Scattered Thoughts July 2018: The Month Of First Impressions

This was just one of those months where I didn’t really play that many games. Plus the ones I did play I didn’t even finish other than a short puzzle game. So all I've got this month is my first impressions of each title. Looking at this list it’s a good thing I had my Switch around. Having something I can pick up and play when I don’t feel like sitting in front of a TV for a while is a good thing. Although this month has just been a good month to read a bunch of comics and manga. But this is a site about video games so lets go over the ones I decided to bring to the table.

Money Puzzle Exchanger: So much money needs to be exchanged and I'm the one to do it.

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Detroit: Become Human: It's certainly a Quantic Dream game.

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Octopath Traveler: So many paths to go down it is a bit overwhelming if I wanted to do everything.

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Galak Z Variant S: The Free to Play additions make this a big bummer compared to the original.

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List items

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  Money Puzzle Exchanger

  I’ve watched the Bomb Crew play this enough over the years that I wasn’t going to not buy it once it was released on the Switch. Matching up money is indeed really fun in this case. Setting up combos is just as satisfying as any other good puzzle game. The vibrant anime graphics assist in keeping it look nice and loud while your exchanging all the money. Overall it’s just a good puzzle game just like it has always looked to me over the years. It being portable on Switch is a nice bonus too.

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  Detroit: Become Human

  After hearing about what went on behind the scenes on this game I didn’t want to give them any money so I didn’t. Checked it out for free via Redbox. It is 100% my sort of narrative. Sure it’s been told many times before but it’s hard to not enjoy the over dramatic scenes they put in this movie/game mixture. It was impossible to take the android graveyard scene seriously even though it was obvious that was what it was supposed to do. I think knowing this is just a bad B movie and going in with those expectations will indeed make it much better than if you try to take it seriously.

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  Octopath Traveler

  So I’ve only really played the Demo but it is 100% the first 3 hours. Figured that would be enough to write about it a little bit. Following the tales of 8 different characters it seems like it has plenty of content if your interested in playing through them all. Since it has so many stories some are better than others. I tried the Thief's and Huntresses. Both were okay and the first boss for the thief was fairly unique.Other than the mix of old 2D with new visual effects the turn based fight design is the most unique part. Exploiting enemy weaknesses is one part that leaves them open to attack for one turn after hitting them so many times. While the other half is the fact the players gets extra attacks that can stack each time you exploit a weakness. So if it is built up over time it is possible to buff up a move to make it even more effective than it would be normally. I can’t quite tell if this would get old by the end but it was a interesting turn based system the 3 hours I played of it so far. Made me want to pick up the game one of these days.

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  Galak-Z

  It’s Galak Z but it doesn’t have transformations. Along with a mobile like progression system. On paper that doesn’t sound great and it merely manages to retain some good points. The 80’s style anime graphics were retained along with the spaceship physics in combat. All the levels are now premade which loses a bit of the replay value of the original. Even though this one really wants the player to keep replaying stages to get cyber crates that contain upgrades to the ship/robot. So yes you can buy crystals to make things faster but at least the first few hours don’t seem to require much waiting. Overall it is a presentable game that is still fun to play in quick bursts but it is a bit of a bummer to see this was the kind of sequel they decide to let another company make.