My Week Unwrapped: October 3, 2020 – HoloVista, Genshin Impact, Tusker’s Number Adventure, 1-800 SUPER and More

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I just published an Apple Arcade Unwrapped roundup yesterday, the first in several months, so I’ll only be covering regular App Store games here. There’s still a lot to discuss, and pretty much all the games below are worth playing.

HoloVista

I’d been looking forward to Aconite’s trippy HoloVista ever since it was announced, and am happy to say that it does not disappoint. I have a full review here and a walkthrough here if you get stuck. At its core, it’s a “fake phone” game, where you interact with friends through social media and text messages. But there are also hidden object scenes that have you taking photos of different items around a surreal mansion. The whole presentation is top notch and I highly recommend it.

Genshin Impact

As someone who’s not a fan of free-to-play games, I went into Genshin Impact with very low expectations. Sadly, it doesn’t run on my iPad Pro, but it plays on my iPhone SE without any issues and is absolutely stunning. I’m enjoying the exploration aspect of it the most, but I do wish I could play on a bigger screen. I wrote some early impressions here, along with some more videos, but I suggest just trying it for yourself.

Tusker’s Number Adventure

I mostly know Digi-Chain from their first-person point-and-click adventures from a few years back. But they’ve been branching out and their latest release is hard to describe. Tusker’s Number Adventure starts off like a kids’ game, asking you to collect fruits for Mama Wolf’s pie. But before long, things start glitching out and all sorts of weird stuff keeps happening. A single playthrough should take about 30 minutes, but then you can play through it again with some minor changes and an alternate ending. There’s also a third version, but I think you need to figure out a 12-digit code to get the final ending. I just don’t know where to look, so I haven’t started a third playthrough yet. Overall, I enjoyed the game, though I wish the touchscreen controls were designed better. On my iPad, I kept having to look at the directional buttons to make sure I was hitting them, because there was so much dead space around them. Thankfully there aren’t any timed puzzles or reflex-based puzzles, so it didn’t interfere too much. Anyway, if you want a better idea of what the game is like, you can watch some of my gameplay video below.

1-800 SUPER

I didn’t know anything about 1-800 SUPER before buying it, but the comic-style artwork and description were enough to make me grab it right away. So far, I’m pretty impressed. You work for a superhero crisis hotline and have to give both superheroes and villains advice. But the catch is, you need to maintain a balance between good and evil. It reminds me a bit of Reigns‘ system of balancing four factions, but simplified. What really sells it, though, is the voice acting for each character. The writing is also entertaining, though I wish the subtitles had been implemented better. They don’t really match the voice acting, and the cover the character’s face. So I ended up turning it off after a couple of calls. I recommend just using headphones instead so you don’t miss anything. I plan to play more this week, so I’ll be sure to update you with further impressions, but I would recommend it based on what I’ve seen so far.

Pachoink!

Pachoink! has been out for a while, but I never bought it because I’m not much of a fan of Pachinko and other games that involve a lot of luck and watching balls bounce around. It was free this past week, though, so I grabbed it and played some. I’m still not sold on it, but it seems like a decent time-waster if that’s why you’re after.

Dark Mist

Dark Mist is one of those card-based dungeons crawlers that I love playing but suck at and still haven’t beaten. The portrait mode they added makes it a lot easier to pick up and play whenever, so I’ve invested a lot more time into it and unlocked all the characters. I didn’t have a favorite yet, but this past week they added the Beastmaster class and, well, now I do. It allows you to summon bears and wolves and even woolly mammoths to fight at your side. Some attack enemies directly, while others affect stats. For instance, a bear attacks all enemies in the front row and the end of your turn. A woolly mammoth increases all your attack cards by 1. I’m still learning which animals are the best and which cards work well with them, but I’ve gotten farther with this class than any other. It almost feels like an easy mode to me. But I still haven’t beaten the game! I think I’ve come close, though, so I’ll keep at it. Overall, I’m very happy with this update.

Sky: Children of the Light

There’s a lot of big Sky news this week. First off, I got some video in beta of the space pumpkins that are part of the upcoming Days of Mischief event. Also, there’s a new Traveling Spirit this weekend from the Season of Gratitude. He’s found in the Hidden Forest, and you can see my whole Gratitude guide here. And last, the Season of Prophecy is arriving this Monday! Just in time, the Prophet of Fire was added to beta and I got a video of it. I still have to complete the rest of the trails, though, so look forward to that in the upcoming days.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week, aside from all the Apple Arcade games I played. I’m looking forward to spending more time with both Genshin Impact and 1-800 SUPER, as well as any new games that crop up. Anyway, let me know in the comments section what you’ve been playing and I’ll see you next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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