BitSummit 7: Spirits

Last year Danny and James went full ham at BitSummit Volume 6 [Hub Page], but unfortunately couldn't make it to BitSummit 7: Spirits this year. Thankfully our good friend Michael was willing to go and check out some games on our behalf, woohoo!

Check out all the games he played below.



CrossCode

So it seems like CrossCode is finally going to have a Switch version. I mainly played the tutorial stages and it seems like the game is a interesting combination between a twin stick shooter and a straight up top-down action game. Graphics look absolutely slick. I have heard the story is a bit like dot Hack, in the sense that you are playing inside of an MMO, but I couldn't play long enough to get a basic feel for the story. Still, it's one to keep your eye on!

Lore Finder

I have to admit I only got to watch this game, because every time I returned for it, someone was playing it. The developers told me it's a metroidvania game with a Lovecraftian atmosphere. I thought it looked like it lacked a bit of polish in its action, but other than that the style looks pretty good. Plus, it's Lovecraftian, which we always need more of. 

Astalon, Tears of the Earth

Astalon feels like The Lost Vikings, a game made by Blizzard in the back of the day for the Super Nintendo. Like in that game, in Astalon you can switch between 3 characters with each their own specialties, which you need to solve puzzles. It felt promising.

[Editor's note: we played this at TGS 2018, check out our impressions on the Famichatting page]

MO: Astray

In this game, you play as an adorable cute little blob in a world that basically kills you instantly. The gimmick here is that Mr. Blob can stick to almost any surface (and zombie faces!) and that instead of jumping, you actually "launch" him (her?) in the direction you are pointing at. Basically, the game is a puzzle platformer. It looks magnificent, the jumping feels really good and in the beginning bits I played, the jumping mechanics were very fleshed out. Definitely one to keep in mind.

Gato Roboto

Gato Roboto is a completely black and white game, where you play as a cat in a robot suit. It plays very much like Metroid, so... Catroid? 

Anyway, it looks like a fun game, but it turns out I am extremely bad at it. The first boss trounced me and officially made me play worse than the 5 year old that played before me. Still, it looks interesting enough and the cat is cute. 
[Editor's note: this game is available on western eShops right now!]

Gunvolt X

Gunvolt X is basically Megaman on speed. The gimmick of the game is that unless you target your enemies, your weapons will be weak, small and pathetic. Once you target your enemies however, they turn into weapons of mass destruction. You target your enemies by dashing headfirst into them, making it so your are dashing all over the place all the time to shoot, dodge and whatnot. Plus, the game is super anime, complete with tons of visual effects, over the top finishing moves and explosions. I liked it.

 

The Missing

This game is interesting. You play as a girl who is searching for her friend. The twist is that the girl is nigh immortal and using said immortality, you need to solve various puzzles. See something flammable but nothing near you to light it with? What do do? Well, light yourself on fire of course and hurl yourself at the flammable object! Honestly, the game is super macabre, and because of it, I couldn't help but laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of seeing your head roll off some stairs because you just used the rest as a counterweight. Definitely one of the more unique games I saw. 

Lost Ember

Lost Ember is basically a walking simulator. You play as a wolf and have the ability to posses a number of other animals, to explore the environment. The idea is that you have to find pieces of narrative scattered about so that you know what happened. Honestly, this is not really my cup of tea. I have never been a big fan of walking simulators, and this game is not the game to change that unfortunately. 

Kunai

Another metroidvania game! I actually encountered this as a video at last year's Tokyo Game Show, so I was glad I finally got to play it. The way as I understood the setting is that it is a bit of throwback to old technology, like the old Macintosh interface. During the game you get two kunais, which serve as grappling hooks (for left and right), which seems to be this game's gimmick. From what I played the game felt responsive and fast, even though the demo was a bit on the easy side. Definitely entertaining.  


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