Board 8 > Post games I haven't played and I'll tier them

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dream Quest

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Tiers not ordered

I already own this game, but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet
A Plague Tale: Innocence

Interested enough to say I'll play it one day
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt
Stray

Looks good, but I probably won't ever play it
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
Fears to Fathom
ZeroRanger
Wachenroder
Shining Force III
The Mortuary Assistant
Chroma Squad

Fight'N Rage - Beat em up fighters are not a genre I enjoy. My friends insisted I play that TMNT remake with them, so that's the only one I've ever finished. And I really just mindlessly mashed my way through that. I love the HD spritework here, and the reviews I skimmed over are extremely positive, but yeah. This is not an interesting genre to me, so it can't go any higher than this.

Star Control II - This looks like a very impressive game in terms of graphical clarity and scope for its time. The grand strategy genre is one I'm a massive casual in (I play maybe one or two games of Civ per year, and I barely understand the mechanics well enough to win on normal mode), so it's often a bit daunting to manage all of the different systems operating in the background (I've never even beaten FTL once). This game looks rewarding for someone who does put in that level of effort, and the reviews suggest there's a lot of funny dialogue as a reward. Unfortunately, this is another genre that isn't really for me. Could be a cool game for someone else though!

Mystic Messenger - This is clearly a very popular game and I can both understand the appeal of this style of otome game and appreciate that it exists. However, I'm definitely not the intended audience of a mobile-based otome dating sim. The text / group message style is something I've seen in other games (though none I can recall off the top of my head) and I think that probably adds to the realism / escapism these style of games intend to achieve. I'm happy that this game exists for some people to connect deeply to, but I'll never be one of them.

Unclear without playing
One Night Stand
Killer7
That Dragon, Cancer

Pistol Whip - I've never tried one of the 'real' VR sets before, but there's a list of games I'd want to try if I ever did have the opportunity - Beat Saber, Superhot, maybe this? The sounds are little blaring when watching the gameplay videos, but I'd at least give it a good try if I had the opportunity to. Maybe if VR prices ever come down to something affordable.

NOL NOT DIGITAL - This is a truly obtuse game. Never released outside of Japan, there's not even a review I could find in English, and very few videos on youtube of gameplay even! It's a sort of dating sim, though the gameplay appears to be totally disconnected from the story, or at least from what I would expect the gameplay to look like? I can't tell if this is the sort of thing that's truly pushing the bounds of what a gaming experience can be or if it's just shitty gameplay and a chock standard horny dating sim story. It's really impossible to know without a proper review.

Outclassed by others
Tadpole Treble
Hatena Satena
Papo & Yo
Super Tempo

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life - There's just way too many of these town simulation games these days and I don't particularly care for the genre too much. Maybe this is a cornerstone game for the genre, but I really have no interest in playing any more games in this genre that's become completely overbloated with games today.

Tsugunai: Atonement - The combat system and random encounters look painfully slow. I think it's pretty likely that everything innovative this game achieved in its time has been improved upon since to the extent that this isn't worth playing. It appears its most innovative battle gimmick is a sort of Paper Mario style guard system where you have to time a button press to block damage, where you have multiple choices for what button to press (which gives you a different amount of frames to press). That seems needlessly complicated for very little added fun. Unless the story is truly remarkable, which doesn't appear to be the case, if reviews are anything to go by.

Fairy Godmother Tycoon - This kind of looks like an educational game? Something about the artstyle looks like it's out of a picture book (which is apt for a Fairy Godmother, i suppose). It doesn't look like it's been dumbed down compared to the other tycoon games of this time, which is a positive. Still, without the nostalgia aspect that the Tycoon games of this era need to evoke (which for me, is roller coaster Tycoon 1+2 and Zoo Tycoon), I think it's simply outclassed by newer simulation games with modern bells and whistles. If I had played this as a kid, it just might have been beloved

Probably Overstays Its Welcome
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
Mad Rat Dead
tobu tobu girl!
Custom Robo: Battle Revolution

Pilotwings Resort - Didn't Wii Sports Resort have Dogfighting and Skydiving? I had that game as a kid/teen and really enjoyed it, especially the multiplayer aspects. This feels like a step backwards from that in reverting to single player, no online, and from what I can see, not even new areas to explore (it's still just Wuhu Island?). I can't imagine playing this for more than like 30 minutes without getting bored.

Too janky
Happys Humble Burger Farm
Neverland Card Battles
Elebits

A very bad design choice
Steambot Chronicles
Psybadek
Mythic Protocol
Welcome to Primrose Lake

Space Invaders Infinity Gene - The sound design hurts my ears. That's the biggest issue I have here. Otherwise, I could probably play this for about 30 minutes before getting bored, which is about 25 minutes better than I can do with the original Space Invaders.

This is a Very Bad Game
Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie (Amiga)

I've Played This Game Before
Super Mario Bros.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

Tales of the Abyss - Congratulations, you have lost! I've played and beaten this game, though I only remember a few major plot points now that it's been about 12 years. I don't anticipate replaying this game since I no longer have my PS2, although I enjoyed it the first time around. The music is banging and the major plot points I remember are great.

VVVVVV - You lose! I consider myself to be a bit of a 2D platformer aficionado, or at least for the more popular ones. I must've played this a few months after it came out. I even got all of the little collectibles (including Vini Vidi Vici!), which is something I rarely do (I don't think I'll ever even try in Celeste). A wonderful game with a great soundtrack to boot, and a perfect mix of difficulty to require multiple tries but not feel impossible. Would absolutely recommend to any 2D platformer fan.

Raka_Putra posted...

I was a tween when I played Elebits and it was pretty fun! The infrared sensor wasn't really annoying (at least, the way I remember it), but the levels where you had to keep the volume down a certain threshold sure were hard since things are stacked on top of each other...

Oh I didn't see anything about that in my quick google search. That sounds like a pretty annoying gimmick though

Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Unless the story is truly remarkable, which doesn't appear to be the case, if reviews are anything to go by.

Not really. It's ok, and there was one part that I found poignant, but it was a product of its time.

star control 2 is an adventure game with no grand strategy elements

changmas posted...

Oh I didn't see anything about that in my quick google search. That sounds like a pretty annoying gimmick though

Yeah, the levels had different objectives which provided more variety in gameplay. Though it can get pretty annoying!

As for Fairy Godmother Tycoon it was indeed surprisingly deep, with limited amount of money so you had to be smart in choosing which items stock. Then during the selling phase, it's real time, with the customers walking around town and you can choose where to put your promotional guys (like sandwich board imps, etc.) to divert the traffic. Good times.

Potion Permit

Monster Train

Children of Belgrade Metro

NFUN posted...

star control 2 is an adventure game with no grand strategy elements

oops, this was bound to happen eventually as i'm just skimming through reviews and videos :/

sorry!

probably doesn't change the tier though tbh, space exploration just isn't particularly interesting to me. only outer wilds has gotten enough praise to make me think about buying anyway!

Raka_Putra posted...

Yeah, the levels had different objectives which provided more variety in gameplay. Though it can get pretty annoying!

As for Fairy Godmother Tycoon it was indeed surprisingly deep, with limited amount of money so you had to be smart in choosing which items stock. Then during the selling phase, it's real time, with the customers walking around town and you can choose where to put your promotional guys (like sandwich board imps, etc.) to divert the traffic. Good times.

interesting. based on the title and artstyle i would have expected it to be simpler, maybe for little kids or something. that's interesting though, if I was 8 years old I'm sure it would hold my interest for weeks or months haha

changmas posted...

Tales of the Abyss - Congratulations, you have lost! I've played and beaten this game, though I only remember a few major plot points now that it's been about 12 years. I don't anticipate replaying this game since I no longer have my PS2, although I enjoyed it the first time around. The music is banging and the major plot points I remember are great.

Awesome! I'm happy to hear that. Hopefully, with the Symphonia reremaster dropping, they'll give TotA the same treatment. It's a masterpiece that deserves a wider audience.

Anyway, now to play to "not lose" this time (I haven't played many obscure games that aren't those this board introduced me to):
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm (the prequel)

changmas posted...

This is a truly obtuse game. Never released outside of Japan, there's not even a review I could find in English, and very few videos on youtube of gameplay even! It's a sort of dating sim, though the gameplay appears to be totally disconnected from the story, or at least from what I would expect the gameplay to look like? I can't tell if this is the sort of thing that's truly pushing the bounds of what a gaming experience can be or if it's just shitty gameplay and a chock standard horny dating sim story. It's really impossible to know without a proper review.

yeah it pretty much is a dating sim, but a stupidly ambitious one with unconventional realtime conversation systems and... well, you probably saw the rest. it's weird, but also so far ahead of its time just because of its format. it wasn't perfect, with less animation and dialogue than you'd expect of a game in this genre focusing on exactly those things, though still plenty for an FMV game animated by literally madhouse. the later games in its series were a lot more ambitious in this regard and also had better plots, though i do think this game is still better than most dating sims of its time thanks to the total lack of conventional dating sim stat progression-based events and total focus on interacting with the characters via video calls as opposed to actually dating. (by the way, the third game is flat out not even a dating sim at all, with said video calls just reduced to glorified cutscenes, but with lots of other weird adventure gamey puzzle-ish gameplay in between to compensate.) it's a neat series

Tiers not ordered

I already own this game, but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet
A Plague Tale: Innocence

Interested enough to say I'll play it one day
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt
Stray

Monster Train - I really do enjoy my roguelite deckbuilders but I can really only play one at a time. I've heard good things about this one and I believe it's on gamepass so I will eventually get around to playing it for 50-60 hours when I need a new one to fiddle around with. Recently my friends and I have been playing Across the Obelisk, whose main gimmick is being a multiplayer roguelite deckbuilder where you each control one character in a party of 4. A few months after we stop playing that, whenever that will be, I'll likely pick this up as a "flavor of the month/quarter" game to play casually for a while. I haven't really delved into any specific mechanics or differences between this one and others as I like to go in blind-ish.

Looks good, but I probably won't ever play it
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
Fears to Fathom
ZeroRanger
Wachenroder
Shining Force III
The Mortuary Assistant
Chroma Squad
Fight'N Rage
Star Control II (apologies for the poor writeup, though)
Mystic Messenger

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Technically this should go somewhere between the two tiers above and this one. I own the first Life is Strange from a bundle (I think?) and I've heard good things about it. If I play that and enjoy it, I'll probably read the prequel after. I'm not really sure when that's going to happen though, LiS isn't exactly #1 on my list of games to play at the moment. To be determined!

Unclear without playing
One Night Stand
Killer7
That Dragon, Cancer
Pistol Whip
NOL NOT DIGITAL

Children of Belgrade Metro - This game is awfully hard to rank because there's virtually no english content about it! It appears there's no english translation available at all, and even VNDB only has two votes on its quality! It appears it has something to do with love, crossdressing, and male chauvinist ideology, which is interesting enough. If this gets translated into english in the future and gets good reviews then, I might give it a try. I won't be learning Japanese just to play it though!

Outclassed by others
Tadpole Treble
Hatena Satena
Papo & Yo
Super Tempo
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Tsugunai: Atonement
Fairy Godmother Tycoon

Dream Quest - Well this was a cool history lesson to find out that this is basically the game that started an entire genre I like! Although now that there are so many games with much more polish in this genre, I don't see myself willing to put up with the MS Paint style graphics when I only play about 1 new roguelite deckbuilder a year (see monster train writeup), even if the gameplay still holds up.

Potion Permit - I like the tetronimo looking potion minigame and the spritework and music sound nice, but ultimately I'm not convinced that this is an improvement over the other town life simulation type games to where it would really pique my interest.

Probably Overstays Its Welcome
Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
Mad Rat Dead
tobu tobu girl!
Custom Robo: Battle Revolution
Pilotwings Resort

Too janky
Happys Humble Burger Farm
Neverland Card Battles
Elebits

Evil Dead: Hail to the King - This game looks very cheesy, and it's one where the graphics have aged poorly enough that I think it would detract from the experience. The gameplay I watched showed character/enemy models clipping through stuff too. I'm not really sure why I would ever play this over a Resident Evil game when it looks like a cheap clone.

A very bad design choice
Steambot Chronicles
Psybadek
Mythic Protocol
Welcome to Primrose Lake
Space Invaders Infinity Gene

This is a Very Bad Game
Nightbreed: The Interactive Movie (Amiga)

I've Played This Game Before
Super Mario Bros.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
Tales of the Abyss
VVVVVV

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat - Surprisingly, you lose. This is maybe one of the rarest games I owned as a kid. The bongo controller gimmick was very fun as a kid although it certainly doesn't make playing the game easier than a regular controller. I don't remember much about the actual level design, only that you had to clap for the sound sensor a LOT and constantly drum on the bongos to move. I'm glad that this game exists and that I owned it at one point, but I don't think it should be reused.

UF8 posted...

yeah it pretty much is a dating sim, but a stupidly ambitious one with unconventional realtime conversation systems and... well, you probably saw the rest. it's weird, but also so far ahead of its time just because of its format. it wasn't perfect, with less animation and dialogue than you'd expect of a game in this genre focusing on exactly those things, though still plenty for an FMV game animated by literally madhouse. the later games in its series were a lot more ambitious in this regard and also had better plots, though i do think this game is still better than most dating sims of its time thanks to the total lack of conventional dating sim stat progression-based events and total focus on interacting with the characters via video calls as opposed to actually dating. (by the way, the third game is flat out not even a dating sim at all, with said video calls just reduced to glorified cutscenes, but with lots of other weird adventure gamey puzzle-ish gameplay in between to compensate.) it's a neat series

see that does sound pretty interesting, but maybe in more of a "i would watch a video essay about this game" than a "I would play this myself"

The Static Speaks My Name

changmas posted...

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm - Technically this should go somewhere between the two tiers above and this one. I own the first Life is Strange from a bundle (I think?) and I've heard good things about it. If I play that and enjoy it, I'll probably read the prequel after. I'm not really sure when that's going to happen though, LiS isn't exactly #1 on my list of games to play at the moment. To be determined!

You should play the original. It's very good.

This one I haven't played but it was brought to my attention today for reasons and IDK....

The Quarry

Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou

ParanoiaScape

Outer Wilds

Money Idol Exchanger

Ultra Street Fighter 2

Return of the obra dinn

A building full of cats

If you were playing Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as a kid, then here's one you've never played:

Dino Wars

https://youtu.be/g8ccgHq26Qc

Club penguin

My Lovely Wife

changmas posted...

see that does sound pretty interesting, but maybe in more of a "i would watch a video essay about this game" than a "I would play this myself"

lowkey i would love to see tim rogers cover it after the tokimeki review happened

Here Comes Niko (cute, fun and comfy game, very low difficulty platformer by design since it's all about pick up and play collectathon gameplay to destress in (plus funny and wholesome dialogue). wanted to clarify since it got slammed with middling reception all because it was "too easy" even though that was the point and yes this bothers me)

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

The Waylanders