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Zelda-inspired Blossom Tales looks to bloom on Steam
Rex Rocket developer Castle Pixel recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for Blossom Tales, the studio's Zelda-like adventure game. The action-RPG is also on Steam Greenlight seeking community approval for distribution on the PC platform. Castle Pixel is seeking $45,000 by October 17 to fund the rest of the game's development. Blossom Tales has players exploring dungeons that "combine pre-designed layouts and randomized areas," completing quests as the young warrior Lily. While Castle Pixel did not list any other guaranteed platforms for the game on its Kickstarter page. Rather, additional destinations for Blossom Tales will be unlocked should the project achieve its numerous stretch goals; it will head to Mac and Linux at the $60,000 mark and Wii U at $250,000. The Pittsburgh-based developer announced its Wii U and 3DS ambitions for the game back in May 2013. [Image: Castle Pixel]
Square Enix recruiting for new RPG-focused quest in Japan
Square Enix is assembling party members for a new RPG-oriented studio, according to a report from Inside Games, as translated by Siliconera. A recruitment page for the unnamed studio is calling for battle and event-savvy directors, programmers, marketing directors and designers that have mastered various classes skill sets. Siliconera's translation of the recruitment page notes the team will focus on creating an entirely new RPG for consoles, with an application deadline set for September 30, 2014. It must be nice having the time to selectively and intelligently assemble your team from something more than childhood friends, townsfolk and amnesia-stricken sidekicks. Jealousy aside, as long as they find a few leads with fantastic hair, we're sure they'll be fine. [Image: Square Enix]
Grow fighting power with gems, cards in Call of Challenger
Call of Challenger is an action/adventure game for iOS that uses the power of cards - for champions and powers - to build your fighting team, while still being fully interactive. The storyline is virtually the same one we've all heard before: a brave summoner (you) must embark on a journey to save a goddess and claim a treasure at the very end. Along the way, the summoner must win battles and unlock champions and various new powers to upgrade his fighting power. The game is free to play, but has many in-app purchase options. The game runs on all iOS devices running iOS version 4.3 or later. The beginning of Call of Challenger starts off a bit slow and confusing, but don't let this discourage you from playing because it improves after the first few battles. The summoner is placed on a grid-based map and you only get to see a small portion of it. Light illuminates the path you've traveled already, while everything that still needs exploring remains in the dark - a very clever design choice. Moving along this path introduces you to new people that will help along your travels, as well as enemies to battle. The game typically awards you cards after a victorious battle, but they don't play much of a role until a little ways in. Eventually you'll unlock Teemo, the first new champion. This is when cards start to come into play. A navigation menu will appear at the top of the game that lets you essentially pause the adventure to start using your cards and arranging your champions. If you tap a champion, buttons appear to evolve or upgrade the character. The champion card also displays a number of details like level, class and star ranking. The Arrange feature allows you to assemble a team of up to five different champions to fight at once. It's totally customizable, even letting you drag and drop champions into emphasized or deemphasized positions. Tapping "Upgrade" for any one champion shows you all the cards you've collected along the way to then apply to that champion. This becomes important for advancing in the game as giving champions new skills increases its ability to win battles when they become harder. However, adding cards to a champion costs gems, the game's form of currency. While gems are easy enough to earn to move forward in the game, it's even easier if you take advantage of the in-app purchases Call of Challenger offers. There are packages of gems ranging from $0.99 for 60 to a whopping $99.99 for 6,200. The fact that the $99.99 in-app purchase is more popular than the $9.99 one is pretty revealing about the addictive nature of this game. Graphics and performance are both solid. I experienced pretty much no lag or pauses performing variation actions in the game. The graphics are far from intensive, but they're pleasantly old-school. One small issue I had is the persistent border on the top and bottom of the iPhone version of the game. It seems to serve no other purpose than to fill in the gap that the larger-screened iPhone 5 created in 2012, but given how much time has gone by I'd prefer if the developers took better advantage of the bigger display by now. Call of Challenger is a fun action/adventure with seriously addictive properties. The more battles you win, the more cards you earn, the more gems you use up and ultimately the more gems you'll want to earn or buy. It's available for free in the App Store.
Fall under the spell of Spellfall
Spellfall (free with in-app purchases) is a puzzle game with RPG elements where you try to match three or more tiles to damage enemies. Players have a certain number of turns to defeat enemies. If they fail to do so, the enemies take their turn to attack. When you run out of health, the battle ends and you're awarded with coins and points. Of course, if you win you get more. Spellfall is compatible with iPhone 4S and up, iPad 3rd generation and up, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPod touch 4th generation and up. Spellfall requires iOS 5.0 or later. Spellfall is a puzzle game with gameplay reminiscent of Puzzle & Dragons, but with more RPG elements such as an item inventory system and spells instead of monsters. Players can use coins to purchase armor, weapons and spells. For example, if you purchase and equip the heal spell equipped, you need to match water tiles to power it up and use it to heal yourself. This spell was very helpful in a lot of the battles. You can equip multiple spells which means you will have to switch out which one is active in order for it to use it. Some spells can be used offensively and others are used defensively like the poison spell. The power of these spells felt appropriate for each level. The heal spell was the most helpful in a lot of cases but there were times where more offensive abilities would be best. After defeating enemies, items are unlocked in the store which you can purchase with virtual coins. After making a "purchase," you must equip that item to use it. Parts of the inventory's user interface are hard to understand because they are not very intuitive. The blue cross button on the right side of the screen is confusing as it is used to show you what items you have equipped, but we can also see this on the inventory page itself. The small box at the bottom of the screen is also a little confusing as its shape suggests you can spin the words to cycle through them, but instead it is a tap function. It can be difficult to progress in Spellfall when you are badly injured through battles with enemies. As your health is very low, you are even more susceptible to every enemies' attacks. It takes a lot of decisive actions and knowledge of each enemies weakness to progress further when injured. There is an option to use coins to heal yourself but this usually wasn't something I had a lot of when playing. You can also wait a certain amount of time to be healed, but these were very long waits of 30 minutes; it didn't seem like a fair amount of time to wait. Another option is to pay real money for coins to exchange for health and keep playing. I found it hard to keep going without a lot of health but this challenge was entertaining and kept me playing in hopes of getting further. This method is not recommended for those who don't have a lot of patience or don't like doing the same battles over and over again. Spellfall is a puzzle game that challenges players to take advantage of each enemies' weakness and utilize spells in order to be victorious in the demanding battles of this tile matching game. Spellfall is available on the App Store for free and is recommended for people who are looking for more challenges in their puzzle games.
Oceanhorn is a console sized adventure on mobile
Oceanhorn is an exciting adventure game focused on exploration and battle interlaced with a fantasy story. You play as a boy who is searching for his father and tasked with discovering more about the monster called "Oceanhorn." The narrative draws the player in and provides motivation for the character's actions. All of this is enhanced by breathtaking visuals and inspiring music. Oceanhorn is compatible with all iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1 or later and costs US$8.99. At the start of the game, you are transported into the world of Oceanhorn as a boy who has been given a book of his father's travels and his late mother's necklace. The father has recently disappeared in search of Oceanhorn. Early on, you will run across a hermit who will tell you about three sacred emblems that you must find. These emblems are found on different islands, which introduces an interesting mechanic: sailing. You can sail to different islands by plotting a course on the map and then following your character's journey across the ocean. This journey is in no way uneventful as enemies and other hazards can spawn in the water. You must shoot them to avoid loosing health. Exploration is a big part of what makes Oceanhorn fun and exciting. The player gets to choose where they would like to go next. However, deciding on a course of action is often tricky, as the game does not explicitly say where to go or what to do next. Players might search the same areas repeatedly before realizing the solution. One way players can figure out the next goal is to talk to the people on the island. A lot of times the information you receive is a hint as to your next possible goal or even a new location to explore. Puzzles are used quite often in Oceanhorn to hide either treasure or the next location. In the earlier locations, the puzzles were not too difficult and after thinking about the puzzle for a while, the solution was clear. However, some puzzles are not as obvious in their solutions and this could cause a player to spend a lot of time combing the area in frustration. The variety of the puzzles was refreshing. You could be moving crates to make a pathway and the next minute using bombs to open up a passageway. There were numerous types of enemies to deal with. The ground troops are fairly consistent in their attacks while those in the air are hard to hit. Nasty beetles appear early on and seem fairly easy to beat, dying in just two hits. However, when a hoard of beetles storms a single room, these "easy" enemies require quick thinking to avoid being overrun. The bomb is an effective and a strong attack paired with some rapid back-and-forth for such situations. Boss battles require a combination of skill and planning. Players must consider which of their character's attacks will affect each boss, because some strikes take longer to perform and leave you vulnerable. The controls are usually solid, however the swipe controls would occasionally cause me to accidentally use a bomb when I didn't want to. Also, throwing items wouldn't always work. This didn't seem to cause too much trouble in completing the game. With over ten hours of gameplay, a fantastic art style and amazing music, Oceanhorn is a great game for those who enjoy exploration and adventure games. The experience is greater in scope than most mobile games, more in the style typically seen on consoles for a much higher price. Oceanhorn is enthralling and enjoyable, worthy of its US$8.99 price tag.
MOBA Fates Forever fights for space on your iPad
Fates Forever is a fantastic iPad-only MOBA with gorgeous graphics and intriguing gameplay. It is free to play and available on iPads using iOS 7.0 and up. It is a game of balance: you must defend your base while attacking the opponent's base. The game features three different modes: bot, co-op, and online, all of which are fun. You can practice battle strategies and get a feel for how the game works in bot mode. co-op mode is a step up from bot mode where you play with other people against bots. The online mode is a lot of fun because it features three vs. three battles which means amazing twists of fate. For instance, your team could be making a lot of progress attacking the opponent's base but if you do not keep a watch on your own base, the opponents could easily take control. Each match lasts around 15 minutes, sometimes upwards of 40 minutes. It depends on how you play and how well your competitors do. You gain levels in Fates Forever when you win matches. These levels help unlock relics, which are skills that offer passive and active abilities. You have to choose a relic at the start of each match and tailor your strategy around it. For example, the "restoration relic" provides a small amount of health when you kill an opponent's minor enemy, known as a tribute. When you tap on the relic's icon during the game, you will make it active and for the restoration relic, it will instantly heal yourself and nearby allies. I found this relic helpful in a lot of cases where I was surrounded while attacking an opponent's base. The character you choose also affects how you play. If you choose May, the lynx, you will focus more on archery. If you pick Renwil, the warthog, your attacks will be heavy melee-based. This allows different types of players to focus on their own style of gameplay. I really like using melee characters but it was nice to try out different characters to see what fits best. I also enjoyed the use of grass, which hides your character from the other players. This made it easy to surprise opponents and seek some refuge when things started to get dodgy. Another nice feature lets you recall back to the starting area. This is helpful because it lets you visit the store to stock up on health and other items. Fates Forever starts off with a six-step tutorial which does a great job of explaining the gameplay and easing the player into the game world. As you play through a match, you unlock more skills for your character. This is reset at the beginning of a new match which is helpful for people who want to experiment with different tactics. Fates Forever has fun daily quests. The daily quest I played was to win with a certain character five times. Completing it rewarded me with some ore, a type of currency in the game. Ore is used to unlock characters, which range greatly in price, so it is easy to see someone spend a lot of time collecting currency. Interface bugs got in the way of the fun. For example, the match making would sometimes put people in a match with someone of a much higher level. The controls were not the most responsive, but these problems are not great enough to deter someone from enjoying the game. With the many different characters to choose from, daily quests, three play modes, and combinations of armor/weapons, Fates Forever is a great free game for people who like MOBAs.
Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure is memorably triumphant
Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure on iOS adds a layer to memory-based tile games. Instead of matching two of the same image, the game challenges players to remember associations between weapon and enemy tiles. The game requires iOS version 6.0 and is compatible on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. If you tap on a tile that has a wolf and the number one on it, you then match that tile with a sword tile with the number one on it. Numbers become even more important later on when you have more than one tile with an enemy type and different numbers. As the number of enemies increases, more complex combinations of weapons and enemies also emerge. Power ups are available such as health restores, which in some cases is useful for completing a level. Gems can be used to purchase more power ups at the start of the level if needed as well. I often had a generous surplus of power ups and gems, making Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure unnecessarily easy. However, new players may find the ease of getting power ups beneficial to their progression. Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure features an inventory system, but is limited with only three slots. I found this to be a little annoying, as I would often have a lot more power ups than allowed space. The solution to inventory problems is selling power ups for gems. However, the buttons for using the item or selling it are very small and make it hard to select. The game also features tile associations with the skills of mining, fishing, and blacksmithing. If you select a tile that has a fishing pole on it, you can match it with a tile that has a pond on it to reveal a power up. Players can level up their character and unlock new power up abilities. I really enjoyed how the progression of leveling worked and the amount of customization. There are three skill areas to select from when leveling up and this in turn will help you later. The mining skill helps you get more gems in the level, providing more income for power ups. The fishing skill gives you more interesting power ups from matching those tiles. Last, the blacksmithing skill unlocks special weapons. I did unfortunately find a bug during my playthrough, which detracted from the overall experience. Sometimes after I correctly matched two tiles, one tile would still remain. I'd occasionally tap that tile thinking it was still active. Completing the entire board rewards players with bonus experience points. If you fail to complete the entire board, it will take longer to level up. The art in the game is very fitting, while the music appropriately matches the dungeon theme. It is whimsical while maintaining the mysterious and adventurous atmosphere. Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure offers a great challenge and hours of playtime. It is a refreshing take on tile games and the level progression keeps the player engaged. My only complaints are that some of the buttons should be bigger and that occasionally tiles don't disappear when they should. It is a great game and I recommend this game to everyone, grab Memory Quest: Dungeon Adventure on the App Store for US$0.99.
Knock-Knock dev plagues us with Pathologic teaser [Update]
Dear Knock-Knock developer Ice Pick Lodge, stop freaking us out already. We know you discussed a revival of your 2005 psychological horror game Pathologic back in December, but we didn't think you were serious about it. Now you have this live-action teaser trailer called "Feverish Feeling," and we weren't sure what to think once we saw it. It turns out that feeling is pretty creepy, and not the sort of fever we were hoping for. Knock-Knock was one thing, and we kept our lights on a good four months after that, but now you're talking about The Black Death pandemic and putting viewers in a simulated, contaminated environment to force them to make decisions quickly. Pathologic made us complete quests to find the source of The Sand Plague and make decisions that impacted its meta-narrative. Based on the countdown timer ticking away on your teaser site, we'll learn more about this reanimation on Friday, September 4. Update: Pathologic's teaser countdown ends on September 4, not August 29. We've adjusted the article accordingly. [Image: Ice Pick Lodge]
Hyrule Warriors' adventure mode has NES Zelda appeal
Nintendo offered new details on Hyrule Warriors during a Nintendo Direct livestream last night dedicated to spilling new beans on the game. The Tecmo Koei-developed offering will include an adventure mode that features a NES-style map inspired by the original Legend of Zelda. In it, players hack through levels with unique victory conditions, such as "defeat 300 enemies in 10 minutes," acquiring and using classic items from the Zelda series to find rare goods like heart containers. Additionally, Zelda fans will appreciate the familiar ability to chop away at grass in Hyrule Warriors and attack the chicken-like Cuccos, which will attack players after enough unjust damage has been done to the creatures. The livestream also touched on the game's leveling and skill/equipment crafting system; we've embedded the full Hyrule Warriors Direct stream for your viewing pleasure. Hyrule Warriors will launch September 26 for Wii U, and those that register their copies on Club Nintendo by October 23 will receive two Ganondorf costumes. [Image: Nintendo]
Hearthstone opens up the first wing of Naxxramas
Are you ready to take on Naxxramas in Hearthstone? Good! You can start now. The first wing of the new adventure is available to players today; it'll send you through the Arachnid Quarter in a trip down a spider-filled memory lane. If you're on the fence about trying it out, you can take on this wing for free now through early September (the exact date for the end of free access will be announced later on). Players will be able to purchase further wings of Naxxramas with either in-game currency or real money, with discounts available for bulk purchases. But you don't have to just hope you'll enjoy the adventure; you can log in and try it for yourself right now.
Alternate 1980s RPG Majestic Nights is one big conspiracy
Some choose to believe the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969 was a hoax, or that the United States government is keeping extraterrestrials in a hidden building somewhere in the Nevada desert. Epiphany Games is playing off these types of conspiracies with its freshly-announced episodic game, Majestic Nights, which will debut in September. In the alternate 1980s game, these sorts of conspiracies aren't just theories, but are "truths." Players guide an intelligence operative known as Cardholder and a private investigator named Cal in the isometric RPG, uncovering clues to the criminal cover-ups and world-breaking facts about events like alien abductions. The first season of Majestic Nights includes six episodes and kicks off with a "Chapter Zero" prologue for free in September, which dives into the aforementioned moon landing. Majestic Nights' subsequent chapters will come at a cost; the first is expected to arrive in October, with the season's conclusive sixth episode currently slated for April 2015. The game is in development for PC, Mac, iOS and Android, and while Epiphany didn't put a price to each chapter, season passes will be available for players to guarantee access to the whole shebang. [Image: Epiphany Games]
First three Blackwell games get adventurous on iOS
The first three entries in the Blackwell series of point-and-click adventure games are now available for iOS. Blackwell: Legacy, which originally launched in December 2006 for PC, costs $1.99 for iPhone and iPad owners. The next two games in the series, Blackwell: Unbound and Blackwell: Convergence, cost $2.99 each. Developed by Wadjet Eye Games, the Blackwell series stars Rosa Blackwell and her ghostly friend Joey Mallone, who helps Rosa assist other ghosts in moving on to the afterlife. The adventure series was confirmed for iOS in December following the developer's first successful attempt at porting one of its point-and-click games based on the Adventure Game Studio engine to iOS, Gemini Rue. The final chapter in the five-game series, Blackwell: Epiphany, launched on PC in April. The series will arrive on Android, Mac and Linux "very soon." [Image: Wadjet Eye Games]
Grim Fandango remake also coming to PC, Mac and Linux
The remake of LucasArts' cult favorite adventure game Grim Fandango will also arrive on PC, Mac and Linux in addition to PS4 and Vita. Grim Fandango's resurgence was first revealed during Sony's E3 2014 press conference in June; the game is a console exclusive for the PlayStation platforms. Double Fine's remake came about thanks to some snooping on the behalf of Adam Boyes, PlayStation's VP of Publisher Relations. Boyes told Joystiq at E3 that Double Fine head Tim Schafer caught him nosing around the studio's older intellectual properties, which sparked a conversation between the two about bringing Grim Fandango back from the dead. [Image: Double Fine]
Dodge the mob, try to get rich in the '20s with A Golden Wake
Even the everyday man stood a chance at getting filthy rich in The Roaring Twenties, but Alfie Banks has more to worry about than earning a pile of money: namely, the mob that's after him. Point-and-click adventurers can watch Alfie's back this fall in A Golden Wake, a tale developed for PC by Grundislav Games and published by Wadjet Eye Games. Alfie's story plays out in Coral Gables, a housing development near Miami that's benefiting from the soaring real estate market. Alfie might have a chance of getting in on that housing boom, but the related press release notes the ever-present threat of hurricanes reducing waterfront properties to oceanic rubble, as well as the looming Great Depression. Between mobsters, Mother Nature and the course of history, Alfie's financial goals don't exactly seem like a cakewalk. On the bright side, at least there's swanky music to back his potential demise! [Image: Wadjet Eye Games]
Monsters will eat your birthday cake next week on mobile, PC in July
SleepNinja Games' top-down environmental puzzler Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake will launch next week on iOS and Android via Google Play and Amazon, publisher Cartoon Network confirmed to Joystiq today. The colorful Zelda-inspired game will first arrive on Thursday, June 26 before making its way to Steam for PC and Mac on July 1. Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake stars birthday boy Niko, whose delicious cake is stolen by Boogin King and his shadowy minions on the island of Gogapoe. It was initially pitched by SleepNinja as a puzzler with a "16-bit aesthetic without relying on pixel art." The game hauled in $26,091 on Kickstarter in February 2013 before being picked up by Cartoon Network in April. It will cost $3.99 on mobile and $14.99 on Steam, though the publisher said the Steam version is expected to be discounted at launch by roughly 20 percent. [Image: Cartoon Network]
Steam begins selling all-text interactive fiction with Heroes Rise
Text adventure developer Choice of Games placed the literary RPGs in the Heroes Rise series on Steam's shelves this week. Both games, The Hero Project and The Prodigy, are 33 percent off ($1.99 each) until June 24. The Heroes Rise bundle, which includes Perfect Legend Guides for both games and a "Warning System" add-on for The Hero Project, is 20 percent off ($3.99) until June 30. This marks the first time a pure text-only adventure (without complimentary audio and visual elements) has been available on Steam, according to Choice of Games. The developer's previous works include Choice of the Dragon, Mecha Ace and Neighbourhood Necromancer, some of its text adventures being freely available to play on its website while others have mobile versions for platforms like iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Other visual novels that found a home on Steam include Christine Love's Analogue: A Hate Story in April 2012 and its follow-up Hate Plus in August 2013 as well as Zoe Quinn's Depression Quest, which was Greenlit for Steam distribution in January. [Image: Choice of Games]
Dungeons & Dragons Online launches Update 22
Are you ready to buckle your swash? Has your swash been buckled in anticipation? Do you own a variety of buckles and swashes? Because Dungeons & Dragons Online has just released Update 22 onto the live servers, and that means that Bards will have plenty of buckleswashing to do with the addition of the Swashbuckler enhancement line! Dance, parry, crack horrible puns, and stab at people while still retaining all of the usual song-based mechanics of Bards. It's free for everyone! Update 22 also includes an epic-level upgrade to Three Barrel Cove, perfectly complementing the newly swacklebushing methods of Bards. There are also major improvements to guild levels and guild airships, allowing guilds to hit level 200 while sporting new and improved facilities on new and improved airships. And there's new stuff in the cash shop, too, giving DDO players plenty to do if they ever tire of the interactions of swashes and buckles.
Here's what made 'Grim Fandango' a legendary adventure game
When Double Fine said that it was reviving Grim Fandango for PlayStation systems, you may have been left scratching your head. Why remake a nearly 16-year-old adventure game that many of today's players would have never seen? Well, some of the original developers are more than happy to explain through a new mini documentary. They argue that the title was full of creative and technological breakthroughs. The setting was a unique fusion of Mexican folklore with film noir, and it was one of the first adventure games to embrace the possibilities of 3D. Rather than rely on an obvious point-and-click interface, it included then-novel concepts like using head tracking to point out interesting objects.
The Nexus Telegraph: The first week in WildStar
Full launch for WildStar has come and gone, the servers have been up and running for a week, and I've been hacking away at various enemies of the Dominion like a good soldier. As I write this, my main is 23, although I'd probably be a fair bit higher by now if I hadn't stopped quite so many times for roleplaying and to decorate my house. (Not too much of that, though, I need to afford that spacious house once I get to a valid level.) It's safe to say that I'm enjoying the game a whole lot. Server loads seem to have largely stabilized, at least from my end, and the fullness of time has given me more opportunities to run more stuff and really enjoy a wider variety of what's in the game. There's some good stuff, some annoying stuff, and some things that kind of cut both ways at the same time. So let's just dive in, shall we?
Last Life's first episode, voice acting funded on Kickstarter
Now that sci-fi noir adventure Last Life is funded on Kickstarter, players will be able to investigate the murder of protagonist Jack Parker on PC, Mac and Linux sometime next year. Yes, Jack is still the protagonist despite being murdered - using a freshly 3D-printed body initially made for an annual Dead Man's Party, he'll slink through the streets of MarsTopia in a point-and-click-style search for his killer. Thanks to backers helping developer Rocket Science clear one of Last Life's stretch goals, players also won't have to imagine what Jack would sound like - voice acting for "all speaking characters" will be added, along with interactive flashbacks to when Earth was still inhabitable. Did we mention that, in Last Life's universe, all life on Earth was ended 11 years ago? It's worth noting that the $103,058 gathered on Kickstarter will only fund the development of Last Life's first episode, with Rocket Science planning on three episodes total. Anyone that chipped in $15 or more will receive a DRM-free digital copy of the first episode, though they'll also have the option of swapping it for a Steam key. [Image: Rocket Science]
