52 Games Challenge 2019

[aliensstudios]

Part 5


40. Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch): I haven't played a ton of modern, retro-inspired games, but I was immediately attracted to this one because I got a heavy Outrun/Cruis'n USA vibe from it. While it shares more in common with the former, it's still a different type of game in that you race around circuits rather than going on some journey like you are in Outrun towards your eventual goal. I dramatically prefer the gameplay in Outrun despite the various regions you race in Horizon being unique and different than the last. I also appreciated the weather effects as well in this game. But again another area of Outrun I preferred was that you just raced, that's it. In Horizon you can literally run out of fuel and have to refill mid race by collecting fuel icons that float on various places on the track. While this wasn't a big deal most of the game, I ran out of fuel during several races, forcing me to restart, which was more than a little annoying. There are also other icons that float on the track such as additional nitros and also bonus point icons which you'll need to collect all of them to get a perfect score on each stage. The soundtrack is pretty good! It's a lot of synthwave and retrowave, however the limited number of songs and the fact that the sound fx are nothing special mean this game's overall sound is little more than above average in the end. Funny enough, playing this game made me realize that I often just wish I was playing an actual retro game rather than a modern game that is trying to imitate that retro experience. Horizon Chase Turbo is a pretty good game overall, but if given the choice to play this or Outrun, I'd definitely go with the latter. (8/2/19) [33/50]

I played it on my PS4 earlier this year. I absolutely loved it! Had I known it was coming to Switch at the time, I wouldn't have imported the Brazilian copy but it was fun either way.

[telly]

Game 13 - Titanfall 2 (PS4) - 7 Hours

+

I had heard a lot of good things about this game and I will say that as far as shooters go, this one is pretty good! The best part is probably the gameplay. The parkour, wall running and jumping blends in nicely with the level design and enemy placement.  Playing the game on Master difficulty meant that I needed to think carefully about how to approach enemies and it was enjoyable. The titan gameplay is a fun change of pace and requires you to fight differently than when you’re on foot. The game really picks up in the ruined lab/time travel mission, which was incredibly fun. BT is a great character and adds the right amount of humor and tone to the game. The music is also pretty great as well. Overall a pretty fun Saturday night popcorn game

-

My biggest complaint was the way the story ended. After you destroy the fold weapon the main bad guy and the evil general get away, and there’s no closure on whether the war’s even over or not. You just kind of go home and that’s it. I also found most of the characters either bland and boring, or barely developed. Other than Jack (who’s really stock), BT, and Sarah Briggs, everyone else is totally forgettable. Lastly, it was annoying that your titan can’t jump unless you have a specific loadout.

There was also one really annoying glitch that I experienced. In the factory level I was pursuing BT and jumping across various platforms, when I got thrown off one and fell to my death. However, I hit a checkpoint on the way down. So when I respawned, I would just keep falling to my death then respawning over the same empty pit over and over again, and I had to restart the whole level.

[telly]

Game 14 - Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 (DS) – 96 hours

As you can see from my play time, I clocked in a ton of hours on this game, basically have been playing it on and off all summer while travelling to conferences and vacation, etc. This game doesn’t have a hard ending, so I considered it beat when I unlocked the level 6 duelists and beat them all five times. My completion rate so far is:

Duels played: 689
88% of all cards obtained
81% of the game finished

+

If you’re a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh in any capacity, I really recommend checking out one of these games. This is my third game finished in the series and I never touched any aspect of game or the cards beforehand. This game is a fun little slice of the meta and forbidden/limited list during 2007, and it’s so much fun building, testing and dueling with a deck you created yourself (I’ll post some of the decks I used down below just for funsies). The gameplay is great as ever; chains and effects are resolved quickly and cleanly, and the AI is pretty solid. (for the most part, but what do you expect from a complicated-ass game like this).

What really surprised me was how easy it was to play using the DS touchscreen. It’s very slick activating cards and effects, and selecting cards to fill your deck/extra deck. I almost used the touch screen exclusively while playing. Outside of dueling with your own deck, the theme duels and limited duels force you to build a deck to various constraints which can be challenging and fun. The duel puzzles are also great. All those modes really test your knowledge of the game.

-

Unfortunately, you have to be really into dueling to enjoy this game because it doesn’t have much else to offer otherwise. The biggest problem with this game is it STILL doesn’t have a story. It’s just a dueling simulator, and while it’s well made, there’s little else to entertain you. I also don’t like that you can’t buy singles of cards until you actually pull them from packs. Some cards are very hard to obtain if they’re Super Rare or higher, which means constantly grinding out DP until you can buy enough packs to finally pull that one card you’re looking for (sometimes upwards of 30 packs worth!). Lastly, there is no point of the side deck in these games. Every duel you play is just a one-off; there’s no best of three match like in real competitive play. So there’s no point in siding in any tech cards to deal with your deck’s weaknesses because you’re never given an opportunity to swap any cards out.

Here are the two decks I used for most of the game if anyone was curious
1.   Dark Worlds (used for the first 60% of the game)



Necroface (used for the last 40% of the game and survival duel. I managed to beat 15 duels in a row with this deck in survival before losing)

[shfan]

31) Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS4)

Well.. bloody hell. That took as much time to plough through as a full-fat turn based RPG from back in the day, there's just so much to it. I unexpectedly got a little emotified at the ending too *waves hands under eyes* , didn't see that coming. I've read a few reviews (silly me), which suggested it's too drawn-out, and must admit a few sections do overstay their welcome, but the complete package is a dream - the make-it-yourself area is now integral to the game, rather than hived-off like in the original, which is all the better, there's also separate areas to explore to gather materials and recruit new folk. I'm just really impressed by it.

It's also interesting to note it was (at least partially) developed by Omega Force, the Koei Tecmo developer which churns out Dynasty Warriors etc. games - perhaps that's why DW9 was an open world game - trying out for this one, or influenced by this one's creation? Just a pity they keep messing around with the DW formula without ever nailing it.

[telly]

Game 15 - Final Fantasy X-2 (PS4) - 29 Hours

Woo boy, another long-ass review coming from yours truly. Seems like every game I have a lot of thoughts about these days. 

Preface: I had always just brushed this game off by my first impressions of it’s opening cutscene. I love FFX, and my kneejerk reaction had always been that this game sucks only based off the changes they made to Yuna. I felt like that wasn’t really a fair assessment, so I decided to give this game a shot. I think my love of FFX certainly influenced how much I have to say about this game though.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this game, aside from the gameplay, is the open ended “mission based” design, which is a huge departure from the first FFX. You can do as many side missions in whatever order you please before jumping into the main missions, which is kind of nice. You get the freedom to play the game at your own pace. However, the problems with structuring the game like this is it completely fractures and kills any pacing and momentum in the main story. For example, in chapter 3 there are all these fiends pouring out of the temples and it’s touted as this big important crisis. But you don’t have to take care of the fiends, you can take 3-4 hours doing side content… and I guess the people in the temples are screwed…? They’ll just have to wait until you’re ready…? Really sucks out all the gravity of those story bits. Furthermore, the mission-based design means that everything has to be structured in this quick “open and shut” storyline, so none of the missions really go anywhere. Most of them are extremely basic and rudimentary, and they feel like padding. Some of them, like the mission with Issaru in Zanarkand, literally made me open my mouth in disbelief at how stupid it was.

As far as the story goes, I wasn’t really a big fan. The beginning of the game is INCREDIBLY rough with the pacing, it almost feels as if you’re being dumped into a game already in progress. You really need to watch the Eternal Calm short first to really know what the hell’s going on. The rest of the story is bland, cliché and uninteresting. Not to mention far more confusing and not as profound as FFX. The sphere hunting gig only made sense for Yuna to me, didn’t make any sense why the rest of the Gullwings would care about spheres. I only did about 65% of the story content, so I’m sure there was stuff I missed, but I wasn’t invested in the story enough to really care. I did like the addition of the new game plus though. Nicely fits the mission-based game structure.

Now let’s talk about the characters. The one character I was pleasantly surprised at was Yuna. I honestly like the direction that they took with her in giving her an independent free-spirited personality. I also like the idea of an all-female cast, but unfortunately Rikku and Paine don’t deliver as much as Yuna. Rikku was annoying as always, but I never liked her in the first game, so I guess no change there. Paine is basically a piece of cardboard. Boring, no personality, no backstory, nothing. She feels like she was just thrown in the game so they could have three females of a similar age, and they made her stoic like that so they didn’t have to do any character development. Most of the other characters are passable, with the exception of Brother. Holy shit, he acts like he did a line of cocaine before recording each line in this game. He’s loud, obnoxious, extremely creepy, and just downright insufferable.

I will say, that the one redeeming factor with this game is the combat, which is excellent. Other than the character outfits which look ridiculous, the combat flows nicely, has a lot of strategy, and decent challenge. Couldn’t ask for more. Was really the only thing keeping me playing to be honest.

I want to touch on how lazy this game felt to me. The devs basically ripped out every asset and enemy they could from the first game and plopped them in the sequel without any contextual changes. The veteran FFX player can really see how bad it is. My favorite was how they made Shelinda a reporter in Luca who’s denounced Yevon, yet she’s still wearing Yevonite regalia! Or how Lulu was supposed to be pregnant, but they couldn’t bother putting in an updated model. Or how Shuyin’s battle is just all Tidus’s attacks and overdrives. That was ridiculous. Other than Kilika, Bevelle, and the Farplane, everything is just copy pasted, or uninspiring bland corridors and caves which make up most of the game’s dungeons. I think I counted only 9 unique enemies created for this game, which is unacceptable. Most bosses are just recycled from FFX with some minor AI changes.

There are a lot of mini-games in this game, and some are okay, but most are pretty bad or uninteresting. My favorite was the gunner’s gauntlet. Least favorite by far was Blitzball. They completely ruined it. I tried and tried to get even a single win but every one was a 0-5 blowout. All your opponents have 3-4 times greater stats than you in the first game! Not to mention they took away all control from the player so once you start a match you can just go off to amuse yourself and let the game play itself.

The music overall is okay, but not up to the same standard as previous games. There are some funky/fun and memorable tracks though. It grew on me more and more over time. The pop songs were never my favorite though.

Ultimately, I think what really turned me off to this game was I was expecting something like FFX, which this game is not. This is just a cash grab that doesn’t take itself too seriously more than anything. Once I started to view the game on it’s own merits and stopped expecting the same experience as FFX, I started to enjoy it a lot more.

[wolfen]

14. Fire Emblem: Three Houses(Switch)

This is one of those games that I didn't even have on my radar for this year, but I kinda wanted to see what Fire Emblem was like as I've never played one before, so I pulled the trigger and impulse bought it.

I've never been so invested in videogame characters as I was in this game. Each character is completely unique with their own likes, dislikes, and other little quirks. Their individual relationships with all the other characters is unique as well, which leaves you with tons of possible endings and pairings from friendships to marriage.

As I've never played an FE game before this I can't really comment on gameplay changes. I really liked prepping each student before battle depending on the map or even opposing army compositions, although the map pool was a bit shallow having to face different comps kept it interesting. You also have to repair weapons, replenish battalions when you loses troops, teach students different skills depending on their latent abilities, and keep each student well equipped.

I can really only give my opinion on Blue Lions characters because that's the route I played. I felt like every student in BL had a unique relatable tragedy or struggle that they all dealt with, which helped make them feel more human. They also made good villains/morally grey characters

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game and I'm glad I decided to pick it up.

Time: 160+ hours

[Cartagia]

Three Houses is my third (or fifth, depending on how you want to count Fates) FE game, and it is terrific title to be an introduction to the series.  Even as a (semi-)veteran it was a little obtuse at first, but once you get going its super intuitive, engaging and fun!  My biggest complaint about it is that is might be a little too easy.  I played on Normal mode, but on Classic style, and only had one or two battles where I was remotely out of my depth.

[wolfen]

15. Demons Crest(SNES-Nintendo Switch Online)

I decided to play this because I've never heard of it and the name sounded cool. I'm usually pretty indifferent to NES/SNES games because I didn't grow up with them, but this game is actually really fun and the movement is very crisp.

One of the cool things about this game is that you don't have to go through the levels in any real order except for the first level. Although going out of order is a bit harder it's still possible. It gives me Megaman vibes because you can beat certain levels easier with specific powers or forms.

Time: 5 hours

[bikingjahuty]

I haven't reviewed/beat a game in over a month, partially because I've been very busy in my personal life and also because I'm in the middle of playing a JRPG right now, which is a genre I struggle with. It's not that I don't like JRPGs, well some of them, but rather I find RPGs a huge time commitment that given the demands of my life is something very hard for me to do. What will often happen is I'll get really into a JRPG for like a week, then I'll get really busy, barely play it at all for a week, will remain busy, not play it for several weeks, and then eventually I lose motivation to play the game anymore and abandon it. This has happened many, many times over the last 10-years and I struggle to figure out a way to stick with 90% of the JRPGs I start.


But today I decided to play Metal Slug and Metal Slug 2 after some people in another retro gaming group I belong to were discussing it. I posted my review for it at the top of page 12 if anyone is interested in reading it. Hopefully my next review will be the JRPG I'm playing, although I'll be taking another detour from it soon to play Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast starting Monday in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast's launch in NA.

[wolfen]

16. Kirby's Dreamland 3(SNES-Nintendo Switch Online)

As Kirby games go this has been a fun one. I really like the game mechanic of Kirby's friends enhancing his copied powers and making tons of different combos with them. I also loved the "side mission" of getting the star hearts in each level, it gave each level a bit more complexity.

Time: 10 hours

[wolfen]

17. Super Mario Kart(SNES-Nintendo Switch Online)

This is my first time fully playing this game and boy have the controls not aged well. The mechanics work perfectly fine but they are inherently bad in my opinion. Turning is slippery and even drifting is slippery but you control which way you're slipping, which is sometimes worse. It was bearable but I definitely would not play it again.

Time: 1 hour

18. F-Zero(SNES-Nintendo Switch Online)

Alternatively to SMK, this is a lot more fun to play, everything is faster including recovering from a hit/crash, and the controls are much easier to jump into as well as being super tight. It really makes you wonder how it didn't take off better than Mario Kart. My least favorite part is the bouncing. In certain stages you literally become a pinball. Other than that I really loved the whole game.

Time: 1 hour

[wolfen]

19. Fez(PS4)

Fez is absolutely mind blowing! It never felt like I was playing a game, but instead going on an adventure to figure out this virtual worlds secrets. I love that the puzzles are completely unique to this game and really take time to figure out. I also love that some puzzles require real world tools to complete them. The art, music, and mechanics blend together perfectly to deliver this highly innovative and creative game.

Time: 16 hours

[kamikazekeeg]

33 - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PS4 2019) - BEAT - Boy did this expansion live up to my hopes for it.  It's more content, more goodies to earn, more monsters to kill.  It won't change anyones mind on the game, like if you didn't enjoy MHW before, nothing about Iceborne makes that better, but if you loved it before, you'll love this.  I think I've put about 50 hours into the game and just beat the final boss of the story, but there's still a bunch left to do as I've heard the endgame is more notable this time, so I could end up putting the same amount of hours into the expansion as I did the original game, which was around 240 hours (rookie numbers in the Monster Hunter sense from what I've seen lol).  Awesome expansion, definitely a top 5 game of the year for me.

[kamikazekeeg]

32 - Astral Chain (Switch 2019) - BEAT - It's been a pretty solid year for action games I'd have to say.  Devil May Cry 5, Sekiro, and now Astral Chain.  More directly I'd compare Astral Chain to DMC5 and I gotta say that I personally go with Astral Chain over that.  Not that one or the other is better, I just enjoyed the experience more with Astral Chain.  The gameplay is more my style than kinda the combo heavy, higher skill, type of gameplay in DMC5, plus I hated playing as V in that game. 

Not that Astral Chain doesn't have its problems as it gets kinda repetitive with its side quest stuff and locations.  Also the story isn't the best, I mean it's anime shlock, what you'd expect, but I feel like there are some plot holes that don't really make any sense unless I overlooked something.  Though the story still has some pretty awesome moments and the game is very true to its Platinum designs, taking in a few things I feel from their work on Nier Automata.

Good game though, I really needed this as the Switch has had so little good stuff on it this year.  This and Cadence of Hyrule were the only exclusives I played all year and there wasn't much else exciting other than Super Mario Maker 2, which I didn't get.  I had a great time with Astral Chain and really hope Bayonetta 3 isn't too far off.

[wolfen]

20. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening(Switch)

This is one of the few 2D Zelda's that has always interested me and I'm glad to have finally had the chance to experience it. I really love the toy like style they used for everything, it reminded me of Nintendoland which I also loved the look of. I also like how weird it is compared to other Zelda games by using Mario characters/enemies and the general zaniness from the NPC's. Gameplay is exactly what you expect from Zelda, nothing crazy. It also made me realize how limiting old zeldas used to be with movement before Breath of the Wild and I gotta say I feel like there's no going back after they gave us such freedom of movement/travel. I felt like it took forever to get anywhere even with warps. Overall a fun, quaint adventure was had.

Time: 15-20 hours