The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is out now RPG fans and it is brilliant. With a new bunch of characters, with some old favourites peppered in, this is a fascinating new chapter.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak: Welcome to Calvard

After years of travelling across Zemuria, beginning my adventure in Erebonia with Class 7, and then making my way to Crossbell with the SS, it’s exciting to finally be in Calvard. With Van, the self-proclaimed spriggan, players find themselves embroiled in a battle for the soul of Calvard as sinister forces are using its recent prosperity to change the country, and not for the better.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak has all the stalwarts of previous entries. It includes an eccentric cast of playable characters, equally impressive villains and a thoroughly fleshed-out world.

What has changed is several quality-of-life elements. There has been an upgrade in graphics which allows the denizens of Calvard to pop off the screen. The various locations are also enchanting to visit.

On top of this though is an overhaul of the combat system. There are two styles of combat. One is where you throw out a “shard” which thrusts everyone in it into battle. This is similar to the original entries, however, there is a fluidity to it that makes it feel looser and more intense. Then there is the second combat style.

With this second style, you dodge and attack your enemies, though you don’t get full access to your skills, arts or crafts there is a wildness to it that I enjoyed. These two styles make for a thoroughly enjoyable time whenever Van and his motley crew do battle with the baddies, whether they be monsters, the villainous Almata or old favourites Oroborous.

Helping in these battles is a new kind of orbment filled with shiny new toys. Utilising the Xipha allows you to add status effects to your weapons, increase buffs at the beginning of a battle and so much more. It’s an impressive new iteration of a feature that has been around for a while in the franchise.

Embrace the Nightmare

One of the new elements which reminded me of playing as Rean and Valimar was the power of Grendel. This being is a kind of demonic armour which Van utilises in battle. It’s a lot of fun and evolves as the story progresses.

If there were any issues it would be some complacencies that just pet peeves. We are far into this series and still, there are no weapon skins when you buy a new weapon, which is something I love in RPGs.

Following Van, Agnes, Feri and the rest of this new merry band has been a lot of fun and the ramifications of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak will be sure to excite longtime fans.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content

The post The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak – a breath of fresh Calvardian air appeared first on GamEir.

FAIRY TAIL 2 – I’m all fired up!

FAIRY TAIL 2 brings fans back to the epic action of the original series’ climax, the Alvarez Empire Arc. In this new title, players will not only be able to control Natsu and Lucy as main characters but also other members of the FAIRY TAIL guild in order to defeat their greatest enemy, Zeref, the Emperor Spriggan of the Alvarez Empire, who is protected by the Spriggan 12 and the Black Dragon, Acnologia.

FAIRY TAIL 2 features 3D graphics and improved gameplay with more intense and spectacular battles, in which players will use more powerful magic and a variety of other strategic elements in order to take down enemies in stunning action sequences. Players will also be able to explore the vast map seamlessly, enhancing the experience of the original work while furthering the thrilling story of the final chapter.

In addition, the game features “Character Stories”, that are original to this game. Which will give players the unprecedented opportunity to discover new aspects of their favourite characters. Fans will also enjoy an original story, the “Key to Hidden Secrets”, that will allow them to experience events taking place after the final battle of the original work.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content

The post FAIRY TAIL 2 – Welcome back to the guild appeared first on GamEir.

Rise once again Tarnished, answer the call of the kindly Miquella and follow his pilgrimage through the lands of shadow. Journey across a new land filled with beautiful and grotesque landmarks to behold. Discover a new cast of characters to introduce yourself to and follow their journeys. Not only that, uncover an arsenal of new weaponry and magic to wield and unleash upon your foes. Remember one important thing, when you get to the Shadow Realm, you are going to die. A lot. Shadow of the Erdtree is the newly released DLC of FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed 2022 title Elden Ring. It is a huge expansion on top of the base game taking place solely within the impressively massive Shadow Realm, where you once again step into the shoes of the Tarnished as they answer the call of Miquella.

The content can be accessed once you defeat Mohg in the base game (I highly recommend using a guide for this if you’ve forgotten how to access his arena as a returning player). From there you are teleported into a dark cave in total silence and as you make your way outside you are greeted by an absolutely stunning skybox. A gigantic golden tree looms in the distance, draped in cloth-like shadow, the world washed with different shades of gold and black and a score rises alongside as the reveal happens, the opening minute sets the tone and easily reminds you why you fell in love with this game two years ago.

The world of Elden Ring has never been so scary in scope

The map is massive, with more verticality in the placement of locations, layering them above and below the player. It is so easy to get lost in this world and I don’t mean in the sense of wandering with no direction. You can fall deep into the beauty and horror of the lands you travel. The world is littered with landmarks in the distance and just travelling over to them will start a Rube Goldberg machine of events taking you off the beaten path and on an adventure. The sense of discovery in this game feels so natural. You will find secret areas, items, bosses and accomplishments that feel like you have earned them with no guidance, just your own intuition. You made this discovery possible by just having a nosey around the sides of a cliff or behind a waterfall.

I’ve found myself re-assigning my levels constantly during my playthrough. This is mostly due to the new arrangement of weapons available (shoutout to the ‘DryLeaf Arts’ martial arts weapon). Each one provides its own unique style of play and has been tremendously fun to play around with so far. I highly recommend you use a save file with most of the base game explored. At the very least grab the bell bearings to easily have access to buy all purchasable smithing stones back at the Roundtable from the Bell Maidens so you can hastily upgrade the new weapons as you acquire them and jump back into the DLC to try them out. Weapons are great but what you use them on is what’s important. Shadow of the Erdtree has a plethora of new enemies and bosses for the Tarnished to run at.

Some of these new foes are returning from the base game but the new additions will leave you either in awe as you see them approach or shout out in fear when you see them charging you down. FromSoftware’s approach to balancing this DLC was the introduction of ‘Scadutree Fragments and Revered Ashes’.

Beware the shadow of the Erdtree

Fragments will increase your attack and defence while ashes strengthen your summons. These only apply inside the DLC, and they do not affect stats when you return to the base game. I cannot stress this enough you need to collect these things! I entered at level 215 and I was being killed in either two or three hits by regular enemies. The difference these upgrades make is night and day. A number of them can be found by exploring the opening area of the DLC.

Shadow of the Erdtree is a beautiful expansion on an already beautiful game. I’ve not finished the DLC as of writing this and most of that is because I just can’t stop running off in the opposite direction of the main path looking for stuff to discover. It’s big, bold, brutal and beautiful. My only gripe is the game has great difficulty keeping a playable framerate in some areas. I had to stop using one of my weapon arts during an encounter due to the game chugging so much.

These are things that get ironed out down the line in a patch hopefully. I really enjoyed my time and once I regained my muscle memory of the controls and familiarised myself with my build again, I left like I was catching up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. Just picking back up where we left off like no time had passed at all. FromSoftware has created a magical world again. They could easily be looking at even more awards for Elden Ring due to their hard work and craft.

These words were written in blood by the Tarnished Lewis Magee.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content

The post Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree – An impressive expansion appeared first on GamEir.

Ova Magica has had significant attention directed toward it since then from multiple locations. These include being spotlighted in an edition of the 2022 PC Gaming Show thanks to its publisher, Top Hat Studios, Inc.

After much hard work, the team presented its extensive demo ahead of its July Early Access launch. This demo features 4-5+ hours of content. The game is scheduled to launch into Early Access on July 23rd. You can view the announcement trailer for the game’s upcoming launch below, which debuted in Top Hat Studios’s publisher spotlight in Guerilla Collective.

The goal of Ova Magica is to combine the charm of classic genres with new, modern and intuitive twists on staple mechanics. After moving to take care of a farmstead in the aforementioned quaint little hamlet Clover Town, you’re introduced to something that changes your life forever: Blobs! Blobs are cute, wobbly, and rotund creatures which hatch from eggs. Treat them with care and they can become your greatest companions!

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Ova Magica comes to Steam Next Fest appeared first on GamEir.

2024-06-11

Go-Go Town! is an unholy mishmash of games that manages to be chaotic, charming, unhinged and compelling all in one. It’s colourful. So, so silly. And it’s fun!

Imagine, if you will, someone taking Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and the Mii Parade from the Wii and shoving them in a food blender. Spray the whole thing with brightly coloured paint and add a big dollop of goofy. Now you’ve got Go-Go Town!

The game starts with you, the player character, being flung from a moving vehicle in a duffle bag. After that, one of what seems to be the Men in Black tells you that you’re the new mayor of a half-block of podunk nowhere. He and his cohort of identical Agent Smith lookalikes teach you the basics of running a town, then get the hell out of dodge. You’re the mayor now! Congrats!

What’s a mayor gotta do?

As the player, your job (if you choose to accept it) is simple: grow the town, and make money. That’s about it. At first, you have to gather and process the materials yourself (classic mine rocks-smelt rocks, chop wood-saw wood stuff). You build houses for your residents, businesses for them to work in, and provide the raw materials for their jobs. At first, it’s simple materials, like rocks to make pet rocks (nope – not joking). As the game progresses, however, more lucrative jobs need more complex materials, processed multiple times.

Also, because you’re the mayor, you get to cut a cute little red ribbon for every new building. It’s the little things, isn’t it?

As your town grows, you can get the residents to start doing the grunt work like, for instance, gathering and processing materials. You can hire a courier to ferry materials around, a bin man to collect the rubbish, etc. etc. Who’d have thought? A town where the mayor doesn’t have to empty the bins! Will wonders never cease?

Who’s buying this stuff, you may ask? Firstly, it’s Townies. These are the residents of Go-Go Town! My first Towny, for example, was called Baldo. He was bald. He wouldn’t join my town until I hit 15 people with my car (again – nope, not kidding). Go figure. Secondly, there are the Tourists. These are mainly – and I wish I was kidding – ghosts and werewolves. They pretty much just wander around buying things and gawking at the sights. This generates Ego, which brings us nicely to…

Click to view slideshow.

Tech Progression in Go-Go Town!

Ego is the “research” currency in the game. Mainly, it allows you to unlock new structures, recipies and so on. Because each unlock provides a limited number of buildings, you’re gonna want to spend Ego often. Because Go-To Town!‘s progression is in set tiers, each new unlock brings you closer to advancing the whole town. Neat!

Speaking of which, once you reach specific milestones, you unlock Challenges! These, funnily enough, challenge you to hit certain goals (mostly, make x amount of money in y amount of time) and then you level up the town. Radical.

All this combined makes for super addictive gameplay. Because the systems are so complex but intuitive, you find yourself saying things like “If I just gather more octopuses to turn into sausages (somehow), I’ll get enough money to impress all these ghosts into making my town bigger”. Wow, it really is bizarre when you lay it all out like that. However – super fun.

Early access: should you get involved?

Go-Go Town! go-goes into early access on June 18th. We’ve all been burned by early-access games in the past. So, should you get it?

Long story short, yes. If you like cozy resource management games, you’ll like this. Moreover, if you like goofy bizarro weirdness fever dreams, you’ll like this.

Long story long, here’s some pros and cons:

Pros:

++ Compelling gameplay loop

++ Goofy & charming humour

++ Visually and musically lovely

++ Huge amount of content to sink your teeth into

Cons:

— The progression is pretty linear, so replayability isn’t great. As a result you can’t specialise your town, and you’ll always progress through the tiers in pretty much the same way

— Resource gathering is tedious and your Townies are very, very slow at doing it for you

Overall, I’d recommend it. If in doubt, there’s a demo out right now on Steam and you can try it out for yourself!

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Go-Go Town! Early Access in Review: Cute, Fun, Weird appeared first on GamEir.

This remake will be entirely rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 by Ballistic Moon. Improved animations and environments should add to the thrills and chills of the Until Dawn experience. The inconsistent frame rate of the PS4 version should be amended here as well, making for the definitive way to experience Until Dawn. 

An Autumn release window will hopefully mean that this title will be available for the Halloween season. I mean, that makes sense right? Combined with an upcoming film adaptation it’s clear that Sony have high hopes for this horror series, so hopefully a new game will follow at some point. For now, like the best horror films, let’s look forward to revisiting this.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content.

The post Until Dawn returns from the grave for PS5 and PC! appeared first on GamEir.

SacriFire follows the story of Ezekiel Ridan, a young priest struggling to maintain his faith amidst a war between gods and demons. As a soldier in training for the elite sect of the Church of Sheol, Ezekiel’s primary goal is to protect the underground city of Antioch from the demons above. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict far greater than he could have imagined – a struggle that has been waged for thousands of years by entities beyond his comprehension.

SacriFire playtest build includes:

• 1 main story quest
• 3 side quests
• 2 major locations and 6 smaller locations
• 1 boss and a variety of enemies
• A fun mini-game of Moligmania
• And much more!

The Steam Playtest will be available until June 24th. SacriFire is planned to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).  

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content. 

The post Pixelated wonder SacriFire now available on Steam appeared first on GamEir.

It’s 2024 and we’re deep into the ninth generation of consoles. We have graphics that are so beautiful that some people cannot differentiate between what is real life and what is computer-generated when looking at a screenshot. The aforementioned gorgeous scenery is usually paired with a grand score, layers upon layers of instruments and sound effects creating an audio soundscape to invoke feelings and emotions of what is on screen. None of that matters here though. Save Me Mr.Tako is locked into 8-bits but that doesn’t matter either because this game stands out and it stands out well.

Handheld memories

Save Me Mr.Tako is a love letter to the original handheld gaming experience all kids from the 80s and 90s grew up playing, the Game Boy. Using an 8-bit colour palette of those instantly recognisable tones of black and greens, this title limits itself with what they can use visually and proves that when in good hands, less can be more. The default display ratio is 4:3 with a large selection of custom-made overlays to fill in the black bars on the sides.

The opening overlay is a tribute to the Super Game Boy for the SNES. The graphics aren’t just greener on the other side, Save Me Mr.Tako has several different colour palettes to switch between at the press of one of the triggers. You can pick your favourite and play through the entire game with the colour of your choice or set it to auto and have the colours change as you progress each level.

Enough about the graphics, let’s talk about the soundtrack. Each track has a catchy melody that fits the level you’re traversing. I’ve found myself at times during my review just scrolling on my
phone longer than I should have because I was just happily bopping away to the soundtrack in the background. The melodies created here fit each area perfectly and are a match for what’s taking place on screen.

Gameplay

I’m just going to say this out straight with no analogy. The controls are tight and responsive with absolutely no messing about. As far as platformers are concerned, Save Me Mr.Tako has some of the best feeling controls out there today. Any mistake I’ve made during platforming was my fault, never due to the controls or the game itself… sorry, that sentence is a bit of a lie as I never made any mistake during platforming because the controls are that good!

As the game progresses Tako will gain access to hats. These grant you abilities you use in combat and traversing the world. Speaking of combat, Tako shoots ink at his enemies which freezes them in place for a few seconds. While frozen, they become platforms you can traverse on. With time, practice and a keen eye for the environment. You can use enemies to your advantage to reach new and sometimes secret areas with precise shots and movement.

The game has a level select hub, kind of like Super Mario Land and town hubs. Even though the game is level-based like old-school platformers, there are story beats contained within. Unlike Super Mario of old which gives you a piece at the beginning and the ending, Save Me Mr.Tako tells its story throughout with a cast of characters and an engaging story of sea vs land.

One of my favourite moments was being told the princess ran off to the east. When I went back to the level select hub, the next level doorway that opened up was just to the right of me, matching the direction previously provided to me.

Critiques

If I have anything to critique about this game it would be that playing this on a large TV was quite straining on the eyes. I enjoy my old Gameboy games but staring at them on a 53-inch television was hard after a while. If you can pick this up on a handheld I’d push you towards that.

Short and sweet review this time folks, I do recommend you give Save Me Mr.Tako a play if you’re in the market for a new platformer with a little extra sprinkled on top. It’s a blast to play and it’s also a blast from the past too.

These sweet salty words were brought to you by Lewis Magee.

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).  

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content. 

The post Save Me Mr.Tako – An 8-Bit Beauty appeared first on GamEir.

What’s more, Little Bat Games has revealed a new trailer that Hades 2 star Sarah Grayson, Francesca Meaux of Hades fame, newcomer Kylie Clark, and star of Critical Role and Baldur’s Gate 3’s Matthew Mercer will be joining Cyrus Nemati (Hades and Pyre) in the cast of Vampire Therapist.

Created in conjunction with licensed therapists, players will be able to take on the role of Sam in this unique “therapize ’em up” game. Even vampires need a shoulder to cry on. (Just be sure not to show them too much neck at the same time!)

Players can try the first few hours of Vampire Therapist now, meeting Sam’s 3000-year-old mentor, Andramochos, and a myriad of other morose, misunderstood — and dare we say, melodramatic — vampires along the way.

Dive into this unique tale of mental health, vampires and German-inspired nightclubs today! 

For the latest on Vampire Therapist, check out the key links below:

• Official Website
• Twitter
• BlueSky

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).  

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content. 

The post Vampire Therapist Demo Launches at Steam Next Fest appeared first on GamEir.

Across six worlds and eighty levels, Astro Bot will be an adventure across land, sea and sky. Brand new power-ups will take advantage of the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the controller. Anyone who’s played Astro’s Playroom will know how creative and fun these abilities are, so the more the merrier!

References to other Playstation mascots and franchises are in abundance of course, Uncharted, God of War, Ico and more playfully teased. It seems like these may have a larger function than cute cameos so hopefully Astro will be hacking apart enemies with Kratos’ magic axe at some point. I could be quite context with some Bot-borne nods too… a man can dream!

Astro Bot launches September 6th 2024 with pre-orders starting June 7th. It couldn’t come sooner!

Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).  

I promise we’re nice! Keep up with our streams over on Twitch (GamEir) and our videos on YouTube (GamEir) and we’ll give you all the latest content. 

The post Astro Bot returns to the PS5! appeared first on GamEir.