Board 8 > The Great 2019 Video Game Challenge

(+) Yeah! (+)

12. Beat a game made by a developer you've never tried

The Silver Case

Moved Burly Men at Sea to 29. Beat a game with comedy as a central theme

27/50
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5. Beat a game released in 2019
I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin Good Dating Simulator

I was getting tired of 2019 games I couldn't be bothered to finish, so I decided to just get a free one off of Steam I get get through in an hour.

That makes 52. See you next year.
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Spent the summer clearing movie and TV show backlog so probably not beating the challenge this year, but I'll do what I can. Two games to add:

3. Beat a game released between 2000-2009

Ninja Gaiden Black. Beat the original when it first came out (in fact it was the reason I bought the original XBox) but never played this version. Still just as hard as I remembered it, but remains such a satisfying game to beat.

20. Beat an action game

Hyper Metroid. Very good romhack of Super Metroid, would definitely recommend if you're a fan of the original.

20/50
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1. Beat a game released before 1990 - Gradius
5. Beat a game released in 2019 - Yoshi's Crafted World
6. Beat a game in a completely new series - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
7. Beat a game in a series you've already played some of - Dark Souls III
9. Beat a remake or enhanced port - Resident Evil 2
11. Beat a game made by a developer you like - Dark Souls II
19. Beat a platformer - Super Mario Bros
35. Beat a game with a lead that's from a fictional species - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
36. Replay a game from a long time ago - Shadow of the Colossus
39. Finish a game in one day - Donkey Kong
47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours - Pokemon Go
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Hmm, I've got Astral Chain, AI: The Somnium Files, Borderlands 3, and a second route in FE:3H to play through. I wonder what I should play. Oh, I know, old games I've already played!

39. Finish a game in one day

Fight'N Rage

Picked up the Switch port. It completely apes the Streets of Rage games, but it does such a good job of it (and adds enough of its own) that I don't like SoR4's chances of topping it. Would highly recommend this to anyone who likes beat 'em ups.

20. Beat an action game

Way of the Samurai 4

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone, but it has a way of completely sucking me in and not letting go. For all its flaws (there are MANY), I really enjoy it.

3/50
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25. Beat a game with horror as a central theme

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

What It Is: After you beat Danganronpa games, you get Free Time Mode where you can have all characters hang out and do daily chores and build social ranks. Zanki Zero is Free Time Mode, but with Etrian Odyssey dungeon crawls, convoluted visual novel storytelling, and terrifying parasitic zombies that frighten the hell out of you until you figure out their patterns and just get annoyed when they pop up.

Fun game, played and beat it on hardest difficulty, and kind of want to go back and 100% most of it, but there's no way in hell I'm getting everyone's Shigabane.

...

Also, I was just going to jokingly ask RappinHobo if getting an ending in the first ten minutes counts as beating his favorite game, until I just double-checked and Zero Time Dilemma is not his favorite but Virtue's Last Reward. Damn, no spots for ZTD.
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26. Beat a game with revenge as a central theme

Full Throttle Remastered

Moved Yakuza Kiwami 2 to 10. Beat a game made by a director/composer/artist/etc that you like

28/50
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27. Beat a game with mystery as a central theme

AI: The Somnium Files

Loved it. Wish porno magazines didn't exist, but other than that I think it's my favorite Uchikoshi game.

4/50
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6. Beat a game in a completely new series

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

28. Beat a game with the supernatural as a central theme

Hollow Knight

One's a short Metroidvania, the other is really long. Both are really good! I guess for Momodora it's the 4th game in its series, but the first one that I've played. Definitely recommend both

22/50
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43. Beat another user's favorite game

RappinHobo's favorite game, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

What It Is: A pretty fun puzzle game that's curious and enjoyable for about 80 to 90% of it, and then mind explosions.

I'm glad I double-checked which game was on the favorites list. Because I'd be so confused playing Zero Time Dilemma. And I'm so glad I played 999 long ago, or else I'd be a vegetable right now.

....

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR VIRTUE'S LAST REWARD AND BEGINNING OF ZERO TIME DILEMMA (maybe?) HERE

So... without even meaning to, I pulled a Sigma. I played Zero Time Dilemma up to the coin flip end when everyone got out successfully. I posted here and was all, 'Hey, I got a good end! Does that count?' before realizing I was playing the game I couldn't plug into the Favorite category.

Now, having played all through Virtue's through the true end, and upon finding no other flowcharts to go on wondering what the hell the old lady means by going back to find out what was going on in that desert... holy ****, that's Zero Time Dilemma.

And I just realized as I was posting this that the 'Good Ending' I got 'saving' everyone is actually the 'Worst End' that causes Virtue's Last Reward to happen in the first place... and I literally played that ending, jumped to the previous game BUT ALSO THE CANONICAL TIMELINE OF THAT ENDING THAT IS THE ENTIRETY OF VIRTUE'S LAST REWARD AND I'M ABOUT TO GO BACK TO ZERO TIME DILEMMA SOON USING MY KNOWLEDGE OF BOTH THE PAST GAME AND THE FUTURE TIMELINE TO FIGHT THROUGH PUZZLES AND SUCH TO ILLUMINATE! A BRIGHTER FUTURE! FOR HUMANITY!

What the ffffffffffffff-*glitch out*

And so yeah, I was like, this is a cool game, and then there was just one revelation after another piling up where I'm just like, "Would you kindly" is a bundle of TNT for the mind while Virtue's Last Reward is a nuclear bomb.

Excellent, excellent game.
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44. Beat a game based on licensed stories/characters

Jump Ultimate Stars

Hey look I replayed another old game for no discernible reason. I could really go for a new one of these. Shame we're stuck with games like Jump Force.

5/50
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14. Beat a JRPG

Pokmon HeartGold Version

I really love Pokmon. Hall of Fame: Prodigy (Typhlosion), Sploosh (Politoed), Angelus (Togetic), Ms. Mittens (Ambipom), Flowey (Sunflora), A Tree. (Sudowoodo).

11/50
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9. Beat a remake or enhanced port

Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors

A lot easier than I remember it being, hopefully hard mode fixes that somewhat. Still a good time. Eager to try out the new characters.

6/50
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40. Finish a game that took you at least twenty-five hours to beat

Dishonored

- Beat it over the past week. Did my savescumming best to not kill anyone, but managed to have two deaths in the second chapter. Still, low chaos stealth mode was kind of fun. Maybe play around again later going full boom kit just to have the high chaos difficulty.

It was fun. It's crazy how big name the voice cast is when I barely even noticed it.
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5. Beat a game released in 2019

Crossovers by POWGI

48. Beat a game that starts with the first letter of your username

Antiquia Lost

30/50
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2. Beat a game released between 1990-1999

Final Fantasy VII

Reply on PS4 for the platinum

21. Beat a strategy game

Fire Emblem: Awakening

12/50


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2. Beat a game released between 1990-1999 - Joe and Mac 2
37. Beat a game that's been in your backlog for a long time - Bloodborne
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31. Beat a game with a child lead
Costume Quest
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4. Beat a game released between 2010-2018
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Achievement grab. Surprisingly, nothing that was too hard. Foxiest of the Hounds was pretty annoying until I figured out to just avoid enemies rather than deal with them. Legend was pretty fun as dealing with every enemy just made me insanely overleveled and OP. Missing Link DLC had some annoying moments because I had become so reliant on the cloaking that actual stealthing got hard, but nothing that couldn't be overcome.

36. Replay a game from a long time ago
Half-Life 2: Episode One

Fun to go back to this for achievements, haven't played HL in a long time. But good lord One Free Bullet...I started out thinking it probably wouldn't be that hard but FUCK EXIT 17 and FUCK THAT STRIDER. How can an entire city in rubble have so few things to fling with the GG...ugh.
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and here's the other reason I won't beat the challenge this year

50-52. Beat three games in a series
14. Beat a JRPG

.Hack//G.U Last Recode

First three volumes for the series, and the 4th volume into the JRPG slot. In total about 150 hours put into this. Good series though

24/50
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14. Beat a JRPG

Dragon Quest XI

I think beating act 2 counts? I'm going to count it. I played this for about 35 hours last November/December, but ended up stopping for some reason. It certainly wasn't because I disliked it, though, because I still enjoyed replaying those 35 hours as soon as it got a Switch release (and the next 40 were pretty nice too.) Tentatively gonna call this my favorite Dragon Quest game, which is high praise considering DQV is one of my favorite JRPGs ever. From what I've heard, I'm a little worried act 3 is going to lower my opinion of the game, but it isn't like I'm going to just not play it.

7/50
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7. Beat a game in a series you've already played some of

Yakuza 3 Remastered

Pretty good, but one of the weaker stories in the Yakuza series so far. The orphanage and the kids were all great though, can't wait to see where that goes in future games (and shit got surprisingly real at a few points, like with Mitsuo and the trans masseuse). I knew from the moment Rikiyi started calling Kiryu 'Aniki' that he was going to die, though they faked me out with him getting shot in the leg. Figured he would surely survive after that. Motherfuckers. I skipped the rest of the substories I had rushing to kick Mine's face in.

Y0 > J > YK2 > YK1 > Y3
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Booooo Yakuza 3 is my favorite story and Mine is my favorite antagonist

I still liked it! I might put it above YK1 now that I think about it, because I really hated the Majima Everywhere thing.

I love Kuze too much to pick anyone but him for my favorite, even though he's basically a looney tunes character.
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49. Choose a random page on TVTropes and beat something from the video game section

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Rolled a second trope for the second list. Got Grim Reaper. Yeah, I think this fits.

8/50
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17. Beat a first-person shooter

The Outer Worlds

I liked it a lot. I don't think it'll hang with New Vegas as one of my favorite games ever, but it's definitely something I'll be replaying (hopefully on the Switch, if that port turns out well.)

9/50
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1. Beat a game released before 1990

Space Harrier II

25/50
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11. Beat a game made by a developer you like
The Walking Dead: The Final Season

RIP Telltale
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12. Beat a game made by a developer you've never tried

Raging Loop

Feels like what would happen if Uchikoshi decided to write a visual novel based on Mafia (well, more based on Werewolf, but I never see it called that here.) Pretty neat.

10/50
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46. Beat a game that features historical events or people

Assassin's Creed: Liberation. Could also put this under game I dropped (multiple times). The game was real buggy for me, from collectibles and side missions randomly disappearing and reappearing off the map, to getting eternally stuck on slopes, to the point where I could only play this in short spurts. A year and a half later, I finally pushed through and beat it. Hopefully Black Flag will be smoother.

26/50
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19. Beat a platformer

404Sight. Free Steam game, just straight up 3D platforming that can be finished in under an hour

27/50
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29. Beat a game with comedy as a central theme

Disco Elysium

Don't think I've ever played a game quite like that. Going to have to play this again some time for sure, I'm sure there's a lot I missed, and I'm curious how the game looks if you lean in to the main character's bad qualities.

11/50

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Moved Dragon Quest from 14. JRPG to 1. 80s
Moved Sonic Mania from 34. Animal Lead to 37. Backlog

9. Beat a remake or enhanced port (Dragon Warrior III for GBC)
34. Beat a game with an animal lead (Cat Quest)
14. Beat a JRPG (Tales of Zestiria)
52. Beat three games in a series - Third Game (Dragon Quest VI)

Four RPGs beaten leaving four spots left.

DWIII was and is still amazing with a great customizable party, a good story, an excellent world, and as the GBC version... MONSTER MEDALS! I beat it once way back in the day, and farmed MONSTER MEDALS while watching competitive Starcraft matches a decade ago. Took me over a year to finally play through and beat this game due to a number of personal issues:

1. I wouldn't go past a boss until I got its medal, with the exception of base Orochi because of that damn item drop. This would lead to tons of ten-minute replays where I'd just get stuck in a loop.
2. Playing on a Game Boy Color with faulty power meant I could only play during the day and near a plug, and not move or do anything else lest the wire come easily loose and reset the progress.
3. MONSTER MEDALS. Kept wanting to just get EVERYTHING despite being at the last boss, and knowing I likely wasn't going to do the Bonus Dungeon anytime soon.

Still an amazing game though, despite noticing I have a lot of problems which... we'll talk about again very quickly.

Cat Quest - Pretty fun.

Tales of Zestiria is... it's a good game. Not as good as Berseria, but it has its charms. Like Berseria, I got stymied by wanting to do everything before finishing up, even knowing none of it matters because items and levels don't carry over into New Game Plus. Spent most of the game doing as much in Chaos as I could, and fighting most bosses in Hard or Normal if I got frustrated. I can see now why there are lots of endgame build guides because I can't imagine the final gauntlet of boss fights on Chaos unless you're solid at everything. Part of me would enjoy playing this again.

Dragon Quest VI - A lot of fun. Going to miss having a good game to play at work during downtime. Had some enjoyment with my own sidecanon while playing. I was surprised by how much the game catered to my silliness.
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43. Beat another user's favorite game

Fire Emblem 7

Turbopuns' topic made me want to play this again, so I built a team off of his draft results. I'm not that great at Fire Emblem, though, so I decided to try Hector normal mode. I remembered HNM being harder than it actually was, though, so I ended up getting through it without having to restart. A regular, no restrictions run of Hector Hard would have been way more challenging. Whoops.

12/50

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6. Beat a game in a completely new series
AI: The Somnium Files
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49. Choose a random page on TVTropes and beat something from the video game section

The Don https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDon

Yakuza 4 Remastered

I needed a cigarette after the entrance in the Finale. That's how you make an entrance.

Having split protagonists was a nice change of pace, and the way the story weaved its way through them was great, one of my favorite Yakuza stories yet. Knowing the backstory from Zero and managing to avoid spoilers, it was an actual shock when Saejima showed up. Only downside of the fantastic ending is the last boss fight being Tanimura, especially after the hype Kiryu vs. Daigo fight right before it. Also Kido getting hyped up as a badass fighter all game but went down with ease. Balls out next time, kid.

Tanimura > Kiryu > Saejima > Akiyama. I just loved cuffing dudes, what can I say.

Y0 > J > Y4 > YK2 > YK1 > Y3
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30. Beat a game with a female lead'

What Remains of Edith Finch

13/50

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40. Finish a game that took you at least twenty-five hours to beat

Romancing SaGa 3

I'd call SaGa Frontier one of my favorite RPGs, but for some reason this is only the second game in the franchise I've ever finished (unless you count The Last Remnant.) I don't love it as much as I do Frontier, but I can imagine the roles being reversed if this were the first game in the series I had played. Going to start a replay to see if I like the ruling/war minigames, but I'm not expecting much.

14/50

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3. Beat a game released between 2000-2009

Shenmue II

31/50

probably will not finish but I'll try to do as much as possible
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41. Beat a game with a Metascore below 70

Bleach: The 3rd Phantom

A mediocre at best SRPG based off a mediocre at best anime/manga. This is the third time I've played through it. I don't know what's wrong with my brain.

15/50

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3. Beat a game released between 2000-2009

Tomb Raider: Legend

28. Beat a game with the supernatural as a central theme

Alan Wake

- Both were solid games with somewhat similar gameplay. Both are decently linear slow burn exploration games with good stories. Both have lots of collectibles just off the beaten path, and both have annoying unexpected checkpoints that prevents going back to explore by accidentally going through the right door to advance the plot. Both have something from their childhood mentioned offhand in the first episode that ends up being the key to sealing the big supernatural threat at the end.

I've been recommended Alan Wake for years, and I'm glad my computer finally decided to run it. I'll probably try and collect all the pages in Nightmare Mode for next year's challenge, but I've said that about a lot of games so far I forget about a day or two later (Heartbeat, Dragon Age: Origins, 428 Shibuya Scramble). It had a decent story, and some good characters (and some terrible ones... like Nightingale), but there were a lot of frustrating bugs and glitches, repetitive combat, and exploration with endlessly respawning shadows where there weren't any collectibles in the end was discouraging. At least it told you that pages were locked until a new game after completion, and the constant loss of all your supplies kept hoarding down.

Tomb Raider Legend I beat about two weeks ago, so it's alot less fresh, but I definitely had a better time with it than Alan Wake. Platforming and puzzles were excellent, and collectibles actually had unlocks for gameplay and gallery items. Why am I collecting coffee canisters in Alan Wake? Why pages? There are no alternate endings, collecting 100 cups of coffee is nothing but an achievement (instead of like an extra bar of health for every 25 or 50; Alan Wake is a terrible writer for giving himself a bunch of things to collect and them not having any impact at all aside from achievement hunting).

Edit: Also, **** Rhythm Games, XD
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Move Alan Wake to 10. Composer. Just for how good The Poet and The Muse is.

28. Beat a game with the supernatural as a central theme

X-COM: Enemy Unknown

- For a game I've quit many times over, I'm surprised it took me only two days to restart and beat. The last time I played was in 2015 and I was too obsessed keeping all of Justice League International alive and well, and I scrapped my newest file two days ago after I got most of the New Mutants killed. So, with my team of random Marvel superheroes, I finally powered through! It was... a lot less punishing than I remember. I think my problem was I was treating it as a "finish missions as quickly as possible to get good grades" when that's only the case in Bomb and Civilian missions. So I was a lot more careful, a lot more economically focused, and developed a really good team by the end.

Heather "Vindicator" Hudson being my psi-unit that sacrifices her life for the earth seemed very fitting and a much better exit than the first Guardian's explosion in issue 12.

**** RHYTHM GAMES. At least I have a month.
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I'm at 41/50

Yakuza 0 should be my action game

FE Fates Revelations will be my third in the trilogy

and the rest I have 0 clue yet
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38. Beat a game you'd dropped or had a long hold on
What Remains of Edith Finch
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Looks like the topic just barely won't last the whole year so I'll make a new one once it fills up.

Since I always ask around this time, does anyone have opinions about changing the challenges for next year? My only real idea was to add a 'Mechanics' section that involved gameplay elements that aren't necessarily tied to genre ('Beat a game that uses a lives system', for example, could cover a game like Mega Man or a bullet hell arcade type game). We could merge or cut a few of the less popular challenges to make room if people think this has potential and have other ideas for game mechanics. Stuff like custom character creators would cover stuff like Mass Effect and Dark Souls, I dunno.

Otherwise, share your own ideas! Including about challenges you wouldn't mind seeing cut just in case there are good ideas.

I'll copy any useful discussion posts to the new topic so feel free to fill this one up.
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19. Beat a platformer

Super Cloudbuilt

16/50

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8. Beat a spin-off or a game that rebooted a franchise
Strider (2014)

Beat this back in October but forgot to mention it!

13/50

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12. Beat a game made by a developer you've never tried
Overcooked

Fun game but I can't serving the Onion King. Onions suck

14/50

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45. Beat a game that's been adapted into another medium

Super Metroid

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