Not made much progress, did my first masterpiece and decided to call it a night. I have a habit of painting every wall even when there are no lights to light up!
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Managed to attain the platinum for this earlier, one of those rare occasions I enjoyed hunting down every last thing.
I found there is a deluxe bundle dlc on the store for $10 that has the full sound track and a dynamic theme. Was tempting as I did enjoy the game's music quite a bit.
@LieutenantFatman Cool find, cheers for sharing. I usually like to show my support for devs if I've not paid outright for the game by purchasing something like that.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@LieutenantFatman 😂 I love what that youtuber has named the last folder that has all of the apps that come with the PS4. Mines just called "Unused" but I might rename it now after that inspiration!
@RogerRoger Interesting perspective on the game and I’m happy that you found it as enjoyable and unique as you did.
As far as the end game combat is concerned, I can totally see your point. At the time I didn’t notice the shock of the abrupt change in style, pace, and theme, but in retrospect it seems an odd shift when the game spends the majority of the time focused on art. I think maybe it depends on the mindset of the player and I feel like when playing the game as a purely ‘video game experience’ then it fits right in to keep the entertainment going and fit into necessary tropes. When experiencing the game as an artistic piece then it just screams all sorts of discord. And the irony is that the game is obviously shooting for the latter experience, but as stated, it’s also targeting at a pretty wide age range and maybe they put the ‘hack ‘n splash’ (love the term btw) in there to keep engagement from a younger crowd who might not be as tolerant of an experience which was solely unique and whimsical.
And I completely agree on the subject of bullying. The change of heart and redemptive arc of the whole thing can be looked at through a couple different lenses. I see both sides and can appreciate each perspective. And again, I think the team decided to go toward a more approachable and ‘rainbows and butterflies’ happy ending for the more casual player, despite the message having gaps in accuracy to the real world consequences.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@RogerRoger I’m thrilled that everyone got a chance to play this game and that it has generated some great dialogue. Back when it was released it barely moved the needle of public discourse outside of the enthusiast communities like this one. As people might recall, the game released on the same day that Sony dropped their first big detailed reveal of the (at the time) forthcoming PS5 and it was largely overshadowed by the buzz of the next gen’s SSD, RT, and Teraflops. Whether the game could have gained a bigger audience without the PS5 looming, who knows. But I am elated that it has gained a second wind through PS Plus and hopefully the lackluster sales will be offset by some positive community feedback so PixelOpus can continue to explore their craft. They do seem to really be a studio that could grow into a nice complement to Sony’s other AAA developers.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Kidfried
Yes, that's a fair comment. I guess there is the additional consideration that my expectations are always pretty low going into almost all games when it comes to narrative and addressing complex issues, etc. Most games don't have a great track record in that area. But it definitely makes sense to give constructive criticism where it's due and hope to see further improvements in future endeavours.
Wow, the second half was a lot more fun gameplay-wise. Loved the surfing. What combat was there was also fun. It felt more like a game with goals and momentum to it, and less like a plotless art game where you run around randomly splashing designs on walls because the ghouls you create demand it.
This game feels completely disjointed, though. Why not integrate the art mechanic from the first half and the dynamic movement and combat from the second half into one more cohesive experience?
Also bothers me a little that there's so little incentive to find collectibles in this game beyond going for the trophies.
The art felt kind of pointless to me, IMO. There's no reason not to just random splash up designs as quickly as possible most of the time.
Performance isn't great on the base console when you get into the cutscenes, either.
And, erm, the story? This kid endures countless months or years of vicious bullying, but everything is fine once he sees how they're all abused and everybody becomes the bestest of friends immediately after Ash saves them? I'm not buying it. And why does nearly everyone need a tragic backstory? People can be mean without having bad home lives. There's no psychological insight into these characters at all.
And, to be clear, I'm totally fine with redemption/forgiveness stories. Totally. But this was just poorly done.
Also didn't feel any emotional connection to Luna at all. That relationship/dynamic wasn't built up properly, so the events of the game's second half didn't affect me at all.
Still, I didn't hate it. WAY more fun than other artsy/creative Playstation games I've played in recent years like Journey or any of Media Molecule's games. And the art-style is pretty phenomenal. I just think there's the potential for a great game hidden inside this rather average one.
@Ralizah great summary, hit a lot of the issues I had with the game. I wonder who the devs felt were the primary audience for this game? The story line/art style suggests a younger audience but there were moments of frustration in the gameplay, particularly when lighting walls and it was not clear exactly where you needed to be or moving genies between locations, that just don't fit with a younger group of players. I think the combat/movement mechanics could have been introduced earlier in the game as its a game that could lose a lot of people before the second half.
@RogerRoger
Quick tip on the trophies, not sure if you're already aware but you don't need PSVR to get the platinum for this. There are three VR trophies but they're on a separate list.
Still on Rayman Legends and halfway through 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Hopefully I can have it done by the end of next week and then catch up to you guys with Concrete Genie. The physics in Legends feel a tiny bit off to me and I don't like how characters cling to walls and ledges, or how it takes a while to build momentum. But it's gorgeous and full of creativity. It's worth getting through each world just to play the music levels.
@Octane I don't see why not. Unless you're asking if you can still claim it from PS Plus - because that one's a no unfortunately, it was a February game.
@Octane Yeah, I haven’t even started it either! I really didn’t expect everyone to beat it in a couple of days so we really need a game for the rest of the month 😂
@nessisonett@Octane If it means anything, I'm hunting for collectibles and watching/helping my nephew complete a parallel playthrough, so I'm technically still playing it as well. Although my PS+ expires in five days, so I'll be done playing next week one way or the other.
@R1spam I noticed that (re: frustration with hitting stuff on the walls). I had particular issues with some of the lightbulb segments. The thing is that some designs aren't conducive to activate particular objects well. If you want an amazing lightbulb activator, I recommend the butterflies, though: they fly around and activate bulbs far beyond the reach of your cursor.
With the genie moments, I think you're supposed to create one scene with different designs, but I find that creating art often obscures the hazy image of what the genie wants, so I remove it and just add the next element. So, you know, I get the Genie Moment, but what's supposed to be rainbows, flowers, and trees just ends up being trees.
Oh, and, can I say, I HATE all the unnecessary grass that is automatically created in these designs. I HAVE a grass design to use, so why auto-fill three-fourths of a wall and make it hard to see what else I'm supposed to paint?
Still, I'll say this: it's my favorite Epic Mickey game to date!
I've started playing the game, not sure what to make of it just yet. On the surface it looks like the sort of game I like, it has a progression that makes sense and looks achievable. I've read most of your comments on it but have been skimming the more recent posts as we head into spoiler territory!
I think I'll echo that the performance on base PS4 is a bit off. The frame rate is noticeable which is a shame. I wonder if they used a stop motion animation style for the cut scenes to explain away the frame rate during gameplay but I suspect it was probably coincidence.
The motion controls are weird. I think they work fine and are very responsive but two handed painting just feels really off to me. I had to use one hand to paint which means it's harder to work out where the cursor should be pointing. Unfortunately this is one of those times where a joy con or a Wii remote would be a much better fit for the on screen action. I've switched to analog input for now but I'll probably give the motion control a go again tomorrow. Hmm, I wonder now if you can connect two joy con to the magic S pro adapter and if it supports motion controls 🤔. I'll look into it!
I've moved on from some of those "moments" because I don't have the correct pages to draw them. I've more or less finished the the fish warehouse area now so I may go back and see if I can do the ones I've missed so far. Flicking through the maps in options shows me the lighthouse, the fish ware house, a place in town and the powerplant. Are these the only 4 areas in the game? I don't mind if they are, it would actually motivate me to plough through them a bit quicker than I am.
I played the first chapter of Concrete Genie and so far I have absolutely no idea what to make of it. Part of me feels that it’s not quite creative enough? Perhaps when you have all the pages then you can be more imaginative but for now, I can’t exactly paint anything other than some flowers. The motion controls are alright but I’m not a fan of the slight delay as if you’re placing brush on paper. I paint quite a bit irl and trying to apply experience to this game isn’t quite working out the way I expected. At least the game definitely feels like something different anyway!
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