Thursday, August 21, 2014

Look! There's pictures, Barnes! Pictures everywhere!

I had plans to enjoy something more aligned to my established tastes, and, instead, I found myself indulging in another adventure puzzler, this time centering around dolls (Matryoshka, to be precise), which is odd when one considers the trepidation I feel when left in a room with one, especially when it's with one of those ventriloquist dummies *shivers*. Fortunately, nesting dolls lack a humanoid shape, thus they seldom (if ever) fall into the concept of the uncanny valley. Still, I could see myself experiencing a brief moment of fear if I was to walk into a poorly-lit room and the first thing I spotted was the painted face of one of those playthings.
Or maybe not.
Getting back on topic, I recently finished one of the more tastefully unique titles I've ever had the privilege to experience, and, once again, it was part of a Humble Bundle purchase that included two other games I'm currently playing. Once in a while, I also progress through another stage of Sacred Citadel, which can be summed up as "generic brawler that's tolerable with teammates." It's basically a modern day version of Sonic Blast Man 2, except you're battling orcs, instead of the mentally handicapped.
So, I guess the point of this is to fight fire with fire, right?
The first, and arguably least enjoyable of the three is Windforge, a Snowed In Studios Inc. creation that barely passed its Kickstarter goal by $161.
Did you ever want to dig out the inside of a whale and live in it? 
Windforge is a 2D rpg-ish adventure with a setting similar to Skies of Arcadia. The ground level is deadly, everyone lives on floating islands, and you're attacked by flying creatures and air pirates.
"Yarr! We've come for your precious white booty!"
(Plenty of comedy gold with this one. Feel free to leave a comment with a line of your own.)
Combat resembles Contra's "run and gun" stages, even while you're piloting.
Your shitty, defenseless default ship is that thing on the left. 
Windforge takes place within Cordeus, named after the god of this planet, or whatever, which is divided into six regions separated by strong winds (as seen in the image below). As you head north, you'll be pelted with a near-constant rain of fire. As you near the core, you'll begin to suffocate. It's a dangerous world to explore. Annoying, too. Notice those squares on the map? Every time your character leaves one to enter another, a load screen appears. A trip from one town to another is usually a dozen load screens in length. You'll love it.

Windforge is an odd blend of problems and conveniences that I'm slowly losing interest in finishing, despite the hours I've already put into it.

The Good - Repairing is a one-click ability that costs nothing, even if you request the dockmaster to do it for you. Dismantling is just as simple. Dying will not rob you of your items, and allows the player to teleport back to town. Kill the townspeople. They don't care. None of the crafting materials are all that problematic to obtain, though it's easier to buy them from vendors, and more enjoyable to rob them from other ships. Tame a whale. Kill the townspeople with it. They don't care.

The Bad - Piece together a ship one tiny block at a time. Explore temples that all look alike. Fight temple guardians that all look alike. Enjoy an endless meteor shower. Fall from the damage, repair, and fly back up. Enjoy an endless meteor shower. Fall from the damage, repair, and fly back up. A giant basilisk attacks you. Also, enjoy an endless meteor shower. Fall from the damage, repair, and fly back up. Awkward movement comes with an awkward grappling hook. Action bars don't lock. Half a dozen vendors separated from one another in each poorly-designed town. Half a dozen trainers separated from one another in each poorly-designed town.
Oh, another meteor shower? Has it been ten seconds already? My how time flies!
I found my interest starting to wane as I was having to use my jackhammer to clear away floor after floor after floor of damaging spikes in order to safely reach my next palette-swapped temple boss. The only real draw for this title is the chance to be creative:

It's a feature that is wasted on lazy-minded gamers, such as myself, who just want to finish the main quest and enjoy the ending. I don't care what my ship looks like as I try to accomplish this. I'd show a picture of it if the "Print Scrn" button worked on the game. It doesn't appear to, as I can't locate anything saved from it. In case you were wondering, my ship is shaped like a one-handed gun, with an extended flat top that I use to prop up a fallen ship while I dismantle it. I like to fight other ships.

The second title is another take on the sub-genre of "match 3" puzzlers. Because it isn't F2P, I've found it to be considerably more enjoyable than Marvel Puzzle Quest and Candy Crush combined.
That's not much of an accomplishment, is it?
Reignmaker is actually the sequel to Frogdice's Tower of Elements, and is the second successfully-funded Kickstarter project, which managed to earn over 170% of their goal. *gives a thumbs up* Yeah! They're also the developers behind the rpg/puzzle title Dungeon of Elements and Threshold, a 20-year-old text-based, multi-user rpg that absolutely demands the player to participate through role-playing. Basically, I'm telling you that it's a well-established indie game developer. As of this post, it's currently running another Kickstarter for Stash: No Loot Left Behind, which will end on the 12th of September this year. They've got quite a bit of ambition, to type the least, so I wish them the best of luck. Hell, I'll even toss in a pledge. :) 

**Update ~ Stash actually did reach its goal, but not by much with no thanks to the few who read this blog prior to the Kickstarter's end date. -_-**

Reignmaker effectively utilizes the tile-matching mechanic to defend your tower by releasing the corresponding magic, earning power-ups for four- and five-tile matches, and quickly recharging spells to help clear away tiles more effectively.

As you can probably see from this image, it's important to match tiles in the rows occupied by oncoming enemies, but, even if you don't, this is not your only option for defense. Townsfolk can be hired to fight, heal, and help retrieve goodies from the battlefield, and there are plenty of tools the player may purchase to stop or slow down the opposition. As seen with their previous works, Frogdice wasn't content to leave this as a mere puzzle game. 
There are three regions to choose from, along with three levels of difficulty.
Between battles, the player may return to his or her city in order to upgrade buildings, manage resources, hire units, and set policies based upon the choices given.

What you choose may affect the aesthetics of your growing home, or provide you with additional money (triads), units, and even long-term benefits, like price reductions. I chose a desert setting and named my home "Atlantis." Clever, I know. Shut up. After setting numerous policies, I now have purple fungus growing all over the place, NPCs congregating outside my town hall (probably to kill me), and a giant blob monster bouncing around the place (probably to eat the congregating NPCs). Even better, every decision you make, regardless of whether or not you get a goodie for it, comes with a positive result. The game never makes you feel stupid for what you chose, and that alleviates the need to try and figure out what would be considered the "best" option. If that's not enough, there's also over 100 achievements to obtain, constantly doling out positive reinforcement for every little thing you do. There's a lot of love-dispensing in this to keep the player happy, and, more importantly, the gripes are few and far between. The only three I am aware of is that you're going to be craving wood all the time *giggle*, the quest rewards are pathetic (use five of an item and receive a mere 4 wood for it? what?!), and later battles involving "blocked" runes will sometimes cause a bug where the images of some tiles may overlap others. If a match-three refuses to work, that's probably why.


Then there's the beastiary. Is that good? Bad? I don't know. Filling it up rewards the player with more achievements, so that's something. It offers tidbits of information and close-up animations of your enemies. Neat?

Finally, I'm going to type about my favorite of the three, Stacking, a Double Fine Production title born from the Amnesia Fortnight event, along with Costume Quest, that was reworked into a complete game and published by THQ back in 2011.

Why do I enjoy Stacking when I find the adventure genre to be relatively dull, irritating, and sorely lacking in Zanigef? Because it effectively appeals to serious and casual gamers with its OPTIONAL hint system, and, thankfully, the loveable, quirky personality mixed in isn't bogged down by Tim Schafer's classic stupid-ass moon logic humor:
Ha. Ha. Ha... Fuck you, Monkey Island.
The whole thing revolves around Charlie, the smallest of the Blackmore family set. His ability to mind control others from the inside out hammers home the old saying, "Good things come in small packages... that can split your body in half and nest within your innards." It's beautiful. Magnificient. Erotic. What more would you want? The ability to punch, vomit, and fart potpourri at the push of a button? Sure! Every doll has its own ability, and only one ability, kinda like in the manga Needless, but with significantly fewer panty shots. A shame, I know. If you are able to sneeze, then that's all you are ever going to be able to do for the rest of your life. You can't even cry about it, because it's not sneezing. It's a sad existence for these dolls, but not for you. Not as Charlie. Charlie can do everything, and all he needs is another doll's appetizing soul to make it happen.

The story takes place during the industrial period and plays out like a silent film. In many cases, it's even done on stage. Where did the stage come from? Irrelevent. The father of the Blackmore family set goes missing and the rest of the family decides to work to pay off the debt they've accumulated as a result. Charlie soon discovers that The Baron (he's evil) has taken and enslaved them all (evilly), along with every child he could get his (evil) hands on... wait, what hands? Nobody wanted Charlie though. "Too small," they said. "Worthless," they called him. Well, who's making you piss your pants now, huh? HUH?! Seriously, one of the dolls only has the ability to piss himself, and Charlie is the one considered worthless?

With the help of these abilities, the player can solve puzzles in a variety of ways. Some require the combined efforts of various dolls, like adding fire to farts, then applying that fart fire to every copy of Fifty Shades of Grey and its author. Not surprisingly, farting is one of the more useful abilities in this game. AS IT SHOULD BE! Solving just enough to finish the game is a simple task, and if that's all you want to do, then so be it. For everyone else, there are usually three or four possble solutions to discover, along with performing Hi-jinks and collecting unique dolls for additional achievements. Everything you do will be displayed artistically by Levi the Hobo, Charlie's best friend (and possible lover). He even provides DLC pertaining to the search for a new hobo king. Good stuff.

As if the concept and dialogue isn't enough, the world of Stacking itself is brimming with charm as various bits of junk are glued/taped together in the form of some sort of household creation. It provides the finishing touches to an already amazing title.

If there was a complaint worth mentioning, it might be the length of the game (roughly five hours to complete). Personally, I thought was just long enough to avoid becoming dull. The only letdown I experienced was with the lack of some sort of cardboard creature coming up out of the ocean. I really did hang out by the side of the boat and waited for something like that to appear in the distance. Oh well.

That's it. Favorite adventure title ever... unless I forgot about one that I liked more. All in all, it's well worth the $10 price tag on Steam, if not part of a Humble Bundle, so play it, or tell me to shut up. I don't care.
Well, look at that! I stand corrected. Hands do exist in this game.