Alright I got around to another batch of demos over the past few days. I must say that I really enjoyed working on this to get some content other than music on my blog. I also was really happy to find games that I may have never looked at before, unless they ended up in a bundle later down the road. This is the final batch of game demos I checked out from this particular Steam Next Fest.
AI disclosure: I personally do not like the use of AI, and therefore did not play any demos that disclosed AI usage at the time of this writing. I checked every game’s description looking for a disclosure. I do my best to not support games that utilize AI.
Motorslice
Didn’t play this too long as the combat was pissing me off. I really liked the traversal with the parkour mechanics. It was pretty smooth moving around the areas, especially with wall running and jumping. The combat is where it lost me. The first enemies were super quick moving, and even with dodging, a single hit meant I was dead. I also felt the swinging of the sword was a bit too clunky for how quick the enemies are. I’ll pass on this.
Majogami
Damn the art looks fantastic, especially the characters. The fighting felt fun and really hard hitting when you land a strong attack. The demo is only a single stage and boss, and went by super fast. It definitely had me yearning to keep going. This drops very soon (October 30th), and this may be a day 1 purchase.
Rubinite
Alright I am not the audience for Souls-like games, and I didn’t look at the tags before checking this out. I was awful at this, but I can see this being a game a lot of people really enjoy. I just don’t have the patience and timing this requires. Lol
Starsand Island
A very cute Harvest Moon style game. I found this demo to be pretty cozy and relaxing. The only thing I found annoying about this game was the Stamina system, and the fact that to fill it back up, you need either sleep until the next day for a quick fill, or sit down for minutes on end, until the gauge fills back up. Still it didn’t fully detract from the enjoyment I was having. I ended up only putting the demo down because I was unsure if progress would carry over to the main game.
Sealchain: Call Of Blood
Like a Vampire Survivors, but smaller arena style. It was okay, but never felt great. The movement was fine, but the fighting just felt kind of boring, and the chaining of skills and stats was not the best system I’ve seen in a game. I think the small areas for fighting just felt more like a chore, than allowing me to try different strategies and have fun. I’ll pass on this one.
Homura Hime
I really liked the art style of this game, but once I got in to the actual game, there is no Inverted Y axis controls. Such an easy option to include, but sadly without it, the game is not something I can enjoy.
Kotama and Academy Citadel
This game reminded me a lot of Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune, but didn’t feel as fluid. Sometimes I felt like the jump just didn’t go high enough, especially in fights. The fighting mechanics are solid, but I need them to be just a tad bit more quick in succession. It always just felt like a slightly slower reaction in game than what I was doing on my controller. Otherwise the game is gorgeous with some really nice aesthetics. I’ll keep my eye on it and maybe give it another shot down the line during a sale.
Familiar Findings
An idle game that plays at the bottom of your screen. You summon familiars and let them roam around, and every once in a while you click the elf to collect the mana your familiars have found. As you gain more mana, you can fuse familiars into new ones. There are going to be more features when this eventually comes out, and I’m looking forward to it. I found it to be a cool little thing to be running while doing other things, and it has some nice relaxing music to it as well.
Nano Neighbors
Another idle game that sits at the bottom of your desktop screen. In this one you pick a boy or girl, and you can customize your room and your character. There are also mini-games that help you earn the currency to pay for the customization items. You can also visit others’ spaces, as well as them visiting yours. The problem here is that the mini-games are pretty lackluster. I get that they are meant to be quick time wasters, but damn did I not want to do a single one again. I’ll pass on this one.