Yep, we're doing another one
It has been such a long time since the last games you might not have tried and James had so many other games he wanted
To mention that we figured what the heck let's do another one rules are the same as always
Hopefully all of these have something interesting to them even if not all of them are technically good here we go
Concrete jungle I
Like deck building games, and I like city planning games, and this is pretty much both
I mean sure it plays more like a puzzle game than either of those genres
But the deck buildings really interesting there are a lot more
Facets to how each card effects your deck than in other such games and having a deck building game play out on a board adds
another creative twists to the formula
So if you're oddly fascinated by the design and evolution of the tech building genre, this is one to check out plus
It's one of few games with PVP City Building can't beat that
In game voice: Welcome to yet, another exciting round the Forest Showdown!
Forest Showdown
Speaking of cards have you ever looked at a top-down shooter?
Especially some of the new top-down shooters with roguelike elements and said to yourself that could use more cards
Well guess what you're in luck because Forest Showdown is the collectible card
Integrated top-down shooter with roguelike elements that you apparently always wanted in this scenario
I made up what's fascinating about it
is that it shows us as designers just how far we can push the collectible card paradigm and how like the
RPGizing of yesteryear. We're now finding that we can use collectible card mechanics and all sorts of different gameplay
Just make sure you get past the tutorial because I had a lot of fun with this game
But I think one of the reasons. It didn't do as well as it could have
Commercially is because it takes about an hour before it all clicks and makes you understand
Why the roguelike and CCG elements are actually awesome layered over gauntlet like play just stick with it. It'll make sense
Odin's fear
life Leaf, Odin's fear HD
It's easy to miss an HD remake especially of a game that a lot of people missed the first time
but if you like 2d
Beat-em-Ups with an interestingly told story and solid RPG elements you probably shouldn't miss this one
besides this game is super pretty you guys great soundtrack to
Moving on to a game. That's all about gameplay
Devil Daggers.
Devil Daggers sets out to prove why circle strafing and Arena shooting was once considered Grand and it does so
Admirably by stripping down the entire experience into a two-minute loop there are two weapons
No explanation and no story only
Constant and rapid death in search of a marginally higher score this may not be for many of you
But for those of you who are into this sort of thing, it's easy to lose two hours playing these two-minute rounds
Tree of Savior
Tree of Savior is on here as one of those interesting design
Examples where we have a game that has a clear lineage in this case Ragnarok online?
Where the game is clearly more polished than its predecessor in almost every way?
But small design choices make it far less
Appealing if you're interested in where the future of MMO design might be going this provides a good case study for how
Linearity can kill an MMO experience
I don't think you'll end up playing it for very long
But it's worth looking at and side by side-ing with Ragnarok if you're into this sort of thing just to see how
Clearly a group of minor decisions that I don't think we're even the team's principal focus
Undid all the value added by the amazing Polish work on other aspects of the game
Rogue Galaxy
you remember that Golden age of PS2 RPGs where we had games like Dark Cloud 2 and Suikoden 3 where the
Jrpg had been refined to the point where devs knew exactly how to do the basics
But they were still inexpensive enough to produce that studios could experiment and try to squeeze in everything and the kitchen sink
Well rogue galaxies probably one of the lesser-known titles from that, era
But it's firmly in that camp and now that it's out on the PS4 store. It gives us an excuse to talk about it
It's a space pirate opera with an action combat system reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts
It's also got an interesting crafting system that tries to make far more of what you pick up in the world relevant
It's got some monster ranching to do on the side as well as an almost inexhaustible supply of side quests
It's no great Shakes, but the story is serviceable and it's plenty to take you from world to world the main reason
We're talking about it here though is for its encounter design
I love me some Kingdom Hearts, and I'm dying to get my hands on the new one
but I think that even though not all of the encounter design worked in Rogue Galaxy and the camera system is often as bad as
Well PS2 camera systems there are some incredible battles that are highly strategic and require a ton of thinking through
Exactly how to use the game's myriad abilities that even Kingdom Hearts get benefit from emulating
The Way
The Way is one of those old-school games that don't really have a genre sometimes
It's a platformer sometimes it's a stealth action game sometimes. It's an adventure game and as the steam page readily acknowledges
It owes a lot to games like Another World and Flashback, but in providing us with a modern counterpart to those games
It shows us some of the flaws and trying to be everything at once it's by no means a bad game
And it's got a more interesting story than you're at first led to expect
But none of the disparate elements quite have the level of polish to really make them shine
But it's on this list because it forces us to ask the question
Can you still make games that don't really have a genre at least mechanically and while this question seems
Deceptively simple at first
I mean, yes
Because we can do anything and then equally deceptively simple when the way is presented as a case study well
No Because the game would clearly be better if all the various elements were more polished the question is tougher than it seems because when looking
at the game the real question it presents us is would this game be better if they had to cut
Variety in order to Polish the individual pieces and while I don't have a definitive answer for you there
The variety plus the story did get me through the half dozen hours the game takes
Chronicle Runescape Legends and
We're back to James's love of card games dude loves cards people what do you want?
This time It's the Runescape CCG this is on here because they try to do something genuinely different than the Magic the Gathering formula
Or all the Hearthstone clones we've been seeing. While
visually the game looks like it's borrowing a lot from the board game world. If you strip away everything
But the mechanics the game is actually about having both players
Lay out all the moves for their turn and then having them resolve simultaneously
This is an interesting approach that I've never seen a CCG try before it makes the play as much about
anticipating your opponent and
understanding their psychology as it is about playing the board and
While the game still suffers from some pacing problems if you love the design of CCGs
This is probably one you should spend at least fifteen minutes with
Pony Island. This game is not actually about ponies
And it's not about islands. Its deceptive that way in fact there is almost nothing
We can say about this game without spoiling something, but if you like meta games like frog fractions
It's probably worth spending a little time on Pony Island. That's all I'm gonna say
And finally, My Night Job. This is one of those small releases that you might not play for long but its
Absolutely great for a half-dozen hours if it's what you're in the mood for it's like one of those nest games you used to rent
Over the weekend it's a B-movie horror theme to beat-em-up with tons of weapons to experiment with and enemies to fight
But it's on this list because it goes beyond the standard beat-em-up formula of walk to the right punching everything in your path
Instead it puts a twist on it. You're in a mansion
You have to rescue a hundred people from this mansion as evil creatures invaded
But you don't just have to worry about your health bar and finding and rescuing civilians because more monsters pour into the various rooms with
Every passing second and when enough monsters gather in a room they start to destroy it. If three rooms collapse you lose
So you have to strategically sweep the house balancing life finding civilians and keeping enemies from building up in any one place.
And it's no mean feat either this game is not easy
So if you're looking for a novel twist on the beat-em-up format to keep you occupied for a week
I have a night job for you
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that go play some games, and I'll see you next week
Captions Made by SamDoesThings