Monster Warlord (Android)

Time for another new format!  It has -nothing- to do with the fact that I haven't had time to play anything for review, nope, not at all...  Okay, it does.  But this sounded like a good idea anyways, so it's something I can throw in every now and then.  "...with benefits" are games that I have been picking up on the side here and there, getting a little action when I need it.  They are likely to be either casual games, or games that just don't have much story, so I can just pick them up for a few minutes when I get time.

...with benefits

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Gamevil -- Publisher: Android Marketplace

Monster Warlord is a Facebook-style casual game (for lack of better description).  You have "action" points to do a couple different things, but then you need to wait for them to recharge (or pay to recharge sooner).  It's driving mostly by still-shots and buttons to navigate and occupy your time for a few minutes at a time.  As you get "further" in the game, you increase your maximum points, which lets you play for a little longer as time goes on.

Considering there are a bunch of this type of game out there, this is really the only one that has really caught me so far.  The premise in this one is that you are a Monster Handler, a la Pokemon or Monster Rancher.  You start with 1 monster, and a handful of Action and Battle points.  You use Action points to do quests, at the press of a button.  They cost varying amounts of points, and reward accordingly.   Battle points can be used to attack other players.  It compares your attack value to their defense value and determines a win or lose. If you win, you gain a few extra points of experience, and a percent of their non-banked gold.  If you lose, you get 1XP and no gold.

As you level up and gain gold, you can buy more monsters (required to do higher level quests).  As you get higher level monsters, you can combine them and have a chance at an even higher-ranked monster.  The more strength you have in monsters, the more effectively you can battle.  You can also invest your gold into buildings that pay you an amount of money every hour.  Since many of the later monsters have upkeep (cost per hour), investing in these buildings is pretty important.

I think what keeps me coming back to this game is just that it's so simple, but there is a little strategy and complexity to it.  I can pick it up for literally 5 minutes, burn my points, but still feel accomplished.  I am able to know I just gained so many experience points, and completes so much of a quest.  Often, there are Boss Battles, which are monsters either summoned by the game or by other players.  They don't fight back, so you don't get experience, but they are great for farming gold.

Knowing that you are earning gold per hour, but others might be attacking you taking your "hard-earned" gold keeps you coming back as often as you can think about it just to dump your gold into the bank, keeping it out of the hands of other players.  If you keep your money low enough often enough, they start to realize you just aren't worth attacking.

Often, one of the catches to these games is that you feel limited if you don't dump real money into it.  While you definitely could make more progress if you "pay" for it, I generally haven't felt the -need- to drop money into it.  I will admit I have put a few bucks into it just to get a little bit further here and there, but I quickly realized how much that could add up, so I haven't done it in a while.  A dollar at a time doesn't seem like that much, but it's easy to just keep spending "just a buck".

There are also advanced tactics that I could try to get into.  Really trying to combine well, and focus on buying the right amount of monsters to win more battles, but that's not what I get out of this game.  If I spent much more time on it, it wouldn't be one of those on-the-side kind of things.

Considering I'm still actively leveling consistently, completing quests, and collecting monsters, I don't feel like I will be breaking this off any time soon.  It's just too easy to feel productive, but not feel like I need to invest a lot of time keeping the relationship afloat.  I will be reaping these benefits for a while to come.

        

So that's the first ...with benefits!  I'm not sure if they will all turn out to be this long, but they might.  Since they are games I have spent more time with, I feel the need to explain more about what I know about it.  Usually, I only know 10-20 minutes worth of the game, so I can only say so much.  Even with this game, I could probably just keep going, but I also never really plan on spending -too- much time with this blog.  That just isn't the point right now.

O.C.D. (XBLIG)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: PouncingKitten Games -- Publisher: XBLIG

First Impression:

So, on the back of yesterday's Obsessive Collecting Disorder, here is a game with a similar title.  This one is officially just "O.C.D." but I believe it stands for the same thing.  My XBOX isn't even giving me screenshots on this one though, so I can't say how it's different at all.  I'm assuming it's not just the same game.  The title icons are different, showing a grid of a bunch of swords or something.  Guess I will just jump in and see what happens.

------------------------------

Fooled around for: 7 minutes (XBLIG Demo Limit)

Ahhhh!  Just when I was starting to get into it, the 7 minutes cut me off.  It's definitely not the same as the last game.  OCD actually stands for Optimal Character Development in this.  Basically, it's an RPG boiled down to some very core mechanics.  There's no story, no wandering around, no maps.  Pretty much just grinding and looting.  And to actually do the grinding and looting, you just play a simple version of something similar to Bejeweled.  As you loot, your loot is based on the types you match.  So you loot a bunch "weapon" and then you get enough to trade in for an actual weapon.  You grind for "level" or "skill" points that you can trade for stats.  As you get more money, items, etc, you can mix recipes, and just keep leveling, building your character, etc.  All without that pesky script to get in the way!

The music is fitting, and just sits in the background.  Might even be better to run your own soundtrack though, since you are just sitting on the same few screens doing the same thing over and over.

------------------------------

Hit it or Quit it? (80 MSP)

This game is perfect for me.  Instant gratification towards leveling an RPG character, grinding, looting, etc, is all I really like in my games these days anyways.  I don't have time to watch a 40 hour movie, so to boil the progress down to the basics is great.  I would totally hit it again.  Definitely worth the 1 dollar, probably even more.  I have the points, I'm almost about to just to buy this right now and keep playing... 7 minutes with no save on the demo just isn't enough to really get into this.

AD&D Eye of the Beholder - SNES

Played for: 20 minutes

After seeing AD&D and TSR in the opening screens, I pretty much knew what to expect.  Screen-by-screen hardcore RPG.  That's pretty much what I got.  Making characters was pretty strightforward, though still fun.  Pick a slot, pick a race, pick a class, pick a picture, roll your stats.  Standard AD&D stuff.  The opening cinematics were a surprise.. they were actually fairly cinematic.  Nice graphics, some surprising animations.

Then you get stuck in the sewers, left to fend for yourself.  I started using the SNES mouse, since it seemed like it would play easier, but I don't know if the emulator doesn't recognize a second button or what, but I just couldn't figure out how to attack, so I almost died from sitting there in front of a basic goblin trying to figure it out.  All it would do when I clicked on my weapon was unequip it!  Finally switched to the controller, gained the use of multiple buttons, and figured it out.

The music sets a good mood, but gets a little repetitive by the time you're lost and just wandering around.  The graphics in general have really nice details and shading.

I'm not huge on these games in the first place, so I'm not too into it, but for what it is, it seems pretty good.  Standard, but good.  I'm not sure how this would differ from any other AD&D game that exists, other than maybe some slightly different story.  I stopped when I realized I had looped around and ended up back where I was.  I'm not about to start drawing maps.

Hit it or Quit it?
Quit it.  Fun enough for what it is, just not my type of game.

The 7th Saga - SNES

Played for:  30 minutes

Really generic early 90s SNES RPG.  "Go find the crystals and you will be the stronger ever" etc.  Graphics are okay, after you get used to them.  Main character and their sprites are pretty unique, but the NPC sprites repeat too much and get old.

The music is annoying as hell.  Also, having to stop to open a menu to talk is dumb.  Just let me talk!  And items are annoying limited to things like MHERB1.  Standard early naming limitations, but it's not fun to go back to.  The map tiling is huge too, and clunky to walk around in and catch people to talk to while they walk around. Or block you from moving past them.

The battle system is pretty generic as well, but has a few interesting quirks.  You can see the enemies on a mini-map, so you can kind of avoid them if you want, but they catch up when they want, and will even attack while you are standing still.  Yes, I could pause it so they don't, but that's still lame.  It's really cool as it zooms down Mode 7 style to allow you fight wherever you happen to be for the fight.  The camera rotating back and forth when choosing your target is cool too.

First dungeon is proving to be difficult with about to run out of healing, and getting back to the entrance is going to be almost impossible.  Maybe poor planning, but I'm trying to experience what I can, but play time is over now.

Hit it or Quit it?
I would probably hit it a couple more times just to see if it got a little more interesting, but I think I'm right on that edge where it's about to get grindy and annoying, so it probably wouldn't last much longer.