Faerie Solitaire Harvest is disappointing. The first game was way better than I expected it to be and just some light casual fun (although they went waaay more serious with the story than they had any reason to, which always felt out of place to me). I expected this to be more of the same formula, which is the same standard fare as Regency Solitaire or Jewel Match Solitaire or things like that, but they tried something different this time...and it didn't really work, at least not for me.
Instead of making runs of numbered cards going +1/-1 each time you're matching cards with the same number, which removes a lot of the options you have the other way. It still expects you to get chains just as long as in the other game even though the system is less well suited for it. A few hours in and no new mechanics were introduced, unlike other games in the genre. It's just the same stuff without any real variety.
You can unlock various upgrades with resources you get for beating levels, but it feels like the kind of grind you see in a game that's trying to get you to pay real money for experience/gold boosters. There's a mechanic for making the game harder to get more rewards, but it doesn't actually tell you all the effects it has, and you can't change your settings for that stuff in the middle of a zone so you either have to abandon it and start over or just suffer with whatever crippling penalties you've unexpectedly dumped on yourself.
You have a chance of getting random rewards each time you clear a stack of cards, but more often than not it's just "lore", i.e. you can go to the in-game library and read some overly long text about the game world by someone who thinks they're writing a dense fantasy novel and not a lighthearted solitaire game. The menu for it is kinda clunky. In the same menu is where you upgrade your skills, and that's even more clunky because you can't actually mouse over them to see what they do, and it takes way too many clicks to see what they each do. It also doesn't show you which ones you can currently afford, and there's no progression between them to give you a place to start, and did I mention there's like 50 of them? Good frickin' luck with that mess.
I hope they get it together for Faerie Solitaire Dire, the next game they're working on, because I really do want to like it. I had a lot of fun with the original, and it's too bad this one just does not agree with me.
Oh, also the Linux version seems to stop responding after I tab out of the game, or even if I just get a notification popup from Discord or something, but the Windows version works fine with Proton.
Also also the music is great. It really has a PS1 JRPG vibe to it, especially stuff like Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross. It's a bummer the soundtrack isn't available like for a lot of games, because I'd totally pay money for it.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
Ancient Enemy is the next game by Grey Alien following Shadowhand. It attempts to build on the basic design concept of Shadowhand to refine the gameplay, and structure.
I have now beaten the game on the hardest difficulty. It was fun, but I canāt call it a successor. To begin this review, Iāll need to talk about the previous games.
I have been following the development of Ancient Enemy since it was announced, as Shadowhand was an exceptional game that left a profound impact on me. Shadowhand was the successor to Grey Alienās previous game Regency Solitaire.
I played Regency Solitaire first, it appealed to me as a casual game I could return to and play a laid back round or to, before moving on to other things. I probably played through the game over a few months because it demanded so little of me. It was easy to set aside and return to.
When Shadowhand was revealed it looked amazing, taking the same basic mechanics of Golf Solitaire, and using them as a resource to power combat moves, turning this simple casual game into a fascinating combat mechanic.
Regency Solitaire plays out where there are a few lines of dialogue, followed by a hand of solitaire, with little connection between the two. Despite not connecting story and gameplay I found this a fitting pacing mechanic.
Shadowhand played similarly but a lot of the gameplay sections were contextualized as combat, tying it to what as narrative happening. Some rounds were traditional golf solitaire, most of which were contextualized as an abstraction for our main character investigating and area, or searching for things, including having items hidden under piles of cards to be removed and found.
Regardless of the connection between story and gameplay, I was very much drawn to the story presented. Shadowhand was a world of Victorian era highway robbers, with a protagonist from high society entering the shadows for the first time to try and save someone they lost.
It was filled with lovable characters and strong dialogue.
The combat progression involved enemies with more health and armour, but also with you steadily collecting more gear, and while when I first played it I felt some weapons were clearly the best, as the game continued, I could see different play styles emerging that were equally valid.
Which brings us to Ancient Enemy.
Ancient Enemy makes a few minor tweaks to the core gameplay, and most of these changes feel great. Thereās a button to refresh the board of cards once per combat, which smooths out games where there are only a few straggling cards that you donāt want to waste your time searching for the right card for.
Where before you could find wild cards among the board of cards, now there are also refresh cards that recharge your active abilities. Active abilities have been in all three games, but previously they recharged a point at a time whenever you matched a card, so they usually are only accessible once at the start of a hand, and once at the end, at most. This new system feels really nice because you can see the recharge card before you pick it up, letting you plan around an expected immediate refresh.
The non-combat stages feel mostly unchanged, but in addition to the above added features the combat is significantly different in ways that some might prefer, but for me made the combat feel less dynamic. In Shadowhand your opponent needed to charge their attack cards by matching matches on the board of cards, just like you did. Since you were both matching cards on the same board they could dramatically change the landscape and trajectory of a hand, but also help you clear those pesky last few that were previously discussed.
In Ancient Enemy your opponent doesnāt play the game, they just get a free charge every turn and will perform an action when full. They even let you know which action they plan to take so you can play around it.
Regardless of your opinion on any of these things, the combat just felt less interesting. In all of these games you can achieve either a 3 star 2 star or 1 star rating in each hand. In non-combat hands its just whether or not there are any remaining cards when you empty the draw pile. In combat you need to defeat your opponent within a certain number of turns.
In Ancient enemy the 3 star turn limit is almost always extremely low. Which is indicative that you can defeat your enemy in 2 or 3 turns.
While this might sound like it makes for a more fast paced combat, what it felt like in practice was less interactive combat. Itās a single player card game, sure, but in Ancient enemy it really felt like I was playing by myself, and not with the game really. I ignore my opponent and stack of a huge attack in one turn. Before the last few chapters I was defeating most enemies in a single attack.
This lack of interactivity might not have felt so bad, except thatās how the whole game feels. The story places your main character in a desolate wasteland, wandering across the world with no one but themselves to talk to. The entire game is one long internal monologue.
I miss the people. I miss making friends and enemies. Seeing recurring villains, and watching a plot get uncovered.
That might just be me though. At itās heart Ancient Enemy feels like a game that is trying to show you a lonely world, and they succeed. This is the story of one man trudging across the world, completely alone, the only other creatures that he sees are the twisted remains of a world from his past.
Despite how well they achieve that tone, it just didnāt feel like enough to me. We spend all our time in the main characterās head, and yet I feel like I know nothing about him. Thereās no one for them to play off of. No friend or foil.
Because of all this it feels a lot closer to Regency Solitaire than Shadowhand. There was a story there, but I wasnāt attached to it in anyway. The combat felt less interesting to me. It was the casual game that didnāt demand much, like Regency before it.
All in all, if youāre going to just play one, play Shadowhand.
i canāt believe thereās a game called regency solitaire which is solitaire with a plot in which bella, who is the daughter of a disgraced, formerly rich estate, is looking to marry the totally rad worthington but may have to settle for old creep bleakley because her idiot brother gambled their wealth away and the player helps her out through solitaire
Regency Solitaire is exactly what it says on the tin, a solitaire game with Jane Austen-esque trappings. Thereās even a story, if the entirety of the dialogue could be squeezed into a page or two.
Our heroine plays cards to earn money to beautify her ballroom and be a more attractive match for the man she really loves, rather than the skeevy loser whoās holding a mountain of debt over her familyās head. Gameplay-wise, itās a solitaire game. Specifically, you draw a card and try to find a card in the spread thatās higher or lower than the card in your hand. These spreads can be duly elaborate, especially on higher levels; they also may require you play so many face cards to unlock sections, or click on a card multiple times before it leaves the spread for good.Ā
The increasingly Byzantine spreads lend a sense of progression; the increasingly difficult challenges lend more of one. At first, theyāre gentle. Get a perfect hand, maybe? By the end, nearly every hand has to be perfect, and youāre racking up combos of 25 and earning this much money per hand and . . .Ā
But the game also allows you to, well, cheat. When you spruce up your ballroom, you also tilt the game toward your favor. You have leveled power ups that allow you to reshuffle cards or . . . blow them up. You can increase your chances of finding combo-facilitating wild cards. You can see what card comes next in your hand, etc., etc. This gives you a little more leeway in messing up your strategy and counters the random chance element in any solitaire game ever. Thus decreasing the likelihood of a player throwing a laptop across the room because they couldnāt get a good hand, not once, not once.
The character art is appealing and also used on the cards themselves, which, if youāre feverish and loopy, can end up giving you a surreal sense of narrative when youāre just playing the cards themselves. Oh ho, so the skeezy bachelor is cavorting with the gossips, is he? Or maybe thatās just me.
Anyway, themed solitaire game of substantialĀ ācampaignā length. So it is.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
āRegency Solitaire is on sale for $4.99 on the Humble Store.Ā Ā
Trailer
Summary: Experience the romance of Regency England, in this sumptuous solitaire game. Help Bella take charge of her destiny and create the ballroom of her dreams.
Play your cards right as you tour historic locations, from stately homes and lavish gardens to the fashionable towns of London, Brighton and Bath. Decorate the family ballroom to unlock gameplay features and improve Bellaās chances of finding true love!
Cupidās arrow canāt fail to find his target - in Regency Solitaire, love is always just around the corner.
Even though Gray Pixels is re-launching with more motivation than ever, I'm still proud of the early content already up on the channel. So if you're new to the project or just want to revisit past videos, this round-up is for you.
Gray Pixels Weekly Wrap-Up: Regency Solitaire and Gemfridays #1
This was a busy week for Gray Pixels. Work is well underway on the main unlicensed game series, but in the meantime, Iām churning out a lot more weekly content for you too!
This week:
Gemfridays #1
Every Friday, Iāll be playing Gemfire on the SNES. The plan is to do the definitive playthrough with every family through every scenario. So far, Iām on year 2 with the Blanche family. I decided to start there as Prince Erin of the Blanche family is technically the main character. A fact that becomes super obvious during the end cutscene.Ā
Games For Your Consideration
#1 - Regency Solitaire
Games For Your Consideration is more a sporadic series highlighting games I think are cool and have spent way too much time playing during the week. This series can pop-up whenever. Some games featured here may also be recommendations, or they will show up again in another Letās Play series like Gemfridays.Ā
Regency Solitaire is great! Simple gameplay and a light story merge to create an easily picked up experience. I play this game late at night when I should be sleeping and wouldnāt have it any other way.
