52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

[tripredacus]

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.

[kashell]

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.

[telly]

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.

[bikingjahuty]

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)

[kamikazekeeg]

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.

[bikingjahuty]

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]

[kamikazekeeg]

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.

[kashell]

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.

[moonlightvalkyrie]

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.

[dhaabi]

13. Tchia || PlayStation 5 || 02.25.24



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.

[kashell]

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.

[dhaabi]

14. Tinykin || PlayStation 5 || 03.06.24



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.

[kashell]

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.

[kashell]

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.

[realpoketendonl]

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