PS4

Genre:  RPG/Dungeon Crawler
Platform:  XBone, PS4, PC, Vita

I have spent plenty of time with Darkest Dungeon over all four platforms listed above.  This is a dungeon crawler at its most brutal.  You start with a small party of adventurers and pick your dungeon.  You have a specific goal to complete each time you enter the dungeon.  Complete it and you get valuable cash and usually a trinket for one of your party members.

This may sound like your typical dungeon crawler, but this game is not.  It is also a rogue-like, meaning that if anyone in your party dies, they are gone forever.  This doesn’t sting so much in the beginning, but when you have a level 4+ that dies, it hurts.  In addition to that, your party members get stressed while going through the dungeon.  If you can’t mitigate that stress, they risk a heart attack and could die.  Don’t pick a dungeon that’s too hard for them, or they will be stressed if you have to back out.  You can rest them when you are in town, but it costs money and an entire turn.  Which means that you need to maintain a party big enough for at least two full crews (4 to a crew) at any given time.

This game is so challenging that I’ve started it over on four different platforms and have improved greatly each time.  However, I always seem to get a bit too greedy and end up doing more than I can.  I either lose a member or end up with them seriously afflicted (very expensive to cure).  You can use the rewards that you get from quests to permanently level up either buildings, weaponry or skills.

This game is a constant balancing act, but it is very rewarding if you can get good at it.  I have probably sunk 40+ hours in it thus far, but I’m just barely scratching the surface.  I’ve only killed three bosses.  If you like dungeon crawlers and are looking for a challenge, definitely pick this one up.  Be warned, it may make you go crazy…

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Limited Run

I have an obsession with a company called Limited Run Games.  They take some of the most popular digital-only release games and make physical media for the Playstation 4, Playstation Vita and now the Switch.

They are still a fairly new company, but I love what they are doing and have collected all but 3 of their Vita-released games.  They are still releasing new ones, and I am sure to gobble them up on release day.

The significance of their name is that they keep each release to a very small number of cartridges.  In most of the releases, you won’t see more than 3,000 released world-wide.  It adds a sense of exclusivity, which makes it very attractive to collectors such as myself.  They also often have collector’s editions with many of the releases.  I will generally only do the collector’s set if it’s a game I really enjoy, such as Oddworld:  Munch’s Oddysee.  I had that game for the original XBox and enjoyed it a lot.

They are only up to about 60 games released for the Vita, which is the platform I primarily collect for.  I have about 20 of the PS4 releases as well.  Even though I don’t have a Switch, I have pre-ordered the first 10 releases there as well.  If what happened with the first releases for the other systems, these will be worth a lot more than they are now.

Some of my favorite releases so far have been Saturday Morning RPG, Octodad, Thomas was Alone, Broken Age (gotta love DoubleFine), Oceanhorn, Steworld Dig and Heist and several Bit.Trip games.

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Chey’s Top 25 – #17 – Gems of War

Genre:  Puzzle/Match-3/RPG
Platform:  All (mobile, PC, PS4, XBox)

For the first time in Super Fun Time Gaming Girl blog history, a game is being replaced in my top 25 list.  I know the list isn’t fully done yet, but in this instance, the former #17, Puzzle Quest, is being replaced with Gems of War.

Puzzle Quest deserves all of the props that I gave it in my original post.  I have since fallen in serious like with Gems of War, however.  The game takes the mechanics that made Puzzle Quest great and really ran with it.  It’s the natural evolution of the game and it is oh so sweet.

This is a match-3 game combined with a card-based troop system with several different modes.  It has an active online user base and is available on every platform, which makes it very accessible.  I play it on all platforms but mobile.  It’s fun to create my different play styles over the different platform.  For example, I play a bit of a trickster goblin party on my PS4, but a more serious dragon-based party on my XBone.

The developer is constantly making great updates to the game and it doesn’t appear that they have plans to stop.  Since I’ve been playing, they’ve added pets, weapon crafting and a completely re-done class system.  One of my favorite modes is treasure mode, where you combine pieces to form bigger pieces and get more loot.

Gems of War Treasure

As you play, you can also conquer kingdoms and add troops to your arsenal.  I am always adding, upgrading and maintaining new troops to my collection and tinkering with my lineups.  There is also a PVP mode, although you aren’t actually playing a live person.  You are playing a person’s team.  I would love to see a live PVP and I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up one day.  The map of kingdoms is quite large and is growing:

Gems of War map

Anyway, if you like match-3 games, this is the mother of them all.  It will keep you busy for hours on end and you will keep coming back for more!

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Hidden Gems – Perfect Angle (PS4)

Platform:  Playstation 4
Genre: Puzzle

It’s been a long time since I’ve added anything to this blog.  Life has been throwing curve balls at me since the flood and I’ve struggled to get back on my feet.  It took a game like Perfect Angle on the Playstation 4 (PS4) to get me excited enough to write again.

Perfect Angle is a zen puzzle game – unlimited hints, no timers and the mechanics are almost too simple.  The premise is this – you are given seemingly random shapes on the screen and you manipulate the play area around it until you find the shape hidden within.  Sometimes, it’s a shadow on a wall.  Other times, you have to remove a couple of pieces to find it.  I am now on level 53 and it’s never been so hard that I’ve wanted to rage quit.  As a puzzle game, I give it a solid A.

However, this is more than a puzzle game.  This game doesn’t want you to play it.  It wants you to experience its story.  You are taken on a mysterious journey with an aging man and you are helping to put his memories back together.  It really fits with the theme of the game itself and in the industry in which I work, which is senior living, it feels painfully relevant.  If this game ends up the way I think it will, this one may just bump something off of my top 25 game list.

If you own a PS4, play this game.  And play it through.  You will not regret it.

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