Tag: Platformer

Ori and the Will of the Wisps. One of the best games ever!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an action, adventure platformer game developed by ‘Moon Studios‘ and published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Ori and the Will of the Wisps came out in 2020 so it is new. It is an Xbox launch exclusive but later came unto the Nintendo Switch. By the way Ori and the Will of the Wisps is perfect for Nintendo Switch. We wanted to write about this game and give our views on it since we are the best after all. Let’s take a look.

Now straight away let’s just say that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the best games ever made and we aren’t crazy for saying this. So many critics and reviewers have overwhelmingly rated Ori and the Will of the Wisps incredibly high. Here’s some examples: Games Beat – 98/100, The Games Machine – 9.8/10 and two gave perfect scores: Daily Star – 5/5 and Hardcore Gamer – 5/5. The lowest is 9/10 and the average is like 9.5/10. There was one reviewer which was clearly biased in favour of the PlayStation gave it a 8.5 so we don’t count or care about that reviewer. So overall everyone believes Ori and the Will is an excellent game with some saying it’s a perfect game. 

Let’s keep this simple. The first thing about Ori and the Will of the Wisps is most likely the best looking game ever made. It’s graphics and visuals are completely fantastic. It really looks that darn good. No exaggeration. Everyone we know who has seen this game is instantly impressed and calls everything beautiful. Especially in the Luma Pools area where the true beauty really shines. We dare you to look at the Luma Pools and say you wouldn’t want to go there (except for the dangers in that area). There are very amazing looking games like Tetris Effect: Connected, Final Fantasy XV, Outland, indivisible etc but Ori and the Will of the Wisps beats them all. Just look at the particle effects. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has the best looking particle effects too. The Tower knight in the new demon’s souls remake has amazing particle effects on his magic blue projectile attack but Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks better than that easily. When it comes to graphics, visuals, particle effects, fanciness and even frame rates, Ori and the Will of the Wisps scores perfectly. Take into account that X35 Earthwalker played Ori and the Will of the Wisps on the Xbox One only. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has an improved next gen version for the Xbox Series X where frame rates and graphics and performance is even better.

The next things is the locations in the game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has been described as an indie game as it isn’t large at all but there’s big areas in this game. There’s a good variety here. You have: Willow’s end, Windswept wastes (which contains Windtorn ruins), Silent woods (not to be confused with David Wood), Kwolok’s hollow, Inkwater marsh, Wellspring glades, Luma pools, The Wellspring, Baur’s reach and Midnight burrows and Mouldwood depths. That’s 12 areas. Each area is very different from each other and some have their own environmental themes that effect things. For example in mould wood depths there is darkness which will straight up kill you if you stay in it for at least 4 seconds. Baur’s reach being the far north and cold some enemies and objects are frozen solid and need to be thawed out. Luma pools obviously since it’s in the name has loads of water, so managing your air meter getting air is crucial.  

Let’s talk about the controls and combat since they go hand in hand in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The controls are very smooth. Not once have we had control issues. Everything is very responsive and works well. Every command comes out and works. The only time a jump doesn’t come out or a certain ability is because the player doesn’t understand the mechanics and how many times you can perform an action in a row. Now this matters because it makes a difference in combat. Ori and the Will of the Wisps has superb combat. Some enemies require footsies to beat and avoid damage. Not joking, footsies sort of like a fighting game as some bigger enemies like Gorleks will try to do a big hit against you even while you are hitting them and so you have to dodge in time. You will find the dash ability which is so strong as it’s excellent for mobility and travelling quickly and better for dodging attacks almost instantly. The dash is just that good. You will unlock the double jump and maybe get the triple jump. There’s a grapple ability which when upgraded can be used to grapple to enemies and not just grapple points, there’s also a bash ability where you can do a bash of an enemy to knock them away or just propel yourself. When you combine, double, triple jump, dash, grapple and bash, with your attacks you can end up doing many combinations and string moves together to keep attacking, dodging and wiping out enemies even without touching the floor. The responsive controls makes all the difference here. 

Next let’s talk about the abilities and upgrades here in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. There’s so many of them and they are mostly useful and powerful. Some abilities are found through the story of the game and you have no choice but to find them like ‘Light burst’ while others like ‘Sentry’ can be learned from a specific character for a price. Let’s quickly go through the abilities: Spirit edge which is basically a light sword for melee damage. Regenerate which is where you can use your energy to recover health. Spirit arc is basically your bow for shooting light arrows. Blaze is an area of effect flame burst from the center of Ori’s body to set enemies on fire but when fully charged it’s full screen. Sentry is an automated 360 degrees turret. Spike is basically a big spear headed projectile that hits the hardest of all your weapons and when upgraded explodes. Spirit smash is basically a powerful spirit hammer attack with high knockback. Flash is basically an aura sphere of light that is damaging to enemies and ‘lightens’ things up. Light burst is an arc throwable fireball that sets enemies alight and can be used to melt stuff. Those are the offensive abilities. 

Next is the shards. These are just things you can find or earn and they grant even more abilities, either passive, active or change the way Ori or an ability works. There’s a shard that allows you to rapid fire your spirit arc bow. There’s another that increases the amount of damage you do while also increasing the amount of damage you take. Risk reward thing. There’s shards that improve your bash and grapple. There’s a shard that increases your damage against flying enemies. As you can see in the image below, you can find lots of shards and they are worth finding. Combine the abilities you set with the shards you choose and you can change how your combat works, survivability and even energy acquiring and consumption. These things actually make a difference.

Finding these things aren’t that difficult. There’s an excellent map. The map is clear, there are keys for the map that clearly identify what is what. You can zoom in and navigate it easily. It also helps show you where certain things are if you got near them. If you’re smart enough you can use the map to figure out where secret areas are and where secret paths are. There’s a a certain character, for got his name but it’s the bug who loves making maps and you can purchase maps for him to add to your map allowing you to see everything except hidden items. There’s many collectibles and items to find; and so you will need the map. 

There are many collectibles and items to find but there’s also side quests. These side quests aren’t boring, repetitive or lame rewards. For example you can help tuley (hope we got the right name) find and plant seeds which are around the world. There is 6 in total we believe. Finding and growing each one creates a plant that helps you access different parts of the Wellspring glades where all the friendly people are, to find spirit light or meet new characters or get new missions. The ‘hand to hand’ side mission is where you acquire an mission item but you must find who needs that item, give it to them, and they will give you a different item, which you then need to find who needs it. Keep it king until completion and you get a so worth it item. A map stone which when placed in a ancient tablet allows you to see EVERYTHING on the map. Every collectible: Gorlek stones, life cell and energy fragments, spirit light etc. So it’s well worth it if you want to get 100% completion or to just find the stuff to get stronger. Completing spirit trials grants you an additional shard slot so you can equip more. If you do all you can have a maximum of 8 shard slots which helps makes you so powerful. Simply put, doing the side quests rewards you well most the time and is fun.

The story is very good and does keep you paying attention and getting sucked into it. There’s others who said it made them cry or close to tears. There’s funny moments, shocking moments, sad moments and even parts that brought about possibly anger or hatred. You knew why the wisps were important, where they came from and what you need them. You learn about Shriek, her past and why she’s got a heart of stone and so murderous and hateful. You learn about the voice narrating the story but if you pay close attention to details you could figure out who the voice is from the beginning of the game. Seeing Shriek attack Ku and seeing the result be a funeral brought rage and made you want to destroy Shriek but you knew she was too powerful and would stomp you harder than how superman would stomp goku (get triggered). This works well with this Metroid style game where you start of trash but gain powers to get stronger and in the end you have numerous abilities, regeneration, powerful attacks with loads of health and energy AND only then you feel you can square up with Shriek… but not until then. We still wanted to help Shriek as we are merciful people but Shriek didn’t want it and it made us feel bad. You understand Shriek in the end. She reminds us of real people. What happened to Kwolok upset us and we respect that giant toad and glad to see the stink spirit die. There’s so much. In the end after a major league epic battle you feel hyped but then sad after seeing Ori make a life changing decision which saves everyone. You are proud, sad but also understand why Ori did it and why it made sense. The story was great from start to finish. We aren’t giving big details as Ori and the Will of the Wisps came out in the year 2020 so not everyone has played or knows how the story goes. Simply put, an excellent story that we cared about.

The music is excellent. It’s perfect in some cases to set the mood or match what it going on. The major boss battle music helps get you hyped and in the mood for an epic battle. The music for when you are getting chased by something big and powerful is also very good and gets you to focus. The music when Shriek shows up and there’s clear danger and you should run, it makes you understand the magnitude of the situation. We love the music and it adds to the game. Never got annoying. We wanted to quickly bring up something. We saw a review done by Angry Joe and they did another disappointing review. They claimed some stuff was bad or not polished about the game but it was due to them not being good at that those things in the game. Now the gap in skill between X35 Earthwalker and angry Joe and his friends is massive. They died over 500 times! In X35 Earthwalker’s first play though we died less than a quarter of their deaths. They even said combat wasn’t polished but the gameplay they showed of them in combat was terrible. They were fighting the gorleks without dodging even when a telegraphed attack was coming their way yet they say the combat isn’t polished. They said abilities were in the background and didn’t pay attention to it even though they are a big part of there game. They even said that all you have to do to beat the bosses was just grab and redirect their attacks back at them which is so false. Use your abilities. Use Spike, sentry, blaze and more. That’s what they are for… combat. Sadly not everyone is at our level of gaming skill and intelligence. Once again if you want accurate reviews and good points then come to us. 

There’s more to say but we have to leave it here for now as we are running out of time. We will have to update this post later. Let’s summarise. The boss battles are excellent and exciting. Facing bosses like stink spirit, howl, mora, the armoured bug beetle and even Shriek isn’t easy. They are complete monsters on hard difficulty though. On easy they are too easy. So bosses, music, graphics, side quests, story, combat, controls, sense of getting stronger, collectibles, fast travel, methods to find collectibles, ending, variety of enemies, variety of weapons, variety of shards and builds are all very good and lead to a fantastic experience. We like how the last section Willows End basically has platforming that requires you to use everything you have learned to survive. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the new standard for games when it comes to animations and graphics. It’s called an indie game but clearly triple A standard and better than majority of them. We love this game.

Overall Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the only game right now we can call a perfect game. 10/10 easily. Last of all Ori and the Will of the Wisps is available on Xbox through gamepads which means it is free. Go and play it. We would happily spend £40 on it. It’s just that darn good. It isn’t a big game and can be beaten under 10 hours easily and even 4 hours if you know what to do and sprint through it but it’s called an indie game for a reason. There’s also a improved Xbox Series X version of this game. So there’s not a better time to play this game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is better than demon’s souls remake, better than spider man: miles morales, the latest god of war and many more. This game is so underrated and not enough people were talking about this. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is 10/10 but what’s better than Ori is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Evergate. Coming to Xbox Series X, not PS5

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Evergate is a puzzle platformer game developed by ‘Stone latern Games‘ and published by ‘PQube‘. Evergate has already came out on Nintendo Switch and PC (2020) but will be coming out on the Xbox One and Xbox series X but NOT on the PS5. This has become a serious pattern lately. Developers going with the Xbox Series X and not the PS5. Let’s take a look.

The story in the world of Evergate is easy to understand. Basically you wake up in the afterlife and you are this small soul called ‘Ki’. You must use the power of your soulflame to navigate and get through the afterlife in order to reincarnate on earth. The description states that two spirits are involved. So simply put, you are dead, entered the afterlife and got to make your way through it to get back to earth.

Evergate is another puzzle platformer game so you know what to expect. So there’s isn’t too much to go over. It’s also 2D so this means players need to pay attention to the whole screen. The main stand out point here for Everegate is the soulflame. You can use your powers to activate and unleash the power of crystals you find in the afterlife. Crystals can also combine so if there’s multiple activate them all and see what happens. You can even slow down time with the power of your soulflame. Slow down time enough for you to take your ‘time’ and aim (see what we did there?).

By the way, the name of the game Evergate comes from an actual obstacle in the game. Ki can’t get back to earth because an Evergate is blocking her way. Ki must “decipher her mysterious connection to kindred spirit as she navigates through memories of a time once past.” We know that the players will get to travel across space and time to go through Ki’s memories which grants the opportunity to learn and understand Ki’s connection to “another soul”. So there is some mystery going on around here in Evergate.

It’s not just platforms you got to look out for but artifacts and collectibles too. These artifacts are going to make things easier for you by boosting your abilities, adding new abilities or whatever to make your life or lack thereof, easier (get it?). For example as shown above the ‘Forgotten memory’ artifact will allow all crystals to be used two times. Another example is the ‘glowpetal hook’ which makes collectible essence petals magnetise when nearby. So it’s stuff like that. These artifacts does remind us of Ori and the Will the Wisps with ‘spirit shards’. 

We checked out some Evergate gameplay and it’s slightly different from what we thought it would be. It definitely looks good. We wished it zoomed in more though as we to see Ki better. There’s lots going on in the levels and very active. We like the effects on the items, the dust, the lights and offf course the background and environments. This game isn’t as dark and haunting as they describe it to be. That’s disappointing. We expected more from the afterlife. Evergate looks very good and clearly loads of work went into it.

Overall Evergate is a good game. The graphics are very good. The sounds are good. The environments are very good. We like what we see. The story concept doesn’t make much sense but it’s a fictional game so anything can happen really. We can’t say much concerning the pace though. The developers ‘Stone Latern Games’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what’s happening with Evergate when it comes to the next gen console Xbox Series X. Now Evergate may have a whole journey in a afterlife but that journey is small and pointless compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Indivisible. Another awesome adventure

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Indivisible is a RPG platformer game that was developed by ‘Lab Zero Games‘. Indivisible came out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Right of the truck etc just say this is an awesome game. This is once again another awesome game that didn’t get enough attention. Silly games like Among us gets attention but not Indivisible. It’s the world we live in. We have beaten the whole game, written about it before, had a lot fun and so here’s our views. Let’s take a look.

Indivisible has many strong points but our favourite has to be the characters. From their design to most specifically their interactions with each other. As you go through the game you’ll meet a whole host of different characters with very different designs from each other. Very different. Our favourite characters are Thorani, Zebei and off course Dhar. The characters have made us laugh more than once. We have cared about some characters, one by far the most. Before all that though take some time to actually look how Zebei fires his bow with his up-based attack where he’s in the air. He got too much skill and swag.

Our favourite scene of character interaction has to be when Thorani, Zebei, Baozhai, Dhar and Ajna tried the strong alcohol during their escape from the slime at the iron kingdom. It had everything. Clear relationships between certain characters, age reveals, behaviour, humour and more. That moment when Kushi asked to try the drink and Zebei simply said “None for you child” then kushi got upset just made us laugh and reminds us of a father with a daughter or big brother little sister sort of relationship. It makes sense as Zebei is a full fledge protector while kushi is an apprentice. Zebei is responsible for her. We learnt that Dhar is 20 years old while Ajna is 16 (clearly). Thorani is the clear mother of the group and clearly mature and behaves wonderfully. An excellent example woman. We won’t cover everything as you should see for yourself but Dhar can’t handle his drinks and Baozhai is a fun strong person to have around.  

Next let’s talk about the adventure itself. It’s a big game. You won’t complete this in two hours. You seat in an Ashwat village, then get to a Flying Fortress, then reach Mt Sumeru, then a desert, then a lovely city at the end of the desert with a port, water, merchants, everything. Then the adventure becomes less linear and opens up for access to three more places: Iron kingdom, Tai Krung and Kaanul. We enjoyed the variety of environments and each place is very different from each other which is a good thing. Tai Krung is basically china town but for some reason has reggae music. Hey! Shut up! That background level music wasn’t chinese. It was reggae, off course a bit of a twist to it but reggae nonetheless. Iron kingdom is clearly the military power country with machinery and advanced technology. Kaanul is so nature based with trees, plants, temple styled buildings and more. It’s a jungle. These levels also have a Metroid feel to it in terms of you can’t go through here because you need a certain ability. So you go to another place to learn it and progress. Lots of travelling to and fro through the places.

Next let’s talk about the combat. It’s so different from other games. We like and respect uniqueness. You start with two characters and one button on your controller controls one character’s actions like ‘A’ button and the other button like ‘B’ controls the other. You use those buttons to attack AND to defend. To get a perfect defence you need to time it and press the button at the same time as the  attack comes in from enemies. So it can get confusing at first. An enemy will choose who to attack or both and you must control the right character for defending and attacking. Then you will have four characters fo A for one, B for 2, Y for three and X for four if on Xbox for example. This is where some peoples brains can get confused. Holding up or down while pressing the button does a different attack from default. There are advanced combat techniques too. So you have to remember and juggle all this information at the same time. Seeing new players trying to manage all this is funny. You get use to it quickly though. The combat has layers to it from juggling enemies to generate more iddhi, to combo-ing into an ultimate back into a juggle etc. 

Another great thing about Indivisible is that we could easily understand the characters. What they are about, their mentality and what their negatives or issues were. We understood Gingseng’s passion for botany and his goals. We knew he would be honoured to study under angwu at the tower of wisdom. Gingseng for the most part was normal. We liked him. Ajna right from the start we knew she was a typical troublesome teenager. She wakes up late, not very responsible person, backchats and argues with her dad over everything. Even a smack across the head doesn’t help (if she had a Jamaican dad her attitude would change). She claims she listens while interrupting people. You just knew she had to go on a journey or maturing, listening and being a better person. It was good to see her development. She cares though, values friendships greatly, loves to help others, determined to help the world and right her wrongs. Thorani is empathetic, sense others feelings like if they are sincere or not. She has a strong desire to want to help others and cares for others. Even calling Ajna and others her children (well she is old enough). We knew her problem would be that she would want to help others so badly that she is willing to over tax herself. Risk or harm herself in the process. She also doesn’t open up to others has much and keeps it in. Sure she’s over a thousand years old and can’t relate woman problems to 16 year old immature Ajna but there’s Zebei who’s an adult. Phoebe was married so she can understand. Baozhai is a no no as she might make some moves if you know what we mean. So not her.    

The game wasn’t cryptic at all. Most stuff was easy to figure out, a good amount of clues was given concerning what to do but the game didn’t hold your and. There were secrets to find, hidden characters to discover, ways to upgrade yourself through the ringsels. Each character had a personal mission of their own for you to discover and complete which results in… we aren’t entirely sure what the benefit is except sometimes getting a new costume. We think the characters gets stronger too as they get way more hearts which the game didn’t explain by the way. We believe they get stronger, the new customer is cool though. We didn’t even get an achievement for completing all of them. Their own personal quests were fun to pursue and complete though. It definitely relates with the character in some way and were for the most part interesting. The most unique character was Zahra. gamerant are terrible at analysis and overall not good gamers as they said she was a terrible character in combat and not worth a space. They are so wrong. So they lost any credibility they had with us. Zahra buffs your team one by one and you can stack the buffs which are speed, damage and defense. The buffs are gone if you get hit. You need to perfect block with her to keep the buffs. So if you are skilled you can stack speed, damage and defence boosts on all characters which makes them very powerful. Zebei with a speed boost makes him so fast it’s actually over powered. We have seen Zebei use all his attacks, run back, recharge and go back in before the other characters even get a chance. Zahra is amazing. 

Most characters have their own clear uses while there are some who are basically useless from a combat perspective. For example Yan just gets outclassed in damage, juggle and effects. Naga rider is a better version of her when it comes to juggling, ultimates and straight up damage (unless there’s something we don’t know). Zebei is faster than her. We don’t see a reason to use her. Kushi and Altun get outclassed by Tungar for area of effect damage. Her ability to fly isn’t as useful as you think, quite limited. The dog Lanshi hasn’t impressed us. The dog is for set ups and we definitely like how different the dog operates from the other characters though. Sadly Baozhai isn’t good either. Her default attack does no damage but powers up the cannons which aren’t impressive damage and can hurt our own teammates, so little to no combo potential. It would have been good if all characters had their own use or advantages. Even Phoebe eventually got replaced on our team and we liked her.

Another negative about Indivisible is that we started new game plus but there’s nothing so far that’s different about the game. We even saw someone claim there’s nothing different. Ajna has different colour hair, and has the same design as the new Ajna after her interaction with Kala but still no difference. We thought maybe what she says would be different or maybe the characters would recognise her and engage with her differently. Off course we haven’t finished new game plus but so far everything is the same which is very disappointing. We also noticed a very small map mistake where the ma shows you there’s an incarnation (blue flame symbol) on the map when there isn’t. 

Here’s two more negatives we had with Indivisible. First is a secret hidden boss called meownster. We found this secret boss and we are sorely disappointed. First of all it looked stupid. We just a huge disappointed sigh when we first found it. That’s not how a powerful super strong final boss should look. Kala looked cool but meownster was lame. Next it was badly designed. You take its life down and it then gets a bit bigger and gets full health back. You do this 5 more times and you wonder how many times do you have to beat it. It’s annoying when you have no idea. It then gets stronger moves with a few that can one shot your entire team. The entire boss fight was boring, it was long, we couldn’t be bothered and worst of all, you don’t get anything for doing it. No over powered move/ability, no epic custom, no cheat menu no nothing. Don’t waste your time on this boss. Not worth it.

The last thing that was a negative that we certainly hated was Ajna’s tribute to Dhar. Spoiler alert. We were mad that Dhar died. Made us not want to continue playing. He sacrificed himself for the Ajna, for the team. Ajna finds his sword and her tribute to him was that she didn’t like him, blames him, will never forgive him but thanks him for preventing her from becoming something she would hate. That’s it! What kind of bullcrap tribute it that for someone who went on a whole adventure to you, dedicated himself to help you save the world, the first person you encounter (not on good terms) and last of all gives his life to help you, for the mission. We disliked Ajna after that. We didn’t care about her anymore. We were done. We don’t care if Dhar killed her dad and that she’s 16. Childish or not. Let’s defend Dhar. Dhar killed her dad yes but they were on opposing sides of a battle and normally in battles and wars one side loses and people die. Dhar was raised in a lying dictatorship like country in an army that believes what they are doing is right. He was indoctrinated as he grew up. He knew no better. Ajna and the crew fought and most likely killed many beings and people on their journey like the soldiers of the iron kingdom. How many of them were dads, brothers, sons, husbands etc. She didn’t care… but when it’s her dad its bad. That’s called battle, war whatever. Dhar learnt the truth, admitted what he did was wrong and explained how he was indoctrinated and thought his leader would help bring world peace but Ajna still won’t forgive him after death. Lame. Pathetic. Forget Ajna and her stupid tribute, rather they didn’t have that scene. Dhar is our favourite character.   

Here’s another good thing about Indivisible. The final boss and main villain of the game is Kala. She looks cool, clearly powerful and has her own issues and story. Even Kala does through some development and learning too. Every encounter with Kala was a good one. At the start of the game we thought she was some particle thing ike energy. Then we see she has a body and solid form. She is huge and can step on you. The final battle is completely different from everything else we ever faced. The very end where we had no hope of beating her due to her power but by remembering the basics of solid defense you out last Kala’s assault. Kala was a great villain. She made sense, especially in terms of combat and power. Unlike other video games like god of war where kratus is able to kill zeus who is supposed to be the strongest of all the gods by far and way superior to kratus. In Indivisible it makes sense that Ajna is no match for Kala and can’t beat her. It’s realistic in that sense. So victory must be taken in another way. It was exciting to be right outside of Kala’a area about to head in to settle the fight. 

Overall Indivisible is an excellent game. We had lots of fun playing it. 100%-ing this game isn’t really hard. Just got to put in time. The bosses were cool to face with the serpent queen being the most cryptic. For a bit we didn’t know what we were suppose to do at one point. Off course we aren’t going to go over every little thing. Oh by the way. Everyone go get this game. It’s available on the Xbox game pass (greatest deal in video game history). We literally just surfed the game pass and saw this game and was like yes we get to play it. Downloaded it and had a great time. Indivisible is an adventure that you have to go on. We didn’t talk about the clear cultural inspiration for this game. Indivisible is a 9/10 for us. Try it for yourself. Truly an amazing game. Now Indivisible may be an amazing game but it’s nothing special if you compare it to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Inmost. Dark, atmospheric and action

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Inmost is a horror puzzle platformer game developed by ‘Hidden Layer Games‘ and published by ‘Chucklefish‘. Inmost came out on Nintendo Switch, iMac and PC. Inmost isn’t our type of game . It’s pixel styled and very simple controls. It did catch out attention at some point we can tell it is very good. Let’s take a look. 

Inmost is quite simple to understand. It’s a dark, sad world with danger. You play as three different characters: A knight, a stranger and a little girl but yet their stories are interconnected. The story isn’t suppose to be pleasant. There’s a warning on their website which says, “player discretion is advised. INMOST is an intimate story of loss and hope that some may find upsetting.” That should tell you quite a lot. You see. little girl get neglected, mistreated, afraid, bad dad, she cut herself and the mum didn’t care at all. Abuse, kidnapped children, a cursed knight, etc. This game is dark but the monsters are darker. This is a shorter game as it’s been described as something you are suppose to play and finish in one go on a dark stormy night. 3-5 hours long. 

When you play as the little girl it’s the heaviest with narrative and story driven. There’s no actual enemy or danger but just figuring out what needs t be done. You may need to move a table or chair. Carry certain things around the house. You even play hide and seek with a toy who thew girl has conversations with. You see her pain and what she goes through. With the stranger it’s the main part of the game. You platform, move around, evade hazards and dangerous creatures, you climb, collect items, cut away tall grass, break down weak walls, mine things, break down wooden structures and use your wits and to defat your enemies and survive. The knight is the action part of the game. You actually aren’t defenceless. You can slash and destroy your enemies easily, dash, grapple around etc. As the knight you are powerful and can take a hit before dying. Three different styles. 

The game is very silent for the most part which is a type of atmosphere still. Your footsteps and pulling stuff and interactions with environment are louder than anything else. So when something actually happens it acts as an alarm, alerting the player to take action. Some dangers are just like traps, a tentacle on the ceiling while others are small dark substances on the ground waiting for you to walk over it. Then there’s real threats like real monsters that pop up and chase you down. Dangerous and very hostile. You can beat them as the stranger and need to hide, out climb, duck and outsmart them. Players will need to think fast and do the right things to survive. It is a simple game at the end of the day with move, jump and action. It’s simple but very well done. Sounds, lighting, music and different play styles work well together. Not everything is consistent though like with the girl voice narrating the first section of the knight. You don’t hear her again until much later.

We checked out some Inmost gameplay and what it says on the box is what you are getting. It is dark as in there will be candles, fire, lights with some stuff you can’t see yet. Very atmospheric as most of the time things are quiet and your actions, movement are the loudest things in the game. Horror well the game itself isn’t scary but there are shadow and monsters of darkness that are real aggressive and jump out to get you. Thinking is needed to get through the area, and evade death and there is definitely platforming. Expecting climbing, jumping, moving stuff etc. The game is very simple to understand and it’s almost always clear what you have to do. The music or lack off does act to the atmopshere. The story was very predictable though even though they didn’t well to add emotions, sadness and disaster. The story connects up concerning the three characters you play in the game.  

Overall Inmost is a good game. It does what it said it would do, provides different styles of gameplay through the characters, a variety of enemies, dangers and even threats you will have to face later. Players have to be focused when playing and get strategic at times. Inmost’s graphics for a pixel style game is excellent. The music is very well done and adds to the experience. We didn’t get scared or emotional at all though so it failed there for us. The developers ‘Hidden Layer Games’ have done a very good job with this game. It something a number of gamers would get into. We at X35 Earthwalker  like this game and know it’s good even though it isn’t our style or our thing. Inmost may be telling a dark sad story but it has no effect on… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Fury Unleashed. unleashed real soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Fury Unleashed is a new rough lite action platform game developed and published by ‘Awesome Games Studio‘. Fury Unleashed is said to be coming out the 8th of May 2020 on the Xbox One,  Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. We never heard about this game but we know there’s a whole lot of shooting and battling to be done here. Let’s take a look.

What’s the story? We don’t know. What we do know is that there’s a number of things going on in the game mechanics. This is what their official site said, “each kill you score increases your combo. Hit certain thresholds and your damage resistance and healing powers will kick in!” Fury Unleashed promotes destroying your enemies fast and using your rage. It’s all action, action and action.  

Since they strongly encourage you to beat the game in one go, you can expect permadeath. Yes, Fury Unleashed has permadeath and the random generated levels means you will have your typical rouge lite game. So don’t die. The positive is that you get natural replayability. Whenever we think of permadeath and random generated levels, Spelunky comes into our heads.  

Fury Unleashed has differently difficulties. Hard mode is said to truly put the players to the test. Easy mode gives players the options to adjust things like the difficulty parameters to their liking.  We always say it but giving gamers options and variety are good things. 

Now there’s quite a lot to the customisation. There are design options in Fury Unleashed. Wear weird armour, funky helmets, change face, change hair and even “replace their face graphic with your own.” Not many games allow stuff like that but this allows payers to truly make their character their own. You can even set your characters skills. Like with set-able skills and abilities in all games, best to go for what suits your style first. 

Even though it is random generated, some levels are hand designed. This means there’s something significant about those levels so be on the lookout and pay attention to details in the levels themselves. There are some permanent  upgrades you can unlock. These upgrades stay with you even after you die. So there is a form of progression to increase your odds overtime.

The developers said this, “Fury Unleashed was created by combining inspiration from modern roguelite platformers, like Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy, with nostalgic memories of old-school platformer shooters, like Contra and Metal Slug. We have spent five years polishing our creation to make sure that your experience with the game will be as memorable as the aforementioned titles and we wholeheartedly believe that you won’t be disappointed.”

We checked out some Fury Unleashed gameplay and it’s what we expected bu the action is higher though. You are definitely fighting through a comic book which is a cool style. Each level comic book has their own enemies and environment design. Distinction is important and the level are distinct from each other. We’ve got jungles, buildings, bases etc. Worse of all is that there are 40 bosses! They are big and are definitely distinct from each other. Spelunky had one boss. We’ve seen a giant attack helicopter, organic plant monster, a viper warrior beast and more. They look cool… most of them.

Overall Fury Unleashed looks like a good game. Lots of time and work has gone into it’s development and you will understand when you research the development history of Fury Unleashed. We definitely love that there’s co-op. Playing with friends or family always makes a difference. We like the variety in the bosses and that they clearly stand out for this style. The developers ‘Awesome Games Studio’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what happens with Fury Unleashed. Now Fury Unleashed may have serious action but it’s all baby stuff compared to the adventures off… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Cool

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an adventure platform sequel developed by ‘Moon studios‘ and published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is said to be coming out the 11th of March 2020 on the Xbox One and PC. May also come to Nintendo Switch (maybe). Ori is back and this time it’s a much bigger adventure. Let’s take look.

Now if you played the first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, then you should have a very good idea of what to expect from Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The style is the same which is a good thing as that style works and many players liked it. You once again control Ori that little spirit guardian but this time there’s an owl and this owl is a useful ally in your adventure. Speaking of adventure expect a bigger and more epic one this time around. It has also been made clear that in Ori and the Will of the Wisps that you’ll get to uncover Ori’s true destiny.

The Ori and the Will of the Wisps official website made it clear that it’s going for an emotional story as well. This should give experienced gamers an idea of what direction this game is going for. This world you will explore has far more sites and environments to be seen and from what we have seen so far, it looks wonderful. From the icy cave areas, to the wildlife and stuff going on in the background of forests, to the sun rays slipping through the trees u=in a forest and even the different colours. We like when developers throw creativity into their games and they have done that with the environments and world in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. 

There are a bunch of new characters in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. They will help you discover Ori’s true destiny. Remember that owl we mentioned? Well let’s just say another familiar looking character will be there to help too. Expect a whole new shard system. Ori’s abilities can be powered up turning Ori into something more dangerous than cute. Ori now has new attacks and weapons. This is always exciting to see in a sequel. There are new skills, combat mechanics, spirit weapons and spells for players to learn and put to good use.

Now this is what many have been waiting for and that’s the huge monsters and creatures that have no problem getting rid of Ori. Well in Ori and the Will of the Wisps, they are bigger and scarier than before. There’s also going to be some escape sequences too as at times it’s wiser to get away than to face it. Expect a giant bird monster, giant wolf, giant spider and more. So far, our favourite thing about Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the giant boss monsters. They fit in so well and look like a legitimate threat.   

There are additional things in Ori and the Will of the Wisps like the spirit trials. Basically it’s time trial. So go as fast as you can. Be an Ori and the Will of the Wisps speed runner with challenges. 

We checked out some Ori and the Will of the Wisps gameplay and it’s basically what we expected. It’s a lot of action. You will be running, jumping, dashing, fighting, thinking quick, solving and platforming. We need to see more to understand the mixture of combat and platforming. The environments again look wonderful and we truly like the design and threat of the big monsters. We also liking the flow of the combat and how smooth it is. Even better gamers can expect to experience Ori and the Will of the Wisps in 4K and HDR on the Xbox One X and Windows 10.

Overall, Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks like a very good game. We just hope that the developers are smart enough to not make similar mistakes when it comes to the story since it’s suppose to be emotional. We won’t give away the answers. We also hope that Ori’s interaction with the giant monsters is believable. These monsters have to be a real threat. The graphics are amazing, the environment designs are also amazing. The developers have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye on this game. Now Ori and the Will of the Wisps may be a big adventure but it’s still tiny when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Stela. Dangerous world coming soon

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Stela is a new cinematic adventure platformer developed and published by ‘SkyBox Labs‘. Stela is said to be coming out the the 17th of October 2019 on the Xbox One. So far Stela can be called an Xbox exclusive. It’s said to be coming to PC in the first quarter of 2020. Stela is going to get a familiar reaction from some gamers. Let’s take a look.

In the world of Stela players control a girl who’s basically in a mysterious world at it’s last moments. She’s around to witness the final days of this place. Is the girls name Stela? We don’t know. Probably. This world id far from normal though. Sure there’s buildings are areas just like earth but it’s what’s happening here that’s different. There’s dangerous terrains and even creatures that are very hostile. In Stela you must use your head, think and navigate your way through this world.

Doesn’t Stela remind you off something? Perhaps another game. When we saw this we instantly thought of Limbo and Inside. It’s basically the same style. You have literally no defenses, so you must run, hide, jump, dodge to survive and progress through this world. Except Stela is taking a slightly different direction. Slightly. In Limbo and Inside, there wasn’t really any enemies. You were trying to survive and navigate mainly the environment and hazards. Stela actually has creatures and monsters that can and will kill you. This is something that Inside tried to slightly do by bringing in humans who try to get you but it’s not enough for gamers like us. 

Concerning the enemies we have seen some. There is a good variety for sure. We have seen a giant tentacle snake monster that looks hostile. There is even desert creatures that move and hunt through the sand. There’s even a long limbed tall creature that seems to be related to slender man. There’s crocodile creatures, giant beetles that all seem to have something against you. All this does more than just add threats to he game. It adds surprise, makes players wonder what else is out there and can add some fear. This was what Inside needed to have. We want to know what other creative threats are out there in the world of Stela.

Stela is not just an platformer but decsribed as cinematic which means get ready to take in the surroundings and everything that’s on the screen. Watch the action unfold. So the developers by having cinematic as a genre is telling us that there’s a deep story behind Stela. As in something is going on. After all it’s suppose to be world at it’s last moments. Most likely lore about what happened, why it’s dying and maybe how to stop it. A good story that you are trying to uncover always work well with games like this.

We checked out some Stela gameplay and it’s what we though it would be but a bit cooler. Since you know it’s like Limbo and Inside, gamers should know what to expect. We are liking the variety in the environment though. We know there are what look like lava caves, there’s haunting forests, towns and even large ruins but subterranean. Each environment has different environmental hazards and even enemies. Lots of action to look forward to. We like what we see.

Overall Stela looks like a really good game. The graphics are excellent. The sounds are very good. The level designs and environemnts are excellent too. The creativity is there. The developers of Limbo and Inside, Playdead have got some competition now. The developers ‘SkyBox Labs’ have done a veryg ood job with this game. We X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing Stela come out and make an impact. Now Stela may take place in a mysterious world but one thing that takes place in the real world is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Ascendance – First Horizon. 3D platformer

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Ascendance – first horizon is a new first person platformer game developed and published by ‘Onevision‘. It came out the 10th of May 2019 on the Xbox One and. bit later on PC (steam). This game is suppose to giver players a different experience. Let’s take a look.

In Ascendance – first horizon, there isn’t that much of a story really. It’s just the players going on a journey. This whole Ascendance world is suppose to be magical to some extent and off course not realistic. Off course you are up in the sky which is why your platforming skills better be at least half decent. This game is suppose to be relaxing, so no tension, no stakes, nothing. Players just take their time through the whole thing.

Now Ascendance – first horizon should remind some gamers of other games with similar styles like Beyond Blue, Shape of the World and Abzu. They are similar because it’s all about the atmosphere, relaxing, calm and no danger at all. There are no enemies or threats lurking around. It’s just the player and the journey. Well one semi difference is that since it’s platforming players need to avoid falling down and failing. One bigger difference though is that players have “mysterious abilities” which are essential and are used to progress through the world.   

There is currently 3 levels in Ascendance – first horizon. Each one is very different in terms of looks and style. One looks more like over a sea while another looks like a desert and another looks like a neon city sort off. The variety in the design needs to be more unique as the levels still seem too similar. there is said to be hidden secrets too. So be an explorer while going through the levels and you may just find some secrets.

We checked out some Ascendance – first horizon gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. You jump like the Master Chief from Halo and things are very smooth. If you fall of you are placed right back on the same platform. The music is definitely all about atmosphere and it’s calming for sure. The game does seem like easy mode though. There is no challenge at all. Objects to interact with that create more platforms and help shape the world. The world forms and changes around you. It has been said that more levels, mechanics and even a time mode is going later in an update.

Overall, Ascendance – first horizon looks like a good game for what it is. It’s suppose to be simple and something that most people should be able to play and get through without any difficulty. The music is good and so are the graphics but this game needs more levels and soon. The developers ‘ Onevision’ did a good job with this game. Now Ascendance – first horizon may have a unique world but it’s not even close to being as unique as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Celeste is a serious game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Celeste fully completed

Celeste looks cute simple and quite quick but actually that changes quite quickly. Let’s explain. When you start Celeste you see the work put into the music and the details. You start the first area, the prologue and get use to running, jumping and climbing. Once you learn about the dash, experienced gamers just know it’s about to get more complicated.

The first actual level is not even easy. You must learn to control yourself while in the air, time your dashes and interactive with some mechanics that’s exclusive to this level. You learn that Celeste definitely requires precision and timing. Spikes in abundance to punish all mistakes and even a spring trap that launches you into death. You learn the hard way that there’s no mercy in Celeste. Each level has their own mechanic which players have to master. Trust us when we say, learn them now.

In every level players can initially aim for certain things. Off course beat the level, collect all the strawberries, find the blue crystal heart and find the B-side tape. The B side tape is medium difficulty in our opinion, a few are well hidden while most just requires you to look around. Collecting all the strawberries is hard as they are in places that tests the players skill and ability to use your available action in the right order, most of the time. The crystal hearts though are a different story. They are basically tricks. You either know the trick or you’ll never get them. The first one requires you to dash in certain directions in a specific order. You know what direction based on the direction the colour coded birds are moving and you get the order from the machine which keeps flashing the same colours in the same order. Cryptic right? We know!

Celeste Strawberry ending

The game tells you that the strawberries don’t do anything and that’s a lie. We at X35 Earthwalker hate lies! You have youtubers and big review companies agreeing and saying they don’t do anything too. Just shows how inexperienced and not good at paying attention they are. The strawberries actually only have an effect at the end of the game. When you complete it, your character will bake a strawberry cake for certain guests. How much strawberries you collect will effect the selfie that Theo takes and the dialogue. If you hardly collected any, then it will be a plain cake and the guests will look confused, disappointed and even skeptical of whether it still counts as a strawberry cake or not. If you collect all of them then the cake is loaded with strawberries everywhere and everyone looks like they are having the time of their life or completely amazed. They also give some serious compliments. So go get those strawberries.

Once you beat the game, your next challenge is to take on the B side of the levels which you unlock with the B side tapes. Let us warn you now. This is where the fun stops. You thought the reflection and summit levels were hard then you aren’t ready. B side is basically a much harder version of the level you played. More spikes, less mercy and more death. You will fail and die, again and again. Many players have given up because of the B side levels and they are crazy. They force players to get good or git gud. Every trick you have learnt and every combination will be used here. There’s no way around it. The levels are as long as the original but when you see what the game wants you to do to get through it, you just have to say “come on Celeste… This isn’t fair”. Once you figure out what the game wants you to do though, it’s only a matter of time before you execute it right and get it done. These levels aren’t impossible. You need all the crystal hearts and hearts you get for beating B side to challenge the B side of the chapter 8 ‘the core’. What we haven’t seen though is a video of the developers beating these B side levels. We bet they can’t. Now if you beat all the B side levels you can call yourself a Pro level Celeste player.

Congratulations you beat the B side levels. You can rest now… actually you can’t. What? You thought you was done? Nope! Beating all the B side levels and finding all the crystal hearts will allow you to challenge the C side levels. C side are the real deal. They are completely unfair, punishing levels that only the best can beat. They are harder than B side but much shorter than B side. The most is three rooms while there are some with almost only two rooms. Each room requires all the tricks and at times including the new trick you learnt from the B side level of Summit. That’s one thing we hate. Celeste teaches the players a new trick at the end of the game and they then expect you to master it and use it for the rest of the levels and challenges ahead, instantly. C levels are so tough that only 0.64% of all the Celeste players on the Xbox One have beaten them all! The last C side level is brutal but fair and that’s how all the challenges should have been but some felt very chance based especially with some mechanics like the clouds and getting the exact timing. The last level is the longest room in the game with all the mechanics from the previous levels and no check points. You can watch how X35 Earthwalker, the legendary soldier himself took on this level. 

As you complete the different challenges in Celeste, your ticket (your save file) gets different stamps on it. When you beat the game, you get a mountain top flag stamp. When you get all the strawberries you get the strawberry stamp, another thing the strawberries do (the strawberries don’t do anything… liars). When you beat all the B sides you get a heart stamp but when you beta all the C sides you get another heart stamp. Fill your cards up with stamps and feel proud of yourself. Also the last challenge in our opinion is to now get all the Celeste achievements which are reasonable. You can also collect the golden strawberries but after beating C side, you start to get fed up with the game. It’s fun to play from time to time but the difficulty and what you go through makes you want to finally put it down when you are done.

Celeste stamped tickets  

Overall Celeste is very difficult and requires a lot to master. There are unlockables and challenges that most gamers just can’t do. There’s a lot to like about this game. The characters stand out and are very different and weird in their own way. Theo keeps taking selfies. The music is very well done and the story is something that you have to pay attention too otherwise you won’t really get it. Now Celeste may have a special mountain that effects those who climb it but this mountain cannot stand before… the ‘Earth Walk!’ 

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Indivisible. Awakening to us in time

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Indivisible

Indivisible is a new RPG platformer developed by ‘Lab Zero Games‘ and published by ‘505 Games‘. It is said to be coming out in the 2nd quarter of 2019 on the Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. This game has impressed some people already. Some good things have been said already. Let’s take a look.

The story in Indivisible is quite simple really. Players control Ajna. A girl described as “a good-natured tomboy with a rebellious streak”. She was raised by her father in the outskirts of their rural. Things are normal. Things changed real fast though, as her village was attacked. The warlord Ravannavar and his army. Ruthless lot they are. Ajna also learns that she has a power. This power allows her to absorb certain individuals into her being. 

Off course these two events will make anyone want answers. So Ajna goes on a journey, a world wide journey to one, face Ravannavar and two, learn about this power and eventually her true nature. The beings she can absorb are called ‘Incarnations’. They have their own personalities and stories which players should take note off. Ajna not only absorbs beings but they can be manifested to fight alongside her. It gets a bit more strange. Ajna can also enter inside herself, a dimension that’s forming inside of her. This realm is where saving the game, quests and upgrades is found.

Indivisible

Games like Indivisible will always have things to find, abilities to collect and areas to explore. It’s a big world indeed. From the world map you will areas like the Iron Kingdom, the Almutah sands, tai Krung, Ashwat forest and more. Now off course Indivisible is 2D but when you look at the environments and worlds you will explore you will see all the 3D of this game, and that’s how players will truly see the wonderful visuals.

Hopefully you would notice by now but one of the main things that stands out about Indivisible is the graphics style and visuals. All the art here is hand drawn, just like with Cuphead. That’s right. Indivisible looks wonderful. If you while playing don’t stop to take a look at the backgrounds and what’s happening, then we, at X35 Earthwalker, automatically lost respect for you. The levels and world definitely looks alive. The levels are well designed and the attention to detail is very well done.

Indivisible

The characters are another standing out good things about Indivisible. Ajna definitely has that tough tomboy look and it suits her well. She looks like someone who would constantly clash with Natsu from the anime Fairy Tail in heated battles. She’s just the start. There’s Tungar who weilds a long ribbon like flexible blade which when not being used rests on his head as a turban. His body covered in scars from years of training. There’s Ginseng and Honey who are a duo. Honey is a plant creature while Ginseng is a youngster with great knowledge of herbology. They aren’t the combat types but their skills will come in handy. There is said to be more than 20 different incarnations.

We checked out some gameplay and Indivisible currently looks very good. We already mentioned the graphics which are very good. The gameplay is smooth, the actions are well animated. The enemies are weird looking and each area of the world has different types of enemies based on the environment which is good stuff. The combat is turn based from what we can see and it looks like you can have up to three incarnations fight with you during combat which also means that combinations, techniques and strategy will have a big impact in Indivisible.   

Overall Indivisible definitely looks like a very good game. The hard work with the art being hand drawn, the variety of locations with relevant enemies, unique different characters with their own stories, range of items and abilities to find and much more. The developers ‘Lab Zero Games’ have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to seeing Indivisible come out. Now Indivisible may have lovely visuals but it’s ugly when compared to the beauty of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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