Messages

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: March 06, 2026, 12:37:52 pm »

21. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Red

We're starting the game that'll eventually grant me my 150th platinum! Naturally, it has to be my favorite game of all time. The first character I finished was the same character I played the very first time I played the original. Red is always a good "starter" hero for those that don't know much about the game and it's mechanics. When his quest finally opens up, the Remaster does a good job of keeping players aware of what they have to do next. I decided to use Gen, Liza, Fuse and Lute along with Red. Gen, Fuse and Lute are available in all of the other campaigns so that'll be handy for the new game pluses. Liza might not be I'm going to build her up as much as I can when she's around. During this play through, I managed to knock out some trophy requirements that I'd normally never bother with. One was for getting a Mariche. The second was for getting a Dullhalan. Red's campaign ended with a fun bang. Up next is Emilia.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: March 04, 2026, 08:36:58 am »

20. Resident Evil 2 Remake - Claire

While the rest of the world was hiding as Grace or blasting away as Leon, I was trying to do a bit of both with Claire Redfield. I've been hopping from game to game out of order and I'm finally getting around to playing the remake that started it all. Compared to the others, this was a fun but drastic change of pace. The odds were stacked against players from the start. Every enemy was resilient, making item management and ammo conservation essential. I really enjoyed playing as Claire because I feel like she doesn't get as much time in the spotlight compared to Leon. (I'll still play through the game with him at some point). Her mini-grenade launcher was an excellent weapon. I think my biggest gripe with the game was the necessary back and forth managing limited item space. That, and the tight quarters when fighting bosses or attempting to deal with Ivies. Otherwise, this was a great game. I can see why many still consider it the best of the moderns.

I decided to jump back into RE2R after beating RE9. I haven't beat it since early 2020 and never as Claire. It's still a phenomenal game.

Nice! I had a lot of fun with it. Quick pro tip: remember to develop any roles of film you come across because it'll uncover some hidden goods in the station. I'm not sure if this was the same in Leon's case.

(I'm not sure why Claire just couldn't open the drawers that contained them since everything else could be opened but. Whatever.)

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: March 03, 2026, 09:28:28 am »

20. Resident Evil 2 Remake - Claire

While the rest of the world was hiding as Grace or blasting away as Leon, I was trying to do a bit of both with Claire Redfield. I've been hopping from game to game out of order and I'm finally getting around to playing the remake that started it all. Compared to the others, this was a fun but drastic change of pace. The odds were stacked against players from the start. Every enemy was resilient, making item management and ammo conservation essential. I really enjoyed playing as Claire because I feel like she doesn't get as much time in the spotlight compared to Leon. (I'll still play through the game with him at some point). Her mini-grenade launcher was an excellent weapon. I think my biggest gripe with the game was the necessary back and forth managing limited item space. That, and the tight quarters when fighting bosses or attempting to deal with Ivies. Otherwise, this was a great game. I can see why many still consider it the best of the moderns.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 28, 2026, 05:29:19 pm »

19. Trails in the Sky First Chapter

Gehenna froze over twice this year! Am I Trails fan now? After another 50 hours with another entry (albeit a modern one) it's hard to say. I'll always prefer classic Falcom sprites to 3D models, but this remake really came through. I have a few complaints that I'll disseminate in a review, but the only one I want to mention now to get off my chest is enemy HP. I played on standard difficulty and all of the Intelligence Division enemies had HP bloated to high heaven. It was ridiculous. Naturally, they gave crap experience, too. Anything to pad the game, I guess? Otherwise, this was another pleasant surprise. I can't say I'm not intrigued by what Second Chapter would have in store based on the ending.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: February 28, 2026, 05:01:20 pm »

10 - Resident Evil: Requiem (PC 2026) - BEAT - Was gonna take my time, spread it out over the weekend with a few hours every day, but I just binged it hard lol I had a pretty good time with it, it was a fun idea they did, where they people like both the more slower survival horror side of things, RE2R/RE7, but also like the more actiony stuff, RE4/RE8, so why not both? Grace is perfect as someone new dealing with these horrors, having a setup that feels more standard survival horror, exploring a big hospital.  Leon slips in and out, and then later you get a section with him that is more actiony in general, generally splitting the game.

Part of me wishes it was more just Grace and doing stuff that feels more like RE2R/RE7, I'm not so nostalgia driven like some fans are where they need the lead to be Leon, or Chris, or whoever else has done this before, I like having a character who struggles to handle what is going on, it's what makes it more creepy, compared to Leon spouting off one-liners.  I do like those one-liners, I like how cheesy and action heavy he is, but I like the survival horror leaning the other way more.  That's something I wish they did more, there's not enough puzzling, maybe trying to figure out progression more, that feels abit lax in this game.  It's not bad, I just want more of that.

Overall quite fun, not my favorite, but definitely good.

Dang! You plowed through that one!

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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.