The SteamWorld series of games has been an exploration of disparate genres, with the team always careful about returning to ideas. But it does happen! Like Dig 2 before it, SteamWorld Heist II seeks to iterate upon the original’s mechanics with years of hindsight and extra development expertise.

Heist II moves from the first game’s space setting to an ocean one, with players navigating the world in a submarine. Functionally, these are very similar! So it feels a lot like the original. Instead of the menu-based approach of its predecessor, this entry takes a Mario + Rabbids approach, using an adventure overworld with light exploration and naval skirmishes.

This scheme is designed to break up the tactical combat with world-building, and the team at Thunderful tried hard to make it fun to explore the map even if the rewards aren’t always particularly consequential. You’ll find secret passages. You’ll encounter little narrative moments. The water effects as the sub zips around are satisfying. There’s even a diving mechanic that doesn’t really get explored until the late game but serves to give the world dimension.

But the primary attraction of SteamWorld Heist II is definitely the combat missions. In a lot of ways, they’re reminiscent of the first: areas composed of rooms and doors that are regularly re-used and configured, with a variety of obstacles and enemies to aim weapons through. We can forgive a lot of the iterative nature, though, given its role as a sequel and the way this system is distinct from all major tactical alternatives. It’s accurate enough to call it “2D XCOM,” but the 2D part of that does fundamentally set it apart in both presentation and tactics.

The combat is, more than anything, about action economy and finding tricks to take out more enemies at once and keep your head above water against enemy waves. Sidearms and grenades, along with class-specific abilities, allow you to attack more than once in a turn. Weapons with a large blast radius can hit more foes if placed right. Unlockable abilities can cause attacks to not end your turn or give you extra movement to reach objectives faster. This focus, again, feels a lot like Mario + Rabbids! Which is definitely a good thing. We found ourselves emptying our cupboard of extras each turn before finally using the characters’ primary weapons on whatever was left alive.

There are multiple difficulty options in the game and you can change on the fly if needed, but if you’re having trouble with a particular stage, you can also grind for job levels and equipment. This isn’t a huge change to your power or capability, often just giving you slightly more survivability or one more skill. But that can be the difference between staying on top of enemy waves and finding yourself underwater.

The world is broken up into regions, which largely function as the game’s chapters and each feature a bar for resting, shops and narrative moments. Each party member can fight once before resting, which means you’ll eventually be able to fight a few times before returning, but that does build up over the game. Missions earn “renown,” a currency you cash in when you rest for rewards. If you’re able to use the whole team and do a lot in the same day, you’ll be able to redeem for the higher-value rewards. These aren’t necessary, but they’re usually quite nice to have. You also unlock a special passive reward for completing everything in a region. Again, not necessary, but you’ll want them and they’re not too tough to do.

You recruit new party members at these bars, each with the ability to learn any class, but carrying personal skills that could lean them toward particular strategies. You have some player freedom to recruit in different orders, eventually unlocking all ten, but with some choice of who you need first and who you can wait for until later when you have space in the crew. They’ll have little quips during missions to make them feel like a part of the story, but they’re mostly there to support protagonist Captain Leeway through his journey while he largely doesn’t participate in fights himself.

Heist II is, in a technical sense, a very smooth experience, which makes sense for a sequel to a game formulated to work within 3DS specs that’s releasing on all active platforms regardless of capability. We did review the game on PC, for what that’s worth, but it’s the sort of game that doesn’t feel like it’s trying anything that would trip up low-spec devices.

SteamWorld Heist II takes the things that worked in the original Heist and, well, gives players more of them. It’s well-considered in so many ways, making sure you’ll have a good time exploring its ideas for as long as it holds you. It ain’t exciting or revolutionary, really, but it sure is fun.

SteamWorld Heist II launches August 8, 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The post Review: SteamWorld Heist II Aims to Please appeared first on Siliconera.

With two otome visual novels to read through and a veritable army of potential boyfriends to romance, Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom feels like it’s worth every penny. Despite its age, Otomate's consistent art style (for better or for worse) and the relatively sharp visuals keep this historical tale modern.

When I was a kid, I knew about Hakuoki in passing. My friend played it and came to school crying about Okita. Another friend watched the show and came out of it talking about how Okita is pretty great. So all I knew about Hakuouki prior to playing this on the Switch was that apparently, Okita is popular (hardly a surprise). So you can imagine my surprise when I learned that not only is Hijikata the actual canon love interest, but the story features vampires?! It was a huge shock to me, and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. I’d spent sixteen years of my life thinking Hakuoki is a normal piece of historical fiction, only for it to be a historical fantasy otome instead.

Hakuoki covers the tale of Chizuru Yukimura, who's looking for her father, who is a missing doctor. (As a note, you can change her name if you want, but I recommend just keeping it so voiced lines don’t cut off.) Chizuru is a normal girl, outside of the fact that she can heal abnormally fast. She visits Kyoto while disguising herself as a male. However, she ends up getting into trouble with the notorious Shinsengumi when she sees something she shouldn’t have: Shinsengumi warriors losing control at the sight of blood and going berserk. In order to make sure she doesn’t blab about this to people, they force her to live with them. In time, they accept her as one of their own.

If you’re familiar with even a little bit of 18th to 19th century Japan and its politics, then you’ll be able to recognize a lot of the story beats when it focuses on the social and political climate surrounding the Shinsengumi. At times, the sheer level of detail the game gives about the group's history can clash with the more fantastical elements. The priorities just felt unbalanced. It started getting better later, but in the earlier chapters of the first game it almost felt like they were two separate stories that became one during development even originally. Some of the characters are new additions added in the Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms releases. Not everyone meshed well together at first. It’s very obvious who’s new and who isn’t, because new characters just seem to randomly appear before disappearing for large stretches of the story. 

As a whole, the localization is good. But when there were errors, they were usually ones that really stuck out. Iba’s introduction scene, for example, made a deep impression on me for reasons other than Mamoru Miyano. I had to re-read lines so many times to make sure my eyes and brain were working alright, especially since playing the game was the first thing I did that morning. When explaining the Water of Life (the serum that turns people into Furies), the doctor notes that the Chinese call it “xindn.” There is no such word. Most likely, they meant “xiandan,” if we’re using the Mandarin pronunciation.

I know that there is a lot of text to go through. I can’t even count how many times I thought to myself that I don’t envy the localizers for the workload and large amount of historical terms. But it’s precisely because the rest of the game reads well that these slip-ups become a lot more jarring.

The prevalence of terms specific to Japanese history can be confusing if you're not paying attention or if you're unfamiliar with the subject. I found myself going through the glossary multiple times because I couldn't remember certain allegiances. The story goes through the Shinsengumi history quite quickly, so sometimes it can be hard to follow. It definitely feels like Otomate aimed it at Japanese people who already learned about all of this in school.

Something about Hakuoki that I liked was that the story and characters took center stage in this otome game, rather than the romance. It’s hard for me to self-insert myself in the protagonist a lot of times in these otome games. I couldn’t connect with Chizuru at all and because she's a self-insert, she wasn't always the most interesting character to observe from an outsider's perspective. Maybe at the time of the game's original release, she was a breath of fresh air. Despite her overly considerate personality and her attempts to help even in situations where she can't help at all, she does take a proactive stance in the story. However, you could say that about tons of other otome game protagonists too. When I translated Winter's Wish: Spirits of Edo, I had a positive opinion of Suzuno precisely because of this personality type.

Despite Chizuru becoming the blueprint, rather than the exception, I enjoyed the plot and the characters nonetheless. I genuinely wanted characters like Harada, Heisuke, and Iba to get a happy ending. For the sheer amount of boys there are, the writing does a good job of giving them plenty of characterization and development beyond their basic tropes or shticks. To be frank, I didn’t finish all the routes in the game yet, but I'm excited to go back in and see what other interesting stories I still have to discover.

For both positive and negative reasons, Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom is a classic otome. The quality of the story and the characters are really good, and I can understand why people loved it. But playing it in 2024 after so many other otome games (and from Otomate to boot), it’s hard for me to see what made Hakuoki the special juggernaut it was at the time. Is it good? Oh yeah, if you’re big into otome or historical fantasy games. It’s great that you get both the Edo and Kyoto arcs in one convenient package without having to pay for two games like in certain releases. This is a game that stands very well on its own. But those curious about the legendary reputation of Hakuoki may come out of it scratching their head.

Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom is readily available on the Nintendo Switch.

The post Review: Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom Stands Tall appeared first on Siliconera.

In most dating sim games I’ve played, I’m used to a slow burn, “will they, won’t they” romance, with the eventual love confession and relationship being the final reward of the game. With The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You however, the game starts you after you’re already in a relationship. This is an interesting approach to dating sims, as it’s not often that you get to actually witness your protagonist and romance option learning the steps to make the relationship succeed.

The game takes place six months after the school festival where protagonist Futaro Uesugi confessed his love to one of the Nakano sisters. Futaro, his sister Raiha, and the five Nakano sisters Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki take a final trip to Okinawa together to celebrate the sisters graduating high school. In game, the player selects the character that Futaro confesses to at the festival during the very beginning. In practical terms, this means you're choosing the route for your current playthrough from the start, instead of locking it during gameplay. The main strength of this method is the number of unique routes and scenarios available with each of the five Nakano girls as Futaro’s girlfriend.

By making the most appropriate dialogue choices for your partner, you obtain “Futaro Points.” Depending on the number of points obtained by the end, you can get a Normal or Good Ending for each girl, and after watching any of the endings for the five girls you unlock a final "All Route." Because of how The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You works and the position it takes in the overarching narrative of the series, this game feels as a sort of epilogue, with the beginning of the game —the confession— acting as what would be the ending for any other dating sim game. Since this game was localized and released alongside The Quintessential Quintuplets: Memories of a Quintessential Summer it fits nicely as a sequel to it.

Perhaps the most interesting factor of starting with the confession is that the game jumps straight into developing the relationship, with the focus of the stories present being Futaro and his partner learning to coexist in this new partnership. However, this also means that you need to have a familiarity with the series prior to playing the game, or you might be choosing a romance path with no context other than how the character looks and the vibe you get from them. At the same time, the game really seems to want the player to consider playing each confession route and eventually get to the "All Route." In a way, this game feels like a "what if" scenario for the original manga and anime series, which in itself is a creative way of writing more material for the fun and well fleshed out cast of characters.

The five Nakano sisters are really fun characters, and together they form quite a formidable and hectic team. It’s always fun seeing the sisters on sync and seeing Futaro struggle to keep up with their antics. Considering that they are the main cast of characters you will be interacting I appreciate that they’re more than one note characters and you get to see different sides of them in different routes. I chose Miku as my first route and I was quite happy to see how her experience with relationship expectations, anxiety, and communication was handled.

I realy enjoyed Futaro as a protagonist. I think that having the main point of view character have a marked personality is a great choice, as it makes it feel more about the romance between the two characters, rather than have him be as a stand in for the player. Futaro is very outspoken and his personality allowed me to enjoy the characters bouncing off of each other. He's also a dork and really endearing at that. The only caveat I have about him is that, after the tutorial, Futaro’s voice actor stops voicing lines. I would have much rather have him continue to speak, like it happens with the rest of the cast of characters.

While The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You is a follow-up to Memories of a Quintessential Summer, the game doesn't contain the stat management and tutoring elements of the latter. While this makes sense due to the game taking place during a holiday trip, this also means that this game is mechanically less interesting than its predecessor and a more straightforward visual novel. At the same time, if you play them in a row, Five Memories Spent With You can be a rewarding experience as an epilogue and a window into the future of Futaro and the Nakano sisters.

I found the localization to be pretty spotty. Some sentences can read a bit awkward and too literal, and at times I heard some voice lines in Japanese that didn’t match the translated English lines. In addition, the UI for the PC version of the game is a mixed bag. Considering that the game is a visual novel I played with mouse and keyboard. However, the game will sometimes show controller prompts even when playing with mouse and keyboard. Additionally, the mouse cursor will disappear when using the arrow keys, which the game seems very intent being used.

Furthermore, I wasn’t able to make my controller work with the game when I tried, which left me a bit puzzled. I eventually got around the odd control scheme, but not after tampering with it for a bit. The text formatting quirks also remain from the previous game Five Memories Spent With You. While the UI elements can get a pass, the localization problems remained throughout my playthrough and tainted my experience with the game a bit.

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You is a nice cherry on top of the cake for fans of the series. It is very rewarding being able to play a Quintessential Quintuplets story that focuses on seeing the relationship between Futaro and the chosen Nakano sister flourish. While the game doesn’t present original mechanics or ideas like its predecessor does, there is a lot to enjoy here, and a lot of content and attention given to each character.

The Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC via Steam.

The post Review: Quintessential Quintuplets: Five Memories Spent With You Feels Like a Sweet Epilogue appeared first on Siliconera.

I have to be honest and admit that my first impression of Kitsune Tails didn’t have me fully on board with the premise. Perhaps it was the very obvious similarities with other platforming games or how the game expects a certain level of precision and mastery immediately. However, as I made my way through it, I started to experience a full 180 degrees change in attitude and discovered that not everything was as straightforward as it seemed.

Kitsune Tails is a platformer game cut from the same cloth as classics like Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World, borrowing elements such as the way the level select maps look and the mid-world Spirit Houses that double as the mid-world castle challenges and Ghost Houses from SMW. Even the run meter from SMB3 makes an appearance as the Ki gauge in the upper right corner. I admittedly don’t love how close to this particular cloth Kitsune Games cuts. What I love is how this aspect of the game is only about 40% of the whole experience, and halfway through the developer pulled the wool from over my eyes and revealed that Kitsune Tails is also a completely different platformer closer to something like classic Ninja Gaiden.

The story of Kitsune Tails is a tad more involved than is usual for the genre. If I had to summarize the plot in one sentence, it would be “clueless disaster lesbian Kitsune causes geopolitical crisis, and a disaster ensues.” The focus for most of the game lies on Yuzu, a Kitsune on her first mission as a messenger for the fox deity Inari. On one of her reckless travels, Yuzu is rescued by the mage and healer Akko, who rapidly catches feelings for our protagonist.

As the seasons go by and the two get closer, Yuzu’s longtime friend Kiri starts to show jealousy about the girls’ growing bond. Kiri is ready to make a grand gesture to reveal her feelings to Yuzu during a dance festival. In the ensuing confusion Akko is captured, with Kiri as the main suspect. Yuzu embarks on a trip to commune with the five elements to free Akko from her entrapment, figure out why Kiri captured her friend, and if it had to do with her feelings of jealousy. I really appreciate seeing Kitsune Tails handle the conflict of three overtly queer friends learning to understand their feelings for each other and communicating them, while also seeing some asexual representation in the mix.

As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid comparing titles I review with other games as much as possible, as I prefer to explain the inner workings of a game on its own merits. However, there is too much of Super Mario World in Kitsune Tails. I think that my feelings towards the first half of this game come from how derivative it feels from this formula. For a good chunk of the game there is little variation to how enemies and power ups work compared to Mario, and when Kitsune Tails tries its own spin on a classic Mario mechanic it is often not to the best results. As an example, salamander and snowman suit power ups very similar to the ice flower and the fire flower from Mario games get introduced very late into the game. This means that the early game leaves you with your basic jump to fend off enemies and more situational power ups that don’t feel as useful or critical for that part of the game.

Similarly, the aforementioned Ghost Houses include ghost enemies similar to Boos. While they are similar to Boos these ghosts act differently, and you’re only safe from them as long as you’re inside the light of nearby fires. While I appreciate the variation in design, it’s not as balanced a threat as Boos, as these ghosts usually hover around your last position and there is no way to stop them unless you have a source of light, making them feel more unfair. Coupled with the fact that these enemies appear on levels with moving platforms or vertical levels, it makes for some of the most tricky in the game.

Aside from enemies and power ups, the demanding level design is definitely a step up from your average Mario game. Some levels are short and sweet and manage to scratch the itch for that platforming goodness Kitsune Tails is so eagerly and lovingly trying to recreate, while other levels go on for too long, feeling like two challenging levels stitched together. The frustration of very long challenging levels can be increased when checkpoints are sparse, making you start from very early into the level after dying. This is only really a problem when playing on the highest difficulty, or playstyle as the game calls it, as you can easily use power ups stored in your inventory to replenish your defenses in the other 2 available playstyles. Additionally, you can spend coins in the small hub village to purchase power ups.

Despite my criticisms, some levels shine through their creativity and fun design. I found the entirety of World 4 to be brilliant and a breath of fresh air. Having access to the ice power up means that you can stun nearby enemies and create platforms to make your way up very fun vertical sections. This felt like an appropriate level of challenge, as I had an effective way to defend myself without the game pulling any type of “gotchas” on me. Not to mention that what I have described above is only true for half of the game’s run, as you make your way through the 6 worlds in offer.

After completing the game, you are given access to a special character that can’t use the power ups that Yuzu can. Instead, this character has a completely unique moveset that revolves around swordplay, hitting enemies to refresh traversal attack skills, and flowing through the levels swiftly and precisely. This second part of the game absolutely, positively, immensely rules. I couldn’t stop myself from playing once I reached this point. Even though you go through the same levels again, the difficulties I previously had in some levels disappeared as the new playstyle instantly clicked with me.

I think this unique playstyle is what makes this second half so special, and I would have liked to see Yuzu play in a more unique way than Mario, with her power ups being something she learns in each world and can use with a different degree of freedom. I kept thinking about this when I unlocked the adorable shark suit power up, and how I would have preferred if it was an innate ability in the character’s arsenal, as it would have made the water stages fairer, in addition to helping the game distinguish itself more from Super Mario.

The pixel art in Kitsune Tails is as lovely as you’d expect, and every character and enemy have distinct designs that are easy to clock, even if you have never encountered before. Walking and flying beetles are the equivalent to Goombas and their flying variations, with armadillos being akin to Koopa Troopas, and so on and so forth. The music is fun and playful, borrowing from the style of the NES and Super Nintendo. Perhaps the most impressive element of Kitsune Tails is that the game also includes its own “Kitsune Maker,” featuring a level editor using the Lua script language used to develop the game, as well as the plenty of minigames available.

Kitsune Tails presents itself as a charming homage to classic NES and SNES era platformers with an adorable Queer story, and hides underneath a deep and challenging double album of platforming goodness with a second campaign focused on speed and precise movement, all the while featuring a simple level editor to boot. Despite borrowing a little too much from some classic platformers, I feel like genre fans and speedrunners are going to have a field day with Kitsune Tails.

Kitsune Tails will come to the PC via Steam and itch.io on August 1, 2024.

The post Review: There’s More Than Meets the Eye in Kitsune Tails appeared first on Siliconera.

Earth Defense Force is a series known for its campy, B-movie vibe. It’s known for being far from the greatest in its genre, but a perfect game for when you want to turn your brain off and blast some bugs. Earth Defense Force 6 is no different, but maybe we should be asking for more at this point.

Earth Defense Force 6 begins with you being brought in as a new recruit for the titular military group. However, you’re the hero of Earth Defense Force 5 who has somehow been mistaken for a rookie that now has to undergo basic training again. Along the way, you and your fellow new recruits take on a series of missions to eradicate the remaining alien threat that’s been wrecking Earth.

It’s a silly opening, and one that set a tone right out the gate. The story here is poorly written, melodramatic, B-movie grade schlock, by which I mean it’s amazing. Aside from heroes being somehow recruited for basic training, the opening missions feature a lot of ham-fisted dialogue clearly meant to impart an important message about humanity and war but stumbling over itself at every turn.

For instance, after fighting off your first batch of giant bipedal frog monsters who shoot you on sight, your squadmates will openly discuss the possibility of them simply being refugees from their home planet that we’re misunderstanding. This is naturally peppered with some awkward, entirely out-of-place “what if we’re the real monsters” comments while you’re being chased by giant ants that have no qualms about devouring you. This is then replaced in a later mission by every squad member reminding you that the aliens killed their entire family at every opportunity, completely ignoring the attempts to humanize them moments ago.

Every line of dialogue feels like something out of an Ed Wood movie or The Room. The clumsy attempts at gravitas. The characters who openly discuss their backstories in stilted, inhuman ways. And a story that often feels meandering and full of cliches. However, every part of it feels deliberate, as each terrible line is comedy genius. One exchange in a mission about the appearance of humanoid aliens legitimately caught me off guard in how silly it was, especially when the eventual punchline was revealed.

In terms of gameplay, this is a standard third-person shooter. You pick one of four classes of soldier, with different abilities and play styles. There’s the Ranger, a basic grunt with an assault rifle and various other weapons. The Wing Diver is a flying unit who swoops around with a jet pack. The Air Raider specializes in throwing drones and traps around for maximum damage. And finally, the Fencer is a big stompy suit of power armor that can tank through most trouble.

Or at least in theory, these are the things that differentiate them. However, one thing that becomes abundantly clear after a few hours of playing Earth Defense Force 6 is that none of them are particularly great to play. Each class has strengths and weaknesses, but at times the weaknesses can become such a hassle to deal with it can be frustrating. The Wing Diver is best swooping around in the air, and yet is given a ton of weapons that only work from short range. The Air Raider is capable of causing a ton of damage but is awkward to use. The Fencer is slow and unwieldy to control, and sometimes doesn't feel as resistent to damage as it should be. And the Ranger is just…kind of boring.

These problems are often exacerbated by the bland mission design. Every mission feels the same. You move to one portion of the city overrun by monsters that mostly resemble bugs, kill them all, then repeat the process roughly three or four times until the game feels you’ve had enough. Sometimes you might get to blow up a spaceship or some wasp nests, as a treat, but most of the time the level design repeats this same formula over and over.

Even the enemies begin to feel samey. Sure, they’re all different species of bug or weird alien beings and spacecrafts, but the attack patterns are consistent across the board. The only real changes are later missions when your alien foes get endlessly firing automatic weapons that are next to impossible to dodge. Usually while also gaining the ability to fly into a position you don’t see them. Which turns the tedium into frustration very quickly.

It doesn’t help that Earth Defence Force 6 is not a good-looking game. Every mission map feels like a bunch of ruined city assets thrown together without much rhyme or reason. There is some mild entertainment to be had from the generic ants and spiders being presented as horrific Eldritch beings, but the joke does wear out its welcome fast.

On top of this, the visuals have all the fidelity of a game from 2006. It certainly doesn’t try to make up for its dated, low budget visuals with a coherent art design either, as nothing was visually interesting enough to pay much attention to. There is a point where the visuals do get an upgrade, but even after this the game feels at least a decade out of date.

I get that this is part of the charm of this series. Earth Defense Force has always been intentionally bad. But while the b-movie grade writing feels purposeful and fun, the gameplay and visual design feels sloppy. It’s a tough tightrope to walk between making a game deliberately bad in a fun way and making a game that’s just bad. Unfortunately, EDF6 lands firmly in the latter category, as its tedious mechanics and limited strategy simply don’t feel good to play.

Fans of the Earth Defense Force series probably don’t care about any of this. If that’s you, you’re probably here for everything I just described. Feel free to add a couple of points to the score in your head if that’s the case. However, I did come into the game fully aware of its reputation and perfectly ready to mindlessly blast away some bugs, but even I felt disappointed with the end result.

Earth Defense Force 6 is a joke that outstays its welcome. The writing definitely has its moments of brilliance, but it tries so hard to be "so bad it’s good" that it just ends up bad.

Earth Defense Force 6 is out now for the PC, PS4 and PS5.

The post Review: Earth Defense Force 6 Is Funny, But Tedious appeared first on Siliconera.

Thank Goodness You’re Here is one of the silliest and most absurd games I’ve ever played. In fact, I’d almost consider it more of an interactive experience, rather than a proper adventure game or platformer, given how essential everything about the town of Barnsworth and its citizens are to it. Coal Supper is completely committed to the bit, making it a joy to experience.

Rather than starting with any sort of solid explanation as to what’s going on, Thank Goodness You’re Here begins with a series of advertisements for oddities like Peans (“not quite peas, not quite beans”) and Big Ron’s Big Pies. It pulls back to your avatar, a very tiny, very yellow man, being told that Barnsworth needs exactly what you’ve got to offer. After jumping out a window to land on top of a bus to the village and riding it to the mayor’s office, you find yourself halted by his secretary. Instead of waiting there for your turn, it’s off to explore the town to “assist” the citizens.

While Coal Supper and Panic describe Thank Goodness You’re Here as a “comedy slapformer,” this is an adventure game through and through. You’ll wander around town, punching people to talk with them and things to interact with them. In so doing, you’ll make the town a better place (maybe). For example, one of the earliest tasks is to assist a man in the town square whose hand is trapped down a grate… because he refuses to let go of a tuppence. This means heading to a pub that needs kegs punched to get a locksmith having a morning drink to unlock access to the butter store, so you can knock down and ride a slab of butter to the growing crowd surrounding the trapped man at the fountain. 

I mean, it’s all very good. Like this is Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned cat hair mustache good. 

It is absolutely ridiculous. There are so many absurd situations and hilarious moments that I don’t even want to talk about the others outside that initial example. It would absolutely ruin it to know what’s coming. Especially since these moments keep happening. The incidental NPC chattering is fantastic, while still sometimes pointing you toward or hinting at certain situations. The character designs are the absolute goofiest. There a situation involving asbestos, of all things, that makes me laugh thinking about the commentary even as I write this review. 

Everything is also handled in such a way that it is perfectly paced and you may occasionally need to do a bit of thinking. Coal Supper set Thank Goodness You’re Here up in such a way that the game is always sending you naturally in the direction you need to go to for the next objective. So while you may be temporarily walled off in an area or unable to backtrack, odds are in 10-15 minutes your natural momentum will take you where you need to be. One situation involving retrieving a screwdriver even took me a minute, because of the unexpected additional platforming and exact inputs needed to properly facilitate its delivery.

I honestly love a lot of things about it. However, as much as I enjoyed Thank Goodness You’re Here, I’m not sure it will be a universally beloved game. There is some very British humor on display here. (Coal Supper is from Yorkshire after all, and there’s even a dialect option in the menu.) If you enjoy Monty Python’s Flying Circus or A Bit of Fry and Laurie, you will absolutely love it. However, I do think there are probably people who won’t find it as funny as others or may take issue with how easy and effortless it is. It’s very much the type of game where you basically need to hit or jump on everything to eventually make things happen. 

I have never seen so many people not only asking me to make a complete mess of things, but thanking me for doing so, in my life. But that’s exactly what Thank Goodness You’re Here feels like it is about, as the game rewards you for your goofy and occasionally destructive behavior with ridiculous, hilarious, and even sometimes a delightfully inappropriate response. It might not end up being a game for everyone, but those who do give it a chance and enjoy this kind of humor will likely be delighted.

Thank Goodness You’re Here will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC on August 1, 2024. 

The post Review: Thank Goodness You’re Here Is an Absurd Comedy appeared first on Siliconera.

The Star Named EOS is the latest game from Silver Lining Studio, and like Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery before it, the game tells a very personal story of art and connection in between puzzles set in panoramic scenes. Said puzzles aren't intended to be taxing, and I had a few issues with the slightly saccharine story, but if you can tune to the game's wavelength you'll find a very pleasant story with some lovely visuals here.

The game plays from the perspective of Dei, a young photographer following in the footsteps of his mother by recreating (very literal) snapshots of her life. Most levels in The Star Named EOS start with a letter from Mom as well as a photo, which you will need recreate with what you have available in the scene. There's some decent variety in the puzzles, though perhaps a few too many leaned on finding a code in the level and inputting it elsewhere. Sometimes you'll find what you need after a few puzzles and simply have to arrange it, but sometimes you'll need to get a little inventive. My favorite was one that involved holding cutouts against a poster to recreate a camping scene in the middle of a city. Complete the photo and you'll move to the area depicted as you piece together what happened to Dei's mom.

My copy of The Star Named EOS came on Switch, and while it ran perfectly and looked good I did find the point-and-click gameplay a bit clunky with the analog sticks. It was nothing huge, but searching out specific clickables without adjustable sensitivity was definitely more irritating than it could have been with a mouse and keyboard. This only got worse when I had to go back and forth between several screens to check the sequence I was inputting, so if you plan to play the game you should make things easier for yourself by bringing a notepad and, if possible, playing on PC.

The environments and art in general have a lovely, slightly painterly style and the game makes use once again of Silver Lining Studio's panorama tech. There are also a few cutscenes interspersed, usually where another character appears, and the designs there have this slightly Ghibli-ish quality to them that was pleasant. I especially liked the areas set in a train or a city cafe, which seemed like they might have had a mid-1900's aesthetic going on, though I don't know if the game is expressly set then.

There's a smidgen of replayability, should you want to go back and collect a few more bits of writing by photos of specific objects in levels, but otherwise you'll be done within a couple of hours. This will depend on how easily you take to the puzzles of course, but generally the game has a breezy pace that doesn't get bogged down despite the sentimentality of it all. I would say, however, that the pace left the story feeling a little too "broad strokes" at times.

Our protagonist Dei, for example, can come across as a little flat because we don't really know all that much about him. We're told several times that he's very talented at photography and is clearly very close to his mom, but I didn't get a sense of a real character beyond that. There's a part where a character says she envies how insightful he is, and it just felt very weird and unearned. Dei feels like a blank slate everyman meant to be projected onto, but the story feels like its meant to be personal in a way that didn't quite click together, at least for me.

[Note: The next section will contain spoilers for The Star Named Eos]

The Mom is similar, we get that she is clearly very idealistic and committed to her job but with such little information about what she's doing and why she's doing it the game kind of fails to convey the gravity of it. We don't really see what she believed was worth risking her life for, and I think that would have been a more concrete story beat for Dei learn that too. As it stands, it's not hard to come away from The Star Named EOS with the rather unflattering read that Dei simply replaces his lost mother figure with Nat, a character who appears towards the end, rather than coming to any realization or expressing any growth.

The Star Named EOS has a fairytale vibe to it like the start of a Pixar movie, but the same breezy pace and lightness of detail can also make the story feel flat or overly sentimental. Still, there's a pleasant and affecting time for those who can slow down and enjoy it.

The Star Named EOS is available for the PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The post Review: The Star Named EOS Is Short and a Little too Sweet appeared first on Siliconera.

There aren’t many games out there like Flock. It’s a flight sim. It’s a creature collector. It’s a mystery game. It’s a puzzle game. All of these descriptions apply, but not exactly. Flock is a strange beast, which is appropriate when it’s a game all about finding strange beasts.

You play as a bird rider heading to visit their zoology professor aunt Jane, who has a task for you. She wants you to document the creatures of the land around her home and lower the cloud level in the process. You achieve this through observation, documentation and a system of whistles.

Gameplay in Flock is simple. You fly around a small open world, on the lookout for creatures hopping around the land. You fly close to them, observe them and use Jane’s notes to determine which creature you’re looking at, gradually filling up a creature book with details. In addition, you can find whistles for different types of creature, allowing you to charm them and get them to follow you around, which is the flock of the game’s title.

That’s it. That’s the game. It’s the most basic of mechanics and yet Flock manages to be delightfully compelling. Flying around the world feels good, for a start. The lack of friction to the movement makes it feel playful. This is enhanced by ring structures that can be dashed through and chained together for a satisfying drift through the skies. You’ll be swooping, drifting and coasting around to your heart’s content and loving every minute of it.

Seeking out creatures is also a joy. Flock doesn’t openly point them out to you. Instead, you have to listen out for any noises they might be making while staying vigilant for movement in the grass or in the trees. A glow in the woods at night could be something, while careful examination of a lakebed might reveal a pair of eyes peering out of the sand. Flock wants you to stop and carefully examine your surroundings, leave no stone unturned and keep making new discoveries.

This is the main draw of Flock, in fact. Because you have to make all these discoveries yourself, using only single line clues in the guide along with your own intuition, it’s extremely rewarding to find new creatures. You’ll see something wiggle in a rock formation and immediately work out out the correct distance to observe without spooking it. You’ll hear persistently loud chirping from tall grass and delight to find a weird duck in there. You’ll peer into a rock and be surprised to see something peering back.

The vagueness of these clues may be maddening to more impatient completionists, however. Some creatures require some meticulous searching, while the hints can sometimes be too vague for their own good. It’s a huge appeal for someone like me, with my love of slowly figuring out puzzles, but it may not be to everyone’s taste.

The vibes are immaculate for this gentle kind of experience though. The visual style is all bold colors and pastel shades, which means every part of this game is gorgeous to look at. The character designs are charming too. The creatures are all bizarre little hybrids based on various fish and birds, all marked by big eyes and pronounced features. Some have goofy little beaks, some are tiny beans that are mostly all eye, and some are whale-like beasts with huge maws. One creature, the Gormless Skyfish, is a happily clueless, bug-eyed fish identified by it being “no thoughts head empty”, and I love it so much.

These adorable designs even extend to the few human characters, including your own avatar. They remind me of Muppets, all big faces and noodly limbs. You can even get very silly with your characters, dressing them in a poncho and wading trousers, among other things. The silliness of these character designs is enhanced by the writing, which fills the dialogue with a ton of charm and humor. Your uncle Reg, for instance, is single-mindedly into sheep, where he’ll dismiss any earth-shattering natural discoveries you make simply because he can’t shear them for wool.

Sheep are also a mechanic in Flock, but they’re one of the parts that don’t feel fully realized. You can collect a flock of sheep in addition to the regular beasties, and their role is to graze on overgrown meadows. This reveals Burgling Bewls that have stolen the various whistles you need to charm creatures, as well as new clothes and space for more creatures. But they can’t be used for anything else and you can’t spread multiple sheep onto multiple meadows at once. They feel like they were added simply to have a collectible system on top of the standard creature collecting, and it doesn’t feel fully fleshed out as an idea.

That said, this minor use is a step-up from how limited the actual flock of the title feels. As you find creatures, you can use the various whistles to initiate a mini-game where you must blow the whistle at the appropriate distance to charm them into following you. As the game progresses, you become a full-fledged Pied Piper, with everything you’ve charmed following you in a big group.

However, they do nothing. They don’t help search for more creatures, they can’t be sent into crevices to pull out other friends and they can’t help chase down the faster beasts. They just sit there behind your bird, looking pretty and making noises if you press the right button to squawk at them. I feel it would add so much to the game if different creatures had different uses that aided in your search for the final entries. Despite the game being named after it, this flock doesn’t do much of anything, and that’s disappointing.

This feeling of ideas not being fully realized adds to a general feeling of repetition that runs through the game. The gameplay loop is very much swooping around, marking creatures in your book and heading off to do the next one. As a low-stakes game for short chillout gameplay sessions, this is perfect, but it does make the game feel a little tedious if you play for too long in one sitting.

However, most of these criticisms are nitpicks. If you’re willing to approach Flock on its own terms, most of this washes away. It lulls you into its atmosphere with ease. It's also designed to be played co-op, as you and your fellow bird riders can soar around together. I never got to experience this aspect of the game, but I imagine it adds a lot.

Flock is a comfort blanket of a game. Its simplicity isn’t for everyone but it’s hard to deny its charm. If you’re looking for something cozy to kick back with at the end of a long day, Flock is exactly what you need.

Flock is available now for the PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

The post Review: Flock Is a Delightful and Cozy Flight appeared first on Siliconera.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a game where I love the vibes and concepts, but felt rushed through things. It doesn’t fully explain or explore some of the interesting mechanical features introduced by the protagonist’s unique skill. This means even though the vibes are great and concept is cool, it can feel unsatisfying due to the execution.

Gemma is weird! She was left abandoned outside a walled village as a baby. Raised by the folks within, it was soon discovered that when she would move, people and select items would as well. She’d also be able to essentially teleport by walking into walls, emerging on the path on the other side. This happens on a sort of tile-based system. She’s convinced answers lie outside. So, in search of answers about herself and her path, as well as hoping for a way to find a place she belongs, she sets out on an adventure.

It’s best to think of Arranger’s world as being similar to a giant sliding puzzle, only you aren’t trying to move tiles into place to create a picture. The simplest parts involve just getting Jemma from point A to point B, as there will sometimes be immovable objects or ones that can’t phase through walls blocking your way. More challenging ones can involve moving a person to a certain place, pushing a sword against a Static enemy to dispatch them, getting an item to sit on a switch, or moving multiple items adjacent to one another so they’ll combine. Things gradually ramp up and build upon each other, with different concepts coming together to help clear situations in certain cities. 

Arranger can get frustrating sometimes! It isn’t because the puzzles are challenging. Rather, it is due to abilities not always being well explained, if discussed at all. Furniture & Mattress never tells you that Jemma’s ability to shift and move the world mean you can move items from inside buildings into major areas or to other locations. It first comes up within the first 15-30 minutes, when needing to get into the Mayor’s house. There’s a switch in an empty room. Unless you realize that the tiles inside the house will change and gradually pull in tiles Gemma walked on from outside, you may not realize you could bring in the broken ladder parts from Caretaker Foffy or other furniture from other places and shift them inside to flip the switch and progress.

This problem of not explaining “Jemma can do this too” goes on to become a recurring issue. Sometimes, it’s fun and narratively interesting! Once Jemma finds a place for her stuff in the introduction, you actually need to “move” it to an empty house out of the flophouse where she’s staying. It can involve new ways to move certain types of objects, which can factor into crucial situations. I learned that you can fuse certain adjacent items together by, well, having the arrows option enabled for quests on in the menu and pushing things together. When it came time to fishing, I had no idea how I made it happen for the trial since I was just moving around, and I had to relearn by doing for a quest. 

While that is frustrating, and also led to a few situations in which I thought maybe I’d messed things up so badly in a boss “fight” that I’d need to save and quit, it can be satisfying when you get it right. Or, at the very least, satisfying to know you’ll never need to go through that particular type challenge again. Arranger, due to its length and design, typically only uses a new type of mechanics for a few rooms. One of my favorites involved portals being introduced. I wished it had been used more! It introduced some fun concepts, especially in terms of reaching new spaces, but it only appeared extremely briefly in a single section.

Admittedly, there were a few times in Arranger when getting things right involved my happening upon a solution without even preparing for it or learning how mechanics worked. Likewise, there were also at least three situations that involved my brute-forcing my way into an eventual solution. I suppose that may be reassuring for some! Especially since people can also use an assist feature in the menu to “solve” any problem in a space that’s getting to be a problem. However, I was also a bit disappointed when I completed an area without doing so by my own merits.

The fact that the Arranger speeds through Jemma’s adventure, even if you do go off the beaten path for some minor side quests (some of which aren’t well explained or tracked by the tracker), is a shame because the concept is so fun. Jemma is a cool character! The situations she happens upon are interesting. Some touch on political or societal issues we deal with in our own world, but in a clever way that isn’t overbearing. However, we just don’t get enough time with many of the situations. I especially felt this way about everything past the second town. It seemed like there should have been more opportunities to explore a bit or taken in the area.

I really appreciate Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure and everything it sets out to do, as the concept is great, the story fun, and some puzzles thought-provoking. I just wish that it wasn’t so rushed, concepts were better explained, and that new puzzle elements weren’t abandoned as swiftly as they are introduced. You don't get time to appreciate all that Jemma can do or the situations around her, and you're left to stumble into new abilities or possibilities. If there had been a few more puzzles and framework, it'd been a stronger game.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC on July 25, 2024.  

The post Review: Arranger Makes You Consider Every Action appeared first on Siliconera.

It’s always sort of weird when a game take a long time to be localized, but a welcome addition when it finally shows up worldwide. This is the situation The Battle Cats Unite faced, as the Switch game launched in Japan in 2018 and Asia in 2021 before a 2024 worldwide debut. It’s a shame it took so long too, because the RTS remains as entertaining as always. The only downside is, it keeps some of the free-to-play elements such as a stamina system.

The goal in each case is that you command the heroic Battle Cats as they attempt to go around the world, through time, or across the stars to fight enemies. There’s a staggering number of stages, as you get the Empire of Cats, Into the Future, and Cats of the Cosmos campaigns, as well as some special stages. Minigame access can also be unlocked.

Regardless of which campaign you’re going through, The Battle Cats Unite plays the same on the Switch. Your goal in each stage is to eliminate the enemy base while protecting your own. You can equip up to 10 different kinds of cats to deploy. Each one has its own monetary cost, with a cooldown tied to them after purchasing one. You can spend money to increase your production level and rate of earning more money. Also, an energy cannon gradually builds in power, allowing you to unleash it when full. Units, rate of work production, how much money you can have, and associated stats for the base and cannon are all available to be upgraded with XP, as are the cats. Said cats can also evolve, sometimes more than once, depending on if you max out levels or have certain items. Each stage also only lasts a few minutes, making it a prompt RTS affair.

There are some elements in theSwitch version of The Battle Cats Unite that feel designed to mitigate the obvious leftovers from the free-to-play mobile version of the game. The Cat Food currency is doled out sparingly, and you’ll need that for extra unit gacha pulls or if you want to have the option of buying XP or other bonuses. The energy system remains in-place, so you can only go through so many battles before you need to stop playing or pay in Cat Food to keep going. As you imagine, the further along you get in the campaign, the more energy each stage costs to complete. It’s frustrating!

Especially since most of the most fun and flashy characters are locked behind the golden gacha machines. These require you to earn Gold Tickets or Cat Food for a spin. (Completing in-game missions is typically the best way to earn both.) That means you also have to hope luck is on your side for some of the most ludicrous units in the game. However, the cost to deploy them is also often incredibly high, so odds are you wouldn’t get to send them out until the end of a stage anyway. 

I will say that there are some elements that can feel designed to mitigate the need for stamina to keep going through fights and other issues. You’ll randomly get a chance to play through minigames. These can give you a burst of stamina, power-ups for stages, or gacha tickets, so they’re always appreciated. The co-op and VS elements also make me feel like they’re ways to deal with energy demands, since a multiplayer session would likely be shorter than a solo one. 

Speaking of which, multiplayer is totally fine and serviceable here. I enjoyed the co-op option more than the VS. Specifically because it does help further campaign progress and work toward those goals as well. However, I did note that playing with another person almost makes the stages too easy, so it’s not something I’d probably do outside of rare situations. Even though each person is limited to five types of units, it doesn’t feel like it is too restrictive as well. Multiplayer is fine and fun, and I appreciated that the minigames also took into account if a second person was around to allow someone else to assist in co-op.

The Battle Cats Unite is absolutely entertaining and the formula for the tower defense RTS remains strong, but the remaining mobile roots get annoying. The absurdity of the various cats (or in some cases “cats”) you deploy are as entertaining as ever. Even the cooperative and versus stages are fun. I just wish more had been done to remove the obnoxious free-to-play elements such as the energy restrictions or limited Cat Food currency. If you don’t mind the grind and taking your time, it’s a fun diversion to keep on your system.

The Battle Cats Unite is available on the Nintendo Switch worldwide.

The post Review: The Battle Cats Unite Entertains (When You Have Energy) appeared first on Siliconera.

There are times when the idea behind a game is good, but the nature of it can frustrate you due to constantly finding yourself chasing after someone or something. SCHiM has an interesting concept, as it’s a small creature moving in shadows, but the ease of play, only occasional use of unusual mechanics to get from shadow to shadow, and constant near misses with the person can be a bit annoying.

A schim is a frog-like creature that lives in the shadows. People’s shadows. Animals’ shadows. Inanimate objects’ shadows. They’re always there. They can influence their owners as well, causing minor actions. SCHiM starts with a particular one being separated from their human after the person trips. As a result, the rest of the adventure involves chasing after to reunite with them.

Each level of SCHiM after the introduction involves sending the schim leaping from shadow to shadow after a person who is constantly out of reach. You need to keep an eye on shadows of animate and inanimate objects to find your way. In some cases, you’ll have to press a button to trigger an action and potentially create a new path. Environmental elements, like car headlights along a road at night or a thunderstorm with sudden flashes of light, can force you to think about brief windows of opportunities. So to can occasional shadows with additional elements, like a windsock that will send you on a gust to a location farther away or a clothesline that acts like a spring.

Part of what gets annoying about SCHiM is that it feels like it’s designed to be a puzzle and platforming game, but isn’t always good at either. In the case of puzzles, there will be situations where a mechanic will come up once, but then rarely or never used again. (I see you, umbrella on the side of the road!) Which means you can sit there in frustration, as you don’t even know that’s an option to help you proceed. 

As for platforming, there’s rarely any challenge. Sometimes it is only “difficult” because you need to wait for moving objects to finally appear again to allow you to progress. That, or holding the trigger to show where the “goal” is suddenly suggests it is in a different place after you already progressed to a certain point. There were a few situations during which I almost got through the entire level just by happening to luck out and jump into the shadow of the right person or car, and I’m not quite sure it was supposed to be that easy. Not to mention that while some levels do have collectible items you can find by going off the beaten path, it feels like that opportunity doesn’t happen nearly often enough.

However, SCHiM also annoyed me after a while because of its premise. It really hit me once I reached a point when the schim nearly reached their person in a supermarket. It was such a disappointment to see the near misses and know that even if my platforming was perfect, there were still more levels to come and I wouldn’t reunite the two. Since it is also a wordless story and we’re never really connecting with the person, I stopped feeling any sympathy for the schim’s partner due to the constant near-misses. How do you finish a whole pizza, on your own, that quickly? When has a bus ever departed immediately after one particular person got on it? Why didn’t the schim just enter the hotel their person was staying at, when they were definitely stationary and sleeping, and just wait outside their door?

At least SCHiM looks and plays well. The schim’s leaps cover a decent amount of distance. You also get a second, smaller hop if you don’t immediately leap to another shadow, giving you a “second chance” to reach your next point of interest. Rotating does help with seeing prospective paths. Also, the art direction is simplistic, but both clear and detailed.

I like the concept behind SCHiM and the artistic direction, but certain elements of it frustrated me after I got about 30 levels into it. I found myself wishing for more of a challenge or a story that left me less annoyed at the person I was trying to track down. I imagine it’d be more entertaining if played in shorter bursts. But marathoning it might make you feel a bit depressed as you see yourself constantly just miss someone who just won’t sit still.

SCHiM will be available on July 18, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The post Review: SCHiM Gets Annoying appeared first on Siliconera.

When you have a free-to-play game, you also have to figure there are systems to get you to keep playing and perhaps spend real money on it. That definitely happens in Hamster Playground, a game about raising and caring for pet hamsters, but the bonus here is that it really only feels like you have to spend about $12 to get the most out of it.

Like most animal or pet raising games, Hamster Playground starts by adopting a hamster. You can only have one at the start, but leveling up by completing missions allows the option to bring more home. Speaking of which, the home is a dilapidated mess to start. You also start out with no additional minigame modes and no clothing for them. So your goal is to eventually send them to the work space or complete missions to earn currency, complete missions that can be tied to tasks or purchases to upgrade and improve the home, and go through minigames (if you buy them). As hamsters grow stronger in areas, they’ll be better at certain minigame tasks. Also, you’ll get enough spending money for costumes (though some you need to buy with real cash before buying with in-game currency) and other customization options.

The thing about Hamster Playground is that for much of it, it’s a wait and watch game. You’ll need things like screws to repair necessary resource centers for hamsters after a while. Those are, say, your bed, shower, toilet, trampoline, water dispenser, and food dispenser. For the environment, you will use things like blue stars. Coins can go toward the clothing. Plus you’ll need sunflower seeds for bolstering things like dexterity and intelligence. Which means you’ll likely be sending the hamster to the workspace location to have your pet “work” to earn them, while stepping away from the game until the critter needs to eat, drink, wash, use the potty, play, or sleep. At which point you may be sending them back over again. 

Which means if you don’t pay the about $12, Hamster Playground can feel like a repetitive grind. You’ll be going through the same routine to buy the items you want or need. When you aren’t doing that shopping or decorating, you’ll be tending to the basic needs of your hamster in the game or having them work so you can do those things. The animations are fun and lean into the silliness of the situation, rather than more serious or realistic ones. Likewise, the hamsters themselves have more human-like expressions. (I’m actually not a fan of that. I think they look a little creepy!) The details going into it are good, and it looks and runs well on the Switch. 

If you do pay the additional about $12 for Hamster Playground, then you get more “game” for the pet-raising sim. This is because brief Beward the Cat, Eating Contest, Skateboard, and Vehicle Pull minigames you can play alone against the CPU or against other players are locked behind DLC. The only minigame in the free version is a Maze. That involves going through timed QTEs at certain points to help the hamster get through it faster, with the sunflower-seed-based training sections improving stats for those. The other minigames, though having different elements like racing down a track on a skateboard, eating food, pulling a toy vehicle, or playing red-light-green-light with a Squid Games like cat toy, also feature the same sort of QTEs to proceed. None last more than a minute or two. 

These are means of getting currency and interacting with the hamsters more. They’re fine for what they are, but I feel like you don’t really have to spend $12 for each $2.99 minigame unless you really want all gameplay elements. The Maze itself is fine, and I feel like the Beware the Cat and Eating Contest ones were the only two that felt distinct or special enough for an extra purpose. Though I’d say the Skateboard minigame is a close third. Unless you really are into dressing up hamsters and feel like paying for the other cosmetics, those are really the only paid purchases I feel like you’d have to make. 

Hamster Playground is a pet raising game where it can feel like you’re there to complete missions and earn enough currency for the cosmetics you want. It looks fine and has a silliness to it that I appreciate. I also like that the only essential purchases connected to it involve some affordable minigames, and like you could even just go for the one or two you like instead of all four. It’s pleasant enough, even though I can see it getting tedious as you grind to complete your personal or game-mandated objectives. Considering the base game is free though, the design quality is higher than I expected and it is an entertaining diversion.

Hamster Playground is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The post Review: Raising Pets in Hamster Playground Gets to Be a Grind appeared first on Siliconera.

By the time my first daughter was 14 years old, she was 600 points strong, could defeat an undead knight that challenged her in a graveyard, and was well on her way to marrying a dragon, but she still couldn’t beat a 60-something year old pirate named Muscle Halvar in the Harvest Festival Combat Tournament. Those sure were some words, right? But if you play Princess Maker 2 Regeneration on the Switch or PC they not only make sense, but give you concise insight into the exact sort of adopted daughter and prospective princess’ path in life. It’s a wild game of stat management and child-rearing that blends hilarious absurdity with critical number crunching for optimal results.

Princess Maker 2 Regeneration begins with a war hero being invited to live in a kingdom with a pension and being tasked by the gods with adopting a young daughter. Your goal over the next eight years is to turn that 10 year old into a princess. However, that yearly 500 gold stipend isn’t nearly enough! Also, it sort of feels like your avatar decided that after all that hero-ing, you’re done. So you sit at home and decide what your daughter does every week for each month, scheduling out the three periods, and basically rely upon her to bring in cash from odd jobs and errantry. Oh, and maybe if she’s doing well, you’ll let her use some of that money she brings in on clothing, weapons, and classes to improve her stats. 

It is so much fun. 

Well, to me it’s so much fun. I've been having a ball playing Princess Maker 2 Regeneration on the Switch. For you, your levels of enjoyment may vary. This simulation is very much a numbers and management game. Classes tend to always be beneficial and only boost stats. Jobs will boost some stats and eat away at others, but provide you cash. All jobs raise her stress levels. Some jobs increase her sin levels too. Not to mention killing enemies while exploring the world make her more sinful. Certain endings are locked away by specific stat requirements. Others you’ll happen into if she works at specific jobs for too long. Marriage candidates look for specific stats too. You aren’t going to marry one of the princes, in most cases, unless you have certain levels of charisma, refinement, sin, and morality. 

Your first few runs in Princess Maker 2 Regeneration will basically involve you learning how to play the game and determining what you like about it. There are no tutorials here. Everything counts. You’ll learn how to manage what little money you get and focus on building up funds from your daughter’s jobs. You’ll learn how to manage stress so she isn’t so upset that she’s running away every other month, wasting possible time. You’ll understand that the best early investments are the sun dress and winter dress, in case of heatwaves or storms, but that you can avoid investing in weaponry if you’ll skip combat. After you’ve raised a few kids, you’ll start approaching each game with a particular destination in mind. Maybe this time, your princess will be evil! Next time, you’ll try and trigger as many events while exploring as a warrior! Perhaps she’ll try and become royalty on her own merits, without actually marrying into it.

With the Switch version of Princess Maker 2 Regeneration, Bliss Brain takes advantage of the new platform for some positive adjustments. For example, since this is a 4:3 resolution game, you constantly see all of your daughter’s stats on the right side of the screen. I didn’t realize how helpful this would be until I started playing! The voice acting is also fantastic and very much appreciated. I also liked how some of the updated art and CG looked.

That said, there are also issues with this latest incarnation of Princess Maker 2 on the Switch. Some of the font and formatting choices for text could have been better or have issues with size and spacing. The localization also isn’t great, with awkward wording present throughout, though I do think it was better than in Princess Maker 2 Refine at times. For example, it bugs me every year when the princess goes to the Combat Tournament and refers the person she’ll face in the match as “her” opponent instead of “my.” Also, saying you’re “recording the time” when saving is really weird. I think that the Hunting job might bugged as well. When my daughter’s Stamina was past 300 and her Combat Skill was past 50, she’d still be failing every day and earning no money from it. There are these little things that add up and make me wonder if it is intentional, an oversight, or a bug.

There are ways in which Princess Maker 2 Regeneration does feel like a valued, fresh start and approach to the game, partially because of it also being on systems like the Switch. However, there are also times when it feels like it also isn’t quite there yet and Princess Maker 2 Refinemay be a better bet. There are some definite bugs present and in need of squashing. I also wish the localization was stronger. However, the core game is a lot of fun, especially if you appreciate stat management simulations such as this. I think it is worth the time even if it isn’t the best version of the game available, and I hope Bliss Brain fixes some of the more glaring problems after launch.

Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC, and the PS4 and PS5 versions launch on August 8, 2024.

The post Review: Princess Maker 2 Regeneration Revives a Classic appeared first on Siliconera.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is the fifth expansion in the long-running MMO’s history, and it represents such a fascinating point in its life. This expansion has the unenviable task of following up after two excellent additions. In the end, I found FFXIV Dawntrail shows us the best and worst moments of the MMO so far.

With the lead-up to Dawntrail, I often kept asking myself what the whole point of it was. Endwalker put a nice little cap on the MMORPG, feeling like the right place to end FFXIV. In fact, it was supposed to be the original ending. But here Square Enix is, continuing the story past Hydaelyn and Zodiark because there is a massive, active player base.

My main concern about Dawntrail reared its head in the first half of the FFXIV expansion. The initial part of the story acts as a wacky summer vacation filler arc, for better and mostly worse. The Warrior of Light and some of the Scions take a trip to the new continent of Tural to help Wuk Lamat fight for her claim to the throne against other contestants. In theory, the premise sounds pretty neat! This is especially true when some of the other Scions are on opposing sides, offering some fun internal conflict within the group. However, the execution feels about as underwhelming as Stormblood, the weakest FFXIV expansion by far. This largely stems from the rather uninteresting cast of characters accompanying you.

Wuk Lamat is one of the most forgettable heroes in FFXIV, despite essentially being this expansion’s main character. Her voice acting is solid, but everything else about her isn't up to par. She is by far one of the most one-note characters in the game. She's always so happy-go-lucky, to an almost nauseating degree. Even her latter character development feels forced. She's not as natural or complex as some other characters, like Lyse or Ryne.

To make matters worse, the first half of the expansion also features the most unlikeable members of the Scions journeying alongside the Warrior of Light and Wuk Lamat. It would be one thing if I could catch up with my guy G’raha Tia swooning over me once again or Y’shtola’s witty remarks, but that doesn't happen here. This is Wuk Lamat’s story through and through. It is almost to the point where the Warrior of Light and the other Scions seem pretty much done story-wise, with the exception of characters like Krile. I almost questioned why some characters were even there, as the expansion would’ve been almost exactly the same with or without Alphinaud and Alisaie. During the first half, I often looked at some of the other contestants and wished I was partnered with them instead.

The one silver lining in this portion of the expansion is the actual content itself. The new locations, such as Kozama’uka, are absolutely stunning. The mix of jungles, deserts, and other wild biomes look so incredible. The detail and vast nature of each locale pops so well in the accompanying graphical update. These new locations are some of the best in the MMO’s history, with fantastic diversity throughout. There are even surprises and visual changes within some individual zones. While I didn’t enjoy the story, I at least appreciated the views along the way.

Plus, it helps that the dungeons, trials, and even instances excelled in these places. There are so many new mechanics and challenging moments that surprised me and tested my skill. For one, the Trust System is back and better than ever before. I wanted NPC trials since Trust’s introduction in Shadowbringers and it finally comes to fruition for more than one instance here.

The two new jobs, Pictomancer and Viper, both fill welcome niches in the meta. Pictomancer feels like a true support DPS, capable of buffing the party and dealing outrageous damage. The ability to queue up drawings before a big fight never got old. Then there is Viper, with its plethora of combos and flashy mechanics. It isn’t too overwhelming, but has just enough variety that will likely appeal to Ninja fans like myself.

If only for the content alone you experience, it is well worth getting through the succession storyline. That at least kept me going until the second half, which is when everything changes for the better. The second half of Dawntrail proved to me there is still some juice left in FFXIV’s tank. If you’ve been disappointed with everything since the final fight of Endwalker, this is the part for you.

While I certainly won’t go into details here, all you have to do is take a look at the second city of Solution Nine to see the surprising tonal shift. The story gets exponentially better in this second half. The introduction of the best new characters this expansion happens then, plus several shocking story sequences. There are even optional side quests in one particular late-game area I recommend everyone does for ensuing tearjerker moments. In fact, there are even some spectacular fan service moments that came out of nowhere and felt surprisingly earned. These epic sequences, some playable and others cutscenes, felt created just to convince me FFXIV is headed in the right direction.

This second half of Dawntrail stands up there with some of the best parts of the MMO, whereas the first half like it barely surpassed the heavily disappointing FFXIV Stormblood. I would rank it significantly higher than Heavensward at this point. It doesn’t quite reach the peak of the MMORPG’s history but there are several shining moments reminiscent of elements I loved about Shadowbringers and Endwalker. It is just unfortunate that these highest of highs also come along with the lowest of lows.

Fortunately, in the end, Dawntrail balances out for a solid, but not necessarily ground-breaking FFXIV expansion. Though it starts rough, Square Enix brings it all together quite well by the second half for a satisfying conclusion. The consistency of the actual gameplay content throughout at least ensures it is enjoyable to play from start to finish. In the end, FFXIV Dawntrail is a shaky, but ultimately positive step in a new direction for the best MMO of all time.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is available right now for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

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Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition wears its inspiration in its title. It seeks to capture the nostalgia for the competitions from over 30 years ago! And perhaps mostly the legacy built after the fact by collectors and communities wishing they weren’t just one-offs and actively building around that old branding.

The aesthetics of the game work really well! The soundtrack and backgrounds really remind us of The Wizard, which is absolutely correct for this package. The gameplay of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition appears to build on the framework of NES Remix, the Wii U and 3DS collection of similar challenges. There are bite-sized and… slightly larger but still bite-sized gameplay segments from 13 games: Super Mario Bros 1, 2, Lost Levels and 3; Zelda 1 and 2; Metroid; Donkey Kong; Kid Icarus; Excitebike; Ice Climber; Balloon Fight; and Kirby’s Adventure.

Speedrun Mode, the one mode you can play offline, is extremely like NES Remix, with escalating challenges to unlock and coins to collect to do that. They start at the shortest and simplest “Normal” ones, and go all the way through Hard, Master and Legend. Master and Legend challenges aren't necessarily the hardest to complete, but they are the longer and more interesting ones, and perhaps there are many more things you'd need to get exactly right to get a top time. There are even Nintendo Power-like strategy tips for these final ones, and these add to the atmosphere and are a nice touch.

Of course, the selling point of NES Remix was the, well, remix part, and this release has none of that. The game segments here are fully ones you could experience before. Instead, it’s built around online competition. The two online modes are World Championships, which gives you a weekly playlist of five challenges, and Survival Mode, which collects ghost data to create a 99-like battle royale spin.

The World Championships mode of the game is understandably intended as the centerpiece. Each week, you play five challenges and compete for the best times on leaderboards. Unfortunately for the experience, it deviates from the original Nintendo World Championships formula in one big way: you can replay it as many times as you want, and each part is tackled separately. You don’t chain together challenges, and there are no interesting score strategies. It boils down to “do these five again, just like you’ve done before.” Just you have to log on every week.

Survival Mode also recycles those challenges, this time formatting it as a battle royale-like competition. That said, like we mentioned, it uses ghost data! So it’s just an artificial way to make the normal speedrunning look different. You’ll take on three of the challenges — at least in the pre-release review period, these were identical to the World Championships ones for the week — and winning is a combination of doing well and happening upon the ghost data and event order that makes the finals most winnable. Half the “players” are eliminated each round, so early ones are more forgiving. So maybe keep entering and quitting until your weakest one is first, to save time? To the game’s credit, your performances in these two online modes do update your best times for Speedrun Mode, which is something.

You don’t want to chase slightly better times through repetition? Truly the game’s not for you. It’s geared exclusively toward this sort of play, and it’s unapologetic about it. As an example, Kirby's Adventure is a game about enjoying power-ups and creative solutions. Many of its included challenges? They’re no-power-up boss time challenges. We’re well-documented Kirby fans, and we’re not having fun playing the Kirby parts here! It works better for a game like Balloon Fight, but the true genres for this sort of thing don’t feel represented. There’s no Tetris, even as a nod to the original competition, nor do we see something like Dr. Mario here as a substitute. Scrolling shooters would also be good to see, or white-knuckle games like Punch-Out!! and such.

The game really wants you to play on TV, and with an audience. The interface is more for a spectator than a player, for better and worse. If you play by yourself, especially on a handheld screen, your actual view of a given game is only about a quarter of your display. The local multiplayer option, Party Mode, lets you play with up to eight players locally at the same time. And hey, this could be fun with a group?

Nintendo has been exceedingly clear that full NES games are not part of the Nintendo World Championships package. But, frankly, why not? We know that all of these titles are part of the Nintendo Switch Online offering, so they’re available to play, but what if there were built-in speedrunning milestones with split times, verified leaderboards and ghost data? This would be extra value, and still fit within the premise. If this project started life as one of the annual Nintendo Switch Online freebies, we’d believe it. With its focus on online play and general depth of content, it fits better beside Tetris 99 than Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a release held together by sentiment and atmosphere, partly because that aspect of the game is so good and partly because the remainder of the game is so devoid of merit. Like NES Remix before it, it lives in a liminal space between viable gameplay ideas. If it were supposed to be a punishing speedrunning challenge, it would give players one try in the weekly championship and offer more long events. If it were a WarioWare-like fun time, it’d have a faster pace and a lot more variety. If it were a weekly Nintendo Switch Online diversion, it’d be a lower-commitment free download built around a real-time experience. And, well, it’s none of those.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition launches July 18, 2024 for Nintendo Switch.

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