[Ossian Studios] The Shadow Sun
So, apparently after their unfortunate mistreatment at the hands of Atari with Mysteries of Westgate, Ossian Studios went on to make a mobile game called "The Shadow Sun". A mobile game, you scoff? So did I, but the game seems to actually have been a decent RPG. As a fan of their work for NWN, I would love to give it a try, but cannot for the life of me comprehend why anyone would choose to game on a fiddly seven-inch touchscreen when a laptop is available. I've heard of emulation and was wondering whether anyone succeeded playing this game on a PC?
Post edited by Isewein on
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Thank you for the recommendation. Ossian studies deserve praise and worth the benefit of the doubt any ways.
And I don’t scoff at mobile games and don’t mind the small screens
I have had The Shadow Sun setup on a PC with no problems encountered. Haven't finished it due though to time on PC with the lockdown...
Currently using LDPlayer64 (with Android 7.1.2) as the emulator; and have also had it running on MEmu initially. I use this on a touch screen hybrid laptop and was able to play it using both the screen alone (via touch interface only) and seperately with keyboard and mouse (more my stlye).
LDPlayer has some quick keyboard configurations to provide the keyboard shortcuts from WASD movement keys to various trigger / mouse configuratons as well. It ran very smoothly for an Intel mobile CPU with integrated GPU, much better than on my Note8!
I also have a number of other applications/games running on the laptop and the emulator has had no issues except for some games that required an older Android OS and not compatible with newer versions. For those, I still use MEmu with Android v4.x.
I feel that the game would still run without any problems on Bluestacks which is my next flutter with emulators. It is American designed so may not have the Ads/auto downloads that normally occur with the above.
Of course the downside to this is the ads etc they provide as part of there service
I don't use my normal google account either of the emulators, replace the standard Launcher with something I prefer (P Launcher which is free on Google Play) and to prevent the autodownloads of games etc, and I also block the .exe with the firewall; I only use Windows Defender which does the job okay. Most of the time, I run the emulators with the Internet disconnected as once the game is installed, it attempts to login then gives up if it can't, then plays on.
If you are looking at doing this as well and having difficulties, let me know and I can provide some assistance. Please be aware that with the COVID19 lockdown, my children are using my office during the working week, so my response may be a little delayed.
Hope that helps your decision.
Gus
I just use a VISA card that I have specifically for buying online with. I have a small amount in it for buy right now, or if it is a planned purchase, I fill it to the required amount, then purchase. I have made a number of purchases and haven't had any problems (touch wood) with it yet...
What you can do is to create a Google account specially to try the game to see if you want it. I am guessing here that you have an Android phone otherwise this wouldn't be a thread... If you do like it, you can purchase the game using your real Google ID. That way it is attached to it.
Once we sort out the emulator with their ads/game installing and feeding info back to where ever, you can use your real account on the emulator and reinstall the game with the IAP. You can also backup your game/app from your phone with various File Managers. I use FX File Explore mostly, which has an App Backup, and X-plore File Manager.
The other way is to have 2 real accounts, one specifically for gaming and one for phone management (this is the way I do it). The game account is on both phone and emulator, but holds very little info other than game purchases. There is no synching of contacts/calander etc between the accounts. The only information that synchs with my phone is email and Google Play data. I actually have another for misc online purchasing but that is another story. It is a little bit of micromanagement, but I am happy to do that. In saying all this, it doesn't stop data breaches, but it might minimise damage.
Initially, I would create a bogus account just to try it and see how you feel about the emulator then, if you like the idea and want to keep it, you can put a procedure in place to make it permanent. It is very easy to reinstall/reconfigure the emulator on the PC or even to change emulators for another.
With any of the emulators, you can duplicate a 'clean' (without any Google ID or applications installed) build that you like for a testing environment, test it, trash it, delete it, then duplicate the clean again for another test, or a build with bought games only, or with only applications, or multiplayer only games, or ..., all in a matter of seconds just to dupicate the clean build. That is the beauty of Virtual Machines (VMs). With LDPlayer, just put aside about 1.5-2GB per build before installing the game. I have about 5 builds for various environments, 1 permenant (clean, which I also store of disk), 2 permenant (ish) and 2 testing (test, delete, duplicate 'clean' ready for next test).
Hopefully you understood all that. If not, let me know and I will expand on it.
Gus
It's a fun game and worth the initial cost and IAP. Very few games seem to have reasonable prices for those things any more but The Shadow Sun does. And it's nice to have a cRPG made for phone instead of ported to it.
I can't recall when I got it free but as @themazingness has said, Google use to have some great specials. They have taken down there 'freebies' webpage some time late last year. Not sure why but I use to check it almost daily.
I also agree with the above post. It is worth the initial cost and if you like, the IAP...
Happy Gaming
Gus
I missed them for a while too, but I just found out they just took them out of the main area and put sales under the Premium category.
Still, no real need to wait of Shadow Sun for those interested. It's worth full price which isn't really that much.