Week of 08 May 2022
“Wanna hear the latest hot goss?”
Achievements Earned In:
- The Wild at Heart
- Backbone
- Outbreak: Epidemic
- 112th Seed
- Strawberry Vinegar
- A Summer with the Shiba Inu
- The Park
- Townscaper
- Monster Train
- Super Destronaut: Land Wars
The game I played most of the week was Pikm- er, The Wild at Heart, though it took a while to finish because my duties to my spouse at the hospital are becoming more demanding. Which, is good, because that means she’s getting well enough to DO the things she needs to so she can be discharged! Like many games of this ilk, I mostly focused on getting through the main story so I could unlock the five different Spritelings variations and equipment I needed to proceed in collecting everything for the achievements. I got stuck a few times, but I will give the advice to always read the description of the new Spritelings you unlock because it will tell you the myriad of ways they can be used. Like, how the Lunalings can lift three times their weight at night! I was wondering how, with a max squad of 60, you’d be able to lift something needing 100 creatures! I got a little worried with locating all the pages for Book since the game doesn’t provide a map for locating them, but when I picked up the final one (and the one instance of something being missable in this game) the achievement popped, so clearly it’s not that hard to find them all. In fact, I didn’t need to look up a single guide for this game. Everything is very laid out and the world is constructed in a way that you never really feel like you don’t know what to do or where to go next. But, while the gameplay is just like Pikmin, it doesn’t quite spark the same feeling of joy that series does for me. I think maybe the tiny size of the characters and their exploration of a post-apocalyptic Earth is what really does it for me, along with the Nintendo of it all. But, that’s not a knock on this game as it has its own charm, and I highly recommend this one. The story is cute, but nothing to write home about. And the whole thing is wrapped in a very Maurice Sendak-ish style. Hopefully many people played it on Game Pass before it leaves in a few days!
Achievements unlocked: 29 (+28) | Completed
Where the Wild Totoros Are
Oh my god, I managed to finish Backbone on Sunday! I had tried everything I could think of and every method I found around the internet to get the achievement for reading and learning about all the books to unlock, from deleting my save (which worked for the other achievements), to resetting my whole Xbox, to playing offline. I kept claiming I’d given up the couple days prior, before going home to the rental I’m staying at and giving it one more go, or running through quick before work on the Cloud. Nothing worked. But, Sunday evening after playing some The Wild at Heart, I gave it one more go and combining everything I’d tried prior (minus resetting my Xbox) and…it worked! I absolutely expected to start the game up after the playthrough to be disappointed again, but nope! I was so excited to get around to this game and it’s a shame this glitch had to completely ruin the experience. Funny enough, after bugging them a bunch, the developer finally got back to me the next day after finishing this game. But, I was too annoyed to even see what they said. I’m done, I’m out.
Achievements unlocked: 26 (+1) | Completed
It was time for an easy game bonanza! I’m not one to chase Gamerscore like many achievement hunters; my number increasing is just a byproduct of my hunting for completions. But I also don’t focus on or buy the super easy games. Sure, I have a few in my library, but I mostly keep them for emergencies to continue my streak when needed. But, as I mentioned previously, I’m currently with access to the Ratalaika- and eastasiasoft- and such-published games. I decided I’d try to do one-a-day this week, starting with Outbreak: Epidemic. I actually did another one of these games a few months ago. They’re essentially Resident Evil knock-offs, with that other one being a knock-off of the first game and this one seemingly aping the more action-oriented Resident Evils. But while The Nightmare Chronicles had a mansion to explore and felt like a true game, Epidemic is far more like a horde mode game and it’s a crime that it’s priced the same. Without a proper story mode, this game is also much quicker to complete. It’s also butt ugly to look at and is dead boring. Definitely one of those “only played it for the achievements” games.
Achievements unlocked: 10 (+10) | Completed
Ah ah ah that is not proper fire safety!!!
Hey, the nice thing is not all the easy games I played this week were hot trash! In fact, the game I played on Monday, 112th Seed, was super charming and fun. It’s styled like an early SNES game and plays just fine. It’s a very capable puzzle platformer where you play as a mutant seed trying to save the scientists on the station you’re in. If you’re into these kinds of games, you’d probably enjoy playing this beyond when you have the completion. But, for the achievements, you only have to play the first thirty stages, which constitutes the first part of the game. I’m sure it’ll get harder and more complicated, but the little taste I had was enough. Following a guide makes the game take about 30-40 minutes. I don’t feel too bad because these are not my kind of games.
Achievements unlocked: 13 (+13) | Completed
I’ll let you out, but you all better not eat me…
While NO WHERE near as egregiously dull as A Winter’s Daydream last week, Strawberry Vinegar (which I played on Tuesday) is developed by the same person and is just as straightforward and easy…at least when following a guide. This one does have the branching paths and multiple endings of a typical visual novel, so without using a guide it might be a little more time-consuming to get all the achievements unlocked. The story is pretty wacky: you see the narrative from the perspective of Rie, a brat of a kid that seems to have lost the joy in anything, including delicious dishes. She is soon visited by a demon in the form of another small child that claims she’ll take her soul if she doesn’t feed her yummy food for a week straight. So, while this is a game with arcs for the four characters (including Rie’s parents) this game is all about Japanese cuisine. And, man, the images accompanying the game made me CRAVE some treats. Curse my diet! But, as stated, it wasn’t a very long game and I had this cleared off my plate in short order.
Achievements unlocked: 28 (+28) | Completed
Oh my gods, just manifest this into my mouth!!! *drool*
I wanted to keep working on The Wild at Heart, so Wednesday’s game was another visual novel I could speed through, this time A Summer with the Shiba Inu. Same thing as the previous game: run through the multiple endings with the skip function going full blast. This one is about dogs, namely Syd the Shiba Inu as she returns to Shiba Island and reunites with the people (dogs?) of her youth. Lots of twists and turns in this one, but the standout again is something about the visuals; all the images of the characters are cutouts of actual doggos wearing clothing! It’s pretty cute, though obviously it’s lacking the ability to show much in the way of facial expressions. Head cocking and teeth baring is about all the nuance you get. But at least it’s adorable!
Achievements unlocked: 30 (+30) | Completed
Can you imagine all the HAIR?!
For my easy/quick game on Thursday, I decided to put a LITTLE more effort in. I went with The Park, a first-person walking simulator about a terrible mother looking for her crotch goblin in a spooky amusement park. You essentially just trudge your way from malfunctioning ride to abandoned ride, experiencing all the “joy” the park can muster, usually with some creepy bit factored in. And then it all ends and you’re left wondering how much developer Funcom played the Silent Hill games in-between working on Age of Conan. From this example, I’d say “a lot”. There are four missable achievements, but they’re all fairly easy to grab.
Achievements unlocked: 14 (+14) | Completed
I don’t get what’s spooky here. Looks just like MY kitchen.
With all these easy games flying left and right, I figured I’d clear one quick that was already on my ‘tag and forgotten: Townscaper. This cute little game is just all about making a floating town…that’s it. You build buildings with no goals, no objectives, nada, with the only options available to place (and what color) or delete a block. The way you build the structures effect the architecture. Make a 3x2 block and delete the bottom-middle block and a stylish nook and door appear. The achievements are mostly tied to making these situational structures appear, so following a guide turns this into a 15-minute completion. Knocking this off my gamertag means I have less than nine games incomplete!
Achievements unlocked: 10 (+9) | Completed
Wow, I can see the visible horizon of the endless expanse that defines our existence from here.
Now for my next for real game! I’ve been eyeing Monster Train for some time now but couldn’t bring myself to pull the proverbial trigger. There was an achievement for scoring highly in a Daily Challenge, something that could be a pain. Especially as it had the highest ratio on TrueAchievements for the game. On top of that, I had played it a little on my alternate ‘tag and quickly got wrecked. But, this week I loaded it up and…quit out again right before the first achievement popped. Okay, I was a little gun shy, but I loaded it back up an hour or so later after researching other games intent on finally doing it. And, as is usually the case, I’m really glad I did. This is a card-based, roguelite tower defense game where you defend your train’s core from incoming monsters through three tiers of a train car. If you don’t defeat them before they reach the top, they damage your core. Typical tower defense stuff, but with the rogue elements you never know what upgrades you’ll get during a run. And, the reason I got destroyed previously is that the game is setup to more or less make sure you fail your very first, tutorial run. Since then I’ve scarcely died and have found I REALLY enjoy this game. There’s just something so satisfying about gathering the right combo of cards to absolutely annihilate even the boss without losing a single tier. There are also community challenge maps using a “seed” system, making the various miscellaneous achievements much simpler by using a premade setup that hands you what you need to succeed. The problem with this is that the typing interface on the Xbox Game Pass app has been…broken for some time now; when you hit the A-button on an input box the interface slides up and immediately disappears again. So, I’m sitting here just mashing with my fingers to enter the text and paste, then enter the enter and acknowledge in the brief instant the keyboard pops up. It’s stupid, but I don’t have much of a choice. I’ve only been playing it for two days so I haven’t come across a Daily Challenge easy enough to score 50k on yet. I’m in no hurry…until it’s my final achievement. I only really have the grind to maxing out all my factions, so we’ll see if this cooperates and gives me a doable Daily Challenge before I’m done.
Achievements unlocked: 31 (+31) | Completion: 58%
The big surprise on Friday was loading up an easy game for the day and REALLY enjoying it. Granted, my time with Super Destronaut: Land Wars was brief so maybe it would have gotten old soon after the point when I was done, but still. Running around an (admittedly tiny) arena and shooting neon Space Invaders aliens was a lot of frenetic fun. There are “challenges” to score a medal on, but they require the bare minimum of skill, and you only need at least a bronze. You do fifteen of those, then score a small amount of points in the Arcade Modes. Boom, done. Just goes to show not all super quick and easy games are hot garbage! This one controlled well, looks visually interesting, and was fun!
Achievements unlocked: 11 (+11) | Completed
INTENSE NEON COMBAT
Highest ratio: 5.17
The Stygian Guard (Monster Train)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Aim for the Head! (Outbreak: Epidemic)
Level 1 (112th Seed)
Level 2 (112th Seed)
Level 3 (112th Seed)
Level 4 (112th Seed)
Level 5 (112th Seed)
In the Miso Soup (Strawberry Vinegar)
Cookies (Strawberry Vinegar)
Natto (Strawberry Vinegar)
Tempura Shrimp (Strawberry Vinegar)
Takoyaki (Strawberry Vinegar)
Apple Rose Tarts (Strawberry Vinegar)
Text me maybe (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Beaglenetta 3 (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Oh, Canine-da (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Shiba Island (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Meet Quei-li (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Maximum Likelihood Estimator (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
First clue / Late summer (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Endure and Survive (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Arishan (Mountain Ari) (A Summer with the Shiba Inu)
Welcome to the Park (The Park)
Early Survivor (Monster Train)
Starting an invasion (Super Destronaut: Land Wars)
