Missy's Game Shelf

Can a person who has never used this service write a review on it? I’ve never used Stadia simply because of the requirement to always be online at the time of its release my connection was not ideal for the system. This led me to think that during extended play if my internet cut out then I would lose hours of playtime. While this could or could not be true multiple people said that Stadia actually came with gameplay lag and delay input. Then I forgot the service existed entirely after awhile. Google also didn’t advertise it as much in coming years. This was only one reason I had no faith in the platform word of mouth told me I’d never want it. Google has a tendency to release things and want instant profits from it. With a lack of new titles and any games on it having released months, some years, prior to the Stadia actually coming out meaning most already owned a version of it meant nothing interesting on their store and library. With this in mind, it was easy to tell that Google had no interest in gaming or releasing anything of substance. Games can take years to create so the fact Google would attempt it when they shut down items and services after only a short time also told me this wouldn’t last long. What even more baffles me is an internet service like Stadia as it is more advertised as a Netflix for gaming, they failed to capitalize on a pandemic when everyone was reliant on the internet for entertainment. Among Us, Fall Guys, and even services like Playstation Now and XBOX Game Pass are all things that really took off in 2020. Yet Stadia still wasn’t able to get a foothold on the market. As of January 18 2023 Stadia shut down and several games supported by the platform along with it. I was originally planning on writing about high points of this console, but I realized that I was basically reporting on a consoles brief life, death, then the final nail in the coffin.

Score: Is it even possible to score something I never used or had a bias about from the start? 0/10

Harvestella

Harvestella is a game that I have mixed feelings toward. It is a real-time RPG and farm simulator. Similar to Rune Factory though I do enjoy this game more than the disappointing Rune Factory 5. It has a few things different and some things the same.

Gameplay

The farming is how you can get healing items as cooking and making juice is the only way to get stamina and health. You also need to take care of animals so they can not only give you eggs and milk but the more you do the higher quality and higher bonus. Crafting materials are found in dungeons and used for improving weapons and tools for making cheese, juice, animal feed, flour, among other things most of which you can buy, but you save money by doing it yourself.

Combat is confusing until you get used to it. You level up when you sleep and all your stats get a small boost. As time goes on easier enemies won’t give any experience. There are also your companion bonuses depending on who is in your party and how much you helped them you get stat boosts. As for weapons you can change any weapon at the checkpoints in each town and dungeon and some are faster than others, but do less damage. Weapons are under a job system as all weapons have a skill tree.

Plot

The plot starts with the player waking up in a town with amnesia. After a short time they are given a home and farm. They are then told that the Seaslight, an important resource to each area is acting strange. So you investigate and eventually learn that in order to save everyone you need to stop Quietus, a strange dust that comes between seasons and causes illness and eventual death with no known cure otherwise it worsens and kills everyone

Conclusion

I enjoyed this game as frustrating as some mechanics are such as the hunger mechanic leaving me with no way to heal multiple times. It feels like a game with a good balance between plot and gameplay. Harvestella does have a problem with lengthy dungeons being a bit to long, but otherwise it was fun. There are flaws but, this is to be expected as this is a new IP not something established so if a sequel ever comes out I hope they learn from mistakes not create more.

Score: 9/10

Nexomon Extinction is the sequel to the ios and steam game called Nexomon. It is fully playable without knowing the story of the original though I did go back to play the first game after completing the sequel and its release on console.

Gameplay is a Creature Capture and taming rpg similar if not copying Pokemons system. There are things about this game different from Pokemons system. First the capture of creatures utilizes a percentage system you can use food, status effects, and the type of trap to increase your chances and open that menu anytime to check your chances. Nexomon arguably does it better separating special traps by type rather than Pokemon’s being only good for specific situations or better chances for a limited amount of types, the only exception is the normal and golden traps. Golden traps are the same as a master ball with a 100% catch rate and you get multiples rather than just one they are given to you by doing quests and there is only a certain number. Normal Traps can be bought similar to the other traps.

There is a crafting system kind of you find ores and stones with different names and depending on which one you use can craft Cores with different effects to boost stats higher level cores require more materials. The Special Traps can be crafted as well some even require it  if you have the shards. The Shards are also used often for side quests and can be sold.

There is also the fact most of the world is open from the start it is open world with story areas blocked until later. Depending on quests done the Nexomon in the wild will change level and some even evolve so if you want to explore different areas other than story ones you don’t have to worry about being under leveled to the wild ones in later areas. Grinding levels is very unessasary thanks to the cores granting shared exp. The game also has cores that grant more exp.

Combat is largely turn based though you will need a balance between speed and power. While the creature does have stats of its own for that you really only need to rely on attack, HP, and Defence. As weaker attacks also don’t deplete a stamina meter as much causing you to lose a turn as unlike Pokemon and more similar to Digimon the moment that drains you have to either wait a turn or switch to a different creature. This makes the battles seem to drag on as super effective hits are not guaranteed to knockout anything.

I find the plot and characters the most enjoyable part of this game. The story is much darker than Pokemon with a stronger emphasis on the plot. The game takes place hundreds of years after the first and it starts off saying that the world is dying due to the events of the last game. It revolves around the war between monsters and you working for a guild. Then you are free to explore the world.

The game does a lot to change the various systems, but a lot of that is either clunky and hard to understand or needs work to be truly different. I enjoyed this game as an alternative to Pokemon.

Score 8/10

There are some problems with this game and while there are some bugs there was nothing major in my playthrough. I only encountered visual bugs and nothing game breaking. I didn’t hate this game, but also didn’t like it. I find it as a game with some potential yet not reaching any of it.

Gameplay

Pokemon Scarlett is a open world turn based RPG. Honestly, this neither helps nor hurts this game as systems are pretty much the same as older Pokemon. You now have to talk to Trainers to have a battle and while this is better than simply walking around some or mandatory battles there was very little experience given to the point you may as well just use wild Pokemon. The only real use is if your party is low on health you can at least avoid fighting and don’t even have to if you don’t want to the only reward is someone will give you a TM at the Pokemon Center.

Another problem this game has is unlike Legends Arceous where higher level areas were cut off until the game says so you can walk straight to higher level and immediately lose to something 20 levels higher than you this is because the game has a set order if you ask Nurse Joy about what you should do she sends you to the next area you have levels for. Unfortunately, more often than not you will end up losing a few battles simply because one area is closer to you than another. I feel like this problem could be fixed if areas were labelled with a recommended level on the destination so people know where to go with minimal grinding.

Another issue I have is open world tends to feel repetitive or empty without much to explore. Legends Arceus avoided this issue by making the challenges specific to areas and having an at least interesting plot to go with it as well as multiple different maps. Here it feels like someone threw the challenges at a single empty map and hoped for the best. I hate to say that something new to Pokemon is one of the worst things about it doesn’t feel as fleshed out of even one area in Legends so feels like the world is open just to say its open.

Plot

The revolves around three paths that eventually intertwine with you starting as a student enrolled in a school. The Victory Road is the standard for Pokemon as it is centered on collecting Gym Badges and fighting the Champion. Starfall Street is focused on fighting Team Star and helping them not get expelled. Finally, Path of Legends where you fight a giant Pokemon with enhanced stats twice each. All paths intertwine at the last chapter of the game. The paths each make different rewards. Victory Road makes traded Pokemon listen to you and the amount of badges increasing ability to catch Pokemon, Path of Legends lets you unlock abilities for Karidon and Miridan allowing you to travel to new places, and Starfall Street unlocks TMs for crafting and materials as well as League Points which is just another currency alongside regular currency. I found that none of the TMs unlockable were actually useful and the TMs found on the ground either containing better moves or weren’t a pain to unlock due to lack of materials.

Conclusion

This is a game with a lot of potential, but fails to actually reach that. Interesting concepts and ideas are shown, but never go anywhere. This forces the game to just be another open game with nothing to do and nowhere to go the lack of a proper post game is very evident. The post game just has Gym Leader battles and replacing the elite four battles with a tournament of random trainers in a game. Pokemon Sun, Moon, and the Ultra games already did the random trainer for the champion and Pokemon Sword and Sheild already had the mechanic of battles in a style similar to this. Finally Pokemon Arceus already had an enjoyable open world. Three main line Pokemon Games already exist that are better than this. What is lacking now is anything new or different from other games in the series it has a core idea and never explores that idea.

Grade: 4/10

Monster Crown (Switch Review)

Monster Crown is a rpg that is honestly difficult to understand the mechanics at first. The game also isn’t very stable as it crashed multiple times. Not much is explained well to the player and many systems take time to learn. While the Gameboy Color graphics are nice a Switch should be able to run this game.

The rpg elements are similar to other creature capture and taming, but done somehow weirder than most. Several monsters don’t learn new or stronger moves as they level and the breeding mechanic to get better stats or monsters means a lot of grinding. While you level up quickly slow progress makes you feel consistently under leveled and any grinding is useless the amount of crashes loses that progress and you need to start over again. While most bosses can be captured it requires you to over level and get monsters to half health this makes it an almost guarnteed capture. There is also the Synergy mechanic defending or switching monsters can increase power of moves or change their type. Finally level can be stalled unless you defeat certain NPC’s good luck finding them and sometimes they won’t fight you unless you do something first sometimes it is straightforward other times it can be find another NPC in another town despite them saying in the nearby area.

Plot is very predictable thus not interesting darker than Pokemon. It revolves around fighting a person trying to destroy the world through the use of powerful monsters. So you go on a quest to find them first.

While I did enjoy the darker story and difficulty not only was the type chart harder to follow and amount of content was good with a lot of post game content. The amount you miss too due to lack of direction and having to stay on a certain path or risk another crash is sad because it is honestly a game with a lot of potential and in my opinion has the time to be great as the developers are actively patching out several problems and is more stable.

I believe I played this game at the wrong time playing at launch over prior to announced patches that could fix many of the issues discussed. I probably would have judged it more fairly if I did play it later. I plan to review it after they finish patching and trying to fix this game. I know this is also on Steam and don’t know if that version is better or more stable, but if you want an alternative to Pokemon then I would recommend it just wait till it is fully patched.

Score 3/10

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