Played as part of Backloggd's Game of the Week 27/02 - 05/03
Attack of the friday monsters was a pleasant surprise for me, this week we also played this ZX spectrum-inspired thing that I really didnt vibe with, in retrospect maybe I was a bit too harsh, its kinda the issue with writing your review as a first draft as soon as I finished the game which I didnt repeat with this.
Still though, having let the game stew for an hour or two after finishing I can confidently say that its great. Its such a charming little adventure game that really nails the "japanese children's hero show" with the many magical realism elements (contextually they are of course mostly fruit of the children's imagination but it never fully tips its hand) and omnipresent narrator voice.
There is a clear nostalgia for growing up during the 70s in the suburbs of Tokyo and the atmosphere of this is conveyed very effectively through the visual and audio design, as well as complemented through the main plot point of children's "Hero" shows which were at their apex of popularity during the time period. And yet its not all entirely rosy, I was surprised by the mention of striking workers forcing the rail station to close regularly, from a much more militant era in Japan.
The actual card battling aspect is simplicity itself and honestly doesn't come up as often as you'd think, its more about the adventure questline and collecting the glims you need to make the cards that takes up most of the short runtime. Essentially if you beat your friends in these battles they'll be more forthcoming with info to solve the "puzzles". Of course this is a children's game so you can solve them just as well by just going to the icon on the map or thinking for a second or two.
This is absolutely fine though, the low stakes of everything complement the game perfectly and its just oozing with charm in everything from the dialogue to the character and town design and I can't believe I'm saying this but, I even enjoyed the fixed camera movement of the game! It was likely just a technological compromise with the not exactly beefy 3DS hardware but it adds some cozyness to the town and its never frustrating.
I did feel at first that the music was a bit overdone for what it was , but I get now that its probably that way to emulate the often bombastic music these shows have and again the runtime is brief enough that it never became overbearing.
I suppose if I have any issues its that the card battling could have been more interesting and less mostly just based on having better cards than the opponent, and I left a single postgame mission incomplete cause you need to grind out a bunch of battles against a girl with a pretty busted setup and I couldn't really be bothered? Which maybe left a slight sour aftertaste but whatever I'll forgive it based on everything else. If running around talking to people and cardbattling sounds appealing at all, check this out, its a real gem.
Attack of the friday monsters was a pleasant surprise for me, this week we also played this ZX spectrum-inspired thing that I really didnt vibe with, in retrospect maybe I was a bit too harsh, its kinda the issue with writing your review as a first draft as soon as I finished the game which I didnt repeat with this.
Still though, having let the game stew for an hour or two after finishing I can confidently say that its great. Its such a charming little adventure game that really nails the "japanese children's hero show" with the many magical realism elements (contextually they are of course mostly fruit of the children's imagination but it never fully tips its hand) and omnipresent narrator voice.
There is a clear nostalgia for growing up during the 70s in the suburbs of Tokyo and the atmosphere of this is conveyed very effectively through the visual and audio design, as well as complemented through the main plot point of children's "Hero" shows which were at their apex of popularity during the time period. And yet its not all entirely rosy, I was surprised by the mention of striking workers forcing the rail station to close regularly, from a much more militant era in Japan.
The actual card battling aspect is simplicity itself and honestly doesn't come up as often as you'd think, its more about the adventure questline and collecting the glims you need to make the cards that takes up most of the short runtime. Essentially if you beat your friends in these battles they'll be more forthcoming with info to solve the "puzzles". Of course this is a children's game so you can solve them just as well by just going to the icon on the map or thinking for a second or two.
This is absolutely fine though, the low stakes of everything complement the game perfectly and its just oozing with charm in everything from the dialogue to the character and town design and I can't believe I'm saying this but, I even enjoyed the fixed camera movement of the game! It was likely just a technological compromise with the not exactly beefy 3DS hardware but it adds some cozyness to the town and its never frustrating.
I did feel at first that the music was a bit overdone for what it was , but I get now that its probably that way to emulate the often bombastic music these shows have and again the runtime is brief enough that it never became overbearing.
I suppose if I have any issues its that the card battling could have been more interesting and less mostly just based on having better cards than the opponent, and I left a single postgame mission incomplete cause you need to grind out a bunch of battles against a girl with a pretty busted setup and I couldn't really be bothered? Which maybe left a slight sour aftertaste but whatever I'll forgive it based on everything else. If running around talking to people and cardbattling sounds appealing at all, check this out, its a real gem.