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52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

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bikingjahuty:
2. Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (PS2 - ABANDONED

The first Klonoa game was probably one of the most surprisingly good games I can remember playing. I remember going into that game with fairly mild expectations in terms of its quality. Sure, I'd heard over and over again online how great it was, but I tend to not believe the hype when it comes to retro games getting heaps of praise thrown on them, particularly when the games are more on the obscure side. When I actually did play Klonoa on the PS1, I was blown away by how fun it was, but also how deep, and impactful the story was too. I was definitely not expecting that. So after falling in love with that first game, it's been a longtime backlog goal of mine to tackle its sequel, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil on the PS2. Unfortunately, that game didn't hit me nearly as hard as the first game and in pretty much every way felt like a noticeably inferior game.


I really didn't care for most things in Klonoa 2. The OST, gameplay, and visuals are all okay, if not even being pretty good overall, but I guess in the end, the game just felt way less special or interesting as the first game. Levels often go on for way longer than they should. Most bosses aren't particularly enjoyable or fun. The story is a massive downgrade over the first game, at least up to the point where I stopped playing. I just couldn't get into this one as hard as I tried.


With all that said, I'm not going to discount how unfortunate events in my personal life recently might be tainting my opinion of Klonoa 2, but honestly more convinced that I just didn't enjoy this game. I'm certainly not ruling out someday trying to play this game again, but for now, the combination of me struggling to continue playing it and also me being unsure how much my personal problems are dampening my enjoyment led me to the decision to drop this game for the time being. Time will tell if I ever get around to playing this one again, but for now it's going back on the shelf. (3/17/2026) - ABANDONED

dhaabi:
17. Jet Set Radio || PC || 04.06.2026



For many years, Jet Set Radio has been a game I've long wanted to play. Ideally, I would have played it by using the original Dreamcast hardware and controller that it was developed for which is a significant reason why it's been left unplayed for so long, but I ultimately settled on putting my Steam Deck to good use since I've long had that option available after having redeemed a digital copy of the game through a free promotion a full decade ago.

Now, describing Jet Set Radio is a fun exercise, because, even though its gameplay is fun, it is every element that forms its presentation that is the most captivating and defining aspect of the experience offered. Upon starting, players are introduced to a pirate radio station DJ who hosts the eponymous show that covers the ongoing narrative events. Specifically, the narrative focuses on one of several inline skating street gangs whom the player controls as they clash with neighboring Tokyo rivals in turf wars and, over time, begin collecting pieces of a mysterious vinyl record. Throughout the entire playthrough, strong personality is established as a result of the game's use of its cel-shaded visual style with anti-establishment and general counterculture themes that are uniquely paired with an eclectic and memorable blend of music featuring elements of hip-hop, dance, funk, and Japanese pop that culminates into a style now commonly referred to as Shibuya punk, a Y2K-inspired movement pioneered by Jet Set Radio itself.

Demonstrating strong themes, the game is all about navigating urban environments while tagging walls, roads, billboards, and anything and everything else in the city to expand the player's turf. So to be expected, rival gangs and police forces are regular threats that, over time as more level progress is accomplished, become more and more dangerous. In each of the story missions which consist of three chapters relating to three separate rival gangs, the player is tasked with reclaiming territory that's been infiltrated while evading authorities and surviving city hazards like vehicles or falling from lofty heights. Regarding the former, police generally begin targeting the player as ground units by tackling and even firing bullets, but the extent of their efforts toward stopping you may even escalate to aircraft use. Unfortunately—and this may be due to scheduling restraints or even hardware limitations—there isn't any gameplay featuring a turf war acting out in real-time with players and CPU players alike expanding their gangs' marks while overwriting others', but perhaps that's a mechanic to look forward to in sequel entries. Nevertheless, the player's goal is accomplished by the combined effort of searching for tag locations and the act of tagging itself. There is some variability to the latter, as there are three sizes of graffiti marks that are dependent on the location. Smaller designs can be sprayed with a simple button press, but medium- and large-sized ones require a series of actions triggered by mirroring specific analog stick movements which mimic real-world actions to be completed. At the same time, paint spray cans are a finite resource and must be collected as they're scattered about.

However, other types of stages are present within the game too. Apart from the majority of stages across the story campaign, certain stages that present the player-character directly opposing rival gangs become available. How this is accomplished is that players must chase several rival members in an enclosed loop and tag their bodies with spray paint a certain number of times. The opportunity to complete this action wasn't consistent, and I'd often press the appropriate button without the action being triggered. Meanwhile, several other stage types with their own goals—Jet Graffiti, Jet Tech, and Jet Crash—are presented for players to freely choose at any point from the stage select screen. They're fine options for side content, and I found Jet Crash to be the most interesting of the three as it tasks the player to race against one CPU player all through the interconnected map area while the needed path is unmarked. There is a clear direction players must take, and succeeding ultimately requires trial-and error alongside skill. Intermittently, recruitable NPCs will also appear at your gang base challenging the player's skills. This, too, is a fun diversion from the main campaign as the goal may also be a race to an end goal or, more interestingly, a type of call-and-response type of stage structure where players must replicate a series of actions the CPU player performs first. Upon succeeding, the NPC will properly join your gang and becomes a selectable player-character with varying stats, their own dedicated graffiti designs, and different tagging inputs too.

With an emphasis on movement, general exploration within the game's sandbox level design is comprised of skating, jumping, grinding, and hitching, and it's for this reason that Jet Set Radio is more evident of the platformer genre than sports or action. These motions are all easy to perform, though it did take some time for me to become used to the controls since verticality is routinely stressed with clear gaps to cross over. At the same time, primary navigation throughout the interconnecting city sections is not made abundantly clear. While there are UI arrows that lead players to where tag targets are located, players will already need to be within a close vicinity for them to activate. So in certain scenarios, a player may feel forced to explore looking for those last few spots which can be obscured by environmental set pieces or out-of-sight due to its elevated placement. Of course, this problem is somewhat mitigated by the Jet Set Radio's dedicated map system, but it's a tedious task considering players are forced to pause the game and then view the map within a nested menu selection. Something else worth mentioning about player exploration is that players can be annoyingly removed from the stage by veering too close to the level exits. I don't know why these exits exist at all, since their only purpose is to impede player progress as all unsaved progress becomes lost. On several occasions, I was struck by the flow of traffic and somehow pushed out of the stage by a barrage of vehicles, requiring me to try again from the stage start.

To a degree, certain aspects of the game are needlessly challenging, though it's not to the point of frustration. And, I will acknowledge that a certain level of difficulty is required beyond the depleting time limit to complete stages. Nevertheless, it's common to navigate throughout a stage without much direction, and there are times when the map system becomes useless as where players may need to go is a different segment of the map and can't be accessed unless already physically there. Meanwhile, antagonistic forces have the utmost intent to leave you incapacitated without any health, utilizing fists, guns, or even explosives while you're instead left with the only option to evade them. On that note, health can quickly deplete, and desperately searching for restorative spray paint cans while an enemy encounter occurs adds another layer of stress as time ticks down. Between these two elements, first-time players or even players who simply become lost will struggle. Additionally, the map system lacks crucial information. Entry and exit ways aren't indicated, so it's a regular occurrence for anyone unfamiliar with a new area especially to hopelessly roam around looking for a specific path.

More broadly, there are various aspects of level design also worth mentioning. Across all stage types including those within the campaign, an arcade level design is integrated that I completed ignored. At the end of stages, players are scored based on a ranking system, and I can only imagine that trying to reach the highest rank for them all is a trial of patience amidst the aforementioned problems present. To help players accrue more points, optional tag locations can be found and used to bolster one's score, but using them obviously comes at the cost of depleting their stock of spray cans. Like one would expect from a 3D platformer of this era, there are collectibles to discover in the form of equippable graffiti designs for each of the three sizes. They're usually not that difficult to find, but actually getting close enough to properly collect them certainly is. Lastly, there is a major issue relating to the main campaign—that is, it seems that way to me. Unfortunately, players are unable to retry story stages until the entire campaign has been completed unless retrying them immediately after finishing but before exiting the stage. Except, players are still not given the free opportunity to select stages even once the campaign has been cleared as the full campaign restarts with the same previous limitations. So, should a players actually be interested in besting their high scores or achieving a certain rank, they'll either be forced to do perfect one stage at a time that will more than likely require a lot of practice or play throughout the entire game several times.

Even for someone who's not played Jet Set Radio, it's clear that it presents a robust and unparalleled atmosphere for a game of its time of release. However, it's certainly not a game without its faults—faults that seem simple to solve too, which is disappointing that they remained in the game's final build. But for someone like myself who played the game casually without an interest in its ranking system or collectibles, there's a lot of fun gameplay to experience even when irritating moments may occur that's strongly complemented by its design presentation. In time, I'll definitely be playing its sequel entry and other games inspired by it.

Cartagia:
Still chugging at the series with Mega Man X4.  Looks great, with some really cool boss designs.  Overall it felt much easier than other titles.  Theres a little bit of a difficulty spike at the end, but nothing outlandish.  The first game in the series with voice acting and it is absoultely terrible, which has its own flavor of charm.

kashell:

--- Quote from: Cartagia on April 18, 2026, 02:19:41 pm ---Still chugging at the series with Mega Man X4.  Looks great, with some really cool boss designs.  Overall it felt much easier than other titles.  Theres a little bit of a difficulty spike at the end, but nothing outlandish.  The first game in the series with voice acting and it is absoultely terrible, which has its own flavor of charm.

--- End quote ---

Did you find out what you were fighting FOOOOOR!?!

kashell:
39. The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure

I have a bone to pick with this game. It's not because it's bad. It's actually quite good outside of my usual issues that plague the Trails series. My issue is with the side content. Halfway or so through the game, I lost track of where I was supposed to go so I looked up a guide. Doing that led me down a rabbit hole of learning how important the seemingly unimportant stuff was. All of it was like a series of unfortunate events. If you don't fish, then you can't feed a cat, and you'll miss a Master Quartz. If you don't cook, then you can't get special dishes, which you can't offer at the Jizo Statue, and you'll miss a Master Quartz. If you don't talk to important characters (i.e characters with portraits) then you'll miss bonding with them and you'll miss potent accessories. If you don't talk to that ONE PERSON during that ONE TIME during that ONE CHAPTER, then you'll miss out on a book series called Sunshine Agnes, and ultimately miss another reward. I think the real kick in the d*** with all of this was learning that there were hidden quests during certain chapters at certain moments that could only be accessed by talking to a specific NPC. Y'all, Crossbell and its surrounding areas are filled with NPCs. There's a few people that probably relish in talking to everyone all the time. Personally, I'd like to keep the narrative going while taking care of the listed optional quests. I was annoyed when I learned about all the Detective Points I missed because of these hidden quests. The cherry on top was when I learned of one that shed light on Lloyd's (the main-freaking-character) brother. You know, the reason why he became a cop in the first place? By the end of the game, I was shy of reaching the top rank. I played on my Switch 2 so it's not like I was trophy hunting, but that doesn't make me less invested in some of this stuff. One final complaint: I won two important fights where it didn't matter if you won or lost. I finished both of those as the victor, only to learn later that winning against them was optional. I played on Normal, so it's not like the extra experience points made me super-powered due to the game's scaling.

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