Monthly Archives: March 2019

Stardew Valley: Android Review

By Jaime Skelton (MissyS)

While Concerned Ape’s hit rural RPG, Stardew Valley, isn’t as popular as the indie hit Minecraft, it’s hard to think of it being any less a major force in the modern gaming era. Stardew Valley has a timelessness to it, full of replayability and continuity, and has a welcoming, positive fan base lending its support. So it’s been no surprise that there has been a constant push to see the indie PC title released on other platforms, including console and mobile.

In October 2018, Stardew Valley saw its first mobile release on iOS devices. Now, several months later, fans are being treated to the release of the game on Android, with additional improvements over the iOS version (brought by the assistance of developer The Secret Police). We were given the chance to get hands on with the Android version in Alpha, and now we can talk about how well Stardew Valley thrives on its newest platform.

Stardew Valley Android Creating Screenshot

What’s a Stardew?

Because Stardew Valley has just celebrated its third anniversary, it’s fair to assume many of you are already familiar with the game. For those who aren’t, though, let me pause to give you a brief rundown of the entire game. If you want to know a little more in depth, you can read our initial launch review by Outfoxed.

Stardew Valley is a farming roleplaying game, in a similar vein to the Harvest Moon series. You play as the heir to a family farm that has fallen in disrepair. The goal – though the game does not force your hand – is to improve your farm and the community around it. In addition to farming and livestock, it includes cooking, fishing, mining, combat, exploring, crafting, relationships, marriage, child rearing, quests, and more. It’s a mild mix of fantasy and modern world – magic and strange creatures exist in the same world as college, bus routes, and the Internet.

The reason Stardew Valley is so replayable is because it offers plenty of choices. There are a dozen single people you can romance and marry. There are two paths you can choose when improving the town. There are five different farms you can build on. And, of course, there are endless possibilities on how you choose to play out your day to day life, what you choose to focus each of your skills on, how you choose to earn money, how fast (or slow) you choose to progress through the game’s content, and so on. With a dedicated developer and plenty of charm, it’s easy to understand why the game has been such a success.

Stardew Valley Android Zoom In Screenshot

What’s Different on Android?

Being an original PC player myself, I cannot make strong comparisons to the iOS version. What is different between the two are three core updates to saving, zooming, and controls. These changes will be making their appearance on iOS at a later date.

Saving. Stardew Valley has always operated on a ‘sleep to save’ basis; that is, your game saves only when you end your day by sleeping (or, if you failed to manage your energy, blacking out). Android now offers the opportunity to save your game at any time. You can backup your save, restore your previous save, and best of all (especially for mobile gamers): the game automatically saves when you close the app. Don’t panic though: when you reload your game, restoring from this save point is optional. Quitting to restart your day entirely is still possible, but you no longer have to be confined to finishing a day before quitting.

Stardew Valley Android Zooming Screenshot

Pinch-zoom. Perhaps my most favorite feature in this version of Stardew Valley, this allows you to use the standard two-finger “pinch” to zoom in or out on the game screen. While the PC does have a limited zoom feature, it has minimum and maximum values and cannot be easily accessed, nor is the switch between zoom levels smooth. Android zooming is seamless, however, and better yet: it allows you to get a much, much farther zoom out than ever before. This means you can, at a glance, see most of your farm, or check huge areas for forage or ore, allowing you to plot out your routes better and waste less time walking just to see if an area has something you want. You can also zoom in pretty close, which is useful for smaller devices.

Stardew Valley Android Controls Screenshot

New controls. Everyone has control preferences, and some devices are better suited for one control type over another. So now, Stardew Valley includes many new control options, including a virtual and invisible joystick, an action/attack button, a Joypad adjuster, and improved auto-attack (more on that in just a bit). This is in addition to a tap to move/interact default setting which I found perfectly effective.

All of these are in addition to mobile’s other interface changes and details, but they make a big impact on quality of gameplay.

 

A PC Player’s Experience

As I touched on earlier, I have been a PC Stardew Valley player, and haven’t adapted to other versions (even if I have eyeballed the Switch store from time to time). The mobile experience, and one away from the comforts of mouse and keyboard, is brand new to me for the game. It might be for you, too. Here’s what I found while I played.

Stardew Valley Android Crafting Screenshot

The UI and Controls are better. Mostly, at least. The default option to tap to move was, to me, a blessing. Much as I love Stardew Valley, the constant pressing of WASD to move around was tiring for my fingers, and I never quite liked a controller when dealing with the toolbar and menus. Being ‘hands off’ was a more relaxing experience for me, especially as the new zoom levels meant I could easily traverse across parts of the map with only one or two taps where I needed to go. I’ve already made my praises on the zoom feature, which is far superior to the PC’s version. Additionally, the toolbar appears by default on the left side of the screen, and can be scrolled through, making the game screen less cluttered and making it easier to access your inventory. Several of the other game screens I felt were presented neatly and cleanly.

Another great plus for me is that buying and selling on Android offers a slider to buy and sell quantities at once. Being able to slide and single tap to sell an entire stack of parsnips, or to spend all your money on strawberry seeds, is fantastic. This slider is also available for crafting stackable things.

Stardew Valley Android Fishing Screenshot

I remain on the fence about fishing, a mini-game that has always caused some stress for players. The fishing bar takes up almost the full height of your screen, which makes it easier to see your fishing gauge, but the touch controls are more sensitive and require relearning to master the fishing skill again.

What I didn’t like was that seeing information on an item was difficult. As mouseovers are not possible on mobile, seeing info on an item requires a tap-and-hold which I found less effective. Chests also work slightly differently, with manual placement of items in slots being the default (instead of dragging and letting the game auto-fill the first available inventory slot). And finally, Stardew Valley is definitely better played on a larger screen. While a tablet isn’t necessary, the small UI size will definitely prove a bit of a challenge (I play on a G6 with a 5.7” diagonal screen).

Auto-attack and auto-pathing are surprisingly good. It’s hard to find myself actually giving some praise to either of these systems, given the years of horrible pathing and AI I’ve seen in video games. I’ve come to expect these kinds of features to be mediocre at best. But I actually found that Stardew Valley’s auto-pathing was relatively smart and self-correcting. Should the pathing initially start toward the least distance, only to realize it would encounter a barrier, it would turn and correct itself to go around the obstacle. It even made traversing the early, uncleared farm easier, as I could easily tell if I could reach an area – and I didn’t need to plot a course to find my way across the farm.

Stardew Valley Android Auto Combat

Moreover, I actually found I enjoyed the auto-attacking system. While I never had a problem with the PC combat system – like anything it only took a little practice to get used to – I pondered how challenging it might prove on mobile. Manually, it does – perhaps even more so than PC. But the auto-attacking feature is robotically efficient. Quite simply, your character turns and attacks with speed and reaction times that are inhumanly perfect. It may not be the best method for all enemies, but the most I ever found myself doing is moving slightly forward or back with some enemies to speed up the process or save a little health. That said, I did encounter one or two small issues with ‘unreachable’ enemies behind barriers triggering a non-stop attack-fest, which can only be interrupted by moving away – making it difficult to mine rocks with a slime behind them, for instance.

It’s the complete vanilla experience. This version of Stardew Valley is complete up through patch 1.3, and includes all of the game’s content with two exceptions. The first of these is multiplayer. That’s reasonable given that mobile does not use the same type of networking as PC, nor does it support the local co-op experience of console. The second exception is player designed content. Stardew Valley is also known for its modding, from resprites to various quality of life changes created by its fans. It’s this that I found myself pining for, even a little – but once again, this is not something easily supported on a mobile device.

Stardew Valley Android Save Confirmation

There is no cloud save. This, I feel, will be a troublesome point for some fans of the game. While I can’t pretend to understand the technical situation of Stardew Valley’s code, I do know that other games, such as Siralim, offer cloud save services that – while not perfectly synced – do allow players to transfer their saves between devices and platforms. Of course, many long time players won’t mind running a new save file, and new players won’t find themselves stunted by it – but it would still be a great feature to have given how popular Stardew Valley is. Then again, Minecraft doesn’t offer shared saves and manages well despite.

 

Final Thoughts: Still Excellent (5/5)

Stardew Valley on Android is no less excellent than its original version, or any other platform. In fact, the improvements this latest version of the game brings are so impressive, I’m jealous that they’re only available on Android and, at a later date, iOS. I’d love a click-to-move system, and some of the UI changes – such as the left scrolling toolbar and the bulk crafting, buying, and selling – are just as attractive.

As a mobile Stardew experience, this version is absolutely stellar. It lacks very little of substance, and the new saving system means it’s easier to interrupt gameplay, whether it’s because of the end of a coffee break, a phone call rings through, your battery’s low, or you’re just too tired to continue. Best of all, it’s available as a complete experience with no interruptive ads or microtransactions.

If you’re a mobile gamer who has never played Stardew Valley, or if you’re a fanatic who wants a great experience on the go, then the Android version is ready to woo you. It is available today!

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Steel Division 2 Announces May Launch and March Beta

Eugen Systems announced that the first phase of the Steel Division 2 single/multiplayer beta on Steam is coming soon. Phase 1 begins on March 27th for a 48-hour period and is open to anyone who pre-ordered Steel Division 2 on Steam, Gamesplanet, or The Humble Store. Testers will receive an advanced look at the wealth of game modes, including the Breakthrough mode. On Breakthrough, players defend a map against an attacking force and make a great deal of use of their new Defense Structure feature.

Beta testers can also look forward to checking out Conquest Mode, an objective-based mode that charges players with pushing the frontline of battle forward by capturing objectives across the map. Two divisions will be available to choose from for phase 1, starting with the German 5. Panzerdivision and 2nd Guards Tank Corps – with more to come in future phases. There will also be further 48-hour mulitplayer beta phases each week to get ready for Steel Division 2’s release, which is now slated for May 2nd, 2019.

“We’re excited for Steel Division players to finally experience what we’ve been working so hard on behind closed doors when the Steam beta launches,” said Pierre-Yves Navetat, Marketing and Communication Manager at Eugen Systems. “This beta will allow us time to incorporate player feedback and ensure players the best launch day experience with Steel Division 2.”

Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission – Battle Gameplay Trailer

Bandai Namco is showing off some new Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission footage today. In today’s trailer, they show off how to take Dragon Ball characters into the card-battle realm. Players will build decks of over 350 Dragon Ball heroes and 1000+ cards to unlock and use on the battlefield. Players can also save up to 50 customized decks, so you have something for any situation. With experience and knowledge gained through play, players will learn the secret to combining certain cards to unlock Ultimate Unit Attacks to devastate enemies. Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission is coming on April 5th, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

Devil May Cry 5’s Bloody Palace Coming for Free on April 1st

Devil May Cry Bloody Palace

This is no April Fool’s joke! The Bloody Palace will be arriving in Devil May 5 on April 1st, 2019. It’s a survival mode that pits players against hordes of increasingly difficult enemies and bosses, while also racing the clock. Play as Dante, Nero or V in Bloody Palace Mode through multiple levels of enemies. And the best part? The Bloody Palace is free! Devil May 5 is currently available on the Xbox, Playstation and PC platforms.

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark Prepares to Leave Early Access

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s mark is announced this morning that the title is now 10% off in preparation of the full launch on Steam. The full release is coming soon, and also features a massive update tomorrow, adding a wealth of optional content to the game. 6 Eyes Studio is excited to confirm that this update makes the game nearly full feature and content complete. There are 32 character classes and over 130 battle encounters to tackle, and the title is localized in five languages – German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, and has Simplified Chinese font to support the game’s modding scene.

In an effort to give back to this community and let them make their (arbiter’s) mark on the game world, 6 Eyes Studio will be kicking off a contest to coincide with Fell Seal’s launch. Fans will be tasked with designing their dream weapons and armor and sharing them on social media – no prior game development knowledge needed. 6 Eyes Studio will then pick their favorites, translating them into in-game gear as part of a post-launch update.

As an added incentive for players to jump into Fell Seal before launch, the game is currently available on Steam for 10% off its Early Access price of $19.99 USD (16.99 EUR). This will be the last chance to buy in at this price, before it is raised to $29.99 USD (24.99 EUR) on Monday, March 18 in preparation for its full launch.

 

Deck of Ashes Reveals Enemy Classes for Upcoming Deckbuilder

AYGames shows off what players will have to contend with in the upcoming Early Access of their deckbuilder, Deck of Ashes. This hostile environment has a variety of creatures to battle, with various shapes and sizes. From Demons, the undead, and even mindless beasts, these are just some of the enemy classes that will have to be overcome.

Each enemy type has distinct strengths and weaknesses and is specifically designed to counter different strategies — meaning a Battle Deck that was successful in defeating one foe may not work against another. Each enemy type has a respective homeland, for example, beasts may be found in forests, the undead in cemeteries, and so forth. Players can specialize in dealing with particular creatures, or be a jack-of-all-trades, but this may lead to times when a battle is too great to overcome. In that case, they should leave, and come back when they are better equipped to handle the present danger.

Red Orchestra Celebrates 13 Years with New Darkest Hour Update

Today is the 13th anniversary of the release of Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, one of the first 3rd-party titles released on Steam. To celebrate, Tripwire Interactive invites players both new and old alike to see the latest update for the Darkest Hour mod. Darkest Hour is a completely community-created mod for Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, that was itself released through Steam in 2009, has been continuously updated ever since – and is still FREE to everyone who owns RO1.

To celebrate today’s milestone – and to encourage more people to try out Darkest Hour – Tripwire Interactive is excited to announce a 75% off sale starting at 10:00AM PDT for the next 48 hours! When the sale concludes the classic Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 will move to a reduced regular price of $4.99 USD on Steam. 13 years after launch, Red Orchestra players can continue to look forward to new experiences with today’s launch of the popular Darkest Hour: Europe ’44-’45 mod. What began as a mod of Red Orchestra has itself grown into one of the most robust World War II shooter experiences on Steam.

Today’s Darkest Hour: Europe ’44-’45 update introduces a unique and fully-fledged Squad and Rally Point system that keeps players and their comrades fighting, maneuvering and communicating together to crush enemies and achieve victory. The update also introduces new Constructions and Logistics systems, that allows players to build formidable defenses. Stonewall the enemy with obstacles, such as Hedgehogs and Concertina Wire, dig-in with sandbags, bunkers, and foxholes, deploy anti-tank guns to stop enemy armor – and deploy logistics trucks to keep supplies flowing to the frontlines. The full patch notes can be found on their Steam Page.

“As a company built by creators and gamers, modding is in our DNA – and that mindset has helped us support successful games as service titles, like Killing Floor 2, years after launch,” says Alan Wilson, Vice President at Tripwire Interactive. “That’s why we’re excited to support Darklight Games’ latest big update to Darkest Hour for Red Orchestra, our company’s first title, which wouldn’t have been possible without the existence and support of the modding community.”

Ragachak’s Worst Optional/Guest RPG Characters – Part 1

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Worst RPG Characters 1

M…M…M…Meteo…

Editor’s Note: Does Contain Spoilers (for a game that is 22 years old).

Let’s be honest, there are a lot of amazing RPG characters. There are just so many busted, powerful monsters in games. Many of them are optional/guest characters. Take for example FuSoYa. He can cast almost every single spell in the game, but you only have him for the briefest of times. Then there’s Tellah. Tellah is absolutely awful, has a super limited skill set despite being a Sage. Then you finally unlock all of his powers, and he can’t gain more than 90 MP. So no Meteo for you! THEN HE DIES. So today we’re going to start a series of garbage Optional and Guest characters. There are just so many, that they cannot possibly be contained in one article. So I’m going to do a few of these – but don’t worry, I’ll do a best too at some point. There are a few bits of criteria though.

  • Optional characters are defined as “characters that are not required to complete the final dungeon/boss.
  • There are games that are exempt/being avoided – The Suikoden franchise, and Chrono Cross. That is because they have so many characters, and many of them are clones, unnecessary, and would populate their own lists easily enough.
  • Guest characters count “Guests”, Escort Quest Characters, and Party Members that show up and die/leave the game.
Worst RPG Characters - Celes

God, Celes was so lame.

5. Celes – Final Fantasy VI:  Celes is required for the beginning of the World of Ruin. You must use her until you acquire the airship, but is not a requirement for Kefka’s Tower, or any other portion of the game. She’s just your focal point to get the band back together. Final Fantasy VI was a hard pick for me, because there are several characters that I personally deem as utterly useless – Locke, Relm, Strago. There is typically someone else who can do what they do much better. But Celes is a bargain bin, would-be Terra. Even in the story, she’s a second-rate Terra! Terra has magic by birth; Celes gains magical power via military experiment. Her power, “Runic” requires her to wield a sword, and all spells cast during its time go to her and are absorbed as MP. This includes your beneficial spells. Did you accidentally use it when you also cast Cure 3 to save your party? Hope you enjoy going back to the save point. Why is a character that requires a Sword for her main ability able to equip Morning Stars? Now you can’t use Runic! The only reason you bring her anywhere in the first damn place! She’s required for the Opera, and the Magitek Factory, but that’s in the first half of the game. She has interesting character growth, but it’s a shame she’s otherwise useless.

Worst RPG Characters - Meliadoul

More like “Disappointment Knight”. Even the Heaven/Hell Knights were better.

4. Meliadoul – Final Fantasy Tactics: Final Fantasy Tactics is another one where I had a hard time finalizing a really bad character. Meliadoul is actually the reason this turned into a multi-part article. Meliadoul Tingelle, the mighty Divine Knight, one of the Knights Templar. Her class sounds so badass. She’s one of the only two Knights Templar you do battle with that I can think of, and her sprite is among my favorites in the entire game. So much that I brought her to the final battle, the first time I got there. But this is when a very unfortunate realization came upon me: Meliadoul’s Divine Knight powers only work if you have the equipment to break.  If you break that rare, powerful gear, you also can’t steal it! All of her main damage abilities do incredible numbers, but also destroy the gear slot the power is aligned with. Meliadoul is such a fascinating character, and the lure of “Divine Knight” is strong. But if you’re fighting non-humans, or even non-equipped humans. . . well, you may as well just have Algus with you.

Worst RPG Characters - Gobi

This isn’t even Gobi! This is Karn merged with Gobi! That’s the only time he’s relevant.

3. Gobi – Breath of Fire 1: Gobi is the Fish Merchant that joins your party in Breath of Fire 1. Now, he does have a purpose and a very important one. He’s tied to many of Karn’s transformations. Much like Ox and Bo, they form together to make one powerful character. But does that make Gobi a good character or someone you want to bring to bear against the Dark Dragons or the Goddess Tyr? Absolutely damn not. He has virtually no growth as a character, his stats are awful, and the one time you control just Gobi is a nightmare. You walk across the ocean floor, as slow as physically possible, praying you don’t get into an encounter. He has a few spells, but they’re mediocre as well. The only positive he brings is transforming with Karn and turning into a giant fish to move around underwater. That doesn’t happen often enough to be a positive. Gobi is less useful than Mogu! And Mogu’s only benefit is digging for certain powerful items.

Worst RPG Characters - Jogurt

I know Jogurt’s “popular”…but he’s damn useless.

2. Jogurt – Shining Force: Jogurt is a hidden/optional character, basically a mascot. Well, his class is also “Mascot”, so that truly seals his fate. He’s often used as an incentive to unlock, and there are people that unlock him because well, Jogurt’s adorable. Jogurt is a little Hamster/Gerbil/Creature that wears a helmet. His main ability is that when he defeats enemies, he turns them into a “Jorgurt Ring”. What’s so great about the Jogurt Ring you might ask? It makes you look like Jogurt. Jogurt’s less than mediocre, but he’s so damn adorable. But adorable doesn’t win wars, and neither do Jogurt Rings. Sorry Jogurt, you just don’t cut the mustard. All of his stats (except move) start at 1, and that’s not what I want on my squad to do battle.

Worst RPG characters - Aeris

Dear Aeris, why couldn’t we trade you for Red XIII? Or that lame stuffed animal?

1. Aeris – Final Fantasy VII: When Aeris was introduced, I loved her. She had incredibly useful healing limit breaks. Her magical stats were great, and she even had character and depth! She wasn’t bland and boring and was a nice foil to the badass Tifa Lockhart. When I first played Final Fantasy VII, I had no idea what awaited her (and subsequently me). I put a ton of time into her growth because I feel like having a dedicated healer is important in an RPG that was (at the time) as hard as Final Fantasy VII was. But then I learned the truth. You only have Aeris for about a quarter of the game, because then Sephiroth goddamn kills her in the City of the Ancients. Never before was I so furious at a character’s death. All of that time wasted! I could have been building someone, anyone as a third party member! 22 years later, and I’m still absolutely boiling over it. She even has a final Limit Break and ultimate weapon! But why even think about them? You don’t get to take advantage of them!

What about you? Who are your least favorite RPG guest/optional characters? I’d love to know! Let me know in the comments below!