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    Dorfromantik (PC)    by   dkirschner       (Mar 24th, 2024 at 19:54:36)

    Got this for free at some point and decided to give it a shot since it is well-reviewed and seemed like something outside of my usual. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It looks like a casual city-builder and mobile game. It’s definitely casual and definitely a builder of sorts, but it’s more of a puzzle game than anything.

    Your goal is to place various sorts of hexagonal tiles to build a landscape. Tiles can have, on any of their six sides, water, trees, grassland, fields, houses, and railroad tracks. You can rotate tiles and, ideally, match like sides. This nets you points. Not matching sides doesn’t net you points. You need points in order to get more tiles. If you run out of tiles, it’s game over. So, you have to strategically place tiles such that you maximize aligning edges with the same properties.

    To complicate this, some tiles have “quests,” which require you to string together x number of trees, houses, railroads, etc. So then you’re not simply matching sides, but you’re also trying to cluster certain types together in certain places depending on which quests you get.

    I found myself lost in it before realizing that I was almost out of tiles. I refocused and hit a stride, getting achievement after achievement for making long railroads, villages with tons of houses, etc., and built my stack of tiles back up. However, I have realized that if you don’t match like tiles early on, you’ll be disadvantaged later because you are “missing out” on points that you would have earned had you been more careful, and it will be difficult to “fill in” gaps that you’ve created. Another thing I realized is that you can’t “branch out” too much. You’ve got to remain clustered. If you branch out too much, then each tile you place can’t generate many points. It’s 10 points per matched side, so if you’re just like building a river straight out, each tile is only netting 10 points. If you are more clustered and placing each tile next to two or three others, then you’re getting 20 or 30 points per tile, and generating more tiles. It’s an interesting balancing act.

    There is no story; it’s a sandbox. There is infinite replayability to chase high scores and achievements. I’d be interested in giving it another shot and doing better, but I think I did really well for my first try. Maybe I’ll keep it on hand for a relaxing puzzle game. But I’ve got other stuff to get to!

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    Trials of Fire (PC)    by   dkirschner       (Mar 24th, 2024 at 16:38:43)

    I shouldn’t have purchased this. I must have been on a card battler kick, probably when I was playing Slay the Spire and Monster Train last year. There’s nothing wrong with Trials of Fire; it just doesn’t have the personality or the pizzazz that better card battlers have. In fact, playing it after Wildermyth, it comes off as a way less interesting take on the card battler/tactical RPG genre, and I can’t help but compare the two. The main difference, of course, is that Wildermyth has no cards; it’s a tactics RPG with procedural storytelling and character development that was really, really cool. Trials of Fire doesn’t have anything that is really, really cool. Trials of Fire has:

    - An overworld that manages to be duller than Wildermyth’s. The landscape is drab, and you just move around following a quest arrow, stopping on whatever blue question marks are around to try and find crafting supplies, food, obsidian (money), equipment, followers, battles (which is how you level up), and so on.
    - A stamina bar that means you have to rest and eat food. Resting or dragging food onto a character is also how you recover health lost in battle or through random events. As your stamina drops, your characters get stuck with debuff cards in battle, so you have to stop to restore stamina.
    - Time management that is not as interesting as Wildermyth’s. You have to make progress toward the golden quest arrow on the edge of the map, and if you are too slow, then your morale drops. If it drops all the way, it’s game over. So you are basically balancing your morale with your stamina and trying to keep your characters’ level high enough to win combat encounters (i.e., since combat is how you gain XP, you have to stop and fight to level up, but can’t stop too much lest you spend too much time fighting and your morale drops). This was less interesting than the incursion and enemy strength timers in Wildermyth.
    - Cards to collect and upgrade. Upon each level up, you can replace one of your existing class cards with another one, or choose to upgrade an existing class card.
    - Equipment to wear and upgrade. Equipment can be upgraded with crafting supplies when resting. Each piece of equipment bestows various cards on the wearer, and upgrading the equipment upgrades its cards, which is cool.
    - Unlockable character classes that can level up to award more class cards. The classes level up after a campaign, and I suppose that newly unlocked cards are available in future campaigns.
    - A bare bones story, random and generic events, simple quests, all of which totally pale in comparison to Wildermyth’s (and most other games).
    - Characters with no personality whatsoever, such a stark contrast to Wildermyth.
    - Bosses that pose a real threat!

    Regarding the latter, at the end of each quest stage (there were three stages in the quest campaign I played), there is a boss battle. The first two of these were easy enough, but the last one just about killed me. It was a dragon with 90 health (double the previous boss). It killed two of my characters, and only my hunter remained. My hunter had like 13 health and 11 armor, and the dragon was at about the same. My hunter was also backed into a corner, and in one more turn, the dragon would have moved in melee range and my hunter would have been stuck (you can’t use ranged attacks in melee range of your target). But I drew like the perfect combination of cards, did double damage with my first attack and then my last card did x damage, and if the target was then below y HP, it automatically died. Well, the math was perfect, and I killed the dragon. If I had drawn different cards, the dragon would have killed me. Intense for sure, but what the hell! The difficulty came out of nowhere in the last battle. Battles are not repeatable, by the way. If your party wipes, it’s game over and you start the whole campaign over. I would have been pissed, because, like Wildermyth, these campaigns are not short.

    Upon winning, your classes level up and you unlock some new cards for each of them. I unlocked a new class for achieving something or other. Then you just go back to the menu and start over with another quest. Wildermyth has that cool Legacy system with persistent characters that grow over time, but there’s nothing like that here. Given that the storyline for the quest campaign I did was so generic, I’m not motivated to play another one (and there is only one more story quest, then the others are like roguelike situations where you just play with daily modifiers or create custom campaigns or do a seasonal challenge or whatever). There are surely a bunch more cards to unlock, and there are 9 classes in total to unlock (for completing x quests, for killing y bosses, for spending z crafting materials, etc.), so there is more to do in terms of progression. But it’s just not that compelling! Again though, nothing is bad about the game, but man, I guess it’s just rare that I play something that is so disappointlingly generic.

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    Galactic Quest + Atlantic Quest (DS)    by   jp       (Mar 24th, 2024 at 13:19:19)

    This is a 2-in-1 game collection of match 3 games that, as far as I've played each, are exactly the same in terms of gameplay even though the story and art is completely different.

    The one notable thing about these is that it's a match-3 game that supports three different types of matching which you can switch between whenever you want. It's interesting because it means it's a lot harder to get stuck, and that you have to think in a few more ways in order to identify matches and such.

    The three ways to match are:
    1. Typical swap two tiles to make a match
    2. Connect three tiles orthogonally to make a match
    3. Tap on group of tiles that are orthogonally adjacent to each other to make a match.

    There's overlap between the three modes, of course, and in the 3rd one matches don't happen automatically when new tiles drop to fill in the space of tiles that were removed due to a match. So, there's an interesting effect that happens when you've made a match in the 3rd mode and then switch to the 1st mode! You can get a lot of tiles to auto-match and disappear if you've left the board with lots of groups of 3-in-a-row.

    Other than this little wrinkle, which was interesting to be fair, there wasn't much else to note in either game. There's trophies and interstitial puzzles to play between every 10 or so match-3 levels, but it's pretty light on everything.

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    Super Princess Peach (DS)    by   jp       (Mar 24th, 2024 at 13:12:25)

    Made it all the way to the final boss fight - against Bowser, obviously? - but I've struggled enough with it that I decided to call it a day. It's a multi-stage battle that, as far as I can tell, requires you to use your rage ability. That's ok, except that it's hard for me to recharge it during the battle so it's a bit more frustrating than simply having to learn attack patterns and dodge attacks.

    Now that I think about it, I might be "underpowered" for the end? There's lots of things I could have purchased but have not and I don't really feel like returning to old levels to "farm" them, so I feel it's better to simply move on.

    And this is a strange thing to say about a Nintendo game! (that it's grindy...)

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    Flower (PS4)    by   dkirschner       (Mar 21st, 2024 at 13:13:56)

    Played this after Journey, knowing that it was the same studio’s former game. I see the DNA in the aesthetics. It’s visually striking, with an emphasis on the musical score, which harmonizes as the player guides their flower petals through other flowers in the levels. Basically, you control flower petals, first a single petal in each level, and then a “swarm” of them by the end of each level.

    Early levels are really peaceful and serene. You’re floating through grasslands, intrigued by the beauty of the surroundings and the fact that you’re bringing life and color. At the end of one early level, you “enliven” a big old tree, which grows and blooms. It’s all very majestic. The first half was the best.

    Later levels change the tone significantly, as you float through areas that are like cold, dead, electrical grids or something. There are lots of power lines and electrical towers. It’s all very grey and drab. Gone is the color of the first half of the game. Touching towers can shock you, so you have to slow down and navigate between the metal to touch the flowers beneath them. Navigating the petals could be tedious, like when you miss a flower and keep circling around trying to get it, or in this later level when you’re trying to slowly creep through electrical towers. I was often unclear as to the “hit boxes,” for lack of a better word, of my petals and the other objects, which is why I’d miss flowers I thought I touched, or get shocked when I thought I’d avoided a tower.

    Anyway, the last level is like a triumphant return of nature to the gray city-scape, smashing through the electrical towers now. Take that, cities! Take this, industry! Eat dirt, electricity! Flowers rule! I did enjoy the revenge of destroying electrical towers. Interesting game for sure, and haven’t played anything quite like it, but the experience itself wasn’t as captivating as Journey’s was.

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    Magic the Gathering (Other)    by   geswaldo

    While it is a great game to play, there is a steep learning curve.
    most recent entry:   Tuesday 5 February, 2013


    Game Type:

    Turn-based strategy card game
    Two or more players (team or free-for-all)


    Terms:

    Lands (mana)– specific cards used as a summoning cost for creatures and spells usually has a color associated with it. Only one can be played per turn.

    Library - the remaining cards of the deck that is drawn from.

    Graveyard - a pile of face-up cards that consists of discarded, destroyed and used spells/creatures.

    Tapping – the activation of a card by turning it sideways if indicated so by the card, also shows that a creature is attacking. A tapped creature can not block.

    Stack – a series of cards that have been played in conjunction with one another. Resolves from the last card played to the first card played, when cards/abilities are no longer being placed on the stack.

    Instant spells – spell cards that can be played at any time during any players turn.

    Sorcery spells – spell cards that can only be played during one of the two main phases by the active player. Sorcery spells can not be played if the “stack” has not resolved.


    Generic Deck Types:

    Blue deck – a control heavy deck, usually consisting of creatures with low attack/high defense and spells that inhibit an opponent from casting his/her spells.

    Red deck – a fast attack deck, usually consisting of creatures with low attack/low defense and spells that can directly deals damage to creatures/players.

    Black deck – a deck that usually sacrifices its own player's life for some benefit, usually consisting of ability heavy creatures.

    White deck – a defensive deck, usually consisting of spells/creatures that can negate damage or gain the controlling player extra life.

    Green deck – a big attack deck, usually consisting of creatures with high attack/high defense and spells that can boost your creatures.


    Setup:

    To play this game a deck of 60 cards and one or more opponents is required. This deck should have a mix of land, creature, spell and/or artifact cards, the ratio of these cards depends on personal preferences. Which colored deck you decide to play with will have a direct impact on whether this game is enjoyable to you or not. Different playing styles are represented through the different colors and to truly enjoy the game you need you find the mixture of colors that suits you best. Starting out as a new player I would recommend starting off with a pre-constructed starter deck. Depending on the game type each player's starting health differs: for a team battle each team starts with forty health, for a free-for-all game each player starts with twenty health. Before the game starts each player shuffles their deck, draws seven cards and then places the remainder of the deck face down next to the battlefield. The generic setup for the battlefield is land placed in a horizontal row closest to the player and creatures in a horizontal row in front of that. The graveyard is usually face-up cards placed next to the library.


    End Game Scenario:

    When a player is unable to block a creature that is attacking him/her, that creature deals damage to there health equal to the creatures attack. A player may also take damage by being targeted by a spell that deals damage and can target players. A player loses the game if his/her health reaches zero or can not draw a card at the beginning of his/her upkeep (unless otherwise stated by a card).


    Rules:

    There are too many rules in Magic The Gathering for me to explain them all. A player may not end his/her turn with more that seven card in there hand. One of the most important rules needed to play is the proper use of the “stack”. The “stack” simply refers to playing instants/abilities in response to a spell being played, these stack on top of each other in “first in last out” order. Once cards are no longer being played in response, the stack will resolve with the last card played happening first. The most important rule in Magic The Gathering is that "what a card says, happens", unless another card says otherwise.


    Game flow:

    This is a turn based game with the exception of instants/abilities which can be played at anytime. A player's turn consists of five phases: Beginning, pre-combat main, combat, post-combat main and ending (in that order).

    1. Beginning phase – all “at the beginning of upkeep” effects happen, untap all tapped cards you control on the battlefield (unless otherwise stated by a card), draw a card.

    2. Pre-combat main – can summon creatures, play instant/sorcery spells and/or use card abilities (unless otherwise stated by a card).

    3. Combat phase – by tapping a creature in this phase you can make it attack another player. The defending player chooses which creature will block which attacking creature (unless otherwise stated by a card). Destroyed creatures are placed into the graveyard.

    4. Post-combat main - can summon creatures, play instant/sorcery spells and/or use card abilities (unless otherwise stated by a card).

    5. End phase – all “until end of turn” effects end, active player discards down to seven cards in hand (unless otherwise stated by a card).


    Game-play:

    The game-play of Magic The Gathering is varying because of the randomness of the draw. The randomness of the game can be controlled to an extent by computing the probability of drawing certain cards along with mixing in cards that let you search for other cards but even with this there is still a chance that you will spend a good portion of the game praying that you will draw a certain card. With that in mind, I did not expect this game of “chance” to be a strategy game but has turned out to be one of the most strategic games I have ever played. While the strength of the strategy depended on the depth of cognitive thought of the opponent and whether or not the deck I created was at an advantage or disadvantage, playing with a blue/black deck required me to anticipate what and when my opponent would play key creatures/spells. After several games with the same opponent Magic The Gathering can turn into a “I know that he knows that I know what he knows” type of stalemate match that draws out until one person makes a move, so it is advised to play against varying opponents with different playing styles. Diplomacy is another aspect of this game that I was not anticipating. When playing against multiple opponents it is advantageous to use diplomacy and trickery to not only keep yourself from being attacked by all the other players but also to be able to take advantage of an opponent who leaves an opening. Depending on the type of deck you are using the diplomacy in this game can vary, some decks with large and/or high mana cost creatures would benefit more from a stalemate in the beginning of the game while a quick deck with lots of small and/or low mana cost creatures would much rather push for continued attacks in the beginning.

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