Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bastion (Switch)
That was fun! I played it on and off initially, but since two days I've been going through it more quickly. Controls really well and it's quick, lots of weapon variety, great music and visuals and you can get it for very cheap.

The story is also cool with the narrative style and the fact that you kind of piece things together. It didn't always work for me personally as I just get distracted too much when I'm also controlling the character, but hey.

It's a bit short, but honestly, for the price you can get it at (so often it's only a few euros/dollars) there is very little wrong with the game. Maybe the levels get repetitive in terms of traversal, but they're short enough and there are so many weapons for such a short game that you can just mix up your playing style for every level.

Metal Slug: Awakening (Android)

I believe this game is called something else in the West? Anyways, this is not the Metal Slug game we come to know and love and normally I am averse to triple A pay to win affairs like this. But it's Metal Slug and I'm surprised that the game actually holds your hand well into I wanna say three-fifths of the story before you start hitting a wall on progression. So yeah I was enticed to spend some money for some easier grinding and here I am. I thought it was satisfying at least for my downtimes on the phone but if this was like my main game I would never have enjoyed its tactics.

As I said the game itself is like a watered down Metal Slug for casuals. Everyone has health bars now. You can double jump. Bosses have massive health bars. Progression is tied to increasing your gun rank via a gacha mechanism where you're eventually guaranteed a really good gun the longer you stay so at least it doesn't try draining you of your wallet if you're patient enough. Thankfully, the requirement for story mode isnt as high as the post-game which is what you would want to stick around for and hey maybe I will for awhile. Join a guild, do some running and shooting and getting some nice lookin' guns.

Kudos on the effort of the devs like its obvious some of these environs are copypasted from the first three games. And they could've just went and cloned everything in snippets. But they went the mile to hire voice actors for an actual story however simple. And they went and made a slew of unique boss battles which were also alright on its own. So Story Mode is not an afterthought here you got 14 chapters with 3 areas each and some retro chapters as well. It's an endeavor in itself. Oh and this is all in 3d btw. 2d-3d so it was nice to see those old enemies and boss fights now as full fledged polygons.

Xtlm posted...

Mega Man Battle Network 1 (Switch)

So I had no idea how this game actually played going into the game and was pleasantly surprised.
It has fun mechanics and the story is simple silly.

The only knock I have is the confusing layouts to the internet part of the game. I had to look up a map online. Oh and also that one level where there was pattern solving with batteries that run out of energy. That was evil and I don't know if I would have had the patience to go through it without looking up directions to solve it.

Overall though the game was great! I am missing quite a few cards though and am not sure where to get them...I covered most if not all of the map and did quite a bit of grinding in the deep net.

Don't worry the maps improve from the 2nd game onwards

Flynn: Son of Crimson (Steam)

It's pretty simple but I really liked it. The gorgeous spritework helps. I did think everything involving Dex and Rozia was kinda half-baked though, you barely get to use the former in gameplay and the latter never gets very much payoff plot-wise.

Katana Soul (PC)

Replayed. Yet another game I had that did not have a cloud save but that is ok. I did not mine replaying it cause it's such a good simple short and sweet action/platformer. Unlocked Survival again.

G.I. Joe (Arcade)

Replayed with a friend on Fightcade. I was Snake Eyes and he was Roadblock. Looking forward to G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra coming out next year.

Cosmos Bit (PC)

A nice little Metroid-like game I got through in 2 hours.

Slain: Back from Hell (PC)

This game is very metal. Game has beautiful pixel art and a good soundtrack to fit the mood. Some parts were a little frustrating but I eventually learned my ways around the rough spots.

Super BOO Quest (PC)

Fun little game. You get to play as a ghost of your choice with different statistics. A game with light puzzle elements and stealth. You go and collect dots to fill your spook meter and frighten your targets.

Bad Dream: Coma (Switch)

This was quite the point and click game.
I got all 4 endings. 1 Good, 1 Neutral and 1 Bad (bad ending has 2 ways to end the game so that's why it technically has 4 endings)

You're stuck in a dream and trying to wake up.
I like the art style in this one and the whole thing was a little unsettling and spooky.

Deep Ones (Switch)

I was a little hesitant due to the low reviews. Been meaning to check it out for myself and formulate my own opinion.

It's a retro arcade platformer with multigenre parts and it's graphically inspired by the ZX Spectrum, Bioshock and works of H.P. Lovecraft. Those three things are what drew me in.

You're a Diver that suffered a crash in his submarine by a Red Octopus and it's up to you get your submarine back.

I didn't mind the little delay of the shooting with your harpoon gun that most of the reviewers complained about. I'm like "Hello? Maybe it's a little slow cause the whole game practically takes place underwater?" You just have to always keep your distance and just shoot. The only thing that was really off with the controls is sometimes the button input will sometimes shoot a harpoon by itself when you're jumping sometimes.

There are parts later in the game where you get to use a sword and even do a dash/air dash.

Riding the seahorse was ok in some of the sections.

I managed to glitch through one section where I needed 7 keys but I glitched through the ceiling when I only had 3. Wow!

One particular boss was a chore and kinda boring but the rest of the game picked up again.

It had a neat little stealth section near the end and I did enjoy the escape sequence .

Got through it in 3 hours.

Was it as bad as the reviewers made it out to be? Not at all, IMO. I thought it was an ok game. It was nothing ground breaking and it set out to do what it wanted to do.

GhoulBoy (Switch)

This game was pretty fun and held my attention once I started it.

A few things didn't fly well with me.
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There is no in game indication that tells you that you can double jump.

There's a power up screen on the title screen to buy really useful power ups they don't tell you about after you start the game. Who knew you had to go back to the title screen after you start the game?

The game freezes/locks up on you when you pause the game on the final world. This can be worked around as long as you don't pause on the final world and stand in a safe spot.

Aside from all that, solid game overall.

Friday the 13th (NES)

I finally got to beat one of the most misunderstood NES games. It's a really neat game when you learn how to play it. I also happened to beat it on Friday the 13th as well. Ha!

Picross e2 (3DS)

According to my backloggery this is the first game I've beaten on a Nintendo system in over three years. Aside from that note, it's picross. Not much else to be said on that.

Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3)

I know there's been a remaster announced, but this is the game I have and started so I went and finished it today, as it's a perfect game for October. Got the happy ending by rescuing everyone and enjoyed my time with it.

Tekken (PS1 Classic)

Beat arcade with Kazuya. Yes, I'm counting it as beaten with only 1 arcade clear, but there's not really much to do single player-wise other than play arcade mode.

Yeah, this game is really jank and it felt like I played better just by button mashing, but it's not bad. Certainly a product of its time, but it's good for pure 3D fighting fundamentals, but I'm sure the next 2 Tekken games on PS1 improve on that.

Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5)

You know, this is actually the first PS5 game I've beaten, which is oddly fitting since MKX was the first PS4 game I beat.

Anyways, I think people were over-exaggerating when they were saying how bad the story looked when it leaked out. I liked the new world building, and then the lol plot-twist happened, but I guess I'm used to MK silliness that I got numb to it.

And I have to say, I absolutely love the aesthetics of this game with how vibrant it is. It's nice to have a Mortal Kombat that isn't completely grungey most of the time, and it still has that at certain parts.

New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)

I feel like I would have enjoyed this more had I played it a decade ago. My reaction to things really has gone down over the years. And it didn't help that this game felt like one of the harder Mario games out there.

Still, the game does provide a nice challenge, and while some levels where just ridiculous a lot of them were pretty well made.

That said, despite all the frustration I had, the final boss sure was pretty easy. I had a significantly harder time in the 2nd Bowser Jr. fight.

Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (GBC)

I beat challenge mode on hard. There's more to the game but eh.

I was very very good at Pokemon Puzzle League as a kid. My skills have definitely degraded since then. But weirdly, I remember this game being pretty tough as a kid, yet I got through it without many issues now. Sooo who knows.

All that's left of my GB/GBC backlog is Wario Land 3 now.

Solar Ash (XS/X)

Machine Heart's followup to Hyper Light Drifter that is 3D platformer with light action elements that also has boss fights reminscent of Shadow of the Colossus. It definitely feels unique wit that combo. I would say that the execution is "merely" good to very good across the board.

Witch & Hero II (3DS)

A couple days late on this one, but long story short, it's better than the first one. You can now move the witch around, she's fairly sluggish but can still outrun any non-projectile handily. She also rezzes the hero faster if they're next to each other which is nice. This alone makes the game paradigm far more skill-based and less grindy than in the first game. Accordingly, there are now 30 levels instead of the first game's 20 and some bonus modes at the end. My gripe with how protracted the first game's final boss was and how unfair it was at the end is largely addressed, except maybe for one little detail, once again with the very final phase of the final boss where it looks like you're meant to have put a few levels into the speed stat (which I never did) to actually deal the final blow. Fortunately you can circumvent that by taking a risk and having the witch facetank some of the projectiles you have to get through to reach the boss in the end. That probably would've been a problem if not for the fact that you can also buy some time during this final phase to let the witch heal. Quite a difference going from the first game's "unbeatable" to "beaten on the first try, with some puzzlement".

Speaking of the first game's final boss, the dev clearly knew what a problem it was because if you have that save data when you start this one it starts you off talking about how you couldn't beat it and makes you redo that battle. It plays the same way so I still couldn't beat it, but at least now it rezzes you if you die and lets you get the remaining 20 or so hits in that I never managed to with vanilla settings and now it's over and done with forever. I concur.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
And now I have come to the end of my GBA/DS Castlevania run. I don't own Order of Ecclesia and it's very expensive, but I have beaten it in the past through "different" means so it's fine.

A solid title to end on. It's middle of the road of these 6 games for me. I like the gameplay expansions with the two characters, various skills, skill mastery, side quests etc, but the game is too short to really make use of the different elements. I guess that gives it replay value.

It's about the same as I remember from the 1st time playing through it years ago. I prefer my big complex castles and this game kind of guides you along with little to explore off the beaten path (although you can do some things in a different order which is something). The structure with the paintings offers some very cool environments, but also feels disjointed and the game does repeat the environments later on which is a pity.

The story and characters are quirky overall. Some serious moments with plenty of deliciously cringe dialogue.

Overall, some great ideas, decent execution, not the most memorable, but solid Castlevania fun still. I believe it has quite a few extra modes which is great (although I personally never bother with that).

Lies of P (PC)
Whoops, got the ending without the true final boss. Gotta keep running through NG+, and ++ probably

Sea of Stars

Both normal and True ending. This is obviously heavily inspired by all those SNES JRPGs I loved. Generally good things to say, but here's a criticism: It felt to me like there was an incongruity between how serious and daunting the tone was and the artstyle. One reason that might be why I don't say that about Chrono Trigger is all the silly exagerated poses they do all the time in that game.

Combat is interesting and every battle feels like a puzzle. I hardly ever died to a boss unless I went in with no MP, but a few random encounters messed me up if I didn't get the rythm of it.

Combat system is great. It's got double techs and positioning mattering from Chrono Trigger. Timed hits for both offense, defense and special attacks from Super Mario RPG. and their own lock system combined with you having low MP but regenerating it from doing regular attacks to incentivize a mix of spell use and regular attacking and tackling the encounters as the puzzles they are.

Wario Land 3 (GBC)

What a weird, weird game. Aesthetically it's not even really Mario-adjacent, all the enemies are weird and there's a plot about an ancient god whose power was sealed in 5 music boxes. There's a soccer boss fight against the tortoise and the hare. Frequently you'll have to play golf to complete a level. The final boss is a giant evil clown god.

All the power-ups with maybe one exception are stupid anti-powerups that exist to annoy you and waste your time, but they can be coerced into being useful in very specific situations, which you need to do to solve the game's puzzles. Wario starts as an absolute useless piece of shit and it takes so, so long to get your first upgrade, and way longer to feel even marginally competent. You can't die but enemies hitting you either gives you anti-powerups (which waste your time), gives you huge knockback (to waste your time), or sends you to the previous screen (which wastes your time). I guess dying is ultimately just a time waster too but this feels more deliberately malevolent.

There's only four worlds with a few stages each but every time you get a treasure in one stage it affects the world, either by opening a new stage or changing something in one or more previous stages. This whole system is so insanely elaborate that it feels very modern. But the game constantly disrespects your time in a way that feels not modern at all.

Did I even like this game? I'm glad I finally finished it, at least. I've had this game since I was about 10 years old and I definitely got nowhere in it as a kid, which makes sense because some of the puzzles are extremely obtuse and the game's mechanics are not very intuitive at all.

That was the most compelling mixed review of a game I've read in a long time. I have to play that game now.

Pac-Man World Re-Pac (XS/X)

I got it on what was evidently a price error earlier this week, and while I think it was probably a great, faithful remake (smooth, no technical issues), the game itself is pretty mediocre. I played World 3 back in the day, so I'm going to find my disc and play it briefly just to see how much it improved upon the first.

Trillion: God of Destruction (Vita)

A game that deals with the Netherworld being destroyed by Trillion, who appropriately has 1,000,000,000,000 HP as the final boss of the game. You spend approximately six weeks training up one of the Overlords in various attributes to take on Trillion. Any damage dealt to him persists to the next Overlord to face him. It's an interesting loop, but with certain passive skills the game just gets broken into pieces very easily. I only reached Chapter 4 before beating the game when the game can go on until Chapter 11. While there isn't much dialogue, you can see a lot of the Disgaea humor and influence as the director also directed Disgaea 4 (which also make sense on how the game is a lot of NUMBERS GO UP). I enjoyed it so far, but maybe I won't enjoy it after I go through all the required play throughs for the platinum.

Curse of the Crescent Isle DX (itch.io)

Still working on that itch.io backlog. Honestly I almost dropped this one a couple levels in because it wasn't hooking me, but I managed to stick with it.

At first, this game looks like a Doki Doki Panic-like, mostly because of the HUD and the fact that you primarily interact with enemies by standing on their heads and picking them up and throwing them. Play a few levels though and you'll get the ability to ride enemies and this is the game's actual mechanic, and the rest of the game is a puzzle platformer using enemies' unique abilities to traverse the game's levels. Honestly it's a good effort but kinda mid. There are only a few enemies with meaningful mechanics and all the bosses are complete nothing fights except the final one. I beat the full game in about 80 minutes though I'm sure you could spend longer if you were trying to collect the giant coin on each screen. It's also glitchy, especially when enemies try to interact with each other in cramped spaces. By far the best levels are the ones that feel like they were ripped straight out of VVVVVV which maybe implies that I should just replay that game instead.

Nioh: Complete Edition (Steam)

I actually ended up completing the vanilla game a couple weeks ago but thought I'd want to go through the DLCs as well which ended up requiring some preparation, but more on that in a minute

I first played some of this game in 2019 but ended up coming back to it because of how much I ended up feeling oddly compelled by the gameplay of Stranger of Paradise and seeing various comments that it was the same gameplay/engine that served as its base, and after finally finishing this one I can say that's pretty much true; other than the technical aspects there's the same mission based progression where you thoroughly traverse each map the first time for a story mission then you get a few shorter side missions later which go through the same map backwards with a different objective. Gameplay is comparable to something like Dark Souls other than every enemy having a stamina bar, though in this one emptying it doesn't mean a guaranteed OHK opportunity, and yokai also handle it differently from humans where they don't stagger until it's empty but it also doesn't regenerate unless they're standing in their spooky hell dimension circle. Figuring out how to fight all the different yokai types effectively is where the most of the challenge comes from here; in that sense the boss fights is probably where the game is most like Dark Souls where it's mostly about finding a good strategy for outlasting the boss. Pre-endgame builds are largely based on what weapon you're using and what extra skills you've unlocked of which there are a lot to choose from, though ironically I just found out that my two favorite weapons in the game, odachi and tonfa, apparently weren't even in the original vanilla release but were added as part of the DLCs. Wack.

There's also the aspect of tons of progressive equipment loot drops which make the blacksmith/crafting system obsolete until the very end of the game but which also pretty much become the metagame if you want to advance into any of the content that comes after the end of vanilla, since at this point you won't get better stuff unless you start delving deep into the Very Hard NG+ content. This became a minor time sink for me at that point since I couldn't rely on just getting higher level stuff from drops consistently anymore going into the DLC missions because of how postgame drops are restructured; you start getting random drops of green rarity "divine items" which sometimes have a + number next to their level which represents a much bigger stat bonus, which you really need at that point because the base level is locked to 150 and relatively low + levels until you reach the NG++ maps. I managed to complete the first main mission of the first DLC with this low level postgame equipment, but then decided to rush my way through as many of the NG+ maps as possible so I could get some NG++ equipment and come back to do the rest of the NG DLC levels since I'd heard... interesting things about the bosses in them. Which all turned out to be true, incidentally; the main challenge there comes from them being regular human fighters who spam living weapon buffs, making them agile and hard to hit while also giving them increased offense, elemental damage and un-staggerability until their stamina runs out at which point it's only a matter of time before they resummon their buff. Though ironically the only boss in the entire game that I couldn't beat without summoning help was the Onmoraki in the second-to-last mission of the final DLC, which spams wind attacks that give you a big offense debuff.

Speaking of the online, I had that off through most of the vanilla game not on purpose but simply because I didn't realize that one of the settings (crossplay with the epic store version) pretty much breaks it and guarantees it won't work (which was a relief to discover since for a while I suspected I was shadowbanned because I was running the game through Special K launcher), maybe I'll go back and do some more of that now that I'm pretty much done with the game but mostly I'm glad that I am so that I can check out some of the earlier Koei/Capcom games (Acquire too, but that was on the table already) with that same kind of setting since honestly one of my favorite things about this game was the style and presentation for the historical fiction part of it even if the dialogue isn't really stellar and the information they have about the characters/yokai in their profiles. I've heard the sequel is also a significant improvement so I look forward to playing that at some point. And hey, the fact that I was willing to put that much more time into this game after I was "done with it" so I could continue on to see every part of the story probably says something to how much enjoyment I actually got out of it.

Bad Dream: Fever (Switch)

I got through another point and click.
You are in a feverish dream world and trying to wake up.
Some of the solutions were creative and some very meta stuff in it.

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy/Switch)

Replayed but this time played through the Japanese version. It was nice having access to the Cross instead of the Axe.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (PC)

Replayed via Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara. I was the Elf and my friend was the Cleric.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

This was a very solid game. I got 100% in it.
Lots of nice variety in the levels and some fun new power ups to use. The Badge system was also nice to tackle levels in new ways and finding secrets.

Mario Golf: Super Rush (Switch)

I really like golf games, the golf mechanic is on the easier side (Not an issue), but it's got a lot of neat quirks and game modes to keep it going.

I beat the story, and oh my what the eff lol. That took a wild turn that I did not see coming. Wish it had more!

My character is level 72 and I put 71 of those levels into power. I can almost hit the green from the tee, it's pretty awesome. Almost want to grind it out so I can. Regret that first level that I put into accuracy, eww.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

Beat the game yesterday. I do have a few Special World stages left, but I always consider that optional and other than that I've collected everything I could. Overall, really good and fun! Not the hardest Mario game (partly due to the badge system, which you can forgo using, but still) but I loved most things about it. Finally a 2D Mario game with lots of new enemies, creative takes on familiar world themes and very few repeating levels. My only real gripe is some inconsistency in the structure; some worlds are randomly short and feel like there is missed potential, and the few boss battles that exist are disappointing (although I personally enjoyed the final boss for what it was). With the Wonder theme, they could have made some crazy cool bosses but they didn't.

Picross e3 (3DS)

Slowly making my way through the series. This one has less content than its predecessor, but allows you to turn off the Normal rules the game uses so I don't get annoyed every time I hit the wrong square when playing the game.

System Shock (Steam)

System Shock is a game that did not live up to my expectations, but is it the game's fault...or mine?

The game's story concerns a nameless hacker, who is caught when accessing files concerning Citadel Station, a space station owned by a big corporation. A rep of the company, Edward Diego, offers to let you go with a military-grade interface if you just unshackle the station's AI. The surgery for the interface puts you in a six-month coma, and when you awake, you find that the entire station has gone to crap.

This is all pretty basic, and that's fine, but for me the problem is that it stays that way. Edward Diego really only features a little bit at the later end of the game, and in between the only bits of story you receive are audio diaries, similar to the ones that filled the Rapture of Bioshock, SS's spiritual successor. The audio diaries in BioShock were a lot more engaging however, offering insight into the people and the city. The vast majority of the audio diaries in System Shock are about people bemoaning their situation, with a hint dropped here and there about what you need to do to progress. Very few actually give some interesting lore or story information, which feels like a wasted opportunity.

But then we still have the main villainess of course: SHODAN. SHODAN is just one of those iconic villain names, but I have to admit this game did not really make me understand why. She's quiet for a lot of it, and when she does speak, it didn't really instill a sense of dread in me. She places a few specific traps for you in the game, but most of them were obvious or undone by the revival mechanic of the game, which made them feel somewhat hollow.

Gameplay-wise, System Shock took a while to get into. The first few levels have a certain amount of difficulty to them; there's plenty of enemies, ammo is sparse, and until you've destroyed all the cameras and reduced the security level to 0%, enemies will keep respawning, taking even more health and ammo from you. Maybe I missed an audio log, but the way to deal with respawning enemies never gets explained in-game, making the initial part of the game a frustrating ordeal. On the other hand, this could be considered good game design; it teaches you to rely on the energy gun at the start. The energy gun uses energy as ammunition, which can be freely recharged at the energy stations scattered throughout the levels.

Once you're a decent way into the game, it does become quite a lot of fun. Fans of immersive sims should certainly enjoy themselves with this game; there's plenty of weapons that for the most part all fulfil a purpose. Only the melee weapons (save for the Laser Rapier) and the shotgun feel a bit underwhelming. You'll need them too, as the enemies on Citadel Station are tough and unforgiving, and there's a good and varied amount of them. Only in the later levels does this variety fade somewhat, and most of them will just feel like big, hulking robots. But the fewer of the kamikaze bots you have to face, the better!

The maps are quite big with many hidden hallways or difficult-to-spot passageways. This is one area where it feels the remake should've adapted a little more to current quality of life expectations; the map doesn't give a lot of information on locked doors/blocked passageways, just like there isn't a journal to give even the basest notion of what you're supposed to be accomplishing. Props can also be given to the game for the couple of distractions to the standard gameplay; several doors require a minigame of connecting power nodes or charging up energy to a precise amount to open and then there's also the Cyberspace segments where you move around in a full 3D environment. While the puzzles can be tough to figure out, and Cyberspace can sometimes feel like padding, they can offer a change of pace from the action of the main game.

Technically, the game is satisfactory. The graphics look good, the monster look horrifying, and the design of the space station enforces the maze-like structure of the map. The music doesn't really stick with you, until some of the later levels; especially Executive was a track that perfectly fit in with the surroundings and the general feeling you have as a player.

So my overall experience of System Shock is still a positive one; it's just a good game. Nightdive Studios might have done better with a few quality of life modifications, but those are the choices you make to stay as true as possible or adapt to the current climate. Was I expecting more? Yes, but maybe my expectations were built for System Shock 2 and the legacy that game has, and System Shock deserves its own proper look.

The Gardener and the Wild Vines (XB1)

The game is only about 3 hours long, but it was really starting to overstay its welcome as early as the second (of four) area. Constantly cutting flowers to create more vines can get pretty tiring. What's worse is that with the way levels are designed, it is almost better to not cut many flowers (you really have no idea if or where leaf platforms will show up when you cut a flower) as the momentum jump boost you get gives you better air control than a leaf jump boost. The final area of the game really shook things up and had more detailed and interesting levels, so it at least ended at its best.

TOEM (XS/X)

When I first played this, Basto wasn't out, so I had to wait months. It feels different going through it back-to-back with the main stuff.

Twilight Syndrome: Tansaku-hen & Kyuumei-hen (PSX)

Disclaimer: I didn't actually play these games directly as my Japanese isn't good enough for that yet, I watched a translated longplay on youtube.

These have been on my radar for quite a long while, but it wasn't until recently that I finally got the push to check them out one way or another as I was compelled to finally play The Silver Case within a fairly imminent date, and my seriation-obsessed self couldn't possibly fathom the idea of breaking that principle for a series that I don't actively hate.

It was definitely worth it. From what I could tell, the gameplay is halfway between a kinetic novel and something like Famicom Detective Club/Ace Attorney/Danganronpa etc. etc., in that there is definitely some gameplay and decision making but it largely consists of just moving around the game world and picking out responses from a list every so often (and sometimes examining things/talking to people, but this is largely inconsequential). On the plus side, this does go as far as to mean that each case has multiple endings, or more accurately one good ending and a handful of fatal or unambiguously bad non-canon outcomes.

The format of the stories is done interestingly. It's basically an anthology of Japanese style ghost stories/urban legends that follows one continuous plotline with three high school girls as the protagonists. As with many such stories, the interesting part comes from finding out how they unfold and learning the details of the backstories that made them possible, but something unique to this format is that there is an overarching story of sorts involving character development for Yukari, the girl who you end up controlling for most of the game, which resonates with some of the themes specific to each sub-story, and as you might expect comes to a big crescendo at the end of the last case. The way this plays out may end up feeling somewhat clich if you're not into it, but personally I think it's one of the best possible ways they could have executed a story like this in the medium. It helps that it has that unique HUMAN Entertainment style that makes certain other groundbreaking titles like Clock Tower and Mizzurna Falls stand out, even from a more modern perspective.

Going back to the reason I ended up checking these out at this time, there's also a secret bonus episode, "Prank", which from my understanding you can unlock by having good ending saves for all the cases on your memory card, and is a much more surreal and unconventional collection of scenes that leaves you with more questions than answers. Notably, this is apparently the only part of either game where Goichi Suda had full creative control (even though he had some degree of involvement directing some of the other cases), and it serves as a direct prelude to Moonlight Syndrome, which many fans of this one consider a kusoge due to (based on some comments I've read) some bizarre choices involving the characters from this game and general incomprehensibility, though thankfully(?) it does appear that it is also ignored by this game's other sequels. Well, I suppose I did ask for this, so I guess I'll go find out what that's all about next.

Kingdom Hearts (PS4)

This is the first time I've played and finished the original Kingdom Hearts.

I feel it hasn't aged well and just isn't fun to play in 2023. Probably needs a remake at this point.

Lies of P

I just beat Bloodborne for the first time right before playing this and....holy shit, I might like this more than Bloodborne.

It's a tough call because I certainly don't think the level design is quite as good as From Soft's, but mechanically I found this game to be much more interesting. Shout out to the P-Organ for being one of my favorite skill trees in any game ever. The choices there always felt so meaningful.

I got the bad ending because I'm a dolt who thought I read to give Gepetto your heart when he asks, despite that not at all feeling like the correct move to me.

I had my humanity leveled up enough and everything! Oh well, I would probably have played new game plus anyway.

Moonlight Syndrome (PSX)

Same disclaimer as the last one (didn't play for real, watched a translated longplay)

In short, I was disappointed. I was expecting it, really, but there's a difference in going from a vague, possibly-exaggerated general perception to sitting down to experience the thing for real and seeing "The oral sex of a court of justice" and "What is a grand LSD" fly by during the opening FMV. Maybe it's because my years of consuming all kinds of media have left me a lot more jaded and skeptical that something about which that kind of sentence can be said is actually going to be genuinely interesting.

What I loved most about Twilight Syndrome the storytelling is not entirely gone, but it's now the exception rather than the rule. There's a handful of cases that develop a little like Twilight Syndrome cases (besides the branching paths that actually matter/multiple endings being gone), but honestly, it's surprising we even get that much when you consider the rest of the content. It's obvious that Suda wasn't interested in giving a genuine continuation to the story, and just ended up using this game as a testing ground for his own quirks and characters, which just means that there's a lot less plot/character development and a lot more long-winded non-sequitur pseudophilosophical ranting involving characters that we barely know anything about, and plot points that are completely reliant on paratextual knowledge and very specific interpretations of bizarre scenes, which to put it mildly is a big step down from its predecessor. Without saying too much, all the rumors I heard about dodgy things being done to the original games' characters were true, though if I'm being honest the new ones don't exactly fare much better.

Well, there are also some cheeky references to the Clock Tower games (which Suda wasn't involved with at all), so that was cool. My favorite was "Clock Tower 3 release date", though obviously that one invokes a good deal of humor that didn't even exist when this came out.

I'm not entirely out of hope for The Silver Case being an improvement, although given that I've now doubly confirmed the connection between that game and its predecessors that I was already superficially aware of, whenever said connection comes up I fear I won't be able to disassociate it from the lackluster impression this one left me with.

Penko Park (Steam)

This game rocks. There are quite a few photography games out now but most of them don't really hit the same notes as Pokemon Snap. Penko Park is just a Pokemon Snap game, but with horrible little gremlins instead of Pokemon and a sprinkling of anti-colonial/anti-capitalist themes. Genuinely a delight to play through, and pound for pound probably a better game than New Pokemon Snap.

Alan Wake Remastered (PS4)

Technically a replay, but I never did go back to the PC version after finishing it the first time to grab all the collectibles (of which I missed two on this run, one manuscript page and one can pyramid). I also didn't do the DLC back then, so I will continue playing this to do those two DLCs before moving on to Control. It was a good refresher of some of the story beats that I had forgotten since I last played this almost a decade ago.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (PS4)

I wasn't sure how I would feel about revisiting this for the first time since I was a teenager on top of getting not feeling most of the following games, the latest being Spirit of Justice in 2017. I'm very happy that I greatly enjoyed playing this one and it reaffirming my belief of being the best in the series (having not played the second Investigations or the Great Ace Attorney games)

Grandia (Ps1)

Great game in 1998; hard to recommend in 2023 unless youre some hardcore JRPG aficionado. Great battle system and progression systems. The characters are very likable. Great sprite work and fun ost. And no random encounters is a plus. Just held back by shit like whenever you complete a dungeon, you have to turn around and backtrack out of it. Old skool design that deserves to stay in the 80s and 90s.

Grandia II is definitely the better game. While the first game feels dated, the second game holds up remarkably well imo

Late, but just got the other trophies: Unpacking (PS5)
I almost wrote "Stacking" by accident.
It was a nice experience playing through it. The remaining trophies I wouldn't have done without a guide, and doing them with a guide wasn't particularly interesting.

I love unpacking so much

I need to finish Unpacking after I finish SMBW

speaking of unpacking

Unpacking (Steam)

Pretty chill game that does some interesting stuff with environmental story-telling and gameplay-story integration. Shout-out to this disaster woman who moves into her boyfriend's place with more collectible stuffed chickens than bras, and her GBA that she just bought in fuckin 2007. I can't fix her but maybe we can make each other worse. And then pride socks one chapter post-break up lmao she just like me fr. I do think the game ended at exactly the right time because I'm not sure I'd have had it in me to do another level, especially because I'm pretty sure playing on Steam Deck made the game 1-2 hours longer than it should've been. Good example of how some games should really be played with a mouse I guess.

When I played it, what, two years ago, I soon realized how much better and more accurate the game is once you choose the option to be able to place objects in any room as long as they fit. I remember playing with default settings for the first 3-4 levels and just not knowing what the hell some of these objects were supposed to be and they kept showing up! I would of course still try to be accurate, but nobody unpacks things and puts every single thing in their "correct place" right away.

Antonball Deluxe (PC)

A multi-genre mode game with brickbreaker and Mario Bros. modes. I have a fondness for brickbreakers, but this one just didn't click for me. I would even call it a frustrating experience. The Mario Bros. one ended up being a lot more fun, but the platforming takes a bit of work and had plenty of room for improvement.

KCF0107 posted...

When I played it, what, two years ago, I soon realized how much better and more accurate the game is once you choose the option to be able to place objects in any room as long as they fit. I remember playing with default settings for the first 3-4 levels and just not knowing what the hell some of these objects were supposed to be and they kept showing up! I would of course still try to be accurate, but nobody unpacks things and puts every single thing in their "correct place" right away.

The game definitely could've used an item encyclopedia but I managed to figure out most of them from context clues and from where the game wouldn't allow me to place them. The one that tripped me up the most was the incense burner, I always forget that style of them exists because the one I used to own was completely different.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles: Adventures (NS)

Great Ace Attorney: Adventures has all the charm of the Ace Attorney series, but feels in some way like a DLC prequel.

Great Ace Attorney takes place in 19th-20th century Japan and Britain and feature Ryunosuke Naruhodo who stumbles his way into becoming a lawyer and travels to England to fulfil his studies alongside his best friend and example Kazuma Asogi and judicial assistant Susato Mikotoba. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but there also isn't really that much more to say. GAA: Adventures struggles with having a real main and overarching plot. Previous Ace Attorney titles obviously had distinct and individual cases which didn't always tie in to the main plotline, but Adventures truly feels like it doesn't have anything particular going on. There are hints here and there sure; best friend Kazuma Asogi travels to Japan with a goal and a purpose which doesn't really get revealed too much. Opposing prosecutor Barok van Zieks has a deeper story which gets alluded to in the final case. Secondary companion Herlock Sholmes (yes, Herlock) and Iris Wilson are involved in some plot which is again hinted at in the first and final case. Really, the final case is the only case where things really happen (as well as the first case) and is in that sense also the only that clearly feels the most like an Ace Attorney game. It's definitely the most exciting and intense one, but it just feels like a shame that the other case are unable to match this energy. Truly, the majority of the game feels like a way to get to know Ryunosuke and Susato a little bit (as Ryunosuke has a crisis of faith after a certain case) but it just feels like for the majority this game serves as a setup to the second game, Resolve.

Gameplay-wise, the core Ace Attorney dynamics are intact. There are however three new gameplay mechanics. These gameplay mechanics are part of the problem area of this game: pacing. Because the game wants to give them their chance to shine, but also doesn't want to overwhelm the player, they basically have you sit through a case where the gameplay mechanics get properly outlined. Case 1 is just a standard Ace Attorney tutorial case, save for one example; it is incredibly long. Adventures loves having you press every statement, and seems more eager than most to have the protagonist face seemingly insurmountable odds, with the quick scene of collapsing as the prosecutor or witness has come up with a great rebuttal...even though you might already know how to counter it. In this one the first new gameplay mechanic gets introduced; multiple witnesses take the stand, and they might react to each other. This mechanic feels a little bit useless; when the reactions are very clear, there's no point in not pursuing, and there is only one instance where you have to pursue when there is no clear reaction. It feels like it doesn't add anything particularly interesting.

Case 2 does not feature a trial, merely an investigation. Here the second mechanic gets introduced, which is the Dance of Deduction. Sholmes will deduct a case and it is up to you to correct him. This is part of the Investigation, so you are moving the camera to see if you can spot anything in the room or on a character. This one is a bit more engaging with a few tricky things to spot. Case 2 suffers from not having a trial though, which in my opinion were always the more interesting parts of Ace Attorney games.

Case 3 is the first case in England, and is only a trial. Here the final new mechanic makes its debut: the summation examination. England has a jury, and it is up to you to convince them otherwise if they deem your client guilty. This is the mechanic that at its core is the most interesting, but which also feels the most like pure padding. There is a lot of pressing jurors here to then pit them against each other, but there's a lot of summation examinations where it feels you already have a piece of the puzzle for the actual trial, and now you have to sit through this segment just to get back to it.

Case 4 and Case 5 are full cases, featuring both an investigation and a trial. Case 4 features that middle-case syndrome of other Ace Attorney games, and Case 5 finishes the game off in style. It is here however, that another problem with Adventures pops its head; the characters. The Ace Attorney franchise is full of memorable and likeable characters, and Adventures has...few of those. The witnesses in case 1 & 2 are forgettable and dull, and none of the characters in case 4 are very engaging either. I especially found the client of case 4 to be on the grating side, but some of the witnesses were frustrating as well. On the protagonist side, Ryunosuke is just a little too insecure, and Susato lacks the spark that makes Maya or Trucy so likeable (and I'm not even a big Maya fan). Herlock and Iris are fine throughout. Gregson, the Gumshoe of this game, lacks some of this charm but is overall a pretty likeable fellow, especially in regards to Iris. van Zieks is an interesting antagonist as he has a clear sense of justice; this is not a man who will tamper with evidence or witnesses to win. He is, however, somewhat racist. It's one of those things where you can say that this fits the time period, but it's so noticeable because none of the other major British characters (except for one) treat you that way. There is a hint that van Zieks has a reason for being so nasty, and at the end of case 5 there seems to be a level of respect, but it still makes it difficult to really be attached to him like you would be with Edgeworth, Franziska or Godot. Although I must give a shout out to the Skulkin Bros., who are some of the best sidecharacters in the entire franchise.

Technically, the game looks beautiful, and the soundtrack is on point as is the case with so many Ace Attorney titles. Especially Gregson's theme is a favourite of mine.

Overall, this game has all the inherent quality of the Ace Attorney franchise. It's just dragged down by not really being about anything for the majority of it, and a weaker character roster than most. But the final case was really quite engaging, and at least leaves an appetite for the sequel.

Roundguard (PC)

Great Peggle-inspired game even if there were some things I never truly understood

Thirsty Suitors (XS/X)

This weird QTE-centric Skateboarding RPG certainly leaves an impression. The first impression was decisively not good, but I'm glad that I gave it a second chance. It does nothing really well except be unapologetic in its quirky style, but I dig absurd, quirky humor, and this was much greater than the sum of its parts.

A Space for the Unbound (PS5)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80617057

A Space for the Unbound is an excellent trip back to 90s Indonesia, circling around two teenagers who decide to make a bucket list of things to do together. This is the backdrop of the whole story - some of the objectives are optional, but are required for the platinum and the true ending of the game. The story went through some surprising twists with the main character Atma's Spacedive powers - I especially enjoyed the Ace Attorney-like scenes where you break down a defendant's testimony by pointing out contradictions through evidence. Sadly that's only in one of the game's chapters, but it was a cool addition. Also never thought bitter melon would ever be referenced in a game, seeing as I had some just last week!

I finished Chapter 3 when I got home today, and then went all the way to the end - mostly because I wanted to see how this story concluded, and I was not disappointed. Definitely one of the better games of 2023, and definitely deserves a spot near the top of my list, whenever I get back to writing those!

AMID EVIL (Steam)

I liked this game but I wish it was better, which feels like an unfair thing to say but it's true. The weapons are all fun to use and I love how each episode has different enemies with different weaknesses, recontextualizing which weapons kinda suck and which ones are good. The problem is that the game is just too long. The missions started to feel really long even when I was trying to play through them briskly, with later ones clocking in at like 20-30 minutes a pop. (To be clear you certainly can do them much faster than this, I just couldn't do them much faster than that.) It's a shame because the later maps are the more interesting ones, at least visually! I think maybe cut one mid-game episode and it would feel much better paced.

Strange Horticulture (Steam)

This game is fuckin great, I loved it. It's a detective game about running a plant shop, where in the process of identifying plants to sell to customers you get wrapped up in an eldritch murder mystery. As a kid (and also as an adult tbh) I loved flipping through a field guide to try to identify mushrooms or bugs in my backyard, and this game really captures that feeling. Also the vibes are on point.

Super Ultimate Fighters (Switch)

This is a fun little 2D fighter that features chibi sized characters. Almost resembles River City Ransom/Kunio.

Each character is a master of their own martial art: Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Thai, Copoeira, Tai Chi, Mantis Style, Jeet Kune Do, Drunken Master, Judo, Boxing, Lucha Libre, Sumo, Aikido, Kalaripayattu, Sombo. You can also unlock 4 more characters that have the styles of Ninjutsu, Xinyiliuhequan, Street Style and Fighting Style.

It recently got a free update that added 5 more characters and 1 more unlockable character: Monkey Fist, Kickboxing, Pro Wrestling, Savate, Pankration and Bear Fist. One of the characters, Michael, is a bear that happens to star in another one of the developer's games: Mysterious Adventure of Michael.

Solid little game that has Street Fighter motions for the special moves.

Gargoyle's Quest (Game Boy/Switch)

Replayed during October.

Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (PC)

Replayed during October. I played this on Switch a few years ago.

Demon's Crest (SNES/Switch)

Replayed during October. I made it a yearly tradition to replay this game every Halloween. One of my faves.

Castlevania Legends (Game Boy/Switch)

Replayed. Quite possibly one of the easiest games in the series. If you utilize your spells through the stages well enough, you'll have no problem handling any situation. Burning Mode also makes every single boss fight a joke.

Night Slashers (Arcade)

Replayed but this time played via Fightcade with a friend. I was Christopher and he was Hong-Hua. I had played this on Switch a few years back.

They announced that this game is getting a remake. That should be cool.

Super Punch Patrol (Switch)

Done by the same developer that did Gunman Clive and Mechstermination Force.
The pencil and paper style is a cool aesthetic like how it was featured in Gunman Clive 1 and 2.
Game is a little clunky but I managed to get a feel for the game after going through it once in Practice Difficulty setting and then I was good enough to beat it on the Normal Difficulty setting.

Lies of P (PS5) (Final)
I did NG++ out of a sort of obligation, rather than save-scumming for endings like a sane person, but I'm kind of glad I did, because ++ is the cycle where you get to style on enemies. This is, strangely, one of the only good non-From Soulslikes. There are some rough spots. The first and second cycles both had parts where the difficulty was abnormal for the genre, I thought, mainly because of the focus on precise parry timing with enemies that deliberately vary their animations to fake you out. And overall it's a bit linear. Nonetheless, it's a good, memorable game and I hope to see more from this studio.