52 Games Challenge 2019

[kamikazekeeg]

21 - Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (NES/Switch 2019) - BEAT - After the disappointment that was Castlevania 2, I am glad to say that I finally hit a CV I can say I like.  It's definitely a big improvement over the first game and as the influence for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, it actually has given me a lot more respect for that game.  That said, it's still the kinda clunky Castlevania movement and action and it's still not done the best at times.  Some of the levels were bullshit later on, though generally all the bosses felt better to fight.  I did save scum the crap out of the game to keep my sanity intact and even then, this game gets hard as hell with how much damage you take and how easy it is to die.

It's not a game I'll ever play again, bu so far it is definitely the best one.

[Cartagia]

21 - Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (NES/Switch 2019) - BEAT - After the disappointment that was Castlevania 2, I am glad to say that I finally hit a CV I can say I like.  It's definitely a big improvement over the first game and as the influence for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, it actually has given me a lot more respect for that game.  That said, it's still the kinda clunky Castlevania movement and action and it's still not done the best at times.  Some of the levels were bullshit later on, though generally all the bosses felt better to fight.  I did save scum the crap out of the game to keep my sanity intact and even then, this game gets hard as hell with how much damage you take and how easy it is to die.

It's not a game I'll ever play again, bu so far it is definitely the best one.

There's a patch coming that is going to make the Japanese version of the games available - and CV III is going to benefit the most from that.  THe music is substantially better and the game is easier overall.  I'm actually holding off on this one for that reason.

[justin8301]

Two more done and with that I'm at the halfway point.

25. Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz (Vita) 5/11 - Beatish
I used to love Super Monkey Ball 2 on the NGC so I figured Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz on the Vita would be a great game as well… I was kinda wrong lol. It turns out Banana Splitz doesn’t really have a story mode, instead they have these arcade style challenge modes where you have to get through a chunk of levels with a limited number of continues. I blew through the Beginner mode and cleared Normal mode in one night, but Expert mode… well fuck expert mode. Calling this beat

26. Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (Switch) 5/26 - Beat
I have to say I have mixed feelings about this one, mostly good though. Final Fantasy XII was the first main, non-mmo game in the series to really break away from the traditional turn-based combat; back when it was first released this kinda turned me off but coming back to this game after so many years it really is refreshing. The gambit system was/is rather innovative, allowing you to almost automate your combat choices giving you the freedom to really focus on switching things up on the fly when shit got crazy, the only issue with this is shit almost never gets crazy. I was pretty much able to brute force the entire game, never really needing to use magic or any strategy really. I know there are insane optional bosses that can really test you, but it would have been nice to have a little more challenge in the main game. With all that said the story was amazing, the level and sound design was on point, and this ended up becoming one of my favorite Final Fantasy games.

Now playing Final Fantasy VII

[bikingjahuty]

Newest review:


25. Undertale (Switch): Ever since I first heard of this game I've heard nothing but how it's one of the best indie RPGs ever made, and is frequently praised on Tumblr and Reddit for being this work of genius. I'm always willing to give a game the benefit of the doubt, however from experience very few games live up to the monumental praise that sometimes surrounds them. Sadly, Undertale is no different. For the record, Undertale is not a bad game, it's just...okay. Perhaps my favorite thing about the game was the battle system which combined traditional turn based combat with SHMUP gameplay. In execution, however, this form of gameplay did not always work out, either because your movement speed or the game's tendency to throw way too much at you in order to reasonably dodge everything coming at you. This was especially true towards the end of the game. One other downside to the combat was the lack of emphasis on weapons and armor. The game encourages you to spare your enemies rather than defeat them, which is a net concept, but one I thought was slightly annoying. Outside of combat there are various puzzles you need to complete to progress, however all of them were very easy, offering little more than an unnecessary obstacle rather than a stimulating challenge. Undertale's story is fairly unique, as is the setting, characters, writing, and overall plot which throws you through a loop several times throughout the game to keep things interesting. Also, this is a very short game; I beat it in under 10-hours, which is more of a good thing as far as I'm concerned since most modern RPGs can be very longwinded and outstay their welcome by 20 or 30 hours sometimes. The music in this game was very nice too, as was the majority of the sound direction including the comical noises enemies made then their dialogue appeared on screen. Perhaps the thing I didn't like the most about Undertale were its visuals; the game was visually all over the place in terms of art direction and graphics, however it appears it was going for an old 1980s PC RPG look, which is a look a lot of modern retro-styled games don't go for. In addition to the visuals, the game came across as very pretentious sometimes, as was its copious use of quirkiness for the sake of being quirky. Overall, Undertale was far from being a bad game, in fact I'd say it was closer to being a pretty good game rather that a bad one, but for me it fell very firmly in that middle ground where it was something I mostly enjoyed while playing it, but likely will never play it again, nor will I remember much about it in several months. At least I can say I've played Undertale now lol. (5/27/19) [32/50]

[Cartagia]

I finished Ashen this morning, which is a pretty solid indie Souls-like.  I love the aesthetic and it was nice to play one of these games that was optimistic for a change.  Usually these are dour affairs about the end of the world, and Ashen is actually about the awakening of the world.  Pretty solid voice acting all around.  The biggest drawback is that the game is very linear, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it disincentivized world exploration.  If you like the Souls games pick this one up and give it a shot.

[kamikazekeeg]

22 - Castlevania: The Adventure (Gameboy/Switch 2019) - BEAT - Figured before I went into Super Castlevania IV, that I'd do the Gameboy games first and went in kinda expecting not very much.  While the GB version of Castlevania really isn't any better than the NES ones, I might be alright with it more? I don't really love Castlevania yet, it's an alright series with kinda clunky gameplay (As of the NES games),  but because Adventure is such a stripped down and short experience, it's kind of a good time.  I only had annoyances with one enemy type, I wasn't asked to do tons of platforming that felt too bad, and there wasn't much time when it asking more out of what I was capable of.  I wasn't swarmed with enemies and the boss fights were simple, but mostly reasonable (Except for the lizard men fight...kinda annoying).  The game is totally okay.

[Cartagia]

22 - Castlevania: The Adventure (Gameboy/Switch 2019) - BEAT - Figured before I went into Super Castlevania IV, that I'd do the Gameboy games first and went in kinda expecting not very much.  While the GB version of Castlevania really isn't any better than the NES ones, I might be alright with it more? I don't really love Castlevania yet, it's an alright series with kinda clunky gameplay (As of the NES games),  but because Adventure is such a stripped down and short experience, it's kind of a good time.  I only had annoyances with one enemy type, I wasn't asked to do tons of platforming that felt too bad, and there wasn't much time when it asking more out of what I was capable of.  I wasn't swarmed with enemies and the boss fights were simple, but mostly reasonable (Except for the lizard men fight...kinda annoying).  The game is totally okay.

I just finished this one myself.  I agree with pretty much everything you said, though I found the last boss to be the toughest.  The platforming was sluggish, but generally fine.  For a Game Boy game of its age I thought it was as solid as could be.

[kamikazekeeg]

22 - Castlevania: The Adventure (Gameboy/Switch 2019) - BEAT - Figured before I went into Super Castlevania IV, that I'd do the Gameboy games first and went in kinda expecting not very much.  While the GB version of Castlevania really isn't any better than the NES ones, I might be alright with it more? I don't really love Castlevania yet, it's an alright series with kinda clunky gameplay (As of the NES games),  but because Adventure is such a stripped down and short experience, it's kind of a good time.  I only had annoyances with one enemy type, I wasn't asked to do tons of platforming that felt too bad, and there wasn't much time when it asking more out of what I was capable of.  I wasn't swarmed with enemies and the boss fights were simple, but mostly reasonable (Except for the lizard men fight...kinda annoying).  The game is totally okay.

I just finished this one myself.  I agree with pretty much everything you said, though I found the last boss to be the toughest.  The platforming was sluggish, but generally fine.  For a Game Boy game of its age I thought it was as solid as could be.

The last boss seemed really challenging at first till I found out he has a ridiculously easy pattern in both forms and I was able to basically do it without getting hit by the end lol I had way more trouble with the Frog Men and the...harpy thing that flies around.

[Cartagia]

Yeah, once I got the pattern it wasn’t too bad.  The only issues I had at that point were the platforming.  It was not easy to jump and hit at the same time.

It’s not a good game, but I don’t think it deserves quite all the shit that gets piled on it.  For what it is, with the technical limitations it’s fine.

[justin8301]

27. Castlevania (Anniversary Collection) (Switch) 5/29 - beat

Everyone else is doing it so I figured why the hell not. This is one of those games that I always loved as a kid but just never really could beat, so I figured it was time to sit down and finish the damn thing. What can you say about Castlevania that hasn’t been said before? It’s amazing; there’s a reason this one is considered a classic. Except for the Grim Reaper, fuck that guy…

[kamikazekeeg]

23 - Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (Gameboy/Switch 2019) - BEAT - The last of the pre-16 bit games in the collection and I gotta say that it's also not bad, though it's pretty easy up till the very end, even with save states in mind, but like it's all very tight and plays well and movement might be the best out of all the Castlevania's so far.  I'm not likely to ever replay these ones, but both the Gameboy games are very reasonable games.

[bikingjahuty]

Halfway through the year, and a little over halfway through 52 games! Just posted my 26th and 27th reviews on page 8

[vivigamer]

Just Beat:
13. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)

I've heard this game has quite a bad rep'... I'm genuinely not sure why after playing it! I do feel the story is hit or miss, I enjoyed most of the content, but if i am honest I didn't like the new cast members. I did however enjoy the attention to BJ's backstory, which was one fo the highlights for me. There are a lot of good moments to I won't spoiler them but the game is certainly diverse in the locations you explore again and the art direction just shines so brightly with it's alternative history theme - They have these wild adaptations of Motorbikes! I will say the ending lacked the momentum needed but it was no way near as bad as people make out.

The game has a 'hub' system to explore between levels like the previous game, which I would say is more expanded, with training missions, mini-games, sidequests and extra missions all available. You can also talk to the crew as the story progresses, which like the first game is great for character building. The games difficulty was also hit and miss - The problem I has was with the checkpoint system, it doesn't recover your health at 100% but 50% So If I were to die at a certain area  and repsawn, i'd be at a further disadvantage than I was when I started the confrontation - the game has a save state system but lacking the foresight of when an encounter is going to happen I can't pre-pare for that. .One thing which puzzled me for a while was upgrading the Pistol to have a silencer through the games new Upgrade Kit system, but as soon as I understood that and upgraded it, I was back to the familiar play style of the 1st game.

But overall a great game! I haven't played the DLC but from what I gather it doesn't even included story content related to the games story itself... so I might skip it.

Playing:
Spyro The Dragon - Reignited (PS4)

Plan to play:
Wolfenstein (PS3)
Ni No Kuni (PS3)
Vampyr (PS4)
Devil May Cry 1 (PS4)
Lost Planet (Xbox 360)
Final Fantasy VII (PC if I can get a solid build)

Beaten List:
13. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4), 12. Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4), 11. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4), 10. Final Fantasy V (GBA), 9. Firewatch (PS4), 8. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4), 7. The Simpsons Game (PS3), 6. Devil May Cry 3 HD (PS4), 5. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4), 4. Resident Evil 2 REMAKE (PS4), 3. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (PS4) 2. Resident Evil REMAKE (PS4) 1. Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded (PS4)

[wolfen]

8. Sonic Mania(PS4)

I can not praise this game enough! It has all the feel and charm of the classic Sonic games with cool new mechanics and new gameplay options and it was still fun even though this was my 4th time playing through. If you love Sonic you will love this game, it's my second favorite Sonic game only behind Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Also if you haven't picked it up on PS4 yet it's FREE on PS+ this month, which is an absolute steal for this game.
Time: 10 hours

[ignition365]

Main List

Previous List

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.

81. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (X1)
I've already beaten this before, but I never did any of the Side/Extra Ops, so now I'm going through and doing some of that stuff.  Seems like all of the side ops stuff are during the day time, which sucks because this game plays best and easiest as a night time mission stuff.  I knew nothing of the MGS story when I played this so I missed so much when it came to Paz and Chico and other references in general, so I have such a greater appreciation for the story of MGSV overall due to playing the other games, but especially Peace Walker.  It really makes me want to replay Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain from scratch to truly appreciate all the things that meant nothing to me on the first playthrough.
Rating: Great connector between Peace Walker and Phantom Pain, nice bite size game. Recommended.

82. Code Vein (X1)
A gentleman on one of the discords I'm on was giving away codes for games, and I grabbed this one.  I've been mildly interested in this game for some time because of the Souls comparisons and the Anime themes, but the game largely went under the radar so I just let it go because it must've been bad.  Started playing the game as soon as I got the code, and I'm really enjoying it. I really didn't update on this game as I was playing it, but it's damned good and deserved more fanfare than it got.  It's an absolutely solid Souls like game, with a decent story and characters.  The equipment is my only complaint, and it's mostly because I just didn't follow what mattered and made a difference.
Rating: Highly Recommended.

83. Death Stranding (PS4)
See Game Challenge 2020

Dragon Quest XI (PS4)
This is my alternate game that I'll play during the day when my kid is awake.  I was hesitant to play this because the switch version is coming later this year and will add more content, but I already bought this, so I'm gonna give it a try.  So far, I already feel like this game would play better being handheld, so ugh.  It's slow going and I'm not at a point in the game where I'm really into it, so we'll see as I progress, but I'm foreseeing that this game will wind up like DQ8 where I'm under leveled because of no random battles and I can ignore a lot of enemies.
Rating: Abandoned pending Switch release.
See Game Challenge 2020

85. Wreckfest (X1)
See Game Challenge 2021

84. Pixel Lines DX: 500 more puzzles (NS)
Current Progress: 136/500
Really don't and won't have much to say on this, it's a link-a-pix game like the previous entry in the series.  I'm already over 10% done with it and I just started it yesterday, I will likely finish it before the end of the year... might wind up being my last game beat for the year too.  Didn't get too close to my goal, but I did play a lot of longer games.  I got to a point where I was just hating this game and constantly seeing this game whenever I closed my eyes.  So I abandoned it.  Might come back one day.

86. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (X1)
Current Progress: Beginning
I started this up because my wife sort of insisted on it over my other choices.  I have abandoned this game before, but I didn't have my save data so I straight up started over.  1st playthrough was a Claptrap playthrough, this time I did Athena.  I probably got just as far as I got last time before I abandoned it when I abandoned it this time.  I'm going to try with this game at some point, but I want to get through this before even thinking about trying Borderlands 3.

87. Days Gone (PS4)
Current Progress: Beginning
Started up this game while Pre-sequel was installing and updating.  I've heard nothing good about this game... matter of fact, I've heard almost nothing about this game, so I know that doesn't bode well.  I played a bit and found the character and interactions to all be very sluggish and almost annoying, so I abandoned it, I'll definitely come back, but I'm definitely feeling playing Metal Gear games right now.

88. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker (PS4)
Current Progress: Day 4 I think
Started up this game a while back and it's an interesting game, but I abandoned it for better games.  Interesting characters, but the stuff I saw before I bought it made it seem like you could ask your own questions, but the game doesn't seem to.  I ask a question, get nothing.  Click through the provided questions.  Then I ask that same first question, and now I get a response, but it's the exact response I got from one of the provided questions.  So it's not like you can use your own intelligence to piece things together to decide "Oh, I should ask this" because it doesn't work.  Very disappointing and misleading.

89. Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (X1BC)
Current Progress: Beginning
Started this shortly after completing Witcher 3, bad idea, I should've played this first if I was gonna do it.  The QoL improvements in 3 are worlds above 2.  This feels like playing Codename 47 after playing Hitman Absolution.

90. Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4)
Current Progress: Episode 1: Train Depot
Started this up at my wife's insistence.  Played a little and got bored, so I started up something else.  Will definitely try to come back to it.

91. Flinthook (NS)
Current Progress: Uug or some fuck.
I've put in about an hour so far into this game and I'm enjoying it well enough... but I'm concerned that this is a Risk of Rain thing where the game doesn't really end.  I'm having trouble finding any form of a walkthrough online that would detail the game and HLTB doesn't have very many results for the game and it's average is quite large for a platformer.  So I'm seeing that this game is really made for you to die and rerun through areas over and over and over.  I'm really not a fan of that.  I got to the second boss, died just before killing the boss, so now I have to start over.  This is only the second boss, I'm going to wind up abandoning this game for something less annoying.  I got all the way to the 3rd boss and died when he had like 100 health left.  I got flustered and I took a lot of damage early on because he spammed putting bullseyes on the hooks and not letting me have an opportunity to damage him.  He literally spit out bullseyes 5 times in a row.  I'm getting real close to abandoning this game.  I've already listed my PS4 copy on ebay because I know I'm NEVER revisiting this game.

92. Mages of Mystralia (PS4)
Current Progress: Sky Temple
After finishing Lili, I asked my wife to pick between a couple of games for what I should play next, she chose this.  I think I was expecting something slightly different, mostly in the isometric perspective.  The controls and design lean more towards a twin stick shooter than a Zelda type thing as they expect you to aim and attack at more than 8 different angles... one of the twin stick things I've not been great with.  Game crashed on first run during the intro, so on second run I had to skip the intro... apparently this is a known thing.

93. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)
See Game Challenge 2021

94. Sniper Elite 3 (PS4)
Current Progress: Mission 2
Been wanting to continue this franchise for some time after really enjoying Sniper Elite V2.  So far, I'm not really enjoying this entry, but I think it's just the getting used to the controls again.

Code of Princess EX
Current Progress: Stage 16
I thought I had stuff written for this game, but it wasn't here, so I'm writing this shit months after having abandoned the game.  The game was moderately enjoyable up until this stage.  The game's difficulty ramped up to a point that I just can't be bothered with this game.
Rating: Abandoned

Wild Arms 3 (PS4)
Current Progress: Little Rock
I started up this game at some point shortly after it came out on PS4.  Then I picked it back up last year when I needed a baby friendly game to play while my son is paying attention now that he's paying attention to things.  So this game is going to be played when I kind of can't play other games.  Finished the Prologue at some point last year and finished up the beginning train section on New Years.  So I'm just at the beginning of the game.  I love this game because of its part Zelda puzzle dungeon stuff and part traditional turn based RPG.  But 2 major complaints about this game that I forgot about.  1. The random battles while you are trying to solve a puzzle, it's frustrating having to do the like 15 steps of a puzzle, but having like 30 random battles, makes the puzzles less enjoyable because you have to essentially figure them out all over again after each battle, because who remembers what the puzzle was between the battles.  2. The games HIGH use of status effects.  After getting through the prologue stuff, almost every battle, random or boss, deals with you being given a plethora of status effects, so you are constantly having to manage curing these ailments and managing to keep remedies on hand for all of the 10 or so different status effects.  And some of the status effects are just plum pains in the ass.  Amnesia being the most annoying personally, because if you end a battle with Amnesia, you gain 0XP.  I've got one character with like 2k more xp overall than one of my other characters because he never gets amnesia and she ALWAYS gets amnesia.  Given battle will gain you about 20-30XP, with bosses handing out like 200-300xp.  Played quite a bit over the weekend and forgot to save all weekend... wound up at THE HARDEST battle of the entire game and I was woefully under prepared, so I game over'd 15 times before giving up, lost all progress.  Not coming back to this for a long time.
Rating: Abandoned.

Final Stats