What Did We Play Yesterday?

Picked up this very fun box puzzle game, which has excellent LTTP vibes. The puzzles are pretty tight so far and a few of them had me scratching my head. I'm enjoying it.

The TV went in an unexpected direction, but honestly I was just glad the scenery changes. This dungeon unfortunately was as tedious as the previous one, but I slogged through 10 floors and helped Kanji face his shadow. As I mentioned before, Yosuke has been my BFF up to this point and I was angling for a romance if possible, but I'm not a fan of how frankly weird he is about Kanji's queerness and I'm assuming that's a pretty big indicator he's not romanceable. I read that there are 8 romanceable characters and 23 social links total, so I've got a way to go before I even meet everyone.

Continuing to enjoy the slice-of-life aspects of Persona 4, though I don't always remember to take screenshots. Sometimes, I have trouble working on certain social links. For instance, I've been trying to find a way to hang out with Yukiko because her bond is the lowest, but man it's not happening. I've unlocked the shrine now, so if all else fails I can get a charm. I like how the relationship with the Dojimas is playing out, too.

The kids have figured out a local tough-guy biker named Kanji is the next target. Kanji has been acting suspiciously and having secret conversations with mysterious young man, with strong hints Kanji is gay or bi-questioning. Kanji gets dragged into the TV, and we're tasked with grilling the locals to get clues about his personality.

Decided to try something different. I've always been curious about Alwa's Awakening due to the awesome graphics. I knew going into this one there are complaints about the level design, difficulty spikes, and backtracking, and the movement is definitely floaty. There is also a tedious and boring intro, which I ended up skipping, but this is one of the many "sure I'll try that" freebies I picked up from Epic Games and I enjoyed playing around with it.

I'm enjoying the social aspects of the game, and happy to have Yukiko back.

Very much not liking the dungeons. I returned to the TV when my friends suggested it, and fought my way through the castle again, beat the shadow there, then fought aaallll the way back down. The levels randomize again, so you have to find your way through. I didn't realize I could use an item to leave, so I was hating life by the end of it. Evidently this was an extra task I didn't have to do, so I'll avoid that in the future.

...But I reaaaaally don't want to keep slogging through these dungeons. :(

I'm enjoying the chill daytime schedule. I try to prioritize hanging out with friends, and I've been focusing on the athletes recently. I also did my first fusion yay. I'm gonna venture back into the TV soon so if I need or want to leave, I still have a day or two before the fog.

During the day segments, you can spend time with your friends to build up your social links or you can do stat-raising activities. Then... it's dungeon time! And unfortunately, the dungeons are boring as shit. They're procedurally generated levels with apparently no visual variety, the loot is crappy, and the whole setup appears to be a mechanism for grinding to get stats high enough to fight bosses.

I started out exploring the whole dungeon, but soon realized there was no point, and it was better to search for staircases and ascend as quickly as possible. The boss of this dungeon had a cool design, but getting there was tedious even on easy mode, so I can only imagine how grindy it would have felt on normal difficulty.

I also found persona acquisition a bit underwhelming. In the SMT game I played, you had to haggle with demons to get them to join, but in Persona 4 you can pick up persona cards during what's called Shuffle Time, which is a randomly-triggered post game bonus where you can acquire cards that include abilities, personas, healing, and chances to get bonus cards. I like Shuffle Time, but I wish there were other ways to recruit personas.

I'm a little on the fence at this stage, but now I know the dungeon crawling isn't rewarding so I'll focus on the social links and see how it goes.

I've recruited a third (the situation with Shadow Chie really escalated) and enjoyed my first dungeon. Now the game opens up, and you have to decide how to plan your days. If you don't rescue the latest victim in time, it's game over. I have no idea what to do so I'm just gonna wing it.

The main character figures out he can travel into televisions, and he can take his classmates with him. Doing so sends them to a strange world with a weird bear (not pictured) where dopplegangers called Shadows roam. In this game, characters fight with the aid of Personas, which are personality constructs that function similarly to the demons in the SMT games. The main character's first persona Izanagi manifests here, as does Yosuke's.

So far, I've only had a couple of battles. A big aspect of battle is exploiting an enemy's weakness to gain an extra turn. The game has mostly been story and rolling through the day calendar. The dialogue is a bit long-winded and sometimes odd, but I'm rolling with it.

After poking at a few of the SMT games and reading about how they're designed and QOL issues, I decided to try the more recent games and work my way backwards, if so inclined. I'm starting with Persona 4: Golden, which centers around a small town murder mystery.

This game has 5 difficulty levels and I chose the easiest one on the assumption this game has a lot of turn-based battles and I'd rather breeze through those. So far, the gameplay has been more like a visual novel. The protagonist (who has no default name) is switching to a school in a small town to live with his uncle, who is a detective. Right now, I'm slowly meeting the students and getting the town's vibe. The game has a day structure like a VN.

Decided to poke at some of the other SMT games, including the first game on PSX. No hand-holding here. They drop you into a new world and expect you to figure it out. The room-to-room navigation can be a little disorienting, but the overall weirdness appeals.

A guy you meet at the beginning of the game, Hijiri, helps you get through the Amala Network by opening doors, but you have to reach "good connection" points to do that.

Sometimes when you try to negotiate with a demon and there is more than one of the same kind, the other demon will butt in and cut you off. I haven't been able to recruit any demons lately (I tried multiple times with the mop-looking guys but I always manage to answer their questions incorrectly and piss them off).

This dungeon area is kinda boring so I buzzed through it pretty fast. Even the souls don't have much to say. The general weirdness of the game and the atmosphere have kept me engaged, but the encounter rate (which many players complain about) and the boring dungeon aesthetics are definitely a weak point.

Encountered a shop with magatama, and got in on that action. Now I've got fire and support. Also encountered the Amala Network. Immediately got Lost Woods vibes as a wrong-turn sends you back to the beginning of the area. One guide describes this dungeon as tedious, so I took the liberty of sketching out a map for next time.

Figured out the map situation, and I've continued onward, meeting the Lady of the Fount (who is hot) and getting an explanation of the Kagutsuchi. I'm grateful that I have emulator save states because save points have been few and far between, and I might bail otherwise. Also, linking the hotkeys because I keep forgetting them.

A busy day left me with low bandwidth, so I piddled around on my farm. Since I was playing later at night, I got a few visitors, including a lovely visitor who left a very nice guestbook message but decided to replant some of my fields with the wrong crops. I have a carefully terraced grape area and alas, they did not plant grapes there. They also messed with my tomato color coded rows.

Witness the horrors (chickpeas in my tomato beds).

Now I know how this makes me feel: itchy. Lol. You can buy crop instruction signs that only allow a certain crop to be planted in an area, so if it keeps happening I can either do that or change my farm permissions, but I'm gonna TRY to be a little more flexible here. It's probably good for me.

I finally unlocked the first type of water lantern, so I began refining my hatchery and you know, I REALLY don't like those seasonal tree rows I planted, but I think I might like them better after I fully pave and decorate the area. IDK. Most of my crop unlocks are to the grindy phase (level 50 cosmic carrots, level 80 peanuts) but what really needs work is my orchard.

I beat the first boss, a demon hanging around the hospital lobby. I've enjoyed recruiting demons (gotta catch 'em all) also. I'm finding map navigation a little confusing, but I'll figure it out.

The game doesn't explain the orb in the top left corner (or if they did, I missed it). I looked this up on the off-chance it was something important. The Kagutsuchi phase impacts your ability to negotiate with demons, items in chest, and something about fusions. If it's full, it's harder to recruit demons, but chests contain more valuable items.

I fired up Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which I actually played a lot more than I blogged about, but it's been long enough I had no idea where I was or what I was doing (I need the mist ability to progress, and hell if I know where to find it). Soooo I decided to try something new instead.

I've been wanting to play a Shin Megami Tensei game but was never sure where to start. Players look favorably on Nocturne, and I understand the somewhat recent remaster wasn't very good, so I got PS2 running on my SteamDeck and gave it a whirl. Until now, I've mostly limited emulation to pre-PSX for the most part, so being able to dig more into PSX and PS2 really opens up my options to explore.

I went into this not knowing what to expect beyond "demons" and it's pretty damn compelling. The graphics have aged well and the atmosphere and mood is awesome. I wanted to set expectations, so I read a little more and according to HLTB this is about a 50-hour game. It has multiple endings, and the dungeon crawling is very crawly, and I think people got annoyed about getting a mediocre ending which, for a game of this length, is very understandable. Definitely not a "put down and come back 2 weeks later and still know where the hell you are" type of game. My gaming threshold tends to be 30 to 40 hours at the very best of times, so we'll see how it goes!

I picked up a couple of Suikalikes I thought might have interesting mechanics. I'm on the fence about Spicy Fruit. I really like how the fruit's facial expressions change, but the gimmick--feeding a fruit a chili so it becomes spicy, so merging gives bonus points--is kinda eh. If you can manage to merge 2 chilis (which requires spicy-fying a fruit, then dropped 2 chilis on top of it, which isn't as common as I'd like) it becomes a hungry fruit and it grows and creates explosions until it eventually pops and sets everything on fire.

The game is super polished, runs great on Steam Deck, and has a bunch of different themes. So if you just wanna Suikaround a bit it's a solid choice. But there's not enough going on there to keep my interest beyond the occasional "my brain is too fried for anything else" play.

I finished Golden Krone the first time on easy mode with the soldier disguise. When you reach the 11th floor, you're advised you can't enter without four rings. The rings are obtained from the various side areas. A couple of those battles, especially the sirens, were pretty tough, but timely switching between human, vampire, and werewolf forms served me well.

I uncovered additional lore, including that when vampires marry they exchange 5 rings. The lore books are permanently unlocked, so you can go back and read through it at any time.

The game gives a lot of little hints as to the relationship with Arobase and Fane, so I wasn't surprised by the reveal, but I WAS surprised by the fact that I was locked in a room with him and apparently had no option but to attack. I actually looked up a Let's Play to see if I did something wrong by snatching up all the gold before talking to him, and I'm still not sure.

I can see myself returning to this one to play the many different classes. I like the streamlined aspect and the vampire/human mechanics a lot. I wish the NPCs interacted more, it's always kind of weird to be attacked by a vampire and see a bunch of mercenaries just standing around, but I headcanon everyone's freaked out and just trying to stay not-undead.

Continuing to die in Golden Krone Hotel and uncovering more bits of lore about the main vampire guy. Around the 6th or 7th floor the baddies get a lot tougher, but I'm continuing to avoid looking things up and just try to wing it.

Golden Krone Hotel is a streamlined turn-based roguelike that focuses on human and vampire classes and has a neat sunlight mechanic. It plays perfectly on Steamdeck, and it's great for a quick run. I've unlocked maybe a third of the classes, and I went into this one blind so I'm gradually figuring things out through trial and error (which, in a roguelike, generally means dying a lot!)

I appreciate the ways it is streamlined. Equipment is automatically equipped if its better than what you have, and exchanged for gold if it isn't. The main items are potions, which provide effects, and grimoires, which teach spells. As in Brogue and others, potions are unknown when you first find them, but in GKH you are given a list of possible things it could be, so if you're in a corner and need to take a gamble, it's a bit easier.

Your gameplay varies depending on if you are a human or a vampire, and you can switch between the two which is a lifesaver if you're a vampire trapped in a sunny room. Humans gradually become vampires, and must quaff potions to keep it at bay and eat food to avoid going hungry. Vampires can slurp up the puddles of blood left around, but they can't read so they can't use the grimoires scattered about the hotel. Depending on which state you're in, you can talk to or fight the various mercenaries and vampires in the building.

There are plenty of secret areas. The Baths provide sanctuaries which give stat upgrades, but they also have pools of sirens that can absolutely wreck you. There's a menagerie full of wild animals, a green house, and other secret places.

I enjoy this one the way I enjoyed Unexplored. Golden Krone has definitely rekindled my interest in this type of turn-based roguelike.

I was kinda in a Suika Game mood, but did NOT want to break out my Switch, so I tried out this free Suika-like where you drop Pusheen-style cats on each other. I really like the special abilities (you can "poison" and remove cats, teleport cats, and remove cats with various fish-shaped items). It scratched the itch (pun not intended but ok!) but I'm still on the lookout for a Suika-like for SteamDeck.

Yesterday I poked at Auto Rogue again. This is a running programming game where you are being chased by Mama and must set up skills and conditions to beat the enemies in your way. I don't generally like programming games (somewhat ironically) but this was a cute impulse purchase. It still hasn't grabbed me; wins feel like black magic, and losses are equally black-magicky. But I may return to it another time.

The carnage continues. I figured out I was underutilizing tractors, which are rechargable actions that can be summoned when the action bar is full. I've been experimenting with using a controller, which makes it easier to shoot and till/plant at the same time since the actions are mapped to triggers, but aiming can be a little wonky.

Sometimes, things just get out of control. I've come to dread the worm boss, who is an absolute bastard, and yesterday I got cooked by these aliens that kept setting my crops on fire. I hesitate to say it was a bad run because I learned the power of parallel planting. Previously, I always opted into the seasonal plant boxes, but I think the option to plant in rows can be more useful.

I've also begun focusing more seriously on trying to plant quadrants of one type, which will merge into a large plant.

Okay, I'm having a lot of fun with this one, so here's a proper post.

Atomicrops is a roguelike post-apocalyptic farming game in which you defend the last garden on earth from various radiated baddies. The loop consists of exploring the wasteland during the daytime, when crops are safe, followed by defending your crops at night. You gather seeds to plant, as well as various upgrades and special times. After a day/night cycle you go back to the town, where you can re-supply, make friends for special bonuses, and go back to do it all again, interspersed with the occasional boss fight.

The flame thrower is EXCEPTIONALLY fun, but the game is just fun in general. The goofy graphics and general chaos keep things interesting, and as you progress you reach a point where you have enough turrets and offensive helpers holding off enemies you can focus more on actually farming. You recruit chickens, pigs, and cows to help with weeding, digging, and watering, which makes the sprawling farm less overwhelming.

I had my first long game last night and unlocked a few extra characters and the ability to have permanent upgrades. I was kinda bummed by the game length until I realized belatedly you can save when you're in town, which means you could potentially play in bursts of several minutes. About 15 minutes tends to be a sweet spot for me in games like this.

Really looking forward to checking out the new characters and upgrades. The devs released several free DLC as well as a few paid ones. It sounds like the paid ones change things up and add some variety.