NEWS: Surreal Horror JRPG Yume Nikki releases on Steam for free, teases further announcement with countdown

Published by indie game specialist platform PLAYISM originally in 2007, Yume Nikki is a surreal Japanese horror experience that appears not unlike contemporaries such as Undertale and a host of RPGMaker titles. It has been re-released on Steam today for free today, January 10th, 2017.

The game’s trailer hints at the game’s surreal nature and styling, evoking familiar images of many JRPG Horror titles popular on Steam, as well as the breakout hit Undertale, especially as more of the dream-like landscapes come into prominence in the trailer. The game’s premise is stated as ‘to walk through a dream world’, and so promises surreal horror.

Interestingly, it appears as if the game itself is focused mainly on the walking and exploration aspect of JRPG horror, and doubles down on this as a game mechanic. Talking to NPCs and learning more about the game’s undoubtedly unusual plot will grant players special ‘effects’ as movement options for moving about Yume Nikki’s unusual landscape.

On top of this, PLAYISM are teasing a new announcement on Yume Nikki, directing players to a website with a countdown to the reveal, which can be found at https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/gamecountdown/.

Developed by Kikiyama, Yume Nikki is available to download and play for free on Steam, and is available in both English and Japanese. It certainly looks to promise a unique JRPG Horror experience. PLAYISM, the game’s publisher, is also of interest: the company states that it specialises in selecting indie games based on their originality. Players interested in seeing their catalogue can find their website at http://playism-games.com/.

Do consoles have a place in a world with PC gaming?

Every gamer knows the old meme of the PC gaming master race. For years, PC Gaming’s most vocal defenders have shouted to all who would listen about the seemingly endless benefits of gaming’s most powerful platform. Those gamers that still squabbled over their preference of Playstation or Xbox were regarded as lowly console peasants. This argument is one of the many controversial issues debated among the gaming community, spawning many debates of its own surrounding framerates, resolutions and the relevance of plug and play convenience.

My personal view is that yes, playing on the PC is the most premier experience available to gamers today. If you want the very, very best way to play a videogame, chances are that outside of console exclusives, you will want to play it on the PC. This issue sums up to basic logic; simply put, playing on a PC lets you play at the highest resolutions and framerates with the highest graphics settings possible, if your computer can handle it.

However, that last qualifier is the sticker in this debate; for many gamers the sheer level of cost and research needed to play the latest games at such a great level is a prohibitive point. Many PC builds can range into the thousands of pounds and there are many pitfalls with compatibilities that can brick such machines. Imagine buying a thousand-pound machine only to inadvertently make one fatal mistake, and break the machine rendering all that cash a waste. It’s intimidating, to say the least.

The value proposition is handily debated about between PC and console gamers; the former insist that affordable builds can match, if not exceed the performance of the latest consoles at a lower price, while many console gamers have found that the small outlay for their black boxes offers the best possible value. It seems quite obvious at first; £250 for a PS4 today vs £1200 for a good, future-proof PC. From the level of investment, it looks like consoles come out winning.

However, PC gamers are quick to counter here; a PS4 costs £250, which gives you a machine that can do nothing but game (and some multimedia features). On the other hand, a PC gives you access to basically everything; fully-featured internet browsers, productivity software and an indispensable level of general functionality combine with best-in-class gaming performance for those with big enough wallets.

In addition, there are the infamous Steam sales, many of which represent huge savings that can more than decimate the cost of a game. Then there are other avenues; from the resurgent indie scene that offers a glut of excellent experimental games at tiny price points, to the widespread and much-championed modding community. PC gaming offers something for just about everyone.

In my opinion, on the value level there is a purpose for consoles. Quite simply, consoles remain the most accessible way to get into gaming at a moderate-to-hardcore level. To play the latest, most important games, the average person can just pick up a black box for £250, plug it in, download a patch or two and they’re away.

With a PC there are many differing and intimidating levels of access. To get into PC gaming there is a lot of research required from graphics cards to processor clocks. It’s hard to gauge the right amount of investment required to give you the best experience. But again, for the customisability and range the PC remains triumphant; if a gamer is so aligned, they can still play even on a low-budget machine with no graphics capability to speak of. There are a massive amount of Indie and Flash games that can cater for these exact needs. What is still up for debate, however, is how much value this actually offers. Sure, playing Flash games is one thing, but they’re a far cry from the latest and greatest AAA experiences out there. There may be many levels at which a player can game on a low-budget PC, but how much of this is worth playing when at around the same cost for a PC with such low-capability one can buy a PS4 and open themselves up to playing the latest Doom, or Resident Evil 7? This may be a controversial point, but who can honestly say they can find a £250 PC that will reasonably run those titles?

As a gamer that has recently bought a gaming PC, simply because I want to experience the very best way to play games for once, I have to say that I am not as devout a follower of the PC Master Race doctrine as many others are. The main conclusion here is that PCs are great value if you want to experience the very best way to play, but there is a place in the market for consoles. Like them or loathe them, the world will not be a better place if the consoles just failed. As I have stated before, more competition is, in general, usually a better thing for both consumers and for companies in the gaming space. As a proud owner of a new, proper gaming PC, I want to make clear that I love gaming in all its forms, and this includes consoles. This whole argument that pitches consoles and PCs against one another is just one way in which the gaming community is breeding toxicity, and I hope that this article has gone some way in showing why that makes little sense. Quite simply, there is a place in the market for the consoles and for the PCs and if the gaming economy is going to continue to grow we need to be more accepting of people’s purchasing choices.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger Review

I went into the Steam edition of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger wanting to love it. I had fond memories of this game that I played as a teenage boy on the Gamecube. I loved the bright colours, the look of the character, the locations and the style of the game as a whole. Not to mention the fact that, as a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, it harkens back to a nostalgic time in gaming that I wish we could see more of today. With that in mind, it is a shame that I found the experience not nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. While not a bad game, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is disappointing considering its initial promise.

Cutscenes are made with high CGI production values, but they aren't up to scratch on PC resolution. Screenshot from in-game.

To start off with, the game’s presentation, at first glance, looks beautiful. Colours are bright and locations are inspired by the flora, fauna and geography of the land Down Under. Levels usually take the form of areas built based on the look and feel of Australia and Tasmania. The character design, at first, seems interesting. But on the second look you start to see the cracks; Ty himself looks like a strange rendition of a Sonic fan-character, and the character art can at times leave a lot to be desired. It seems there was some inspiration taken from Sonic in the design of Ty and his friends, but I feel in this case the developers would have been better off distancing themselves from that particular segment of internet infamy.

Most of the characters in this screenshot veer too close to looking like Sonic the Hedgehog fan-characters for my liking.

The graphics do, however, benefit from the crystal-clear resolution overhaul they were given for the PC edition; the game looks crisp and runs smoothly. The graphics themselves were designed for the PS2 era, and for the time I have to say they were just as excellent as I remember. The aesthetic design and colours, especially of the beautiful levels themselves, are spot-on. The cutscenes, however, are still rendered in their original resolution which leaves the image looking blurry and occasionally stuttering; a shame, considering how well the rest of the game has been remastered.

At times, the game looks legitimately great and uses some lovely colours.

Presentation-wise, I feel that this game could do with more polish. There are certain rough edges to be found here, from some occasionally-odd character designs to some strange animations and general wonkiness throughout. This was a game that could have done with some more in the way of editing. There’s even a Shadow the Hedgehog style nemesis character who feels bland and cliché the minute you see him, and his storyline is about as predictable as one would expect given the game’s plot.

"I'm your angsty dopple-ganger, Shadow-er-I mean Sly!"

The sound design lets the game down in a bad way; the voice acting is worthy of derision. Ty himself speaks in little other than mildly-annoying catchphrases and the music is so repetitive that it wastes the Australian inspiration that went into the tracks. Other sound effects vary from ‘good enough’ to being below average and sometimes weird.

The gameplay is an interesting case; as a collect-a-thon platformer, Ty is about what you’d expect from a genre that evolved from Banjo-Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot. In fact, this game plays like a fusion of the two; you have theming and controls similar to Crash, and the collection gameplay of Banjo, in that the game takes place in sandbox-style levels with a list of objectives to be completed. It is just a shame that Ty offers so little to improve upon the formula. While the camera is somewhat difficult to get under control, I found Ty fairly easy to manoeuvre, his jumps high and his movement speed well-balanced.

If the game were better designed on Ty’s abilities as a character, it would be a lot more enjoyable. However, many times I have been frustrated by annoying platforming where the designers of the game seem to have misjudged the level of forgiveness that a jumping puzzle should give the player. This happened on more than one occasion where I was frustrated by the strange way in which Ty’s gliding mechanic seems to work (often times I would hit the ground faster than I would have if I had just jumped and let myself fall).

Other sections don’t make enough use of the game’s plethora of interesting rangs that offer some cool ideas as to puzzle design. I didn’t use the ‘Zappyrang’ once in the game and never found myself wanting to use it, and many of the games ‘rangs’ didn’t have any real use at all. It is a sad disappointment to see this potential go to waste.

Given the interesting possibilities of the 'rangs, they seem under-utilised.

As far as collection goes, Ty is a middle-of-the-road experience; the game’s story has you simply collecting items to move onto the next set of levels. These items (called ‘Thunder Eggs’ in the game) are received from completing map objectives like Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. I will say that the game did offer somewhat of a progression in giving Ty access to elemental ‘rangs’ with different abilities, such as a Flame-Rang that melts ice. As a result, it seems that Ty does progress along with the game.

The challenge is oddly set; for younger gamers I think that the challenge is set at just the level that it makes progression slow enough to be uninteresting, and it is set too low for most of the older crowd who grew up playing these kinds of games, so Ty offers a strange package that suits nobody in this respect.

Really, there is not much to be said about Ty that hasn’t been said about other 3D platformer games; players who enjoy the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon will find some entertainment here. However, one thing I will say that I loved about this game is that the underwater controls are a lot better than other 3D platformers. Camera wonkiness aside, there just seems to be a smoothness of motion to Ty’s swimming abilities that I feel is a true improvement on what 3D platformers had previously achieved in their own obligatory swimming levels. It helps that the levels where this game’s swimming took place were some of the more well-designed ones, and were gorgeous to look at with the beautiful sandy beaches and crystal-clear Great Barrier Reef water.

While other games' water levels are their downfall, Ty's water levels are some of the high points of the game.

The storyline is where the game is really poor, in my opinion. Boss Cass, the game’s main villain, is a walking cliché and annoying in every respect, especially his voice acting. The same can be said of Sly, the obligatory nemesis/rival character that 3D platformers seemed to love at the time of Ty’s original release. 

Unusually, most of Boss Cass' cutscenes feature awkward close-ups of his face. Between his Dr. Evil laughter and mistreatment of minions, this is the least of his problems.

Thankfully, the latter isn’t as prominent, only appearing in a few cutscenes, but his inclusion makes me wonder whether or not he was just there to fill a slot as the rival. His presence seems to be an afterthought and is not well-followed-through, given his minimal status as a mini-boss in a single level, and a convenient, though unnecessary, Deus Ex Machina at the game’s climax.

The storyline as a whole is fairly inoffensive, though it is cliché and cringeworthy at times. Lacking in any originality, though not beyond what anyone would expect for a mid-2000s platformer. It feels as though the game’s unique premise and aesthetic goes largely to waste in a storyline that wouldn’t be out-of-place in a 90’s Saturday Morning cartoon. I wasn’t expecting Citizen Kane, but I was hoping for something better than Sonic Adventure 2.

There's even a platypus in a bikini. Cringy references to 'that internet thingy' are extra.

Ty is a story of lack of payoff from a good effort. While the game is good, and enjoyable at times, with a bit more polish, it could have earned a place next to some of 3D platforming’s greats. Sadly there was just lack of that special ‘spark’ that could have made the game special; a tiny bit of polishing, a bit more editing, and this would be a great game.

Erm...I'm not sure if this is a catch-phrase. But at least Ty says it enthusiastically enough!

As a 3D collect-a-thon, there is certainly nothing wrong with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger; for both kids and nostalgia fans there can be a lot of enjoyment here. But in a world where such pioneers as Crash Bandicoot and Banjo-Kazooie exist, this is a somewhat average title that is a case of sleeping, rather than crouching Tiger.