Nayu's Gaming Time #29 Early thoughts on Stellar Blade PS5

FYI the age rating is 18 not 8 - blame my in a hurry photo skills for missing out the 1 on the label.

Stellar Blade, Developer Shift Up, Publisher Sony, Console PlayStation 5, Released April 2024

 I thought about writing several sentences about Stellar Blade on social media but it felt easier to say what I think here. 

Way back when it's place holder name, Project Eve, was announced, I hadn't heard of it. I didn't have a PlayStation 5 back then, hadn't thought about getting one even when it launched as a) it took a lot of time to save for it and b) there were so few games (or so I thought) that I'd be interested in I never paid any attention to upcoming game presentations that Sony regularly shows. Fast forward a few years to last year, when I actually got my PS5 (end of April, or early May), and I decided to pay attention to State of Plays just in case I like any games. 

 When I saw Stellar Blade I was totally wowed by how awesome Eve is. Ok, some of the outfits aren't that pretty for me but overall she looks totally gorgeous and I love her signature long ponytail. I watched the trailer at least a few more times, and vowed to preorder it on release. Which I did, and that brings us to today. Or rather yesterday when I started it. 

My preferred genre is turn-based games as I have more time to think (mostly), or farming sims where again I don't have to think too much. I have a few action-y titles under my belt now, while never amazing at them I can get through them. Way back in the day of the first PlayStation console, with a woman called Lara Croft who I spent dozens of gaming hours using walkthroughs to get through the tricky parts. The way I felt back then with Lara is how I feel now with Eve. PS5 games are not cheap, think I managed to get it for £65 which I had to save for and is a lot of money, so if I'd made a mistake and disliked the game I'd have been annoyed with myself. 

Thankfully I hadn't misjudged the game at all. It plays as the trailer looks, there is so much exploration of the mostly deserted world I'm super happy playing it. It's interesting because Eve isn't fully human, she doesn't know human history so ordinary things like an elevator intrigue her. There is a skill tree for several different sets of skills  which feels overwhelming as I feel i won't recall 99% of the moves. I read an online review that said button mashing won't work with boss fights and that is so true. I kept button mashing but each boss takes me over 4 attempts to eliminate. There is a way to train at certain camps where i don't have to worry about death (I must be almost at 20 game overs now), although I'm on the easier of the 2 game difficulties, have activated prompts on screen so in theory i should be able to dodge fatal attacks but in practice I miss at least half of them. I am really very poor at action games like this. I get frustrated (why can't every game be turn based? It's so much easier!!) but I love the story. I already have theories about who Adam is and how he will or won't help Eve (I'm eyeing him with suspicion). I want Eve to succeed her mission but I also want her to live life and am afraid at the end of the game she may die. (Please DO NOT tell me if you know the end. I will be upset if that gets spoiled). 

I love using the scan feature on the droid to see where both enemies and items are. I love that some areas need a passcode that has to be found then used. I already know I'm going to replay this one day. I've almost enough material to create a whole new outfit for Eve which is exciting. Yes some of her looks/camera angles are a bit much, like Tomb Raider was, but overall I love playing as Eve and how she dresses makes sense for her character. I might have some conservative views in the real world, but fantasy life I'm ok running around in a skin-tight suit. I focus on improving defence mostly since my combat skills are not good. I'm definitely in a happy place with Stellar Blade especially as my current area is a construction site and apparently we get to use the crane to make a bridge! I've not yet got to can collecting but I'm eager to get to that, and get to the base where other humans are that was shown in the trailer.

We need to talk about the soundtrack. It is so beautiful, I love listening to songs which are easy on the ears and fitting for the overall atmosphere of the game. I could listen to the music all day. I'm using the English voices, whose tone fits how I'd expect characters to sound. It's a Korean game, I sadly don't speak Korean, or else I'd listen to it but I wanted to give the English a go. Maybe in my second playthrough one day I will play in Korean or even French I think might be an option. But oh the music....

Stellar Blade is a PS5 exclusive, and I for one absolutely love it. The only less than great element is there are no manual saves. I save every time I visit a camp which is helpful as they are usually right by where as boss appears, but I still have to take those steps from the camp to the boss which when it is repeated over and over due to my ineptitude it takes time to do. I love how it looks, sounds, the plot is intriguing for me as someone who rarely plays apocalyptic games (not into Nier which I've seen it referenced to). For me this is a really spectacular game, and I really hope they make another game like it one day.

Nayu's Gaming Time #23 Boomerang Gaming Rental Subscription

Check out their website

 I say this at the end of the post too, this is not a sponsored post! I simply love Boomerang!

Most of you should be aware by now that I game a lot. I love gaming! It's a super fun, mostly low-energy using from my body activity I can do even when I don't feel great, which is a lot of the time thanks to my chronic health issues. Newly published games for the latest systems have always been expensive, but that cost definitely has risen for the two major consoles I use, the PS4 and the Nintendo Switch. I get so much gaming time because I can't work, but that bonus comes with not that much money to actually by games with. 

I wholeheartedly recommend waiting for sales to buy any game, unless there are some you must simply get on launch day: for me upcoming games include 

Animal Crossing 2019 

One of my Animal Crossing New Leaf houses

My Time At Portia (allegedly Spring release but no date yet) 

Pokemon 2019 

I adored the Let's Go Eevee game!

Girls und Panzer Dream Tank Match Deluxe 

The Asian version with English subs which I've preordered with PlayAsia and should get by the end of March due to shipping options. I absolutely adore the anime! To be able to drive tanks in a game involving the characters will be out of this world!

I've picked a fair few games in random sales, although Black Friday is the main annual one for great deals. I now play more indie games, something I never did much before but have come to love them like Stardew Valley (kind of finished with it, onto other farming sims!) , Mahjong Refresh (can't quite remember the exact name), Farm Together (whose title may put some off because it can be multiplayer but the solo version is great too) and many others. Equally when you buy a bigger game on the Switch eShop you get points that you can save for discount on other games. 

However, even with sales I can't buy all the games I want to play, especially when some I only want to try rather than pay money for. My local library no longer provides games for rental, which is why I ended up discovering the wonders of Boomerang rentals. 

Pusheen has totally the right idea here!

With the cheapest subscription starting at £3.99 Boomerang a highly affordable way to try out loads of games. If you like them, and in my view if the price is cheaper than of other online retailers) you can buy most games that you rent from Boomerang. There are no deadlines that you need to return the games on, you can play them as long as you want, although in my view if you take forever to play a game it may work out cheaper just to buy it. I'm on a deal where I can have unlimited amount of games, I can have any from the newest systems including PS4 & Nintendo Switch (I don't have the latest Xbox), and I do get priority on newer games, although everyone does have a chance at playing them eventually.

Because I have so much free time, and because a fair amount of the games I'm trying with Boomerang are ones I don't expect to like, there's been a week or two in my 2 month subscription history that I've returned and received a few games in quick succession. Every game is sent in a cute prepaid envelope so you simply turn around the address when it's ready to send it back. Depending which games are on your list, and what setting you place on your rental list (select from any of the games, top 10/5/3/1) does mean you can sometimes wait a bit for a game. Most of my waits are now 6 days +, although  I tend to bump a game up if the waiting time is sooner just so I can have a game to play with. I don't mind waiting much because if you have to wait a bit of time you get extra reward points which can be used to pay for your subscription, rent an extra game, buy a game, and more. 

I've currently set my game rental for my top 10 because those are the ones I do really want to play, even if I have to wait a little. I have had one bonus game already, because there was a bit of a glitch on site where it was telling me I could choose between 2 Switch games to play for an extra game outside of my 2 game allowance, when in reality I didn't yet have the correct number of points to rent a Switch game (Boomerang explained once Switch games got more popular they changed the point requirement which was the problem on my account). I had messaged them to check out the bonus rental work, they noticed the error, but ever so kindly bumped up my allowance so I could experience the bonus game rental). 

Through Boomerang rentals I've learned a lot more about this cute guy!

I have had well over £200 worth of games to try out for the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, Vita, and PS4. Reviews will be coming soon but I got 75% through Ginger: Beyond the Crystal, I actually completed Yoshi's New Island, and am working my way happily through The Legend of Legacy which I've bought through Boomerang because their price was half that of the cheapest online price. It's been fun trying games I knew I wouldn't buy or really enjoy but simply wanted to try them. I hate Mario but I'm now planning on playing a fair amount of Mario games because you can play with other characters besides the annoying plumber. 

I'm planning on working through a lot of farming sims like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. I'm playing the Yoshi games mostly in order. I'm enjoying JRPGs that I've wanted to play for ages. All for a price which most people pay for the mobile phone rental (I pay £5 for unlimited texts on Pay As You Go on a super old plan and I'm not changing any time soon!)

Gaming is fun and does help me get through winter which my body hates. I genuinely love Boomerang rental system. I can't stress enough how lovely and helpful the staff are. They are patient, answer all my questions, explain things until I fully understand them (brain fog is a real thing and not fun because it means I can't think straight), go that extra mile for me. When I joined I chatted with them on Twitter and they asked which game I wanted to play first. I couldn't seem to activate my account out of the free trial (you mostly can't play games for the most recent consoles during the free trial or on a lower priced subscription) and they sorted that out for me. I do mention them a lot on Twitter because I love what they do. I am not sponsored by them (I wouldn't mind this happening one day...) in any way or form. The quality of service is incredible. I don't deal with many companies in life, so maybe a lot do act as helpful as Boomerang, but I can't fault anything about their system. It really does work as they say it does. 

If you follow Boomerang on social media they often do competitions with great prizes including subscriptions to the major consoles' online services, games, and free rental subscriptions. You can change what type of membership you are on at any time without penalty. I won't be at my current subscription forever, but it's nice knowing I can change at any time, or take a break and not rent anything for a few months if I want to. Do go check them out, gaming rental doesn't have many options in the UK and from what I'm hearing in the USA either, Boomerang are mostly definitely my recommended choice here in England! Their website is here.

I play on my own but gaming with friends is fun too!

Nayu's Gaming Time #11 Final Fantasy 9 Replay Part 1

I'm super happy replaying a game I haven't played since I got in on the original Playstation, Final Fantasy 9! Also known as FF IX. I've played it quite a bit the last few days because when I'm not well (see upcoming Over On Nayu's Crochet Dreams post for most recent life update) I often don't want super bright happy games. FF9 is predominantly muted colours, thus perfect for me. 

I still have and can play on the original game discs (I'm blessed with a backwards compatible PS3 which I pray never breaks), however I've chosen to play it on the Vita. The screen may be smaller than my TV, but it's portable which is what I actually dreamed about back in the days before portable games were that great. It seems exactly the same to me! 

He has a monkey like tail (in keeping with so many non-human species in this game)

 I actually find the main character, Zidane, all round weird and while I don't hate him, I don't like him much either (least of all because  he is a player in the non-gaming meaning of the word)..

Wish she used this cape more than in just the early part of the game.

 I absolutely adore Garnet (who changes her name to Dagger which I equally like), because so much happens to her, she is a responsible princess with an incredible power (albeit annoying because it takes several hours before I can summon eidolons or whatever the summoned creatures are called in this instalment of the FF series). 

Other favourite characters include Steiner, who provides loads of laughs for his upright manner (he's protecting Dagger), 

Vivi, the cute little mage who I guess could be creepy because you can't see his face, but Vivi is Vivi, and I love the journey of self-discovery that he goes on. For the record the character in Qu's marsh who isn't Qu but whose name I've forgotten is supremely evil for not elaborating more on Vivi's grandfather (who isn't a biological family member) when little Vivi so clearly wanted to learn more. 

Not my screen shot

My other top favourite character which may be a surprise is Quina. Quina's gender has always been uncertain (I think this is the case for all Qus (at least I think that's the species)) which probably was quite groundbreaking at the time of the game, and is even more relevant in today's society.) I find Quina not creepy looking, I'm not sure why not, because the Qus aren't a human looking race and some find them freaky. I think I love Quina's naivety and mostly one track mind (searching delicious food). 

This fanart captures Quina's priorities perfectly!

When I first played this game I was entirely useless using Quina's Blue Magic skill, which involved eating an enemy once it's health was quite low, and thus learning an ability through eating it. I've learned 2 abilities so far, none of which are that useful, but Quina is handy for helping my party when Dagger isn't with them (she is currently separated from them-clever girl used a sleeping potion on the party to go on  her own adventure) because Dagger's cure ability is invaluable, and I'm a little grumpy at making do with potions. I do make buying enough potions a priority over any other item including weapons at the moment, stocking up 99 each time I visit a shop. 

I'm currently on my way to Burmecia, which reminded me why I probably hadn't replayed the game until now - the story gets grim, including genocide (I'm not kidding). I'm fairly sure the darker themes went over my head when I originally played it, they certainly don't know. I am making sure I play cute games alongside FF9 to counteract the darkness which unfortunately is another relevant topic in today's current world. 

Her husband is under the bell, which is immovable...until she waves his favourite food which Vivi had bought, the kupo nut (which is the same catch phrase Moogles are reknown for).

Last night I literally was playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp between battles in the Gizamaluke's Grotto to counteract the sadness of the dead Burmeceans. Bless the adorable pair of Moogles couple who add humour at this particular point in the game! 

I recently tweeted this photo because my purple hair matched the purple sea while the sun set! Such a cute, laid back game.

Future FF9 Replay posts will include exactly what the world map moogle says one you annoy it one too many times - it is so funny, given that moogles in general are cute, calm creatures (at least they are from my memory), my first FF9 chocobo sighting (thought Qu's marsh was their forest...) as well as game progress updates. I am using a walkthrough for this game - although I'm not finding many secrets so I'm confident in just playing without it for now. As always I do try and level up between going to places, because this helps me get new abilities and make my characters stronger.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this post - I'm strongly considering making a lot more! 

A saying which Moogle fans will love - they say Kupo a lot, + in FF9 there is such a thing as Moogle mail where you take letters from various Moogles to their friends