Board 8 > The Great 2019 Video Game Challenge

(+) Yeah! (+)

37. Beat a game that's been in your backlog for a long time

BioShock
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1. Beat a game released before 1990

Super Mario Bros.

Wow really didnt expect to finish this so fast tonight. Surprised at how fun the gameplay still is today
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41. Beat a game with a Metascore below 70
Ultimate NES Remix

4/50

What a waste of potential. Too much reliance on Super Mario Bros. and not enough creative remixes. Another issue is that way too many of the challenges are just tutorials for things you would be doing anyways in the game. Feels like a glorified demo machine which would explain why they give you a button to go straight to the NES game's eshop page.

8. Beat a spin-off or a game that rebooted a franchise

Sonic Runners Adventure

started off pretty decent for a mobile Sonic game, but by the 3rd chapter it starts spamming projectiles at you so much it becomes almost unplayable.

18. Beat a third-person shooter

Splatoon 2

the multiplayer is decent but the story mode itself is kinda boring, aside from the admittedly fun bosses

Also I thought I'd have Red Dead Redemption II beaten by now but goddamn the epilogue is going on WAY longer than I thought it would
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42. Beat a game with a Metascore above 90
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

1/50
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The Clothesline: coming in 2072.

Not really Chester related put possibly We Are Clyde-related robot: https://imgur.com/Fu2jqhK

Still do some sketches for that once in a while in case I ever do get around to making it.

42. Beat a game with a Metascore above 90

Red Dead Redemption II

I beat it. I finally beat it. I thought I'd get this in the 2018 challenge easy but goddamn the game is massive, and I haven't even touched online. I have little structural issues here and there, but man this game is epic in about every sense of the word.

It fits in like a dozen different categories but I figure I'll start with this one.
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47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours

Fate/grand order

Yep, again, and if there's a 2020 challenge I wouldn't be surprised if it fills this slot again.

3/50
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15. Beat a puzzle game
Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle

5/50

Shikaku? Fun.
Akari? Fun.
Hashi? Fun.
Sudoku? Irredeemable garbage due to the fact that they only let you put down four candidates and that it's half of the puzzles in the game.

39. Finish a game in one day

Spelunky

Maybe one year I'll go without playing Spelunky. Not this year.

4/50
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30. Beat a game with a female lead

HEARTBEAT

What It Is: If Mother 3 and Dragon Quest XI had a Gameboy Advance Pokemon spinoff, and where every character was a cute monster girl, this would be that game. Eve is a 22-year old Conjurer who sets off on a journey around the world to bring peace back to the human and Mogwai worlds through the power of friendship. Surprisingly deep, well-crafted, very fun.
Estimated Time: 20-25 hours for main story, still enjoying the after game
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47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours
RuneScape

2/50
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39. Finish a game in one day
Ninja Pizza Girl

3/50
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12. Beat a game made by a developer you've never tried

Kuso

Pretty fun. Extremely difficult platformer offset by the fact that you can make an infinite number of checkpoints. Very short (had a final time of around 50 minutes), but it was cheap, so that's fine.

5/50
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Our office space is changing up so I'm going through some long forgotten memos I took notes on the back of. Found a list of games I set goals for myself to start and complete as part of last year's challenge from the tail-end of February. Just thought it'd be interesting to post about and comment on. Comments below each game title.:

Trails of Cold Steel -> JRPG
- Still planning on finishing this soon. Got stalled out in one of the later chapters because of social link decision-making, and just haven't made time to get back in to it yet. I should get this on the list by summer, hopefully.

100% Orange Juice -> Child Lead
- Played multiplayer with a friend for a week. Story mode was awful. No plans to ever re-install.

Alan Wake -> Backlog
- Where it will remain on my backlog until my computer decides to run it. ;_;

Crosscode -> Artificial
- Yesss. Put it off for the official release, and I'm so happy to have played and beaten this excellent game. Highly recommend it.

Danganronpa 2 -> #2 Series
- Another awesome game and great series.

Ultra Despair Girls
- Not the best game with a lot of uncomfortable moments, but still some good story beats and an interesting playstyle.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Still haven't even attempted to install to see if it would run.

Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends -> Historical
- Took forever, but finally beat it. Ended up having a lot more fun than expected, especially after getting a bigger monitor so I could actually read the tiny tiny fonts.

Final Fantasy X -> Favorite
- Absolutely great game but that post-game looks just so awful. Also probably the finished game I hopped around the most categories (because it can do that)

Final Fantasy X-2 -> Series
- Played through maybe half of the first chapter before forgetting about it? Maybe if the Dresspheres didn't have unskippable animations every time you changed, it would be at the very least somewhat tolerable. I can understand the massive dislike.

Geneforge
- Gah. I was so into this game for about two weeks, then I read about quests I missed or storybeats I didn't do and started over, and just haven't been back to it. I should get this started up again.

Gurumin
- I can't play it. I have a file from a few years back that got pretty far, but both going into it or starting a new game, and it crashes when I select a level.

La-Mulana
- *throws down smokebomb and hides*

Recettear
- Hmm? I thought I already beat this? Maybe I'm wrong.

Stardew Valley -> Romance
- Ahh... this. I was in Fall Year Two when I stopped my file to play a 'better' game, inspired by, I believe, Ermine's and FD's multiplayer stream and how much well-planned their farm was. I started a new file that's in Fall Year 1, but just haven't gotten back in because I've already done most of the stuff and it's not a struggle anymore. I should beat it just to beat it soon.

Tales of Maj'Eyal
- Excellent game I think transience recommended, but I get too ragequitty when things go south later on.

The Long Dark
- Beat episode 1!!! ...Only to learn that 3 through 5 weren't out yet, so I put it off until then... and then realized it really didn't fit any categories.

So, 5/17 beaten games from my list last February. I have some goals to set myself for this year, huh?
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52. Beat three games in a series - Game #3
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

6/52

#1 Zelda game of all time considering it was beaten in a Linked game. It's #3 otherwise.

25. Beat a game with horror as a central theme
Hello Neighbor

This game was fucking terrible
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Gonna call it a night on games now btw because Im a handful of drinks in and it probably wouldnt be a good idea to play real matches soon. Lmao
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33. Beat a game with a robot/artificial lead
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash

7/52

What a bland, uninspiring platformer. A kickass Castlevaniaesque boss isn't enough to save it from all the dumb decisions this game had. Shame Chibi-Robo is dead as a franchise.

1. Beat a game released before 1990

Dragon Quest

I was looking for some mobile games that weren't just endless runner/puzzle stuff and that didn't require an internet connection to play on my commute, and remembered that most of this series, of which I've never played, is on Android so I figured I'd finally play through it. I liked the shorter length and simplicity of this one as opposed to the first Final Fantasy (which is a great game), however I did resort to a guide a few times to save myself what seems to be hours of padding from the developers by making the flow of the game convoluted. It feels like 50% of one's time with the game involves figuring out where to go next (with 45% reserved to grinding).

On to DQ2!

9/50
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43. Beat another user's favorite game
Chrono Trigger

Fantastic game it's right up there with FFVI. Still cant believe it took me this long to play it.
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22. Beat a fighting game

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I was expecting this to be one of those short 5-7 hour fighting game "story" modes, but here I am at nearly 100% completion 18 hours later.

10/50
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16. Beat a rhythm game

THE iDOLM@STER: MUST SONGS: Red Album

4/50
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34. Beat a game with an animal lead
JumpJet Rex

4/40
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9. Beat a remake or enhanced port

Yakuza Kiwami

Probably going to put this in the beat three games in a series eventually, though.

6/50
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the plan is to be okay

47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours

FIFA 18

F8 me.

21. Beat a strategy game

World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap

If I take my time with DQ IV and Cave Story+, I might well beat a game every month!
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Thanks GTM

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

5/50
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31. Beat a game with a child lead
Bully
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16. Beat a rhythm game
THE iDOLM@STER MUST SONGS: Blue Album

8/52

I wanna go back to before Cinderella Girls ruined everything ;_;

47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours

Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Same as usual, I just have zero interest whatsoever in any MMO or another gacha game, but if that ever changes then I'll place it here just so I have something new for this category.

39. Finish a game in one day

Island Dash. When I see the words "Made with Unity" I fully expect pure garbage. It's free on Steam, but not worth playing this crappy game unless it's specifically for this challenge. Game can be completed in 10 minutes, so it's an easy one.

3/50
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I played a bunch of Record Keeper when it first came out, and kept up with all of the events as well as main content, but then I switched from Apple to Android, fell behind, and decided that I'd never be able to catch up so I stopped playing.
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50. Beat three games in a series (Game 1)
Spyro the Dragon
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Two short ones and a long one

9. Beat a remake or enhanced port

Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition. Not much to say here

29. Beat a game with comedy as a central theme

Burly Men At Sea. Not my type of comedy, but still

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

Tales Of Xillia 2. Clocking in at around 145 hours (not even doing postgame content!) this is easily the longest I've spent on a Tales game. From a gameplay standpoint this might be my favorite in the series, but as a whole there are a few issues that keep this from topping my rankings, mainly the story featuring some good ol' Tales bullshit the series is known for.

That completes the Tales series for now; the games I haven't played either have not been released in the West or I just don't have much interest in them (mainly the older titles. Maybe if Hearts gets ported to a console...). So, here are my final rankings:

Graces f > Berseria > Xillia 2 > Xillia > Abyss > Vesperia > Symphonia > Zestiria > Legendia > Symphonia 2

Vesperia will get another chance to move up the ladder with the remaster, but it's not a priority for the time being.

6/50. Time to join the KH3 waiting room!
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38. Beat a game you'd dropped or had a long hold on
Final Fantasy XIII

9/52

Put this on hold about three years ago because I got bored of grinding Gil in the last chapter.

Lopen posted...

Alexa won because they must have at least one of the MitB winners be a scummy heel

That's seriously my best estimation

Certainly makes sense. I was really hoping that she wouldn't be able to reach the briefcase and would throw a tantrum on top of the ladder.
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Robazoid posted...

47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours
50. Beat three games in a series

Pretty sure I've already passed the mark on TEW for this year, and I finally beat Trails in the Sky as well! That's probably my best chance at beating the series one this year (yeah that'll happen with how fast I play games >_>) so that's where I'm filing it :P
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47. Play a technically unbeatable game for at least six hours

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

I haven't been nearly as invested in this game recently, but I still play it mostly daily. Fills my nostalgia cup, and it's a good time.
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38. Beat a game you'd dropped or had a long hold on

Pokemon Crystal

I bought this game yeeeeeears ago on GBC. Got to where you catch Suicune, then basically stopped. Got it later on PC and such, tried a few times, but never ended up finishing. About a month ago, I saw that I had a save after my 5th badge, said fuck it, and decided to beat it. Beat the E4 a little while ago, but I wanted to get all 16 badges, and beat Red. After a titanic battle last night, which came down to my Kadabra vs Venusaur, I got it done. This is the first pokemon game that I've fully beaten outside of gen 1 (and FR/LG). Was pretty sweet!
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50. Beat three games in a series (First game)
Spyro the Dragon

Gonna end up doing the entire Reignited Trilogy, probably after I finish KH3.
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46. Beat a game that features historical events or people

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

I do love me some Uncharted. I just need to get through a Crushing difficulty playthrough and I'll be all set for Kingdom Hearts 3 on Tuesday.

11/50
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Went to the arcade last night and thus I already have more games beated than I half expected to for the year!

Robazoid posted...

44. Beat a game based on licensed stories/characters

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon was every bit as BS as most arcade beat-em-ups but hey I could chuck people around with Sailor Mercury.

Robazoid posted...

22. Beat a fighting game

I got a chance to play Ergheiz finally and quite liked it! Tifa did well for me.
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24. Beat a game with romance as a central theme
Tales of Hearts R

25. Beat a game with horror as a central theme
Resident Evil 2
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Okay, I held off on actually doing anything with this for almost a month, but I suppose I should get started

28. Beat a game with the supernatural as a central theme
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

29. Beat a game with comedy as a central theme
Four Last Things

31. Beat a game with a child lead
Lumo

39. Finish a game in one day
Minit
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39. Finish a game in one day

Mega Man 4
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19. Beat a platformer
Super Mario Odyssey

6/50
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32. Beat a game with a non-white lead
Sleeping Dogs

10/52

Still probably my favorite GTA style game since San Andreas. Just wish the game was harder.

5. Beat a game released in 2019

Fur The Game. Another free short Steam game (puzzle). Only took like 10 minutes and that's with the game running super slow on my laptop. It's neat but extremely easy.

7/50
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I request a 100-word essay on your thoughts about thundersheep's recent nude shenanigans, replacing the m-word with hilarious euphemisms such as "diddling his peenie" or "bopping his bip" so as to avoid moderations.