Author Topic: 52 Games Challenge 2021  (Read 42462 times)

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #120 on: April 12, 2021, 03:31:43 pm »
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Quote from: Legend
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.

102. Xena: Warrior Princess - The Talisman of Fate (N64)
Still in a lot of pain, still playing games my wife wants me to play.  Game is just an arena fighting game, like Tekken and stuff.  Everybody has sameish basic attacks and then everybody has some button combo special moves just for them.  Like most fighting games, story mode is just an excuse to fight everyone, no real story, ending is you won, congrats.  Definitely a fighting game just for multiplayer, but they threw in a "story mode" to round out the experience, but very much just kinda thrown in there.  Not a game for me, and I couldn't honestly recommend it over any other fighting game, but I know my wife and her family had tons of fun playing 4 player the last time everyone came to visit.
Rating: Hard pass

103. Mega Man Zero 4 (NS)
I waited too long to write this up and have since forgotten a lot about this game and might be confusing some mechanics with ZX as I played that more recently.  So I'm having to look up Youtube videos on the game to refresh my memory.  Beating bosses gives you EX skills, I don't recall if that's a new thing for the series or if Zero 3 had it as well, because I don't think I took advantage of it if it did exist.  Instead of having Mega Man style suit swaps you equip EX skills that will let you do different elemental attacks and such.  You can have multiple equipped at once which can let you do all elemental types with one setup, but there are some EX skills that are only swappable so while you have different things that will let you do the 3 elements, you've got to pick out of 4 for what your buster does, the other ones are button combos like Up + Slash.  I feel like this game was the most trivial of the Zero games with Casual Scenario mode.  I managed to get through the majority of the game without leveraging the elemental attacks, and then I took advantage of it towards the end.  Game pretty neatly ties off the Zero franchise.  I won't go into it because spoilers.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

104. Xena: Warrior Princess (GBC)
Next in the franchise run of Xena games... because I guess I'm playing all of the Xena games.  My wife found out this existed, and got kinda offended that we don't own it yet.  So I said I'll put it on my list of games to keep an eye out for, but in the mean time, let's play it.  Wowie is this game terrible.  It's a bad Link's Awakening clone... like it tries to be a 2D zelda game and it takes place in a dream... but it's terrible.  I managed to play through nearly the entire game without Xena's shakram (yes, the game calls it a shakram instead of a chakram) because the weapon was basically hidden, I only managed to get it right before the final boss area because I happened to be in the area.  The character model is an abomination, they should've just went for a zelda style 8-bit model, but they honestly made her look like what if Xena were the Hulk, she just looks goofy ass large and beefy.  Every enemy has just as much health as you and their hit boxes are terrible so it's easy for you to get hit trying to hit an enemy, and ever enemy takes 4-8 hits to kill so every enemy is boss level tough... and the bosses are wildly difficult because they take like 50 hits to kill... and they respawn if you happen into their room again, which is required, so you fight the Wasp boss like 4 times throughout the game due to having to walk through the boss room to get to a certain village.  Which is only an issue because there is no fast travel at all.  Inventory management is quite terrible especially when you consider that most items are used once and then never used again, but they just take up room in your inventory.  NPCs don't acknowledge that you have the item they need unless you actually equip the item, which caused me to physically replay like a real life hour of the game because I thought I missed picking up a quest item, but no, I had it, just hadn't equipped the item.  That wasn't fun and I nearly cried on stream when I thought I had to redo so much... and I redid the stuff anyway, reloaded my old save state and saw that I replayed that garbage for nothing.  Sure that might be on me, but it's still garbage.  Too much having to repeat terrible platforming sectons and having to backtrack back and forth between areas.  The final area where you beat the game has no boss, you literally make your way to the last area and then you unlock some doors, watch ghosts fight (Yes, you have to wait and watch ghosts fight before you can proceed to let other ghosts out to fight more ghosts, it's dumb), and then you free sleep god and game over you win.  That's it.  Kinda anticlimactic, like who locked him up?  Why didn't I have to defeat whoever did that?  Whatever, there's a reason this game was forgotten.  Also, it's made by the same devs who brought you Superman 64.
Rating: Hardest of passes.

105. Mega Man ZX (NS)
Started this up after Zero 4.  I felt like this was the Mega Man Metroidvania game, so I finally looked it up after starting up the game.  It is sorta a Metroidvania game.  The only thing really stopped you from progressing in different areas is the getting handed colored key cards after defeating bosses.  So if anything, it's a pretty linear metroidvania game.  You do unlock weapons and such or whatever Metroidvania style, but they aren't what you need to explore new areas, you just need the colored key cards.  Just overall it's not a very good metroidvania game.  The way the skills work in this game where you swap models or whatever, I wound up almost the entire game just using the ZX model because I would run out of special attack for all of the models and never find the stuff to refill it.  Plus hitting with ZX attacks wound up easier than any of the other models overall.  So I would use the other ones where I could, but I just burned through special bar too quickly compared to other Mega Man games.  It sounds like story wise, this game takes place 100 years after Zero 4, but as far as I can tell, there is no text to actually link the games, they don't even tell you who created the Models and stuff, they very much leave it open to setup Advent I guess.  I'll write more on that when I get around to writing up stuff for Advent as I'm playing that currently.  This game wasn't so trivial even with Casual Scenario mode, so that was nice, and I enjoyed it enough that I chose to play it on what would've been my streaming time instead of streaming games.  Probably could've streamed playing at least some of it, but I just don't like streaming parts of a game.  Game definitely wasn't good enough to be on my top list or even my honorable mention list so it's ok.  I always give big negative points to metroidvania/exploration games that don't have maps, this game was kinda frustrating in that I had to memorize myself how to get between different zones because there is no real helpful map, just vaguely which zone-# connects to other zones, how to actually get there is on me.  Also, the touch screen features were pretty non-existent. The different models displayed different things on the touch screen portion, like maybe the Ice model had a functional map, but like I didn't figure that out until the final boss area when I noticed it.  They didn't do a good job of explaining anything regarding the touch screen.  It wasn't a terrible game, but it honestly just wasn't a noteworthy entry in the series.
Rating: Soft pass.

106. Mega Man ZX Advent (NS)
I had higher hopes for this game, hoping it would improve on the issues of the previous entry... but it did not.  The voice acting in this game managed to make the game worse.  Like the voice acting is so bad, I've put Chaos Wars on my shortlist to compare.  Fast travel is a little bit better this time around because there is a sort of overworld map so I know where I'm going mostly, instead of letter-number identifiers.  But you're still limited to like 1 transport spot per area (normally after the boss, so I guess once you start something, you're stuck until you quit or beat the area.  The swapping merge stuff becomes cumbersome as you get more stuff, because there are like 20 forms to swap between, still dealable, but cumbersome nonetheless.  Game has a little connect to ZX, but mostly only in that they explain who "HE" is, Vent/Aile does appear towards the end of the game, and Pandora/Prometheus are big parts of the story.  Still no answer as to what happened during those 100 years between Zero 4 and ZX, no answer as to really where these models came from other than that "HE" created them, they add in confusion stating that they've repeated this cycle tons of times over the millennia, and they don't really establish the significance of the "chosen one" stuff.  They also don't really give you any sort of significance of what happened at the end of ZX either.  The story in this game is just a mess, the voice acting is just the worst, and the game is even less of a metroidvania game, because it's not even keys that lock you out of new areas, it's just that you can't get there until someone unlocks the transport codes or whatever for you.
Rating: Soft pass.

107. Pursuit Force (PSP)
I'm not entirely sure why I started this one.  Like for real, no clue why I did it.  I grabbed my Vita, wanted something to play, loaded up Pursuit Force and just... kept playing.  This game is super hard, that should have deterred me.  But no, I went and got cheats for the game.  The cheats didn't work in that it prevented me from proceeding because you can't progress with cheats enabled.  I spent the better part of an evening working out how to bypass that and got it working.  Even with cheats this game is still super tough, some levels are even designed such that with cheats it's nearly impossible to complete because objectives are still tough as fuck or you can't do certain actions with these cheats enabled.  So I wound up having to disable cheats for certain levels.  Gameplay is an amalgam of car racing/combat, third person shooter, and first person shooter.  Not a fan of shooting from helicopters in general in games, so that was meh, the third person segments weren't the worst except for when they were timed, and the car stuff worked pretty well, but boss fights felt largely unfair and some of the levels were just so tightly designed that even seemingly running things as best as possible, you still nearly lost due to time constraints.
Rating: Soft pass.

108. Vectorman (NS)
A guy on one of my discord servers frequently hassles me to play the Vectorman games, so I finally decided I'd give them a go, but I wouldn't tell him until after I already beat both games.  So I beat both games back to back.  Originally, I had told him I wouldn't play them because my Genesis games are packed away and with my injury I can't dig them out.  Then I was looking at my Switch games after having finished Mega Man Zero/ZX and noticed that both Vectorman games are on the Sega Genesis Classics game.  This brings me to a conundrum.  When I play NSO games, I mark them beat on their original platforms because you're just playing a ROM in an emulator, no QoL updates and NSO isn't really a game.  Sega Genesis Classics collection is a game, but no QoL updates and you are playing a ROM in an emulator, so I want to put them beat under Genesis, but I also want to put them beat under NS because Sega Genesis Classics collection is a game for the Switch.  But I don't want to put them under both because I don't want to pad my backloggery.  But I also don't care about padding numbers really, but it feels disingenuous to say I beat it on Switch and Genesis... but I do this with Smart Delivery games on Xbox One/Series X if I happen to play on both platforms.  Anyway, about the game.  Graphics are 2D, but have that 3D graphical look to them.  Gameplay reminds me of Claymates a little.  Basic 2D platforming, but this character has a gun that goes pew pew.  More forgiving than most platformers of its time and has difficulty options which is nice.  Overall, not a bad platformer.  That said, I'm not big on platformers in general, so it's hard for me to say a platformer is a good platformer when I don't generally enjoy them.
Rating: Soft pass.

109. Vectorman 2 (NS)
More of the same honestly.  More levels, some extremely short to my surprise, which was kinda nice.  Graphics are a bit nicer.  Levels are a bit bigger and have more theme and difference between them.  Some levels have shticks which is a refreshing change of pace, instead of just being the same type of level over and over.  Some levels were even a little complex in having to figure out how to get out of a certain area or finding the right route to the end.  Boss fights were more interesting this time around, though 2 fights in later levels it was hard to tell if I was even doing anything because it just took so long to beat the bosses.  Not a fan of boss fights without health bars, it's nice to see you're making progress.  Definitely better than the first game though.
Rating: Soft pass.

110. Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice (PSP)
Started this up immediately after finishing the first game.  Right out the gate I can tell this is going to be a better experience, it has difficulty options.  Story mode is more coherent, has cutscenes, voice acting (including Tom Clarke Hill, Timesplitters' Sgt. Cortez), and an actual story arc.  I actually enjoyed this game immensely compared to the original.  Shit I'd even consider recommending this game, and be willing to state to skip the original as it provides no additional story, context, or even gameplay benefits.  Story is a bit b-movie campy, but game also isn't that great on its own either, so the combination just happens to make it work.  It's more of the same from the previous game, but a lot of the stuff just works better, you get some AI to assist you in some scenarios.  It's a shame the PS2 version never came to light and the game never got a 3rd entry.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

111. Mega Man 2 (PS4)
I was watching AEW Dynamite last night and I wanted something to play that I had no interest in streaming.  I kept thinking of games that either I knew I wanted to stream or they were handheld, but I definitely wanted something to play on TV since Dynamite was playing on my laptop.  Thought about it and remembered that I had a digital copy of Mega Man Legacy Collection on PS4 and hadn't beaten any OG Mega Man games other than the first one.  When I first started trying to do franchise runs, this was one of my first ones that I tried to do.  I played through the first Mega Man game and when I got to this one, I abandoned it.  I don't know if it was something about the game, life at the time, or just not digging platformers, but I couldn't do it and just hadn't come back to it.  I've been playing a lot of platformers and stuff in general, and while I still don't appreciate them like most, I'm having an easier time.  This was actually absolutely pleasant to play, and didn't take too long to get through.  I didn't really appreciate the final boss section where you run through all of your energy and can't replenish any of it and like literally can't defeat the final boss if you don't have the bubble weapon fully charged, that just seems like a cheap way to screw over the player.  Music in this game is just absolutely awesome.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

112. Hotshot Racing (X1)
Saw this was leaving game pass later this month, so I installed it and gave it a go.  Pretty standard arcade racer, and pretty decent at that.  Impossible to destroy other drivers because of standard arcade rubberbanding.  Rubber banding also makes every race down to the wire, which is cool if you like that.  Trying to restart a race in GP mode restarts the entire GP series, so I fucked up once in like the 3rd race and hit restart and was thrown back to race 1, didn't make that mistake again.  I will say, it does feel like the game suffers from your car is weightless and other drivers are tanks, because they hit me and I spin and hit a wall and wind up in 8th place, I hit them and they are unmovable.  Not a fan of those mechanics because it makes it such that you have to be concern about other drivers hitting you, so if the AI decides to be aggressive, you're boned.  No clear cut story mode or anything, so I'm considering the game beat because I won all of the Grand Prix trophies.
Rating: Soft pass

113. Mega Man 3 (PS4)
I'm probably going to have very little to say about these games as I played them all back to back and they are all so similar.  This is the only game, I believe, that has you fight new characters as well as the characters from a previous entry.  You fight the 8 robot masters, and then you fight the 8 robot masters from Mega Man 2... and you still have to do the boss rush thing before the final boss, refighting the 8 robot masters from this game.  It's an interesting and novel concept, but I'm glad they didn't keep it around.  Having to refight the robot masters every game is always an annoyance for me, but it is what it is.  Also grateful that they got rid of the gameplay element from MM2 that you could only use one specific weapon to damage the final boss, making it impossible to win if you don't have enough energy for 1 weapon in particular.  I'll probably reiterate this, but the rewind feature is such a life saver, like I'm going to consider enabling rewind on emulators in the future if it can work as well as this does.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

114. Mega Man 4 (PS4)
IIRC this is the future entry in the series that does the, now trope, of having some "new" enemy that is actually just a pawn for Wily.  Later in the franchise (not series) they do a reversal of the trope, but I think I missed it in gameplay do to some poor choices, so I'll need to youtube or something to get what I missed.  It's also the first of many games that extends the gameplay by having 2 "boss areas", so you go through the first boss' 4 stages and then you go through the final boss' 4 stages.  I think this concept sticks around for all games that do the pawn enemy trope.  I think this one brings back the only one weapon will hurt the boss thing, but I didn't get much warning about it and I had no problem, so I think it was fine.  If I recall correctly the final boss fight for this had a stupid mechanic where it's dark and you have to hit Wily when he appears for a second and before he disappears again.  Quite annoying and I think they brought it back in Mega Man 5, but you didn't have the pleasure of having the pharaoh shot that you can just jump around with.
Rating: Soft recommendation

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« Last Edit: September 07, 2021, 09:00:14 am by ignition365 »


telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #121 on: April 13, 2021, 09:15:40 am »
Game 7 - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GC) - 18 Hours

I beat this game playing co-op with my girlfriend, and overall we had a really good time. It isn't a perfect game, but it provides a unique experience that I think we really enjoyed. Playing the game with both a GameCube and Game Boy Advance, while a pain to set up, is very fun and allows for a smoother transition when players need to enter houses, caves or water. We didn't really play competitively that much though. We shared Force Gems and items pretty much the whole time, which made the game much more fun and less frustrating in my opinion.

Four Swords Adventures plays like a multiplayer version of Link to the Past with some spruced up visual effects from Wind Waker. It's quite nice visually, even though it does feel a little dated and stale. The game actually borrows quite a bit from LttP, including most of the music and some bosses. While most of the bosses were fun and interesting, quite a few of them get recycled over the course of the game, which was disappointing. Outside of fighting bosses, the standard Zelda formula is there: explore dungeons, forests and mountains, fight enemies, collect items, and solve puzzles, just with an intriguing multiplayer twist to the aforementioned puzzle solving and combat. The game also adds some puzzle solving-only levels with no combat at all, which were definitely challenging to solve. We had to dip into the strategy guide a couple times as a result (shoutout to Flashback2012 for providing me with that guide a few years back)  ;D

If there was one thing that I really don't like about Four Swords Adventures, it's the lack of progression from level to level. All your heart containers, items, etc. disappear after you beat the stage, which makes the game feel very repetitive at times because you're recollecting the same items over and over again, and it really disincentives you to explore because all that effort will be wasted when you finish the level. The Force Gems in particular don't really serve any purpose other than giving something for you and your friends to fight over. You get an upgraded sword when you find 2,000, (and I think you get extra lives based on how many you have at the end of the game) but other than that they don't do anything because they aren't treated like money ala regular rupees.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2021, 01:04:12 pm by telly »
Currently Playing:
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PS4), Resident Evil 5 (PS4), Pokémon: Ultra Moon (3DS), SSX3 (PS2)

My music collection | My Backloggery

tripredacus

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #122 on: April 13, 2021, 10:57:52 am »
Bioshock 2 abandoned

I knew right away there was something wrong. First experience is that the game automatically tried to use the Xbox 360 controller, to the degree of actually disabling the mouse. After switching it back, another issue cropped up. The menu was freezing every 5-10 seconds. Micro-stutters I believe is the common term for it. Any new game I am going to be going through the menu to make sure the AV settings are where I'd like, and the controls are correct. Then into the game, ok presentation and seems to be ok. Although setting the audio to 5.1 Surround doesn't actually put all game sounds in that mode. The music and ambience are in 5.1 but the character voices/sounds are in stereo.

And the game crashes at the first Big Daddy fight. Well it doesn't actually crash, it freezes. It writes to the event log that it got a classic 0xC0000005 and the game doesn't actually crash until you go to DFT. So I look it up. Apparently the game is known to crash constantly and there is no patches or fixes for it. Not going to bother wasting the time doing a guess and test for a pedestrian shooter.

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #123 on: April 13, 2021, 05:47:08 pm »
15. Little Nightmares II || PlayStation 4 || 04.12.21

Having finally played Little Nightmares within the past year, I was excited to jump back into the world I had recently explored to discover more. Existing as a prequel to the debut title, Little Nightmares II largely excels at what it sets out to accomplish while improving as a follow-up title in every regard.

Taking place in a new area outside from where the debut title resides in, Little Nightmares II has the player explore a multitude of environments surrounding an area called The Pale City. Settings are bleak, cold, and uninviting, whereas the characters who inhabit it are both unsettling, disturbed, and intimidating. Enemy characters and the immediate areas they're found in pair well together, and to witness just how each enemy's threats and abilities are displayed and designed to be overcome by the player is executed highly.

With a non-descript story told only through the game's visuals alone, I was pleased with how the series's lore at-large connects with another. Admittedly, some aspects of the story do get confusing as circumstances are left unexplained to allow for viewer interpretation, but I believe this choice grants fans healthy discussion and theories as to what may be. While developers Tarsier Studios have confirmed that they will be moving onward to other projects, Bandai Namco does own the IP rights and may continue to explore its world.

While adopting puzzle-platform gameplay as its predecessor, Little Nightmares II elevates the core game mechanics to add some slight action sequences when confronting certain enemies. I personally enjoy this added aspect to the game, although I do admit that there are times when such fights are difficult to control in addition to offering a narrow window to execute quality timing to advance.

Overall, if you're interested in modern horror titles, I highly recommend playing Little Nightmares II.

tripredacus

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #124 on: April 15, 2021, 01:42:47 pm »
Changed the key/color for my tracking post to indicate the difference between games that were beaten or played/endless this year and games that were beaten in previous years but I have played this year.

thewelshman

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #125 on: April 15, 2021, 08:27:20 pm »
Trying to make this year my backlog year. I have too many sitting on my consoles that I'm aiming to "Beat then Delete."

1. Little Adventure on the Prairie - This is a trophy-fluff game, plain and simple. I don't remember buying it, but I got the platinum in about 56 minutes and deleted it.
2. Burley Men At Sea - PS Plus free game that I've had for some time. Cute little game that I knocked out in a few hours.
3. Dragon Fantasy Book II - I enjoyed the first game and have had this sitting on my PS4 for some time. Decided it was time to platinum.
4. Tales from the Borderland - Don't remember why I stopped playing this, but it was enjoyable and I look forward to a possible sequel.
5. I Am Setsuna - I enjoyed this game more than most. Decided to play through it again and try and get all of the trophies. Sitting at 46/50 trophies.
6. Hue - This is a platformer and a puzzle game, which I am bad at both genres. Regardless, it was a fun little game and now I can delete it, lol.
7. Another World - I missed out on 90s Pc games and after playing this, I don't feel like I missed out on anything. Didn't enjoy this game. Beat and Delete.
8. Color Guardians - This was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed the game more than I thought I would. Got lucky with the platinum.
9. Cat Quest - Grabbed it on sale for $2 and enjoyed every second of it. I will certainly play the sequel.
10. Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story - Another game I got on sale. Wasn't too bad for what it was. Game glitched me for the platinum and will need a replay.

Working on Severed, World of Final Fantasy, and whatever other game I can knock out.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2021, 09:36:15 pm by thewelshman »

telly

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #126 on: April 17, 2021, 06:47:28 pm »
Game 8 - Night in the Woods (PC) - 8 Hours

I thought this was a pretty decent adventure game. One of the most striking aspects of this game for me was the top-notch visuals, music, and sound design. I also thought the writing was one of the game's stronger features, as it goes for a more loose, casual and grounded approach to dialogue which was a welcome sight. The dialogue was also reflected in several really interesting characters, especially the playable character, Mae. The game doesn't have a lot of gameplay to speak of other than walking, talking to people, and some light platforming; however, there are some other gameplay mechanics like a dungeon crawler, guitar hero-esque rhythm game, and other content that helps break up some of the monotony. I personally felt like these additions were a little more vestigial to my liking.

The one thing that felt a little disappointing about this game was the story. For one, the narrative really doesn't start to get going until halfway through the game (~4 hours in). Most of the story deals with interpersonal relationships between the main characters, and your character's personal encounters with ghostly apparitions and an introspective "spirit journey" for lack of a better word. Suddenly, an evil cult with a motive ripped from a Republican National Convention is introduced to explain the ghost aspect of the story, and then they're dispatched in a matter of minutes. It overall felt very underwhelming. Even the personal challenges that Mae goes through are given a bad explanation and conclusion over the course of the story, with an ending that didn't provide a lot of closure. I dunno, it just didn't do it for me.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 12:45:25 pm by telly »
Currently Playing:
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PS4), Resident Evil 5 (PS4), Pokémon: Ultra Moon (3DS), SSX3 (PS2)

My music collection | My Backloggery

tripredacus

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #127 on: April 20, 2021, 10:00:50 am »
26. Crimzon Clover World Ignition

Completed 2 runs but with continues. Novice Default using Type I and then Novice Burst using Type II. First issue with this game is that everything is so small. The speed is not too difficult to manage but I guess I got used to the size. There does not seem to be a way to scale the graphics to make it bigger. I may consider seeing if I can use my super-rotato monitor on this computer but I am not sure that the video card software will support it. But the fact that the game does support たて means it might be worth a shot.

This certainly is not a game I can play a lot of. It takes less than an hour to do a run with continues, so it should take even less without. I do not have a fight stick yet so the optimal controls are not at my disposal. I had, in the past, stopped playing BlazBlue Calamity Trigger because I didn't have a stick. I played it using the Xbox 360 controller, which the game supports for input but does not actually use the button layout. So it will have prompts for buttons but not the controller's buttons. The second run on Burst was a lot easier/better because I learned how to use the homing missile attack... BUT then the issue became that my hands hurt from using the controller about 2/3rd of the way through the run.

I am considering the game to be completed as to win the game you just play for an hour basically.

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #128 on: April 21, 2021, 08:01:24 pm »
17. Threads of Fate || PlayStation || 04.20.21

Having mostly only played the Final Fantasy titles of this era from Squaresoft, I began playing Threads of Fate with the only context that there were two stories to experience and that they connected with another. The stories revolve around player-characters Rue and Mint. Immediately, there were certainly both good and bad elements of the game that became apparent.

Beginning my first playthrough with Mint, I came to realize that she's incredibly blunt, over-the-top, and completely transparent, which all lead her to become one of the funniest game characters I've experienced playing as. Her entire goal throughout the story is to become all-powerful. Quite regularly, she talks about world domination to others, and nobody even bats an eye and just goes along with it. On the other hand, when I began Rue's story, I was disappointed. Having already met Rue in slight capacities while playing as Mint, I knew that Rue's character was not as interesting. More-or-less, Rue is quiet, respectful, and direct in his goals. Only in the latter half of his story did his plot become interesting, although his character still remained rather boring.

Not even knowing what genre of game Threads of Fate was prior to playing, I learned that it is an action-adventure title with platforming elements. With Mint's combat, progression was more difficult than it should have been. However, toward the end of her playthrough, combat became much easier, as I had gained access to more useful magic techniques. On the other hand, combat with Rue was incredibly simple. Unique to Rue, he can transform into defeated monsters. However, his base strength levels are high enough to simply hack-and-slash through enemies. Despite his abilities, I only ever transformed when the game required it.

In addition to combat, there is, of course, the platforming segments. Platforming is so, so, so irritating. To preface my thoughts: many environments follow a linear path with no means of backtracking. When the player encounters platforming areas, you're generally stuck. You either succeed, or you die. You can't backtrack to re-gain health or to save. You're simply stuck. During the game's first major platforming segment, I died perhaps five times, with each failure chipping away about 5% of my health each time. It was rough. However, by the time I began my second playthrough, I had a good handle on the game's controls.

As far as the two intertwined stories—it's loose. The characters seldom interact with another, and they each have their own goals. I was fairly disappointed that each narrative didn't follow the same exact events with a unique perspective shown. The narratives to each are different, although the overarching plot remains the same. If I'm being honest, Mint's path feels more of an encompassing story, while Rue's feels self-contained to himself alone.

Overall, I imagine that Threads of Fate isn't going to be a favorite to many. However, it is a good game in its own right. I don't regret my time playing it, albeit the second playthrough was completed more out of obligation to get the complete story. I do recommend for Squaresoft fans to play it. It's hard to decide on which path for others to begin playing as. If you're someone who wants an easier experience at the expense of a boring player-character and decent story, play as Rue. If you're someone who likes a fair challenge but with a much more interesting character, play as Mint.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #129 on: April 22, 2021, 10:55:18 pm »
Man I haven't been keeping up this year... both in beating games and updating my list.. so heres some additions

2. Godfall (PS5) 01/17
3. Spyro The Dragon Reignited (PS4) 03/28
4. Super Mario 64 (Switch) 04/03
5. Super Mario Sunshine (Switch) 04/08
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) 04/22

dhaabi

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #130 on: April 23, 2021, 12:18:57 am »
18. Touhou Hyouibana: Antinomy of Common Flowers || Nintendo Switch || 04.21.21

Well, playing a Touhou game certainly wasn't something I was expecting to play anytime soon, much less beat. Nevertheless, I spent time with a friend yesterday who really wanted for me to play the latest fighting game in its series that had just received a console release. Not being a fan of Touhou and certainly not aware of its lore, a lot of the dialogue went over my head. I tried to make sense of what was going on by asking my friend, but it didn't really matter in the end for my own personal experience.

At the same time, I am not someone who plays fighting games, so my opinion isn't all too in-depth. However, I will say that the combo system is very limited, while controls are easy to pick-up for a beginner. I imagine that the game is more directed toward fans of the series rather than just a fan of the genre. Overall, I had a fairly good time throughout my playthrough. The game seems pretty easy to finish, as it offers five difficulty settings, with the fifth to-be unlocked. Playing the game on Normal (difficulty 2), I felt accomplished. If you lose all three lives, you simply start again at your current match with all lives being regained. As for fighters, each character has three unique special attacks which offer variety within an individual's fighting style. As typical to Touhou, the game is dependent on phasing through enemy attacks.

If you're a fan of Touhou, then I'm sure you're well aware of the game and probably have even played it. I know that Touhou fans are pretty extreme in their love for the series. For anyone else...honestly, I'm not sure. Fans of the fighting genre generally enjoy robust combo systems and a huge catalog of fighting styles that they can spend hours with, but I don't think that's something really offered with this title. However, there is definitely a challenge original to this spin-off series with its phasing gameplay elements and among the higher difficulty settings, so perhaps some non-Touhou fans may enjoy these aspects.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #131 on: April 24, 2021, 01:59:37 am »
14 - Monster Hunter Rise (Switch 2021) - BEAT - Redoing what I had before since I hit an actual "beat" state with this game, having finished the final boss and I feel I have a better handle on comparison between Monster Hunter World and this.  The gameplay options with the wirebugs are great, it makes things way more active, much less downtime recovering and it makes for some cool new moves along with wyvern riding.  That being said, I feel like that's the only thing I think this game does better than World.  Otherwise, I feel like I enjoy the design of Monster Hunter World more.  I like the levels and their traps more, I like the UI much better, there just feels like more depth to the package.  The story is better too, which I wouldn't say is Monster Hunters strength to begin with, but there's just way more to the characters.  There's really nothing happening with the characters and the story in general in Rise.  It's just, "The Rampage is coming!" and that's about it.  It feels kinda half-assed, same for the game lacking layered armor right out of the gate.  The only layered armor right is paid content, which is kinda lame.

That being said, Rise is still really solid, it's a fun time, and it's definitely a must have for the Switch.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #132 on: April 28, 2021, 07:25:22 am »
15 - Hunt: Showdown (PC 2019) - ENDLESS - I dabbled in this game over the past few years whenever it went F2P for a weekend and I liked the idea of it, but it always felt wonky.  Eventually I got another shot at it recently and it turns out they cleaned up the game alot, added in optional gameplay controls so the game plays more like a regular shooter (It use to be you'd have to ready your gun and then click again to actually fire it, and I found that kind frustrating.) and it all runs well.  I mostly just got it because of a good sale, because it is a mainly a team based game and I don't love playing with rando's in team focused stuff like this, but I played it abit, and just found out they have a Quickplay singleplayer mode that is a big deathmatch mode, fighting to the last player among 11 others and I like that quite abit.  Probably what I'll play most for abit.

16 - Clone Hero (PC 2017) - ENDLESS - Probably my first "unofficial" game I've done for these challenges lol As the name is clear, this is a PC version of Guitar Hero that lets people playing custom songs.  As of right now, I have nearly the entire selection of Guitar Hero and Rock Band in one game and a ton of additions from another playlist, so I have around 1000+ songs total. I'm so out of practice as I haven't played this game seriously since Warriors of Rock back in 2010/2011, but I can still do expert for the most part outside of the tougher tiers of songs as I just don't got the wrist power like I use to, but it's been fun diving back in.  I really need to get a laptop that can be filled with Clone Hero stuff so that when I get back to hanging out with friends in a party setting, I can bring back Guitar Hero lol

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #133 on: May 01, 2021, 12:39:36 pm »
Couple of additions

7. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) 04/26
8. Immortals Fenyx Rising (PS5) 05/01

Immortals was an interesting game for me. At first I really had this feeling that it was nothing more then a cheap Breath of the Wild close, but the more I kept playing the more I realized it really was its own game, I mean sure it clearly took inspiration from BotW... but it really did end up being a great game on its own. The whole last section with the climb up the mountain and then the final boss fight all just felt grand and epic.

Re: 52 Games Challenge 2021
« Reply #134 on: May 02, 2021, 02:19:01 am »
Pokemon Snap (Switch 2020) - BEAT - For such a casual game, I went super hard on this game lol I was a very big fan of the original Pokemon Snap, at the time I was real big into Pokemon games with Stadium, Snap, Red, Blue, Yellow, and then kinda just never really played Pokemon afterwards much till relatively recently, but I always wanted to see Pokemon Snap return.  I'm still dumbfounded that there was never a Pokemon Snap for Wii U, it should've been one of the first games they thought about making for the console with how perfect it is for that.

The game is great! I've been real down on Pokemon since Sword last year and how half-assed that game was, but this game just nails everything.  It looks real nice, plays smooth, there's quite a lot of content as far as I can tell and a nice little story to propel progression and even some nods to the original game as it is a proper sequel.  I beat the story, but there's still something like 25 to 30 Pokemon for me to still find, each Pokemon having 4 different variations to capture for completion sake, along with a ranking system for each of those four, and there's challenge pictures to take, multiple ones in each location, so getting 100% will take a nice while and beating the story unlocked another night time version of a location, so that's more to do right there. 

If you were ever a fan of Pokemon Snap, this game is a must.