Steamworld heist is a strategy RPG made by Image & Form games. It could be considered a spiritual successor to Steamworld Dig, but let's get a few things out of the way first. Don't mistake this game for a sequel to Steamworld Dig. The art style and most likely the universe it's set in are the same. However, the gameplay and characters are completely different. Hence the "spiritual successor" tag. So let's get into it.
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Pokemon Picross is Pokemon's third foray into the Freemium landscape. It's dubbed "Free-to-start" and certainly meets that standard. For those not familiar with Picross, or what a nonogram puzzle is, it's basically a logic-based puzzle based on numbers. You're given a board, somewhere between 5x5 and 20x20 blocks, and you have to fill in the appropriate blocks. Basically, it's the picture below. You're bound by certain guidlines. Column 2 in the picture shows 2 over 3. This means you fill in 2 blocks in that column somewhere and then after the two, you fill in 3. That's the basic premise, and it never really exceeds that. But it doesn't. It's fun as hell if you love puzzles and it doesn't need to go any further. What sets Pokemon Picross apart from other Picross games is the use of Pokemon. Every puzzle you complete, you obtain a Pokemon. These Pokemon have abilities that you can use to help solve the puzzle. Abilities like; changing wrong placements, randomly filling in the grid before you start, or even giving you hints. This isn't a straight forward game, however. There is a freemium model attatched. For starters, you're limited to a bar of energy. Every time you fill a square, you lose one energy. This doesn't count towards "x"s though. At first, you only have about 100 energy, but you have to upgrade it at some point because certain puzzles cost more than 100 energy. In addition, you have to spend Picrites in order to progress to more levels. Picrities are naturally gained through beating levels under certain circumstances or completing the training mode every day. It isn't a bunch of Picrites however, and you basically have to complete every mission in order to not pay for the most part. Picrites are also used to refill your energy bar immediately, expand your energy bar, and obtaining more slots for Pokemon. This free-to-start model is capped! You can't spend more than $30-35 on the game (I forget exactly how much). After that, you have an infinite amount of Picrites. So while it does have a freemium model, it's more or less an overglorified demo that you can potentially never pay for and still 100%. It might take you forever if you never pay, but that seems to be an option. However, if you decide to use real money to buy Picrites, you'll have to go through a few hoops. Unfortunately, the normal method of paying just whatever you owe is not possible. Instead, you're limited to increments of $10, $20, $50, and $100. Considering the two best options are less than $10, I find this really awful. It's a pretty obvious cash grab. Conclusion: Pokemon Picross may seem annoying at first with all of it's micro-transactions, but in reality, it isn't too bad. There are some pros and cons, however. Pros: -Incredibly enjoyable if you like puzzles -Enough content to warrant the $30 cap -Can be challenging Cons: -If you spend Picrites on unlocking levels, you won't have enough energy to play more than 1 or 2 levels per sit down -If you spend Picrites on energy, you'll eventually run out of stages and Picrites -It will take you ages to get through this game without paying -The Picross shop doesn't allow you to spend the exact amount of money required. You have to go through hoops to only spend 99 cents Long story short? I enjoy the game. It's a good puzzle game and I love the addition of Pokemon abilities. I mean hey, it's free. Can't hurt a download to try it out. Stella Glow is a Strategy RPG for the Nintendo 3DS. Created by Imageepoch, it is most likely their last game as they are seemingly shutting down for good. For those unaware, Imageepoch is known for the Luminous Arc series, another set of Strategy RPGs. Can Stella Glow reach the hype surrounding it?
Story: Stella Glow has you guiding a fair few of characters throughout what seems to be your typical story. A team of characters need to save the world from certain destruction. What really immerses the player into this world is how incredibly well constructed the world and characters are. There aren't many cutscenes. In fact, I'd wager there are less than 5. Instead, you get static images of the characters and a text box. But what brings the charm to these characters is the frequent use of good voice acting. You can really hear their emotions, their problems, etc. Everything about the voice acting brings these characters alive. And while the voice acting isn't constant, the story is well written throughout. At the end of the game, there will be characters you love to hate, and characters you can't live without (Popo is the best girl). As the player of the game you take the role of commanding a rag tag group of characters in their quest to recruit the 4 Witches to reverse a curse that Hilda the Time Witch has placed upon the world. It's quite the journey, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. You're taken to various locals, each with their own unique atmosphere. I don't really want to explain more as to ruin the story. Not even a slight hint as to who you'll find and their characteristics. No, that's something you need to find on your own. Just know, the story is pretty deep and they really expand on each character extensively. The story is deep and inviting. It may not be the most memorable, but it is certainly captivating. Gameplay: Stella Glow plays similarly to games such as Fire Emblem. You command a certain amount of units and move them around a grid. You have the option to change around gear that have different benefits as well. What's really unique about Stella Glow is just how strategic the battle system is. First of all, you don't move your team as a whole. Instead, each individual unit, both enemy and friendly, moves individually based on a speed stat. This creates a situation where you're not always moving your teammates right after each other and really have to plan out where your units are going and if they intersect with an enemy. You can't just move one unit and expect to be able to move the next unit to block a specific enemy. You do, however, get a graphic on screen that shows turn order, so you can use that to plan ahead. Secondly, the witches you gather not only have a bar that is used for special attacks, which every character gets, but they also have a shared bar that maxes out at 5. What this bar is used for is "Song Magic". This is unique to the witches and involved 4 different songs per witch, which is unlocked via talking with teammates (which I'll discuss later). The first two songs are area of effect and either damage or do some sort of Buff/DeBuff. The latter two are map-wide songs which are incredibly strong and use up 4-5 of your bars. The latter song always does damage to every enemy and then has a constant buff to your team. The first one does one of the other. This really demonstrates how heavily this game focuses on positioning. When using the map-wide songs, the user can't move until the song is over! You can't just waltz them to the front lines and expect to survive the duration. All in all, the gameplay is amazing, but has a few shortcomings. For starters, you can't rotate the map. Doesn't sound awful, but there is unfortunately some maps where tiles are obscured by buildings or trees, etc, and you can't rotate to view them better. It does get frustrating. In addition, battles take a really long time. Enemy turns can take a few seconds and there are usually at least 5+ enemies. It gets more noticeable with Bosses. Bosses tend to have very frequent turns, but the problem is is that they are no where near you at the start. This leads to a boss simply not moving and waiting. This in turn makes the battles last even longer. It gets annoying when you have to cycle through 8 enemies only for each of them to take a second or two to simply not do anything. Other than that, I have no other qualms about the battle system. The battle system is great and probably one of the best in terms of Strategy RPGS. More: I keep mentioning the story and the battle system. But I've yet to mention how both of them come together. Stella Glow is 100% a strategy RPG. What do I mean by this? Well, the game is divided into two sections; "Mission Time" and "Free Time". Mission time is all about fighting enemies and progressing the story. Free Time is all about learning more about the characters and strengthening them outside of the normal level gains. But what makes Free Time a part of the "strategy" is that each time you enter Free Time, you're given an option of; talking to your teammates, doing jobs, exploring a random area, and tuning the witches. I won't get too deep into the tuning since it reveals plot points, but it's basically the only way to get more songs onto the witches. Doing jobs will net you money and exploring an area will give you an item. Talking to your teammates, however, will give them new abilities. And this is where the strategy comes into play. Each Free Time only grants you the ability to do three things. You can choose any combination of the 4 activities, but each one once completed will take away one of your remaining "free time". You really need to plan. Are you behind on cash and need an item? Do jobs. Do you want to power up your favorite character? Talk to them. It's just so in-depth and amazing. Conclusion: Stella Glow is a phenomenal game. It really pushes itself to be a true strategy game. Everything you do has to be cautious and planned. If you mess up your Free Time and don't plan accordingly, you can be set back. But it's forgiving. There is no need to grind and if you mess up a few times, it's not the end of the world. The story and the gameplay really bring the game alive. Pros: -Immersive story with great voice acting and character development -Battle system is great -The whole game is strategic, even down to who you talk to on your Free Time -A relatively deep amount of customization in the various battle strategies Cons: -You can't rotate the maps to gain a better angle -Battles take forever Conclusion: I love this game. I highly, highly recommend it. At the time of this review, it's probably my favorite game of 2015! Yo-Kai Watch has become quite the sensation across the ocean in Japan. Noted for it's similarities to Pokemon, Yo-Kai Watch has you travelling a map in search of spirits to catch and battle with. Does it hit its mark?
Well, somewhat. The premise is pretty simple and very reminiscent of Pokemon. You play a child, around the age of 10, who is allowed to wander the streets unsupervised catching incredibly dangerous characters. The story is nothing to write home about. It's episodic in nature, but barely connects each episode. You'll find yourself helping one friend in Episode 4 (for example), only to move on to helping another person in Episode 5 with barely any correlation to the last episode. The final few episodes attempt to pull together some semblance of a story, but honestly, it wasn't enough to get excited for. The ending felt incredibly rushed and it happened way too soon. However, a good saving grace was the well written dialog. It was witty and humorous, something that is hard to find in a game marketed towards children. Don't get me wrong, this is certainly not a short game. While I finished it in about 14 hours, I'd consider that a rushed playthrough. There is an abundance of side quests and of course a load of Yo-Kai to hunt and collect. Outside of the core elements of catching and battling, there are a few other things to do. For starters, there are bug and fish collecting minigames. They are pretty straight forward. You have to land a spinning mark on a specific section of a circle. The rarer the bug/fish, the harder it is. The bugs and fish are then used to either sell for cash or use in side-quests. In addition, there are at least two different unique "boss" challenges. One is an incredibly difficult boss that fights you if you break a certain rule a few times in a row. The second is a massive demon chase that makes use of your limited running ability. Both are challenging and are certainly fun. I'm sure there are more non-story based bosses that I've yet to encounter as well. As for side quests, boy are there a lot! A lot of them are multi-part and do have some story aspects to them, but I'm not sure how to feel about them. Most of the quests I played were simple fetch quests that were incredibly boring. But, the developers did seem to put a lot of effort into the quests, so they are definitely worth a shot. My biggest gripe about the side-quests, is the absolutely poor map system. For the main quests, you usually get a marker as to where to go. However, for the side quests, you get no marker. You can't even turn off the marker for the main quest and turn it on for a side-quest. The best they do to help you is give you a hint as to where you have to go through the dialog from the quest giver and a hidden, never spoken of, button that shows you a general location as to where you should go. I spent so long looking for where to go, that I got incredibly frustrated. It's one thing if they mentioned the general location button, but they didn't. I had to find that through trial and error. The biggest draw to this game are the Yo-Kai you can collect. There are certainly a bunch of Yo-Kai to catch and most, if not all, of their designs are fantastic. The developers really put emotion into the characters in this game and you will certainly adore some of these spirits. There is a big downside to this collecting however. In order to have a Yo-Kai join your team, you need to be lucky. Basically, Yo-Kai join your team randomly. You can sort of sway it into liking you by feeding it its favorite food. Unfortunately, I found absolutely no place in game that mentions or even hints at what each Yo-Kai likes! It's all trial and error, which is incredibly frustrating. Not only do you have to guess what they like, but even if you guess right and use the highest quality, most expensive item, there still is a chance they won't join you. Hell, I've used a $500 steak only to get a Yo-Kai I never targeted with food! I really think a Pokemon-like system would have benefited this game substantially. The random aspect really throws everything off and makes it frustrating. Also, Yo-Kai don't learn new moves. Instead, as they level, their moves level as well. In addition all Yo-Kai, at least I think all of them, can either evolve or fuse. If a Yo-Kai can't evolve, then it will fuse and vice versa. I don't think there is any Yo-Kai that can both evolve and fuse. The combat system is surprisingly complex. At first glance though, it doesn't seem to be. The Yo-Kai will attack themselves and you only have a few options of input. You're limited to 6 Yo-Kai and they are placed on a circle. The front three will attack by themselves, while the back three will do nothing. The complexity comes into play with what you can do during the battle. During the battle, you have access to a few commands. The primary command that you use is the Soultimate. These are powerful moves that can do a variety of thing. You have to play a minigame to get them going however. These range from drawing symbols, to popping "balloons", to spinning a circle, and so on. Yo-Kai build up meters by attacking and these meters are fully unleashed when using a Soultimate. You can't spam the Soultimates, so it's all about strategy! The second thing you can do is simply rotate the circle of Yo-Kai. Someone is starting to die? Rotate him out! Simple enough! The third action you can do is utilize a pin. This pin is movable via the touch screen and serves a few purposes. Firstly, it allows you to target specific Yo-Kai or even specific body parts on the Yo-Kai (something featured heavily in boss battles). Secondly, spirit-like balls occasionally roam the battlefield and you can launch a pin at them to gain things such as items, bonus XP, affection increase on enemy Yo-Kai (what's used to recruit), and even something that will add to your Soultimate meter. Lastly, enemy Yo-Kai can "inspirit" your Yo-Kai. Basically, these are debuffs making your Yo-Kai do various things such as, not attack, attack its teamates, etc. You can rotate an inspirited Yo-Kai to the bottom three and then use the Purify option. Again, to purify, you have to go through a minigame. These minigames are exactly the same as the Soultimate minigames. And that's not all. Before the battle, you can set the Yo-Kai, obvious enough. However, each Yo-Kai belong to a tribe and if you place Yo-Kai next to each other from the same tribe, they will get bonuses, such as movement speed or defense up. Even further, Yo-Kai have personalities. These determine what your Yo-Kai do during battle. A Yo-Kai that has a twisted personality will focus on Inspiriting techniques, while a Tender Yo-Kai will focus on healing. You can buy books that will change these personalities to further strategize before battle. Conclusion Long story short, I enjoyed the game. It certainly has its ups and downs though. I'm not a fan of the repetitive side-quests and the Yo-Kai collecting can be quite frustrating. Pros: -Excellent design and characterization of the Yo-Kai -Battle system is innovative, fun and rewarding -Graphics and design is beautiful and immersive -There is a lot of depth and customization towards making your team -A lot of things to do Cons: -Story is bland, boring and barely connects to itself -Catching a Yo-Kai is purely luck -The map system is vague and will have you wandering a lot, just looking for the right place Final verdict? I liked this game and recommend it. If you enjoy collecting and battling with monsters, this game will be for you. If you don't care about the story and just want to battle all day, this game is for you. It could use a bit more refining, but it is definitely a good competitor for Pokemon! ~Ryan |
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