What's worth playing - my list #2

FINAL FANTASY VIII: REMASTERED
Final Fantasy VIII: Remastered is, as you can easily guess, a refreshed version of the Japanese 1999 RPG Final Fantasy VIII. The Remaster was released on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the original's premiere, and its production (and release) was obviously taken care of by Square Enix. The fans of the series certainly know the plot of the eight very well, but just to remind you and to provide information for those who are not necessarily fans of the series, we will briefly go through the issue of history. The main character of Final Fantasy VIII is Squall Leonheart, a famous young student of one of the three military academies, which is more widely known as the Balamb Garden. His last task before his official admission to the SeeD elite special forces is to investigate the truth about the military aggression of the troops operating in the neighbouring land of Galbadia. Squall is sent on this mission with other students - the heroes land in the city of Dollet, which Galbadia decided to attack. They quickly become entangled in a complicated intrigue involving the president of the land himself and a mysterious wizard known as Edea Kramer, who turns out to be the main cause of all the commotion. As far as mechanics are concerned, Final Fantasy VIII: Remastered does not differ from the original at all. It's still a classic Japanese RPG, where we focus on exploring new locations and fighting various opponents, so we collect experience points and develop the skills of our heroes. The fight itself is again based on the same turn-based system combined with real time actions - individual participants of the duel perform their attacks in the right order, and impatience on the part of the player may make the first move belong to the enemy. Fans of the series certainly know, but it is also worth mentioning the most important change, which was introduced to the eighth part of the series - GF-y, a modified version of appointments known from the previous scenes of the series. One for one character - this will allow him not only to use special skills, but also to summon the GF to the battlefield. Interestingly, GFs, just like heroes, can gain experience and develop, gaining new unique skills. In the case of a remaster, the creators also decided to completely renew their system of spells, weapons and currency. In addition, they have added scaling of opponents to the level of the player's character, which gives him a much wider range of possibilities in terms of adapting his team to more serious challenges. Last but not least, the three-dimensional frame has been slightly refreshed. We have better textures and support for higher resolutions. The soundtrack (created by the composer Nobuo Uematsu) has not been forgotten, either.

FALCON AGE
Falcon Age is an action adventure game developed by the Outerlop Games studio. The production can use virtual reality goggles and motion controllers, although this is not required from the player. We find ourselves here on an alien planet, which has fallen victim to an invasion of extremely aggressive robots. These robots have completely destroyed the culture of the local population, depriving it of all natural resources, which ultimately made the land a huge, deserted desert. We take on the role of Ara, a girl who has been thrown into prison for some misconduct. While waiting for her sentence, she befriends a hawk. Then they both run away and finally set off on a long journey. So they have to fight for survival first and foremost, but also support the resistance movement in order to drive the robots out of their land forever. Everything, however, is seen from the first-person perspective. The gameplay is based mainly on wandering through subsequent locations, talking with NPCs encountered along the way, as well as fighting with opponents - during the latter we have the opportunity to use a white weapon and use the support of our bird companion.

MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD – ICEBORNE
Monster Hunter: World - Iceborne is an extension that introduces Monster Hunter: World to a completely new, freezing land full of locations and monsters we've never seen before. The patch also introduces a few changes to the combat system. However, the gameplay is practically identical. The new region called Hoarfrost Reach is probably the biggest area in the game so far. Developers have admitted that the player will be exploring new areas of the region over time - halfway through the game it should be fully exploitable and in the end it will be the largest region in Monster Hunter: World so far. Hoarfrost Reach is entirely covered in snow, will introduce new game game game (including poppies, which also appeared in previous parts of the cycle). Because it's going to be very cold, our endurance is suffering a lot, so we'll have to remember to keep warm at the source of heat, eat and drink hot drinks. We can visit the whole land with the well-known Handeler, the character who guides the hunters. Iceborne introduced to the game an alternative way of faster movement between locations. Players can get on the back of the creature. Although we won't be able to control our mount directly (after all, it's still a wild animal), we can instruct them to move us to the right stamp on the map or choose to follow some kind of trail.

FRACTER
This time we are dealing with an unusual logical turkey, which also contains elements of action adventures. The creation and release of the production (which is also the debut of the band) is the responsibility of an independent 4L Games studio. Fracter focuses mainly on puzzles with mirrored reflections and sunlight - or more precisely, their propagation. If it sounds complicated to you, it's exactly what it is. We observe everything from above, that is from the so-called isometric perspective. The player takes on the role of a young, nameless heroine who sets out on a journey to overcome the darkness. So we travel through all the corners of the dark labyrinth, where from time to time we meet on our way mysterious (and not very friendly) creatures, which we must outsmart. Our task seems to be simple - we have to overcome successive levels and solve puzzles, but, as it has already been said, Fracter is not a simple game. The player is required to observe the environment very carefully, thanks to which we know how to move the light sources to the right places, as well as skillfully manipulate various objects in a given location. We run away from these monsters most often, because the game does not contain any combat system.

FANTASY GENERAL II: INVASION
If you like turn-based strategies more than survivors, you will probably like Fantasy General II. The game was developed by an independent studio Owned by Gravity, while Matrix Games, which is part of a larger corporation called Slitherine Group, was the publisher. Two in the title of the production is by no means accidental - we are talking about a continuation of the classic Fantasy General from the team of Strategic Simulations Inc. from 1996, which was a spin-off of Panzer General. Fantasy General II once again takes the player to the fantastic land of Aer. The game begins about three hundred years after the events of the first part. Playing as the son of the leader of one of the great barbarian tribes - our task will be to prove to the father and the clan council that we have sufficient skills and war talents in fighting the armies of the Empire. But these are supported by mysterious dark forces and other border clans, so it's not going to be that easy. The second part in terms of mechanics does not differ much from the original - these are still turn-based battles fought on a very large scale, and players can command up to 75 types of units. Among them you will find ordinary troops, as well as powerful warriors with a range of unique skills. Interestingly, our army is not only made up of people, but also includes fantastic creatures. Therefore, a very important element is the appropriate use of spells and magical objects. Fights are also subject to certain factors - depending on how a given fight goes on, depends on the terrain, our equipment, or even morale of the army. In turn while playing in the campaign, we must remember that our subordinates gain then points of experience - thus it is worth to especially try to limit losses, because fallen warriors are replaced by much weaker individuals. Fantasy General II offers both single player and multiplayer modes.

What kind of game do you recommend ?