PS+ February (Feb 4th): Apotheon, Transistor (PS4) Thief, Yakuza 4 (PS3), Kick and Fennick (Vita) Rogue Legacy (All)

[Minion]

I think you have to use a bow to shoot the switch that's at the end of that alley. Check the map, and there should be a cog at the end of the alley, if its red I think its not been activated, if its green it has - I think those are the colours, I cant remember exactly.

Hmm I did try that. I guess I just really suck at this game!

[shirubagan]

Transistor... Or should that be Trans-hipster? I *think* I'm enjoying it, and it all looks great and I love the turn-stacking option but there's something that's irking me about it. The sword, maybe? The terrible indie/drum & bass lite/folk song at the end of the second level? The pretty-but-unintelligible menus and UI? Not sure. Still feel I should complete it now I'm a decent way in, mind.

Liked the small part I played of Apotheon - is it worth completing?

[BossSaru]

Kick and Fennick. Good, but saves all of the best stuff for the last chapter where the developer starts showing off the game's potential. It just takes a bit too long to get there.

The last boss is a bastard though. Not because it is a difficulty spike, but because it requires the player to use a new technique which is never introduced to the player. So you just kind of stumble on the way to win after several minutes of bouncing around the screen. In case anyone else gets there and struggles like me:

Unlike in previous encounters, your gun can damage the boss. But only when you are standing on one of the circular pads on the ground. These pads light up from time to time when the boss is on the other side of the screen, which is when they will allow your gun to fire more powerful shots. You can not be hurt during this battle, so there is no risk of failure. It just took me ages trying stuff using the portals and bounce pads before I realised that the game wanted me to try something new, without any clear signposts as to what that should be.

[Harsin]

I think I'm dead inside, Transistor and Apotheon both look lovely, but I'm finding them dull as dishwater to play.

[MansizeRooster]

I failed to pick up Transistor's story, and without context have 0 motivation to keep playing it.

[Timmo]

The woman from Evanescence finds a sword with a man inside.

[Pelekophoros]

I think I'm dead inside, Transistor and Apotheon both look lovely, but I'm finding them dull as dishwater to play.

My major gripe with Apotheon is that, art direction aside, it's not as immediately arresting, controllable or engaging as Guacamelee. And that was a game I loved right up to the point where I just wasn't good enough to beat it.

[HarryBizzle]

Just finished Transistor and I loved it. The gameplay was good and at times very satisfying, but like Bastion, I think it's a good game made excellent by the beautiful art and storytelling.

The chap who does the voice over was bloody fantastic in places.

I passed it up on launch because the whole "turn based" thing put me off and made me think it was slow and would be hard, but the difficulty is pretty much just right and the pace of it is excellent.

[Minion]

I'm really getting into Apotheon now, I love the art style and the music and all the different weapons and options available to you, if only the weapon select system was better. Anyway I'm still really enjoying it, I hope they make another one that fixes the minor faults with this one.

[jon_cybernet]

Just finished Rogue Legacy with 30+ hours on the clock. Really loved it, and I normally hate Rogues. Worth persevering through to the point where you eventually become super OP.

[Bazjam]

I failed to pick up Transistor's story, and without context have 0 motivation to keep playing it.

I found the story a bit hard to follow which left me a bit disconnected to the game. Shame, as I loved everything else about it. Probably just me being thick, however I do tend to do most my gaming late at night after a bottle or two of wine which dosn't help.

[stefcha]

Really loved it, and I normally hate Rogues.

Aha! A suitable subject! So why did you like this despite not liking "rogues" generally? And what does a rogue(like) mean to you anyway?

I've been playing it a fair bit recently as well as it happens, largely in reaction to people moaning about it really. I'm proper shit at it, continually charge about rather than taking my time which I know is a better way to do it, and so rarely earn enough to upgrade and even when I do it seems inconsequential but the action itself is pretty enjoyable regardless.

[jon_cybernet]

I think I just found the basic gameplay loop fun to play in a way that I never did with say, Binding of Isaac.

It was a bit of a slog at some points, but I liked the fact that the progress I was making slowly snowballed until I was making tens of thousands on each run. And I liked the variety, and how I was still finding new rooms and quirks even after 30 hours.

Had that Magic thing where it was almost always my fault when I failed, and I rarely felt cheated. The upgrades really do add up, particularly if you pick them well.

[toythatkills]

Had that Magic thing where it was almost always my fault when I failed, and I rarely felt cheated.

That is definitely, definitely not the case in Rogue Legacy, but it is really fun when you're overpowered as fuck.

I just did this:

[Parappa]

Total Children - 9?? Is that how many times you restarted?

I think I must be missing something as I have restarted about 50 times so far!

[toythatkills]

It took me 116 children the first time I beat it, so you're on target

I restarted though, and made sure I maximised each run as much as possible, and only spent money on the upgrades I knew I'd need to beat the game. The first time through I wasted a lot of money experimenting, buying a bit of everything and ending up at level 220 or something, whereas this time I pretty much bought the Hokage, the Barbarian King/Queen, and spent everything else on armour/attack/HP/weight, and so beat it at level 80. Plus I was better, obviously. A couple of vampire runes, a couple of bounty runes and double jump meant each run could last ages. My last three kids all cleared the map out entirely, with the last-but-one earning 60,000 gold!

I did cheat a bit, reloading my save if I lost money to the guy with the three treasure chests.

[deKay]

It took me 116 children the first time I beat it, so you're on target

I restarted though, and made sure I maximised each run as much as possible, and only spent money on the upgrades I knew I'd need to beat the game. The first time through I wasted a lot of money experimenting, buying a bit of everything and ending up at level 220 or something, whereas this time I pretty much bought the Hokage, the Barbarian King/Queen, and spent everything else on armour/attack/HP/weight, and so beat it at level 80. Plus I was better, obviously. A couple of vampire runes, a couple of bounty runes and double jump meant each run could last ages. My last three kids all cleared the map out entirely, with the last-but-one earning 60,000 gold!

I did cheat a bit, reloading my save if I lost money to the guy with the three treasure chests.

How did you get to level 80 if you only restarted 9 times? When I played I only went up a level each time I died.

[Rev]

I'm quite bemused by the positivity towards Apotheon. It looks great and the setting is good, and there are definitely some good bits, but between ridiculous numbers of crashes, bugged boss fights, appalling slow down, floaty combat, awkward controls...If I hadn't been reviewing it I wouldn't have dragged myself to the end of it.

[Bazjam]

Havn't really played much of the single player in Apotheon, but the local one on one multi player is good fun. Have had a blast playing this with my ten year old boy.

[stefcha]

How did you get to level 80 if you only restarted 9 times? When I played I only went up a level each time I died.

That's what I was wondering, it's a hell of a lot of cash that he must've been pulling in on the first few runs to kick it all off. Straight down and some luck?

[toythatkills]

How did you get to level 80 if you only restarted 9 times? When I played I only went up a level each time I died.

You go up one level for every skill you buy/upgrade, so you probably just bought one skill per death when you noticed that.

I got around 3k on my first run which was enough to set me up pretty well. I kept replaying the first run over and over until I hit about 3k as well, because I wanted to be able to unlock the shinobi right away because that's key to high-scoring runs the way I play.

The first runs I tended to clear out the castle then the forest then look for the boss rooms in The Maya and The Darkness if I was still alive to get the easy chests. Then when I was more powerful I'd head straight for The Darkness until I was nearly dead, then go back to the castle and restore all my HP on easy enemies using a couple of vampire runes, then repeat for The Maya once The Darkness was cleared. I avoided stupid things like mini-bosses entirely, because the rewards weren't worth the hit to my HP, unless I'd cleared the rest of the map already.

[SMD]

Any hint of what we might be getting next month?

[Spleen]

Yeah, it's on the last page.

[SMD]

Am I getting bearded?

[Lovelyman]

It's on the last ever page.

[stefcha]

You go up one level for every skill you buy/upgrade, so you probably just bought one skill per death when you noticed that.

I got around 3k on my first run which was enough to set me up pretty well. I kept replaying the first run over and over until I hit about 3k as well, because I wanted to be able to unlock the shinobi right away because that's key to high-scoring runs the way I play.

No no, I was aware it's one level per upgrade. 3k on your first run though, fucking hell that's more than I've ever picked up on any run ever (probably at L25 or so), there was one single time when I managed 1.2k

[HarryBizzle]

I liked Transistor so much that I sent them an email when I finished it. Got a reply from Greg Kasavin today, which was nice.

[toythatkills]

No no, I was aware it's one level per upgrade. 3k on your first run though, fucking hell that's more than I've ever picked up on any run ever (probably at L25 or so), there was one single time when I managed 1.2k

That first line was for deKay

And yeah, it wasn't exactly easy, I had to play quite a few times to get to 3k. Pretty much had to clear out the castle and forest to hit that which is tough with 100HP and no real way of restoring it. I'd already beaten the game though so I knew how to deal with enemies and their attack patterns and stuff, and knew when to back out of a room. Taking it slow-ish and I got there in the end. I needn't have bothered really, I had another six kids to spare for the trophy in the end! I think the worst part is having to play the intro sequence over and over and over again, I could probably have done it with my eyes closed. I'd go all the way through it and then fuck up on some spikes in the first room and just have to start again.

That was probably the most frustrating run of all the ones I did in this game, because it's the one where the game's shitty mechanics can really ruin everything even when you're being careful.

[Minion]

I'm quite bemused by the positivity towards Apotheon. It looks great and the setting is good, and there are definitely some good bits, but between ridiculous numbers of crashes, bugged boss fights, appalling slow down, floaty combat, awkward controls...If I hadn't been reviewing it I wouldn't have dragged myself to the end of it.

Yeah it's weird, everything you're saying is true however it's the first PS+ game I've properly played since Don't Starve (I already had Fez when it came to PS+). I love the music personally and I'm a total sucker for it's art style. I also like the simplicity of the game. Lots of these arcade/indie type games look like simple games of old but are actually quite hard and confusing to play. For example Velocity 2X, it looked like an old school fun shooter but when I actually got to play it it almost seemed like a shooter mixed with a rhythm game. Mercenary Kings - looked again like an old school shooter like Midnight Resistance but again it was bogged down with various different mechanics and RPG elements and it totally put me off. Anyway, I'm not a massive game player anymore anyway but Apotheon has really clicked with me, I love it even with all it's faults.

[Rob Rymond]

Aptheon started off fine for me, but now I'm past the tutorial and stuff, the slow down is awful. I tried to perservere earlier and couldn't so turned it off. Shame as I like the art and audio, but the movement becomes awful when it slows. Any suggestions for a quick completition title from the rest this month for me to blast through? Trying to aim for 1 PS+ game a month on Vita or PS4 to ensure I'm getting some value from the service!