Games You Might Not Have Tried - ep 10 - Find New Games - Extra Credits

Yep, we're doing another one. It had been such a long time since the last games you might not have tried, and James had so many other games he wanted to mention that we figured, what the heck, let's do another one. Rules are the same as always. Hopefully, all of these have something interesting to them, even if not all of them are technically good. Here we go. Concrete Jungle. I like deck-building games, and I like city-planning games, and this is pretty much both. I mean, sure, it plays more like a puzzle game than either of those genres, but the deck-building's really interesting. There are a lot more facets to how each card affects your deck than in other such games, and having a deck-building game play out on a board adds another creative twist to the formula. So, if you're oddly fascinated by the design and evolution of the deck-building genre, this is one to check out. Plus, it's one of few games with PvP city-building. Can't beat that.

Welcome to yet another exciting ROUND OF FORCED SHOWDOWN. Forced Showdown. Speaking of cards, have you ever looked at a top-down shooter, especially some of the new top-down shooters with roguelike elements, and said to yourself, "That could use more cards." Well, guess what? You're in luck, because Forced Showdown is the collectible card-integrated top-down shooter with roguelike elements that you apparently always wanted in this scenario I made up. What's fascinating about it is that it shows us as designers just how far we can push the collectible card paradigm, and how, like the RPG-izing of yesteryear, we're now finding that we can use collectible card mechanics in all sorts of different gameplay. Just make sure you get past the tutorial, because I had a lot of fun with this game, but I think one of the reasons it didn't do as well as it could have commercially is because it takes about an hour before it all clicks and makes you understand why the roguelike and CCG elements are actually awesome layered over Gauntlet-like play. Just

stick with it. It'll make sense. Odin's Sphere Life Leaf Odin's Sphere HD. It's easy to miss an HD remake, especially of a game that a lot of people missed the first time. But if you like 2D beat 'em ups with an interestingly told story and solid RPG elements, you probably shouldn't miss this one. Besides, this game is super pretty, you guys. Great soundtrack, too. Moving on to a game that's all about gameplay, Devil Daggers. Devil Daggers sets out to prove why circle strafing and arena shooting was once considered grand, and it does so admirably by stripping down the entire experience into a 2-minute loop. There are two weapons, no explanation, and no story, only constant and rapid death in search of a marginally higher score.

This may not be for many of you, but for those of you who are into this sort of thing, it's easy to lose 2 hours playing these 2-minute rounds. Tree of Savior. Tree of Savior is on here as one of those interesting design examples where we have a game that has a clear lineage, in this case Ragnarok Online, where the game is clearly more polished than its predecessor in almost every way, but small design choices make it far less appealing. If you're interested in where the future of MMO design might be going, this provides a good case study for how linearity can kill an MMO experience. I don't think you'll end up playing it for very long, but it's worth looking at and side-by-siding with Ragnarok if you're into this sort of thing, just to see how clearly a group of minor decisions that I don't think were even the team's principal focus undid all the value added by the amazing polish work on other aspects of the game.

Rogue Galaxy. You remember that golden age of PS2 RPGs where we had games like Dark Cloud 2 and Suikoden 3 where the JRPG had been refined to the point where devs knew exactly how to do the basics, but they were still inexpensive enough to produce that studios could experiment and try to squeeze in everything in the kitchen sink? Well, Rogue Galaxy's probably one of the lesser known titles from that era, but it's firmly in that camp. And now that it's out on the PS4 store, it gives us an excuse to talk about it. It's a space pirate opera with an action combat system reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. It's also got an interesting crafting system that tries to make far more of what you pick up in the world relevant. It's got some monster ranching to do on the side as well as an almost inexhaustible supply of side quests. It's no great shakes, but the story is serviceable and it's plenty to take you from world to world. The main reason we're talking about it here though is for its encounter design. I love me some

Kingdom Hearts and I'm dying to get my hands on the new one, but I think that even though not all of the encounter design worked in Rogue Galaxy and the camera system is often as bad as well, PS2 camera systems, there are some incredible battles that are highly strategic and require a ton of thinking through exactly how to use the game's myriad abilities that even Kingdom Hearts could benefit from emulating. The Way. The Way is one of those old school games that don't really have a genre. Sometimes it's a platformer, sometimes it's a stealth action game, sometimes it's an adventure game, and as the Steam page readily acknowledges, it owes a lot to games like Another World and Flashback. But in providing us with a modern counterpart to those games, it shows us some of the flaws in trying to be everything at once. It's by no means a bad game, and it's got a more interesting story than you're at first led to expect, but none of the disparate elements quite have the level of polish

to really make them shine. But, it's on this list because it forces us to ask the question, can you still make games that don't really have a genre, at least mechanically? And while this question seems deceptively simple at first, I mean, yes, because we can do anything. And then equally deceptively simple when The Way is presented as a case study, well, no, because the game would clearly be better if all the various elements were more polished. The question is tougher than it seems because when looking at the game, the real question it presents us is would this game be better if they had to cut variety in order to polish the individual pieces. And while I don't have a definitive answer for you there, the variety plus the story did get me through the half dozen hours the game takes. Chronicle: RuneScape Legends. And we're back to James's love of card games. Dude loves cards, people. What do you want? This time it's the RuneScape CCG. This is on here because they tried to do something genuinely different than

the Magic: The Gathering formula or all the Hearthstone clones we've been seeing. While visually the game looks like it's borrowing a lot from the board game world, if you strip away everything but the mechanics, the game is actually about having both players lay out all the moves for their turn and then having them resolve simultaneously. This is an interesting approach that I've never seen a CCG try before. It makes the play as much about anticipating your opponent and understanding their psychology as it is about playing the board. And while the game still suffers from some pacing problems, if you love the design of CCGs, this is probably one you should spend at least 15 minutes with. Pony Island. This game is not actually about ponies and it's not about islands. It's deceptive that way. In fact, there is almost nothing we can say about this game without spoiling something. But, if you like meta games like Frog Fractions, it's probably worth spending a little time on Pony Island. That's all I'm going to say.

And finally, My Night Job. This is one of those small releases that you might not play for long, but it's absolutely great for a half dozen hours if it's what you're in the mood for. It's like one of those NES games you used to rent over the weekend. It's a B-movie horror themed beat-'em-up with tons of weapons to experiment with and enemies to fight. But, it's on this list because it goes beyond the standard beat-'em-up formula of walk to the right punching everything in your path. Instead, it puts a twist on it. You're in a mansion. You have to rescue a hundred people from this mansion as evil creatures invade it. But, you don't just have to worry about your health bar and finding and rescuing civilians because more monsters pour into the various rooms with every passing second. And when enough monsters gather in a room, they start to destroy it. If three rooms collapse, you lose. So, you have to strategically sweep the house balancing life, finding civilians, and keeping enemies from building up in any one place. And it's no mean feat either. This game is not easy. So, if

you're looking for a novel twist on the beat-'em-up format to keep you occupied for a week, I have a night job for you. Well, I hope you all enjoyed that. Go play some games and I'll see you next week.