Messages

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 19, 2026, 10:56:45 am »

18. Resident Evil Village - Shadows of Rose

Well, this was a fun and spooky little piece of DLC. Rose was shown a bit during the end of the regular campaign, but she got her time to shine in this DLC. I liked her as a lead. This made the actual gameplay more manageable. Going from a fully loaded Ethan to a clunky Rose was a struggle. Even with her unique powers, the game felt longer due to the constant running and scrounging for materials. In terms of atmosphere, though? Tens across the board. The part where you have to play red-light/green-light was absolutely nerve wracking and terrifying.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 16, 2026, 08:45:50 am »

17. It Takes Two - platinum'd

Done! We went through some favorite stages, as well as the stages where we missed stuff to mark this as 100 percent complete. Overall, we did damn good when it came to uncovering everything the first go-around.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 15, 2026, 10:20:34 am »

16. It Takes Two

My partner and I played this. As a game, I have thoughts. As a story, I have more thoughts. I'll definitely get a review up for this one. We're also going to go through parts of it again to get the last remaining trophies. For now, I'll say that this is mostly competent co-op game worth checking out if you have someone to play with - a requirement.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 09, 2026, 08:15:37 am »

15. Resident Evil Village

I didn't play VII, but I was able to hop right into this thanks to the game's introduction and brief rundown of what happened. I got to learn about Ethan and his crazy adventures in the Baker house, and while I admit I am curious to see more, I know I wouldn't be able to play it for long stretches without getting motion sickness. All that to say gamers can happily play VIII without having played VII. This game was a lot of fun, and it feels like a blueprint for the remake for 4. Ethan was an interesting lead. We barely saw his face, which was an odd choice, but I still felt for him. He really came into his own as he acquired more weapons and things to craft. One thing where the game really shined was atmosphere. Every area had a mixture of creepiness and action, which is a hard balance to get nowadays because of the game market being so saturated. As usual, the biggest issue was the camera and the combat. Most boss battles felt like a Souls game in terms of difficulty and action. Funnily enough, the only time I got a game over was when it was an instant kill (Moreau) or when I was just being silly against certain enemies (specifically in the factory area). I'll probably play the Rose DLC next.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 08, 2026, 03:24:31 pm »

14. Star Ocean: First Departure R - The Adventure Continues

A couple of complaints about this game before the praising. The first is the encounter rate. As fun as combat is, the encounter rate is high and none of the methods to lower it work. The second is the Appraising skill. I never understood why they included it in the first place in Second Story - just tell me what the item is and stop wasting my time. Otherwise, this was a solid game and a lot of fun to platinum. Going for all the trophies meant doing things I didn't do before: getting the SFTs, learning new moves due to SFTs, seeing certain PAs, seeing special endings, recruiting all the characters, and seeing all of the animated movies. Some QoL features would have boosted this closer to excellence, but otherwise this was classic Star Ocean for all the right reasons. I hope they add Till the End of Time back to the catalogue so I can get that, too!

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 05, 2026, 07:48:53 am »

13. Star Ocean: First Departure R

I finished the other part of the first playthrough. There's nothing major to report; it was kind of a speedrun. I removed Mavelle from the party, and put T'Nique and Welch in the party. I didn't use either of them much.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 04, 2026, 01:13:30 pm »

That's good to know about Requiem. I knew the Leon segments would at least be in third-person, but wasn't sure about the other characters'.

Games in first-person make me nauseous so third-person is a requirement.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: February 04, 2026, 08:03:22 am »

Thanks to its third person option, I've been playing a ton of Resident Evil Village. I was so bummed about them moving the game to first person with VII, so seeing this option for VIII was nice.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 02, 2026, 09:34:56 am »

11. Mega Man ZX Advent - Ashe

I did it for the booty. Compared to ZX, Advent is ten steps above. Even the horrid voice acting adds to the charm. It's similar in a lot of ways to ZX, but it offers more things to collect, more forms, and better data management. Transforming into old bosses feels like such a surreal thing. I've played nearly all Mega Man top to bottom, and being able to fully transform into a downed RM or Maverick is something unheard of. I forgot how fun it was to do so. We'll see if I do a Gray file. The Star Force collection is coming out next month and I feel like this is a great way to get ready for it.

12. Star Ocean: First Departure R - Timeless Treasures

The Timeless Treasures ending was the one I was the most worried about getting, but really it wasn't bad. Using the Publication Super Specialty, everyone was able to have level 8 affection with Roddick. Then, rotating them between the final boss fights boosted the affection to 9. There was no need to worry about dialogue options or Private Actions. Seeing that ending was heartwarming - I'm glad I took a few extra steps to get it. That aside, this has been a great replay so far! I feel like this is an underrated iteration in the series. Yeah, it's one of those games where it's short length feels padded by lots of backtracking, but it's a lot of fun since it copies the design from the original Second Story which is still fun to play and highly regarded.My final party is Roddick, Cyuss, Ioushua and Millie. I took some time to grind levels with the silver trumpet and it made a world of difference for the final challenges. Will it help with the upcoming Cave of Seven Stars? That's TBD, but I'm looking forward to it.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 26, 2026, 01:46:25 pm »

10. Mega Man Zero 3

I ended up jumping into this instead of Advent, and I'm glad I did. This is still my favorite from this sub-series. The Recoil Rod is a lot more fun than the special weapons from the other games. It's not used as much as the saber or gun, but still a fun little trick weapon. I managed to keep an A ranking the entire time. I also managed to get most of the secret disks. I'll probably do another run through this year and go for the ones I'm missing while attempting to get an S rank.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 26, 2026, 08:34:52 am »

9. Grandia II HD - platinum'd

My second platinum of the year, and one step closer to 150! Compared to the first game, Grandia II is the better title for the most part. I don't like how drastically and quickly Ryudo changes personalities, but otherwise the cast and story is a step forward in development with a more mature story line to match. I played the game on Hard mode, which was a new addition to this HD collection. Overall, it wasn't that much more difficult than the standard difficulty. The two toughest fights were the Body of Valmar and the final boss. The final boss was tough because its speed was insane. Spell after spell after spell. Thankfully, I held onto all my important items like feathers and SP restoratives. The game is a true classic, but this port? Man, what a letdown. First, there's the sound quality. Moving the cursor up and down has this laser beam "pew" sound and it is loud. There's no way to adjust sound quality, either. Music will fade out, and then restart. That's not a big deal but it's noticeable in an otherwise epic soundtrack. Then, there's the freeze-framing that happens when a battle ends. It looks like the game is about to glitch - the character that does the victory pose will often freeze for a split second before finishing said pose. However, the only time the game crashed on me was in a random dungeon when I was walking. Annoying? Yes. But, RPG 101: save often, and Grandia's full HP/MP/SP restorative save points are everywhere. I lost all of 10 minutes of game time so, not a big deal but still something that happened when I wasn't expecting it. This is my third time going through the game. First was on PlayStation 2 and it was a passable port. Second was on the Dreamcast and it's crazy to think that this original version is still the best version. Now, we have this HD port and while the game is still a lot of fun, it's probably the worst way to go about playing it.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 22, 2026, 03:48:12 pm »

8. Mega Man ZX - Vent

This was a lot more fun than I remember it being. Mega Merging is a rad concept that keeps the action going non-stop, despite some forms being more useful than others. The water form is just about useless. The game was also a lot more challenging. While the save point issue is resolved in this collection, it still doesn't mean the game is simple. Enemies move fast and hit hard. And they're everywhere. This is a big game that clearly took advantage of the jump from GBA to DS. There's also a darker tone with the story. One thing I forgot about until I finished the first boss was that you have to be careful how you land your hits. If you damage a Maverick incorrectly, then your rewards are decreased. E Crystals can be used to make any repairs, but still. It's frustrating to see a Level 1 or 2 finish despite trying to be careful.

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General / Re: When will your backlog actually be completed?

« on: January 20, 2026, 10:53:04 am »

I think it will. Historically speaking, the untouched games eventually get played or they get traded in because I lose interest and/or my taste changes.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 20, 2026, 08:09:21 am »

6. Roomerang

We had friends over and loaded up the ninth party pack on Jack Box. This was the only game we played, but it was a lot of fun as always. And I won! I rarely win at Jack Box. I played a "goody two shoes" so it was one of those art imitates life moments.

7. Mega Man Zero 4

Yeah, I'm glad I skipped one because I want to save Zero 3 for last and get this one over with. Hell, I may even do ZX and ZX Advent next because neither can compare to the pinnacle of Zero 3. Zero 4 isn't bad, it's just that it flipped the formula too much. You have to farm enemies for parts - kind of like an RPG. Normally I wouldn't mind something like this but not in a high-speed action game like Mega Man Zero. Also, his grabby claw weapon was only used for certain puzzles instead of serving as a good weapon substitute. I give a lot of points for creativity and effort, but ultimately it wasn't as fun as Capcom and them had hoped.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 14, 2026, 09:40:00 am »

5. Mega Man Zero 2

I'll start with the good: multiple forms to unlock, more unique Cyber Elves, a story that makes me question the game's E rating (and graphics that do the same), and an overall fun adventure that lessened some of the brutality from the first game. When you begin the final battle, there's a blood-curdling scream from the enemy that is just...something else. The dialogue is still Woolsey-ish, but the themes aren't lost because of it. Things went DARK in Zero 2, which is fitting since a lot of the story revolves around a Dark Cyber Elf. Now for the bad. Namely, the bosses. It's common knowledge that touching an enemy will damage you. This just doesn't apply to Mega Man games - it's pretty universal. For some reason, it seems to be extra egregious here in Zero 2. All of my deaths were from an enemy running into me. Never an all out attack or a projectile, but of a collision. It was...kind of annoying. Now I'm determining if I want to jump to Zero 3 or save the best for last and jump to Zero 4, instead.