#Tales From The Frontlog

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The Frontlog: Princess Peach Showtime.

7/10

Princess Peach Showtime is good. It’s a game I’m willing to bet will be overlooked in the sea of Mario titles that exist on the Switch. It’ll probably be even a bit pricey down the line. The smaller weird titles like this tend to do that.

The best way to describe this game is that it’s a game about a being magical girl who uses various transformations to help people. When you look hard enough almost all the tropes are there and that alone makes this worth a pickup. Because games that are so blatantly like that are rare.

But you really feel like it’s missing something that could’ve made it truly special. Which is weird because it does offer a very complete experience. I guess the best way to put it is it has trouble feeling like a “Mario” world title. And not because Mario is missing. Give me some credit.

I had a fantastic time playing, but we’re about the dissect what I think Princess Peach Showtime is missing.

Firstly I want to get aesthetic out of the way. Partially because there were a lot arguments online if Peach was “fem” enough. Which was peak stupidity. Peach is the fem of fems. It was insane this was even an argument. Also these outfits rocked.

But more importantly her game really lacked that Mario pop. Peach is fun, the premise is great, but you really could swap out Peach for a different magical girl and the premise/world still work. Peach just sells better. And she’s cute. Just look at her.

And I’m not complaining about the absence of most of the Mario cast. Characters as individuals should be able to shine on their own. Peach being the only main cast member used was a great decision. But you don’t feel like you’re in that high fantasy Mario environment. Even when away from the Mushroom Kingdom mario still has a very specific look to it.

Mario is high fantasy in its own way. I wanted to see that better reflected in Princess Peach Showtime. Every once in a while you do see glimpses, specifically in a Paper Mario way. Where the backgrounds are obviously set dressing, the horses have strings, some thorns were cardboard cut out, etc.

I think they needed to lean into this more. In a way I think the environment needed to be less immersive. I get that “there’s evil magic” but I think it should’ve looked a bit more hokey like real plays. Also put some people in the audience watching Peach rescue people. Have curtains close at the end of levels instead of it fading to white and then closing. You’re closing the curtain. You don’t need the fade to white. They’re small details that would’ve gone a long way to really increase the look. Maybe even bring some of the lighting in as part of the platforming where you’re running on the equipment and then reenter on a stage over.

It might be a useless complaint. I think this might’ve been more of a quick budget title for Nintendo at the end of a console life cycle, but don’t quote me on that.

There’s small aesthetic nitpicks I have too.

Like what the fuck is this? And they do this with the green and blue dresses too where they add this clashing purple. I’m not going to sit here and tell you she looks hideous. She doesn’t, but let us have a dress that is completely blue! And they don’t match the shoe color to any of the dresses fyi. Those stay her traditional red. I know that’s a nitpick, like a really small one, but it still… bothers me. I understand why they put it there. I just don’t care. Purple and yellow? And so lazily executed? Hmpf.

And she obviously looks better when everything matches to some degree. Look at that! Why did they restrict the color palette on the dress options so much. I get that pink is her color but… come on. The costumes are allowed to break the mold but the dresses aren’t?

Also just missed opportunity for some simple easter egg dresses. Especially since some of those challenges are tedious as all get out. I did all that to earn this ⬇️ and not something genuinely cool. Fucking ick. It’s not bad looking but not worth doing a frustrating to control challenge for. I’m not even asking for new dress models. But let us put her in a Daisy dress or something. I don’t know.

And the levels… are always fun on a first play through. But if you’re playing without a guide as a completionist you’ll need to run through them more than once because it is easy to miss stuff. And it can be more time consuming than it’s worth. And when you’re on a fourth attempt that shit gets old quick.

Don’t get it twisted though: this game is short, sweet, and regularly mixes up the gameplay to keep gamer’s on their toes. There are no costumes or game mechanics that overstay their welcome. Whenever I walked into a new stage I was uncertain what I would be walking into and the costumes are all equally fun in different ways. They do a good job balancing out the adventure and recreation costumes too. So you get a break from faster paced action by baking instead. Smart. My favorite is you get a magical girl transformation for each new costume you get and only for the first time you get it.

The transformations are fun. Plain and simple.

From a gameplay perspective I don’t actually have that many complaints. It’s not complicated by any means, nor is it hard. But it’s not meant to be those things. Princess Peach Showtime is just a fun cozy game getaway. Maybe even something you play in between other games.

Then there’s Madame Grape. I get what they were going for. They wanted a fruit villain because they have a “fruit” protagonist. (I think there is an homage to Dionysus as well.) But it’s just very eh. I don’t know how to fix that to make it less eh. I think it’s a core design problem. Additionally Madame Grape, despite being mentioned throughout the entire story, isn’t very important. She is a vessel for the plot to exist. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing, a lot of Nintendo villains fill this role, but she also has no iconic qualities to her either. She’s just kind’ve this purple blob that shows up from time to time. I do like that Nintendo didn’t use Bowser though. It keeps the game female centric. So that’s cool.

I can’t get over how she needs to look more grape themed. I know Peach doesn’t necessarily have Peach themes but like… you could’ve told me she was the fucking plum queen and I would’ve believed you. But I’m nitpicking again.

Stella the helper is… nothing. She exists as the vessel to make Peach a magical girl. Stella is the magical girl pet/wand/narrator for the adventure. She’s not bad. She’s just nothing.

The other NPCs (both friend and foe) fall into that Nintendo hole of being the same cardboard cutout person in different costumes over and over too. (At least they had different costumes…) Which is to be expected at this point, they’re just “not Toads”. And I know not every game can have a Mario Odyssey budget but I feel like we needed more visual variety within the NPC cast. Though this is an old ass complaint folks have had about Mario titles for a while so I’m not going to dwell on it too much.

Also while “stars” make sense the little “not toads” should’ve been fruit themed too. That way you could at least swap out multiple colors and call them different “fruits” if you wanted to be lazy about it.

I guess that’s the issue with the game in general. The only real character that has any semblance of personality is Peach. Everything and everyone else is just set dressing so Peach can perform for the player. it makes sense but it leaves the world feeling empty. And I’m not asking for lore. This is not that kind of game. I think I just want more substance. Which is hard to do when you’re boiling down tropes into a 3 act structure for each costume.

And I have a lot of nitpicks here. Almost like I dislike the game. Which was not the case at all. I had a grand time. The costumes are fun, it’s fun to play all the way through, and the levels in the game itself also doesn’t overstay its welcome. At max you’re looking at a 12 hour experience if you’re a completionist.

Under ten if you just want to play it.

Visually the game is beautiful. The music was nothing to write home about.

But. I think because it’s a short experience I’m disappointed it didn’t push itself harder to be high aesthetic. Games that are both genuinely good and girly are hard to find. Often “feminine focused” games like this just fucking suck. You can tell Nintendo cared about this project.

But I think to be an 8 or 9 experience it needed to push its visuals a bit harder.

#princess peach #peach #princess toadstool #mario #mario bros #super mario bros #super mario #princess peach showtime #peach showtime #nintendo switch #nintendo #tales from the frontlog #magical girl #magical girls #video game review #game review #game reviews

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The Frontlog: Fashion Dreamer

6/10

I was able to belt out this review so quick because there’s not much to Fashion Dreamer. I got this less than 24 hours ago. So. Neat.

Firstly: I love it.

You dress up, make designs, dress up other people, and make a little in home store front for other people to look at. It’s stylish and fun.

But it’s not a game I would recommend to most people. It’s a very repetitive experience. Which actually isn’t a complaint. It’s relaxing and I can turn my brain off like I can for Picross. But even though I like it, I’m hesitant to call it… great.

Fashion Dreamer is plain bread and butter fashion. If you’re looking for something with a lots of side activities this isn’t it.

Fashion Dreamer has a gacha like system for what clothes you’ll run into next. Either on billboards, homes, or on other people. And getting designs to make on your own requires either a gacha or special currency to unlock the recipe.

There’s also a bingo game? This earns you pink star currency which is used for your “home” and creating designs. It’s fine. It needs a “Use 10 at a time” option like the gacha has.

Honestly? The most fun part are the lookits. People can design your character and send you the look they made. I find this to actually be insanely cool. I love it. I enjoy making nice things for other people.

And people put in real effort to make nice things for you too. You can see the thought put behind the outfits and I find that to be very sweet. There’s even a little guide to see their preferences, though following it isn’t required. I gave folks free range for me because… I like all the styles. I’m curious what people will come up with.

Love Nikki (Which is an amazing mobile fashion game. I played that every day for 3 years straight) had supremely spoiled me. It has a lot of small things that makes it great. (On top of being an RPG) but Fashion Dreamer really could take a note and make a few tweaks to make it a better experience.

For example: There’s no favorites button and the max clothing you can own is 5000. That’s insane. Why??? I don’t want to hunt through 5000 clothing items for certain things all the time? Just add it as a filter! Gah!

Speaking of the filter: a color filter. The game clearly recognizes color. Make a god damn color filter.

Also no “closet feature” so you can keep multiple looks saved for the one muse. Like come on, that’s a basic function. You can have multiple avatars, but that’s not the same thing.

Fashion Dreamer makes up for this by apparently being updated with new clothing and looks monthly (for free). In either December or January there will even be an event. So that’s cool!

Normally games like this are quite… lazy about providing styles that match all tastes. The design aspect of Fashion Dreamer could be a lot stronger. But Fashion Dreamer in general has a really good spread of “casual everyday” styles. Also there are men in the game and men’s fashion both fem and masculine. That’s cool. You love to see it.

Though while the men can wear some of the fem accessories, hairstyles, etc (and vice versa), it still adheres to a gender binary. You can look somewhat ambiguous, but that’s different than being allowed to wear the dresses and skirts. Mostly just mentioning that because… it’s disappointing.

Also. Just a side note (Just mentioning this because it’s funny), I made my model massive. I picked the tallest option. I stan a tall queen.

Nearly everyone I’ve seen seems to prefer the little chicken nugget models. So I’m walking through this game like a god damn GIANT when I see everyone else’s avatars.

Overall Fashion Dreamer is solid. But it’s a game where you have to manage your expectations. Kinda like a lot of games like it. You have to be aware it’s going to be a chill experience. And that’s okay.

Edit: WHY ARE THE CREDITS UNSKIPPABLE AND SO FUCKING LONG???

#Nintendo #Nintendo Switch #Fashion Dreamer #Fashion #XSeed #Tales From The Backlog #Tales From The Frontlog #TFTB #cozy games #cozy game #video games #gaming

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The Frontlog: Piczle Cross Story of Seasons

Rating: Sure if you like Picross. They’re all the same shit.

“Yup. That’s Picross.” ~ Tales From The Backlog

Nintendo Eshop Link: Click Here

#what am I REALLY supposed to say? #The 3D models are ugly as hell. and the game plays great. That’s it. It’s Picross. #Picross #piczle cross: story of seasons #Piczle Cross #story of seasons #nintendo #nintendo switch #tales from the backlog #gaming #tftb #video games #gamer #cozy games #puzzle games

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The Frontlog: Persona 3: Reload

10/10

It’s titles like Persona that make me go: “God damn, anime is so fucking cool.”

These are people who KNEW what they were doing when working on this remake. My only previous experience with Persona 3 was with Persona 3 Portable. And it shouldn’t be shocking that while good it didn’t have the same impact as Reload did. (Though I did still pick up P3P on Switch through Limited Run! As that was likely the cheapest we would ever see it.)

Reload completely blows P3P out of the park and has asserted itself as my favorite Persona game. (Persona 4 being my previous first favorite.). I completely destroyed this game and am sad the experience is over. (Had to get done quick so I could play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on release!)

Persona 3: Reload is elegant, mature, wickedly stylish, and very sad. I love well written sad things. I’ve heard people call this title edgy, but that edge is what defines and makes this Persona so great. If not the best. You know what they say. The third time’s the charm! And Persona is an experience, for anyone who loves JRPGS, that people should have at least once.

Join me as I talk about Persona 3: Reload. A story of a teen named Makoto. Who just transferred to Tatsumi Port Island and awakened a powerful force by shooting himself in the head.

Persona 3 Reload is painfully stylish and cool. It’s gotten a lot of upgrades including a new voice cast. Which I think does a better job sounding more natural. Especially Bebe. The old crew did a phenominal job but I just like new performances better.

Also the amount of voice acting we got. Wow. Practically the whole thing has voice acting. Even all the social links. I think that might be a first, but don’t quote me on that.

Then there’s the art direction, which has been somewhat of a hot topic, but I like the new art assets better. The original artwork has an undeniable charm but the new stuff has this great polish.

Though I dare say the older art better lends to the “creepy” tone of the game. The traditionally beautiful anime faces do take away from that a little.

And this new look isn’t just the art assets and sprites, it goes as far as the menu.

I don’t say this often, but that’s hot. That menu is everything. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about a menu. I would fight a stranger in the parking lot if they told me this menu looked bad. It is so slick and sleek. It hurts because of how good this looks.

This? This gives me math folder vibes. I think this was why I was so much more drawn to Persona 4 in the first place.

Well. Not because of the menu. The menu is functional and doesn’t look awful by any stretch of the imagination. We all know that fully functional is a high bar for developers to reach nowadays.

But each Persona, from 1 - 5 and now to Reload, was a step into stronger art direction. Each Persona contributed something new artistically to get it to its current state of intense stylization. Persona 3 Reload is simply a culmination of all these steps forward. It makes me feel bad for not touching the main Shin Megani Tensei series at all. Because I don’t get to see the artistic history from it that could have contributed to Persona. I’m aware I’m missing out and need to correct that! Ha!

TLDR: Persona 3: Reload is so ✨PRETTY✨.

Then there’s the gameplay. Persona ranks among my favorite JRPGs because it has so much side stuff to do. Persona at its core is two different kinds of games. A life sim and a JRPG. If you get bored with one half you can go hang out in the other. Excellent. Brilliant. Love it. Persona is a great ADHD person game. It also gives the game a nice contrast between the light and dark elements. A narrative rest, so to speak. Also the difficulty modes. I’m not afraid to say I prefer normal mode. Some grinding is fine but I hate excessive grinding in games. I feel it overshadows the game. Though without some grind you just have a glorified visual novel. It’s all about balance and personal taste I suppose. But I’m of the belief that grinding doesn’t make a game hard. It makes it time consuming which makes it look like the game is hard. But this is not the same thing! Persona just… GETS that I don’t want to grind for that long.

I love JRPGs, but I tend to run hot and cold with them. I think a lot of them do really suffer from being too samey in their initial presentation. The style and identity the Persona series has is 100% what kept me playing after a friend lent me his Vita to play. He insisted upon it as he handed me Persona 4 Golden.

He was right. Persona was awesome. Persona 3 Reload makes me feel those same feelings when I had that initial introduction to the franchise. I do feel genuinely wowed by this title. Which I don’t feel often in gaming. My favorite part about it is it is set in the modern era. Swords and dragons are nice, but different time periods come with different ideologies, cultures, and challenges. Persona takes the “familiar” and uses that premise to flip your world upside down. And that each one goes with a different aesthetic.

God I hope they remake or rerelease 1 or 2. Or both.

Anyway.

Persona 3 additionally is just so… sad. Persona 4 has those sad moments too but I just feel those main and side stories hit harder in Persona 3. The ending is a sad gut punch. I love it. Like any great visual novel character interactions and story can make or break the experience. And Persona 3 only managed to sharpen those interactions with the newer voice acting and the retranslated script. The whole feel is a lot less awkward.

Then there’s the music. If you didn’t watch the intro I posted in the beginning, do yourself a favor and do so as you read please.

Oh? You’ve heard the song before? Are you saying you don’t want to listen to this jazzy and funky soundtrack again? Heresey I say!

Oh? You don’t want to scroll back up? No problem fam. I’m gonna post the full track here.

And the whole soundtrack is this good. This is just a taste. Ugh. It’s so good. It is both energizing and soothing. I ask you to listen purely because my words can’t do it justice.

I am recognizing what a mistake it was not to play the full console version and what a crime it is that they ported P3P over Persona 3 itself. It had an anime too, did it not? Like a movie or something?

Let’s not start with the FES mess. They’ve basically said it’s not being included even as DLC. I’m just going to play it separately, and by the good grace of god you don’t have to play the whole game over to play “The Answer” arc. (Which I’ll post an update on that when I do that. Someday.)

I can take or leave the female protagonist. I want a female protagonist, but in P3P she was always kind of an empty husk that you knew wasn’t the “real” main character. I don’t mind games where I play a character instead of myself. But I feel they could do a new unique perspective if they switched it up for Persona 6. Especially since they are nailing down some of the problematic elements of the series.

I’m aware that they’ve changed a lot from the original Persona 3 to Reload. But to be frank my memory has just never been that long lasting or great. I can genuinely come back to most games after a certain amount of time and it’s like playing it brand new over again. A blessing and a curse. But I can remember Tartarus being a bigger pain in the ass than it is now. Tartarus also seems notably more varied in design as you climb. I feel like I am having a distinctly better time than the first time. (I may have to play a brief stint in portable to see if this is true.)

Side note: The Dark Hour as a concept in itself is a topic I want to cover in its own post at some point. This isn’t unique to Reload which isn’t why I’m not talking about a lot of elements like this (Because remake reviews should be more about what is improved) but it was still a genius way to fit in an alternate world.

At the end of the day, and right before the dark hour, Persona 3: Reload had no excuse to fail. The bones of the beast itself were so good. As long as you left it to simmer and caramelize this remake always destined to be great. It takes elements and tricks that made later titles great and Atlus applied all their learned skills here.

It’s stuff the Persona, and SMT, community already loved. And for good reason. It was already a compelling experience and it’s one I’m really glad I came back to. Playing it this way really changed how I felt about the game as a whole. Even without the extra content I’m going to say this is THE WAY to play Persona 3 from here on out. We’ll see if I feel that way after playing Persona 3: FES. But don’t expect to see that critique any time soon.

#Persona 3 #Persona #Persona 3 Reload #persona series #shin megami tensei #SMT #Shin Megami Tensei Persona #Persona 3 Portable #PlayStation 5 #tales from the backlog #gaming #tftb #video games #video game review #video game #visual novel #JRPG #jrpg games #JRPGS

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The FRONTLOG: Traumatarium

How likely am I to recommend this?: 3/10 How much do I like it?: 6/10

I intended to put this on my Switch backlog. … But Traumatarium cut directly to the front of the line.

Well… you know what they say about good intentions 🔥🔥🔥. Whoops! It went on sale from $2.99 to $2.54, so… you know. Gotta jump on that vicious price cut. (Click here for the link to the Nintendo page for the game!)

How could I not pick this up when in game I am a hulking mountain of a man with a horned helmet and the trailer played wicked heavy metal music at me? And it was $2.50? It’s called Traumatarium for god’s sake! The name alone hooked me instantly. Sign me the fuck up. And that isn’t sarcasm. I have a great love for ridiculous fantasy like this.

I should be playing stuff that gets the blog attention but also I don’t WANT to play that stuff right now! So… ONWARD.

Switch is usually the backlog I actually work on over my other consoles and my PC. It’s also the shortest of the bunch. I have a clear and unapologetic favoritism for my Switch.

I’d say Traumatarium reminds me of Dragon’s Lair. If Dragon’s Lair was a choose your own adventure book instead of the famous: “You clicked wrong, goodbye idiot” gameplay. Meaning you are running through a sequence of events with occasional button presses over a more standard gameplay experience.

You get a town hub with a few shops, and then a few dungeons to go through. The dungeons are “randomly generated”. Which is a very generous phrase. There are only so many rooms per dungeon type for the game to pick from. It only rearranges the order of the rooms. And since the rooms are all functionally the exact same in mechanics the order doesn’t matter. At all. In any kind of way. You just get a different picture per room. This isn’t a bad thing per se. I’m just pointing that out.

In most rooms in a dungeon you have two options. Explore or leave. Any other options are just variances of this mechanic.

Exploring can net rewards and money. Leaving can possibly spare you damage, but 9 times out of 10 leaving is the worse option. You’ll miss your opportunity to get free healing items (which they are very generous with) and you won’t progress far into the game otherwise.

After all. If you interact with nothing you aren’t really playing the game are you?! 🤣

Saving costs gold. (Which you make by defeating bosses and monsters). So you have to manage your money between equipment, saving/full healing, and healing items. Also there’s a hunger mechanic. Eh. I feel nothing positive or negative about it. It’s just kind’ve there to manage. It’s not annoying by any stretch.

There is no experience points or leveling. You grind money to get weapon and armor upgrades. That is the only way to increase power.

This game is not hard. At all. It’s filler. Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s a game where you’re just kind’ve there to get through quickly and for the experience. I like how the game has various color options for not only accessibility, but just to better make it to your particular taste. The little stuff matters.

The sprite work is nice. I think I like it so much because it’s so… hokey. I like over the top corny fantasy things. 🤷‍♀️ The higher the fantasy, the better.

“Okay it sounds like you like it. But my dude you rated it a 3 for recommending it to other people. Most people wouldn’t consider that good.”:

A fair point. But let me explain: It’s basically a phone game. I’ve played longer winded Gameboy titles before. That’s not a dink against it, but it’s good to know what you’re working with. I’m personally not apt to recommend a title like this because I have other games I would recommend far ahead of this one. It doesn’t change that I like it though.

Gaming reception/journalism, and by extension its attitude, kinda has this take or leave it policy. Which isn’t my favorite. I don’t care much for black and white.

I also believe in realism. I can tell the difference between me liking a game and the likelihood of someone else liking that game. Y’all I play serious games but I also pre-ordered Fashion Dreamer for next month. I will look you in the eye and give a horse game a 9/10. And that’s a flaw in a flat rating system. In reality it should be more like a square. It’s far less misleading to go 9/10 horse game but it’s a horse game so you probably don’t want to play it.

One last side thing about the game: When you open the game you start in a little office. The game, box, manual, and “definitely not a gameboy” are all sitting on top of the desk. You have to put the game inside the gameboy to start playing. That’s just cute. I’ve seen other games do it but I can’t help but like it almost every time.

They have another game you can buy (and maybe swap out with Traumatarium in game?) called 2021: Moon Escape.

I’m not quite ready to tackle this game or pick it up yet. Though I’m adding it to my wishlist to consider playing later. I’m already playing a Moon themed game and my review on that is in my drafts being worked on.

#gameboy #gameboy color #nintendo #nintendo switch #indie game #Traumatarium #kickstarter #tales from the backlog #TFTB #3 #front log #gaming backlog #gaming #video games #Caracal Games