I played Library of Ruina and Katamari Damacy back-to-back the other night. Both games are way, way out there but only one of them appeals to me… and it ain’t Ruina. I uninstalled that one with a vengeance.
I’d forgotten that the whole set up for Katamari was Dad’s trippy bender. Clearly the best soundtrack in gaming history, but maybe the best writing too?
No…It was indeed not a dream. We really did it. The King of All Cosmos has really done it. A sky full of stars… We broke it. Yes, We were naughty. Completely naughty. So, so very sorry. But just between you and Us, It felt quite good. ❤︎ Not that We can remember very clearly, but We were in all Nature’s embrace. We felt the beauty of all things, and felt love for all. That’s how it was. Did you see?We smiled a genuine smile. Did you see? The stars splintering in perfect beauty. So many there used to be, almost a nuisance. Now there’s nothing but darkness. Hee… ‘Tis but a dream… Hee… But a beautiful one. B❤︎U❤︎T❤︎ That miraculous fabulous moment has passed, it’s over. We came to and found everyone furious. Even the King of All Cosmos was not spared their wrath. Really, everybody was irate. So anyway, pee-wee Prince. Hurry up and bring back the glorious starry sky. Our problem, your problem. Yes? You owe Us your existence, We collect on the debt. Yes? Hand in hand, always there. Yes? The very definition of the father-son bond. Yes? All right then, get cracking.
I’ve played about an hour of the game and while it clearly relates to the game… I’m still not sure what’s going on. 🤷
To me, the strangest thing about the song is the way it rhymes. It keeps catching me my surprise. It just has this amazing uncanny valley feeling to it. Since the game seems to be about AIs and a cyberpunk dystopia, to some extent, it really works.
The weirdest thing about that song is that it was apparently written and sung by a woman who was raised in Canada and didn’t move to Japan until she was in college and describes herself as a “native” in English.
The game is Korean though. A bit trippy but not in the vein that Japanese games are trippy. Korean fantasy dramas tend to be grim trippy in a way same vein that Japanese fantasy is usually fun trippy.
That explains why I got anime vibes and also why the lyrics are both completely intelligible and still bonkers - but it matches the bonkers game premise. Like how the battles are themed as theatrical stage plays with lights/curtains/action kind of theming. And there’s the usual existential angst “who am I”, with your main character and other librarians also being able to equip defeated enemies as “pages”, plus a lack of agency, since you’re pretty much given no choice but to follow the instructions of Angela and be her librarian. And I’m not 100% sure about the setting of the city - it’s got a serious cyberpunk (or is it morphed into bookpunk here?) vibe - your first fight has you against bottom feeding desperate organ harvesters who just opened up an externally ordinary office drone human and found it full of destroyed organs. Oh and an invitation to a deadly battle/“stage play” at the library.
Not much a fan of the in-battle art - it’s kind of semi-chibi pixel-ish mobile game style? - but the battle system doesn’t seem too bad - looks like you build a deck of cards and the cards let you do attacks using a dice system. Still a bit opaque since there are opposed dice rolls but I haven’t figured out exactly how it works when it’s 2 or 3 on 1 since I think you can only play one card, but the card has multiple dice. so not sure how it decides which dice get to be opposed rolls and which go through. Maybe your defensive dice can be reused against multiple opponents? And also not sure how damage is calculated. Anyone grokked the details/know where to find better explanations than the in-game?
I’ve been playing Crimson Skies (the OG Xbox verrsion) through X-Cloud streaming and man are there some things I don’t miss about old games. I’ve made it to Navajo territory and I have to pass a set of three trials, but not only does the game (between sessions) not remember what trials you’ve passed and which you haven’t, but there’s a preliminary mission that you have to beat before you can even attempt to pass them. Grrrrr.
When two characters meet, each die on their played cards clash with each other in the order they’re listed on the cards. Once a clash is resolved, the next two dice listed clash. If a blue die wins a clash, it’s retained and clashes with the opponent’s next die (not sure, yet, if this applies for all blue dice).
Check the Manual (F1 key) for details on the damage multipliers. For each of the three damage types, their are five possible resistance/vulnerability multipliers: default (that is, no multiplier), two resistances, and two vulnerabilities.
EDIT: I suggest turning off Quick Mode (on by default) in the upper-left corner while you learn the combat mechanics.
Oh wait, does this mean they clash regardless of the type? I was trying to match up symbols but that would make things a lot simpler. And how does multiple opponents work - how is the order of the clashes determined?
How does light regenerate? How does the card drawing/deck reshuffling work? (my guess it’s 1 light per turn for each character? the cards are randomly drawn from the deck and discarded when played, reshuffled when the deck is empty?)
I’m basically transposing my deckbuilder knowledge but even with all the rolls explicit I can barely figure out what’s going on. I mopped the floor 3 on 1 but have no idea how it happened, I was mostly “I guess I need to defend and attack at the same time?”
Yeah, I was surprised by that but even more surprised that the singer, who also writes the (English) songs, is a native English speaker when the lyrics are so incoherent.
The speed roll of each participant determines who fights each other and when. So, if your participants all have a higher speed roll than the enemy’s participants, you’ll have a huge advantage, because you dictate who clashes with whom and when.
After you start the battle, they start moving towards their targets and will clash with them based on their speed roll. Not sure in the case of more than one with the same roll on the same side. F1 might have the answer, but I don’t recall. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game, but did read all of the F1 entries.
I’m starting to suspect the help screen isn’t complete yet - maybe it fills in as you play (that is my suspicion when the help has a section on Melee pages and refers to Ranged pages, but doesn’t explain Ranged pages)? I did find the “Light regenerates 1 each turn” in the middle of one of the help pages, but still couldn’t find any info on how you get new cards/“pages”/hand size/deck/trash. I can’t even tell if pages are being discarded when I use them (I assume so?) Maybe I just need to create a test deck with all unique cards so I can tell what’s going on. There’s enough info in the help so you can play, but far from enough to have an idea of what’s going on. Or maybe you’re just meant to auto-resolve, but why make all these complex mechanics if that’s the intended gameplay?!
I’m probably hard on it mostly because I also picked up Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission which is another card game. The tutorial in that one is annoying with tons of text boxes, but at least they explain all the mechanics.
Then again, I guess confusion is thematically appropriate so maybe I should just roll with it? I did just get a second party member…
