Soda anyone? Well, with this game you can battle monsters AND get your soda fix! Soda Dungeon 2is a unique game combines turn based RPG with the theme of soda and its so fun. Raid the dark lord’s castle and stop him from destroying the world.
This isn’t your standard Flantasy RPG!
Gameplay
To stop the dark lord you must enter each floor and do battle with different monsters. Win each battle and you will collect money, ore, and equipment to aid you on your quest. You can spend your hard earned money in a couple of different ways. First you will need to hire warriors to raid the castle. To do this you will need to visit the local inn. This is where they gather. At first the inn is completely rundown, and it is your job to buy stools, tables, and beds for it. The more of these you buy the more they will be attracted to the inn.
But how does soda fit into all of this, you ask? Well, by buying different kinds of soda for the inn, different types of warriors will visit giving you a variety of options to choose from when it comes to recruiting them. For example, buying Hammerin’ Ale will attract carpenters, while Quarry Quench will attract miners, and RN Cola will attract nurses, just to name a few. You can also spend your money on construction of different buildings like the blacksmith or wizard’s hut.
The graphics are pretty tasty (and not just the fizzy drinks)!
Tips
When venturing into the dark lord’s castle you’ll encounter turn-based battles with groups of monsters. Defeat them and you’ll ascend to the next floor. Eventually you will encounter a group of monsters who are just too tough, so prepare to be defeated. But you know what? That’s okay.
This game doesn’t penalize you for dying. Nor does the game expect you to win the battles all at once. Plus when you do die you bank the money you collected along the way. Another thing is that every ten floors you will have to fight a boss. If you have unlocked the wizard’s hut you will be able to teleport one floor above the boss level (only if you have defeated it before); Use this to your advantage. Also, any equipment made, found, or bought will automatically be applied to the warriors you hire. You will not lose them if you die.
Final Thoughts
I am having a really good time playing Soda Dungeon 2. The music can get a little repetitive in the hub area, but it’s not that annoying. One thing that I thought was a little funny was that some warriors will burp when you recruit them (which shows how immature I really am). The graphics are 2D, but nicely detailed, even though you can still notice the pixels. Another thing that I thought was cool is that as you get further in the game you will be able to recruit more warriors at once to do battle. You will eventually have enough of them to surround your enemies and do more damage. Overall this is a great game. You can play it on Android, iOS, and Steam for free. Well, as always, its on to the next…
Nobody with an ear to the ground in the video game industry escaped the announcement of The Outer Worlds, from the developers of the original Fallout series and Fallout New Vegas. Nearly everybody cheered the announcement, including myself. The game looked to homage countless classic works of science fiction, and I looked forward to getting the game to show my late father. He passed away unfortunately before I could grab a copy.
This is the mode I prefer. In this article, you’ll find some tips to make your Supernova playthrough as painless as possible.
This is a bit sappy, and I apologize, but while playing through this game I constantly imagined his reactions to the things I saw. Chuckling at the Moon Man mascot and retro-futurist designs, perhaps wincing when a marauder’s legs got blown off. This is very much a game for adults with genuinely mature plot elements and themes, and I approve of it.
Wah Wah Wah, it’s Rizzo’s! You’re going to see a lot of advertisements like this across Halcyon. I actually love the theme songs for the companies, but they rarely play in the game.
The Outer Worlds is first and foremost an adventure. One set in a sci-fi future that works as a dark and hyper capitalist mirror to early 20th century America. This isn’t surprising, considering the creators are those that produced the charming and terrifying world of Fallout.
Yes, it’s yet another failed attempt at a utopia… But this time, you have a chance to bring it back from the brink.
I throw around the term hyper capitalist for good reason. The Outer Worlds takes place in a space colony called Halcyon. Halcyon is made up of several planets, each terraformed to allow human habitation… Mostly terraformed anyway, civilization exists wherever it can in the Halcyon colony. Halcyon is owned and operated by corporations, without oversight or restriction of any sort placed upon them.
I just love the contrast of architectural styles here between the church and the retro-futurist frontier town.
As such, conditions for factory workers are predictably miserable. Medicine is reserved for top performing employees, with sickness blamed on a weak mind causing a weak body. The rule of the companies can best be described as two thirds idiocy and one third despotism… Yet the average worker is fanatically loyal to their oppressor.
Some of the beliefs inherent to OSI.
The practice of scientism, formally known as OSI, is the official faith of the Halcyon colony. OSI stands for “Order of Scientific Inquiry” and functions as something of a pro corporate religious philosophy. OSI describes our place in the universe as predestined and fixed, dissuading unhappy workers against developing ambition for a better life. I’m very interested in OSI, as it seems to consist of some genuine religious philosophy with strong Buddhist and deist influences. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that scientism and OSI predate the Halcyon Colony by a great many years. That said, the existing OSI doctrine that is the official religion of Halcyon functions to keep the populace pacified.
A lot of the time, when I first enter a town, my gun is raised as if to murder everyone. This is sometimes hilarious, as it must look like I’m criminally insane. I still dislike it.
Players are faced with the deficiencies of the Halcyon colony and its systemic failures, tasked with determining how to approach each problem. Is it better to completely destroy and replace a withering essential system, or is it better to attempt repairing and reorganizing it? You’ll approach this problem one step at a time, and your decisions will always have permanent consequences to consider.
In Halcyon, nobody is totally innocent. Except for Parvati.
Melee play styles actually work in this game, I’ve even created a caveman character and have been having a blast with him. In particular, the block skill grants an armor boost when carrying melee weapons… Somehow?
Gameplay
The Outer Worlds is a first-person-shooter role playing game that plays like a cross between Mass Effect and Bethesda’s Fallout games. Players carry up to four equipped weapons at a time (As many as they can carry too, but may only equip four at a time) and travel a solar system unraveling mysteries and getting into trouble. The somewhat difficult “Supernova” difficulty has survival sim elements in the form of biological needs of thirst, hunger, and sleep. It’s also easily my favorite way to play the game.
TTD provides information on targeted entities, friend and foe alike!
One unique feature is a bullet time slow motion effect called “Tactical Time Dilation” (TTD). This slow motion aiming system mirrors the “VATS” used in Fallout New Vegas. Aiming with TTD and enough skill in a stat will allow targeting weak points to trigger certain effects on the enemy. These enable tactical options like crippling them to slow them down or staggering them to momentarily paralyze. Don’t underestimate these, utilizing TTD and weak points lends you a kind of limited but vital control over your enemy’s next moments. The bleed and stagger effects have won the day for me in several intense battles.
Locked containers abound, containing better loot than most. If you’re almost able to pick a lock, chug something caffeinated, 2 Hour Energy for instance! It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!
There are just three types of ammo to keep track of: light, heavy, and energy. I never once ran out of ammo after the first hour of gameplay. You’re almost guaranteed to find way more ammo than you will need. But if you somehow burn through it all, you can buy ammo almost anywhere. I wish it sold for more, but as it sits ammo sells for less than a single bit (The Halcyon currency) per round. It’s weightless, and so there is no reason to not hoard ammo forever. I wish it had a Weight value at least so players would have to cache extra ammo on their ship.
This poor settler died holding their pet sprat. What killed them? I have no idea. You’ll see a lot of mysteries like this.
Attributes
Attributes refer to your character’s natural aptitudes. All attributes are measured on a scale from “Below Average” to “Average”, “Good”, ”High”, to “Very High”. Practically speaking it’s a scale of zero to four with each starting off at one,(which is Average). You have six points to distribute between these six stats, and may reduce a stat to zero to assign that point elsewhere, at the cost of a “Below Average” penalty. These are no joke, but depending on your intended build it might be worth it. The worst I think is the “Below Average” penalty for temperament, which prevents your passive health regeneration.
These stat selections are permanent, and while you can reallocate your skill points and perks, you will not be able to do so with your attributes. So choose carefully!
BODY Strength: “Strength affects melee weapon damage and the amount you can carry.” Dexterity: “Dexterity affects melee attack speed and ranged weapon reload speed.”
MIND Intelligence: “Intelligence affects critical hit bonus damage.” Perception: “Perception affects Headshot and weak spot damage bonuses.”
PERSONALITY Charm: “Charm affects faction reputation and companion ability cooldowns.” Temperament: “Temperament improves your natural health regeneration.”
“It belongs in a museum!” They have one in Edgewater funnily enough, makes me wish there was an Extras mode to let players admire the art assets.
Skills
Skills are an approximation of your character’s ability in various tasks. These abilities come in a few broad categories.You may raise all skills in a category by selecting that category, up to fifty points. For instance, you would select ranged skills to raise handguns, long guns, and heavy weapons up to the level cap of fifty. Also, every twenty skill points in a skill will grant a perk. For example, one perk for the ranged skills branch allows you to target weak points for varying effects.
This is one of many bits of environmental storytelling. Note the blue outline highlighting interactables, improving visibility.
Depending on how you play, you may be granted a chance to take on a flaw. This is a permanent negative trait that will in exchange give you a free perk point to get a permanent boost. The only other way to gain perk points is to level up twice, which takes quite a while. On supernova difficulty you may have up to five flaws. Like attributes, I don’t know of a way to change flaws. So choose what you take on very carefully. That said, the cheetah perk is probably the best perk to take on first since you’re sure to spend a lot of time running around.
There are some beautiful sights in Halcyon!
Supernova mode will kill your companions permanently, so raising the leadership skill category to at least fifty is nearly essential in my opinion. Inspiration will increase the damage they deal, while determination will increase the amount of damage they can take and improve survivability.
Consumables
Consumables are important to supernova, since there is a routine need for hydration, food, and sleep. Beyond that, all consumables have a temporary effect on the player such as “+25% Max HP” or “+1 Mind Attributes”. These can help immensely when you need to be somebody a little different from who you normally are. For instance, when walking into gunfire, I’d use an armor salve type consumable to temporarily raise my armor rating. Or if for instance you gotta be a little more persuasive, then you may chug some booze to enhance your personality skills. Consumables in general are great compensators for those areas in which your character is lacking.
2 Hour Energy is a favorite of mine for when I gotta be smarter for a moment. It also hydrates!
In supernova mode, you may only sleep on the ship, and you can only replenish fullness and hydration by consuming pertinent consumables.
By pressing the circle button, you can use the adreno inhaler. The adreno inhaler is the fastest means of healing available to you, and much like ammo you will find adrenos nearly everywhere. I never used this often enough and it made the game much harder on me. You can also add consumables to your adreno inhaler depending on your medical skill to add their effects to each activation. I particularly recommend consumables that boost your armor rating.
Weapons and Armor
These are essential to survival on supernova, and you should routinely examine both weapons and armor and ask yourself if they are well suited to the task at hand. If they aren’t, you can tinker to improve their stats or modify them with collected mods, or simply repair them with collected weapon and ammo parts to restore them to 100% durability! Tinkering costs money in the form of bits, fewer bits are spent if you have a high science skill. A perk is unlocked at forty skill points that reduces the tinkering cost by 50%!
See the condition percentage on that helmet? That number has to stay high on your equipment, or it’ll become nearly useless. Remember to keep weapon and armor parts for repairs!
Companions
Companions are a staple of cinematic FPS RPGs and six are available here in Outer Worlds. They are rather well rounded in personalities and in combat specialties, and each have their own special attack the player may trigger via the D Pad. Supernova difficulty makes companion death permanent, so you should be especially careful with that game mode. An essential investment to playing with companions on supernova is at least fifty skill points in leadership skills. These include inspiration and determination, which decide how much damage companions deal in combat and how much damage companions can take respectively. companions also offer a skill bonus to the player based on their own stats, for instance bringing Parvati along will give a boost to your engineering stat.
See how Parvati is set to Defensive? I use that setting unless there is no real threat present.
I ended up loving (Platonically, no “Romance” option) everybody… It helps that the two companions you may bring at any one time are bound to talk to each other. These dialogues go a long way towards building each character’s personality and backstory, and of course providing some comic relief.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Performance was rarely an issue on my base model PS4, though there was significant slowdown in a particular town as well as at times on the player’s ship. Thankfully this was never a problem during an action segment or battle.
Most containers you find will contain at least some ammo or bits. Underwhelming loot usually. So don’t wear yourself out backtracking like I did for everything.
Being obsessive occasionally hindered my enjoyment of the game. I would stick around in areas long after completing the objective just to make sure I had everything. And so I was usually a few levels higher than my opponent, which diminished the intended sense of tension somewhat.
Stealing is barely punished in this game. Your companions won’t judge you for it, and it’s often ridiculously easy to get away with. I’m doing a playthrough in which I avoid theft as much as possible, and while it’s in the early stages I can say it makes resources feel a lot tighter. You can also sell whatever you steal without any hindrance, no need for a fence.
NPC’s don’t seem to care about the time and never go to sleep or live out a daily schedule. This was a surprise to me, but it ultimately didn’t hinder my enjoying the game. There is however less of an illusion of life in this game than in say Fallout New Vegas.
I think my dad would have loved the game if he’d have lived to see it. He actually loved the look of Fallout 4, but the bugginess of the game ruined his attempted playthrough very early. “If there are self made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”
Parvati and SAM, mechanic and machine, simply adorable.
Conclusion
It’s a shiny new series with an inviting new universe that’s only going to get bigger in time. The Outer Worlds is streamlined, simpler than the competition, and that really works for me. Apart from when I made the game harder on myself than it needed to be, I never felt frustrated or like I was doing busywork. The Outer Worlds’ skill and perk systems grant even the most impractical of characters viability in combat, nearly anybody of any sort can succeed. When I finally completed my playthrough, the ending I experienced felt like my own. Felt like a true culmination of my efforts, good and bad alike. Despite being a dystopia on the verge of collapse, Halcyon is an inviting place welcoming players of all sorts.
Run! Slash! Discover! Why you ask? Because your playing Sprint RPG! This unique RPG had me coming back for more every time i put it down. This game is so different from other RPGs and thats why I like it so much.
STORY
In this game you play a swordsman who is exploring dungeons and looking for relics. Yeah thats it as far as its story goes. But the fun is not with the story, but with its gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
Do you have quick fingers? Your gonna have to if your gonna play this game. In it you have to run through a linear dungeon, defeat enemies, and collect coins and relics. The thing is that you have to do all those things and reach the exit while beating the clock. Also, you cant just hack and slash enemies. Each monster has its own sword and shield pattern in order to defeat them. If you mess up the pattern a chunk of time goes down. So you gotta be sharp.
COLLECTING
Collecting items is a big part of this game. While running through dungeons you will find treasure chests. In these treasure chests you will find one of three things inside: coins, monsters, and relics. Use coins to unlock new gear. Defeat an enemy and it will be recorded in your Monster Book. There you can find each monsters defeat pattern. After every completed level, you fill up your experience bar. Once you do that you gain a big chunk of change.
GRAPHICS and GIGGLES
The graphics in this game are cartoony but also pixelated. This game doesnt take itself too seriously either. When you have collected enough coins you can buy mystery items. These items are most likely gonna be silly. So you can swap out your regular sword and shield for a heart mug and raw fish. This is why i like this game so much. The pixelated cartoony look with its funny collectable items. And your gonna bet the relics your looking for are gonna be just as silly.
This game has an old school look to it. Its black and white and it makes you feel like your in an arcade. You will notice it right away at the start screen. Instead of saying press start, it says insert coin. Also the music that plays in the background is very retro arcade like.
MY EXPERIENCE
Did I mention that I love this game. I love the challenge of racing against the clock in every level. I love the quick thinking you have to have in order to defeat monsters. And lastly I love the item collecting through out the game. One tip I would like to share is to make sure you look through the monster book. You gotta learn the defeat patterns if your ever going to progress in this game.
If I have convinced you to check this game out then…MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! If I have you on the fence then just check this out: this game is free to play from the Google Play Store. This is a great game and you should definitely try it out.
Well its on to the next…
I am Mrboldlyblue. A gamer, a reader, a writer, an artist and all around nerd at heart. I am passionate about all these things and would love to share these things with you. What better way then with a blog.
Quest Town Saga is a triple threat. Why? Well do you like RPGs? Do you like town building games? Do you like monster collecting? Well this game has all three. That’s why I enjoyed playing Quest Town Saga. Personally I enjoy pixel games. If you do too then that’s also a plus. If your liking what your hearing about this game so far then you should know that this game is free on the Google Play Store.
Story
So in this game a town was destroyed by monsters. Your job is to rebuild it to its former glory. A town that will have people and monsters co-exist peacefully.
Gameplay
After picking your adventurers class you will be able to start doing quests. Quests are pretty straight forward. You walk around an area fighting monsters and collecting treasure. At the end of every quest there is a boss battle. After boss battles a monster will appear and say it wants to join you on your journey. Then you will be able to take that monster with you on your next quest to fight by your side. The money you find in chests during quests can be used to buy better weapons and armor. More importantly money can be spent to build houses and other buildings for your growing town. After completing a hand full of quest you gain the ability to fuse monsters. When you fuse monsters together you get a choice of three strong end result monsters to choose from.
Tips and Tricks
If you still need that extra kick in battles then you can add other players to your party too. I recommend doing this because although the first couple of quest are easy it suddenly gets harder. Also if you can find someone to add to your party that has a ranged attack you should definitely add them. Doing so will let you last longer in the battle field as ranged attackers will less likely to be hit by enemy attacks. You can always be the ranged attacker too if you prefer it that way. Another tip is to make sure you are aware of the amount of space you have for monsters. Remember: You dont gotta catch ’em all. To make space you can fuse monsters or just flat out reject a monster from joining you. Also be sure to explore every corner of the quest area for treasure chest. It may be easier to just run through an area and go straight to the boss but doing so may have you miss out on generous treasure chests. If you encounter a group of enemies they are usually protecting one or more treasure chests.
I’m recommending this game because I love RPGs. Especially if the RPG involves catching monsters. Always have and always will. And like I mentioned earlier i love pixelated games too. This has everything i would want in a RPG. You should definitely consider trying this game out. I highly recommend playing this game. Don’t forget its free in the Google Play Store. So download it now. You wont regret it.
I am Mrboldlyblue. A gamer, a reader, a writer, an artist and all around nerd at heart. I am passionate about all these things and would love to share these things with you. What better way then with a blog.
With all the chaotic action games and difficult puzzle games out there its nice to play a calm relaxing game for once. Thats why I love playing the game Fishing Paradiso. Its exactly what your looking for if you want a laid back chill game. This is a story driven game mixed with fishing gameplay and item collecting. Its basically described by the creators as a tropical fishing RPG.
The story is pretty straight foreword. You have died and are on your way to heaven when you are stopped by a giant celestial fish. He says that to truly be excepted into heaven you have to find him. You then awaken on a tropical island by a little bird that will serve as your sidekick. So the adventure begins. On your journey you meet many different characters that will help you reach your goal.
These characters will need your help with something before they can help you out. To help them out you will need to know how to fish. This is where the gameplay comes in. Each character will give you a reason to fish. Whether its to grant your wish, heal someone, or make dinner. The controls are really simple. Press one button to cast your line. Press the same button to reel it in. To catch fish you will need to cast your line towards shadows in the water. Some of these shadows will be a different color. Those shadows are the type of fish you will need to finish the current mission. Completing story missions with the characters you meet will add them to your phone. It is then that you can do side missions for them.
Fishing will automatically earn you money. You can then use that money to boost your fishing stats. Doing this will let you catch bigger fish and strengthen your line and increase your stamina. There is a point in the game where you get your own house. Completing missions will sometimes earn you items that you can use to decorate your house.
If your looking to play a game in a fully 3D world then your at the wrong place. This games graphics are fully pixelated and thats ok. This game doesnt need to be in 3D. In fact its better that this game is in pixels. The simplicity of the gameplay, story, and graphics is what makes this game so fun to play. What makes this game better then it already is would be the background music. To fully appreciate the background music you need to play this game with headphones. It will make your Fishing Paradiso experience that much better because of the relaxing tropical type of music thats playing and surrounding you.
I really enjoyed playing this game. If your looking for a fun, relaxing, casual game then you should definitely check this game out. Its free to play and is available in the Google Play Store. Also this game can be played offline. This means that you can fish wherever you are with out an internet signal. Well its on to the next…
I am Mrboldlyblue. A gamer, a reader, a writer, an artist and all around nerd at heart. I am passionate about all these things and would love to share these things with you. What better way then with a blog.
My first Article for Polyspice covered a game called Piffle, which I had some fun with and can wholeheartedly recommend to casual players. But…After all that candy, I wanted something deeper. Something more thoughtful and intellectually filling. If Piffle was the Mobile Game equivalent to Candy, then Labyrinth of the Witch is a big & beefy Steak. And so once it caught my eye and captured my fancy a number of times, it became the topic I wish to analyze today for you.
Premise
Labyrinth of the Witch/LotW is a Roguelike. Which means that every death takes away virtually everything you were carrying. There is a distinction to be made between RogueLite and Roguelike here, but I feel the player loses enough with each death to qualify as a Roguelike and doesn’t keep enough progress to describe it as a RogueLite.
Another element crucial to the Roguelike genre that LotW proudly upholds is its Pseudorandom/Procedural Level Generation. Even if you play a thousand times, your world will have a differing Layout each time. This prevents the Player from simply Memorizing paths and Loot and progressing through Trial and Error.
Roguelikes appeal to me for their Accessibility. (That sounds insane, let me explain.) I can pop into a Roguelike and attempt a run any time. I rarely have to remember where I left off since generally I’m starting from scratch every time. So I suppose I should clarify, I enjoy their Accessibility for Me and they satisfy my particular tastes. LotW lets me make Risk Assessing decisions, to gamble with solid stakes. I enjoy that sensation of Consequence that comes with Permadeath, the gravity of each decision.
And in the case of LotW, the cute Anime Pixel Art style satisfies my far less intense desire for as much cuteness as can be fit into my gaming experiences.
So now you know what makes Me love the game, Let’s start talking about how You will go about Playing the Game.
Gameplay
On the lower end of your Device, you’ll see multiple Icons. The Arrow Keys will allow you to move in the Direction they point, the Search Icon will let you look down at whatever is at your Feet, the Bow and Arrow Icon will let you let loose an Arrow towards wherever you are looking, and the Inventory Icon will look into your Inventory Bag so you can see what stuff you are carrying. The attack button depicts a Sword, and the button for accessing Magic Stones depicts a Magic Stone. I adore the simplicity and Accessibility of this Control Layout.
Movement throughout LotW takes place upon a Grid and is Turn Based, with everyone everywhere moving more or less Simultaneously.
There are Rooms and there are Halls, Rooms being the Open spaces where most Items and Enemies will be found, and Halls being the Dark (Visibility Poor) and narrow paths that connect Rooms to one another.
You’ll start with no shield, no weapon, and at LV1 (Level 1). This means your Defense and Offense stats will be very low until you find at least a Shield or Sword and Equip them. Your Player LV will increase when you have gained enough EXP (Experience Points). EXP are gained through defeating the various Monsters you encounter, and once you have enough you will gain a Level to LV 2 and so on. Each LV gives you extra HP (Health Points, ATK (Attack) and DEF (Defense) to help you along your way.
Something you’ll also always start with, is a full Stomach. This means you’ll have some time to find food before you start being in danger of starvation. The Hunger system exists as one way the game forces you to manage your Inventory and your Time. By Default, you can carry up to 20 Items at once, with stacks of any one type of Arrow being an exception and taking up only one Slot per type of Arrow. By eating Bread, your Stomach will fill by 50%, and so I always try to have two even if it takes up 1/20 of my Inventory space each. Every few turns, your Stomach will deplete by 1%, and when it reaches 0% you’ll start taking Starvation Damage until you Die or get some food into your system. Don’t go killing monsters willy nilly only to die of an empty stomach!
The first item I always look for is a Weapon. So long as you have a reasonably full Stomach, you’ll Heal damage over time. So my first Priority is wiping out Enemies as quickly as I can, and beggars can’t be choosers. Weapons vary, but in general all of them will do more damage than attacking Barehanded.
Similarly, I will take any Shield I can get my grubby mitts on. If later I have a better Sword or Shield and pick up what looks like an inferior one, I’ll Throw it at an enemy to score some free Ranged damage and get rid of the Item. You’d be surprised how often a little extra damage dealt to an enemy can turn the tide of battle. Note that Rings and Food to my knowledge don’t do much damage at all, since they lack the weight needed to really wallop something.
Rings! I love Rings. They often will Buff something, though bad Rings exist that will smack you with a bad effect coupled with a Curse for good measure.
Curses are a hazard inherent to all equipment, any Unidentified Equipment may be hiding a Curse, which prevents you from taking off the usually terrible piece of equipment. They’re cured with a Purification Scroll which will be covered later.
Potions, these are kind of an RPG staple. And in LotW as with most Roguelikes, they do not start off Identified. So you won’t know what that Cyan Potion does until you Drink it or shatter it on somebody else by Throwing it at them and observing the Effect. Every time you start a New Game, the Colors and their corresponding Effects will be Randomized. This helps prevent memorization of what is what, and helps create that “Treading the Unknown” kind of Tension I so adore in my Roguelikes. Anyway, should you choose to Drink an unidentified Potion, it will at least fill your Stomach by 5%. What it does beyond that point is anybody’s guess!
Personally, I recommend using up Unknown Potions if you are in good shape and should be able to Survive whatever they might do, so that at least you learn their Effect while in a Controlled Environment rather than the Heat of Battle. Especially if you know you have a Cure All Potion on hand to counter any Poison or other Negative effect.
These potions may inflict Leadfoot, Blindness, they may Warp you to another point on the Map, there are a lot of possibilities both Good and Bad to consider and Potions allow you to Use them on Yourself or on your Enemies.
Wands are similar to Potions, but they cannot be used on yourself. Instead they are Zapped in one of the Eight Cardinal Directions and will only be identified if you can see what Effect they cause (Or don’t cause). Wands may Swap positions between you and the Enemy. They may Damage the Enemy. They may Split the Enemy and cause you to deal with Two of them at a Time. Because of the nature of Wands, I recommend they be treated with more caution than Potions. On the bright side, they are Multi Use items. Even if you don’t know the number of Uses (Called Charges) they are carrying.
You’ll know the exact number of Charges by using an Identify Scroll or you’ll know it’s Zero when you attempt to Zap and nothing happens… SOOO don’t depend on an Unknown wand by any means for anything. A wand may be thrown once however, and this will both break the wand while also triggering its Effect on an Enemy once. This way you can milk an extra Charge out of a completely Drained Wand without any guesswork involved.
Scrolls are Single use with Effects comparable to Potions and Wands, but can Affect Equipment and their Effects tend to be more powerful. For instance, a Scroll of Shock will damage every enemy in the Room, and a Scroll of Leadfoot will give them all the Slowing Leadfoot effect. Scrolls can also Lift Curses and Enhance Armor or Weapons.
Curses are actually a type of Effect that prevents you from removing a piece of Equipment, trapping you in what will probably be a crappy set of Armor or with a Ring that makes you Hungry faster. Therefore Purify Scrolls are great to have ONE of at a time if you feel like trying on a bunch of unknown equipment, since they lift ALL curses on your Equpped items at once, but having more than one at a time is usually a wasted space in my experience. Especially after you already have a good Equipment combination going forward.
Some Scrolls will help you by letting you see All Items on the Floor, All Enemies on your Map, or Reveal the entire Floor Layout for easier Navigation. Using these tends to be best used early in a Floor. Personally I stupidly horde these Scrolls by nature, since using them and finding a Floor to have very few enemies or Items or Rooms can feel like a waste, but in reality even finding out a Floor offers little of value to you is still a valuable boon that is always useful in and of itself and so I hope you don’t repeat my common mistake here.
Arrows may not come into the dungeon with you, but thankfully your Bow does, enabling you a reliable Ranged attack once you find Arrows. Stacks of Arrows only take up One Inventory Slot per Type, and you may Equip or Shoot them from your Inventory Menu. Equipping anything takes a Turn, but doing so will let you fire as many Arrows as you like by pressing the Shoot button instead of opening your Inventory to fire each Shot. As with most items, these are Tiered according to their Material. Wood, Iron, Gold, Holy etcetera. Gold arrows are strange in that they do less damage than Iron but will Penetrate through targets dealing damage to each enemy they Hit.
I tend to horde Gold and Holy Arrows, and will usually freely expend my Wood Arrows on anybody that might land a hit on me in order to keep my Slots as Open as possible.
Monster Crystals
In addition to these other items, Monster Crystals are Single Use items that have Effects of all sorts. Each Monster has a Chance of dropping their particular type of Crystal with their own unique Effect and Animation. These are collected in their own designated storage, and some Playable Characters carry more than others. The Default Player Character of Claire can hold up to 3 at a time and again these Slots are NOT part of your Regular Inventory. All I can advise you to do is to use your best judgement with these. Often I’ll find that making heavy use of them pays off handily since you’ll be killing a lot of enemies and each can drop their own special kind of these. However, you may find one you want to keep holding in case of emergencies since they have powerful effects sometimes.
DLC
While there are Three characters you can Purchase with Real World currency, I’m reviewing the Base (Free to Play) game and don’t want to say anything one way or another. Apart from that I love all of their Character Designs.
Labyrinths
Sooo these are what you go to when you wanna actually Play the game. These are the Dungeons, the Procedurally Generated Series of Maps you will traverse on your Quest. Since these are Procedurally Generated, they primarily differ in Difficulty and Length, with Labyrinths after Easy having more Floors, Harder Enemies, and better Equipment to be found. You can actually choose to take items into these with you if you have brought any back from previous adventures or purchased them from the Store. But everything you are carrying will be lost upon your Death. The only way around this is putting them into Storage instead of taking them with you.
Store/Storage
Sooo Enemies will sometimes drop Gold. This is a place to Spend it, as well as a place to Sell unwanted items. Items brought into dungeons can give you an Advantage if you are stuck, but personally I prefer playing this as a Traditional Roguelike as I enjoy the Tension. This is the part where LotW is debatedly a RogueLite, though I think it’s more of a Roguelike Coffee served black with a handful of Sugar and Creamer packets. The Storage facility can be expanded, but by Default it lets you keep some items in reserve to bring on a later Run. Handy if you don’t feel like you’ll need that extra Identify Scroll but want to keep it on hand.
Expedition
This option is… Uhhh… It’s not very useful. You can sometimes send a little fellow off to collect something over a period of some hours. Generally one single solitary thing. Selected at random. It’s usually not very good. You’ll most likely find more use in this than I do.
Ranch
I love the Ranch. This exists as a Collect ‘Em All aspect of the game. Once in a while, a Defeated Monster will actually be Tamed and will go to the Ranch. You can then visit the critter and read a little about them and admire their Character Design in detail. Every videogame needs a feature like this, people work too hard on these things for their work to not get its own little pedestal like this for players to appreciate. Still, I hope one day to see the Ranch’s Monsters put to a practical use in gameplay somehow, maybe costing a certain %Fullness to Summon Monsters organized according to Tiers with higher leveled Monsters costing vastly more to Summon.
All in all, I see a lot of promise to this game. And I’ll be very excited once I hear back from the Developers someday since it’s become one of my favorite ways of killing time. It’s both basic and deep, it’s cute, and it’s endless without ever becoming monotonous to me.
I’m 29 years old today and a parent of one delightful six year old. I love just about everything about videogames, and am thrilled that I can write about them. Advocating for the poor is my other hobby, and I will gladly offer whatever aid I can if approached.
If you’re like me and have been playing video games for the better part of the past 25 years, mobile games are a hard sell. Which is why a game like Dragon Lapis is so good. Released by Kemco, Dragon Lapis for Android is a full port of the 3DS version, which means it’s a full retro style JRPG. You play as a team of four characters, each with a distinct look but not class, as they go on a world hopping quest to stop the evil Silver Dragon once and for all.
Graphics
Dragon Lapis is a retro style JRPG. It’s a game that would have looked at home on the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis (Megadrive to you non-North Americans out there) and suits the aesthetic perfectly. Nothing looks out of place, and all animations look like they would have for an early SNES Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest game.
Sound
The sound design is also going for a retro aesthetic. All the music and sound effects feel like they’d be at home on the SNES, and the game is better for it. Nothing sounds out of place here.
Control
The controls in Dragon Lapis could be a bit more polished. All the battles, dialogue and menus work fine, but the movement system could leave more to be desired. You start out with a “tap where you want to go, tap who you want to interact with” method, and are given a few options on how to move, but even the virtual controller isn’t as accurate as it could be. But given that this is a retro JRPG, it doesn’t need to be accurate to be fun.
Story
Since this is an RPG, I’d be remised if I didn’t talk about the story. You take control of Lucas, the descendant of the man who sealed away the Gold and Silver Dragons a thousand years before the story, and are joined by Iria, the Gold Dragon in human form, Melvin the aging rogue and Elodie, the powerful black mage. The four of you are tasked with gathering the pieces of the Dragon Lapis in order to regain Iria and Lucas’ powers so they’re strong enough to combat the evil Silver Dragon. But defeating the Silver Dragon is not the end of the game; no, it takes inspiration from Lunar: Eternal Blue and has an “after the end” story where you take on an even greater evil after defeating the Silver Dragon.
Gameplay
Dragon Lapis is a JRPG in every sense of the word; made in Japan and follows all the tropes that come with it. You get into random battles, upgrade your equipment and level your character and their job up. And it is with the job system that makes this game unique. You pick your job, and can freely switch them after battles, but it’s how you level your job up that makes it unique. You see, the game has something called “growth plates”, and as you level up, you can put points into the growth plates, and that levels up your abilities. And each growth plate corresponds to either a specific job or to a weapon type. Furthermore, Lucas and Iria have special growth plates, Hero and Dragonite, that are unique to them.
Ads and In-app purchases
The ad policy is very obtrusive. When you first download the game, it’s fine, with the occasional ad after a random battle. But once you get to a certain point, a cutscene plays where “the information deity informs you about products and services you might desire”, IE banner ads and more post combat ads. You can buy an unlock that removes all this, but the fact remains that, for a free game, this is a very unpleasant way to deal with advertising.
Final Analysis
Even with all the negatives that come with Dragon Lapis’ ad policy and overworld controls, it’s a fun game. You won’t regret this JRPG on mobile.
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I loved Star Valor and wanted to recommend it. The game is a classic space trading simulator, I’ve always loved the combination of exploration and trade. It has the usual goal of upgrading your spaceship. You’ll have many different options to earn the credits or parts you’ll need. The best part is that you can really feel the changes. The ship stats are well balanced and escalate quite appropriately.
Besides the usual questing, hunting, and trading this title will also allow you to mine asteroids, scavenge components, and even craft your own weapons.
Star Valor is still in early access, some elements are still under development. Regardless, the game is already pretty fun. It’s easy to get lost on those space explorations, although, I will admit some biased considering the theme. I will be writing about my experience after playing the Steam early access.
Price: 10.99
Size: 600mb
Genre: Action RPG
Developed by: Rafael Burgos
Reviewed on PC.
Download link: Steam.
Story
Star Valor is a bit lacking in terms of story, it focuses on action and RPG features. There’s a short tutorial story that will guide you through the basics. You and a buddy are doing some gigs when you run into a very sought after piece of tech. After barely making it to safety, your buddy presents you with a few options.
You can go independent, get a factionless ship and some cash; Go with the traders for a trading vessel and good reputation with the Syndicate; Or give it to the miners, in for a mining ship and good reputation with them. After that, your buddy will escort while you get up to speed. Then, it’s your call.
Gameplay
One of the best parts in any space RPG is the customization of your ship. In Star Valor you’ll have a wide range of options, you can choose your weapons, equipment and even buy different ships. Bigger ships will mean more space for equipment and weapons. At first, controls might seem sluggish. I recommend adding a gyroscope to your ship as soon as possible, especially if your hunting pirates.
There is a vast galaxy for you to explore, You can navigate it using Jumpgates or a warp drive. You’ll find space stations belonging to different factions, keep an eye on your reputation, they might become hostile. In my opinion, the quests can get a little repetitive. Hopefully, this will change by the full release. That hardly means you’ll find yourself without stuff to do, especially once your ship is strong enough to start taking on Bosses.
Graphics
Even though Star Valor uses 2D top-down gameplay it’s 3D graphics and complex lightning really complement the futuristic feeling of the game. My favorite part is the detailed space stations.
Another great thing about Star Valor graphics is the weapon effects. Everything from the lasers to the explosions of the missiles is pretty cool to watch. Even the energy shields are carefully designed.
Star Valor Summary
Star Valor is a highly addictive space trader game. Get ready for a ton of exploration, scavenging, and combat. You’ll have a high level of ship customization, chose the best weapons and equipment to become the best captain in the galaxy. Definitively recommended!
I’ve loved games since a very early age. With them, I found an escape from a confusing reality. Even though the world became a calmer place with time. My passion for gaming never subsided. Now, I share my explorations of the Gaming Universe hoping to help players and independent games find each other.
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