I'd rather they grow as a publisher than as a developer really. You can only become so big without having to sacrifice some of your identity. I hope they don't end up chewing off more than they can swallow, having just started publishing stuff and now this.
I'm quite enjoying Lost Horizon. At first I thought it was going to be some cheap, short, crappy ios port or something. But after you get out of Hong Kong it gets much better and more enjoyable. I got to the temple from the start of the game and thought it would end there, too short? Then it whisked me across the world to Morroco and had a large play area of desert and cities and encampments. It's user interface which I was a touch confused by at first - literally the controls screen is the 1st thing on the screen when you boot it up. Now I've played all day yesterday, I'd say it's one of the most versatile control schemes for a point and click game on Switch. You can play with 1 joycon vertically, and switch the gyro from left to right. I haven't had such lazy, beautiful one handed gameplay since Endless Ocean and Animal Crossing City folk. You can use wii style pointer controls in docked mode (most other use dual sticks instead). It has the puzzle solutions in a book in concise language, you can choose to use it if really stuck or lazy. And combining items in most games is a slow process of clicking each and dropping and listening to your character say "nope" multiple times. Instead here you can click and drag your item over All items and if it will work it glows green. Also when playing normally if something can be investigated the cursor emits waves when you hover over it. The story is basically like a B-movie Indiana Jones but it does have quite a few lines that surprised me. Either very funny, or borderline offensive, in a funny or surprising way. The gameplay got more complex in terms of your thinking but it's always logical and makes it feel good when you complete a task. And it helps that the backgrounds are nearly always beautiful. It also went deep into graphic adventure territory finding ridiculous and funny ways to resolve some situations. Like scaring an animal with a fake animal, then stealing its poop to set on fire.
Riding monsters and making them attack other monsters never gets old in Rise. It’s even more fun when two players grab a monster each and duke it out. Another really cool thing that you can do in Rise is use your wire bug to launch up over a monster and then throw a barrel bomb down on top of it when your in the air. So cool, so fun.
I can now confidently say that if you loved Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, you will like, maybe even love Lost Horizon. It took a while to get to this point but yeah it gets a thumbs up and has brightened up this week. It goes from Hong Kong mobsters to snowy mountain bases and temples. Then dusty Morroco with snooty French Gendarmerie and merchants, to the Nazi Olympics. You do such varied stuff like rigging a long jump competition, or stealing candy from a baby. Then you're whisked off to Nazi castles and Thule society secret rooms. Then to India, where I just had to outsmart a man eating tiger. It's the gift that keeps giving. I bought the sequel last night too. 😁
Forgot to mention, most of these locations have multiple destinations to go through, a map screen pops up and you can choose from say, the museum in Germany, the Olympic stadium, the IOC offices etc. In Morroco you have the city, the desert Oasis, a desert camp, the police station. So it's not just a couple of screens for each location. And most have rooms or buildings to go inside too.
There are lots of hidden object games on the switch shop mostly by this company called Artifex Mundi. Their logo is like the old Lucas arts logo. I've never really played on of these games but they look enough like graphic adventures for me to investigate. I found this article by a games journalist who never tried them before. He challenged himself to play them for a week: https://www.thexboxhub.com/the-joy-of-artifex-a-week-playing-hidden-object-games/
"I’m a hidden object convert (to a degree, give me a month) and I’ve got the scars to show for it. I’ve outclimbed an octopus, hit a pinata full of cogs, married an ancient spirit, pulled a chandelier onto a bear and defeated a Lovecraftian evil by completing a jigsaw puzzle. What did YOU do this week?" lol.
Yesterday I started Genesis Noir, a point-and-click adventure game in which you investigate the Big Bang, portrayed as a murder on Miss Mass in a visually striking world, all tied together by Jazz music. I'm not sure yet where I stand on this. It's quite the unique experience, but the gameplay so far is a mixed bag, although I'm not even sure I'd say the gameplay is the main draw for a game such as this. The concept alone warrants a playthrough.
Well we took down the Furious Rajang yesterday on our third attempt of the evening. The gear you can build from it is pretty underwhelming, save for health boosting trousers and a fine hammer. I'm also at a stage where I'm pretty satisfied with all my armour. For those in the know, I've got following peks:
- max defense up
- 6/7 critical eye with a total affinity of 45%
- max handicraft
- max health boost
- 2/3 weakness exploit
- 2/3 divine blessing
And enough room to gem for max elemental resillience depending on what we'll be fighting. Not sure how I'm ever going to improve over that. I'm looking into stuff like Latent Power and Cricital Boost, but they're hard to fit into my build without having to compromise heavily on other things.
Well we took down the Furious Rajang yesterday on our third attempt of the evening. The gear you can build from it is pretty underwhelming, save for health boosting trousers and a fine hammer. I'm also at a stage where I'm pretty satisfied with all my armour. For those in the know, I've got following peks:
- max defense up
- 6/7 critical eye with a total affinity of 45%
- max handicraft
- max health boost
- 2/3 weakness exploit
- 2/3 divine blessing
And enough room to gem for max elemental resillience depending on what we'll be fighting. Not sure how I'm ever going to improve over that. I'm looking into stuff like Latent Power and Cricital Boost, but they're hard to fit into my build without having to compromise heavily on other things.
I tried a couple of these hidden object demos on the switch eshop. There's this one called True Fear and another one Four Horseman something or other. I was interested in seeing what they were like as they seemed to have a lot in common with graphic adventures. Tbh they are fairly similar. You are a mute and play in the first person. You have a scene and you pretty much investigate in the manner as a graphic adventure. The True Fear one was pretty good, there are all sorts of clues and documents, the artwork is excellent and the atmosphere is great. Problem was in both games, no gyro support but even worse no option to increase cursor speed. There is touchscreen support but I prefer to use the TV mostly and the switch screen in bed. The cursor is soooo slow it drives me mad. Edit - found the cursor option. True Fear ain't half bad.
I guess you are big in Japan.
That is so terrible.
And so the decent to the dark side begins.
I'd rather they grow as a publisher than as a developer really. You can only become so big without having to sacrifice some of your identity. I hope they don't end up chewing off more than they can swallow, having just started publishing stuff and now this.
I think I will have to purchase it soon.
I’m HUGE!
Super Mario Bros. 35 and Super Mario 3D All-Stars are no more.
Riding monsters and making them attack other monsters never gets old in Rise. It’s even more fun when two players grab a monster each and duke it out. Another really cool thing that you can do in Rise is use your wire bug to launch up over a monster and then throw a barrel bomb down on top of it when your in the air. So cool, so fun.
Yesterday I started Genesis Noir, a point-and-click adventure game in which you investigate the Big Bang, portrayed as a murder on Miss Mass in a visually striking world, all tied together by Jazz music. I'm not sure yet where I stand on this. It's quite the unique experience, but the gameplay so far is a mixed bag, although I'm not even sure I'd say the gameplay is the main draw for a game such as this. The concept alone warrants a playthrough.
Well we took down the Furious Rajang yesterday on our third attempt of the evening.
The gear you can build from it is pretty underwhelming, save for health boosting trousers and a fine hammer. I'm also at a stage where I'm pretty satisfied with all my armour. For those in the know, I've got following peks:
- max defense up
- 6/7 critical eye with a total affinity of 45%
- max handicraft
- max health boost
- 2/3 weakness exploit
- 2/3 divine blessing
And enough room to gem for max elemental resillience depending on what we'll be fighting. Not sure how I'm ever going to improve over that. I'm looking into stuff like Latent Power and Cricital Boost, but they're hard to fit into my build without having to compromise heavily on other things.
Nice. 👍