Tag: ps4

Shakedown: Hawaii Quickstart Guide

Shakedown: Hawaii launched this week on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Playstation! I really enjoy the game so I thought I’d publish a little mini-guide to how to get the most out of the game. Look for a little more fleshing out over the next few days.

As always, if you have questions or anything to say at all, please drop a comment at the bottom of the page; I read every one!

Updates

2019-05-17: The first content/bugfix patch released today! Features:

  • More guidance to finish main story to get money early on
  • More Shakedown Scenarios (even more variety!)
  • Car Repossession (earn extra cash for your Subprime Auto locations)
  • Weapon Pawning (earn cash and clear out inventory)
  • Shop Icons added to the map
  • Expands some building interiors
  • Character upgrades can now be unequipped
  • Faster property and multipliers purchasing
  • Salary can now be increased quicker
  • Police chases improved
  • Horns/sirens added to vehicles
  • Bug fixes (nearly all reported bugs have been fixed)
  • More detailed info on the official site

General Tips

Secret? Hold L+R to change characters…I never noticed.

Relax! Shakedown: Hawaii is one of the chillest games you’ll play and there’s nothing you can really do wrong to meaningfully screw yourself over. No permanent negative choices, no missable achievements, nadda.

The property management aspect takes a little time to get used to, but you can safely mess with it at your own speed early own and know that buying the ‘wrong’ property doesn’t matter long-term. Eventually, you want everything anyway.

Once you unlock the ability to Shakedown businesses, it’s not a bad idea to make a sweep of the map and clear most or all of them early on. It’s fun, it’s varied, there’s no extra prerequisites, and it’s free extra money every day.

There’s no need to rush the main story, but it does unlock a lot of stuff, and many of the early missions serve as a gradual tutorial. If you don’t know what to do, you should usually just go to the next mission.

Sidequests are often unlocked by buying a certain amount of properties, which is a major part of Shakedown: Hawaii, so don’t neglect it.

For some reason, only one of the 3 Veterinary Clinics actually lets you buy character upgrades (Kee Replacement for double jumps etc). It’s the one in the south-east of the map just below the river and just east of the weird bottomless pit things.

Combat

Restore your health with heart drops from enemies, buying snacks in various stores, or hopping in an Ambulance (seriously).

Some late Shakedowns have very large amounts of heavily armed enemies. It can be best to use a car as a weapon/armor in these cases; if the car is destroyed you are not instantly killed!

The cops matter a lot less than in Grand Theft Auto; you can easily get Cop Cloaking Devices by beating cops to shake them off, and half the time they don’t even respond if you’re driving down the sidewalk mowing down dozens of people. Which, by the way, is a great way to get early-game cash.

Gold Medals in challenges are usually pretty easy, but if you’re having trouble note that cars give a large amount in most challenges, but only if they’re destroyed. Don’t hit a car unless you’re going to destroy it. Keep moving as well, and take any easy shots you see.

Shopping

Cosmetics in Shakedown: Hawaii seem super expensive at first, but as you Shakedown properties, it’s less of a big deal. If possible, Shakedown a store and buy the property before buying anything with your pocket cash

You’ll eventually be able to pay yourself a salary, turning your “business” cash into pocket cash.

Most enterable businesses have weapons behind the counter you can take with impunity.

You don’t lose weapons when you die, so you should rarely need to buy any. Just spread out your weapon use and you’ll be given plenty during missions and Shakedowns.

Properties

The biggest addition over Retro City Rampage is the property/business management side of things. You can buy every building on the map (eventually), and there’s some (just some!) strategy into what to buy and when. The best way to find what to buy is to use the Business tab in the main menu rather than the map.

Generally, when you have the money to buy something you should buy it; money is best used on getting more money due to compounding returns. If at all possible, buy all of (this is easiest with low-count properties, like fast food joints; Subprime Auto is the easiest one to get very early.

Go for the “Premium” businesses (red color, icon is two buildings) in the For Sale tab; Natural Gouge Fine Foods under Grocery are particularly cheap yet high income.

Later on, once you’re earning at least 100,000+ per day, you might start looking into houses. Houses start out with terrible income and low-ish prices, but the point of houses is to simulate the real estate bubble. As you buy houses the purchase and rent prices will exponentially increase; slowly at first, but by the end each bought house significantly raises the earnings from the rest.

Note that once you unlock multipliers, they must be bought per-property. Buy multipliers for your highest-value properties and don’t forget to stack them after you unlock more! Multipliers are unlocked by progressing the main story Missions (M).

Shakedown: Hawaii Achievements

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The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince Guide

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince just launched, so here’s a spoiler-free walkthrough for achievements and 100% completion! I loved the game (impressions video here) so I figured I’d help others enjoy it as well!

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince Game Info

Title: The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
Platform: Nintendo Switch, PS4
Language: English, Japanese
Release date: 2019-02-12 (English)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, localized by NIS America
Price: $40 at launch
Genre: Puzzle/Platformer

Updates

2019-02-14: Walkthroughs for Full Moon with the Prince, Chapter 5 and final boss added! Walkthrough complete!
2019-02-13: Chapter 4 walkthrough added. Added most enemy info.
2019-02-12: The game is released! The PS4 theme is free today

General Tips/FAQ

  • First and foremost, this is not a “Guide Dang It” game! Don’t worry about missables (there are none) and you should be able to beat most of the game without a guide, so try your best and come back if you get stuck or need something specific
  • You don’t have to complete a level/survive to keep Collectibles. If you touch a Petal or give a Flower to the prince, it’s saved even if you leave the stage
  • Try clearing a path of enemies before taking the prince along when possible
  • For Pacifist challenges, jump over small enemies in the way and you’ll usually be able to avoid them. Sometimes you have to be patient to wait for opportune enemy placement.
  • For Speed challenges, making a clean run through a level without any KOs or major mistakes is usually enough. You’ll usually be good on these your second playthrough if you remember what to do.
  • Mushrooms cary your momentum from when you jump; press jump after moving in a direction to jump much farther in that direction. It’s much harder to change course mid-jump
  • Drop gingerly off ledges with mushrooms below; it’s pretty easy to take fall damage from some of the spots
  • In certain circumstances, you may need to select Retry from the menu to return to your last checkpoint if you’re permanently separated from the prince or otherwise mess up a puzzle. Don’t worry, it doesn’t restart the whole level, just the checkpoint
  • If you’re really, really stuck, you can skip stages after 10 minutes (but there’s a walkthrough below, so you shouldn’t get stuck that long…)

Walkthrough (Spoiler Free)

Here you’ll find video walkthroughs of every level in the game with all story cutscenes removed, so no spoilers! Click the links to skip right to the relevant level or use the embed to see the whole chapter. I’ve also noted which levels have achievements specific to them.

Each level has 5 Petals to collect and some have one Flower; see the Stage Select menu in the game to see which you’re missing from which stages. I recommend a full playthrough before going back to re-collect Petals, you can do it at any time so no rush, and it’s more fun if you try to figure out the puzzles at least once yourself.

 The Forest of No Entry

Chapter 1

Full walkthrough video:

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Mothergunship Tips & Tricks Guide

Mothergunship is out now for PS4, PC, and Xbox One! You can buy it for PC here or digitally for Xbox One/PS4.

I’ve been having a blast with it so I’ve started a guide to share some important info and tips! I’ll be expanding it over the next few days/weeks, so feel free to suggest info, tell me what I’m missing, or ask questions in the comments!

Mothergunship Essential Tips

Progression

The game is a “roguelite” meaning it has progression systems between runs; you lose the currently held gun parts but nothing else upon dying. This means you’re always moving forward and at most you “lose” a short play session’s worth of progress, rather than starting over from the beginning.

This makes Mothergunship much more accessible for those who haven’t played many Roguelike games, but don’t think it won’t get harder as you go along! But generally, don’t be afraid to experiment and learn by doing, since there’s very little to lose.

Note that not all features are unlocked from the start; progress through the main story missions to unlock various features like the ability to spend Experience, the Smugger’s Shop, Endless Mode etc.

Experience (purple diamonds) are used to level up your mech between levels, and can raise your jump count, movement speed, HP, hazard resistance, energy cap, energy recharge rate, ability to find secrets, and resistance to landing stun.

Coins can be used inside or outside of a level; inside a level Coins buy very cheap gun parts that are often critical to surviving and progressing through the map. After a level, extra coins are added to a total from which you can buy (very expensive) guns in the Smuggler’s stop.

Gun Parts can be gained from shops inside levels, and are kept as long as you beat the level. Gun parts are never dropped randomly or found in secrets; only shops.

Gun Parts are the only thing in the game that can be ‘lost’, but you only lose what you found in the level, plus anything you decide to take along. By simply not taking a favored gun on a risky mission, you can avoid losing it. Even if you do lose a good one, you can potentially get it back from the Lost and Found part of the Smuggler’s stop (for a fee, of course!).

There is (for some ungodly reason) a limit of 100 gun parts, so after you pick up too many gun parts, you’ll have to sell some.You’ll never be unable to pick up a gun part and lose it instantly; at the end of a mission you pick which parts to sell.

Kiting and dodging

Kiting (the practice of running around enemies to avoid their shots) is critical in this game (it is a bullet ballet after all). Certain enemies have limited ranges, unusual bullet arcs, or limited turning radiuses. 

Large cannons in particular you can often stand directly behind and hit, other enemies you’ll have to circle strafe around to keep them from hitting you. 

It’s often best to clear out low-HP smaller enemies before engaging in a strafe-down with a larger, high-HP enemy. You can only keep track of so much at once, and the difference in health can be quite large.

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CyberDimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online Guide

This is a guide for gameplay, progress, and trophy information in CyberDimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online! The single most important thing to know about this game is nothing is missable and there’s no need for replays! It’s the lowest-anxiety Neptunia game ever, so no need to worry about True Ending requirements, bad ends or anything annoying like that!

As always, if you have questions simply ask them in the Comments section below and I’ll answer them and update the guide. This guide is a work in progress but I’m always willing to update my guides with new info, and I’m playing the English version right now to keep it up to date.

Updates

Guide Updates

2018-02-28: The PC version has finally released on Steam! The information in this guide is still accurate for the PC version, though I don’t have any info on PC-specific bugs if any.

2017-10-19: More locations, started adding maps (anyone got “all gather point” maps for the ones before Sea of Trees?)

2017-10-18: Added Bugs section with both helpful and very not so helpful bugs. More location info.

2017-10-17: More info on grinding, trophies, locations. Added some gameplay tricks to Uni and Nepgear’s sections.

2017-10-10: Release day! Added some more character info and spruced up the writing in general.

2017-09-25: Initial version.

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Cyberdimension Neptunia Game Updates

The english version of Four Goddesses Online comes with all the Japanese patches by default. In case you’re not aware of these changes, this is the most major changelist from the base Japanese version:

Guide Index

Return to the Neptunia Mega Guide, which links guides and info for all games.

 

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Birthdays The Beginning Trophy Guide – All Achievements

Due to a bit of a bug, Birthdays The Beginning has a nearly impossible Platinum Trophy but it does still work; info for every trophy is included here! Feel free to use the comments if you have a question or info to share.

Updates

2018-03-04: The trophy is confirmed possible thanks to Tanuzomi on twitter: It takes 10+ billion cube years or about 600 hours of gametime, however. 

2017-06-23: Possibly not. The update notes claim Riding the Waves of Time to have been reduced to 3 billion cube years, but it is not. For now the platinum should be considered effectively impossible. It’s possible the unlock either doesn’t work or it may still be 100 billion cube years (requiring whole months of leaving your PS4 on at all times)

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12 Things You Might Not Know About PSVR

I’d like to address some common myths or concerns I’ve seen about PSVR (and in some cases, VR in general).

Is PS4 Pro Necessary?

I firmly believe PSVR launched before PS4 Pro to help break this illusion, but no, PS4 Pro is not required/expected for a good experience in VR. Most games still look and work great on a standard PS4 (the only way I’ve played PSVR myself).

So no, PS4 Pro isn’t required for a good experience here. It might be nice, but I don’t feel like I’m missing much before it’s out.

Are PSVR Framerates Bad?

Related to the Pro myth, no, framerates on current PSVR games are fine. Some are 60 FPS, but due to Frame Reprojection they feel seamless themselves. The only “jitter” I’ve noticed in VR is when Move or DS4 controllers pop out of camera range, the actual head tracking and animation have been smooth in every game I’ve played. I honestly can scarcely tell the difference in framerate between Thumper (90 FPS) and most of the 60 FPS experiences personally.

Of course, it’s always possible for someone to release a game with poor performance. But this far, sony and/or devs have done a great job keeping frames intact.

Forget what you know about 30 FPS-targeting console games. VR games are a different target platform with different minimum expectations. Thus far, devs understand the importance of framerate, and I don’t see that going away.

I Can’t See 3D/3DS 3D Doesn’t Work For Me

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Three Days in Virtual Reality – PSVR Impressions

VR finally arrives, after what’s felt like an eternity. Starting with the Oculus Rift kickstarter (which I had neither the faith nor the spare cash to back) I’ve been waiting for Virtual Reality, and it’s finally here, in a moderately economical form in PSVR.

I’ve tried out VR briefly in the form of Google Cardboard, as a proof of concept it was powerful, but it really just made me want to get some “real” VR gear. Samsung Gear VR was never for my phone, and Vive and Oculus were a bit out of my price range. Hence PSVR came to be my first headset.

This is by no means exhaustive (I’ve only played about half of the games/experiences I own so far), but here’s a look into my first few days trying VR.

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Megadimension Neptunia Victory II Guide

Here you’ll find a mini-walkthrough of important events, True Ending requirements, trophy info and more! If this guide helps, you can consider contributing to my Patreon fan-funding campaign, as I make all my guides and articles for free.

As always any questions or new tips are welcome, and generally best left in the Comments section below.

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Omega Quintet Review

Omega Quintet: I am the alpha and the  *ω*

Editor’s note: I’ll be comparing this game to Hyperdimension Neptunia a lot. Both are silly JRPGs by Compile Heart, so if you’re interested in one you’re probably interested in the other, but more importantly Omega Quintet is also based on a moderately modified Neptunia engine.

Editor’s second note: I do not actually have an editor.

All in all, Omega Quintet is pretty much what you expect for better or worse. Fairly low budget, the story is focused on humor rather than complexity or intrigue, graphics aren’t impressive, but the one thing that really stands out is the gameplay, specifically the combat.
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Axiom Verge Guide, Maps, & Walkthrough

This guide includes a full, spoiler free walkthrough for Axiom Verge for PS4, PS Vita, PC, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, Xbox One, all the things really. It includes maps to help you 100% the game, and assorted tips to help you through the game including item descriptions and special “cheat” passcodes.

As always if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section at the bottom! I read all my comments and update all my guides regardless of age if new info comes in.
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