Monthly Archives: April 2018

Citadel: Forged with Fire Launches Daily Quests

Citadel - Forged with Fire - Daily Quests

A new update hit today for Blue Isle Studios Citadel: Forged with Fire, which features three main quest givers, one in each starter town. They’ll provide a daily quest that gives valuable rewards upon completion. “Max level” players will also have quest givers outside of Boss shrines for their daily quests.

Citadel: Forged With Fire Quest System Update Features:

  • Three Main Quest Givers: One quest giver is stationed in each starter town to send players on unique and challenging adventures.
  • Daily Quests: Each of the three main quest givers will provide a new quest each day for those who dare to accept the challenge.
  • Valuable Rewards: Quest completion will give players precious crafting resources and big experience boosts.
  • Max level quest givers: A set of three “Max Level” quest givers are located outside of each of the boss shrines

The Thin Silence to Donate 10 Cents of Every Copy Sold to Mental Health Charity

Two PM Studios is partnering with Nkidu Games between their first major upcoming title, The Thin Silence, and non-profit organization CheckPoint. This includes donating 10 cents to charity for each copy of the game sold, with the aim to aid CheckPoint in their mission to provide support and awareness on mental health issues.  CheckPoint Organisation Ltd is a not-for-profit organization which connects mental health resources with video games and technology. More information about CheckPoint can be found on their website. The Thin Silence will be available on Steam, Itch, and Humble in Early Access for Windows PC/Mac on April 27th, 2018.

When we started making The Thin Silence, we didn’t know we were making a game about mental health. I wasn’t really comfortable with that being a leading theme of the game for a lot of development. There’s a lot of shame and fear about opening up about these things, video games are “fun” after all. Seeing Checkpoint’s work is part of what made me feel like we could and should make a statement and share our perspectives.” – Ben Follington, Technical Director

EXPERIENCE THE STORY

  • Enjoy 5 hours of unique and varied challenges driven by a fresh item-vs-environment interaction mechanic.
  • Experience breathtaking vistas and quiet contemplation.
  • Featuring a moving original score by LightFrequency.
  • Over 40 unique in-game documents.
  • Mostly believable hacking sequences.

White Owls Inc. Announces Partnership for Debut Game, The Good Life

White Owls are partnering with Limited Run Games and the Boston-based Video Game Orchestra for their debut mystery RPG, The Good Life. The first title from Deadly Premonition’s Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro and his studio, it’s a debt-repayment daily life RPG expected to launch in third quarter 2019 for Steam and Playstation 4. The Kickstarter can be found at this link. Naomi, a debt-ridden journalist moves to Rainy Woods, the “happiest town in the world” to report on the happenings in this town, but not everything is what it seems.

Once a month, everyone who lives in Rainy Woods-now including Naomi-must turn into a dog or a cat. Live alongside the town’s kooky residents in this single-player open-world adventure, uncovering mysteries, building friendships, and climbing out of debt, one photograph at a time. But be careful-each decision you make has lasting consequences in the fabric of the game and will alter the way the story ends.

Sky Noon Closed Beta Starts This Week

Sky Noon CBT

Lunar Rooster announced today that starting this Thursday (April 19th) at 12 pm PDT, Sky Noon will be starting its Closed Beta phase of testing. For a chance at the CBT, players should join the Sky Noon Discord and authorize the key bot in the channel. In Sky Noon, players use various super-power compressed air weapons to send them flying out of their boot spurs! Grappling hooks and lassos must constantly be used to prevent players from falling off into the great blue sky. Combined with other items like steam-powered jetpacks, jump pads, and teleporters, cowboys need to be quick on the draw and light on their boots to succeed.

Shenmue I & II Are Coming Back to PS4/XB1/PC

SEGA is proud to announce that their most requested re-release of all time is finally coming to life: Shenmue I and Shenmue II on PS4/XBox One/PC in 2018! Though Shenmue III is still on the way, these masterpieces are coming back, to bring the story of retribution and danger to life again, as Ryo Hazuki sets out to avenge his father’s death and unravel the secrets behind the mysterious “Dragon Mirror”.

Shenmue I & II comes complete with the original feature set that defined modern gaming, including enthralling jujitsu combat, investigative sleuthing, and RPG elements in addition to memorable mini-games. Shenmue I & II is set within engrossing real-time open worlds that feel truly alive thanks to day-to-night cycles and weather changes, with a population of civilians who follow their own schedules. It will stay true to the original game, but with modernized features and fully scalable screen resolution, modern/classic control schemes, PC graphics options, an updated UI, and the Japanese and English voiceovers.

Feudal Alloy Alpha Impressions

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Feudal Alloy Demo

This image tells you everything you need to know.

Metroidvanias are easily my favorite platformer, and always will be. A Metroidvania is a style of platformer (usually 2D side-scrolling) where you play a character that explores a vast area and grows in power by leveling up from killing enemies and finding power-ups/money to purchase power-ups along the way. In some games (SOTN), those purchasable items are not the end-game content, some games they’re a little more important. But I love these games so very much, and when I was pitched the description of Feudal Alloy, I was onboard immediately. Feudal Alloy is a 2D Metroidvania that looks hand-painted. But what’s best of all, you play a robot piloted by a fish! Yes, a goldfish-powered robot, that swings a sword to explore this vast, beautiful world. I cannot stress enough how much fun this was for me.

Feudal Alloy - Explore

Not pictured: Several creepy robots, now deceased.

If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what possibly will. This Alpha was fairly short, up to about the first boss, but there’s a lot to learn in that hour or so timeframe. Less, if you’ve already completed a playthrough and know the secrets/skills. Feudal Alloy is different from practically every other Metroidvania I’ve ever played, and that’s certainly a good thing. I always say you shouldn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but the changes/strategy employed in Feudal Alloy made sense and were challenging without being frustrating. For the most part, anyway. Your health bar is associated with oil (you’re a robot), and your attacks fill up a heat gauge, which lowers over time though you can use some coolant to expedite that. Coolant is pretty plentiful, but in this phase of testing, oil definitely is not. I only found a few health drops, which I wound up needing to use sooner rather than later. But you can go back to the start and purchase oil, as well as bombs and armor upgrades.

Feudal Alloy - Overheat

You can very easily overheat -be careful.

With this in mind, you have to really pay attention to what you’re swinging at, because enemies hit hard, and you don’t want to just stand in range of being hit, swinging away. If you overheat (and you will), you can’t attack until the meter empties. As you kill enemies, you’ll level up (and thankfully it grants a full health restore) and can unlock new skills in one of three trees. For now, only one tree is open, all the way to the fourth skill (which is an awesome explosion move). I cannot stress enough how powerful that explosion is, and how useful it is for grinding. It uses most of your heat gauge, and you access it by crouching and hitting block. These aren’t screens filled with enemies, at least not yet, but with careful movement and planning, you can use it to even hit enemies in the air, because this move is accessible on ladders.

Feudal Alloy - Shop

Money was pretty hard to come by.

This has all the staples of a Metroidvania: Infuriating enemy patterns, lots of damage, mazes, backtracking, buying/finding items, and secret areas! It’s pretty easy to see the hidden areas for if you’re paying attention anyway. There are spots on the ceilings and walls that are boarded up, which you can break with a few sword swings. I don’t think they’re “too easy” to see, but they fit in nicely with the overall aesthetic. However, there is something I think this game needs more of and that’s Saving. I redid about 10-15 minutes of this demo a good ten times because I either wasn’t strong enough/accidentally took almost a full health bar of damage before the boss/couldn’t figure out how to get around the spike traps. Because spike traps, like in the old days, meant instant death. There’s a section before the boss where spike traps pop up in a certain rhythm or pattern. I still am not 100% sure how I got through it but died there oh so many times trying to.

Feudal Alloy - End

It wasn’t long, but it was definitely enjoyable.

Despite a lack of save spots (there are some, but this zone could probably use one more), I loved playing this. I’m going to keep a close eye on its development as well. A lot of the things that I’ve enjoyed about the genre are here. I’ve never cared about having to backtrack or loop around an area simply to progress because that’s a great way to level, farm, and find secrets. Plus, you aren’t playing as a Vampire Hunter, or a Bounty Hunter. You’re a fish. A fish that’s piloting a suit of mechanical armor. You can upgrade it, gain powers, hurl grenades, and explore an absolutely gorgeous world. It’s already shown itself to be challenging, and from what I read on Steam, other areas will use other color palettes/themes and should be exciting. I love this art style, so I’m excited to see what’s done with it. Sometimes it’s hard to see what items that drop are exp, and what’s just scrap though. When you kill an enemy, they explode into parts that you can walk over to acquire unless they’re usable items, then you have to hit down to get them. That’s fine, but sometimes I was could miss exp items because they blend in, or explode and bounce away. It’s got a ways to go yet, but Feudal Alloy has definitely captured my attention with smooth gameplay, delightful visuals, and a great gimmick.

A code was provided for this review.

 

Ash of Gods

Ash of Gods is a turn-based strategy RPG featuring a rogue-like visual novel narrative forcing you to make difficult decisions and accept the deaths that comes from them. Manage battles, resources, and relationships to come out alive in a game where everyone, including your main character, can die. Available for Windows, MAC, & Linux, and soon to IOS, Android, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, & Switch.

Features:

Ready to Duel: Experience the brilliant combination of classic role-playing tactics and collectible-card game elements.

Unenviable Leader: Your choices will save lives and end others.

Non-Existent Complacency: The battles are forever fresh and dynamically challenging with adapting A.I. in addition to the competitive multiplayer.