Nintendo.com microsite – Official website – Wikipedia page
When you purchase games on the Nintendo eShop, you earn store credit. I usually save up a lot of my credit and purchase a smaller title with it. One of these titles I purchased a few months ago is named Little Noah – Scion of Paradise. After playing it for a bit, I was surprised that it was the perfect game to play on my commute to and from work. I played it on a few train rides, and I think I’m ready to share my opinion on this game. This game is something unique and now that I have beaten it once, I really want to talk about it. Wait, beaten it once? What do I actually mean? Let’s talk about it in this article, while I invite you to leave a comment with your thoughts and/or opinions on this game and/or the content of this article in the comment section down below.
Zipping Kitty Attempts
In this game, we play as an alchemist called Little Noah. She is in a long journey to reunite with her father. While she is looking for her father, her airship gets caught in a storm, and she crashes near a mysterious ruin.
In that ruin, she meets an amnesiac cat named Zipper. Well, she names it Zipper. Together, they start to explore this ruin because they encountered a dark wizard named Greigh, who wants to enable a powerful machine which is dormant in the ruin.
Now, if you are looking for a deep story… I’m going to have to disappoint you. The story of this game isn’t the main focus of this game. The story in this game is fine for what it is and does its job, but there is nothing more to it. Personally, I don’t think it’s a negative for this game. Because the story takes a backseat, the gameplay loop is a lot more polished. Also, I don’t think it was the intention to have a very in depth story.
The voice actors in this game did an amazing job and brought the characters and the world of this game to live. The amount of personality they brought to their characters is really well done and really fits the atmosphere of this game like a glove. The amazing voice acting is one of the main reasons why I didn’t mind the “To be continued” at the end of the game at all. This small title really feels like the developers are testing the water if people who be interested in a larger game set in the world of Little Noah.
So, what do I mean by “small title”? Well, this game can be beaten in an afternoon. Now, the game has quite a lot of replay value in my opinion. The gameplay loop of this game is quite enjoyable. It has quite the potential to grow into something unique that I don’t often see in these rouge lite games. But, I’ll talk more about the gameplay later.
According to various sources online, this game has been worked on by a small team of 30 people. Even by some industry legends like Yukio Futatsugi, who had his hand on another title I played in the past called World’s End Club. The amount of love and care put into this title is quite impressive and gets a thumbs up from me. I know that this game is based upon an earlier mobile game from the same developers called Battle Champs. Yet, I think it’s great to see the developers repurpose the assets after the shutdown of that game and make something new about it.
If you have ever played a game like Rouge Legacy, you’ll feel right at home in this game. In this game, you have to explore a dungeon and fight bosses. During your exploration run, you gain various special items that give you all sorts of buffs.
In terms of difficulty, this game is very balanced. While you can get lucky and get amazing items and buffs to make it quite far in the game, with enough skill and understanding of the game… you can even outplay the game if you get bad items and not good buffs. Now, I’m reading mixed things about the hard difficulty online, but I have been playing through this game on normal difficulty and I found it pretty fair and balanced. So, let’s do one more dive to explain how this game works.
One More Dive
I want to talk about the unique mechanic in this game. The combat system in this game is something I wanted to play for a long while. In this game, you are accompanied by Lilliputs. These are special creatures who attack for you. You start each run with three basic Lilliputs. During your run, you can find other Lilliputs and make yourself stronger.
Each Lilliput is very different in terms of strength, element, attack, and unique attack. You can only have five Lilliputs for your main attacks, and you have two special attack slots where you can place one Lilliput in each. So, you really need to balance your Lilliputs well. The order is also quite important, you don’t want a whole row of slow attacking Lilliputs in an area with a lot of range attacking enemies. Also, you don’t want to use a weak element compared to the enemies you are facing. If you are focusing on wind, you will have trouble with fire enemies.
It’s extremely important to understand your Lilliputs. Since, once you started an attack, you are somewhat locked into that attack. You can’t start another attack while an attack is in progress, excluding the special attacks that is. So, if the enemy moves to the other side of your attack, though luck. This game is a whole balancing and time act, and it’s a lot of fun. The randomness in this whole game makes each run unique, and you can never predict how far you’ll be able to go.
Now, dying in this game isn’t the worst thing. All your items and Lilliputs get converted into mana, which you can use to repair your airship. The more you repair your airship, the more advantages and buffs you can unlock to make even better runs. You can also use special treasure chests you can pick up in your run to either increase the strength of your unlocked Lilliputs or give to Zipper for a special bonus for your next run.
So, how does a run go? Well, allow me to compare it to a crusade in Cult of the Lamb to a degree. In that game, you go into a dungeon, and you have to go from room to room, defeating every enemy in that room before you can progress to the next room. Unlike Cult of the Lamb, some rooms give you a special challenge. These challenges are reaching a certain amount of chained damage or hits, not being hit or defeating all the enemies in a limited amount of time. When you complete this challenge, you receive an additional bonus when you defeat the room.
There are also special rooms that can spawn. A shop where you can spend the gold you earn during a run, platform challenges with a strong treasure chest at the end, (combat) challenge rooms and rooms where you can get special buffs from a crystal and a room where you can get Lilliputs or a buff item. All of these special rooms have a special icon on the map. The map also shows little icons when there is still something you can pick up in the room.
Complete exploration of a dungeon is a very risk/reward thing. You do risk your health to go into an additional room to get additional buffs, or do you want to save your health for the next (mid)boss level? In order to beat this game, you have to beat three worlds. Each world works like this: level – level – midboss – level – boss. Be warned, you can only replenish your health potions at the start of a level. During (mid)boss fights, you can’t replenish your health potions, so keep that in mind when you are deciding if it’s worth the risk to go into that challenge platforming room.
Overall, the gameplay in the dungeon is quite addictive and the fast-paced decision-making you have to make is something that got me hooked. I don’t spend a lot of time on my airship, outside repairing it and setting up the right buffs for my next run. I always want to do one more dive and try and beat the game again. Now, the airship itself is build quite well. You can also re-read the tutorial boxes in case you want to refresh your memory on certain mechanics.
Repetition of Diving
Something that really impressed me is how smooth this game actually runs. The optimization of this game is incredible. I didn’t have any frame rate issues or slowdowns at all. Even when I’m preforming my ultimate attack, which causes a lot of visual flair and effects on the screen.
The controls are extremely responsive as well. Very rarely I felt like I wasn’t in control, and I think some of these moments might even have been a false positive where I was trying to blame my mistake on the game. In terms of the controls, there are only a few nitpicks I can give. The first is the decision to place “R” as the interaction button. This feels quite unnatural and took me some getting used to. Also, I think a left-handed mode would have been welcome since I think left-handed people who appreciate the “L” button then for interactions.
Why am I placing so much attention on this? Well, because you don’t pick up items or Lilliputs automatically. You have to stand next to them and interact with their medal or crystal. But items like health drops or burst gauges are picked up automatically.
The other nitpick I have is that when you start your dive, you get a fixed amount of mana from the first dungeon. Why can’t we skip this little cutscene that plays every time? It breaks the flow of the start of a run. Since you are stopped in your tracks every time.
Another nitpick I have with the controls is how the Lilliput attack order can be decided. The problem comes when I just want to swap two Lilliputs of their place. This is something you can’t do. Unless you swap them from your inventory to the main line OR from the main line to a special attack slot and vice versa. Swapping two Lilliputs in the main line is somewhat clunky to do and feels unpolished.
Visually, this game is extremely colorful and charming. While this is a side view game, like a 2D Mario game, the backgrounds are also incredible. The team that worked on the visual presentation of this game did an amazing job. I only have one nitpick about it and that’s somewhat shared with a nitpick I have with the audio design.
I feel like the frozen status isn’t communicated clearly enough to the player. Several times I was unable to move Noah and I couldn’t figure out why. It took me sometime to realize that she was frozen and that’s the reason why I couldn’t preform an action. Either a more exaggerated visual of a frozen Noah could solve this or more sound effects when you try to do something while frozen.
Apart from that, I don’t have any complaints about the visuals. The animation feels amazing, and you feel the impact of the attacks of your Lilliputs and it feels so rewarding, adding more immersion to the gameplay loop. This game is something where I felt: “One more dive” after each time I died and returned to the airship. Each time I wanted to go and explore the amazing caverns. While I was afraid that this game would suffer from long play sessions, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the case for me. At the end of a long play session, I have to admit that the game felt a bit repetitive… But I don’t mind repetitive gameplay too much when the core gameplay loop and level design is fun.
The only negative I have about the level design is that you very quickly see all the possible room lay-outs there are in this game. While the dungeon is randomized each run, it doesn’t take long before you see similar rooms. A couple of times, I even had the same room back-to-back. This isn’t a huge problem perse, but I felt that the developers could mask this a bit better with different decorations or minor changes like one of the platforms having a possibility of crumbling or not.
The music and sound effects in this game are really catchy. I would love to add it to my playlist. Sadly, I can’t really find a way to listen to the soundtrack or even buy it. The tracks in this game are charming when they need to be but are also quite action-packed during fight scenes. The sound effects and visuals inform you quite well when an enemy is going to attack.
Now, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. I think it’s high time for my conclusion of this game. Let’s dive into the summary and my final thoughts of this game.
Summary
The bad:
– Some minor nitpicks with the controls.
– Story is fine, but lacks some depth and is predictable.
The good:
+ Very addictive gameplay loop with high replay value.
+ Amazing voice acting.
+ Breath taking visuals.
+ Extremely optimized gameplay.
+ …
Final thoughts:
This game is a small indie title created from the remains of an old gotcha game. It’s only 15€ on the Nintendo eShop and it’s totally worth it’s price in gold. While the game lacks some depth and is quite short, the replay value this game has is something that’ll make you replay this game just one more time.
While playing this game, I felt that this game was an experiment. The developers were testing the waters if the gameplay would work or not. This game feels like a prequel to a much larger game and if I’m right, I can’t wait to see what the full game or the sequel is going to be like.
Even when this game is going to be a standalone game, I don’t really mind if that’s the case. This game is a game I can highly recommend if you enjoy games like Rouge Legacy or Cult of the Lamb. While it doesn’t have a lot of, if any, base building… It’s another amazing title in the genre.
While outside of the combat mechanics, it doesn’t do a lot of things you haven’t seen (a lot) before in other similar games. But, that isn’t a bad thing. Since, sometimes a game where all the good ideas from other games come together into one title can be a lot of fun as well.
I’d love to see another game in this universe where there are a bit more stakes in using your Lilliputs. What if certain Lilliputs get weaker when you pick up items of their opposite element? Or Lilliputs that can do a special attack with another Lilliput present…
There is so much more you can do with this combat system and I think that if the developers expanded on the core mechanics, this game sequel could reach quite far. Since, the game we already got placed an amazing foundation for an amazing series. I love this game to bits and I’m so glad I gave this game a chance, since it was an amazing pleasant surprise to playthrough. It comes highly recommend from me. After I finished the game once, I let me hunger for more. I wanted to play it even more. And the fact that I barely have any complaints about this game apart from a weak story and some nitpicks… This game just has a lot of care and lot put in by the developers and everything works and fits together so well.
With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. I want to thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.
Score: 90/100
Enlarge / A thing that exists through ROM hacking, and ROMHacking.net: Super Mario Land 2, in color. (credit: Nintendo/Toruzz)
If there was something wrong with an old game, or you wanted to make a different version of it, and you wanted people to help you fix that, you typically did that on RomHacking.net. After this week, you'll have to go elsewhere.
For nearly 20 years, the site has been home to some remarkable remakes, translations, fix-ups, and experiments. Star Fox running at 60 fps, Super Mario Land 2 in color, a fix for Super Mario 64's bad smoke, even a Pac-Man "demake" that Namco spiffed up and resold—and that's not even counting the stuff that was pulled down by corporate cease-and-desist actions. It's a remarkable collection, one that encompasses both very obscure and mainstream games and well worth preserving.
Preserved it will be, but it seems that the RomHacking site will not go on further. The site's founder posted a sign-off statement to the site Thursday night, one that in turn praised the community, decried certain members of it, and looked forward to what will happen with "the next generation."
Buying a good Father’s Day gift can be tough if you’re on a budget, especially if your dad is already on the tech-savvy side. Sometimes they may claim they don’t want anything, other times they might buy the thing you’re looking to gift without telling anyone. If you need help jogging your brain, we’ve rounded up a few of the better gadgets we’ve tested that cost less than $50. From mechanical keyboards and security cameras to luggage trackers and power banks, each has the potential to make your dad’s day-to-day life a little more convenient.
© Engadget
Persona 5 doesn’t have any gay romances. Despite protagonist Joker’s relationships with his male friends and rival having what feels like some romantic tension in the eyes of its players, Persona 5 and its definitive Royal edition never let the player take that next step. Persona 5 Tactica let players express romantic…
With a sequel to 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie currently in the works, it’s only natural for fans to start casting the new characters they want to appear. Anyone from Yoshi to King Boo is on the table for a sequel, and they will all likely be voiced by some high-profile talent. One character fans are hollering for is …
Winamp was one of the most popular music players for Windows PCs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But things went downhill after AOL acquired the company and wound up largely abandoning it for years. Then a company called Radionomy bought Winamp (and the associated Shoutcast streaming service) in 2014, eventually changed its name […]
The post Lilbits: Winamp is going open source, Sony Xperia 1 VI launched, Hackbat is like a DIY Flipper Zero, and AAEON Nezha is an Intel N97 single-board PC appeared first on Liliputing.
Just a few weeks after Fedora Linux 40 was released for PCs and servers, the Fedora team has announced that Fedora Asahi Remix 40 is now available. The remix is a collaboration between Fedora and Asahi, a group of developers that have been working to enable Linux on recent Mac computers with Apple M series […]
The post Fedora Asahi Remix brings Fedora Linux 40 and Plasma 6 to Macs with Apple Silicon appeared first on Liliputing.
This past week started with a shock, as Microsoft announced it was closing a number of studios including Tango Gameworks, responsible for the very well-liked Hi-Fi Rush, leading many to wonder just what a studio has to achieve in this day and age to be deemed successful enough to exist. Also, one of the most…
It has been a very bad week for Xbox Game Studios. On Tuesday, May 7, Microsoft announced it would shut down three studios: Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush creators Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games. On top of this, Roadhouse Games is being absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer…
Nintendo, founded in 1889, is perhaps the longest running gaming company around and, perhaps due to this fact, it has largely remained a boys’ club. This began to change for the better in 2020, when it nominated its first woman to the board of directors. Since then, the company has vowed to hire more women, who make…
After shutting down multiple Bethesda studios, Xbox and Bethesda leadership held a town hall meeting with staff to discuss the closures, explaining that the company’s studios had been spread too thin and that it wanted to focus on fewer projects moving forward.
Earlier this week, Xbox announced that it would be shuttering several studios it had attained as part of its $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda, including Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, the last of which is being absorbed into another team. Collectively, the studios’ produced…
On May 7, Microsoft closed down four first-party development studios it had acquired from Zenimax Media in 2021 including Tango Gameworks, developer of The Evil Within series and 2023’s surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush. It’s the latest round of layoffs and closures that the gaming industry, and Xbox specifically, has seen in…
Fortnite, Epic Games’ wildly popular battle royale, has been a platform for music streaming for quite some time now. Recently, it even launched its own built-in rhythm game, Fortnite Festival, which has been headlined by icons like Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, and most recently, Billie Eilish.
Musí vás zajímat fotbal. Blue Lock je totiž příběhem Yoichi Isagiho, fotbalového útočníka a snaživého týmového hráče. Jednoho dne je společně s dalšími 299 útočníky pozván na místo zvané Blue Lock. Zde si všechny chlapce vezme do parády podezřele energický Džinpači Ego. Ten se svým posluchačům představí jako fotbalový trenér a zasvětí je do jeho životního poslání.
Po roce 2018, kdy japonský národní tým nešťastně vypadl už v osmifinále, se tamní fotbalový svaz rozhodl rázně zakročit. Od té doby hledá Japonsko prvotřídního střelce, který zemi dovede k titulu. Takového střelce ale není tak lehké najít, což Džinpači dobře ví, proto se rozhodne takového fotbalistu vychovat. A přesně k tomu slouží „věznice“ Blue Lock. Cílem je vychovat perfektního egoistu, který pro vítezství udělá cokoliv. Dokáží se ale chlapci vzdát svým dosavadních úspěchů, vztahů a plánů, kvůli bláznivě působícímu trenérovi? Ten kdo tuhle hru vydrží až do konce, odejde jako nejlepší útočník na světě!
Všichni přítomní mladíci jsou rozděleni do 5 oddělení, které každé obsahuje 5 jednotlivých týmů a nějakou chvíli jim trvá, než pochopí systém, který zde funguje. Než se všichni zvládnou pořádně rozkoukat, začne první hra. Jedná se o první díl sbírky Blue Lock a tak lze knize odpustit, že právě ona první hra je jedinou akční scénou, kterou zde najdete. To nejdůležitější přichází hned po skončení této minihry, a tím je prozření hlavního hrdiny, kterému dojde co znamená ono číslo na jeho dresu a písmenu ve středu místnosti. A není to nic dobrého. Našemu hrdinovi nestojí v cestě jen množství nástrah uvnitř Blue Locku nebo 299 cílevědomých mladíků, ale také niterní souboj, který svádí již dlouhá léta. Dokáže se Yoichi prosadit a jít si za svým snem?
Blue Lock od vydavatelství Crew má na svědomí Munejuki Kaneširo. O velmi solidní art-style se postaral Júsuke Nomura. Příběh prvního dílu se rozprostírá na 212 stránkách s brožovanou vazbou a o český překlad se postarala zkušená Anna Křivánková. Mangu Blue Lock můžete aktuálně zakoupit s 10% slevou, a to přímo na stránkách Crew.cz.
Upřímně jsem nečekal, že se dokážu pro Blue Lock tak nadchnout a celý první díl jsem doslova proletěl během 4 hodin strávených ve vlaku. Kromě hlavního hrdiny mě zaujal i neortodoxní trenér Ego a už teď mi vrtá hlavou to, kam se jeho postava posune v druhém díle.
Článek RECENZE: Blue Lock – Zoufalý krok nebo revoluce na fotbalových trávnících? se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.
AMD GPUOpen - Graphics and game developer resources
Orochi 2.0 has almost exhaustive CUDA/HIP functions, new demos, and multiple other improvements.
The post Orochi 2.0 adds many more CUDA/HIP functions + more demos appeared first on AMD GPUOpen.
Folks, Akira Toriyama’s passing has completely shaken me in a way I didn’t think possible. It’s always sad when someone responsible for a thing you love passes away, but what’s getting to me today is how much it feels like I took him and his work for granted. I didn’t recognize he was a hero of mine until it was too…
If you haven’t heard, Akira Toriyama, the legendary creator of the Dragon Ball franchise and character designer of beloved games like Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series, has passed away at the age of 68. As fans and collaborators have expressed condolences and tributes online, a lot of attention has…
Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise and character designer for video games like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, has died at the age of 68.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s in-universe card game Queen’s Blood has taken players by storm. Whether it’s the thrill of the hunt for a new card, or besting your opponent with a broken deck, the Final Fantasy series has another standout card game to go alongside Final Fantasy VIII’s revered Triple Triad and Final…
Xbox Game Pass is one helluva deal. For between $10.99 and $16.99 each month, you get access to a large vault of games from a variety of genres. Each month sees a handful of titles leave the subscription service, but Microsoft always seems to ensure there are more than 400 games on offer. That does mean that you never…
Superhero movies are in a weird place right now, especially at Marvel’s house of ideas. Even as recent films struggle to land with audiences like the surefire hits of old, the studio is ready to look ahead with the heightened interest in what’s on the horizon. But part of that horizon includes navigating the murky…
Update: 2/14/24, 3:30 p.m.:Last week’s demo for the hotly anticipated RPG Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hit digital shelves and although public perception remains positive, there has been some concern over the visuals, specifically when using the game’s high frame rate “Performance” mode. That’s hopefully going to change…
Přihlásit se