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Author Topic: Pocket games thread  (Read 126656 times)

Reelya

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #705 on: July 20, 2020, 01:10:46 am »

I did really want to like Merchant and ended up trying a few times (and deleting it each time), but in the end it felt like too much work for too little gain.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The sweet spot in that game is really the opening few hours and it goes downhill after that.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2020, 01:24:31 am by Reelya »
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AzyWng

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #706 on: July 23, 2020, 04:40:56 pm »

Stumbled across a game called "Phantom Rose Scarlet".

It's another deck-building roguelike, this time about choosing cards when they come off of cooldown and placing them in two slots of a sequence of attacks. This allows for stuff like cards that have special effects that trigger when there's a card of a certain type in front of or behind them.

It's a fairly interesting game. I'd argue the in-app purchases are fine - one to remove ads, one to increase your inventory space, and others for premium currency - mainly used for cosmetic things.
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #707 on: July 30, 2020, 05:37:32 pm »

Had a try of Rogue Jack. It's a roguelike/ blackjack mash-up, where every time you meet a monster, you play a hand of blackjack against it to defeat it. So, yes, two genres of game I love, but am not very good at, in one!

There's heaps of caveats to this though. As you level, you get enhanced abilities. You start with seeing your draws, so you can't bust. You then get two cards to pick from. I'm now up to three cards to pick from, with a 60% chance of any of them being face-up (and four life. Update: next level is 3 cards, 70% face-up chance, 5 life. Yes, I still die with those advantages) .

You also get weapons that deal varying levels of damage and have other effects as well, as well as healing potions, etc. The monsters follow set rules (early ones don't even hit, some will stay on 12, or 17, some win ties, etc), giving them varying degrees of difficulty.

But it's Black Jack. You can always lose, no matter how heavily stacked the odds are in your favour. But you keep your character level (not items though) and can always warp back to the dungeon level that you just died on and carry on. The race for a decent weapon when going back to the deeper levels is a challenge in itself, let along making it to the next one.

26 levels down, find the amulet, then 26 back up. And hundreds of hands of blackjack along the way. It's surprisingly quick to play for all that. I've made it to the amulet, and now I'm on the way back up, up to lvl20 so far (level32 I guess). The levels become huge, and there's as much "just dash to the stairs" and "items first, fights only when necessary" rogue'ing as there is card-playing involved. You'll fight hobgoblins, dragons, ghosts, androids, skeletons, and many others, all with their own differing health, attacks, and rules that they play by.

Anyway, give it a go. It's free, and quite fun. The graphics and sound aren't much to look at or listen to, but for a very different spin on the roguelite genre, it's worth checking out. Think of it as a lesson of why you probably shouldn't gamble. Even with the odds massively stacked in your favour, you will lose. A lot. But you don't have to mortgage anything in this one to find out :)
« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 06:36:37 pm by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #708 on: July 31, 2020, 07:20:12 pm »

I finished Rogue Jack! 1237 hands played, 819 wins, for a 66.2% win rate. This is with three cards to choose from, with an 80% chance of any of them being face-up. So, yes, I lost over 400 times, with the odds stacked somewhere in the 75% range in my favour for me.

I will say, the ending is a little anti-climatic. I wasn't really expecting much though.

The last ten floors were a mad dash to the exit, other than the few floors that spawned the "must kill everything" mod. Anyway, it was fun. For the few days I've had it. It's small enough that it can sit on my phone should I ever have the urge to play 100's of hands of cheaty blackjack again....

(I think it's some form of rather effective aversion therapy for now though. I don't want to play it, let alone real blackjack, for quite a while)
« Last Edit: July 31, 2020, 07:25:20 pm by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #709 on: August 20, 2020, 02:11:53 am »

Otherworld Legends by Chillyroom (the makers of Soul Knight) has just been released. So, I've been playing a bit of it.

To put it in a nutshell, it's kind of like a mixture between Soul Knight, Binding of Isaac, and River City Ransom. But slightly anime'y/Dragon Crown'y (sound-wise, proper pixel-art though, with just a tiny bit of jiggle).

In essence, it's an action roguelite, with a fairly heavy melee focus. Except when it isn't.

And it's pretty good.

Chillyroom tends to release stuff when there's a game there, and it's not bad, and then add a heap of stuff to it later, so it's a tiny bit barebones for now. At least, compared to Soul Knight, but they've had that out for ages. So, I'm almost certain that this will end up with heaps more stuff in it, as they create it. They're pretty good like that.

I've used the initial Monk-chick punchy character and the Archer-girl shooty one. Both are pretty satisfying to use, play very differently compared to each other, and can be tooled for various playstyles pretty easily.

You get two skills, and then collect BoI style modifiers for your basic attacks and skills. And some of them are awesome. You can have four mods equipped, carry as many as you want to swap in and out in your backpack, and potentially up to four on your weapon. All characters also get a dodge roll, and while it feels a tiny bit clunky at first (in fact, all the controls do), the moment you get used to it, you feel like a friggen ninja.

Want a continuous dps setup? Go twin shadow striker with the monk, to triple your basic attack dps and proc item mods. Want a room cleaner? Go for twin shoulder barge, because it hits pretty hard and gives tonnes of i-frames, but can be difficult to line up on bosses. Or go for a mix with super-ki-punch and a shoulder barge, for a bit of generally-good-at-everything stuff. It's actually pretty nice having these sorts of options from the get-go on each run, and how they variously change your playstyle and mod setup to a pretty high degree.

The archer might be a tiny bit too good (I've gotten to world 3-3 within a few hours, and I'm hopeless at this sort of game. It took me ~15 months to finish Soul Knight, playing occasionally). Twinning your basic arrow-barrage skill can proc some silly stuff. Pre-charge your bow, walk into room, fire, press skill 1+ skill 2, and start moving/charging your next shot or roll like hell until your skills are off cool down.

You do get some amazing mods too. I had a "poison cloud around me + poison damage" bow, every enemy you kill might get raised as an ally in that room, every enemy killed creates an AoE lightning strike on it, and every enemy killed makes a magic missile swarm. For general rooms, the kill-chains were hilarious. It also turned the desert boss's adds against it, and put the halberd-knight boss's 1st-phase horse on my side. Very funny stuff.
(just had a +attack speed (subbed out for -cooldown for extra shoulder barges later), possible freeze fairy, possible lightning arc fairy, get a tutorial enemy knight ally always, and "all armour is health plus you now have health Regen" mod on my weapon run on a shoulder-charge main + shadow-boxer secondary skill setup Monk run. Felt amazing. Could hit and proc stuff, but could damage and dodge as well)

Anyway, give it a go. There's a tiny bit of learning curve with the controls, especially considering how fluid Soul Knight's felt, but then you all of a sudden feel really comfortable with them, and they feel great. Yes, there are paid$ characters, but the Monk and the Samurai can probably do pretty well anyway, and they're free. Though, as soon as I started using the Archer was the moment I learnt how to play properly,  and those skills transfer back onto other characters pretty well too.

So, yeah. If action roguelites are a thing you like, this is one of them. And it's quite good, even very early in the development cycle of it.


(played a bit more. Have the Knight and the Samurai as well now. The Knight hits very hard, has a long-range part in their combo, and has a charge-up attack, but instead of a dodge they have a shield block. Very, very strong, but pretty slow. The Samurai is pretty nice, with good burst damage and an i-frame execution special, but haven't used him heaps yet. Have the option of unlocking the Engineer and the Shopkeeper (yes, you can kill the shopkeeper, then unlock him to use), but haven't gotten around to buying them yet. Apparently there's going to be an update soon, where things are buyable for non-cash collectables, so I might hold off for a bit. Still, I'm happy to throw $5-6 at a game from a developer I like, to get the ball rolling for them. It's like the cost of a drink at a bar, so no biggie)

((played a bit more, after the "don't have to pay cash for stuff" update. Archer-chick with twin rapid-shot (penetrating on main skill) is So OP. It's fun as, even for someone bad at games like this. It's like Enter the Gungeon, but you're the only one with a machine gun and a dodge-roll. It's pretty fun))
« Last Edit: August 25, 2020, 08:19:08 am by sambojin »
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Dostoevsky

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #710 on: August 20, 2020, 09:23:28 am »

Rogue Jack

For what it's worth, if you want even more blackjack-based rogue-like gameplay, there's also Void Tyrant. Based on the description you've provided Void Tyrant is more in the 'like' than the 'Rogue' compared to Rogue Jack, and it's technically using a slightly different number realm (cards are 1-6, aiming for 12), but it's a blackjack experience.

There is card-counting, and hit/stay is like blackjack (one from the top, can't see what it'll be). Like card-battling games you have a hand of abilities - manipulate your number, do damage or status effects, look at your next card, etc.

It's pretty decent.
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #711 on: August 25, 2020, 12:45:24 am »

Played a bit of Guardian Tales. They do it so well. A mixture of basic combat and puzzles. Then they do it like a mobile game as well. But it's so good until that kicks in.

I've got a town, to manage, after Act 1, and now I don't want to play it any more. Click, click, yay, wait, upgrade!, blah, Bleh...

I mean, it's free-to-play, and all that. But then there's way too much shit to do, just logging in each day. So, yeah. Nah. Fuckit. Fuck that. I'm out.

That's probably not even necessarily needed to enjoy the game. But, still, there it is. Trying to do everything.

Still a really good game. It's just that it's "a mobile game", and I couldn't be fucked with those hoops to jump through. I can emulate stuff, from other systems, or give things the "Sambojin Seal of Approval", or whatever. That are good games that don't have that shit or timers or crap.

Don't get me wrong. This is good. But it's very "mobile'y", and I honestly couldn't be fucked bothering to play it long-term.

Maybe it'll hit you nicer than my OMFG? It's pretty good at what it does. Just, for me, nup. 
« Last Edit: August 25, 2020, 06:20:16 am by sambojin »
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #712 on: August 25, 2020, 01:31:41 am »

I guess it comes right down to,  "do you want to be a *whale* for some random game you enjoy, or should the game itself be fun enough to play for everyone, regardless of your input?".

Is it skill-capped (#1), play-time capped (#2), or truly money-capped (#3)?

#1or #2 is fine. And I think the game above might be play-time capped, in many ways. But I'd rather throw money at a #1 game, than a #3 game, all in all.

Otherworld Legends? Skill capped. There's nothing stopping you finishing it on your first playthrough.
Stuff like Event Horizon Frontier, and probably the above game Guardian Tales, is a #2 game, a collectathon that could put Diablo 2 to shame, but EHF doesn't have many timers, GTales does.
Every type #3 game is best not be played or mentioned, and I hope Guardian Tales hasn't slid too far that way. Seems free to play enough, but is it, really?
« Last Edit: August 25, 2020, 08:24:07 am by sambojin »
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Jopax

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #713 on: August 28, 2020, 01:49:39 pm »

So Sandship: The last engineer, or however it's called in the app store itself. Pretty neat little merger of factorio elements and idle games. You essentially run a big sand crawling thing that has factories strapped to it. Inside them you set up production chains, tech up, solve quests by throwing stuff you produced at them, all the good stuff. It's a tad simplistic when it comes to the actual complexity of the production chains, atleast at first, it seems they introduce a nice amount of complexity as time goes on. Of course one of the big challenges is working with limited floor space, so those of you into optimizing your layouts in factorio might like this aspect. Best of all it doesn't have any ads and the monetization is not terribly aggressive, consisting mostly of boosters and time-skips, which aren't really necessary if you treat it like a proper idle game and check in on it every now and then.
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #714 on: September 19, 2020, 11:05:42 pm »

Played a tiny bit of Phantasy Star: Idola. Didn't really like it. Just another gatcha game with a tiny bit of combat choice. It might get better, but it's 2-3gig on my phone, and while the music is nice, the voice acting is slightly wasted on me (I don't speak Japanese). And I've got better things to do with 3gig of storage for now (like get openxcom working, or just buying Xcom: Enemy Within, and seeing how that goes on a phone. Or tracking down the latest dos-compatible version of DoomRL available and applying a Magic Dosbox touchscreen interface to it (PS, I will literally pay someone for dos versions of DoomRL later than 0.9.8 )).

While it had the basic window dressing of a Phantasy Star game (the currency was meseta, the bad guy was Dark Falz/ Dark Force, etc), if it wasn't for those few words, it could have been literally any other mobile Japanese franchise, and I wouldn't have known. The term "rpg" is sort of a non-thing. It was just "click mission, press skills, win, repeat". No map exploration, progress may have been hard or soft-grind walled (don't know, only played through the first chapter), and it just felt a bit flat.

Which is a pity. They really put some effort into it. I think. Maybe. They literally call the random in-game currency character drops out as gatchas, and I'm sort of fine with that, because they literally are. The music is of reasonable production quality. The voice-acting is probably quite good. The plot is a bit "meh". The graphics aren't bad (OK, it's anime big-boobs, but I don't hold that against a product these days. I even got "swim-suit edition main'ish side character" as a gatcha drop! The one with the little/ medium boobs and a mask/ hidden power complex. Lol. Japan).

It just didn't feel very Phantasy Star'ish. I mean, I played part 1-4 as a kid and a young adult (emulation lets you catch up on consoles you didn't own as a kid, and even a Pentium 1 could emulate a megadrive), missed PSO, played a bit of PSO2 (have they even bothered translating that properly yet?), but this wasn't any of them. It kinda feels like Phantasy Star 3 in a way. Just way off the beaten path, and not necessarily in a good way. It just didn't click as a fantasy/sci-fi mix-up rpg whatever, that Phantasy Star usually does quite well. But I'm not sure if this will have the cool generational descendants or anything that PS3 did, that was at least cool in its own way for that title. I could have characters in my party in this one, that story-wise, I've not even met. I have no idea who they are. Which gets a bit strange storyline-wise, on immersion:


"Listen to my character plot! It's *important*! I'm Walther, paladin-knight of *something*. Well met! I am glad to see such noble people, helping defend my lands, that you just finally visited!"

"Walther, huh? Umm, dude, you've been here in the party for three weeks now. You're just a stat-shell with the right element and skills to combo off. I gatcha'd you off my first free 5-star drop. I mean, good to know your story and all that, but yeah... I've literally ascended you twice!"

(don't have a clue who this guy is yet, but was my first 5-star. I'll probably meet him later)


It's like they went "gatcha games can sometimes be profitable, and people love FF7 stuff, especially the eidolons, and making simplistic "potentially auto-battler/ grinder" games is pretty easy. Lets do that! Maybe with a fairly substantial budget! And/or a licensed engine!".

Maybe it gets better. Maybe the story will be amazing if I play more. Maybe I'll try it again. But I think they missed the magic with this one, and I wish they didn't.

Can someone slap Sega of Japan? Repeatedly? I swear, it can't hurt, and it might just help....
« Last Edit: September 21, 2020, 04:57:53 pm by sambojin »
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Frumple

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #715 on: September 20, 2020, 01:33:08 am »

PSO2 has been proper translated, yeah. It's on steam and everything, these days, for what it's worth. We even got a thread somewhere or another here in OG. Bloody huge download, though... 20+ gigs, iirc.
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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #716 on: September 20, 2020, 05:11:53 am »

PSO2 has been proper translated, yeah. It's on steam and everything, these days, for what it's worth. We even got a thread somewhere or another here in OG. Bloody huge download, though... 20+ gigs, iirc.
More like 80+.  :P 80 gigs of sub-Morrowind quality junk. Maybe it is diffirent version, though.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2020, 05:14:47 am by MCreeper »
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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #717 on: September 20, 2020, 07:55:45 am »

Hi!
I think that this is a good topic to start a discussion. In my opinion it is important to not forget the good old board games.
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Aoi

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #718 on: October 04, 2020, 10:54:58 pm »

Combo! The "Recommend me a-- Pocket games thread: Does anybody know anything available on the US Google Play store that's remotely decent that is Chinese-language? Ideally something closer to the side of board game, puzzle, or hidden object, than action or RPG.

I've dug up a few flavors of (real) Mahjong, Xiangqi, and, I think, a room escape, but my limited cross-lingual searching skills have run dry without dipping into things that seem like rather blatant advertising cashgrabs or malware.
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sambojin

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Re: Pocket games thread
« Reply #719 on: October 05, 2020, 06:57:41 pm »

Pathos: the Nethack Codex is 95% translated into Chinese I think. It's a rogue
like, therefore turn-based, and there's a bit of a puzzle element to it (kind of). It is a very good roguelike at least.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon (and other pixel dungeon derivatives) also have some pretty good language support. I think Chinese is one of them. Bless the roguelikes, hey? 


Can't think of much else for now. I'll edit this when I do.

 
« Last Edit: October 05, 2020, 07:01:48 pm by sambojin »
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