to hold your interest. However, if using different kinds of weapons and learning the nuances of how to get big scores is your thing? This mode should give you plenty to do.

Space Invaders Gigamax 4SE is a somewhat convoluted title, but the core gameplay is actually a very cool twist on the classic gameplay. Instead of being a solo effort, here you can work with up to three other players to try and wipe out the invaders before time runs out. This adds another layer of tension to the core gameplay. The idea is that you get a huge swath of invaders to take out – basically I don’t think you can win this solo – if you don’t play with others, I don’t imagine you can get very far. I think that’s alright, but for those who don’t really dig multiplayer, this mode probably won’t have much to offer. Perhaps there should have been an AI mode that could assist for those who want to play but tend to shy away from multiplayer? Still, the bosses are generally cool and the

Last but certainly not least? Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders. It’s such a cool mashup of two classic video games, as I adored Arkanoid when I was a kid. This is the most bazar mode, but also my favorite of the three. It makes clever use of the touchpad to slide your paddle at the bottom back and forth to knock shots up at the invaders in a brickbreaker style of play that actually works really well. It probably helps that both games had pretty similar structure in their gameplay, but still the merging of these two games is pretty brilliant. It also feels like the devs had a bit of extra fun here with it as you can see some other Taito properties show up here as unlockables (for example from Bubble Bobble, the latest of which I recently had a chance to review here as well).

There’s a pretty meaty mode here, with lots of creative levels to work through. There is one small quibble with this mode, and that it’s a port of the mobile game, so the vertical orientation of playing on a phone versus on a widescreen television means there’s a good deal of unused space on either side of the main / rather narrow play area. Hardly a big deal as there’s been many ports of older games that leave some sort of bar / background on the sides to fill space, it just seems more pronounced here.

Summary

Space Invaders Forever is a cool collection of games based on the classic alien blasting classic. They all serve a slightly different function from single player, to multiplayer to an almost puzzle-y mashup with Arkanoid. None of these titles has a ton of depth to them, but at the same time they all manage to scratch that addictive arcade shooter itch that Space Invaders is so well known for.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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Microsoft Xbox Series X - Hardware review

Microsoft Xbox Series X by developer and manufacturer Microsoft—Hardware review written by Pierre-Yves with a purchased system.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

After the coverage of Sony's PlayStation 5 earlier this week, we now turn to Microsoft's newest console the Xbox Series X. This one was actually a little harder to put into words than the PlayStation 5 was. The main reason is while the physical case is definitely something new in its rectangular tower shape format like a compact PC, from an operation standpoint it's an Xbox and unless you really know what you're looking for you'd be hard-pressed to know if you were on your Xbox One or your Xbox Series X.

Just this alone is in a way a great thing as it keeps users in a more unified state whether they are transferring from one generation of console to the next or simply changing rooms with an Xbox One in one room while a Series X is in another. Unlike Sony that went for new and shiny, Microsoft went for an experience that could be shared across generations of hardware. So with this in mind, starting off with the interface, next to nothing has changed from the last visual update pushed out to the Xbox One. The main screen still has your titles for installed titles, the store or the GamePass with the ability to add specific tiles to your home screen instead of having to dive into your installed games’ folder.

This said, like Sony’s PlayStation 5, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X has a lot more power under the hood and it shows. From our review of Bright Memory to kick off coverage for this console to other titles that I’ve been playing such as Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and The Falconeer, there’s a clear difference and it’s a welcome one. What used to be longer load times in certain cases are almost gone allowing you to just jump into the action. A prime example would be over the past weekend when friends were ready to jump into a planned night of Horde Mode for Gears 5, swapping games and jumping into chats took seconds and things were ready to go from my side.

Physically, the console is… odd. Unlike the more “VCR” shapes that the previous models have taken, as well as Sony with its PlayStation, the Series X is a tower and surprisingly, doesn’t take up that much space because of it. I honestly have it standing up behind my TV and most of the time, like my Nintendo Switch, forget that it’s there because it’s not a space hog nor something to figure out because of its shape. On the console you have your USB port, your sync button for your controller and the power button. You’ve also got your disk tray to put in order games from the previous generations like the Xbox One and they just work. The fact that backwards compatibility was a prime feature going in made me quite happy as there are several Xbox 360 titles that I still need to play such as Magna Carta 2 and finally finish Lost Odyssey as I have yet to. I know, I’m disappointed in myself too on that one.

The controller is basically the same but with one new button in order to help take screenshots. It’s a nice addition as it’s much simpler to click on that one button than it is to hit the Xbox Button and then “Y” in order to get a screenshot which also doesn’t always work as I would often get the pause menu instead. Otherwise, as a bonus, unlike the PlayStation 5 which forces you to get brand new controllers if you want to play local coop on something, the Series X allows you to keep using your old controllers which was fantastic as it honestly took me weeks to unpack the Series X controller. Why move to a new one when I absolutely love the Elite Series 2? Again, it’s this creating an experience that makes it more than just a new machine but a good evolution without sacrificing where it’s coming from that made me fall in love with this new machine as much as my new PlayStation which went in the direction of new and shiny.

The other feature that is a constant blessing to have, yes blessing, is the integration that Microsoft have done between the Xbox and Windows. We often have articles under embargo and the only safe way to get screenshots is often to plug in a USB key, copy what we need, go to our laptops or computers, plug it in, copy the files over, and then upload them. With the ability to upload screenshots and videos straight to OneDrive, there are several steps no longer in the way and the speeds in which the Series X does this is fantastic. Again, the shared experience is great and in this case easier to come by as Microsoft makes both the Xbox and the Windows PC software.

Summary

So overall, while Microsoft’s new Xbox Series X looks a tad odd visually as a rectangular tower compared to the rest in its line of predecessors, the power under the hood is hard to dispute. With a familiar controller and interfaces though, it takes second to get back to whatever you were doing and with the backwards compatibility to the older generations, you can finally remove the clutter as you can now play everything under one hood.

Score: 9 / 10

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Graven Demo - PC Preview

Graven by developer Slipgate Ironworks and publishers 3D Realms and 1C Entertainment—PC (Steam) preview written by Pierre-Yves with a limited time demo.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

I couldn't even tell you when I originally played Hexen. Windows 95? Windows 98? I think the last that I played one was Hexen 64 to be honest. Regardless, it was so long ago and loading up Graven brought me all the way back to those days of what we considered high and amazing graphics. Like Hellbound by Saibot Studios that I reviewed earlier this year, Graven brings back that more pixelated first person shooter age but with a design for today’s technologies.

As part of the Video Game Awards, like Echo Generation earlier this week, Graven's developers treated players to a limited time demo which ended back on Sunday. This demo spanned about the course of an hour and about three quests to start to get a feel for the gameplay mechanics. Honestly making me think of Might and Magic by 3DO back in the day, you've got your staff, crossbow, flail, dart gun and both fire and electricity magics to slay your way through hordes of zombies and mutant dogs?

If there's one thing to be said about the gameplay it is that it is smooth. Running, sprinting, jumping, attacking with a staff or a flail where the timing is different or shooting something with your crossbow. It all happens when you want it to happen. If there is a negative to be said on the combat, it’s that enemies hit fairly hard and your health doesn’t last long. While it makes sense that you need to learn enemy movements, such as zombies will sprint forward so you need to learn to move sideways not backwards, it's that you're going to die a fair amount of times if you're not careful.

Otherwise while taking out all these undead beings that are currently plaguing the village that you find yourself in, you're going to have a little bit of creative problem solving. Starting off with the task of unclogging the sewage drains from piles of corpses that have piled up during a plague, you'll also have to relight a lighthouse. To do either of these you're going to need to find levers, throw switches, fight your way through hordes of enemies and then you're going to have to make it back in one piece.

It works fairly well as you are slowly given new weapons and new ways to approach situations, but at the same time, I don't know how long it can hold up in the long run. Unlike Hellbound which is designed as an homage to Doom where you just get more and more weapons as time goes by, Graven feels a little more RPG-like but without the RPG system. So over the course of an hour yes you got new weapons, yes you got some items such as a ring that would allow for more healing after the initial burst, but without picking up floating runes your magic was basically useless and it’s not like it looks like you can level up your mana pools.

On that subject I found that most situations were better approached physically than magically. The reason is a lot of your spells while they look powerful, they don't do much damage. Setting enemies on fire looks cool but then they still shamble towards you or run full tilt if they were mutant dogs. Using electricity can arc between enemies and even set an entire body of water crackling, but enemies are still going to come at you. It looked cool, but it just didn't have that oomph that I was looking for and because of this I honestly didn't even use it as part of my combat solutions. Magic is really going to need a boost if it's actually going to be useful once the full version drops.

Summary

As demos are generally only a quick look at the whole with plenty of balancing to come, perhaps my issues with the magic system will be fixed by the full version. That's sad, the rest of it was just simply awesome. The way the environment is designed in that old school style that feels old but looks new and just how it played out it was clear that this should be worth sitting down to next year on full release.

Score: N/A

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Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia - PS4 Review

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia by developer Matrix Software and publisher Limited Run Games—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is a dense strategy / RPG hybrid that successfully pulls together a lot of different elements into a cohesive, entertaining package. It reminds me of some of my favorite older strategy games, while having plenty of modern sensibility. The end result is the kind of deep, enjoyable tactics game I needed for the holidays.

The strategy / RPG genre is one of my most guilty pleasures. These are the types of games I would play over and over again when I was younger. Warsong / Langrisser, Shining Force, Dark Wizard, Master of Monsters and Dragon Force were all games I would tackle in different ways for a variety of reasons. In linear titles like Warsong I simply wanted to try different leader classes or a unique set of tactics on a particularly interest map to see if I could do better the next time. In Shing Force or Dark Wizard I was perhaps looking for some secret item or area I missed the first time around. Master of Monsters had all of these really cool creature evolutions I just wanted to see through.

Most of these games were a bit light on story, though a few like Dragon Force or Dark Wizard would give you a different narrative, thin though it may be, based on whom you selected as your starting ruler. Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia has all of these elements, including a rather meaty story for each kingdom to boot. Each nation has its own motivations for going to war, whether it’s to try and maintain the current rulership, a fiefdom looking for true freedom and more. This creates a sort of unreliable narration however, as the story is heavily slanted to justify your chosen kingdom’s actions. As you progress each kingdom, they fill out a glossary / codex that puts the different pieces together and rather cleverly weaves together the true, overarching narrative of the land. Given that this is an area that was often rather threadbare in my older gaming days, I greatly appreciated how well this aspect of the game was handled.

Beyond the story, there is a great deal to balance. Each season is broken up into three phrases. The first is the busiest as it is the organization phase. During this you send people onto quests, you assign monsters to heroes, summon new monsters (which cost mana to create and to maintain, further continuing that balancing act of balance), moving units from one zone to another and so on. It would be a stretch to compare this to the governing / development stage found in heavy 4X strategy games, but it’s where most of the management happens. The next phase is the most lightweight, where you declare your attack on another adjacent zone. The third and final stage to a season is the actual combat. I found myself only doing one or two in a given season, though higher levels of difficulty come with not only more challenging opponents but also a tighter window for total victory. If you go that route, multiple coordinated seasonal attacks become more important, where as conversely if you go the easiest difficult, there is no time limit at all to win.

Quests are important, as they yield items and can find you new heroes to lead your monster units, but the most important aspect of the game is its hex-style, turn-based combat. It feels like something right out of those classic strategy titles I mentioned before, with a lot of RNG dice rolling in the background that weighs type of attack, range, terrain and more into calculating hits and damage. More powerful monsters have a higher cost, and each general only has so many points available. What this means is you can pile on a bunch of weaker, 20 cost creatures or maybe one or two high cost 100 point creatures. Generally the best teams have a combination of thumpers, range and support abilities while the heroes themselves are often the most powerful – but also significant if they fall – units on the battlefield.

There was very little actually ‘new’ to how combat plays out – but it was easy to pick up and battles certainly require a great deal of thought. If you happen to have a powerful dragon on your team, they may be able to do substantial damage to several enemies without being countered, but their magic is limited and they can usually only unleash that a couple of times or so per battle. Sometimes you can accidentally hit enemies if you are not careful. Get the right unit in the right environment, and they can be very challenging to actually land a shot on. There was almost a ‘comfort food’ type of feeling for me, because I am so familiar with the genre over the years, but even though I picked it up easily enough – the combat can still be challenging if you don’t pause to think through your strategy.

Progression is pretty solid here, with plenty of the usual RPG elements to keep you feeling as though you are progressing. You gain items, experience, levels and characters can evolve into better classes / units when hitting specific levels / criteria. For me, this was particularly entertaining and kept me wanting just one or two more battles.

Despite all of these good points, it is worth discussing some of the areas where Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia could rub someone the wrong way as well. Even having gone through the tutorial, I did not really fully understand some of what happened until later in the game. That makes sense given how much there is to do and how dense the content is, but that combined with the slow pacing and somewhat repetitive (almost grindy) nature of the gameplay will mean that Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is definitely not going to be for everyone. By the time I finished my first campaign, a little fatigue was starting to set in, as maps began to feel less and less varied (especially the forest ones where movement just felt really slow). Now, that being said, I was excited to kick off a new campaign with a new kingdom upon initial completion, but that repetition and fatigue set in again sooner on the second playthrough. I know I have more patience for these types of games and derive more replay value from them than a lot of people do, so my sneaking suspicion is that very few players will get through all of the campaigns and neatly knit together Runersia’s story any time soon.

Additionally, while the music and visuals are all fine, neither aspect of the presentation blew me away. Audio is not in English, so you’re left reading subtitles, the music was fitting but not particularly memorable and the art style is certainly nice of technically pretty simple (not much movement in the cutscenes to speak of, mostly still images and the battles are efficient but the units and environments are not what I would consider eye-catching either). The menus are well laid out however, and having a menu-driven game work well on a controller can be a tricky thing, but the dev team did a pretty solid job on that front.

Summary

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia is an excellent strategy / RPG hybrid that recalls some of my favorite old school games of the genre, but benefits from some modern updates and solid storytelling. The presentation didn’t wow me, but the progression is rewarding and the combat meaty enough that I stayed engaged for dozens of hours. This was the perfect holiday gift for me (if not my spare time, which Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia soaked up a lot of).

Score: 8.5 / 10

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Echo Generation - XB1 / XBSX Preview

Echo Generation by developer and publisher Cococucumber—Microsoft Xbox Series X preview written by Pierre-Yves with a limited time Xbox Live demo.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Closing in on the end of the year, our final thoughts for Games of the Year and titles just trying to squeak themselves into the 2020 calendar, I found myself falling for a quirky RPG that after 5 minutes had me wanting more. Sadly, it cut me off 25 minutes after that basically telling me to come back next year for more. Available until December 15, 2020 through a limited time free demo of the alpha build, Cococucumber's RPG Echo Generation is going to be a contender in 2021.

While the art style and the premise caught my eye, it was both the gameplay and some of its quite clearly Canadian features that sold me on Echo Generation. starting off by picking up a hockey stick and a hockey magazine in your bedroom you head out to face the world, or your mother telling you to spend time with your sister. Asking you sister to tag along, she says sure, but you'll need to get her a traffic come first as decoration for her bedroom. So heading out the door, that's exactly what you set out to do!

The world of Echo Generation makes me think a little bit of Earthbound and a little bit of Citizens of the Earth that came out quite a few years back now. The colors are vibrant, there's stuff littered everywhere to interact with and who knows what you'll use it for down the line. If at all.

So setting off to find that traffic cone you soon encounter a group of raccoons that won't let you pass because a three-on-one fight just isn't fair. Thankfully, there's a one-on-one fight to be had which leads you into a quick battle to teach you the ropes. And by teach you, I mean figure it out for yourself as the controls are intuitive enough.

Using a bit of interaction to keep things interesting, battle is a more hands on than your average RPG. Once you decide to attack, you'll have a timer that appears in order to press at the right time in order to do more damage. The same is done when it comes to defending yourself. It has a little bit of QTE (Quick Time Actions) for the normal stuff but it has a lot more for your special attacks.

Special attacks which require points to be used, and are refreshed per battle, are fairly hands on if you don't want to waste your points while using them. This is where you'll be wanting to pay attention as attacks can range from inputing a sequence of buttons to properly hitting the sweet spot as your cursor slides across a meter. They really pack a punch so don't be afraid to use them especially as you get a new set of points for every battle.

While perhaps short, you do get a glimpse into the RPG leveling up system. Once enough experience has been acquired and your characters level up you can choose one of several stats to be increased. Hit points, attack power, special points, and more will all be useful in the coming battles as I regretted not taking extra hit points for the boss that ends the demo as it really came down to doing more damage than he could before they wiped out my party of two.

But it's more than all these mechanical aspects that make Echo Generation interesting, and I'm saying this after only a half hour. The environment has some quirkiness to it, there are a lot of little details here and there that you take in while running around town trying to find your way to that traffic cone, and then it's just the way that it's displayed. Walking from one street it's up to another there's a blurriness effect that brings things into focus the closer you get to them. Time was taken in order to put this together and this is just the alpha stage.

Acoustically, Echo Generation also has some interesting sound effects and music to go along with the short glimpse into this adventure. Perhaps one of the most interesting was actually the battle music which actually doesn't sound like something you would expect to be playing in the background while in the heat of battle. If anything it's this quiet catchy tune that you would expect is a pre- or post-battle while characters are bantering before finally getting to the good part. it just blends in so well I didn't even notice the first few times until I actually stopped and listened and went huh, this isn't bad at all.

Summary

So overall, even if it was only half an hour, I want more and Echo Generation has the potential to be a hit in 2021 if it does indeed release within the next calendar year. From the base look of exploration to the battle systems and the soundtracks along for the ride? I have some high hopes for this RPG.

Score: N/A

 

Nick
Susan N.
Hayden
Richard
Natasha
Jim
David
Robert
Pierre-Yves
Dimitris
Chris H.
Hamza
Jedediah
Lauren
Mylène
S.M. Carrière
Izzy

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Official Trailer Reveal for The King of Fighters XV Plus Samurai Shodown Season Pass 3

Osaka, Japan, December 4, 2020 - SNK CORPORATION (Corporate HQ: Suita-city, Osaka, Japan, Company Chairman, and President: Ge Zhihui) is proud to announce that both the official trailer for THE KING OF FIGHTERS XV and the reveal of SAMURAI SHODOWN Season Pass 3 characters will take place on Thursday, 7th January 2021.

SNK fans eager for the scoops on both games will need to tune into SNK’s official YouTube channel on 7th January (exact time TBD), with THE KING OF FIGHTERS (*KOF) Producer Yasuyuki Oda and Creative Director Eisuke Ogura laying out further details in a brand new KOF XV teaser trailer, released today:

Both Oda and Ogura claim the game will be SNK’s “most ambitious KOF yet”, with the team behind the latest entry “really proud” of the title they are putting together.

“The way teams are composed [in KOF XV] will differ greatly from XIV,” offers Ogura in the teaser trailer. “But more information will come out periodically next year so, in the meantime, fire up those dream rosters!”

In addition to the world premiere trailer for SNK’s newest fighting game title KOF XV, viewers can also expect to learn more about the SAMURAI SHODOWN Season Pass 3 characters, among them THE LAST BLADE collaboration character, which will be revealed at the same time.

©SNK CORPORATION ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

©2020 Valve Corporation. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Article by: Susan N.

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Sony PlayStation 5 - Hardware review

Sony PlayStation 5 by developer and manufacturer Sony Interactive Entertainment—Hardware review written by Pierre-Yves with a purchased system.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

If there's one thing that's always a big event it's the launch of a new console. Like Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One years back, both Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X launched within days of one another. So the big question is, are they worth it? As a reviewer I want to say yes as they both have a lot more power under the hood, but as a regular person? I don't know as there still isn't enough brand new PlayStation 5 or Microsoft Xbox Series X games out yet.

The reason I mentioned both consoles is that I did get both on launch in order to review some of the new ports and potentially get new things such as the revamp of Demon Souls that I picked up off of a shelf as soon as I found one. That said, the Xbox Series X review will be coming out later this week while today is going to focus on both my and Nick's impressions on the brand new PlayStation.

So physically, as everyone has now heard and or seen, this thing is huge and most of your current setups may or may not support it. I've honestly never been one to have my console standing up but with a way that the PlayStation 5 has been designed, it's easier to have it standing than to have it laying on its side. Horizontally this thing takes up a fair amount of space but it does come with a hard plastic stand in order to help it lay on its side. I did find it a bit odd that you couldn’t simply make that choice without a stand like you could with the PS2, PS3, and PS4, but at least the stand comes with it and is not “sold separately”.

Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 5 doesn’t have as many USB ports as one may want, but thankfully instead of just “two”, the PS5 has a few more and for versatility they can be found both in the front and the back of the console. Having the ports in the back can help to keep your setup clean if you have peripherals such as charging stands as it’ll keep the cables out of sight. Unfortunately, the console, and any added controllers don’t come with a cable to charge or plug in your controller for the first time so you’ll want to make sure you’ve got one or more lying around.

Now while the new case looks significantly different than any other PlayStation we've had so far, it's really the user interface that's going to take the show. Everything is quick and easy to swap between and even the PlayStation Store has been integrated in so you no longer need to launch an app and then for it to think on the other end. Everything's just right there ready to go all the time. The only issue that I am currently having with the interface is that they have removed the web browser. Stuck somewhere and you're not sure? Need to do a quick web search and your phone's not close by? Well guess what you're going to have to go get your phone now. Hopefully this is something that they'll be adding in soon as it doesn’t make sense for the console to not have one.

In terms of issues since we're on that subject, I have two others which have both been addressed by Microsoft even back on the Xbox One. The first of these is in regards to the controller’s firmware updates. Unlike Microsoft's Xbox One or Elite Series 2 controllers that can be updated remotely, the PlayStation 5 DualSense actually has to be plugged into the console to be updated. So if you're across the room and it tells you you need an update guess what? Unless you have cables long enough you're going to have to get up and go plug it in. Is it the end of the world? No. Is it annoying when you’ve just sat down and put your feet up? Quite.

The other issue that I have is Backwards Compatibility. Yes the PlayStation runs the PlayStation 4 library both physically and digitally very well, but I want to be able to play the rest of my library from over the years. Breath of Fire 3 from the PlayStation, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters from the PlayStation 2 and Folklore from the PlayStation 3 that I have yet to actually finish the B-Side, each of these would be amazing to simply slide in the disk and play. HELL, being able to stream Breath of Fire III to Twitch for a charity event would be incredible. Sadly as it stands now, it doesn’t look like we are getting anything in regards to that level of support anytime soon, or at all, meaning that you need to keep a hold on those older consoles and hope they don’t die on you.

As for the controller itself, it's a little game changing. I don't mean this from the tiny gimmicks in which the triggers can be blocked off which is all kinds of cool, which the first time makes you kind of worry as you’re not quite sure if your new and shiny toy is already crapping out on you. What I mean is in terms of the haptic feedback that has been installed. Still using my PS4 depending on the situation and swapping back and forth there's a clear difference between the rumble features in the DualShock 4 and the haptic feedback of the DualSense where everything just feels much more natural making it a lot more immersive to what you’re seeing on screen.

Physically the controller fits rather well in my hands except for the fact that someone like me may have wished the controller to be a little smaller as my hands do cramp up after about half an hour to forty-five minutes a time. The issue was the same when the PlayStation 4 originally launched and I got around this by stretching out my hands and then getting back to it but I feel like it could have been just a little bit smaller as I can only imagine what people with even smaller hands than me are thinking at the size. Otherwise, I’ve enjoyed both the new integrated microphone and speaker system with an actual physical mute button. Don’t have a headset handy? Don’t need one!

Otherwise, before handing it off to Nick for some of his quick impressions of what he thinks, I just want to leave on the final note that I’ve been loving this new system so far. Izzy and I have been going through Rebellion’s Zombie Army 4 in order to Platinum it while also enjoying the new DLC chapters that have been released and whether playing on two PlayStation 4 units or her on her PS4 and me on the PS5, the cross play has been smooth. Seeing how the PlayStation 5 is designed, the new party system makes a bit more sense as we no longer need to make an invite just just sync up our voice chats for some zombie slaying.

Nick

For me, the biggest takeaway so far has to be the speed of the system. It might not have been as notable to me had I not been playing NBA 2K21 first on the Xbox One and then later on the PlayStation 5, but I have spent a lot of time on both versions of the game so far this fall and early winter. Despite the many visual improvements to the PS5 version, it loads so much faster on that system. Sure, it's nice to see the system boot and shut down more quickly than last generation, but getting into the games as quickly as I can now has been almost startling at times.

I think the visual improvements will be more evident as more titles come out and games are built exclusively for the new platform. Right now a lot of games were built with both consoles in mind, and I don't know that the PS5 will really get to start flexing its visual muscle until mid next year, but what I have seen is still pretty impressive. Certainly games like Demon's Souls have benefited from the new hardware.

In terms of the hardware, the console is kind of ridiculous. It's huge - which is probably good as it doesn't seem to get nearly as hot (especially behind it on my shelving unit) as either the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 do. I don't generally worry much about aesthetics, though the white unit and odd fin-like stricture don't seem very PlayStation-y. I will say however, the controller looks and feels sharp. The trigger feedback has considerable potential (it was a little off-putting for me in NBA 2K21 at first, but the subtle rumbles felt in Demon's Souls were really immersive, especially when wearing a headset and taking advantage of the audio).

The idea of a built-in microphone is fine, even if it sounds cheap and tinny - the idea of making multiplayer communication more readily available is actually pretty logical. That being said, I can't say I love all of the ambient noise I get when playing multiplayer in games like NBA 2K21 from other players, and I find myself jumping into the menu to mute them more often than not. All this extra functionality seems to come at a bit of a cost to the controller's charge, as I seem to need to recharge it pretty regularly (sometimes twice within the same day). Luckily I play with the console close enough to me that I can use my controller wired, but I could see that being a bother for others.

PY’s Final Thoughts

So in conclusion, as new consoles are anything but inexpensive, if you’re looking to upgrade your PlayStation 4 to a PlayStation 5 for higher quality, shorter load times and be prepared for the new games that are soon to come out, it’s worth it. If you’re looking at the system just in terms of new games, then maybe you’ll want to hold off a bit as the new selection feels rather limited and I’ve honestly been using it to play my PlayStation 4 library short of having finally finished Demon's Souls for the first time in my life...

Score: 9 / 10

Nick’s Final Thoughts

All in all, I've enjoyed my time with the PlayStation 5, which launched with some good titles, a snappier interface and plenty of potential that hopefully we will see get further realized in 2021.

Score: 8 / 10

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Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate - Switch Review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate by developer and publisher Spike Chunsoft—Nintendo Switch review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Have you ever questioned whether your life was dictated by fate? Have you ever wanted to change your destiny, to reshape the future? Perhaps you want something that's assured to not come to pass, or perhaps you'd just like to improve a situation? Well, all you need to do is head to the Tower of Fortune, collect the dice of Fate, and then petition Reeva, the God of Fate, to change what isn't as set-in-stone as you may have thought.

Shiren and the Tower of Fate tells the tale of the eponymous character Shiren, a traveler who roams the world with his companion talking ferret. Along his travels he comes across a village near the base of the Tower of Fortune, a tower dedicated to the God Reeva. It is said that upon scaling the tower, you may roll the dice of fate to redefine your future. As luck would have it, or lack of luck rather, there is a terminally ill girl in the village, and a young man sets out to conquer the tower and change the young girl's fate. Shiren decides to join him on the adventure, so off they go, exploring the tower to save the girl.

Shiren plays predominantly like most roguelikes: you enter a randomly generated dungeon, and must find weapons, items, and gear on the ground or from monsters as you travel through floors, looking for the stairs. Upon death, you get returned to town and your items and money are lost, unless you've managed to put a safeguard on them. Yes, basically everything is "up to fate" as it were, no it's not always fair. If you get knocked out, you get returned to the town that acts as your first hub zone. Here you can deposit any items and gear you've brought back, as well as money, so you won't lose it on subsequent runs. There's a shop, a warehouse, a rescue operation that let's you help others out through online, as well as a number of fancy mini games, such as a statue moving puzzle type, or "totally-not-minesweeper". When you think you're ready, off you go to adventure.

Now, generally I like to try and give a description of controls etc., but there is so much to cover that it would be easier to write a small essay, so I'll try and stick to just the basics, as everything else can be explained in-game if you play the extremely handy tutorial stages. Adventuring happens on randomly generated maps consisting of multiple interspersed rooms with hallways attaching them. You move on a square-by-square basis, and enemies move along with you. This means if you don't take an action, enemies won't either.

Your goal is to find the stairs located somewhere on each floor, climbing until you hit the end of the area you are in. Vision is assured though, as only when you are within a room can you see what is inside it, barring certain equipment and item effects. Sometimes it's dark too, so you only have a limited range of visibility, like what happens in hallways. Be careful though, as you have a hunger gauge, and performing actions will slowly decrease your "fullness". Make sure you don't drop too low!

While roaming the floors, many baddies will probably try and stop you. Luckily, Shiren is proficient in weapon handling, and can attack enemies either with melee attacks, arrows, or thrown rocks. Later on he also gets abilities he can use once per floor, but are mostly used to dispatch night time enemies. As you kill off enemies, Shiren gains exp and will increase level, allowing him to take more of a beating. Unfortunately, Shiren also loses all that exp when he returns to town. Now, while the monsters can be quite hazardous, the dungeons you will traverse are also all filled with traps, which can be just as dangerous, if not more. What kind of traps? Well, a lot.

Some are status inducing, some warp you somewhere random, some do damage, and some REDUCE EQUIPMENT QUALITY. Guess which ones I got quite familiar with? Essentially, you have a bag with enough slots for about 24 items, which will include whatever you want to equip. As you use weapons and armour, they have a proficiency rating that will increase, improving the base quality and effectiveness of the gear. Separate to that, you can also upgrade gear a number of times limited by the gear's proficiency rating, if you find a blacksmith or scroll that will do that for you.

Scrolls are, for the most part, one-off usage items that will generally perform an action, like attacking all enemies in a room, escaping a dungeon, or upgrading gear. In addition to the scrolls, you can also find talismans, staves, spell charms, and lots of other goodies located around the tower. You'll also find those traps. Which are usually invisible. Did you know you can get a negative upgrade rating in Shiren? I certainly do now. Also, it stacks. Have fun with that, don't forget to rustproof your gear. It might be a lot to take in, but the game gives interactive tutorials for everything, and you can always check item descriptions to see what they do. Also included in the main menu are some handy tips for traversing the dungeons, such as how to pass turns (which also heals), or reminders that if it turns to nighttime, enemies get different and really strong, and you'll start needing torches.

I'll be honest here, Shiren isn't easy. Not even remotely for anyone with poor luck. Like when you step on seven rust traps in a row. Yeah, that ain't fun. On the plus side, it's very...reasonable, for lack of a better term. Very rarely did I ever get completely screwed over by something that was impossible to avoid or recover from, and you could theoretically not even fight enemies, and just avoid or incapacitate them until you find the stairs, something I'd highly suggest at night. Reminders and instructions are always handy if you need a refresher, and the mini games were actually quite fun. The characters are rather interesting, if not a bit cookie cutter cliché at times, and you are given a large amount of items on each floor to help your journey, unlike what some other titles may do.

Summary

Overall, Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is a great roguelike, albeit a rather tough roguelike. There is plenty of variety to be had, and the difficulty isn't artificial. With a wide breadth of items and effects to manage, some fun mini games, and stages that don't drag on too long, Shiren is definitely a really fun roguelike for those familiar with the genre. Those new to the scene may be in for a bit of a challenge though, as Shiren doesn't pull many punches. So buckle up and try to change the fate of a poor village girl in this title that rolled rather well on the old D10.

Score: 8 / 10

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Neptunia ReVerse Announced for PlayStation 5 in 2021!

LOS ANGELES, CA., December 3, 2020 – The Goddesses are back and better than ever on the PlayStation®5! We are excited to announce that Neptunia™ ReVerse will be launching physically and digitally for the PS5™ in 2021! Neptunia ReVerse is an updated and enhanced version of the beloved RPG game Hyperdimension Neptunia™ Re;Birth1, originally released for the PlayStation®Vita. Fans of the Neptunia series and newcomers can enjoy the lush worlds of Gamindustri with the help of the PS5 and new gameplay additions, including a fishing mini-game!

Story

Gamindustri – A distant world comprised of four nations, each under the divine protection of a Goddess.\

• Planeptune: Land of Purple Progress, ruled by Neptune

• Lastation: Land of Black Regality, ruled by Noire

• Lowee: Land of White Serenity, ruled by Blanc

• Leanbox: Land of Green Pastures, ruled by Vert

Locked in the Console War, the four Goddesses vie for domination of the planet until Neptune is cast down and stripped of her power.

Now Neptune must fight to restore her place, but could a being known as Arfoire threaten the very world the Goddesses have sworn to protect?

Key Features

• Gamindustri Enhanced! – Neptunia ReVerse is the perfect RPG entry for Neptunia newcomers and for Neptunia fans to relive! With the powers of the PlayStation®5, players can enjoy the world of Gamindustriwith enhanced graphics and a fresh-looking system UI!

• Gone Fishing – Now, Neptune can cool her senses and spend some alone time catching some fish in this new mini-game! And if you’re patient enough, you might even be able to haul some sweet equipment. But be wary! Any misstep can reel in a stinkin’ enemy.

• Tailor Your Experience! – Itching for more ways to play it your way? With re-balanced gameplay and “Arrange Mode,” you can now select from 20+ characters to play from the start! Plus, the “Plans” system allows players to craft and forge new items and equipment, add dungeons to explore, and even modify the drops from enemies and materials harvested in dungeons!

• The Gang of Four – Your party member limit is now increased from 3 to 4 members! Transform Neptune and the Goddesses by activating HDD Mode to amp up attacks.

Social Media

• Official Website: http://www.ideafintl.com/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideafactoryintl

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IdeaFactoryIntl/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ideafintl

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideafactoryintl/

About Idea Factory International, Inc.

Idea Factory International was first established in September 2013 as an information hub for the Japanese company Idea Factory Co., Ltd., and is now the publisher of fine titles including the Hyperdimension Neptunia™ Re;Birth series, its spinoffs, and otome games like Amnesia™: Memories and Hakuoki™: Kyoto Winds. IFI has worked and continually strived to provide high-quality Japanese ports on multiple platforms including the PlayStation®Vita, PlayStation®4, Steam® and most recently, the Nintendo Switch™. We will continue providing localized media to fans worldwide in conjunction with Idea Factory Co., Ltd., with a focus on strengthening the Idea Factory brand around the globe.

Article by: Susan N.

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The Unexpected Quest - PC Review

The Unexpected Quest by developer Rionix and publisher PQube Limited—PC (Steam) review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Over the summer I had the chance to sit down to Rionix and PQube's The Unexpected Quest while it was being showcased during the Steam Summer Festival. Having been fully released, this interesting puzzle based Real Time Strategy will keep you busy for a good couple hours.

As unexpectedly as the quest that I was on, this might actually be the shortest review I've ever written. Just about everything that needed to be said was said over the summer when I had the chance to sit down to stages one, two and four as the demo skipped over three.

Starting with two townsfolk, it's up to you to start gathering resources in order to take down barricades and build up the buildings that you're going to need in order to push further. Barracks, Wizard Towers and Forges each need to be built per stage in order to overcome the challenges whether they be through might or mental prowess. To be fair, most of it is taken care of through might because your town's folk have to chop down trees and use their pickaxes against stone blocks before the fighting even begins.

Through the barracks you can recruit warriors, archers and wizards which can each only take on targets of those specifications. This is really why The Unexpected Quest is a "puzzle" based real-time strategy. Enemies of each of those types will be roaming around each map and it's up to you to make sure you're ready to encounter them to move on past. Each enemy type has a level and if your unit is of a lower level, they'll quite easily die unless you use potions and shields on them. To even the score, you'll need to find items that boost each unit type as well as spend gold to increase their respective unit type's level through the forge.

And that's really it. Rinse. Repeat. Sadly eight stages and five hours later you're done. The only thing that could possibly prolong the experience are stars that can be acquired on each level for an achievement. This basically means not losing any units, finding all the treasures and doing all the side quests. After that the adventure is simply over.

Now to play devil's advocate, while I did enjoy my time with the unexpected quest, and while I would have liked more, even with the deadpan ending, it answered about the time that it should. The main reason for this is that every single stage starts off with you having to build from scratch. You can't carry resources over, you can't carry buildings over, and you can't carry units over. All of this has to be done each and every single time making it quite long after a while especially when you had a good rhythm going. The only thing that actually carries over are items in your inventory such as being able to start your units off at a higher level, potions for healing, and items to boost resource production.

Summary

So on the note that it ends, I believe we can expect more unexpected quests in the future. In order to progress though, the series will need a few modifications to be done to the style in order to make it more interesting as the current formula gets a little stale after a few hours as the only thing changing was the stage layouts and puzzle aspects of what had to be done before what.

Otherwise if you've been looking for something in the real time strategy vein that's been very slim pickings of late and are up for a little bit of puzzle solving, The Unexpected Quest may just be worth checking out.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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