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16

News / Re: Top 10 Edits all time (as of June 2025)

« on: June 11, 2025, 09:20:52 pm »

Where can I see my number?

Thanks

Edit information for every public member profile can be viewed from the About page on the main site which is accessed by clicking their avatar. So, your page is here. Currently, you have submitted 99 edits which have been approved.

17

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 11, 2025, 09:14:16 am »

37. Samurai Shaver || Browser || 06.10.2025



Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what kind of rhythm games were available on itch.io, and stumbled upon Samurai Shaver. I wasn't actually planning to play through the whole game despite its short length, but I found myself playing through it all.

Just as its name implies, the the sole objective of the game is to successfully shave samurais as they're brought before you along a conveyor belt to the center of the screen, one at a time and fully nude. However, it's not just their facial hair that's being shaved. Instead, hair needing shaved is in an assortment of places such as the face, chest, and legs. Patches of hair are randomly present, and the player—who I also assume is a samurai based on in-game art—must take calculated timed swings to remove it, which is executed by a simple button press. Of course, since Samurai Shaver is a rhythm game, music accompanies on-screen action. A falling line moves from each samurai's head to toe which telegraphs when timed swings need to be executed, and timing is naturally synced to the game's music. Before the line moves downward, lines indicating where the hair is appears in the rhythm needing to follow. I didn't think this added UI was helpful at first but saw its importance as the game progressed since numerous patches of hair may be grouped together to where it's difficult to know how many there are.

Inevitably, players will make a mistake while shaving which results in samurai being cut with their portrait changing to them screaming with some blood gushing. It's a funny transition. However, there isn't any penalty for either mis-shaving or missing hair altogether. Stages are short, so a simple score tally system is implemented instead based on how many samurai were fully shaved successfully. Surprisingly, but ultimately to the game's benefit, difficulty steadily increases with each stage. Toward the end, track tempo is considerably fast, and stage requirements reflect that with a faster-moving guiding line to follow and samurai having greater patches of hair to shave. I wasn't interested in perfecting the eight stages and only tried them each once, but the game's arcade-like quality definitely complements gameplay.

This was another game jam project developed which was developed in 72 hours, and it has a lot of quality. I didn't play the game's original version, though, as numerous updates have been published since its original submission. There is a lot of quality, and apparently it was well received within the event. Art is simple, but it's an illustrative style that has fun personality. Music is, naturally, the game's highlight and is well-written while combining traditional Japanese instruments such as the shamisen with some small inclusion of chiptune elements, which the latter brings a frantic level of energy and tension. On the accompanying Bandcamp page where the soundtrack is available to download, detailed estimates for how much time was spent composing each track is provided, which I found interesting from a development perspective.

On a whim, I decided to try out Samurai Shaver, and I was pleasantly surprised by this short project. Beyond the steadily increasing difficulty, there is not much depth to the game, though the developers easily accomplished their goal at developing a comical experience.

18

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Category/Platform Requests 2.0

« on: June 10, 2025, 02:36:53 pm »

I don't see anything mentioned in either of the topics that say that clone systems with their own library of games are invalid. With that said, is there any reason why Micro Genius can't have its own sub-category?
https://vgcollect.com/item/128685

19

Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 10, 2025, 09:13:43 am »

Adding The Blood of Dawnwalker to my list of potentials. New trailer was shown with a longer gameplay showcase scheduled for June 21st. Comes from Witcher 3 devs and it looks on par with it.

This was one of the few trailers I actually chose to not watch because neither its name nor video thumbnail looked interesting, so it helped that you highlighted it here. It seems okay and is something I'll be casually monitoring, but there seems to be considerable overlap between this protagonist and The Witcher's Geralt. Hopefully it can stand out enough from that franchise.

20

Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 08, 2025, 07:11:39 pm »

I skimmed through trailers again (albeit much more liberally), but this time from yesterday's Wholesome Games direct.

Is This Seat Taken?
I don't think this kind of seating arrangement puzzle game is all too common, but I know I've played one like it in the past. This looks fun for a casual puzzle experience, along with an expected cute art style.

Milano's Odd Job Collection
This was quite the surprise announcement. This game was originally released for PlayStation only in Japan, and this is the first time it's been officially translated (and voiced, even) in a language other than Japanese. I actually just recently learned about this game within the last few months, and it looks fun for a simple life sim game with plenty of minigames.

21

Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 08, 2025, 04:10:30 pm »

After skimming through what was uploaded as individual trailers, it's clear that there was little to my interest shown today from Xbox. Overall, it seemed lackluster.

Beasts of Reincarnation
Game Freak of all developers has decided to take their shot at an Asia-inspired action-RPG, which is so overdone that it should be its own thematic genre by this point.

Keeper
I'm not really sure how I feel about this fully, but this was—by far—the most interesting game shown in this presentation. Original ideas like these will always catch my attention.

Persona 4 Revival
I've been wanting to play Persona 4 for some time. Who's to say how much difference this remake will be from the original game or even its updated Golden release, but I feel as if the PlayStation 4 port of the game seemed fine already. Unfortunately, that's pricey, though maybe it'll decrease in market value. Just like with Persona 3 Reload, I doubt the additional content from Golden will be available at its release.

22

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 08, 2025, 10:09:02 am »

36. Sasquatchers || Playdate || 06.06.2025



Slowly, I'm continuing to play through and complete as many of the included games which were bundled with the Playdate, with Sasquatchers being the next title. I haven't played a grid-based strategy game with this level of movable freedom in around a decade, so I was curious what this game would be like.

Despite Sasquatchers being a grid-based strategy game, it is a lot different than the overwhelming majority of other titles within the genre. Instead of typical turn-based combat encounters, the goal is to explore forested grounds in the pursuit of documenting wandering cryptids for social media and monetary gains. In other words, the creatures you're searching for are ones like the rumored and elusive sasquatch and chupacabra. So, the player's broad goal is to earn the highest number of views, likes, and subscriber gains by capturing quality photos. There are bonuses to earn for strategic shots such as multiple subjects being in frame and a subject being documented for the first time, but, simultaneously, there are deductions for reasons like subjects blinking, being obscured, or with a dazed condition. Certainly, the game's premise is unique which helps it stand out. As for who players control, they are a team of "fame-seeking scientist-influencers" who are, predictably, insufferable to varying degrees, though fortunately there is not much dialogue to read. They each have unique skill sets such as being able to take selfies, to lure cryptids to you instead of moving aimlessly, or to use drones to help survey far-off places.

Naturally, your party is focused on discovering cryptids who, like yourself, roam the darkness once per turn. Some of these creatures are docile yet can be provoked, whereas others seem to be aggressive by default. When in this state of aggression, they will attack crew members who can become knocked out or have their equipment damaged, thus rendering them useless or temporarily incapacitated. Additionally, some cryptids simply behave like the animals they are in ways like emitting gross odors which stun nearby party members. Moving back to the crew van or to discoverable camp sites will help replenish any status effects or health lost, and there really isn't any repercussion or even fail chance for utilizing these resources. One appreciated battle possibility is that, randomly, nearby enemies may attack crew members while trying to capture their photo. This results in either a lost turn or even equipment being broken. Unfortunately, though, this aspect disregards strategy or skill entirely, as these occurrences can't be avoided. So, it just makes completing the immediate goal longer.

Nevertheless, beyond the overarching shared goal amongst crew members, each stage has numerous missions to clear. These missions will either comprise of earning a certain dollar amount through photos per cryptid or by simply documenting each cryptid once. At first, I was irritated that each objectives cannot be grouped together with the game instead ending each mission immediately once its goal as been cleared, but I realized that some of the later game segments would become annoyingly long if numerous objectives were grouped together. With how the game flow is designed, neither scenario is strong and would benefit from strengthening the general gameplay loop. Across each mission, players will likely be performing the same basic actions while reacting to the same each turn consequences, meaning there is little variety to gameplay with diminishing returns from the game's proposed strategy roots.

Once each of the game's sixteen missions are completed, there is no incentive to continue playing which perhaps should be expected. Since missions are simple to accomplish—though there are inconveniences which obviously increase time spent playing—there is little satisfaction toward progressing through the game's campaign. Had there been greater consequences and more depth to the game's action system, revisiting the game could potentially be a worthwhile thing to do. This is especially true since there are actually two unlockable party members with unique skill sets which could allow for players to act methodically, though I actually never even used either of them since the game never really increased in difficulty at any point or proposed any reason for me to try out anything new. Nevertheless, there are five total crew members and five cryptid varieties, which is fine for a game of this scope. It's easy to accrue excess money, and I was able to purchase everything that's available before the game's midpoint which largely makes any additional funds gained useless within the context of gameplay purposes. Managing resources or equipment which could be purchased to compensate for an increased game difficulty could have been interesting to see.

While Sasquatchers is an interesting concept, it is ultimately a game that would have benefited from more development to elevate it to be a proper strategy game. From beginning to end, I relied on the same actions with the same party members, and it just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again during my entire time playing. It's not necessarily a bad game, but I imagine many who played this weren't all that impressed.

23

Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 07, 2025, 02:21:05 pm »

There are definitely some new games that still appeal to me, but it's becoming more and more obvious that whatever devs have in mind for new games, they don't have people like me in mind. Whatever, I'll take what I can get.

What sort of aspects would you like for developers to have in mind for audiences like you? More arcade-style gameplay? From what I know about what you play, those aspects seem to be a major interest of yours considering the majority of what you play seems to be from fighting and shoot 'em up genres. Are you opposed to less commercial games? I feel like plenty exist even on consoles, but maybe that is a quality you don't want to sacrifice with what you want to play.

I guess the tl;dr of it is certain genres I really enjoy are under represented now, especially by bigger studios, and I also feel like the industry is a bit stuck due to greed and low risk tolerance. That is what I mean when I say it doesn't feel like the industry is making games for me anymore. Obviously, there are a lot of people who are still buying many of these titles, but it definitely isn't me.

I understand your opinions, and there is a lot of overlap between them and mine. And they're not unpopular ones either—just maybe not the most popular by comparison. Still, trends change, so what's popular now won't be in another ten years, just like what was popular in 2015 isn't what's popular now (or most popular, anyway.) I think that general opinion toward free-to-play models alongside the battle royale and hero shooters genres is dwindling and isn't even sustainable for developers, so something new will need to be found to command consumer attention.

Gaming has obviously been commercialized for decades, but big money corporate investors far greater than ever before are firmly rooted now and obviously have major influence over how developers design their games. And since big-budget, AAA games more often than not take five or more years to develop, there are many instances of titles chasing trends which either aren't popular by the time they finally release or release in a market where that style of game has become oversaturated (i.e. games influenced by Souls gameplay, games inspired by Ghost of Tsushima's setting and tone, or action-adventure platforming games wanting to be the next Hollow Knight.) Still, this has always been the case. It happened before the '90s too, but some of the biggest examples of developers chasing the trend previously was with Doom and Resident Evil (both the original title and Resident Evil 4 specifically) previously, and the market became flooded. There always were and always will be alternatives, but I suppose that depends on an individual level based on how open someone is to playing a variety of gaming genres.

But despite that, I'm still consistently drawn to numerous games during each of these kinds of events. They're not all games I know I'll play just since I can only play so many, but I still acknowledge their uniqueness and for the possibility for them to be successful and to attract a passionate audience of any size. Fortunately, the kind of games I tend to play don't incorporate micro-transactions and seldom release DLC which means that there are plenty of modern games which avoid those practices. I suppose it helps that I also don't play that many newly released games either, so I never feel as if I'm just waiting for something new to play.

24

Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 06, 2025, 10:19:09 pm »

There are definitely some new games that still appeal to me, but it's becoming more and more obvious that whatever devs have in mind for new games, they don't have people like me in mind. Whatever, I'll take what I can get.

What sort of aspects would you like for developers to have in mind for audiences like you? More arcade-style gameplay? From what I know about what you play, those aspects seem to be a major interest of yours considering the majority of what you play seems to be from fighting and shoot 'em up genres. Are you opposed to less commercial games? I feel like plenty exist even on consoles, but maybe that is a quality you don't want to sacrifice with what you want to play.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Summer Game Fest 2025

« on: June 06, 2025, 10:03:19 pm »

Alongside the immediately following Day of the Devs presentation, there were enough announcements and updates for games that are impressionable.

Summer Game Fest
Felt That: Boxing
This features a praiseworthy puppet art style reminiscent of Sesame Street with arcade-like boxing gameplay. It's always refreshing to see developers have a unique idea and implement it strongly.

Fractured Blooms
The narration for this trailer was eerie, leaving me wanting to know more. I'm not entirely enthralled by everything shown including the character design, but it's enough for it to pique my interest.

Ill
A horror game that looks impressively terrifying, but I'm not sure how I feel about what was shown in regards to the narrative context with military involvement. The trailer doesn't make clear what genre the game is exactly, but it doesn't really seem like survival horror but instead an action-focused shooter which, as a result, diminishes its established horror.

Into the Unwell
This features an attractive art style that I'm assuming is intended to imitate rubber hose animation. Apparently gameplay is randomized to some extent which is questionable, as it looks like the game would be far more interesting as a 3D platformer or some sort of grounded action-adventure game. Multiplayer options are optional which, based on the trailer, seem odd to me to include.

Out of Words
This was easily best-looking game presented. It's a visually striking 2D co-op platformer crafted from tangible 3D models in stop-motion.

Resident Evil Requiem
As the ninth mainline Resident Evil entry, I'm not really sure how I'm feeling about it. I definitely want to see more of it before making finer judgment since, despite looking good, it's mentioned to be different. Apart from character connections and setting, nothing about this particularly looked like Resident Evil to me. Eight months until its release isn't long, and I'm sure there will be several occasions where gameplay will be shown. Regardless, Capcom is set to have a successful year in 2026 with this, Onimusha, and Pragmata being scheduled for release then.

Stranger than Heaven
Ryu ga Gotoku's latest original game. The setting has been changed from 1915 to 1943 which is certainly odd and a big change to make so late into development. I loved seeing how interactive the crowd was when a combat encounter began, and the enemy designs were fun.

Day of the Devs
Big Walk
It's been shown before as a social game, but a closer look at what it is exactly was shown. It's more than just a social tool, though, as it's some sort of multiplayer puzzle-adventure game with objectives to overcome that require teamwork which emphasizes communication in some fashion. Vocal dialogue isn't always accessible, so finding out how to communicate is part of the discovery. It looks fun, but I know I won't be playing it.

Consume Me
This life sim strategy game comprised of quirky action minigames has a lot of personality. I highly doubt I'll ever play it, but it looks fun with a lot of personality.

Please, Watch the Artwork
Self-described as a "psychological spot-the-difference [horror] game" which repurposes Edward Hopper's paintings. Gameplay revolves around observing any anomalies when viewing animated artwork. I enjoyed the developer's previous game Please, Touch the Artwork 2, so I think I'd enjoy this game too.

Tire Boy
This has a lot of playful energy within the frame of a coming-of-age exploratory adventure in some strange world. I'm interested.

26

Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Developer/Publisher Requests

« on: June 06, 2025, 03:28:00 pm »

https://vgcollect.com/item/283309
Publisher: Côté Gamers

Unfortunately, this is another field option that's influenced by the ongoing encoding issue that we're waiting to be solved by site developers. Right now, Côté Gamers already exists as a field option but is only recognized as C. You can see how it's been affected with entries like 244316.

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Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Category/Platform Requests 2.0

« on: June 06, 2025, 10:08:42 am »

What about accessories for items such as the Switch 2 Camera? Or digital categories for items such as Fast Fusion which do not belong in a physical category?

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: June 06, 2025, 09:09:16 am »

Gamestop done goofed again. This time... multiple people and countless outlets are reporting customers recieving damaged nintendo switch 2s.

Whats everyone's thoughts on it?

This was an incident occurring at one single GameStop store location in a city with seventeen stores, by my count. It's certainly upsetting for those affected, but the company plans to solve the issue through some sort of reimbursement or exchange.

Gamestop gave zero F's and probably figured early adopters had maybe a 60% chance of getting their new game system home without getting mugged. What's a staple to them?

Here to report that my friend was one of thousands in New York City who braved the dangers of the city's war-ravaged streets in order to secure a Switch 2 and made it home safely without violence or staples involved.

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Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Category/Platform Requests 2.0

« on: June 06, 2025, 08:51:58 am »

Switch 2 Consoles, Switch 2 NA, EU and JP created. Those regional sections are for physical games only.
Will add the digital section once it is confirmed what it is called.

It has been confirmed that the Switch 2 digital storefront maintains the eShop name.

Physical items for AU, CN, KR, and TW regional libraries alongside accessories have been confirmed.

30

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 04, 2025, 07:33:15 pm »

4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass (DLC) [Nintendo Switch]

I always struggle a bit with when DLC is substantial enough to be considered a separate entry.

I mean, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe itself is already a re-release of a game, only it included the previously paid DLC as part of the base experience. It's a little surprising just how long and how much Nintendo was able to profit from this one specific entry.