52 Games Challenge 2023!!!

[undertakerprime]

39. Mega Man 3

I took a small break from Final Fantasy XVI to play one of my favorites. It took some time to get the muscle memory back, but it happened around the halfway point. I played it as part of the Legacy Collection on Switch so I took advantage of save states. There's still a sense of accomplishment one gets after finishing not only these boss robots, but the resurrected ones from Mega Man 2. Always a good time going through classic blue bomber!

That’s what I’ve been doing too 
I got the first Legacy Collection last year and played through all six games. Got Legacy Collection 2 earlier this year and finished 7, 9, and 10 (haven’t bothered with 8 yet since I don’t like it very much). Then went back and finished MM5 again, since it’s one of my favorites. Currently working on MM6.

Nice! MM6 is the one I played the most growing up. Up to that point, all of my friends would lend me a Mega Man game and I'd lend them something else on NES in return. MM6, however, was a Christmas gift so I naturally played the hell out of it. That might be the next one I get into since it's been so long.

For some reason, I still remember when I bought MM6 at retail; maybe because it was likely my last NES game I bought new during that era. It was at Babbage’s at my local mall, and I remember I actually felt kind of weird buying it because we were far into the 16-bit era by then (it came out March ‘94, and I had my SNES for 2 1/2 years by that point). I just saw the box on the shelf, with that bright art of MM using his Jet Adapter, and I figured, hey, I love the series, so why not.

I’m glad I did, it’s definitely a worthy addition to the series that doesn’t get as much love as it should. I still remember the magazine reviews at the time LAMBASTED it for being “old” and “just more of the same thing”. BOOOOO!!

[telly]

Game 9 - Mega Man Battle Network 3: White Version (Switch) - 21 hours

Alright, another Battle Network game down! I finished this game about 5 years ago but I've forgotten pretty much everything about it. Playing White version, I didn't know that this is technically the inferior version to Blue as this one came out first and Blue was sort of a retweaked release afterwards. There's not a whole lot that's different, as the true two-version system copied from Pokémon wasn't really implemented fully until Battle Network 4.

This has always been my favorite Battle Network game but I'll wait to see how the other games pan out before making a final decision. I don't have a whole lot to add over my older review which I'll link here. This game has a lot of stuff that's improved over Battle Network 1 and 2. The Navicust system is really fun to use and opens up your options for play. I remember not really liking the BugFrag system with countering but on this playthrough I enjoyed it a lot more because it made typically easy fights more enjoyable. The big thing about MMBN3 for me that sets it above all other games in the franchise is the ending, which I won't spoil. It's pretty much the only instance in this series, with how dumb the stories are, that made me emotional and actually feels like genuine character development for Lan. Another fantastic aspect of this game is an incredibly deep and engaging postgame storyline that I'm really excited to explore in the future.

One thing that really sucks is the massive difficulty spike once you enter the Undernet. It was actually kind of frustrating and it can lose you a lot of progress if you're going a long time without saving. Otherwise, I did enjoy my time playing quite a bit. I'll probably take a quick break to play some other things before jumping into the 4th game, which I've never actually played before!

[telekill]

I finally beat Zelda TotK. I'd put it as tied with Twilight Princess for being my favorite of the series.

[kashell]

While most people were celebrating the 4th of July by blowing things up and terrifying local wildlife/all indoor pets/veterans with PTSD, a buddy and I hit up a new arcade. Once again, I spent most of the time on pinball. I also busted some moves on Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix. But, I did manage to complete two classics.

40. The House of the Dead
This game is still campy and cool after all these years. Younger me was gob smacked by the janky polygons, the voice acting, the "plot", etc. Adolescent me was like, "This game looks so unrealistic!" Current me? I appreciate all its stuff even more. Playing two-player with this is the way to go because some of the enemy placements are bananas. Head-shotting zombies never gets old no matter which game it's in.

41. Splatterhouse
In all of my years of gaming and going to arcades, not once have I ever seen a Splatterhouse cabinet. The level of detail to this game (from 1989!!) is crazy. It's over the top. It's bloody. It's a non-stop mayhem. I heard talks about it back in the day and how violent it was but never saw it. I first played it on the mini-TurboGrafx-16. Loved it. But playing it on an arcade cab? It felt like I was rebelling against censorship and being PC. This was a bloody blast to go through and next time I visit this arcade, I plan on making it my first stop.

[tripredacus]

23. Dead Island
Finally something fun to play. A bit heavy on the melee combat. Gunplay is decent enough. The iron sights are not great. You can do a reload animation cancel with pistols and AR but not shotgun. There is no speed loader equivalent for shotguns. Shotguns have a chance to do 1 hit kills on nearly all enemies. I picked the character that was "good with guns" at the start but you don't really get access to any until half-way through the game. Ammo is scarce so you can rarely ever get to just using guns and no melee. Melee combat is annoying at first until you find out that you can use the terrain to your advantage. You can jump onto things (cars, walls, trash bins, whatever) and sometimes you need to run first. Then you can croutch and with a machete or long reach weapon you can attack the zombies and they can't hit you. I ended up doing this a lot before I got access to guns.

You get a lot of loot items you can use in crafting. Unlike many games like this, it doesn't tell you what is used in crafting and what is safe to sell. So you end up with a lot of stuff but fortunately it has no weight and doesn't take up slots. If you wanted to actually use it all, you'd basically have to be picking up and modding everything you find. Otherwise you stick with just a couple favorite weapons like a couple machete and sell the rest.

Combat annoyances, there aren't that many. One is thugs will knock you back and is more annoying that your char makes a loud hurt sound more than the action itself. And that action will reset aggro so you can get to cover when you get up, well if you live. The game is always in MP even if set to LAN, so I don't think you can game over. You lose some money if you die but that's it. Sometimes the game will respawn you where you died, sometimes in another location. Two times the game spawned me at a quest objective which is probably in error. Other issue is that some stairs do not work properly. Also vehicle controls are not normal, it has real problem with multiple simultaneous inputs like using accel/brake and turning at the same time.

Sound design is mostly good. The different enemy types are telegraphed. You'll know when the annoying runnings are coming before you see them. The exploding guys make a "help me" sound. The thugs and the rams also have their own sounds, so you are never surprised by these enemies. Spatial sound is mostly good but there are some exceptions. It seems that all enemy sounds are generated from enemies, and that there isn't any sound points that are there just to make sound. So usually if you hear an enemy sound, it means there is an enemy there. But the issues happen sometimes where it will spawn an enemy in a wall or under the ground.

I started as LAN based but changed to MP. When you are in an area where someone else is, it gives you the option to join them. I tried it once but the other person just disconnected and I got booted. I didn't try to join any other games after that and no one tried to join mine. I'm not sure if there is anything past end-game. It makes it seem like there isn't because it says you can't go back if you go to the prison. Yet them again, in the final boss level, you can loot money and items from corpses.

[tripredacus]

24. Bastion
RPG-like. Adds too much and it is just to awkward. Movement is not great, fighting is too slow. It is designed for lots of dodge/kite tactics but bills itself as an ARPG. Some charm to the presentation but I could tell fairly early on that it would just be a struggle.

25. Octodad: Dadliest Catch
OK this game is pretty good but the story mode has some issues. If it were all just "do x to continue" it would be fine. But instead there are some (somewhat) forced stealth areas with an obviously terrible control scheme (but it is the point of the game) and some quick-time events. Having to actually move a distance quickly is almost impossible. So this game is better to watch someone else struggle to play it instead of putting myself through that misery.

[telly]

Game 10 - Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4) - 46 Hours

I really enjoyed my time playing the first Valkyria Chronicles, and it's one of my favorite games, so I was really looking forward to playing the 4th installment. I think that's why I have a lot of thoughts about this game.

What absolutely still stands out to me is the gameplay. Disclaimer: I haven't played VC2 or 3 so I'm not sure what changes were new for this game or were already established. But I found that VC4 adds a lot of new ideas that kept the gameplay just as fun and interesting as ever. My favorite addition was the Grenadier class, a slow but very powerful ranged explosive unit that opens up your options for play but also becomes challenging to deal with if your enemy is using them. I also really liked the command option which allows certain units to bring along other slower units that would just be left behind otherwise. I found the new transport tank, the APC, to be a really useful way to move units across the map and can really break the already overpowered potential of scouts. Lastly, the ship orders were also interesting to use, mainly for bombarding enemies in entrenched positions. I also really liked the squad stories which gives all of your otherwise unrecognized squad members some time in the spotlight. Overall the gameplay was still great and honestly the hours would just melt away for me while playing. Really love it.

The game looks great as ever, but is mostly running on the same engine as VC1 HD remake with a lot of reused assets. The soundtrack also recycles a lot of tracks from VC1, which felt pretty lazy in my opinion. I still love the music and the way the game looks despite it not really improving that much over the first game. It retains a beautiful aesthetic that still holds up even if it's the same tech under the hood since ten years ago.

Unfortunately that's where my praise ends. I hate to say it but this game has one of the worst modern RPG stories that I've experienced in a long time. Part of my beef stems from my personal aversion to stylized, overdramatic war stories with characters that don't give enough gravity to the seriousness of war. This game has plenty of bad, cringeworthy and overwritten dialogue, but also combines this with all the frankly awful anime tropes like ass-grabbing, looking up skirts, and of course there's a hot springs and beach scene, which all just feels so out of place for me. I don't know, I just don't think it's entertaining. Makes me wonder if the first game had these same problems too because I don't remember it being this bad. In addition, I found clicking the sometimes 10+ individual cutscenes before each combat sequence to be a chore, and this was especially bad when buying upgrades in the R&D facility. Granted, this was a feature in the first game but it didn't bother me then for some reason. I'm not sure if it's because there's more cutscenes this time around or if it's the characters and story that's at fault.

What really got me is that the story in this game is supposed to be co-occurring with VC1. There's almost no connection to anything in the first game other than the fact that some of your squad is from Gallia, and a cursory mention of Maximilian and Selvaria. The game's broader war narrative was very confusing to follow as a result because there isn't any contextualization of your squad's actions within the broader conflict as a whole, especially given there's a entirely separate war between the Empire and Gallia in VC1. I was under the impression that the empire was soundly defeated after the first game, but this has apparently been retconned and the war continues between the Empire and the Federation after the events of VC1 even though Maximilian died and everything. The game has the gall to claim that the whole conflict/story you play through in this game was suppressed and forgotten about which sounds like a nice excuse as to why none of this is in the first game even though... oh I don't know.. your giant ass ship crashes through the Imperial capital and a huge battle ensues in the city streets?

Other parts of the story that I thought were really bad were Leena's whole "I'm going to pretend to be a man in the army to cover for my brother" plotline from Mulan that they don't even try to create a believable cover up for because she talks normal and doesn't wear man's clothing for the entire game. Or how Crymaria is just a less interesting copy-pasted version of Selvaria. All the villains in fact felt very underdeveloped and of course they're completely separate from any of the villains in VC1. The main villain Belgar spends most of the game yelling into the void about his important research about WMDs that he did with Riley's dad which you never see in the actual story, and he's dispatched by one of his own subordinates in a matter of minutes. There isn't even any closure about what happens to the Empire after it's all over. It all felt pretty unsatisfying to me.

I want to touch on the difficulty/ranking system as well. One of my pet peeves with a lot of ranking systems in games like this is that they're almost always based on speed alone, and no other factors like percentage of units destroyed, minimizing casualties,  etc. As a result, you're still encouraged to abuse the game's broken mechanics with the Scout units and Orders that they didn't really fix from the first game. This time around you also have the APC which effectively doubles how much of the map you can cover, making any mission with the objective of "capture the base" or "defeat the boss" almost trivial. In defense, I will say that the difficulty is not inherently easy. Because this game is at it's core a puzzle/strategy game with some action elements sprinkled on top, the game is only challenging if you don't know how to effectively use all of your tools at your disposal. The difficulty is only trivial once you know the correct solution/order of operations, just like any other puzzle game. That's how I see things anyway.

In conclusion, Valkyria Chronicles 4, while still bringing it home in the gameplay, visuals and audio departments, is mostly a lazy under baked sequel.

[kashell]

42. Final Fantasy XVI

Very, very fun game that does everything the series is known for but with a dark, bleak fantasy setting. Almost everything about the game was high quality and polished to a shimmery shine. Combat started with a bang and continued to improve the further I got thanks to so many abilities trickling in at just the right pace. My only gripe is the main villain. Even for FF, he was so damn over the top; chewing the scenery every goddamn time he was onscreen. At point during the final encounter, I thought I was watching a synchronized swimming routine. His camp took away from an otherwise solid tale.

[dhaabi]

22. The Quarry || PlayStation 5 || 06.28.23



As a spiritual successor to Until Dawn, Supermassive Games's The Quarry is a project I've been greatly anticipating to play. With later projects of The Dark Pictures Anthology series having adhered to a more condensed format, re-visiting the more long-form narrative format was something I was curious to see still worked well.

Similar to its predecessors, The Quarry is a cinematic interactive adventure game, and its themes revisit the teen slasher and monster film tropes that Until Dawn has. Throughout the game's prologue and ten chapters, players are largely tasked with exploring the environment to gather information while periodically making decisions which influence the narrative's direction and outcomes. When tension builds and action sequences play out, QTEs and Hold Breath prompts appear which critically impact immediate events to come. But, just as its predecessors, no major action or player control is present, with player agency exclusively tied to choices and reaction success.

Briefly said, The Quarry tells the story of a group of camp counselors trying to leave Hackett's Quarry summer camp. Unfortunately for them, those plans change as they're forced to stay the night after vehicle problems. Like Until Dawn, The Quarry has a degree of campiness that many horror movie fans will enjoy, as the group will inevitably split up as tension arises once monsters and aggressive locals stand in their way to surviving the night.

At many times, the game felt like a movie, and especially so in one chapter as a lot of backstory is explained. However, this is not a critique. Overall, the performance quality from the cast was exceptional. I personally always enjoyed seeing the Hackett family in scenes, and I do wish that the extended family had been awarded more screen time. Among everyone, voice work is incredibly natural, with plenty of stutters, uncomfortable pauses, and awkward wording. Line delivery is strong, and the narrative writing dialogue itself is noteworthy.

While exploring, tarot cards may be found and collected which later may be read to help give insight to upcoming decisions and possible character deaths. Generally, they require a thorough investigation of the area but aren't that difficult to find if consistently walking off the beaten path. However, unlike with Until Dawn's totem poles, only one tarot card in a chapter may be read. This allows for a greater sense of unexpectedness regarding events to come. Typically, the repercussions of player actions are not always anticipated. Sometimes, the perceived bad choice turns out to be favorable, and vice-versa. There isn't any wrong decision in deciding which card to read, as they're all beneficial in some way.

Concerning the majority of gameplay, I found QTEs to not be difficult, although I did not understand the iconography upon starting. All QTEs are performed by the left analog stick, but the icon appears more like the ◯ button. Beacuse of this, I actually failed the first few sequences, but I soon understood what the issue was and continued without any problems. Initially, I felt quite rushed to execute sequences, but I found that the game is fairly lenient in granting reaction time. Similar to Until Dawn's Don't Move sequences, The Quarry features Hold Breath prompts. While I think this kind of QTE sequence suits this kind of game, I still feel as if another layer of interactivity could be added to provide more of a challenge. With the Hold Breath sequence, the action button simply needs to be held down until the threat leaves. If button-switching were a component or even some kind of haptic feedback resistance present, I would find these instances to be much more interesting.

Alongside QTEs and Hold Breath prompts, gameplay also comprises of general character movement and gun control. Regarding the former, movement controls fine in most cases, but there are specific instances when in the darkness that I found to be bothersome. More often than not, I found the best decision is to not directly control the light source with the right analog stick and to instead rely fully upon character movement controlled by the left. I'll note here now instead of later that The Quarry has given me the most difficulties regarding brightness. While I understand the game is at night and is adopting a rather dark atmosphere, I genuinely felt as I wasn't experiencing the visuals as I should have been. For most games, the default brightness settings are perfectly fine, but I had maxed out brightness settings and still felt impacted by the darkness. Perhaps this is intended, but I would have liked to have seen more environmental details. As for gun control, there are a few moments when you are prompted to shoot. Even if you choose to do so, I personally found issue with this mechanic. In several instances, I simply did not know where to aim, so the available time to complete the action felt especially limiting.

With all that said, the game's settings are quite accessible and can more-or-less all be toggled on or off. For gun control specifically, aim assistance and auto-aim are two separate options which are useful to help guarantee certain outcomes being made. While some may find fault that player deaths are permanent, this is nothing new to this series of games and reinforces a strict system that forces players to accept their decisions. However, The Quarry is the first entry in Supermassive Games's catalog to offer the Death Rewind system which allows three decisions resulting in death to be replayed, although this assistance is only available in subsequent playthroughs. A small note I'll detail here is that the game's subtitles are not perfect. I'm not hearing impaired nor know how much of an issue it may be to that community, but subtitles are not always aligned to lines, and there are some minor grammatical inconsistencies.

Overall, I found The Quarry to be a worthy successor to Until Dawn. It is difficult to say which of the two is more successful, but I don't think that is necessarily important as their strengths and weaknesses are generally equal, with the written plot for each favorable and able to maintain interest.

[conduit]

It's been a while. Managed to get a few more games under my belt. Not sure how close I'll be by the end year of the year, but I'll keep trekking on.

#8 Resident Evil 4 Remake (Steam)
Prior to release I was skeptical in Capcom’s ability to remake RE4 in good faith, a game that was never in a state to justify a remake in the first place. Despite my pre-launch doubt, Capcom did not drop the ball and delivered an experience that complements OG RE4. The injection of more lore and detail about the game's story and world is a welcomed change. As is the darker approach the game embraces both thematically and aesthetically. RE Engine is a superb engine and runs silky smooth with very little hiccups, if any. My main gripe is in the gameplay with the lack of staggering with consecutive shots. Compared to the original its seems completely random, one Grenado will stagger with a single pistol shot while another ignores my shots entirely. I also felt the Remake’s pacing wasn’t as fine tuned. It goes by way too fast, primarily from the Castle onwards. Neither of these nitpicks are game-breakers though. After completing five playthroughs I feel RE4R can stand on its own as a competently made game. OG RE4 will still be my go to whenever I have the RE4 itch, but RE4R is a great substitute if you’ve played the original to death.

#9 Amid Evil (Steam)
A great Quake-like FPS that’s been in my Steam library for a while, played it sporadically but never completed it. Buckled down and went for a 100% secrets run recently and man, what a ride. The graphics are eye-melting with the appropriate chunkiness you’d expect. Weapons cover the whole gambit of Area FPS. You got your staples like the rocket launcher and lighting gun, but designed in a mystically medieval way. In this case, the rocket launcher is a magical staff that hurls planets as projectiles while the lighting gun is a literal trident. All the weapons can be enhanced through the Soul Power mechanic. Popping this off then clearing an enemy-filled room is an adrenaline rush that never gets old. Additional levels are coming with The Black Labyrinth DLC, which will be a day one purchase for me. Its just a well designed, looking, and paced game that should be in any old school FPS player’s library.

#10 Graze Counter GM (Steam)
The enhanced version of the original Graze Counter. Its the same game, just improved in every way. GM is $5 more in comparison at $15 but completely worth it. Everything I said about the original Graze Counter can be applied here; a great beginner STG with added challenge if you’re up for it. Got the 1CC on Normal and will likely return to it at some point to tackle the next highest difficulty. Cannot recommend it enough.

#11 Warhammer 40,000:Boltgun (Steam)
For a few weeks the online discourse of this game was constant. Anyone aware of the current retro/boomer shooter renaissance we’re living in now would not stop talking about it. I gave into the hype and threw down the dough. Mind you, my only interaction with the 40K series is through its video games and not the seemingly bottomless pit of lore and merchandise behind it. I’m going in expecting a core retro FPS experience with lore sprinkled on top, which is exactly what I got. I’m also a sucker for good pixel art, which is present both in-game and in-cutscenes. On the flipside, the game feels way too easy outside of bosses, even at the highest difficulty. Hardcore 40K fans might pass on it, but retro shooter fans should give it a try. It plays safe and doesn’t tread too far off course, compared to other retro shooters you could play much worse.

[bikingjahuty]

31. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

First and foremost, it feels great to have been hyped for a new FF game for the first time since FF12, and also actually played it upon launch. FF used to be one of my all time favorite game franchises back in the early 2000s, and I accredit it also with getting me really into anime as well. Unfortunately that time has long passed and as I've stated numerous times on this site, I'm only a fraction of the RPG fan I used to be in my early teens. Despite this, I still get the urge to play them now and then and each year I generally beat two or three of them on average. After beating FFXVI I'm very happy to add this as one of those few RPGs I beat each year.


Overall, i really enjoyed FFXVI despite some issues that hampered my overall enjoyment of the game. This is the first game since FF12 that actually felt like a Final Fantasy game to me, and because of that I was instantly drawn to it. The audio and voice acting is absolutely incredible with not even one mediocre performance. Every character is voiced to perfection and I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the cast behind FFXVI's characters. The soundtrack is also appropriately epic and is fairly diverse in terms of the type of music that plays depending on where you are and what's happening. With that out of the way, I have slightly less praise to give the visuals of FFXVI. The graphics and character models all looked good, however I felt that often during gameplay the visuals looked pretty last gen (PS4/XBONE). That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was something I did notice and this also goes along with various other visual elements of this game feeling very old school to me. Again, I have mixed feelings about this, but I can't say the visuals were amazing, rather, they were pretty damn good with some minor flaws. The gameplay of FFXVI was a refreshing change that felt reminiscent of FF7:Remake in that it was very action focused and fast paced. This definitely made the combat fun and interesting, however my main gripe had to do with the game's RPG elements which felt fairly shallow for the most part. Outside ability customization, everything else felt faiirley inconsequential to my success in the game. I never faced an enemy I wasn't able to easily defeat, not did I need to equip specific items depending on what i was fighting. There was no magic type advantages or disadvantages I noticed, no status effects, no specific strategy to defeat certain enemies or bosses. In other words, this game felt like more God of War and less like FF, or any other RPG I've played for the most part. Even FF7:Remake felt more RPGish despite it going for a predominantly combat style of gameplay. Other than that, the world of FFXVI felt fairly small and there are certain areas you will be back tracking to A LOT! Still, this is a secondary grip compared to my criticism of the core gameplay being fairly shallow. As someone who struggles to stay engaged with RPGs this actually suit me well for the most part, however i couldn't help but want just a little more depth and RPG elements thrown in. The final area of FFXVI I want to examine is it's story. I'm not going to summarize it or go into any details, but I will say it felt fairly uneven; some chapters and section of FFXVI were beyond incredible, while other fairly long stretches of the game I found myself bored to tears. Luckily there were more high point than low points, and while the overall plot felt a bit generic in some ways, I still found it all mostly enjoyable and interesting. But as I mentioned earlier, I am so happy to have completed a new FF around the time of its release. Between this game and FF7:Remake, it feels so good to be back into FF and here's hoping this trend continues so I can make up for nearly 20-years of not caring about FF that much and lacking any excitement for its new entries. Hope is on the horizon once more (7/16/23) [38/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

21 - Naraka: Bladepoint (PC 2021) - ENDLESS - Been struggling to keep myself focused on games for abit as stuff just keeps coming out that draws my attention away and I really need to get back to playing FF16, but Naraka went F2P a couple days ago and it's been really good.  I played it abit last year on Game Pass and thought it was fine, but because it was Gamepass, I wasn't going to stick with it.  It's a pretty solid Battle Royale game, built around kind of an involved melee combat that I still haven't fully come to terms with.  It feels so easy to just get combo'd to death and to figure the timing for counters, on top of having to learn the playstyles of multiple weapons since you can't rely on always having that weapon.  Not that I'm doing bad, I've gotten to the top 5 at least a dozens times and won probably half that, as it can be really satisfying when you manage to nail the moves, or just got lucky.  The action in general is a lot of fun though, especially with the grapple movement and climbing.

My favorite character I've focused on primarily so far, though I have a number unlocked now is Feria Shen, she's basically d.Va from Overwatch, to the point that she has a cyberpunk scifi outfit that makes her extra d.VA that I did buy lol Her special attack is three types of gun attacks, and then her ultimate is a mech, like a steampunk'ish mech that can fire rockets or a cannon blast.  It's a great survival tool when getting whooped or when fighting multiple enemies at once.

Thankfully, unlike Apex Legends, which doesn't have solo play for the BR mode to keep me around (only team deathmatch stuff), it has solo BR, so I don't have to do much squad play, though I've done some of the PVE content with other players, which is fine.

[dhaabi]

23. Valiant Hearts: The Great War || PlayStation 4 || 07.15.23



To be honest, I'm not quite sure what about Valiant Hearts: The Great War first caught my attention or why I felt inclined to play it. That said, it's a game with characteristics I enjoy and has a short play time, so perhaps that's all it needed for it to be added to my backlog, where it's been for many years.

As a side-scrolling puzzle adventure game, Valiant Hearts serves a much different purpose than other war-centric games. Here, what was crafted is a tale about the brutalities of war from the perspective of both sides of World War I. As a narrative-driven experience, the story is mature in tone as themes of survival and sacrifice are explored, unlike first-person shooters and strategy games which generally do not focus on these emotional elements. With that said, this is not a game players will finish feeling content with each character gaining a good conclusion. War doesn't really offer a happy ending, and many throughout the game will die or suffer. As a game of this genre, there will be times when the player fails segments, but Valiant Hearts is quite forgiving since the game's focus is on the narrative itself. After failing, sections reload promptly with no noticeable load times.

Throughout the game, players will control four different characters one at a time as they face the war in different ways. For some of the cast, character-specific actions are tied to them whose gameplay sequences revolve around certain mechanics. While the cast comes together early on in the narrative, they are not always together as their roles in the war are needed elsewhere, or if the effects of war have caused them to become separated. Alongside general side-scrolling exploration, other gameplay mechanics consist of action prompts, stealth sequences, and controlling tanks, so the gameplay is quite simple. However, there is one unique gameplay element relating to the medic character that is notable. While also simple, its design requires performing timed button commands in quick succession. They have multiple sequences and follow a certain pattern for each encounter. At times, button commands require multiple buttons pressed down simultaneously, and it is common to see interchanging button prompts at fast tempos.

Regarding the general gameplay, it revolves around the player exploring the environment and solving environment puzzles to gain items to advance onward. So, for instance, this can be to unlock a door or to stealth past enemy attention. There are other times when a multiple steps must be performed to reach the immediate goal, though, such as completing a series of cause-and-effect outcomes to allow for a letter to be written. For most of the game, the immediate objective is straightforward in performing. But, one puzzle in particular concerning poison gas limiting player visibility was a little aggravating, although I understand why it was designed this way. While playing, I found level design to be strong as they adapt many aspects of war while maintaining historical accuracy. Many aspects are featured at some point throughout the narrative, including toxic gas and bombing, trench warfare, tunnel systems, encampments, and POW camps. This is complemented by moments of terror as the screams of war loom throughout the area. In particularly action-focused sections, heavy enemy fire is present which is elevated by violent screen shaking.

With that said, sections begin with new historical overviews complete with actual photos that provide informative context alongside the game's narration and events unfolding. As someone who has little knowledge about World War I, these inclusions were appreciated. In addition to these periodic updates, items may be collected while exploring that offer further historical context. These items are entirely optional to collect, but the added effort in teaching about numerous aspects of the war is again a nice inclusion. At the very least, discovering the items encourages player exploration and puzzle-solving. While the historical information is a nice feature, I was a little disappointed that it cannot be revisited at any point of the game once the section has been completed, whether it be from the in-game or title menu.

While Valiant Hearts offers periodic narration alongside plenty of information to collect, there is no character dialogue. Instead, dialogue boxes may appear with simple iconography to explain situations or emotions that is complemented by character animations which help advance the narrative. Additionally, there are times when letters written by the game's cast are written and read aloud with voice work. Although I have no problem with the dialogue itself and decision for limited voice work, I personally would have more enjoyed localized voice work. What I mean is that most of the cast speaks German or French, but all lines are voiced in English.

Overall, Valiant Hearts: The Great War offers a different kind of experience contrary to most other war games. While the game honestly doesn't do anything groundbreaking or exemplary, the developers' decision to adapt one of modern history's worst moments accurately is commendable. I'm personally not interested in war history, but learning about it through this medium obviously made it much more approachable, and the decision to frame it as emotional as it is is refreshing.

[vivigamer]

20. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
I beat Final Fantasy XVI this week after 63+ hours... the best way I can summarise the experience is a brilliant Final Fantasy Story stuck within a poorly made game!

The games structure is horrible for an RPG (Certainly for 2023). Rather than navigate through areas after a scenario ends you are given a Map Menu to where you have to select the next area - even if there is only 1 areas to go to... The problem with this structure is that it condenses the traversal element to an RPG & diminishes the sense of adventure! It's more like experiencing a condensely edited movie. Where in previous FF games it's experiencing the parties journey which gives us the time to engage with them.

Second point is the combat. It is terribly basic. I found once I unlocked Lunge & a Monsters Ability to topple an enemy over when their Stagger Bar is half-way I could beat all encounters without thinking. There was a normal enemy pattern & a Boss patern, that was it. Sadly the game doesn't incorporate elements into the Battle System, so there really is no depth at all.

Sidequests... Geez! The game is full of the most monotonous side material you can think of. Most are just generic fetch quests for random NPC's you don't care for - A couple worked for world building and presenting slavery in the world but  the lack of budget and variety left this to feel like chores - Got burnt out after 3 hours of sidequests one evening. The game has Monster Hunts but they're boring too as they're ALL re-skins of enemies you've already seen appear 4-5 times in the game - Really, you'll encounter a Boss in the Story Route & it will appear again & again in the story routes for the game.

So... what's to like? The story is VERY compelling! The world and it's peril is very well realised. I don't typically like Medieval Fantasy settings but the story was well presented - even if heavily inspired by Game of Thrones. Clive is a decent FF protagonist & like all good FF games carries a well crafted character-focused story on his back. You feel for his past and later I was engrossed and keen to support him on his quest. The other characters aren't quite as interesting but they make for a good posy and assist the journey. I won't go into spoilers but it is very well paced (Unless you go through all the sidequests...) and engrossing for start to finish.

Soundtrack is also a highlight! Much more memorable than the last games and genuinely exhilarating.

So... while I found every second of the actually story a delight, I simply did not enjoy playing the actual game... which is an odd polarizing experience to feel. Usually I am more for having a good story within a game but the gameplay is so unremarkable & side content so tedious that i really brings the overall experience down. If playing I would avoid most side content - You can tell the important ones as they have a + icon on the map, beyond that right at the end of the game there are a few character focused ones which are decent but i regret wasting so much time on games poor side content. Sadly for me this sits on t he lower end of the FF Series Ranking for me.

[kamikazekeeg]

22 - Ragnarock (PC 2021) - ENDLESS - One of my backlog games I've been meaning to play as I finally felt like jumping back to into VR.  Beat Saber was my go to rhythm game in VR, it's just a nice time, but I never liked most of the music it had.  There's only a handful of songs actually in the game I like and then everything else is DLC, and then of all the DLC, there's not tons I want, so when I saw there was a rhythm VR game built primarily around metal, I had to get it.  It's pretty fun, you hit 4 drums with hammers on a viking longboat, your score calculated by how far you get.  You can even get a speed boost by keeping up combo's and then hitting the shields on either side when your hammers power up. 

It's a little more challenging than Beat Saber because you have to get the timing of the hits down center to the drum as the symbols come to you.  It also relies on hitting actual drums in the game, so getting them positioned right was a little bit of a challenge.  I think I need to spend more time positioning them to figure out whats best.  But it has awesome music from Wind Rose, Alestorm, Gloryhammer, Electric Callboy, and a number of other bands, which makes for a real good default song selection and then there is with a bunch of other good bands, but it never felt like I NEEDED those songs compared to Beat Saber.  It also looks like it has custom songs built into it, so I'm gonna look up what I can get from that, as that's also something better than Beat Saber, which requires some extra stuff to get custom songs working.