The Backlog Check-in Vol. 295: 8/26/23: Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle/Sea of Stars/Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy Edition

[Phaseknox]

I’m totally buying this, it’s currently on sale for $29.99.

[argyle]

Oh and argyle, when they release the PS5 pro/slim, I will get one. Also, that portal thing coming out that everyone hates is EXACTLY what I have wanted for years (no, remote play via Vita didn't do it for me). I would love to game while my wife watches crime nonsense so we could chat and be in each other's company .

Tam & I put 2 TVs in our living room very shortly after we got married & never looked back, so I don't even think about this kind of thing anymore. We'll constantly having something we're watching on one TV while one of us is playing something on the other, or both be playing our own thing, or when the stars align we'll play something co-op & each have our own full screen instead of trying to deal with split screen nonsense. It's glorious.

[isthatallyougot]

I finished up Max Curse of Brotherhood. Steam said it took me 7.4 hours, and I must say it was a pleasure from beginning to end. The puzzles weren't super hard, but the were nonetheless pleasing to execute, and the whole game just had a charming vibe throughout. Really a nice puzzle-platformer, easy to recommend to anyone who enjoys such games.

[jfissel]

I’m totally buying this, it’s currently on sale for $29.99.

I'm sure you can find $30 of fun in there.

[Phaseknox]

I was going to buy Gal Guardians: Demon Purge, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Police Simulator: Patrol Officers today with a PS Store gift card that had the exact amount needed on it to buy them with, but then it dawned on me that Sea of Stars came out today and was only $5 more than Police Simulator: Patrol Officers so I bought it instead. I needed an extra $5 to get it, so I didn’t buy Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. I still want both games but Max: The Curse of Brotherhood will be on sale again, and I’m going to wait to get Police Simulator: Patrol Officers when it’s $20 or less because it doesn’t really look like it’s worth $30. I also bought a physical copy of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle today from Amazon, but it won’t arrive until next week. I should have Sea of Stars (which I started today) finished by the time that it arrives.

[Phaseknox]

I’ve been playing Sea of Stars, and enjoying it for the most part. It’s a somewhat charming retro style pixel art turn-based RPG with a cute cast of characters, and colorful graphics. However, only a few hours in I’m already finding it to be a little harder than I was expecting it to be. During combat you have to time a button press exactly at the right moment of an attack to deal more damage to an enemy, or to block when an enemy attacks you. It seems more forgivable for attacks than blocks, because so many times I think that I timed the button press at the right moment just to still get hit and take full damage without blocking. It’s been pretty frustrating, especially since a lot of enemies have attacks that you can’t really judge the exact moment that they’re going to hit you. There should be a slightly larger window of opportunity to block enemy attacks than there is, because you have to be too precise in your timing to block IMO. And some enemies and especially bosses take a lot of hits to defeat, and deal a lot of damage when they hit you which I wasn’t expecting somewhat early in the game. But I really like the combat as there’s cool special attacks and magic spells along with team combo attacks. The story and characters have been decent so far, but everything (except the difficulty) seems like it’s somewhat aimed at a younger audience.

[Phaseknox]

I also bought a physical copy of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle today from Amazon, but it won’t arrive until next week. I should have Sea of Stars (which I started today) finished by the time that it arrives.

My copy of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle arrives tomorrow, so I’ll probably stop playing Sea of Stars and start playing it since I’m only 7 hours into Sea of Stars and it’s a 30 hour game. Despite enjoying Sea of Stars, I think that I’m more in the mood for a survival horror game right now since it’s been a while since I’ve played one.

[crimson_tide]

Fam...I am trying REALLY hard to get into Divinity Original Sin 2. I picked Lohse because hilarious origin story. Made her a rogue. Also made her a black chick with a badass frohawk. Felt really good after spending hours in that character creator. Start game...what the ever loving hell am I supposed to do? I just don't get it. I thought this would be easy. But this hotbar isn't stupid easy like the one in DW Builders 2. The item management in the first 20 minutes is a lot. There's a limit to what you can carry? Why? I thought Wasteland 3 was a lot but I think that was easier and just made more sense. They just threw a whole bunch at me in 5 minutes and I got overwhelmed. I might give Disco Elysium a go since that has no combat and then I can just focus on how the crpg system works. This has not been a good go at my crpg arc. I know it's entirely me because they aren't impenetrable. The old man beat Divinity Original Sin 2 after all . I may have to abandon it come back after some more experience unfortunately. They look soooooo good though...

You know, I had the same exact problem with jrpgs initially. It took me literal months to figure out FF3 on the SNES back in the day. And then my next real rpg was Dragon Force on the Saturn. Which took months to figure out as well. I am sure I can crack this nut too and then have a whole new slew of games to look forward to getting into .

Oh, I bought and played that Record of Lodoss War search action game...Deedlit's Wonder Labyrinth? It's fine. They needlessly overcomplicated the formula but 45 minutes in and 2 bosses down, it's a good unwinding type game. She's a bit too fragile for my liking, looking forward to her getting stronger (didn't see armor in the game).

Also, going to give PS2oosing one last go because I might buy SMT3 Nocturne. Looked at it while packing up old games for storage this summer. It has a merciful mode. I have always been curious. It's $20 AND they replaced Dante with Radiou Kuzunoha so that's a definite upgrade...summer don't end until 9/23 so I may jump into the fray for one final adventure !

[isthatallyougot]

Also, going to give PS2oosing one last go because I might buy SMT3 Nocturne. Looked at it while packing up old games for storage this summer. It has a merciful mode. I have always been curious. It's $20 AND they replaced Dante with Radiou Kuzunoha so that's a definite upgrade...summer don't end until 9/23 so I may jump into the fray for one final adventure !

Crim,CRIM...



Nocturne is seriously one of my all-time favorites - I'm talking top 10 - 15 for sure. (I've got to finish my all-time rankings one day, lol.) Please do it. I'll make a deal with you. If you play SMT Noctune, I'll finally fire up TWEWY. (I won't promise to do it immediately, but I promise to do it before the end of the year.)

If you decide to play it let us know. I would recommend not playing "merciful" mode - whatever that is. The journey would be watered down in terms of the overall sense of what it's about *imho*. But it would still be worth it for the tone/vibes/art/music alone. Again, you play it, and I'll play TWEWY. Deal? Deal? Deal.

[Phaseknox]

My copy of Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle didn’t arrive today, it’s arriving tomorrow. I’m done playing Need For Speed Heat because I’ve pretty much had my fill of it. The racing in it is fun, but I can only do so much of it until I’ve had enough. I just need a little more variety in the games that I play, because only doing one type of thing over and over again gets redundant regardless of how good that one thing is.

As for Sea of Stars, it’s good but just feels like a Nintendo DS JRPG that I’m playing on a big screen. That’s pretty much how all of these types of retro inspired pixel art RPGs tend to feel. While I’m somewhat of a fan of them, there’s also no denying that they feel antiquated. That’s the point of them of course, but I just don’t have the same nostalgic love for them like some people do. The same is true for 2D pixel art platformers and Metroidvanias as well, I somewhat like them but don’t love them like some people do. I just feel like I’ve already gone through those generations of gaming (which I have), and they just don’t appeal to me quite as much now as they did back in the day. They’re fun for a while offering nostalgic charm, but they fail to really hook me like a really good more modern game does. And I’m hoping that Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle does just that, because I haven’t played a game in a while that has.