What is Boomerang Fu: A small and fun local multiplayer game with various foods (like pink-frosted sprinkled donuts) fighting each other to the death with a one-hit-kill boomerang. It is something to play with buddies to have a good time.

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Mechanics: The game has rounds where in each round every player fights to the death. In each round, the players are placed on a small map that spans the entire screen. This game has very simple controls, only three buttons. You can dash, melee, and throw your boomerang. Additionally, thrown boomerangs will eventually fly back into your hands. Anything the boomerang touches is immediately killed.

Story: There is no story in this game at all, the gameplay is what drives interest.  

Gameplay: While the controls/rules of the game are very simple. The design of each possible action creates a lot of interesting dynamics and depth. For example, throwing the boomerang leaves you weaponless. So while it may seem like a good idea to go for easy kills, the defenseless you could be very killed quickly. The game constantly places you in situations where you must make split-second decisions on when is a good time to go for kills. Another mechanic is that boomerangs also ricochet off walls, so you can Physics your way to victory and feel very 300IQ.

Additionally, there a numerous powerups (which are definitely not balanced) that add to the core gameplay: For example, the teleport powerup allows you to teleport to your boomerang on command. You could leave your boomerang on the floor amidst the chaos and teleport to kill inattentive friends.

Aesthetics: Overall I like it. It is adorable, simple cartoonish 3D, and communicates what the game is about. Fun! While initially, I thought that it had the slight commercial cash grabby render quality that really unique, overall it is not that important.  

The sound fits the gameplay well, the BGMs make you feel laid back but slightly energetic. This mood fits the party game vibes. In addition, the slash and parrying sounds are quite satisfying to hear.

Technology: I feel it’s best played with a controller on the couch watching tv instead of using a mouse and keyboard. Runs even on potato PCs.

The Five lenses

THE LENS OF FUN (#5)

This is one of the games that I feel is built from a prototype with one central mechanic, the boomerang. Everything else in the game feels in service of this one mechanic. Boomerang Fu does this well because there is a lot of depth in the boomerang. For example, you could parry boomerangs midair or move your character in a way that would slice the enemies as the boomerang returns midair. It feels like a fun toy to play with.

THE LENS OF SKILL (#34)

In this game, the most skilled player will likely win overall unless everyone else decides to gang up on him. Generally, experts will destroy novices in this game. One of the reasons is that our only weapon in the game (the boomerang ), demands precise aim, timing, and control. Another reason is that strong game sense is required to be aware of the limits of each interaction between the different powerups.

The game however does try to help you. It nudges your shots closer to the enemy subtly. But not too much, so most kills still feel intentional. This makes you feel skilled when you make plays. In addition, the game gives shields to underdogs which prevents one-hit KOs. Still, you feel like most deaths are avoidable, this makes the game feel fair and rewarding. You can see a pathway to getting better.

One of the important design decisions in the game was to make sure everyone had different power-ups. It is very unlikely that two people will have the same set. Additionally, powerups can combine together. For example, if you got the exploding boomerangs and the multi boomerangs power up. You essentially become an AOE nuke that covers 20% of the maps in one throw. This introduced the biggest luck factor which is who was getting overpowered power-ups first. But as a casual game, I believe this was not a bad decision because it is more fun and creates “how is this allowed” moments. For more serious people the gameplay is customizable in the settings, you can ban some power-ups.

The lens of time(27) The total game lasts 10-15 minutes with each round lasting under a minute. Because of the short rounds, there is no real commitment to completing the game. We can leave halfway and not care who the overall winner is. I think this is suitable for a party game. Sometimes a power box could cause a kill zone to close in like in Fortnite. However, I felt this mechanic should be something that automatically happens if a round was lasting for too long.

The lens of Moments(68)

The game is most intense when there are only two people left and everyone else is watching to see who would win. The game tries to amplify this moment by adding a slow-mo to the final kill and then replaying it as the next round loads. I would have liked more late-game options other than the zone closing in. Maybe it could have moving zones and longer maps like in Fortnite?

Conclusion: Try it out!

Link to Game: https://www.hollowknight.com/

Description

Hollow Knight is a game made by Team Cherry where players play as the “Hollow Knight”: a being born from void. It plays as a metroidvania where combat combines with open world exploration. The main draw of the game is how atmospheric the game feels tied along with tight controls and engaging combat.

Mechanics

The mechanics of Hollow Knight can be broken up into 3 main parts:

• Platforming

The player first is introduced to the control scheme of jumping and moving at the first part of the game. As the game goes on, the player gets different ‘power-ups’ that allow them to increase the range of movement (e.g. Wall Jumping, Diving and Double Jumping)

• Exploration

Exploration makes up the bulk of the gameplay in Hollow Knight which takes the player through Hallownest, the world where the game is situated in. Each area in Hallownest has its own unique flair and design.

• Combat

Hollow Knight has a very fluid combat system with tight controls which allows for an experience where you only have yourself to blame if you get defeated in the game. There are melee attacks which you use your nail to perform as well as spells.

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of the Hollow Knight follows a very grim theme. This emphasises the harshness of the world and also instils a sense of wonder as it encourages the player to push onwards in order to make sense of their environment. There are close references to real world in terms of nature where they took the physical look of insects and add their own dark spin to it.

Story

The story of Hollow Knight is played through the interactions with the many NPCs and environment. The main character which you play does not talk himself and the game mainly focuses on how the world changes by the many actions you make. There are also 3 different endings depending on the actions you take during the game. This adds an additional level of complexity for the game for the player to explore if they so choose to.

Technology

Hollow Knight’s technical aspects include the implementation of a power-up system, the custom physics that the character uses to move as well as the little nuances that allows the game to have a high skill ceiling when speed running it, such as mastering the timing to hit an explosion in order to propel the character upwards to skip certain obstacles.

The Lens of Motivation

Hollow Knight caters to the player’s sense of exploration and discovery, where the game’s vast interconnected world, filled with hidden paths and secrets, encourages them to keep searching and uncover new areas and abilities.

This pushes the player to keep engaged throughout the playthrough of the game and keeps them returning even when they have completed the game to search for any missing secrets they may have missed out on.

Lens of Secrets

Hollow Knight has a surprising amount of content, which allows for high replay value. This also allows for the emergence to optimal paths to take when speed running the game. There also may be multiple different events or encounters the player may have missed out during the playthrough of Hollow Knight. They can also experience and go down different paths in each new playthrough, which adds to the value of replayability.

Lens of Goals

Hollow Knight has a clear goal as shown by a completion level per save file as well as defined by beating the final boss in the game. There is also an achievement system where players can earn achievements by completing certain objectives, like discovering all the charms or defeating all the bosses. This displays a sense of progression, as players become more powerful and skilled, they can tackle more challenging goals, making the game even more engaging and rewarding.

Lens of Skill

Hollow Knight is generally considered to be somewhat challenging in trying to complete the game. Over the course of playing the game along with many deaths and failed attempts, the player will see themselves becoming better at the game through developing the skills of knowing the precise timing and positioning to defeat enemies. Players must also master the game’s various movement and traversal mechanics, such as wall-jumping and dash-slashing in order to progress.

Introduction

Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人 in Japanese; literally, master of the drums) is an arcade rhythm game released by Namco in 2001. The objective of the game is to hit the taiko (Japanese drum) in rhythm with the beat of a music chosen by the player. On the screen, notes will scroll from right to left, and will reach a transparent round objective: it is at that instant that players have to hit the drum!

By having children-friendly easy songs but also very challenging difficult songs, Taiko no Tatsujin maintained its popularity to a large audience throughout the years, and is still one of the most popular arcade game in Japan, and worldwide (Taiko no Tatsujin can even be played in Singapore). The game is also available on numerous platforms such as Nintendo Switch, PS4, and even laptops and smartphones!

The Element Tetrad

Mechanics

In more than 20 years of history, the mechanics of Taiko no Tatsujin have never changed. The rules and the goal have always been the same: the player has to hit the middle of the drum when a red note is on the objective, and on the rid of the drum when the note is blue. These simple and unique game mechanics makes it easy for new players to tryout the game, and is one of the principal reasons explaining its popularity.

Dynamics

Simple mechanics does not mean simple dynamics at all. In Taiko no Tatsujin, the difficulty of songs have increased like economic inflation these days. To counter more and more difficult songs, experienced players have developed more and more advanced techniques of using drumsticks. There is a constant “battle” between the game development team making new song charts which look impossible, and players who somehow always manage to get perfect scores with some training. This dynamic enables to keep a stable amount of players.

Story

It is the basic element of a game Taiko no Tatsujin have almost forgotten about. Except in some console games, it never had a proper story plot with progression. However, it was not necessary at all for Taiko no Tatsujin to have a story to be a successful game. It makes sense, as it is not what rhythm game players are seeking for.

Aesthetics and Technology

Aesthetics and Technology are 2 very important aspects which are interleaved in arcade rhythm games. Taiko no Tatsujin, being a very old game, had to improve throughout the years in order to remain alive on the harsh market of arcade rhythm games in Japan. Every 6 years (approx.), Taiko no Tatsujin arcade machines have a major upgrade. Since 2011, players can have an account registered on a card to save their data. That was very new for arcade games back at the time. Another example of notable upgrade happened in 2020, when all machines in Japan became equipped with a 120 fps monitor and better speakers, and had their UI redesigned for a smoother and more comfortable experience for the player.

Around the birth of Taiko no Tatsujin, the drum attached to the arcade machine was a very new, innovative way of simulating a real Taiko drum. It is equipped with sensors, often criticised in the past for not reacting to the player’s drumstick hits sometimes. However, this is a problem which has been solved in the recent years, which is a great factor reducing player’s anxiety when playing. Improving this technology created more player dynamics; more techniques to hit the beat of the music!

Lenses

The Lens of Challenge (#38)

As every successful rhythm game, Taiko no Tatsujin welcomes a wide range of players with different skill levels. It can even arguably be the rhythm game with the widest palette of player because there is a challenge which will fit any player. Over the years, the arcade version of the game accumulated in-game songs. Recently, it even reached over 1000 songs! Taking into account that each song has at least 4 difficulties (easy/normal/hard/master), we can clearly say that the humongous variety of available challenge is a huge strength of Taiko no Tatsujin. For the most skilled players, there is even a mode where the challenge is to complete a pre-determined set of 3 difficult songs with very harsh conditions such as “Miss less than 3 times (over the 3 songs)”. For example, there was a challenge between 2015 and 2016 where only 1 player in the world managed to complete it perfectly!

The Lens of Visible Progress (#55)

As any activity in life, it feels satisfying to see and feel the progress we make. In Taiko no Tatsujin, players progress very fast as they get used to the mechanics of the game easily. Their arms start to manage the drum hitting movement well. Then, they can try harder songs as (almost) everything is unlocked from the beginning. Players progress at a pace they decide by challenging themselves in the way they desire. Every good enough scores gives a crown, which are then collected by players for completing many songs. Moreover, every performance on a song gives a grade depending on the score. It is easy for players to realise their improvement when they manage to complete a song with a difficulty they never tried before, or they replay a song after a while and make an improvement on their score. This visible progress in Taiko no Tatsujin is very satisfying and motivating, and is what keeps a large playerbase.

The Lens of Time (#27)

What determines the length of one gameplay in Taiko no Tatsujin is only you, which is another big strength of the video game. There is no too short or too long playing session as long as the player can control themselves well. As one song is 2 minutes in average, and 1 credit in the arcade machine (most often) gives players 3 songs to play, Taiko no Tatsujin sessions can be very short… or very long, if you keep inserting coins and playing like me. For the numerous qualities enumerated previously, players can even lose the sensation of time and keep playing for a few hours without even realising it!

The Lens of Spectation (#95)

As you, the reader, might have noticed by watching the YouTube videos embedded in the blog, good Taiko no Tatsujin gameplays are really impressive, and catch the attention of the viewers. In real life, children and adults who are not used to the game often gather in circle behind the player doing some crazy gameplay. Even on the Internet, Taiko no Tatsujin gameplay videos have a lot of views, and is definitely one of the rhythm game which makes the most views on YouTube. As an example, the gameplay video of Gurenge in master difficulty, the opening song of the famous anime Demon Slayer, has over 10 million views from an international community. What really makes Taiko no Tatsujin different from other games and really proves it is spectacular is that it even often appears on the Japanese television, where other funky impressive plays are performed (such as the gameplay with the screen hidden for the player as shown above), often with a cash prize in case of success.

Conclusion

Taiko no Tatsujin is a rhythm game which knows well its playerbase. It kept improving where it needed (aesthetics, technology, new challenges…) while never really put strength on what players are not looking for (a story mode, new mechanics…). This is why it is one of the most successful arcade rhythm game in existence.

Introduction

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is a tactical role playing game developed by Intelligent Systems, released on the Wii in 2007. It is a direct sequel to the events of the previous entry in the Fire Emblem series.

Playthrough on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JULnq5GVExc&ab_channel=ShionneImeris

The Elemental Tetrad

Story:

The story of Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn follows the structure and stylings of a medieval fantasy epic, letting the player experience the events of the game from three different perspectives, Micaiah, the leader of a band of resistance fighters, Elincia, a princess of the nation Crimea and Ike, the leader of a band of mercenaries.

What sets this game apart from other role playing games is the level of time and effort spent in establishing the world that the story is set in, which gives players a reason to invest in the characters and the plot emotionally. The game stars a roster of 70+ playable characters, all from distinct personalities and backgrounds that make the world feel fleshed out and lived in, with differing cultures and perspectives on the plot that generate believable tension and conflict that drives the plot forward. The large roster of characters also provides enough diversity of characters to ensure that there would be at least a few characters that the player would gravitate towards.

Furthermore, distinct from other tactical role playing games is the concept of permadeath, where characters that fall on the battlefield are considered “dead” in the story and can never be used again. Paired alongside good writing and heavy investment in the character stories create ludonarrative cohesion between the player’s attachment to these characters and the mechanical tension in keeping everyone alive in combat to witness those characters’ stories progress.

Aesthetics:

Character illustrations are done by artist Senri Kita, whose vibrant yet mature style and earthly tones makes the game beautiful to look at while maintaining the “serious” tone of a fantasy epic. This is contrasted with other JRPGs such as Final Fantasy or Xenoblade whose character design relies on a more heightened fantastical aesthetic to reflect its less “serious” and more whimsical tone.

Mechanics:

The main gameplay loop of Radiant Dawn involves progressing through a series of grid-based maps in which your army and the enemy armies do combat on. Combat is turn based where the player and the AI move their armies separately and one at a time.

There is a layer of strategy introduced by the weapon triangle, which is a rock-paper-scissors system that gives combat advantages/disadvantages based on the type of weapons they wield. This poses a teambuilding challenge for the player where they need to consider the characters in their army and deploy the most advantageous lineup to do well on that particular map.

Furthermore, maps offer different victory objectives as well. The most common objective is to rout all enemies, but variety in gameplay experience is offered in different objective such as defending the objective for X turns, escaping a map with all units, etc. Those different objectives also adds to the ludonarrative cohesion, when the game wants the player to feel in control, the maps are generally rout maps, when the game wants the player be on the backfoot, the maps generally change to escape/defend maps to enhance player feelings of helplessness/vulnerability.

Technology:

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn was released on the Nintendo Wii unlike its GameCube predecessor as its release schedule aligned with the release of the Wii. However, this is one of the aspects in which this game suffers as the Wii was most famous for its motion controls, which this game utilised none of, leading to a somewhat awkward and clunky interaction between player and console, as there would have been some expectation of interacting and manipulating the characters with motion controls.

Lenses

The Lens of Problem Solving (#8):

The main gameplay loop of the game presents the players with a series of maps that can be “solved” or beaten in different ways depending on the player’s problem solving skills and preferences, such as the way they build their army, the characters they choose to deploy and the types of playstyles they employ (fast or turtling).

Certain maps have additional objectives that pose an additional layer of challenge on top of the main objective, for example clearing the map’s boss without killing too many of their soldiers who were innocent soldiers forced to comply. This forces players to constantly rethink their strategies, strategies that may have worked in the previous maps may not apply to the current one.

The Lens of Skill (#34):

Since Fire Emblem is a tactical RPG, skill is an important aspect that the game incorporates. As mentioned previously, the game requires players to have good “map awareness”, team building, positioning, and occasionally mathematics to calculate damage. Since the game is turn based instead of action based, outcomes of individual combat encounters are determined. in other words, there’s no amount of player reflexes or instinct that can influence the outcome of a battle like in games such as Dark Souls. This incentivises the player to act deliberately instead of instinctively, which adds to the experience of being a “tactician”, rather than a soldier in the midst of the battle itself, which coheres with the narrative of the 3 protagonists being the respective leaders and tacticians of their armies.

The Lens of Chance (#36):

However, the game adds variety to its gameplay experience by incorporating controlled randomness into its encounters. Attacks have a chance to miss, or to critical hit depending on certain stats of characters. While this could make certain characters more or less consistent, these controlled bouts of randomness can give rise to positive gameplay experiences, such as characters getting a clutch critical hit on a certain boss or important characters dodging an otherwise lethal blow.

There is an interesting interplay between skill and chance in this game, as players do require skills to strategise how to complete each map, but those strategies are necessarily peppered with bouts of randomness that might throw a wrench in the player’s plans, in which they would need to restrategise and the loop continues. This gives the player a certain level of control while adding enough randomness to not make the game feel like a “solved” game. Hence, there are no walkthroughs online that can tell a player what are the exact steps to take to finish a map.

The Lens of Story (#78):

Lastly, the lens of story is arguably the most important aspect of this game as compelling writing and strong characterisation forms the backbone of player experience, what drives them to succeed mechanically is motivated by the player’s investment in seeing the plot and the characters move forward.

One interesting way the story is supported by gameplay is that the three armies eventually come into conflict at one point in the story. This creates an interesting dynamic where the player’s time and investment in training up one army would later pose as a problem to the same player as they would have to fight their trained characters as another army. Furthermore, certain characters on opposite sides of the war can defect to another army which also gives players an interesting choice of sending a good unit to a weaker army at the cost of story interactions.

Conclusion

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is one of my favourite games of all time and I believe it primarily stems from its unique way of incorporating story and gameplay, giving rise to certain gameplay experiences that the developers may not have necessarily intended. If you like story driven games with fun and challenging mechanics, I recommend you to give this game a try on an emulator if possible.

Sources

• https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Radiant_Dawn
• https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/fe-rd-senri-kita-comments-book-cover-illustrations-248-249-translations/
• https://yourfellowgeek.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/fire-emblem-radiant-dawn-playthrough-05/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080829204949/http://uk.gamespot.com/wii/rpg/fireemblem/review.html

Rhythm Games Don’t Get Much Simpler And Sweeter Than Muse Dash

Kotaku

Introduction

First released in June 2018, Muse Dash is a famous rhythm game developed by PeroPeroGames. With the combined aspects of both action games and music games, as well as its anime art style in the form of a 2D side-scrolling game, Muse Dash has been at the top of the TapTap, App Store, and Steam rankings for a long time.

Check out more information from its homepage on Steam: Muse Dash on Steam

View a short gameplay demo from a well-known Youtuber below:

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

Muse Dash has taken a number of mechanics from both action and rhythm games, and I’d like to list them below:

Main Gameplay System

In Muse Dash, players defeat enemies and avoid obstacles originating from the right side of the screen by pressing buttons or tapping the screen in accordance with the beat of the background song. The game has only two buttons, making it easily accessible. Difficulty settings exist for most songs, allowing the game to cater to multiple skill levels.

Character and Elfin System

The playable characters in Muse Dash are called Muses. Each Muse has her own maximum health and passive skill, depending on the selected costume. Players can also equip Elfins, companions to a Muse which give them additional abilities.

Collection and Achievement System

In Muse Dash, players earn experience points for each song they complete. The higher the level, the more songs and characters players can unlock. Players will also receive certain collections as they unlock different achievements. The collections mainly consist of special paintings and memes.

Aesthetic

Muse Dash has a really bright and light art style that caught my attention from the very beginning of the game. Its graphics and sounds are more like a mixture of both Japanese and American anime. This unique art style will really appeal to anime fans. Even if they are new to rhythm games, they are willing to give the game a try.

Even within the actual gameplay, the art remains at a high level. With a variety of backgrounds and monsters to match the different styles of the songs, Muse Dash helps the player to immerse themselves in the game as quickly as possible. Compared to the plain coloured backgrounds and monotonous falling notes in most hardcore rhythm games, Muse Dash‘s colourful and varied artwork has made the game a real success.

Story

Although story isn’t a major part of rhythm games, Muse Dash do have short background stories for each character and elfin. As well as a short in-game introduction, the developer has also created an Official Muse Dash Wiki with much more detailed information about the game‘s background stroy.

Technology

Muse Dash is a cross-platform game, meaning it can be played on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and even Nintendo Switch. So you can play the game anywhere, anytime, without worrying about the device or platform.

The Five Lenses

The Lense of Flow (#21)

In Muse Dash, like any other rhythm game, the goal is simple and clear – to achieve 100% accuracy, which means the player hits every note perfectly. To achieve this goal, players must practice the same song over and over again to memorise the notes correctly. In addition, since some of the notes are random in each run, the game also requires a bit of luck and quick reaction.

The Lense of Time (#27)

Players often get frustrated when games end too soon, or get bored when games end too early. But this won’t be a problem in Muse Dash because the length of the game is basically the same as the length of a song. So if you need some time to relax, rather than just listening to your favourite music, why not play the song at the same time?

The Lense of Competition (#43)

One of the things that makes people want to compete in Muse Dash is the ranking system. I mean, if you are playing a rhythm game, no one is unwilling to have their name on the leaderboard in order to give their friends a boost. That’s a big part of having fun and transcending yourself.

The Lense of Reward (#46)

In most rhythm games, the reward is often the sense of accomplishment of reaching the top of the leaderboard. In Muse Dash, however, there are rewards for beginners, namely the collection systems mentioned before. After completing a number of songs, players are rewarded with a number of well-painted wallpapers, such as the one below. For anime lovers, this could be the best gift of all.

The Lense of Beauty (#71)

In Muse Dash, beauty comes from both sight and sound. It is a feast for the eyes and ears when you listen to pop music and slay monsters at the same time. Just take a look at the screenshot below. The beautiful background photo, combined with the cute character and the elfin, already make the game worth playing.

Conclusion

There has been some criticism of Muse Dash from hardcore rhythm game fans, who feel that Muse Dash attracts anime game fans rather than rhythm game fans. It’s true that the influx of new players can bring a certain amount of chaos, but there’s no denying that the new players bring more energy and vitality. In this way, Muse Dash certainly opens a door for people to know and understand rhythm games and their charms. Furthermore, I hope that your guys who are currently reading my article would like to have a bite of this unique game.

What is ASTLIBRA Revision

ASTLIBRA Revision is a fantastic Japanese 2D action RPG game developed by KEIZO. In this game, you are going to explore the world and improve your skills and armor, to confront powerful monsters, and seek your childhood friend who disappeared in a disaster.

You can collect more than 40 weapons and 30 magics. Together with hundreds of skills and the libra system, you can build your own fighting style.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1718570/ASTLIBRA_Revision/

Why ASTLIBRA Revision is engaging

Complex system, but easy to learn

There are in total 7 completely different systems in this game that could affect your character’s power. Aside from the ordinary “character level”, “armor”, “magic”, there is this “libra” system, which allows you to put items on the libra and gain buffs when balanced. Almost every item in this game is associated with a “weight” and some positive buffs. And as you progress through this game, you can put more and more items on the libra, which will make it harder and harder to achieve 100% balance.

(When you first unlock this system, you can only put one item on each side.)

The 7 systems do not unlock at the same time. The author intentionally gives the player some time to fully understand and digest the system, before you can unlock another. After a system is unlocked or upgraded, the game will give you some sort of “challenge” that you can clear within a few tries, if you use the new system well enough. In conclusion, game mechanics are upgrading throughout the whole playing experience. When you feel you have mastered all the mechanics in this game, it will be time for you to face the final boss.

The Elemental Tetrad (Mechanics): 4.5/5.0

The Lens of Interest Curve: The interest curve is periodic. When you start to feel bored, the game will give you some new stuff to play with.

Ravishing story, unexpected plot

Besides the incredible game mechanics, the story is also a great selling point of this game. Story telling was always an advantage of JRPGs, and in ASTLIBRA this advantage is even more noticeable.

The story is just an ordinary “hero save princess”, but with an epic worldview and history. The main character starts his journey seeking his childhood friend, and during his journey, he meets other people, travels through space and time, even fights with divine creatures. Finally, he saves “the princess”. The game does not teach me any great principles, it does not inspire me in any sense. It just tells me a good story.

The story of this game makes me think of another game called FINAL FANTASY XIII, and a Japanese animation called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. If anyone has played this game or watched this animation, you can expect a story somewhat like that.

The Elemental Tetrad (Story): 4.5/5.0

The Lens of Hero’s Journey: It is definitely a Hero’s Journey, it has factors such as saving the princess, fighting slimes/goblins to get stronger, defeating “demon king”. However, it does not feel hackneyed, because it also has “time travel”, “spaceship”, “reincarnation”, “future world” to make it less traditional.

The Lens of Story Machine: The interest curve of the story is also periodic, and it is interleaving with the mechanics interest curve. Actually, this is the most amazing part of this game. However, this game does not provide a lot of choices for players to choose from. In some sense, the player’s action can cause some major character to survive/to die. But due to the time travel ability of the main character, you may find some characters suddenly died/revived, because your time travel has rewritten their fate! So in other words, the player’s choice is usually not that important. I do not feel like controlling the story, but just watching it.

“Hit reaction” from obsolete scene, texture and sound effect

By looking at the gameplay, one may not believe this game was released in 2022. In fact, ASTLIBRA was developed by KEIZO, an independent developer, alone, for 14 years. All the scenes, images, textures, music and sound effects are free on the Internet. The original ASTLIBRA gameplay is even more primitive. The author got some help from some artists and musicians after the free version was released. Then, he replaced some images and music in the game, and released the new version “ASTLIBRA Revision”.

With limited resources, this game presents a good “game feel” to the player. With different kinds of weapon, the reactions to hitting an enemy are different, which are the combination of “hit stop”, sound effect, lighting effect and controller vibration. All these factors make the game more qualified as an action game.

Another advantage of this game is the soundtrack. The author has a very good sense of music, he can find suitable soundtracks among enormous numbers of copyfree music.

The Elemental Tetrad (Aesthetics): 3.0/5.0

The Elemental Tetrad (Technology): 2.0/5.0

The Lens of Essential Experience: As an Action RPG, it is essential for the player to feel like “role playing” the main character and fighting with monsters. The “hit reaction” helps the players feel like they are defeating the enemy with their hands.

What is not so good about this game

• Graphic are too old. Scenes, textures and images of characters are not harmonic.
• The 7 systems are too complex to find a “global optimum” for player’s battle style. And different battle styles are not equally powerful.
• The game only has minimal endgame content, players have no motivation to play a “New Game+”
• System configuration is badly designed, players need to close the game in order to adjust the resolution.

Introduction

Idol Manager is a game in which players hire idols, release singles, manage events such as concerts and world tours, in order to build their ideal music franchise. Players need to manage finances, idol stamina and health, along with ensuring idols are satisfied and not being bullied.

The game is available on Steam at this link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/821880/Idol_Manager/

Gameplay demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFcXG9Mg9g

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

These are the main mechanics involved in the game:

1. Idol stamina. Management of stamina is crucial, because stamina translates into money – everything that idols can do to make money for the company requires stamina, be it practising and improving skills, holding performances or recording singles. If mismanaged, idols can become injured or even depressed, costing the company financially and in reputation.
2. Idol and staff abilities. Due to the aforementioned idol stamina, the player needs to decide how much time and money to invest into improving their idols’ skills – higher skills will lead to higher popularity with groups of fans. This comes with the opportunity cost of making less money for the company in the short-term, due to the usage of idol stamina. Furthermore, idols do graduate eventually, which means that the investment into skills is only a medium-term affair. Idols also have traits, which can be helpful or hindering, and add another dynamic to the management of idol stamina and relationships.
3. Idol potential and auditions. While idols can practise to improve their skills, the potential mechanic means that they take a significantly longer time to make any progress once any of their skills reach their potential. Idols are grouped into several categories: normal, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Idols with better potential categories can greatly improve their skills and become world-class performers. The more money a player spends on auditions, the better their chances of signing such performers.
4. Fan demographics. There are many options in the game allowing the player to make the kind of music they want, such as genre choice, choreography and vibe. These choices influence the fan demographics that the player’s idol group has. The demographics are further divided into casual and hardcore fans. Casual fans can come in significant numbers, but will make fewer purchases and be less interested in niche genres and choreography. Hardcore fans love these, on the other hand, but there are much fewer of such fans. The player can choose to appeal to a wide audience or specialise in certain flavours, but there is a reward for having a clear direction for their fanbase.

Story

There is a story to Idol Manager which is somewhat secondary to the main gameplay mechanics. The sponsor of the company is attempting to shed his shady past. His daughter (relationship unknown to the player for most of the game) has a rival company and serves as the main antagonist, yet is a mostly likeable character. There is a branching storyline based on what tasks the player chooses to do – for instance, should the player help a freelance reporter with her stories on several occasions, she will be available as an idol in the game.

Aesthetics

The game is mainly made out of menus, dialogs and 2D sprites decked out in bright, inviting colours and an attractive but unassuming font. The main office features pixel art and simple animations. There are some cutscenes showing visual novel style aesthetics, again featuring simple animations but high quality 2D anime-style art. These visuals make it easy for the player to navigate through the options in the game, while enjoying the occasional visual surprise brought by the cutscenes.

Technology

Idol Manager is technologically simple, with keyboard and mouse controls for the menus and very basic interaction between the player and the game. To my knowledge, the game does not have or need advanced rendering techniques, as it is simple enough to run well without expensive hardware.

Lenses

The Lens of Pleasure (#20)

Idol Manager causes a player to be invested in their idols. When an idol wins an award, it is a satisfying accomplishment, further rewarded by the bonuses brought about by the accomplishment. The player derives significant pleasure from developing their idols, managing them well and leading them to greater heights.

There is a missing piece of the puzzle though, as the placing of the idol in the world of idol manager is not known. It would be even more satisfying if there were idol rankings that the player could hope his idols would feature, as there are in real life.

The Lens of Endogenous Value (#7)

Idol Manager perhaps places equal importance on idol skills and staff skills. Thus, each of these are seen as extremely valuable. With the best staff, even the worst idols can be developed. With the best idols, the company can be carried on their shoulders even as the staff slowly develops. Interestingly, the player is most motivated by finances at first, as it is very easy for the company to fail in the early-game. As the player gains financial stability, though, the focus becomes on the player releasing the best music possible, which means the player will shift their focus to developing the skills of the staff and idols.

The Lens of Meaningful Choices (#39)

On a less insightful scale, the player does make decisions when random PR hiccups happen – damage control is needed on the part of the player. This is somewhat superficial, as the events are pre-programmed and the player can know what the best decision is. On the other hand, the gameplay mechanics are rich enough such that each choice the player makes – hiring talent through various types of auditions, choosing established staff over rookies, making popular but generic music versus making polarising tracks – decides the path that the player’s company takes, and the player feels in control.

The Lens of The World (#84)

In the world of idol manager, the player is able to assume the role of an idol franchise manager, which is unlikely to happen in real life. The player gets to become invested in the idols he manages, through conversations with the idols (including romancing, though rarely so), developing them and making them successful. However, when these successes are obtained, the world becomes rather one-dimensional with no evidence that a franchise has truly become successful, such as fan-interaction, show appearances, cult status etc. Furthermore, it can be hard to believe that there are other competing franchises in the world, aside from some generic song names sharing the monthly hits charts. While there are some elements of the world that are rich and enjoyable, it is largely not dynamic enough to be truly believable in the context of idol management.

Conclusion

Overall, Idol Manager is a challenging and rewarding game where the idols truly shine, and the fun of the game is in the rise to the top. That being said, it can be one-dimensional once the peak is reached, though the player can just choose to start with all new idols (but now with well-equipped staff and facilities).

Introduction

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1384160/GUILTY_GEAR_STRIVE/

Guilty Gear Strive (GGST) is a 2D anime fighting game developed by Arc System Works. The game was released in June 2021 and is the latest game in the Guilty Gear series. It is currently one of the top 3 traditional (1v1) fighting games on Steam alongside Tekken 7 and Street Fighter 5.

The Elemental Tetrad

Technology

What sets GGST apart from other (older) fighting games is its smooth online experience thanks to rollback netcode. Players are no longer stuck playing offline with consoles or at arcades, and you can actually fight your friend from another continent without lagging to the moon. I love you rollback.

Netcode? What?

I don’t want to spend an entire page explaining delay vs rollback so here’s an answer from a dude from quora:
https://www.quora.com/How-does-rollback-netcode-work-for-fighting-games-and-why-is-it-considered-better-than-other-kinds-of-netcode

Mechanics

As with most fighting games, its core mechanics revolve around “rock paper scissors” type interactions. Players get to mindgame each other by mixing up their offensive options, striking high when the opponent expects a low, blocking an attack to counterattack, throwing someone that has been conditioned to block, mashing an attack button when expecting to be thrown, etc. It all sounds easy but is hard to master, and honing your skill is the name of the game. As you master your offense and defense, one day, you will go toe to toe with fighting game veterans that have been with this genre for years.

While GGST has some relatively unique mechanics amongst fighting games such as Roman Cancels, Burst, wall breaks, Faultless Defense, Tension and Overdrives/Supers that are really, really cool, describing them in detail to people who might not even play fighting games is not, so I’ll just leave some cool images.

Aesthetics

It’s an anime fighting game, what else can I say?

Story

While you don’t even need a story for a fighting game, GGST itself has 4 hours worth of cutscenes in the story mode. The entire GG series has days worth of lore for those who enjoy it, but honestly it’s entirely optional. I just enter a floor and fight people.

Lenses

The Player (#19)

Fighting games retain specific kinds of players. Players that are ok with getting crushed 0-30 against better players if it lets them improve. Players that are ok with grinding the same combo for hours in the training room until they never drop their combos in a live match ever again. When playing a match, I can sometimes feel the amount of effort my opponent has put in. This mutual respect and competition is part of what drives me to keep playing and improving.

Skill (#34)

A good GGST player needs to know how to properly execute their character’s combos and defensive options. No one is born knowing how to do a combo, when to use it, or whether to use another one. All these come with practice, and that’s what makes it fair. If I want to beat someone, I have to put in more time and effort than them. I’m not paying for stronger weapons/characters, I’m not grinding for better gear. I’m grinding for a better me.

Head and Hands (#42)

Some may think fighting games are all muscle memory and no mental, but it actually alternates between the two. When the combo begins, it really is all muscle memory, but players can use that time to plan their next move. When attacking, players have to consciously weigh their risks/rewards and decide how to mix-up the opponent to overload their mental stack and land a hit, then convert into the right combo. It’s therefore incredibly rewarding when my head and hands succeed in tandem to defeat my opponent. If my mix-ups don’t work and I get blown up, it’s actually my fault for not thinking good/hard enough.

Competition (#43)

GGST, as a 1v1 PVP game, inherently draws out the competitive nature in its players. There’s no “support” class. There’s no teamwork aspect where I hope my teammates can cover for me. There’s no objective to capture or bases to destroy. It’s just me, fighting against another human on the other side of a screen until one of our hp falls to 0. Nothing quite scratches my “lizard brain” or gets my heart pumping like a match with an evenly skilled opponent. GGST gives next to no rewards for winning, but I still want to win. That’s because winning 1v1 against a real human, who has put in just as much, maybe even more effort than me, is it’s own reward.

Sources

• https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/images/6/60/GGST_CounterHit.png
• https://www.arcsystemworks.jp/guiltygear/img/db/img-2-1-1.jpg
• https://www.guiltygear.com/ggst/en/wordpress/wp-content/themes/ggst/img/about/about-1.jpg

Introduction

Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective game set in 1807 in which you play as an insurance investigator on a ship called the Obra Dinn. The titular ship had been missing for five years before reappearing off the cost of England, with everyone on board dead or missing. Your job is to go onto the ship, and figure out the identity and fates of everyone there.

To accomplish this, you have a magic pocket watch which, when brought next to a corpse on the ship, will trigger a “memory”. During this memory, you will be given a short audio clip of the moment right before that person died, and then a still 3D scene of the ship at that exact moment they died, which you can explore to find clues. For each person, you’re tasked with solving two questions: Who is this? And how did they die?

If it’s still not clear how the game works, you can check out the trailer and a gameplay video that explains the game below (note that the latter has spoilers after around the 1 minute mark)

The Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics

The core of the game consists of a couple of gameplay mechanics:

• The Death Memories: For most of the game, the player will be entering each person’s death memory, listening to the short audio clip, and then exploring the scene. In these memories, the player hunts for clues that can help them deduce a person’s identity and fate. These memories are also where the player learns the story of the ship.

• The Ship Logbook: Alongside the pocket watch, the player is given a ship logbook that contains a ton of useful information. This includes a manifest that lists the names, nationality, and occupation of everyone on board; a map of the ship; and important info about each memory. The information in the ship logbook is crucial to solving everyone’s fates and identities. The logbook also makes it easier for the player to keep track of all the info they’ve gotten.

• Submitting Your Answer: The logbook also lets the player input your guess for the identity and fate of each person. This is done by selecting a name from a dropdown list, and then selecting a cause of death from another dropdown list.

• Deduction: Technically this isn’t in the game, but player deduction is important to solving the fates. The memory flashbacks and the ship logbook will give you clues and information, but it’s up to the player to figure out how to use the clues to deduce each person’s identity and fate.

Story

As mentioned before, the game is set in England in 1807. The player plays as an insurance agent investigating the now-deserted Obra Dinn, which vanished five years ago before mysteriously reappearing near the coast. Everyone on board the ship is either dead or missing.

The story of what happened to the ship and everyone on board is told non-linearly through the memories. For example, the first corpses you will encounter on the ship are of the last people who died. Furthermore, because the memories are short and do not completely show every event, the player is required to put the memories together in order to figure out the story. In this way, learning what happened to the Obra Dinn is very much a part of gameplay as it is a story.

Aesthetics

The game is rendered in a 1-bit monochromatic style that is reminiscent not only of old Macintosh computers, but also of old ship logbooks and paintings with their black-and-white coloring. The music of the game is heavy on violins and orchestra, and it also draws inspiration from jaunty sailor tunes. There is also some voice acting for the audio clips that manages to convincingly emulate 19th century dialogue and accents. All of this helps to immerse the player in the atmosphere of being on a ship in the 19th century.

Technology

Return of the Obra Dinn is a 3D video game in first-person perspective, which both helps immerse you and allows you to explore the memory scenes freely. The game also makes use of rendering techniques like dithering to create the unique 1-bit art style.

The Five Lenses

The Lens of Emotion (#1)

The primary emotion that Return of the Obra Dinn evokes is the “Eureka!” moment when the suddenly realize the solution to a problem they’ve been stuck on. There are many times when playing the game where the player will be at a total loss on a person’s identity, only to suddenly find a crucial clue or an insight that would lead to a breakthrough. The game ensures that the “Eureka!” moment will happen again and again by requiring you to use many different kinds of clues and deductive reasoning to identify everyone. For example, clues can include a person’s nationality, their uniforms, their relationships with others, the timeline of events, process of elimination, and so on. The player will need to have many insights and realizations in order to solve everyone’s identities and fates.

The Lens of Motivation (#23)

Return of the Obra Dinn motivates the player in the same way any good mystery does: making them wonder “What happened here?” The ship disappeared and reappeared under mysterious circumstances, and everyone on board is either missing or dead! The player will be motivated to play the game just to find out what happened to the ship and each person aboard it. Furthermore, the game frequently shows memories in reverse chronological order, so each memory teases the player with questions of what could have happened in previous memories to lead to this event.

The main goal of the game, to find out the identity and fate of each person on the ship, is also a fascinating mystery in and of itself, and further motivates the player to solve them.

The Lens of Novelty (#24)

The main mechanics of Return of the Obra Dinn are extremely novel (what other game lets you view people’s death memories in a non-linear order to play detective?) and alone could entice players to play the game. Although the game’s mechanics are basically the same throughout, the game still injects novelty to keep players interested by varying the settings the memories are in (some memories go out into the open sea!) as well as the methods used to deduce people’s identities.

However, the game struggles to retain novelty once all the memories have been viewed, and there isn’t any new content for the player to go through until after they finish all the fates. On the bright side, the game still manages to be engaging even after the novelty wears off as the player has to figure out the fates of every character on board.

The Lens of Secrets (#29)

Return of the Obra Dinn generally avoids calling attention to clues and requires the player to notice them instead. However, the player is given some information to help them out. For example, the player is told for each person how difficult it is to figure out their fate and identity through some triangles on top of the person’s portrait. Furthermore, the information for the memories in the logbook is recorded in chronological order, so the player can clearly see the timeline of events.

Another way Return of the Obra Dinn balances giving and hiding information is that it only tells player their answers are correct if they have 3 correct fates. This prevents the player from simply brute-forcing answers for each fate until the game verifies it as correct. However 3 correct fates is few enough that the player can still get a sense of progress as well as some verification before they get too lost.

Overall, the game delicately balances between giving information to players to prevent them from getting too confused or frustrated while still keeping enough in the dark so that players will have to make deductions and discoveries on their own, preserving those “Eureka!” moments.

The Lens of Beauty (#71)

A 1-bit monochrome art style is not what most people would consider to be beautiful, but Return of the Obra Dinn makes it work. The art style fits the 19th century seafaring setting of the game and helps immerse the player into that environment. The game also still manages to achieve some stunning visuals using the limited graphics style. Just look at the screenshot below of the view on the ship deck; it’s not even the most impressive visual in the game!

The game also manages to make the clinical process of identifying corpses beautiful. Initially, each dead person is just a name on the list, but as the player goes through the memories, they get to see glimpses of the personality and life that each person had, which makes their tragic fate much more emotional. The captain’s memory, in particular, is genuinely tearjerking once you learn about all the horror and tragedy he faced aboard the Obra Dinn.