Month: March 2020

Game Review: True Fear Forsaken Souls (Switch)

One thing I love about the Nintendo E-shop is that it’s not plagued by reviews, so you choose and buy games based merely off of your own opinion. It’s the best way for indie games and most games to make it. Unjaded decisions. However, that means you always run the risk of buying a bad game.

True Fear Forsaken Souls: Part 1

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Price: $9.99 Nintendo E-shop, also available for mobile and Steam

While searching for games to try, I found the demo for this game. I love escape and puzzle games overall and this seemed awesome, though I was hesitant on the horror part of it. You have the choice of doing escape style puzzles or find the items for portions of the games. I went with escape (it defaults to this). The horror portions were mostly cheap jump-scares, but the story it painted definitely held on to the creepy, Resident Evil-y vibe. So while I wasn’t horribly afraid, I was kept mild-moderately creeped out during the play. Many of the steps seemed unnecessary, but it progressed the story with varied puzzles and the casual mode I played on was very generous with hints. It supports touch or cursor play which his awesome because I’d switch back and forth between the two. Creepy factor increased towards the end and it kept a nicely detailed diary with clues and such to help out. Perhaps it’s the limitations of the programming, but the constant appearance of the protagonist’s 3D-style, static face during cut-scenes annoyed me tremendously.

Overall, it is a solid game, albeit short. Puzzles aren’t TOO hard, with a generous hint system, in-game achievements, collectibles and a healthy dose of the creepy, though predictable atmosphere and cut-scenes. Demo progression is saved, so when you buy the whole game you don’t have to start all over again. There is also bonus content that makes up for the relatively quick gameplay. As part of a trilogy, the cliff-hanger really did make me buy the 2nd one after mulling over it for a day.

True Fear Forsaken Souls: Part 2

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $9.99 Nintendo E-shop

Although I ended up downloading the demo for this part of the game, I was intrigued enough to buy this after the first section. Gameplay controls changed since the first one, some for the better, and some for worse. At first, I lamented the changes, but after a while, I found myself preferring the new. A few tweaks are still needed as the touch “back” button overlaps with the inventory which is hella annoying, but the rest of it is good. The cut scenes were a little better as now the close up of her face isn’t as static and boring. The story itself steps up the creepy factor–though typically anything dealing with insane asylums is inherently scary. MUCH longer game and story becomes more convoluted, but same generous hint system and the puzzles are a harder than before. You are allowed to skip puzzles which is nice, but I accidentally hit the skip button a few times when I was trying to finish without it for the achievement. Some of the touch controls were not responsive and I had no choice but to use the cursor. It was neat to see some Latin involvement, though the loose translation was too loose for a nerd like me.

I liked it quite a lot and was upset at the doozy of a cliff-hanger. So much so that I found myself going on to Goblinz’s Facebook page to figure out why. It’s in the works, which is awesome to know. Despite some touch control flaws and a few unclear puzzles, it was a welcome step up from the first portion and a recommended game.

Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition – Reaching the Source Temple

Platform: Xbox One

There seems to be few walkthroughs for this part of the game which is very much different from the original. So, to reach the Source Temple in Phantom Forest in the Enhanced Edition of Divinity Original Sin, you need to activate 4 switches. It doesn’t matter what order you do these in, but there’s an ideal order the game developers wanted you to (Air, Earth, Ice, Fire). Honestly, though, it’s faster to go Fire, Air, Earth, then Ice. That way you’d have faster access to the unlocked stone door after the Ice switch.

Air (x:230, y:210)

I teleported a Source Hunter in through the gates, then picked up the key sitting on the crates to the left. Alternately, if your telekinesis is high enough, just snag it through the iron gate. Because the oil is annoying, I threw crates on top of the traps. Open the gates to let your teammates in, as there’s a Demon that will pop up you need to kill before starting down the stairs. Hit the switch at the bottom of the steps to the left of the next gate. It will light up green for success.

location for the iron gate

Earth (x:252, y:264)

Open the door next to the Air switch (or alternately come in from the swamp side of the map, though watch your step). Disconnect a character from your party. The sentinel will see you and make the insta-kill lava on the ground. I used my rogue with Winged Feet. There’s a round pressure switch on the ground near the goblin totem. Plop a crate on there which will open the door to where the earth switch is. I didn’t see understand what the switch did initially, so I parked my rogue at the Earth switch door and used my other source hunter with high telekinesis to throw a crate from the doorway. Then when the door is opened, you can continue on with Winged Feet onto the to hit the Earth switch, or use the 2 teleport scrolls in the corner to hit it. This will open the nearby door which is a path to the ice switch as well as cause the sentinel in the prior room to crumble.

I already hit the earth switch. Some forum mentioned that you can throw the sentinel around, but I tried and couldn’t.

Ice (x:224, y:350)

From the Earth room, head through the newly opened stone door. Whether you entered from the stone door or the swamp side, don’t step on the dark tiles as they are all switches that will activate insta-kill lava. I’m not sure what the totem does because I killed it first with my archer. Then I used Winged Feet and pulled the lever on the wall behind the totem’s back which eliminated the lava and opened the iron door to the grassy area. Now, find the 3 statues (knight, worshipper, and fish), then “move” them onto their respective 3 green pedestals (there are carvings on top of them). Then, as Izma said to Kronk, “PULL THE LEVER!” A green mirror will appear. Go through it and hit the Ice switch.

I can’t believe I couldn’t figure this out without online help. It’s so simple.

Fire

In the Ice switch room, there are levers. You’re supposed to split your team up and keep someone at the levers to open and close the doors below. That will help you reach the fire switch. You can’t just teleport through these gates because there are steam clouds that block your caster’s vision. In the multi-gated corridor there is a sentinel, lava and a metal crate. Seems complicated and time consuming because it is. The simple way is to head west near the wooden bridge to where there is an iron gate. Then just teleport yourself in, hit the Fire switch, the door opens, and voila! Alternately, you could have entered the area from the backside (there are two chests down that path around the left side of the area that leads to the multi-gated corridor) or even use the green mirror portal right behind where you enter to get the Air switch.

20200307_1233274933522149297659070.jpg
The path to the iron gate you should teleport through is south of my cursor. My peeps are chillin’ in the Ice switch room

Hopefully it becomes of use to someone. In retrospect, I don’t understand how I couldn’t just figure this out on my own. The Air and Earth ones were easy, but the Ice and Fire had me running all over the place and wasting loads of time.