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iOS Gaming August 2013: The Curious Case of no Subtitle

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Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
Anybody want to recommend me the best bullet-hell shooters?

I have:

Danmaku 2 Unlimited
Phoenix HD
R.Type

I want:

Bug Princess 2 Black Label
Espgaluda 2 HD

Problem is, $14 each is steep, and I've head Espgaluda 2 is incredibly short, and neither support iPhone 5 HD. This seems to be an issue with most Cave shooters since a lot of them aren't updated often.

Are there any other good ones I missed?

Well, for one R-Type isn't bullet hell :p

As for bullet hell, I'd save Esp2 for last, since Dodonpachi Resurrection HD is IMO the best, then BP2 BL and BP (both universal). Then Dodonpachi Blissful Death, and many folks (not me) absolutely love Dodonpachi Maximu. Even Deathsmiles I prefer to Esp2.

For non bullet hell, Raiden Legacy (compilation of 4 games, all good with two of them being f* awesome) is by far my favorite, together with Blazing Star.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Grabbed Men's Room Mayhem when it was free and it's actually decent, but it's a game where the subject matter is a legitimate reason for embarrassment when playing outside. :lol
 
Has this game been mentioned yet? Found it on Toucharcade. Looks like a promising Zelda-esque IOS game

Kingdoms Fall (8/6/2013)
Kingdoms Fall is a new action adventure coming to iOS August 6th. You will get to explore an open world, finding items such as the Boomerang, Bombs, Grappling Hook and Fire Wand. You will need to venture into the realm's darkest dungeons, conquer tricky puzzles, and survive intense boss battles to save your kingdom and everything you love

Trailer - http://youtube.com/watch?v=nvS-DDRXhv0

  • Sword swinging, boomerang hurling, bomb exploding action!
  • Explore an open world
  • Venture into the realm's darkest dungeons
  • Find powerful items
  • Solve tricky puzzles
  • Survive intense boss battles!
 
Beta testing a cool IOS game "Joan", found out about it on Toucharcade

start_1x_iphone.gif


location1x2.png


tpu3qnL.jpg

It's a combat based auto runner, with pixel graphics and gory weapon effects. The touch controls are really smooth and intuitive, and even though it's just the first beta build, it feels quite polished. Each gun has an regular fire and alt fire and right now there are five guns (only about 25% of the planned total according to the devs). This will most likely be a level based game, not endless. And the devs plans for the game to be premium without IAP, unless a publisher forces otherwise

From the devs:
Initially it was planned as a platformer where the main char movement is fully controlled - run, jump, climb like in common platformers.

Then we found out that the control scheme for this is not that convenient - so, we had pass through really lots of experiments.

The current prototype uses a new control scheme that allows two fingers (not dual joystick) to control all with gestures only without any buttons. The only thing we changed is that the main character now contantly runs, like in runner games. With gestures you jump up and down between different layers/levels, switch weapons, fire primary and secondary shots.

How it will be further we will be deciding on the feedback we'll receive from you and with you help during beta-test

Yet, even if we are going with the current runner-alike scheme, we are going to make it not just a simple linear runner. There will be hidden levels that go up above and down below the straight line. And, of course, boss fights.

I'll update my impressions as more updates release, but I'm pretty impressed so far

Also the devs said to give the link here, so if you have any questions, they'll answer them
 

PFD

Member
This is a good post and I do totally respect your opinion.

It's funny how you talk about it being one of the best JRPGs, when in my experience it's pretty unlike any of them that I've played. I play mainly 16-bit era JRPGs though, so maybe the genre has come along a lot since then, but I didn't find the combat all that engaging. I think it's very different on DS with the dpad controls, but in the iOS version combat is pretty much a lot of swiping and tapping and doesn't put up much of a challenge until deep in the game (I think I was about 10 hours in at least before it started ramping up), so it was a bit of a damp squib there for me. I like the rock/paper/scissors of a good JRPG battle system, and in comparison this felt a little shallow (but ironically more like a throwaway iOS game).

The thing the annoyed me the most was the story though - very obvious characters (Neko especially annoyed the shit out of me) with their very obvious character arcs, speaking ENDLESSLY, repeating themselves and the themes. Worse than MGS even! :p If the game was mostly combat and exploration then I could have enjoyed it more, but the constant interruptions and tapping through reams of text just bugged the hell out of me.

there was a lot to like about it though, levelling up buttons was addictive and I liked the clothing system as well. Some of the puzzles were kinda neat, and I enjoyed the idea of stacking battles. But as a whole it didn't hang together for me and the story actively dissuaded me for playing much beyond about 15 hours (I gave it a good shake!).

But yeah, opinions and arseholes and all that :p but it's an expensive game, and customers should take both of our views into consideration before buying.

For some reason I enjoyed this game, even though I rarely play JRPGs and never really watched anime or followed Japanese pop culture. The story starts out slow with lots of cliches, but it gets much better later on. Especially the protagonist. He's quite an insufferable dick at the beginning of the game. I won't spoil things, but he does get better.

My biggest gripe was that the tutorial encompasses a good chunk of the game. They constantly introduced new mechanics, and I didn't feel like I was playing the game properly until I was like 10 hrs in.
 
Well, for one R-Type isn't bullet hell :p

As for bullet hell, I'd save Esp2 for last, since Dodonpachi Resurrection HD is IMO the best, then BP2 BL and BP (both universal). Then Dodonpachi Blissful Death, and many folks (not me) absolutely love Dodonpachi Maximu. Even Deathsmiles I prefer to Esp2.

For non bullet hell, Raiden Legacy (compilation of 4 games, all good with two of them being f* awesome) is by far my favorite, together with Blazing Star.

I was being broad only to give some insight into my tastes in general. Raiden L. looks great, might pick that up later. Outside of Cave there isn't really much else.

What I really want is Ikaruga.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
Already got the iPhone version; got the iPad version now. I have quite a bit of fun with these solitaire games; I have been playing Faerie Solitaire on Steam recently and it's pretty cool too.
Same here. Thanks for the heads-up, toddhunter.
 
D

Deleted member 8095

Unconfirmed Member
Has this game been mentioned yet? Found it on Toucharcade. Looks like a promising Zelda-esque IOS game

Kingdoms Fall (8/6/2013)

Looks like an interesting Zelda clone. One minor nitpick, the character movement looks tediously slow.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Hour later and I'm still playing, haha. What should I save up for in the shop at first?

I have literrally not bought anything that I can remember from the shop, the only things I've spent ingame currency on has been refilling the bag of clubs you use during a game ever so often.
But as general advise, there are some non-consumable 'upgrades' one can buy that I would go for first, the descriptions should tell if they're consumed or persistent.
 

muddream

Banned
How do the upgrades work on heroic/iron challenges in Kingdom Rush?
The ones that lower production cost clearly aren't applied, but the meteor shower leaving a mark for a few seconds worked out fine.
 

igor

Member
This is a good post and I do totally respect your opinion.

It's funny how you talk about it being one of the best JRPGs, when in my experience it's pretty unlike any of them that I've played. I play mainly 16-bit era JRPGs though, so maybe the genre has come along a lot since then, but I didn't find the combat all that engaging. I think it's very different on DS with the dpad controls, but in the iOS version combat is pretty much a lot of swiping and tapping and doesn't put up much of a challenge until deep in the game (I think I was about 10 hours in at least before it started ramping up), so it was a bit of a damp squib there for me. I like the rock/paper/scissors of a good JRPG battle system, and in comparison this felt a little shallow (but ironically more like a throwaway iOS game).

The thing the annoyed me the most was the story though - very obvious characters (Neko especially annoyed the shit out of me) with their very obvious character arcs, speaking ENDLESSLY, repeating themselves and the themes. Worse than MGS even! :p If the game was mostly combat and exploration then I could have enjoyed it more, but the constant interruptions and tapping through reams of text just bugged the hell out of me.

there was a lot to like about it though, levelling up buttons was addictive and I liked the clothing system as well. Some of the puzzles were kinda neat, and I enjoyed the idea of stacking battles. But as a whole it didn't hang together for me and the story actively dissuaded me for playing much beyond about 15 hours (I gave it a good shake!).

But yeah, opinions and arseholes and all that :p but it's an expensive game, and customers should take both of our views into consideration before buying.

Oh God, I got this game after all, so I can briefly speak about my experiences with the iOS release. No more iOS purchases for a while, I have a problem.

Well yes it's a jRPG that really spins the genre on its head - but it is a jRPG after all and I'm a great fan of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VII and XII, Lucifer's Call/Nocturne and Persona series (all of MegaTen games really, Atlus should start releasing on iOS). It's not your typical jRPG of course but that's what makes TWEWY so compelling IMO.

As to combat - I can only say from about 2 hours of playing it, but yeah, if you played the game already you will miss the the upper screen unless you were a person who played on AUTO. The implementation is alright, though I don't know how you pull off special attacks, some of which were really useful on high level gameplay (Shiki's invisibility, Joshua's "Divine Spear" attack). The bottom screen has been left exactly the same which was already good fun but I dont know if adding Partner to the fray is not a bit distracting especially since input overlaps with one of the psychs. Overall - it's good, but I do miss the upper screen combat, pulling off some really long chains was extremely rewarding.

As for the story it's something I saw differently, even though Neku at the beginning was the worst of Squall and Cloud combined, I approached the story knowing that he will change. There is lot to the story and it was way more compelling than FF7, IMO. Only Beat is an annoying idiot right till the end but there's always more to the characters than meets the eye and they have quite cool arcs, but it's a matter of how much do you enjoy the teenage drama which at the beginning can be annoying. I won't spoil about the story much, but the game has really really cool villains (one of which became quite iconic by now). As to delivery of it, I did find the beginning bit frustrating because a)I already played the original b)I think on iOS you approach story telling bit more impatiently. But it's a proper console game and I think it should be treated on such terms especially since for the genre standard it's not that lengthy.
First week
is a bit of a chore second time running.

After finishing the game I spent hundreds of hours maxing out the game, getting the pins etc. it has a really really deep and extremely robust system - pins have evolution trees that also depend on various factors (eg. one pin can transform into couple of different forms), as you highlighted it - you can lower your own level, change the difficulty and stack up the enemy battles so that you can increase the chances of getting better loot (which makes up for the most fun farming i have encountered in any game, ever). There's food and clothing system, which both deserve a separate paragraph on their own. As an iOS game, there are few that are so expensive but also so expansive (hohoho).

But yeah I completely agree, this is a very divisive game still and if someone decides to buy that he better checks out the gameplay videos and see if they like the vibe - in this case if you dont enjoy the vibe of the game stay the hell away from it, I imagine you will have a hard time enjoying the rest. But if you do like what you see, for 10 euro you get a really fun game, definitely worth the asking price IMO. The redone sprites are beautiful and my only gripe on the technical side is... why the hell they made the videos out of the cut scenes instead of keeping the sprites? 2.4 gb is a one gigabyte too much for my iPhone. Also, no widescreen support on iPh5 is bollocks.

(Sorry for the wall of text, mobile users will curse me)
 

muddream

Banned
They're limited to a certain level, and anything above that just isn't applied. It should say what level of upgrades are allowed on the screen where you select the heroic/iron challenge.

Thx, I thought the max level pertained to the towers.
 
The new Kingdom Rush Frontiers stages are pretty difficult - especially the last one. Couldn't get 3 stars on Casual.

The mage orb tower is your friend. That and a mix of the mech artillery and some barracks. The orbs help with the giant enemy crabs and the mechs with those nasty lightning mages.
 

BlackWaltz

lotta black folks here
I went to buy TWEWY on my 16gb iPod Touch 5g, since it seemed like it'd be a good game to play on long bus rides. Unfortunately because the 16gb version of the 5g has no rear-facing camera, and the game requires a camera flash to play(apparently to gate off older iPod Touches) I can't play, even though my iPod is equally as capable as the more expensive versions. Sucks.
 

PittaGAF

Member
I'm on holiday with wife and son, so plenty of time for iPhone gaming.
Tried tons of games but bored with pratically everything including XCOM which for some reason I can't force myself to complete.
So...it was a while since I loaded Warhammer Quest and some updates were out meanwhile.
Well well....despite over 100 hours in it, I'm still blown away.
I never really played it on iPhone, always on iPad.
Despite text being super tiny so I do not know about the main campaigns, white quests are ok and it's really gorgeous (IMHO best graphic on the platform and some of the best graphic I ever saw....I really LOVE all those dungeon tiles).
They must have (finally) tweaked difficulty in some updates because I had some problems in the 4 hours straight I played....lost a level 5 Gray Mage too (sigh).
Incredible how I was glued to the screen, despite knowing the game out if my memory.
I really have something for Rodeo Games....their take on TBS is just perfect for me.
Not too dumb, not too complex, quests/contracts always satisfactory and doable in a 'right' timespan, always fun... I simply love this game...can't seem to have enough no matter how much I play it (Hunters 2 was the same last year, hironically).
Can't wait for new content.

Incidentally, I realized that I NEVER saw one location, the very first they showed.
The dragon one with the Troll's bridge...did someone found it?
 

SteveWD40

Member
Incidentally, I realized that I NEVER saw one location, the very first they showed.
The dragon one with the Troll's bridge...did someone found it?

Nope, it's not in the game right now iirc. The whole south area of the map seems to be ready for an expansion and I imagine that's where that screenshot is from. It was probably all developed at the same time and then campaigns were split up to maximise profit, which is fair enough as you get a lot of content for your money.
 

okno

Member
Decided to jump on the free copy of Kingdom Rush and fuuuuudge am I bad at this game! I've never been very good at TD games, so this comes as no surprise to me... However, after failing the 2nd mission three times in a row, I put my ipad down and went to do some other things when I caught myself thinking up strategies on beating all those damn Orcs! Back in I go... Thank god today's my day off!
 

ToxicAdam

Member
Decided to jump on the free copy of Kingdom Rush and fuuuuudge am I bad at this game! I've never been very good at TD games, so this comes as no surprise to me... However, after failing the 2nd mission three times in a row, I put my ipad down and went to do some other things when I caught myself thinking up strategies on beating all those damn Orcs! Back in I go... Thank god today's my day off!

Don't be afraid to use Youtube for hints. Just see how/where they set up the first 4-5 towers, stop the video, then do the same in your game and go from there. You will pick up the strategies and the reasons why it's effective as you go along.
 
Don't be afraid to use Youtube for hints. Just see how/where they set up the first 4-5 towers, stop the video, then do the same in your game and go from there. You will pick up the strategies and the reasons why it's effective as you go along.

This is very good advice-I've done it too, and there's no shame. Just give the level about 4 or 5 times before you get a hint.
 
I love the art style! Can you explain IAP since initially it is free?

edit: According to devs, update for Breach and Clear is coming today

We will have two versions- Paid and Free

Free version has ads and some cavity types are locked.

Paid version will have no ads and you unlock more cool cavity types.
 

okno

Member
Don't be afraid to use Youtube for hints. Just see how/where they set up the first 4-5 towers, stop the video, then do the same in your game and go from there. You will pick up the strategies and the reasons why it's effective as you go along.

For whatever reason, the second mission keeps giving me a hard time, but I managed to 3-star the next five on my first try. The game is clicking with me very quickly, surprisingly! Lovely little game!
 

btkadams

Member
does anyone know if ff tactics for iphone and ipad can share game saves? they're two separate games on the app store but have icloud saving, which is said to be for easy sharing across devices. it doesn't really say whether it would work across the ipad/iphone versions.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
does anyone know if ff tactics for iphone and ipad can share game saves? they're two separate games on the app store but have icloud saving, which is said to be for easy sharing across devices. it doesn't really say whether it would work across the ipad/iphone versions.

They have iCloud saving between the same versions of the app, e.g. iPhone to iPhone and iPad to iPad, not iPhone to iPad version. iCloud saves only work between the same app SKUs.
 

btkadams

Member
They have iCloud saving between the same versions of the app, e.g. iPhone to iPhone and iPad to iPad, not iPhone to iPad version. iCloud saves only work between the same app SKUs.

ugh, fucking square :(

i wanted to play on my ipad at home and my iphone elsewhere. i don't really want to dedicate to just one. hmm...i guess i'll go with my ipad then.
 

PittaGAF

Member
They have iCloud saving between the same versions of the app, e.g. iPhone to iPhone and iPad to iPad, not iPhone to iPad version. iCloud saves only work between the same app SKUs.

I guess then they support it just in case you want to remove and reinstall later and not losing the save (something I appreciate)...because the way they seem to advertise it is really dumb.
LOL at 'easy sharing across multiple devices'.
Like....how many people play a game on MULTIPLE iPhones?
 

CronoShot

Member
does anyone know if ff tactics for iphone and ipad can share game saves? they're two separate games on the app store but have icloud saving, which is said to be for easy sharing across devices. it doesn't really say whether it would work across the ipad/iphone versions.

FF Tactics iCloud does indeed work across both versions. I tried it not too long ago. Although it's really hard to play it on iPhone due to the small space. iPhone 5 support would go a long way, but I digress...
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
FF Tactics iCloud does indeed work across both versions. I tried it not too long ago. Although it's really hard to play it on iPhone due to the small space. iPhone 5 support would go a long way, but I digress...
Really? Didn't when I tried it last, and cross saving between app SKUs isn't supported according to Apple.
 

CronoShot

Member
Really? Didn't when I tried it last, and cross saving between app SKUs isn't supported according to Apple.

Yeah, definitely worked when I did it. I just saved my game to the iCloud slot at work on my iPhone, opened the iPad version when I got home, and there it was.

You do have to make sure iCloud saving for both is turned on in the options though.
 

PittaGAF

Member
FF Tactics iCloud does indeed work across both versions. I tried it not too long ago. Although it's really hard to play it on iPhone due to the small space. iPhone 5 support would go a long way, but I digress...

Oh...then I retract my 'dumb Square Enix' statement.
Cool.
I didn't know this was possible.
 

Evenbillybob

Neo Member
Yesterday for iOS dropped from 6.99 > 1.99 > .99 today

Is this adventure game any good? I've heard of the Runaway series but never played them.

I picked it up when I saw the sale earlier today.
It's pretty much a run-of-the-mill point and click adventure. So far the puzzles have been par for the course, and the voicework is not that impressive.
Although I still have to finish it, I'm not that impressed.
Worth 6.99? Not in my opnion.
Worth 0.99? Sure, if you want a standard point and click game on iOS.
 
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