First Impression: Arietta of Spirits (Switch) ~ Being Bound

Nintendo.com subsite – Official website

Family traditions are such a big part of families. One of the biggest family traditions in my family is that at least one person goes to the seaside each and every year. It’s a tradition I don’t want to see end since it brings back so many memories, and it’s also where my love for collecting games started. The amount of garage sales and flea markets I did at the seaside, I can’t count on two hands. Anyway, today I want to talk about a game that means a lot to me currently and also talks about family traditions. And that’s Arietta of Spirits. A little indie game by Third Spirit Games and Red Art Games. It caught my attention since it looked like an interesting Zelda-ish clone, and it reminded me of games like Blossom Tales. But is this game as good as that one? Let’s find out together, shall we? But before we start, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section down below with your thoughts and/or opinions on the game and/or the content of this article.

Being bound

In this game, you take on the role of Arietta. After the passing of her grandmother, here family takes a trip to her house on the island. Now, it doesn’t take a long time before Arietta discovers that she has a special ability when she meets a mysterious friend. She can see and talk to the spirits on the island. And not only that, she can help them move on.

Currently, I’m midway in the story and while this game has a good setting, writing and atmosphere, I feel that’s something is missing. The story is currently a bit “loose”. There is not really an overarching reason to move the story forward. If you asked me to explain what happens in the story of this game, I can talk about the characters you meet and their stories but the reason why you meet these characters and what Arietta’s end goal is… I can’t tell. Of course, there is a line in the story that “explains” it, but it’s so generic…

Now, this doesn’t mean that this game has a weak story. Far from it. The character development and writing in this game is pretty nice. But, there is a lot of wasted potential because this game is rather short. There is so much more that can be done with the story and idea, but the game is over when it really gets started.

There is no real voice acting in this game apart from some grunts by our main character. So, if you don’t like that, this isn’t the game for you. Yet, the dialogues are somewhat fast-paced and flow pretty nicely. One of the taglines of this game is that this game doesn’t have a lot of filler moments and this is quite true. This game has some side quests but barely any filler at all. Yet, I felt that some moments might have left a bigger impact if the story didn’t go on such a break neck speed.

Entry level Zelda game

If you have played games like Blossom Tales or any 2D Zelda game, you’ll feel right at home. This game is your typical 2D Zelda game where you go from dungeon to dungeon and defeat bosses. Well, they aren’t really dungeons, it is more themed area’s, but explaining that would spoil parts of the story. But, there are some unique mechanics in this game.

For example, there are two types of enemies. The first type are your normal overworld enemies. And sadly, they are your “generic” bee/bats. But, they have interesting movement patterns and learning and avoiding them is quite fun. Apart from maybe dropping a health pick-up, these enemies aren’t anything to write home about.

The other type of enemies are the “spirit” enemies. These are trickier to defeat, and after defeating these, you’ll earn crystals. Earn enough crystals to fill up a demon core, and Arietta grows stronger. It’s quite easy to farm these crystals, since enemies respawn when you leave and re-enter the area. But, I dislike the fact that when a certain core is filled, you can’t pick up any more crystals. Well, you can pick them up, but it doesn’t raise your total.

So, when you have enough crystals to power up your Roamer Cores, power it up right away. Otherwise, you’ll lose various crystals and have to grind for them. You can power your core up in the inventory menu under “Roamer Cores”.

Speaking of the inventory menu, why are there two menus in the Switch version? You have a pause menu and an inventory menu. The pause menu is opened with the “+” button and the inventory menu with the “-” button. It trips me up. Then again, I totally understand why this is the case in how the menus are designed. That’s why I call the “-” the inventory menu since it’s really the menu where you can see the inventory, your goals, your achievements… While the pause menu is more of an options menu.

A bit higher, you can see the inventory menu. From that screenshot, you can also see the various other mechanics. Like, the tasks where you have to find hidden items and the amount of hidden spirit cubs you have found. Now, you might think that you’ll need the item’s menu often, but alas. The opposite is true.

There aren’t a lot of puzzles in this game. I’m even having a hard time saying there are puzzles in this game. Maybe the fact that you need to figure out how to defeat the bosses most optimally but other than, that… There aren’t really any puzzles in this game. And if there are, they aren’t cryptic or challenging enough to matter.

Something that’s extremely puzzling is the fact that there is no world map of any kind to speak off. Thankfully, this isn’t a huge game, but the lack of a world map really hurts sometimes. Especially when I want to explore an area to complete a task. It adds so much more time roaming around. You could also argue that it makes the game a bit more realistic since when you are exploring an island, you don’t have a map either… But you can either make one or have a map printed out from the internet.

Once you get the hang of the responsive and easy to master controls, this game isn’t too challenging at all. This game really feels like it’s an entry level adventure game. And you can look at this in two ways. It can be either a relaxing time to enjoy the story, but it can be boring since it’s not “engaging” or challenging.

Thankfully, this game has difficulty options. I started on the normal difficulty and found it too easy. So, after getting halfway in the game, I wanted a bit more challenge. So, I had to use the dodge, shield mechanics more to defeat enemies and not rely on health drops from cutting down bushes. I wanted to start a new save file on extreme, and I learned I wasn’t able to skip cutscenes. I sighed, and I continued playing my “normal difficulty” save file. I can totally understand that when you play through a game for this first time you are unable to skip cutscenes, but the fact you can unlock an additional difficulty after beating the game and the fact I can’t skip cutscenes worries me a bit. But, maybe you have that option then…

Joyful lost

So, because this game doesn’t have a world map… I have to admit that I got lost a few times. But, it didn’t matter too much. I really enjoyed being able to explore the island. Especially since the pixel art and design of this game is gorgeous. I really love the visual presentation of this game. I also love the animation quite a lot.

The animation makes the game a lot more immersive, but it makes the game also easier. Since the enemies telegraph their attacks so bluntly, it makes it easier to avoid. Now, there is this small mechanic that I really like.

At first, I wanted to talk about how when you have low health in this game, you barely get any feedback from the game. But then, I noticed something. My joycons vibrated in a heart beat whenever I was on low health. This is genius. The only small touch I would add is a bit more visual feedback on the screen since when you are fighting, you might miss that rumbling, especially since you are quite focused on dodging enemies and such.

Something I also quite like in this game is how the roll is handled. You can roll around to get faster to your destination, but you have stamina. The more you roll, the more fatigued Arietta gets and the shorter her rolls are. You can see how tired Arietta is by the amount of sweat dripping down her face. This really makes me think what the most optimal way is to roll and go fast. Since, there is no sprint button.

Sometimes, I got lost in area’s with a lot of enemies. The first time I got a game over, I was quite worried where I was going to respawn. But, this game is quite forgiving in that. You respawn at the start of the screen you died at. When you die at a boss, you start right at the beginning of the battle. It’s quite nice to get directly back into the action and not have to go through the whole dialogue of the boss again or having lost a lot of progress. The game auto-saves every time you change in a screen.

The final thing I want to talk about is the audiovisual presentation of this game. Let’s start with the sound effects. These are amazing. The sound effects really help you to prepare yourself for the upcoming map and to take the right actions in combat. For example, the flying bat screeches before it flies at you, so when you hear it… You know that it’s time to dodge. But, the sound effects can be helpful too to find cubs. When you get close to one, you hear it shouting. It has a distinct sound effect that really helped me find the more hidden ones.

This brings me to the music of this game. The calm vibe and atmosphere of the game really comes through in the music. The soundtrack mostly feels like lounge and relaxing music. But, it can be quite tense when it needs to. Especially the battle music. But it fits the game like a glove.

Now, what do I think overall of this game? I haven’t beaten it yet, but what is my conclusion after getting past the midway point of this game? The charm and love of this game is something quite unique. This game does have some flaws like no overworld map, more puzzles, being able to skip cutscenes…

But, what bothers me the most is that the potential of this story and setting isn’t used to its full potential in this short game. Yet, like I said earlier, the charm of this game makes up for quite a lot of it. I can totally understand that some people might not really like this game or get bored with it, but this game really got its hooks in me. For me, this game is an easy recommendation if you are looking for a nice and relaxing game to spend an afternoon or two.

What this game proves to me is that I’m going to keep an eye out for further projects from the developers, since I really think they have a lot of potential. I’m curious what they are going to do next. If they are going to make a sequel to this game, you can be sure I’m going to buy it. The charm and love of this game is infectious.

I really enjoyed playing through this game and I can’t wait to see how this game ends. It’s really a relaxing game, and it comes at the right moment in my life when I need something to calm me down after busy work days. This game is really a case of the positives outweighing the negatives for me. But, I’m repeating myself. So, it’s time to close off this article by saying my usual:

Thank you so much for reading my article, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another one, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

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First Impression: Nightmare Reaper (PC – Steam) ~ Can You Sleep Through This?

Steam store page – GOG page

I can’t tell you exactly why, but I’m a big fan of old school 3D shooters. Last year, I took a look at Ion Fury and Wrath. Honestly, I think that it’s because these games stuck the right balance between modern game design and old school gameplay. Now, one day I stumbled across this game. A game in Early Access that released last year to GOG and Steam. A game that presents itself as a game inspired by Blood, Doom, and Duke Nukem 3D. That’s quite interesting in my eyes. Currently, only the first episode has been released and episode two is coming in the near future. At the moment of writing, the developer said that they are aiming to release the second episode at the end of the summer. But, is this game worth your time and money? Let’s take a look at this game while I invite you to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article. 

Can you sleep through this?

You play as an unnamed girl who is stuck in a psychotic ward. Her story is being told through small notes that you unlock after beating each level. In order for you to enjoy the game, you don’t need to pay any attention to the story, at all. But, I can tell you out of the experience that it enhances the game tenfold. My imagination and the spare bits of story that I got gave the world-building quite a lot of meaning. My imagination filled in some gaps that made the story quite interesting.

Now, I can understand that some people won’t enjoy a story that is this bland where it’s quite clear that you need to protect yourself on the character or fill in some of the gaps yourself. But, I didn’t find this a problem at all. Since this game focusses itself a lot more on the gameplay than on the story and in that case I don’t mind a “weaker” story.

I always find it quite difficult to review or criticize a story when I know that you don’t have every piece of the puzzle. A story can start off strong and end up quite weak. Currently, I’m quite interested to see where the story is going to go and if it wraps up with a nice conclusion or if it leaves it up to the player to figure out.

As I said before, the story is mostly told through small notes that you can read on your table after beating a level. You unlock one note for every level you beat. Each note builds on the previous note painting a more complete picture of the situation. There is no voice acting during these notes, but that doesn’t mean that there is no voice acting in the game.

The girl you play as is voiced by Marie-Claire Lavertu and I haven’t found anything about her. Now, this might raise some red flags but don’t you worry. The voice actor nails the voice acting of the main character flawlessly. The grunts, the smirks, the laughs… It’s all done pretty well. She did a pretty amazing job of bringing this troubled character to live without saying one line. I wonder if she also did the screams of the other patients you hear when you are in your room.

So, how do you play this game; since you start off in a hospital room? Well, as the name of the game suggests, you are going to reap some nightmares. So, it’s time to go to sleep and you get transported to a randomly generated level where your goal is to beat your enemies and reach the goal.

Retroception

This game features randomly generated levels. Well, to a degree. The developer created a whole slew of rooms and the random level generator just fits them together in random order.

So that means, that you might find the same layout once or twice but in most cases, each level and each playthrough is quite different. But, this isn’t the only thing that stands out in this game.

The Steam Store page boasts that this game has over 32 weapons and is going to have 80+ weapons. Now, before you think that this is going to be an overload to manage them all… You don’t have to manage them all. That’s because you can only carry over one weapon from one level to the next. Yes, one weapon.

It gets even better, each weapon might have special abilities and has a certain level. So, you need to think and strategize about which weapon you want to keep and which weapon you want to sell for those precious coins.

These coins can drop from destroying the environment, defeating enemies, selling weapons at the end of a level, finding treasure, and playing the Gameboy Advance Skilltree minigame. Oh yes, the minigame. One doesn’t simply unlock new powerups in this game, you have to earn them by first having enough coins and then beat the mini-platform level. Only when beating a level, you lose your coins and earn your sweet powerup. Trust me, these power-ups are worth it! After defeating some levels, I felt more equipped and stronger to beat my enemies.

If I would take a look at all the enemies and weapons, I think I would be here all day. Let’s first talk about the weapons. You have swords, staffs, shotguns, rocket launchers, tomes, pistols, rifles… It’s a whole lot. Personally, I rarely used the bows since I found their fire rate a bit too slow since this game can get pretty hectic and intense with some enemies and a strong gun fits my playstyle more in these types of gameplay situations. And my preferred weapon was a double-barreled shotgun with the chance to shock my enemies I picked up in one of the earliest levels.

Obviously, I’m going to talk about the enemies right now. You have a whole range of enemies. From hit scanning enemies to enemies that take you with melee attacks. It’s essential for you to learn the patterns of each enemy so you can play accordingly for which enemy you should take out first.

There are some enemies I absolutely hated during my playthroughs. These Dragon Plants that not only spit acid but also spit little egg projectiles that hatch smaller dragons. These didn’t die fast enough for my liking. And then I’m skipping over the enemies who throw what I assume mutated blobs of themselves to you and these blobs track you and when they explode… You lose a LOT of your health. And these blobs are so freaking small and annoying to kill…

Now, would I remove these enemies? Absolutely not. They ramp up the difficulty of this game to a very rewarding level. For having so many different possibilities, I’m surprised how much work there has been put into the balancing of the game. New enemies are introduced one by one so you can get used to them, learn their patterns, and try to manage them in the chaos of a whole enemy filled room.

The “punishment” for death in this game isn’t that harsh. Thankfully, since you will die quite often since this game can be quite rough. But I mean that in a good way. The punishment is that you have to restart the level with the weapon you choose to keep from the previous level. But, you don’t lose your gold. So, if one level is a bit too tough, you can grind up your coins, beat a few skill tree mini-games and try again with some new powers.

During my playthrough, I regularly felt the urge to play just one more round, to try to beat that annoying level. I found that most of this game is quite fair and balanced apart from the fire boss. I’m sorry but I find that boss battle just too difficult. That boss hits a bit too hard. My biggest complaint is that this boss appears after quite a challenging level and then you have to try and beat quite a difficult fight. Thankfully, the developer said that he is going to take a look at how the fight can become a little bit easier. And also, he has given us some helpful advice to beat it. It’s the biggest frustration I have with this game since I have gotten so close several times… But one of these days, I’ll do it and defeat that – CENSORED –

So, would it surprise you if I said that I’m not even done talking about all the mechanics yet? Oh, I haven’t mentioned the power-ups, the random events, and the possible bonus gold you can earn by killing all the enemies, finding all the gold and secrets… Well, I’ll leave these interesting and fun game mechanics up to you to find out. There must still be something to discover when you play this game after reading this article, right?

Shoot everything

You might have noticed by looking at the screenshots, that this game doesn’t have the most modern graphics. This game goes for a more retro aesthetic with some modern vibes. And the game succeeds in that quite well.

In the visual presentation, I find this game quite exceptional. I really like the visual presentation and animation of this game. From the enemy design to the animations on the weapons, I really think they are well done. Especially, when I saw some early footage of the game and compare it to what’s on offer now, it’s impressive how far this game has come. The only minor complaint I have in the visual department is a timer. Yes, a timer of how long your power-up is lasting. Since there is no inventory in this game for power-ups and health pickups, so it would have been nice to see how much a powerup is going to last when you want to use it to rush a boss or a difficult room.

To finish up my thoughts on the visual presentation, let’s talk about the UI. Overall, it’s quite well done but there are a few minor things that I would change. First of all, the “Reset Default Settings” is a great future but I would rather have that feature reset for example only the game features instead of resetting everything. Another minor complaint I have about the UI is there are no page numbers on the achievement page.

Speaking about achievements, it’s lovely that these give you coins in-game but I find them to also have them as Steam achievements. I mean, there are over 80 already. Maybe this is just me, but I almost got an achievement in every round, if not two or three. Maybe I look at achievements in a totally different light but I found them not rewarding to earn at all.

There is one thing that I haven’t talked about yet and I usually talk about quite early in my articles and that’s the audio of this game. First of all, let’s talk about the sound effects. The sound design of this game is close to perfect. On quite rare occasions, I didn’t hear some trap or pickup sound effects playing, especially during fights but that isn’t such a big deal. These fights are hectic enough when you try to manage large groups of enemies, the sparse health pickups, and the great sound effects of the enemies and weapons.

But I want to talk about the amazing soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult. Now, if this name doesn’t ring a bell. Well, let me just say he created the soundtrack of a little game called Dusk and Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin. Let me just say, if you enjoy the DooM 2016 soundtrack, oh man you are going to enjoy this quite a lot.

Overall, I would recommend this game to people who enjoy retro games and shooters. At its current state, I found this game quite addictive and I had a hard time putting this game down during my summer holidays. Before I knew it, I had put in 11 hours in this game and I’m not bored with it yet. I can’t wait to see what the second episode will bring to the table.

To be honest, I had a really hard time finding negatives to say about this game apart from the fire boss being too tricky for my liking. All the other things are things that are either quite minor or can change because this game is still in active development. I’m going to keep an eye out on this game and maybe you too.

And with that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in a future one but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Publishing: The Fur in Me

In “The Fur in Me”, you play with a young member of the Fur race in his quest to save his own world from the mad Fearflies. To do so, you’ll have to smash your enemies while matching your color with theirs. What makes this game challenging is the fact that not only you have to avoid the traps, but also make sure you change you are colorfast enough or you lose.

Game Features

• Genre: 2D platform match color ;
• Gameplay: run, jump, smash and change colors (at the moment there are 3 colors but there will be 6 ) ;
• Story: find out how the Fearflies invasion started by collecting the missing images spread throughout the world ;
• Aesthetics: 7 different and colorful worlds ;
• Audio: joyful sounds and music ;

Modes

• Main Story;
• Challenges:
  • 6 different levels of difficulties:
  • Normal mode: Match same colors;
  • Hardcore mode: Match different colors;
• Achievements: In-game achievements (medals):
• Timer;
• Number of deaths;
• Number of images collected;
• Assist Option: Tweak attributes to adjust the gameplay to your play style:
  • Number of Jumps;
  • Invincibility;
  • (You can turn Assist Option ON or OFF whenever you want but if you turn it ON, you won’t receive achievements for the current level);

Other Features 

• Target Audience: Fans of games like Super Meat Boy and Rayman ;
• Localization:
  • English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.
• Control options:
  • Gamepad: Xbox 360, Xbox one;
  • Keyboard;
• Platform: Initially, the game will be developed for PC. After launch, it will be ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One;
• Stores: Steam at the moment but considering others like itch.io, GOG, humble store…

For more information

Website – Youtube/Trailer – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram –  Steam

A bit about the developer

Hey! My name is João Ladeira, I’m 26 years old, Portuguese and have a degree in electronics and computers.

Despite having played games all my life, I never had an interest in creating them. That changed 2 or 3 years after I entered university and started learning Unity at home. Then I got a job as an AR developer and worked in AR and VR for about 1.5 years (with Unity too). During that time, aside from the job, I made several game prototypes and published 2 basic android games in the store.

Although AR and VR are very interesting technologies, my passion for games became bigger and I decided it was time to create a game whose goal wasn’t just to learn about the engine (Unity). So I decided to create a JRPG with slightly different combat. My idea was to have a really good looking demo and use Kickstarter in order to gather funds to finish the game. At the time I had a 2D artist friend with me but he ended up not having time and I ended up realizing that the scope of my project was too big to be accomplished alone.

After reality hit me in the face, I stayed 2 days wondering what I was going to do. I decided to gather all the assets I had from the store and when I looked at what I had, I realized that I could create a platform game.

I am no illustrator nor musician. The only tangible skill I have is programming. But I really wanted to create a gorgeous looking game with great sound and story. So, I turned myself to the asset store and free images/sounds I could find on the internet.
The real challenge here was: how am I going to make a great game with beautiful and coherent visuals and cool mechanics with assets that have “nothing” to do with each other?

I took this challenge and, one year later (filled with lots of testing and experimentation) I think I’m on the right track to tackle it and to show that you can create a great game using only assets already made. It’s all about how you use them and the little changes you introduce in them.

The curious thing is that, in the process of creating the best game I could with what I had, I ended up creating the game I wanted to but didn’t know.

Now that I have everything aligned, I decided to start marketing it to make sure I build a community around the game and get good visibility.
João Ladeira (John Ladder)

Review: Blossom Tales – The Sleeping King (Switch) ~ Cloned To Perfection

Publisher’s website

I’m quite certain that since the success of The Legend Of Zelda – Breath Of The Wild, the next games in the Zelda series will be a more open world. But, 3D-Zelda games aren’t even my favorite games. My favorite Zelda titles are the Oracle games. So, when I was browsing YouTube and saw a video of this game, I grabbed my Switch and bought it without thinking twice. Now, thanks to the Switch, the developer of this game has been able to stay afloat. That’s quite impressive I must say. It raised the bar quite high for me, so I had high expectations. So, in the end, how is the game? Is it worth playing or not? Let’s find out. As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on the game and/or the article. 

Note: This game is also released on Steam. So, if you don’t own a Switch and you are interested in this game, you can play it on your PC. I haven’t played this game on PC so this review will be focused on the Switch version of the game.

Cloned to perfection

In this game, you play as Lily. A character in a story that the grandfather of two grandchildren is listening too. I found it really charming that the heroine’s name is Lily since that’s also the name of the female grandchild. The boy is named Chrys.

At first, the grandfather wanted to tell the story of: “the brave elf boy who lived in a magical land called H-..” but the grandkids have heard that story a million times. So, that’s why the grandpa started to tell the above-mentioned story. During the story, the grandchildren don’t hesitate to intervene and give commentary, sometimes arguing between the two of them which enemy the heroine faced.

It also gives the game some minor replay value in some areas. Since you get the option to choose between which grandchild gets his or her wish when they are arguing about the enemy you are facing.

I’m not going to talk more about the story since it would spoil the excellent humor and charm of the writing. The writing pokes fun at the original 2D-Zelda games and the tropes of telling a story like that. While the story isn’t THAT unique, it’s executed so well and with so much charm, I really enjoyed it. The references and pokes towards the Zelda series also made me smile and enjoy it even more.

At the start, you would be under the impression that this game is a clone of the Zelda series. Almost completely copying the gameplay of the Zelda series. But, this game is cloned to perfection. This game has a lot of elements from different 2D-Zelda games and they all work perfectly together. If you didn’t know, you would say that this game is a spin-off in the Zelda series.

The gameplay can be compared to every 2D-Zelda game like Oracle of Ages/Seasons, A Link To The Past, The original Legend of Zelda, Link Between Worlds… I felt like playing a “best of” from those games.

Exploring the open world, trying to find all hidden areas on the map, upgrading your gear to do more damage… It made me come back for more and more. Too bad that this game is short. According to HowLongToBeat.com, this game only takes you 9-ish hours to complete.

Wake up Grandpa, I mean King!

It’s a shame that this game is so short. The dungeons are challenging to play through and the overworld is fun to explore.

I wanted this game to continue on for a while longer. Since, when I first started my journey, the visual design of this game gave me a wave of nostalgia. The game looks amazing. Vibrant and colorful, but most of all, nostalgic. The pixel-art feels almost like it would be possible on a Gameboy Color.

While exploring the swamp, I almost felt like my younger self again. When I was covered in a blanket, playing A Link To The Past at my cousin’s house on his SNES. The game mixes elements of fantasy and magic quite well.

Besides that the game looks amazing, the animations of this game are extremely well done as well. I really like the idle animation of this game since it fits the story so well. When you leave your Switch alone, the main character would nervously tap her foot. As if she is waiting to know how she needs to progress in the story. A small touch that would make this perfect is that sometimes the kids would yell at grandpa that “he fell asleep while telling the story.” But, that’s nitpicking at this point.

Now, you go on your journey to wake up the King. Now, the reason for that is something I will leave up to you to discover. During your journey, you get a rather big arsenal of weapons. Every weapon is quite unique and is used in various places in the overworld. So, experiment with your items.

There is also a collect-a-ton aspect to the game where you can pick up certain enemy drops. Enemies rarely drop coins or hearts; but they drop feathers, zombie brains, bee hives… and those can be traded in for coins or other great rewards. The game has a bit more depth besides the main quest. So, to tease the gameplay even more… I will mention that there are side quests like scroll collecting.

Now, this game has a great price. The game costs 12€, 15USD. It’s a great price for this game.

All of this sounds fine, amazing gameplay, great story, and excellent presentation. Are there negatives to this game or will I continue to praise it? Well, there are a few things that made me raise an eyebrow or two.

So close, so close.

Something I didn’t like was that you were unable to choose the sword button. This might seem like a nitpick, but I found it impractical that it was the “A” button.

Now, I only discovered that this could be changed after I finished the game. But, when you change your sword button, it also changes the button you need to press to accept dialogues. So yeah… Nitpicking much here. So, check your control options when you want to change that.

While the controls respond quite well, there are a few other things that I didn’t like. Like when you aim your bow, you are locked in the position you started aiming in. There is also no way to cancel the bow aiming. This is a problem since it takes a chunk out of your mana bar. And without mana, you can’t use your special items leaving you wide open to attacks.

If you have read other reviews I wrote, you know that I find the music and sound design pretty important for a game. Now, the sound design of this game is decent. While I would have loved a bit more sound effects for the monster grunts and people talking, it’s pretty okay.

The soundtrack, well, it’s good but some tracks are too short. And there are one or two tracks that I really didn’t like. The track for the race side quests worked on my nerves. On the other hand, it’s a great way to hear how much time you have left, but it made me just even more nervous while doing an obstacle course quickly. That said, the rest of the soundtrack is really enjoyable and I have to say that Visager did a great job with the music.

Now, there are a few things that could make this game even better. The first thing is the completion percentage. There are a lot of side quests and things like that, I would love to see a completion percentage or a sort of quest log so I can keep track of them.

A second thing that would improve the game quite a lot is polishing up the teleport system. Now, you step on the teleport stone and you choose in a lost of teleport locations you have activated. It would be amazing if you would see them on the map as well and instead of choosing them from a simple list, you would pick them from the map.

A third thing that would be nice is that there is a different sprite or some sort of identification if you have activated a teleport stone or not. This is a minor thing, I know, but it would be a great minor change.

The difficulty of this game is good. This game isn’t too hard or too easy. While it would be neat if the dungeon bosses have some sort of health bar, I think that the visuals give the health of a boss away.

Now, sometimes I felt like there was a bit too much going on with the dungeon boss. The more I have to keep in mind while fighting a boss, the more frustrated I get. There were two bosses that almost made me throw my Switch one or twice. Something that would help is an easier way to find the red potions. If that’s in the game, I overlooked it.

So, that’s everything I wanted to say about this game. I think it’s time for the conclusion and my final thoughts (which act as a TL;DR most of the time) for this game.

Conclusion

The good:

+ Amazing story

+ Excellent visuals

+ Addictive gameplay.

+ ….

The bad:

– Way too short. It’s over before you know it.

– Some bosses have a bit too much stuff going on.

– Locking in one direction when firing a bow.

– The soundtrack could have been so much more.

Final thoughts:

So, is this game any good? Yes! I never expected that this game was this good. While it’s highly possible that the nostalgia for the Legend of Zelda series overtakes me and makes me look over some flaws, but truth to be told, this game deserves all the praise it’s getting.

As mentioned above, this game isn’t perfect. But, the positives highly outweigh the negatives. This game is a lot of fun for casual and hardcore players. And because I finished this game and I want to see more, I’m well determined to support the developer even more. I want to see more of this developer.

You really owe it to yourself if you enjoy 2D-Zelda or adventure/action games to play this game to the end. For now, this game is one of the best games I have played all year. Yes, I enjoyed it that much.

In addition to that, when I was testing out the Switch screenshot sharing feature, I tweeted out a picture where signposts still tell what’s on it:

And yes, that’s the actual WRITER of this game replying to my tweet. The developers of this game are very active on social media! I love what you are doing with the fans and players of your game! Great work! Now, if you make another game; please notify me. I would love to see more of you guys. Even when it’s a sequel to Blossom Tales.

Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 90/100

Publishing: 2D Pocket RPG, NTales: Grand Launch, today!

After the successful soft launch in selected countries, 2D adventure RPG, NTales: Child of Destiny is now open for global domination!

• RuleMkr’s newest 2D Pocket RPG, NTales: Child of Destiny is now globally available in Google Play!
• Upcoming 2D RPG players from different parts of the world can now enjoy this adventure RPG.
• Reward for Global Pre-registration is waiting!

Shortly after the soft launch of NTales in the Philippines and Australia, finally, this hit 2D adventure RPG is now globally available! Download now this cute and nostalgic 2D Pocket RPG via Google Play Store!

RuleMkr, the development team behind this latest 2D RPG brings an end-to-end MMO and RPG experience to the global scenery. Grand Launch of NTales’ brings an exciting mix of 2D Pocket RPG and cute gameplay. Explore the Kingdom of Lancia to stop and eliminate all Dr. Deff’s evil plan in destroying the entire kingdom.

Winter is here! Our very own popular 2D Pocket RPG, NTales also opens a Christmas Event entitled Winter Wonderland! Surprising events will be up to official Facebook Fan Page.

NTales, your 2D Pocket RPG, offers the multitude of battles, exploration, and special features. Save the kingdom with different sub-quests while exploring and defeating various monsters through its over 200 maps! Collect and summon cute and powerful pets to fight along your side. Challenge the Boss Dungeon with your friends! Various costumes, wings, and unique equip and items to obtain! 3 Special Hero classes to choose! Make them even powerful by choosing from different subclasses you want!

The announcement of pre-registration rewards will be posted on our Official Facebook Fan Page and in plug Community!

For more information and updates about 2D Pocket RPG, NTales’ Grand Launch, feel free to visit our plug Community and Official Facebook Fan Page!

Official Links

Download the game, NOW! Google PlayStore: https://goo.gl/R7rfRU

NTales: Child of Destiny Official Website: https://goo.gl/1795Rx

NTales: Child of Destiny plug Community Link: https://goo.gl/SKhRw5

NTales: Child of Destiny Official Facebook Fan Page Link: https://goo.gl/1ew53H

NTales: Child of Destiny Youtube Link: https://goo.gl/ckDZYq

About NTales: Child of Destiny

 NTales: Child of Destiny is a complete take on MMORPG.

This new game offers the multitude of battles, exploration, and special features. Enjoy this new 2D Adventure RPG style! A linear storyline or get distracted with interesting sub-quests. NTales added twists of MMO by implementing Raid Parties, Guild War and PvP. Fighting along your side are adorable and powerful monsters with a PvP Mode of their own! 2D Adventure RPG you surely can’t get enough!

Summon Pet; enjoy various PvE and PvP game modes! Classic hero classes to choose from but a wide variety of class builds to your preference.

Game Features:

• Accomplish impossible missions and side-quests!
• Gear up your class with great costume, wings, unique equipment and items!
• Challenging Battle Modes – Boss Dungeon, Infinity Tower, Time Dungeon and Pet Island
• Summon cute and powerful pets to fight along your side!
• Tag along your friends to defeat Boss Dungeon, join guild and party with peer!
• Choose from 3 Classic Hero Classes: Warrior, Magician, and Cleric!
• Journey to over 200 Maps – Sharpen your skill to defeat the monsters!

NTALES: CHILD OF DESTINY RELATED LINKS:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTalesGlobal/

Plug: https://www.plug.game/Ntalesglobal

YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDTeO9ZirCg

ABOUT RULEMAKR

Rulemakr is a Korean Development Company recently established and aims to bring forth quality and new games from Korea worldwide.

Game Quicky: Uauim Challenge (PC) ~ The First Stages

Official website

Today I want to take a look at a game still a challenging game called U.A.U.I.M Challenge. The first version of this game released a month ago and the developer asked me to take a look at the game. So, that’s why we are here. In order to be able to review this game, the developer gave me a review code for this game. I played v0.5 for this review. Let me be clear on one thing, this article is my opinion about the current state of the game and is my opinion alone. As usual, feel free to post your opinion on the content of the article and/or the game in the comment section down below.

Background

So, before we continue, what is this game? This game is a pretty challenging top-down shooter. You can compare the gameplay to games like Galaga, 1942 and other games like that.

This game is being developed by one person. I have a lot of respect if you develop a game on your own. Even when you didn’t make everything yourself and you got some help in for example the creation of the music, still I have a lot of respect for you.

The “this is going in the right direction” things

Let me first talk about the good points of this game. I think that the sprite work is going in the right direction. While I wouldn’t call it 16bit, I remind me more of the old days of Atari and very early NES games.

If the enemies will get the same level of animation that your ship has, I have high hopes for the animations.

The controls work pretty well. I have only one nitpick. I think it’s quite strange how you are unable to pause the game using an XBOX controller. I really tried every button and I wasn’t able to pause the game. Oh well, thankfully the “ESC” button on my keyboard wasn’t too far from my reach. Also, thank the lord for auto-fire!

The game really delivers on its name. The game isn’t easy. Thankfully, with some practice, you can get further and further into the game. This game is all about memorization and knowing which ships come next. That’s why I’m so glad I have infinite continues.

Something I really like in this game is the different “skins” you have in the game. You can change the “CRT mode” in the game to five different modes and you can change the brightness of the game by just a button press. As a retro game enthusiast and collector, I’m really happy that things like this find their way into modern games.

The “needs more development and polish” things

The scoring system needs some polishing. First of all, I would love to see enemies display their score value when they die. Like right after they die, you quickly see how much points you got from killing them.

Secondly, it would be nice if there was a high score table with a date when you reached said score. Something that would be even more awesome if you had the ability to share this online.

And finally, I think that the “High-score” system is bugged out. Each time I start a new game or use a continue, the player score resets and the high score too. That’s something the developer should take a look at.

While the UI in this game is pretty decent, I was pretty close to putting it in the good department until I reached the section you see in this screenshot above this paragraph. It’s really hard to read the score when you use a dark blue colour on a purple background. I think it would be easier to read if you make it white instead of blue. In addition to that, I think it would be pretty helpful if you made the font in the main menu a bit bigger. When I wasn’t sitting close to my screen, I wasn’t able to read it very well.

One minor detail that you should add is a “Are you sure you want to quit” dialogue when a player selects the quit button.

While I was able to arm myself with a bomb, I was unable to use it or to figure out how it works. But this will be most likely added in a future release of the game. It would be interesting if some rare enemies drop more bombs.

There are three things that could improve for the future versions of this game. The first thing that I would focus on is the soundtrack. To be honest, I really didn’t like the music. The sound effects are fine, the little jingle that plays when you start the first level isn’t good.

The game could use some more sound effects, to be honest. It would be helpful for the player when the special flame arrows are shot, a special sound effect plays.

The second thing that I didn’t like too much about this game is some wallpapers. I think that the current assets that are being used don’t fit the theme at all. The game gives off a space/industrial vibe to me and most of the backgrounds are more generic ones. Keep the backgrounds a bit more consistent.

The third and final thing that I would change is the difficulty curve. While the game is supposed to be challenging, I had a long time to pass the first level and I got pretty frustrated and stopped playing the game for a few times. I think this game could benefit from more gradual build up instead of being extremely hard from the first few minutes.

The engine

If I may be honest, I think that this game is held back by the engine it’s programmed in. When I talked with the developer about the first version of the article, he told me that various things I recommended weren’t possible with the engine.

I think that the developer has some nice ideas that are present in this title, but I think it would be better if the developer used another engine that allowed more freedom. Something like YoYo GameMaker or Construct.

I think that this game can become a better game if it would be rebuilt in an engine where the developer has more freedom to control more elements of the game.

Conclusion

At this moment in time, the game is 3$.

At its current state, the game is pretty rough and needs more polishing before I can recommend it to other players.

But, I think it would be a nice idea to take a look at this game and give your feedback to the developer. Since, I think that this game can become a nice indie title if it gets some more development and gets a bit more polished up.

If you are interested in what you have seen and read, go ahead and buy yourself a copy from the official website. Otherwise, wait a few months until the game got some more development and give a try again then.

So, that’s everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing about it. Thank you for reading my article and I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until then take care and have a great rest of your day!

Publishing: RuleMkr Announces Global Pre-Registration of 2D Pocket RPG, NTales!

RuleMkr, a newest Korean Development Company launched a cute and nostalgic 2D Pocket RPG, NTales: Child of Destiny which was recently opened in the Philippines and Australia. This success reached worldwide audience and opens pre-registration before Grand Launch commence.

Nov 13, 2017. 2D Pocket PRG, NTales has opened the pre-registration starting today, November 13, 2017 available for all current and upcoming players from all around the globe. Players who pre-registered will receive a variety of exclusive in-game rewards and items in the free-to-play game exclusively! All players can sign-up within 20 days starting from the start date of the pre-registration!

Pre-register NOW! ➡️ https://goo.gl/ycR59v

NTales: Child of Destiny has now achieved the milestone to be able to proceed in having a pre-registration for the upcoming Global Launch! Months have passed since the first Soft Launch in the Philippines are and now making its way to expand around the globe to entertain avid 2D RPG fans.

SIGN UP and pre-register by clicking the link above to win exciting prizes! Successful registrants get to take home great perks you couldn’t resist! What are you waiting for, sign-up NOW! Spread the news for this newest 2D Pocket RPG pre-registration invite!

Let’s Play NTales!

Google PlayStore: https://goo.gl/5LrjmP

NTales, your 2D Pocket RPG, offers the multitude of battles, exploration, and special features. Save the kingdom with different sub-quests while exploring and defeating various monsters through its over 200 maps! Collect and summon cute and powerful pets to fight along your side. Challenge the Boss Dungeon with your friends! Various costumes, wings, and unique equip and items to obtain! 3 Special Hero classes to choose! Make them even powerful by choosing from different subclasses you want!

Watch out for further announcement for the rewards on to this 2D Pocket RPG via Facebook Fan Page, plug Community and in-game announcements.

For more information and updates about 2D Pocket RPG, NTales’ Grand Launch, feel free to visit our plug Community and Official Facebook Fan Page!

Official Links

NTales: Child of Destiny Official Website: https://goo.gl/7drdsM

NTales: Child of Destiny Naver Plug Community Link: https://goo.gl/MBts2y

NTales: Child of Destiny Official Facebook Fan Page Link: https://goo.gl/XoVZV8

NTales: Child of Destiny Youtube Link: https://goo.gl/1YsX3d

 About NTales: Child of Destiny

NTales: Child of Destiny is a complete take on MMORPG.

This new game offers the multitude of battles, exploration, and special features. Enjoy this new 2D Pocket RPG style! A linear storyline or get distracted with interesting sub-quests. NTales added twists of MMO by implementing Raid Parties, Guild War and PvP. Fighting along your side are adorable and powerful monsters with a PvP Mode of their own! 2D Pocket RPG you surely can’t get enough!

Summon Pet, enjoy various PvE and PvP game modes! Classic hero classes to choose from but a wide variety of class builds to your preference.

Game Features:

• Accomplish impossible missions and side-quests!
• Gear up your class with great costume, wings, unique equipment and items!
• Challenging Battle Modes – Boss Dungeon, Infinity Tower, Time Dungeon and Pet Island
• Summon cute and powerful pets to fight along your side!
• Tag along your friends to defeat Boss Dungeon, join guild and party with peer!
• Choose from 3 Classic Hero Classes: Warrior, Magician, and Cleric!
• Journey to over 200 Maps – Sharpen your skill to defeat the monsters!

NTALES: CHILD OF DESTINY RELATED LINKS:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTalesGlobal/

Plug: https://www.plug.game/Ntalesglobal

YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDTeO9ZirCg

 ABOUT RULEMAKR

Rulemakr is a Korean Development Company recently established and aims to bring forth quality and new games from Korea worldwide.

Review: The Legend Of Zelda – Minish Cap (GBA) ~ Easiest Zelda Game?

Zelda wiki entry

Ah man, I have a ton of memories of this game. I played this game when I didn’t have enough money to buy games myself. I was quite young. If I remember correctly, I was just getting into high school. So, I was 11 – 12 years old when I rented this game from the video game store. I almost finished the game before my rent time was over. So, after I returned it, I rented it the next weekend. As it turned out, somebody else rented it and saved over my save file. I was so let down, I actually didn’t play the game that much. After a year or two, my local game store stopped renting out games. They sold them all second hand. Then I bought this game and I finished it in a week. But how was my experience? Well, let’s take a look at it! And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the content of this article and/or the game. 

Easy?

So, I claim in my title that this is the easiest Zelda game in the series. And I stand by that claim. This game is rather on the easy side. Not only that, it’s quite short. But more on that, later.

The story in this game tells the story how Link got his green hat. Once every 1000 years, there is a special festival for the Minish. A race that helped create the master sword. Link is the grandson of the blacksmith with the Princess Zelda as childhood friend.

You get asked to deliver a sword to the King. After you play a bit around on the festival, you see Vaati, the winner of the sword contest destroy the Master Sword and turn Zelda into stone.

That’s all I’m going to “spoil” from the story. (It are the first ten minutes of the game anyways.) The story is pretty well crafted. The characters are memorable and written pretty well. There is one thing that Nintendo implemented that I’m not a big fan off. That are the Kingstones.

These stones are pretty much the ways you open secrets in this game. You find them all over the world and your goal is to match your piece with somebody else. Then you open a cave or something along those lines. On paper, this can be interesting… But in theory, it isn’t. The two flaws here is that you see where the secret opens AND you have way and way to many Kingstones in the end. This gives the Kingstones less value and ruins the fun.

New items

Graphically, this game looks amazing. It gives off some Wind Waker vibes. The world is really colorful and bright. It’s really pleasant to look at.

The animations also give off this Wind Waker vibe. There isn’t anything I didn’t like about the visual presentation of this game.

What I really liked in this game was the world design. In this game, you can shrink down to a really small size, to the size of the Minish. This makes some locations that more memorable. When I replayed this game I often thought: “Oh hey, there are Minish living in this roof.” Oh, also, like in the Legend Of Zelda Link’s Awakening, this game also has references to the Mario games. Have fun looking for them!

In this game, you get some classical Zelda items like the boomerang and the bow and arrow. Yet, there are also some new items. The Mole Mitts you can use to dig your way in certain areas. A special cane that helps you flip over enemies and an upgraded Roc’s feather. You get a special cape to jump around. This cape also makes your jump longer. Oh yeah, and the vacuum cleaner… I mean the gust jar. This nifty item can suck up air and spit it back out. Guess what it’s used in a water puzzle.

The items are used very creatively. But one part that is introduced extremely well is the Four Swords. When you defeat a dungeon, you get a new element. With this element, you can create clones of Link in certain places. This makes the puzzles in some areas really well done.

Earlier in the review I said that this game was easy. To a seasoned Zelda player, this game can be easily beaten. When this is your first Zelda game, it will take you a bit longer. I felt that in some areas, the game could be a bit harder. It’s one of those games you play through because it’s a fun game. The atmosphere is there.

Music

 The music in this game is one of the strongest points in this game. When I listen to music from the GBA, I think that there aren’t that many soundtracks that sound as nice on the gameboy advance then this one. At least, as far that I played.

The soundtrack also has some remixed tracks from the previous games. This got a smile on my face.

The sound design is well done. There weren’t any sounds I thought were out of place.

The controls are responsive and spot on. I didn’t have much trouble controlling Link. Apart from some ice puzzles, I think the controls are perfect.

This game isn’t that long. Instead of the usual 8 dungeons and one final dungeon, this game has 6 dungeons. I wished there were a bit more dungeons then that.

In any case, I think I said everything I wanted to say about this game. It’s time for the conclusion! (Oh, for my new readers… Yes, I left some things out. Gameplay wise and such… Just because if you are interested I want that there things that you can discover.)

Conclusion

The bad:

 – Kingstones aren’t well implemented.

 – This game isn’t that difficult.

 – I wished this game was longer.

The good:

+ Solid gameplay.

+ Fun new story.

+ Nice visuals.

+ Great music and sound design.

+ Fun new items.

+ …

Final thoughts:

This game is quite well made. It came out near the end of the Gameboy advance’s life cycle… So, it’s a bit overlooked. While it’s not the best Zelda game out there, it’s a really good one. Apart from Zelda fans, I would recommend this game to any new Zelda player. This game is the perfect entry level Zelda game to start with the series.

While this game has some flaws, I think it doesn’t take much away from the experience. I didn’t find that much negative things to say about this game. That’s why I give it full marks. It’s one of the best games out on the GBA and it’s a must own!

Score: 100/100

Anyways, thank you for reading this review and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to welcome you in another article sometime, but until then… Have a great day and game on~