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Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Well look at this – it’s another Metroidvania game that I’m playing. Only this one is based on a series of Japanese books (I think!) and looks a lot like Touhou Luna Nights. Not least because it’s running on seemingly the same engine and is by the same team. And it’s really good!

Whereas Touhou Luna Nights “borrowed” the bullet grazing mechanic from the Touhou shooters, in Deedlit there’s a Radiant Silvergun-style colour swap system, where you flick between fire and wind based powers which makes you immune to the effects of those enemies that match you. It means you can run through fire when you’re fire “powered”, for example, but also each style has a gauge that fills up when you use it against baddies – and a full gauge lets you refill your health when you swap to the other style.

There’s a million Symphony of the Night type weapons to collect and agonise over choosing, and the usual upgrades like double jump and levitate, and lots of tricky bosses, secrets and all the things you’d expect from the genre. I think the characters all passed me by as I have no knowledge of the source material, but that doesn’t affect the game, which is a solid example of a Metroidvania.

61: Skyrim in Space

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The ugvm Podcast returns, a little earlier than advertised in some listings magazines, with this, Episode 61.

Not that there’s anything specifically noteworthy about Episode 61, but it does feature The Return of the Zo, who joins deKay, Luffer and Kendrick in Chat Mode, and we talk about Not-E3, games at Not-E3, the future of E3 and/or Not-E3, Saudis Buying Stuff, Starfield, aaaaaand… games we have played such as these ones what are listed here:

  • Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
  • Laser Overload
  • Beehive Bedlam
  • Animal Crossing
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land
  • Unpacking
  • Control
  • Back 4 Blood
  • Sonic Colours Ultimate
  • Gran Turismo 7
  • House of the Dead Remake
  • Switch Panic
  • Drakengard 3
  • Nier: Automata

Plus some excellent listener questions are answered, we put the world to rights, and we only upset a handful of countries this time.

(Direct link here)

Don’t forget, if you want to contact us with questions or comments for or about the show, you can email podcast@ugvm.org.uk or publicly shame us @ugvmpodcast on the Twittors.

Unpacking (Switch): COMPLETED!

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What I was expecting from this game: a sort of Tetris puzzle game where you have to fit items into a room. What I was not expecting: a putting-things-away simulator with an unwritten, non-verbal story about the life of a woman.

Told over a number of years across various different houses, you unpack your belongings as you move in. Over time, you acquire (and lose) new hobbies, tastes and relationships, but this is only explained by the objects in the houses.

There’s a small amount of “make every fit”, and some stuff will only go in certain places, but it isn’t tricky and there’s no penalty or stress. It’s just a nice little time waster with a surprise story.

Unpacking (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on Written by

What I was expecting from this game: a sort of Tetris puzzle game where you have to fit items into a room. What I was not expecting: a putting-things-away simulator with an unwritten, non-verbal story about the life of a woman.

Told over a number of years across various different houses, you unpack your belongings as you move in. Over time, you acquire (and lose) new hobbies, tastes and relationships, but this is only explained by the objects in the houses.

There’s a small amount of “make every fit”, and some stuff will only go in certain places, but it isn’t tricky and there’s no penalty or stress. It’s just a nice little time waster with a surprise story.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch): COMPLETED!

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What a lovely blue skies game this was. It wasn’t the open-world, post apocalyptic Kirby the trailers and pre-release media made out though, as it sticks to the same level structure as most of the classic Kirby titles, but it looks amazing and is a lot of fun.

And is so, so easy! I completed the entire game, including the post-ending extra hard content, without dying at all. Or even coming close to dying. Or, a handful of bosses aside, even paying attention to my energy bar. But then, Kirby games have never been anything even approaching difficult so that’s not really the point.

The point, is that they’re so joyful and quirky and have unusual (to other games) mechanics. Here, you have the standard “suck up enemies to steal their powers” of previous games, but they’ve added Mouthful Mode where you try to suck up large objects like vending machines and cars but they get a bit stuck, although do provide you with some extra temporary skills. The car can smash through things, the big fan can be used to propel a boat, the cone can break through cracked floors, etc.

Your normal powers can be upgraded too. There are short challenge levels that task you with completing them in a certain time, or with a certain power, and these give you special stars which you can spend on the upgrades. It makes the powers deal more damage and so on, but also changes how they look. You don’t actually need any of these upgrades, but they’re nice to have.

In short (and the game is pretty short) it’s a bright and happy Nintendo platformer with charm and cute things and – most importantly – it’s really fun.