Video Game Reviews, Walkthroughs, Cheats, and Mods 


Dying Light 1 - How to change language
I got Dying Light from the Epic Games Store but for some reason it decided to install in Portuguese (?) and there was no line in Options to change the language.There seems to be two ways to change the language:(1) If you search the tech support site it says you can delete redundant language data packshttps://dyinglight.support.techland.pl/en/support/solutions/articles/15000053773--epic-games-dl1-language-change-problem-delete-redundant-data-packsFollow the steps below, please: Please, locate your game's installation folder.You should see folders named DW, DW_DLC1, DW_DLC16 and DW_DLC17 Inside each of these folders, delete the data packs that aren't listed in the language that you desire. (For example: DataBr (folder) + DataBr.pak)If you see only the folder, but not the .pak file, delete the folder anyway and move on, please.Try launching your game after removing all of the data packs that you don't wish to use.Using this method I noticed the voiceovers weren't changed until I also deleted various Speech__ folders, leaving the only one I wanted (SpeechEn for English)(2) I also received an email from them with a different solution - use command linePerform the following steps, please:Open the Epic Games LauncherClick your profile icon (the upper-right corner of the window)Select SettingsScroll downSelect the gameCheck the Additional Command Line Arguments checkboxInsert -forcelang=xx , where xx is your language ID (such as "en" "de" "fr" "it" "es" "ru" "jp" "pl" "nl" "br" "ko" "cn" "tw" "el" "th" “tr” "cs")That's it. Launch the game, please!
Game Review: Spiritfarer (Farewell Edition) by Thunder LotusScore: +2/-12"Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and finally release them into the afterlife. What will you leave behind?" Spiritfarer has essentially three themes:Cozy Life Sim - gameplay really is quite cozy to the point of excess and pointlessnessPlatforming - minigames that are too frantic to be funDealing with Death - of characters you actually want to die as soon as possibleThe start of the game really feels promising and seems cozy and fun, but play more and everything takes a nosedive -- not interesting, not fun.After our thoughts on various aspects of the game, I'll close with one final section about the Theme of game and possible interpretations. There's no score for this, but just something to think about -- but BEWARE SPOILERS.Graphics and visuals-0 Cartoony side scroller. It's passable though not really modern. I guess it could be worse and pixellated.+1 Working with what they have, they still manage to give some compelling audio + visual experiences, such as when sprits transform or depart.-1 Not enough zoom most of the time: Especially as your ship gets larger it's hard to find where you place things and really there should be a zoom-out view so you can for example quickly check if your sheep are ready for shearing rather than just platform your way over.Irritating Platforming / Minigames-1 Where they are not optional is the minigames to get materials. And generally there is always something irritating to thwart you so the overall mood becomes "frantic" and "frustrating". "Frantic fun" wears thin really fast.For example, the first minigame is Jellyfish. You basically touch them to get currency and you touch the rare green ones to get special materials.When a green one is approaching, you get an indicator on the right side of your screen. Several can pop up at a time.However, there is no way to know how far they actually are and they can travel at different speeds. So that indicator is really only barely useful.What could have been done is to make the indicator smaller to indicate that the green jellyfish is further away. Otherwise you just stand around waiting and meanwhile another one might fly by.Which is theoretically okay because you can go to another location, so this is really a critique of poor visual feedback to the player.-1 Your ship layout hinders you.I suppose this is part of the "platforming fun" but when you get more buildings you become more prone to accidentally jumping into a ladder and slowing or stopping unexpectedly.For each minigame you can try to adjust your layout to help but that also becomes tedious after a while.-0 Some of the platforming is really tricky for a cozy game, but the "rare chests" you get contain trash anyway so it's just for personal satisfaction and I encourage people who don't care for platforming to just ignore them.-1 The expansion and Daria's storyline adds even harder platforming, well beyond what a "cozy" game should be. It's mandatory if you want to progress the story for Daria/Overbrook and in the final platforming puzzles, a misstep could send you all the way back to the start to do it over.-1 When your ship gets bigger, some of the minigames get even harder.For example, Pulsar Rays/Deadly Pulsar Rays start appearing offscreen somewhere on your ship but you have literally no idea where because you can't zoom out to see and the valid area is so big.Then you spot one and you have to chase it while being hindered by all the buildings you've placed because every time you touch somewhere you can land, your jump or drop stops.Shallow Life Sim-1 There's not that much to do in terms of the life sim part for two reasons: You are just constructing buildings, and your ability to get materials is locked by quest progress.For example to get Aluminum, you need to go to the arctic area in the north, but to do that you need a special material to upgrade your ship with an icebreaker. A material that requires one of your passengers to die. So this is a hard progression wall that is somewhat counter to life sims.-0 The tech tree just isn't that deep or interesting.Once you get something built, most of the time it is stupidly easy to get piles of materials. I guess that's the "cozy" part.-1 Some items are really irritating to actually use, like the Windmill.Dealing with Death / Story ArcsAs indicated in the game description, a major part of the game is dealing with someone dying.-1 This would actually be a much more compelling game experience if you actually cared about your passengers, but your passengers (and most characters in the game world) are literally constantly condescending.Constantly summoned by someone calling you "peanut", "munchkin", or worse, and getting passive aggressive requests, gets tired fast.If it were a few of the characters you ferry around, it could be considered "diversity" of personalities and "realistic" personality clashes. But it's basically everyone.-1 The passengers are nobodies. They are no one of real consequence except that some are are actually related to your character's life and maybe in your character's real life they actually cared about them. But (and this is of course opinion and your experience may vary) I didn't really care for any of them.There's a reason why enduring stories from the past dealt with people of consequence -- people in key leadership roles like nobles, rulers, generals, and heroes. They are interesting.Even when that romantic past moved on to modern times, writers chose "important" characters like wealthy notable persons in society or people with special powers.Really, no one is interested in biographies of nobodies and that's why you don't see biographies about people who didn't accomplish anything of consequence.So for a game/story to use a bunch of people who are of no real consequence, their stories must be really interesting and compelling. Except they aren't and combined with their personalities, they are unlikeable and I just didn't care whether they lived or died.-1 Actually I did care if they died because the sooner they died, the sooner I could unlock regions with materials I needed.The life sim progress is literally dependent on characters dying.You need them to die to get a special material to craft necessary upgrades to your ship to access zones on the map.And once they are gone, you realize you didn't need them anyway so there's no sense of loss or fond remembrance.Some of them theoretically do work around the ship or give you resources if they're fed and happy but this happens so rarely you don't even notice when its gone.Clearly there's a push to force you to experience loss but the emotional attachment isn't there, the impact is weak, and it's complicated by the mechanics of requiring them to die as soon as possible so you can access the many materials the game says you need but you can't find.-1 The early character stories are much more interesting than the midgame ones. So when they leave your ship, there was nothing memorable about their stay and nothing memorable about them to hold on to when they're gone.Some characters even lie to advance their story progress and the character has zero agency, making the drama in their story feel highly contrived.For example, Bruce asks for 100 carrots. I already had over 100 carrots and 100 peaches in inventory by that time and the next quest step is to talk to him. I speak to him and he accuses me of not getting him what he needed (which was apparently neither carrots nor peaches) and the next step is he wants to pass on to the next life (die). Huh?-1 Some characters are just low-effort "throwaways" like Elena, who basically shows up just to give you some minigame challenges while denigrating you at every step.If you fail the time or score challenge, they can condescend to make it easier each time, so the whole concept of the challenge is pointless except as an excuse to insult the player more.Elena does do one additional thing but there is no emotional buildup or any foreshadowing to it so the emotional impact of the task simply falls flat.+1 Some individual character stories are actually well told in how they are paced and trickle to you, and how the dialog is written. Too bad their stories just aren't that interesting, and this applies to less than half the characters who come and go on your ship.Miscellaneous-0 No sorting (e.g., alphabetical) for inventory such as cooked food or recipes, and there can be dozens in your inventory.Most inventory tabs don't have this issue since there aren't that many items you can't easily recognize by the icon, but when it does happen (e.g., food and recipes), it's irritating.Cooked food doesn't seem to follow any order at all, such as most recently cooked first, or matching the recipe collection list.-1 Stacks of stuff are added/removed one unit per keypress even though you can load up to 50 units into certain crafting station or try to sell 100+ units to a merchant.Theme / InterpretationSPOILER WARNINGMagnify or cut-and-paste the deliberately tiny text below to read this section as it basically is a HUGE SPOILER but one which may make you so uncomfortable you might not want to continue the game. Usually platforms like Steam or Epic Games Store enforce a two-hour play time limit before they will refuse automatic refunds.Beyond the idea that the game is about "handling death" or "handling loss" is unavoidably an element of WHEN this occurs.So for example, a character could have dementia (Beverly). We see this progress during her story arc and eventually she admits it's too much and it's time to go.In a way that is necessary to close off her story arc. From a story/mechanic point of view, it is absolutely necessary because you actually need her to die in order to get a critical crafting material that will let you reach the next zone that is otherwise locked to you with no other way around it. So you MUST take her to the Everdoor where she passes on -- i.e., "dies".However this opens the action to various possibly uncomfortable interpretations: For example, should a person with dementia just give up and die? The practical part of closing the story arc requires her to die, but I think there's an unavoidable judgment here as they could basically have told another story.And some characters like Gwen or Giovanni don't even have a condition like Beverly's that denies them their personhood/personality in the same way. They apparently just want to die.And Should you assist them with suicide? Unlike Atul who basically just disappears from your ship, Beverly like many others requires action on your part to pass on: You must take them to the Everdoor. Is that "assisted suicide"? Or are they basically dead and this is just a metaphor?An alternate interpretation is that these characters are all actually already dead and you are just reliving an experience of your relationship with them. However, at the point they enter and leave the story, there really isn't much to suggest this except that you are the Spiritfarer whose role is to take them to the afterlife. Even then, the game undermines this interpretation because characters like Gustav exist in the game world as if they were just another person and have interactions with other living characters in the world. They come on your ship and continue their life until their story arc is done.I think the game wants you to engage in such deeper thinking, but the necessarily limited actions you can choose from (basically, you have no choice) and the linear flow of the story can make you feel like you have a particular interpretation and were forced to take a particular action regarding when and how someone dies.Sure you could choose not to take Beverly to the Everdoor but then you are stuck in the game unable to progress. So not assisting her suicide (if you choose to interpret it that way) is not an option.
Game Review - Dredge (no DLC)
Game Review: Dredge (no DLCs) by Black Salt Games and published by Team17 DigitalScore: +4/-0"DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten." Every year during Christmas, the Epic Games Store gives away a bunch of games for free on a daily basis (normally they give one away weekly on Thursdays). They've repeated various titles over the years but this is the first time I've seen Dredge, and of the new offerings in the holiday season of 2024, I feel this was definitely the winner.Dredge is one half cozy game, one half not-scary eldritch horror story, and overall for its style and scope, does both quite well.At the same time, if you're expecting the usual cozy game vibe, you won't find it here. If you're expecting a good scare from horror elements, you won't find it here either.+1 Cozy mechanicsIf you want to play the game just as a "cozy game", going around fishing with line, net, or crab pots, you can with no time pressure to do anything at all.Mechanics are easy and the minigames are somewhat optional.For example, you don't have to play the minigame to reel in fish if you don't want to, it'll just take more time. You do have to play the minigame for dredging however.Little bit of Tetris in inventory space management.+1 Refreshing setting for cozy gamesUnlike most "cozy" games, this one isn't about gardening, harvesting, bug catching or the "usual" activities. It's about fishing. Cozy games do also have fishing but not in the same commercial fishing type setting.-0 Ambiance undermines the cozy aspectUnfortunately Dredge is also part horror-story so there is an eerie / depressing / tense undercurrent everywhere even if you discount the assorted water hazards (that can be turned off with a "passive mode" option).So if you're expecting a relaxing cozy game, it could satisfy but it'll be missing that "sunshiny positivity" vibe that you might have come to expect from cozy games.I'm not taking a point away here because going in, you already know this is going to be an eldritch horror story. That's not something you find out later to ruin your cozy game vibe.-0 Artwork is only so-so. It's pretty low-quality low-polygon but it gets the job done without being demanding on development resources. It may be rather disappointing but really a lot of cozy games don't have AAA-game quality and hardware demands and do tend toward being cartoony anyway.-0 No voice acting. Basically just "mm-hmm"| type noises from the various characters. This is in line with the simpler artwork but really a lot of cozy games don't have AAA-game resources or full voice either.+1 Interesting and different regionsThe base game without looking for the alternate ending takes maybe 20 hours if you do it in a leisurely, non-optimal way and throw in some side quests. During this time you are taken to various zones, each with its own distinct character, so your hours spent won't be monotonous.+1 The story can be deeper than you think -- and a lot longer.If you simply follow the main story quests you get a somewhat predictable eldritch horror type story, just without any jump scares.But if you really explore, you can discover the alternate ending and "what's really going on", though it will take a lot more time because it's essentially unguided (internet spoiler guides excluded).So for those who want to keep playing, there's plenty to do and a lot more gameplay hours even without the DLC.
Infinity Nikki - It's easy but is it cozy?
Infinity Nikki launched recently and it's already in v1.1 and it's second short event. It's lauded as a "cozy game", and it's certainly an easy one despite really unintuitive combat targeting. But does it count as cozy?Disclaimer: I do not consider myself to have "whaled" in the game. I started at launch, when they were very generous with redemption codes. I bought the first premium battle pass but have not spent anything since. I nevertheless managed to get 24/24 in every wound of Mira Crown: Wishfield Pinnacle, the rotating "fashion" challenge.What do you actually do in the game?I probably played a lot more per day than most players are able to. If you can only play a couple of hours a day, you will barely be able to make progress on the main story quest over the course of a week unless you just fast forward past the dialog (and at that point, why are you even playing this game?). Things you "should" do on a daily and ongoing basis (according to various guide websites such as this one) include:Complete the Daily WishesCheckmark Spend Vital EnergyCheckmark Claim Monthly Gifts and Weekly GainsCheckmark Claim Event RewardsCheckmark Collect Overworld Resources, especially once-a-day rare resources and your bling limit of 160,000Checkmark Defeat Esselings for MaterialsAt a high level, it actually quite closely copies the model of successful single player gachas like Genshin Impact and right away, those games are not really "cozy. All of the activities listed above are relevant to acquiring resources and having enough resources to do things but some take a lot of time -- especially advancing skills (collecting skill "insights") and advancing quests. How many hours a day do you have to play?It's also important to look at what the "daily activities" guides DON'T tell you to do:Keep moving forward in the main quest to unlock various skills and regionsComplete sidequestsFind collectibles such as Whimstars, Dews of Inspiration, and ChestsPlay minigames, use Photo mode, mix-and-match outfitsThese are the actual core of the game, but how are you supposed to fit these in after your hours of chores? If you want to stop and do things which are technically not so important for advancing through the game, such as taking photos or spending resources on making clothing from sketches, that could be deprioritized until you make a lot of progress in the Main Story Quest.There is pressure to play hard right away because nothing is going to wait for you. The next fashion banner or time-limited event is coming soon and you need those diamonds and resources from various activities if you're not going to spend spend spend.Could you theoretically ignore everything and do just what you like? Sure, but in the long run you will miss out a lot of key resources (like Diamonds and core resources to make and upgrade outfits) and either have to make it up with cash or just accept you're left behind. It's a proven winning formula for encouraging pay-for-convenience. The overall resource scarcity is certainly meant to monopolize your time or make you open your wallet when you're suddenly short on resources. But this is not cozy at all.A much more "cozy" live service game is Palia. There's really no rush, even with time-limited events, as they are committed to "no Fear of Missing Out" mechanics for a truly cozy experience. But probably they aren't making the same amount of money hand-over-fist selling cosmetics either.GachaTheoretically you (probably) don't need to spend on the banners or even pull a full outfit from the free diamonds they give you since the main story quest challenges can be completed at a minimum level (to keep progressing the main story) with outfits you can get in-game. It can help especially with Mira Crown recurring challenges, but it's not that vital.So while players might complain about the cost of buying all the shiny outfits, this is closer to a choice to buy non-essential luxuries. The game still functions in a cozy (or not) way independently of this, so I do not discount Infinity Nikki as a cozy game simply because it's also a gacha game.Where there can be a tricky situation is if you would have to spend an inordinate amount of resources (or it is outright impossible) to complete Mira Crown unless you happen to have an outfit that satisfies a strict criteria (e.g., a particular Style and Label combination that must both be present on multiple pieces).In the most recent Mira Crown Wishfield Pinnacle, there was one such requirement and what you can find in-game might not have given enough pieces to use (assuming you found them in-game and could craft them). But "fortunately" there was a full 4-star outfit with the required Style+Label combination in the Permanent Banner. It remains to be seen whether this will continue to be the trend.Mira CrownMira Crown is the Infinity Nikki's endgame for now, and as they unlock more skill nodes, it gets more challenging. What a styling challenge in Infinity Nikki amounts to is getting qualifying scores with qualifying pieces. Part of it can feel random: Do you have qualifying pieces for the maximum score?Mira Crown isn't strictly necessary and with conservative resource management I've managed to get the full score in the last three. But probably others won't be so lucky, especially if they spent all their consumable resources (Energy Crystals for Vital Energy) early trying to do "fun" things in the game such as actually crafting outfits from sketches.So here is the first challenge to whether Infinity Nikki is "cozy": If you have to manage your resources in order to pass the recurring events, and in doing so deny yourself the freedom to actually do what appears to be core to the game -- making outfits -- is this counter to the "cozy" experience?Players will say that a gacha game is of course pay-to-win. But is opening your wallet repeatedly still part of the cozy experience, or just a cozy game for people with cozy amounts of money?Crafting OutfitsIt seems like a big part of the game is collecting outfits and in the main story you do have to craft a full outfit. Along the way you will probably have to craft various other outfits, and all this requires Materials, Money (Bling), and Upgrade Materials (Bubbles) to actually make the outfit useful for the various styling challenges you need to pass to keep progressing the Main Story Quest.A big problem here is you have only limited resources (Vital Energy) to get some of it done.Many outfits require a lot of materials you can only get by spending Vital Energy.Other Materials you can try to farm (e.g., Bling) but there's a sharp limit each day, beyond which you will have to spend Vital Energy to exchange for more.To even qualify to get certain Materials (Essences) you need to advance your skills and the skill milestones are staggering compared to how much skill you can earn each day:For most skills you can progress by 100 units per day but the milestones are in the thousands.With the latest v1.1 expansion that unlocks the remaining nodes in the skill tree, you will need 18,000 skill to be able to get all the types of Essences in just one skill (and along the way spend hundreds of thousands of Bling to unlock the nodes).If you happened to spend all your Vital Energy Consumables (Energy Crystals) which you sometimes get from levelling or the battle pass, then you are looking at literally months -- or spending money to buy Diamonds and catch up.As I mentioned I was careful with my Energy Crystals and other resources so when the v1.1 update dropped, I was ready to spend and unlock a lot of useful nodes including skill nodes that gave boosts to styling challenges. Even so I barely squeaked by getting a Perfect score in the final round of Wishfield Pinnacle, and since launch I have not crafted any outfits (that required Vital Energy) that I didn't have to, even though there were certainly a lot I wanted to craft.If you spent a lot of your Vital Energy and Energy Crystals crafting various outfits you liked (and isn't that a big part of the game?) then you probably couldn't do the same. Now comes the temptation to actually spend money to progress. Otherwise, how are you going to unlock skill nodes at a reasonable pace while actually doing other things such as crafting outfits for fashion fun? Is this the "cozy game" experience?Resource Limit and Daily ChoresSpending months on a cozy game isn't so bad except the structure here is more like daily chores. If you don't maximize your daily skill and farming limits, you will just rely more and more on Vital Energy, which you need for a lot of other things.It might not sound like your daily chores for collecting skill points and bling amounts to a lot of work, but it can if you actually want to do them usefully: Such as collecting the rare once-a-day resources, and earning as much Bling as you can so you don't have to exchange Vital Energy for something as mundane as Bling.For example, the limit on how much bling you can earn each day is 160,000 and each unit of bling is 100 units, so you need 1,600 spread over collecting bling and defeating Esselings. I'm not sure what the limit on Threads of Purity are but it's a lot of Esselings to kill and I've only reached it once. It's definitely the one I don't even try to maximize.You need tens of thousands of thread and literally multiple millions of Bling. That is not an exaggeration. Getting these with Vital Energy just means you don't have Vital Energy for resources that can typically only be gotten with Vital Energy, such as Bouldy components for clothing and Bubbles for gear improvement (small one-time sources like quests not being counted).Also, various resources are on a 24-hour timer from the time you collect them, so likely they are all spread out during the day meaning multiple logins. You could just collect whatever trash comes your way but you will end up short on key rare resources later if you ignore them now and you'll just have to catch up later anyway (but fortunately they are in the cash shop!).We can compare Infinity Nikki to another single-player live-service cozy game, Disney Dreamlight Valley. The core game is very relaxed: You can progress as quickly or slowly as you like. Updates don't demand you do them right away. You can play as much or as little each day with no limit on how much resource you can acquire. Want to farm all day and level up all your companions to max? Go ahead! Want to take your time? That's fine too. You don't even have to check in every day to use up your "Vital Energy" or lose it to overflow.So in comparison with Infinity Nikki, I feel Disney Dreamlight Valley is a much "cozier" game for this main reason:With a cozy game, you can play on your own schedule.If I play less today, how much do I feel I've missed out or fallen behind? Can I do what I want instead of having to play very efficiently because resources are limited? Can I play more to do more or am I limited each day -- and therefore have to show up every day? FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is not cozy.As an adult with a life, I don't want a game that controls my time and makes me play around the game's schedule. That's not cozy, that's controlling. Maybe if I could just spend one or two focussed hours per day at a time of my choosing it might not be so bad, but that's not been my experience.Falling behind can mean being locked out of eventsLet's suppose you don't care about Mira Crown and you don't even care about progressing at a steady pace through the main story and you just do what you feel like. OK. There's still one big drawback to this, and it is evidenced from the various other gacha games that came before: Events will be based on your progress.We're in early days yet, so the events don't require too much progress in the main story, but you will eventually need to keep moving forward in order to participate. Some games like Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail are quite aggressive in this way, with time-limited events structured around the current endgame locations, which is a pretty daunting path for anyone newer to the game to reach. I suppose it remains to be seen just how much Infinity Nikki will follow this model despite labelling itself a cozy take-your-time game."Easy" is important to being cozy but is not the only thingInfinity Nikki is almost stupidly easy. For example, of the big ways they challenge players is platforming games and you typically have five minutes to complete the route. During that time you can repeatedly fall and even "die" and have to respawn at the start once or twice, but you will still have time to complete it. For example, the current "Shooting Star Season" normal-mode platforming games give you five minutes when you can complete some in under a minute.So it's an easy game, but Infinity Nikki has also carefully throttled your resources so you are constantly in a state of severe scarcity mentality, designed to nudge you into spending more and more. And to me, that's just not cozy.How can Infinity Nikki be more cozy?Reduce the sense of "chores" that need to be done or you will fall behind.Replace the free but time-consuming stuff from chores with better exchange rates from spending Vital Energy.Zero skill development from using skills; no Threads of Purity from fighting monsters; and sharply limit the amount of Bling you can collect each day (currently it is 160,000, it could be reduced to around 50,000).In total, players can save a lot of Vital Energy by exchanging hours of tedious chores, approximately 24 hours worth of Vital Energy:Total of 700 Skill Insights (70 Vital Energy)160,000 Bling (160 Vital Energy)Probably around 500 Threads of Purity, but it's more feasible to get around 200 (40-100 Vital Energy)You normally get 1 Vital Energy per 5 minutes so if you don't do these daily chores, you are missing out on A LOT.Even when I was doing all this every single day, I still felt like I didn't have enough material or Vital Energy to spare for sketches that weren't strictly needed for anything but that I just liked.The primary/only way to get skill and materials becomes exchanging Vital Energy in the Realm of Nourishment and Realm of Escalation. This sounds really weird as it seems to put more pressure on the players' resources now that they can't get "free stuff" butWe can improve the exchange rate so less Vital Energy gets you more skill than you currently do. The total value in Vital Energy is around 24 hour's worth, so we can instead double the amount gained when exchanging Vital Energy for materials or skill.Spending Vital Energy this was is fast and convenient. If you can't do much on a particular day, you can at least spend your Vital Energy quickly in materials and skill exchanges.It is certainly better than boring chores. Players will still collect materials, especially rare materials with very limited amounts per day, but it won't be boring like vacuuming up every common Buttoncone or Stellar Fruit just to meet their daily Collection Insight limit.Other uses of Vital Energy can also have an improved exchange rate of Vital Energy, e.g., 10 Bouldy rocks instead of 5 per 40 Energy spent on Realm of the Dark.Change the timer of rare materials from 24 hours to 20 hours. This way, players can steadily adjust the respawn time to the time window they can play. UPDATE: In v1.2 they will reset daily at the same time.If you leave it at strictly 24 hours from the time you harvest, it will steadily get pushed back, especially if there is a disruptive event such as server maintenance.Players can have useful concentrated time to focus on collecting rare materials and get that done, then focus on other things because they can tour the map and do it consecutively..Limit Event prerequisites to what new players can reasonably attain in a few days. If you set it to something mid-game in the main story quest, it's a long haul and new players or those who have been trying to take things at a "cozy pace" will suddenly feel rushed.Anything that loosens the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) grip on the player's time will likely translate directly to a sharp loss in revenue, so don't expect any changes at all.
Infinity Nikki - Kilo the Cadenborn's Poems
In Infinity Nikki, when you feed Kilo the Cadenceborn some Dews of Inspiration, he also writes a poem. A lengthy animation precedes the unvoiced lines of poetry and if you try to skip it, you will end up skipping the poem as well.If you don't want to sit through the animation every time or when you want to review each entire compsition, here are all parts of his three poems:Rebirth WishOverture of CatastropheThe tale unfolded amidst the chilling embrace of winter's cold, dark winds,where faint wishes faded away in the face of disaster.The Forsaken VowThe maiden swore a vow in desolation's pain,And the hopeless town found life again.Relentless SufferingThough hardships crushed the dreams of the poor,The changing winds made rebuilding unsure.Dream of HopeThe first dawn after disaster's blight,Met the maiden with hope and light.Promise of FutureShe gathered the people, their strength to renew,Welcoming sunny days, with skies so blue.Paper Crane's HopeHer unyielding vow pierced the clouded sky,Paper cranes soared as hearts reached high.The Forgotten MaidenThe maiden's figure, lost in time,Yet her story lives, like endless rhyme.The Eternal PoemFor wishes give rise to wishes anew,Spring's eternal in verses true.Hometown BreezeCrisis of StonewoodsThe towering Stonetrees shall stand no more,Till the last symphony's final score.Harvest of FarewellsThey celebrate the harvest's end,Then pack their bags, to journeys send.The Final DesignThe scent of fruit on their garments lingers,Feathers weave through gatherers' fingers.Maiden's DressFestive clothes pile high with grace,As her skirt sings of a homeland's embrace.Fated FarewellPlants will wither, and beasts will flee,All we know fades with time's decree.Eternal MemoriesBut the shared breeze, soft and slow,Will whisper of the home we know.Moment of PartingThe maiden packs the harvest cup,And with the crowd, she journeys up.Hometown in DreamsWhen evening winds sweep fields aglow,The dream will recall the home we know.Starwish EchoesNew beginningsA blue descendent, born from the hands of a god,destined to fulfill people's wishes.Power of WishesThe gratitude of millions piled into mountains,woven into outfits of wishes and visions.Unspeakable LossThe young descendent was overwhelmed by a colossal wish,a tender heart shattered by endless guilt.Change of HeartThe wishes remained unfulfilled, yet the people danced,raising new hope with their own sweat and hands.Steps ForwardWishes brought strength, Strength brought hope.The yearning of the heart guided the people forward.Hidden GownThe thorns that ensnared the heart quietly withered.The outfit that granted a thousand wishes was sealed away in the temple.Bright FutureBut a new seed has already been planted.The warmth of the earth nurtures a new dream.Endless WishesThe flower of wishes bathes in the power of trust.Beneath the soil, stories of the future grow.
Infinity Nikki - Photo Expedition Secret Location
If you've finished all 40 Photo Expeditions in Infinity Nikki but are stuck with what to do at the final "secret" location (slide 1 above), you will eventually trigger a quest that gives you a quest marker to go there (slide 2).We're not sure what all the trigger conditions are, but for our playthrough it happened after getting Perfect clears on every stylist Faction in Florawish (slide 3).Once that quest is complete, you will finally add the location to the Photo Expedition (slide 4).
Infinity Nikki - Whimstars and Dews of Inspiration
I was searching for guides to help me complete my search for all Whimstars and all Dews of Inspiration in Infinity Nikki, and without exception all the top search result websites were terrible. Difficult to follow directions and screenshots, and in some cases bad math -- for example, one site had less than all the Dews of Inspiration in a Cave instance but somehow still ended up with a full count of Dews.Total waste of time.Infinity Nikki frequently has vertical layers (especially in the Abandoned District) so a video guide is much better than a 2D map with a location pin. So I recommend videos instead. I recommend Gamer Guru and 100% Guides.TIP: Look for Blings! Blings are not just money to pick up but the dev's way to pointing you toward something. This may be a location to cross a wide river or a platforming route to get up somewhere, or even a trail to lead you off-road to a point of interest.Also, occasionally look up.TIP: If you are planning to use a video guide anyway, don't bother stopping to pick up every Dew of Inspiration. Come back later and walkthrough all the locations with the guide. You're probably going to have to do that anyway because there's no in-game way to track which Dews you got, except in instances which have a separate Whimstar and Dew counter from the zone.TIP: Kilo the Cadenborn's maximum level is 36, so even if you have more, he won't accept them. Memorial Mountains Florawish Breezy Meadow Stoneville Abandoned District Wishing Woods
Infinity Nikki - Forced Perspective quests
In Infinity Nikki "Courses" there is an achievement called "A Lifetime to Photograph like a Child" under the category "Grow Together" section 3 where you need to complete all "Forced Perspective" photography quests.TIP: If you're not sure what you're supposed to include in the photo, go to the quest marker, turn on Photography mode, and look around. Each of the two items you see in that mode will have a little label on them. Once you've identified the component items, it's pretty easy.Forced Perspective: Burning with AngerForced Perspective: Caged BirdForced Perspective: Capturing the ThiefForced Perspective: Catching a Big FishForced Perspective: Catching a WaterfallForced Perspective: Empty FlowerpotForced Perspective: Flowers in Three VasesForced Perspective: Flying BuntingsForced Perspective: Happy BearForced Perspective: Light up the Bridge LampsForced Perspective: Long-Eared BunnyForced Perspective: Ship in a BottleForced Perspective: Thuddy Snowman
Infinity Nikki - 18 Aventura Observation quests for Stylist's Eagle Eyes
In Infinity Nikki "Courses" there is an achievement called "Stylist's Eagle Eyes" under the category "Grow Together" section 3 where you need to complete 16 of Professor Aventura's "Observation" quests.TIP: Aventura isn't everywhere at once. You may have to complete some of his earlier Observation quests in order to trigger later ones. Follow the main quest zones. And within each zone, some other main story quests or Observation quests may have to be completed first for him to move on to the next location.TIP: Wrong answers to his questions are fine. He just tells you to go and find the answer then try again.Observation: Abandoned CampObservation: Activity CenterObservation: Ancient StatueObservation: Border OutpostObservation: Choo-Choo TrainObservation: Great WishtreeObservation: Guardian StatueObservation: Land of Stored Wishes (Dream Warehouse)Observation: Making WishesObservation: Meadow WharfObservation: Palace RuinsObservation: Shimmer PondObservation: Stellar Fishing GroundObservation: Swan GazeboObservation: Timis's Beauty LabObservation: Windrider MillObservation: Wish Celebration CenterObservation: Wish Transport Pipeline
Infinity Nikki - Wishful Aurosa and Mira Crown
In the current version of Infinity Nikki, your ultimate task is to craft the Miracle Outfit "Wishful Aurosa". At the same time you should also be pushing progress in Mira Crown: Wishfield: Pinnacle Contest which resets periodically, giving you repeated rewards. These all basically involve styling challenges. In this article we'll discuss some strategies for you to achieve this while avoiding wasteful pitfalls.How to Craft Wishful AurosaYou receive the sketches (crafting blueprints) for each piece in the set as you progress the Main Story, and you also need to unlock each one in the Heart of Infinity skill tree.Once you do so, you'll see that special materials are required from the style Sovereigns. In order to get these materials, you basically need to succeed in every styling challenge. You can track your progress in your Pear-Pal under Factions. You only need a "Normal" clear to advance so don't stress too much.You'll need much more than Normal clears for Mira Crown of course, but you get unlimited attempts at each styling challenge so you can inch up your score carefully without wasting resources so you have some to spend on different styling challenges.When you finally win against a Sovereign, you receive a quest item which you bring to Dada at the Florawish Stylist's Guild to exchange for the materials.Additionally you will need materials from Realm of The Dark > Bouoldy > Phantom Trial: Bouldy (Command).For the Evolutions, you need to craft a second set of Wishful Aurosa.You receive enough unique materials from quests to craft two sets.Each set is 8 pieces. When you have crafted 12 pieces (one and a half sets) you receive one Heartshine for Evolution. When you have crafted 16 pieces (two full sets) you receive the other Heartshine and you use the extra set for the third Evolution.Tips for Styling ChallengesHere are our best tips for crafting Wishful Aurosa, as well as make progress in Mira Crown.Look at the Resonance gacha banners very carefully.We're putting this one first because players do get excited (or worried by the time limit) on Limited banners and might end up spending resources to pull as they get diamonds from the game.Of course you should pull for the outfit you want, but if you don't care about any of them, then this is what we recommend:Limited banner "Butterfly Dream" for the Sexy-themed Flutter Storm set.There aren't a lot of Sexy-themed pieces or sets and the other banner, Blooming Fantasy, has a SS-rating Sweet-themed set "Blooming Dreams".If you are feeling spendy and want to get both sets, then you won't be short on 5-star Sweet-themed sets.If you just want one piece, use the Ocean's Guidance feature to select one piece, such as the dress.Permanent banner "Distant Sea" for the SS-rated Fresh-style "Blossoming Stars" or the SS-rated Sweet-style "Crystal Poems"There are more Sweet outfits but the current Mira Crown time-limited Pinnacle Round 7 (ending Thu-Dec-19-2024 4AM PST) needs a complete set of Sweet-style outfit for maximum stars.Crystal Poems is a 10-piece set with 6 pieces of jewelry and you are only allowed 5 in styling challenges, so if you are at 9 pieces and only one piece of jewelry left you can pause.There are less Fresh wardrobe pieces but you can get by the challenges by upgrading the Floral Memory ability suit.Either way you will likely end up investing in at least one S-rated set.The game just launched so there are a lot of diamonds from one-time sources like quests and finding chests. However this will eventually dry up and you're left with the resetting Mira Crown Pinnacle challenge. So keep that in mind (especially if you are trying to stay free-to-play) and care more about completing challenges than just collecting fashion.Don't blow all your Energy Crystals if you don't have to. Save some to replenish Vital Energy during various Wishfield Pinnacle challenge periods in case you suddenly need resources to craft something.Use Realm of Nourishment to accelerate your Collection Insight so you can start getting Essences from your gathering. Otherwise the daily limits offer only very slow progress.Don't try to do it immediately. You only need the full outfit to progress the Main Story in Chapter 8.Don't do any styling challenges unless you have to for the main story. Try to delay as much as possible but keep an eye on when Mira Crown Pinnacle resets -- you might as well try to get whatever rewards you can in each period.Use this time to get and upgrade Eurekas and buy out the entire bottom-right arc of the Heart of Infinity skill tree, which has bonuses to gear scores.Try to invest only in SS-rating pieces or sets, which usually means 5-star sets.Just about anything else is basically ultimately wasted resources.If you don't have SS-rating pieces or sets, then S-rating is your next choice and often 3-star pieces will have this.Ability Outfits are 4-star but often have a mix of S- and A- ratings on their pieces, so look carefully. Sets you get from Kilo the Cadenborn are better but have to be crafted with a lot of Vital Energy resources.If you are low on choices, choose the best option but upgrade only enough to pass the challenge and wait for a better outfit later.The main difference in star rating is total stats, and that generally matters only when you are relying on a piece for its Label for a challenge (e.g., Pastoral, Fairy, etcetera) and have the wrong Style for the challenge.Having the correct Label adds a flat amount to your score based on the level of the piece, and 3-star pieces are the cheapest to Glow Up in level. At higher Glow-Up levels, this amount is typically higher than any of the individual stats.Rely more on Eureka to win.Eurekas can be recycled into other Eurekas as upgrade materials.This is better than committing resources on a wardrobe piece and later not using it because you found something better. Once you have decided on a wardrobe set for challenges then it's safer to commit resources to it.There is an Advanced Course task for collecting 50 Max-Level Eurekas, so if you spend on an S-rating Eureka with a style you can't get from SS-rating Eurekas, it's not totally wasted.Try to delay doing Realm of Eureka until you can do it on Normal Difficulty where you can get 5-star Eurekas.When you get 5-star Eurekas from Realm of Eureka, steadily get them to maximum level (10) and let these carry you in the lower-level styling challenges.Your ability to upgrade Eurekas can be greatly accelerated by buying the premium battle pass "Distant Anthem".If you don't buy that, you'll end up spending more Vital Energy on Eurekas but that's not too bad since it's more chances to get full sets of SS-rating Eurekas.You can delay upgrading your Collections score through the Realm of Nourishment until you need specific Essences.For Sweet-themed sets, the game does give out quite a bit. We recommend the Starlit Celebration set if you collected it as part of the giveaway for Nikki's birthday (it should be in your in-game mail) and cautiously level that up if you need it to pass styling challenges.Cool-themed clothing will probably be an issue but there are at least two 5-star rated Cool pieces you can craft. The first one is fairly early in the game if you follow the main quest.You get the sketch for "Raging Bouldy" after fighting your first Bouldy.You get the sketch for "Endless Hug" late in the main quest, in Chapter 7.All challenges involve a Style but simply choosing the highest star rating and level is not always optimal.Especially for Accessories, sometimes a lower-star rating item will contribute more to your score.It's pretty tedious to check, but you can remove all accessories and for each category add the best piece and record the improved score. Then select the five pieces that improve the score the most and put those on for the challenge.For challenges involving a Label, clothing with that label contributes more than its Style score indicates, so after filtering for Style, Reset your filters and choose only the Label. Look through the label-filtered selections again to see if a piece with the challenge label can give you a higher score.Remember OuterwearSets typically do not have an Outerwear piece, so when you select an entire set, check the Outerwear category. Even if a piece doesn't have the correct Style, it can still contribute a little bit to your score.As you craft pieces of Wishful Aurosa, level them up for Elegant-style challenges.The Wishful Aurosa is sadly only comparable to a 5-star from the Permanent banner and nothing exceptional. But at least you don't have to pull more 5-star pieces from banners.Of course you'll want to start with the lower-level areas like Florawish where you can win with minimal or no materials investment.
Romantic Escapades - Poetry quiz correct answers
In Romantic Escapades, the cozy-life-sim-with-harem adult game, you can unlock a poetry quiz with Murong Yan at Fengzhu ju on the southern island. If you the daily quiz correctly you get an Ancient Manuscripts for Cui Yinger at the Clinic to improve the prices you get for selling your materials there.However, the lines of poetry are not translated so players not literate in Chinese will have a pretty tough time guessing.We've assembled some slides of correct answers below. You can usually just match the last character in the line of poetry to identify which one you are quizzed with and select the answer highlighted in red. The choices and order the multiple choice answers can vary.You can also take a screenshot and upload it to a free AI like Microsoft CoPilot and ask it to translate all sentences. From the subject in each line you can probably deduce the correct pairing.WORK IN PROGRESS -- we'll update the slides as we encounter more quiz questions and answer them correctly.
Disney Dreamlight Valley - How to do a Manual Rollback on PC
If you are worried about a game-stopping glitch in Disney Dreamlight Valley, you might want to prepare to rollback your game to an earlier save. Here's how to do it if you are playing on PC.WARNING: A rollback of course means progress since the rollback save is wiped. This CAN affect certain account-related things like Moonstone totals and possibly one-time mail to your account.Be extremely careful if you do a rollback!What you need: One extra computerDisney Dreamlight Valley of course has CLOUD saves but also has Local saves that are specific to each computer. So you need at least one other computer to install your game in order to hold the save game you want to rollback to. Install the game on this secondary computer.I have a DESKTOP and a LAPTOP. I normally play on my Desktop so my LAPTOP will be my secondary computer holding my rollback save. To keep instructions simple, I will use this setup.How to prepare a rollback:Exit the game on the DESKTOP. If the game updates properly, your CLOUD save will be the same as your DESKTOP Local Save.Start the game on the LAPTOP.Because the savegame on the LAPTOP (the Local Save) will be different from the savegame on the CLOUD you will be asked which one you want to keep.WARNING: Whichever one you choose will also become the CLOUD save. It is vital that you proceed carefully and know what you are overwriting.Since I want to make a backup savegame on the LAPTOP, I will choose CLOUD save.Now a copy of the CLOUD save will also be saved on the LAPTOP as the Local Save.Exit the game on the LAPTOP.How to perform a rollback:Suppose that during my play on the DESKTOP I encounter a glitch that blocks quest progress and I need to try things again, maybe doing it a different way. Now I will do a rollback to the savegame on my LAPTOP, which will be in a state prior to the glitch happening.Exit the game on the DESKTOP.Start the game on the LAPTOP.Because the savegame on the LAPTOP (the Local Save) will be different from the savegame on the CLOUD, you will be asked which one to keep.Since I want to rollback to my save on the LAPTOP I will choose LOCAL SAVE (the savegame stored on my Laptop).Now the CLOUD save will be changed to the one on the LAPTOP.Exit the game on the LAPTOP.Start the game on the DESKTOP.The DESKTOP Local Save will be different from the CLOUD save, which now contains the rollback save from the LAPTOP.When asked, choose CLOUD save to overwrite the DESKTOP Local Save with the CLOUD save.Continue playing. When you enter the game you should find your progress has been rolled back to the same point as your LAPTOP save.
Disney Dreamlight Valley - Storybook Vale - Easiest way to catch White Snippets
UPDATE: As expected, they hotfixed this overpowered way to catch white snippets on 2024-Dec-12. You can no longer place Lures in the Valley but the other types of Traps can still be used there.WARNING: This completely legitimate no-cheating no-exploiting method of farming White Snippets can get you so many that it might ruin your enjoyment of the game.Disney Dreamlight Valley's latest DLC, Storybook Vale, introduces Snippets as a resource you collect by "bug hunting". The trickiest one to get is the White Snippet, which actually appears somewhere in the base game Dreamlight Valley biomes, and can be used as a crafting material to make any other type of snippet.They are tedious to find because they seem to rotate about the valley so you have to run around looking for where they are currently spawning.The easiest way to catch them in large quantities is NOT to hunt around for them. Instead, just put down several LURE Traps.You can even place them anywhere in the base game Valley, even if there currently are no White Snippets in the biome.Then you go do something else and check back periodically to collect White Snippets -- of course, make sure you have a companion with the Snippet Catching skill.It's not really necessary to upgrade the Lures, but that can reduce the frequency of checking in on the game to collect your Snippets since basic Lures can only hold three Snippets each.Snippet Lure Traps are currently overpowered and if you place them in your base game Valley you'll see why: Even if White Snippets are not currently in the biome where you've placed the Lure Trap, the Traps will still create White Snippets over time.Furthermore, Lure Traps do not actually "trap" snippets from their surroundings. They create them over time to float around the trap and are separate from the regular snippets that spawn about and that you have to chase after.How Lure traps work, especially with White Snippets, is probably an unintended oversight so expect the behavior to eventually be changed to be more balanced. It seem clear that White Snippets were intended to be rare and hard to find because they can be crafted into any other type of snippet.If you put down 5+ Lures (not even upgraded ones) you can get hundreds of Snippets in a matter of hours and you don't even have to actively play the game, just check in once in a while. The sheer amount you can get can in fact ruin your enjoyment of the game, so think carefully if you want to use this method.
Disney Dreamlight Valley Storybook Vale DLC Hidden Redemption Code
If you have the latest DLC for Disney Dreamlight Valley -- Storybook Vale -- keep your eyes open for a hidden-in-plain-sight Redemption Code. Flip through the slideshow below to get the information. Obviously, beware spoilers.
Inflexion's Nightingale is doomed and here's why
Unless people start waking up and being mindful of how they are thinking, I think the game and studio are basically doomed.I've been highly critical of Nightingale since launch in my early access launch review and Realms Rebuilt Update review so you might want to consider my opinions on the Q&A transcript "biased", but here is a prime example of how dysfunctional the studio is:In the transcript, Aaryn Flynn (CEO) says:We struggled to think of the sword as a Victorian-era weapon. Hence, we didn't prioritize it, but so many folks wanted it, and we're able to do it. So the the sword is coming.On the surface, this doesn't sound unreasonable. However, consider that since launch the game has had players using farm implements as their primary hand-to-hand combat weapon. And the game has had the slingbow. How is any of this "Victorian-era"?And with the Realms Rebuilt update it has a sickle that boomerangs back to you when you throw it, and climbing picks that shoot out grapple lines. Are these also iconic of Victorian England?Something doesn't add up here, even if it is just a lack of a coherent game world design (which is actually a very dangerous flaw to have in a game). There's a problem here with logical thinking.Of course this is only one line from the Q&A but I think it shows that there is just something about the thinking process that's off. The same type of thinking that gave us (at launch) the need to mount a dead fish on a wall near your campfire in order to grill a fish. Or that makes a bicycle relevant to making ink by placing it close to your mortar.