Lurker > Arti

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Sceptilesolar posted...

I don't know most of these so I will go with Archer of Shinjuku.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

I am in this screenshot

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

I did basically nothing, thanks tax season

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#1 - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2, 2003; played on PSP, 2007; DS, 2008; and PC, 2016)

My number one game, as it has been for years, is Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, which I've played in many forms and have done almost everything there is to do in the game - and there's still more I think I can do in it. I feel that it is the only Disgaea that I've enjoyed to the fullest, and considering the Disgaea games I've played through to the end of the story (1, 2, D2, and Infinite), all of them have one of the characters from Disgaea 1 as a main character at some point in it. It really shows how well-developed the characters of this first game are overall.

I mentioned this in my writeup of ZHP way back, but NIS does its best when the humor really sticks its mark, and in Disgaea 1 it does the best out of any NIS game. From the interactions with Mid-Boss to the chapters with CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF EARTH it's a great ride through the story. Even when it pivots off to do some drama in a few chapters as well as some of the endings, it doesn't feel too out of place and still presents it very well. Gordon and Laharl are probably my two favorite NIS characters in their entire history, as CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF EARTH is just an amazing humor character every time he speaks, and Laharl also makes many great scenes better as well. His laugh is also amazing, and I will never forget how it sounds.

Of course, Disgaea is more than just a well presented story, it's the very first SRPG where numbers go up to absolutely insane amounts. Grinding is a necessary evil in Disgaea as you can push character levels, statistics, and equipment up to as high as you want to go. Not that you need to for any purposes, but some of the superbosses definitely require a good amount of grinding. I still remember farming CoO3 many, many times to get the levels and stats I needed. (Or Demonhall Mirror once CoO3 becomes obsolete.)

Not only that, but Disgaea offers a great deal of character customization with its master/apprentice skill system, as well as any character being able to equip any kind of weapon they want. Want a healer throwing out elemental spells all over the map? You can definitely do that. Getting some useful heal spells onto Laharl was definitely a factor that contributed to my first clear of the final bonus boss of the game. Plus, you can name every one of your characters besides the main ones, and like Nick does in his writeup, several of my character names have been passed through many other Disgaea games and multiple versions of this game in particular!

I still have yet to play the PS4 version, but I'm saving that one for a trophy milestone somewhere down the road - I don't really have the time at the moment to make it #200 and I already have several plans for that number. I know, however, that I will still enjoy my time with it just as much as I have throughout my many playthroughs of this game to date.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Yu Yu Hakusho

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

RikkuAlmighty posted...

Utawarerumono games

Atlus license expired so these have been delisted except for Prelude to the Fallen, buy them on PC instead

Snake5555555555 posted...

Datura

please dear god do not play this garbage

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

ninkendo posted...

SHINE Platinum #50 x 4 = 200!

https://youtu.be/lHVdoWO6F9c

I said a good game

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/10190-link-a-pix-deluxe/ArcticCress
https://www.truetrophies.com/game/LinkaPix-Deluxe-Vita/trophies?gamerid=5963

The last of the Lightwood Games that I currently haven't finished, this puzzler has you linking numbers on a grid to form a shape. The basic thing is that you link two numbers that are the same, and the number of squares that the link must take is equal to the number that you are linking together. The solution image linked below can probably explain it better than I can.

https://knoef.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Dog1015-691x1024.png

Anyway, while the game has 240 puzzles and I intend to play through all of them, the platinum only requires a tenth of those, instead assigning the trophies to a number of individual puzzles. Most of these trophies have a picture of an animal drawn in their grid. I really just wanted to clear out some of the games on my trophy list that the recent TrueTrophies challenge shoved on it - there's a lot of games started during that which I do want to play through at some point!

Next is #200 which will be a pretty special milestone! Hopefully I can choose a good game to represent it this time.


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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Probably Gems of War

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http://backloggery.com/articuno2001/sig.gif
azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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http://backloggery.com/articuno2001/sig.gif
azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

ninkendo posted...

I hopped online

got 700K in trick attack

everyone left

:(

too good for the people online

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

You have just posted this exact same message - you may not post identical messages in a row

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Fate/Zero
Steins;Gate

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

I have the Vita CE! I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but I plan to start it sometime this month.

Looks like they added artcards this time around, which weren't in the PS4/Vita CE.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#2 - Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (SNES, 1992 JP; played on DS, 2009)

Dragon Quest V is an unique game in its own series and much different from most of its other SNES RPG counterparts. The main thing about Dragon Quest V is that DQV Hero, the main character, is no legendary hero and never is throughout the entirety of the game. Dragon Quest V simply tells the story of this character's life.

At a short glance, there's nothing very special about Dragon Quest V. Like all of the games in the series, it's mostly a basic turn-based RPG. The Hero can tame monsters and have them join the party. I especially used the Golem, Slime Knight, and of course the Sabrecat. Where Dragon Quest V excels is in the story it tells, and even on the DS some of the cutscenes it goes through are some of the most powerful that I've seen, and of course all of them are spoilers, so I won't talk about most of them here. But this writeup would be pretty short otherwise, so I'll talk about this a bit.

About five hours into the game, Pankraz's sacrifice is a powerful cutscene that sets the stage for how the game continues. The cutscene is done like a regular boss fight, with the two monsters repeatedly attacking him while he simply takes it as his son is being held captive. It's simplistic but works extremely well in getting you to play more after that point. I had a playthrough topic on the board here when I was playing through this, but at that point I didn't want to write anymore and just wanted to keep playing after that, and the playthrough topic was eventually abandoned shortly after I played through these events.

Dragon Quest V is simply a special game throughout its entire runtime, and I can still remember most of the game even ten years after I played through it. It's no surprise to me that Yuji Horii has said it's his favorite of the series either, of the games that I've played it's definitely his best work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRpiz734Sw

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#3 - Persona 5 (PS4, 2017)

I hold the very uncommon opinion of ranking the modern Persona titles as such: 5 > 3 > 4, and have posted as such many times over the last few years, so those that remember that probably expected to see this high on my list!

Where Persona 5 excels is mostly in its writing. The story itself isn't that much of an improvement over previous titles, but the social links... er, confidants are some of the best the series has to offer. Unlike the past titles, which have a few boring ones mixed in with the more interesting ones, I feel Persona 5 actually did a great job of making every confidant storyline interesting enough to make it worth raising every one to the end. Considering this is already pretty much half of the game by itself, it's a welcome addition.

In battle, Persona 5 also ditches the shadows of prior games in the series, and replaces them with the Shin Megami Tensei demons that are much more well known. No need to guess five or so times to find the weakness of Shadow A and ending up dead before you can figure it out. This also brought back demon negotiation to the Persona series which was not present since the Persona 2 duology. It's pretty much the same as any SMT title so I won't be going into specifics here. There's a lot more strategy that can be used within battles with baton passing and various gun skills that get unlocked throughout the game. It's probably the best battle system of any of the Shin Megami Tensei or Persona titles that are out there now.

Exploration is also changed with the Palaces that are now the main dungeons of the game - instead of a randomized dungeon the palaces are instead actual, static dungeons based on a place visited in the story. This allows for more story within the palaces themselves, and makes the dungeon crawling a much more exciting part of the game. There are some annoyances with the exploration in some of the later dungeons, but it's not that big of a deal in the end.

In short, Persona 5 is an amazing video game, and the long wait definitely paid off as it managed to fit and exceed what I expected it to be. I haven't played Royal yet, but I am playing Strikers now and it's definitely a treat to see all these characters again - kind of missed them a bit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-OFP-0H5g


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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

most_games_r_ok posted...

Lu Bu too small. Also needs more BENEVOLENCE

I checked an article on this and it's only covering the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Anti Dong Zhou Coalition, so no benevolence to be found yet.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

great game

TTYD is better, as I've said in the top 100 ranking I've been doing on the board

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Lu Bu looks nothing like his in-game representation

live action guy has zero muscle

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

it's ok, Olivier made top 5 of the Trails characters

that's a win right there

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

tcaz2 posted...

Anelace top 3 Sky girl

better than Estelle, Kloe, and Tita? impossible

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Mr Crispy posted...

Any Brandish related stuff on there?

good joke

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#4 - 428: Shibuya Scramble (PS4, 2018)

Along with Steins;Gate and Muv Luv Alternative, 428: Shibuya Scramble are the three visual novels that I've given a 10/10 rating on vndb.org, suggesting that all three of these visual novels are among the best in their genre. Of the three, I feel 428: Shibuya Scramble stands over the other two pretty easily.

Instead of focusing on a single protagonist in 428, the game focuses on five protagonists that you follow through a single day in Shibuya: rookie detective Shinya Kano, former gang member Achi Endo, freelance writer Minoru Minorikawa, virus researcher Kenji Osawa, and Tama, a girl trapped in a cat mascot costume. The game begins by explaining that one of Kenji Osawa's twin daughters was kidnapped for ransom, and the kidnappers asked for her twin sister to bring the ransom to the statue of Hachiko near the Shibuya Scramble Crossing. Shinya Kano is assigned to the case and is staking out in the area, while Achi Endo ends up in the area by pure circumstance. The other protagonist eventually get their stories started and intertwined with the others, frequently appearing throughout each other's stories all the way to the end. 428 is a crime thriller from the get go, but some of the different storylines in the game crossover into other genres, like Tama's being more comedic than the others. Unlike most visual novels which use drawings for backgrounds and character art, 428 is completely live action throughout the entire game (except for a post-story unlockable), shot in Shibuya itself. The game is shown through still images, so there's no voice acting or character movement.

The purpose of the game is to get all the protagonists to the end of each hour of the game through their interactions with the other protagonists - one protagonist will get some red text in their stories references someone else, which allows you to jump over to another protagonist's story, which is usually locked until this is fulfilled. Sometimes, decisions made in the early parts of one character's route can lead to a bad ending in another route. For example, one character is asked for directions from a number of shady men. If you give them the correct directions, they cause a bad ending in another character's route - so you only want to do this if you're collecting all the bad endings!

I mentioned I played through most of Steins;Gate within a week. This game is much longer and I played through almost the entire game in a single weekend - clearing the last six in-game hours, all the bad endings, and all the post-game content as well. By noon in-game I was pretty much hooked and had to know what happened next. All the characters seem believable and the story really has no flaws - besides the character of Canaan, but I blame that on the Fate series writer. The game also has a mini dungeon adventure added as an easter egg in one route, which is a nice diversion from the main plot if you choose to go through it.

The producer, Koichi Nakamura, has pretty much said that 428: Shibuya Scramble was not a financial success considering how much the original game cost to produce, though he has the framework for a sequel to 428 in his mind if it ever seems feasible. Which is kind of a shame because it was not exactly a genre that sells well over here, and it's only available for PS4/Steam with no handheld release, which it would be perfect for (Japan had PSP and mobile versions at some point).

If you like visual novels at all, 428: Shibuya Scramble is a game not to be missed.

Soundtrack Links
Sekai wa Sore demo Kawari wa Shinai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X_qh1hWUu8
Main Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQIRaAsFMw

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#5 - Steins;Gate (Vita, 2015)

This is the choice of Steins Gate.

Steins;Gate is the perfect example of games that I somehow end up impulse buying that end up being the best games I have ever purchased (there's one more of those on this list up ahead.) In 2016, I was unemployed for the entire year so I had a good look at many video games during this period, and I also had a trophy streak going on. Steins;Gate happened to be a good candidate for the daily streak with a number of random trophies like "change phone ringtone" and stuff, so I used it like this for about a week, saying that I would probably go back to it later and see how the game actually was.

Ended up reading the entire visual novel in less than a week.

Steins;Gate's main character is Rintaro Okabe, a self proclaimed mad scientist who is the head of the Future Gadget Laboratory, where he makes inventions that are pretty useless in general. Through sheer circumstance, one of these inventions is found to be able to send messages back in time, effectively changing the present and future by jumping to another worldline. Unlike most visual novel protagonists, Okabe isn't a stupid bland dude you can use as a self-insert; he's a fully developed character from the get go and the VN honestly would not work as well without his personality.

In my eyes, after reading through the game multiple times, I think Steins;Gate is the perfect example for someone trying to get into visual novels having already tried the pseudo ones such as Zero Escape and Phoenix Wright games. It hooks you in from the get-go with a very interesting prologue, and though some of the early chapters can be rather long, there is a certain point where there's no way you're putting it down until you see the end. When I said I read through the entire thing in a week, the last four chapters were done in a day. There simply was no reason for me to put my Vita down to stop, and I even had it in the charger during this time so I could read without waiting.

I've bought every SciAdv title since reading through this one, and Steins;Gate 0 made it on this list while Chaos;Child slightly missed it. Unfortunately, I'm still reading through Robotics;Notes as it also suffers from the "interesting hook but slow start" that all Science Adventure games seem to have. I'm not sure that Mages and 5pb will ever be able to top this game's quality ever, in any of their releases. They're certainly not giving up, as there's another Steins title in development and I'll definitely pick it up if it ever gets localized over here.

I own both the spinoffs, Darling of Loving Vows and Linear Bound Phenogram but for some reason have not started either of them. I feel that reading 0 was probably necessary as it expanded the plot, but I feel like the story of Steins;Gate is perfect as it is, and needs no changes. It was a very special visual novel from beginning to end, and deserves all the praise it gets.

El Psy Kongroo

Soundtrack Links
Sky Clad Observer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2LDC0sTsEQ

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

You did it

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#7 - NieR: Automata (PS4, 2017)
and
#6 - NieR (PS3, 2010)

NieR, and its sequel Automata, are both special games with some of the best storylines, characters, and music in video gaming.

Let's talk about Automata first - Automata has better action gameplay but worse characters. While 9S is great and has the best character growth, 2B is pretty much a boring character. It also has the worse backtracking, with having to play the first half of the game once following 2B and then again following 9S, which makes it a bit more annoying to play through than the repeated 2nd part in the original NieR. However, the action gameplay is much better than how clunky NieR is, given Platinum Games' work on it. It's very fun to play through and a lot of the boss fights are well designed. I still am not a fan of the bullet hell bosses that make up most of this series, but the ability to slash through the bullets makes it a nonissue for me overall. The story in Automata is one of the best of the console generation it's on and I basically marathoned the story once I got past 9S's recap section. I also ignored the trophy shop at the end of the game and played my way through every trophy on the list, wanting to do as much as I could without using it (and I did get the platinum without it.)

The original NieR may be classified as an action RPG, but it mixes up genres at different points of the game to keep things fresh. In particular, Emil's basement changes the game to a top-down perspective rather than the usual layout. Also, the forest area changes the game to a text adventure. Both are integrated very well into the core game that they feel just as good as the rest of it, which is a treat. Both games start with an opening sequence that make you want to see what the hell is going on, but I think NieR does it better with the short cutscene in the beginning and short fight scene. Also, the dialogue between Nier, Grimoire Weiss, Kaine and Emil is great for the group of four who really play off each other very well, and it's all voiced - which is why I was happy to see that all the original voice actors came back to voice their characters again for the NieR remake coming out later this year. I will always love opening up the game and hearing Kaine's rant about Weiss getting hypnotized by the Shadowlord every time. I hope that's in the remake too!

There's no talking about either of these two games without mentioning the soundtrack, and instead of talking too much about it, I will instead just post a huge amount of links near the end. Keiichi Okabe along with Emi Evans' lyrics makes up some of the great tracks below. I do like NieR's soundtrack more overall (and place it second in all OSTs in its console generation, behind only Atelier Ayesha), but both are excellent and deserve the praise they get.

There's not much I can go into here overall without dipping too much into spoiler territory and NieR is best left unspoiled as much as possible. I didn't even give a proper writeup when I ranked it back in 2017 on my top 10 list, so this is sort of a good do-over for me. I always thank Board 8 for getting me to play NieR for my 50th platinum as it is their best choice for any game that the board has recommended for me.

Soundtrack Links
Hills of Radiant Winds (NieR)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJHppNnNZL4
Emil ~ Karma (NieR)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ZQYURYaAs
Song of the Ancients ~ Fate (NieR)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ady--PNMsfI
Shadowlord (NieR)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXPW0oBKgg
Kaine ~ Salvation (both games)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viDKam_hmGM
Amusement Park (NieR: Automata)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS0T9bRJSwU
Birth of a Wish (NieR: Automata)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQannt3efw8

THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE THIS CANNOT CONTINUE

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Ashethan posted...

I'll be honest, the only one I recognize is "Shoe", and I couldn't have told you its name before looking it up.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Anyway, for my list, 7 and 6 are pretty intertwined so I'm going to post both of them in a combined writeup tomorrow instead of one today.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Naye745 posted...

you know what stage was always pretty bad? pokefloats

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

hoping for ZHP and Makai Kingdom in Vol.2

and hey I can finally play Soul Nomad!

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#8 - Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS, 2014)

There's been a good amount of rhythm games all over my top 100, and I tend to buy a good few every year. Theatrhythm though is what I've found to be the best out of all the rhythm games I've played, for various reasons.

Curtain Call is a follow-up sequel to the original Theathrhythm: Final Fantasy, which was a decent game, but had a very low amount of songs included on its cartridge. Curtain Call remedies this problem by having the base game contain well over 200 songs from the entire series, with another 100 songs as DLC. The game still breaks it up between Field (traverse through a map based on the game it's from), Battle (a battle between various enemies, with a boss from the game it's from), and Event (a map based on a cutscene from the game itself) stages depending on the song. Not only does it have songs from the main games in the series, but it also brings together tracks from many spinoff games as well, such as Dissidia, Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, Mystic Quest, Type-0, and others. Also unlike the original game (and the Kingdom Hearts rhythm game released this year), almost all of the songs are available at the very beginning, with only a few exceptions. Instead, the game mostly has you unlock different characters spanning the entire series. You start with a choice between the 14 main characters of the main series at the time (XV was not released yet) and unlock all of the others through collecting crystal shards. Each character has certain abilities that they receive from leveling up through quests, each one having a different loadout. Some might have abilities that benefit the different stages the game has.

The main way to unlock more characters with shards is the Quest Medley mode, a new mode introduced in this game. These can range from short to long depending on how many songs the game will have you playing throughout the quest. In each medley, your party traverses through a map or dungeon with a boss at the end. There's usually multiple paths to the boss, and several random events that can happen as you go through the map. Songs are hidden until played through once, and the quest can be repeated as many times as needed for EXP and drops (but not crystal shards). It's a nice addition to the game, and was much better when StreetPass was a big thing as it allowed people to trade quest medley maps with each other. I have quite a few of them myself that I've received from others.

The versus mode is an interesting concept, but bad in practice. It allows you to face off with another player (or CPU opponent) by playing the same song, but the game is made more difficult by having you use various attacks on the other player by changing the trigger speed, trigger size, monster strength, timing, or other things. I never did much in this mode because I absolutely hated it, and mostly just ignored it entirely after a while. (They brought it back in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory and it had a trophy for finishing it, which really annoyed me.)

Anyway, with over 300 songs including DLC, every game from the main series has at least ten songs to play through and chances are your favorite song from the series is in here somewhere. There are a few other songs from the series are also used as menu songs that didn't get bumped up to being playable. The DLC is also nice that it not only limits itself to Final Fantasy tracks, but also manages to pull in tracks from other Square-Enix games. The DLC includes tracks from Chrono Trigger, NieR, Bravely Default, The World Ends With You, the SaGa series, and others. Having Corridors of Time, Hills of Radiant Winds, Calling and all my favorite Final Fantasy tracks was an amazing combination. The DLC tracks will also sometimes appear in quest medleys after being purchased as well, a nice addition to the game.

I still go back to Curtain Call every so often and lose myself for a few hours. I have all the characters and songs, but one day I might actually unlock all the collectacards in the game (I don't think so though, some are extremely rare drops). It's definitely a game I keep revisiting and enjoying myself, and that's why it holds such a high rank on this list.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

that is indeed the best line in the series

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#9 - Mother 3 (GBA, 2006 JP)

Strange, funny and heartrending.

It's amazing to see a slogan that can really sum up as great a game as Mother 3 is in such a small amount of words, but Mother 3's slogan really does it justice. Mother 3 is the 3rd game in the Mother series, which includes EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound. Never released outside of Japan, it got a very high quality fan translation that brings it very close with EarthBound's humorous translation, as well as the more serious parts of Mother 3's excellent story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qUJdZC39VE

Mother 3 doesn't lead off with Lucas as you might think of from Smash - rather, it follows a number of other characters for the first few chapters before settling in with a party, allowing you to experience how life in Tazmily Village and the Nowhere Islands is before the Pigmasks arrive. While the maps are much smaller than either of the two previous titles in the series, the quality of the maps are packed to make it as interesting as possible moving through the different environments of the Nowhere Islands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv5Y8dV-zu0

EarthBound introduced the rolling HP bar mechanic that was a nice addition to the battle system, but Mother 3 takes it a step further with its battles. Mother 3 introduced a combo system in battle, where you can deal additional damage by pressing the attack button to the beat of the battle theme. This is hard to do on an emulator, though, so I never had much luck getting very far. (And when I played this, I wasn't the rhythm game fanatic I am now).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiVyjq0bvf4

One of Mother 3's biggest strengths, and why I keep posting videos throughout this writeup, is the amazing soundtrack that accompanies the game. It takes not only remixed versions of some of the best songs in the previous games, but also adds its own great songs to the mix. Some are available in Smash but I think the Smash remix of the Mother 3 Love Theme ruins the purpose of the original song, but some of the others are good choices for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfCA4qAitNU

My only complaint with Mother 3 is the absolute brain-dead portion of Chapter 7 where it seems like the entire party simply loses their minds for the entire scene, and if you have played the game, you know exactly what scene I am talking about here. I get it's for plot reasons but there surely needed to be a script rework here that would make it at least somewhat believable in the moment. The rest of the game, however, is still an excellent work overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHSu_K6WHb0

Itoi has been very insistent on not working on any more video games in the Mother series after this one, but I am fine with that decision as it would be incredibly hard to top this game. It's also the highest Nintendo game on my list. Will we ever see an official English release of the game? Probably not, but it's definitely deserving of one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pSe2XhlsMw

No crying until the end.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

KingButz posted...

Today I learned that Nick has beaten Mega Man 2 40,000 times.

that's a lot of times

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

I played Trails in the Sky back on the PSP in 2011, before anyone really knew what it was before it became more popular with its PC release and via word of mouth.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

#10 - Judgment (PS4, 2019)

While I still haven't caught up on the full Yakuza series and am still stuck in Yakuza 3 somewhere, since it's a whole new protagonist and perspective with Takayuki Yagami as the protagonist for this game, I decided to skip ahead and play this one anyway. I'm glad I did, since it's one of my favorite games of all time now.



As said above, Takayuki Yagami is the main character of Judgment, a private investigator in Kamurocho. Yagami was originally a young defense attorney who managed to get a not guilty verdict for one of his clients, but then said client went on to murder his girlfriend and burn down her house. As such, Yagami resigned from his job. Judgment's story revolves around a serial killer that Yagami calls the Mole, who is killing various people in Kamurocho and gouging out their eyes. The story and characters in this, I think, is the most interesting of the series as it breaks out of the Yakuza crime scene (though it still involves them somewhat) and tells an all-new story, one that gets even darker than most of the Yakuza titles I've played. I was very impressed with how great this game got as I kept playing through it, so much that I went through the last few chapters in the game in a few hours just because I had to see what happened next.

Judgment returns to the multiple styles of fighting first started in Yakuza 0, as Yagami has two fighting styles to choose from; the Crane style which is more effective against groups of enemies, and the Tiger style that is more effective at one-on-one combat. Yagami can also utilize walls in his attacks by doing various attacks through wall jumping. I felt the combat was more fluid than the more recent Yakuza titles, such as Kiwami 2 which only has Kiryu using a single style. Though the annoyance of battles are when fighting certain bosses, Yagami gets inflicted with Mortal Wounds from the more powerful attacks utilized, which can't be healed through normally and require a separate (and expensive) item to recover. It does make the game a bit more challenging overall though, which is a nice plus to it.

Judgment also continues the recent trend of upgrading the better minigames available in the series (though the loss of karaoke is annoying, it makes sense given Yagami's Japanese VA). Most of the mainstays return, some with even more areas than before (three different mahjong ares to win at!). The bowling alley is repurposed as a VR board game where you chase after a king cat while also trying to reach the end. It's as ridiculous as it sounds sometimes. Yagami also has a drone he uses during some of his main story investigations, and he's able to use this drone in races around Kamurocho as well. Some of the races have really tight timing requirements so much that I still haven't finished all of them yet! Judgment also has side cases which usually focus more on Yagami's detective work, such as tailing enemies, taking pictures, lockpicking, and other such activities. There's also friend events for various people in Kamurocho that also have certain tasks available to complete.

Like all Yakuza titles, Judgment is crammed full of amazing content but the story and characters of this spinoff places it higher than the other titles in the Yakuza series, as well as a high spot on my overall games list. I still haven't finished some parts of it yet, though, and I still have to go through Legend mode for the platinum anyway!

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

List so far

100. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Vita, 2014)
99. Style Savvy: Trendsetters (3DS, 2012)
98. Diablo II (PC, 2000)
97. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies (3DS, 2013)
96. Cosmic Star Heroine (Vita, 2017)
95. Fate/Extella Link (PS4, 2019)
94. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS, 2013)
93. South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3, 2014)
92. Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey (PC, 2014)
91. Dynasty Warriors 8 (PS3, 2013)
90. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS, 2011)
89. Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (3DS, 2015)
88. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GameCube, 2003)
87. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (3DS, 2014)
86. Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (DS, 2010)
85. Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version (Vita, 2015 JP)
84. Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (PS3, 2012)
83. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC (PSP, 2011)
82. Kirby Super Star (SNES, 1996 / DS, 2008)
81. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS, 2001)
80. The World Ends With You (DS, 2008)
79. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory (Vita, 2018)
78. The Walking Dead: Season One (Vita, 2012)
77. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (PC, 2010)
76. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES, 1996)
75. Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube, 2001)
74. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS, 2010)
73. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (DS, 2007)
72. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (Vita, 2015)
71. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017)
70. DJMAX Respect (PS4, 2015)
69. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PC, 2000 / GBA, 2001)
68. Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)
67. Tales of Xillia (PS3, 2013)
66. Final Fantasy VII (PS1, 1997)
65. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)
64. EarthBound (SNES, 1995)
63. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018)
62. Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994)
61. Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (PS3, 2011)
60. Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS, 2013)
59. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F (PS3, 2013)
58. Lost Dimension (Vita, 2015)
57. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4, 2017)
56. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS, 2010)
55. Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman (PSP, 2010)
54. Until Dawn (PS4, 2015)
53. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii, 2007)
52. Tales of Graces f (PS3, 2012)
51. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GameCube, 2004)
50. Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS, 2016)
49. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd (Vita, 2014)
48. Elite Beat Agents (DS, 2006)
47. Pocket Card Jockey (3DS, 2016)
46. Ys: Memories of Celceta (Vita, 2013)
45. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone (PS4, 2017)
44. Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (Vita, 2018)
43. Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (PS3, 2013)
42. Pokemon Black/White (DS, 2011)
41. Pokemon Black 2/White 2 (DS, 2012)
40. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES, 1996)
39. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (Vita, 2016)
38. Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky (PS3, 2014)
37. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4, 2018)
36. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4, 2018)
35. Steins;Gate 0 (Vita, 2016)
34. Animal Crossing (GameCube, 2002)
33. Fate grand/order (Android, 2017)
32. Love Live! School idol festival (Android, 2014)
31. Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS, 2005)
30. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA, 2003)
29. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PSP, 2015)
28. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Vita, 2014)
27. AI: The Somnium Files (PS4, 2019)
26. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Vita, 2017)
25. SSX (PS3, 2012)
24. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (3DS, 2016)
23. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations (DS, 2007)
22. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (3DS, 2012 / Vita, 2012)
21. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2, 2006 / PSP, 2009)
20. Ever17 -the out of infinity- (PC, 2005)
19. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, 2008)
18. Fate/stay night (PC, 2004 JP)
17. Yakuza 0 (PS4, 2017)
16. Guild Wars (PC, 2005)
15. Radiant Historia (DS, 2011)
14. SSX 3 (GameCube, 2003)
13. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS, 2009 / 3DS, 2011)
12. Muv-Luv Alternative (Vita, 2017)
11. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360, 2008)

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/11295-kandagawa-jet-girls/ArcticCress
https://www.truetrophies.com/game/Kandagawa-Jet-Girls/trophies?gamerid=5963

Another day, another fun multiplayer game from Honey Parade Games. Apparently this is also a tie in with some anime I didn't watch, but I doubt the story is any more compelling than the one attached to this game. Platinum is pretty basic and only one of the stories has a chapter race that's actually somewhat difficult, but I still cleared it on the first try. The AI only uses the base versions of each jet machine, so any upgrades you put on the one you use makes the game that much easier.

All in all it was a good break after the craziness of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, so I'll move onto another game... probably Persona 5 Strikers next.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

No video games for me thank you

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

ctesjbuvf posted...

I meant the physical version for PS5, I should have specified that. I own a physical PS4 version, would like to own this physically on PS5 and still transfer my save file from PS4 over.

Yeah, you should be fine. From their FAQ:

Will my save file for Final Fantasy VII Remake work with Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade?
Yes. You can carry over save data from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.
An update patch which supports carrying over PlayStation 4 save data will be available before the PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is released.
After the patch has been applied, an option will appear on the title menu for the PlayStation 4 version to carry over your save data.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

Sorozone posted...

Still waiting on the PC release.

I'll download to see how it fares on an OG PS4 though.

it runs fine, no problems

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

I think I'm going to make this game be my 200th platinum

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

You did it

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!

ok

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http://backloggery.com/articuno2001/sig.gif
azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!