Gaming Diary — Page 34

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: there’s been a murder!

Posted on 15/08/2024 Written by Xexyz

Apologies for silence over the past few weeks, I have been in Paris. In real life, with my family, watching Olympic events and having an amazing time in a city that was fully embracing the celebration of the Games. And virtually, in a Paris with much darker overtones.

In fact, I have had very little time for videogames at all, since most days saw us out until late in the evening, and so I have made very little progress on this. Ahead of my trip I fancied revisiting the Broken Sword series, following an article in Retro Gamer, and since I had to take my laptop with me it seemed an ideal fit. I already owned the first four games on GOG, so I installed the first two and off we went.

As it turns out, I didn’t revisit anything. The first game is on GOG as the Director’s Cut, which includes a side story set before the main game in which Nico finds the body of Pierre Carchon and sets off to solve the murder herself. After following clues to the quayside, I found my way in through use of annoying sliding block puzzles and having to crush a bullet case. I found a lot of documents lying around on a table.

That’s as far as I got; the explosion in the cafe came next, but that will have to wait until I have some more time.

Densetsu no Stafi (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 14/08/2024 Written by deKay

When I bought the original Game Boy Advance, imported from Japan, I ended importing a lot of Japanese games too. At the time it was usually cheaper, and there were some really weird looking games that I wanted to play. For a few years, I often saw the three GBA Stafi games for sale on the likes of Lik Sang (RIP) and Play Asia, but never cheap enough to buy. Eventually the DS came out and the 4th game in the series was released for that, was cheap, and I bought and played it. Eventually I bought Stafi 2 and 3 for the GBA but by then the first game was All The Monies. Until now!

Nintendo have nicely plonked the three Game Boy Advance Densetsu no Stafi games on the Nintendo Online Game Boy Advance Subscription Thing, so of course I’m going to play them all. They’d best be good.

And they’re good! Phew.

At its core, Stafi is a platformer, although most of the game takes place underwater where you can freely swim. Starfish aren’t known for their jumping acumen, after all. As you progress through the levels you gain some skills in a very-linear-Metroidvania way, like double-jumping, gliding, and being able to break certain walls. At the end of the game you can return to previous levels and make use of these skills which you wouldn’t have had access to at the time.

Most levels have some sort of puzzle or task to solve. Sometimes they involve finding a certain object or character, or matching colours or shapes, and some of these tasks are pretty difficult because they’re all in Japanese. Thankfully, most are obvious even if you can’t read the dialogue, and those that aren’t are resolvable with trial and error.

Each world has the platform game standard set of themed levels, so there’s a snow world and a tropical world and so on, and each is filled with weird fish (and some not-fish) characters to interact with. The main character, and friend, you encounter is a clam thing called Kyorosuke, who somehow always manages to get further into levels than you’re able to, in less time, and gets angry a lot. I gather he explains a lot of what is going on, some of which I can understand but most goes over my head. Each world has a (very easy) boss at the end too.

There’s almost certainly a plot, involving what seems to be a punk snail or something doing Bad Things, but again, Japanese innit so it mostly passed me by. None of these translation “issues” should be seen as a reason not to play it though, as Stafi is a really good little (well, quite long for the era, really) platformer with some clever and funny bits.

Oh, and I should probably explain why I call the game “Densetsu no Stafi” not how some people say “Starfy” or “Stafy”. Because the name is スタフィー, or su-ta-fuii, and it was always transcribed as “stafi” online back when it was new, and it’s the eventual Western DS release that renamed it as “Starfy”. Also because I Am Right.

Lucy Dreaming (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 13/08/2024 Written by deKay

I do like a nice silly point and click adventure game. Especially with regional British accents. And, hopefully, toilets. WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, Lucy Dreaming has all those things. Phew, eh?

Lucy suffers from nightmares and sets out to get to the root of why, with it seemingly having something to do with a murder in her town many years ago. Lucy can explore her house, and the town, in the usual pointy-clicky way you would with other games in the genre, but there’s a slightly mind-bending addition – you can also explore her dreams.

Depending on which items are arranged next to her bed when she goes to sleep, she enters one of a number of dreams. She can’t take items into or out of her dreams, but can influence how they play out with external stimuli, and can take items from one dream to another. Things Lucy discovers in her dreams affect her recollection of events in the waking world, and vice-versa, so it has similarities to other adventure games with parallel universes or time travel, only in a way I’ve not seen before.

Puzzles, albeit with the added dream complications, are mostly work-out-able with common sense and a bit of warped thinking, rather than be of the use-everything-on-everything-else format that I really don’t like. There are lots of silly characters to meet, and great accents (if a few perhaps less than stellar voice actors), as well as some very British references and stereotypes and lots of funny made up brand names.

Lucy Dreaming is definitely worth getting if you like these sorts of games, northern accents, and/or toilets. In fact, there are even puzzles involving the toilets. Look, if you are making a game and you want me to both play it and recommend it to others, just put some functional toilets in it and you’re a shoe-in.

August 2024 Update – I Banish you!

Posted on 09/08/2024 Written by gospvg

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - Wikipedia

Playing Now

Banishers - Ghosts of New Eden

Continuing my quest to focus on games released this year, I picked up Banishers. Developed by Don't Nod who made Life is Strange (which I have still not played) but I did enjoy their first game Remember Me & climbing adventure Jusant.

Banishers has you playing the role of ghost busters (really needs a trailer with the theme music), you help out local villagers who have been haunted and then decide the outcome.These outcomes will effect the story and ending of the game. The combat is very satisfying and has a god of war feel but you can you do long range damage with the rifle or use some ghost powers. I like how everything is tied into the one overarching plot throughout the whole game & a great cast for the voice-acting. With every open-world game there are always gotta collect them all icons & combat challenges. Banishers is not different except the collect quests usually reward you with new equipment & challenges give you materials that are required to upgrade these equipment.

I am nearing the end game with only a few more haunted cases to complete but this is a game I'm enjoying very much. Way better than the 6/10 or 7/10 reviews.

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 3

The season is nearly coming to an end & truthfully I will be glad to see the back of it, I did not enjoy the focus on vehicle combat and if it was not for the Reload or Pirates Mid-Season pass I would have stopped playing after getting the T60 skin.

The next season will be starting soon on 16th August and it will be time to get fed some Marvel content.

Playing Complete

Judgment

A different spin to the Yakuza formula with Yagami and co in a detective/lawyer game. Using the familiar location of Kamarucho the story delves deep into Yagami's life and explains how his short lived lawyer career turned him into a detective yet whilst still retaining his ability to get involved in street brawls :)

There is quite a bit of side missions and helping around the city to make friends that then later can help you in combat. You have the usual Sega Arcade (Space Harrier, Virtua Fighter, Motor Raid & Kamuro of the Dead), Dating, Crane Mini game etc

At some point I will play the follow-up Lost Judgment.

Playing Next

Sand Land, I have purchased the Akira Tomiya adaption of the 2000 Manga so this will be next on my list.

2024 releases I am keen to enjoy are Rise of the Ronin, Balatro, Star Wars Outlaws & The Plucky Squire. I expect Death Stranding 2 & Metal Gear Solid Delta will get delayed to 2025.

Older titles include Cyber Punk 2077, Spider-Man 2, Outer Wilds, Lost Judgment, Like A Dragon Ishin, Sea of Stars, Shadow Tactics, Baldurs Gate 3 & Shadow Gambit.

Enjoy your gaming & remember you are never too old to play video games.