The Backlog Check-in Vol. 115: 3/14/20: Animal Crossing: New Horizons/Doom Eternal Edition
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 10:56 pm
Played: How to Survive, How to Survive 2, Need For Speed: Payback, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
Finished (playing): How to Survive, How to Survive 2, Need For Speed: Payback, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
Playing: ?
As I mentioned before, I quit playing How to Survive despite enjoying it because it became really difficult. They went overboard with the amount of enemies that they started to throw at you, and it was no longer fun for that reason. There's a difference between challenging and cheap, and it became cheap. I started and stopped playing another game for the very same reason: Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom. This one is really deceiving as everything about it seems like it's aimed at a younger audience, but the combat is brutal pretty much from the start.
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is a cartoonish, colorful, Japanese anime style action adventure/RPG that was developed in France so it doesn't feel like an authentic JRPG that was developed in Japan, but it still looks and plays very much like a JRPG. The two main protagonists are cute little anthropomorphic bear-like creatures that know martial arts. The story is told using comic book style scenes that are voiced. While there's seriousness to the story, it also includes humor and silliness like anime aimed at a younger audience. The game in general looks and plays like something more aimed at kids than adults with a fun lightheartedness feel to it. It offers smooth controls, and platforming and puzzle elements.
Since it's an action RPG, I was expecting your basic button-mashing combat with you fighting enemies real time with punches, kicks, blocks, dodge rolls, etc. And while it somewhat does, they had to go and ruin it by making it a lot more challenging and complex than was necessary. When you engage with an enemy in the game world it throws a big force field around you enclosing you in a one-on-one battle with the enemy. The combat is fast and frantic - too fast and frantic. The enemies block, dodge and pummel you with fast frenzied attacks nonstop. I was finding them to be somewhat difficult even at the very beginning during the tutorials which wasn't a good sign, and they just kept getting harder after that. You have a block, parry and dodge roll, but the enemies hit you so fast that you barely have time to use them. And once an enemy starts hitting you, they pummel you nonstop until they knock you down. You can attack fast too, but the enemies just seem to have an advantage when it comes to blocking, parrying and dodging compared to you.
You have what is called shi magic that allows you to shoot elemental projectiles at the enemies, but you can only shoot a few before it runs out. The force field changes color depending on the element, and you have to charge your earth/fire/water/wind shi back up based on the color. You're vulnerable while charging your shi, and the enemies will almost always hit you when you do. Some enemies also have shi projectiles, and the only way to not get hit by them is to parry them. But they shoot as fast as bullets, so timing your parry in the heat of battle is really hard to do.
I was leveling and becoming stronger to take on the harder enemies, but I made it to the first boss and he was a hit sponge enemy that was so ridiculous that I quit playing. I was really enjoying the game despite the enemies being somewhat difficult because it has all of the elements that I like in an action JRPG, but it got to the point where it just wasn't fun anymore. If it offered a more arcade-y style button-mashing combat system with less challenging enemies it would have been a winner, but they ruined the experience by making the combat more complex than necessary with the whole elemental thing along with the ridiculously hard enemies.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal come out this week.
Finished (playing): How to Survive, How to Survive 2, Need For Speed: Payback, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
Playing: ?
As I mentioned before, I quit playing How to Survive despite enjoying it because it became really difficult. They went overboard with the amount of enemies that they started to throw at you, and it was no longer fun for that reason. There's a difference between challenging and cheap, and it became cheap. I started and stopped playing another game for the very same reason: Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom. This one is really deceiving as everything about it seems like it's aimed at a younger audience, but the combat is brutal pretty much from the start.
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is a cartoonish, colorful, Japanese anime style action adventure/RPG that was developed in France so it doesn't feel like an authentic JRPG that was developed in Japan, but it still looks and plays very much like a JRPG. The two main protagonists are cute little anthropomorphic bear-like creatures that know martial arts. The story is told using comic book style scenes that are voiced. While there's seriousness to the story, it also includes humor and silliness like anime aimed at a younger audience. The game in general looks and plays like something more aimed at kids than adults with a fun lightheartedness feel to it. It offers smooth controls, and platforming and puzzle elements.
Since it's an action RPG, I was expecting your basic button-mashing combat with you fighting enemies real time with punches, kicks, blocks, dodge rolls, etc. And while it somewhat does, they had to go and ruin it by making it a lot more challenging and complex than was necessary. When you engage with an enemy in the game world it throws a big force field around you enclosing you in a one-on-one battle with the enemy. The combat is fast and frantic - too fast and frantic. The enemies block, dodge and pummel you with fast frenzied attacks nonstop. I was finding them to be somewhat difficult even at the very beginning during the tutorials which wasn't a good sign, and they just kept getting harder after that. You have a block, parry and dodge roll, but the enemies hit you so fast that you barely have time to use them. And once an enemy starts hitting you, they pummel you nonstop until they knock you down. You can attack fast too, but the enemies just seem to have an advantage when it comes to blocking, parrying and dodging compared to you.
You have what is called shi magic that allows you to shoot elemental projectiles at the enemies, but you can only shoot a few before it runs out. The force field changes color depending on the element, and you have to charge your earth/fire/water/wind shi back up based on the color. You're vulnerable while charging your shi, and the enemies will almost always hit you when you do. Some enemies also have shi projectiles, and the only way to not get hit by them is to parry them. But they shoot as fast as bullets, so timing your parry in the heat of battle is really hard to do.
I was leveling and becoming stronger to take on the harder enemies, but I made it to the first boss and he was a hit sponge enemy that was so ridiculous that I quit playing. I was really enjoying the game despite the enemies being somewhat difficult because it has all of the elements that I like in an action JRPG, but it got to the point where it just wasn't fun anymore. If it offered a more arcade-y style button-mashing combat system with less challenging enemies it would have been a winner, but they ruined the experience by making the combat more complex than necessary with the whole elemental thing along with the ridiculously hard enemies.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal come out this week.