Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 5
0Welcome to Part 5 of Let's Play Some Demos | LPSD!
In sum, these videos and streams aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games!
For this episode, I, once again, looked through my Steam Wishlist to see who had demos available.
For those who are new, the purpose of this video series is to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes.
Today, I played demos for 4 games:
1. All-Star Fruit Racing: https://store.steampowered.com/app/673190/AllStar_Fruit_Racing/
A high-speed multiplayer racer with a unique power-up system! Combine different juices for a range of attacking and defensive abilities. Drift through looping bends. Soar over monumental jumps, and defy gravity around tubular tracks in an explosively colorful racer!
2. Indivisible: https://store.steampowered.com/app/421170/Indivisible/
Indivisible is a hand drawn action RPG platformer from Lab Zero, creators of the critically acclaimed Skullgirls! Set in a huge fantasy world, Indivisible tells the story of Ajna, a fearless girl with a rebellious streak who sets out on a quest to save everything she knows from being destroyed.
3. SaGa Emerald Beyond: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2085000/SaGa_Emerald_Beyond/
FORGE YOUR OWN TALE The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond, brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience.
4. Visions of Mana: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2490990/Visions_of_Mana/
Explore a world of elemental spirits and adventure in the latest Mana action-RPG. The protagonist Val and his childhood friend Hinna, the newly appointed Alm of Fire, set off on a journey to the Mana Tree.
The verdict?
All-Star Fruit Racing and SaGa Emerald Beyond were removed from my wishlist, to my dismay.
Fruit Racing crashed 3 times; not much else needs to be said. SaGa, however, wasn't fun. It looked great, visually, and it had an interesting start, but once I started being able to do things, it went downhill. The music was better than I expected it to be; too bad I had the volume so low. The Timeline mechanic reminded me of Othercide, which made me smile, but that was about it. I was NOT expecting the Scottish accents. If the game depended upon my having prior knowledge to enjoy it, I missed that. The art style was excellent! The animations were smooth! The game looks gorgeous! How they did their turn-based combat, however, left much to be desired.
My favorite one was Visions of Mana, to my surprise. It reminded me a LOT of Final Fantasy XV, which makes sense since they're both Square Enix games. One would expect some familiar elements. The character banter was fun to listen to; the combat was intuitive until the camera got annoying. PUPPY MOUNTS! Anyway, the art style was consistent; if there's a name for it, I forgot, but the art style was realistic enough to be believable while also being stylized enough to be unique and fun. One thing that annoyed me, but probably shouldn't have since I wasn't familiar with the series, was all the exposition in the beginning. It probably had to do with the voice acting being meh. I've already forgotten the character's names, except for Val, the protagonist, but I do remember thinking whoever voiced the Kitty Cat, whose name I regret not remembering because he holds a dagger in his tail when he fights, was trying too hard. I LOVE that game regardless. It's one of a handful of games I've played that made me WANT to explore!
Indivisible was a close second, despite the fact it pissed me off in the end. It was trying to introduce how to flee a battle, but, no matter what I did, fleeing didn't happen, which forced me to end the demo early. However, I was having a BLAST up until that point! Once I got a hang of the combat system, mostly, I was grooving! I had trouble figuring out which party member was being attacked so I could block the attacks, but it didn't stop me from wishing...
The rest is too long for a YouTube description.
If you're interested in the rest of the mini-reviews, check out the link to the Opinions & Truth | O&T blog below:
https://wp.me/p6f7OZ-8CL
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"Let's Play Some Demos!" Playlist:
• Let's Play Some Demos! (LPSD)
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The Sunday, October 20, and 633rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to FestivalOfRavens!
Check them out here: https://ko-fi.com/i/IX8X014ZCX8
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Welcome Gamers!
1:19 - Artist Shout-Out
3:25 - Demos' Intro
3:48 - All-Star Fruit Racing
8:21 - Indivisible - Don't know what's going on with the small rectangle
44:05 - Be Right Back
1:20:36 - SaGa Emerald Beyond
1:58:31 - Visions of Mana
4:13:38 - Mini Critique
4:17:54 - Thank You/Closing
4:19:02 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug
4:21:14 - Farewell
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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT
- MonriaTitans Summarized: https://becomempowered.carrd.co/
- Rendezvous Point Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/monriatitans
#SubOffTwitch: https://ko-fi.com/monriatitanswgs/tiers