"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist

Welcome to Part 17 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series!
For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes!
For this episode, I used some of the demos I had grabbed from the Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest Steam Events! I think. I grabbed a bunch during those events, and outside of them, so I don't know anymore… 

 Each demo gets 30 minutes, not including the adjustment of settings and character creation.

Today, I, attempted, to play 4 demos for your enjoyment, which resulted in my picking a fifth:

1. Doloc Town – Available: To be announced
   Doloc Town is a cozy pixel art farm simulation game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Build your dream farm from scratch and explore this mysterious wasteland. Harvest, plant, build, and battle against ferocious creatures while discover the untold stories of this forgotten land!
2. Feed the Cups – Early Access Game
   Feed the Cups is a Roguelite multiplayer online cooperative game. Run a Drink Shop, stocking up, preparing ingredients, taking orders, crafting drinks, cleaning up, and checking equipment. Join your friends together!
3. Manitas Kitchen – Available
   Welcome to Manitas Kitchen, a casual cooking game with a dressing of arcade and mini-games, where you’ll meet Trexito, a T-Rex with short arms that has one dream: to become the best pizza maker!
4. Mushroom Picnic Party – Planned Release Date: Q1 2025
   Help find little mushrooms and prepare for an epic picnic party in this cute hand-drawn hidden object game!
5. Rift of the NecroDancer – Available: Feb 5, 2025
   The NecroDancer's back in an all-new rhythm game! Dragged into a strange new world, Cadence must engage in musical combat with monsters surging through the Rift! Face pulse-pounding Rhythm Rifts where every beat is a battle, all set to an original soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky & friends.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.
Manitas Kitchen is also on itch.io!

Why was it an "attempt" to play? Because the gameplay for Feed the Cups could not be recorded, just like with Backpack Battle. So, since the rest of the demos were short, I decided to grab a fifth! I'll have to pick a day to play the non-recordable demos on my own, take screenshots, and do a separate mini-review.

Despite this, I will still be able to render a verdict, via the "Layered Compliment Sandwich":

Doloc Town's pixel art was great! I LOVE a pixel art game! And was enjoying the protagonist's oversized shirt and what looked like a welding mask. And, almost, the second I found out jumping was faster than walking, I became a hopping fool. The game has an interesting balance of tutorial and figure-it-out. The tutorial for removing platforms needs a slight adjustment. It took me a minute to figure out what "at your feet" meant. There's trying to be creative and then there's needless confusion. Advising stand on it to hit it with the pickaxe is fine. What I found amusing was when the bag got full, there was suddenly a letter about where to get a bigger one. Convenience kink!

Feed the Cups looked promising, but I can only comment on the snippets that actually showed up in the video, which was the art. It wasn't bad. I was looking forward to seeing more. And I think there's a pattern with their demos; they made Backpack Battle. If I remember, I'll dig deeper to see if it not being recordable was on purpose. It's not a good business move if it is, though. Video game journalism includes videos and, a lot of the time, people buy games because they saw someone else play them. I'M one of those people. Before I buy a game I'm looking forward to, or even their DLC, I look at reviews. I look at game footage. I wanna know what I'm getting into before I buy. So, IF they are purposely blocking their demos from being recorded... why?

Manitas Kitchen was a pleasant surprise! The typos threw me off, though. I don't know if I have a learning disability, or if it's because I'm Autistic, but the less grammatically correct a sentence is, the longer it takes me to process it, so there were a few pauses as I was reading. THANKFULLY, the tutorials were in pictures, which made picking up on the mechanics easier. I'm a visual learner, so words must come with pictures. Examples are, usually, needed, and they delivered. Well done! An annoyance, though, is the small space. The stations need to be widened a smidge and/or the area where Trexito can stand and still access the stations. I lost track of how many times I snapped at the game because I was pressing the button to put the pizza down and it wouldn't do it. Although, what is incredibly unique about this restaurant management game is stress. I don't remember there ever being a game where stress was taken into consideration AND it has effects. When Trexito became too stressed, he actually slowed down, forcing me to let him sit. THAT was brilliant!

Mushroom Picnic Party WAS ADORABLE! And fun! If you've been here a while, you know I hate puzzle games because I'm not good at them and they make me feel, and look, like an idiot. Not a pleasant feeling. Hidden item puzzles are the only ones that don't make me feel like an idiot. It's a hidden item game, so, if I can't find it, the designer did their job. It's a pleasant game! Mushrooms are a niche not well represented and the developers did well here! I wanted to keep playing! What was, also, incredibly satisfying was being able to choose the theme of the puzzles! More purple, please! It was a pleasant experience! Well done!

Rift of the NecroDancer combining a rhythm game with monster hunting is pretty unique! My first rhythm game was Rock Band and, funnily enough, I'm better at Rift. It probably has something to do with the fact I'm only using a keyboard. My coordination is limited, which Rift helps with. Where the game gets annoying, while being simultaneously brilliant, is the tutorials. Reiterating, I'm a visual learner. So, them showing how the monsters behaved before the tutorial began was BRILLIANT, but how they were to be stopped can use some work. I would suggest telling the player when to press the button during the first few encounters. Look at the section where I was dealing with the knight to see why. And the shield folks. I was following along with the beat as well as I could, but I was still missing. And I was starting to get pissed off. And feel like an idiot. When someone fails a section THAT many times, another tutorial needs to pop up to provide further guidance. Don't change the music. Keep that. My brain would, probably, be replaying the music if I wasn't balancing myself out with YouTube videos while writing this. And don't change the art style, either. Please and thank you.

Overall, I want Doloc Town, Manitas Kitchen, Mushroom Picnic Party, and Rift of the NecroDancer, and they are on my wishlist.

As a reminder, Doloc Town is not available, with a date yet to be announced. Feed the Cups, at the time of writing, is an Early Access Game. Manitas Kitchen is Available. Mushroom Picnic Party's Planned Release Date is Q1 2025. And Rift of the NecroDancer will be Available on Feb 5, 2025, at the time of writing.

And that's it for Part 17! Thank you for reading!
If this series of videos is something you're interested in, they're available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, Odysee, and Ko-fi!
Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

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The Monday, January 27th, and 676th, Artist Shout-Out goes to TitansMonriArt!
Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 – Welcome Gamers!
1:32 – Artist Shout-Out
6:03 – Demos' Intro
9:56 – Doloc Town – Available: To be announced
42:14 – Feed the Cups – Early Access Game
46:15 – Manitas Kitchen – Available
1:10:29 – Mushroom Picnic Party – Planned Release Date: Q1 2025
1:38:18 – Artist Shout-Out/Picking Another Demo
1:41:04 – Rift of the NecroDancer – Available: Feb 5, 2025
2:12:32 – Demos Line Up
2:15:49 – Artist Shout-Out
2:17:01 – Thank You/Links
2:20:45 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug/Viewing
2:28:36 – MonriaTitans & WGS Instagrams
2:29:51 – Farewell

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• Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet, Zero Ranger
• Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero
• Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken
• Part 4: Death's Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers
• Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana
• Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge, Cozy Island
• Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet
• Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands
• Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher
• Part 10: Captain Contraption's Chocolate Factory, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, Neon Noodles, Tiny Glade
• Part 11: Critter Café, Grimoire Groves, Pixel Cafe, Wizdom Academy
• Part 12: AdventureBarStory, Bone's Cafe, DELTARUNE, Mudborne
• Part 13: Food Truck Simulator, Magical Bakery, Magical Delicacy, Seaside Cafe Rush Hour
• Part 14: Chef's Tail, Espresso Tycoon, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Tavern Talk
• Part 15: Chicken Journey, FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, Terra Memoria, Until Then
• Part 16: Cornucopia®, Hipster Café, Let's Café, Spells & Secrets
• Part 18: Meadgard: Beer and Plunder, BOKURA: planet, Teeny Tiny Town, Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos
• Part 19: Dungeons of Hinterberg, The Mildew Children, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, Yaoling: Mythical Journey
• Part 20: AI LIMIT, Harmony's Odyssey, Last Time I Saw You, Whiskers & Wizardry
  
• Part 21: Constance, Dragoon Ascension, Kara Fantasy, Welcome to Elderfield
• Part 22: Crowncity, Dungeon Alchemist, Parliament of Hell 1796, Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars
  
• Part 23: Tuesday, March 11th
• Part 24: Tuesday, March 18th
• Part 25: Tuesday, March 25th

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT

- About MonriaTitans | WGS
- Rendezvous Point Bookshop
- Artist Shout-Outs Criteria
- The Titans' Discord
- Throne Wishlist
- #SubOffTwitch
- YouTube
- Rumble
- Odysee
- Twitch
- Steam

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Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on January 28, 2025.