Indie Games

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[Ronnie]

It's funny to have nostalgia for something that happened 4 years ago but the 2017 (Switch's first year) was just an amazing time that I look back at really fondly and Golf Story played a big part in that. Let them take all the time they need for the sequel!

[MindFreak]

Started playing Cris Tales yesterday. Didn't realise this was an RPG with random encounters - and a minimum of 10 seconds loading time before and after each of them, which makes exploration kind of tedious. And the loading screens are completely white, hurting my eyes when playing in a dark room. Still early into the game, like two hours but enjoying it except the loading parts and a few strange design decisions - like you can time jump in towns by pressing X and then moving to either side (past or future) and confirming with A - why not just press L or R? They aren't used (yet). 

Edited July 21, 2021 by MindFreak

[darksnowman]

5 hours ago, MindFreak said:

Started playing Cris Tales yesterday. Didn't realise this was an RPG with random encounters - and a minimum of 10 seconds loading time before and after each of them, which makes exploration kind of tedious. And the loading screens are completely white, hurting my eyes when playing in a dark room. Still early into the game, like two hours but enjoying it except the loading parts and a few strange design decisions - like you can time jump in towns by pressing X and then moving to either side (past or future) and confirming with A - why not just press L or R? They aren't used (yet). 

I played the Cris Tales demo within the last week (I've had that kicking around on my Switch for donkeys!), thinking I would make a thread in the run-up to release and buy the game day one. The thing is, art style aside, it didn't do much for me at all. This has been one of my most anticipated releases since I clapped eyes on it so I was really shocked that I wasn't feeling it when I got around to playing it.  I've been checking some reviews this past day or two and it doesn't seem like there's much more to it than the pros and cons I'd already extrapolated from the demo.

The demo, by the way, is just a bit of busywork running from one NPC to another that culminates in a battle, with a separate battle gauntlet mode accessible from the main menu. So I wasn't aware of there being random encounters until checking reviews. Random encounters aren't a turn-off for me, what I am not interested in is a 10-20 second load screen into each encounter. Getting in and out of battle has got to be snappy, imo!

For the time being then, I am going to hold off. Hopefully, they can optimise the game through updates and since it also has a physical release (I thought it was download only until recently), maybe I can pick up the game card on the cheap at a later date if it flops.  

 

[Ganepark32]

Release date for Road 96 was revealed the other day, certainly a game that caught some attention when it was shown at The Game Awards I believe it was.

With it being a procedural narrative, curious how it'll hold up in multiple playthroughs as I imagine there are set scenarios that will crop up again and again so I'd love to know how finite it'll be. Still interested by the premise and the look of it.

[MindFreak]

4 hours ago, darksnowman said:

I played the Cris Tales demo within the last week (I've had that kicking around on my Switch for donkeys!), thinking I would make a thread in the run-up to release and buy the game day one. The thing is, art style aside, it didn't do much for me at all. This has been one of my most anticipated releases since I clapped eyes on it so I was really shocked that I wasn't feeling it when I got around to playing it.  I've been checking some reviews this past day or two and it doesn't seem like there's much more to it than the pros and cons I'd already extrapolated from the demo.

The demo, by the way, is just a bit of busywork running from one NPC to another that culminates in a battle, with a separate battle gauntlet mode accessible from the main menu. So I wasn't aware of there being random encounters until checking reviews. Random encounters aren't a turn-off for me, what I am not interested in is a 10-20 second load screen into each encounter. Getting in and out of battle has got to be snappy, imo!

For the time being then, I am going to hold off. Hopefully, they can optimise the game through updates and since it also has a physical release (I thought it was download only until recently), maybe I can pick up the game card on the cheap at a later date if it flops.  

 

I didn't play the demo but if it just covers the beginning of the game, it probably doesn't introduce some of the cooler mechanics and characters. The time travel mechanic is rather cool, actually, and figuring out which of past, present, or future makes the enemy weakest is rather fun. Then there are some new status effects (I've never seen soaked and rusted in a game before) and I'm sure I'll see some cool things later on as well.

But otherwise, you might be right. I think if it released four years ago, it would be novel but now, it really just is another JRPG with time travel. Development started in 2014, if I recall correctly - it's hard for a game to be under development for so long.

[Ganepark32]

Add another game to the release slate for August as PQube have announced that The Plane Effect will release August 12th on Switch (as well as PC, PS5 and Xbox Series).

Quote

It is your last day, it's time to clock out and head home. But where is ho̷me? What is home? Is someone watching Solo? Get lost in a time and mind-bending puzzle game set in a dystopian future.

Get the feeling that its going to be somewhat similar gameplay wise to something like Inside but looks interesting. The aesthetic is nice and these types of games are always interesting from a narrative perspective so perhaps one to watch out for.

[Sméagol]

3 hours ago, Ganepark32 said:

Add another game to the release slate for August as PQube have announced that The Plane Effect will release August 12th on Switch (as well as PC, PS5 and Xbox Series).

There's a demo (the prologue) on Steam.

[darksnowman]

On 21/07/2021 at 7:05 PM, MindFreak said:

I didn't play the demo but if it just covers the beginning of the game, it probably doesn't introduce some of the cooler mechanics and characters. The time travel mechanic is rather cool, actually, and figuring out which of past, present, or future makes the enemy weakest is rather fun. Then there are some new status effects (I've never seen soaked and rusted in a game before) and I'm sure I'll see some cool things later on as well.

But otherwise, you might be right. I think if it released four years ago, it would be novel but now, it really just is another JRPG with time travel. Development started in 2014, if I recall correctly - it's hard for a game to be under development for so long.

The demo is likely the opening, yeah. As far as I know, it doesn't save to be carried over to the full game which is a minor annoyance. It takes you through searching for the frog, going out to meet the time mage, planting a seed and sending the frog to the future to get the fruit, choosing which house to save and finishes with the battle in the burning fields where you inflict the wet/ rust status effect (which was a cool use of time and what I'd want from Cris Tales). 

How's it going for you with timing attacking and defensive button presses à la Mario RPGs? I wasn't sure if I was getting it right at all; it seems like something that would need practice to get the timing for.

[Ganepark32]

Baldo: The Guardian Owls is releasing on August 27th for Switch (as well as PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles and Apple Arcade). Believe this turned up in an Indie World showing a while back now as I definitely remember the visual style of the game standing out. Very Ghibli/Level 5-esque. Curious how it'll play as it looks like take a lot of elements from the Zelda series.

 

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, Ganepark32 said:

Baldo: The Guardian Owls is releasing on August 27th for Switch (as well as PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles and Apple Arcade). Believe this turned up in an Indie World showing a while back now as I definitely remember the visual style of the game standing out. Very Ghibli/Level 5-esque. Curious how it'll play as it looks like take a lot of elements from the Zelda series.

Baldo has cropped up in a couple of the Nintendo showcase videos. I'm looking forward to seeing some impressions and reviews to see how it turned out. 

[MindFreak]

I thought it was supposed to be a Switch timed exclusive?

But yeah, it's definitely one of those games to keep an eye on.

[MindFreak]

On 26.7.2021 at 4:51 PM, darksnowman said:

The demo is likely the opening, yeah. As far as I know, it doesn't save to be carried over to the full game which is a minor annoyance. It takes you through searching for the frog, going out to meet the time mage, planting a seed and sending the frog to the future to get the fruit, choosing which house to save and finishes with the battle in the burning fields where you inflict the wet/ rust status effect (which was a cool use of time and what I'd want from Cris Tales). 

How's it going for you with timing attacking and defensive button presses à la Mario RPGs? I wasn't sure if I was getting it right at all; it seems like something that would need practice to get the timing for.

That makes sense, though the beginning is a bit slow.

Although, the entire game is just a bit slow overall. Movement is slow, loading is slow, though combat is quite fast. It's not bad just 10 % too slow for me. However, I do enjoy it. The voice acting is good, the battles are fine (could do with a bit more variety with enemies, usually a dungeon holds three unique enemies or so, but each with three different time versions (past, present, future). I'm about 10 hours in (I think, the ingame playtime clock doesn't work - it continues while in sleep mode). 

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, MindFreak said:

That makes sense, though the beginning is a bit slow.

Although, the entire game is just a bit slow overall. Movement is slow, loading is slow, though combat is quite fast. It's not bad just 10 % too slow for me. However, I do enjoy it. The voice acting is good, the battles are fine (could do with a bit more variety with enemies, usually a dungeon holds three unique enemies or so, but each with three different time versions (past, present, future). I'm about 10 hours in

Yeah totally. Dropping you into a later demo scenario that has some combat would have given a better impression of the game. And you're bang-on about the movement speed--it would be nice if she moved a smidge faster. 

Is the voice acting good enough throughout that you are listening to all the lines are are you reading the text and skipping on?  

1 hour ago, MindFreak said:

(I think, the ingame playtime clock doesn't work - it continues while in sleep mode). 

You're joking! I think it was SaGa Frontier that had this bug too. When I went back to it the day after it came out I was shocked to see I'd already accrued 20+ hours of playtime! Fingers crossed updates can be pushed out sharpish for Cris Tales. 

[MindFreak]

3 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Is the voice acting good enough throughout that you are listening to all the lines are are you reading the text and skipping on?  

Haha. Reading and skipping as always. I play games on low audio anyways when I play them in handheld because I can then talk to my wife while playing.

Yeah, broken play time clock bothers me more than it should....  

[Happenstance]

Anyone played Dex and if so, is it any good?

[darksnowman]

15 hours ago, Happenstance said:

Anyone played Dex and if so, is it any good?

I've had it wishlisted for a while as it comes up on online recommendation lists quite a bit. Can't vouch for it beyond that as I am yet to make the purchase. 

[Happenstance]

16 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

I've had it wishlisted for a while as it comes up on online recommendation lists quite a bit. Can't vouch for it beyond that as I am yet to make the purchase. 

As it’s only £1.79 at the moment I figure I’ll give it a shot anyway

[MindFreak]

I've now spent about 16 hours on Cris Tales and have passed what I believe is the halfway point in the story. Overall, it's not a bad game but it has some frustrations.

There is no room for exploration. The game wants you to follow a set path and you almost can't leave that. This is frustrating because that's not how games work these days, I believe. If you somehow stumble upon a riddle (of which there is very few!), the solution is almost given to you immediately by the game / frog. It renders them pointless. Yesterday I walked on a bridge which then collapsed without warning. I therefore had to walk back up to it and restore it (a power you gain) to be able to proceed across it. What is the point of that? It then happened a few times again on another section of the bridge. Why??

The only unique aspect of this game is to send opponents back and forth in time but I quickly realised that it doesn't really affect my opponents. Sure, sometimes it's beneficial to send someone back as they deal less damage in the past but if they are on the right side of the screen, I can't - past is left, future is right and that's just how it is. I even came across a boss fight where they blocked the possibility to use the time mechanics. So I question why this is even necessary?

At some point in the story, you are forced to switch between the party members but as inactive party members don't gain XP, they are now underleveled. Grinding is not fun as the game is so slow and thus, it becomes a bit frustrating. However, on the plus side, party members are vastly different in combat so it's good to be forced to create a new tactic, even though it caused me to be almost overrun by some common enemies. It was a nice shake-up to be forced to rethink combat and use the new characters.

In combat, there are some Real Time Events that can double your damage output and mitigate damage taken but the window for button pressing is really, really narrow. Like 0.1 seconds. Too early makes you deflect some damage but being late is full-damage, of course. Some bosses can almost kill you with a single blow so if you miss the RTE, you are as good as dead. That's a bit rough. To further add to the insult, there is a small box in the corner telling you which attack is coming but that box is only visible for a few moments and then you have to know when the RTE comes. So this is very much about quick reactions in a turn-based combat environment which is kind of strange. I just wish they could widen the RTE window a bit to make it a tad easier to hit the right time.

Overall, it's an enjoyable game, though. It has some frustrations which I listed above but they are not game breaking. I would rate it at 7/10 at this time.

[Ganepark32]

Its another busy week for game releases this week, especially on the indie front. There's Flynn: Son of Crimson (15th), Eastward (16th), and Toem (17th) to name but a few. Its already been a stacked September so far but the games keep coming across all platforms. Especially looking forward to trying out Eastward as I love the pixel art and the music is just hitting that right nostalgic note for me. But Tom looks great as a nice chilled and laidback experience and Flynn: Son of Crimson looks great too.

This is ignoring other titles like SkateBird and Tails of Iron (as well as I Am Fish on PC and Xbox).

Fantastic month for games across the board, just feel sorry for wallets everywhere.

[MindFreak]

Windjammers 2 got a new trailer:

 

[Julius]

Loop Hero is coming to the Switch on December 9th!

Weird they wouldn't just shadow drop the game with this news at The Game Awards, but I guess they might just show this trailer there again instead anyways. Heard a lot of good things! 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Julius

[MindFreak]

I really dislike the art style. It's very off putting.

The gameplay reminds me a little of the card game Boss Monster. Somehow. Even though they are from different perspectives.

[Sméagol]

I loved the artstyle.. hated (and that's an understatement) everything else. I'll have it removed from my steam library. Should have refunded it while I still had the chance.

 

[drahkon]

Loop Hero isn't that good. Third worst game I've played so far this year