urbaer
This review contains spoilers
Jenny LeClue is an experienced kid detective, she solves kid like cases but wants something more like a real detective. Her mum is a college professor that teaches forensics and what-not, so she certainly has the training. Well at least she thinks she does.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.
2019
When this originally came out I played as Gooigi in a few levels while my wife played her game of it. So some of the levels were not still fairly familiar during my play through. Near the end of this playthrough she jumped in as Gooigi, which comes in very handy for the final boss battles.
She and I play very differently and in co-op respect whose game is being played. She is very obsessed with making sure she gets every last collectable, while I'm happy to grab a collectable if it's presenting an interesting challenge or it's not going to take too long to get.
So here I fell like the collectables don't really provide much. Cash is only really spent on getting bones (which is an instant revive) and getting locators for Boos and trinkets. As you can only have 5 bones at once, most of the money you collect goes towards getting locators for collectables that don't really do anything.
That said I still ended the game with a B rank, so.
The concept of setting this one in a hotel is interesting, it allows the level design to just go hog wild while still making it feel like one single building. To get to most of the levels you'll use the elevator and you'll need to get the buttons which are usually held by the boss of each level. This makes progress very linear and that can be slightly frustrating.
And the introduction of a few new moves helps out a lot too.
Some of the levels are better than others. If you're like me and not interested in collectables, there's one level where you walk almost completely without having to battle or get around obstacles and enter directly into the boss battle. Which ends and you can then walk back to the elevator (fight a few minor ghosts) and end the level.
Generally I liked the game. I did manage to genuinely scare my wife once. I loaded up the game and the sound on our TV was a little too high and with curfew it's been really quiet at home. Luigi walked out of the elevator and as I do at the start of each level I pressed the D-Pad to get him to let out a "M-M-M-Marioooo". She was unaware that this was something that you could do and it fully freaked her out.
I probably won't play it again though, I do still need to get through the rest of 1 and 2, so probably through my focus there rather than here.
She and I play very differently and in co-op respect whose game is being played. She is very obsessed with making sure she gets every last collectable, while I'm happy to grab a collectable if it's presenting an interesting challenge or it's not going to take too long to get.
So here I fell like the collectables don't really provide much. Cash is only really spent on getting bones (which is an instant revive) and getting locators for Boos and trinkets. As you can only have 5 bones at once, most of the money you collect goes towards getting locators for collectables that don't really do anything.
That said I still ended the game with a B rank, so.
The concept of setting this one in a hotel is interesting, it allows the level design to just go hog wild while still making it feel like one single building. To get to most of the levels you'll use the elevator and you'll need to get the buttons which are usually held by the boss of each level. This makes progress very linear and that can be slightly frustrating.
And the introduction of a few new moves helps out a lot too.
Some of the levels are better than others. If you're like me and not interested in collectables, there's one level where you walk almost completely without having to battle or get around obstacles and enter directly into the boss battle. Which ends and you can then walk back to the elevator (fight a few minor ghosts) and end the level.
Generally I liked the game. I did manage to genuinely scare my wife once. I loaded up the game and the sound on our TV was a little too high and with curfew it's been really quiet at home. Luigi walked out of the elevator and as I do at the start of each level I pressed the D-Pad to get him to let out a "M-M-M-Marioooo". She was unaware that this was something that you could do and it fully freaked her out.
I probably won't play it again though, I do still need to get through the rest of 1 and 2, so probably through my focus there rather than here.
2020
Murder by Numbers attempts to solve the mystery of what happens if you mix Phoenix Wright with Picross.
And yeah. It's a little rough. There's something very relaxing about Picross, at least for me. It's a thing that I do when I don't want to do a thing. And combining that with a visual novel is a little odd. It feels like you're going through a story and you get this roadblock that you have to go around before you continue, but it's a thing you do to chill... it causes a weird feeling. Like I need to do this thing that I do to relax as quickly as possible to get onto content.
There's this robot who found itself discarded in the dump with no memory. And there's this actress who plays a detective who runs into a robot who needs help. The actress loses her job on the same day her boss is killed and is obviously a suspect, so goes about solving the who dunit with the help of the robot. They then goes on to solve a bunch of others and try to help the robot get it's memory back.
It takes the form of self contained mysteries which culminate in a larger mystery that threads them together somewhat. Some of the murders are fairly straight forward where the shiftiest person did it, others less so.
Maybe I've been spoilt by Picross. The controls on this one was a bit clunky and often the puzzles wouldn't resolve into something that I could identify even when they were coloured in. And I ended up with a correct, but unintended solution which I'm not sure has happened in any of the Picross games I've played (though has happened in other nonagram games).
Most of the puzzles are fairly easy to play without assistance, though one puzzle I wimped out and used assistance. If you complete all the puzzles in a chapter without assistance you get an extra memory that you can view. Sadly, you can't go back and do individual puzzles without playing through the entire chapter again, which is a shame.
I really feel like I should have loved this game, but as it is, it's OK.
And yeah. It's a little rough. There's something very relaxing about Picross, at least for me. It's a thing that I do when I don't want to do a thing. And combining that with a visual novel is a little odd. It feels like you're going through a story and you get this roadblock that you have to go around before you continue, but it's a thing you do to chill... it causes a weird feeling. Like I need to do this thing that I do to relax as quickly as possible to get onto content.
There's this robot who found itself discarded in the dump with no memory. And there's this actress who plays a detective who runs into a robot who needs help. The actress loses her job on the same day her boss is killed and is obviously a suspect, so goes about solving the who dunit with the help of the robot. They then goes on to solve a bunch of others and try to help the robot get it's memory back.
It takes the form of self contained mysteries which culminate in a larger mystery that threads them together somewhat. Some of the murders are fairly straight forward where the shiftiest person did it, others less so.
Maybe I've been spoilt by Picross. The controls on this one was a bit clunky and often the puzzles wouldn't resolve into something that I could identify even when they were coloured in. And I ended up with a correct, but unintended solution which I'm not sure has happened in any of the Picross games I've played (though has happened in other nonagram games).
Most of the puzzles are fairly easy to play without assistance, though one puzzle I wimped out and used assistance. If you complete all the puzzles in a chapter without assistance you get an extra memory that you can view. Sadly, you can't go back and do individual puzzles without playing through the entire chapter again, which is a shame.
I really feel like I should have loved this game, but as it is, it's OK.
2019
This game has a simple premise (you're a thing with legs and feet and no arms) but it finds interesting things to do with it.
The plot is funny and the characters are pretty goofy. In this way I feel like it's like the charming Wandersong, but with different ways of interacting with the world and less puzzles.
I'd recommend this one, but be aware it's a quicky.
The plot is funny and the characters are pretty goofy. In this way I feel like it's like the charming Wandersong, but with different ways of interacting with the world and less puzzles.
I'd recommend this one, but be aware it's a quicky.
2014
Use potions that equal the value of a group of monsters that you select to stop them from destroying the castle.
Played this one during the school holidays with the kiddo. The game adds different elements in each of the worlds to keep the game interesting while ramping the difficulty.
While the hardest levels aren't all that challenging for an adult, adding a self imposed time limit for each turn to try to do it as fast as you can certainly makes it a little more interesting.
The kid bailed a few worlds in. I suspect she'd worked out that I had tricked her into doing maths. And but came back near the end to see how I was going without her and she helped out a bit.
Played this one during the school holidays with the kiddo. The game adds different elements in each of the worlds to keep the game interesting while ramping the difficulty.
While the hardest levels aren't all that challenging for an adult, adding a self imposed time limit for each turn to try to do it as fast as you can certainly makes it a little more interesting.
The kid bailed a few worlds in. I suspect she'd worked out that I had tricked her into doing maths. And but came back near the end to see how I was going without her and she helped out a bit.
This one is a great improvement on the first and you can really see the progression that's made towards the Warioland games.
But here Wario is the adversary and that's a little sad as he doesn't get much screen time.
There's some inventive levels here. Each area is themed to a different concept and can be tackled in any order (I can't think of another Mario platformer that allows this). Each final level in each area provides one of the six golden coins you'll need to open the door and take on Wario (who stomps at the top of the castle).
And different levels contain thematically appropriate enemies that rarely show up in other areas. Some of the theming falls down though. There's Macro world where you'll become very tiny which contains ants the same size as you... though the ants reappear in non-macro levels which is odd.
And the difficulty can be fairly easy throughout the game. There's a fair number of power ups and 1Ups that the game throws at you.I feel like the rabbit hat lets you pass over a lot of some levels too easily and there's not a great deal of incentive to try and collect coins. The timer is very generous as well, which might be for exploration, but it never caused me to panic about running out of time.
All in all a good game, but still prefer the Wariolands.
But here Wario is the adversary and that's a little sad as he doesn't get much screen time.
There's some inventive levels here. Each area is themed to a different concept and can be tackled in any order (I can't think of another Mario platformer that allows this). Each final level in each area provides one of the six golden coins you'll need to open the door and take on Wario (who stomps at the top of the castle).
And different levels contain thematically appropriate enemies that rarely show up in other areas. Some of the theming falls down though. There's Macro world where you'll become very tiny which contains ants the same size as you... though the ants reappear in non-macro levels which is odd.
And the difficulty can be fairly easy throughout the game. There's a fair number of power ups and 1Ups that the game throws at you.I feel like the rabbit hat lets you pass over a lot of some levels too easily and there's not a great deal of incentive to try and collect coins. The timer is very generous as well, which might be for exploration, but it never caused me to panic about running out of time.
All in all a good game, but still prefer the Wariolands.
This review contains spoilers
Picked this up as part of the Humble Australian Fire Relief Bundle (which is doing quite well by the looks of it, but if you haven't picked it up then I encourage you to do so not only to help out the animals, but to try out some great Australian games). Played with the daughter (almost 8 year old).
Finished the second game in the series with my daughter last year.
The first game, unsurprisingly is simpler. It has one or two trade chains and the characters are very clear about what they want.
But the dialogue is very current Australian, to the point where we were saying the next line before it came up. And there are quite a few decent jokes.
There's also a point where Grace breaks in to explain how the view The Detective expressed is not her own and is in fact 100% wrong, which was a nice gag, a little like a Pratchett footnote
But very short run time here, so your mileage may vary. But if you've picked up the bundle, you're only going to waste some of your hard drive and an hour of your time at worst, so why not give it a spin?
Finished the second game in the series with my daughter last year.
The first game, unsurprisingly is simpler. It has one or two trade chains and the characters are very clear about what they want.
But the dialogue is very current Australian, to the point where we were saying the next line before it came up. And there are quite a few decent jokes.
There's also a point where Grace breaks in to explain how the view The Detective expressed is not her own and is in fact 100% wrong, which was a nice gag, a little like a Pratchett footnote
But very short run time here, so your mileage may vary. But if you've picked up the bundle, you're only going to waste some of your hard drive and an hour of your time at worst, so why not give it a spin?
2019
The Touryst is a 3d blocky puzzle platformer that really doesn't have too much platforming.
The game is padded out a fair bit with what would normally be side quests, little mini games and fetch quests. Which is fine, though you're required to do a certain percentage to complete the see and see the credits.
But it's got a nice atmosphere and does have a very summery feel (which is nice given that I'm in wintery cold Melbourne).
Some of the mini games though are a pain, while others are a nice distraction.
The temples tend to be interesting, implementing different mechanics. Some of the temples require you to do platforming to platforms over inky black depths, which makes life a little too tricky as it's hard to get a sense of depth.
The games not punitive though, any death just restarts you from the start of the room, but it can be frustrating all the same.
The game is padded out a fair bit with what would normally be side quests, little mini games and fetch quests. Which is fine, though you're required to do a certain percentage to complete the see and see the credits.
But it's got a nice atmosphere and does have a very summery feel (which is nice given that I'm in wintery cold Melbourne).
Some of the mini games though are a pain, while others are a nice distraction.
The temples tend to be interesting, implementing different mechanics. Some of the temples require you to do platforming to platforms over inky black depths, which makes life a little too tricky as it's hard to get a sense of depth.
The games not punitive though, any death just restarts you from the start of the room, but it can be frustrating all the same.
2019
The daughter burst into my office the other day "Daddy, the multiplayer has been released!"
"For what"
"The second goose!"
"Oh great"
"Can we play it?"
"Not today"
A day (or two?) later:
"Daddy can we play goose game together?"
"Sure"
We decided it would be the first game we streamed on Twitch (as the daughter has been commentating all her games recently anyway). Couldn't get the microphone working and the capture card was having issues with the sound, but we had fun playing it anyway.
Started with a new game and had it done in about 1.5 hours (or less). The puzzles aren't that much easier with two players as it confines you into a fairly small window and some parts can become a touch frustrating particularly the pub where it's very easy for the man to shoo one of the goose out which forces the other goose to come back close to the entrance to let the first goose back in.
But they can also help each other out by picking up heavy large items together and the final part of the game is slightly easier with the other goose running distraction.
And yet, again, you know if you want to play this game just by looking at it, I'm not sure that co-op will change your mind.
"For what"
"The second goose!"
"Oh great"
"Can we play it?"
"Not today"
A day (or two?) later:
"Daddy can we play goose game together?"
"Sure"
We decided it would be the first game we streamed on Twitch (as the daughter has been commentating all her games recently anyway). Couldn't get the microphone working and the capture card was having issues with the sound, but we had fun playing it anyway.
Started with a new game and had it done in about 1.5 hours (or less). The puzzles aren't that much easier with two players as it confines you into a fairly small window and some parts can become a touch frustrating particularly the pub where it's very easy for the man to shoo one of the goose out which forces the other goose to come back close to the entrance to let the first goose back in.
But they can also help each other out by picking up heavy large items together and the final part of the game is slightly easier with the other goose running distraction.
And yet, again, you know if you want to play this game just by looking at it, I'm not sure that co-op will change your mind.
2019
Started playing this before the pandemic in Feb where holding hands and having people come around unexpectedly was a great thing.
And finished it as we were going into our second lockdown and it felt a little weird and strange. Though maybe it gives some hope that after any crisis people can still find each other and bring out the best in each other.
There's not much gameplay here and like Katamari it's mostly about the joy and humour of objects.
In this one you start of as a cube (who has a top hat) and you do things in order to bring more living objects back. Each object that comes back is presented with a fanfare and a "Welcome back ". You can switch between objects as some objects have special abilities.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very laid back.
The game presents you with a final decision at the end and it's possibly the most thoughtful decision I've seen in a game in a while (which is odd, given the laid back and playful nature of the rest of the game).
I'm not sure how much of a difference the decision makes, but it's still nice that it was there.
And finished it as we were going into our second lockdown and it felt a little weird and strange. Though maybe it gives some hope that after any crisis people can still find each other and bring out the best in each other.
There's not much gameplay here and like Katamari it's mostly about the joy and humour of objects.
In this one you start of as a cube (who has a top hat) and you do things in order to bring more living objects back. Each object that comes back is presented with a fanfare and a "Welcome back ". You can switch between objects as some objects have special abilities.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very laid back.
The game presents you with a final decision at the end and it's possibly the most thoughtful decision I've seen in a game in a while (which is odd, given the laid back and playful nature of the rest of the game).
I'm not sure how much of a difference the decision makes, but it's still nice that it was there.
2019
I'm not sure what I can say about this one.
This felt much more than Her Story, there's multiple sets, many more characters and more story threads to chase down.
And as it's set more recently than Her Story (which just uses a fixed camera in an interview room), there are different types of camera being used liked mobile phones, webcams. It makes the game feel more lively and more real. My wife wanted to know if they game had just come out as it seemed weird to her that the characters were video chatting this much (are they all in quarantine?).
The interface is more modern too, though beyond the astethics there's not too much different. You can bookmark and now tag clips. Probably the biggest difference is that you get very long clips, sometimes 8-10 minutes long versus the very quick chunks in the previous game. But weirdly you only get that person's side of the conversation (if it's a web chat) and need to find the other person's side of the conversation to understand the full clip. There's no option to play two clips at the same time, which would have been handy when you find the matching clips. Instead if one of the characters goes on a bit of a monologue you'll need to fast forward through the other character nodding and eyebrowing.
It took me a while to realise this though. I'd often hit keywords at the end of a clip and not understand that I could rewind it. It's a shamne that there's not a "Play from start" option.
I think the mystery and aha moment in Her Story was much more impactful than here. I feel like there's supposed to be a couple of twists in this one but the first one I got to maybe far to early, so it wasn't so much an "Aha" moment as "oh right, so".
But while the story isn't as clever, it feels more relevant to things that are happening now... so...
One part was quite shocking (I suppose two parts are), but the way at least that I moved through the clips I always could follow the story, so that's good right?
I dunno, I'm a sucker for these and so your mileage may vary, but if you liked Her Story, then I can't see why you wouldn't like this one too.
This felt much more than Her Story, there's multiple sets, many more characters and more story threads to chase down.
And as it's set more recently than Her Story (which just uses a fixed camera in an interview room), there are different types of camera being used liked mobile phones, webcams. It makes the game feel more lively and more real. My wife wanted to know if they game had just come out as it seemed weird to her that the characters were video chatting this much (are they all in quarantine?).
The interface is more modern too, though beyond the astethics there's not too much different. You can bookmark and now tag clips. Probably the biggest difference is that you get very long clips, sometimes 8-10 minutes long versus the very quick chunks in the previous game. But weirdly you only get that person's side of the conversation (if it's a web chat) and need to find the other person's side of the conversation to understand the full clip. There's no option to play two clips at the same time, which would have been handy when you find the matching clips. Instead if one of the characters goes on a bit of a monologue you'll need to fast forward through the other character nodding and eyebrowing.
It took me a while to realise this though. I'd often hit keywords at the end of a clip and not understand that I could rewind it. It's a shamne that there's not a "Play from start" option.
I think the mystery and aha moment in Her Story was much more impactful than here. I feel like there's supposed to be a couple of twists in this one but the first one I got to maybe far to early, so it wasn't so much an "Aha" moment as "oh right, so".
But while the story isn't as clever, it feels more relevant to things that are happening now... so...
One part was quite shocking (I suppose two parts are), but the way at least that I moved through the clips I always could follow the story, so that's good right?
I dunno, I'm a sucker for these and so your mileage may vary, but if you liked Her Story, then I can't see why you wouldn't like this one too.
2017
This is a delightful (sort of) look into the funereal industry and contains lots of interesting details. Really might make you stop and consider what you want to happen to you once you pass.
But it's not very long and there aren't any choices, so once you're done you're probably done. But I picked up on sale at a very decent price, so I'm fine with it.
But your mileage may vary.
But it's not very long and there aren't any choices, so once you're done you're probably done. But I picked up on sale at a very decent price, so I'm fine with it.
But your mileage may vary.
This one is an enjoyable FMV police detective game that feels a lot like Midsomer Murders (possibly because of the detective and the fact that it centres around a club). But game wise it's a bit like Phoenix Wright meets Her Story
A woman has drowned and while it's probably accidental, you've got one night to prove that it wasn't. You're basically bumbling around the village, talking to the suspects, finding things on the ground, challenging people with contradictions in their answers to get more things to talk to other people about.
Plays out in chapters, which are represented by the passing hours, though it's not real time, the hour will only click over once you've discovered all you need to discover in that hour.
I enjoyed the game on the whole (though I played the second last hour very late at night and was getting frustrated at the game, purely my fault).
However the ending felt a little like they ran out of money. It just kind of ends. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn't think that the person wot done it actually did it. But there are so many open questions that seem like they wanted to make a sequel... but given that it's four years old and there hasn't been any word of a sequel in a while, I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.
The acting is genre appropriate and while it's not a AAA game, it certainly looks nice. There are some ludicrous parts of the game, but this is FMV, it's to be expected I guess. The actor who plays Jenks does a fine job of it. Given that he's often asking the same or very similar questions to different people, his personality is odd enough that it doesn't become dull.
There are no moon logic puzzles here. Generally if you're stuck it means you have to go back and make sure you've asked everyone everything, called your chief and walked through the woods (were many unexpected scenes occur). And failing all that it means that you need to find a contradiction in someone's answers (though the chief will generally point you to who you should be talking to in order to find it or what topic it's about).
The last contradiction I missed because it involved looking at something harder than I should have, but eh...
It's a good game and well worth your time if you enjoy British murder mysteries of the 90s and 00s.
A woman has drowned and while it's probably accidental, you've got one night to prove that it wasn't. You're basically bumbling around the village, talking to the suspects, finding things on the ground, challenging people with contradictions in their answers to get more things to talk to other people about.
Plays out in chapters, which are represented by the passing hours, though it's not real time, the hour will only click over once you've discovered all you need to discover in that hour.
I enjoyed the game on the whole (though I played the second last hour very late at night and was getting frustrated at the game, purely my fault).
However the ending felt a little like they ran out of money. It just kind of ends. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn't think that the person wot done it actually did it. But there are so many open questions that seem like they wanted to make a sequel... but given that it's four years old and there hasn't been any word of a sequel in a while, I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.
The acting is genre appropriate and while it's not a AAA game, it certainly looks nice. There are some ludicrous parts of the game, but this is FMV, it's to be expected I guess. The actor who plays Jenks does a fine job of it. Given that he's often asking the same or very similar questions to different people, his personality is odd enough that it doesn't become dull.
There are no moon logic puzzles here. Generally if you're stuck it means you have to go back and make sure you've asked everyone everything, called your chief and walked through the woods (were many unexpected scenes occur). And failing all that it means that you need to find a contradiction in someone's answers (though the chief will generally point you to who you should be talking to in order to find it or what topic it's about).
The last contradiction I missed because it involved looking at something harder than I should have, but eh...
It's a good game and well worth your time if you enjoy British murder mysteries of the 90s and 00s.
So this fixes a lot of issues with the original Dragon Quest Builders both mechanically and story wise.
It feels like the story in the first game had very vague reasons for going from one place to another, where the framework built into this one makes it seems more reasonable why you'd go to different islands. And the fact that you're not loosing progress on your main island (and can go back to the islands that you've been to before) is great.
There's a restriction on how much stuff you can carry, but it's so large now that it basically doesn't exist. And maybe it's because I've played through DQB1 before but it never seems to leave you hanging, while still not nagging you as much as DBQ1.
It's often easy to get ahead of the game. It generally handles it well. Like an NPC will have a quest of "oh I need 5 mushrooms" and in getting the quest if you already have 5 mushrooms they'll say "oh you've already got them. Can I have them?"
But sometimes you miss the fact that an NPC is standing next to a wall with a quest, because you've already broken down the wall and moved on, but the game won't throw the next quest at you until you go talk to them (thought the game had glitched out, but no just had to go back and talk to them).
The whole game is effectively a tutorial, with each island teaching you a different focus of the game. And then you take what's new (both items and knowledge) to your main island to make it better.
It's fairly obvious where the story is going to end, though there are still surprises.
The worst thing is how slow the disembodied voices are. You can't press a button to skip through them and they just hang on the screen for far too long. I got the 7 year old to read them and even she had excessive time to do so.
But it's really good. And it's amazing how good some of the stuff other people make is.
It feels like the story in the first game had very vague reasons for going from one place to another, where the framework built into this one makes it seems more reasonable why you'd go to different islands. And the fact that you're not loosing progress on your main island (and can go back to the islands that you've been to before) is great.
There's a restriction on how much stuff you can carry, but it's so large now that it basically doesn't exist. And maybe it's because I've played through DQB1 before but it never seems to leave you hanging, while still not nagging you as much as DBQ1.
It's often easy to get ahead of the game. It generally handles it well. Like an NPC will have a quest of "oh I need 5 mushrooms" and in getting the quest if you already have 5 mushrooms they'll say "oh you've already got them. Can I have them?"
But sometimes you miss the fact that an NPC is standing next to a wall with a quest, because you've already broken down the wall and moved on, but the game won't throw the next quest at you until you go talk to them (thought the game had glitched out, but no just had to go back and talk to them).
The whole game is effectively a tutorial, with each island teaching you a different focus of the game. And then you take what's new (both items and knowledge) to your main island to make it better.
It's fairly obvious where the story is going to end, though there are still surprises.
The worst thing is how slow the disembodied voices are. You can't press a button to skip through them and they just hang on the screen for far too long. I got the 7 year old to read them and even she had excessive time to do so.
But it's really good. And it's amazing how good some of the stuff other people make is.
2016
Finally got this one finished. I think I spend far too much time in Forza Horizon games just goofing off and seeing how much damage I can cause.
So mixed feelings on this one. It's set in my home country and so it's lovely to see our country realised in a FH game and be able to hoon around. But the layout, urgh.
Like I get cramming bits of the country together to make it more scenic, but at least put them roughly in the right spot. To get from Byron Bay in the game to Surfers Paradise, you need to travel past the Twelve Apostles. the Apostles are 20 hours south of Byron and Surfers is as an hour north. Does not make sense.
I can forgive that, but the range of cars just dropped from the previous outing for me. I feel like the hatches and the retro rallies weren't strong enough in this one (and that's what I'm here for). And it really didn't feel aussie enough. Like sure there's a bunch of Fords, but Holden is pretty underrepresented. Where's the VN Commodore and the Monaro? Maybe they're shed finds that I haven't found yet.
And why don't the license plates look like Australian license plates?
I'm not entirely convinced about the change to the structure of the game. On the one hand it gives you a lot more freedom to control the game, but I felt I just didn't know what I should do next to get more fans to progress the story. Changing it so that you don't get fans from goofing around is probably a smart move (much of FH2 I spent doing that).
But also I'm the person that's organising the Horizon festival but I'm not the one deciding what these showcases will be? Seems a bit strange. And it felt like I just managed to win almost every showcase by a cat's whisker. Hmmm... feel like the opponents always let go of the accelerator just at the end.
The spinning wheel is just taunting. Oh you could win this amazing car this spin, but... oh you just won 2,000 CR instead. Hmmm.....
Now I started playing FH4 sometime during my FH3 playthrough and I suprisingly like it more than this one. And I don't know why. I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, my advise is to skip it.
So mixed feelings on this one. It's set in my home country and so it's lovely to see our country realised in a FH game and be able to hoon around. But the layout, urgh.
Like I get cramming bits of the country together to make it more scenic, but at least put them roughly in the right spot. To get from Byron Bay in the game to Surfers Paradise, you need to travel past the Twelve Apostles. the Apostles are 20 hours south of Byron and Surfers is as an hour north. Does not make sense.
I can forgive that, but the range of cars just dropped from the previous outing for me. I feel like the hatches and the retro rallies weren't strong enough in this one (and that's what I'm here for). And it really didn't feel aussie enough. Like sure there's a bunch of Fords, but Holden is pretty underrepresented. Where's the VN Commodore and the Monaro? Maybe they're shed finds that I haven't found yet.
And why don't the license plates look like Australian license plates?
I'm not entirely convinced about the change to the structure of the game. On the one hand it gives you a lot more freedom to control the game, but I felt I just didn't know what I should do next to get more fans to progress the story. Changing it so that you don't get fans from goofing around is probably a smart move (much of FH2 I spent doing that).
But also I'm the person that's organising the Horizon festival but I'm not the one deciding what these showcases will be? Seems a bit strange. And it felt like I just managed to win almost every showcase by a cat's whisker. Hmmm... feel like the opponents always let go of the accelerator just at the end.
The spinning wheel is just taunting. Oh you could win this amazing car this spin, but... oh you just won 2,000 CR instead. Hmmm.....
Now I started playing FH4 sometime during my FH3 playthrough and I suprisingly like it more than this one. And I don't know why. I can't put my finger on it. Anyway, my advise is to skip it.