Game-related ramblings.

Author: Waltorious Page 23 of 27

Tales Of Illyria: Fallen Knight Is A Mobile Role-Playing Game About Traveling

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

While the vast majority of the games I write about here are PC games, I do also play games on my Android phone. I’ve even written about a few here and there. But most I don’t write about, because a lot of mobile games are either simple and light time-wasters, or complex enough that I’d rather just be playing them on my PC. Hoping to find a game that hit the sweet spot for mobile play, I turned to role-playing games, figuring that they are often turn-based and therefore easy to pick up and put down while on the go, but feature substantial narratives and deep enough systems to remain engaging over many play sessions. I scoured the internet for recommendations and came across this list, which put the Tales of Illyria series in the number one spot (it’s a living list, updated on occasion, so if you are reading this from the future, positions may have changed). So I grabbed the first game — originally known simply as Tales of Illyria, but later re-released in updated form as Tales of Illyria: Fallen Knight — and tried it out.

Tales of Illyria combines a sword and sorcery fantasy role-playing game, tactical turn-based battles and all, with The Oregon Trail. Somehow, this actually works. Really well. And yes, your characters can get dysentery.

Scratching That Itch: Michtim: Fluffy Adventures

This is the ninety-third entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It’s time for another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The random number generators picked Michtim: Fluffy Adventures, by Zev Mir (AKA Grim Ogre Labs). Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A heartwarming TTRPG about hamster-like beings going on missions to save…

Look out, Mausritter! There’s another tabletop role-playing game about small rodents (well, rodent-like creatures) in town. Given that we’ve found two of these in less than a hundred entries makes me wonder how many more might be lurking in the bundle. We’ve still only sampled 5% of it, after all.

Scratching That Itch: Rasternauts

This is the ninety-second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Rasternauts, by MostlyFictional. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Run, jump and shoot your way through over 40 levels to hold back the vecto…

I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to say “vector”. You see, the premise of Rasternauts is based on different methods for displaying computer graphics, pitting them against each other in an action platformer. For those who don’t know about raster graphics versus vector graphics, I will explain. Longtime readers may recall that explaining things is one of my favorite activities!

Scratching That Itch: Thou Shalt Be Brave

This is the ninety-first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

You guessed it: another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. This time it’s Thou Shalt Be Brave, by Anil Demir. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Mini-RPG in 64×64

That’s right, folks. It’s time to get miniscule.

Scratching That Itch: Karambola

This is the ninetieth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The digital dice have rolled once again, randomly selecting something from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It’s Karambola, by Holy Pangolin Studio (more specifically by Agata Nawrot, one half of Holy Pangolin Studio). Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Lonely fruits and veggies with emotional problems need your help in this sh…

The character limit cuts it off there, but there’s no time to wonder what it might have said. There are lonely fruits and veggies that need our help! To action!

Console History: Metroid

This is Console History, a special sub-series of my more general History Lessons series, covering console role-playing games, action role-playing games, Metroidvanias, and action-adventure games in nominally chronological order starting in the late 1980s. The chronology is garbled in the beginning as the scope of the series expanded, but it gets more organized later on. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Three months ago, I wrote about The Legend of Zelda, after playing it to completion for the first time. It’s still impressive today, absolutely deserving of its classic status. It also reminded me of Metroid, which released six months later in Japan but only one month later in the United States. Both games let players loose in open worlds, to explore and find upgrades that let them reach previously inaccessible places. Metroid simply trades the top-down, screen-by-screen exploration of Zelda for side-scrolling action platforming with a science fiction theme. This combination was so influential that it spawned an entire genre: the metroidvania (named for Metroid and Castlevania, more specifically the second Castlevania game, Simon’s Quest). Unlike The Legend of Zelda, I never played much Metroid myself when I was a kid, I just saw bits and pieces of it at friends’ houses. But the third game in the Metroid series, Super Metroid, is one of my favorite games ever. So I decided to go back to the beginning and play the original Metroid.

Scratching That Itch: ANTI-GORGIAS 2

This is the eighty-ninth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our next random selection from itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is ANTI-GORGIAS 2, by Jared Sinclair. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A practical guide for OSR designers, and a useless road map for pundits.

From earlier entries in this series, I have learned that “OSR” stands for Old School Renaissance, referring to a style of tabletop role-playing game that reaches back to the earliest examples (such as Dungeons & Dragons) for inspiration, but offer various modern design twists on the classic formulae. As far as I can determine, ANTI-GORGIAS 2 has absolutely nothing to do with this.

Scratching That Itch: Guppy

This is the eighty-eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Once more, the random number generators have pulled a random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. This time, it’s Guppy, by Christiaan Moleman. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

2D watercolor fish simulation

Heh, watercolor. I see what you did there, Christiaan Moleman.

Psychonauts 2 Is Fantastic

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Roughly two months ago, I wrote about Psychonauts, which I was replaying in order to get ready for its crowdfunded sequel, Psychonauts 2, which released on August 25. The original Psychonauts is a wonderful game that I encourage everyone to play. I thought I’d take a break and play something else before tackling the sequel, but then I decided to just jump right in. I’m glad I did. Psychonauts 2 is brilliant, managing to improve upon its classic predecessor in every way. I don’t play enough games to be able to make a judgment about the best games released each year, but it’s hard to imagine anything topping this. I recommend it without reservation. Go play it! If you need further convincing, I’ve written more thoughts on Psychonauts 2 below, which I’ve tried to keep as spoiler-free as possible.

Scratching That Itch: Celestial Hacker Girl Jessica

This is the eighty-seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It’s time for another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It’s Celestial Hacker Girl Jessica, by girl software, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

marble girl hacks computers, eats cake

I have long suspected that the primary leisure activities of celestial hacker girls include hacking computers and eating cake, especially when the celestial hacker girls in question are also marbles. Vindication!

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