You Can Beat This – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

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If you want to read more of my advice for new gamers, check out my You Can Beat This posts for other SoulsBorne & Souls-like titles. You can find them all [HERE].

Alternatively, follow me on Twitch to watch my current adventures!

Hello again! If this is your first time reading one of my You Can Play This posts, this is where I try to reassure you that anyone can enjoy Souls-like games. The Great Gusteau taught us that anyone can cook. In the same way, there is absolutely no reason why everyone can’t enjoy these challenging-yet-rewarding games, no matter what the small but very vocal minority of fans would lead you to believe.

If you’re just getting into playing Souls-like games, there are some places that are better to start than others. Personally, I would put Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty in the middle of the pack. While it’s not as easy as Steelrising or Demon’s Souls, it’s certainly not as tricky as the likes of Sekiro or Nioh. With a bit of patience, it’s a decent enough place to start, especially if you’re a fan of Chinese history and mythology.

Anyhow, if you’re interested in giving Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty a go, here are some tips to get you started.

Continue reading “You Can Beat This – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty” →

Best Boss Fights – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

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It’s been a while, but let’s talk about the bosses in another Souls-like game! It this week’s posts, I’m going to be looking at Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty by Team Ninja. While this game was made by the creators of Nioh, it was a lot more accessible and easy to play than this title.

I’ll get into my full thoughts on Wo Long in Thursday’s post but, needless to say, I did enjoy playing it. It certainly had a lot of very difficult and varied bosses, with some naturally being a lot more memorable than others. For today’s post, I’m going to be looking at the top 5 best, and the top 5 most difficult boss fights. There is some overlap between these list as some of the most satisfying fights in the game were also very tricky. Please note that these lists are not a ranking, but are presented in the order I encountered these bosses in the game.

If you want to watch videos of every boss I managed to defeat in my first playthrough of the game, you can find them all on my YouTube channel. Read on if you want to learn more about the best but, be warned, there might be spoilers…

Continue reading “Best Boss Fights – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty” →

Review: Life is Strange: True Colors

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You can watch my full Let’s Play of this game on YouTube (warning: bad language) – [HERE]

Life is Strange: True Colors is an adventure game that was developed by Deck Nine and published by Square Enix. It was released in 2021 on  Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, and Nintendo Switch. It is a third person adventure game and is actually the third main instalment of the Life is Strange series, though it should be noted it is a stand-alone title. The only reoccurring character is Steph, who is the protagonist of the spin-off title, Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

The story follows Alex Chen, a young woman who has grown up in the system who has finally been reunited with her older brother, Gabe. He has invited to her to live with him in the isolated Colorado town of Haven Springs. While Alex is given a warm welcome by Gabe’s friends and neighbours, she slowly learns that the locals have varying opinions on Typhon Mining – a major company that has begun work on a nearby mountain. While Alex’s life seems perfect, it is soon rocked by a terrible accident. Using her power to sense emotions, Alex teams up with her new friends Ryan and Steph to find out if Typhon are really as benevolent as they claim…

Life is Strange: True Colors really is a gorgeous game. Unlike previous instalments of the series, the action is largely rooted in one location, rarely venturing from the main street of Haven Springs. While this is slightly restrictive, the town is gorgeous and it gives you plenty of opportunity to soak in its beauty as you become closer with the residents. And, really, this is the heart of its story.

As you get closer to Alex’s new friends, you begin to discover their rich back stories. Everyone in Haven Springs has secrets, ranging from secret dreams about going to college to serious medical conditions. Alex’s ability to sense aura is both fun and useful, as it allows you to both see if people are being dishonest and figure out ways to convince them to be more forthcoming. This is the main mechanic in this story, as it helps you to slowly build your case against Typhon. Everyone in Haven Springs seems initially friendly, but some know a lot more about the mining company than they are letting on…

While Life is Strange: True Colors builds a lovely cosy mystery, there are a few areas where I feel it could have done better. First was the pacing. The game is fairly short as it only takes around 11-12 hours to complete, and is split into five chapters. In terms of plot, things don’t really heat up until the climax of chapter 4, leading to the story being hastily wrapped up in the last chapter. I did feel this could have be paced a little better, especially when a large chunk of chapter 3 is spent LARPing with the residents of the town, which is fun but doesn’t ultimately progress anything.

I also never really felt that my choices truly had consequences in this game. This is a huge part of the Life is Strange series and, in previously instalments, could mean life or death for certain characters. While Life is Strange: True Colors boasts six endings, they are all really variants on the same thing. The ending you get is determined by who you chose to romance (if anyone), and a single decision that you make right at the end of Chapter 5. While the choices you make in game do cause minor changes to dialogue and the attitudes that NPCs take towards Alex, they ultimately don’t mean anything in the long run.

I think that about covers everything. All in all, I enjoyed Life is Strange: True Colors, but I think I would have been disappointed if I spent full price on it. It’s a lovely, inclusive narrative that treats its subject matter of grief and mental health very seriously. However, it’s not without its issues. With some better pacing and more impactful choices, this could have been a fantastic game.

Review: Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

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You can watch my full Let’s Play of this game on YouTube – [HERE]

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was produced by Square Enix and released in 2024 on Playstation 5. It is role play game with real-time combat and is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy VII: Remake, which was released in 2020. The series is planned to be a trilogy, which collectively will form a reimagining of the critically acclaimed 1997 Playstation game, Final Fantasy VII.

The game picks up roughly where its precursor left off, with Cloud Strife and his allies having left Midgar in the pursuit of Sephiroth. As Cloud reveals his backstory and connection to the legendary hero, Tifa begins to have her doubts. Although present in Cloud’s narrative, the events he describes are very different to what she remembers. As the party travels across the world with the Shinra Corporation in pursuit, their mission grows more serious. Sephiroth seems to be planning to destroy all life on the planet but, as Cloud’s behaviour grows more erratic, will the party have any hope in stopping him?

The original Final Fantasy VII game was a huge part of my childhood and I did also mostly enjoy Final Fantasy VII: Remake, despite not being a huge fan of its ending. However, I have some real issues with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. When it comes to its main plot, I actually don’t have much trouble. While I don’t agree with all the changes it made, it was still compelling if you can distance it from its source material. The game is also set in a vast and beautiful world, with plenty of opportunity for free exploration. My biggest issue was the mini-games.

The Final Fantasy series has always had its mini-games. Final Fantasy VIII had Triple Triad. Final Fantasy X had Blitzball. However, these were side content that could be easily ignored. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth forces you to play endless mini-games, everywhere you go. Worse still, it often forces you to be good at them to proceed with the main content. While some are skippable doing so means that you lose out on some the better gear, or damage your relationship with party members. So, yes, you do have to play. All of them.

I hate Fort Condor with a burning passion. I almost rage quit while trying to win the Gold Cup in Chocobo racing, in which you can’t win without flawlessly avoiding every obstacle on the damn track. But there is a special level of Hell reserved for Mog. Trying to capture the ungrateful Moogles in order to unlock their shop was annoying in the first region. It was an exercise in frustration once I’d had to repeat this five more times at increasing difficulties.

I also had a few issues with the combat. While I genuinely like this a lot, it really is designed for you to have a party of three. There were a few places in the game where it forced you in boss fights with only one character. This is usually Cloud, but one very frustrating section of the Shinra mansion sees you playing as Cait Sith. Without the ability to cycle, the combat feels very clunky and bordering on unfair. It’s a shame, because these really did tarnish my experience.

Ultimately, I was disappointed by this game. I really did want to like it and it does have a lot of charm, but the mini-games really dragged it down for me. It’s pretty telling that the actual main game takes 45 hours to complete, but my playthrough was almost twice that. I’m pretty sure that about 5% of that was spent chocobo racing, which is a time I’d rather forget.

I’ll probably play the last instalment for completeness, but I definitely won’t be paying full price for it!

Review: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

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You can watch my full Let’s Play of this game on YouTube (warning: bad language) – [HERE]

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is the first instalment of the Danganronpa Trilogy. It was producted by Spike Chunsoft and first released in 2010 for the Playstation Portable. It has since become massively popular and be released on a number of different formats. The version I played was from the Anniversary collection of all three games, which was released for Playstation 4 in 2020, as part of the game’s 10th Anniversary celebration.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a strange game to describe. It is a first person murder mystery game with dating sim elements. You play Naegi Makoto, a teenage boy who believed he had been selected to attend an elite school called Hope’s Peak. After collapsing upon entering, he wakes up along with fourteen other students to learn that they are trapped in the school. The self-proclaimed headmaster, a robotic bear called Monokuma, tells them that they will be trapped there forever unless one of them manages to murder another student and not get caught. If they manage this, they alone will be allowed to leave. Everyone else will be executed…

Danganronpa is a very unique game, that allows you a lot more free movement than the average dating sim. With varying levels of assistance from the rest of your class, you begin to explore the school to figure out why you were there and how you can escape. After a few days of exploring, there tends to be a murder, and the game switches format to investigation mode to allow you to look for clues and ascertain how they died.

While the early chapters felt a little bogged down by the sheer number of characters, these are rapidly whittled down as the “killing game” begins. The exploration sections of the game are the most akin to a dating sim. While you can’t romance the characters, you can give gifts to them to learn more of their backstories and motivations. This, in turn, earns you abilities that can make life easier during the investigation. The tone of these sections is surprisingly light, even fan-servicey in places, but this quickly flips during the murders.

Monokuma’s goal is to bring despair, and to achieve that he goads the teens into killing, then holds a trial to uncover the guilty party. The class trials are the best part of the game, taking the form of a “Non-Stop Debate”, in which you have to uncover flaws in people’s testimonies by pressing them with evidence. It’s a similar idea to the Phoenix Wright games, only with the pressure of a time limit.

The class trials are also peppered with mini-games, like hangman and arranging events in a comic strip format to show the order of events. While I didn’t think any of the trials were that difficult (at least, I’m pretty sure that the people watching my stream figured out almost all of them), they do contain enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. Monokuma is also a surprisingly compelling antagonist, and half the fun is guessing who the true mastermind controlling him is.

At roughly 25 hours in length, Danganronpa has a decent running town without feeling as thought it has outstayed its welcome. While it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, if you like a murder mystery and don’t mind a little fan-service, it’s one that you should really take a look at!

Review: Yakuza: Like A Dragon

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You can watch my full Let’s Play of this game on YouTube (warning: bad language) – [HERE]

Yakuza: Like A Dragon was produced by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and first released in Japan in 2020 on Playstation 4, X Box One, X Box Series X/S, and Windows. A Playstation 5 release followed in 2021. While it is actually the seventh title in the main Yakuza series, it is the first that is a turn-based RPG. It is also considered to be a good stepping-on point for newcomers, as it is largely a stand-alone title which features a brand new protagonist.

Kasuga Ichiban, a low ranking member of the Tojo Clan, is convinced to confess to a murder committed by a higher ranked member. On leaving prison 18 years later, he learns that his Clan has perished and his former captain, Arakawa, is now a member of a rival clan. When Arakawa betrays Kasuga and leaves him for dead, Kasuga finds himself homeless and at rock bottom. With the help of new friends, he claws his way back up as he learns what Arakawa’s motivation truly is, and uncovers a shady government plan to supposedly eradicate all crime in Japan…

As this was my first Yakuza game, I wasn’t sure of what to expect. And what I found was cut scenes. Many cut scenes. The first few hours of Yakuza: Like A Dragon is like watching a movie, with next to no player interaction. However, the characters are captivating from the word go. Kasuga is a warm-hearted and happy-go-lucky character, and I got attached to him very quickly.

Even though it is slow to find its feet, it is the characters and plot that truly carry the game. As Kasuga builds his party, we get to know his eccentric band of friends intimately. From Nanba, a homeless and pessimistic former nurse, to Xhao, the colourful leader of the Chinese Mafia, there is a fair bit of freedom when it comes to choosing your end game party. The main plot itself is pretty serious and grows more complex by the chapter, however the tone never grows to grim. As the world map begins to open out to the player, there are all manner of side quests to keep you entertained and some of these are wild.

Clubs for adult babies, a mission to catch a public urinator, rhythm games, business management, go-kart racing. My personal favourite was a mini-game where you have to keep Kasuga awake during a boring film through mashing the correct buttons, but there is so much variety here that you can literally waste dozens of hours on the side-content alone. The world map is pretty huge and impressively populated with NPCs who all look different, many of which have their own crazy stories to tell. Even if you skipped this, the main game is pretty hefty at around 45 hours of content.

The only thing I think that is really likely to put off players is its combat. Unlike the main series, this is old school turn based RPG, and therefore a much slower pace. It also contains a lot of fantastical elements due to Kasuga’s chunibyo, including elemental weapons and a flashy job system that grants themed special abilities. The sheer number of small thugs that fall upon Kasuga whenever he goes anywhere can be overwhelming, and can really slow you down. There is also a pretty sharp difficulty curve late in game. My one piece of advice is to do any combat challenge, even if the game makes it sound optional. A good example of this is the battle tower in Sotenbori, which I initially ignored but then found that I was far too under-levelled to win one of the more challenging boss fights.

All in all, this game comes highly recommended. If you can stick out a few hours of opening cut scenes, you will find a really rewarding game full of wonderful characters. I never felt lost as a newcomer, and it certainly made me want to see more of this universe. Will definitely seek out some of the older titles sometime soon!

Coming Soon to Twitch

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Hi Everyone!

I apologise as I’ve been super lax in posting this year, after I promised that I’d make more of an effort! The good thing is that I am still alive and still regularly streaming on Twitch! I’ve actually finished five more games since I last posted and I’ll review them all for you shortly!

It’s a really good time to start following me over on Twitch, you can find me at http://twitch.tv/adversecamber42. I am about to start two new games, so you won’t be missing out on any content!

My regular stream runs on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8pm GMT, and Saturdays at 5pm GMT. From tomorrow, I will be starting to play Yakuza Kiwami. I did play Yakuza: Like A Dragon a few months back and some viewers have been calling for more Yakuza content since then, so I’m happy to oblige.

I also have an “as and when” stream, where I play other games in my free time. While this isn’t scheduled, I’ll always try to give an hour’s heads up over on the Twitter. I took a vote in my last stream about what content you want to see next and the verdict was Cyberpunk 2077, so I’m likely to start on that this evening.

I have a lot of games on my to play pile to work through, in addition to more Yakuza titles. Here is an idea of what you can look forward to in the coming months:

  • Disco Elysium
  • Bugsnax
  • Observer
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  • The Quarry
  • Alone in the Dark
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
  • Gungrave G.O.R.E
  • Code Vein
  • The Surge
  • Tiny Tina’s Wonderland

There’s tonnes of variety there and I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Introducing: My Co-Hosts

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If you’ve watched any of my streams on Twitch or YouTube, you’ve probably heard me talking to one of my three beautiful co-hosts. These sweet children offer moral support and laptop management services, though on one memorable occasion did manage to turn off VOD and lost me an episode. And released 200 live crickets into my house…

Anyway, here is a brief introduction to the three most important members of my streaming team.

Schrodinger

Also known as Schrody, Schrody-dody, or occasionally just Dodo. Schrody is 13 years old and we’ve had her since she was a tiny kitten. We actually found her and her five siblings abandoned in a sealed cardboard box, which is how she got her name. Although the rest were rehomed by the RPSCA, we adopted this elegant lady for ourselves.

Schrody is grumpy and deeply set in her ways. She loves to sit in laps, but will bite without warning if she is unhappy. She usually signals this with positive body language and purring, because she likes to keep us on our toes.

Schrody likes to believe that she is the boss of the house. She used to be very fond of our old cat, Victor, and became very depressed after he passed away. We bought my other co-hosts to keep her company. This has worked to a degree as she’s much happier now, though seems to like Tia a lot more than she does Sherry.

Tiamat

Tiamat is also known as Tia or T-Bag. She is currently eight months old and is Sherry’s sister. Tia came from an unwanted litter of four kittens and interestingly was given to us for free, as her owner said she was having trouble rehoming her due to the fact she’s a black cat.

Tiamat is the cuddliest of the kittens, though likes to lie between your legs rather than on your knee. She often sits next to me while I’m streaming and just puts her head in my lap. Although suspected to be the one who orchestrated the 2024 Great Cricket Plague, she is generally a very sweet baby who has the most adorable little squeaky meow.

Tiamat is, however, very food motivated. Tia would like you to know that she has never been fed in her life ever. She likes to be fed treats by hand, though eats them like a bear trap. It takes a bit of skill to give Tia her favourite Dreamies without losing a finger.

Scheherazade

Otherwise known as Sherry or Share-Bear. Sherry is Tiamat’s sister, although the two of them don’t really look alike at at all. She is also the bigger of the kittens, though is a little more skittish than Tia is.

Sherry often gives the impression of being very aloof as she doesn’t do laps, and prefers to be pet at arms length. She tends to sit on my keyboard during streams and, if I’m ever knocked offline, it is always due to her assistance. However, Sherry has really good PR. Everyone always tells her that she is the most beautiful cat and I’m pretty sure it’s gone to her head.

Sherry only really likes cuddles under the cover of darkness. At 5am, she and Tia like to play a game called “Who Loves Mum The Best”, which involves getting as close to my face as possible and trying to smother me to death. If asked about it, Sherry will deny this. No one has any evidence of these night time cuddle sessions but me. Not that I’d complain – she is like cuddling a cloud.

So, that’s my team! As you can plainly see, I am by far the least interesting member of this partnership…

Review: Silent Hill – The Short Message

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You can watch my full Let’s Play of this game on YouTube (warning: bad language) – [HERE]

Silent Hill: The Short Message is a first-person survival horror game that was released exclusively on the Playstation 5 store in January 2024. The game is free to download and designed to give newcomers an idea of what to expect from a Silent Hill game, all in preparation for when the Silent Hill 2 remake and their other projects are released over the next couple of years.

The game focuses on a teenager called Anita who awakens to find herself in an abandoned apartment building. As she explores, she realised that the place is an infamous suicide spot in her home town. It is also frequented by graffiti artists, including a friend of hers – Maya – who goes by the name C.B. (Cherry Blossom). It’s not long before Anita starts getting cryptic texts from Maya which tell her that she can’t leave until she finds “it”. At the same time, Anita finds that something terrible is also stalking the building, and it seems to want her dead…

As a free-to-play game, Silent Hill: The Short Message is definitely worth your time. Although it only contains around 2 hours of gameplay, it creates an atmospheric and surprisingly affirmative story about guilt and redemption. The overall tone of the game is very unnerving and the graphics are excellent, especially for a freebie.

It should be noted that the themes of the game are pretty dark and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The story contains frequent references and depictions of suicide, self-harm, and bullying, and so player discretion is definitely advised.

The gameplay is split into two sections. A majority of the game is just free exploration of the building, enabling you to wander the dilapidated rooms, which are sometimes rotting and other times decorated by Maya’s gorgeous paintings. There are plenty of collectables to find, all of which tell the story of the complex and Maya herself. These sections alternate with chase sequences, in which you must flee from a large humanoid creature that chases you through halls of rusted chicken wire.

For me, it was the chase sequences where the game fell down. These are also features in both Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Silent Hill: Downpour and really break the game’s tension. These parts aren’t really scary (though I think they are meant to be), but instead they’re just frustrating. While the first couple are easy, they become progressively harder as the creature grows more difficult to avoid. If it catches up with you, it is an instant game over which forces you to begin the chase from the beginning.

While avoiding spoilers, this grows most frustrating in its final sequence, when Anita must collect five photographs and open a door without being attacked by the monster. This quickly becomes more irritating than it was intense, completely dispelling any dread that had been building during Anita’s exploration. While it is interesting to slowly discover the nature of the creature, and what connects it to Anita, I really hope this isn’t going to be a direction that the Silent Hill series takes in its upcoming titles. I really don’t want to spend huge spans of the Silent Hill 2 remake fleeing from Pyramid Head!

Yet, while not perfect, it’s always nice to get a free game. There has been no word about how long Silent Hill: The Short Message will remain free, if it is going to be connect in any upcoming titles, or if it will eventually go the way of P.T. and be removed without warning. If you are in any way curious, I would suggest getting hold of it while you can!

February in Games

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Wow, we’re a month into the year already. Feels good to be finally out of January! I guess it’s a good time to talk about what’s coming up on my Twitch channel over the next few months.

I stream live on Twitch every Monday and Wednesday at 8pm GMT, and Saturdays at 5pm GMT. Old episodes are also uploaded onto my YouTube channel, usually within a day of being aired. In the last month, I have completed full playthroughs of Goodbye Volcano High and Poppy’s Playtime: Chapter 1, which you can still watch online if you are interested.

The current game that I am streaming is Yakuza: Like A Dragon. This is a really long game so I’m likely to be sticking with this for a while, but it is also tonnes of fun. While the main quest is fairly serious, there is a lot of humour to be found in the surreal sub-quests. Come and see for yourself if you’re curious!

In my own time, I have recently completed Final Fantasy XVI. I talked about this at length in Monday’s post but, on the whole, I had a lot of fun. I haven’t enjoyed a Final Fantasy game for a long time but this one was right up to my speed and I spent a lot of time completing all the sub-quests, bounties, and the Echoes of the Fallen DLC. I can’t wait until second DLC is released later this year – it’s going to be great to finally encounter Leviathan the Lost!

As it’s still a wait until the next Final Fantasy VII instalment is released, I’ve started playing Wild Hearts on Playstation 5. I’m a huge fan of Monster Hunter and this game seems to share a lot of similarities to that title. I haven’t had chance to get very far yet but it does seem pretty fun at the moment. Hopefully it will remain that way and I’ll have more to talk about with regards to this one later in the month!

With regards to the games that I have on the go on the Switch, unfortunately nothing has changed in the last month. I still need to finish Paleo Pines, Dredge, and the final Pokémon Scarlet DLC. I must admit that I am getting a bit bored of Paleo Pines now. I have been grinding to get the items to open up the desert area for a while now, but it’s just slow and repetitive. Hopefully, once we’re through there, we can find Lucky’s herd and see the end of this game!

So, that’s about it for now. With Christmas and my Birthday out of the way, I have lots of other games on my to play pile. Some I plan on streaming, others are just for me. The list currently includes God of War, Nioh 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. I also have both Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Alone in the Dark on pre-order, and am looking forward to their releases later this month and at the end of March respectively.

So, what you playing at the moment? Any recommendations for me?