Yearly Archives: 2018

Mystera Legacy

Mystera Legacy is a free-to-play MMO by indie Developer James Hamer (with some help). Mystera Legacy is playable via browser, or on Android through the Play store.

Features:

Player Controlled World: Form tribes, build settlements, craft and join the economy. Mystera Legacy is a game where players have control.

PvP: Smite that obnoxious neighbor that won’t stay off your lawn.

Infinite Dungeon: Endless levels in an underground dungeon where you can get awesome loot.

Totally Free: No pay to win content, and no secret subscriptions required.

Dragon Quest XI Review: Never Too Much of a Good Thing

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

DQ XI Review - Puff Puff

Some things never change. Nor should they.

I find it to be personally fascinating that in 30 years, Dragon Quest has remained unchanged. It’s remarkable that one of the most popular RPG franchises in the world just keeps the same style and type of RPG, and it just keeps working. There are a few things I expect in my Dragon Quest game: Akira Toriyama’s adorable monsters, grinding at every new town I come to, and Puff Puff. Maybe my expectations are a little odd, but that’s the way it goes. I’m still not done completing my first run of Dragon Quest XI, but it’s not for a lack of trying. I’m closing in on 50 hours and still in the main game, then there’s the lengthy post-game content to go through. While the latest in the Dragon Quest franchise has not changed too much, it feels and plays better than ever. A lot of enjoyable mechanics from other games have come back and feel tighter, easier to manage (crafting as an example). While it is a very linear JRPG, there is a ton of story to enjoy, twists, turns, and plenty of challenging boss battles to hack through.

DQ XI Review - Hero

Behold our great hero, the Luminary! That outfit looks familiar…

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age stars you as the reincarnation of The Luminary, a hero from a previous Age. The Luminary is destined to seal up The Lord of Shadows again, and while I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers in this review, not everyone is all that thrilled that the ancient hero has risen again. Instead, he is seen as a herald of darkness, that dark, unpleasant times are upon the world again. The threat is not very clear over the first couple of hours; instead, it’s a young boy who happens to be the Luminary, meeting a new friend and running away from people who hate him simply for being who he is, something he has no control over. These first few hours is a nice, pleasant tutorial, slowly introducing fighting, having allies, and even the Mini Forge. Speaking of allies, you will build a party of up to four characters, and though you will have more than four friends to join the quest, you can swap the others in and out of battle at will. They also gain EXP even if they didn’t fight, so it won’t be like Final Fantasy X where if you don’t swap a character in to perform an action they get nothing.

DQ XI Review - Open World

There are so many beautiful areas in this game.

The main character runs around in the open world and can see the enemies in real time wandering around (unless you’re on the water. You can’t see aquatic enemies). If you come into range and attack (X) before they get in close, it counts as a sneak attack, though it won’t guarantee you a preemptive strike. It does, however, help against the enemy getting the first hit in. Your allies default to being controlled by the AI, but if you want you can go to tactics and adjust what they do (or control them yourself). I was fine with the AI controlling them because not once did the AI controlled logic let the main character die. If they were under a certain threshold (typically 40-50%), they would fire off the appropriate heal. This leads me to one of the things I was worried about: MP. This game “does” have MP-restoring items, but it’s always been an issue for me in Dragon Quest. Your staff-wielding characters gain a percentage of their damage in MP, which can be increased through the skill system and is an absolute godsend. I was genuinely surprised that the AI pattern for the allied characters was so smart.

DQ XI Review - Metal Slime

Damn Metal Slimes. Stop running and give me that XP!

Combat’s pretty simple though. When a character you’re controlling has a turn, it will prompt you to Attack, use Abilities, Items, swap equipment, et cetera. I did occasionally swap weapons for weaknesses (Anti-Dragon, Anti-Demon, et cetera) because it does help. Once you pick an action, it will go immediately, and the next friend or foe will act. Larger enemies can (and usually do) get a second action, from bosses to regular encounters. There are items you can equip to counteract that though. The other key to battle is “Pep”. Back in Dragon Quest VIII, you could power-up a’la Dragon Ball Z, and a similar system exists here. Instead of wasting actions in combat, you can enter a state of Pep after attacking/being attacked. There’s a percentage chance it will happen, and it can be influenced with skills, it’s not very clear how it is triggered. I like it because it allows for cool team-up skills, more damage, higher stats (though if you use a Pep Power you lose Pep). But it’s very unclear to me how it happens, making several of the Side Quests infuriating. There are Side Quests that require you to use a certain Pep Power (requiring 2 or more characters), on a certain enemy. That means you have to go around fighting until both characters have Pep, and hope you get to use the power before Pep wears off. Pep will stick around if you have it at the end of a battle, but it’s unclear again, how long it lasts. Thankfully it’s only for Side Quests, but I spent a full three and a half hours on one side quest, trying to get Hero and another character to have Pep at the same time.

DQ XI Review - Enemy Pep

Even enemies can use Pep Powers/teamups.

Other than the murkiness of Pep, combat is smooth and easy to get into, and I like being able to see those adorable enemies in the world. Even the humongous dragons are in a pretty cute style! Enemies respawn on the open world pretty fast if you’re trying to grind out GP (which you need to do often). That’s one of the big things to be aware of if you’re new to the Dragon Quest series: Grind every time you come to a new town. Just do it. The gear becomes expensive fast, and though you can supplement it through the crafting system (but you’ll have to farm fights/materials in the world to avoid the gold grind), it’s much easier to just fight for money and materials, and craft when you can. So let’s talk about that part of the game. You’ll receive a Mini Forge that will appear at every campsite you come across in the game. Campsites are visible on the minimap and in real time and have a camp to rest/restore HP, the Mini Forge to craft, a salesman to sell you mostly current gear and some healing reagents/craft materials, and you can also chat with your allies here. Sleeping does not remove status ailments or resurrect people: You need to cast a spell or pray at the statue (which also saves your game) for those. You’ll be expected to spend some gold on those services, except saving.

DQ XI Review - Crafting

I’m glad “failure” in creating at least gives you the item still.

The Mini Forge will let you craft gear, depending on what recipes you have. Recipes are gained in Side Quests and books mostly. Anytime you see a bookshelf with a bright red book, read it. It might be lore, or something funny, but a lot of crafting recipes are found in these. The materials for crafting are pretty reasonable (usually 1 of each item), and after selecting them, you go to a forging mini-game. Each action (Bash or Flourish) has an Endurance cost, and the goal is to get as many of the bars for the weapon/armor in the middle of the green spot on the meter, which turns it gold. If you are crafting and don’t complete all of the meters for it, you’ll still get the item but it will be listed as a “failure”. Getting most of them to show gold will list it as a “Perfection”. Success and better give “Perfectionists Pearls”, which will let you reforge items you purchased/crafted to give them a +1 – +3. You go through the same mini-game again, but the harder the difficulty rating, the harder it will be to succeed. Failure here means you wasted the used Perfectionists Pearls. Thankfully, you can purchase them for 100g a piece at one of the in-game shops. It’s a useful feature, and if you’ve been lucky/diligent, you can save a lot of money, and there are tons of amazing things you can make before you can purchase them. It definitely helps encourage exploring towns and overworld areas. Sometimes your next strike will gain double power, sometimes half. The bars might even occasionally lower! It’s challenging, but worthwhile to craft.

DQ XI Review - Side Quest

Some side quests are very easy. Some…take hours at least.

Speaking of Side Quests, I like that you can check a menu to see roughly where you get them at, and what will be required of you, but I had a pretty hard time figuring many of them out. Maybe I’m just used to having a marker on my maps, but some of the Side Quests, locating the required person or object can be a little frustrating. Like finding one person in a town and talking to them. That means unless you’ve already met/talked to them, you’ll wind up talking to every single person in the town. They aren’t bad, but they’re very useful to complete, so it can wind up taking more time than you’d want. That leads me back to the menu, specifically the Skill Menu. The skill system from DQVIII is back and improved without a doubt. In DQVIII you just put points into a weapon/personal stat, and eventually, you got something out of it. When you level up in DQXI, you are fully restored, gain more stats, and gain some skill points. Each character has at least three weapon trees, and at least one personal tree based on their role/personality. You unlock abilities off of this grid, giving bonuses to stats, or new abilities/passives/pep powers. The downside to this is that it can feel terribly overwhelming having to wait for three or four levels to get the one extra power you want. This is still the same as DQVIII, but at least it’s not a secret what you unlock next (unless you Google it). You can also reset the skill points at the Statues, which leads me to one more new thing the Statues can do.

DQ XI Review - Draconic Challenge

Go hard or go home! Victory is its own reward.

An optional feature in the game is known as Draconic Challenges. The game itself is not terribly difficult, but these can seriously amp up the difficulty. You don’t gain anything from them that I’m aware of, but are solely to make the game harder. From “No shopping”, “More difficult enemies”, “No running away”, “Shypox”, these make the game harder at your own choice. This review is being done under the “No Running” Draconic Challenge, arguably the easiest one to use. I like these being here, because while the game itself has a reasonable difficulty, it certainly adds replay value, especially when combined with the other weapon types for characters. There are lots of ways to play, and while it is a linear game, these things will let you come back to the game to feel the crippling blow of the dark twists the story takes in new and exciting ways (for gameplay at least)! If you decide these have become too challenging, you can remove them at the Prayer Shrines, so it’s not permanent at least.

 

DQ XI Review - Erik

It’s a long road, but one I’m glad to travel.

Kaishin no Ichigeki! 5/5

Okay, I was wrong, this is my favorite RPG of the year. It’s all I’ve played for about two weeks now, and there are all kinds of side missions and objectives I’ve missed for other playthroughs/post-game. I can’t wait to play the post-game content, which promises to be far more challenging than the regular game. I’m disappointed that there’s no Japanese dub, but since Dragon Quest has never had a dub in Japan, this makes sense. I still kind of want it though. The European voice cast is wonderful and I enjoy listening to them, and they make sense, being a Western Fantasy game. But in my Japanese games, I still want the option for a Japanese dub. I’ve heard that the music sounds inferior in some fashion, but since I’m nearly deaf in one ear, I can’t really tell. I enjoyed the music, and there are some real callbacks to former games in the series, which really made me happy.

DQ XI Review - Sylvando

Oh, that sassy Sylvando.

Dragon Quest XI is not a game you can expect to beat in ten-fifteen hours. I’m still about fifty hours in, and while I’m sure Speedrunners will make a fool of me in that statement, this is not a short game at all. There is a very major twist in the game that lengthens the story, but it didn’t feel like it was done just to lengthen the game, and is instead a really interesting storyline moment. This is a great Dragon Quest title because it feels familiar for veterans/long-time fans, but newcomers to the series will still get a lot out of it. This is the most accessible Dragon Quest I’ve ever played, and while it doesn’t hold your hand, it does give you a little boost from time to time. It reminds you of what you did last time when you load a save file, and you can talk to your party members to remind you of what you should be doing if you get distracted. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age is an absolute must-play.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Katamari Damacy REROLL Announced

Katamari Reroll Key Art

Bandai Namco Entertainment America has announced Katamari Damacy REROLL, launching on December 7, 2018 for Switch and PC (Steam).

The King of All Cosmos has knocked out all the stars in the sky after a particularly rambunctious night of fun. Realizing his mistake, The King has tasked his young son, The Prince, to go to Earth and roll up as many things as possible to recreate the missing celestial bodies. Paper clips, books, cars, buildings, mountains, and continents, nothing is too big or small for The Prince and his adhesive Katamari ball. Katamari Damacy REROLL will feature remastered graphics and cut scenes as well as new motion controls optimized for the Nintendo Switch. Using the left and right Joy-Con controllers while the Nintendo Switch is in TV mode or Tabletop mode, players can move The Prince around with ease by simply turning their wrists.

 

 

Final Fantasy Game Ports Announced

Final Fantasy Ports

At Nintendo Direct, Square Enix announced that a large part of the Final Fantasy collection will be ported to new platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, XboxOne, and PC. The full list is below.

NINTENDO SWITCH

  • FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES® Remastered Edition
  • Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY!™
  • FINAL FANTASY® VII
  • FINAL FANTASY® IX
  • FINAL FANTASY® X / X-2 HD Remaster
  • FINAL FANTASY® XII THE ZODIAC AGE®
  • FINAL FANTASY® XV POCKET EDITION HD
  • WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY® MAXIMA

XBOX ONE

  • FINAL FANTASY® VII
  • FINAL FANTASY® IX
  • FINAL FANTASY® X / X-2 HD Remaster
  • FINAL FANTASY® XII THE ZODIAC AGE®
  • FINAL FANTASY® XV POCKET EDITION HD
  • WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY® MAXIMA

PLAYSTATION®4 SYSTEM

  • FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES® Remastered Edition
  • Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY!™
  • FINAL FANTASY® XV POCKET EDITION HD
  • WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY® MAXIMA

PC

  • WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY® MAXIMA

Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle Announced

Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle Artwork

Capcom has announced the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle, a collection of seven games that honor the classic era of arcade co-ops.

The bundle includes:

  • Final Fight (1989): Up to two players can choose between Haggar, Cody or Guy to save Haggar’s daughter Jessica from the Mad Gear Gang.
  • Captain Commando (1991): Rid the galaxy of crime as up to three players take on the roles of Captain Commando, Mack the Knife, Ginzu the Ninja, or Baby Head.
  • The King of Dragons (1991): Set in a medieval world, three players pick from five options (Fighter, Dwarf, Elf, Cleric, or Wizard) to defeat orcs, harpies and other magical creatures.
  • Knights of the Round (1991): Based off of the legend of King Arthur, this game allows up to three players to choose between King Arthur himself, Lancelot, and Perceval.
  • Warriors of Fate (1992): Up to three players select from five warrior options to defeat the evil overlord in a story based on the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
  • Armored Warriors (1994): With support for up to three players, control specialized mechs and even merge two mechs into one with a “Team-up Change” for maximum damage.
  • Battle Circuit (1997): Making its console debut, up to four players become a colorful cast of bounty hunters pursuing various wanted criminals.

The Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle will release on September 18, 2018, for Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, at $19.99 US.

Killer Queen Black: PAX West 2018 Impressions

By Jaime Skelton (MissyS)

With PAX West ending over a week ago, the details of the over two dozen appointments we had is beginning to get a little fuzzy. But it’s hard to forget an unmistakably unique game like Killer Queen Black, an arcade-style 4v4 game based on the “arcade eSport” Killer Queen.

I’d actually never heard of Killer Queen until shortly before PAX. Perhaps it’s because I just don’t get out much, because Killer Queen is literally focused on the physical arcade experience. And honestly, if you try to just watch the game without having played it, you’re bound to be lost for a while. It’s fast paced and full action, and with that many players on a single screen you can go dizzy if you don’t know what to look for. In fact, the developer admitted that the chaos was better played than watched as I waited for my turn at the small booth at PAX Rising.

Despite that, let me make my best attempt to explain the gameplay, which you can see hints of in the trailer below.

In Killer Queen Black, there are two teams of four: Blue and Gold. On each team, one player is designated as the Queen. The other players are workers, which look like little chubby gummy bears. The queen has a single form, can fly, and can do a downward dashing attack; she can also activate transformation pods on the stage. The workers, in their default form, can’t attack or fly, but can collect berries and place them in their team’s hive, ride the snail on the stage, or use the transformation gates. These transformation gates turn drones into flying warriors that can (depending on their chosen transformation) use a variety of attacks to harass the other team.

There are three victory conditions to a match. The first is the military victory, achieved by killing the opponent’s queen three times (her lives can be seen in pods hanging in the hive). The second is economic, achieved by collecting a full hive of berries (which can be placed, but not stolen). The final is the snail, which can be ridden back to a hive’s base by a worker only.

Killer Queen Black Match Screenshot

With four enemies to keep an eye on – not to mention yourself and your team mates – it’s very easy to lose sight of the whole picture.  The Queen, whose life has a win/lose condition attached, is under immense pressure to stay alive and empower her team through the gates, as well as try to keep her workers defended. Warriors can help take the heat off her some, but as a team, going full out warrior might not be a wise choice. This means that everyone playing has to constantly keep a roaming eye on the snail, the hives, enemy players, and their own Queen. It’s more chaotic than it sounds.

It’s also remarkably fun, and anybody’s game. In a “first to three wins” match up of eight strangers off the floor – no devs and only one experienced player, who wasn’t playing Queen – we fought a full five matches. My team had a Queen with no experience, and we took two losses immediately as they got their bearings to the nature of the gameplay. Victory almost looked guaranteed for the other team, but we suddenly turned the game around, winning the next three matches and the full game. Even though I fumbled around as a worker and was by no means very experienced, I was pumped and wanted to play again. Alas, the schedule of a journalist at PAX is tight, and there were other gamers waiting for their turn.

It’s exciting to know that this thrilling arcade action is coming to home platforms at last: Killer Queen Black should arrive on Steam and Nintendo Switch this winter. Find out more at the official website!

 

Hunt: Showdown Performance and Content Update 2.4

Hunt: Showdown is a game about bounty hunters in pursuit of supernatural prey in a late 1800’s American setting. Rifles, revolvers and shotguns as well as more esoteric weapons are at your employ as you hunt down terrible creatures for cash, all the while trying to avoid facing other PC hunters.

Update 2.4 offers a variety of bug fixes, and considerably more. Additional graphics settings have been added in an effort to allow users not only to improve their graphics performance, but to fine tune it as well. In addition to more precise control of anti-aliasing, resolution and common settings, Crytek added to Hunt: Showdown resolution scaling technology originally used in the game Rise, as well as the ability to decouple display resolution from rendering resolution. One of the niftiest features of this new graphics update is the GPU meter, which will show the expected drain on your video card’s VRAM, so you can know exactly how much adjusting you need to do.

CPU optimizations were also added. In the last patch Crytek focused on the client for optimization. This time they looked hard at the engine and found lots of code to streamline, including a very pesky dip in framerate when entering new locations. Furthermore improvements have been made to both server and client to help with level load times. Unfortunately, this won’t help with matchmaking times. Sorry folks.

Finally, 3 new weapons have been added in an effort to expand the arsenal of the hunters and give them tools to fill holes. Or make holes. There’s a new pistol, a new shotgun, and a crossbow that actually shoots bolts tipped with shotgun shells. F’n awesome.

Jurassic World Evolution Update 1.4 Arrives

Frontier Development has released a “Free update” for their Jurassic World Evolution themepark simulation game. It appears to be mostly a patch, but it also includes a new challenge mode and sandbox features, though Frontier isn’t exactly forthcoming on the details of these in a video that mostly includes footage from previous trailers.