Lurker > Underleveled

Hmm, I have not updated my list in a long time, have I?

8. Alex Rousseau
9. ???
10. Sun-Hwa Kwon
11. ???
12. ???
13. ???
14. Danielle Rousseau
15. ???
16. Jack Shephard
17. ???
18. ???
19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. Richard Alpert
23. ???
24. ???
25. Mr. Eko
26. Michael Dawson
27. Eloise Hawking
28. Jacob
29. Charles Widmore
30. Walt Lloyd
31. Claire Littleton
32. Pierre Chang
33. Libby Smith
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. Shannon Rutherford
37. Boone Carlyle
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Mewtwo59 posted...

What, did he get a black screen saying "Mikey left the game" like the Dan stuff?

No. Last episode ended on a cliffhanger with one person potentially leaving due to an injury. This episode opened the next day with Phil telling everyone that she was not cleared to return to the game, then very cryptically said "In another development, Mikey is also no longer competing on Tough as Nails" and left it at that.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Tough as Nails:
Given that they didn't say why Mikey went home or even give him a proper, televised goodbye, combined with his fairly aggressive behavior in the first two episodes, makes me think he likely got ejected for something and they didn't want to outright say that.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Well dang, I just played Spyro 2 a few weeks ago!

But here we go Yoshi! Knocking another unplayed game out of my collection!

Also...

KCF0107 posted...

GRIS is $6.79 USD for PS4
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP3643-CUSA16694_00-GRISPS4SIEA00000

So much for not risking waiting for a console sale. -_-

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

I tried to just blitz through the main missions at first and found it very difficult. Doing some side stuff made the later missions much easier. The experience and other benefits you get are extremely valuable.

As I said before, I went into the "point of no return" (they make it very, very clear what this is) at level 33, and didn't find what was beyond that exceedingly difficult, so those of you who have done much more than me and are going in at well over level 40 shouldn't have too much difficulty.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Yeah Dan ruined everything but you've got Noura, Janet, Elaine, Karishma, Jamal and Kellee as people that I'd love to see back and could actually reasonably see coming back, plus, even though I hate Dean and am not a fan of Lauren either, I wouldn't consider either a wasted returnee spot.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Naye745 posted...

that cast is absolutely loaded

So true though. Literally half the cast I would totally welcome a return appearance from (Chrissy, Devon, Mike, Lauren, Joe, Cole, Jessica, Ali, Alan... also Patrick and Simone but they were just out way too early for me to really consider them worthy when 37 and, I hate to admit it but 39 are also stacked with people I'd love to see back).

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

The only two seasons from the 10 most recent ones that I consider unequivocally good were 37 and 32. 35 and 40 are also in my top half, but 35 had a bad ending that soured it, and 40 had EoE eating up screen time and a disappointing pre-merge. The rest of the 30s are all easily in my bottom half.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

I'm not surprised. IIRC it was just outside the bottom 5 when EW did their fan-voted list.

It's still wrong, but I'm not surprised.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

HHH is legit top 10 material until the final two episodes. Even considering how bad those sucked, there's no way it should be anywhere near this low.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Seanchan posted...

Feels like I'm pretty close to the end game now with Horizon

I just did the Zero Dawn mission. Talk about A LOT of exposition... The fight against the Behemoth was a pain, if only because the damn thing wouldn't hit the pillars. Next thing is to head back to All Mother, so I figure there's that and there's a least one spot in the far northern reaches that the game hasn't sent me yet near a Stormbird site.

Amazingly, the Behemoth only took me one try (might have been two but if it was, the first one was like an insta-death), and I did it pretty quickly too.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Nom:
The Last of Us Part II

Support:
Halo: Combat Evolved

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
This is certainly one of the most accomplished feelings I've had adding a game to my "beaten" list in a very long time. This game had attracted me since I first looked into it back in the fall of 2016, but it took getting selected for GotM (and me having a PS5) to actually finally play it. There's a lot to get into and I'm sure I'm not going to do this game the complete justice it deserves in this write-up, so let's just get to it.

Games this big typically overwhelm me. Not just big physically, but with so many customization options. I just feel so out of my element, especially in games where you pretty much have to take full advantage of this customization so as to not have the game be impossible. Luckily, I actually thought this game streamlined everything pretty well. I was never confused as to how to navigate customizing, nor did I feel like I didn't understand why I was over/underpowered at certain points (err.. to a degree anyway; early on I felt some of this but it got a lot easier as it went on).

The game is MASSIVE. THIS is a beautiful, expansive open-world game with so much to do. At first I thought I was just going to blitz through the main story but that's just not possible. Not only is there so much that just intrigues you, but the difference in experience and... other things you gain from doing certain side missions are vital to making the game exponentially easier, which was honestly fine because I had fun roaming this world. Often times I would take time to just hunt, and I felt really good after upgrading and crafting after a big haul. Gaining lots of experience from quests that honestly didn't seem too difficult was also rewarding and made the truly harder quests feel a little less daunting.

I ended up doing some of the story quests out of order (not to a point where it actually affected the narrative, but there were certain parts where you could branch off and do things in either order, and I ended up doing ones with higher recommended levels first) which actually made the game easier as I went along. There were battles in the middle of the game that took me about a dozen tries, then the battles at the end of the game only took me like 1-3 tries on average.

The combat is awesome. Definitely requires building that skill tree to feel that way, but once I had a lot of weapons and skills to work with, I loved getting into combat (as long as I didn't have like, 3 or 4 mid-to-high tier machines to deal with at once).

Pretty much everything I did in this game felt satisfying, whether it was taking down a herd of machines, or finishing a mission, regardless of how short/easy or long/hard. The game's reward system makes it easy to feel like you're always moving forward. The one thing I'll say is that the story didn't intrigue me much until later on. The early portions felt like I was just doing extensive work to get some lore of this land and its people, but once the action really started getting going, and we got introduced to more characters, I felt more into it. Aloy herself was kind of bland at first but I did eventually get into her backstory and she definitely became more interesting later on. The scene where she scolded the Nora for bowing down to her was probably the turning point for me between "this is an okay protagonist" to "this is a pretty good protagonist."

And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my buds over in the GotM club. They helped me get through this game, support-wise. There were definitely times where I felt like I wasn't good enough for it, or downright frustrated at how bad I was at some things, but they were super supportive and occasionally gave a little hint to make it better, and I couldn't have done it without them.

Overall this was an awesome experience and I can't wait for Forbidden West.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

Well, this is one of the most accomplished gaming feelings I've had in a very long time. I'll post a full write-up in the other topic soon, but for now...

darkx has beaten Horizon: Zero Dawn

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 15; Most recent - Horizon: Zero Dawn

I've just entered the "point of no return" in HZD. I saved a separate file just in case I find myself to be underleveled (no pun intended). I'm going in at level 33 so if i make it through, you guys who have done way more than me should have no problem.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Just had my first battle with a Stormhawk and did pretty well. Only took me one try and didn't lose too much damage, especially compared to fighting Deathbringers. Now there is only one machine I haven't encountered (aside from DLC-exclusive ones). It's in the top right of the machine catalog, next to the Fire Bellowback.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Seanchan posted...

I wonder what darkx feels about some of the fights at the end of the Cauldrons.

Sigma was pretty easy. Xi took me a long time but wasn't difficult. Rho was tricky. Haven't done Zeta yet.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Yeah of all the characters that survived the series, the one that baffled me most by far was Ben.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Oof, first hit to my top 10.

8. Alex Rousseau
9. ???
10. ???
11. ???
12. ???
13. ???
14. ???
15. ???
16. ???
17. ???
18. ???
19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. Mr. Eko
26. Michael Dawson
27. Eloise Hawking
28. ???
29. ???
30. Walt Lloyd
31. Claire Littleton
32. ???
33. Libby Smith
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. Shannon Rutherford
37. Boone Carlyle
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

I loved Alex and always thought she was a brave badass, one of the most selfless characters on the show. Her death was by far the hardest for me to take (even though, spoilers but not really, I have other dead characters above her on my list) because it was such a gut-punch, and the last thing she ever heard was Ben saying he didn't care about her (he was bluffing, but it was still an awful last thing to hear).

In hindsight, I probably underranked Eko. He had a lot of great moments in S2 that I forgot about when I threw my list together. Claire though, man she REALLY suffers without Charlie. I really, really just did not care about her at all after S3.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Seanchan posted...

when using double/triple shots.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

One of the things that has made the game easier for me is knowing that you actually have to build up the gage for a machine to be affected by a status effect. I figured that once it had the little icon over its head it was affected, but not until after like 12 story quests did I finally see as a hint on a loading screen that you actually had to build it up.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Seanchan posted...

The first one was cake. There was a little area I could just peak my head out of to take a shot. First tear arrow took off like 80% of it's health; guess I hit it in the right glowy spot. I fired half a dozen "regular" arrows that did no damage and then I eventually hit a spot that took it down.

My experience with the 2nd was pretty much the same thing, except it only took 3-4 tries. I was busy sniping the humans and didn't know it would destroy the platform out from under me, so I fell to my death. Took a few more tries before I was able to kill most of them first and then rappel down without getting seen. Then I did the same circle strafing and trying to hit it in the glowy/vulnerable bits. Eventually it went down but it probably only took me a few dozen good hits as I've got the charge shot from the DLC and a bunch of purple damage and handling upgrades.

Yeah I used the same strategy for the first one. I just hid behind the wall and it never even saw me as I lobbed arrows at it.

I imagine I'd have an easier time with the second one now that I have some stronger weapons. The most recent story quest I did had a fight against a big machine at the end and I think it only took me one try (maybe two but if it did the first one was like, I died instantly) and was much quicker for me to finish.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. ???
26. Michael Dawson
27. Eloise Hawking
28. ???
29. ???
30. Walt Lloyd
31. ???
32. ???
33. Libby Smith
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. Shannon Rutherford
37. Boone Carlyle
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

Finally Boone's out. Not only was he awful for the reasons TC mentioned, but he was completely boring until the last few episodes before his death. I'm not always great with names when it comes to ensemble casts in a drama, but it took me exceptionally long to get Boone's name down (he was by far the last of the S1 main cast whose name I had down), and honestly it's not like he really had any potential. I never thought he had the potential to add anything to the show other than being Young, Good-Looking White Guy #4, and killing him off before the first season even ended was probably the most merciful thing they could have done to both his character and the audience.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Seanchan posted...

Closing in on 80% for Horizon, did a couple of big story missions in a row. LOTS of exposition, like an almost ridiculous amount. It's amusing to just warp to a campfire exactly where I need to go next because I'd already explored that area for fun a few dozen hours ago.

I didn't find either of the 2 fights with a Deathbringer too difficult, at least with my current load out and skills. I feel like I've had way more trouble with some of the other big, high end machines or when I get overrun by 3-4 mid-tier machines like those damn Stalkers.

The first one wasn't hard at all for me because it was stationary. The second one ultimately ended up being more long and annoying than difficult. After about a dozen tries of dying almost right away, I finally ended up breaking the fight by keeping my distance circling the perimeter of the room and spamming fire arrows and sharp shot arrows while jumping to slow time. I probably used well over a hundred arrows between the two. I'm sure that's not the way that fight was intended to go but I finished it.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

HZD Update:

Game Completion: 39.57%
Playtime: 25 hours, 30 mins
Level: 31

Main Quests: 18
Tallnecks: 5 (completed, except for the one in the DLC area)
Bandit Camps: 5
Cauldrons: 2
Corrupted Zones: 3

Vague story spoilers (related only to how much/little I have to go, no plot spoilers): At one point something that someone said made me think, just for a bit, that I was on the last story mission, but that didn't feel right because it seemed early and there were still too many loose ends. Turned out it wasn't, but according to a guide I only have four left.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

I was looking through some stuff I had on my comp and found this gem I don't think I ever posted.

Survivors playing Among Us

Boston Rob - We're all gonna go around in buddies. Your buddy is found dead, or you leave your buddy, you're the impostor.

Russell Hantz - Vote to eject who I say or I'm gonna get them to eject you next.

Fabio - Man, I've never played this map before. I have no idea where I found this body but it looks like a Christmas ham and now I'm hungry.

Tyson - How do I vent like Sierra did?

Yul - Well, if you went into the reactor and then I saw you in the cafeteria, even if I made a stop in comms, you wouldn't have had enough time to get there without venting.

Carter - *vents in front of everybody* *comes back out* Um... that was nothing.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. ???
26. Michael Dawson
27. Eloise Hawking
28. ???
29. ???
30. Walt Lloyd
31. ???
32. ???
33. ???
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. Shannon Rutherford
37. ???
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

We have a match in placement on Walt! (except by my system he would be your 31)

Between my 37 and 38, one is kinda a personal hatred that I understand not showing up for a while, but the other is long overdue IMO.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Splatoon 3, then Detective Club.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

GameStonk posted...

And this is summed up most obviously in the fact that they did not plan for their adolescent actor's aging. It's mindblowing.

Yep, this pretty much sums up my thoughts on how poorly they planned out Walt's arc. Word for word.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

I think Eloise, like several other series-long recurring characters (Penny, Christian, Rose, Bernard.. maybe Chang?) was only credited as a main cast member for the finale.

I always found it weird that Alex and Danielle were not in the finale.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

GameStonk posted...

(seriously, why in the world would Sayid want to end up with the chick he dated for a week instead of the woman that he traveled around the world and almost died countless times to be with?)

IMO it has nothing to do with what he wanted, rather, in the afterlife, everyone ended up with their soulmate, even if from an unexpected source.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

That certainly was an ending to an episode.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

19. Ana-Lucia Cortez
20. ???
21. Kate Austen
22. ???
23. ???
24. ???
25. ???
26. Michael Dawson
27. ???
28. ???
29. ???
30. ???
31. ???
32. ???
33. ???
34. Charlotte Lewis
35. Ilana Verdanksy
36. ???
37. ???
38. ???
39. Paulo
40. Nikki Fernandez

Nothing especially egregious so far.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

So, I hate Mikey, and he's clearly a jerk, but I'll take him over Danny since he at least has a personality and is bringing real drama instead of being a gamebot.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Aerosmith - Janie's Got a Gun

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

StartTheMachine posted...

Eminem - Stan

Dunno if this should count. The song is about obsession, and someone happens to get murdered in it; it's not even the object of his obsession that he kills.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

I had a few in mind when I nominated this but they've gone poof now. I think Pumped Up Kicks might have been one of them so I'll go with that for now.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

BetrayedTangy posted...

I think the only thinking keeping Crono and Sora lower for me is that we literally just got Sephiroth. I doubt we'll get another Square character on top of him.

This plus I really just don't think Nintendo gives a shit about Chrono Trigger. I'd love to see some evidence otherwise, but I hardly think it's something they realize people care about.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Torlovsk posted...

Crash

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

I didn't play yesterday or today, so I'll get back to it tomorrow night.

Just a reminder to everyone (myself included) that this is the short month.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

UltimaterializerX posted...

It's way higher than 3%. Sora, Dante, Crono, Ryu Hayabusa, and Crash Bandicoot are my list of "will not remotely be surprised".

That's probably my list except swap Crono out for Lara Croft.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Ranticoot posted...

I don't think Crash is plausible and oh god Shantae is definitely not plausible so uh

Sol Badguy maybe

Crash is a hell of a lot more plausible than Sol Badguy.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Hmm, yeah I can agree to Juliet being the hottest chick on the island. Hottest overall is Penny.

Shout out to Naomi though.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

KamikazePotato posted...

Isaac, if he still counts as plausible

Otherwise Lloyd

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

UltimaterializerX posted...

I've come around on this. I'd love to see it happen, and I was basically 100% against it a year ago.

Like he is legitimately the best possible character to put in at this point.

I dunno if I'd go THAT far but I really can't think of a good reason to NOT put him in.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

While I wouldn't particularly mind Chun-Li herself, I'd be a bit disappointed that a 3rd party series got a third character over an unrepped series or a lacking 1st party series.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

mnkboy907 posted...

To add onto this, if you count Charlie as core then I feel like you also have to count Ben and Juliet as core, even if they weren't around from the beginning. Ben especially is more core to the plot than characters like Sun and Jin.

Okay and if we're including Ben and Juliet then we should include Desmond and THERE I really think that's the absolute bottom cutoff point, but yeah I'm fine with it just being the 8 main characters in all six seasons.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

GameStonk posted...

Pretty obvious spoilers: the top of the list is very male-centric

Same here. My male-to-female ratio in the top 10 is 7-3, and in the top 5 it's 4-1.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Alex is a badass who is good on her own merits and I won't hear otherwise, and Sun is pretty great, otherwise andylt's assessment is pretty spot on.

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Nanis23 posted...

And a personal, random thing I want-
Golden Sun Trilogy remakes or just plain Golden Sun 4 and Isaac for Smash because come on we suffered long enough and Camelot doesn't do anything for 3 years now

Yes to all of this

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darkx
Games beaten in 2021 - 14; Most recent - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga