Just beat Devil May Cry 4 there. I totally understand the criticisms most have with it, playing through the exact same sections with Dante was pretty lame. Fighting the same bosses literally 3 times in the story is stupid too. Despite that, I had a lot of fun with it. On to 5 now!
@RogerRoger yeah big time, I’m especially happy because I’ve had a hard time completing games in the past year.
The last boss was a real pig, spent about an hour getting hammered like this. Although I am not trying in the video, I actually lasted longer than when I tried putting up a fight 😂
I played and finished Afterparty this week. It's the follow-up game from Night School Studios, the creators of Oxenfree. I was personally completely unaware of it's existence until very recently despite loving Oxenfree. Great premise, so I just had to pick it up. I love a good weird take on any subject matter, and the setting of hell is ripe for crazy and funny situations. I like that they went a completely different tone with this one versus Oxenfree as well, but ultimately the game very much fell short.
At the heart of the game is the friendship between your two playable characters, Milo and Lola. I can't say I was very invested in their relationship throughout, and I actually ended up seeing myself rooting for them to be torn apart. I was actively trying to sabotage their relationship with my dialogue choices as the game was slowly coming to an end, because in my head that was a better place for the story to go at that point than for them to stay together as BFFs. That was a weird experience for me considering how likable the characters in Oxenfree were, and how I really believed their relationshops and wanted them all to thrive. I think the problem with Milo and Lola, without getting into spoilers, is that a lot of their conflict in the game is centered around one certain thing that keeps being repeated. It really doesn't help to add any stakes to their relationship, especially when the positive aspects of the relationship seem to be more interested in breaking the rule of "show, don't tell". I felt like I was more often being told why they are good friends than seeing them actually interact as good friends. It just didn't feel like a particularly well written character bond to me, and that's a real shame as the game basically rests on the shoulders of that.
Despite it's shortcomings there however, the game generally does have good dialogue. Dialogue is obviously of the utmost importance in a game in the style of Oxenfree/Afterparty, and it mostly doesn't disappoint. There's a lot of fun jabs and exchanges throughout. The real star of the game is Erin Yvette's Wormhorn. She plays Milo and Lola's personal demon whose mission it is to make their life hell and feed into their worst fears and insecurities. Although that sounds like it could be a very intimidating character, the character of Wormhorn is actually very upbeat, fun and sympathetic. She's just trying to do her job and everyone is making it far too hard! Yvette brings the perfect voice to the character with a playful and hyperactive performance. Her scenes are incredibly well done, and more often than not quite creative. These sequences stand out so much that I honestly felt like I was missing out whenever she wasn't on screen.
The story of the game is actually very straightforward, as opposed to the very mysterious and twisty nature of Oxenfree. The game quickly feels like one giant fetch quest divided in many other fetch quests. Luckily the game's personality makes up for it's somewhat uninteresting story progression, but I really wish they had put more effort into making the storyline feel more organic and not like a checklist. The highlights of the story are easily the beginning and end of the game. Unfortunately, thanks to this game's choice/consequence nature, there's two endings and I felt like I had gotten the wrong one. Despite technically having "won" the game I felt incredibly unsatisfied with my ending and would have really preferred the other one. I don't think either ending really does fit the bill, but the other one certainly would've been a slight improvement.
Speaking of the choice and consequences, while not at all in-depth, I did feel like it offered enough for me to not be bothered by it. There's definitely some branching paths and different choices you can make that felt to me like they had an impact on my experience, and that's really all I can ask for with a small-scale game such as this. It's probably the part of the storyline that I feel like they handled best. The whole drinking gimmick did not affect this system in the slightest however, and that was quite disappointing. I was excited to see what they could do with this, but ultimately it just amounted to ever decreasing extra dialogue choices that didn't really help most of the time. Getting a drink also felt like a complete time-waster, as I feel like I had to sit there for at least 20 seconds just to get a drink. It was tediously slow.
I do quite like the score they employed for this game, and there were some really good sound effects too that are still stuck in my head. The sound design in general was really well done, and it's one of the few aspects of the game I can give any real praise to. I'm personally not really a music/sound person when it comes to games ever, so when I do notice it, it really means something! I wasn't a really big fan of the art style, because the faces of Milo and Lola looked incredibly low poly to me and it was very distracting. Hell looked quite good, but there was absolutely zero substance. It's a lot of long walkways with barely anything to interact with in the way. The world felt very shallow in that sense, and the dialogue went quiet more often than I would've liked. Not to mention the amount of times dialogue would decide to cut off, which is a highly irritating pet peeve of mine.
All in all I had a good enough time with the game. It definitely felt like a drag to finish at some points, but there were enough fun situations and dialogue along the way that it never felt like a chore. It's a tremendous step down from Oxenfree in my eyes, so if anyone is interested I wouldn't go in with high expectations left over from that game. Afterparty is a solid 6/10, but it could've been so much more.
@Tjuz I think I liked Afterparty a little more than you but I think almost all your points are fair. The drinks element seemed like it could be ignored for the most part and I had a lot of performance issues when I played.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
I was pretty disappointed with it when I played it all those years ago... Nero didn't play differently enough to me... and even if you had to replay the levels (which is pretty bad) Dante feels MUCH better to play as being able to switch styles on the fly then Nero who feels a bit underbaked in comparison.
It's a rather awkward entry all around...
DMC 5 seems much better though, hope you enjoy it!
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy With me finally getting my way through the DmC series and polishing off Bloodborne, I reckon that’s been a productive week! I did find Nero a bit underbaked compared to Dante but I found myself missing his arm grab thingy as it was really useful against those angels with the big shield. Downloaded DmC5 last night but I just got past a big part in Fire Emblem Three Houses so decision time!
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Divinity is wayyy better than Baldurs Gate in my opinion. I’d really recommend you play OS1 since you’re enjoying number 2 so much. Not saying you will enjoy it as much as number 2 even though I think it’s better myself, but it’s totally worth playing no matter how you slice it. Interested to find out what Larian will be doing with BG3, I’d love for the combat system to be more in line with OS.
I have always wanted to play Icewind Dale so it’s going to be that or Neverwinter Nights after a bit of a break. I can’t justify £40 on NWN and apparently it crashes a lot so I’ll wait until it’s much cheaper.
@Rudy_Manchego Yeah, it's quite disappointing how they really dropped the whole drinking mechanic the second it was introduced. I think they could've done a lot more with it. I believe Oxenfree also ran terribly when it first came out, so I'm not surprised it was the case with Afterparty as well! That's really something they should look into fixing for their next game. Never a great first impression.
I finished up Tearaway on the PS Vita today. I have had it on the shelf for some time but making a long story short I am now working with someone who worked on the game so felt it prudent to do a full playthrough.
Media Molecule are the experts on this kind of game and I loved the aesthetic and world building and it had some really fun ideas. It does use the Vita well. My only gripe is a personal one - I find the touch controls on the back of the Vita difficult for my short stubby fingers and I also hate tilt levels in games where you have to tilt controllers or handhelds. Mainly because I seem to end up doing it wrong and contorting the console in weird ways to get results which is probably not the intent.
Anyway, a nice little game and glad I played it. The only other thing is the online services, like the website you can get your collection of origami things from was down or not connecting, presumambly because of the age of the game. I'm also intruged to see what Tearaway unfolded is like on PS4 just because of the abundance of touch controls on the Vita.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Sounds good either way @nessisonett... Though that "fourth house" DLC for fire emblem certainly throws a spanner into the works doesn't it?
I've only played the demo of DMC V but Nero's new cyborg arms give him much more versatility in combat. He still seems a bit Dante lite personality wise but... I dunno maybe it was just me at the time (I haven't played DMC 4 since it launched) but I liked Nero a bit better in the demo for V too.
Either way you'll no doubt enjoy either one!
Oh I'll be sure to give Original Sin 1 a go @kyleforrester87... I'm keen to give all those D&D games a go too. Plus there's Pillars of Eternity or maybe the second one too... I'm just very keen to try the genre out, especially as they've all come to ps4 now so I can try them!
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@Rudy_Manchego Glad you finished Tearaway. I found it a remarkably charming experience.
Unfolded is more of the same (but a longer game) and uses the DS4 really well in place of the Vita control features. Rather than try to replicate the same mechanics without the Vita's inputs, they've just added more DS4 appropriate ones in place of them. It's just as considered an experience in that regard.
PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)
Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)
"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker
@kyleforrester87 I love how everybody calmly approaches the situation, and then the textbox goes absolutely bonkers as all manner of attacks and spells are unleashed. That's a lot of information to keep track of. I'd totally zone out! Thanks for fixing the video, I was curious to see it in action.
@Rudy_ManchegoTearaway is a very charming experience but you're right, it can be one heck of a fiddle to play at times. I think that's part of the reason I haven't returned to replay it as intended. The only question is, were you honest with your colleague who worked on the game, or did you tell them that it was the best game you'd ever played regardless? If not, I'd make your own tea for a couple weeks!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@KALofKRYPTON Oh I might give it a go then at some point as I am intrigued about it using DS4 and I think I have it on my PS Plus list. I doubt MM would release a quick cash grab port.
@RogerRoger Well, I had told him I'd played it (which I had but not finished it so went back for that reason). I think I will stick with the positives rather than lecture him about my small fingers and problems with tilt mechanics!!!!!
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@kyleforrester87 Nice one! It sounds immensely satisfying to complete a game after all that time.
@Rudy_Manchego I had the same problem with the rear touchpad controls in Tearaway. My hands are quite dainty (if they weren't hairy I would consider modelling jewellery for QVC) so it was a genuine struggle to reach the middle of the touchpad. It meant twisting the Vita in awkward positions every time it was needed. Anyway, asides from that I found the game a genuine delight and really enjoyed it.
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