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Un Pas Fragile (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Un Pas Fragile is a short narrative game about a frog who wants to do ballet. As all frogs do, I expect. It plays out over a few days, where you leave your house, get the bus, go to ballet school, and do some ballet.

Of course, other people (er, animals) are not as accepting of your life choices as you’d like, so you get laughed at and bullied to begin with, meaning that you have to do some simple interactions with them each day to try and win them over. Then, when it comes you giving your final ballet performance in the game, your new friends (assuming you’ve made some) all make up the audience.

It’s pretty simple, but very sweet.

Souldiers (PS5): COMPLETED!

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From the name I fully expected this game to be a soulslike so just clicked nope-skip every time I saw it for sale. But then I stumbled across it on a Metroidvania Games You May Have Missed list and I re-evaluated. Then I noticed it was on sale for about three quid on PSN and so bought it.

First thing I have to say about it is that it’s HUGE. I’m used to 2D Metroidvanias for being 8-10 hours long, maybe 15 at the most, but Souldiers took me over 40 to complete. The world is made up of several large areas like a mine and a pyramid and a sky fortress and each one is about as big as a reasonably sized game by itself. In fact, if I’d completed the first area and that was the end, I’d have felt that was plenty of game, but no – it kept on going.

The plot is something about how you are one of a band of soldiers who, in the middle of a war, end up trapped in a cave. A fairy-like being appears to you and offers you an escape, but to another world. With no hope of getting out any other way, you accept and all step through a portal, ending up in what seems to be a sort of limbo that all sorts of races go to after they die.

This world is under threat though, bad thing with all the power is taking over the place, and so you volunteer to help. Which means you mostly have to do it all yourself. Sure, some of your fellow soldier and new friends help out a bit, but you know how it goes.

It’s a vast Metroidvania with each area being very different in terms of style and gimmicks. There are loads of power-ups, upgrades and secrets, some tricky bosses, and a cast of varied characters, as well as a few twists along the way. Definitely recommended to fans of the genre. Like me!

November – Autumnal Vibes

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Play

Currently Playing


Wordle, Strands & Connections (Android)
Finally got a perfect with a video game category!
 
 

I'm enjoying playing daily Wordle, Connections & Strands. I've given up on Spelling Bee (requires in-app subscription to progress) & Pips (is pretty easy on the first two levels and Hard is difficult to play on mobile phone).

Hole.io (PS5)

A simple game where you start off as a tiny hole and have to eat things to get bigger, lol it's great fun! 

Balatro (PS5)

Back at this trying to crack the Purple Stake on the Yellow Deck!

It Takes Two (PS5)

I missed this off last month post but started this with Nemo, now I just need to get here attention off Simpsons Fortnite & Skate to get back to playing it!

November Plans

To play Lost Records Bloom & Rage Tape 2 & Sword of the Sea

Completed

Lost Records Bloom & Rage - Tape 1 (PS5)

Developed by Don't Nod (I do enjoy playing their games!), this is a story about four girls who go back to the town of Velvet Cove to relive the summer of 1995, will be starting Tape 2 soon.

8/10 

Messenger (Browser)

Gobsmacked that it runs in a browser, nice and short, 20 to 30 mins max with a handful of fetch-type quests, but lovely to explore.

Go play it https://messenger.abeto.co/ 

5/10 

The Invincible (PS5)

A video game adaptation of a science fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem, looks stunning; gameplay is mainly a walking sim type.

7/10 

Promise Mascot Agency (PS5)
For the first time in forever, I purchased, played & completed a game in the same month!

Really enjoyed this, it feels like a large-scale "Kairosoft" game with a funny cast of characters & a Yakuza story. This would not look out of place in a RGG Yakuza game.

8/10

 

Yet another Waterfall!

 

Backlog

Current Backlog

I have had a proper look through my backlog to remove games I have no intention of playing or have expired in the subscription service. 

Digital Games - 31 with new purchases inc Darkest Dungeon & Steamworld Dig 2.

PS+ Subscription - 5, I've added As Dusk Falls (looking forward to playing this story game)

PS+ Monthly - 20 (recently added Cocoon & Alan Wake 2)

Physical Games - 11 (no new additions)

Total  67 Games (Reduced by 25 from last month!)


Shopping

I've added a new Shopping page to the top, current total is £310.27!

https://www.gospvg.com/p/2025-shopping.html 

I upgraded Alan Wake 2 to the Deluxe editiion to get the DLC, purchased and completed Promise Mascot Agency in the same month!, Papa Quiz for £1.99 is something to enjoy with the family & Darkest Dungeon, I blame Abbas who was singing it's praises! 

 

Want

Current Wishlist is at 27 Games (added Paradise Killer) but I need to focus on the games above!

 

Bin

Nothing again, I think I'll remove this section going forward if nothing to add.

Piffle (iOS): COMPLETED!

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Piffle, or more accurately, Piffle+ (it’s a free IAP-less Apple Arcade version of an IAP’d game), is a simple arcade puzzle-ish game that is a bit Breakout and a bit Peggle. You throw balls (which are cat heads) upwards at blocks, destroy as many as you can, and then they all move down a row before you have another go.

Different blocks have different properties, like they can only be hit from certain directions, or they replicate, or they capture your balls, and your balls can augmented with powers like additional strength or explosives, in the same sort of way most Match-3 games are these days. Clearly extra balls and powers were how the in-app purchases worked in the non-Apple Arcade version.

Anyway, it’s a bit mindless and isn’t exactly taxing on the puzzle muscles, but it whiled away some time.

Sonic CD: completed!

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Stardust Speedway remains a low point for the game, I think, which is a shame because the ornamentation (of the brass instruments in the present, and overgrown pipework in the past) is evocative of the Starlight Zone, probably my favourite levels of the original Sonic game. The route to find the generator, and get to it in the past, is overly convoluted and seems to require luck as well as skill. I did explore a lot to find the route that worked for me, but maybe I was missing something.

It’s taken a while, but I’ve now completed this, getting the good future in every zone, and even destroying the Metal Sonic holograms hidden throughout. The game is very different to Sonics 1 and 2, rewarding exploration as well as speed, finding the best places and routes to run along, rather than just always moving to the right. Maybe this is why I found it oppressive; it was just too different, while looking the same. Having explored everything, though, and now with a better knowledge of routes, its become much more like classic Sonic, and I feel like it has the same sort of replay value.

In fact, I know it does, because having completed the game on the PS3, I immediately restarted it on the Xbox 360 (well, the 360 version running on the Xbox One), to unlock some long-standing achievements. I played through it all the way to Stardust Speedway Act 2, where I found I couldn’t remember how to find the generator and I had to look it up. Having done that, I proceeded through and completed it again.

The game is full of surprises, like Mini Sonic, endless loops, and Amy Rose being kept in a dungeon.

It’s not perfect by any stretch. The final boss battle is a bit of an anticlimax, especially when you compare it to the iconic Sonic 2 last stage. Metal Sonic’s race is a bit too much of a difficulty spike. Some of the level design, especially in the present, is a bit confusing, where they have tried to vary the routes in the past, but leaving rings in the same places. The special stages, even though I now know what to do, are rubbish and uncontrollable; I managed to get four time stones at most. And yet, despite all this, it’s a really good solid game, well up with the best platformers I’ve played.

Having completed the main game, I then looked at the time trials, which are more traditional Sonic material with the time travel removed, and the sole aim is to get through the present version of the level as quickly as possible. I hadn’t explored looking for the most efficient route; maybe that’s something to do in the future.