Py

Holiday clean-up

So with all the lockdown and the holiday I had in may, there was more than enough time to clear some game from the backlog.

First of, games I had in my backlog for a while:

  • Codex of Victory

    12 hours playtime

    19 of 30 achievements

  • Concrete Jungle

    18 hours playtime

    13 of 13 achievements

  • Legends of Eisenwald

    43 hours playtime

    26 of 45 achievements

  • Volume

    8 hours playtime

    24 of 24 achievements

  • 60 Seconds! Reatomized

    2 hours playtime

    22 of 60 achievements

  • Fortix

    15 hours playtime

    12 of 12 achievements

  • Hidden Folks

    7 hours playtime

    8 of 8 achievements

Codex of victory is an ok turn based strategy game, units are upgraded all campaign long, you keep stocks of units. Game gets a little bit repetitive toward the end because you tend to use the units you have upgraded the most.
Concrete jungle is a really nice take on the city building genre because it combines city building and card management. All in all it was a very fun experience, each character has a really different playstyle and the different game mode (vs, team vs, classic) make for a different approach to the game.
Legend of Eisenwald. I’m a bit torn on this one, on one hand I really liked how your troupes evolve, the story with the multiple choice offered, the light resource management and the overall setting, on the other hand some aspect felt pretty bad. During fights melee can’t really pick their target, transforming some spell on insane turn wasters for some troupes, the achievement system need you to do multiples play through to 100% complete with a replay value almost null from a gameplay PoV.
Volume a stealth game that’s pretty good. Simple design, yet very effective. The different tools and opponents at your disposition make the 100 level of the game all pretty different.
60 seconds reatomized I expected a bit more from the game. It’s just 60 second to pick items and then it’s just a text adventure. Like yeah there are different events/endings but it still felt samey after two play through.
Fortix and Hidden Folks I already had finished those game, just went back to get the last achievements.
Not much to say on fortix, you either like this kind of game or you don’t.
As for Hidden Folks, DLC is now included in the base game, I still really like this one (reminds me of where is waldo books), the design is pretty nice and the sounds are pretty fun.

Then three games that I picked up in a bundle last month/bought on sale

  • Cosmic Star Heroine

    16 hours playtime

    33 of 33 achievements

  • Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

    10 hours playtime

    27 of 27 achievements

  • Westboro

    8 hours playtime

    10 of 17 achievements

Cosmic Star heroine a good turn based RPG, combat felt nice, evolution of character/stuff felt ok, the progression is pretty linear, the story is ok, design was pretty good (if you like pixel art that is). Only real downside are the fact that I had to use AHK to change the shortcuts and the fact that there was no way to check current buff/debuff in combat.
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows I freaking loved the setting of the game. The music is gorgeous, the lore is really good (and a nice change of environment) and the design complements that well. As for the story if felt at the same time good and bad (some stuff that you don’t see coming, other that are way to obvious and make you feel like the hero is a bit dumb). As for the combat (main part of the game play), it felt okay. It had some potential, but never really sucked me in.
Westboro. Sometime you have a bad flair for game. This was one of them. The game had some potential and nice touches (like the opponent falling over each other when you kill the first of a line and munition being scarce at the start) but it had some awful game design issues. Exemplified by the last boss: infinite spawning enemies + being fired upon by stuff that is out of the screen/hard to focus on). And leveling felt pretty bland.

And to top it of, two free games I picked up on steam recently

  • The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game

    16 hours playtime

    50 of 50 achievements

  • Total War: SHOGUN 2

    8 hours playtime

    7 of 106 achievements

The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game It’s a modern lego game. So normal game done in 7hours, and double that time if you want everything. That’s about it.
Total War: SHOGUN 2 It’s an oldish Total War. After having played a bunch of Total War: Warhammer, this one felt pretty lacking in comparison, so one campaign and done.

Arbiter Libera

Damn, you have some games I’m interested in and even started playing.

Legend of Eisenwald

Put this on hold for absolutely no reason. What hero did you go with? I really liked the folk stories and legends shown.

Cosmic Star Heroine

Glad to hear it’s good. People comparing its combat system to that of Grandia got my hopes up and it looks like Zeboyd Games are perfecting their art with each new title.

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

Played the demo and setting seemed interesting enough. 10 hours, huh? Kinda on the short side.

Py

This time around, the melee guy. The first time I started playing it (like 2 or 3 year ago I think?), I played with the archer. I didn’t remember anything this time so started it anew. And yeah the lore is quite nice, plenty of legends and stuff that you actually have to use in game, which is nice.

Never played gandia, do you think it’s worth checking out (seems like an old game from what I’ve gathered) ?

Yeah it’s kinda short, but at the same time I think lasting more would cause the lack of really interesting combat gameplay to show. Like at the end I started upgrading skills I didn’t really use because there was nothing else to do.
But for a bundle game it was nice. Wouldn’t buy it full price tho.

Arbiter Libera

Well, I played Grandia when I was younger so I have nostalgia bias, but I’d say yes. Can’t really say how accurate comparisons to CSH combat are since I have no first hand experience with the latter, though. Former is definitely a Childhood Adventure: the Game you don’t really see in JRPGs anymore.

I have Masquerada, just need to find the time to actually play it. If it’s that short I might as well sometime soon. Thanks. ;)

Py

I’ll add it to my wishlist then, to see if it ever goes on sale/bundle . But it’s starting to be longer than my backlog :D.