LogFAQs > #966700868

STEAM BATTEL
#4 Monster Crown: I have been waiting for this one for a long time- I backed it a long dang time ago, and it's been out for a bit but needed to work up the long backlog list. The day has come! It's a Pokemonlike with some twists, the main one being procedural breeding that creates new species. It looks like there's a built-in randomizer, too, but I'll mess with the vanilla game first. This might actually be one to watch, with a long hype period behind it, no need for fancy controls, and somebody's twitter thread about a pokemon fusion mod whetting my appetite to Frankenstein up some mons. I got through the tutorial-y part, but not much farther. It's definitely a bit janky, and the battle system will take some getting used to, but...it has potential. I'll need to get farther before making a good call on it, but it has a small hook in me already. I can't even articulate what specifically has me excited, I think it just scratches an itch that mainline Pokemon hasn't in a year or two. Collect dudes. Cultivate them. Smoosh em together into weirder dudes. Heck yeah. It's also just one of those projects that is clearly a labor of love, the person just kept coming up with cool little features to add. Did any of them actually work out? We'll see, maybe.

#13: A Hat In Time: Dang, this is super cute! Dang, this is another one where my controller is useless! I got it all set up and then it started spinning the camera uncontrollably, so back to keyboard (and trackpad) I went. Didn't have enough buttons anyway, and my computer was struggling a bit trying to run it. Died to the first enemy I tried to fight.

THE VERDICT: Hat In Time is right up my alley, but it ain't particularly playable with my current setup. A bummer, but an easy choice for the "watch an LP instead" pile. Man I thought the controllers were gonna make some of those viable again. :\ But hey, now I get a chance to evaluate Monster Crown a bit more thoroughly!

#5 Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star: I like Fate a lot, I like Nero a lot, I like Musou a lot. None of that's gonna matter if I can't play......but I can! I didn't immediately see keybind options so I just went keyboard, and...it's fine! It's not great, but it's fine! Probably wouldn't have had enough buttons on the controller anyway. Oddly, the gameplay was fine but the opening cinematic had some lag issues. Nero is....very Nero, the vibe is fun, and I can mow people down. I have no idea what is going on in the story (is this not the first game, I'm guessing?) but it's Fate, does anybody ever have any idea what is going on in the story? Played one level, and this will be a strong contender.

#12 West of Loathing: Man this takes me back, I was never SUPER into Kingdom of Loathing but I do dust off my account every couple years or so. This is....exactly the same artstyle and sense of humor, and only slightly fancier gameplay. I liked it then, I like it now. Got to the first town and did a couple small sidequests. I'm playin' a Beanmancer and I took Susie as my pardner. Also the dark horse. Exactly the experience I expected, and hey no control issues.

The Verdict: First tough one. I think Fate/Extella has a SLIGHT edge (read: I'm a Nero fangirl) and also I think West of Loathing might work just as well as a "screw around for a few minutes before bed" game as a formally put in my rotation game.

(This is not gonna be the pace I do the rest of this tournament, probably >_>)