GRAVEN is a new action adventure role playing game developed by ‘Slipgate Ironworks‘ and published by ‘3D Realms‘ and ‘1C Entertainment‘. GRAVEN is said to be coming out on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC. This game is out here trying to do it’s own thing. Let’s take a look.
In the world of GRAVEN, players control a “wrongly convicted man of faith” in a dark fantasy world. This means magic, castles, evil beings, monsters etc. What are you wrongly convicted of? We don’t know. We do know that players can expect an adventure.
Now take into account that GRAVEN is far from it’s release date and clearly still in serious development. Right now it doesn’t look good at all for 2020 standards. Now we can se the graphical style that they are aiming for though. We hope to see more of it’s development. We do like the environments though. There’s what looks like a swamp, castle walls, dungeons, villages and towns. We’ve got variety here. There’s clearly what looks like friendly people in the game who may even help you out.
As GRAVEN is a dark fantasy RPG we expected magic and spells. We were right. There are books which have certain spells. You can hurl fire like a flamethrower, zap enemies with lightning from your hands and cause explosions. There are weapons like a magic staff and even a hand mounted crossbow and off course a kick straight from Duke Nukem. So there is some combat options here. So there’s loads of stuff going on right here in GRAVEN but off course sin heavy development.
We checked out some gameplay and it currently looks unimpressive and not very good BUT again… it’s in heavy development and a good distance away from release date. We are judging from the current displayed stuff. The running around and kicking is very similar to Duke Nukem which is funny since one of the publishers is 3D Realms who are known for Duke Nukem games like ‘Duke Nukem 3D‘. The foundations seem sound right now with lots of room to put stuff in. So maybe keep an eye on GRAVEN.
Overall GRAVEN looks like it has potential. It needs time and that’s what people should do… be patient. We hope to see great animations, good graphics and visuals and more options concerning spells and bigger variety of enemies. The developers have got a lot of work to do. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear more about GRAVEN in the future. Now GRAVEN may have a dark fantasy world but even it’s world is too boring compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Indivisible is a RPG platformer game that was developed by ‘Lab Zero Games‘. Indivisible came out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Right of the truck etc just say this is an awesome game. This is once again another awesome game that didn’t get enough attention. Silly games like Among us gets attention but not Indivisible. It’s the world we live in. We have beaten the whole game, written about it before, had a lot fun and so here’s our views. Let’s take a look.
Indivisible has many strong points but our favourite has to be the characters. From their design to most specifically their interactions with each other. As you go through the game you’ll meet a whole host of different characters with very different designs from each other. Very different. Our favourite characters are Thorani, Zebei and off course Dhar. The characters have made us laugh more than once. We have cared about some characters, one by far the most. Before all that though take some time to actually look how Zebei fires his bow with his up-based attack where he’s in the air. He got too much skill and swag.
Our favourite scene of character interaction has to be when Thorani, Zebei, Baozhai, Dhar and Ajna tried the strong alcohol during their escape from the slime at the iron kingdom. It had everything. Clear relationships between certain characters, age reveals, behaviour, humour and more. That moment when Kushi asked to try the drink and Zebei simply said “None for you child” then kushi got upset just made us laugh and reminds us of a father with a daughter or big brother little sister sort of relationship. It makes sense as Zebei is a full fledge protector while kushi is an apprentice. Zebei is responsible for her. We learnt that Dhar is 20 years old while Ajna is 16 (clearly). Thorani is the clear mother of the group and clearly mature and behaves wonderfully. An excellent example woman. We won’t cover everything as you should see for yourself but Dhar can’t handle his drinks and Baozhai is a fun strong person to have around.
Next let’s talk about the adventure itself. It’s a big game. You won’t complete this in two hours. You seat in an Ashwat village, then get to a Flying Fortress, then reach Mt Sumeru, then a desert, then a lovely city at the end of the desert with a port, water, merchants, everything. Then the adventure becomes less linear and opens up for access to three more places: Iron kingdom, Tai Krung and Kaanul. We enjoyed the variety of environments and each place is very different from each other which is a good thing. Tai Krung is basically china town but for some reason has reggae music. Hey! Shut up! That background level music wasn’t chinese. It was reggae, off course a bit of a twist to it but reggae nonetheless. Iron kingdom is clearly the military power country with machinery and advanced technology. Kaanul is so nature based with trees, plants, temple styled buildings and more. It’s a jungle. These levels also have a Metroid feel to it in terms of you can’t go through here because you need a certain ability. So you go to another place to learn it and progress. Lots of travelling to and fro through the places.
Next let’s talk about the combat. It’s so different from other games. We like and respect uniqueness. You start with two characters and one button on your controller controls one character’s actions like ‘A’ button and the other button like ‘B’ controls the other. You use those buttons to attack AND to defend. To get a perfect defence you need to time it and press the button at the same time as the attack comes in from enemies. So it can get confusing at first. An enemy will choose who to attack or both and you must control the right character for defending and attacking. Then you will have four characters fo A for one, B for 2, Y for three and X for four if on Xbox for example. This is where some peoples brains can get confused. Holding up or down while pressing the button does a different attack from default. There are advanced combat techniques too. So you have to remember and juggle all this information at the same time. Seeing new players trying to manage all this is funny. You get use to it quickly though. The combat has layers to it from juggling enemies to generate more iddhi, to combo-ing into an ultimate back into a juggle etc.
Another great thing about Indivisible is that we could easily understand the characters. What they are about, their mentality and what their negatives or issues were. We understood Gingseng’s passion for botany and his goals. We knew he would be honoured to study under angwu at the tower of wisdom. Gingseng for the most part was normal. We liked him. Ajna right from the start we knew she was a typical troublesome teenager. She wakes up late, not very responsible person, backchats and argues with her dad over everything. Even a smack across the head doesn’t help (if she had a Jamaican dad her attitude would change). She claims she listens while interrupting people. You just knew she had to go on a journey or maturing, listening and being a better person. It was good to see her development. She cares though, values friendships greatly, loves to help others, determined to help the world and right her wrongs. Thorani is empathetic, sense others feelings like if they are sincere or not. She has a strong desire to want to help others and cares for others. Even calling Ajna and others her children (well she is old enough). We knew her problem would be that she would want to help others so badly that she is willing to over tax herself. Risk or harm herself in the process. She also doesn’t open up to others has much and keeps it in. Sure she’s over a thousand years old and can’t relate woman problems to 16 year old immature Ajna but there’s Zebei who’s an adult. Phoebe was married so she can understand. Baozhai is a no no as she might make some moves if you know what we mean. So not her.
The game wasn’t cryptic at all. Most stuff was easy to figure out, a good amount of clues was given concerning what to do but the game didn’t hold your and. There were secrets to find, hidden characters to discover, ways to upgrade yourself through the ringsels. Each character had a personal mission of their own for you to discover and complete which results in… we aren’t entirely sure what the benefit is except sometimes getting a new costume. We think the characters gets stronger too as they get way more hearts which the game didn’t explain by the way. We believe they get stronger, the new customer is cool though. We didn’t even get an achievement for completing all of them. Their own personal quests were fun to pursue and complete though. It definitely relates with the character in some way and were for the most part interesting. The most unique character was Zahra. gamerant are terrible at analysis and overall not good gamers as they said she was a terrible character in combat and not worth a space. They are so wrong. So they lost any credibility they had with us. Zahra buffs your team one by one and you can stack the buffs which are speed, damage and defense. The buffs are gone if you get hit. You need to perfect block with her to keep the buffs. So if you are skilled you can stack speed, damage and defence boosts on all characters which makes them very powerful. Zebei with a speed boost makes him so fast it’s actually over powered. We have seen Zebei use all his attacks, run back, recharge and go back in before the other characters even get a chance. Zahra is amazing.
Most characters have their own clear uses while there are some who are basically useless from a combat perspective. For example Yan just gets outclassed in damage, juggle and effects. Naga rider is a better version of her when it comes to juggling, ultimates and straight up damage (unless there’s something we don’t know). Zebei is faster than her. We don’t see a reason to use her. Kushi and Altun get outclassed by Tungar for area of effect damage. Her ability to fly isn’t as useful as you think, quite limited. The dog Lanshi hasn’t impressed us. The dog is for set ups and we definitely like how different the dog operates from the other characters though. Sadly Baozhai isn’t good either. Her default attack does no damage but powers up the cannons which aren’t impressive damage and can hurt our own teammates, so little to no combo potential. It would have been good if all characters had their own use or advantages. Even Phoebe eventually got replaced on our team and we liked her.
Another negative about Indivisible is that we started new game plus but there’s nothing so far that’s different about the game. We even saw someone claim there’s nothing different. Ajna has different colour hair, and has the same design as the new Ajna after her interaction with Kala but still no difference. We thought maybe what she says would be different or maybe the characters would recognise her and engage with her differently. Off course we haven’t finished new game plus but so far everything is the same which is very disappointing. We also noticed a very small map mistake where the ma shows you there’s an incarnation (blue flame symbol) on the map when there isn’t.
Here’s two more negatives we had with Indivisible. First is a secret hidden boss called meownster. We found this secret boss and we are sorely disappointed. First of all it looked stupid. We just a huge disappointed sigh when we first found it. That’s not how a powerful super strong final boss should look. Kala looked cool but meownster was lame. Next it was badly designed. You take its life down and it then gets a bit bigger and gets full health back. You do this 5 more times and you wonder how many times do you have to beat it. It’s annoying when you have no idea. It then gets stronger moves with a few that can one shot your entire team. The entire boss fight was boring, it was long, we couldn’t be bothered and worst of all, you don’t get anything for doing it. No over powered move/ability, no epic custom, no cheat menu no nothing. Don’t waste your time on this boss. Not worth it.
The last thing that was a negative that we certainly hated was Ajna’s tribute to Dhar. Spoiler alert. We were mad that Dhar died. Made us not want to continue playing. He sacrificed himself for the Ajna, for the team. Ajna finds his sword and her tribute to him was that she didn’t like him, blames him, will never forgive him but thanks him for preventing her from becoming something she would hate. That’s it! What kind of bullcrap tribute it that for someone who went on a whole adventure to you, dedicated himself to help you save the world, the first person you encounter (not on good terms) and last of all gives his life to help you, for the mission. We disliked Ajna after that. We didn’t care about her anymore. We were done. We don’t care if Dhar killed her dad and that she’s 16. Childish or not. Let’s defend Dhar. Dhar killed her dad yes but they were on opposing sides of a battle and normally in battles and wars one side loses and people die. Dhar was raised in a lying dictatorship like country in an army that believes what they are doing is right. He was indoctrinated as he grew up. He knew no better. Ajna and the crew fought and most likely killed many beings and people on their journey like the soldiers of the iron kingdom. How many of them were dads, brothers, sons, husbands etc. She didn’t care… but when it’s her dad its bad. That’s called battle, war whatever. Dhar learnt the truth, admitted what he did was wrong and explained how he was indoctrinated and thought his leader would help bring world peace but Ajna still won’t forgive him after death. Lame. Pathetic. Forget Ajna and her stupid tribute, rather they didn’t have that scene. Dhar is our favourite character.
Here’s another good thing about Indivisible. The final boss and main villain of the game is Kala. She looks cool, clearly powerful and has her own issues and story. Even Kala does through some development and learning too. Every encounter with Kala was a good one. At the start of the game we thought she was some particle thing ike energy. Then we see she has a body and solid form. She is huge and can step on you. The final battle is completely different from everything else we ever faced. The very end where we had no hope of beating her due to her power but by remembering the basics of solid defense you out last Kala’s assault. Kala was a great villain. She made sense, especially in terms of combat and power. Unlike other video games like god of war where kratus is able to kill zeus who is supposed to be the strongest of all the gods by far and way superior to kratus. In Indivisible it makes sense that Ajna is no match for Kala and can’t beat her. It’s realistic in that sense. So victory must be taken in another way. It was exciting to be right outside of Kala’a area about to head in to settle the fight.
Overall Indivisible is an excellent game. We had lots of fun playing it. 100%-ing this game isn’t really hard. Just got to put in time. The bosses were cool to face with the serpent queen being the most cryptic. For a bit we didn’t know what we were suppose to do at one point. Off course we aren’t going to go over every little thing. Oh by the way. Everyone go get this game. It’s available on the Xbox game pass (greatest deal in video game history). We literally just surfed the game pass and saw this game and was like yes we get to play it. Downloaded it and had a great time. Indivisible is an adventure that you have to go on. We didn’t talk about the clear cultural inspiration for this game. Indivisible is a 9/10 for us. Try it for yourself. Truly an amazing game. Now Indivisible may be an amazing game but it’s nothing special if you compare it to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Falconeer is a new open world, aerial combat role playing game developed by ‘Tomas Sala‘ and published by ‘Wired Productions‘. The Falconeer is said to be coming out the 10th of November on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. It’s another Xbox exclusive coming out on the Xbox Series X launch day. The Falconeer is said to be bringing a “new take on air combat”. We would definitely love to see that. Air combat is pretty standard but The Falconeer has got something going on. Let’s take a look.
Now the story in The Falconeer is practically unknown. It’s described as an “singular conflict”. So this is basically one big war. There are multiple factions too and it’s been made clear that players will get to play as all the factions to see each perspective of the war and battles. That’s simple and still easy to understand.
Let’s dive into what we see right off the bat. You are a Falconeer who use to be a messenger and guardian. You are riding a falcon or a really big bird and diving head first into wars. You will be targeted and attacked by all types of forces in this game. Everything is in third person so you have better views of what is going on which is good because there is a lot going on. The types of enemies you will face have been described as land, sea and air forces. So basically you aren’t safe anywhere.
We have seen others on big birds coming after and taking shots at the player in the Falconeer. There are big ships with loads of turrets and cannons. There are even what looks like stationary turrets and vehicles on the land. We like the variety of enemies here. The whole land, sea and air thing reminds us of two things: Supreme commander 2 (the units) and Kaido (from One Piece). This literally means that you aren’t safe and there’s more room for a wider variety of enemies. Games like this with loads of combat need loads of enemies to keep things interesting and have enough to keep things difficult.
We are seeing airships, battle ships and other big bird riders. The real question is how are the going to balance this? This might help. The Falconeer has creatures too. not just machines. You will face what looks like flying beetles, There are also manta rays but they don’t look cute. There’s even long bodied fling “dragon-like weavers”. Do It gets worse… there’s even krakens! Giant octopus looking things. This is a good move by the developer. Machines and creatures are here in this battle.
Now off course being a Falconeer doesn’t mean you fly up to enemies and your bird punches and kicks enemies. Wrong! You are equipped with powerful long ranged weaponry. Shhot and blast from a distance, manoeuvre and dodge bullets and other projectiles. Outfly and swivel around your enemies. It’s straight up aerial combat around here in the Falconeer. Since it’s open world, there’s numerous areas to explore.
Guess what we saw. The big green badge. You know what that means. “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness, and framerates up to 120 FPS.” The developer made it clear he wants the Falconeer to have constant 60frames per second. The best visuals and best performance will only be on Cboc Series X and high end PCs.
We checked out some gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. Big bird or falcon, flying around, slower than we thought though. Falcons are incredibly fast birds but off course they are slower here for gameplay reasons. It’s been confirmed there are secrets in this game and some are even below the waters. Now that’s sounding cool. Can we dive. Does our falcon survive under there? We got questions. There is a form of in game currency called soulshards so players need to make sure to grab as much as they can. So search the whole Ursee which is the name of this whole place.
Overall The Falconeer looks like a good game. More information is needed specially concerning the combat mechanics, the enemies etc. From a concept and world perspective it’s good and we like what we are hearing and seeing. Visually it’s not impressive but it’s good for the style that it’s doing. Just take a look and you’ll see what we mean. The developer ‘Tomas Sala’ has done a good job here. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye out for what the Falconeer will accomplish.
Sword of the Necromancer is a new dungeon crawler action role playing game developed by ‘Grimorio of Games‘ and published by ‘JanduSoft‘. Sword of the Necromancer is said to be coming out in the last quarter of 2020 on the Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PC. Sword of the Necromancer doesn’t look flashy but looks like solid action. Let’s take a look.
The story of Sword of the necromancer is actually quite simple. You are this dude called Tama. The girl you love is dead but you won’t leave her dead. So you do whatever it takes to bring her back. This apparently means acquiring the Sword of the Necromancer (the title by the way) and slaying enough monsters and even the necromancer himself to get enough soul power to bring Koko (the girl) back to life. We at X35 Earthwalker condemn the practice of necromancy, so don’t go grabbing death swords to bring back a loved one. You’ve been warned.
Now just take one look at Sword of the necromancer and you already know what you are getting yourself into. It’s pixel graphics, you going through what looks like dungeons and you are swinging your sword at many foes. That’s all you need to know really, but there’s something more though. This sword, sword of the necromancer, has an unsurprising ability where the enemies you kill can be brought back to life under your control. You keep what you kill. So eventually you need to raise an army of monsters to help you destroy necromancer and the guardians.
Now it’s not just your sword that you will be wielding. The weapons are different and there are relics to acquirer to help you out. Also the weapons are random generated so you will get something different from your friend… or by pure chance you do get the same thing. The problem is you only have four item slots. So you can equip a monster you defeated to summon it against your enemies, or you can equip the bow and arrows or go for a giant axe, or maybe equip a shield which protects you from projectiles. There’s a whole lot of different combinations of resurrected monsters, relics or weapons. So get creative.
As you fight and defeat enemies you will level up. As you fight alongside the monsters you turned and summoned they will get stronger too. So there’s quite a bit of management to do. Levelling up is key as you need levels to improve your stats and upgrade. If you die (you will die… probably), you lose all your equipped weapons and monsters but keep half the levels you gained. On the other hand there may be opportunities for you to leave the dungeon. Doing this let’s you keep all your equipment but lose all your levels. So you need to take risks to become the ultimate killing machine.
We checked out some Sword of the Necromancer gameplay and it’s what we expected. It’s nothing flashy or fancy. It’s your dungeon crawler, action game. A solid game at that with a cool new concept of turning defeated enemies into allies. This concept along will catch the attention of gamers. We like this concept and it makes you wonder what monsters you want to aim for, how useful they will be and who to spend time fighting alongside to level up. The pixel style works here and the designs look good. Work went into this game for sure. Again, nothing big or special but solid.
Overall we like what we see. It’s interesting and cool. Best of all Sword of the necromancer has local co-op. You can play with a buddy and face the dungeons together. Local co-op is just the best. You hear that Halo Infinite! MAKE SURE TO HAVE LOCAL CO-OP!!! Sorry readers we don’t know what came over us. *clears throat* The graphics are nice, the combat is solid and the options seem plentiful. This game just needs a bit more and some flair. The developers ‘Grimorio of Games’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Sword of the Necromancer truly brings to the table. Now Sword of the Necromancer may have a great concept but it’s a dumb one compared to the creativity of… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is a new online action Role Playing Game developed and published by Sega. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is said to be coming out 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis does look like something real big. Let’s take a look.
Now we have never heard about Phantasy Star. Not at all. Never. We saw this being showed at the Xbox showcase 2020. It did get our attention as it was big, fast, pure action and definitely flashy. We saw a big open world and reaction combat with dangerous looking enemies. We don’t know if the enemies are dangerous or not or how easy the game is or not. This won’t be a big or in depth G-blog post.
Now we definitely like open world games with big action. Final Fantasy XV did very well with this. Now the developers of Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis made a very big statement. Read this, “We are working very hard to offer players unparalleled character customization, limitless adventure, and the best action online RPG available on the Xbox One or PC”. This is a big job for sure. Through a bit of research we learnt that Phantasy Star online 2 is praised for it’s character customisation. So we will see if that’s true for ourselves.
The Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis developers said “limitless adventure”. That’s huge. This can be done but either has tons of development work or repeated similar task for grinding etc. We aren’t sure what route Sega will take to do this but hope they do it well. A number of gamers are looking for a open world game that is actually limitless but most developers don’t know how to do that properly.
We checked out some Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis gameplay and it looks very good. There’s lots of mobility. You can slide around, dash, suspend and attack in the air and sprint around to get different angles or avoid attacks. There’s quite a bit of options here concerning combat. Speaking of options you can not just use your blade but firearms too. So depending on the enemy or what’s going on, players can either get up close or gun them down. There’s loads of lights and colours showing a vibrant game with life in it. We are liking what we are seeing.
Overall Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis looks like it’s going to be a good game. There are great MMORPG games like Tera and Skyforge which have made some annoying mistakes concerning playing solo or in a team, advantages of guilds/teams and access. We hope Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis does it well. The graphics are excellent and sounds are very good. The developers ‘Sega’ have done an excellent job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis truly has to offer. Now Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis may have tons of world and action but it’s far too small to be recognised when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a new action role playing game developed by ‘Cyanide‘ and published by ‘Nacon‘. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is said to be coming out the 4th of February 2021 on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PS4 and PC. We heard there are werewolves in this game. Well there’s more to it but hey. Let’s take a look.
Now Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is set in a dark universe that has werewolves in it. Now that should already get some people excited as there are way more vampire games. Basically players control a character called Cahal. He was born under a full moon, and proud werewolf Warrior of the Fianna Tribe. So yes he is a werewolf basically and a strong one at that. Cahal also use to be a protector of gaia. What’s gaia? Well basically it’s the earth. We will explain.
In Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, gaia is in a battle against the Wyrm which is a cosmic force all about destruction and decay… so not friendly. The wyrm is getting help from Pentex, a multinational corporation who want nothing more than to feast on the corpse of gaia. Cahal (the main character) who willingly went into exile because he lost control in his werewolf form is coming back into action, to help his tribe and off course also help gaia.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood doesn’t keep things basic. Cahal is has three forms. His human form, his wolf form and his werewolf form. His human form is best for interacting with people because as you know werewolves can be scary and cause people to run away or attack you. The wolf form is the best for travelling around because of it’s fast movement and it’s also capable of sneaking around so it’s the stealth form. The werewolf form is all about the combat, the fighting and destruction. So players need to know where to use what in Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.
Now remember this. Your greatest strength is also your greatest threat (sort of). Your werewolf form thrives and goes in with the rage. The rage is your weapon but if you don’t control your rage it will probably lead t your death. This is because when you lose control you give the chance for the wyrm enthrall to consume your soul. That’s right Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood isn’t going to let you go completely crazy.
Lastly the type of enemies we have seen. Well humans are in this world confirmed and we know that Pentex is a human corporation and so as the enemy we expect human based enemies. Now humans can’t stand up to a werewolf without the right tools. So we expect powerful weaponry and powerful machines like power suits maybe. Not something as high tier as Optimus prime but something powerful. We did see an image of a dude in a exoskeletal construction machine that you control with your body. Reminds us of the machine Ripley used used in her battle against the queen xenomorph alien in the movie ‘Aliens’. So that’s interesting.
We checked out some Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood gameplay and it’s what we imagined actually. When you go into werewolf mode you run around slashing and smashing enemies around, even joggling some. Some enemies are too big and sturdy so you may have to leave them for last. Lost of humans with good weaponry to put you down and you can even square up with other werewolf enemies. Werewolf on werewolf violence is always encouraged around here. So get ready for it. It’s definitely action with abilities.
Overall Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood just seems like another action game all about wild fighting. Reminding us of Dante’s inferno and god of war in some ways. There’s much more to learn about this game. We like werewolves and like the multiform game mechanic. Like alucard being able to turn into a bat, gas, or wolf. The developers ‘Cyanide’ have done a good job with this game. Now werewolves may be destroying with their rage but even that can be slapped away by… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a new action role playing game developed by ‘Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio‘ but published by ‘SEGA‘. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is said to be coming out 2020 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PC. This game did get our attention but by only a medium amount. We are curious as to what this game has got. Let’s take a look.
In the world of Yakuza: Like a Dragon players control Ichiban Kasuga. This guy is a yakuza… and a low ranking one at that. His boss is someone he has complete loyalty and trust in but gets betrayed… shot and off course left for dead. Off course he is out for answers and by the looks of it… revenge. It makes you wonder though. Why didn’t the boss and his people kill Ichiban right there and then to make sure? Did the boss want Ichiban to survive?
Not much is known about Yakuza: Like a Dragon. What we do know is that all this takes place in todays Japan and you are armed with a bat. Off course it isn’t a regular bat but incredibly deadly and powerful. This is where things get comical and we like that. It sort of reminds us of ‘Saints row the third‘ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the world‘. In a sense that this is super serious gang realistic thing. It’s more comical, more fun, more silly and relaxed. Just get in there and get ready to give a beat down with some serious action. This is a good approach and the right approach.
The biggest difference in Yakuza: Like a Dragon is that it’s combat is now basically a party turn based RPG. So give commands, get strategic about it and make your turn count. There are multiple different abilities with some being funny. One guy used a move called Pigeon Raid where you throw beans at an enemy and then a bunch of pigeons come along and attack the enemy. Yep we got stuff like that in this game. That should tell you a lot already.
We have seen that there are physical attacks and what can be described as magical attacks. For example we mentioned Pigeon raid but there’s also Pyro belch which targets one enemy but has area of effect and can caused the enemies to get burned. There’s a physical attack called ‘push and shove’ which let’s you shove an enemy with a cane which has a chance to stun the enemy. They have power rankings too like Light, medium and heavy.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon has been optimised for Xbox Series X which means “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness and framerates up to 120FPS.
We checked out some Yakuza: Like a Dragon and it’s not what we though it would be and old fans of the series will notice the heavier differences. It’s a very simple thing to understand. It’s action, it’s RPG, it’s strategy, it’s relaxed, it’s comical in a way. There’s humour and it’s about smashing your enemies. Not only that and what really stands out is that there are some powerful enemies you will face. These guys don’t play around and they will not let you do as you please. The enemies are really interesting looking and even from a trailer we haven’t been this interested in enemies in a video game in a good while. We want to know more about these suckas.
Overall Yakuza: Like a Dragon looks like it’s just going to be a wild ride for sure. Abilities, weapons, allies a whole city and some cool enemies who ain’t about to let you do as you please. Yakuza: Like a Dragon actually looks like a fun action game to play where it’s not 100% serious and stiff but flexible, silly and just straight up have a blast. In time we will learn more. The developers ‘Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’ have done an excellent job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will be waiting for the release of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Now Yakuza: Like a Dragon maybe have a powered baseball bat but even that is a weak toy compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Raid: Shadow Legends is a popular mobile turn based RPG developed and published by ‘Plarium‘. This game came out in 2018. Now this game is popping up in so many places. Those annoying youtubers are promoting them and being sponsored by Raid. So with Raid popping up in many places it must be good… wrong! Let’s take a look.
Speaking of youtubers funny that we never hear them give an update or talk about how things are going for them in the game Raid: Shadow Legends. We wonder why… Anyway. We won’t waste time. The first thing you will notice that every time you log into the game a micro transaction will pop up in your face. Yes, every time you log in a deal is thrown in your face. Not just 1, 2, 3, literally at times it was 5 deals one after the other in our face. The developers are literally coming to your door as salesman one after another trying to get you to buy… at four different times in the day. That’s why we have our shotgun ready. So developers are REALLY after your money. Yes we understand that game design is a business. Plarium needs to make money like any other business. This is too much though.
The reason they come for your money so hard is because Raid: Shadow Legends is literally based on money. Sure the game is free but it’s clearly pay to win. We can literally say so much about this but many have huge problems with Raid: Shadow Legends and literally bashed this game… and for good reason. ‘The Gamer’ literally said on their website “Raid: Shadow Legends is absolute trash and we’re not afraid to say it”. It gets better as they then gave a paragraph explaining how essential spending real life money for success in this game is. They said, again on their website, “Are you stuck on a particularly difficult dungeon and don’t want to grind for more gear? Use your Visa! Do you need more silver to equip a new weapon, because for some reason that costs in-game currency? Break out the MasterCard! Are you dissatisfied with your rank in Arena against the teams boosted by other players and their credit cards? Then spend more money, or forever stay in the lowest ranks of “competitive” play, you filthy, poor casual”. This made us laugh but honestly this is true. Legit.
Everything revolves around money, why? Because the game is so grindy that it makes you want to speed this up. Humans don’t like waiting. Lag makes people mad, a slow computer gets on our nerves etc. Everything in the game can be sped up… with money. You can buy all the silver you want. You can buy the gems. You can buy artefacts. You can buy champions. You can buy training slots. You can buy levelling up beverages. You can buy chicken which are used to rank up your champions. You can buy anything you need. It’s literally pay to win. If you and your friend start Raid: Shadow Legends at the same time but you are regular you with your comfortable minimum wage job while studying for example but your friend has a rich uncle who spoils him. In the first day of playing this game, you who is playing naturally will get some uncommon champions maybe a rare get to maybe level 10 (we forgot how fast you level up in the start) find some artefacts none good but it’s better than nothing. Your friend because he got lots of cash from his uncle can have a full level 60 squad of champions with some legendary champions and full mastery without having to face the minotaur. We aren’t joking! You can literally do it all in a day if you have enough cash. To give you an idea of how strong a legendary champion is here’s the order: common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary. So just think about this.
Let’s talk about this grind. Everything is a grind. Levelling up is done fastest when you repeatedly do some of the hardest campaign levels you can do over and over again. So set the speed to 2x and ‘auto’. You don’t even need to play really. This is harder because each action requires energy which you have a limited amount of daily unless you buy more with money. In order to ascend your champions you need to collect the respective potions (magic, spirit, force, void, arcane) which you get from fighting in the respective dungeons same way with campaign. To make it grindy-er these fights also cost energy and you need a combination of the potion of your champions type with arcane as arcane is needed to for all ascensions. This means more fighting. Also the dungeon types are open on different days. So for example the magic dungeon might be open on Mondays, spirit is open Tuesday, force is Wednesday you get the idea. There is lesser, greater and superior potions of each type but we will get into that later in the blog post for a serious reason. In order to get your champions mastery, you need to (you guessed it) fight again but this time against the minotaur in his dungeon. If you win you get scrolls. There’s three types of scrolls, basic, advanced and divine. The type of scrolls you can get it decided by the difficulty of the dungeon. So you can’t get red scrolls until you get real strong in the game to defeat the dungeon. Which means come back later until strong after lots of grinding to get that strong. You need 5-30 basic for the first set of masteries, 80-120 advanced for next set and 200-350 divine for the final set. If you get strong enough like we did you can face stage 15 which is a level 185 minotaur. You can win from 24-32 basic, 11-16 advanced, 6-12 divine. Hold up… it gets worse.
So quick maths to fully max out your masteries concerning the divine scrolls you need 200+350= 550. 550/12 (it’s based on chance, so you won’t get 12 all the time) = 49 rounded up. Your champion will need to do this 49 times to complete one branch and that’s not counting the basic and advanced scrolls since you go through the masteries in order, you must max out the basic first before moving to advanced before moving to divine. If we counted basic and advanced it would be 49+15=64. Notice we said ‘one branch’. You can do only two branches and both cost the same except for the second branch can’t have the final category so double it. 128-29 (the last category of the second branch) = 99. So basically 100 times. Wait, notice even earlier we said “your champion” and not your team. Every time you successfully complete a minotaur dungeon ONLY ONE champion of your team at RANDOM gets the scroll prize. So the first time you win Athel might get the 12 divine scrolls but the second time your Frostking might get the 12 scrolls and the third time might be your Coldheart. Get it yet? The developers, to increase the level of grind made it so that your whole team doesn’t get the prize but only one. So it’s 100 times per champion! So your full squad of 4 or 5 means 400-500 times of repeating the minotaur dungeon. Oh and each attempt in the dungeon at this level costs 14 energy and at profile level 54 (what we were) you only get 124 energy daily so that’s 8 (as a whole number) attempts with what you got. Yes energy slowly comes back during the day so you might fill up your energy three times in a day so lets say 24 attempts each day. That means to fully max out your team of 4 you will need 400/24=17 (16.6) days of nothing but minotaur dungeon to fully max out your squad. It gets worse! Remember that the amount of scrolls you get per win is based on chance. We said on the highest difficulty dungeon you can get between 6-12 divine scrolls. We high balled the amount in our maths to show you the shortest amount of time. If you get 8 or 9, or even 6 the it’s going to take even longer. IT GETS WORSE! When you start the game you aren’t as strong as we were, you would need to start at lower level dungeons which give lower amounts of scrolls. For example stage 8 you can get 8-12 basic and 1-3 advanced, divine isn’t available at this level. It is available at level 11 but only 1-3 divine scrolls. So it would take forever. This is the definition of grind.
We mentioned chance in the last two paragraphs but here’s where the chance gets real bad and one of Raid: Shadow Legends big problems. They don’t give enough information concerning chance. The lesser, greater and superior potions are dropped at chance. There’s even a chance you won’t get potions at all but a beverage for levelling up etc. We don’t know the chance of the drop. They say the higher difficulty of the dungeon gives a better chance for a greater and superior potion but how much more? What’s the chance. Weirdly we have received more superior and greater from lower levels instead of the higher levels. That’s weird. Even the whole artefacts are base on horrible chance. When you complete a campaign it’s all chance what you get in terms of the level of it and what stats it has. The worst is fighting the giant spider dungeon for rings, amulets and banners. Whenever you beat the spider queen thing, it’s all chance if you get a ring, banner or amulet. It’s all chance what level you get. It’s all chance what faction you get it for. So if you wanted to get a 6 star banner for Athel it becomes a nightmare you can’t control as you might get a banner but it’s the wrong level or you finally do get a level 6 banner but it’s for the orc faction so Athel can’t use it. Plus getting level 6 is harder than getting level 4 obviously. We have tried numerous times to get a specific banner or amulet and just don’t get it regardless of the number of times we tried. Remember that all the time we try to get a specific item from the spider queen we aren’t doing the minotaur, so no mastery for us. The chance gets worse in Raid: Shadow Legends. Shards is the main way to get champions. The type of shard has different chances for getting certain rarity of champions. Let’s focus on what matters here. When using an ancient shard you have a 0.5% chance of getting a legendary champion. 0.5%!! This means 1in 200. That’s like having 200 cards on a table face down and only one of those cards is the winning card. This game allows double of champions from shards so you can sacrifice to level up abilities. So after you pick a card, the whole table is shuffled with that same card back in the deck for you to pick again. Now if you use the sacred shards which is the main way to get legendary champions you have a 6% chance to get one. 6%! To give you an idea of how rare sacred shards are you only 1 every month! That’s if you do your daily and weekly quests with the monthly quest. It’s so bad that many have complained about this online. If you want more sacred shards then you have to BUY them. h and they aren’t cheap. Make sure you have a friend with a rich uncle.
So basically Raid: Shadow Legends has so much grind, the most grind we have ever seen in a game. So players get annoyed and want to speed it up. You speed it up by spending money which many are tempted to do as they keep throwing their deals and shop at you. Players buy gems because gems can be used to pretty much get anything else like full maxed out masteries. There’s a offer of £100 for 4200 gems. Do you know what we could buy with £100… not 4200 gems that’s for sure. Players use real money to everything else. The sacred shards are in packs that cost £49 and £29. The dumb part is that the cheaper of the two has better stuff than the more expensive one. So if you want to have four attempt with sacred shards to get a legendary champion you will need to spend £116. Plus the £100 for the gems so that’s over £200. We checked online and some people have spent over £1000 on this game over time. One dude spent £2400 over 4 months. Some have spent more over time but never realised how much they put into this game. According to ‘sensor tower’ Plarium got 7 million in estimated monthly revenue as off May (check for yourself as we don’t know how reliable that information is). People need to manage their money better. Plarium will never earn a single dime from us and no we didn’t even spend over £50 over our months of playing the game.
So we won’t try to defend Raid: Shadow Legends. We abandoned Raid: Shadow Legends. If you want to advance in arena against other players you need to spend as so many people in your low ranking like silver have full squads of legendary characters all level 60 with masteries. You will never catch up to them unless you spend or play the game for two years. Too much grind, too much money hungering and too much hidden and bad chance makes Raid: Shadow Legends a terrible game. We stopped having fun and got frustrated. There are more problems like the mission objectives, unbalanced characters etc but we will stick to the grind, chances and spending. We are literally being merciful, there’s so much more to say. Now Raid: Shadow Legends has so many problems which will forever keep it away from… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Ascent is a new solo and co-op action RPG developed by ‘Neon Giant‘ and published by ‘Curve Digital‘. The Ascent is said to be coming out in 2020 but no specific date. The Ascent is an Xbox exclusive that’s coming out on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. We normally like games of this style so naturally we checked it out. Let’s take a look.
In the Ascent universe there is a corporation… well a mega corporation known as the ‘The Ascent group’. They are said to own every everyone, including the player. This mega corporation has collapsed… somehow. This effects everything including security and order. So off course with The Ascent group gone, there is chaos and violence as let’s just say… non peaceful corporations and gangs are taking advantage of the situation. So off course you got to get control of the situation and found out what happened.
Now we definitely got an interest in The Ascent simply because of style. We like the whole top down shooting games thing. It reminds us of Alien Breed for example. Now that game is very good and a lot of fun with co-op action. So far The Ascent has those elements in terms of co-op action (which is excellent and the straight up combat. Games like this are not hard to make good but it’s the job or developers to take it to the next level. Hopefully The Ascent does such a thing.
The Ascent has a number of areas for the player to explore. There are many districts and some are run down and not so great like the slums while other places will be high end luxury places spheres. So make sure to take pictures – we mean be on your guard. Don’t forget that you will have opportunities to make allies and enemies. So be careful, do you really need more enemies, but what do they want in return for being an ally. Some people you can’t trust. Especially if you meet a alien called pablo.
There are a variety of enemies and off course each have their own strengths and weaknesses. She enemies are sower with their attacks. Some are melee only, others just attack from afar. You get the point by now. Off course don’t forget that The Ascent is also an RPG. Enemies can drop loot. The most dangerous enemies are worth slaying as they can drop the best and rarest loot of all. Your characters can also be augmented and customised. How you build your character will pretty much effect how you should approach the enemies. Use cyberware to modify your body, and your equipment makes a difference.
We checked out some The Ascent gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. Top down, move around, dodge attacks, keep distance, shoot them down and make your way. You explore the area (as you should) and open up chests for items. The shooting enemies don’t seem so aggressive. There’s also abilities like a ground pound attack so you can mix that in to destroy groups of enemies. There is a dome shield that moves with you and offers excellent protection. The Ascent is already setting a huge bar for games to follow with no loading, environment destruction stays and it’s incredibly detailed and this isn’t even the final build yet. As expected we say playstation fans just dumping all over it for no logical reason but hey if you like it, play it and have fun.
Overall, The Ascent looks amazing so far. It’s incredibly detailed. The graffiti, the environment and as mentioned before the environment damage stays. The graphics are excellent, the sounds are serious and the in game character animations are excellent too. If this is what the Xbox Series X is brining then we are looking forward to it. The developers ‘Neon Giant’ have done an amazing job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker definitely look forward to what The Ascent truly brings. Now The Ascent may ascend gameplay but nothing is as ascended as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Outriders is a new third person shooter role playing game developed by ‘People Can Fly‘ and published by ‘Square Enix‘. Outriders is said to be coming out in the fourth quarter of 2020 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5 and PC. Outriders is one of those games that wants to come in hot with big stuff. Let’s take a look.
Outriders in set in a sci-fi universe. Definitely the future and it’s a dark and desperate times. This place is called Enoch (another inspiration from the Bible but no mention). Things are harsh, death seems to get around a lot. So don\’t expect any rainbows and sunshine (Escanor or not). Simply put humanity is in trouble. They have been described as “bleeding out”. The only lead players have is this weird signal. You need to know where it’s coming from, it’s source. So that’s the whole adventure. In outriders you are travelling across this dangerous world to find the source of that signal. So get walking.
Now yes the trailers and story show three Outriders but it’s confirmed that you can create your own Outrider. So character customisation is confirmed. How in depth is the customisation, we don’t know but it must be facial at least and probably like with most recent modern games, there could be skins and outfits. Now players get to choose from four classes for their Outrider. Each class off course has their own abilities and skill tree.
Now Outriders is a shooter game so expect the guns. There are some standard guns as in machine gun fire and heavy rounds but there also a twist to some… after all it is the future. There’s even what looks like a chain gun so keep your head down… maybe. The more emphasis is on the powers. There’s many abilities out here. From straight up shooting flames from your hands, causing earth shockwaves, phasing, sort of teleport (become electricity dash forward and reform), blasts, ice freezing and more. Now when you think about Outriders altogether it should remind you of another futuristic game where humanity are also having a tough time but some specific people have powers… Destiny.
Let’s address some smaller stuff. It’s been quoted “OUTRIDERS offers countless hours of gameplay from one of the finest shooter developers in the industry – People Can Fly.” First of all countless is a real big word and we at X35 Earthwalker take it seriously. They better deliver with countless hours worth of gameplay. Second ‘People can fly’ are good developers but not one of the finest. They made Gears of War Judgement which we really enjoyed and had the best weapons balancing of all the Gears of War games for multiplayer but made some big mistakes that are obvious even to a casual gamer. For example no locust in multiplayer and no ‘Down but not out’ which means no executions. So good yes but definitely not finest unless they have seriously improved over time.
Outriders is suppose to have a whole lot of stuff and places for players to see. You will come across, broken down places, slums, cities, deserts, some shanty towns and more. In big games like this, the environments make a big difference. Now best of all, it’s confirmed that Outriders is co-op. It’s drop in, drop out co-op so your friends can join and leave whenever they want. This is the most convenient and best way of doing co-op for the most part. Matter of fact co-op has been pushed and emphasised all over this game. We like this feature for sure. The game industry needs more awesome big co-op made games.
We checked out some Outriders gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. It does remind us of Destiny. Got a mission, get there and complete it while gunning down enemies of a variety sort. While using your powers and abilities that literally shake things up. You can roam as a team of three or with just one friend and dominate the enemies. Using cover effectively and probably melt enemies with your steady stream of melting flames. Also there are whole lots of gear and guns that can be modded for that extra kick, effects and boosts. So there are some layers to this game. Remember that Outriders all be one of those new games that will come out also on the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5. So already gamers have got expectations.
Overall, Outriders has got a lot going on and looks like a very good game so far. The theme of ascension is heavy when it comes to the story. Leaving humanity behind and becoming something more. We know how these go. The graphics look very good too. The developers ‘People Can Fly’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Outriders truly brings to the gaming table. Now Outriders may have powers and guns in a dark universe but it’s still all children stuff when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’
