What Did We Play Yesterday?

Lately I have had a terrible, terrible open world/sandbox/crafting/building/farming/exploring itch that I cannot scratch, and I needed something to tide me over. I have since determined this thing I crave is a survival farming sandbox. I want to forage for seed and tame livestock, which is why I sometimes have a deep, unrelenting need for HOTT+++ FARM ACTION that Stardew Valley cannot satiate.

But at the time I had not yet reduced my longings to this specificity. I just knew I needed a sandbox to play in and, by god, it better have seeds. I also wanted something new, so Terraria, Starbound, and Wayward were out. In my desperation I bought Forsaken Isle, and early access title that languished on my wishlist because I was pretty sure it was abandonware.

Forsaken Isle has an overhead perspective and cute graphics. You can explore across forest, desert, and swamp biomes, farm and hunt, and dig down to mine ores or find better loot and more powerful enemies. It's a much more populated environment than Wayward, with lots of chickens, pigs, and sheep roaming the map, as well as snakes, turtles, pirates, etc. There are many, many resources, so the survival aspect of this game is a bit thin. A traveling merchant visits occasionally. It might fairly be called a friendlier, cuter Wayward.

I've been meaning to post more screenshots, so here's one of my farm after I discovered animal husbandry was a thing and put out a bunch of troughs and a coop. Shortly after this the chickens got out of control, as they do, and I ended up slaughtering several dozen of them and relocating the coop.

The game has a lot of negative attention on Steam, both from people who feel it's too unfinished and people who are annoyed at the dev's apparent abandonment. I think one issue is people just scratching the surface in some instances and not seeing the full extent of the content. I had a, "Wait, this is it?" reaction until I really started to dig into the underworld and the crafting system. The craft system is a bit non-intuitive, but once you get into it and start uncovering new things it really opens up. I "get" the recipe discovery system, and it's one of those things that sounds ok on paper but I find myself consulting the wiki a fair bit. I would recommend all players cruise the wiki before putting the game aside, especially if they feel they've run out of things to do. That being said, there are a lot of issues, like the overabundance of surface animal spawns and the apparent low spawn rate of underground structures, that could easily be balanced to improve play and make it more enjoyable.

The developer hasn't updated in a while and went MIA on Twitter months ago, so the meager forum posts are mostly people asking if the game is dead. The word "promising" gets thrown around a lot. It is what it is and, frankly, I'm not sure how much content people expect to wring out of a $7 game, but I find the cost of entry reasonable for the experience. Forsaken Isle has the makings of a great sandbox but a solo dev can only do so much. Whaddayagonnado.

This is a prime example of a game that would flourish with a strong modding community. Forsaken Isle appears to be built with Monogame and XNA. It should be moddable and the developer was apparently open to the idea but never implemented Steam Workshop. If Steam Workshop had been implemented I think the state of the game would be very different right now. As it is, Wayward is a better choice overall because it has more complexities, can be modded, and is actively developed, but I was pleasantly surprised with Forsaken Isle and I enjoy the ways the games are different. They both satisfy different moods.

Fast RMX is a futuristic racing game which is apparently an expansion of Fast Racing Neo for Wii U. I'm perfectly content calling this an F-Zero-like. The game looks great and, true to its name, it is very fast.

It has a blue/yellow charge mechanic. The player can toggle the vehicle's charge color at will. If you pass over a charged strip or jump booster and your charge color matches, your speed increases, otherwise you slow down. It's a minor inconvenience on the track but if you hit a jump boost while the wrong color you ain't gonna make it. The game has lots of jumps and lots of opportunity to go airborne.

There's a bit of a learning curve thanks to the speed, so at first I crashed into walls constantly and felt like the most hopeless player ever, but I kept playing and actually... started getting better. The courses have a lot of variety and most of them have alternate routes and sections where you can get an edge if you time a boost-jump right. The game has 30 courses and 19 cars and doesn't bother with anything it considers non-essential and I respect the hell out of that. There are 3 levels of difficulty with 10 cups total, placing in a cup unlocks the next one. There's Time Attack and Hero Mode, whatever that is, and multiplayer, which I ignore for the good of the country.

My strategy is to practice tracks in Time Attack mode, where your goal is to beat the developer's time, then try to place in the circuit so I can unlock the next cup. In Time Attack especially, I found myself going into a nice bullet hell space as my brain learned to adjust to the speed and just focus on that little harmonious spot in front of my vehicle.

I'm actually not big on driving games which, in retrospect, is a little odd considering how wide my tastes in games are, but I like having a go-to racing game.

P and I both purchased battle passes at the beginning of the season. I bought mine because I wanted to support the game, and P picked one up so he could pace with me when he realized how significant the XP bonuses are. So for an hour or so each night we'll tuck in side-by-side, on Switch and PC respectively, and it's kind of cute, the murdering together.

The paid pass provides a personal bonus (mine is currently 60%) as well as a squad bonus, so your friends benefit from it as well. This pleases me, as does the modified XP system. You now get XP for several revives (diminishing) and additional kills. The pass unocks a lot of challenge opportunities for battle stars, including weekly challenges that provide XP and stars and skin-specific cosmetic challenges (unlocks additional outfit details for Drift and Ragnarok or whatever he is). Another big change is you can continue to unlock the outfit details after the season ends.

I like having additional challenges to work on and I like the fact that it's possible to earn enough V-bucks to pay for the next season pass (you can earn 1,300 total). Though in my case I'd rather pay for the pass and squander my V-bucks on silly emotes, which I suspect is the point.

The map changes are awesome, and although they destroyed my beloved Murkey Mirerere they replaced it with a large desert biome that I love (dino paaark) and have added a golf course, gold carts, and rifts (ground-level portals that drop you out of the sky, useful in many ways). I like stealing carts in solos, which always ends badly for me but hey. If you're gonna go build up some crazy fort and leave your vehicle sitting out here then yes I am going to steal it, even if it guarantees my early demise.

I used to hate Dusty Divot but now it's overgrown with forest and it's a fun place to drop, though only moderately less dangerous. There's also a Viking Village atop a mountain that doesn't really do it for me, but I guess goes with the Viking skins.

I admittedly play Fornite a lot, but I consider myself an average player and definitely a non-grinder, so it will be interesting to see how far I get this season just playing as I normally do without any regard for the numbers. I play a good amount of 50v50 and I don't wait around for the XP accumulator if my team is losing badly, so I probably only get XP about half the time.

I would also like to publicly announce that I came in 2nd place twice in solos, and both times I accidentally killed myself. The last time I accidentally toggled the wrong inventory item and dropped a clinger grenade on the tree I was using for cover instead of drinking the slurp (potion) in the slot next to it. I had just convinced myself I was worthy of back bling, which I previously removed for stupidity. Well, I obviously don't deserve back bling, and will probably never wear it again, as that was honest-to-god the most embarrassing shit I have ever done, and I cringe just thinking about the other guy watching replay trying to figure out WTF happened, and if it somehow ends up in the subreddit I will delete my account immediately. The end.

Dragon Blaze is a fantasy-themed vertical arcade shooter by Psikyo ported by Zerodiv for the Nintendo Switch. It's a beautiful game with a forest level that loosely reminds of Mushihimesama. It's one of Psikyo's later games and it shows, providing a far more complexity than its predecessors.

It sticks to the standard Psikyo formula with 7 difficulty levels and 4 randomly-ordered levels followed by 3 ordered levels. The player can choose from 4 dragon riders, each with distinct attack patterns. The game has a three-button scheme that includes shot/chargeshot/DRAGON shot/bomb. The dragon shot allows the rider to dismount from their dragon and move independently while the dragon still shoots. The charge shot is also different while dismounted.

Suffice to say, this game has a lot more going on than the earlier Gunbird and is suitable for scoring runs. The player primarily gains points through powerups and silver coins, but using the dragon shot to kill enemies rewards more valuable gold coins. The player can also use the dragon shot to insta-kill bosses when they reveal their red cores. The dragon can also be used to collect items while the rider is dismounted, and since the dragon itself is invincible this adds another layer to possible game strategies. In-depth discussion is on the shmups forum.

This is a fun game and I still haven't mastered using the dragon shot, which is the key to opening up scoring. If you're only going to try one Psikyo port and you're interested in more than basic pew-pew this is a good choice. It either skirts or enters into manic/bullet hell territory, depending on who you ask, and with the dragon shot mechanic and the scoring possibilities it presents a lot more meat than the more cookie-cutter ports on the Switch.

I went through a cute 'em up phase where I was determined to find the perfect cutie patootie shootie. (aHahaa yeah I totally did that this is a serious gameblog unsub immediately) To my horror, I learned there actually aren't a lot of options in this subgenre and I didn't enjoy many of the ones I tried. I despaired. Then, I found it. The grail.

Harmful Park is a slow-scrolling horizontal cute 'em up released on Playstation in Japan by Sky Think Systems. It is one of the most perfect games that has ever existed. I am slightly incredulous that Sky Think Systems released two random puzzle games, then this one, and vanished into the night, forever lost to to us, but that's how it goes.

Harmful Park is about an amusement park that has been taken over by a mad scientist and the young women on flying motorcycles who must liberate it. The player can cycle through four weapons: ice cream cone (focused/laser beam), pie (grenade-type), potato gun (standard bullet), and jelly beans (weak homing weapon), and all of these have limited secondary functions. Weapons can be powered up 3x. Colorful levels, from a haunted house to a roller coaster to a zoo, filled with strange and inventive enemies await; the attention to visual detail is tremendous. The game includes 3 mini-games for coop play. Newcomers will enjoy endless continues and forgiving base difficulty while veterans will want to sink their teeth into high difficulty and a multiplier-based scoring system.

Here's the bad news. Harmful Park had a limited run and is a highly-sought rare on the aftermarket; a copy of the Japanese PS game fetches exorbitant prices ranging from $600 to $1,200. Isn't the retro market great! :)))

The good news is Harmful Park was released on Japanese PSN for a delightful ¥617. To play it, US PSP/PSV/PS3/PS4 owners need only set up a Japanese PSN account and use a Japanese gift card.

I will never understand why this game was never ported. You can argue it's a niche within a niche, and you'd be right, but Harmful Park is a damn good game, it's fun, and it's incredibly accessible, which is increasingly rare in the shooter genre. I know, "This is perfect for Switch," has become a meme but, seriously? This is perfect for the Switch.

Season 5 starts this week and I am very excited. There's a lot of speculation about a history theme. I have no idea and don't really care, whatever it is, I'm here for it so long as they don't destroy my beloved Murkey Mire. I've gotten so much enjoyment out of the game (probably 60 hours by Thursday) I decided to purchase a battle pass for the new season. I don't care about skins and will probably continue to play as a no-skin for the slight tactical advantage, but I am definitely up for scoring some dances (I love Infinite Dab so much I might actually shell out for it whenever it returns to the shop). I am slightly sorry I won't unlock Orange Justice by Wednesday, but not that sorry since the XP grind in this game is ridiculous, especially on the free pass.

I expected to be over it by now and I'm nowhere near being over it, and I think this is the only way I'll ever enjoy a murder simulator because of 3 points:

1. Cartoony graphics, no gore. Funny costumes and dances. The map is awesome. There are llamas.
2. The build and trap systems add layers to the shoot man aspect.
3. You can actually get pretty far without shoot man. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm here to murder everyone, but you can often get creative with the terms of any given match.

Oh yeah, and the legendary bush camo. 4. The Bush.

They brought back 50v50, which is great great fun for me, and the Playground is back although I think they'll both end when the season does. I'm an honorable opponent in real matches (don't steal loot, revive whenever possible, try to help obviously new players, go for clean kills no taunts/mockery/victory dances etc) but I've become a bit of a Loki in Playground and get tremendous glee out of trapping and ambushing my friends and stealing their shit, and I will cheat any way possible, including calling a truce and then promptly shooting someone in the back. TRUST NO REN

I hate build battles, but enjoy the hell out of ground skirmishes, so my favorite matches have been where the circle closes in on a bridge or a tunnel or city center. I despise open ground. I still shoot extremely wild because I panic in close skirmishes, but I am getting better and expect 1-2 eliminations per match at the minimum. I also like constantly referencing place names incorrectly, Annihilation Acres and so forth. Calling it Twisty Towers is just inherently funny to me.

As an aside, I have been neglecting this journal, so I told myself I could gush about my new fave if I then set up a queue for my post backlog. I will try to catch up on reading soon.