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cramorant is slowly becoming one of my favorite pokemon

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There she goes 👽

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Hoenn Starters

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EVERYONE SHUT UP ABOUT POKEMON SWSH IT’S COOKING MAMA TIME

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I think they’ll look cute on ewe too! 🐑

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Finally drew Edelgard ;v; I’ve been wanting to for so lonnng

a lil extra cuz i thought the pose works well in a group photo:

Keep reading

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Azure Striker Gunvolt overview

Here is a little something i wrote about a game, hope you enjoy!

          One of my favorite developers who I’ve found myself playing their games more and more is a company called Inti Creates. Yes they are one of the main developers that helped create the hot garbage known as Mighty Number 9 but they are also well known for their involvement of the Mega Man Zero games and more recent action 2D platformers such as Blaster Master 0 and Dragon Marked for Death (games which I hope I can talk about in the future). Their mastery of the 2D action platformer can not be underestimated, the gameplay, visuals, art design, and dedication from the company really feels like you are playing the best of the genre from the SNES games such as Mega Man X. Today we’re going to talk about their 2014 classic Azure Striker Gunvolt originally released on the 3DS, but today I’m going to talk about the Switch version so let’s get started.

           Azure Striker Gunvolt is an action 2D platformer that tries and succeeds at being a spiritual successor to the Mega Man X games on SNES. You play the yellow haired anime character named Gunvolt, a terrorist with the power of electricity. In what I believe is a futuristic version of Japan, your mission is to take down the Sumeragi group, a giant conglomerate that controls the country from the shadows. On your first mission you rescue a little girl named Joule who has the power to manifest a spirit named Lumen, the counties star pop idol. From there the game becomes more like Mega Man where you have an availability of 6 stages with distinct end bosses to tackle in any order. When you get to this point you have access to your main hub and options. Before going into a level, you can change your gear and skills, create new gear to equip, talk to Joule for some lighthearted dialogue, accept challenges to make the game harder, and even save. The game also has hidden collectables that do impact the story, specifically the ending of the game. I won’t talk more about the story since past this point it will probably be spoiler but there is an initial ending and a true ending that you can unlock by exploring the game to it’s fullest.

           The gameplay has a distinct taste which differentiates it from other games of the same genre. Typically, you would have your character have a blaster or sword that eliminates enemies when you press that A button. Here Gunvolt has a special blaster that instead places tags on the enemies in different levels, from there Gunvolt can turn on his electric forcefield to shock his enemies with tags while at the same time protecting him from certain projectiles and slow his descent in the air. Though you can say that this slows down the pace of the game, at the same time it makes your whole approach to the combat smarter and make you think more strategic. “who do I tag” or “how will my shock technique affect my jumping and platforming” are things that come to mind. It gives the player such satisfaction when you upgrade your blaster enough where you can tag multiple enemies to shock multiple targets at one time, it gets better with the Switch version which includes HD rumble every time you shock and eliminate an enemy. The game also has a level up system which in my opinion isn’t necessary unless the leveling really did increase my health and damage output. Other game mechanics available to Gunvolt is his dash which makes him run faster and increases his jump length, a double and even triple jump if you can create the equipment to do so, skills that can either be super attacks, utility skills for enhancement, or even heal Gunvolt a small amount. With all these to consider Gunvolt isn’t overpowered at all and the game is shockingly balanced well even with all these components. There are many instances in the levels and against bosses where I felt like there was an equal chance of me losing as much as there was of me winning.

           What I love about this game is its presentation, the pixelated art style of the game along with the clean HD character artwork compliment each other so well. The game’s audio is in Japanese, but the text is in English which is what I prefer. The music in this game is also on point and compliment the gameplay to make you feel inspired for an action game. There is also a mechanic in the game where if you die, you have a small chance of being revived by Lumen and she enhances you with unlimited energy while a very anime song plays in the background which is fitting. I forgot to talk about the bosses which are probably one of the main highlights of this game, but they are incredible and very reminiscent of Mega Man bosses but maybe with more personality. Each one has their own special power similar to Gunvolt, whether it be using fire, wind, magnetism, or even controlling the dead, the bosses give the player the right amount of challenge where the end result depends on the players skill and nothing random or out of the players control.

Overall this game isn’t perfect (though I can’t find any outstanding flaws in this game which I love), but with all that I’ve said you can tell this game is quality at it’s finest, especially considering this game came out 5 years ago on 3DS. The game represents the best of it’s genre and the best of the era it has been inspired by and I can’t wait to play the sequel (which comes with the first game on Switch so it’s a value package BTW).

Hey guys thanks for reading if you did, this game is great if you love games filled with action and a taste of Japanese flare. The game also comes with the second Gunvolt in the Switch package like I said before so look forward to that side note soon (hopefully). With all that said thanks for reading and I’LL SEE YA LATER!!!

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Hi please look at this official art of butterfree

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Hue: an overview of an interesting indie game

I wrote a little review type thing about a game called Hue, i hope you enjoy. 

One game that I’ve picked up and turned out to love due to its simplistic idea but complex application on that idea is a game called Hue. Hue is an indie 2D platformer puzzler created by the company Fiddlesticks and was released in August 2016 for PC, Xbox one, and PS4. Though a short game I believe that Hue is an interesting and worthwhile experience especially as an “always on sale for cheap” game on steam.

             If you couldn’t tell by the name, Hue is a game about color manipulation and awareness of the colors at hand. The story is easily the weakest part of this game but it’s an interesting part, nonetheless. You play as a boy named Hue and you’re journey in the game is to find your mom who you find out has been trapped due to her experiments dealing with the color spectrum. You slowly find out through narrative letters that Hue’s mom becomes obsessed with her research which leads the leading professor to exile her from the university that she conducts said research. Because of this she continues her study and creates a colorless world that Hue needs to resolve using the color spectrum. All the while you see this hooded figure that is always in front of you, but the player can never reach. The story creates enough of an interest and mystery that begs the player to keep playing and the hooded man always being out of reach which symbolizes always having more to come doubles that effect. The story is taking the right steps but when talking about strength of narrative, it is pretty weak. Even if the world is colorless none of the npc’s seem to really care or at least feel like it is a danger. Even when your mom sends you these letters about how she messed up and that she needs your help, there’s not a sense of urgency or danger. The game plays very calm and chill, which is supported by the melo music that continues to play through the entire game, and I feel like this both sets a good tone but doesn’t really add anymore than we already expect. This is very strange to me because a key characteristic of indie games is a simplistic game mechanic with great application and an engaging story.

             The real prize of Hue is the gameplay. As I mentioned before the game is a 2D platformer that uses puzzles as the main obstacle for the player. The main mechanic is that Hue can control the color of the background to one of 8 colors that you collect as you play the game. When you change the background color you make any objects or effects of that color virtually disappear and out of the way so you can progress through the game. The game forces you to do this by giving you a sky-blue color change at the start of the game and blocking your path to the first section of the game with sky blue rocks. Most games have the player moving already existing platforms or even creating them outright, very rarely is removing platforms a mechanic used in a platformer, let alone the main mechanic. This makes for such an obtuse and interesting game, instead of having “see a gap, create/move a platform, get by” we can create a new situation where it is more like “Change the background, these platforms disappear, how does that affect the entire room/puzzle”.

           The puzzles do a good job of scaling in difficulty as the game progresses. The game doesn’t overwhelm you with 7 or 8 colors at a time, if anything when you get your fourth or fifth color, the game goes on with puzzles with only so many colors in use at a time. This allows you to have at least one color as the control color, which is vital when you consider needing a color to be the background allowing you to see all the other colors of the puzzle. Instead of flooding the screen with more colors, the puzzles start adding more mechanics such as movable blocks, falling blocks trying to crush you, switches, levers, pressure plates, lasers, and color changing fluids that make the player think when they need to change the color at the right time, and the positioning of the components in the puzzle. Below are some puzzles that I felt represent what kind of game and tone Hue is trying to present. These puzzles share the idea of “ok if I make red the main color the obstacle will disappear, but so will the block on the switch that lets me progress forward, so I have to find a way to manipulate the scenario that will allow me to move onto the next room”.    

             Overall Hue is a wonderful game that is well put together and gives the player an experience that makes them feel smart and a problem solver. The game can be short and the story a little bit of an oversight (take those as negatives or positives, whatever your preferences are), but at the price and accessibility this game comes in, Hue is a welcome indie game and a great example of turning an obvious concept into a complex game.

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Bored at school, got a new tablet, let's just see.

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