Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2019 Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

Resident Evil II Remake (PC)

Absolutely perfect. Can't wait for the 3rd one.
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Importing the four titles from my Vita topic to this one

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77504549

Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure
One Word by POWGI
Reverie
Pic-a-Pix Pieces
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Secret of Mana (SNES)
Rough!
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Derrick the Deathfin for PC

If you take a moment to realize what you have been doing the entire game, you realize how bonkers this is. I enjoyed it for the most part, and I think it is kind of cool that the hardest sections tend to be earlier in the level, but it is hard for me to recommend it to most people.
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Mega Man III (3DS VC)

Easily superior to the two Game Boy Mega Man games that preceded it. The visuals are among the best on the platform, the music is fantastic, and it really reminded me why Mega Man 4, which it pulls a lot of content from, is one of my favorites in the NES series.
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Rayman 3D (3DS)
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KCF0107 posted...

Derrick the Deathfin for PC

If you take a moment to realize what you have been doing the entire game, you realize how bonkers this is. I enjoyed it for the most part, and I think it is kind of cool that the hardest sections tend to be earlier in the level, but it is hard for me to recommend it to most people.

Ah, I remember that game.
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Mega Man IV (3DS VC)

Okay this one got kinda weird towards the end, between the branching paths in a few of the later levels, things you were supposed to push by shooting that I had no idea what you were supposed to do with them until I looked up YouTube videos, optional collectables required to access the final stage, the pushback from during a fully charged buster shot, etc

I guess by this point in the franchise they were experimenting with what you can do with a Mega Man game and not everything they tried really stuck. One big success was the introduction of an early version of the bolt shop, here called P-chips, which would become a series staple.
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Just Cause 4 (PC)

Well. It certainly improved alot of things, but also removed alot of things. I honestly went into this game with pretty low expectations. I mean, cmon. It's Just Cause. As long as I can fuck around in the open world, it shouldn't be a problem. I saw reviews about how it's pretty much the same thing with no innovation and...maybe?

I mean, if anything JC3 was just JC2 with better graphics. You still based your conquest around shooting red things. In JC4, this was dropped for a more objective system of taking the zones which was both a good and a bad thing. It removed the tediousness of having to find every base to shoot red things in, but it made things way too simple.

A few pluses tossed in like the darker but still shallow storyline (hoping the DLCs can somewhat alleviate this as it had done in the third game) as well as the beautiful world. Granted it is a step down and the open world is clearly now more obvious as a tech demo for the weather. But I still enjoy driving around the place regardless.

And a few minuses from the annoying grapple customization system, the empty progression (finishing sidequests and levels just gave you more things to drop. Things you will never use 80% of the time), and the distinct lack of physical collectibles makes for exploring the vast world kind of pointless, which is a shame because I truly felt brainlessly immersed in this one.
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Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds (Vita)

Fun little beat-em-up that's a little on the short side, but still fun to play. Main draw being that you can play as Kurisu from Steins;Gate, which is cool.
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Hand of Fate for PC

So I have never played a tabletop RPG, and they don't seem all that appealing to me, but I enjoyed what I assume is a super streamlined, video game version of one in this, not that I care for the extremely fluky RNG factors. I think my favorite aspect was the process of completing and uncovering more encounter cards.

I would always customize my deck, no matter how poorly constructed it may have been, to maximize my chances of gaining more tokens to unlock future encounters. It didn't seem to affect much in the long run as I was breezing through the the first half of the game. Then I finally died and while deaths went from rare to simply uncommon, it was never too much, and I could still continue what I enjoyed most. Then I hit an absolute wall in the penultimate, for a lack of a better word, chapter. I had to completely change everything, and after a few more deaths, I took care of business.

I thought everything was starting out great in the final chapter as I made it to the final boss fight on my first attempt, but I was slaughtered in the middle of it. I kept tweaking things, letting them assemble a recommended deck, and changing up how I approached playing the game. It didn't matter as I couldn't come close to reaching the point that I did in my first run. I had all but given up hope that I would beat this, but I randomly booted up this game after a boss fight in another game took a lot out of me.

I eventually made it to the final boss fight, but once I reached the part I died at in my previous best attempt, Plague bosses for those who have played it, things started to fall apart as they health fell to the single digits. Then after receiving what I thought was the finishing blow to my run, I saw that I was still standing, so I fought some more. Then I was sure I was going to die again, but then it didn't happen and continued to fight some more. I finally realized that the combination of curses and equipment that I had must have made me invincible. I was still so incredulous, so I fought like I could still actually fail for the remainder of the fight, and I ultimately claimed victory. I feel bad for anyone who was forced to beat that fight legitimately because man that is one brutal final boss fight.
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Sudeki for PC

Janky with plenty of flaws, this action-RPG has originality in spades. I would love to see this remade from the ground up because this has the potential of being among the best of its genre. The soundtrack is also one of the finest in-context that I have heard in recent years.
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Hand of Fate was too hard for me and I had to bail on it early
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Hollow Knight (PC)
About damn time! This is an excellent Metroidvania and makes me see why people like Dark Souls. I still have work to do, although I have my doubts about getting all the achievements.
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Kingdom Hearts II FM (PS4)
And I got my ass handed to me by Lingering Will. Guess I have to level grind and stuff.
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Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PC)

I never did get that good ending. So here it is. Wow. So many badass moments!

I might take a rest with other games before I tackle the DLCs
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Hollow Knight (Switch)
All three endings.The radiance drove me crazy. Final % was like 97%.

Oh yeah fuck that Radiance BS
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Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)
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Return to Mysterious Island (PC)

Lovely pt click adventure. I was surprised that it was in first person and allowed multiple solutions to a certain problem. Plot was well escalated too. I went from trying to survive to solving island problems to shooting robots in the face.
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Celeste for XB1

87/175 strawberries
922 deaths
7 cassettes
4 hearts
7:29:21.235
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5. Streets of Rage (Switch)
6. Streets of Rage 2 (Switch)
7. Streets of Rage 3 (Switch)
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Jump Force (PS4)

Luckily you can spam barrier + black coffin to get through practically the entire game, but it's still not very good overall. The graphics are the high point - with all the characters looking exactly as their manga counterparts, but unfortunately the actual gameplay suffers instead. Too much grinding and not enough fun, really. Online is also a mess and you can't challenge friends unless you somehow get in the same lobby, which is a completely bizarre design choice.

I'm still going to go for the platinum. At 35/50 it's not too far off.
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Picross 3D (DS)

Not as good as the sequel, but still pretty fun
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Ape Out (PC)

this game is fantastic. distills my favorite gameplay elements from hotline miami with great art direction, smooth music and a moral imperative
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Shovel Knight (Switch)
Will start the 2 DLCs soonish

Super Mario 64 for N64
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Eastshade (PC)

Fun little adventure game. Not optimized very well though
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Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Switch NES)

Wow this game is just punishing the whole way through. Much like Metroid 1, it's a great game that's held back by having way too stiff of a penalty for dying. But unlike Metroid where you eventually become strong enough that dying isn't a big risk, you're CONSTANTLY at risk of getting killed no matter how much you increase your health.
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The Little Mermaid (Game Boy)

Replay
I had an incentive to replay this again. Over at Retro Achievements, the Achievement of the Week was to beat the game without using a continue, so I did.
It's a good stripped down port of the NES version

River City Ransom (NES)
Replayed this via Nintendo Switch.
Once you get the Dragon Feet very early in the game, you've practically won.
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Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (NS)

As part of the Treasure Trove pack. Already started with Specter of Torment as well.
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Old Man's Journey (PC)

Bittersweet game
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Chuchel (PC)

Fun little game
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Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories (3DS)

I had my eye on this game for sometime and finally got around to getting it. What drew me in was it was made by the same director and team that did Hotel Dusk: Room 215

The game is really short and it can be completed in around 2 hours.
It seems this game was a "first episode" of sorts and judging how the game ended with a cliffhanger type ending, it was supposed to be an ongoing thing apparently in an episodic format.

It's a shame cause it left me wanting more.
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Kickle Cubicle (NES)

I remember renting this game as a kid and liking it. Was never able to beat it at the time.

You play as Kickle in an overhead action puzzle game where you can freeze enemies and turn them into ice blocks. You can also create ice pillars to kick an ice block toward it for positioning ice blocks. You can kick ice blocks around to solve puzzles and collect all the Dream Bags to complete a level. After you complete all the levels in a world, you do a boss fight. Some of the later puzzles are pretty tough but are very satisfying to solve.

It felt good to finally beat the game.
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Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded (PC)
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Metal Slug X for PC

I haven't played a Metal Slug game since maybe the 90s, and this is definitely the first one that I've beaten. Not the biggest fan of its aiming system, but with unlimited continues, the penalty for having to deal with its awkwardness was low.
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Dead Horizon for PC

I have absolutely no idea how this came to get into my Steam library, but I wasn't expecting a 10-ish minute game with no fail states. It was fine I suppose? It would have been cool as a CYOA adventure game reminiscent of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom but more gameplay-centric.
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Beyond Eyes for PC

An aesthetically beautiful walking simulator with walking speed issues. I wouldn't say they exploited visionary blindness, but I don't think they did it much justice. I didn't really think the ending was a good payoff for what I experienced. I guess the cat died? I don't really think there was remotely enough evidence to conclude beyond a doubt that was the case. I'm guessing that they were implying the gravekeeper put the cat's collar on the tree? That is the only possible explanation that I can get that the girl would have assumed the cat died. For the player though, there are just too many unknowns to be expected to come to that conclusion.
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Fearful Symmetry & The Cursed Prince for PC

Really neat puzzle game at its best, but at times, it asked too much of the player to be able to divert attention to both screens when both required memorization and timing puzzles throughout the entirety of the level.
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Cave Story+ (Steam)

Thank God for OP weapons during that boss rush. Got the normal ending, but I do have access to the final level so I'll play this a little while longer. Didn't really like what I saw when I went down there though...

I don't really play a lot of platformers, but I did enjoy this one. I think it offered enough of a challenge while still being relatively simple. I also went into this thinking it was a Metroidvania, but there really wasn't a whole lot of backtracking and most of the areas were small and contained enough that it wasn't really a bother. Good fun all around!
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Devil May Cry 2 (via PS3)
It deserves its reputation.
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Detroit: Become Human (PS4)

i enjoyed playing and laughing at David Cage's other games to varying degrees, but this one feels like they finally figured out how to do things correctly. maybe it's easier because the main characters are all androids, and aren't expected to behave naturally.

i thought some of the logic jumps in kara's storyline were a little stupid, and my ending felt kind of abrupt, but this game is great. i'll be going back to replay a few chapters and outcomes i missed

I started off playing the game in 'lol david cage' mode, letting various characters die and making stupid choices, but by the end i was really into it

the only really stupid things that stood out involved (spoilers, obviously) the scene where text pop-ups tell you what you're supposed to feel ('this isn't fair!!!!!!') while simultaneously explaining you have your own free will, as well as the fact that the heroine would from her perspective rather risk a little girl's life than turn her into police custody. oh, and the god damn 'find the symbol' section
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took me about 4 months lol but Ys VIII (Switch)
good game for the most part. Dana deserved a better ending than she got
I don't think it was better than Seven.
best Adol ship is still the adult chick from Ys VI.

Super Mario 64 on Wii Virtual Console
70 stars.
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Tetris Effect (PS4)

Really good Tetris with graphics and sound effects that actually enhance the gameplay experience. I've already wrote about it last month for my top 10 of 2018 topic, but I hadn't finished the Journey Mode at the time. Found some even better music tracks through the final levels.
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Pool Nation for PC

I remember getting users here to buy this 4-5 years ago when it was $1 on Steam despite having never played it myself. It's probably the best pool video game that I've played. I suck at most trick shots, but I was a fiend at bank shots. I was so pissed to find out that simply favoriting shot replays didn't save them and you had to save the whole match for it to be archived.

I beat both the 8 and 9 ball tournaments, but the last match was with the former. I won the championship in hilarious fashion. I won the first frame in a best-of-three match, and at the end of the second frame, I missed getting the 8 ball in, so my opponent had a seemingly easy opportunity to win the frame. I skipped the shot assuming it was going to a tiebreaking round only to hear a very peculiar sound and seeing a screen saying that I had won 2 frames to 0. I checked the replay, and the opponent ended up hitting the 8 ball so weirdly that it literally flew off the table, which is an auto-lose condition. I had a good laugh about that.
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The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

This was a very good sequel to A Link to the Past. I really enjoyed it!
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Life is Strange: Before The Storm deluxe
the post credits scene for episode 3 was a trip, christ.

Creepy Castle for PC

There's a lot of side scenarios with other characters and other extra modes, but the main one is finished. Really glad that I bought this game in the Steam Winter Sale. Battles remind me of Undertale with an array of mini-games but significantly better. It does have some issues though, namely an unhelpful map with nothing to indicate what your current task is (it basically forces you to not take too much time off from sessions), and no direct benefits from battling that will cost you healing items (experience and level gains came from finding crosses on the map). People who couldn't get past that in Paper Mario: Sticker Star or Color Splash will probably want to avoid this game.
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