Joe Dever's Lone Wolf (Nintendo Switch)

[heroaltair2]

Someone has tried this game? Do you commend to buy it?

[wisestrider]

I played the I-pad version a couple of times.

Thought the story was good and actually fits into the Kai series really well (between Books 3&4) in terms of setting up Haakon as "the next Darklord threat" after Zagarna.

Also has a couple of interesting side characters and ideas that set up part of the late Magnakai series technology the Darklords have.

It let's you play as a Lone Wolf struggling to come to terms with being part of the nobility, so is a nice progression ready for Book 4 when you actually command Rangers.

Music is nice and Joe Dever narrates the introduction, which is great.

However I found it was quite combat heavy, especially towards the end, and not sure how well the combat controls will translate to the Switch (controls were QTE based touch screen - you select attacks, or Kai disciplines, then need to pass a QTE to execute successfully).

Puzzle controls (lock picking and some cube manipulation puzzles) worked much better.

I'd easily recommend if it was a traditional Lone Wolf game book because I did enjoy the story a lot - but that's not really what this is (although the story is experienced by reading a book and making choices).

If it's going cheap it's probably worth getting and running through the story on easy, but the challenge of the game comes from winning tough combats rather than choices you make in the story - I could see poor controls could easily make it too frustrating to finish.

So overall it probably comes down to the price you're willing to pay for a game where combat is by far the weakest part, but is also the main focus of the game (which is a shame, because all of the out of combat stuff - dialogue choices, moving around the maps, puzzles, equipment crafting, meditation and Kai discipline use, worked really well - if the combat encounters numbered similar to the gamebooks I'd overlook the flaw, but as it is the combats feel like it takes up at least half your playtime, and it's simply not strong enough to justify anything like full price).

[heroaltair2]

Feb 18, 2020 3:10:22 GMT wisestrider said:

I played the I-pad version a couple of times.

Thought the story was good and actually fits into the Kai series really well (between Books 3&4) in terms of setting up Haakon as "the next Darklord threat" after Zagarna.

Also has a couple of interesting side characters and ideas that set up part of the late Magnakai series technology the Darklords have.

It let's you play as a Lone Wolf struggling to come to terms with being part of the nobility, so is a nice progression ready for Book 4 when you actually command Rangers.

Music is nice and Joe Dever narrates the introduction, which is great.

However I found it was quite combat heavy, especially towards the end, and not sure how well the combat controls will translate to the Switch (controls were QTE based touch screen - you select attacks, or Kai disciplines, then need to pass a QTE to execute successfully).

Puzzle controls (lock picking and some cube manipulation puzzles) worked much better.

I'd easily recommend if it was a traditional Lone Wolf game book because I did enjoy the story a lot - but that's not really what this is (although the story is experienced by reading a book and making choices).

If it's going cheap it's probably worth getting and running through the story on easy, but the challenge of the game comes from winning tough combats rather than choices you make in the story - I could see poor controls could easily make it too frustrating to finish.

So overall it probably comes down to the price you're willing to pay for a game where combat is by far the weakest part, but is also the main focus of the game (which is a shame, because all of the out of combat stuff - dialogue choices, moving around the maps, puzzles, equipment crafting, meditation and Kai discipline use, worked really well - if the combat encounters numbered similar to the gamebooks I'd overlook the flaw, but as it is the combats feel like it takes up at least half your playtime, and it's simply not strong enough to justify anything like full price).

QTE?

[kurz81]

I would give a rate of 7/10 overall.
Story is great and perfectly fits in Canon.
Graphic is good, music is very good and overall itemization and game system works fine.
The problem is with poor choices of game balance. You can't advance with kai skills. You choose the good ones ar the beginning and that's it.
You need stamina and strenght because lots of fights, so int or dext builds just are sub-par and risky.
After some hours the game become very ripetitive and lots of farming is required.
I feel there is no end-game content.
I also tried it on pc and tablet, dunno on NS...

[andyc]

The above advice is right on the money. The combat is very repetitive, especially given that there are 5 enemy types in the whole game. They have reskins to try and keep it fresh and Joe does well to try and set up the endlessly similar encounters in new and exciting ways in the text, but it is a far cry from the books where you meet a myriad of weird and wonderful creatures and enemies.
I did see it to the credits on the strength of Joe's writing though.

[wisestrider]

QTE stands for "Quick Time Event" - from Wikipedia -

"QTEs generally involve the player following onscreen prompts to press buttons or manipulate joysticks within a limited amount of time. More recent games on consoles with motion-sensitive controls feature QTEs requiring specific movements from the player. The prompts are often displayed as a graphical image of the physical controller button...

...Whilst most prompts simply require the player to push the appropriate button in time, some may require different types of actions, such as repeatedly pressing a button a certain number of times within the time limit, or hitting the button with precise timing."

So on I-pad you needed to swipe up, down, left or right - tap the screen to fill a meter before the timer runs out - draw a circle on the screen before the timer runs out - touch the onscree prompt at the right time - or some combination of these - for your attacks to hit, get your Kai powers to work, dodge attacks, or recover from getting knocked down.