VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on December 25, 2023, 08:06:34 pm
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Another year, another 52 games to knock off our backlogs!
In case you've never participated in the 52 Games Challenge, the purpose of this challenge is to reduce your backlog of games by aiming to beat at least one game a week on average, or 52 games in total before the end of the year. Each time you beat a game, you can track it in this thread, and if you feel so inclined you can write a mini review about your experience with the game to share with everyone else. The 52 Games Challenge is super fun, and the one thing I enjoy more than anything on VGcollect these days. It's nice having others to share your journey to 52 games beat and beyond, and at least for me helps me stay motivated throughout the year.
See you at 52 everyone! Good Luck!
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As stated in my 2024 Gaming Goals post, I plan on trying to play quite a few games from franchises I've never played before, as well as play more games that take more than an hour or two to beat (ie arcade games). I also really want to play a decent amount of games I've beat before, but not for a really long time. I try and avoid creating wishlists for games I want to play during the year, but what the hell. I'm creating a wishlist to for 2024.
COMPLETED
1. Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) (1/1/24) [35/50]
2. Einhander (PS1) (1/1/24) [35/50]
3. California Speed (N64) (1/3/24) [27/50]
4. Stunt Racer 64 (N64) (1/3/24) [23/50]
5. Sonic Wings Special (PS1) (1/4/24) [32/50]
6. Real Bout: Fatal Fury (PS4) (1/16/24) [33/50]
7. Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special (PS4) (1/16/24) [35/50]
8. Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2 (PS4) (1/16/24) [34/50]
9. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3) (1/20/24) [34/50]
10. Virtua Cop (Arcade) (1/21/24) [37/50]
11. The Tick (Genesis) (1/21/24) [22/50]
12. The Punisher (Genesis) (1/21/24) [31/50]
13. Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade) (1/28/24) [35/50]
14. Top Skater (Arcade) (1/31/24) [31/50]
15. Dead or Alive (Arcade) (1/31/24) [33/50]
16. Last Bronx (Arcade) (1/31/24) [28/50]
17. Motor Raid (Arcade) (1/31/24) [35/50]
18. Daytona USA (Arcade) (1/31/24) [36/50]
19. Dynamite Deka 2 (Arcade) (1/31/24) [32/50]
20. Sky Target (Arcade) (2/2/24) [26/50]
21. Sega Water Ski (Arcade) (2/2/24) [32/50]
22. Sonic Championship (Arcade) (2/3/24) [25/50]
23. Detroit Become Human (PS4) (2/26/24) [37/50]
24. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC) (3/28/24) [35/50]
25. Red Dead Redemption (PS3) (4/27/24) [35/50]
26. Breakers Revenge (PS4) (4/29/24) [29/50]
27. Mega Man X2 (PS4) (5/2/24) [33/50]
28. Raiden III (Switch) (5/4/24) [34/50]
29. Raiden V: Director's Cut (PS4) (5/4/24) [20/50]
ABANDONED
1. Battletoads (Genesis) (1/21/24)
2. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS3) (2/1/24)
3. Earthbound (SNES) (2/24/24)
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I hit the half mark for 2023. We'll see how I do in 2024. My starting lineup:
Completed: 04
Sonic Superstars (Switch)
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5)
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5)
Resident Evil 5 (PS4)
Currently Playing:
Helldivers 2 (PS5)
Bro Force (PS4)
God of War Ragnarok (PS5)
Planning to Play:
Immortals of Aveum (PS5)
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Collection (PS5)
- Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Genesis)
- Jurassic Park (SNES)
- Jurassic Park 2 Chaos Continues (SNES)
ICO (PS2)
Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
- Uncharted 2 (PS3)
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- Golf Story (Switch) - Beat / Jan. 4
- Super Mario RPG (Switch) - Beat / Jan. 7
- Star Trek: Resurgence (PS5) - Beat / Jan. 14
- Baldur's Gate 3 (PC) - Beat / Apr. 28
- The Punisher (Arcade) - Beat / Feb. 17
- Area 51 (Arcade) - Beat / Feb. 17
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) - Beat / Feb. 17
- Advance Wars: Re-Boot Camp (Switch) - Beat / May 7
- Super R-Type (Switch) Beat / May 9
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Previous 52 Game Challenges: 2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg174802.html#msg174802), 2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185673.html#msg185673), 2022 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193705.html#msg193705), 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199073.html#msg199073)
01. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204282.html#msg204282) Rusty Lake: Roots || PC || 01.03.24
02. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204304.html#msg204304) Cube Escape: The Cave || PC || 01.07.24
03. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204307.html#msg204307) Flipper Lifter || Playdate || 01.07.24
04. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204343.html#msg204343) Demon Quest '85 || Playdate || 01.11.24
05. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204345.html#msg204345) Rusty Lake Paradise || PC || 01.12.24
06. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204403.html#msg204403) Cube Escape: Paradox || PC || 01.16.24
07. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204454.html#msg204454) Omaze || Playdate || 01.16.24
08. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204530.html#msg204530) Hyper Meteor || Playdate || 01.16.24
09. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204535.html#msg204535) The White Door || PC || 01.20.24
10. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204585.html#msg204585) Samsara Room || PC || 01.24.24
11. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204650.html#msg204650) Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog || PC || 01.30.24
12. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204725.html#msg204725) Silent Hill: The Short Message || PlayStation 5 || 02.07.24
13. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204964.html#msg204964) Tchia || PlayStation 5 || 02.25.24
14. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205000.html#msg205000) Tinykin || PlayStation 5 || 03.06.24
15. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205102.html#msg205102) Greyhill Incident || PlayStation 5 || 03.08.24
16. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205160.html#msg205160) Passage || Browser || 03.22.24
17. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205184.html#msg205184) QWOP || Browser || 03.25.24
18. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205332.html#msg205332) Nanaca Crash!! || Browser || 04.08.24
19. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205393.html#msg205393) Picross e || Nintendo 3DS || 04.19.24
20. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205439.html#msg205439) Tappingo 2 || Nintendo 3DS || 04.25.24
21. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205445.html#msg205445) Don't Look Back || Browser || 05.01.24
22. (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205462.html#msg205462) Flow || PlayStation Portable || 05.04.24
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Met my goal in 2016 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg105641.html#msg105641), 2017 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg132350.html#msg132350), 2018 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php?topic=8821.msg149004#msg149004), 2019 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162655.html#msg162655), 2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173290.html#msg173290), 2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185665.html#msg185665), 2022 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193710.html#msg193710), and 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199078.html#msg199078); with 2021 being 156 games, 2016/2017/2020/2022/2023 being 104 games, and 2018/2019 being 52 games as the goals. 2015 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,5879.msg103895.html#msg103895) I tracked the info super late and I had another really busy year that year.
2023 saw me spend a lot of time on PC gaming, both in playing games, using sites like Playtracker, Barter, and Steamgifts to get games to play, and working on backlog group stuff on discord groups. For some reason it also saw me having a really hard time keeping up with my notes on here, using this site in general, and playing less in general. 2022 my kid didn't even start school until August, 2023 my kid was in school full time and for some reason I guess that's making things harder? I don't know, maybe it's he's older and can do more of what he wants as opposed to just fudging about like a baby/toddler, maybe it's more of I have a lot less I can play in front of him because he's impressionable now, maybe I just don't have time for it because my kid is a handful. I don't know. Right now, I'm a bit burnt out after doing a wild double bingo board challenge in December (which ran through Jan 15th) that ended with me "earning" my final bingos, filling out the board, 14 minutes after the deadline, so it didn't count, which is the kind of strict rigid fuckery I'm not about, but I guess also fuck Marvel's Avengers for having such awful RNG that it took over 100 pulls to get a fucking belt, which you'd think would be like 1/4 odds, because there are four gear types. Anyway, been buying less and trying to play more, but life is stressful and I haven't really played games to play games since like Robocop, so here's hoping I can mange to do that.
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.
Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/ignition365)
Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/user/Ignition365)
2024 52 Game Challenge
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (X1)
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5)
- Pokemon Scarlet (NS)
- Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
- Simmiland (PC)
- God of War III Remastered (PS4)
- Hidden Through Time (PC)
- Shredders (XS)
- Bluey: The Videogame (XS)
- Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (GBC)
- Forza Horizon 3 (X1)
- Ravenlok (XS)
- Pikuniku (X1)
- Cataire (PC)
- Balatro (PC)
- Liquidum (PC)
- Dice Guess (PC)
- Balance (PC)
- Fine Sweeper (PC)
- Wordle 2 (PC)
- Fallout 4 (XS)
- Forza Horizon 4 (XS)
- Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions (PC)
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
- Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (NS)
Top Games played released in 2024
Top Games played NOT released in 2024
- Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5)
- Pokemon Scarlet (NS)
- ??
- ??
Top Games played overall in 2024
Honorable Mention
- Content posts -
Content (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204017.html#msg204017)
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Main List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204016.html#msg204016)
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.
1. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (X1)
Went back to this one again because I needed something I could play in front of my impressionable kid, and this is mostly fine. I don't remember the grind for level 20 being as annoying in the original, and I certainly don't remember having to play this much online to get all of the achievements. So I'm not having a terribly good time having to play online, which doesn't earn much xp, or repeatedly playing the same levels over and over to get xp to hit level 20.
Rating: Soft pass
2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5)
Been trying to start this one for a while. Kept booting it up and never starting. Did the prologue and just didn't come back... and now here I am, trying to play it, and I even took time off work, which partly was going to be used for this, and with this stupid fucking arctic blast I'm dealing with plumbing shit because I don't know what the fuck to do to not have my pipes burst and shit. Had someone come out today and they super did a temp job and are coming back in a couple of days to weld on a more "permanent solution", and something, I don't know what the fuck it was, did a loud banging noise for like 7 seconds and we have no clue what it was. Pipes didn't burst because the water main shows no water usage when I turn off dripping faucets, water was dripping not running, so I wouldn't think water hammering is what's happening, my only thought is now something is fucked up with my water heater. Anyway, I'm on Chapter 2 or 3, I'm really not sure, I'm doing missions which is interesting, especially in the whole doing side quests when there is an uber urgent main mission awaiting my attention. Played most of the game doing my own thing and not getting too caught up in the game's systems, but then I started getting towards the harder missions and decided to look stuff up, wound up having to look up how to defeat a bunch of duders because they were invulnerable to physical and magic. Got all the way to the Minerva fight and was just blown away by how BS that fight is. It's almost RNG to win, but I guess if your stats are just right you can survive anything once so just gotta play right, once I had my stats right I beat it without issue. Story didn't really answer any questions but just left more, I will say I'm hyped for Rebirth. It's kinda weird too, I've never been a FF fan, but my wife has, she made me get Remake day one and she played it like crazy, Rebirth is coming out and she doesn't care but I'm hyped. We'll maybe see if she changes her mind, but she hasn't been about playing games for years at this point.
Rating: Soft recommendation
3. Pokemon Scarlet (NS)
Needed a day time game to play because my kid is too impressionable and I basically can't play anything with violence at all. Even pokemon is a problem because it has violence which winds up making my kid start hitting me every time the pokemon do anything. Anyway, this game is pretty awful, like one of the worst pokemon games ever released. The game crashed multiple times and so much slowdown so frequently. Game was nearly unplayable at times in handheld mode. A lot of, if not all, characters seemed, I don't know how to put it other than they seemed like they weren't designed by the Pokemon team. The entire game feels like it was developed by a western developer. Again, I don't know how to put it other than that, it just doesn't have any of the same feel as previous Pokemon games, it feels like Game Freak just handed development over to like a 2nd party US Nintendo studio and just let them run with it. A bunch of stuff makes no sense too, like Toedscool/Toedscruel, why are these new pokemon and not regional variants, and how are they different from these ancient pokemon that are obviously ancestors to current pokemon. This entire game feels like a fan hack written by a hormonal teenager obsessed with gen 1.
Rating: Soft pass
4. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
I've had this for a while, but for some reason or another just never got around to it.
5. Simmiland (PC)
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1 - FlipWitch (PC 2023) - PLAYING
2 - Signalis (PC 2022) - PLAYING
3 - Super Mario RPG (Switch 2023) - PLAYING
4 - Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC (PC 2023) - BEAT
5 - Link's Awakening DX (NSO - Gameboy 1993) - PLAYING
6 - Monster Hunter World (PC 2018) - PLAYING
7 - Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5 2023)
8 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC 2014) - BEAT
9 - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (PC 2015) - BEAT
10 - Sons of the Forest (PC 2024) - BEAT
11 - Helldivers 2 (PC 2024) - ENDLESS
12 - Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5 2024) - PLAYING
13 - Grounded (PC 2022) - BEAT
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3. Super Mario 64 (N64) | ✓ Finished: 1/6/24 | ✎ Notes: Took ~10 ½ hours to beat
2. Stuart Little: The Journey Home (GBC) | ✓ Finished: 1/2/24 | ✎ Notes: Took ~2 hours to beat
1. Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn) | ✓ Finished: 1/1/24 | ✎ Notes: First game completed on Polymega, took ~3 hours to beat
• 2023 List (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199080.html#msg199080)
• Completed Games List (https://vgcollect.com/finished/aliensstudios)
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1. Borderlands 2 (PC) - Completed Main Story in December 2023, but placing it here as a placeholder as I intend to complete all DLC in 2024
2. Star Trek: Infinite (PC) - 13 Jan 24
3. Crusader Kings III (PC) - 28 Feb 24 - An open-ended game with no win condition, I defined "Beating" it as finally getting the achievement for completing a full playthrough.
4. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - 9 Mar 24
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Completed:
01. Soma (PS4 on PS5) - 15/01/2024
02. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS2 on PS4 on PS5) - 18/01/2024
03. Mortal Kombat 9: Komplete Edition (Xbox 360 on Xbox One X) - 20/01/2024
04. Resident Evil Village + Shadow of Rose DLC (PS5) - 23/01/2024
05. Mortal Kombat XL (PS4 on PS5) - 26/01/2024
06. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate + Aftermath DLC (PS5) - 27/01/2024
07. Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5) - 01/02/2024
08. Disney Speed Storm: Season 5 - Let It Go! (PS5) - 08/02/2024
09. Final Fantasy VII Remake + Intermission DLC (PS5) - 29/02/2024 (Platinum)
10. Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly (PS5) - 03/03/2024 (Platinum)
11. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion (PS5) - ??/03/2024
12. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - 15/04/2024
13. South of the Circle (PS5) - 16/04/2024
14. Disney Speed Storm: Season 6 - Under The Sea! (PS5) - 17/04/2024
15. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - 30/04/2024
16. Abzu (PS5) - 01/05/2024
Now Playing:
Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon
Resident Evil 4 Remake
We Happy Few
Backlog:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Ghost Trick
Like A Dragon Gaiden
Lost Judgment
Sonic Superstars
Time Hollow
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bold games are games that have been beaten/endless in 2022
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat or have been beat in previous years.
bold games are games that have been abandoned.
1. Major League Manager
2. Victor Vran
3. Pinball FX 2
4. Pinball Arcade
5. Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1
6. Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition
7. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
8. Tales From the Borderlands
9. Fallout: New Vegas
10. Bejeweled 3
11. Sid Meier's Civilization V
12. Kirby Super Star
13. The Sims 4
14. Tetris
15. Doom
16. Super Mario RPG
17. Dragon Age: Origins
18. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut
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Games Finished in 2024
1. Donut County (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204275.html#msg204275) - 1.3
2. God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204562.html#msg204562) - 1.26
3. Celeste (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204623.html#msg204623) - 1.28
4. Pokémon Violet (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg204858.html#msg204858) - 2.18
5. Final Fantasy VI (SNESc) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205049.html#msg205049) - 3.17
6. Doom 1993 (PS4) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205198.html#msg205198) - 3.30
7. Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205240.html#msg205240) - 4.4
8. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205449.html#msg205449) - 5.2
Additional Games Played in 2024 (endless or not finished yet)
Untitled Goose Game (Switch)
Moon (Switch)
Enter the Gungeon (PS4)
The Last Guardian (PS4)
Alundra (PS1)
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise! (Switch)
Mega Man Battle Network 5 (Switch)
SSX 3 (PS2)
Backlog
This year I'm adding a list of games I plan on playing this year. The big challenge I want to do is try and finish at least one game on one of all my consoles: a "console tour" if you will.
- Celeste (PS4)
- Bloodborne (PS4)
- 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
- Mega Man 6 (PS2)
- Alundra (PS1)
- Tunic (Switch)
- World of Horror (Switch)
- Super Mario Wonder (Switch)
- MMBN 5 and 6, (Switch)
- Pokémon Violet (Switch)
- Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)
- Metroid Fusion (Wii U)
- Mario Advance 4 SMB 3 (Wii U)
- Super Paper Mario (Wii)
- Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (GC)
- Final Fantasy VI (SNESc)
- Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES)
- Flippul (GB)
- Pokemon: Leaf Green Version (GBA)
- Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)
Previous Lists
2015 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,5879.msg104675.html#msg104675) - 27 finished, + 10 played but not finished
2016 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg105642.html#msg105642) - 32 finished, + 16 played but not finished
2017 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg132293.html#msg132293) - 26 finished, + 13 played but not finished
2018 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8821.msg149017.html#msg149017) - 23 finished, + 6 played but not finished
2019 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162665.html#msg162665) - 20 finished, + 9 played but not finished
2020 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173286.html#msg173286) - 45 finished, + 10 played but not finished
2021 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185672.html#msg185672) - 24 finished, + 15 played but not finished
2022 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11713.msg193725.html#msg193725) - 18 finished, + 11 played but not finished
2023 List (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199090.html#msg199090) - 24 finished, + 16 played but not finished
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Rules:
ROM hacks are allowed, and must have at least 7 exits (SMW).
Tool-assisted runs are allowed.
Game Genie is banned.
If I play the same game multiple times in the same year, it must be on a different console to count for this challenge. Playing the same game on the same system multiple times doesn't count to the challenge.
Playing:
Super Mario RPG [Any%] (SNES Mini)
Kirby's Dream Course {Any%} (SNES Mini)
Tales of Phantasia {Any%} (PC, Emulator with DeJap translation)
Quickie World 2 (PC, Emulator)
Mega Man 10 {Proto Man, Easy} (Wii)
Super Bomberman R [Veteran Difficulty] (Switch)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon {117% + All Skill Points} (PC, Emulator)
Super Metroid {69%} (SNES)
Vitality {Any%} (PC, Emulator)
Terranigma (SNES)
Planning to play:
Illusion of Gaia (SNES)
Either Metroid: Dread or Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)
Hades (Switch)
Final Fantasy V PR {Four Job Fiesta} (PC, Steam)
Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Completed:
1. Super Mario World (SNES Mini) {No Star World} [Finished Jan 1]
Still one of the best games in the franchise. The game has a couple challenging levels, but doesn't reach the difficulty that the Kaizo genre goes to. No wonder this game has over 20,000 ROM hacks, 10,000 custom songs and 300 custom bosses made for it. 37 exits cleared.
2. Super Metroid Route Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {50 Room Challenge} [Finished Jan 6]
A fun way to get better at Super Metroid. The most challenging part of this seed was the final boss and the escape, which caused both of my deaths in this run of the randomizer. Animals saved.
3. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Custom Difficulty} [Finished Jan 7]
An easy to get into randomizer for one of the greatest games of all time. The difficulty can be customized depending on the user's skill level, and it was fun seeing different areas with different palettes. Would recommend this wholeheartedly. 49% of items obtained, animals killed.
4. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Custom Difficulty} [Finished Jan 12]
Every seed of this randomizer is a completely different game. In this seed, Bombs were only obtained after both Kraid and Draygon were defeated, and the Spazer and Space Jump were actually obtained this seed. Finding Phantoon was a bit of a challenge, but when I did, winning the game was quick. I enabled the option to fight Mother Brain 3 this seed, unlike the previous seed. 43% of items obtained, animals saved.
5. Final Fantasy VI (SNES Mini) {Any% No Sketch} [Finished Jan 12]
This game is the highlight of the Final Fantasy franchise. The characters are well-developed, the story is awesome, and Kefka is the single greatest villain in gaming history. The opera scene is one of the best pieces in all of game music, as is Dancing Mad. This is one of the very few games where every song in it is great. While Kefka's Tower is a difficulty spike, it is still such an awesome dungeon. 11 out of 14 characters recruited, 17 out of 26 Espers obtained.
6. #0 Iggy's Castle (PC, Emulator) {All Endings and Achievements} [Finished Jan 13]
A short but creepy hack of Super Mario World. The hardest achievement by far was Elusive, which requires beating a challenging final boss without taking damage once. This is one to add to the spooky season list. Less than a month after full-clearing 1.0, a major update with new endings went into beta testing.
7. Super Mario RPG (PC, Emulator) {Most of the Stuff} [Finished Jan 16]
One of the best RPGs of all time, and the perfect game to start people on JRPGs. The music is incredible, the gameplay is fun, and the limited inventory system meant that it's likely you'll use powerful healing items. The Lazy Shell armor is so broken that even Culex is easy to beat with it equipped, not to mention the rest of the game. I will be adding this to my replay annually list of games.
8. Final Fantasy III PR (Switch) {100% Bestiary} [Finished Jan 17]
Most of the "quality of life features" this port added severely cut down the difficulty of a game infamous for its high difficulty, to the point where I'd recommend downloading the NES version's fan translation and playing that to maintain the FF3J experience. The 4x experience and gold boosts in particular are even more broken than the Vanish-Doom combo and Economizer from FF6. Of the three NES FF games, my favorite is easily FF1. One neat thing the Switch version did was allow you to choose original NES OST and Remastered OST. I played the game with the original soundtrack.
9. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES Mini) {100% Completion} [Finished Jan 22]
While I had beaten this game multiple times before, I had never 100% completed it. This game is one of the greatest games of all time, with incredible music, graphics, and gameplay. Like always, I do Thieves' Town before Skull Woods and Swamp Palace, which gives early Tempered Sword access. The worst part of 100% completion was grinding Rupees for max capacity Arrows and Bombs, but even that took less than 15 minutes. Many of the items are really useful, and there aren't any truly useless items except the Magic Boomerang. I highly recommend this game.
10. Of Jumps and Platforms (PC, Emulator) {All Exits} [Finished Jan 23]
A perfect game for those wishing to get started with more challenging Mario World ROM hacks. The music is awesome, the difficulty was never too punishing while still being challenging, and the custom mechanics are neat. I loved the custom color palettes the game used to give a sense of progression in Mario's journey.
11. Super Metroid (PC, Emulator) {True 100% Completion} [Finished Jan 26]
Still one of the best Metroidvanias, and best games of all time. The gameplay is easy to learn but difficult to master. A lot of this run, I ended up using wall jumps to get to areas early. The graphics are among the best of the SNES, and all of the bosses and minibosses were fought. True Completion requires 100% of items, 100% of map tiles turned pink, Ceres Ridley defeated, All Zebitites defeated, all map rooms visited and the animals to be saved.
12. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode} [Finished Jan 30]
A nice refreshing way to celebrate one of the best games of all time. In this seed, you have to defeat the four mini-bosses. For a lot of the game, I had forgotten that Golden Torizo was right by the ship, and I ended up looking for Tourian thinking it was in there. 46% of items obtained, Animals saved.
13. Super Ghouls N Ghosts (SNES Mini) {Beginner, Tool-Assisted} [Finished Feb 2]
This game is so challenging that even beginner mode required the use of savestates for me to finish. Apart from that, it's a typical Platform Hell game that has great graphics and music for being early in the SNES's life.
14. Contra (NES) {Konami Code} [Finished Feb 13]
A nice place to start on playing the Contra franchise. I loved the gameplay, and the music. It's a shame that this port lacks some of the cool graphical effects of the Famicom version.
15. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode, Custom Difficulty} [Finished Feb 18]
The hardest part of this seed is getting Varia Suit, which requires defeating Metroids with Power Bombs. After that, the major items were easy to find, as were the minibosses and Mother Brain. 26% of items obtained, Animals killed.
16. F-Zero (SNES Mini) {Beginner, Knight/Queen RTA, King Tool-Assisted} [Finished Feb 21]
While the first two leagues are fun to play as well as the practice mode is fun as well, the worst part about this game is the King League's absurdly high level of difficulty, to the point that Super Ghouls N Ghosts was easier. Also, the ending is just as bad as NES Ghostbusters and Mass Effect 3's infamous endings, not even saying congrats for beating such a hard game.
17. Super Metroid Rotation (PC, Emulator) {Any%} [Finished Feb 21]
The one change of rotating the map 90 degrees means that vertical rooms that are hard in vanilla are easy here, while some rooms that are easy become challenging affairs. I love some of the small details and changes that make this hack work, such as entering Maridia through what in vanilla is its exit. The rooms that gave me the most trouble were the metal pirates room and Draygon's room, which caused two of my very few deaths in this playthrough. Being good at walljumps and mid-air morphing is required to beat this game. 77% of items obtained, Animals saved.
18. Antinomia: Final Fantasy VI (PC, Emulator) {Any%} [Finished Mar 13]
The best thing about this ROM hack is the expansion of General Leo's character as a result of his survival. But in order to add him to your party, you have to wait for him at the Floating Continent. I also loved the turntable sidequest that plays beloved songs from FFIV and FFV, giving stat boosts to party members. Apart from that, the Colosseum being controlled duels meant that I was able to get two Growth Eggs and a Celestriad, which made Kefka fall pretty quickly. As a hack that left the gameplay intact but focused much more on adding to the story, I feel it did what the hack set out to do very well. DM me for the patch file if you want to play it. 9 of 14 characters recruited.
19. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) {Any%} [Finished Mar 26]
One of the best Mario games of all time. I loved the level design, the creativity, and the music. I especially loved the capture mechanic, which allows for players to take control of enemies. The graphics are among the best in the franchise's history. So many creative areas in this game really worked. This is a game to buy a Switch for.
20. Super Metroid Map Randomizer (PC, Emulator) {Mini-Boss Mode, Custom Difficulty) [Finished Mar 26]
In this seed, Gravity Suit was completely optional, as was Morph Ball Bombs. The last of the four minibosses was two rooms away from Mother Brain. The final boss and the escape was a huge difficulty spike compared to the rest of the seed, but it was so satisfying to win. 26% of items obtained, animals saved.
21. Soul Blazer (PC, Emulator) {All Achievements} [Finished Apr 18]
The first of the Quinet Trilogy is a hidden gem. Every amount of progress you make contributes to the game world. The decision to have achievements to beat the bosses without getting hit meant that every boss defeated was so satisfying, especially Deathtoll. Would recommend trying this on emulator before splurging on a cartridge.
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I am in! I love this challenge, though I have yet to reach the 52 mark. I think 2024 might be the year for me!
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Previous Years
2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg199131.html#msg199131) - 37 beaten, 14 tried and discarded
2021 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11230.msg185676.html#msg185676) - 18 beaten, 9 tried and discarded
2020 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,10536.msg173272.html#msg173272) - 33 beaten, 20 tried and discarded
2019 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,9921.msg162658.html#msg162658) - 45 beaten, 34 tried and discarded
2018 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8821.msg149025.html#msg149025) - 44 beaten, 41 tried and discarded
2017 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,7980.msg147415.html#msg147415) - 37 beaten, 9 tried and discarded
2016 (http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg132260.html#msg132260) - 21 beaten
Games beaten
01] Geneforge 1 - Mutagen (STM, 2021) |2 Jan| Remake of a game from 20 years ago, still lo-fi but still delicious and with modern compatibility, nice.
02] FlipWitch - Forbidden Sex Hex (STM, 2023) |5 Jan| Extremely naughty metroidvania, excellent music and SNES-style graphics, well designed, liked it.
03] We Love Katamari REROLL (STM, 2023) |10 Jan| Another favourite from wayback re-jigged, had fun. Good start to the year but can't get complacent.
04] Livestream 2: Escape from Togaezuka Happy Place (STM, 2023) |20 Jan| Adventure/survival horror where cute anime livestreamers get pursued by a crazed orangutan mascot in an abandoned shopping mall.
05] Stasis: Bone Totem (STM, 2023) |2 Feb| Quantum leap ahead of its predecessor, excellent horror adventure.
06] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NSW, 2022) |25 Feb| Easy but nonethless another work of art from Nintendo.
07] Rain on Your Parade (STM, 2021) |5 Mar| Task-based fun mixed with a little sandbox and score attack for flavour, nice.
08] Age of Empires III: DE - The African Royals (STM, 2021) |8 Mar| Interesting new battles and civs, divisive for the multiplayer crowd but that's not me :)
09] Remothered: Broken Porcelain (STM, 2020) |12 Mar| Survival horror, a broken mess which I won't be replaying, nonetheless it was an interesting experience.
10] The King of Dragons (STM, 2022) |15 Mar| Beautiful retro beat 'em up.
11] Wife Quest (STM, 2021) |18 Mar| Comical grumpy Wonderboy type game, save that husbando!
12] Maneater (STM, 2021) |27 Mar| Managed to outstay its welcome despite its relatively brief playthrough, these open-world games really do grind my gears, not even being able to scoff screaming hoomans relieved the dullness.
13] Knights of the Round (STM, 2022) |1 Apr| Another favourite beat 'em up.
Games Tried/Disliked/Got Rid Of
01] Delivery from the Pain: Survival (STM, 2019) |3 Jan| Zombie survival stealth/base building, not bad but it had shown all its cards within a couple of hours. Apparently a converted mobile game which would explain the limitations.
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Despite not completing my first game last year until February, I ended up blowing past 52. I was almost there in September, so I took it easy the rest of the year. Knocked off a portion of my backlog too, as well as discovering a new appreciation for games I had given up on, like Persona 5 and Hollow Knight. New year is currently also starting slow, with me being addicted to Lies of P, my first Soulslike. We’ll see what happens.
Current backlog:
Persona 5
Tales of Arise
Final Fantasy X-2 Remaster
Panzer Dragoon Remake
Sonic Mania
Salt & Sanctuary
The Last Faith
Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen
Dragon Age Inquisition
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game
Ginga Force
Nier Automata
Currently playing:
Batman Arkham Knight Remaster
Bloodborne
Dragon Age Inquisition
Ginga Force
Playing next:
?
1. Lies of P (PS4) 1/31/24
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (via PS4 Batman Arkham Collection) 2/13/24
3. Batman: Arkham City (via PS4 Batman Arkham Collection) 3/1/24
4. Super Street Fighter II (arcade, via PS4 SF Anniversary Collection) 3/24/24
5. Afterimage (PS4) 3/27/24
6. Street Fighter Alpha 2 (arcade, via PS4 SF Anniversary Collection) 3/28/24
7. Samurai Shodown 2019 (PS4) 3/29/24
8. Natsuki Chronicles (PS4) 3/31/24
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Reserved, Giving it another go.
Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?
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Reserved, Giving it another go.
Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?
There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice, I usually count games I started in the previous year, but finished in the new if I at the very least put a few hours into the game to finish it. I did that with God of War: Ragnarok earlier this year.
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There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice
Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol
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There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice
Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol
I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol
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There's no rules or anything to this, it's all personal choice
Kinda what I had figured, was just curious to see what other people do so i can make up my mind lol
I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol
LMAO, yep me too
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Same.
I count the game for the year the game is beat. I've literally counted a game that I beat like 5 minutes after midnight on New Years because that's when I beat it.
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Ditto, if I beat it in X year then that's when it's counted, not when the game is started (terrible for half-finishing games).
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*drops suitcases on lobby floor*
Bellhop! I'm here! Take my bags to my room so I can get ready for the fun!
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Heres a question... for the purposes of these challenges, how do you guys handle a game that was started in the end of one year and then finished in the beginning of the next?
Many here go about this "challenge" a lot differently. Some add any game played to their total count even if it's endless or abandoned, so it may make more sense to base the list's items on when the game was started, rather than ended. Personally speaking, I only add a game once it's been completed while omitting any games which I've stopped playing prematurely, so my criteria is based off of completion date.
I've ended up turning it into less of a "Challenge" thing after all this time, and more of "I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to keep track of everything I played this year" lol
I've always treated the event the same way. In recent years, I've wanted to maintain a better memory of certain types of media experienced, which is why I post fairly lengthy thoughts with each game completed. It's definitely less about finishing a determined amount of games and more of a collection of my thoughts. Writing about the experiences also helps me reflect on aspects of the game in ways I ordinarily wouldn't have. If I can actually reach 52 games played or even surpass it, then that's only better.
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1. Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon
I was playing this on the low immediately after BN3 for some reason. I was warned about this one. Still, no matter how good or bad a game might be, I’m always excited to play something new. That excitement didn’t last long. Someone told me that this is the entry in the series worth avoiding. I should have listened, but no. OCD with numerical order kicked in and off I went into a Battle Network game with a barebones story, a horrible translation, and an unsatisfying loop. I think the highlight was seeing the characters from Boktai. Random, but a nice touch. And to be fair, the various forms (I got water, metal, and junk) were pretty cool for a few battles. Otherwise, it was a mess. From what I can tell, there isn’t any bonus content. I wouldn’t have checked it out but I know that there are a lot of people that enjoy it. Instead, people have to finish the game three full times in order to access everything. And that’s just for one version? Come on. I intend to play a lot of games this year. It’s going to take a real stinker to out-stink this.
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1. Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5)
I've always been a big Mortal Kombat fan, however, I feel like the series has been the best its ever been since 2011's Mortal Kombat (MK9) when Netherealm Studios chose to heavily invest in MK's story mode while giving the player fun, engaging gameplay. While I will admit that MKX wasn't amazing, and MK11 certainly improved things from its predecessor, I was definitely ready for the story to take a new direction, which is why I was pretty excited when MK1 was announced and it was revealed that it would be resetting the MK timeline from the very beginning. I finally got around to playing MK1, and while the game started out very promising, it really all well apart in the end, at least in terms of story.
I'll go ahead and rip the bandaid right off. MK1's first, second, and third acts are pretty good overall and definitely deliver on creating a new, alternative timeline for the MK characters that we've all grown to know and love. Unfortunately, the game's fourth and final acts introduces something that pretty much killed whatever interest and investment in the story I had and took a hard right turn into absolute ridiculousness. I won't spoil anything, but what i will say is I wish all professional writers would collectively swear off including any sort of multiverse crap in their work. It destroys continuity and removes any stakes or established rules, and pretty much just establishes "anything and everything goes." Some people might enjoy this, but for me it's just lazy and absolutely stupid. MK1 is a victim of modern multiverse think which ruined what was otherwise a great story up until it was introduced. Unsurprisingly, I found the ending of the game completely anticlimactic as a result of this too. For MK2, or whatever they call the next game in the series, I really hope Neatherealm just sticks with a cohesive story with no multiverse or alternate timeline crap and sticks with it. As for the gameplay, it's on par with MK11's albeit with a few new mechanics, most notably the tag assist system which has a second character provide brief assistance to provide an additional attack, set up extended combos, or move cancel. I'm not a fan of this time of mechanic in other fighting games, and I wasn't in MK1. I'd much rather have a fully fleshed out tag team mechanic that allows you to just swap between two fully playable characters. Still, MK1's tag in mechanic does nothing to take away or add to the gameplay, it's just sort of an unnecessary feature that was just sort of there for me. Visually MK1 is pretty amazing looking, and aside from some aspects of the game just not feeling very Mortal Kombatish, the visuals were about as good as they could possibly be. Audio is mostly good, however no really memorable tracks and the occasional spotty voice acting holds MK1 back from being as good as it could have been in that department. Despite my grievances with MK1, I still found it it be an enjoyable, new entry in the MK series. It's just too bad the story really had to shit the bed at the end, which significantly dampened my enjoyment of the game once the end credits rolled. Here's hoping things are fixed or at least greatly improved in the next game. (1/1/24) [35/50]
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2. Einhander (PS1)
I have a long time relationship with Einhander. I first went crazy over wanting this game back in the late 2000s when I was heavily collecting for the PS1 (and a dozen other consoles). When I finally did get a copy, I popped it in my PS1, really excited about all the hype and great things I'd heard about it, except the game ended up being far less enjoyable than I'd been lead to believe. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Einhander, but I have definitely lean more towards it being just alright. I've returned to Einhander at various times over the years, hoping that I will like it more the next time and see what many others see in this game. After beating Einhander again, I am happy to say my opinion of it did improve slightly, but it's still a game I think it heavily overrated within collecting circles.
More than anything, Einhander is a very good looking game. The game's heavily stylized graphics make this one of the best looking games on the PS1 imo, and it definitely escapes being another forgettable, generic SHMUP because of it. The same can be said about the game's OST, which is very catchy and adds to how unique and memorable Einhander is. I have less glowing things to say about Einhander's OST, which while not terrible, but lands pretty firmly into being okay. There are some cool mechanics and parts of the game, however the level design and balancing ranges from meh to bad in half the game. The game gives you swappable weapons which is a nice feature, and tries to align what weapons are best for a given situation before they are needed, but at the same time some of these weapons offer insufficient support to eefectively get past certain parts of the game. On top of that, Einhander uses stage checkpoints instead of the more common respawning instantly right where you just died when you get hit. Essentially you have to replay a specific section of stage all over again when you get hit. It's as annoying as it sounds, at least for me. So yeah, I do like Einhander a tad more than I did the last time I beat it, but it's still not the incredible shmup masterpiece that so many others love to claim this game is. (1/1/24) [35/50]
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4 - Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways DLC (PC 2023) - BEAT - Meant to play this last year when it released, but finally got around to it and I think it's pretty great. It's been awhile since I've played the original Separate Ways, but I feel like what they did is better here, much like the main game was. They took a little bit of Leon's stuff and worked it into this part of the story pretty well and they definitely tried to make her stuff more unique with her grapple hook stuff. I just had a great time with RE4. It's definitely a different game, better in many ways, though it is missing that cheesy ass stuff from the first game, but that just means I get two good versions of the game.
The only real complaint I have, that I had before, was that Ada's voice actor is not good. I was hoping that if she got more to do, since she doesn't say alot in Leon's story, she'd show something more here, but she is just awful. I think they are trying to play her kinda of "cold and detached", nothing gets to her, she's seen everything and takes no shit, but she just comes off bored and stiff. It's not a voice direction issue as everyone else in the game is fine or great, but she just doesn't work. I really hope they are done using her for anything else, just bring back the actress from RE2, she was fine.
Great game though, I'm crossing my fingers that they don't remake RE5 next, that game would only work for me as a top to bottom overhaul, to the point that it's barely recognizable lol Otherwise, just give me a new RE1 remake or something like Code Veronica, which I haven't played before. Either would be neat.
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2. The Granstream Saga
You know how a lot of folks want remakes for PlayStation classics like Xenogears or Vagrant Story? Well, after playing this, I decided that The Granstream Saga gets my vote. The aforementioned games are much more functional and serviceable than this. The Granstream Saga isn’t bad, but it drops the ball in so many areas that it’s hard not to notice. I love how classic it plays and looks, and of course, I adore the soundtrack and parsing of anime scenes. But there are so many missed opportunities and many areas where QoL features would be helpful. Still, I’m glad that I replayed this. It was nice to stroll down memory lane, revisit the late 90s, and just chill out with a game that could’ve been more. I chose to romance Laramee in the end, for those that were wondering. First time through was Arcia.
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3. Blasphemous II
Real talk. I had every intention of just casually playing this while being away from my other consoles. I had low expectations since the first Blasphemous was a semi-steaming dog pile. The low expectations might have helped, but this has become one of my favorite Metroidvanias. Nothing will outshine Symphony of the Night, but my goodness. This game shines in every department in comparison to the first: gameplay, music, graphics, story, exploration, you name it. I ended up getting both endings, completing the map to 100%, and discovering everything. Well, almost everything. Despite acquiring all beads, cherubs, spells, alters, and key items, the game is stuck at 98%. I’m guessing it’s because I didn’t fully upgrade Veridicto. But, the game said I was maxed out with Martyrdom so who knows. Either way, amazing game that I’m stoked to write about in a review.
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All right! 2024, let's do this! Didn't make a base post to keep track of everything the previous year, so will do that this year! No clue how many games I'll get to, in part because I also want to read a bunch of books again this year (finished 20 books last year, plus another 19 manga/graphic novels/art books). But we'll see, either way I'm excited to see what this year has in store! Highly doubt I'll play all the games I'm adding to the lists below, but good to have some ideas!
Beat:
- Hypnospace Outlaw [Switch]
- Sonic Mania [Switch]
- A Mortician's Tale [itch.io / PC]
- Bayonetta (NSIC Mode) [Switch]
- Princess Peach: Showtime! [Switch]
- Super Metroid [SNES / Nintendo Switch Online]
(Purple = started it last year or earlier)
(Orange = already beat it before)
Started playing earlier and want to finish
- Spyro the Dragon (Spyro Reignited Trilogy) [Switch]
- Kaze and the Wild Masks [Switch]
- Metroid Prime Pinball [NDS]
- The Munchables [Wii]
Want to play from backlog:
- Another Crab's Treasure [Switch]
- The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog [PC]
- Lula 3D [PC]
- Niche - a genetics survival game [Switch]
- Neo Cab [Switch]
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Metroid Prime Trilogy) [Wii]
- Ori and the Blind Forest [Switch]
- Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge [Wii U]
- Star Fox Zero [Wii U]
- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse [Wii U/3DS]
- Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash [3DS]
- Project Rub [NDS]
- Freddi Fish: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds [PC]
Game-related task I want to finish:
- Finish going through all my itch.io games, and listing which ones from there I want to play (thanks 1000+ game bundles for charity!)
Unrelated, but books I have finished thus far: 7
My final list from 2023 (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12127.msg204113.html#msg204113) (17 titles beat, 15 of which for the first time)
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And can post about my first beat game of the year right away:
1. Hypnospace Outlaw [Switch]
This is a very unique game. Essentially, you are a moderator on a 90s online forum (GeoCities is the comparisent I hear all the time), except its one you access in your sleep. Your task is to go through all the pages and posts, find problematic content and report it to the higher-ups, while learning about the people on the platform and how it works. And yes: it plays exactly like how browsing through these forums in the 90s would be.
The old internet is recreated beautifully. I'm admittedly from '98 so I experienced the internet from a while later, but even then I can recognise and appreciate a lot of the touches they added. It genuinely feels like browsing through forums sometimes. I did realise I was a bit too dumb for this game though. Especially near the end you really gotta start thinking outside of the box, and I ended up needing a guide a few times to figure out the final parts. But that's a me-thing: I suck at these types of brain-busting-type games.
I gotta admit, while I was really into it at first, once the novelty of the 90's PC OS-setup wore off, it did lose me a little (even though I do appreciate a lot of the details that come later (and thankfully it's not that long, so it doesn't overstay its welcome)). This is still a charming title though, and one of the most unique things I've played in a while. If it sounds interesting to you, do give it a look. This was clearly a passion project and the creators deserve some love for it.
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I was having a "I don't know what the hell I feel like playing" kind of night, so I just decided to browse the ROMS on my Everdrive 64, and decided it was going to be an old school racing game night lol.
3. California Speed (N64)
Growing up, California Speed was unfortunately not an arcade machine I came across often. In fact, a local restaurant was the only place I remember consistently having one in the early 2000s, which is where I would play it whenever we'd go there. While my memories on California Speed are fuzzy, I remember it being very fun and memorable, especially parts like when you go into a UFO and also when you're racing inside on a giant computer chip. I've played the N64 port before and remember it being a disappointing imitation of the arcade version, but decided to give it another go for the hell of it.
Indeed, California Speed's N64 port is pretty bad. For one, the technical compromises of this game are on full display with how how crappy the backgrounds and textures look, but more than that is the constant fog you're racing in which really washes out the game, and really distracts from one of the things I love so much about the arcade version. Aside from that, the people that ported this game did a fine enough job imitating the more memorable props and set pieces of each course, which at least reminded me of what game I was playing. The gameplay of California Speed isn't great either, but it's servicable for the most part. The controls are very touchy and squerelly at times, but do a fine enough job in terms of being able to control your vehicle. One other major grip is how this game essentially rubber bands all the other racers to where they always seem to be the same distance in front or behind you, regardless of crashing into something or hitting a wall. This sort of takes away from the fun, but overall I didn't find it too distracting. I saved the best for last, in that California Speed's OST is actually pretty good with some genuinely good tracks. Specifically there was a techno track that was my favorite. One other cool aspect of the sound in this game is that some vehicles sound different than others, making maybe one type of vehicle more desireable than another depending on the player's preferences. California Speed would have been best left as a weekend rental, and even then you're likely get bored with it in an hour or two. Still, the game has its moments depending on what course you select, and also does a decent job at capturing. some of the elements that made the greatly superior arcade game so much fun. Not a terrible game, but one that you'd only want to play if you have a soft sport for the N64 and its library. (1/3/24) [27/50]
4. Stunt Racer 64 (N64)
I jumped into Stunt Racer 64 right after California Speed, and unlike California Speed, I have no nostalgic connection to this game whatsoever. In fact, I didn't even learn about this game's existence until I began collecting. Despite the game's rarity as a result of being a Blockbuster exclusive title, I've actually came across a decent amount of the cart in my game hunting adventures. More recently, I traded my loose cart from my collection for both a CIB Sega Sports Dreamcast and a CIB Saturn console. After playing Stunt Racer 64 for a while, I definitely feel like I got the way better end of that deal.
Stunt Racer 64 is not a very memorable or particularly fun game. The whole "stunt" portion of the game is delegated to 2 or 3 jumps per course, and maybe a loop or wazy road section. However, 80-90% of all the courses are pretty much just standard fair racing tracks, albeit with some sort of theme around some of them. What this means, is you're left feeling like you're just playing another late 90s/early 2000s generic console racing game. One cool thing is you can buy new cars in this game with coins you collect during races, however this provides little incentive to want to keep on playing. Visually, Stunt Racer 64 looks okay for the most part, but there is some noticeable attention to detail on various in game assets. OST on the other hand is actually kind of crappy, and I found the music in Stunt Racer 64 to be unappealing at just downright annoying at times. Overall, Stunt Racer 64 is just another prime example of an overhyped collectors trophy that is worst no more than bragging you own it. Actually playing this game ought to make anyone who actually purchased Stunt Racer 64 for at or near what its currently going for immediately regret it. I feel even better about selling my copy after finally playing it, and realizing it's definitely slower to being a bottom of the barrel N64 Racing game rather than some sort of hidden gem. (1/3/24) [23/50]
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2. Victor Vran
Of course, again a game starting at 2, it will just always happen. This was started in 2023. It is a Diablo Type Game. Like Torchlight it also has guns and "hand cannons" but does not have bows or crossbows. Large amounts of stuff in the environment is destructible and sometimes will drop loot. In the beginning it is just crates but ends up being a ton of things especially when inside houses. It was what you would expect from this type of game, it starts you with a sword and then you can get other melee weapons that behave differently. Then you get a gun and it seems cool but kind of seems useless compared to swords or hammers. There is an update method you get at level 16 that I ended up revolving my life around. There isn't reason to buy much besides potions or cards. I ended up turning into a card collector (weird) and didn't really care about buying or getting anything else.
Around half-way through (maybe earlier) I ended up finding a weapon that was a book. It is a ranged weapon and unlike any other weapon in the game, the primary attack has no cooldown. It isn't exactly instant as you are still limited by the animations but it can end up being the fastest attack in the game, yet not the most damage. So when I was using a vampire card (it gives life steal) it seemed fairly simple to take down enemies but it wasn't as fast. So I said to myself, why wouldn't I just use this the entire game and put lifesteal cards on then I can just tank everything in the game? I did that in Diablo II with an Amazon. It works fine here too except it has no lock-on mechanic for ranged so you have to make sure you are hitting something. This type build I chould sit in a death area and do just enough damage to stay alive. Sometimes I would be taking 1k damage/sec but doing just more than that where standing in some place with an environmental effect didn't mean anything. The only issues then are fields of cold/slow or enemies that have a knock-back or use the Pull skill which will interrupt your attack.
Most of the bosses have phases. An opener, then spawn some helper monsters and will move around. Some of the phases are not good for my build where I just want to stand in one place and hold down shoot. Especially some of the phases with monsters if they happen to spawn in Elementals or the monsters that use Pull. But, in all phases a boss may have, none of them have are invulnerable. Even the ones where the boss will get extra life bars or use life-beam type things (where you are supposed to destroy the extra things first before finishing the boss). So instead of going through the expected progression, with a constant lifesteal action going and you can tank say... whatever is happening in second phase, you can just ignore the other things and hit the boss. If you kill the extra stuff, then he will go into another phase. There were two or three bosses where one of the phases was too overwhelming for me and I repeated the fight until I found an earlier phase that I could tank.
Controls are OK. You can have many different options and I chose the mouse one (like in Diablo) which may not be the most ideal but it was what was most familiar. You can use Shift to stand in place like in D2 as well. Lock-on for range can be finicky. Special ranged powers can miss targets entirely. Camera can be an issue sometimes but it technically has free-look which is bound to wheel so I could look around like in H1Z1. The cut-away on scenery could be confusing at times. The music is nothing to write home about, although there is a DLC with Motorhead that I don't have, that could be interesting.
Doesn't have a Game Over or a New Game+, you can just keep playing after the ending. There is a lot you can do as each area already had challenges to do, and afterwards you get a second page of them, in addition to some new bosses you can kill and new areas you have to unlock. And there are 2 DLC I believe that add things, so you certainly can keep playing this game for a long time.
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Reserving a spot!
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Finished my first title for the year!
Golf Story - I've had my eye on this for some time, and it got very cheap on the Switch sometime last year. It's very funny, has some fun golf mechanics and is just generally fun to pick up and play. Not terribly long for an RPG (as long as you get a handle on the actual golf mechanics, with me beating the campaign in around 18-20 hours, but there were a few things that were sticking in my craw. Mainly that there were certain challenges that it forces you to finish out even if it is impossible for you to lose or beat after a round or two. This was mostly frustrating when I'd screw up something early and had no way of catching up to actual beat the challenge. Second, while it is short there's not a ton of story here and by the end of the game all I wanted to was just play a few holes, not run back and forth on fetch quests or do the challenges. But those are minor complaints to what is, all-in-all, a very fun package.
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1.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Turtles in time (cowabunga collection)(Switch) - Arcade version. overall still a fun game... but I probably won't play again unless I have others around to play with.
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5. Sonic Wings Special (PS1)
In the later part of the 2010s i had a bit of a SHMUP renaissance. While I've been a fan of the genre since I was a kid, I hadn't played several of some of the very best SHMUPs ever made until around 2015/2016, which kicked of a journey where I played easily over a hundred SHMUPs across many platforms. One of the standouts that I remember thoroughly enjoying was Sonic Wings Special on the Sega Saturn. It's been a good 3 years or so since I last played Sonic Wings Special, and this time I decided to play the PS1 port, which is pretty much the exact same as the Saturn version I'm more accustomed to.
The graphics in SOnic Wings Special, while not the most amazing in the world, are still pretty impressive, as is the overall art design which does enough to make this game not feel like another generic shooter. Gameplay is also great with a few annoying balancing issues and flaws, but overall, it's fun to have so many ships to choose from, and have them all have different attacks and specials too. The boss battles in Sonic Wings Special are beyond epic with a good variety of military and scifi-ish opponents you'll face off with. The OST is pretty good too, with various catchy tracks thrown into the game. While I'm glad I played Sonic Wings Special again, I am a little bummed I felt like I liked this game slightly less than I did the last time I played it. Don't get me wrong, it's still great fun, but just somewhat lacking compared to my older impressions of it. Still, a really fun SHMUP and one I'd definitely recommend anyone who's a fan of the genre play. (1/4/24) [32/50]
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Game 1 - Donut County (Switch) - 3 Hours
The first game of 2024 has been finished! I found my time with Donut County to be a pretty enjoyable one. It definitely reminds me a lot of Keita Takahashi works that I've played in the past (the Katamari series as well as Wattam), and the fact that both this game and Wattam were published by Annapurna also says something. I found this game to be really funny with adorable graphics, great music, and fun physics-laced gameplay of dropping progressively bigger objects into a giant hole. The game sports a cute little story with some fun characters and I found the writing, while a bit on the immature side, fit the wacky world that you play in.
Like those other games mentioned, I found that Donut County, while a charming experience, to be pretty light on the actual gameplay. It felt most like Wattam where the gameplay really never takes off beyond the most basic level. You're essentially moving a hole under objects sequentially for about 75% of the game with no real challenge or puzzle-solving to make it more engaging. Unlike Katamari, for instance, your hole can move freely about the map so you don't have to worry about size challenges as you accumulate objects. The latter levels do add some needed challenge and variety, but mostly the game just isn't as deep (pun intended) as I would have liked. Most of the levels consist of only one screen and can be beaten in about 10 minutes or less. And with only about 25 levels there isn't much to keep you playing. Regardless, it still was a very cute, endearing, fun experience and I enjoyed my time with it.
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01. Rusty Lake: Roots || PC || 01.03.24
(https://i.imgur.com/Dz9wzdw.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/7pgnMqp.jpg)
Leaving the mainline Cube Escape series at its penultimate entry, I had to break to play the next recommended game in the developer's preferred order to play: Rusty Lake: Roots. As another prequel entry, I was curious how it'd compete with the first of its kind and learning its connections to everything else presented so far.
Quickly, it was apparent that Roots is much larger in scope while simultaneously having a higher degree of polish. In short, the game is a much longer and even more narrative-dense experience that's more than twice as long as the longest games before it. Throughout my time playing, it seemed that there was always some strange event occurring in tandem with the series's story.
As the title suggests, this prequel set long ago more than one hundred years than when the present-day games take place. Showing the complicated and twisted connections from past to present, Roots is structured in 33 smaller segments which each take place in a specific moment in time. Instead of one drawn-out event, the narrative is broken into nearly three dozen smaller moments which highlight crucial points throughout history relating to Rusty Lake, the Vanderboom family, and the family's cursed fate. As time moves forward, the branching timeline becomes more elaborate and interconnected through its imagery of a family tree. Advancing through the story one plot point at a time, the player will be given the option to choose which plot points to play first. While all events ultimately need to be completed, the slight deviation from a completely linear experience is welcomed. With each moment of time which serves as a puzzle to solve, an approximate date to when it occurred is shown. However, this is the only time that information can be viewed, so a small but welcoming feature to have been added would simply be to review it. Of course, the family tree itself generally gives a good enough estimate to when events take place, but to be able to review the exact order in which events occur (especially since many coincide with others) would have offered a greater understanding of the story elements.
So, with 33 unique puzzle stages which act as plot points in total, the puzzle design feels a little simplified, at first. Although it's worth mentioning that screens are not static unlike every game up to this point but instead grant the player the capability to span across the environment. At minimum, for those who've played each game before Roots, puzzle design will feel familiar and sometimes reused in some aspects, although not entirely. Be that as it may, I was fine with this small caveat, as I was much more invested in the context behind the overarching narrative. As the game progresses, though, I felt that puzzle difficulty heightened. But, toward the end of the game, a small number of puzzles are quite difficult to comprehend. Since the games feature little text and no straightforward instruction, some puzzles were an actual challenge. For instance, while I ultimately did make sense of the finale's puzzle at first, one last additional aspect appeared which felt tacked on which I failed to comprehend the logic behind its reasoning for the solution. From what I've reason online, I'm far from the only one either. On a high note, though, there is some additional content that's unlocked when revisiting certain stages and complete short post-game puzzles. It was a nice surprise, and the 34th puzzle was a lot of fun to play.
After finishing this lengthy game (compared to all other entries thus far), I was quite impressed, overall. I'm hoping that the crucial details revealed through Roots hold some substantial weight to what's next in the final Cube Escape entry.
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I attended a lovely game night where we enjoyed some more Jackbox Games both new and old.
4. FixyText
The idea is neat, but the execution is slightly frustrating since there is no delete key. It can get chaotic in both a good and bad way when others are texting over each other. I doubt we'll play this again but kudos for trying something new, modern, and relevant.
5. Timejinx
Trivia! And it deals with something I have a knack for: years. You simply select a year in which something occurred. The closer you are, the less points you get. Person with the lowest score wins. Some bonus rounds and moments were tossed in for good measure. I won, so that was extra fun for me.
6. Talking Points
Improv meets a TED Talk. A personal favorite of mine, especially when you're with the right group of likeminded friends that have no qualms getting into the bizarre, the filthy, or a combination of the two.
7. Role Models
This was the most fun to revisit. You categorize everyone based on a slew of unique themes. It's fun hearing why folks categorize you in certain places. It's even more fun when someone new joins the group because it helps get to know them.
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2. Super Mario RPG
A very solid and faithful remake with some fixes in localization, a lot of nice quality of life changes, a pretty good update on the visual style (in gameplay, the cutscenes are more hit and miss). The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack. No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies. A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience, it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.
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02. Cube Escape: The Cave || PC || 01.07.24
(https://i.imgur.com/nP4V1Um.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/wEA85D1.jpg)
To begin, something to correct is that Cube Escape: The Cave is not the final Cube Escape entry as I previously stated. However, is is the final entry in the Cube Escape Collection compilation. Nevertheless, I was quite excited to see what I thought was the concluding entry to this sub-series of escape-the-room style of puzzle games.
As for The Cave's narrative, it concerns the Vanderboom family and their connection to the elixer of life that is the key item causing some members' eternal life, though one which comes at a high cost of others' deaths and sacrifices. In short, it is a cursed path to take for one's selfish gain. Something I've found interesting while playing through the eleven games so far is that the player-character changes. At times, the player acts as the game's central character, often times untold directly, whereas other times you seem to be a presence directly interacting with the environment which influences characters. It is a subtle difference but one which I welcome.
Midway through the game, the player is actually taken to a new room full of its own puzzles and actions to complete, thus dividing the game into two unique sections. In this second half, I truthfully found just about everything to be confusing early on. Full of unexplained numbers, dials, charts, levers, and icons, this section is immediately overwhelming. Because the Cube Escape games generally have pieces of the solution to each puzzle scattered around the entire room, I felt extremely lost without any direction. But, with a little help from a guide every few steps along the way (usually at a step's starting point to give me better direction), I was able to complete each puzzle. Out of every game so far, the end puzzles in The Cave felt most ambiguous. I almost never knew what to do next to begin the puzzle-solving, but once step was overcome, the puzzles themselves were without issue. Something else to briefly mention is that, unlike the previous four or five games, this game didn't force me to use pen and paper. If anything, the most challenging part of the puzzles was the very first step.
At first, I was surprised by the game's "to be continue" screen despite what I (wrongly) thought that The Cave is the final Cube Escape entry. Even if this were true, though, the Cube Escape sub-series exists in the larger Rusty Lake series, so it doesn't matter either way. With the game's ending involving both Dale and Laura, I'm still unsure how they're exactly connected or why Dale is a part of the events at all. Like always, hopefully that information is revealed in time. Or, perhaps I've overlooked some detail.
By this point, I've finished playing through the Cube Escape Collection compilation which compiles the first nine Cube Escape games into one package. Moving forward, I assume that sequel entries will all have a higher level of quality and polish to them, but I'll have to find out for myself in the near future. Something I do know, though, is that the latest (and currently final) Cube Escape entry is a mix of game and short film, so that is something I greatly look forward to once I reach the point to play it.
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2. Super Mario RPG
The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack. No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies. A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience, it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.
The only real detail I know about the game is that, toward the end, there is a platforming section that I've been told is quite challenging and unforgiving in the original Super Nintendo release. Has the difficulty been altered for that too?
I realized the other day that I actually do have the immediate means to play Super Mario RPG for SNES since I own a SNES Classic Edition. So, I may prioritize playing that sometime this year.
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03. Flipper Lifter || Playdate || 01.07.24
(https://i.imgur.com/H31KTlM.gif)
Not knowing anything about Flipper Lifter prior to playing, I started the game not sure what to expect. After my playthrough, I will say now that it is arguably the Playdate's most arcade-style game yet, of the system's included batch of games.
In short, you as the player control an elevator by exclusively utilizing the system's built-in crank. The gameplay is simple yet quickly becomes challenging, as penguin passengers are needing to be taken to their preferred floor. At the beginning, there is only a small number of floors, with the fewest that some stages offer being two. However, floors are gradually added over time per ten points scored. On my very first playthrough, I managed to drop off 125 passengers while being jostled around up and down fourteen floors which forces the player to micromanage.
Offering only sixty seconds of available time, Flipper Lifter challenges the player to think efficiently. Despite what seems like a short amount of time, additional time is gained to increase the stage's length by unloading passengers, although that time is only a second or two. While passengers will seemingly wait forever to board the elevator, there is only a short amount of time they're willing to wait to exit. If failing to successfully drop off a passenger in time, the elevator temporarily breaks down, costing players valuable time. One detail I particularly thought added to the game's depth is that the elevator's descent is considerably faster than its ascent. So, this requires players to prioritize certain routes to allow one set of passengers to be dropped off first instead of others. At the same time, it is inevitable for the elevator to break down. However, one can utilize this punishment to their advantage, as they can still pick up new passengers to board during that time.
Fortunately, there is a small number of stages to unlock which helps add further depth to the game. Unlocked by the player's cumulative score across all currently available stages, each stage has its own unique layout and gimmicks. These include aspects like multiple elevator shafts, pulley systems, a predator which scares passengers, and more. In general, difficulty increases with each stage unlocked, so gaining high enough scores to unlock the later stages may prove to be difficult to some, but I personally had no issue. I will say that the game's fourth stage of five total is quite challenging.
Overall, Flipper Lifter makes great use of the system's crank on a classic puzzle-action game formula. It's similar to some other arcade-style games from long ago, but the crank definitely sets it apart. It's a welcome addition to the system's library.
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2. Super Mario RPG
The big problem is that they added two things that trivialize the difficulty: the ability for timed attacks to hit all enemies and a kind of limit break group attack. No combat encounter had any level of hardness. The only time I needed to use items was when I was focusing on filling out the monster compendium instead of killing enemies. A shame, because it's still a fun and funny experience, it's just fulfilling, like empty calories.
The only real detail I know about the game is that, toward the end, there is a platforming section that I've been told is quite challenging and unforgiving in the original Super Nintendo release. Has the difficulty been altered for that too?
I realized the other day that I actually do have the immediate means to play Super Mario RPG for SNES since I own a SNES Classic Edition. So, I may prioritize playing that sometime this year.
There are some challenge rooms in the second to last dungeon with some (slightly) irritating platforming, but you only have to clear 4 of 6 and only 2 are platforming. I gave up on the second one because it was reversed controls, but I only tried once. That's the only thing that I can think of that people might be referring to.
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8. Lord of Arcana
This game is as generic and repetitive as it gets. Take mission. Fight monster. Build better equipment. Repeat. It was ideal for downtime during work or long meetings. I never played a Monster Hunter but I'm guessing that's what this is with a different setting and a horrible control scheme. I still don't know why dodging and locking on an enemy required so much effort. But, it's done. And it was entertaining seeing the QTE finishers since enemies would explode into Vandal Hearts pools of blood. This will likely be the only PSP game I play all year. My PSP's nub is in bad shape and staring at its screen just doesn't do it for me anymore. In other words, I need a new one. I'll always fight for the portable that never stood a chance against the DS.
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9. Star Ocean: The Second Story R
This is a masterclass when it comes to remakes. I have a lot I can't wait to write about when it's review time. One of the things I'm most excited to talk about are all the little things that came together: town/dungeon quick jump, your party members following you, the Bodyguard specialty, ease of manipulating endings, the multi-use item creation, and a bunch more. And just because the credits rolled, it doesn't mean the journey on this file is over. I have a big, ol' Maze of Tribulations to go through. I just made it to the third floor. Then there are some super bosses. There's lots more star ocean-ing ahead.
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04. Demon Quest '85 || Playdate || 01.11.24
(https://i.imgur.com/7cs3Obx.gif)
As I've now completed my seventh Playdate game in the five weeks I've owned the system, I'm still greatly pleased with how capable this little device is at providing fun experiences across a myriad of genres and themes. Since most games have short playtimes, I've found myself playing all sorts of games that I ordinarily don't play but have enjoyed immensely, and Demon Quest '85 is no exception.
Based on the game's title, Demon Quest '85 could have been a game adopting any number of genres: first-person dungeon crawler, turn-based RPG, action-platformer, puzzle adventure, and so forth. However, what I wasn't expecting was for it to be an open-ended narrative adventure game akin to choose-your-own-adventure novels. The developers themselves are even on record for classifying the game as a visual novel, and I think that there's enough overlap with the genre to even classify it as such too. With all that said, Demon Quest '85 is all about summoning demons as a high school student, taking place in 1985.
With an ancient grimoire in hand outlining the darkest horrors of some of the most dangerous and cursed fiends from hell, you as the player-character gather three friends to spend an afternoon in your musty attic to summon these demons. Over the course of several days, your friends serve as vessels for the demons to communicate through. With the summoning requiring both a party of four and willing participants who meet certain criteria for each specific demon, three of the twelve who accompany you each day present problems for a demon to solve or knowledge for them to impart. And, surprisingly, as more summonings are performed, your influence over hell and its leaders becomes more paramount with increasing concern. Meanwhile, the influence each demon's effects has over your friends becomes either welcomed or worrisome.
To accomplish all of this, there is an involved process to prepare the event. While the hellish text offers a fair amount of overview, the most useful information will be gathered from the demons you summon, which will allow you to call upon the next. In time, you will learn about the demon's interests, what powers they control, their values, and their political alliances. With all this information, you will then need to set the scene: leaving a suitable offering, preparing the preferred musical ambiance, and inviting the correct friends to form a party of the demon's liking. Of the twelve classmates to choose from, there is some challenge, as only short blurbs for both who the student is and what kind of audience the demon demands are available. In truth, this step will likely require some trial-and-error effort, but it is a small puzzle to solve.
Having mentioned the game's genre above, I finished my playthrough surprised at the degree of narrative-branching that's offered. Demons may be summoned in a multitude of ways, largely with the combination of classmates to choose from being varied. Once the summoning is ready, only one of three is then used as the demon's vessel and only one may be influenced. However, whether they actually take that influence is also a presented choice for the player to decide. While human outcomes greatly vary, so do the outcomes for the demons themselves, as how you interact with one directly alters the next summoning. Of course, the game's ending operates is also varied, with my personal choices leading to a more lawful evil conclusion.
Since each demon can only be summoned once, the narrative progresses quickly. Because of that design, Demon Quest '85 offers an impressive amount of replayability which actually seems worth investing in. Once the player knows how to summon each demon, progressing is simple, meaning to play the game from beginning to end can be done quite quickly. Something worth mentioning is that, if one is interested in playing through a number of paths, the system's crank can be used to speedily scroll through dialogue.
In the end, Demon Quest '85 stands as one of my most preferred games bundled with the system, and I can easily find myself revisiting it. While open-ended narrative games generally aren't ones I gravitate toward, the game's short but serviceable length only made the experience more approachable.
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05. Rusty Lake Paradise || PC || 01.12.24
(https://i.imgur.com/bmpkKyS.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/vCDmABQ.jpg)
Eager to begin the third and final Rusty Lake entry, I was curious to learn just how much there actually is in connection to the Vanderboom family's cursed history and, ultimately, Laura's end fate. After the previous Rusty Lake entry Roots, I wasn't expecting there to be that much more, but I was fortunately mistaken.
Set even further back in the past than what's been shown so far, Paradise takes place in 1796, nearly two hundred years prior to the game's most current events of 1981. With the player assuming the role of a son named Jakob, you return to your island home referred to as Paradise in light of your mother's death. On this small island in the middle of Rusty Lake, only your small family of now six make it their home. Upon your arrival shortly after your mother's death, a series of disasters plague the land and its inhabitants, with each one serving as a plot point which breaks the game into ten chapters. With a high number of plagues taking place, a good variety is introduced as problems to overcome, including water having turned into blood, diseased livestock, and an outbreak of boils.
At first, I believed the puzzles to all be simple, but, in hindsight, I feel as if the game's puzzle designs has a much better gradual increase of difficulty which nearly every other game before it ignores. However, one change I greatly welcomed is that most puzzles are self-contained and not just items interacting with another. There are dozens of small puzzles which come together as one single path to reach the game's ending, and I found them all fun to solve. While a few stumped me, those moments were almost all relating to me overlooking one small detail to inspect or not knowing how a certain item is to be used. After glancing back at all of the game's puzzles in a walkthrough, the percentage of puzzles solved out of total puzzles was perhaps highest for me this time.
Something routinely mentioned throughout the series is how events are interconnected through past, present, and future, and that thought is greatly present in Paradise. Everything, no matter when or where exactly it takes place, seems to be influential over what has happened or will happen. Through the Rusty Lake series, cultish texts and ideologies are read and practiced by patriarchal leaders which dictate that our memories belong to the lake, our past lives must reach some sort of balance with future lives, and there is a chosen one in the midst of it all whose status is reached through enlightenment. What I quickly came to appreciate is that the series excels at presenting strange and unusual, but also grotesque, scenes. In one instance throughout Paradise, the game veers strongly toward body horror.
Even after playing through all three prequel entries, there are narrative details which I don't understand. That said, perhaps the remaining entries can explain some of my misunderstanding. Speculating as to what's to come next, I really don't know what that could be. If the series has an actual ending, I don't know exactly how that will occur or what exactly is needing to be resolved. In truth, I'm quite fine with the idea that each of the remaining entries simply fill in details to expand upon what's revealed so far without some conclusive end. Nevertheless, now I move forward to play the next and final Cube Escape entry.
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1. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (PS5)- I have to say that The Devil in Me update they gave to this game doesn't fit well. I still recommend at least a playthrough of this one! I am hoping to finish the Anthology this year!
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3. Star Trek: Resurgence (PS5)
I'm a bit conflicted on this one. The graphics and gameplay would have been outdated 5 years ago, and the branching path narrative is incredibly simple. Despite that Resurgence might be the most purely Star Trek game to have come out in 30 years. Moral dilemmas, big sci-fi concepts, cool technobabble. It's all here. There are some bits of the writing that don't really make logical sense in a chain of command style outfit like Starfleet, and it just kind of ends leaving a few dangling plot threads.
Overall it's a ok video game, but a very solid Star Trek game.
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I decided to go all in on the Real Bout: Fatal Fury series tonight. I've played 2 of these games before, however, I've never actually played the first RB game prior to tonight, at least not that I remembered. But anyhow, here are my impressions.
6. Real Bout: Fatal Fury (PS4)
Supposedly a lot of people don't like this game. And yeah, I kinda get it, particularly some balancing issues with a few non-boss characters as well as the ring out mechanic, which I thought was kinda fun, but overall I liked this game mostly from a gameplay perspective. I liked it even more from a presentation perspective, as there are cutscenes, the stages look excellent, and the character sprites are all awesome. It does suck that there aren't more stages, but for what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. I don't know, I think this is a pretty fun game in the series, despite openly admitting it has its flaws and you can certainly do better for a Fatal Fury game. (1/16/24) [33/50]
7. Real Bout: Fatal Fury Special (PS4)
It has been a long time since I played the original RB Special, however, more recently I played its updated PS1 port Dominated Mind. While Dominated Mind and the original have very noticeable differences, I still mostly consider these games to be the same entry. However, even though Dominated Mind is supposed to be enhanced, I actually prefer the original if only by a small margin. Both games look excellent, the gameplay is an improvement over the first RB, particularly the balancing and the removal of the out of bounds mechanic, and the OST is still awesome. This was my favorite RB game I played tonight and definitely one of the best games in the franchise. (1/16/24) [35/50]
8. Real Bout: Fatal Fury 2 (PS4)
I had really high hopes for RB2, mostly because I remember thinking it was really fun and also because most people consider RB2 to be the best Fatal Fury game, second only to Mark of the Wolves. While I think it's a fun as hell game, I actually didn't find it as enjoyable as RB Special. My main hangup was the game seemed to veer back into some bad habits with it's balancing. However, it mostly made up for this by having more character, stages, and retaining those excellent visuals. The soundtrack isn[t half bad either. I had fun with RB2, but honestly I felt like RB Special outshined it, if only by a little. (1/16/24) [34/50]
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06. Cube Escape: Paradox || PC || 01.16.24
(https://i.imgur.com/BTqOFyu.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/AwdRaem.jpg)
With ten games currently available within the Cube Escape sub-series of games which is set within the larger Rusty Lake universe, I've finally completed them all. Knowing this beforehand, part of me also felt that Cube Escape: Paradox was to offer some finality to the narrative, but I don't think that's the case.
Playing as Dale, you wake up in a small room, trapped by its locked door. He becomes quickly aware that things aren't right, and he knows there's more to his involvement with Laura's death than simply being the detective investigating but doesn't understand how or why. Looking for clues to escape, Dale reads an advert for Rusty Lake where it reads how it's "a place to empty the mind," which allows visitors to "reflect on the past, the present and the future." With that understanding, Dale does explore these moments in time, alongside an additional empty time, a sort of limbo, for the lack of a better term.
Something crucial to mention is how the game is divided into two gameplay chapters and a live-action film adaptation. This cross-media presentation is apparent at the game's menu menu, as it's possible to experience the three in any order. Stated by the developers, there is no structure as to where the game or film should be experienced first, but I opted for what felt like the most logical path, being chapter 1, chapter 2, and the short film. Even within the game itself, though, elements of the film are incorporated into puzzle elements and story, which was achieved effectively at a high quality. Both the film's footage and still photography were utilized, bringing a unique change to the unchanged visual style across the dozen games leading up to Paradox.
Throughout the game, puzzle design has the player gaining certain information, applying it to one of four environments, and repeating that process to reach the end result. It's a fun loop that varies slightly from most games, with the only other game adopting this specific setup being Seasons, the first game in the series. Pen-and-paper was again helpful, and the game regularly has the player discovering one element to the puzzle with one set of items, than using that element toward another puzzle. At times, puzzles become lengthy yet manageable and still fun to solve.
During chapter 1, I didn't use a guide at all. There were a few moments where I was tempted, but I kept dwelling on the puzzle at-hand a little longer to finally deduce the answer. However, as for chapter 2, I found it to be more obtuse for a sizable part of it. There seemed to be a clear spike in puzzle difficulty between the two chapters, but perhaps that's to be expected. That said, as I finished the first chapter, it honestly felt like it could have been a game all on its own with the amount of content it offers, so knowing that a follow-up chapter was still left was great.
Since it's part of the game experience, I will comment on the included short film. Made by the series creators, the film adds an appreciated visual element to the game. While it doesn't offer anything unique such as directly interacting with puzzle elements or the gameplay itself, that there is a condensed and slightly altered form to the story is welcomed. Even more than the games, the film features a shockingly high degree of quality and polish, as acting, screenplay, set design, and editing are much higher than I think anyone was expecting to be.
Finishing chapter 2, an ending is implied, or possibly confirmed, through the final events which show. As with most plot points in the series, what is and isn't is difficult to differentiate. There are still four games remaining in the series for me to experience, but I'm not sure how they connect with everything so far. In all honesty, the series is probably long from being over, which I'm perfectly fine with. It's also worth noting that, since the Rusty Lake franchise is still actively being developed for, additional Cube Escape games could be made. Once the remaining games have been completed and I'm then left with nothing else to play, I'll only be left waiting to see.
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02. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (PS4 on PS5) - 18/01/2024
This is a really big deal for me as I have never beaten this game before due to rage quitting time and time again! The problem is late-game, enemies start to attack your MP & if you reach 0 MP your character dies... I still hate the concept! But I told myself I need to do this once & for all after being fresh off beat S.O. Second Story R.
So, how was it? Very good! Overall i like the story, I know there is much controversy to a few of the narrative points in this game but I like where it goes. I found the story engaging from start to finish and really valued the games decent production value (For the time).
Combat was a mixed bag, I already mentioned the MP snag but I also had a lot of problem with hit detection - Say if an enemy is getting back from being knocked on the ground it will be invulnerable until it reaches its upright stance. The game also has a bonus bar which you build up from attacking enemies & get bonuses like 300% EXP or 200% Money but sadly once hit can shattered the perk which is infuriating!
The game has one of the most convoluted set of customisation mechanics I've ever seen. In summary you need to recruit NPC's by gathering items for them. Once you have done so they will appear in one of your workshops, there you can form a team to work on Alchemy or Crafting or Cooking etc. BUT you can't even figure out what they're going to make, you have to cycle through a set of cost figures and hope it is what you want - or look up a guide. The game requires very precise combinations to which I had to often look online to figure out for a lot of this - Honestly, I feel like I have been studying a degree with the complexity of all these systems. It's something you have to figure out too or late-game enemies will trash you up!
One thing I have noticed about Star Ocean in general is it's 1-dimensional villains. They often don't get much attention thoughtful the story and the villain in this game was very underwhelming. That said, I did find the cast of characters charming and they're involvement into the on-going narrative relevant - Apart from 1, who I read up you can get earlier but I got him later without a choice and his story didn't make much sense.
The games dungeon areas are very maze like and frustrating. A guide is needed for most of them as it is really easy to get lost. The game also introduces features like breakable walls too so there is a lot going on. I like the games art direction and enjoyed the variety of locations.
Overall I packed a good 70+ hours into the game, there is post game content to dabble with which I may consider if the crafting isn't too much of a time sink. I've beat all S.O. games but The Last Hope now. Time is tight before Final Fantasy VII Rebirth though and I want to replay FF7R beforehand. But despite the problems I had with this game it does offer that true sense of adventure which I love from the genre and I had a lot of fun with it.
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2. Sonic Mania [Switch]
So I've wanted to finish this game for a while, but what pushed me over the edge was my bff giving me this huge Sonic plush, which I love.
(https://i.imgur.com/T4A9CsC.jpeg)
So I took the game back on, and turned out I was on the final zone of my first playthrough, so I could finish it relatively quickly. I know I'm far from done: I didn't even get all the Chaos Emeralds to unlock the true ending. But I played through it once and got credits, so I'mma count it. Also because I'm not sure how quickly I'll jump back in.
It's odd. I like Sonic and his friends a lot as characters. I really enjoy things like Sonic Prime and the second live-action movie. I enjoy the character designs, interactions, all that. But I often just can't seem to get into the games, especially the classic style ones. I can acknowledge all that's good about this game, but it just never clicked for me. Even towards the end I was a little puzzled on what I was doing. I don't know whether there's too much going on for me or whether I can't keep up or whatever, but I dunno. Happy for everyone who loves it, I can acknowledge it's good, but personally, I don't think I'll be picking it up again soon.
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07. Omaze || Playdate || 01.16.24
(https://i.imgur.com/hZ5mTZk.gif)
Before first loading Omaze to begin playing, I had absolutely no idea what kind of genre the game would be. Its image among the system's library really gives no hints, so I was naturally curious.
As it turns out, Omaze is a logic puzzle game, although it has a elements of of action incorporated into it. In short, you as the player control a dot moving from one circle to the next, hoping to reach your end goal. However, this is obviously easier said than done, as each circle has its own obstacles to overcome in quick succession. While its complexities never become too involved or convoluted, the challenges presented and puzzle designs do gradually increase. Once again, I was pleased with the crank controls.
With that said, the two most basic controls are using the crank to rotate either clockwise or counterclockwise in addition to using the B button to manually cycle through one circle to the next. Along the way, there are openings which form the general pathway, so aligning to those connections will be needed to reach a stage's end goal. That said, I found some stages to offer more than one path to the end, which allows players to decide which sort of obstacles they want to overcome. Of course, obstacles are varied and require different reactionary outputs, so players will naturally opt for one path over another, depending on what is easiest for them.
In time, additional obstacle types are introduced. They range from self-rotating circles to enemy dots which rotate toward the player-controlled dot. Of course, when failing to overcome an obstacle, it results in a stage fail. On their own, puzzle elements are generally simple to overcome, but they will stack together to present a more challenging gameplay experience. Because of this, some moments involving auto-rotation paired with another other obstacle requires focused thinking and quick reactions involving both A and B buttons and the crank. At times, it is very much a challenge because there is little time to react with the player needing to move from button-pressing to crank-rotating. Even when not stacked together in one single circle, the series of obstacles before the player may feature numerous types, one after another, which is evident from the attached screenshot where seven unique obstacles are present.
Because of the screen's size limitations, the playing field can only support fifteen circles to traverse through, so stages are short. However, this isn't a criticism, as stages become tricky to execute as-needed in the moment. As I briefly mentioned before, Omaze is very much a reactionary game which will often require many repeated attempts. Near the beginning, I thought I had reached the game's end after only a short twenty stages. Fortunately, though, there are actually around sixty, as I initially overlooked the game's stage hub screen. Overall, I considered there to be a good balance of difficulty, as an area's first few stages introduce a new obstacle, with the latter ones being more challenging as multiple obstacles are layered. Something I'll also briefly mention is that there's even one puzzle obstacle which requires the crank to be mounted back into the system's crevice, which I found unique and unexpected. Also, what stood out to me the most is the atypical approach to how the system must be held. Instead of the left hand resting on the D-pad, it instead rests on the right side's face buttons while the right hand controls the crank. With the limited amount of system options to work with, I found Omaze to utilize just about everything it could in designing obstacles.
Being one of several of Playdate's pick-up-and-play type games that anyone can boot up with even just a few seconds to spare, Omaze was surprisingly a fun logic game with an emphasis on in-the-moment action. It isn't a game which warrants another playthrough, but it's a fun experience, nonetheless.
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9. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3)
I'm a fairly big fan of rhythm games and I've had a long standing interest in the Hatsune Miku series of games. I've played Project Diva F before, but aside from playing it for about 30 minutes or so at a time, I never actually beat it. I've also played some version of it in the arcade as well. But I decided to go all the way and unlock every song in the game (at least on Normal mode) and see if this is a series I could get even deeper into.
Your mileage will vary considerably with this game depending on how much you are into Miku and the whole Vocaloid series. I appreciate Hatsune Miku for how Japanese the whole thing is, but as for the music and the whole persona surrounding Miku, I'm not a big fan for the most part. Still, this game has some very catchy tunes, and the gameplay for the most part does a good job at making this a fun, engaging rhythm game. My biggest gripe is some of the songs are bad at keeping a beat consistent with the button prompts required to get a passing score on each song. My other issue is sometimes the button press prompts are very hard to see or track with all the action and other animations occurring in the background during gameplay. But overall, this isn't a huge deal for the most part. Project Diva F also had a crazy amount of unlockables, ranging from songs, outfits for the various Vocaloids, and even food you can feed them. It's wild. I can't say Project Diva F is one of the best Rhythm games I've ever played, but it's still a fun time and a series I'm certainly going to play more of at some point. (1/20/24) [34/50]
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10. Virtua Cop (Arcade)
Between the arcade version and the Saturn port, I've probably beat Virtua Cop a hundred times at this point, but every once and I while I really get the urge to play through it once more, which is precisely what I did this afternoon. Virtua Cop is about as classic of a 90s arcade game as they come. While not very long, the light gun gameplay is still very addictive as you should bad guys popping out of pretty much every place they possibly can. Meanwhile you're picking up more powerful weapons and health items, and also not trying to kill innocent people who just love to step right in your line of fire. The bosses are also pretty fun, although the final boss is a tad on the easy side. Maybe the best thing about Virtua Cop both back in 1994 and today is its amazing presentation. Virtua Cop's OST is legendary, as are its graphics which still retain a distinct charm about them. I'll always love this Sega arcade gem, and I'm certain I'll probably play this game again within the next couple years like I always do. (1/21/24) [37/50]
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1. Battletoads (Genesis) - ABANDONED
Like many gamers old enough to remember the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Battletoads has been a continual thorn in my side for decades. In fact, prior to tonight, I'd never made it past the infamous Turbo Tunnels. After beating this section, I felt a brief moment of victory, followed by the crushing realization that it only gets harder the further into the game you go. I got a little further to the part where you have to platform on a bunch of moving snakes, and that part broke me. I've come to terms with the fact that I will likely never beat this game despite having tried since 1992/1993 when I first got this game. This game's reputation as being brutal is well deserved. For what it's worth, it's a fairly fun game to play, and has an amazing OST. I just wish it was slightly easier, as even for an older game, this game is relentless! (1/21/24)
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I feel like I don't play enough pre-5th gen games, so I decided to have a nice Sunday night of Beat Em' Ups, focusing on ones I've never played and seem to get mentioned when the term "hidden gem" comes up. One of the games might be, sort of a hidden gem, while the other was anything but.
11. The Tick (Genesis)
I know the beat em' up genre is not typically known for being the least monotonous genre out there, but this game definitely takes the tedium present in a lot of games from this genre to a whole new level. For one, this is one of the longest beat em' ups I think I've ever played, and to make matters worse, very few stages, enemies, or bosses are at all interesting for fun to fight against. There is some humor in this game, but it literally becomes stale before you even finish the 2nd stage. There are also some really annoying platforming sections throughout the game where you have a bunch of random objects flying out you with almost no time to react. The OST is nothing great either, nor are the sound effects from the Tick or the enemies you fight. This game should be a hard pass for anyone looking for even a decent beat em' up to play. (1/21/24) [22/50]
12. The Punisher (Genesis)
I used to own this game back in the day, and never got around to playing it by the time I sold it off. Fortunately I have it on a Mega SD, and decided to play through it. Much to my surprise, it's actually a pretty fun beat em' up, with a fairly interesting story, cool enemies and bosses, and fairly interesting gameplay. One cool aspect of the Punisher is the ability to shoot enemies during select parts of the game. The enemy AI was also pretty balanced, offering a decent challenge, while avoiding being cheap or annoying. The OST is fairly average, but good, and the visuals are pretty good for the most part. There are certainly other beat em' ups on the Genesis I enjoy more, but for what it is, this game was no slouch. (1/21/24) [31/50]
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10. Mega Man X6
My neighborhood was an ice rink over the weekend, so I did replay of this while being at home. I'm not sure why. Maybe so I could make my inevitable replay of X4 all the more sweeter? This game isn't good. It's nowhere near X5 levels, but it's clear the series peaked at X4. Hell, for some it peaked just at X. Yes, there were some good stage tunes and a few neat bosses, but it was just a messy, contrived entry in the series.
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08. Hyper Meteor || Playdate || 01.16.24
(https://i.imgur.com/fSBGxmo.gif)
With a name like Hyper Meteor on a system that has so far offered its players a handful of fun arcade-style games, the title gave some hint as to what kind of genre the game would be. While some may find it to be a clone of the classic Asteroids, it is far from it.
In short, Hyper Meteor is a simple action game which has the player thrusting their spacecraft into meteors and other obstacles in head-on collisions, not by using projectile shots. With space being cramped and full of numerous enemy types, surviving requires a small level of strategic play. For every obstacle, there are two sides: white, which signifies the item's vulnerable points to strike, and black, which signifies its armored points to avoid as they result in losing a life token. As new levels are achieved, new enemy types may spawn with those already unlocked which are unlike the default meteors which are free-floating, non-targeting obstructions. Instead, other obstacles are more like actual enemies. One type actively but slowly drifts toward the player, whereas another shoots projectiles in several directions it faces.
Alongside the basic attack system, there is a heavy emphasis on scoring which determines new stages being achieved in real-time with more difficult encounters yielding higher point totals and the ability to gain additional life tokens upon reaching score milestones. This mechanic is complemented by the game's scoring which leans into its arcade nature through a combo system. In the corner, a gauge is present that refills with each collision but quickly depletes. Naturally, this encourages faster gameplay which rewards risk. Of course, being precise in one's movements are obviously crucial to reach higher scores and longer sessions. To go far, there is a balance needing to be achieved to target the smaller craters which serve as fodder to quickly refill the gauge as they are fully white, meaning they cannot harm the player.
Bearing some similarities to its reference material, Hyper Meteor stands as its own with individuality. Alongside what's been mentioned above, Hyper Meteor's playing field size is quite small, meaning there is not a lot of space to navigate around obstacles. At the same time, player control is not as floaty and and fast-moving as one may expect, which I prefer. Another item worth mentioning is that two different control layouts—either the D-pad or face buttons in pair with the system's crank—are offered which is a welcomed addition.
To my surprise, Hyper Meteor is perhaps my go-to arcade-style game included with the Playdate, as of this writing. With each new attempt, I actually notice my skill improving and the capability to achieve longer runs, which I find myself still greatly motivated to pursue.
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09. The White Door || PC || 01.20.24
(https://i.imgur.com/CbFdU6e.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/XrtDE0Q.jpg)
With the Rusty Lake franchise having seemingly concluded both the Cube Escape and Rusty Lake sub-series of games, developer Rusty Lake's more recent endeavors have been expanding upon the overarching Rusty Lake narrative through other, slightly different, gameplay and visual types. At least, this is my assumption after having finished The White Door.
Controlling protagonist Robert Hill, players assume the role of someone seemingly new, foreign to the involvement of Dale, Laura, and the larger Vanderboom ancestry. However, that is actually not the case, as Robert has been shown at least on two occasions, although their presence and bearing on the overall narrative at that point was little. Having woken up in a room that's locked from the outside, there is a posted schedule to follow to progress time. As the game's title suggests, a white door is your most obvious obstacle in maintaining your state of being trapped. That said, shortly after starting, it becomes apparent how you're checked in to some sort of mental health facility.
As the schedule implies, you must follow it with each passing day. At certain intervals, usually when the day ends, a short flashback event will appear for the player to control through. As players will come to learn, Robert has connections with the murdered woman, Laura. These flashback sections place a heavy emphasis on story, with progressing through each line of dialogue or action requiring some sort of simple input to maintain player engagement. As the day continues, players will have to pass a series of short objectives such as eating breakfast and simple recreation at night. However, there are also other tasks such as memory tests which are often more like visual tests. Additionally, a staff member appears once a day to check Robert's well-being which often requires the player to recount information from details scattered about the room. Fortunately, the game doesn't force the player to actually recall information, as there are no consequences alongside the player being able to freely move about the room to further investigate specific details.
While playing, it's apparent how The White Door deviates from every single one of the previous Rusty Lake franchise games, which is likely why the game's name formatting omits any formal connection to either aforementioned sub-series. In The White Door, the screen is halved. On the left is a top-down view of the room you're in which allows you to see various items which you may interact with. On the right is an up-close screen showing the items you near which are able to be interacted with. This right side is how the actual interaction is performed, requiring the player to drag and click. At times, more detailed information is also presented on this side which highlights crucial details necessary to progress through the game's puzzle narrative. Unlike every other game so far, items aren't collected. In fact, items don't even interact with another. In truth, the amount of gameplay is perhaps lowest in this entry, as puzzle objectives usually appear as brief interruptions to the relatively fast-moving story. On that note, while the level of narration and storytelling has varied across each Rusty Lake game, The White Door is the most narrative-driven experience so far. After nearly every action being taken, narration follows. In many instances, the action even follows the narration, as if it's guiding players in what to do.
Bolstered by its emphasis on story-telling, The White Door presents a bleak plot about loss, the decline of mental health, and losing what it means to be one's self. By every account, the game is very much a side narrative to the ongoing story, but it's one which offers adequate details to fill in some gaps while remaining true to the dark and disturbing nature the franchise is known for.
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11. Shadow Hearts: From the New World
It's been nearly 20 years since I played this and thought a replay was in order. With the strategy guide in my possession finally, I had every intention of doing everything: side-quests, collectables, etc. Well, that idea got thrown out the window when I reached the halfway point (and the battle track went from epic to awful). This was worse than I remembered. I can see myself going through the original and Covenant in years to come. Maybe there'll come a time when I do another run of Koudelka. This, however, I will never play this game again unless there's a release of the entire Shadow Hearts series on one disc/cart that includes QoL changes, trophies, etc. And knowing how borked Aruze and the Shadow Hearts IP is, that's never going to happen. The game's goofy characters and lack of barely any horror themed atmosphere aren't my biggest issues, although they don't help. It's that the game's poorly balanced to the point that outside grinding is constant necessity. Since battles take too long, doing said grinding takes even more time. Building Stock takes time. Enemies constantly get multiple turns in a row. Maybe they wanted to make things more challenging but this wasn't the right way to do it. When those credits rolled, I returned the disc to the case and the case to the shelf. Out of sight/mind.
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6. Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition
Marked this as red, because of some bug or particularities with the game that prevent me from actually completing it. First, this is only the original release of the game and does not include the expansions. My plan was to just complete the campaign options, of which there are seven. There are three you can see from the start and I was able to play and complete the first two. The first campaign was easy. The second was challenging in the third portion and I had to restart it many times. Basically the issue was that I was going too slow. The third one was the same issue in the third segment but I decided to cheat to get past it in the end.
Yet, after beating the first three campaigns, it did not unlock the additional ones. I only got an achievement for the first two, and the third I got the cheating achievement. I come to find out that you need to play all of the campaign options on a single save or else the extra options won't unlock. This isn't an issue I had with the original game (of which I still own and will play again some day on original hardware) because the idea of using multiple saves was not something that had occurred to me back then. I did not know about using multiple saves until well after the youtube era where I watched others use them. I used a 1-2-3 save system and replaced them every time I started a new scenario. I partly blame the game for not having any sort of mention that when you complete a scenario, if you start a new one, it technically doesn't count as a continuation.
As far as it being an HD version, it in itself is fine. It isn't a full upscale as the battles get a border since it uses a grid that is designed for 4:3 displays and they did not add any new tiles for widescreen. The only issues I found was the dispell effect draws on the border and doesn't go away for the entirety of the battle. Other issues is that the sound mutes when you move the mouse cursor past the bounds of the window if you are using windowed or multi-mon. One time I encountered a bug where it played the monster removed sound in the map screen constantly.
I certainly remember this game and also remember *some* of the campaigns. Just the first two. It may be possible I could not beat it originally either and that I had only played the scenarios. Or it is possible that I did not spend that much time with this game. I still do prefer HOMM2 and 4 over this version. I also recall HOMM4 was exceedingly difficult to find in the US because it got short printed and that the only way to find it for a decent price was to import it from UK. It did eventually get a reprint in the US as a budget title that showed up on the Walmart jewel case rack, which was how I finally managed to get it. HOMM2 was one of those situations where I had gotten the demo from the PC Gamer CD and then was able to go out and get the full game later on.
I'll leave it installed because the scenarios can be fun still. We'll see if it manages to stick around.
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Game 2 - God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) - 41 Hours
I didn't realize when I started this game that I would have needed to have a minor in Norse studies beforehand ;) Jokes aside, I did enjoy my time playing this game, though as you can probably guess, I didn't really enjoy the story. I knew it was going to be a bad time after I watched the GoW4 recap and still had no idea what was going on in the first game. I dunno, it just never really clicked with me. It was very long, very twisty and convoluted with tons of lore and backstory that the game just assumes you know. And even with all that, I found the story to be boring. It's ultimately a story about not trying to follow a preordained prophecy and then following it after all? That's what I got out of it anyway. I also really didn't like the voice acting, particularly for the older Atreus and Odin. Odin in particular was a very boring and cliche villain. Again, something that I know is well praised about this game, but just didn't connect with me personally.
What did connect with me though was the combat, exploration, and visuals. The game is very beautiful just like the first, and scored masterfully. My favorite moments in this game were just exploring the world, riding in my boat, doing quests as they became open to me and enjoying the game's satisfying combat. Were there a lot of glitches? Yeah. Are there arguably TOO many combat mechanics, weapons, and equipment to manage? Sure. Did I die more times than I thought I should have on normal? You bet. Nonetheless, I didn't want to stop playing purely because I was enjoying the gameplay that much. It was especially nice to be able to visit all of the realms this time around.
Looking back at my previous review of GoW4, I was not surprised to read that I basically have the same thoughts about this game as I did the previous game. Great combat, great visuals, great exploration, kind of a bad story. Not a bad experience though at all.
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I won't be doing a blurb for every game completed, but I just finished Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5). Great game. I had been interested in the first for a while, hearing it played like Uncharted and finally it released on PS Plus. Played it and enjoyed it. Then the sequel had a half off during Black Friday that I couldn't pass up.
Game in general starts you with the powers you gained in the first game. Something I'm thankful of as most games just have you start from scratch and it sucks. Without going into too much detail, by the end of the game, Cal is basically a God. I expect with a rumored third game in developement, that they could have him take on Vader and win, but somehow Vader lives for his cannon death in the movies.
Quite a few plot twists in the game that I won't be detailing, but it felt right when the game was about to end, the team decided to extend it a few hours just because. Still good. Looking forward to a third game. If one is made, I expect we won't see it until the end of the PS5 generation.
Starting God of War Ragnarok (PS5).
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I won't be doing a blurb for every game completed, but I just finished Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5). Great game. I had been interested in the first for a while, hearing it played like Uncharted and finally it released on PS Plus. Played it and enjoyed it. Then the sequel had a half off during Black Friday that I couldn't pass up.
Game in general starts you with the powers you gained in the first game. Something I'm thankful of as most games just have you start from scratch and it sucks. Without going into too much detail, by the end of the game, Cal is basically a God. I expect with a rumored third game in developement, that they could have him take on Vader and win, but somehow Vader lives for his cannon death in the movies.
Quite a few plot twists in the game that I won't be detailing, but it felt right when the game was about to end, the team decided to extend it a few hours just because. Still good. Looking forward to a third game. If one is made, I expect we won't see it until the end of the PS5 generation.
Starting God of War Ragnarok (PS5).
I think the third game will take place 5+ years after the events of Survivor, and will revolve around Cal, but place more of an emphasis on Kata (Bode's daughter). I think she will even be a playable character throughout most of the game. I think they will start you off with only a few basic force techniques much like Cal at the beginning of Fallen Order, but then give her a variety of new techniques that even Cal didn't have. At the very least, I feel like half the game will have you play as Kata while the other half will be with Cal. I could even see a situation where you play a third of the game a Cal, a third as Kata, and a third as either Marin (sp?) or some other new character, possibly another apprentice. While Disney has been no stranger to retconning the aspects of Star Wars they still consider canon, considering Cal is nowhere in the original trilogy or any of the canon afterwards, I'm 90% certain they will kill him off by the end of the game. Assuming the game isn't a complete flop or heavily rejected by fans, I can see them handing the torch over to Kata for further sequels. Just my theory, but it seemed like the end of the game was setting the next game up for this potentially.
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10. Samsara Room || PC || 01.24.24
(https://i.imgur.com/PRMHkhr.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/GI4J8X8.jpeg)
With few Rusty Lake games remaining, the next game for me to play is a remake of developer Rusty Lake's very first game created for Flash. As a remake, Samsara Room greatly expands upon its original source material (which I've confirmed after watching another's playthrough of the original 2013 release after my own), although it certainly shares the same foundation.
With the above comment in mind, it wasn't surprising to find out that there are no story elements presented in Samara Room, just as several of the first games in the series proper also omitted. However, this is not to say there isn't a plot, because there certainly is, and it's one that only those having played specific entries in the franchise so far will fully understand. With that said, Samsara Room's subject matter relates to rebirth and enlightenment, which is immediately referenced in the game's title (although I wasn't aware of the term samara's definition until later on.)
Before watching a playthrough of the 2013 game, I had assumed even these details were either updated or added later to grant a better connection between Samara Room and the franchise, but that's actually not the case. At its core, Samara Room shares the exact same visual elements as its source material which also connects to the other Rusty Lake games. So, it was interesting to learn just how much of the Rusty Lake series owes to the developer's very first game. Continuing with similarities, it's clear how the 2013 release served as a stepping stone to the series's first proper game, Cube Escape: Seasons, as the gameplay loop is the exact same. In both games, the single room you're trapped in changes depending on player influence as the main puzzle objective comes closer to be solved. This is only possible because room types can be freely explored once a room's initial puzzles are complemented, at least, until the game's final section. In Samsara Room specifically, the player-character's forum will transform to mimic certain key items, which I found to be a simple yet fun detail corresponding to the game's theme.
All things considered, Samara Room is a game that is best enjoyed when knowing its history. Despite the remake being the developer's sixteenth game, it very much feels like one of their earliest due to a lesser emphasis on story. But, there isn't any question that it's a part of the Rusty Lake franchise, as the game shares themes, genre, and gameplay styles with other entries. Even so, I found myself enjoying the more detailed connections to the ongoing franchise narrative which weren't present in the 2013 release.
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13. Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade)
What's funny is it wasn't until I started playing Virtua Cop 2 earlier today that I realized I don't even remember the last time I played through it. I'm certain I've beat it at least twice in my life, but honestly the last time I can remember actually getting through all three stages from start to finish may have actually been the early 2000s. I say this, because there is a remarkable amount of content in the game that I'd completely forgotten about. But anyhow, Virtua Cop 2 looks better from a visual presentation standpoint compared to the first game, however it unfortunately lacks in the audio department with the first game having a significantly better OST. Gameplay is pretty standard for a mid 90s lightgun game, and I didn't find it any better or worse than the first game. There seems to be more enemies and stuff going on which is a bonus, but it just feels like the placement of enemies in some sections of the game just felt lacking compared to the original Virtua Cop. Overall, I prefer the first game, but Virtua Cop 2 is definitely no slouch in the fun department as it's a true 90s arcade classic. (1/28/24) [35/50]
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I think the third game will take place 5+ years after the events of Survivor, and will revolve around Cal, but place more of an emphasis on Kata (Bode's daughter). I think she will even be a playable character throughout most of the game. I think they will start you off with only a few basic force techniques much like Cal at the beginning of Fallen Order, but then give her a variety of new techniques that even Cal didn't have. At the very least, I feel like half the game will have you play as Kata while the other half will be with Cal. I could even see a situation where you play a third of the game a Cal, a third as Kata, and a third as either Marin (sp?) or some other new character, possibly another apprentice. While Disney has been no stranger to retconning the aspects of Star Wars they still consider canon, considering Cal is nowhere in the original trilogy or any of the canon afterwards, I'm 90% certain they will kill him off by the end of the game. Assuming the game isn't a complete flop or heavily rejected by fans, I can see them handing the torch over to Kata for further sequels. Just my theory, but it seemed like the end of the game was setting the next game up for this potentially.
That's definitely a possibility. Cal is almost too powerful at this point. It would make sense for the torch to be passed down.
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Game 3 - Celeste (PS4) - 7 Hours
I thought this was a fantastic game. It's polished to a mirror sheen down to the tiniest detail. The controls are astounding and despite it being a very hard game, it never was enough to make me stop playing. There are maybe 5 screens across the whole game that I found were very difficult. The last area in particular goes on a little too long, but otherwise I really enjoyed playing. The smooth gameplay and controls are punctuated by a beautiful soundtrack and a simple yet touching story with some very likeable characters and a great overall message. I'm really glad I got around to playing this.
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7 - Silent Hill: A Short Message (PS5 2023) - Free or not, it still took me like an hour to beat I think and turned out to be a decent, creepy experience. I'm not exactly a big Silent Hill fan, never really played any of the games and the remake for Silent Hill 2 will be my first real go at them, but from what I know of the series, this definitely fits in line with that, very psychologically based, dealing with trauma and such. It has some PT vibes to it, which I sorta feel like it knows in moments here and there, but it's very much it's own thing as it has a contained narrative. Worth checking out for some thing dark and creepy being that it's completely free.
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Decided to go all out on a bunch of arcade games tonight. Had a good time! Also, this might be the most games I've beat in a single month since I started doing this challenge.
14. Top Skater (Arcade)
This game is definitely up there when it comes to nostalgic arcade games. I played this game a ton during the late 90s, mostly because every other arcade I went to had one. It was the ultimate way of feeling like a skate boarding prodigy when I was a kid, and that was largely because of the skateboard controller you stood on to steer your character and pull off tricks. Playing it again, Top Skater offers that same level of fun with some cool tricks to pull off, tons of stuff to jump off and grind on, and just overall this game oozes 90s arcade awesomeness. The presentation looks great and really gives me Crazy Taxi vibes, and that's not just the visuals. The OST, while very limited in terms of songs that play, is good ol' fashion punk rock, all by the band Pennywise. One other cool feature is how each of the selectable characters has their own set of tricks they pull off. My biggest gripe with this game is how short it is. Even for an arcade game, Top Skater is woefully lacking in content with just two fairly short stages. It's very easy to play this game for 15-minutes as see all there is for the most part. Because of this, the replayability is heavily compromised, but if you're like me and have great memories of playing this game, you'll have a good time with it every once and a while when you get the urge to play it. (1/31/24) [31/50]
15. Dead or Alive (Arcade)
I was a massive DOA fan in the late 90s thanks to DOA2, and have since played most of its releases over the years. However, one game in the series I'd never played somehow was the first game. I was surprised to find that the gameplay and graphics were a lot closer to DOA2 than I thought they were. While DOA2 is undeniably better in both these regards, the first DOA is still very fun to play, although there are admittedly some really annoying character balancing issues and sometimes pulling off moves can feel stiff and unresponsive. The audio was surprisingly good, although certainly not as good as DOA2. While DOA is far from the best mid 90s 3D fighting game I've played, it ended up being a lot better and more enjoyable that I thought it would be. I can definitely see myself returning to this one in the future. (1/31/24) [33/50]
16. Last Bronx (Arcade)
Last Bronx has been on my backlog for a very long time. It's always a game I've been interesting in playing despite knowing very little about it. Unlike DOA, unfortunately, I was not pleasantly surprised by how fun Last Bronx was, but rather how annoying and clunky it was for the most part. The weapons based combat gave me Soul Calibur vibes, except that game is way more enjoyable than Last Bronx. I literally one a few matches by spamming a single move because trying to play normally resulted in endless block spamming by the opponent and me getting countered over and over again. Of course, when I tried doing the same thing, it never worked for the most part. The OST is also fairly unremarkable, although I'd still say it's slightly above average. The visuals is where I really have to give credit to Last Bronx as it's definitely one of the better looking 3D fighting games of its era. But overall, I didn't really enjoy this game mostly, despite some of its redeeming qualities. (1/31/24) [28/50]
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8 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC 2014) - BEAT - I was gonna end up playing this eventually anyways as I had a mood to replay MGSV from the beginning, but with the announcement of Kojima planning to do a brand new original action espionage game for Sony, I thought I'd dive into something short tonight. There's technically a lot to do with this short experience, as there's optional missions to do and hard, but I just kinda wanted a refresher on feel and story. I forgot how good this game looked and it's just real smooth to play.
One annoying thing is that the PC version has kind of a crappy UI, it's not designed for mouse controls very well, but it's not unplayable because of it, it just means that navigating menus can be a little awkward Can't remember if Phantom Pain improved on this or not, but I got what I wanted out of this and I'll maybe try to get to Phantom Pain sometime this year. Trying to decided if I want to do this or another playthrough of Death Stranding, but I may do both lol
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One more. Yep, this is definitely a monthly record.
17. Motor Raid (Arcade)
A sports bar my dad used to take me to when he wanted to watch a game had this game back in the late 90s. For the longest time I could not remember the name of this game, and searched high and low for it for years. A while back I finally found out the name and I was also surprised to hear it was a Sega game (I thought it was a Namco game for some reason lol). But I got to reintroduce myself to this game tonight and it's actually more enjoyable than I remember! The gameplay is a combo of something like Wipeout, but mix in futuristic motorcycles and weapon wielding riders and you have a formula for a pretty fun game. There are 5 stages and they're all unique, memorable, and for the most part well designed. Things like jumps, stuff going on in the background, and various hazards and obstacles on the course itself make each race exciting and fun to play. There is also a turbo mechanic which adds an extra layer of strategy. And the nof course there's the OST which is so 90s it'll make any 90s kid gush. It certainly filled me with the 90s kid feels. I'm really happy I replayed this game after all these years. It was more fun than it had any reason to be. (1/31/24) [35/50]
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Lied, two more before midnight. HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!
18. Daytona USA (Arcade)
Daytona USA is about as iconic of an arcade title as they come. The Dave and Busters I've been going to since I was 9 STILL has several Daytona USA machines connected to one another, and each time I go there, there are still people playing it to this day. While I will fully admit the gameplay of Daytona isn't stellar, the combo of racing your friends, the incredible OST, and graphics that were about as cutting edge as they could get in 1994, this game is about as good as it got for racing games in the early 90s. I adore this game, and it's been a staple of my arcade experience for the majority of my life. (1/31/24) [36/50]
19. Dynamite Deka 2 (Arcade)
Called Dynamite Cop in the west, this game is the sequel to Dynamite Deka, aka Diehard Arcade. Confused? Good! For however over the top Dynamite Deka was, the sequel takes it up like ten notches to create one of the most entertaining beat em ups you'll ever play. There are a ton of objects, weapons, and even enemies you can use as weapons. There are crazy bosses, and one of the ways you know your character's health is they slowly become more and more undressed the more damage they take. Yeah... but other than the fun presentation, the gameplay is pretty good for the most part, the OST is pretty meh, but overall this is a very enjoyable game, albeit not as good or iconic as the first game. (1/31/24) [32/50]
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11. Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog || PC || 01.30.24
(https://i.imgur.com/2tmFZEl.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/a6PfNgR.jpg)
For some time, I've been wanting to play games which make use of 3D physical materials as their art design, specifically from game creator thecatamites. Finally, I went ahead and did that, choosing Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog at random. I'll also note here that, despite the game's title, Murder Dog IV is a standalone entry.
As the title suggests, Murder Dog IV begins at the start of titular Murder Dog's trial for murder. In the game's first moments, it's apparent that Murder Dog is, to no surprise, quite guilty and very well still murderous. Acting as Murder Dog who seems to be without legal representation and therefore defending themself, players are given three actions to perform, three pieces of evidence to examine, three witnesses to call, and a panel of jurors to interact with. Of course, if one is wanting to reach a Not Guilty verdict, it is in their best interest to utilize all these options. However, the option to ignore certain elements or even every element is entirely possible.
Progressing through the short narrative, players will witness the game's over-the-top commentary on the modern justice system. It's never a question as to whether Murder Dog is guilty or innocent, as their bloodlust and ultraviolent actions are merely a click away. But, by gaming the justice system, players have the choice to wrongfully prove Murder Dog's innocence by undermining and even tampering with evidence, vilifying witnesses, and flat-out lying. While Murder Dog can easily go on a rampage to murder everyone, the game's real ending requires using every resource in your favor by supplying believable counterarguments while denying all accusations, in addition to besting witness accounts and testimonies. At its core, Murder Dog IV is a choice-based narrative with varying outcomes through its branching paths. As an example, the vert first choice is to testify as Guilty or Not Guilty, with the former resulting in its own immediate ending. Unexpectedly, the story can be contained fully in the court room and even outside it. One ending specifically mentions it being the "best canonical" ending which aligns to Murder Dog's nature, although it's the least rewarding.
Alongside character dialogue, there is also some sort of narration which serves as commentary to the events unfolding. Ordinarily, dialogue advances by clicking, but sometimes it auto-advances which wasn't pleasing. Similarly, all commentary auto-advances, which was especially irritating. There is often little time given to read it, let alone process it. This detail is upsetting because the game itself is a commentary on the justice system, and the in-game commentary reflects that. So, a sizable portion of the game's message isn't conveniently accessible. Nevertheless, there is fair amount of humor throughout the story, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times during moments which caught me off guard.
Having decided to play the game based on its art design, I was a little disappointed. Offering a simple but fun collage of art through mixed media including paper, modeling clay, found items, and crude digital art, Murder Dog IV reserves its 3D elements exclusively for the one static image of the courtroom's set design, with all other art instead either being photo imagery or digital. Despite its limited use, I still think highly of what little 3D art there is, as I find it interesting in how little there needs to be to communicate a scene. At this point, I'll also briefly mention the game's music, which consists entirely of a looping banjo track which does become repetitive.
In the end, Murder Dog IV offers a highly satirical view on the justice system which translates nicely as a game. I wasn't aware of the game's premise prior to playing, so the humor was an added bonus.
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2. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS3) ABANDONED
Growing up, the first Zone of the Enders was one of my favorite games of all time. I was addicted to its anime aesthetic, insane fast paced gameplay, its soundtrack, and just the fact that it was a mech game immediately attracted me to it. When its sequel came out, The 2nd Runner, I was mostly very excited about it other than finding out it was cell shaded, which at the time I hated that graphics style. Cell shaded graphics aside, the game just didn't leave the same impression on me despite giving me more of the things I loved so much about the first game. I've wanted to go back and replay 2nd Runner for many years at this point, and I finally did, although part of me wishes I hadn't.
First and foremost I get that this is the general favorite when it comes to Zone of the Enders games, and on some level I completely understand why. The game doubles down on that anime vibe I talked about earlier by using actual anime cut scenes, anime avatars for the characters, and the story itself is fairly anime-ish, at least the little of it I was able to follow. On the point of the story not making much sense, I felt like I needed to have watched or read something beforehand to follow what was going on, which is not entirely unfounded as a lot of the lore and back story for this game is mentioned in the anime OVA Idalo. I have seen the OVA, but it's been so long that I barely remember it, and also I'm not going to prep for a game by having to watch an anime too. So yeah, the story is not this game's strong suit, nor is the voice acting and dialogue which is terrible. I got through nearly half the game with the more fleshed out gameplay carrying my interest, however there was one part that nearly broke me, and then another later on that finally did. The game just threw so much at me so fast, and no matter what weapon, sub weapon, or strategy I used, I just couldn't get past it. I tried for hours before I was literally one more failed try from shattering my PS3 controller into a hundred pieces so I shut the game off. I'm all for difficulty in games, but some of the sections of this game are textbook cheap and bullshit to the core. Being someone who plays games to have fun, I've learned to walk away from a game when it's not just that I'm having fun, but I actively feel rage. It's too bad things happened the way they did, because I wanted to re-experience this game and see if maybe I could enjoy it more than the first game despite the massive amount of nostalgia I have for that title. However, despite abandoning 2nd Runner, I can safely say I still don't like it as much as the first game, and in fact, I kinda hate this game to a degree. (2/1/24)
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12. Rondo of Swords - Path A/Good Ending
Getting this ending required a lot of trial and error, and even more patience. These requirements actually apply to just about every aspect of Rondo of Swords. I have never played a strategy-RPG like this. It takes even the most basic concepts, throws them out the window, and says, "Good luck! Figure it out!" There are tutorials built in, and of course the instruction manual breaks things down a bit, but there is nothing that can prepare even a seasoned veteran for Rondo of Swords' antics. I still have no idea what compelled me to play this. The strange thing is that I want to do a replay and see how the story develops in Path B. I'm confident that there will be the same amounts of cursing, griping, "AHH COME ON!"-ing, and what have you. But dammit, the game is addictive as hell. Adorable character sprites and campy voice acting don't hurt matters, either.
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1. Lies of P (PS4) 1/31/24
Finally beat my first game this year, and whew, was it a doozy.
My very first Soulslike, the aesthetics grabbed me so I bought it on sale just to try the genre….
and I LOVED it.
Couldn’t stop playing. I knew it was supposed to be f’in hard, and it was. But considering it was my first jab at the genre, I didn’t have nearly as much trouble as I anticipated; I’ve seen online comments from people who said they died 100+ times on one boss, and I never came close to that (my most was maybe 20-30 tries on the Nameless Puppet…a few bosses took 5 attempts or fewer). I did make sure to take full advantage of what was available, like throwables and the specter, but I’m not ashamed ;)
I actually had more trouble with some mid-bosses than the main bosses (that Mad Clown Puppet can GO TO HELL and DIE SLOWLY).
The blade/handle weapon customization system seems so simple, and yet is honestly ingenious in its depth. Wanna stick a giant ax made of puppet limbs to a tiny dagger handle? GO FOR IT :D
Now, is it the greatest game I’ve ever played? No. But it’s a solid good time, and it’s got me looking at other games in the Soulslike genre to see what might be good. I got my eyes on Bloodborne and Seikiro.
8/10
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Another Sega arcade night. This time I tried some games outside my comfort zone.
20. Sky Target (Arcade)
I have a very vague memory of playing Sky Target in the arcade, however if I did, I'm honestly not surprised that I forgot about it. Sky Target is essentially the 90s version of After Burner, except it has half the charm, and is not nearly as fun or iconic as that arcade classic. This game looks pretty good in the visuals department, but other than that, there is very little that is remarkable about Sky Target. The gameplay is very bland, generic and borning, and the audio is nothing special either. In fact, the audio can get fairly annoying thanks to an announcer that literally says the same thing every time you lock onto an enemy, which is what you're doing almost constantly while playing. Overall, Sky Target is just a very forgettable, boring game that I can't see myself ever wanting to pick up again. (2/2/24) [26/50]
21. Sega Water Ski (Arcade)
I'd never heard of or played this game until tonight, and while the game is very short and limited on content, it makes up for it with a very catchy OST and the stages are all vibrant, cheerful, and buzzing with a lot of things going on as you play our your water skiing fantasy. The gameplay is very similar to Top Skater, except you're having to ski between markers in the water and you'll have to do tricks of the various jumps in each stage. This all works fairly good, although, it's all to easy, and tricks don't require any real effort, which is kind of a bummer in terms of fun. But as mentioned, the presentation really knocks it out of the park in this game, and Sega Water Ski ended up being my favorite game of the evening because of this. (2/2/24) [32/50]
22. Sonic Championship (Arcade)
The final game I tried out tonight was one I've wanted to check out for a very long time. I never saw this one in the arcades back in the day or since. I pretty much know about Sonic Championship thanks to my love for the Sonic franchise and because the game has become an unfortunate internet curiosity over the years. With no exaggeration, Sonic Championship is one of the worst fighting games I've ever played, at least from a gameplay perspective. The combat is super basic, clunky, and just unpleasant to play all around for the most part. Really, the only redeeming factor in regards to the gameplay is the fact that each of the selectable character as their own moveset, which can make things entertaining to a degree. The presentation, both in terms of audio and visuals is pretty good for the most part, but it's still not enough to make me forget how crappy this game is to play. I couldn't even recommend this one to the most passionate of Sonic fans. (2/3/24) [25/50]
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13. Silent Hill: A Short Message
If this is the future of Silent Hill, then I'm glad I fell off from the series years ago after Origins and Homecoming. Short Message shined when you were slowly exploring the building and learning about its history. I liked how the series was brought to a modern scale, touching on the Covid-19 pandemic, social media and its issues, and other triggering subjects. Sadly, those shining moments were clouded by these ridiculously frustrating chase sequences. You have to outrun a manifestation of evil that the MC created, but all you have is a smartphone flashlight. Naturally, these areas are messy. Even without those, Silent Hill was always more subtle in delivering its messages and themes. Short Message threw them right in your face, and those trigger warnings occurred frequently enough to break immersion. In the end, I'm glad this was free because I would have felt robbed.
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3. A Mortician's Tale
TW: death
This is MUCH more serious than most messages here, but I think that's the only way I can do this game justice. If this is not something you want to read, feel free to skip this post. But I will say here: I highly recommend giving this game a look.
This is a short game, only taking about an hour to play through, but I've had my eye on it for a while and I'm glad to have now played it. This is a short narrative experience about a mortician. You go through her daily routine of preparing the bodies of people for the funeral service, to help their loved ones say goodbye and offer the deceased a respectful send-off. You do this by reading the emails from your clients and your colleagues, and preparing the bodies of the deceased as to their loved ones' wishes. You go through all the steps to embalm or cremate the person's body, and then attend the service. And that's your work day.
What drew me to this game was its death positive message. In case you don't know, death positivity means (in my words) an acceptance of the concept of death. It means not fearing the concept of death or avoiding it, but viewing it as something to openly talk about. I honestly think this is a wonderful sentiment. Death, however sad, is an inevitable part of life. And I feel that if we were to lift the taboo on talking about it and allow ourselves to better accept the reality of mortality, it could really help us deal with the difficult feelings surrounding passing and grief. Allowing these feelings to exist, rather than surpressing them. Of course this is much easier said than done: I wish I was more death positive than I am. I find it really hard to discuss or think about too. But change is a slow process, and this is exactly why I wanted to play this game.
And the game depicts this subject beautifully. It shows both the good and the bad that happens in this world, deals with both the beauty and pain of memorial services, and it offers a particularly interesting perspective on this from the position of the mortician. As a player you always just want to do whatever you can to be as respectful as possible, and it's nice you can do this for these people. You really feel everything your character and the other characters feel, and the ending did make me tear up.
This is a short but very sweet experience, that I think addresses the topic beautifully. I hope it can lead to conversation between people about this topic, and maybe help some people find a little more peace with death. I highly recommend checking it out. The creators of this game deserve the support.
(Also, technical info: the game is for Windows and macOS, but I played it on Linux Mint with no trouble at all. And tip: I got this from the Racial Justice and Equality charity bundle that was available on itch.io in 2020. So if you bought that, you already have this!)
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Also also, completely unrelated to the challenge, but I've also already finished 3 books thus far this year! One of which was Disrupting the game by Reggie Fils-Aime, which I highly recommend, especially to Nintendo fans.
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14. Astro's Playroom - Platinum'd
I've been a fan of the PlayStation since the jump, and this game pays homage to that while also being a super fun, super tight, and super adorable platformer. And it's all free. There were so many trips down memory lane along with a huge number of references to favorite games. The way it all came together in such a unique, polished package that highlights gaming excellence is very impressive for a free game. I'm glad I took a break from the serious and my usual RPG battling to play this. My first platinum trophy of the year!
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8. Tales From the Borderlands
First my history and biases. The first Telltale game I played was The Wolf Among Us and then Batman.
My play order of the BL series has been: BL2, BL3, Pre-Sequel, BL1, Tales
So the only other Telltale games I've played were the "detective" types and not the same type as this BL game. Now it is also obvious that this should be played before BL3. I knew Rhys from that game and he was a fine character, and I understood what the easter egg regarding his facial hair was referring to (this TT game). Dealing with fictions out of order are not an issue with me.
However the style of this TT game is not really fun for me to play. On a gameplay level, there is no observable downtime. By that I mean you have to be ready for a QTE at any point. Unlike the other two I've played, there were large portions or areas where you know that you can relax more.
Second issue is the story. You play as two characters, Rhys and a girl. And you do so as a "recollection" because the majority of the actual gameplay happens during flashbacks. And as you are made aware early on, the story you play is what you are telling to your captor in the future, AND that you can tell him things that are false. It means that the story (and thus the entire game that isn't in the present) doesn't actually matter. It is sort of like those new commercials for cell phones where you can use tools to remove people or things from photos and video. Which in reality means that you are able to create records of events that didn't actually happen. So because the game is set up this way, the story becomes worthless and makes no difference what you do because it could just be made up.
Having Jack in the game is not enough to keep me interested. I don't care about any of the characters, except maybe Jack. Not even Rhys. Maybe if I had played it before BL3... Also there is a point in Episode 2 where Jack notices he can physically control Rhys and there is a QTE to prevent him from doing this. And it highlights another issue I have with these games, they may be choose your own adventure but there are still too many limits put in by developers. In this QTE, you can't actually fail. It will stay on the button press screen forever and loop the animation.
I may end up watching an LP just so I can get the story, but there was not enough in the gameplay or story for me to want to do it myself.
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15. Castlevania: Dracula X
My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.
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15. Castlevania: Dracula X
My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.
I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.
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15. Castlevania: Dracula X
My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.
I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.
Yeah, and another perk to it is that it'll make Circle of the Moon (next on my list/in the collection) shine a little brighter.
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16. .hack//Quarantine
I can see why there are a few fans of this series. The characters and story were really something else. I'm going to miss the antics of Kite and his friends. I especially liked Sanjuro. His avatar is a badass samurai. Behind the avatar is a guy in South Dakota with a fascination for the bushido. It was great getting to know him and the rest of the squad. Oh, saving the world both in and out of the game was a nice perk, too. I watched the four Liminality DVDs after the game ended, just to round things out and see if there were any gaps. There weren't. But, it was a nice little side aspect of the universe. On the flipside, I can see why there are more (a lot more) haters. These four games were messy. One of the developers said that they wanted to make the games harder because they thought that's what Americans wanted. They weren't hard; just frustrating. I was in a menu constantly because the AI was dumber in this iteration. And still not having save points in dungeons added the wrong kind of tension. So, I'm glad I went through these four games. I doubt I'll go through them all again, though.
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12. Silent Hill: The Short Message || PlayStation 5 || 02.07.24
(https://i.imgur.com/FQoZAIu.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/IsVcFYq.jpg)
Having properly played through the first four Silent Hill games in 2022, I was anticipating to continue the series at some point by playing its console games in order of release. But, with the release of Silent Hill: The Short Message, I decided to deviate from that plan. Apart from the interactive media project Silent Hill: Ascension debuting in October 2023, The Short Message is the first game proper within the Silent Hill franchise to release since P.T. in 2014. As a fan of the franchise, I was curious how a modernized game from this series would be.
Waking up in an abandoned apartment complex, players act as protagonist Anita, a teenaged girl. While she's physically alone, her smartphone connects her with the outside world, as she frequently receives text messages from two friends, Maya and Amelie, with Anita meaning to meet up with the former. Paired with being in such a derelict environment alongside her mental health issues, Anita has little characterization beyond feeling worthy of her ongoing social ridicule and general trauma while feeling confused. That said, The Short Message focuses more on its themes than characterization, with the latter feeling noticeably underdeveloped. While playing, I felt as if, as Anita, I was walking around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind. Of course, the game's exploration depth is minimal, so there is no moment which the player would become lost or misunderstand how to progress the narrative, but, from Anita's perspective, most of the game's events felt as if they were looping.
Being broad in my descriptions, I found that game's storytelling is too direct with the troubles each character experiences, to the point where the player feels as if they're being patronized. Avoiding subtlety in every way, in-game commentary from both the player and through what's being observed follows obvious visual and written information which either answers or refutes previous ideas, leaving no moment for the player in any way to solve the narrative's questions. While voice acting is fair, dialogue is poor, though that isn't exactly unexpected. As a Silent Hill game, The Short Message struggles to challenge its players in any way, as topics of trauma never go deeper beyond a surface level. Instead, it remains comfortably at the she was sad, but I didn't know type of commentary. While I find nothing wrong with the story itself, its storytelling is a major issue.
Regarding the game's structure, it largely consists of walking through changing environments with a strong narrative focus. In a short section, there is one puzzle, although it's brief and simple. As the game prioritizes narrative over action gameplay, there is a lot of story to experience. Half of the story is divided into in-the-moment instant messaging and FMV flashbacks, whereas the other half relies on more traditional survival horror outlets such as articles and journals which may be inspected. With the former in mind, I found it to be lacking as a substitute for actual in-person conversation.
In certain segments which many would consider the game's actual gameplay, there are chase sequences. During these moments, there is no way to overcome the obstacle aside from running away, while confronting it results in an immediate stage fail. At its core, it is a never-ending chase until the player interacts with certain items, and there is no real strategy involved. At times, these sequences feel too strict and consist of trial-and-error mechanics. They do instill a fair amount of fear for some amount of time, but the player will almost certainly be forced to replay these sequences over and over again which greatly devalues any horror aspect. In many ways, the environment during these sections feels like a maze which is difficult to traverse and only made worse by the little sense of direction while in a panicked state, even when brightness settings are at maximum. While there are survival horror games focused on fleeing, hiding, and avoiding, they simultaneously require some sort of strategy while incorporating stamina, health, and strategy (however effective it may be.) On that note, The Short Message's chase sequences feature none of these elements, resulting in a gameplay loop that is both repetitive and lackluster. With all that said, The Short Message features no combat or resource management as it follows a linear path with some freedom to explore. In terms of The Short Message's genre, I feel firm in classifying is as a horror adventure game like many which have released in recent years and not survival horror.
Generally speaking, The Short Message does a fair job at modernizing the franchise narrative regarding its lore. Canonically, the game takes place in Germany in 2021, and articles specifically mention how psychiatric doctors are noticing a trend being referred to as the Silent Hill Phenomenon that's being experienced more often due to the real-world pandemic. (As an aside, I'll note how this term is quite poor, as it now seems that the town of Silent Hill is now recognized globally as some site of psychological hardship.) With that little we know of upcoming game Silent Hill F, the details presented seem to be lining up for future series entries. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Silent Hill mimicking real-world events, as I prefer games be set with their own conditions and history. Nevertheless, I found plot details concerning COVID-19 and the effects caused by pandemic isolation to be integrated nicely.
In terms of the game's remaining aspects worth mentioning, the sense of atmosphere is presented strongly. This is especially true as the narrative progresses from real world to otherworld. There are also some welcomed references to past Silent Hill titles as well, including 3, 4, and P.T. Although there's only one monster, I found its design to be exceptional, but framerate problems frequently occur at its appearance. With music again done by composer Akira Yamaoka, it's also no surprise that it's deserving of praise. However, my opinion of the game's FMV sequences is opposite. While I have no issue with their inclusion and believe them to add a nice balance to the straightforward gameplay experience, there is a problem with how it's presented. As we know the game is set in Germany, it is troubling that FMV sequences are clearly being spoken in Japanese, which is only made worse that voice language options are only available in English.
There are other elements to consider when debating the game's success such as pricing and length, but, overall, The Short Message hasn't proved to me that the franchise needs a modern revival. With that said, those two other aforementioned factors aren't ones I believe are intrinsic to reviewing a piece of media, meaning that the weaknesses of this game outweigh its strengths. I know that, once the remake for Silent Hill 2 releases, I'll be playing it sooner rather than later. I'm neither skeptical nor energetic for its upcoming release, so I'll remain cautious.
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9 - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (PC 2015) - BEAT - Finally done with my second playthrough of the game. I don't think it holds up as well the second time through compared to what I thought of the experience from back in the day. I forgot how the game just spoils what shows up in every main mission, that's such a bad idea. The game being unfinished, missing the final third of its story, you definitely feel by the end of the second part, like I forgot how random and out of place the final mission for the game is and how badly its handled. I feel like it hurts the big story moment that comes before.
It is interesting re-experiencing this game after having played Death Stranding, how a lot of that game is an extension of what he did with MGSV, the similar execution of an open world you go back and forth through, doing story and side missions. That being said, where MGSV starts to get very tedious with its side missions, some obnoxious stuff with doing multiple side ops in a row without a convenient fast travel (The game desperately needed the ability to treat the chopper like a fast travel point within the map), I've replayed Death Stranding twice, later this year it'll be three times and I love doing all the side stuff, it's so much more enjoyable.
I still love a lot about the game, it's executed kind of clunky, I feel it would be similar even if the story was completed, but there's still a lot to like with the game and if you wanted to beat the whole game, it's a solid 100+ hours for full completion, so there's still a decent amount of content.
With the MGS3 remake coming up, and Kojima having a new action espionage game in the works, I've been tempted to check out the MGS Master Collection, re-experience MGS2 and MGS3 and actually beat MGS1, only dabbled with it back in the day, so that might be the plan for this year.
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17. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Playing this on the Switch brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad. The good was that it reminded me of when I first got my Game Boy Advance, and the first game to play for it was this. Circle of the Moon was my salvation during a very, VERY long family car trip that same summer. I'm glad I had the foresight to bring all those batteries. But, the bad memories were from the actual playing. DSS was a flop because it was the game's standout feature, yet it relied on luck/RNG. It was cool that this version would at least let you know which enemies had Cards as a drop, but it didn't increase the odds of obtaining a good chunk of them. There was also a crapload of palette swapped monsters and zero connection to any of the Belmonts. I still have no idea who the Baldwins or Nathan Graves are, but I don't care, either. This is another entry I won't be playing for a long time, if ever. However, it really jazzed me up for Harmony of Dissonance.
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2. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (Xbox One)- Nothing new to say about this one as I have finished it on other consoles.
3. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS4)- I decided to go back to this one to complete my goal of completing the entire Anthology this year! This is the first game in the anthology and also the shortest game. You can finish a playthrough in one sitting pretty easily if you are not worried about the collectibles. The story revolves around a group of vacationers stumbling upon a discovery of something called Manchurian Gold. In a twist of fate, they are kidnapped by a group of pirates and are led to the gold's location. It turns out the location is on an abandoned World War II ship anchored in the middle of nowhere and the crew is nowhere to be found. The group must find a way to escape while discovering the events of the ghost ship.
Of course, like all the anthology games, you will make choices that will determine their fate. I have to say I do love the game's setting. The ship does have a creepiness to it. However, when the plot twist is revealed...I am not a fan. I was kinda like, "Are you serious?" I can tell you this game is greatly improved with the Devil in Me update. It also has great replayability. There are multiple ways certain scenes can go. I also think it is great that they have both offline and online co-op options. To get 100%, you had to complete an online playthrough. Instead of a game lobby, you can only play with people on your friends list. My best friend joined me on the online playthrough and we were both baffled as we could not talk to each other during the playthrough. (In hindsight I understand why, but I kind of wish they handled it by only cutting off chat during certain parts of the game). I also found it a little weird that the game ultimately decides which character you and your partner are. Luckily the game tells you who your partner plays as. Overall the setting is great and like I said before it has great replayability. However, the game kinda falls apart with the big plot reveal. I also have to say the bonus features are great.
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3. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS4)
However, when the plot twist is revealed...I am not a fan. I was kinda like, "Are you serious?" [...] However, the game kinda falls apart with the big plot reveal.
Generally speaking, the conclusions for both Man of Medan and Little Hope are the same, but you seem to only take issue with one. Why is that?
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Yesterday, I had the chance to hit up an arcade with Cartagia. Who, naturally, was quite the cool dude. We were able to finish some classics with our co-op skills!
18. The Punisher
I don't know a thing about The Punisher universe, but this beat 'em up from Capcom was a sleek and stylish one. It only took a couple of tokens a piece to finish, too. The enemy variety got a bit samey but otherwise it was a great game that shows the staying power of the genre.
19. Area 51
I finished this for the first time of my life. Cartagia was the better shot. I was a horrible marksman. And my arm got tired by the time the credits hit. Did those guns get heavier or am I just getting older? Oh well. Solid game. It felt like I was at every bowling alley ever.
20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Was this game always this unfair? Even with some speedrun tips and tricks, this ate the remainder of my tokens right up. It was fun to reminisce and replay this but even with two players surrounding every boss that came our way, they would just do a swing or kick and BOOM! Health gone.
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19. Area 51
I finished this for the first time of my life. Cartagia was the better shot. I was a horrible marksman. And my arm got tired by the time the credits hit. Did those guns get heavier or am I just getting older? Oh well. Solid game. It felt like I was at every bowling alley ever.
Ok, my arms were getting tired too, but I didn't want to say anything! And, as I mentioned, I played that game a lot, so at a certain point muscle memory just took over. It was like I could see the code of the matrix.
And, kashell is also a pretty cool dude.
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21. The Last Faith
My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.
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21. The Last Faith
My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.
I’m kind of in the same boat. I finished Blasphemous 2 and it was excellent, then got The Last Faith, and it’s just OK. Only a few hours in but lost motivation to play it. I’ll get back to it eventually.
The Metroidvania I ended up getting more invested in is Afterimage. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a chance. It’s not perfect, and is VERY exploration-heavy, but it looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and the control is almost as good as SOTN.
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9. Fallout: New Vegas
I had previously played this game years ago, back when it came out or at least perhaps when Dead Money was released. When I had built my backlog program, I went and added old games I have played including any on Steam that I still had achievements left to do. I had some already, but some easy ones like reach level 20 were not ones I had gotten yet. Considering how I had already 350 hours into this game back during the XP days must have meant the obvious: that I was using cheats or console commands and achievements were disabled.
These days things are a little better, at least with the Fallout games where mods can be made to not disable achievements, and there was an option for this in NV just like in FO4. However, NMM sometimes does not launch the game properly and I have to check everytime I launch the game to make sure they work. I still do not have the other DLC including the one that lets you play past the end of the game, so this run was just a single main quest option that I'm fairly certain I had not done before and I hadn't.
There were some small issues I had to work around. First was how to destroy the BoS. I already had pickpocketed two of the keycards but I had to wait until I got a Stealthboy to get the last one. And then I was stuck in the bunker and took about 20 save reloads to figure out how to escape. It got real close to a failed run as it would be been better to have 2 stealthboys, but I managed it. And later the end-game for the House questline had to do with the Legate. There are multiple ways to "defeat" the Legate. The offensive one is to use SMG with AP rounds or the AMR, however in my run I only had pistols and LR. I also did not have any decent armor to use and no stimpaks. Another issue in the end is that it will automatically spawn extra enemies if you try to fight the Legate. The other option was to use Speech skill, which is what I did. I had 1 magazine to read and it let me get through all the speech checks, as well as the speech checks against the General of the NCR which talk to just afterwards. If I did not have that one Speech magazine, then it would have been impossible to do that section.
I was slightly disappointed that in the years I have not been playing FNV that the modding community was not as matured as I had hoped. There really isn't anything that interesting when it comes to mods. Perhaps there were mods that were good but are just not on Nexus anymore. Other than reliability patches and a couple replacers, I didn't really use anything that added to the game. Also, I had tried to play FNV a couple of years ago but it wouldn't work. Fortunately, the steps on PCGamingWiki helped me launch the game.
12. Kirby Super Star
I was really looking forward to playing a 190-in-1 bootleg NES game but I could not get it to load in any emulator. I tried 5 of them before I decided to skip it. There were also some other PC games that came up next that I skipped because I am not yet set up to play them. Shiva needs to get checked out, and I need to set up a Windows XP computer. Also my old toy room that I am partially converting into a computer room is not ready, I don't have a chair yet.
I tried out Kirby Super Star on SNES, and it is a nice game. Unfortunately for me, my taste in platformers in way in the toilet and I just "can't be bothad" with them most of the time. Even this one is easy enough and I could have pushed through it. I think that I'd rather just watch people play platformers than actually play them. Of course I give it a shot if I can. The 2nd player mechanic is kind of neat and maybe I could have done more if there was someone else to play with. I did finally try out the USB SNES controller I have, which felt better to use than the 360 controller. But it still feels foreign to me since my experience with SNES is so limited.
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21. The Last Faith
My second platinum trophy for the year. I look at this game with mixed feelings. Maybe after the dust settles, I'll have a different view point. But for now, this game is...not what I was hoping for. I might have been spoiled by Blasphemous 2. Or, it just wasn't as good. Or both. I'm not sure. In terms of music, graphics, and atmosphere? Tens across the board. Everything else? It would range from 4 to 6. I am so goddamn sick of the Souls-like story telling. Why is it so hard to just tell me what's going on instead of beating around the bush and having NPCs act as puzzle pieces? The boss fights were also a major disappointment. It's not because they were too hard. It was because most of them required you to be in the air to land a hit. Eryk can't attack more than once in the air. So it's a constant dance of jump, attack, jump, attack, jump, attack. And to add insult to injury, you're given a ton of really cool weapons, spells, and firearms that do jack-crap against anything in the air. Of course, boss' HP is spongey and bloated, but that's par for the course. I'll have more to say when I get a review written. But as of now, this was an upset that I paid way too much money for since it's digital only. Lessons learned.
I’m kind of in the same boat. I finished Blasphemous 2 and it was excellent, then got The Last Faith, and it’s just OK. Only a few hours in but lost motivation to play it. I’ll get back to it eventually.
The Metroidvania I ended up getting more invested in is Afterimage. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a chance. It’s not perfect, and is VERY exploration-heavy, but it looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and the control is almost as good as SOTN.
I'll put Afterimage on my list, thanks. I need a break from Metroidvanias for a minute but will likely go with this one when it's time to start a new one. Moonscars looks too difficult and muddy to be worth trying.
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22. Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns
Thanks to Rondo of Swords, I decided to return to this. I finished the first Izuna years ago. I stopped somewhere in the middle of Izuna 2. And, after getting my ass handed to me time and time again, I remember why I stopped. This game is too hard for its own good. I may have to renege on my review comment where I said Izuna 2 was easier than the first. Sure, you have the ability to take more than one person in a dungeon, and you retain your levels. But every enemy starting midway through hits like a bus. I tried so many different combinations of gear and talisman to boost my defense but nothing seemed to help. So, the strategy was to just hoard healing items, bumrush through each floor, make it to the best, get the boss into a hallway, and hope and pray for the best. I often forget how brutal rogue-likes are, and this series is no exception. Apparently, there's a bonus dungeon that's 99 floors. Hard. Pass.
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13. The Sims 4
It is FTP at base game, I figured I'd give it a shot. It seems fine enough but one thing I noticed fairly early is that perhaps I am not interested in this type of gameplay any longer. I played it the same was as previous games, but there is a lot of sitting around involved. I think that my own personal behaviours have changed since those days and this type of game is not that interesting to me. The game played well enough and did seem to be easier than previous versions. The sound was very low and surround did not work. I ran into a big issue, somehow on my second session the game softlocked and I was not able to do anything. To make things worse, there is no autosave enable or available, so when I reopened I had lost about 3 hours of progress. If the game is that buggy even now, then I'm not going to put time into it.
14. Tetris
It is Tetris on the NES, the official version. I didn't play the Tengen version, I had that as a kid. It is still the same as I remembered. I made it to level 9 on Type A on my first attempt. However there was some input issues with the controller where the D-pad did not function as I would expect and the result was that sometimes I press a direction and nothing happens. I had not experienced that in other games. I then tried a Game Genie code that makes it so the blocks don't fall. It is a neat way to play but you can't do any of the last minute block movements to get into slots because the game did not support moving in two directions at once. Either way, I made it to level 22 with this cheat. Good enough for me.
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I won't count it among my finished games, but I finished the Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Demo. I'll try to avoid spoilers in case someone for some reason still hasn't played the original FFVII and/or some of its spin-offs.
The Nibelheim section was up and down. I appreciated some of Sephiroth's quips to Cloud that were actually meant for someone else. I also liked how the screen would show static and get chopped up when Cloud was trying to remember what happened. The Shinra Manor was spooky. But, when I was actually playing the demo, I was quickly reminded of how exhausting Remake was. I don't know if I have the energy for all this. There is just so much going on in combat that it's hard to keep up. Knowing me, I'd probably want to get all the trophies. This would mean having to play the game on Hard mode. That would also mean going through unskippable areas and cut scenes again. Slow segments like crawling through small areas or scaling walls just pad the length. I didn't play too much of the Junon section. Within the first five minutes there were tutorials out the wazoo, someone named MAI shouting through my controller, and now I can apparently make items? It's a lot. So, yeah. I'm holding off on this one for a long time. I just don't have the energy for all this stuff, and knowing that the game is more "open worldy" is a major turn off.
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Game 4: Pokémon Violet (Switch) - 45 hours
Okay, so full disclosure, I haven't played a Pokémon video game on release since Sun. They've just dropped so drastically in quality with the move to the Switch that I never bothered to give them a shot. However, my interest in Pokémon since 2016 has not abated whatsoever. Between Pokémon Go and the trading card game, I've been enjoying Pokémon in honestly a bigger capacity than ever before. I think it's because those aspects really bring out the community power of Pokémon more than the games ever could. It's been such a fantastic experience connecting with other fans of the franchise in new capacities than the video games, and as a result I didn't feel the need to really play the games anymore.
The reason why I ended up playing Pokémon Violet was actually because my wife wanted to play it. She played it for a couple hours when it came out in November of 2022, went through all the initial story beats then gave up and I took up her save file and continued on. And I've been playing it off and on over the past couple of years. That said, my playstyle with it was so fragmented and weird that a lot of the story elements are not really what I'm going to be focusing on.
I did find the story to be mostly... fine? It wasn't anything special. I do like the school-based focus of the story early on, but it's largely split into three smaller storylines and they ranged from pretty enjoyable (Arven) to a total slog (Penny). One of my biggest problems with modern Pokémon is the lack of voiced cutscenes that are presented in-engine with no amount of polish or care put into them. It makes going through the story an absolute chore because they are so lazy and sloppy. There's just no excuse for no voice acting at this point and it would exponentially improve my engagement with the story.
Speaking of lazy, the obvious issues that everyone points to is the game's performance. There are so many issues that persist to this day even with the game's numerous patches. The game has consistent framerate and animation problems, pop-in, low draw distance, clipping issues, crashes, and other blemishes that really take away from the overall experience. Also, no clothing customization options? Why did the game take such a huge step back in that regard? Makes no sense. My third largest gripe with the game pertains to the open world design. I really think it was a mistake not to have level scaling. It meant that my experience playing was a total rubber band. I'd either be getting rocked by high level Pokémon or it was a total cake walk. I was looking for something in between.
But, with all my complaints you might think I'm down on this game. I actually really enjoyed my time playing when I wasn't doing story stuff and was just exploring the open world, catching Pokémon, collecting items and setting up a picnic or two. It's very relaxing in that way. That's why it took me so long to finish the story because all I wanted to do was just explore and take my time. The game has fantastic music and atmosphere in both the wide open expanses and the towns, that can really suck you in. Overall, I like most of the new Pokémon designs. There are some that I don't like but others that I got really attached to. Some of my favorites include Smoliv, Fidough, Bellibolt, Orthworm, and a bunch others. I think one of the strongest aspects of the Sword/Shield era was the Pokémon designs, and this generation is a bit of a step back but still has some really great ones. I really like the concept of future and ancient Pokémon too.
In summary, I find myself in the middle with Violet. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. There's definitely some good bones here that I hope get expanded upon in the future. I don't think it's as bad as people say it is, however.
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3. Earthbound (SNES) - ABANDONED
Like many collectors, I've known how coveted Earthbound since pretty much as soon as I started trying to acquire the more rarer and sought after retro games out there. Years ago, I finally tracked down a cheap copy of Earthbound, started playing it shortly after, and well, I didn't understand the appeal. I tried again several years later and found it even less appealing. Yet, over time, more and more people kept telling me to stick with it and to try and appreciate it for what it is rather than comparing it to other acclaimed JRPGs of the 90s. Maybe against my better judgement, I tried one last time earlier this month to get into Earthbound, telling myself that I'd stick with it way past when I felt like giving up to see if maybe the game did get better or something later on clicked with me and I'd finally understand why this game is so beloved by retro RPG fans. Well, I did play it considerably longer than I ever had, yet nearly the entire time I felt bored, frustrated, and just underwhelmed as I trudged through the game once more. After 10 hours, I finally hit my breaking point and just couldn't continue playing. I get that Earthbound was very unique for the time in that it didn't use some fantasy or scifi setting like almost all other JRPGs of the time, but even with the more unique, modern setting, quarky characters and dialogue, and all the other aspects that fans of the series love to use as justification of why it's so amazing, I still found the game mediocre at best. Compared to many of its SNES JRPG counterparts, it's lacking in nearly every possible way. And while I'm admittedly not as big of a JRPG fan as I was in the 90s and 2000s, I'm still able to appreciate a good RPG when I see one, and Earthbound is just not one of them. I honestly wanted to love this game like many others, I really did. However, after three failed attempts over the course of a decade, I'm finally ready to admit I don't like Earthbound and never will. I'm happy for everyone who does like this game, whether they played it as a kid in the 90s or even just a year or two ago for the first time, but I will never be one of those people. (2/24/24)
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10 - Sons of the Forest (PC 2024) - BEAT - With the game out of EA, I dove back to see what was added and improved since I originally played it. It was pretty barebones back then, mostly just the fundamental gameplay, location, and visuals worked out and then some other general features. I think they overall did a good job, but there's a lot of cut corners here. The survival aspect of the game is very basic, it really needed a lot more depth, along with needing to drastically overhaul the amount of animals and supplies you can find. There's a custom game mode difficulty that allows you to change a ton of stuff, but the normal mode should've been way better. I just don't think it got enough playtesting as I would've made normal have weaker enemies, but harsher supply and animal cut.
The story is there, it's sorta similar to the first one where you get bits here and there, you piece together stuff from the past through notes and such, to figure out what happened, and I think it mostly works, but it's not a strong narrative. The first game did it a little better as there was more of a drive to it being a father looking for his son, rather than who your character is who just isn't really important to the story. He's not a no name guy, but it kinda feels that way.
There's other things I could call out here and there, as I think the game needed another few months of cleaning up and a few more additions, but overall I liked it. There are better survival games out there, but I had enough fun with this one, I just hope they are going to continue adding to the game, give me a reason to go back as there more than a few areas on the map they could add stuff to.
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23. Detroit Become Human (PS4)
This has been another classic backlog game that I've been meaning to play for years and have just never got around to it. I've never played any of Quantic Dream's other games, but Detroit Become Human always stood out as the one I'd be most interesting in given its subject matter and scifi setting. Overall, I really enjoyed "playing" Detroit Become Human and really got into the story and characters particularly. The reason I put the word playing in parentheses is because this is probably one of the least video game-like games I've ever played. For the record, I think the common criticism of calling many modern video games with many cutscenes interactive movies has usually pedantic and ridiculous argument when the cutscenes make up maybe 10% of the overall experience of the game, and there's still engaging gameplay during the other 90% of the time you're playing. However, there is almost no gameplay in Detroit Become Human beyond having your character walk around, QTEs, awkward button presses, and the game's outcome flowchart. If not for the outcome flowchart and how varied and dynamic it is, I'd easily say Detroit Become Human was a straight up interactive movie and not a game. But that last gameplay element really makes this a very fun and unique gaming experience in that you can have a radically different experience with the game depending on various decisions you make throughout the story, even having main characters die earlier on in the game who would have otherwise been around until the very end. It really raises the stakes with the decisions and actions you make, which made this a very fun game a and made for a pretty interesting story. While some of the writing was a bit questionable or even lazy, I found the majority of the game's plot to be good to excellent overall. The characters are what really make this game awesome, and I was deeply invested in seeing certain outcomes with certain characters, and made certain sections of the game very tense in terms of not knowing what would happen to them. The OST is decent, however the voice acting is about as good as it gets, and really helps sell the story. While certainly not a perfect games by any means, I ended up thoroughly enjoying Detroit Become Human and it'll be a game I'll revisit again someday. (2/26/24) [37/50]
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11 - Helldivers 2 (PC 2024) - ENDLESS - Since the battle for democracy is never-ending, I'll count my couple hours into it for now. I actually tried to play this a week or two ago, but I would have crashes with every mission. I refunded it and right after I did, they came out with bug fixes. Was gonna wait for my new PC when I hopefully get it in a month or two to jump back in, but I've seen so much on the game, I really wanted to play. Seems good now, mostly just done a handful of solo missions to learn the game and haven't had any issues.
Overall this is a very straightforward but fun game that really understand how to create an over the top horde battle experience. From the chunky weaponry, to the excessively violent warfare, to the very satisfying explosions, all done with the ability to completely annihilate your team if you aren't careful, which is definitely part of the fun. Its actually a decent time solo, though I will be jumping into randoms eventually since that's such an important part of the experience, which honestly, not something I do often as team heavy games I prefer to have friends to do that with.
The games vibes are fun too, the Paul Verhoeven styled satire slathered over everything, it's pretty funny that the best Starship Troopers game isn't based on that brand. And with the Automatons as another enemy to fight, it's basically the best Terminator game set in the future war lol
I think this is going to be a pretty solid casual fun game I play when I want something to just go nuts with.
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23. Etrian Odyssey
I played this as part of the Etrian Odyssey HD Collection on Switch. Full disclosure: I played on the easiest difficulty setting. This was the main reason why I was able to finish it so quickly. I didn't set the game to Picnic because I was worried about a potential challenge. It was because I wanted to see if the game, and the rest of the series in this collection, would be worth my time. The typical dungeon-crawl loop of rough beginnings, resource management, and low funds was in full effect and I didn't want to waste my time going back and forth from the town to the dungeon and back again just to keep pace. Now that I know more about the series and what to expect, I plan to play the next installments on the regular setting. In other words, the series is worth my time. There's great class variety, a pretty HD look, QoL features (which are new to me since this is my first time experiencing the series) and the addictive feeling of "what's over there". One of the biggest surprises was the truth behind the labyrinth. I'm not sure when I'll get to EO2 since Unicorn Overlord is just around the corner, but it's nice knowing that another solid dungeon crawler is waiting for me.
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4. Waku Waku Sweets (Switch) - Game #4 of 2024 is done! I finished Waku Waku Sweets for the Switch. A very cutesy cooking game similar to the Cooking Mama series except this deals with sweets and pastries instead of various recipes. I wanted to try a cooking game after the disappointment of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. Your goal is simple...to be the best pastry chef and bring happiness to people. The game is divided into three actions which are morning, afternoon, and night actions (night actions are just the main character saying it is time to go to bed. You can do various things such as shopping, working at the shop, cooking at home, completing quests, etc. To rank up, you will need to complete quests to fill the happiness meter. Once filled, you can then compete in a contest to go up a rank. It is not a bad game, but very very repetitive. The recipes are also very repetitive (you will get several kinds of tarts for example and the minigames for tarts are all the same except for the fruit involved). Also, the quests and how the quests work are annoying. There is no set time or day they pop up and there are chances no quests pop up at all. If this happens on Monday, you can do nothing because work is closed on Mondays. So all you can do is go to bed and wake up on Tuesday. That is such a waste. One thing this game does do is that if you talk to a person and you do not have what they want, it will not waste your action. You can go home, cook it, and bring it to the person. The quests vary from the people telling you what they want, to what category they want, to only giving you clues to what they want. It is not a bad game and it could be considered a game you can just relax with. Also, this game can be played either in dock mode or portable mode, so that is a plus for me. Completing this game......was really annoying. I am kind of glad I am done with this one. This one is a meh for me. Not bad, but not good either.
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13. Tchia || PlayStation 5 || 02.25.24
(https://i.imgur.com/45JjIR1.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/90VDU9J.jpeg)
Since I still have access to a large catalog of games with PlayStation Plus's Extra subscription tier, I'm again realizing I should prioritize those selections. Ordinarily, I choose games which are exclusive to digital storefronts, but Tchia caught my attention. Tchia's a game I've been familiar with for some time as Sony heavily marketed it, and it's been a game I've been interested in since watching trailers some time ago.
Taking place in real-world New Caledonia, Tchia is a game fully immersed in the territory's culture. Full of vibrant colors and lush environments, the game emphasizes the people's local languages, music, customs, and laid-back lifestyle alongside the natural wilderness. Controlling titular Tchia, players will travel across the archipelago consisting of two main islands in addition to neighboring, smaller ones by running through its forests and swamps, flying atop mountains, and swimming along the ocean's floor and coral ecosystems. Alongside these modes of transportation, there is also a focus on boat sailing. Apart from basic travel, all sorts of activities including rhythm segments, totem wood carving, and rock balancing help to reinforce the game's setting.
All that said, the sense of peace is never held long, as there is plenty of surrounding danger. In just a few short minutes upon starting the game, players will witness Tchia's father be apprehended and taken away from their tiny island where they live at in solitude together. As players will come to learn, Tchia's background, unbeknownst to her, is one steeped in some sort of magic, as she soon after learns her ability to perform what's called soul jumping, which allows Tchia to possess a number of animals and inanimate objects which grant her unique abilities such as being able to breathe underwater and even explode through combustible properties. Alongside these innate powers, Tchia is also able to command environment affects with her ukulele. For these reasons, Tchia finds herself forced to save her father's life while being introduced to the negative impact done to the land caused by the game's central antagonist, a newly-revived evil god of sorts. Another point I'll briefly mention is that, despite its cartoon-like art style and wholesome themes, Tchia is not afraid to be brutal. People, including children, die. Babies are sacrificed.
On one island, the land is as I previously described: serene and largely untouched by human influence. However, the second island is wrought with destruction, as factories built upon four corner points spew toxic gasses into the air while they're connected by an elaborate pipe system which has ravaged the majority of the island's environment. At the same time, this second island is the home of the aforementioned god, where a central city has been constructed. High-rise buildings tower over the city streets below, with a seemingly never-ending construction site surrounding the immediate area. During one point of the game, Tchia takes on the role of an eco-terrorist as these sites are destroyed, which did leave me feeling unsure of what exactly the game is trying to promote. At no point does Tchia outright say that urban sprawl and deforestation is outright bad, and Tchia herself is never presented as someone who's in-tune with nature. In fact, she never even comments on the impact of these manufactured settings and just targets them. Of course, I understand the developers wanting to showcase their homeland's rich beauty across multiple levels and that is should be acknowledged and respected, but Tchia's involvement relating to nature itself felt out of place. Nevertheless, for what it is, the narrative and the events introduced are engaging while being rooted in New Caledonian culture.
Along Tchia's journey, there is a sense of community shown while traveling throughout the emptiness. Food booths and campsites are present in the darkest patches of land, inviting travelers needing to fill their stomachs and take rest an welcomed opportunity to do so. This is especially true when following the narrative path, as even small settlements may be found. However, when deviating from that path, the game feels lonely and a bit shallow, even. Of course, the majority of the game's environments take place in the wilderness so human interaction is an obvious byproduct of that reality, but the sense of actually being in nature to appreciate its beauty—which I imagine to have been the central focus of the game—doesn't really stand out. Perhaps the biggest reason as to why this is lies in the excessive amount of in-game collectibles. While a minuscule amount of these items are needed to advance the story, the land is absolutely littered with them. At any given moment, there will always be something present: an item to pick up, an activity to do, a puzzle to solve. At no point did I feel like I could simply enjoy the game's natural environments without being distracted. Without the item-collecting emphasis, time could have instead been used to create environments more uniquely interactable or generally more fun to explore. While perhaps this isn't an issue for those strictly following the narrative path, these sites become pinned on the mini-map, which will be absolutely dominated by icons which can't be toggled off, if choosing to ignore the majority of these items. Due to overbearing presence of these elements, the game devolved into a tedious checklist to complete as a way to inflate game time, as the majority of collectibles relate to cosmetic offerings.
Routinely, Tchia is a game which does not respect the player's time. If choosing to fully explore the environment to learn its secrets, players will be forced to travel back-and-forth at great lengths quite often. While there are fast-travel options, getting to those map points still requires a sizable amount of time, especially when considering how vast the open-world environment is paired with Tchia's paltry stamina amount. If needing to travel to anywhere besides the two main islands, several minutes of uninterrupted sailing is required. During these segments, the player is forced to wait with nothing to do or see, as that far-off dot in the distance gradually reveals itself as another area to explore. Again, I understand that the developers are trying to communicate how vast New Caledonia is, but there were many moments that I put down the controller to do something else entirely besides playing the game, effectively breaking my immersion.
One final point worth mentioning is the game's performance quality. At times, there are noticeable and sometimes affecting frame rate dips. During one rhythm section, severe lag was experienced which resulted in a terribly glitchy sound as the cutscene was neared a complete halt. In one moment, the game crashed altogether while swimming undersea. Toward the later hours of my time playing, the soul jumping mechanic wouldn't work at all. I believe this exclusively occurred when possessing birds, meaning I wasn't able to take flight at all. Regularly, music will abruptly stop, even where there is no sounds of nature, leaving the player in total silence.
All things considered, Tchia is a game that was clearly made as a way to express the developers' love for New Caledonia. In many ways, that goal was achieved, but other design decisions seem to counteract that overarching goal in clear contrast. Despite watching plenty of trailers prior to playing, I still wasn't quite sure what to expect. I did find the central gameplay mechanics fun for a casual experience, but the choice for the game to emphasize collectibles felt off-putting and greatly detracted from what could have otherwise been a concise, well-designed experience.
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Another demo down. This one was for Unicorn Overlord. And, what a demo it was. I think I logged six or seven hours in it, which is just bananas for a demo. The amount of narrative covered and the amount of stuff to do in the demo topples regular games. If this is a sign of things to come, then I can see this being a very long game. But, everything presented was epic. I feel like I'm playing a combination of Brigandine, Ogre Battle, Venus and Braves, and Final Fantasy Tactics. There are probably others in there, too. All of it is backed by Vanilla Ware's looks and sounds. My only complaint is that it is tough to play while in handheld mode. I'll still play it that way, but I'm going to try to play it docked when I get it and after I finish P3R.
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14. Tinykin || PlayStation 5 || 03.06.24
(https://i.imgur.com/T9aJV71.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/o3qhfal.jpeg)
While I don't quite remember when I first heard about Tinykin prior to its release, I do remember being drawn to its presentation. It's been a game I've been hoping to be released physically on Sony consoles, but that possibility still hasn't come. So, I decided to play it through PlayStation Plus's offerings.
Introducing players to its fun, cartoon-like world, Tinykin begins with an animated short explaining how we as the player-character Milodane begin our journey, interacting with the titular alien-like Tinykin creatures along the way. Having come from a faraway galaxy to learn of his heritage, Milodane travels to the barren Earth after intercepting an old transmission of human origin. Soon after, one of two possibilities are revealed: either Milodane has been shunk to the size of a bug, or, instead, it's shown that Milodane has always been this small size. To my understanding, the details are never outright explained, although I do believe the game later on implies one reason over another. Nevertheless, upon landing on Earth, we enter a house that's expansive and full of life, having since been reclaimed by numerous bug species who have taken each room as their kingdom to call home. Each species has its own culture, including moral values and religious practices, and the game does well at characterizing its communities.
Upon immediately landing, Milodane is introduced to an old moth named Ridmi who warmly welcomes us as they're interested in the odd and unusual. Ridmi soon explains how, for many years, his lifelong goal has been to completing a device originally having belonged to the so-called god the bugs collectively worship named Arwdin, which Ridmi believes has the capability to go "beyond the House." Using the aforementioned Tinykin as tools of sorts which we shepherd around, Milodane sets off to collect needed artifacts to fully construct Ardwin's device. On our own, there is little we're able to explore, but the Tinykin allow us to easily overcome these obstacles. Numerous types of Tinykin exist each with their own unique characteristics, such as being explosive in nature and the ability to conduct electricity.
As previously mentioned, Milodane's journey takes the player all across the house, which is certainly designed for the average-sized human. But, because of our small size, this typical setting becomes anything but, as every nook and cranny throughout this now open-ended space becomes an explorable environment. By normal standards, the house is in total disarray as each room is very much now home to bug civilization, and it's enjoyable to witness the ways in which bugs have adopted human resources to their benefit. In one area, fields of farmland have been constructed out of kitchen sponges, with a waterfall towering from up above upon utilizing the kitchen sink as its source, with the water itself being directed by a pipe system constructed from a series of drinking straws. Seeing these fun and clever ways to build an in-game environment was always enjoyable, and it only takes adjusting the camera slightly or taking one small turn to discover more.
At its core, Tinykin is a 3D platformer which focuses more on environmental puzzle-solving and simple exploration than collecting materials, although the latter is certainly present. In fact, in what is perhaps a bit unexpected for the genre, but there is no combat or major conflict whatsoever. While each stage has its own goal in securing the needed artifact for Ardwin's device, it isn't as simple as finding it. Instead, a series of tasks always stands in the player's way which requires the player to carefully navigate the area which is always complete with hidden interiors such as a crawlspace, a locked refrigerator, and closed dressers and drawers. While discovering all the game's collectibles is far from necessary, doing so will require a thorough eye, as levels are massive alongside the player being given free reign to explore without any set path to follow. In general, accomplishing the main objective is straightforward to do, but the amount of side content distracts the player in a natural way which encourages further exploration.
Knowing what to expect from Tinykin's gameplay, I was not expecting for the game to feature a robust amount of optional dialogue to read from interactable NPCs. In truth, a lot of dialogue adds little to the narrative itself, but it does help bring the world to life, so I always stopped to read what characters offered to say. At the game's conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised at the narrative ending, although I wish preceding details were a little more transparent. Perhaps all the details were there and I was too focused on amassing in-game collectibles and exploring new environments without reading into the game's deeper meaning, though. Paired with the game's writing, Tinykin's art direction is fun and full of colorful, cartoon illustrations. While not novel by any means, its use of 3D environments paired with 2D character art that swivels alongside camera rotation was always a visual treat to see. In a small number of instances, there are even fully animated cartoon sequences which help elevate the expressive characters to being even more so.
To my surprise, Tinykin excels at providing an in-depth experience to the 3D platformer genre, and it would be an excellent introduction to anyone unfamiliar to this type of gameplay. There is a low skill level required, but a fulfilling experience awaits, nonetheless. It isn't overbearing with its collectibles nor do they feel tacked on, and many will naturally gravitate toward experiencing the full exploratory adventure.
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24. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Soma
Of all the Castlevania games on the Game Boy Advance, this one is objectively the best. There's so much excellence packed in that it's easy to see why the majority of fans have it as their favorite of the three, and a favorite in general. I told myself that I would just make this a casual playthrough and not bother doing everything. Well, that idea got shot to Hell near the end when I kept discovering new things. As a result, I was able to get all of the Souls and most of the rare drops from all the enemies. At this point, I'm good on Metroidvanias for a while. I want to play Harmony of Dissonance with a cleansed palette, and beyond that, I want to eventually give Julius mode in this game a whirl.
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25. Persona 3 Reload
The first Persona I've ever finished. It's the only one the series I've had any interest in because of its sleek look and interesting themes. For some reason it kept slipping under my radar. While I'm glad I finished it, I'm so glad that it's over. The rigidness of the Social Links, some overly long cut scenes that the FF feature couldn't even help with, and most of the soundtrack were what I'll remember more than the epic story, the cool characters, and the (sometimes) fun combat. I'll always prefer the mainline SMT to this. At some point, I do want to try P5 Royal, but it'll be after a long, long time. This was a long game. If not for Unicorn Overlord being so addictive, I would likely take a massive break from RPGs.
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4. Bayonetta (NSIC Mode) [Switch]
Phew, barely had any time to play lately because I've just moved, but just beat Bayonetta again. I've beaten this game many, MANY times before, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've beaten it on Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty (the hardest difficulty in the game). The fact I've beaten it like over 10 times should tell you how much I love this game tho. Bayonetta 1 and 2 are two of my favourite games of all time, and I cannot recommend them enough. Glad to now finally tick off the top difficulty box too.
Now, just started up BROK the InvestiGator, and enjoyed the first hour. Looking forward to diving into that one more :)
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Game 5 - Final Fantasy VI (SNESc) - 31 Hours
Ah yes, the legendary Final Fantasy 6. I've been meaning to replay FF6 since I first beat the game on the PS1 about 10 years ago. Reason being is that I didn't really care for the game that much the first time around, and recently I've been wondering if I wasn't giving it a fair chance. At the time, my biggest issues with the game stemmed from the game's story. This time through, I definitely enjoyed playing a lot more, so here's a review of the things that improved for me this second time around along with the flaws that I still think are present.
First, the story. My biggest issue with it was really those first 10-15 hours, where the story is kind of cheesy and not that interesting. What I found on this playthrough was that I actually really enjoy the character-specific story threads quite a bit, which really become the focus after the World of Ruin. The stories behind many of the characters, including Locke, Celes, Terra, Setzer, Cyan, and Sabin/Edgar, to name a few, were incredibly compelling. And there are some other standout moments like the opera scene that remain excellent to this day. Funnily enough, those stories are tangential to the main plot (aside from Terra), which is why it just didn't jive with me.
On the topic of characters, let's discuss Kefka. To be honest, I don't agree with the general consensus that he's an excellent villain or even all that great. To be fair, at the time, he was definitely a departure visually from classic video game villains. But his personality and motivations as a deranged nihilistic nutjob with absolutely zero backstory are about as cliche as you can get for an RPG villain. He's definitely evil though, I cannot deny that.
My last piece of criticism extends to the game's translation on the SNES, which is quite rushed and filled with errors. It's understandable given how short a timeframe the game had but it's still not a great translation which not only sours the mood of impactful moments but also is misleading in places. If you look at the translation comparisons that are out there it becomes very clear how many things are wrong in the translations. I know these are largely fixed in later versions of the game.
Now, let me end by remarking on how incredible this game is with it's gameplay, spritework, and music, which are masterful, and ultimately make the game worth your time even in the face of more modern, polished competition. I love the use of expressive spritework for the characters which do an incredible job of making the game come to life. The environments and use of mode 7 are also really fun to watch and a total visual treat. The gameplay, while nothing special, is still incredibly fun to experiment with and master, and there's tons of hidden areas and secrets to explore, particuarly when the game opens up in the latter half of the story. The music is so amazingly good, and is one of Nobuo Uematsu's best with the series. That opening with the lighting and organ gets me every single time I watch it, even after all this time. Simply astounding.
So despite some issues with the storytelling and translations, I found FF6 to be a far more enjoyable experience on my second playthrough. It's not my favorite Final Fantasy game of all time, but I do understand why it's so beloved by so many.
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15. Doom (aka Doom 2016)
At first I wasn't sure, but it ended up growing on me. Known for being fast, the action was not as fast as it could have been. Being a Q3 Vogon HQ veteran (although it has been a few years), fast FPS is not a problem, but Doom was not what I would consider to be fast, at least to me. Also the beginning of my playthrough had some hiccups, as I was then using a terribly slow SSD (https://msfn.org/board/topic/186075-ssd-crystaldiskmark-results/), which I had been using for a few months now but when Doom had stuttering is when I realised I really needed to figure out what the bottleneck was. I'll break down this review into sections.
Movement
As I put above, I had expected the game to be faster. Crouch is rarely used and when used is set for toggle instead of hold. I did not see a setting to change this. There is no slide ability. Mantling is ok. Where you can mantle is mostly marked with a green light of some sort except for some secrets. A lot of areas cannot be mantled even if it looks like it should, so finding secrets can be something you just stop doing. It still uses invisible walls. Run by default but can seem slow sometimes. Strafe jumping didn't seem to work and rocket jumping (or plasma walking) do not work either.
Combat
Aim speed is fine but alt-fire ADS is too slow to be useful. Only 2 weapons can use ADS, the machine gun which does not have select fire and the railgun. Both animations are too long for a fast game ADS to be useful. Each weapon has their own crosshair and no crosshair customization options that I saw. Chainsaw to get ammo is a good thing, but I did not use this until the second half of the game because I didn't know. Having separate key for BFG is fine, but you can't get to it using next/prev weapon. Getting locational glory kills was difficult to figure out, still don't have the hang of it. Combat arenas were laid out for you do move around a lot, but I found myself not moving around that much and ended up exploring after combat was over.
Sound
General soundscape was good. Portions really reminded me of the music from the Quake series. All weapon sounds were fine. There is a bass-drop sound effect that plays in the glory kill animation that is too noticable. There doesn't seem to be a large variety of tracks used in the combat portions. Feel like combat music should be louder when it does come on. Idle monster sounds were annoying. You can hear when the low-tier enemies are around (through walls) as an audio cue, but the issue is that it is the same type of sound effect that you hear in all of those zombie video games. So it just made me think there are a bunch of zombies around.
Graphics
Everything was fine in this respect. I really like the Base designs and all of the computer terminals. Screens were clear but no ADS means you can't zoom in and read everything. The presentation was good. Also liked the electricity effect on doors that opened in Hell.
Bugs
Encountered only one that I can recall, being teleported into the ground due to Glory Kill. Also I have a feeling you can die in Glory Kill but didn't get it to happen. I suspect the best way to do it is to GK a cacodemon over a void.
16. Super Mario RPG
I didn't like the movement controls. My options for controller on SNES games is limited. I have an SNES USB controller (https://vgcollect.com/item/129175) but the plastic quality and the feel to the buttons is not good. It feels cheap. So often I will use the Xbox 360 Controller that I normally use. And the issue with that is in the emulator, the buttons are swapped AND I still do not have any automatic understanding of what buttons are which like I used to with the PS2 controller (I've since lost that as well). Couldn't get the timing down for the defend action. The RPG aspect is not strong enough for me to be interested in the game like that, it just seems like a Mario game then. I died against the Hammer Bros at the end of the first "Real" stage and called it a day.
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15. Greyhill Incident || PlayStation 5 || 03.08.24
(https://i.imgur.com/MWoQypq.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/arUsRpb.jpeg)
After some of the trailers were published leading up to the release of Greyhill Incident, it didn't take long for the game to catch my attention as something I'd like to eventually play. I don't claim to be knowledgeable of every game released, but it seems like games centered around alien invaders are few and far between, which was a key reason for why my interest was piqued. As a budget title, I decided to go into this experience blindly without reading anything about the game's reception.
In hindsight, the trailers reveal more about the game beyond the general subject matter and gameplay than I had originally thought, should one analyze it in some depth beyond one passing view and their short runtime. While Greyhill Incident is a survival horror game, the game lacks in a serious tone as the writing mocks alien abduction stories and those who claim being witnesses to alien life landing in rural areas. Of course, some may feel like this sort of attitude is justified to mimic real-world attitudes in what many would claim are nonsensical beliefs, but this is a fictional game that could have chose to deviate from those perspectives instead of reinforcing them. Because of this decision, the game often veers more into comedy than horror, as characters proudly don tin foil hats and actively prepare for the possible threat of an alien invasion, even prior to the game's events. These alien conspiracists boast about how the government is lying about the presence of aliens, which is a clichéd viewpoint. Meanwhile, as the story continues, these same government officials cautiously advise the public with all seriousness to gather as much tin foil as people are able to find to protect themselves from the alien invasion.
Now that the game's atmosphere established, there is little to explain about the story itself. In brief, aliens have landed in a rural community, and the player-character Ryan's son has been beamed into their ship. With some neighborly guidance in mind, Ryan creeps around the farm community to gather supplies while responding to narrative events relating to other characters, as he works toward saving his son. Constantly, it is difficult to comprehend where to go due to low visibility relating to fog. Unfortunately, when raising the game's brightness settings, the environment only worsens with fog density. At one point, Ryan describes a scene as a "UFO parking lot," but the visual scene available to players was instead a huge gray block overtaking most of the screen's space, devoid of any visible characteristics. Alongside general visibility, the lack of variety in environmental detail introduces another problem as players wander about. Each house has a mailbox, so even something as simple as a number or name printed at their side would be a small but welcomed addition. Sometimes, lanterns can be seen faraway in the distance which somewhat help in guiding a player where to go. Still, throughout most of my time playing, the experience mostly felt like a blind journey with many repeated attempts. Needless to say, there is no map system, but the game's small explorable space doesn't warrant one.
Generally, I'm unfamiliar with modern control layouts for first-person games with shooting and sprinting mechanics due to that I seldom play these types of games. Nevertheless, I've been told the controls for Greyhill Incident are poorly implemented, only made worse by players lacking customization options. While exploring, players have access to a dimly lit flashlight that serves almost no purpose in functionality. It offers the most marginal of visual improvements compared to exploring without it, whereas alien scouts are much better able to spot the player as they hide in stealth. Nearly every button relates to one specific item or action, which the game doesn't provide an adequate time preparing the player to utilize prior to the game's action, which will inevitably result in many players' repeated deaths.
As Ryan, the player is vulnerable. Armed with a baseball bat and a handgun which has only about a dozen of bullets available to find throughout the campaign, most confrontation will rely on the former which can only stun enemies. Since Ryan's slow to attack with long pauses between each swing, it's in the player's best interest to sneak to avoid any enemy detection, although this action still works against the player's success. Enemies will see you regardless but only at a closer distance, even when obscured by set pieces like tall patches of grass. Running is also an option, but the player's stamina empties quickly, and more enemies will likely be attracted to the noise. To the player's disadvantage, there is no health system. Instead, once confronted by an enemy, it's likely that the player will die, but it isn't guaranteed. An on-screen prompt will instruction the player to spam the action button, but the event is designed to almost always fail. Once confronted by any more than one enemy at the same time, there is little reason to even prolong the inevitable, as players will be stun locked. Lastly, there are a number oh hiding spots to utilize such as under a bed, inside a vehicle, or even in a barrel, but the player needs to ensure they're far away when taking this action, so hiding is seldom the preferred action due to needed distance paired with limited stamina. Despite these design choices which will result in many repeated player deaths, I think highly of the game's resource management, as there isn't enough ammo to kill each enemy and ammo being difficult to find altogether.
While I take some issue with the writing's tone, another problem is the dialogue itself. For every NPC, dialogue feels rigid and devoid of emotion. In many moments, it sounds as if a majority of the actors are reading their lines without much, if any, context to the narrative, whereas Ryan's voice actor is the one outlier. However, while Ryan does convince players that he understands the significance of the situation, the result is instead on the opposite side of the spectrum. Routinely, he'll scream into the foggy void as his otherworldly pursuers patrol the fields and streets, well within speaking distance, let alone shouting distance. In conversation, the back-and-forth as a result of the vocal performances feels unnatural. Simultaneously, characters repeatedly talk over another as lines overlap. This problem is made worse by subtitles rarely aligning to the dialogue being spoken as it progresses too fast. Related to these issues is that NPCs may only be interacted with once. While there is a brief line of objective on the pause screen, it is vague in guidance and sometimes doesn't update at all. So, should players be unable to comprehend what to do, they're regularly left to wander aimlessly.
For better or for worse, Greyhill Incident offers a middling experience, but it's a game I ultimately don't regret playing despite its issues. Even at a discounted price (or even free, for that matter), it's difficult to recommend to others to try the game unless they're interested in playing it due to its subject matter.
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5. Dabman: When Haters Dab Back Remastered (PS4)- Curiosity got the best of me on this game. It is a Meme-type game and is a game from 2018. It is a very simple choose-your-path FMV game. I didn't enjoy it at all, but is incredibly short so I got through it. I do not recommend it.
6. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS5)- Not much to say as I did this on PS4, but I was kind of surprised there were as many loading screens as the PS4 version.
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16. Passage || Browser || 03.22.24
(https://i.imgur.com/Hi6cLF2.jpeg)
Passage is a game I've known about for around ten years, and I may have even played through it before. That said, it wasn't a game I had given much focused thought until now. Only after mentioning it in another topic (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12715.msg205099.html#msg205099) did I stop to consider properly engaging with it.
As the title suggests, Passage is a game about the passage of time. As the man, the player will age as they travel from one side of the screen to the other, entirely across a two-dimensional plane with a narrow point-of-view at all times. Looking forward, what lies ahead looks fuzzy, and what may exist below is completely unseen. For most of the game, this isn't immediately recognizable to new players as the man's sprite design incrementally changes, noted by clothing, hair color (and eventually hair loss), player speed, and posture. As the game is played (or even when idling), the player's fixed position creeps along automatically to the right. Simply put, so much of what Passage means greatly depends on one's playthrough. But, at the end no matter what sort of action was taken, all players will die. In that moment, you're now only represented by a gravestone, with the player's trivial score that's been accumulating hanging above as if that's what validates whether one's life was well lived or not. The game's strict five-minute end is unavoidable, no matter which sort of path or paths the player takes.
While an easier, preset path exists at the player's starting position which encourages horizontal travel, players have free control to also explore along the vertical axis, ridden with obstacles barring you from moving onward. Remaining strictly along the starting path, there are no obstacles at all, and the player's journey will arguably be more uneventful when compared to exploring below. It's important to note that the player's score only increases when moving east, although treasures exist throughout the labyrinth to the south. Much can be said about this diverging choice. To me, the game suggests that new experiences are more easily made when not dwelling on the present moment and the intricacies which may accompany it. When venturing downward, the environment remains static, implying you're stuck in one moment of time as you scour all options available to you in search of some reward. While treasure may be found, not all chests offer it. When taking this path, much of your labor yields nothing aside from time taken away from your life. But, when treasure is successfully found, a large score bonus is granted, but these occurrences are momentary and, ultimately, unfulfilling.
This is perhaps the very first choice players are offered, but another is available almost immediately upon starting. A short distance away, a woman stands who, if interacted with, will follow the man for the remainder of the playthrough as their life partner, the two experiencing life together in love. With the two together, the game obviously becomes less about the man and more about the couple. With every movement, the two are bound together. Obviously, there are benefits to finding love, but the game now presents a problem for those wanting to discover what treasures life may offer in any given present moment, down below. While traversal in the south maze is still possible, not every path is now available. There will be moments when treasure is one space away, but the two of you can't reach it. There will be times when the player won't be able to move forward at all in these depths, now being required to retreat above or even backtrack entirely. Unlike before where the man was only responsible for himself, there is now someone else to consider. No longer is he only living for himself. From one perspective, some may argue that Passage implies a life in love prevents an individual from reaping life's greatest rewards. Of course, these rewards are never straightforward in achieving with some work is required, but these offerings are sometimes unable to be reached altogether, even after effort was made. However, from another perspective, there is much to gain even when choosing to constantly move forward, ignoring life's opportunities. Devoid of all obstacles, the environment along the north path is constantly changing, allowing for far more experiences to be made.
With all this said, Passage can be played in a variety of ways (as a pair, one your own, finding love early in life, idling for however long at the game's beginning which may result in finding love later in life, and so forth.) As a short five-minute experience, I played through Passage several times. To my surprise during my first playthrough, I felt something once the characters approached the opposite edge of the screen, slowly aged by time. Nearing the screen's edge but not quite there, your partner abruptly dies. Again, I felt something, much more than before. When the woman dies, life continues on with the man more than capable to move forward, although their speed dramatically decreases as they seemingly struggle with grief. If choosing, a player may even decide to stay nearby the woman's grave, as if the man couldn't overcome this loss.
In truth, there is very little to understand about the game's message, and it's quick to understand the game's symbolism. Because of this, simply reading about the game may make it seem uninteresting, but, when pausing a moment to actually understand the events unfolding while playing, there are plenty of chances to reach some sort of emotional epiphany during the experience. Available to play for free (http://passage.toolness.org), some may find Passage worth experiencing.
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24. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC)
I got the itch to play a late 90s/early 2000s FPS game, so I decided to finally beat Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game I have not played since around the time it first came out. A friend of mine was a diehard PC gamer back in high school, and we decided to rent the PS2 port while he spent the weekend at my house. Bar far, he was more into it than I was, but I still enjoyed it for the most part, and to this day the game has an pretty strong air of nostalgia around it for me.
I finally beat Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and while I don't adore this game like many others, I can still appreciate it as a really fun, and somewhat iconic early 2000s PC game. The gameplay has its issues when it comes to certain enemies and bosses being incredibly annoying and even poorly designed, and some weapons having few practical uses, but this doesn't distract too much from what is an otherwise enjoyable game. The visuals are also pretty good, although I feel like by 2001 there were certainly better looking games, FPS and otherwise. Audio is mostly good too, although I found the OST somewhat uninspired and a bit repetitive throughout the game. I also found the bad German accents to be funny and also have that early 2000s video game cheese that I usually really like. Still, I feel like in the grand scheme of things, it was more of a blemish on the audio and doesn't help this game age as well as it otherwise could. I would definitely say that Return to Castle wolfenstein is worth playing, but for me it's a game I likely won't be returning to, at least for a very, very long time. For what it's worth, I did enjoy it for various reasons, especially how much it brought me back to my life back around 2001/2002. (3/28/24) [35/50]
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5. Afterimage (PS4)
Holy crap. Took me over 40 hours to get the good ending in this game. Not because it’s difficult (frankly, it’s on the easy side), but because it’s just so HUGE. By far the biggest world of any Metroidvania I’ve played.
Plus, it has 10 (!!!) endings. And to get the one, canon “good” ending, there’s so many steps I never would have figured it out without looking it up.
Anyway, here’s a rundown for the MV enthusiasts out there:
Pros:
- Absolutely GORGEOUS visuals
- HUGE explorable map
- Tight controls
- Fun combat
- Cool variety of weapons, each with their own advantages and special abilities
- A ton of secrets, things to do, and quests to complete
- Music is good, if unmemorable
Cons:
- Map might be TOO big, game takes too long to complete
- English translation is very iffy. Script desperately needs another pass by a native English speaker
- Story is very hard to follow, partly due to the translation issues mentioned above
- Voice acting is hit-or-miss. Some names and terms aren’t pronounced the same way consistently between characters
- Almost NO guidance (some might consider that a good thing, but IMO a map this big necessitates more guidance)
- Some powers and abilities are barely explained, or not explained at all (for example, the ability to heal yourself through prayer, or how to upgrade weapons)
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17. QWOP || Browser || 03.25.24
(https://i.imgur.com/UunBPFG.jpg)
For many who have had some sort of online presence during the end of the 2000s and into the immediate years following it, the game QWOP will be familiar. It's also a game that I'm sure many of those same people have at least tried (and likely failed) at least once. I know that I'm one of those individuals, but I'm now also one who's completed its challenge.
To be brief, QWOP is a track-and-field game tasking players to reach the end of a 100-meter dash. Its premise is straightforward and simple, although the execution in how it functions is everything but, as the Q and W keys correspond to the movement of each thigh, whereas the O and P keys correspond to each calf. To make any forward movement whatsoever, achieving some sort of rhythmic pattern utilizing each of these four keys must be utilized. Otherwise, the titular runner Qwop will fail. In spite of the game's punishing controls, I reached the game's end after only three attempts, although this accomplishment was achieved with Qwop embarrassingly gliding along the track nearing the splits the entire way.
One thing to address is the game's difficulty: is it actually hard? That answer is yes. However, there is reason for that choice beyond designing it so simply for the sake of it, which is that performing an actual 100-meter dash is difficult. If it isn't immediately recognizable, this logic is the actual point to the game, far greater than its comedic tones. More than likely, a player will take several minutes to reach the goal, calculated by seconds. At the playthrough's end, the final numerical value is dropped, meaning that a time of 200 seconds translates to 20 seconds in-game. So, a player's time to finish could very well be a representation of real-world finishing times accomplished by professional athletes. (For perspective, the current real-world record for completing the 100-meter dash is 9.58 seconds, which would approximately be 96 seconds in-game.)
While playing, players may assume that Qwop is ill-fated to race altogether. After all, he moves like a ragdoll and is susceptible to fall in the most painful and non-lifelike ways. But perhaps we, the player, are simply bad puppeteers. This point goes hand-in-hand with the above comment as the player is likely not a professional racer equipped to speedily trek across 100 meters. Most people probably have little to no concept of the skill, form, and training required to perform such a feat in a competitive setting. So, this idea is replicated in a dramatized yet amusing way through QWOP. Whether a new player believes it or not, Qwop can be controlled with the movement of a real-world racer. Races can be accomplished with fluid motion, long strides, and well-timed jumps. But, for many like myself who manage to reach the sand pit at the path's end—or those who reject the game out of sheer frustration after having only moved mere centimeters forward or, even worse, fall backwards to a negative distance—they will instead resort to fumbling their upright body across the dirt as the only means of traversal.
At the game's start screen prior to player action, some brief introduction to what QWOP is may be read alongside the paraphrased closing quote "Remember, it's not about whether you win or lose." Which, to the game's creator Bennett Foddy, implies that it's giving one's best effort that's most important—not finishing the game. In this instance, instead of clumsily dragging Qwop's legs across the racetrack, would it have been better for me as the player to have studied the game's physics and practiced its controls to better execute them, even at the cost of never crossing the 100-meter mark? In how I'm interpreting creator commentary, yes. In organizing my thoughts, I came across a Reddit AMA from long ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/g4lsw/by_request_i_made_the_game_qwop_ama/) which Foddy doubles down on this principle. He states that "you are free to [drag yourself along on one knee.] [..] I recommend you try to have some dignity, though" in addition to "if you're going to cheat at a game, why not just close the window and tell everyone you beat it?" Foddy seems to take the stance that games are designed to challenge their players and that failure only strengthens the experience while simultaneously denouncing the act of bypassing such design choices through exploiting any flaw in the game's mechanics.
In the end, whether I finished QWOP with merit or not means little, at least on an individual level. It gave me something to reflect about in detail, which is all that really matters.
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5. Afterimage (PS4)
Holy crap. Took me over 40 hours to get the good ending in this game. Not because it’s difficult (frankly, it’s on the easy side), but because it’s just so HUGE. By far the biggest world of any Metroidvania I’ve played.
Plus, it has 10 (!!!) endings. And to get the one, canon “good” ending, there’s so many steps I never would have figured it out without looking it up.
Anyway, here’s a rundown for the MV enthusiasts out there:
Pros:
- Absolutely GORGEOUS visuals
- HUGE explorable map
- Tight controls
- Fun combat
- Cool variety of weapons, each with their own advantages and special abilities
- A ton of secrets, things to do, and quests to complete
- Music is good, if unmemorable
Cons:
- Map might be TOO big, game takes too long to complete
- English translation is very iffy. Script desperately needs another pass by a native English speaker
- Story is very hard to follow, partly due to the translation issues mentioned above
- Voice acting is hit-or-miss. Some names and terms aren’t pronounced the same way consistently between characters
- Almost NO guidance (some might consider that a good thing, but IMO a map this big necessitates more guidance)
- Some powers and abilities are barely explained, or not explained at all (for example, the ability to heal yourself through prayer, or how to upgrade weapons)
Thanks for this thorough write-up. I have it in my backlog for when it's time for another Metroidvania.
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I'm back from the Louisville Arcade Expo, and this year's might have been one of the best. It doesn't necessarily get better each year, but it consistently provides a good time. Especially post-pandemic era. I was able to sit down and knock out some excellent games when I wasn't marveling/playing the new pinball machines. Games I won't include as "completed" are Tekken 8, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Super Smash Bros., CarnEvil, The House of the Dead 2, Dragon Masters (another Street Fight II clone from the early 90s), Hatsune Miku Project Diva Future Tone, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting.
26. jubeat
Despite only playing this in arcades, I feel like I've gotten much better at it. The music really consume you, which makes tapping the cubes much easier than other music and rhythm games. This is also the most efficient music game; it doesn't take up too much space so I'm trying to rationalize having one in the house. ...half-joking.
27. Dance Dance Revolution Xtreme
I mean, if there's DDR, then you know good and goddamn well that ya boy is going to dance his ass off. I spent a lot of time with this one. It was a blast, and proof that muscle memory is indeed a thing. As per usual, 1998 was the song I played the most. It's my favorite DDR song of all time. My DDR tattoo was admired during the process.
28. The Maze of the Kings
This one of the new games I played. It was first released in 2002 but didn't hear of it until now. It's a first person rail shooter that has a rogue-like element. So, the stages you move through and the enemies within are randomized. The gun is shaped like an Anubis head. The early aughts graphics were STRONG in this one, and the game was better for it. I love it when I encounter new things from yesteryear. But, this especially applies to one of my favorite eras of gaming.
29. Invasion - The Abductors
Just like The Maze of the Kings, this is another first person rail shooter I never heard of until now. And just like the above, it was released during that special period of gaming (1999) where 3D was the new big to-do. I went in with the lowest of expectations, but had such a good time that I ended up finishing it. There was a surprising amount of sleekness and polish to it that made it stand out from other games around the time like House of the Dead or CarnEvil. I would definitely sink quarters into this if I saw it outside of a free-to-play arcade.
30. Chunithm
It's like Guitar Hero, but with piano keys and a massive selection of J-Pop. Yet another game I never heard of. I think. There's a chance I played this last year but I've slept since then. This one was intense. The keys range in sizes, so the more difficult songs have smaller keys. There's also holding the keys, removing them at the right time, moving them across the keyboard, and elevating your hands at just the right angle. The music is intense and upbeat, and the way it all comes together with the keyboard is a musical masterpiece. Yet another one I hope to see outside a convention and in an arcade.
31. Rock Band
Normally, I wouldn't count Rock Band "completed" for something like this. But, I played A TON of this. Usually, I took vocals and would "sing" (see what I did there) while others played the instruments. It was a blast because it allowed me to meet and connect with other con-goers. Games and music are two things that tend to bring people from all walks of life together. Rock Band combines them in a solid way.
32. Music Gun Gun 2
I'm saving the best for last. Another game I never heard of until now. A shooting/rhythm game in all the best ways possible. Colorful graphics. A ton of music. Easy to pick up gameplay that is, naturally, close to impossible to master. Two-player options. Etc. In terms of gaming at the expo, this was the highlight. My favorite song to play was Cruel Angel's Thesis. All of the games above are fun, but this one is the one that would warrant a drive across state lines to play it. I hope to play this again in the near future, and I really hope this game comes back next year.
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Game 6 - Doom 1993 (PS4) - 13 Hours
I can finally say that I've finished the original Doom, a game that is obviously a cultural and technological touchstone for video games as a whole. My experience with this genre of FPS is admittedly a little weak overall. The closest contemporaries I've finished to Doom are Half-Life and Perfect Dark, so I don't have a lot of the contextual knowledge about this game when it came out nor have I played Doom's immediate successors like Quake, Hexen, Duke Nukem, or Unreal Tournament, or predecessors like Wolfenstein. I will say that it's a total blast to play, and it's easy to see why this game made such an impact at the time. I would say the game still holds up in many respects. The gameplay is fast and responsive, the hit detection, while biased, favors the fast-paced action. The levels are challenging with loads of secrets to uncover, and the weapons are all satisfying to use. The game's art style is really cool, and at times creepy and suspenseful. I really liked the challenge the game offers. When you die, you lose all your weapons, but you have unlimited lives and it's pretty easy to find all of the weapons you lost in each level.
There are some elements that felt a little outdated. Some of the level design was a little subpar. Several levels were quite labyrinthian which led to long stretches where I didn't know where to go, effectively killing the pacing. In addition, some of the latter levels require running over platforms which made which you had a jump button. Lastly, I was very disappointed with the overall score past the first episode (Knee Deep in the Dead). That episode has incredible music which always is mentioned in reviews of the game. However, the other episodes rely mostly on atmospheric subdued tracks which just aren't as interesting. I wanted it to be rocking the whole way through.
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I don't know if it's what I'm playing or what, but I'm having one of the worst years making progress. I've only beaten 9 games so far this year. I've normally got that by the end of January.
On the one hand I'm playing longer games with no side games running, I'm generally not playing during the day anymore, and I've been sick pretty much nonstop since January... so I guess there could be reasons.
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33. Unicorn Overlord
I'm calling it right here, right now. This is my game of the year. I realize that Emerald SaGa and the next Mana are coming up, but this was gaming excellence in every sense. It combined the best of so many classics, poured over new features, had such a memorable cast despite its massive size, and looked/sounded beautiful from start to end. Vanilla Ware really stepped up with this one. I'm stoked to get a review going so I can continue to gush about it. It's officially made my top ten - something I never expected a modern game to do.
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Game 7 - Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - 53 Hours
Final game stats
Time spent exercising: 25 hours
Calories burned: 9663
Miles run: 49
Ring presses: 12432
I first started this game as part of an exercise routine in February of 2021, meaning this has probably been the longest time it's taken for me to finish a single player campaign. There were a couple reasons for this. The first is that when I started playing, I lived on the ground floor of an apartment and was free to jump, move around, and run in place as I saw fit. Since then I've been in a couple much older houses with basements and old wood floors. I'm an average size person, but I just didn't feel comfortable jumping on our floors for extended periods of time like that.
So, I tried playing the game in silent mode, which was downright awful. Instead of running in place, you have to do squats to move your character forward. It was like... tripling the effort required for maybe half as much actual progress. So I then played in undocked mode for the remaining time in my basement, which was also not a great experience. The screen is so tiny that you can't see any objects in the levels and you have to squat down and squint at the screen to see any of the text. So my own personal play environment definitely was part of the reason why it took so long to finish. I also had consistent issues with the leg strap not registering certain exercises like high knee lifts, wide squats, mountain climbers, leg lifts and other exercises. Maybe it was my height, I'm not sure.
The other factor was that the game kind of runs out of ideas after approximately 30 hours of gameplay. The game just makes the existing exercies/courses longer in duration as a way to increase the challenge. All in all, it got very repetitive after that 30 hour mark, and I didn't really feel motivated to keep playing. I would rather use our exercise bike or go outside. I also did every single stage on each level and set the game to finish all exercise sets even if enemies are defeated partway through, which increased the time it took to finish the game.
So all that being said, you might think that I was down on this game, but I actually think it's a lot of fun and a great way to get some routine exercise. It has just the right amount of story and mechanics built around the idea of exercise that come together nicely. I think using the ring-con was a lot of fun, and there are lots of different exercises that you can try out until you find the routine that works for you, along with a fun collection of minigames. The graphics and music are also very pleasant, leading to an overall enjoyable experience, the issues I mentioned notwithstanding. I will probably come back to do a new game plus with this game at some point, but for now I think I'm going to try one of the fitness boxing games on the Switch because I've really enjoyed exercising with video games and I want to keep that going.
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Game 7 - Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - 53 Hours
The other factor was that the game kind of runs out of ideas after approximately 30 hours of gameplay. The game just makes the existing exercies/courses longer in duration as a way to increase the challenge.
I agree with this opinion, but I also believe that the same can be said of any exercise routine. After a certain point, you simply go through the motions which isn't very exciting in itself, slowing adding more reps and sets as muscle is built. Easily, the game's biggest motivators for continued play is the inclusion of titles to earn alongside being able to compare your personal data with friends' data, with the former being the main reason I played the game for a lengthy amount of time (without checking, I think somewhere between 120-150 hours.) The game also offers a rhythm mode and maybe even other types of alternative forms of exercise, but I never did explore those options.
It's doubtful that I'll ever go back to Ring Fit Adventure since I was playing during the height of the pandemic while staying indoors. Maybe one day, though.
If I'm remembering correctly, my least favorite exercises were overhead presses (specifically when being tasked to perform them in quick succession) and seated forward presses. Meanwhile, my favorite exercises were planks and mountain climbers. These two, to me, felt most substantial toward actually feeling active. Did you have any particular exercises you enjoyed or disliked?
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I agree with this opinion, but I also believe that the same can be said of any exercise routine. After a certain point, you simply go through the motions which isn't very exciting in itself, slowing adding more reps and sets as muscle is built. Easily, the game's biggest motivators for continued play is the inclusion of titles to earn alongside being able to compare your personal data with friends' data, with the former being the main reason I played the game for a lengthy amount of time (without checking, I think somewhere between 120-150 hours.) The game also offers a rhythm mode and maybe even other types of alternative forms of exercise, but I never did explore those options.
It's doubtful that I'll ever go back to Ring Fit Adventure since I was playing during the height of the pandemic while staying indoors. Maybe one day, though.
If I'm remembering correctly, my least favorite exercises were overhead presses (specifically when being tasked to perform them in quick succession) and seated forward presses. Meanwhile, my favorite exercises were planks and mountain climbers. These two, to me, felt most substantial toward actually feeling active. Did you have any particular exercises you enjoyed or disliked?
I adopted a mixture of some intense and some lighter workouts throughout my time playing. I don't have any particular favorites, I was mostly looking at damage/types/number of targets. but the ones that I did frequently were thigh press, leg raise, mountain climbers, thigh twist, bow pull, ring raise combo, and squats (not wide squat/overhead squat because those never worked for me). I liked the yoga poses too.
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I got about three to four hours in the demo for SaGa Emerald Beyond. Maybe less. Like any game, even one in my favorite series, I kept my expectations low. But, yikes. This was not a good demo. If it's indicative of what's to come then I'm bummed.
I played on Switch, so I was forced to select Ameya. The overall controls and schematics were clunky. Inputting selections for menus had delays whether docked or handheld. For those that play on other consoles it might be different. Exploration was fine. Combat? Not so much. Either I missed something during the influx of tutorials, or combat is truly that random. Basically, both sides might act twice, or interrupt one another, or do other bizarre things that didn't make a lick of sense.
Finally, the game was ugly. At least Scarlet Grace had some polish.
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34. Star Ocean: The Second Story R - Rena
Rena's journey is finished. The final party was Claude, Ashton, Dias and Precis. I got the Rena x Precis ending, which was kind of dull given Precis' usual chipper attitude. I did a fair amount of scene skipping since a lot of the narrative is old-hat, and since I like Claude more than Rena. But, this was still a fun file in an already fun game. So, with the platinum trophy acquired, now what? I know for a fact that there will come a time when I get that urge to do yet another replay. This game has that kind of staying power and draw. The QoL features added make it so much easier and accessible to jump into a replay, too. A new game with Claude where I can have both Noel and Chisato in the group is next on my list. But, that won't be for a while.
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35. Samba de Amigo: Party Central
After clearing all songs on Normal, a few on Hard and Very Hard, and doing some of the stuff on Streamigo, I figure that I can count this as finished. I remember seeing the original game once at an anime convention years ago during the Dreamcast's heyday. It looked fun, but other games looked more fun so I didn't bother waiting in line to try it. So, this was my first time experiencing anything related to the world of Samba de Amigo. Like any motion-based rhythm game, this one has the usual good and bad. The good is the great selection of music (some of the tunes made it onto my gym playlist), a ton of ways to customize your amigo, and just an overall "fun" feeling when you vibe to the music. The bad is that things can get really distracting and the Wii-like motion controls. That last part is why I preferred to play with a controller. It didn't have that same maraca-feeling, but at least the timing was more precise. Both controller and joy-con have their issues, but it doesn't stop the overall package from being fun. I recommend it to music fans those looking to kill some time with a friend or by themself.
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18. Nanaca Crash!! || Browser || 04.08.24
(https://i.imgur.com/Wu7IhiH.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/gElfkRY.jpeg)
While browsing through game titles for 3DS, I just so happened to be reminded of the browser game Nanaca Crash!! that I was introduced to nearly twenty years ago. Knowing its arcade-like qualities, I decided to revisit it.
Throughout the game, you play as the unsuspecting victim of a bike crash named Taichi. Instead of merely falling to the ground, he's instead hilariously projected into the skies, dozens of meters high above everything else. Along the horizontal path he flies across, Taichi's accident worsens as passerby continue the barrage of physical encounters, therefore prolonging Taichi's safe landing. With each kick and punch Taichi is dealt, the velocity dramatically increases and is maintained by continued pummels.
In the screen's corner, a box shows which NPCs offer Special attacks that rely on speedy player reaction to initiate. To be expected, they're each with their own unique animations which add another element of fun to the game's premise and notably more powerful than basic attacks. As Taichi speeds along past everyone in a randomized loop, Special encounters blink on and off, so timing is involved which players can manipulate to a degree.. Interestingly, only the women NPCs are a threat to Taichi; while the men act as an obstacle too, they instead will either slow down or sharply alter Taichi's angle of movement. However, one woman NPC is worth noting, as she will grasp Taichi during encounters, thus saving him from his prolonged disaster. Ordinarily, this is the sequence, but the same NPC also deals the most powerful attack once encountered when their Special move is active.
Despite what it may seem, there is a strategic element to the game's arcade-style gameplay. Alongside the game's introduce which begins with the player controlling the initial crash's velocity, two types of bike crashes may be summoned at any point—even in mid-air—which grants greater success to a longer run. Obviously, these summons are integral to prolonging each game, as players can manipulate whether Taichi slows down to a complete halt once their velocity has dwindled or instead choosing to avoid or encounter certain NPCs.
Even though there isn't a lot of depth to Nanaca Crash!!, I've always considered it to be a fun game for its ridiculous premise alone. I'm sure that, as the years go on, it'll be a game I return to after being randomly reminded of it.
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13 - Grounded (PC 2022) - BEAT - Been a few since I beat something, FF7 is on hold at the moment, but had a real mood to jump back into this game after seeing it's possible final update happening, which added a bunch more cool stuff. I had a save that was most of the way done, but I still put in like 10 hours in the past couple days to beat the game, though I'm gonna beat the Wasp Queen soon so I can do New Game + and experience that new content, but I still love this game. This is my 2nd or third time beating it, I forget, but it's so good. I think at this point it's my favorite survival game. It was this and Subnautica up there, but I just like so much about this game and it's been great to see all the content they've continued to add.
I hope it gets a sequel someday, I'd love to have something that has you maybe dealing with multiple area types, so not just a backyard, but maybe like a house location too, there's just a lot that can be done with a "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" situation.
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Finally beat FF7 Rebirth (PS5). That marks my 3rd game completed this year. I won't go into details of the story, but I enjoyed it and look forward to the third and final entry in the Remake.
I opted to try out Fallout 4 which thankfully was a PS Plus title last year that I had claimed. I'm also playing Helldivers 2 (can't really beat this can you?), God of War R (PS5) and going to replay RE5 (PS4).
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I finished The Rising Tide in Final Fantasy XVI. I'm hoping that this is the last DLC. While it was more interesting than Echoes of the Fallen, it was more of the same stuff that the game has become infamous for. New Eikon skills and abilities were appreciated, and the story about Leviathan was done very well. Mysidia was absolutely gorgeous and the new tracks hit. Sadly, the second group of abilities you get are too little, too late because by the time you get them, the entire game will have already be completed by people like myself that started the game on day one. Ultimately, there was nothing transformative about this DLC. Once again, most of the time is spent in combat fighting enemies with inflated HP. The party AI seemed a bit more helpful this time around but it's really hard to say since Clive is constantly having to dodge and counter, giving little time to see what's going on around him. And then, there's the final battle against Leviathan. Eikon battles were already problematic, but this one just amplified it turning FFXVI into a full-on third-person shooter. Even if you disregard the time limit midway through the fight, all of the nonsense and cinematography going on turned the game into a button mashing snooze fest.
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36. Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
Another week of meetings and demos where I don't have to do too much means more time to get into some portable fun. I did a replay of one of my favorite characters: Klonoa. Empire of Dreams on the Game Boy Advance is definitely one of the easier titles in terms of action games, but Klonoa is so damn cute that it doesn't matter. Some of the stages are more challenging due to their puzzle-like layout than the enemies. It was fun to revisit this.
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5. Princess Peach: Showtime! [Switch]
Fifth game down. What can I say? I like cutesy girly stuff. I know reviewing this game is always gonna sound a little petty because it's so clearly aimed at little kids, but I'll still try to give my two cents. I thought it was decent. It was cute, some of the gameplay styles were fun enough. But I wouldn't call it amazing. I mainly felt like it could be fairly restrictive sometimes. I'm talking not even letting you jump over a ledge but forcing you to walk down the stairs type stuff. And I know it's a kids game, but kids can handle freedom and control in games. Also, to throw in the classic: it's 2024, where is the voice acting?
Arlo actually did a review of it on YouTube I pretty much entirely agree with. Recommend that one.
I still think it's enjoyable enough, and if you have a kid who loves princess Peach, I think it's worth it on sale. But unless you're a Peach fan yourself, you're not missing much.
So that's 5 games beaten. Not a huge number yet, but to add to that, I've also already read 7 books this year. So I'd say in terms of finishing media in general I'm doing decently!
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19. Picross e || Nintendo 3DS || 04.19.24
(https://i.imgur.com/AzADvZL.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/OfU5Dig.jpeg)
As Nintendo's 3DS and Wii U online servers shut down about two weeks ago, the opportunity presented itself for someone to mod my 3DS. Seeing as the systems aren't supported anymore, I decided to take up the offer. While browsing the full catalog of games before me, I eyed the Picross series while realizing it's a line of games I've somehow evaded all these years. Moments later, I began playing Picross e.
Known properly as a nonogram puzzle, picross (short for picture crossword) is a type of logic puzzle that tasks players to fill in a grid based on the outside numbers along the X and Y axes which will, once solved, reveal a picture image. At the game's beginning, difficulty is naturally low with grid size being only 5x5 that accomplishes in teaching the fundamentals of the system. This tutorial section does not last long, though, as the game's difficulty progression feels natural when playing in stage order as players learn and are forced to think in new ways to solve for possibilities. I mention this because, at any point, players are freely able to select any of the game's 150 stages which increase in grid size to 15x15.
When solving individual spaces, players have two options: either to mark it as part of the puzzle or as white space. Of course, determining which action to take is dependent on the information across the X and Y axes which indicates both how many blocks are in a row or column and how many are in a sequence. So, for example, if a row is labeled as 3 1 2, then this translates that, beginning at some point across the row, there is a sequence of three marked spaces, at least one unmarked space, one marked space, at least one unmarked space, and finally two marked spaces. Using the each and every row in conjunction with each and every column is paramount to solving each puzzle, which becomes much easier said than done in later stages. Generally, stages begin slowly as there are a lot of possibilities to remove as they're determined to be impossible, but once a fair amount of information has been revealed, players should be able to advance with definitive choices being made speedily.
Throughout each stage, in-game hint systems are also available which are, in general, small but valuable support elements to both hasten puzzle-solving and aid in challenging moments. With the hint system toggled on, the game indicates which rows and columns provide a logical means for players to deduce the answer with the existing grid information. As more actions are taken, hints for specific rows and columns routinely toggle on and off, allowing for players to seek information somewhere else. However, just because a row or column becomes fully grayed out as sections are completed does not mean they are correct; instead, this means that only a specific row or column has had their puzzle requirements answered (e.g. 3 1 2.) So, should players make a mistake, there will inevitably be a moment (often nearing the puzzle's conclusion) when the realization that an error has been made. During my playthrough, I allowed for the hint system to remain on, although it is automatically toggled off once every five stages.
Continuing through Picross e in its intended stage order while having finished both Easy and Normal sections, I wasn't sure what the game's third section Free exactly meant. Eventually, I realized that there are two different gameplay modes available. In brief, the standard mode faults a player with a time penalty once an incorrect action has been made. Because of this, players will immediately have the correct answer available to them. Meanwhile, Free mode removes this penalty altogether which leaves the player believing each and every action they take is correct, up until the point they realize an error has been made. Initially, I found myself more favorable to Free mode, but some puzzles in this mode became quite challenging. Without that immediate feedback, I often found myself reaching a point in the puzzle's completion where an error (possibly numerous errors) could be anywhere in the grid, meaning I determined it easier to fully restart the stage. On average, I spent about 17-20 minutes for each 15x15 puzzle, so about that much time was lost each and every time time I noticed an error was made. While 15x15 isn't necessarily large as nonogram puzzles can be much larger, I still realized just how much there is to analyze all at once, even though I considered myself to be taking actions with careful consideration.
Apart from the game's puzzle mechanics, the use of a timer encourages replayability, although I was not interested in besting my own scores. Alongside simple record-beating, solved puzzles will degrade from full color to grayscale once the hour threshold has been crossed, so poor puzzle-solving encourages faster playthroughs as well, so as to reveal the picture in color. One other aspect worth mentioning is the game's use of music. Unfortunately, there are only two tracks available, one of which is only used on the main menu screen. So, for numerous hours, only one track accompanies the actual puzzle-solving.
After years of not really knowing what Picross is, I'm glad to have finally completed the first game in the e series, which there are a total of nine. While I'm not wanting to play through these games one after the other, I know I will, at some point, return to play more.
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6. Super Metroid [SNES / Nintendo Switch Online]
Finally finished my first full playthrough of Super Metroid. It almost felt weird I had never played more than the start of this game before, considering I'm a pretty big Metroid fan and I've beaten every other 2D Metroid game that came after it. But the previous times I played it, I could just never get into it. Maybe it's just that me and my tastes and skills have changed over the years that now it did grab me.
I'm sure it won't be a shocker when I say the game is great. There's something so enthralling about exploring these worlds, feeling how Samus grows more powerful throughout her journey, finding new things wherever you go, it's like you're always lost while never being lost at the same time. The spritework and audio in this game is incredible too. It without a doubt deserves the praise it gets and still stands as a fantastic title today.
However, I will say it's not my favourite in the series. Some small parts either haven't aged well or were always kinda meh (I don't know, I'm 25). I found myself fighting with the controls in a couple of scenarios, especially when it came to the Space Jump and ESPECIALLY the wall jump. That move just does not work right and it's pretty maddening. And I know this is a staple of old games, but that doesn't make it go away: there were some points where I did feel the secrets you needed to figure out to progress were downright unfair. One that stuck with me was when you get the X-ray visor to spot invisible passageways, but then later they add other invisible passageways which just don't show up for some reason. How the hell are you supposed to figure that out? So yes, I did need a guide a few times.
Overall though, the game still is fantastic and well worth of the praise it gets. Not my favourite 2D Metroid (Dread is up there, and I need to replay Fusion but I remember loving that), but a fantastic game I'm glad to have finished. And just really glad to have no finished all 2D Metroids (well, except for the NES and Game Boy games, but I've heard even Metroid fans won't judge you for skipping them).
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37. Soul Hackers 2 - Beyond the Infinite Ending
I had way more fun with this than I thought I would. It was more SMT than Persona, but still had the few tidbits of Persona that I enjoyed. Toss in a futuristic, hyper neon Japan backdrop and a groovy soundtrack, and boom. A solid game that I'll definitely play again for the platinum. My biggest issue is that New Game Plus doesn't carry over the Soul Matrix Levels. That means having to go through each one again while building them up to 200. It's not a major con, but it's what's causing me to take a break from the game instead of jumping right back in. The FF feature will definitely be used to the fullest on that journey. It's weird because nearly everything else seemed to carry over, so why not the Soul Matrix levels? Either way, great game and one I'll get to back later (much later, likely) this year.
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25. Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
I completely slept on RDR1 when it first came out, mostly because of its wild west theme which is something I'm generally not too interested in. It wasn't until my wife bought RDR2 that I jumped into the series, and despite my lack of interest in westerns, RDR2 ended up being not only one of the best games I've ever played, but also a game that changed my perspectives on various things. It was one of the few games that had a lasting impact on my personal life, which is something I can say about very few games I've ever played. So of course this reignited my interest in RDR1 despite it being over a decade old by the time I played RDR2. Playing RDR1 kept on getting bumped back over and over again, until recently I was watching several unrelated youtube videos and two different channels made the bold statement that they thought RDR1 was the superior game in many ways. This immediately caught my interest and inspired my enough to finally pick up RDR1 and see if it actually was better than the sequel, or at least just as good.
While RDR1 is a pretty good game, it in no way compared to RDR2 in almost any way. While definitely impressive for a game released in 2010, RDR1 falls short in every possible category you can judge a game by. Visually, the game looks pretty good most of the time, however I wished that the game made better use of its vast open world map and filled it with more interesting events, places, missions, and various other things that turned something like the untamed west into something way more intriguing and engaging.Character models were a mixed back, but mostly good, as were locations like towns and natural land marks. Audio was also a mixed, but mostly good bag; some of the voice acting is top notch, while other characters almost sound like they paid a Rockstar intern to record the lines. Sound effects were great, and the music felt mostly appropriate and certainly helped enhance the experience of whatever it was you're doing. The gameplay was probably the weakest part of RDR1. While it wasn't awful or anything like that, it certainly reminded me more of a PS2 era GTA game, then something closer to GTA5, or hell, even GTA4 which was released before RDR1. It just felt very clunky and lacked a lot of variety and depth I was hoping for; there were way too many missions that were beyond tedious and mundane, or just felt like rehashed versions of missions i'd already completed 2 or 3 times already. Still, with all my gripes, the gameplay certainly worked for the most part creating a pretty good experience overall. The story left a lot to be desired too, especially comparted to how insanely good it was in RDR2. The characters; motives, interactions, and dialogue was pretty good for the most part, but wasn't as fleshed out as it maybe could have been. Again, GTA4 is a great example of how this could have been accomplished, but it just wasn't there like I was hoping. By no means was the story or writing not great, because it was, it just could have been better. I really enjoyed RDR1 overall, but sadly, playing RDR2 first almost ruined this game for me, and that's not even because it's a way older game at this point. I'd still recommend playing it, if for nothing else than a good supplement to the events of RDR2. (4/27/24) [35/50]
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Baldur's Gate 3 has finally let me out of it's strangle hold. Just an utterly phenomenal game that has almost too many options and features. That coupled with my severe case of completion-itis meant that I was playing this for almost 2 months. The writing is terrific, and the voice actors really just crush it. Between this and Divinity: Original Sin 2 I can't think of any RPG series that offers such a complete cornucopia of options. I'll be marinating in it for a while, and I'm already tempting into making a new character.
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38. Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa's Revenge - Shizumaru
I feel like it's important to take a break from Soul Hackers 2 since I want the platinum but don't want to get too burnt out on things. So, I'm playing shorter games in the interim. Up first is a game from my favorite fighting series: Samurai Shodown. The fourth entry isn't my favorite but it's one of the most polished. I got a game over and a bad ending when I played as Basara, but managed to get through the entire game with my homie Shizumaru. The translation is terribly funny, and I'm still not sure how to do the C+D combo. But, this is a gorgeous 2D fighter that is tight on controls and characters. I definitely recommend it.
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26. Breakers Revenge (PS4)
I played the first Breakers game on the Dreamcast after finding out it was a port of a pretty obscure Neo Geo fighting game from the mid 90s. I did find some redeemable qualities while playing Breakers, overall though, it left a very bland taste in my mouth overall and mostly felt like another forgettable off brand 90s tournament fighter that was trying to be Street Fighter 2 or King of Fighters so badly, but fell short. Unfortunately, the same can be said about its sequel, Breakers Revenge. What surprised me most is that Breakers Revenge came out in 1998 despite looking like a game from the early 90s. In fact, I'd say overall it looks worse than the CPS1 version of Street Fighter 2. With that said, the sprites and character animations are still pretty good, however most of the stages are bland, generic, and forgettable. Speaking of bland and generic, these same adjectives can be applied to Breaker's pretty small cast of playable characters too. The audio, while someone pleasing, isn't really that memorable either. Gameplay is decent overall, however some annoying balancing issues and fairly shallow mechanics make this just as generic as the rest of the game. I really was hoping Breakers Revenge would somehow surprise me as a hidden gem on the Neo Geo, but unofortunately it ended up being about what I expected; a justifiably forgotten obscurity from the 1990s tournament fighter craze that most people forgot, and even more people never realized existed at all. (4/29/24) [29/50]
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20. Tappingo 2 || Nintendo 3DS || 04.25.24
(https://i.imgur.com/hBN5NrF.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/9oDgc0N.jpg)
Having played and enjoyed the debut entry around ten years ago, I was curious to see if Tappingo 2 would leave the same kind of positive impression on me. At the same time, I was wanting to know if the gameplay would vary any in this sequel entry or if, instead, it would be more like an expansion to the first game.
In short, Tappingo 2 is a puzzle game which players are tasked to create an image—usually some sort of ordinary item—by moving blocks in a certain order. For each selectable block, a number printed on it indicates how many spaces it needs to expand outward, acting like a tape measure of sorts. Obviously designed for a dual-screen system, the game utilizes the bottom screen for player action whereas the top screen shows the puzzle being solved in real time, which is a small inclusion to help elevate the game beyond its straightforward gameplay. I'll also note here that the game requires precise movements best accomplished with the stylus. I can't imagine successfully progressing through the game without it.
To the game's advantage, gameplay is simple to understand once actually playing through a stage or two. The game's biggest puzzle elements come from blocks requiring to be moved in a specific series of steps. Otherwise, the path of adjacent blocks will either be barred from reaching their intended destination or, oppositely, overreach which disrupts the path of neighboring blocks. Generally working from side to side or corner to corner, I found it generally easy to visualize the steps needed to take for sections of the puzzle, although stage difficulty does increase once puzzle design relies more on color gradients and puzzle size becomes larger. Easily, mistakes can be made resulting in block paths needed to be retracted, which will inevitably cause neighboring chains to alter as well. At this point, the player will be forced to retract numerous blocks to then find another means to complete the puzzle. Fortunately, there isn't any major penalty for making an incorrect move despite the later minor inconvenience of needing to retract a small section of blocks. When a mistake is made, the game's puzzle system efficiently communicates when a certain action is incorrect in real time.
Accompanying the gameplay, stages are also timed to track how quickly puzzles can be solved. I suppose this aspect is a neat novelty which I can see more being utilized to compete with another player more so than besting one's personal records. While the game's stage count of 104 puzzles may sound high, it isn't really. On average, I'd estimate that I completed the first half of stages in 90-120 seconds per puzzle, whereas the second half of stages was around 3-4 minutes.
While offering a degree of fun, Tappingo 2 does become repetitive and a bit tedious given how many stages there are with little variety. One may assume that puzzle artwork matters little, but it's more than one would think. For instance, there are a total of about ten puzzles which the layout is a circle, resulting in the same types of block patterns to solve. In my observations, puzzles with unique layouts require different manners of thinking for specific sections. Additionally, the gameplay never evolves past what was introduced in the debut entry, and there is only one game mode. Only the most basic of features are offered, such as pause and restart. Something else worth mentioning is the lack of music. Across 104 stages, only four or five tracks exist. I suppose this is a suitable amount for a low-budget game, but tracks can't be individually selected. Instead, the only way to cycle through them is to reset the stage.
Compared to other logic puzzle games, Tappingo 2 is much more casual with its easy-to-pick-up qualities. Instead of forcing players to think critically, it feels more like a means to relax, although some degree of focused thought is obviously required to progress. If I'm being honest, I remember enjoying the debut entry much more than the sequel.
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39. R-Type Final
I finished this game on the easiest setting appropriately named Baby. I'm not a shmup person in the slightest, but as always, I think it's important to get out of your comfort zone and play something different. Also, it further helped cleanse the palette before getting into my second file of Soul Hackers 2. I had no idea that R-Type had such a long history starting all the way back in 1987. At some point, I'd like learn more about the series. In terms of this one on the PlayStation 2, it was a lot of fun despite my lack of skill. There was a ton of variety in terms of ships, enemies, levels, weapons, and secrets. Outside of some slowdown the game still looked and played smoothly. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.
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21. Don't Look Back || Browser || 05.01.24
(https://i.imgur.com/yNdDJsj.jpeg) (https://i.imgur.com/oegM4b4.jpeg)
Wanting to play more games like Passage (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,12641.msg205160.html#msg205160), I soon became introduced to Don't Look Back. I don't think I knew about Don't Look Back until this point, but I am familiar with its creator, Terry Cavanagh, so I had certain expectations prior to playing given Cavanagh's development history. To many, Don't Look Back is also recognized as an art game.
As a game of about 20-30 minutes in length, Don't Look Back succeeds as a narrative-driven action-plaformer, albeit one omitting dialogue. At its core, the game is built with a room-based level design emphasizing a touch of difficulty, although such difficulty ultimately isn't too concerning as failing results in an immediate retry with no progress lost. Still, despite the consequences being minimal, the game introduces an appropriate amount of challenge. Moving room to room, players will likely be taken by surprise each time some new type of obstacle to overcome or avoid appears. In these moments, the game necessitates quick reaction and tight movements. For many if not all of these encounters, player action beyond running is not a requirement, as enemies may be avoided through successful, well-timed platforming. However, I'm not sure if there is any incentive to adopt such play style. Nevertheless, some rooms seemed intentionally designed for the player to avoid danger instead of vanquishing it.
Regarding narrative, it concerns death, the loss of a loved one, and the inability to accept the situation. In fact everything about Don't Look Back alludes to the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. With that understanding, it's important to mention that, throughout the game's first half, the player is permitted to look back behind them and even backtrack to previous rooms. But, until a room's enemies are defeated, they will all continue to respawn. That said, the player is not only discouraged from looking back in the second half but also unable to, as an immediate fail state occurs. Fortunately, only platforming sequences are present during this shift.
By the game's mid-point, I imagine that most players will assume how the game concludes, or at least have a faint idea, and especially so if they're aware of the source material being referenced. I certainly had my expectations, anyway. However, when I reached the game's conclusion, it felt as if the game had subverted that expectation to take on another layer of meaning. While the ending written is an interesting twist, it unfortunately doesn't leave a lot of room for interpretation. Although, perhaps that level of thought isn't necessary, as the end development is enough of a revelation on its own.
Apart from gameplay and narrative, the game's presentation utilizes a minimal art style employing large pixels, empty environments, and a selective color palette of four colors. While graphics are paired with a single looping track, the music actually doesn't grow tiresome and complements the game's other elements.
In the end, Don't Look Back offers a demanding experience which doesn't overstay its welcome. Like how other games of its kind are created to evoke a certain feeling or thought, Don't Look Back also achieves this, and rather abruptly too. Here, the finality presented offers only a moment to analyze in the context of the events before it, whereas other games often force the player to think critically throughout most of the events and action. However, this isn't necessarily a critique, as there is still a fair amount to deconstruct. Also, whether one's read any of the translations and interpretations of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice matters little, although I think being aware of the tale prior to playing will enhance the adventure.
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27. Mega Man X2 (PS4)
I've decided to branch out beyond the Mega Man X games I grew up with and played around the time they first came out. Aside from X on the SNES, I never played X2 or X3; I returned to the series for X4, but was so underwhelmed by X5 that I would drop the series once again. I need to replay X4 and X5 since it's been probably around 2 decades since i last played them, but for now X is my baseline for all the sequels that would follow.
X2 is a pretty good game for the most part, however I found it inferior to the original X in neraly every way. Mostly everything is slightly worse, but that's not to say X2 isn't a good time, because it is...mostly. The level design, the boss design and mechanics, as well as the power ups you receive by beating them just feel under developed and at times even poorly designed. I also found Mega Man's upgrades like the heart and health containers to be a lot more obscure and difficult to obtain for the most part. I thought the inclusion of the X Hunters was pretty cool, but I still prefer how you obtain Mega Man's suit upgrades more in X. The audio in X2 is pretty awesome, and while I disagree that it's as good as X's, it's still pretty rockin and one of the better ones I've heard on the SNES, which is saying quite a bit. While I certainly don't like X2 as much as X, it was still worthwhile to finally play it, and I'm curious to see how it stacks up against the later titles in the X series, especially X3 which seems to be the game that fights for X2 for second place when it comes to the best Mega Man X game on the SNES lol. (5/2/24) [33/50]
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Game 8 - 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) - 17 Hours
I found this game to be a very charming experience. It's a simple classic take on a Zelda-style adventure game but with some modern ideas under the hood. The most striking is the 3D pixel look which is very unique visually, even though it felt more like a gimmick to me. I think where this game really stands out is your 3D sword that you can suspend in midair and increase it's length and width to cover more of the screen. It's honestly really interesting to use and separates the gameplay from Zelda just a touch.
Other than that, it's essentially the same. You do have an expansive world to explore with plenty of secrets and side quests to indulge in. There's also a huge collection of minigames to try out and they're actually pretty fun! I think the dungeons were kind of tedious and a little boring though. The game doesn't really throw much at you that's super interesting. There's also very little puzzle solving - everything is either communicated directly to you by your fairy friend or you have a magic spell that will straight up tell you the solution.
Lastly, this game had a lot of charm to it that I really appreciated. As a total throwback to classic games, the game sports a very "retro" style to it with a lot of hidden secrets and 4th wall-breaking dialogue. This also comes through in the music which is very retro, but is a little inconsistent - some of it is great, but a few songs are really bad - the fire temple in particular was awful.
Other than that I had a good time playing - on to the next stop on the console tour, the PS1 with another Zelda-style game - Alundra!
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28. Raiden III (Switch)
I've mentioned this often when discussing my history with the SHMUP genre, but the Raiden series is was initially got me interested in the genre way back in the 90s. Since then, I've played and beat every Raiden game, including the spinoffs, except for what many consider to be one of the best games in the series, Raiden III. I will say, me not beating Raiden 3 until today was not due to lack of trying, but rather bad luck. I've owned Raiden III on the PS2 for probably 15 years, however I found out years ago my copy did not work. I then bought another copy, didn't play it for years, and then when I tried to play it, it didn't work either! Finally, i ended up picking up the Switch release and finally got to jump into this cool SHMUP.
Raiden III has surprisingly balanced, and well designed gameplay. My only major gripe is the movement speed of your ship which feels way to slow given what the game typiically throws at you. Still, with enough planning and good reflexes you can dodge most of what this game has to throw at you. Visually, Raiden III is pretty good looking and even has a somewhat cinematic quality to it at times. However, given that it's in full 3D, it did make me lament how amazing the 2D sprites looked in the older titles. Still, for a 3D SHMUP, this game looks great; the stages are interesting and cool, the bosses look epic and unique, and everything else is also visually pleasing for the most part. The audio is probably Raiden III's greatest asset, as there was almost not a single bad or forgettable track in the entire game. It certainly holds the distinction of having one of the best OST's in the series, that's for sure. I'm glad I finally got around to playing Raiden III and seeing what all the fuss was about with it. (5/4/24) [34/50]
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Game 8 - 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) - 17 Hours
I found this game to be a very charming experience. It's a simple classic take on a Zelda-style adventure game but with some modern ideas under the hood. The most striking is the 3D pixel look which is very unique visually, even though it felt more like a gimmick to me. I think where this game really stands out is your 3D sword that you can suspend in midair and increase it's length and width to cover more of the screen. It's honestly really interesting to use and separates the gameplay from Zelda just a touch.
Other than that, it's essentially the same. You do have an expansive world to explore with plenty of secrets and side quests to indulge in. There's also a huge collection of minigames to try out and they're actually pretty fun! I think the dungeons were kind of tedious and a little boring though. The game doesn't really throw much at you that's super interesting. There's also very little puzzle solving - everything is either communicated directly to you by your fairy friend or you have a magic spell that will straight up tell you the solution.
Lastly, this game had a lot of charm to it that I really appreciated. As a total throwback to classic games, the game sports a very "retro" style to it with a lot of hidden secrets and 4th wall-breaking dialogue. This also comes through in the music which is very retro, but is a little inconsistent - some of it is great, but a few songs are really bad - the fire temple in particular was awful.
Other than that I had a good time playing - on to the next stop on the console tour, the PS1 with another Zelda-style game - Alundra!
I really wanted to love that game, it's so cool, but the hardcore depth of field visuals killed it for me, it's like the extreme version of what was done with the Link's Awakening remake, another one I didn't like.
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29. Raiden V: Director's Cut (PS4)
I played Raiden V years ago around the time it first came out, and while I remember not liking it, I almost regret replaying it because I like it even less than I did. Raiden V may be one of the worst SHMUPs I've ever played. From a presentation standpoint it looks worse than the two games that proceeded it. On top of that, some of the levels make it hard to see the projectiles flying at you, creating an unfair situation that is squarly the game's fault. The OST is decent, however the chatter of various characters that accompany you throughout the game never shut up and create this constant chatter that drowns out what is otherwise a decent OST. I cannot stress how annoying these NPC character's chatter is as they are talking for 95% of the time you are playing. It would be one thing if they were actually saying anything interesting, but they're not and it just sounds like they're mumbling half the time. Other than that, the gameplay is okay, but often comes across as sloppy and poorly planned out. There is an additional fire mode called the Cheer system, but it amounts to little more than an alternative bomb attack that you can only use under certain circumstances. Raiden V is absolutely a stain on this franchise and I game I will remember never to return to. (5/4/24) [20/50]
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22. Flow || PlayStation Portable || 05.04.24
(https://i.imgur.com/lMyWCIk.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/rY1AwcM.jpg)
Being familiar with thatgamecompany's works, I've never before set out to play through their first title, Flow. Long ago, though, I do believe I had tried out the Flash version, but not at any noteworthy length. So, my time playing the game now felt quite new still.
As a simulation game, Flow has players assume the role of a microorganism consuming all other life in its vicinity, allowing it to grow exponentially in size and capability. While only having one specific organism available at the game's beginning, players will eventually unlock a total of five different lifeforms, each with their own play style. Despite the subtle changes each playthrough brings, the objective remains the same: become the top of the food chain by growing and evolving to the point where you reproduce by laying an egg, resulting in stage completion. Once an egg is laid, it is hatched upon being selected at the main hub area, which is when it then becomes the vessel you control in a new life as a new playthrough.
Regarding stage design, each stage is comprised of sixteen layered levels, which the player is freely able to ascend and descend to any freely. Across each level, other organisms to consume exist in addition to non-living cells which either restore health or help bring forth evolution. As players progress deeper and deeper one layer at a time, enemies will frequently become hostile, although many are non-confrontational and largely serve as fodder. To overcome predators, players must navigate strategically to consume them one health segment at a time. Of course, these enemies behave similarly; once the player's health has been depleted, they are sent upward one layer, so the penalty for death is minimal.
However, there is no requirement for the player to behave as a predator. Instead of consuming life, players may instead descend to the lowest layer where the current playthrough will end. Of course, such a play style may be difficult in levels which enemy hostility is high, and, naturally, avoids most of the game's in-game systems and gameplay mechanics. With that said, I didn't take the time to properly understand the evolution system and how it relates to player health, but I'm sure there is some balance of the two. Instead, I merely consumed all cells in any order as I neared them, which didn't cause me any concern.
Like later game soundtracks from thatgamecompany, Flow's music offers calming ambiance, but I seldom had the chance to properly listen to it. The reason for such is due to the constant barrage of interactive noises which serve as an audio feedback to life consumed. In deeper levels where cells move about by the dozens, there is little opportunity to avoid them even if wanting to, so the soundtrack becomes a distant sound. Since there are no in-game menus, audio control is not available. Having played the first half of the game with headphones, I found this issue quite bothersome.
Overall, Flow is a relaxing game which allows players to experience what's been created without much consequence. There is simplicity to it which allows for a certain element beauty to come forth, no different than later works made by the team.
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17. Dragon Age: Origins
Time played was 44 hours, and I had started this over a month ago but I had taken some breaks. I was super hooked on Heroes of Might & Magic III that I was spending big hours on playing that. I had to get to a point where I basically had run out of things to do with that because I kept going back to it. I'm still not going to bother with the campaigns but I had put in 381 hours since the beginning of the year or whenever I had put that on my list.
Back to DAO, it is a fine game. Has too much lore and I just am not that into delving into game lore like I did in Morrowind. Even when Skyrim came out I didn't care about reading the books like the previous games. So the codex was something I'd only look at when I needed a break. Nice to see the choices matter type in this game. Moreso that it can effect your party. I didn't look into spoilers because in general I did not run into many situations where I didn't know what to do next. Like I killed Wynne in the mage tower and didn't know until later she could have been recruited. I never ran into Zevran that I am aware of. Some in-game choices can make a party member rebel such as some choice I made where the chantry rogue decided to side with an enemy in a dungeon. Or when I spare Loghain and Alistair decided to just leave.
Issue with the ability for party members to rebel is that you get to gear them, so if that happens they are going to be using good items. The Chantry girl didn't have anything good yet but Alistair did. I always had in the back of my mind to try to bribe Alistair with gifts because I wasn't sure if I could beat him in a fight. Until I got to a point where I knew he couldn't beat me is when I stopped caring whether he liked me or not.
Sound and music was fine. Story was fine. The only big issue with story was the ending where it said someone had died but I never did the quest to kill them. I only played the Origins part and have not yet done the additional content that comes with the remaster or whatever, including the expansion pack. It did get me to watch that Dragon Age BD I've had for awhile and it makes me a bit more interested in the other games.
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I really wanted to love that game, it's so cool, but the hardcore depth of field visuals killed it for me, it's like the extreme version of what was done with the Link's Awakening remake, another one I didn't like.
Yes I didn't mention it but there were some issues with the visuals. Part of it was that when moving down the screen you can't see what's in front of you so sometimes you just run into enemies. Also the water effects were really weird and blinding upon loading a level.
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I finished the remaster of Advance Wars. Pretty mixed feelings on this. The tone is pretty bizarre with how light and fluffy it is even though it is very specifically about urban warfare and a lot of death. It also has an intense difficulty spike at the end of the game which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't really easy up to that point. I do generally like gameplay, though - aside from the fog of war mechanics.l, which I really didn't care for. Fog of war makes sense in games like this, but it's not implemented super well because moving and attacking aren't separate actions.
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40. Soul Hackers 2 - Paradise Lost Ending
Along with going through New Game Plus and getting the true ending, I was also able to get the platinum trophy. All demons in the compendium have been fused or summoned. All of the teammates had their soul levels at 200. All Soul Matrices have been explored. Everything else fell into place in the first playthrough. This was a very fun game. I enjoyed it way more than Persona 3. The main SMT series will always be my favorite, but Soul Hackers deserves some flowers. I liked its neon and techno vibe, the characters were relatable and likable, and the game didn't outstay its welcome. Doing everything took a good 60 hours across two files. There isn't too much else to say that hasn't been said from my previous post about it. I'll just end this update by recommending it to RPG fans.