"If there is an app for that"

Zenless Zone Zero review

August 02, 2024 by RSS Feed

I am no stranger to gacha games, though since 2020 I've only really had eyes for one of them.Genshin Impact completely surpassed my expectations for what a satisfying gacha game could be and I am still a daily player of it to this day. It's still great, and its ability to compel me has made me curious about Hoyoverse's other titles. None of them really grabbed my attention until Zenless Zone Zero, though. Although I do not think that it has the same level of ambition or staying power as Genshin, I do think ZZZ plays in a similar space and can reach some of the same heights.

Hollow heroes

Zenless Zone Zero is an futuristic action rpg where you play as a proxy known as Phaethon. In this game world, there was some kind of calamity that caused spheres of dark energy to envelop parts of the world. These spaces, called "hollows," are extremely dangerous, though there are people who venture into them to complete various missions or jobs. The role of a proxy is to guide these adventures through hollows safely.

This is the stage upon which Hoyoverse crafts what is basically a dungeon-crawler with fast-paced action combat and light puzzle-solving alongside a steady release schedule of agents to entice players to gamble in-game currency for. It's at this point I'm supposed to make some kind of value judgement about gacha games, but I won't. These games are pretty commonplace now. You know what you think about these models already. Play them or don't. Enjoy them or don't. I'm not your dad. All I'll say instead is that--for the purposes of this review--I spent my time clearing all but the absolute hardest mode in the game (i.e. Shiyu Defense Critical Nodes) without spending any money, and confirming that all of it is doable and satisfying as a free player.

Closed world, open possibilities

When compared to something like Genshin Impact, ZZZ feels more like a companion and response to shortcomings of the former as opposed to something meant to push things forward. There's no open-world here, and the adventures feel a lot less grand and mysterious. You aren't even a stranger in a strange land, but rather someone who lost their primary proxy account and has to start grinding their rep back up to where they were. As such, the vibe of the game is much more like that of a daily routine, though the game's story mode certainly has eventful setpieces that disrupt the regular days of running a video store, hanging out with friends, and playing in the arcade.

By being a somewhat more contained and subdued world, though, Zenless Zone Zero is able to really focus in on its style and combat system, which are the game's highlights. The result is a game that overall is super sharp and expressive, capturing the vibes of playing the equivalent of an anime you discovered on Toonami in 2000, albeit one that animates at 60 frames per second. The combat here is also fast and fluid, with a focus on teambuilding and strategy in addition to fast reflexes, pattern recognition, and combo mastery. Of course, skill alone will only get you so far, as there are multiple layers of leveling and gearing that you also have to grind out, but the level of challenge presented at every point in the game besides one (Shiyu Defense) is completely manageable without spending money or even premium currency that is doled out for free.

Cheap thrills

It's this level of tolerance for free players that I am finding myself enjoying perhaps the most with Zenless Zone Zero, at least in a way. The limitations of not being able to get every character or even max out the ones that I have adds a layer of difficulty that I enjoy overcoming specifically because the game allows for it. Optimizing all of the resources, prioritizing characters, and making the most of what I have and actually succeeding feels great. It's a formula that also helped Genshin Impact click for me, but here it feels more pronounced since there isn't nearly as much exploration to do on the side.

Outside of the gacha system, there are still limiter systems in place like multiple currencies, stamina, and even a player rank that you have to grind up even if you only want to play ZZZ for its story. These limitations don't feel especially better than they do anywhere else, so I could see this being a dealbreaker for folks with little tolerance for this kind of gameplay design. The goal here--as always--is to get you playing regularly, which can be satisfying if you enjoy acquiring and building up new characters for evolving endgame challenge content, but otherwise comes off as rather annoying.

The bottom line

There's nothing about Zenless Zone Zero that will change any set feelings about gacha games. But, assessing it for what it is, it's a great one of those games that offers something different from this new wave of gachas that reward dedicated play as much (if not more) than those with deep pockets.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/zenless-zone-zero-review/

Roia review

July 16, 2024 by RSS Feed

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/roia-review/

Loop Hero review

May 02, 2024 by RSS Feed

I have some complicated feelings about Loop Hero. I remember is as one of the big games culture phenoms under the height of COVID (along with Among Us), and it is an enjoyable upgrade treadmill that is fun as long as its systems are playing nicely together. Sometimes they aren't, as there are a ton of disparate things at play in the game, but the fact that any of it works is rather impressive, and even moreso seeing it tied so well together by its surprisingly cool art and worldbuilding. On iOS, you'd think it's kind of the perfect game to dink around with, and it is fully capable of sucking you in, but I'm not sure it has aged all that well since its initial release.

Loot loop

In the event that you haven't played Loop Hero, some explanation for how it works is required. This game borrows from a lot of other places, but as far as I know there aren't really games like it. You play as a hero who is trying to build up some semblance of civilization at the end of the world, and you do this by going on adventures where your character automatically moves around a track to fight monsters, secure supplies, level up, and find gear that will help you fight even more powerful monsters.

Your role as the player controlling this revolves somewhat around switching up gear to make your hero as strong as possible, but the main focus is actually on building up the land features on and around the track (via cards) to try and make things as hard as possible while still being able to survive so you can score the most chances at getting powerful loot to take down and end boss for big resource rewards and some story payoff.

Repeating randomness

As you advance in Loop Hero, you build up a village in between runs and the structures you build grant bonuses, add new cards to play with, and even unlock additional classes with their own gear and special combat abilities. The core of what you do in each subsequent run remains largely the same, though: kill, loot, die/retreat, repeat.

There are times where this formula is totally engrossing. It can be incredibly satisfying to happen upon a build that lets your hero go the distance to fell a boss or find special items like trophies to tip your battlefield builds in certain directions. There are plenty of other times, though, where things like this simply do not come together, and either you die or you retreat just to venture out again and see if things shake out better next time. As a game that you could basically let idle in the background of your PC while you do other things, this is mostly fine, but in other formats, not so much.

Meager on mobile

Speaking of format, this mobile version of Loop Hero is serviceable, though some of its ideas to make it more mobile-friendly are a bit odd. Perhaps the nicest thing about this port is that Loop Hero has flawless iCloud sync, allowing you to continue progress between devices, or even tie up a device to allow for some idle play if you so choose.

Beyond that, Loop Hero has added some options to try and make its smallish visuals a bit more readable, but it's all via an awkward magifying feature that didn't quite feel right in all of the configurations offered. Luckily, I found it easy enough to see and read everything on screen when playing on my iPad, though on my phone it was a little more difficult, to the point that I considered turning on high-resolution fonts on the game. I didn't, though, because it kind of ruins the aesthetic of Loop Hero, which I may have only mentioned in the intro but it's cool as hell and goes a long way to make its idle/looping gameplay more appealing.

The bottom line

Loop Hero hasn't suddenly turned into a different game in the years since its release, but you can also see why there haven't been any splashy games like it since. At times, the game feels like lightning in a bottle. At others, it gives the feel of countless other games that are just random systems slurries. When you could play it somewhat idly (and when folks had a lot more idle time), I imagine it felt more magical than it does now playing on a device where you have to face its imperfections head on.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/loop-hero-review/

Wildfrost review

April 24, 2024 by RSS Feed

Wildfrost is an easy game to fall in love with. What I mean by that every little aspect of the game has its own little charming flourish to it. You might not be able to appreciate all of those nitty gritty details on a phone screen, but on larger displays Wildfrost is one of the most polished deckbuilders you can find on the App Store.

Cold cards

The core concept of Wildfrost is hardly new. In it, you customize a deck full of units, abilities, and more to battle through increasingly difficult stages in an effort to reach and defeat a final boss. As you try and fail a bunch (and occasionally succeed), you'll unlock new cards or factions to add more variety to each playthrough.

There are definitely some significant ways in which Wildfrost reworks this idea into something unique, though. Combat takes place across two lanes and involves unit cards that have their own timers that tick down every turn before attacking and using their abilities, for example.

Friendly frosts

The main thing that jumps out about Wildfrost is just how nice it looks, feels, and sounds. Everything is bright, colorful, and full of expression, and there's a ton of little animation or design touches that bring its flat cards to life. I also want to shoutout the game's superb soundtrack, which is something I don't think I've ever said about a deckbuilding roguelite before.

All of this attention to detail extends to more technical aspects of Wildfrost as well. The game runs at an extremely smooth frame rate all the way up to 120 frames per second and its cloud saving system is among the best I've experienced, with progress syncing between devices nearly instantly.

Icy edges

As charming as I do find the vast majority of playing Wildfrost, there are a few things that I found slightly troubling in my time with it. The first (and most significant) is that it is awfully difficult to see and read cards on certain devices like my iPhone SE. If you have a larger phone, I could see this being a non-issue, but I found myself only really feeling sort of comfortable playing on my phone after simply memorizing what most cards do, and only then only playing the first few opening stages before things get too complicated.

And this brings me to my second point: deep runs in Wildfrost can be very infuriating due to a certain degree of randomness, some ambiguous card text, and the high degree of complexity that doesn't always play well with an occasionally finicky control scheme. There are multiple times during my time with Wildfrost where I lost entire runs because a card didn't operate the way I thought it would, or an attempt to read a card resulted in playing it. If there were some way to confirm card plays or have an undo button, most of this would be a non-issue. It's also something that becomes less of a problem the more you play, though that's mostly because you end up learning how to avoid these things the hard way.

The bottom line

There is an extremely high bar set for roguelites on mobile--particularly deckbuilding ones--and Wildfrost manages to clear it despite some pain points in its design. This is thanks mostly due to the game's impeccable style that makes spending more time with it a complete delight.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/wildfrost-review/

Ghost Trick review

April 18, 2024 by RSS Feed

Ghost Trick is a cult classic game for a few very good reasons. It's a one-off release by the creator of the Ace Attorney series that only released on Nintendo DS back in 2010, which was pretty late into that device's life cycle. Beloved as it may be, it's not a huge surprise to reveal that it didn't perform well sales-wise back then, but at least Capcom knows that the game captured enough hearts that it was worth remastering. This new release of Ghost Trick looks and plays great, and--although it has some of the same pain points of the original release--is well worth playing for its unique sense of style and charm.

Ghost game

Ghost Trick is a bit of a critical darling, so I won't spend too much time in this review belaboring how it works or what it's about. What's important to know for this remaster is that it takes advantage of being on upgraded hardware by looking extremely sharp and running at a smooth and stable frame rate.

As for the gameplay, using a finger in place of the stylus works exactly like you'd expect, and there's nothing so demanding design-wise that having higher fidelity touch is necessary. The only mild annoyance I came across while playing this version is that taps to advance dialog occasionally would register as a swipe input and pull up the game's dialog history instead.

Sample specter

The iOS version of Ghost Trick is a free-to-start title, which gives you a surprisingly lengthy chunk of game to play to decide if it is for you or not. You play through multiple puzzle sequences in their entirety and get enough story to get a sense of what the overall plot will end up being. Very few things past this paid point end up being all that surprising, but it is nice that Capcom has decided to really let players get a feel for the game before deciding whether to fork over a whopping $29.99 for the full experience.

Aside from the main story, Ghost Trick has a few special features like illustrations, notes, and music from the game you can browse/listen to, as well as a "Ghost Puzzle" minigame that is simply an animated jigsaw puzzle of several scenes from the game. These aren't terribly exciting add-ons in my opinion, but the core game is more than worth the asking price alone.

Old soul

The last thing to talk about now is probably just how Ghost Trick feels to play in 2024. The short version is: pretty good! It's definitely easy to peg it as an older title, but its look and gameplay are still so incredibly distinct and charismatic. In almost 15 years since its release, I don't think anything has measured up or even made the attempt to do things that Ghost Trick does.

My only caveat with the experience is that some of the game's puzzles are not all that fun to figure out. Deep into Ghost Trick as the challenges get more complex, there are times when the way to avert someone's fate with your ghost powers is--let's say--less than clear. This can lead to quite a bit of trial and error, with errors kicking you back to the beginning of a sequence. Luckily, there's a menu option in-game that lets you fast-forward through dialog to make these sections feel less tedious, but it can still grow tiresome to just experiment until you happen upon some obtuse solution to move the story forward.

The bottom line

Ghost Trick is a charming and unique puzzle adventure experience, and I'm not sure there's anything else out there quite like it. It's certainly not the smoothest play (especially these days), but this remaster definitely adds enough shine to make it worth picking up on iOS.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/ghost-trick-review/