Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2020 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

A Short Hike (PC) was free and a friend recommended it

it was fun to explore, not going to get wound up trying to hunt some of the side events

the ending was pretty abrupt!

---

Halo 5: Guardians (XB1)

I've owned this game for about five years now, so it's about damn time that I beat the campaign!

There's a lot to like about this game. There's a greater emphasis on using the superior Promethean and Covenant weapons, the game is absolutely gorgeous and at times has you going through some truly neat environments to fight in, there are some great quality of life changes such as the ability to pull yourself up from ledges, and while I have played almost exclusively classic multiplayer stuff, the new Warzone mode seems pretty rad even if I don't really have a handle on what is going on all the time lol.

Unfortunately, there's enough holding it back to where I would probably rank it only ahead of Reach among the seven major titles. While I liked the addition of the squads in the campaign, they don't seem to respond to your commands nearly as much as they should, whether it is entering vehicles, attacking a certain enemy, or reviving me or another teammate. The first three games superbly delivered an incredible sense of scale with an epic adventure while the next three (ODST, Reach, and 4) were more of a personal quest that totally paid off. 5 didn't seem to do either. I ultimately feel underwhelmed with the campaign. Like yeah, it's Halo and I had a ton of fun, but like I didn't accomplish or experience much.

While I do not put a whole lot of stock into video game plots/stories, I'm a little mad that not only did they just completely undo the emotional campaign from 4, but they are making Cortana the villain in this arc? I've been playing Halo for almost 20 years and have a strong attachment to her. It was sad to her go in 4, but I thought it was a proper sendoff. Now they brought her back and are likely to ask me "kill her" in this current arc. Fuck that. At this point, the only remotely reasonable hope is that there is some reconciliation in Infinite or the next game and there is another, bigger overarching villain to be revealed to take her place.
---

Devious Dungeon 2 (Vita)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78905139

---

The Last of Us 2 (PS4)

Finally got around to replaying TLOU2 for the platinum trophy. I thought that it was an overall good game, I liked how the risks they took with it and I appreciated that they tried to tell a more complex story. That said, I think it doesn't really come close to the original. I thought the first one essentially a masterpiece and so it was hard to imagine a sequel ever reaching those heights.

---

Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)

I dont know why this game gets alot of praise in the series. I think the first was actually better, but it may just be how this game has aged. They made alot of improvements tbf, but like the last game, the end was severely rushed and padded in unusual places.

---

Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)

I can't believe it took this long for someone to finally make a fitness game into an actual game. Even bigger shock is that it's pretty good. Have two big complaints about it though

1. Certain workouts are objectively better in-game meaning you'll have to handicap yourself to get a balanced workout. Mid to end game consists of a lot of squats due to how easy they are to get and how hilariously OP they are for when you get them.
2. Smoothies completely break any sort of difficulty and you have to self limit yourself if you want any sort of challenge.

Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn (PC)
By-the-numbers beat-em-up with middle school humor. I hope Shaq at least had fun voicing all that nonsense. I probably would.

---

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

This is my first Animal Crossing game I ever owned. I remember going to a friend's to check out Animal Crossing on GameCube to play NES games on it. Good times.
I was surprised this game even had a story portion in it.

It's such a chill game. I've been playing it ever since I got it for my birthday back in May. It's one of my go-to games and I will continue to play it throughout the year!

Omen Exitio: Plague (Switch)

A Choose Your Own Adventure created by H.P. Lovecraft
It was really neat.
I like how you can gain experience points depending on your actions of your choices and you can use experience points to allocate them to your attributes: Fighting, Observation, Medicine, Agility, Speechcraft.
Seems like I got a bad ending. I might go back to it at some point for a better ending.

Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Fighter's History (Switch)

So right off the bat, the first glaring gripe I had with purchasing this game was that there was no way to configure your controls whatsoever and I almost had buyer's regret. Luckily you can remap the controls on the Switch via the System Settings.

I was very familiar playing this game on the SNES and finally got to see what the Arcade version was all about.
It felt about the same. I think I prefer the SNES version by a small margin.

---

Banjo-Kazooie (XGP)

Kinda mixed on this one. I liked the level designs overall, and loved the music. The cameras and controls were aggravating as heck though. Got everything in the game though! Well, at least that it keeps track of.

---

Heart of the Woods (Steam)

I feel like I say it about a lot of the less game-y games I play but this is cute and gay and I recommend it. Also has a surprisingly compelling, sometimes legitimately creepy plot about ghosts and forest spirits.

---

Lonely Wolf Treat (PC)

This is from that big itch.io bundle. It's an RPG Maker game about making curry, and also racism (speciesism?). The whole thing is about 20 minutes long, but it ends with a "to be continued" so presumably there will be more eventually, if there isn't already.

---

What Remains of Edith Finch (Nintendo Switch)

Really enjoyed it!

turbopuns3 posted...

What Remains of Edith Finch (Nintendo Switch)

Really enjoyed it!

I loved that game! I sat down to try it out one day, and ended up completing it!

---

Suikoden (PS1)

Lots of early jrpg weirdness. Definitely on the easy side. Not as politically heavy as I thought it would be.

---

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)

Played the first and second encounter through the Revolution game, beat the second encounter today for some reason it didn't give me the achievement?

Anyway, I liked this one so much more than the first encounter.

---

Yooka-Laylee (PS4)

They were a little too faithful in replicating the earlier Banjo-Kazooie games, but I was very satisfied with the final product.
---

Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen (Vita)

An amazing story, one of the best I've played through on the Vita so far. Glad I waited to start here with the series, and if the sequels are of the same quality I feel that I will have a great time with this series. The game's strategy RPG portion, however, is very bare-bones and lacks any challenge even on Hard difficulty, which is quite a letdown considering the other game I played from this Aquaplus + Sting collaboration (Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord) was actually challenging on that front and had a much more in-depth strategy RPG portion attached to the visual novel.

Guess I'll see where the series takes me in the sequels soon!

---

I think this is my first post in this topic, meaning quite some time since I've beaten a game.

Batman Arkham Asylum (PC)

Cracking down on those free games from Epic, started with this. Currently rounding out Riddler stuff to complete the game, hopefully I fully resume on beating games this year.

---

AtmaSphere (PC)

This isn't a long game (about three hours across 30 levels), but it took me over a year to beat it because I liked to play it in little spurts until I decided to power through it earlier.

It's a cool physics-based, ball-rolling game that can have some humorous, jarring in-level music changes from what is a pool of royalty-free music.
---

Downwell (Switch)

This game is insanely tough on a phone (where I played it first), but very doable on Switch. It took me probably 6 tries against the boss once I got good enough to get there consistently. Definitely a fun little rogue-like platformer, especially for the low price tag.

---

Katamari Damacy REROLL
8/17

This game was both great and annoying at the same time.
Music and atmosphere were amazing. Controls and some of the timed levels were annoying.
The earlier levels were a mixed bag but the later levels mostly great.
Once you were able to roll up houses it got way more fun. The last stage was the best stage

---

Cat Quest(PC)
At first it seemed like easygoing fluff but it turned out to have some substance.

---

Oxenfree (GOG.com)

Very interesting, fun, and enjoyable. I was a little disappointed at the villain turn near the end, but it ended up alright. Will probably play this again in the future to try and get the best(?) ending but I can't sit through the same dialogue and slow walking again right away.

---

Spy Muppets: License to Croak (PC, GBA)

The humor is about what you'd expect from a Muppets game. The gameplay was fairly boring and repetitive. Only really played it out of boredom, and to talk about it with a friend who hates the Muppets somehow.


---

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (Android)

Out of the initial trilogy this was probably my favorite of them. Hopefully the second trilogy will come to mobile as well.

---

Stella Glow (3DS)

While I immensely enjoyed it the biggest complaint I have is that speed is BY FAR the most important stat for a unit. This pretty much means that half of the units are pointless and every single person will end up most likely using the same group of characters on their playthrough.

BAKED:MAGIC (PC)

Another itch.io VN. It's short and a little amateur-ish, but fine. Elliot is a cute character and the game really made me want a muffin.

---

Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - Omen (PSP)

Finished the first game of the duology. Lots of interesting stuff here, but man alot of them required a guide for me and that final boss was just insane.

---

Devil May Cry V (PS4)
That was great.

---

Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (PSP)

Holy crap, that was amazing. Improved everything from the first game and tied everything together so nice. While the first one felt it wasn't sure of itself and it was awkward at times, I feel like II hit the ground running as I could not put it down. A very good JRPG and I didn't know what I was expecting.

---

Duke Dashington Remastered (PC)

Its movement is ripped straight out of Wario Land, but you can only move via dash in four directions in about 150 micro levels. It is nothing special but competent.
---

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated

First game I've beaten in less 24 hours in a long time - at least, that isn't more than an hour or two. Goo Lagoon was probably my favorite world.

---

metaIslug posted...

It's very nice. Great soundtrack especially

Oh god yes, I think I'll acquire the OST myself. Such a great way to remix a game.

I just went ahead and finished the 3rd game myself.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PSP)

It was nice to finally have an attack button again (but no doubt I do love the ramming system mainly for its creative boss fights). Overall I would say it was great. A few things lost from its predecessors, but a few things gained. Game's always had great boss fights and this one's no exception, providing a real challenge at times. The music has suffered though. Or rather, the first two in their remake are just really a tough act to follow. I'm also mired by alot of grinding here. It's most especially glaring by the final boss where I literally had to spend hours getting that HP increasing potion in order to tank the final boss. I don't mind the repetitive gameplay loop of having to whack monsters silly; that's always been an Ys staple I guess, but I wouldn't have minded a few puzzles instead of the completely combat-focused accessories you acquired.

Probably my biggest praise is on the stellar voice-acting. Words flowed well and spoken properly, giving me a front row seat to the tale. As cliche as the story is by today's standards, I wouldn't have minded it if only to listen to these people express themselves taking the whole thing seriously.

---

The Stanley Parable (PC)

Picked this and DuckTales up today. Got 5 endings so far, planning on getting more. I love the narration, which was the main reason I picked up Icey last year.

---

Bioshock 2 Remastered (PC)

It kinda felt unnecessary. I liked a few of the new guns, and didn't like a few of the others. The new way of getting ADAM was both neat and infuriating.

I accidently killed one little sister, and the only save I had was from a decade back... so ruined everything

---

Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions

This game is Fire Emblem as fuck, which I guess is sort of the point. I enjoyed most of it, but it was definitely lacking in quality of life features and there were a lot of chapters that were painful 50-80 turn slogs. I wasn't playing anywhere near optimally but still, shit was long. The last chapter probably took me close to 8 hours by itself. I don't really see myself replaying this, unlike other FEs.

---

Corpse Party (3DS)

My main issue with horror games is that the moment they become even a little bit tedious is when they immediately take me out of any horror atmosphere they may have been trying to set up. More of a complaint of the genre than one for Corpse Party to be fair.

Metamorphosis (PC)

Very interesting premise and levels and it felt like more could be done but after the initial shock of crawling around like a bug in weird places, it just never goes further. It was getting really interesting too then it went all arthouse abstraction. Like, the appeal of going in a place that's familiar to you but different because of your size was what the appeal was all about and I just felt like going to the "Bug Worlds" was not just a waste of time but an utter bore. It would be nice though if these zones were interesting to look at but they felt vapid and no one really had anything interesting to say. And the last few levels were just littered with stupid puzzles. The game had some choices in there but only the end really mattered. No I never read Kafka, but I bet he'd be rolling in grave if he knew this game existed.

I'm actually gonna go ahead and say that this is not the first game where you crawl around like a bug through some mystical means and yeah Bad Mojo is still the better game that does this premise properly. This game is adequate at best.

---

Battletoads (2020)(PC)
Pretty acceptable. It's very silly, including the gameplay, which bombards you with strange and unconventional minigames as often as it gives you combat or vehicles. It really feels like a '90s cartoon, although whether it's actually funny is arguable.

---

Chaos;Child (Vita)

I really did like the latter 25% of the main route, but so much of the game is padding and it's even worse than Steins;Gate when it comes to pacing issues. Characters tend to ramble on and repeat the same basic facts over and over again, plus the game basically quizzes you on stuff that should be easily apparent if you're reading carefully (and if you aren't reading, then why are you playing this?) The last 25% is extremely good though, but I'm also not a fan of the ending either. Hopefully the other routes elaborate a bit more on what happened here, and I might have a different opinion afterwards. That will be in my platinum topic whenever that happens.

---

Carrion (PC)

Wow. It's been a full four years since BUTCHER. Okay, so its great. I love it. It's The Blob/Thing Simulator and you got these cool powers and everything's gory and. Well.

BUTCHER had depth. Boss Fights. Gory situations. Atmosphere. This game while innovative was just a bit shallow to me, focusing more on puzzling which I didn't mind tbh but I expected something else I guess. The pacing was weird; it didn't seem like this facility cared that this thing was free as it wasn't escalating threats against you. There wasn't even an epic-level boss fight. Once you got a certain ability, even the toughest mooks were a piece of cake. Not to sound callous but I just expected a bit more from the devs.

---

Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise (Switch)

I've beaten the first game many times and will likely play it again at some point in the future
I will never play this one again.

Batman Arkham City (PC)

Continued my free Epic games with pushing to beat the second game, forgot to post this a few days ago when I actually beat it. It was nice to move around the city, but I was a little saddened at not really more of the stealth room encounters. Some pretty good boss fights and the additional equipment was good, plus it was nice to add more characters into the mix, both playable through campaign and out of it, and just enemies.

---

DuckTales: Remastered (PC)

Beat on Easy... As much as I hated to do swap, after about the 30th death I lost patience.

Anyways, was a pretty fun platformer!

---

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS)

I know there's a lot more to it after you see the credits, but my touch screen protector is getting quite scratched up and it was affecting my slides. I'll probably come back to this once I replace my screen protector.

A Plague Tale: Innocence (XB1)

Looks fantastic, I liked its stealth mechanics, and the vocal performances were great. I never truly got a handle on the sling though, and while I can accept how miserable the first few chapters to establish the grim and dour tone for the rest of the game, there were parts that were just unnecessarily cruel that just depress me. It's definitely a good game, but just know that you will be experiencing a lot of awful things.
---

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (XB1)

I've been playing this and the previous game off-and-on for months now but finally made the push to finish them.

I at first struggled with this game until I truly committed to a stealthy approach, and damn if that isn't the way to go. I haven't played a ton of turn-based tactics games in my lifetime, but this is definitely one of the better ones with its flexibility, deceptive depth, and level design. It's not a funny game, but I laughed and chuckled quite a bit with their confusion of objects and stuff from our time.
---