Monthly Archives: October 2019

Devil’s Hunt Review: A Game Gone to Hell

By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)

I usually like to start a review with an anecdote, or some clever remark or story, something to sort of warm the audience up. In the case of the game Devil’s Hunt, the only thing I can think of is, “It’s just so bad.”

Devil’s Hunt, published by 1C Entertainment and developed by Polish studio Layopi Games, is a third-person action game along the vein of titles such as Devil May Cry and God of War. Unlike other titles in the genre, the combat is severely under-developed, as is most everything else in the game. The story itself is based on the novel Equilibrium, by Polish author Pawel Lesniak, and in some ways it feels like Layopi Games’ ambitions were to be the next CD Projekt Red. Ambitions which they fall far short on.

Revolving around one Desmond Pearce, an apparent trust fund wanker with a penchant for fighting in underground boxing matches, Devil’s Hunt’s story is cliche at best and virtually plagiarism at worst. Desmond, who claims to have the “best pool and best view” in what appears to be Miami, Florida, is the son of a highly successful real estate mogul. You find this out because Desmond has a postcard about his dad in his home. Which is just weird.
 

These are some of the many “clues” you find in the game. I find it funny that all of the clues are nearly the exact same size and shape. It feels lazy on the part of the developers, like they just copy/pasted an object template into different scenes for Desmond to pick up.

Desmond visits his father’s office and receives a scolding for messing up a deal. Whatever the deal was is left conspicuously blank, as is Desmond’s role in the company. Desmond is basically portrayed as a fairly pathetic loser, at least in his dad’s eyes. Despite this, Desmond lives in a very expensive home, and drives a very expensive car.

As things progress, Desmond ends up losing an important fight, then returns home to find his fiancee laying in bed with his best friend. Desmond chases his buddy out of his house, gets knocked out by him, and then gets in his car where he decides to drive off a bridge. Since suicide is a mortal sin, Desmond goes to hell. Here we find out that Desmond is some prophesied “Savior and Destroyer” and Lucifer offers to give him a job as an Executor in exchange for getting vengeance on the guy who he believes cheated on him with his girlfriend.
 

Here we see Desmond’s true best friend: his jacket. He does everything in this jacket; he practices boxing in his house in the jacket; he fights demons in this jacket; he even gets buried in this jacket, apparently. At least the jacket is dirty? But why was he buried in the damn jacket?! This bothers me so much.

The story doesn’t get any better from here, so let’s move onto the gameplay. Desmond walks around punching people, as you would expect of a boxer turned demon, I guess. There are two attacks: light attack and soft attack. You also are able to unlock a number of skills from three different fighting styles.

Each of the fighting styles has its own tree, and you can equip up to three skills from said trees, plus unlock some passives. The three styles also have their own set of combos that can be unlocked. Unfortunately, the combos have such badly timed animations that you tend to get interrupted when trying to use them, and you’re honestly just better spamming light attack through the entire game, and maybe occasionally throwing out a skill.
 

It’s cool once or twice, but with most foes only having one camera kill, and seeing the same foes quite often, they just become a waste of time. Punching your foes out gets the job done faster and has the same rewards.

The basic attacks don’t seem to have any difference in how many hits it takes to kill an enemy, so the choice ends up being overall an aesthetic one. I essentially just switched back and forth based on what skills were on cooldown. Combat was just boring, easy, and unfulfilling. There were no aerial combos or juggles of any sort. Even the camera kills tended to be pretty boring until about half way through the game, but they felt arbitrary and repetitive at the best of times.

Skills and combos are unlocked in their respective trees by using souls. Harvesting souls is actually the primary job you’re sent to do by Lucifer. You get a soul when defeating most enemies, and by picking them up on the ground. Which… what in the actual fuck? Souls are supposed to be this amazing power source, and they’re just laying all over the place willy nilly. Just one more piece of a very mind boggling puzzle that just doesn’t sit well with me.
 

Seriously, what is this crap? When people die their souls just get sort of tossed into the air and land somewhere for you to find? There’s no explanation as to why you find souls laying all over the place, and it really boggles the mind.

The out of combat gameplay is no better. It’s basically a walking simulator. Sometimes you can run, but it’s almost cringey when you do, as this, along with most of the other animations in the game, is just bad. Maybe Desmond’s dry cleaner uses too much starch when he cleans his jacket. Or maybe he never gets the jacket cleaned and that’s why it’s so stiff? I don’t know.

Unfortunately there’s something stiffer than the animations though: the game’s dialogue. It’s horrible. The voice acting and the lip movement don’t match up, most of the time. Sometimes they do, though, which just makes it worse. If they never matched up I might assume that they were animating for Polish language, and it was the English voice acting that didn’t line up. No, it’s just the game’s quality shining through.

At this point I feel like I’m just ranting. If I had to say the game had one redeeming factor, it would be the scenery. The level design of Devil’s Hunt is at least aesthetically pleasing in most places, if not terribly original. The frame drops of the game unfortunately make even this aspect less than enjoyable.

Devil’s Hunt feels terribly unoptimized, and there were some bugs that crashed the game, usually having to do with the notes left around the game that grant abilities. All told in the five  hours or so I played the game, it crashed three times. There were other minor bugs as well; for example, every time I opened the skill tree I had to switch tabs before I could actually interact with the tree. Sure that’s a relatively minor bug, but it was pretty annoying, and I’m not sure how it made it past QA.

I fully acknowledge that Devil’s Hunt  is produced by a niche studio, but they’re attempting to make a game with mass market appeal, and they just fall so short in so many ways. I’m not sure if additional funding could have fixed anything, or if the whole thing was just poorly managed. I’m certain that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making Devil’s Hunt, and I almost feel bad for tearing it down so hard, but the fact is it really is just that bad.

With a $34.99 price tag and a 4-5 hour storyline, with absolutely nothing to encourage replay, I feel like Devil’s Hunt is just overpriced shovelware made by someone that got their hands on Unreal 4 and thought they could make a hit video game. I seriously don’t anticipate seeing a sequel, which is fine, because I really don’t care enough about the story to want to find out where the attempted cliffhanger leads next.

I give Devil’s Hunt 1.5 out of 5 boxing gloves for being a poorly executed and bug ridden mess of an overpriced game with outdated graphics despite being on a modern engine.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Project Dunk

Project Dunk is a competitive online multiplayer sports game featuring street-basketball rules where fighting is not only allowed, but encouraged. A thrilling new era of Vio-Ball has begun in Shinkyo City and the talent pool has never been deeper. Hone your B-ballin’ skills and take your shot at victory!

Business Model: Buy-to-Play

Microtransactions: No

Key Features:

Sponsorship: Discover your rising star from a diverse roster of hopeful youths.

Ultimate Attack: Take control of the court with game-changing mega moves complete with powerful follow-up effects.

Just Like We Practiced: Tap out timed key combinations to dazzle the competition with impressive tricks and incredible super moves.

Aura Kingdom Starter Pack Giveaway

We’ve partnered with gamigo to offer a special starter pack for Aura Kingdom!

Aura Kingdom is a gorgeous free to play fantasy MMORPG adventure. The game features:

  • Interactive Companions: Eidolons are no mere pets; they are powerful warriors in their own right and are not to be trifled with. If you earn their trust, however, they will reward you with their invaluable aid in the numerous battles to come.
  • Fast, Fluid Battles: Change combat into an art form! Engage in battle like never before, and watch as your screen explodes with the power and grace you exhibit on the battlefield. If you still need more than that, call upon your trusted companion and team up for spectacular combos. Show all of Azuria how truly powerful you are!
  • Stunning Anime Art: Take in the stunning art that waits around every corner. From fantastic character and monster models to magnificent landscapes that stretch beyond the horizon, you can spend hours just marveling at the vistas Azuria has to offer. Get out there and explore!
  • Travel in Style: Why walk when you can ride an ostrich? Why ride an ostrich when you can fly? There are a number of unique and fantastic ways to get around the world of Azuria, making the journey just as gratifying as the destination.

Your Code gets you a fast boost to level 40, with:

  • Aura Equipment Gear Set, granting a 20% experience bonus
  • Character Slot Expansion Card
  • 2x 10-Slot Backpack
  • 20x Warehouse Cards
  • 2000 Ruby Coins
  • Seven Day XP Crystal

To Redeem Your Code:

  1. Register for the game, using this link!
  2. Redeem your key on this page here.

 

Note: Unfortunately ad blockers may interfere with our site. If you have any issues claiming a key, please disable them and try again.

Dragon Quest XI S: 2D Mode Review

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Caution: There are likely spoilers. You have been warned.

Editor’s Note: Please note, this is not a full review of Dragon Quest XI. My thoughts on the game have not changed since. You can find the original review here.

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a port of the Nintendo 3DS/PS4 game that broke my heart and stole nearly a hundred hours from me. I still have not completed the “True Ending”, thanks to a hurricane breaking my PS4 and killing my save file forever. But I will have it on the Switch Edition, you can be certain of that. But at that point, I was at about 90 hours, and deep into the Post-Game content. When someone says they’re going to remake/remaster a game, I become split 50/50 with how I feel. I go between “This is going to be awesome” to “This isn’t going to change anything at all, is it?”.

Square-Enix is known for doing remakes/ports really well, and really bad. Final Fantasy X/X-2 is among my favorite remasters of all time, but this one might just take the cake. They’re also known for the Steam port of Final Fantasy VI, which may be the worst remake this side of Secret of Mana. As of this writing, I’m still deep into Dragon Quest XI S, around the 30-40 hour mark in Act II. But since I know what the game offers, I feel like I’m qualified. Plus, I did see some of the brand-new in-game content; that’s right, the main story has new content that adds to the game in a positive way! Honestly, it’s something that should have been in the original. Today’s focus is on the 2D Mode specifically, because that’s the most important new feature of the game. But what is it?

Dragon Quest XI S 2D Mode Review - 1

The bosses still look pretty mighty in sprite form.

2D Mode of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is an optional way to play the game in its entirety. The game is transformed into the 16-bit SNES style of Dragon Quest, like the remakes of 1-3 that appeared on the Super Famicom back in the 90s. This is the entire game in the traditional top-down, 2D design, within the 3D game. From what I understand, it was in the 3DS version of the game, so it’s new to us. That’s the most brilliant part to me, Square-Enix had to recreate the whole game, including the complicated, confusing maps and towns in this design. Of course, there are major pros and cons to this system, but we’ll get into that. There are some changes between the two modes (2D and 3D). A prime example is the enemies on the main map. Instead, it’s the traditional Dragon Quest style of random encounters. Another thing I noticed, is that some quests feel 100% impossible to complete.

I spent three hours trying to complete a quest at DQXI’s Girl’s Acadamy, and the item simply does not show up. I had to go to 3D mode and lose a bunch of progress, just to make sure the quest item existed. You can switch modes at any Priestess/Church in the game. The game will then let you go back to one of the last major checkpoints in the story. This does not mean you’ll be back exactly where you were! So please be aware of this before you swap. 2D Mode also appears to have fewer crafting mats in the world. This is made up for by having circles of green grass you can enter. These mini-areas have crafting materials and the occasional treasure chests in them. These spots will stand out because you’ll even see them in the snowy areas.

But there are positives! The maps are significantly shorter! The dungeons feel like they take forever in DQXI because you have to manually wander through huge 3D dungeons, and evade/enter battle as appropriate. These dungeon and town redesigns shrink them down quite a lot, or at least it seems to. Another positive is that with the Fun-Sized Forge, you can purchase the materials you’re missing! I’m not 100% certain if that was in the original, but I found out that you can in this iteration. If you are lacking crafting materials, the game will ask if you want to buy them for whatever their market value is. Brilliant, and a time saver. Dragon Quest XI S has some new content in the game besides this, and perhaps some I haven’t even seen yet. So let’s discuss that, but beware, spoilers!

Alright, spoiler people have gone? Let’s chat.

Dragon Quest XI S 2D Mode Review - 3

This is from Erik’s side-story.

The important, story portion of the game takes place in Act II. After Yggdrasil is demolished by Mordegon, the world is in shambles, and the heroes have been scattered to the winds. The Hero starts off Act II (as a fish),  and he comes across his friends one by one. The problem is that you have no idea how they got into the present predicaments. Instead, at the start of Act II, you control each of the party members one by one and go through a mini-scenario as them. You’ll meet the people they met, go through the perilous instances they did, and figure out how they got where they are. This is absolutely brilliant and would have made the main story of Act II far less mysterious. They never really explain why Erik lost his memories, or why Jade is an essentially a Succubus. Enter, the Nintendo Switch version of the game! This is the greatest positive of the game, in my estimation.

Dragon Quest XI S is a gorgeous remake of an already incredible game. It had a ton of content already, including a post-game, but now the main story (and by extension, post-game) has more content! “Tickington” is a mysterious town full of those creepy little white, long-armed Tockles. Apparently, this content was in the 3DS version, as the 2D mode. I was unaware of this initially, but now that I know, I’m still okay. I just wanted it in the PS4 release. Was it worth waiting for? Absolutely, unequivocally. It’s not a perfect mode, but it is a ton of fun. In this Tickington series of side-quests, the player will find Tockles through the world, in towns, and hidden behind locked doors. They will open up side-quests among Dragon Quest 1-10, and it winds up being a sort of puzzle to fulfill. These quests give pretty awesome items, and you’ll have to put on your thinking caps to figure out what to do and when. You’ll see some of it in the footage above as well. It’s a fun trip through the past, whether you played these games or not. It’s a fun tribute to the games that came before.

Should You? But Thou Must! 5/5:

Dragon Quest XI S 2D Mode Review - 4

Oh no, it’s Hendrik!

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is the goddamn definitive remake. It fixed the problems I had with the original (the music) by adding a gorgeous orchestral soundtrack and also threw in the Dragon Quest VIII OST for certain parts of the game. It has more content, a whole secondary full game mode in 2D mode, and so much more. There’s a serious amount of heart put into the game. Now, I’ve heard whispers, rumblings, that this will one day come to the PS4/PC, whether as an update, or a full secondary release. But if you have a Switch, and need a lengthy, heart-wrenching RPG, what are you doing?! Why don’t you have this yet?! Dragon Quest XI S on the Switch, even if you played the original, is a 100% must. play.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition Launches Today

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition launches today from Bandai Namco, on the Nintendo Switch and PC (via Steam). This version of the game brings the full Cyber Sleuth experience to Digimon fans with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory in one game for both platforms. This brings classic turn-based battles, alongside a ton of Digimon to collect. Players can also look forward to the rich, immersive Digimon experience in this latest offering. We have a brief synopsis of each game below.

Jump into the world of EDEN in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, a virtual reality world full of intriguing places, people, and Digimon. EDEN sets the stage for a bizarre encounter with a mysterious entity that causes players to turn into a half-digital, half-physical being that phases in-and-out of the digital and physical worlds. Players must explore the cyber and real-world while gaining allies, collecting and training Digimon, and solving mysteries in the Digimon world to get their physical body back.

In Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory, players take on the role of Keisuke Amasawa, a high school dropout who gets his EDEN account stolen and is then framed for a crime he did not commit. Keisuke must dive back into the digital world to prove his innocence by tracking down the individual who stole his identity while navigating through the ins and outs of EDEN.