Day 14 - Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Chantelise

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

This spin-off Tomb Raider game was quite well-receive, and definitely unique.You control a spear-toting, grappling hook wielding Lara from a fixed-camera perspective. Gameplay in this game is a lot more fast-paced, with enemies often spawning all around Lara, but dying relatively quickly. the puzzles are still here, you'll have plenty of boulders to drag, spikes to avoid, items to climb. Your grappling hook can be used on the rings, but the spears really stand out. You can throw them into walls and then climb on top of them.

Each level gives you a series of goals to achieve, usually rewarding items for you to equip later. Some goals require finding the red skulls hidden throughout the level, or scoring above certain thresholds. The goals can be conflicting though, for instance some require that you beat the level, or at least a certain part of it, in under X minutes, while others require that you be quite thorough. My biggest gripe about these goals, however, is that the levels often prevent you from backtracking. For instance, I did not realize that destroying all the trucks was an objective until I had progressed passed a broken bridge that did not allow me to cross back. This happened again later on the same level, where I was forced forward with no way to return to where I was for the red skull.

The game is interesting enough, I imagine it would be decent fun in coop. As it stands, though, I'm not terribly interested in playing this game further, and I think I'll leave it at the 47 minutes I played.

Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters

Recettear is a great game, and the primary reason I bought this title. Chantelise, despite releasing later in English, is actually an older title. Gameplay consists of hacking and slashing your way through dungeon levels, eventually making your way to the end. You collect magic crystals, which can be used to cast spells, but otherwise you spend the majority of your time pressing the attack button. Of course, this is an asian-made game, so it really doesn't play well without a controller. Do people in Japan not have mice on their computers?

The gameplay is very simple. Aside from being able to equip two, and eventually three items, there isn't much in the way of character growth or customization to be had. I'm hesitant to even call this an action-rpg, and would lean more towards action-adventure. The game is also stupidly difficult for no reason. I made my way to the boss only to get destroyed in under a minute several times before finally giving up. Keep in mind that there's no checkpoints, so if you lose to a boss you must redo the entire dungeon.

I love Recettear for it's interesting take on shop-running, with ok dungeon battles in between, but Chantelise is nowhere near as good. There's no shop-running at all, of course, but even the dungeoning is unnecessarily difficult and unrewarding. I played this game for another 36 minutes (after having already given it a shot a while back), and still have no interest in playing it any further.

Notes

I've played 30 games so far during this challenge, with 39 hours having been spent so far. It's been a challenge, but rewarding nonetheless.

Album: Steam Challenge - Day 014