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A Space for the Unbound is an adventure game set in Indonesia in the 1980s. It’s about a couple of high school students but there are magical elements to it too, which gives it the atmosphere of something like a Studio Ghibli or Makoto Shinkai film. I’m impressed with it so far. If nothing else, l would love to see a Final Fantasy game made in this style.

Picked this up because I needed something to get my gaming juices flowing again and it has reviewed very well. It’s basically out on everything. I’ve played around 40 minutes and it mostly involves solving environmental puzzles similar to something like Hob, without the combat, which was a game that I quite liked. Nothing taxing so far. My current save file is saying 22% which would mean that the game is probably in the 3-5 hour range. I don’t have any problem with that considering the length of other games I’ve played this year.

First of all, Nintendo can go screw themselves for coming along with this almost 20 years after the previous game in the series. The last time they were this tonedeaf was when they announced Federation Force. Secondly, it's not so bad. I mean it's basically just classic F-Zero with more direct controls and without a collision detection that makes Newton spin in his grave. It adds the spin attack from GX but puts a cooldown on it and tackled enemies drop coins which fill up a special bar you can use instead of your boost to drive 'on top' of the course and avoid the massacre below. I don't see it having a huge lasting impact or the immediate pull of something like Fall Guys, but it's decent enough for a freebie (if, again, extremely poorly timed). Anyway, I immediately won my first race. I guess the newbies in the lobby thought Death Wind was easy after looking at its map.

Maraca based rhythm action game. The original on dreamcast was great, with maraca controllers, not played it in years mind. Was a bit sceptical about this, didnt think the joycons would work that well for the motion controls, but it works a lot better than i expected, probably partially because it seems pretty lenient in recognising hits. But at the same time it doesnt work quite as well as as it could, id expect the vr version to be better, think its quest exclusive? the music selection is sort of similar in that its better than i expected, but it could also have been better still. Didnt recognise most of the songs by name but playing through them theres certainly enough songs that ive been enjoying playing through, even though i maybe wouldnt listen to them outside the game. To register normal hits It doesnt work based on the height of the controller, it uses the angle of the controller, so if you hold your hands up the controller will angel up automatically, for middle hits your supposed to hold them straight, and for down you point them down. Its probably easier to explain how it works with a video (ill try and add one later) but theres 6 locations you can shake a maraca/controller at (top middle bottom, and each have left/right) thats how the original worked, with iirc some posing where you hold a pose. The new version has maybe too much posing and other stuff like movements/dancing stuff going on. The ones where you slide the controllers around to match movements on screen are a bit odd too in that they start far too quickly for you to follow them entirely (unless you memorise them i guess), the game doesnt care too much though and will give you a perfect hit as long as you follow the last bit ok, its sometimes a bit vague what youre supposed to be doing though which isnt great for a rhythm action game. Usually the game just gives you the benefit of the doubt and registers a hit even if im not sure i hit the note, sometimes it goes the other way though, although maybe i need to get better at it. Because of the above, if you want to play it seriously for high scores and stuff its maybe not great, although again maybe i need to get better. But i would say it is pretty fun and im enjoying it, no regrets on getting it. not tried playing with a pad yet, which worked well in the original, suspect with all the dancing/sliding going on in this it might not work as well here? the graphics i quite like (after thinking the graphics looked a bit crap in the trailer) its mainly just a load of mad stuff going on in the background, and ive got a cool hat. Its very colourful. for sonic fans the blue guy is in this dancing and stuff. oh yeah theres a roulette thing which seems odd, you can toggle it off, which i have. theres also an ios version, not sure if its quite the same game though. ive mostly been playing the songs in the quickplay mode, but there is a sort of single player thing which seems to be just challenges, most of which are quite easy so far but the one to not miss notes is really annoying but looks like it can be skipped. anyone else giving it a go? The trailer shows how the gameplay works, although in very short bits

Charming! I thought I'll give this a quick go as I was mostly free this evening. Cut to 3 hours later and 22% of the game completed. This is a metroidvania, geared towards younger games in terms of difficulty. Checkpoint's abound and death is effectively nothing more than a marker on the map (the same X that TotK used). The writing/humour is surprisingly on point. I did get the occasional chuckle from it. Donald (my selection of the roster) is basically sarcasm incarnate. So the ideal for me. The expression in the image above, sums up his attitude quite well. The gameplay is quite intuitive without being overly handholding. I know there is some variance to the abilities of each character. For example, you get a double jump ability starting off. Mickey gets a jetpack. Donald gets a rocket. Which works on a trajectory arc. Same basic idea with different execution. On the subject of jumping, as this is at base level a platformer. There is a course correcting floatiness to it. If your double jump has you on collision course with an enemy. You do have a little leeway to avoid it if you're fast enough. Aside from bosses. Enemies are also not to be fought. They are obstacles (sometimes minor puzzles) to avoid. Which too is quite refreshing. Some of the mission goals are a little repetitive, but overall strong impressions so far. Oh and please note: This is a 4 player co-op experience also. The camera pans to accommodate this in certain maps. I am however, exclusively playing this solo.

The new game from the Danganronpa people, and it is a little bit of a shift for them. Not hugely, there's still a cast of stylised characters, still surprisingly gruesome murders, and still a bunch of story. This time though its a little more gamey, you're not stuck in one location like a school, people have powers, and you're tied to a shikigami who only you can see and can take you to alternative dimensions. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it's less Danganronpa than it initially looked. I've only done the first chapter, episode, which is chapter 0, and it took me a while. You wake up with amnesia, and rush on to a train you're supposed to be on. It transpires that you're a master Detective, and there's only 5 other people on the train, they are all also master detectives (not just that they're detectives, that's the organisation they work for). They all have powers, such as being able to imprint memories on screens, or a radar that means they can tell how many people are around them. While you're locked on the train there's a murder, meaning one of the detectives is a killer. Gameplay wise, when you start to solve it, it feels a little like they're making it up as they go along. There's fights where you dodge incoming words while attacking others with the correct counter statement. There's a barrel game where you have to guess the word that leans a bit in to the fan service. It's not the games strength So far it seems good, but I have almost fallen asleep twice playing it. That first chapter, which is basically the prologue, took me hours. We'll see though, I'm in the city from the trailers now so I'm at least seeing and meeting new places and characters

I’m not much in due to illness but I thought I’d get the ball rolling. Firstly I thought they couldn’t recreate that wow moment from botw. The one so many have done themselves, before and after. But they absolutely nailed it. The first part and exploration I’m in love with as much as I was before. With some new twists and mechanics that you don’t have your hand held and guided through. Just you have this now. Go experiment, or don’t. Go there now, or don’t. The tutorial guys are so sweet and humble. I want to know more about them. I hope for a quick recovery so I can proper deep dive into Zelda again. It’s back in a big way and I couldn’t need it any more. 2023051118232200-CC47F0DEC75C1FD3B1F95FA9F9D57667.mp4

Presentation hiccups? Already played this for ..a while. I've beaten the Olaf missions and I'm onto Blue Moon's next CO. Apart from the forced* tutorial being obnoxiously patronising, something else has been bugging me already: the visuals. I'm not entirely sure the visual style of the CO's is better than the GBA original sprite work. Some of them are vaguely animated. There is some voice work. But their mouths don't move at all, and only the first word or two of any given dialogue/exchange is spoken. It seems really half-hearted. Either animate or don't. Give full speech or none. The middle ground here just makes it seem unfinished/cheap. The gameplay however, is as good as it's ever been. But the overall presentation seems disappointingly lacklustre. Hopefully something improves as the game progresses. But we'll have to wait and see at this point. *As the tutorial begins, they ask you if you've played Advance Wars before? The dialogue seemed to acknowledge my "yes", so I thought I'd get to skip the tutorial. Turns out ..not. So I don't know why they asked in the first place?

Played this over the last few weeks, its only really the 2nd 2d standard kirby game ive played (robobot being the other). Its a sort of basic platformer where you get all different powers copied from enemies, like theres one that turns you into a sort of streetfighter character doing dragon punches and stuff, a superman type character, electric attacks, fireballs, everything. And you can sometimes get super powered up and go nuts with a massive sword or turn into a giant snowball - the different powers are what i think makes it fun. Overall i enjoyed it, its often a lot of fun. There are some boring bits mind and i just sort of beat the bosses by well i dont know but not with skill anyway. I sort of like that its easy though as im not good at these sort of platformers. I dont think its as good as robobot. the challenge levels are really good though, you unlock them as you get tickets which you find in levels and theyre like shorter score/time attack levels based on a specific power up, you can go for gold/silver/bronze medals, i mostly got silver, a few golds too, some of which took many retries. Theres about 10 of them, shame there arent more. exploration to find hidden stuff was fun sometimes theres loads of other stuff you unlock but seems to be mini games, that you can play on your own but seemed more aimed at multiplayer so i only tried a few of those. overall this was pretty good, recommended if youre after playing some more kirby, but probably not the best one. edit - this was originally a wii game, not sure what changes there are in the deluxe switch version.

I’m a bit late to the party on this one, just got my rental copy. But I notice it’s only recently come out on Xbox, so better late than never I guess. I’ve done the first two missions so far, and it’s quite fun. You play as either a male or female kung-fu student, seeking revenge on an enemy gang. The twist is that every time you die, you get immediately resurrected, but age one year. You start off at age 20. Supposedly as you get older, you get stronger, but age too much and you get weaker. The combat seems straightforward enough so far. I’ve enjoyed smashing bottles on people’s heads, slamming them into walls. It also turns out you can attack people in mid conversation. So while enemies have been giving me exposition, I’ve dashed in and punched them in the face. Good times.

Ok. So this is bloody glorious. I love a good music/rhythm game. From Guitar Hero, to Beat Mania, from Osu Tatake Ouendan, to that Namco one with the blue/red drums that I can’t for the life of me remember the name of. It’s a brilliant genre. I’ve never heard of this series before. Apparently it was on the DS? It passed me by somehow. Anyway, this is the series’s grand finale. And the team has basically gone “Let’s use pretty much all the classic Final Fantasy music we can, and a ton of other stuff for good measure. I’m no FF expert, 10 was the last game in the series I completed. But the music of 6, 7, 8, 9 and Tactics, has been stuck in my mind, for decades. Some of the best music in gaming. My girlfriend Sarah listened to some of their soundtracks, and absolutely loves them, despite never playing any of the games. So, the demo for this came up last month. I played one level, and then preordered the full game. Fair to say a good impression was made. Each game in the series has a selection of tracks (typically at least 10+). In typical rhythm game style, you press buttons to the beat, sometimes multiple buttons at once, sometimes using the directional sticks. Sounds simple enough. But there’s a nice bit of depth going on. Each song has “Quests” to complete, from not failing a beat, to using certain characters. With rewards unlocked for completing them. As you unlock each game, you gain characters specifically to that game to use in your party. You play as 4 characters, and as they level up, you gain new abilities that you can use to boost your score, and attack strength. During the song, your characters react to your performance, and you can also unlock summons, to dish out additional damage. There’s a TON of stuff to unlock, and I’m still getting my head around how it all works. But as far as the song selections go, there’s a good couple of hundred songs here. From every FF, to Crisis Core. FF7 Remake gets its own selection. FF Tactics is included. As is pretty much every FF spin off you can think of, to some extent. And there’s planned additional DLC content, from Secret Of Mana, to Xenogears, Nier, pretty much every RPG Square have ever done, by the looks of it. Give the demo a go. Personally, I’m loving this.

Hi guys. I wanted to draw your attention to a little indie game I discovered due to the good old Youtube rabbit hole. I was watching an old Caddicarus video, and he included this game in it. And it's a blast. You play a goose. That's it! Behind the very pretty hand drawn looking graphics is a stealth game, I suppose. You get a check list of things to do, but it's up to you how they get done. Here's an example of the start of the game. You come out of a bush beside a pond. The game shows you the controls. You honk. You flap. You peck. Then you swim across the pond and see a picnic on a park bench. What you do with it is entirely up to you. A little further along you find a farmer minding his own business, tending his crop of carrots. That's when you get your "things to do" list. Things like get the farmer wet, steal his keys, turn on his radio. As you progress through the game, you realise that the main point of being this goose is to annoy the hell out of the villagers as much as possible, while trying to complete you current things to do list. And if you're like me, usually you'll be giggling maniacally while playing. The art style is really nice, the horrible goose struck a chord in me, and the pranks are puzzles to figure out and moves to time and execute. Like stealing the farmers keys is more difficult than it sounds, especially if you've already pranked him, and he's aware of this bloody goose walking around his fields. Though the things to do are not exactly challenging, it certainly brings a sense of satisfaction to complete list after list. In all, it's a sedate laid back game with a horrid sense of humour. If you fancy leaving the things to do list alone for a bit, just have fun pissing off as many people as you can.

The Good old days when (western) box art was largely unconnected to the game itself. But Japan was more on the money... Anyway, at time of writing I'm an hour at most away from the ending. So I should probably give some indication I've been playing anything at all for the past few weeks. Fun fact: I played this upon it's original release (1994) but never played the original game until the 2004 GBA remake. As you can imagine, I have a natural bias to the sequel. I still adore this game. Mostly I find the "jank" is associated to the control scheme. You have to pull up a menu to do just about everything. Every character can only hold four items (one of those is typically a weapon) and it just generally slows the whole process down. Funnily enough I've found the game wide secret largely on my own. Mithril. You find pieces of Mithril on the world map and in hidden treasure chests. There are fifteen in all. But there is an early point of no return in the game that means you can miss three of them. Those ones I always miss. Jump through a few hoops later and you reach the Mithril Blacksmith. Get ready to save scum if you want the best aka Ultimate weapons, though. The RNG is abysmal. The cast is quite expansive in this game. Which is quite standard for an SRPG. By the same token, a fair few aren't worth even using in your team at any point (points to Skreech, Birdman number two). You'll note from above some have alternate portraits. Due to the class promotion system in this game. There are also secret added items that grant some characters a new class promotion. For example, Kazim (sixth portrait on the top row). He can be promoted from Mage to Wizard at level 20. However, if you hold off on that for a town or two. You find a Secret Book which can make him a Sorcerer instead (this games Summoner). This applies to several classes of character. But you don't need to fret over it if you miss these items. The ultimate class promotion of the Centaurs is Pegasus. If you miss the item in the Centaur town. The Pegasus Jaro (the blond, seventh from the end on the bottom row) joins you by default later. Naturally, these characters won't be as strong as your initial characters would be in these classes. As an aside, much like the first game. I really don't get the fixation these games have with the Centaur class. There are five of them in this. Six or seven in the first game. There is very little between any of them. So yeah, on to my last two bosses of the game - Odd Eye and, King of the Devils, Zeon. I remember the latter being a chore. I've set the game to Hard mode. The 'Super' and 'Ouch' Modes beyond that seem really unnecessary to me. Since it isn't like you get anything extra for the added struggle.

i almost posted in radiofloyd's fire emblem thread then realised it's a different game this is the one that's just come out on switch. i've only played one fire emblem game before - awakening. it seems pretty similar so far - you do some turn based combat, you level up, you talk to people a bit inbetween the combat, buy upgrades and stuff. seems alright so far, quite enjoying it

Creating a thread for this as it seems like it might be quite a bit meatier than some other games I’ve played recently. Citizen Sleeper is the latest game from the developers of In Other Waters, which I played recently and was quite good. I guess like In Other Waters, it involves a lot of reading and clicking on various menus. Not quite a visual novel, but an adjacent genre I guess. You’re a “sleeper”, a robot of some sorts that escaped or survived some mysterious past and somehow gained sentience, which is apparently a big no-no, so shady characters are coming to put an end to you. You’ve wound up on some kind of space station called Havenage. Here you meet characters and complete tasks to achieve various goals. I can’t describe it beyond that. It’s too complicated. But it’s quite unique and intriguing so far. Based on what I’ve played of this, and In Other Waters, the developers’ (Fellow Traveller) focus is clearly on telling unique stories in unique settings, with an emphasis on mystery and the unknown.

I’ve been enjoying this game a lot. It’s a flower shop simulator. Not really. On the one hand, it’s a gentle puzzle game where people come to you with requests for certain flowers and you have to identify them from descriptions in a book. You also have a map of the area that you can interact with, and you are given hints about points of interest on the map that you should visit. The game seems to be set in a fictionalised version of rural England and there is a greater story and mystery going on that you learn about as you talk with your customers. So far, it’s been a very chill, well-designed game that is a nice change of pace from anything else I’ve played recently.

With my interest in PokéMon Violet at an end. As I'm in the mood to keep playing it, I decided to turn my attention on the third game on my Switch (following Violet and Metroid Dread). Considering, I have completely forgotten when I bought this. It's a little regrettable it has been sitting unplayed on here for so long. I adored the first game on the PS3. If they had released them on a console, it's likely I would have felt similar to 2 & 3. Now the main reason this game has essentially been in storage is due to it being a download. As this is the Switch, the size of this game forced me to archive all of my other Switch games. I recall being very annoyed by that and I left the console off until Metroid Dread. Fast forward to the present, I'm a little rusty but getting there. The importance of strategy in this series can't be understated. So far I'm roughly two chapters in. Basically the bit that was covered in the 2018 demo (I know this since my save data was retained) With two unlocked skirmishes, both 'A' rank. Although the story missions haven't been as successful (two B ranks), since the first (which was an 'A'). I'm getting as much enjoyment from it at the moment, as I did with the original. Waiting to see which one the cast will be the titular Super-Soldier. Not as clear cut as the first game yet.

I'm starting this thread, eh? Weird... Anyway, PokéMon Violet. There are issues. Even I, someone who doesn't take note of framerates, screen tearing etc can see it plain as day. Draw distance is a thing. Note this is apparent from the second town. Before you reach the main school. The worst part is that every single PokéDex entry causes slowdown and stuttering. This isn't great for flaws in the most basic, yet fundamental game stuff. That's the negatives out of the way for now. Stay tuned for more on that, I imagine. The results of play session one. Not bad going really.

It still feels like early days but I'm enjoying this so far. I tried streaming some but my setup seemed to add a few issues to control and framerate, I did a lot better when I wasn't having to play through my capture screen. That said, it's still a Sonic game so I have been launched to my death rather than whatever the next part of the rollercoaster was supposed to be. For all the Breath of the Wild talk it actually reminds me of Mario Odyssey more than anything else. I've no idea if the area I'm in just expands or if eventually it moves you to a new world, but you're on a land mass that's gated, you're essentially playing until you unlock the next bit. There are traditional levels, they're really short, and they're accessed via totems in the main world. You need gears to open these, you get gears from defeating meaningful enemies, I feel like I've got quite a lot now so other than really early on when the game is teaching you, they aren't hard to find. Beating the levels gets you keys, keys unlock the chaos emeralds, doing that seems to progress the story and open more map. The reason it reminds me of Mario are all the little challenges in the game world. Work out the route to a floating platform, beat a horde of enemies, solve a minor puzzle, these all get you things, usually it's the items you need to level up attributes, sometimes it's experience to unlock more skills. There's probably a few too many currencies really, but it does mean that a trip across the map means a hundred diversions because it's very densely packed

Just a quick thread post to say I played an hour after 12am unlock last night. Played quite badly, I must have dodge-offseted all my Bayonetta muscle memory from the last time I played these games. So don't have a ton much to say, the opening has a bit of a DMC5 thing going on I guess with a fairly similar setup. I will say however that technically speaking I find the game very hard to parse visually. It's not really the framerate as such, which is quite bad but tolerable for the kind of mashing that Bayo can offer. It's moreso the image quality (lack of), visual effects and resolution as well as the alpha transparency dot matrix thing that they do with enemies which are overlapping with the camera. It's unfortunately rough stuff and it all sort of turned into a soup of purple nonsense for me in the first 'proper' stage in the game. A quick thing I can say that's interesting to me is with the summons you can queue up to two actions by them (perhaps this can be upgraded), release control and go back to Bayonetta while the demon slave asynchronously resolves all the big moves you told it to do. I think there will be some interesting synergies there. Maybe, I was really only mashing the buttons tbh, it's been so long since I played a game like this (including dmc) that my fingers feel like they're made of shite and nothing feels very deliberate That said, I'm excited to really dig into it over the spooky weekend, the horrors of poorly scaled graphics notwithstanding 😱. Will need to setup the elgato to actually capture some decent clobbering from it tho, I really need that with these games not the 30 second clip that switch does edit, some gameplay of me passing a secret mission, pogface. The monster mechanic is cool, I think the way you leverage launchers from witch time wicked weaves and can chomp motherfuckers while they're up there is some really inspired stuff so far, especially compared to Bayonetta 2

Well this pretty much came out of nowhere. Like, I didn’t even realise it was out. I remember it being announced, but not much after that. The original Tales game was one of the best things Telltale came out with (Walking Dead peaked after their first season, and by the end was crap). I’m not an expert of the franchise, I’ve only finished 1 and 2, and some of the DLC. But that didn’t stop me from having a great time with Tales. So, now we have the sequel. Though it’s “episodic”, it plays out as one big game, giving you a break between episodes. I’ve just finished Episode 1. And so far, it’s off to a good start. The dialogue has been amusing enough. The story, which switches between 3 playable characters, seems solid enough. There’s zero puzzles, so you’re mostly down to making dialogue choices, and occasionally wandering around the area to trigger the next set piece. There’s a fair few Quick Time Events, but they’re easy enough. One review said that the hacking mini game is laughably easy. It is indeed, and makes you wonder what the point of them even is. It warns you “failure has repercussions”. But honestly, you’d have to put your controller on the floor, to fail them. The IGN review said the final episode is a train wreck, and almost ruins the game completely. We will see how that plays out. But so far, yeah, this seems decent enough.

I want my mummy... Spent a few hours with this through Game Pass (Xbox obviously)... think I played Innocence toward the tale end of last year and so far this feels nicely familiar. I'm up to Act 3, the first act being more or less a tutorial and the second playing pretty much how you'd expect. Things start harmlessly enough but it doesn't take long for things to fall to shit and the whole world wants Amicia dead for reasons... this time she can fight back a little more, she has a stealth attack and can knife enemies, I haven't got her Crossbow yet but like I say I'm only up to Act 3. You can also break line of sight and hide again if discovered, I can't remember if this was a thing in the first, if it was it was bloody difficult. Some of the views look stunning and so far it's played nicely... there's no performance or graphics mode so I'm not sure if it's locked to 30fps or not... think I saw somewhere that it's 40fps if your display supports 120hz (mine does so who knows) I ended up really liking the first so I'm looking forward to playing more of this.

It's hard to believe there isn't a thread for this already 🤷‍♂️ I picked it up for £6 a while ago and now I'm stuck at home with Covid (German regulations...) I thought I'd give it a go. It's great! I'm playing on Switch so I'm sure I have the worst graphical experience possible but it's really OK. I've spent around 6-7 hours with it so far and I think I'm close to the end section. I've decided not to push ahead for a while though, instead choosing to explore all the levels to see if I can build up my health a bit more. This is also partly because I hit what I find a difficult section with that I think I need to be a bit stronger for. That or just better with the controls... As it's so Metroid-y and now I have new ways of getting around, the older arears suddenly have a lot more to offer. My last session was purely exploratory and I found so much new stuff! The levels are brilliantly designed with secrets all over the place. It's also funny, if you click with the humour. The aliens are either useful or threatening, some of them seem brutal and hard to kill but with a bit of careful thinking I've managed not to get stuck so far. For the price I got it for, I would give it a clear recommendation 👍

I played this on game pass, having tried the demo during one of those Steam events and liking it. Beacon Pines is a cutesy storybook adventure with darker undertones. The big conceit is you find "charms" through talking to characters, looking at things in the environment or overhearing other characters etc. At certain points in the story you're presented with the option of choosing from 2-3 of these charms to decide what action take in that situation. The story branches off according to the choice you make, you might die a grizzly death or head off on a completely different version of the story. You can go back to any of these branches and try the other options, sometimes you'll find another charm down one branch that lets you make a different choice in an earlier decision. The branching thing is more superficial in the end than how the game initially presents it to you, you end up exploring most of the decisions on the way to getting the ending anyway, but it's fun and engaging. It's about 5 hours or so in length, which is just right. It doesn't overstay it's welcome. The presentation and art style are top notch.

I’m about an hour into this on Switch. It has the same kind of relaxing vibe as A Short Hike, although I would not say it’s as good as that game, so far. The art style reminds me of Hidden Folks. The game is literally just you running around taking pictures for people. It’s very pleasant, although for Eurogamer to call this “essential” is stretching the meaning of essential…