Nano Kingdoms (strategy)

Nano Kingdoms by Trutruka is a cute little strategy game. The player has his/her base on one end of the map and the opponent has his/her own on his/her side. The object is to produce an army to go over and beat up the castle on the other side. Battles tend to be quick since, well, it is not very far to walk over to the opposing side. And units tend to die quickly.

A typical battle.

At the start of the game, the player typically has the disadvantage since he/she has to build up his base while the opponent usually have his/hers fully developed. Because of this, the player needs to develop a strategy to hold off the opponent's early attacks.

He must have been working all day to develop his base. Cheat.

The player then has to develop his/her base in order to field an army strong enough to level the opposing castle. And the army has to be strong enough to step on the opposing army in the way.

Resources are needed for construction and recruitment. These are generated passively by base buildings and actively by beating up opposing units.

Building buildings to build the base.

In the early battles, fewer types of buildings and units are available. New ones are unlocked in the later battles. Sadly, unlocked buildings and units cannot be used in the earlier battles.

This means the opposing side will send golems at the player before he/she can make one.

In addition to constructing buildings and recruiting units, the player may influence the battle by casting spells. Different heroes and opponents have different spells with different effects. As the player win new battles, new heroes are unlocked for the player to use.

Casting spells require mana that regenerate over time. Beating the opposing army occasionally produces mana too. When the spell is cast, there is pretty animation, something worth watching at least once, though it freezes the game controls for a brief moment.

This is my answer to your marriage proposal!!

The graphics, and especially the sound, are cute. The battles are quick and fast-paced. However, there is no sandbox mode or free choice of opponent. As such, this limits replaybility. The game is short and can be completed in hours. Good for a short diversion.

Notice that the player has enough mana for Meteor Storm.

#1 Comment on Kongregate: "How concerned should I be that killing enemies gives me food?" by somerndguy.

Buddy Rush: Mini-wave Update (after 1.6)

Yesterday, Buddy Rush had a mini-wave update to include a few new contents.

I decided to try out the Prologue again. It was interesting to see a different version of Dumba, Calory and the shopkeeper (I think).

Now we know what Toxy will look like when she reaches middle-age.

New in the mini-wave is Ivardark's raid!

Level 100! Looks like he's going to be safe for a while.

Chapter 12 has the rest of the missions added. Hopefully the story will be more satisfactory this time instead of being left hanging. Also, yay, for extra skill points.

Dumba at middle-age.

And the end of the mission reward screen looks different.

Extra chest at the end.

The last chest has a keyhole shaped like a potion bottle.

3 stamina potions to unlock the extra chest.

It is said that the extra chest has a better chance of getting better items. It is also possible to get high-quality drops from during the mission from that extra chest. However, I have better use for my stamina potions, which are to be stacked in the corner and look pretty.

We'll have to dig Choppin out of that pile-up.

As with all updates, remember to turn on the Damage Meter.

Mission 7 of Chapter 12 is more difficult than usual because orbs (red, blue and purple balls that are released sometimes from KOed Oblins) do not appear. Neither do treasure chests as far as I have observed.

Update 21 April 2012:
After a quick update, Mission 7 of Chapter 12 now releases orbs and drops treasure chests. Don't forget to turn on the Damage Meter, again.
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Buddy Rush: Contents

Monsters' Den: Chronicles (RPG)

Monsters' Den: Chronicles, the latest game in garin's Monsters' Den series was released some time ago. The Monsters' Den games are turn-based RPGs where a party of four characters explores a dungeon. Unlike the previous games, in Chronicles, there are ten characters to choose from to bring into a quest. The quest involves delving into a specific type of dungeon, completing various objectives. Once the quest is completed (or failed), a new quest may be started with different characters. Character growth and the loot collected are persistent, even after the quest is over.

Update 22 January 2013:
This may be very late, but I just noticed I neglected to mention that the game is also available on Kongregate.

The heroes.

All quests start with the selection of the party members. As mentioned, each character's growth is kept after every quest. In addition, each character's appearance is affected by their equipment, which is why a few of the character's in the screenshot above look odd.

Depending on each character's class, he has active skills that may be used in combat and fighting stances, of which one may be selected to give bonuses (sometimes at a penalty). Although there are two heroes for each character class, each character is slightly different. Though heroes of the same class may share certain skills and two of the fighting stances, each hero has a unique fighting stance of his own. Plus, he may have skills that are unavailable to his counterpart.

Quest selection.

Once the party is assembled, the quest is then selected from the available campaigns. The difficulty and penalty for party-wipeout may also be selected. New campaigns are unlocked after the previous one is completed.

Update 23 April 2012:
The level of the monsters during a quest is scaled according to the levels of the party members. Campaign selection affects the types of monsters in the dungeon, not the difficulty. So choosing an earlier campaign does not necessarily make the quest easier.
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Dungeon exploring.

The quest involves exploring a dungeon, which is the staple of RPGs. Although the theme of the dungeon is fixed, the actual layout is randomly generated with each new quest.

The party explores the dungeon floor in order to complete objectives before moving on to the next floor and more objectives. Completing all floors will lead to quest completion. Enemies are marked on the map so the party can prepare by drinking potions before the battle.

New to Chronicles are secret doors and locked doors. The latter require that a lever in the level be pulled to unlock them. It should be noted that the doors are kind of small on the game screen. Squinting is recommended.

Battle.

Battle takes place in an ordered manner - the party gathers on one side, the opposition on the other. After selecting the party formation, the battle starts. There are a lot of details to take note of - poison, buffs and debuffs, power (mana) management, sneak attacks, target selection, accuracy, etc. Veteran players of the Monsters' Den series would be familiar with many of them. Newcomers should select the Casual difficulty setting in order to learn all the intricacies of combat. New to Chronicles are terrain effects that may help or hinder the character or enemy standing on it.

It should be noted that large battles are really challenging, even at Normal difficulty level. Fortunately, Chronicles is more forgiving when a battle is lost, compared to the previous games in the series.

Know thy enemy...

Helpfully, each hero and enemy may be examined during battle to determine their characteristics. That would be handy in determining the appropriate action to take.

Loot!

And of course there is the loot, another staple of RPGs. Chronicles provides a very large bag for loot, with more bags available to be bought. Each bag may be customized to accept certain loot when using the auto-loot function after battle or finding a treasure chest. This helps to sort out the inventory.

There is also an Emporium to buy and sell items. There is the option to sell the entire contents of a bag to speed up the process of clearing inventory space - more reason to buy additional bags for sorting purposes.

Strangely, the Emporium can be accessed anytime in the dungeon. Strangely again, the Emporium cannot be accessed while not in a quest. Such are battlefield-shopkeepers.

Chronicles does have a lot of features too many to describe in this article. There many new features for veteran players to discover. A help section is provided in the options to help explain some of the features. For the rest, it is up to the players to discover.

Battles may be long and consecutive large battles get tiring such that a break away from the computer may be necessary. It is possible that hours of play over a couple of days is necessary to complete the first quest. It is recommended that players complete the first quest to fully experience the features of the game.

In summary, Monsters' Den: Chronicles is a delight for fans of traditional turn-based RPG. The game is long, especially with long difficult battles. But it does feel good to get good loot after a particularly difficult boss battle.

For more details of the loot and features of the game, Monsters' Den: Chronicles has a wiki.

Monsters' Den: Chronicles, Tricks I Learned 

Buddy Rush: April 2012 Comedy Screenies

More funny screenies. Actually, I have found only one so far this month.
(Update 25 April 2012: Guess I found a few more.)

The previous month's collection may be found here.

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Jacky likes to kick people behind their heads.

Update 18 April 2012:

This sort of thing still happens.

Update 21 April 2012:

That's magnanimous... especially after he kicked two of us into the red zone.

Wow, look at all those words flying out of Aikilu!

Update 22 April 2012:

Oblinia gained the ability to walk through walls.

Update 25 April 2012:
Jacky kicked my buddies down...

And he ran away after that!

Update 28 April 2012:
Jacky strikes again!

There's no stopping him!

Update 30 April 2012:

Jacky's aim was horrible.

A nice mountain view. Wish there was tea.

Were we supposed to do something important?

Guess where this screenie was taken.

Buddy Rush: Contents

Innkeeper (management)

Innkeeper by Marvin Apacible is a management game that has the player running an inn. It provides quests to give the player objectives to achieve. In addition to that, it has a nice story told in dialogs.

Incidentally, the inn only opens during the day. Visitors do not stay overnight. It is possibly because of the local rumors of Aswangs, which are mythological creatures in the Philippines.

Typical day at the inn.

As expected of a management game, the player earns money to purchase facilities in order to earn more money. In addition to that, serving customers awards the player with XP, which may be used to purchase upgrades. These upgrades unlock abilities and amenities (as it is called in the game). The latter allows the player to build special rooms to entertain customers and earn more money.

Spending XP for upgrades.

Unique to the game are the different types of customers. Each customer has certain expectations. There are amenities that they would like to use. In addition, there are room furnishings that they prefer. The receptionist can be instructed to direct certain customers to certain floors and/or room types. Management of this feature is necessary to assign customers to rooms that best meet their requirements.

By meeting the customers requirement, they will have a better time and will give a better rating at the end of their stay. Better ratings would lead to more customers. Certain quests also require certain conditions related to the customers' ratings.

Each customer has their requirements.

The hotel is staffed by family members. Each family member is recruited by completing a quest. Each of them has their own stats, which make each of them more suited to certain roles than others. Despite the staff being family members, they still have to be paid daily wages.

Fortunately, their pay is cheap.

Family members are not the only feature to unlock. New types of customers will start coming once certain requirements are met.

New customers are unlocked by fulfilling requirements.

As mentioned, the story is told through dialogs. There is a main story and a side story. Each of those stories are advanced by completing quests. In addition to that, there are references to popular Internet culture and other Flash games. Also, once in a while, one of the characters will tell about the Aswangs.

Dialog!

Innkeeper has enough features to give the player a challenge. The references the game makes are entertaining. In addition, graphics (made by Studio Dereka/Nengachi) are cute and the music (by Kevin MacLeod), calming.

Further at the bottom are a couple of spoiler screenshots.

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Last chance to stop before the spoilers.

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Unlock Hipster.

The method I used to unlock Hipster.