Video Games

Review – Seasons After Fall (PC)

This is one of those games I picked up on a bit of a whim. It’s appropriately tagged as a Metroidvania title, which is no doubt my favorite type of game. The promos also look quite gorgeous in their art style. Which is always a big draw. Other than that, I didn’t really quite know what to expect out of this game.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. Though there was something that surprised me a bit. Mostly that there are no enemies in this game at all. It’s entirely platform and puzzle based. You just, keep on trying to progress the game. That doesn’t keep it from being enjoyable, but I didn’t really expect that. That couple with the fantastic painting like art style really push this more into being an artsy puzzle game.

The basic premise here, you play as a Fox spirit, working to aid another spirit in restoring the powers of the four seasonal spirits and areas. There is a central hub and 4 areas that branch from it, but you also will need to revisit each branch a few times to complete the overall story.

The gimmick of the game play loop is that as you progress, you unlock the ability to toggle the seasons of the area you are in. Which chances each zone and opens up new areas. For example, turning things to spring, can cause plants to grow or water to fill in areas. Changing things to Winter can create snow balls that you can climb, allowing for the ability to reach higher areas.

The plot itself is pretty interesting and has a nice little twist to it, though I have to say I kind of saw it coming, so it’s not that twisty. The animation is very smooth and the little fox bobs around nicely and believably. The graphics are where this game really shines though. The entire game looks like a very lush hand drawn world, though everything in it moves nice and smoothly, it’s like being in the actual environment.

The puzzles are also interesting, and changing between seasons to solve them can be tricky but is enjoyable. There is a lot of fun lore going on here with a sort of whimsical folklore feel to it, revolving around the different seasons.

Overall, it’s a very enjoyable title for anyone looking for some relaxing, platform puzzler style game play.

The End of the 3DS eShop

Mar 25th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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In a little over a day, the 3DS eShop is closing for good. I thought this had already happened around 9 months ago, but at that point they just removed the ability to add funds directly on the device. Funds can still be added through the website, though it’s a bit of a hassle and it has to be done with certain denominations instead of exact values.

I guess I am a bit spoiled by PC gaming, it seems really annoying that the shop is just, closing. I mean, I’ve had the same Steam account for 18+ years. The copy of Half Life I have on Steam predates that too. Nintendo has always had this weird relationship with accounts. They used to use those obtuse Friend Codes, which were different on a cart by cart basis even.

I mean, ideally, games I purchased on my Wii would work on the DS or 3DS or the Switch, but that’s not the case at all.

The 3DS holds a special place for me, it’s kind of the last “console” device I really used regularly. I guess I have my Retroid handheld now, but it’s technically different. I still have games I want to play on this device though, I’ve even replaced the battery, and bought a spare for the future. I also replaced the power board in it shortly after I first got the thing because it got wet and shorted things out. There still a single dead pixel on the screen where it got water on the screen, though that water dried up over a month or so.

Nintendo doesn’t really ever discount first party games though, so I’m fine with eventually tracking down physical carts for a lot of these games. Back when they removed the ability to pay on the device, I collected up a few digital titles that were on sale. This round, I picked up a few more marked down games. Capcom had a sale on the Phoenix Wright games for almost nothing, so I threw some money at those. I also decided to go ahead and get Pokemon Crystal, though it wasn’t marked down. I have Silver and Pokemon Yellow on there, but I’ve not played Crystal ever in any form, and it’s the “3rd game” which usually means it’s the better one.

For my final round of 3DS digital games, I picked up:

Phoenix Wright Spirit of Justice
Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies
Phoenix Wright Apollo Justice
Gurumin 3D – An interesting looking 3D platform game
Pokemon Dream Radar – A 3DS exclusive game where you can catch a few legendary Pokemon
80s Overdrive – A Retro style racing game in the vein of Outrun
Pokemon Crystal

Review – Dead Cells (PC)

Mar 23rd, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have to full be upfront here. When I first started playing Dead Cells, I hated it. Well, I liked it, but grew to hate it. I reminds me a lot of Rogue Legacy in it’s presentation, but it’s quite a bit faster and more difficult than Rogue Legacy is. I really really liked Rogue Legacy. Dead Cells also feels a lot like a Metroidvania title, though many will argue it’s not really a Metroidvania game, it has a very similar gameplay feel, even if the actual loop is different.

It’s closer to being a Roguelike platform game than a Metroidvania game, I’ll accept that. You do revisit areas, but not out of necessity to collect missed items or areas by using new skills, a Metroidvania hallmark, but because in Dead Cells, you live, you die, you live again. Actually, I’m not even sure you’re ever really ever alive, or maybe just you’re never dead. Your ACTUAL character is basically just a big sort of, blobby fungus thing. You start the game and possess a body and go from there.

Each iteration through the game, the levels are the same, but the layout is randomized. The route is also somewhat randomized, in that you can often choose where to go next. The choice can come at a trade off though, as the game gives bonus rewards for speed. Your equipment is also randomized. You get an assortment of initial drops to choose from and enemies drop items, but the secondary abilities and stats are all randomized out.

Between lives, you can unlock some permanent perks though. Which will help with progression as things get more and more difficult. This is where my chief problem with this game WAS. I’ll address it, but I do want to emphasize the “was”. The progression, really does not keep pace with the skill leaps on each stage. And dying at certain point in each run can mean losing any chance of progressing your ability at all, which results in a LOT of repetition and feeling of going nowhere. The ability to unlock skills only comes at the end of a stage. There is also a larger upgrade option for drops that only occurs every few stages. When you die, you lose all of your collected souls, which are used for upgrades.

You can unlock the ability to keep some of them, but it’s such a small amount it’s almost worthless. It also means the only incentive you have to spend early on, is on the ability to save souls between lives. So you never actually GET stronger for a while. It also doesn’t help that some of the unlockable items are kind of worthless and only serve to pollute the potential pool of drops.

After throwing myself against the first boss a few dozen times, then the stage that comes after the first boss, I completely shelved this game. It was fun, but not, THAT fun, to play essentially the same 2 levels over and over endlessly for a minuscule boost in power.

The game was eventually patched to add a difficulty adjustment slider, which brought me back and suddenly, the game was super enjoyable. Funny enough, this isn’t the first game this sort of thing happened to me with, Control did the same thing with the same results. Some of the more “hardcore” people complained, but it really doesn’t affect anyone else to play on an easier difficulty.

With the new ability to slide things to be less brutally difficult, the game was suddenly incredibly enjoyable. It meant going much farther long, beating more bosses and the game, and actually being able to progress along with unlocks. This also meant that the progression system was meaningful and the difficulty could be raised a bit as things became too easy. It honestly felt a lot more how the game was meant to be played.

Gameplay aside, the graphics use an interesting dense pixelated style that, despite it’s pixelatedness, really shows off all of the motion and environment well. Everything stands out well and looks pretty nice, in a slightly gross and morbid sort of way. The enemy variety is alright as well, each zone has it’s own sort of stable of enemies that show up, though some of them do get repeated.

There are also some more difficult enemies that only show up on higher difficulty levels. In addition to the difficulty sliders added in the mentioned patch, the game itself has a mechanism to increase the overall difficulty based on how many times the final boss is defeated. In order to unlock the “true ending”, the final boss must be defeated several times on increasing difficulty levels.

There are also several mini games and additional time attack modes that can be played for some extra challenge if that’s your jam.

The core gameplay loop is still a bit repetitive, and there is a lot of repeating each level, which may not be for everyone. There is still some trickiness to the difficulty as well, even on “easy mode”, which can be a turn off. Still, it’s a fun and fast platformer that plays a lot like traditional Castlevania/Metroidvania types in it’s mechanics.

Sky: CotL Guide Part 7 – The Eye of Eden

Mar 15th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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The Entire series can be found on this page.

The end of everything lies in the Eye of Eden. I’m going to throw out plenty of spoilers in this page, and I recommend doing Eden blind the first time through. It wraps up everything in a nice, somewhat unexpected way that works better not knowing. I will give some spoiler free advice first though.

Eden resets once a week. You can make as many Eden runs as you want, but the final bit only works once a week, and resets I believe on Sunday or Monday.

Bring a stock of regular candles, maybe, 40-50, and as many WL as you can get. You will want the candles at the very very end before finishing the game.

This place is rough. The Golden Wasteland is scary and spooky, Eden is just a brutal nightmare. I cannot stress this enough.

Just. Keep. Going.

Push on, you fall, get up and find a lamp to recharge. Lose some WL, it sucks, just get up and keep pushing on.

Be patient, because there are places that require waiting for an opening to pass, and there is a lot of waiting behind rock outcroppings while waiting for a rock storm to pass.

Stick with the others as much as you can, help them when you can. You don’t need to bring friends to Eden, but you will probably make friends along the way. The whole zone works better when everyone works to bring each other up and along. Light them and collect their WL if you can’t though don’t kill yourself in the process, because two downed moths are less useful than one downed moth.

The final zone has you lighting some statues under a constant barrage of lava rocks, just, get as many as you can. Keep pushing forward and onward.

And with that I’ll go on to the individual zones, which will get more and more spoiler filled as things go along (not much to really spoil until the third area).

Wind and Rock Cliffs

Eden is reachable either through the final alter area of the Vault zone, with all the thunder and lightning, or through the large portal on the back end of Home, if you don’t want to go all the way through the Vault. Funny enough, there is a social area at the start of Eden. The area itself is locked by a multi person gate. At one point, it required I think 5 people to open the gate, but it’s been changed so one person can unlock it alone. Usually there are other people around though.

The first area is pretty basic, you fight the wind to climb up a long winding path to a small enclosed rest area. Being blown off is bad, and flying will get you blown around through most of Eden, so don’t even bother trying to fly anywhere really. If you are an extremely skilled flier with a lot of flaps, you can fly through this zone however. Personally, I don’t recommend it, it’s not too hard of an area. There are like 2 or 3 spots where you need to pause and wait for gaps in the wind and rock storm to run to the next safe area starting about halfway up.

Krill Battlefield

This is where the real fun begins. There are several sections, one right off, and one near the end, where you have to fight the wind and hide behind rocks to avoid being pummeled during the times the wind blows. The trick here is to be patient and not get greedy with progress. Just, run to the next rock outcropping, especially early on when you may be uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the area. Halfway through there is a sort of, climbing maze, with Krills patrolling around. There is plenty of cover to hide from them, but once again, it’s about patience. Also if you fall off, you pretty much have to start the climb over again, but sometimes falling down to cover is preferable to a Krill strike.

The third part of this area is more rock storm and rock outcropping cover. Some of the cover is just low spots in the cliff and not so much an actual rock outcropping. There is also a Krill patrolling around to watch out for.

At the end is a long tunnel full of Winged Lights.

At the end of the tunnel the game will give you a message that you have reached the point of no return. Proceeding beyond this point means finishing the game. You can’t go home, if you leave the game you will return to Eden on reload. There is no going back.

Statues Area

The final area of the Eye of Eden. There is a constant barrage of red lava rocks that pummels the area and you’ll need to run from outcropping to outcropping to avoid them. Along the way, you must place your Winged Lights into statues scattered throughout the area. I believe that in total there are 60 or 70 statues, you do not have to do all of them, just do as many as you can.

In case you didn’t put 2+2 together, placing WL, removes them from your inventory. As you proceed through this zone, you will become weaker and weaker. The farther on, the less cover there is as well, I believe to reach the final 4 or 5 statues you basically must crawl to them, losing WL to the lava storm as you go.

The zone ends once the player is dead.

There is no other exit, as the warning stated, Death is the ONLY way out.

After dying, if there are other players left, your spirit will follow them around, and you get to watch them die as well. FUN right?

Once all of the players are dead (or if you skip watching the other players), all of the statues will burst open and all of the freed WL and your own spirit will break free and the game continues on.

Ascent and Orbit

Not much to say about this area itself. After breaking free, your spirit flies through a long sequence. The cloud area basically follows references to the other Zones of the world in sequence until you ascend up into space among all of the other spirits and enter Orbit. It’s quite beautiful really.

Eventually you wake up and rejoin your body. In the final area you will receive pieces of Ascended Candles for each WL you placed in a statue. The total possible is around 15.5 last I checked. There is a constellation alter here. Remember I mentioned bringing some candles? You will want to unlock as many of the Ascended Candle locks as possible now. Don’t bother with branches, find the 1-2 candle locks, and unlock up to them, then unlock them. You only need the first level, the few second level ones don’t count.

Once done, continue onward, or socialize a bit with your fellow Sky Children if you’d like, to the final portal. Along the way you will collect all of the unlocked Wing Buffs (from the Ascended Candle locks). These Wing Buffs can be lost in the world like regular WL, but you always regain them when passing through Orbit when reborn.

If you’ve done the Little Prince quest line, the Little Prince will appear just before exiting Orbit and you will be reborn into the Starlight Desert. Otherwise, you will be reborn back on the Island of Dawn. All of the WL in the world will have been reset, Spirit Memories are kept. If it’s the first time completing the game, additional Spirit memories from the various seasons will now be available throughout the world.

And that’s it for the game. After this it’s all pretty much making Eden Runs to get more Winged Buffs to try for that sweet 12 flap cape (200 WL level) or just hanging out and collecting cosmetics and emotes.

Sky: CotL Guide Part 6 – The Vault of Knowledge

Mar 14th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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The Entire series can be found on this page.

The Vault is the final zone before reaching Eden and the end. It’s arguably the most important “lore” zone, less so from the lore it’s telling, and more the lore it represents, as a library of memories. It’s also sort of a gateway between the world and Eden. It’s actually a very simple zone, but also extremely tedious to navigate through. There are almost no real threats in this zone either.

Unlike the previous zone, there is no social area at the start. Or at least, no way to go and change outfits. I guess they figure by now you know how to work Home. Though even Eden has a social area. You start out in a lowered hallway, immediately connected tot he temple at the end of the Wasteland. All of the branching of this zone occurs at the bottom floor, most in the first entry room. Which makes it easier to sort of start off with the branches this time.

Main Floor

The main floor is the entry area and a large open area with a platform in the middle. Generally speaking, there are 2-3 seasonal candles in this area, and 1-2 on the “first floor” which I’ll get to later. The daily quest sapling is in the large open room as well. Off to the right just after entering the larger room, there is a 4 person door which leads to a spirit, getting people to assist with this door can be a pain as most people rush past and don’t bother.

There are also several branching zones.

The Archive

To the right of the spawn point for this zone, up high is a 2 person door that leads to the Archive. The Purple light daily quest is in the archive as well as a couple of WL and one Spirit Memory. Also notable, because it took me forever to find, the map stone is up in a little cubby directly across from the entrance. This is also the only space with a real threat, there is a sort of multi floored maze that the Spirit Memory passes through that is full of crabs.

After following the memory through the maze, there is a second exit which leads to the same entrance in the main area. I believe this is the ONLY place in the game where this occurs (two exits to the same point). Not really important, but just random, possibly true, trivia.

The Secret Area

From spawn, going up to the left, then back towards the entrance leads to a crack tunnel that can be traveled through. This leads to “The Secret Zone”. It’s neat to experience blind, so I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but under normal circumstances, you can only get there while wearing the supporter cape. During holiday events, there will be a special spirit that will take you through. This is the area where events take place. Also notable, this hand holding counts for the daily quest “Hold hands with a friend”. Which can be tricky to get sometimes.

The Season of Remembrance Area

This probably has a proper name, but I’m not sure what it is. As of this posting, this is the newest zone, and it’s related tot he (as of posting) current, season. Next to the sapling in the large room is a new door to the “right” of the tree, which leads to a large room with spirits relating to the Season of Remembrance.

The Starlight Desert

Before Aurora, the “biggest season” was The Season of The Little Prince. This was also the only other collab season outside of Aurora. The Little Prince is a book (and other media) and this season is a sort of, Sky version of the story. In the middle of the desert is a Rose which will give quests that take place throughout all of Sky, where you meet with The Little Prince and learn his story. There were also some popular cosmetics available during the season, like Sword Pants, which are no longer available.

This questline is also notable because it requires completing the game to finish it. The final quest involves meeting The little Prince in Eden, and results in a “special end” that occurs once.

Also, after completing Eden, the other spirits related to the quest will open up around the zone in the various areas surrounding the zone (the stage, the large pot, the garden, the little boat area off to the side, the large memory).

There are a lot of WL in this area as well. It’s also generally a pretty and peaceful area to hang out.

Second Floor

Heading back to the main path. In the large room, after lighting all the torches around the platform, then the phantom torches, lights up the platform which will take the player all the way to the top.

But not without stops.

The second floor is a small room full of memories. It has a similar “puzzle” to the main floor, to power up the platform and get it rising again. This is a trend for this entire zone. There is also a 4 player door here that leads to a large candle cake and a spirit (hidden in the back). Unlike the main floor, this 4 player door is pretty easy to get opened, I guess it’s more obvious and the candle cake gives more incentive.

This is also the only other place where daily seasonal candles will show up.

One last notable thing that applies to the rest of this zone, you can’t fall. My first visit, i took great effort to not fall. Then later, learned that you can’t. In fact, “floating” at the bottom is a good way to recharge.

Third Floor

As the platform rises, it leaves the library. There isn’t a lot on this floor, just one spirit and a few candles along the path fo the spirit on some floating islands. The candle puzzle here is a bit more tedious because the final step involves lighting some dozen candles in a circle around the platform. The problem is, every other candle is slightly too high to each, making them hard to hit.

Fourth Floor

This is the busiest zone outside of the Starlight Desert. There are some 2-3 candle cakes, 3 or 4 spirit memories, and a large spacious area to explore with lots of platforms. This zone is a lot easier with more flaps on the cape, since it makes it easier to navigate between the various platforms, or simply bypass them by flying.

Fifth Floor

There is nothing left really. There is a WL hidden out on the floating bones, but otherwise it’s just a matter of lighting up the torches on the back of the giant phantom snake and riding the mantas up.

The Top Floor

Are they really floors anymore? Th final island here has some candles to collect and the final alter. Lighting the article teleports the player onward, so it’s worth collecting everything before using the alters. In face, it’s worth nothing that all of the main path here is one way. Once the platform goes up, there is no going down.

After using the alter, the player is deposited in a final sort of alter room, with a continuous thunderstorm happening. If this feels ominous, it should. There is a portal leading back to Home and a Spirit Gate which leads to Eden. I recommend having some 50-70 WL on your cape before proceeding onwards to Eden, so if not, head back to Home and start exploring.