Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2022 Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

You Have to Win the Game (PC)
Nice, straightforward retro exploration platformer. With a puzzle at the end that I had to look up. And if you give up on it, it basically resets the game. I got all collectibles but don't really want to try speedrun or low death run.

Paper Mario (N64, via Switch Online)
Oh, this game. Fun memories. We rented it when it was fairly new, then we got it for Christmas that year. I definitely made it at least as far as Shy Guy's Toybox, maybe Lava Lava Island, but no further than that. This time I finally beat it.

I mean, it's fun! What can I say? I really enjoy this style of RPG. I also loved South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the influence that Paper Mario had on that game is blatantly obvious. You could almost call it a clone. Just like in that game, I found one partner that really worked for my battle style and used them almost exclusively (in South Park it was Stan, in Paper Mario it was Sushi), and once I had leveled up so much that enemies were giving me 1 or 0 EXP each combat got kind of annoying, but it was still a lot of fun!

This game is just really well-designed. The art style is obviously its main charm and draw, but the music is also phenomenal (Twink's Theme in particular has ALWAYS been a favorite of mine), the level design is great, the writing and humor are very entertaining, there are some very charming new characters (standouts are Twink and Jr. Troopa), most chapters have fun little missions leading up to the main dungeon, it's just a really nice RPG. This playthrough took me right around 20 hours, almost on the dot, which is actually a little bit less than the 23 hours recommended by HowLongToBeat, but considering there were a couple of parts that I had to redo a bit (I was not well-equipped for the Lava Piranha boss and so that took me many, many tries before I finally went back and got the badges and upgrades recommended online), it probably comes out in the wash. And that's pretty reasonable for an RPG of this caliber.

There were a few times that I had to look at a guide for a solution to a puzzle or exactly where to go next, or a boss strategy, but very little. This was very much a "just right" difficulty game. I'm really glad I finally played through the whole thing and I'm looking forward to playing future games in the series.

Ori and the Blind Forest (PC)

I did it. Although I had to revert the game difficulty to Easy to finally finish the final escape sequence (Which was basically the final boss) due to my own patience dropping with the constant restarting to the beginning of the sequence. It's a pretty fun game besides those escape sequences, which heavily bothered me. Besides that, there's a lot of enjoyment in the movement of Ori, I'm glad I picked the idea of playing it.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch)

Finally beat Xenoblade Chronicles. I've had the Wii version for a very long time, but never ended up beating it despite being in love with the game. This game makes it both easy and hard to be a perfectionist; the quests are fairly easy to accumulate and complete, but there are a lot of them and they can take quite some time in the Wii version. The Switch version makes it a little less "questing" as you can literally follow a path, but it sure is far less time-consuming and tedious, so the questing ended up being relaxing as I finally set out to finish the story. In the Wii version I stopped twice: first time right at the start of Sword Valley, second time on Valak Mountain. This time, I was hooked all the way through and actually loved playing through Mechonis (for the most part).

Because I was level 82 at the final boss it ended up being very easy, but I felt like I worked hard to get to that point, so it was actually satisfying. As expected, the game stayed fantastic right to the end. The story kept building itself up gradually, receiving more layers, and everything culminating beautifully in the game's final plottwists. Even the gameplay does that, it becomes more and more interesting as you get better gems, team combo's and skill links to play around with and that never really stops at any point during the main game.

Still just an absolutely amazing game, seeing all the pretty areas being even prettier this time was a treat and very happy to have finally beaten the game after all these years!

HarmoKnight (3DS)
This is a rhythm platformer made by Game Freak. Your character automatically runs while you time your attacks, jumps and dodges to the beat of the music. It actually gets pretty tricky which was particularly frustrating for me because I consider myself a fairly seasoned musician, so whenever I failed or just couldn't figure out the timing of a particular beat it made me feel really inadequate. But the game itself is pretty decent. The graphics are very nice, the music is good, the gameplay, though a bit repetitive (particularly the boss battle and ESPECIALLY the mini-boss battles), is fun, and the characters are all very cute. There are even bonus songs from the Pokemon games. A couple of minor complaints are that there is sometimes too much dialogue, and since the story isn't really that interesting I actually skimmed through a lot of it, and the game is very short. I knew it was short going in and it still came to an end much more quickly than I expected. I have known about this one for years but finally jumped on it knowing that the 3DS eShop is winding down to a close, which could make this unobtainable for a while. Knowing Game Freak though, they like to keep their games in circulation, and since the touch screen serves no practical function here, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from porting this to the Switch, which they could very well do for the 10th anniversary next year. $15 is a little much for what was but it's unlikely to ever go on sale again so if you think you might like it, buy it now or (possibly) forever hold your peace.

Super Win the Game (PC)
It seemed like an interesting sequel going in, and constructing a pure platformer in the approximate mold of Zelda II is interesting, but it's a bit of a maze to navigate, has some frustrating required items to find, and is peppered with these cryptic blobs of philosophical prose that never seem to pay off in any way. Reminds me of Braid, and Roger Ebert's comparison of its text boxes to "verbose fortune cookies" or something of that nature.

Eat Them! (PS3)

It's basically Rampage in three dimensions. So it's not a good game. Rampage was fine for an 80s arcade game but the idea gets boring very quickly. There is not really any challenge at all, just spamming attack buttons to knock down buildings and occasionally stopping to eat and replenish energy. I found the art style of this game to be pretty ugly, as well. Load times were way too long for something so simple.

The Last Guy (PS3)

This is a wonderfully weird, very Japanese game. And the concept felt fresh, too! At least to me it did. You control this guy who marches through a satellite rendering of real world cities to rescue civilians from a zombie apocalypse. As you collect people, they trail behind you and give you a stamina bonus, but also render you more and more vulnerable to attack as the line behind you grows. It's an interesting mix of risk and reward, and incredibly challenging. I beat the game but did not have the patience to complete it to 100 percent.

Digging into the ol' PS3 digital catalog, eh?

Yeah, my PS4 stopped working for a while and I went into all my old PS+ games on PS3. There are so many little downloadable games that I got for free over the years. Some of them I have no interest in, but I have been giving almost all of them at least a little try.

Yuppie Psycho: Executive Edition (PC)

I had an opportunity to beat this ages ago actually but sort of forgot about it. Glad I did otherwise I wouldn't have experienced the new DLC content. Definitely a step up from Lucanor although I don't fully agree with the implied-cyberpunk aesthetic which aside from the strange classification of this working class, served nothing else to the plot which to me feels like a missed opportunity given that the supernatural and corporate machinations are involved. Could it be that it was just cyberpunk to give the office building an excuse to be "illogical" as it were. Hm.

Yes this game is fucking scary and in a dreadful tragic kind of way especially when you find the witch in the end. I don't like the tone of it however--at times it doesn't appear to know what it wants to be and whether or not it wants to take itself seriously. The survival aspects were fair and balanced except for a very tiny portion of the beginning where your save points are starved like the ink ribbons from Resident Evil. I found I had to repeat entire acts just because I died at an inopportune moment and had no idea when the next point was coming.

Survival aspect feels like Lone Survivor albeit better polished. But other than graphical retroness you can't really compare the two I suppose. This game's really its own thing. Endearing characters. Intriguing concepts and plot twists. And a villain you just love to slap in the face when its all said and done.

The endings/final act came rather abruptly too but the two extra DLC endings capped it off nicely. All in all, it was no longer the "you must do everything until X" ending system of Lucanor but there are still parts that I struggle to want to do again just to see how it ended.

Also, wtf was up with that devil character. The one element that surprisingly made no sense to the plot other than to scare the shit out of you for being ya know The Devil.

Death's Door (PC)

Went into it not knowing anything about it. Thought it was a soulsclone but glad it wasn't (only in spirit though). The tone is very solemn and melancholic. Bosses you fight are merely a means seeing as you are literally a reaper and they're way past their expiration date. Plus you're just this cute birb with a sword. What's not to like! I adore the soundtrack which was 90% moody and 10% metal when it came to the epic fights. The final boss was quite a marathon though and I must've spent 30 minutes before finally getting it down.

The post-game was interesting but was essentially a massive fetch quest with few enemies in between to pass the time. Seriously, given that some enemies rarely appeared. Would it be too much to ask for essentially a "Nightmare Version" of existing levels? No. Instead, the landscape is even more devoid of enemies and you're left just wandering around collecting stuff. And yeah even the music is gone for the most of these levels. It did have that one boss fight though but it was hardly Bonus Boss material. And what do you get for all your trouble? Canon welding. With Titan Souls (another indie game). Turns out this game was a stealth sequel all along which is fine...if you've played Titan Souls otherwise you're going to feel lost >_>.

If you want a hint on that spoiler, it's basically like Control and the 2nd DLC. Do you understand now?

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (XB1)

Combine my love of nature and love of ustwo (Monument Valleys + Assemble With Care), and I was absolutely going to get this game. Other than the game leaning too hard on bird varieties (comprise of 80% or so of the game's animals), I had a great time

Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis (PC)

Note: I won't be marking spoilers. They're everywhere.

Why does this game exist?

This is a terrible follow-up. This better have been done on purpose---like the devs decided to rush its release or something. I can't believe something so good could end up this horrendous. Not alot of good things to point out other than they changed the voice actress of the main character. Now instead of a valley girl sounding Russian, we have a regular woman who passes off as Russian. Eh, at least they got it right...except they didn't because the voice-acting is still terrible and does not at all match with the tone of the writing.

There are no other PROs.

Plot. Right, uhm. Apocalyptic Cult uses ancient scripture to commit terrorist acts. The archeological plot is so worked in it hardly matters despite what that intro may show you. Da Vinci Code it is not lmao. The cult itself is a joke. They have the magnificent ability to teleport to the protags even if they have no reason to be there. Unlike every other game of this kind, the bad guy already has a doomsday artifact and does not need to chase after anything to begin with. The leader is a hammy fuck who is your by the numbers Imma destroy everything and be the one to lead them cos this Prophet tried to do it hundreds of years ago. It's never really explained if the old cult was thwarted or if they just bided their time all this time I honestly could not care less. Literally laughed at their master plan to flood the UN by triggering bombs on a continental shelf to cause a tsunami from Western Europe to New York. What.

Plot is super contrived. Nina doesn't stumble onto the plot. It is thrust upon her and several events happen either out of coincidence or luck. In fact the "game" proper only starts when Nina makes her way to France (one of TWO locations btw. No globe-trotting treasure hunts here) a third into the game. Oh and you also play as her Ex who had a diminished role in the last game. Both protagonists are really annoying and have no personality beyond being witty like the last game but at least that game had stakes. Nina in particular has also turned into quite the jerk and you're not really sure if she wants to save the world at all. She feels like things are a waste of time and doesn't even want to do plot moving things. The funniest part for me is how the bad guy who believes in fate and prophecy caused Nina and Max to be embroiled in his schemes and when he finally captures them, he angrily demands "who sent them???". It's like I'm watching an Action Comedy slapstick--not at all the serious Broken Sword clone it is trying to be.

But hey at least the puzzles are great right? That oldschool collect everything and use everything on each other? I have never seen something so illogical and hilariously convoluted that even Casual Hidden Object games have more sense. Puzzle solutions include throwing piping hot cheese soup on a cult leader, using Rafflesia several times (it is the most used item in this game) to get rid of a guard. fashioning a mobile launching platform using 3 oranges and bamboo (the oranges are suppose to be wheels. what.), using nail polish to fix a scratched Ferrari, feeding a monkey red dyed-papaya in order to track it better, and fooling a surveyor into thinking that an aluminum foiled goblet is actually a silver chalice. Most of these puzzles are difficult not because they're fiendish but they just make no sense!

And just when the game was about to get interesting, I was absolutely shocked to find that the game was already over. Merciful, I guess.

But then it doesn't end there! They do this silly thing where they have epilogues for every single side character in the game. Some of them clearly done for humor which really falls flat because the tone is everywhere in this game. And THEN they the gall to show this one screen that explains how we should honor the memory of <insert every dead character in this game> with a picture of them wearing red shirts. What. It's so fuckin weird. As I said before, this better have been a "distraction" in order to push their real game which is the 3rd one.

Is this 3rd one going to be terrible? Genuinely curious now.

Do not play this game. It's really bad. Can't believe I wasted an afternoon for this.

Rain on Your Parade (XB1)

Fun, silly game where you are a cloud that intentionally/unintentionally wrecks havoc upon living and non-living things by dropping rain, thunder, snow, and tornados.

TUNIC (PC)

Before I start, I just wanna say can we please stop having games with "Souls Elements". I just want to enjoy my Action Adventure and games like Death's Door prove it can still work. I almost gave up on this game because of the boss battles, of which there are mercifully fewer.

I think this is a strong contender for game of the year for me. The creator sounds familiar I can't quite put a finger on what he's made but some of the soundtrack is by Lifeforced which I know did the Dust Force OST, a personal favorite of mine.

Part Link to the Past, part ehh Dark Souls, and part Fez (making it longer cos the short name is a spoiler in itself) (Post-Game Content only), I went into this blind and almost gave up but powered through the open world exploration. Much like Death's Door, you play as the cutest fox. Seriously thought this was game was gonna be easy based on that cover alone.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/6/AADCaiAADDUa.jpg

ADVENTURE!

What makes this game stand out is two-fold: First, the interesting use of the "game manual" which is a collectible that you unlock as you play which is a brilliant narrative device that either hints you on locations you haven't seen and enemies you haven't fought, or teaches you skills you already knew all along but the game never told you you'd have until that moment. A sort of reverse twist on the ol' Zelda/Metroidvania formula. Like Ittle Dew, its open world nature invites you to acquire the tools and weapons you want out of order and the game plays perfectly fine. The manual itself is sure to tickle your 90s nostalgia as it even has pencil scribbles for hints unseen. And speaking of which, probably my favorite moment was that this manual is absolutely crucial in unlocking the game's true ending. A masterclass in game design.

The second thing that makes this game stand out and people might disagree with me on how nice it is but this is the first game I've seen that has...accessibility options. Built-in to the game is the ability to turn off the stamina bar AND give you god mode if you wish. Now before you whine, yes I did finish the bosses legit. But this game is more than just a DarkSoulsclone, it's extra special and I feel like this god moddery is a nice option to people who just wanna solve the puzzle.

And puzzles there are! There are ALOT. Beyondthe true ending of the game, lies several fiendish riddles. We're talking The Witness-level complexity here. I did my best but I'll be the first to admit, after getting roughly half of them I went and got a guide for the rest. There's an one ARG element beyond all that which hints at either a sequel or a DLC possibly.

Anyways, great game to ahem start the year off. If you're like me and you're patiently holding off on Elden Ring, then this is a nice substitute. It's got everything and it's very endearing as you wander and solve things on your own.

Oh I beat Horizon

Thoughts in the topic, but I mostly liked it

Forza Horizon or Horizon: Zero Dawn/Forbidden West?

Horizon Chase Turbo, surely

Light Fairytale: Episode 2 (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79954048

Episode 1 was an interesting game to begin the series, but the game starts to expand a bit in this game where the story takes a slight backseat to a much more involved combat system, with a number of challenging bosses to take care of. Of course, you can grind a bit and make the later bosses more trivial, which I did without really knowing this. I was level 4 when finishing episode 1 and made it all the way to level 12 by the end of this one (levels carry over from the first game if you do the save transfer). Overall, I enjoyed the episode more than the first one, but it was kind of disappointing that there wasn't as many optional events to find. Also, the alternate storyline, unlike the first game, was less than ten minutes long and was mostly unimportant to the overall story.

I'll probably buy Episode 3 on release, which based on the release of these two will probably come some time in 2023. Though the developer is working on some other games right now, so it might be even longer than that this time around.

I figured it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom (PS3)

What a game this was. You do not expect a first-party Sony title to be shovelware, but boy this one is super low-production garbage. I guess it is a spinoff of an augmented reality PSP game? It was free on PS+ really late in the PS3 lifecycle, like one of the very last games to be featured. The PSP game was some kind of Pokemon wannabe (I think), but this is an action platformer. You control a little boy who can transform into these anthropomorphic creatures called Invizimals. The game does not bother to tell you anything about the world or the plot or anythingyou watch a brief, poorly-acted, live action intro clip, and then the game starts. I suppose it's assumed you played the other game and know the setting and characters.

You start the game being able to use just one Invizimal, and you collect more as the game progresses. Each one has unique traversal skills that you will have to use to advance. All of them are quite clunky, but clunky is really just what this game is. You can only use the skills in predetermined areas that glow and the assistant character that talks in your ear will almost always tell you exactly what you need to do. To be sure, this is a game intended for kids, but it treats the player like a complete idiot. There is absolutely no thought as to what to do: you stand on the highlighted spot and press triangle and it will automatically switch you to the character you need and perform the skill for you. In addition, there are a few things that only the boy can do, such as slowly walking across a narrow beam or ledge, or slowly crawling through holes. Once again, no skill involved, and it does not appear to have anything to do with loading times, either. It seems to just be there so that you can press triangle and have something happen, disregarding whether it adds anything to that game at all. Indeed, much of this game is just there for no discernible reason. But the parts where you have to wait ten seconds to watch the boy shimmy across a ledge or crawl through a hole are a complete detriment to the game.

Collecting the Invizimals might have been fun, except that the one you start with is by far the most useful and powerful. He has the traversal abilities that are used most often (climbing and swinging), and is the most powerful and agile in combat. Except for their unique skills, there is no reason to ever use any of the other Invizimals (aside from personal preference).

Going back to how the skills are clunkythe battles with enemies are also very clunky. Although the game doesn't stop you from using your attacks in the open, when enemies are around, the character moves more slowly and jumps much lower. Not really any reason for it, but I had trouble in platforming sections when an enemy got to close and then suddenly my jump didn't go anywhere. Even when you are trying to fight enemies, it doesn't feel good. It's generally easy, though. There is exactly one dangerous enemy type in the game (powerful ranged attack) and as long as you make sure to focus that one down first, the fights are no challenge. Even your basic attacks stun enemies, so as long as you keep attacking you will rarely take damage.

There are tons of collectibles but none of them do anything. You do not get anything from fighting and defeating enemies, but there are various orbs scattered around and hidden in pots, etc., that you can collect and spend. You use some of them to purchase six attack "upgrades" for your Invizimals, but actually, none of them do anything. I am not sure if they just did not have time to implement it, but it's really odd. Other collectibles are used in a battle arena mode which I tried once but found boring and pointless. And since there is no reward for beating enemies, it's usually best just to walk right past them when possible.

Some other complaints... The camera angle cannot be controlled and occasionally causes problems with platforming and battles, either not being able to gauge distances or not being able to see enemies that are attacking you. There are lots of points where the game stops so that an offscreen character can narrate about something, even if you already heard it before. No accessibility options, lack of subtitles in particular. The HUD is poorly designed and does not convey your cooldowns well at all. Lots of random little glitches, invisible geometry, jumps/attacks that don't register, and so on.

You might ask why I beat this game? Well, despite everything, it was not entirely bad. Very mindless and relaxing for the most part, and it was something to do on my lunch break every day during a stressful time of year that helped me to veg out. I must say also that it satisfied some morbid curiosities. Easy trophies, as well.

The Procession to Calvary (XB1)

An excellent follow-up to Four Last Things.

Corpse Party (PSP)

Finally powered through this. I really hate VNs from a media standpoint; like just let me watch it as a movie or something you know (and its this reason that I have been putting off Danganronpa for a long time). Part of the delay was also finding the best way to do "the series" since so many CPs have released over the years. I had a 3DS but I thought this was the best approach since the next 2 "sequels" are also on the same handheld system.

I've heard of this game for ages but I've only recently played it out of curiosity. I always thought it was schlocky but it wasn't. It's got some really dark themes; things I wish I could forget. And playing it those years ago maybe it wasn't the best since the ending sort of stops at this cliche classical horror question mark and now there is a definite end to the saga. And a sequel to boot.

My complaint are how the game just decided to compile all the reveals in one chapter at the very end, as well as the backtracking and the lack of a run feature which I guess is suppose to invoke a sense of slow burn horror but it just got frustrating. The pacing was really slow and that contributed to my long hiatus of this game. There's also all those bad ends that I had to intricately form a cornucopia of save files for. Yes, I did this blind and it was frustrating knowing that I was locked out of something because I didn't get the right triggers.

I'll get to them eventually, but at least now I can finally say I've beat this. It's a start.

Elden Ring (PC)
And all achievements. That is a great game. Now on to NG+ I guess.

Simoun posted...

Part of the delay was also finding the best way to do "the series" since so many CPs have released over the years. I had a 3DS but I thought this was the best approach since the next 2 "sequels" are also on the same handheld system.

The best way to do "the series" is just play Corpse Party and forget the fact that there are any other games in the series

Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic (PS3)

Motion-control garbage.

This game would have been bad with normal controls, but the fact that it relies on motion controls to execute half the attacks really sinks this one to the bottom of the barrel. It's one of the worst games I have ever played. Luckily it has almost no content so "beating" it took about an hour.

Blue Reflection: Second Light (PS4)

A much needed improvement over the original game in the story and character development, however the game quickly becomes extremely easy and I do not think a single boss really challenged me after the first area. Which was a problem with the first game, too, and it doesn't help that they locked hard difficulty behind beating the game the first time. A shame because the battle system has a lot of neat ideas and good depth to it. On a positive note, the gameplay loop does a good job of fleshing out the character of every party member and support member in the game, so that you really do get attached to these characters after a while. I am not going to jump into NG+ yet to get the true ending, but I do plan on doing it later.

Arti posted...

The best way to do "the series" is just play Corpse Party and forget the fact that there are any other games in the series

I like to do things once as much as possible and then never again. It might not be important for most people but I feel anal enough to do it right.

Least I'm not going to play that one spin-off that contributes nothing to the narrative.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
I know this is a series famous for setpiece finales and recently had a tribute to TTGL as one of them but damn

Sayonara Wild Hearts (XB1)

A really neat rhythm game to go through once, but I can't fathom attempting to collect everything and get gold rankings in all levels.

Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)
I've had this since release date and this is the first time I've played it! I mean, I needed to play the first one first, which came with it, but I never beat it back in the day. But I beat it last year and this year I finally got to the sequel.

This was definitely easier. Even as a not-very-good gamer, the most deaths I got on a single chapter on this one was three or four. In the first game there were many chapters that I was getting 10+ deaths on. I got almost all stone awards on the first game, but in this one I got many silvers, bronzes, and even a gold, and only a few stones. But that's not bad! As someone who gets very frustrated and deflated easily, especially these last few years while my mental health has tanked, I actually felt really accomplished beating this game.

I still used a lot of items and never really saved up enough to get any decent accessories or weapons, and there were many times where battles devolved into just mashing buttons but it was still pretty fun. I also cared much less about the story this time, probably because a lot of chapters had very few cutscenes and the last few chapters were just boss rushes (one of which was bosses from the first game). Loki was pretty annoying at times, much less fun of a sidekick than Luca was (damn his small role in this one).

I still enjoyed the game a ton, but just much less than the first. I'm glad I've finally got both of these games under my belt and am eagerly awaiting the third.

Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5)

I really liked the original Horizon and I decided that I was gonna either get a PS5 for Forbidden West or for God of War. When I saw the bundle pop up for FW I figured it was time to get a PS5.

I'm really glad I played this game on a PS5, the game is really pretty and playing it at 60 FPS is awesome. The game itself is pretty fun too, it's really just more of the first game, but with expanded gameplay and story. I liked the first game a lot so it was good, but it definitely felt like it didn't push the limits enough at times.

The story is.. interesting. I think the first game had a bit more intrigue in it though.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
I've been hoping for a 3D Kirby platformer since the N64 days, and while I was hoping for something a little more open-world rather than a Super Mario 3D World-esque game that's basically a 2D platformer disguised as a 3D platformer, I'll take it.

The game was pretty fun, unfortunately, it was the first game I ever streamed. And another streamer told me that the game is hopefully not tainted for me forever by my early days of streaming, which is in fact the case. My streaming is not going well so far. In fact, I'm averaging 0.7 viewers at a time. :-\ I'm honestly thinking of quitting despite all the time, effort and money I've put into getting things set up. People just don't seem to want to watch me, which is pretty much what I experience in person too. And this game definitely stings because of these memories.

Persona 5 Royal

I got the true ending, too. I played the original back when it first came out, so this was a nice refresher.

The Pedestrian (XB1)

A solid puzzle game with a neat look and good individual mechanics. The fact that you had to plan the whole thing ahead of time due to puzzle reset triggers did dampen the experience with puzzle mechanics that did not mesh well with that.

Song of Memories (PS4)

Aside from the obvious parallels with the COVID-19 pandemic despite being written 3 years prior to it, it's a very predictable storyline through half of the runtime then just veers off into a completely random direction. While it's definitely a unique story, none of the characters are anything special and are pretty much all walking anime tropes, and getting to an actual route takes a lot of character flag settings - you pretty much have to know which route you're going for from the very beginning of the game, and there's one event midway through the first half that is mandatory for every route. Fail that and you won't get any route and will either hit the joint or destruction endings. Fortunately, the chart function makes it easy to jump to any part of the story you wish, so once you've unlocked a route you can go to it at any time, and each route has multiple endings to unlock so this is a welcome addition. However, PQube did an extremely terrible job in its localization of this game, there's typos and awkward grammar everywhere and a whole scene and voice line didn't play because of an error in the code which actually showed up in the text box. The album controls are also horribly mistranslated - pressing the X button to 'revive' a screenshot? It's like no one actually tested the game in the first place.

I'll be finishing the other routes as I continue through it, but I definitely have not been impressed with the five endings I've received so far. Only one of them was actually memorable and actually explained some of the game's plot.

Blood: Fresh Supply + Death Wish (PC)

I actually beat Blood ages ago but this time I went back for the Death Wish mod essentially. But this time I also went and got the latest reverse-engineered version of Blood for the "best" experience. I'm not nearly that geeky to know the nuances between One Whole Unit and Fresh Supply but it's really been awhile so I was glad to replay all the official episodes all over again. I really suck at this game and have no shame playing it on easy because even on easy I die easy lmao.

But the main course: Death Wish. Having played Ion Maiden, I know all too well that old engines can still give you something new if pushed to a certain limit. Death Wish is just a polished thing; 30 episodes of amazing setpieces too many to count and spoil. Go play it yourself if you're into this kind of thing.

I'm gonna play around with a few other mods, but I'm considering this beat.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Switch)

Bought this a year or two ago I believe for the PS4 before selling it again, but a couple years later I rebought it recently on the Switch when it was on sale. I had already beaten Final Fantasy XII vanilla about 12/13 years ago when I borrowed a PS2 from somebody, but for some reason I've been wanting to replay this. This time I got really into it again and especially found it just relaxing to play. Setting up good gambits and letting it play out, explore the large environments and generally the game just being fairly easy was quite chill. The speed up function of the Zodiac Age makes a ridiculous amount of difference, it's so much less tedious to play and this game with the gambit system is perfect for it as well. Because of that, I did more in this version than in the vanilla version actually, getting far more Espers this time around, doing a lot of hunts and sidequests or exploring late game sections of certain areas to obtain equipments and magicks/skills.

The job system generally seems to impress people, but I don't find it too exciting in this one. It's just a nice idea to have the feeling of variety and choice, but most of the differences aside from physical vs. magic are only noticeable late game, and even then it's all about which equipment, magicks and skills you actually find, a lot of which is just based on luck or guide knowledge anyway. It certainly doesn't hurt to have it over the original license boards, but it's not a huge gamechanger. I'm sure there's more depth you could get out of the job system and some of the combinations, but you'd have to dig deep and the game except for maybe two to three bosses (not counting Trial Mode) doesn't require that much effort in optimalization anyway. Magic is definitely better in this version though, I remember I basically avoided Black Magic in the original version, but I've just been Scathing my way through late game this time around.

Overall, the game has a lot of imperfections, but they are somewhat easily forgiven compared to later titles like FFXIII and FFXV. It tried something different, it worked in some ways and didn't in other ways, but it was relaxing, there's tons of exploring and side content even if you have to search very thoroughly for some of it, attempts at differentiating the dungeons with some gimmicks at least and a nice, upbeat vibe even in the heavier moments. The story is fine for what it is, my opinion basically hasn't changed on that. Characters and dialogue are a mixed bag, just like it was before for me. Some games get better with age, some games get worse with age, this one stayed right where it was for me initially but in a more playable and less tedious package with the Zodiac Age.

Divinity: Original Sin
I've heard people claim the second game is much better, but after this 70~ hour monstrosity, I'm WRPGed out for at least the rest of the year.

Kirby: Star Allies (Switch)
Alright, so I can understand the hate but it's not that bad. There are two sticking points, the length and multiplayer. The game doesn't feel horribly short due to a reasonable number of bosses and stages, but a mere 4 overworld areas doesn't give the best of impressions. And at its core it's a reliable implementation of the Kirby formula with some fun new abilities and action platformer setpieces. The various combo powers are once again cool, although it's not always intuitive what goes with what because the system is complicated and inconsistent. But it really does seem designed for multiplayer. When soloing it felt like soloing Zelda Four Swords or something. You can do it, the game makes it possible, but unless you're determined to beat the game you probably shouldn't. The AI can manage what is needed of it well enough but is still more than a little stupid. And boss fights devolve into chaos, everyone attacking at once with flashy moves, to the extent that I sometimes lost track of Kirby's position. I might say it felt like always having three Spirit Ashes summoned in Elden Ring but even that would only be too one-sided and not a damn mess. It seems like there's still some good postgame content here but of the two problems, design may actually be the bigger one.

Rain (PS3)

This a short little Japan Studio 3D puzzle platformer. The gimmick is that your guy is invisible and only can be seen by the rain bouncing off of him. He is in some sort of faux-Paris dream-land with some shadow monsters and trying to wake up. There are a couple interesting puzzles, but nothing outstanding. It's not particularly fun to play. The game is narrated by some text on screen that really kind of sucksit doesn't read well at all. No speech or anything and the music is .

Probably the best thing going for it is that the atmosphere at some parts is pretty good. But that's really it.

echochrome (PS3)

This is one of the older downloadable PS3 games, but the online still works! You can download maps that other people have created, almost 15 years later. I really did not like the game at first, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't bad. It's a puzzle game that relies on you using the perspective to basically create Escher-like optical illusions to guide your figure through checkpoints. You can break the game by using launchpads and trapdoors to get your figure airborne, and then rotating the camera quickly to land it almost anywhere on the stage. I used that technique to solve most of the later puzzles, although the hardest ones generally prevent you from doing that with cleverly placed platforms.

Blender Bros. (PC)

A port of a GBA game, it is ultimately nothing special, but I felt nostalgic for that era. I was frustrated at first because I saved and then when I came back on, my save was nowhere to be found. Then I discovered that you can't use the original save system, and you have to use the save-state system from the port by clicking ESC key. I am not ashamed to admit that I (ab)used that to my advantage for the final two bosses.

Super Stardust HD (PS3)

I've hardly even played many shoot 'em ups in my life, but I really liked this one. Liked it a lot more than the other Housemarque shoot 'em up I played, Resogun. And I didn't really dislike Resogun, it just failed to grab me. Someday maybe I will go back and finish it.

Super Stardust HD is basically Asteroids with a bit more enemies and stuff in it. I liked Asteroids when I was a kid, but this game is better. You can switch between three main weapons but the fire whip thing is way better than the others in most situations. The game's difficulty is kind of snowball-y. If you don't die, you will get a high multiplier which makes your score go up fast which racks up extra ships. If you die, then you don't lose your multiplier and you will not get any extra ships.

Those balance issues aside, it's great and the music is good and it's pretty and fun.

Helltaker (PC)

I don't particularly care for single-solution puzzlers with very little or no margin for error. I probably wouldn't have seen it through to the end if it wasn't so brief.

The Sinking City + DLC (PC)

Been wanting to play this for a long time. If you've been following my history you'll know I'm a fan of Frogwares and I've beat all their Sherlock games. I also know about the other CoC game and how this was suppose to be that game.

The game is ok.

Great story great plot, mired by its own mechanics which unfortunately I've seen in their previous games. Curiously their next one is a foray back into Sherlock but open-world. Perhaps Sinking City was a sort of testing ground for this engine.

What kept me going was the stellar voice acting and the plot (which I'll get to later). I could listen to Charles Reed all day. Looks like that voice actor took this game seriously. Looks like most of them did. The repetitive gameplay didn't show up until I was practically halfway through the game. At times I felt like this shouldn't have been open-world. Because it is touted as one but wastes its opportunities on stupid mission design---90% of the side stuff are fetch quests and unless you're into reading implied horror instead of experiencing it you're not gonna have a good time. But that is the sidequests. You can just ignore most of it and do the main story.

And it was going so well too. They had like 3 missions then suddenly everything else was just the same 2 houses with the same encounters. I smell rushed development.

Other missed opportunities include the sanity system which made it appear it was going to be like Eternal Darkness but just ended up being something like hearing the sirens in Silent Hill---alot of darkness, alot of hallucinations, all nullified by just going into your weapon wheel and popping 1 anti-psychotic. And while we're on the topic of sanity, I love how killing humans in this game doesn't give you XP and no matter how powerful they are a shot to the head does them in. And if you kill a citizen NPC while roaming, your sanity goes to zero and most likely you'll die...however you can spot some citizens murdering others in a sort of scripted animation but you won't be able to do anything about it! Witnessing the murder doesn't drain your sanity, but stopping the crime by shooting the killer drains you! lmao.

Yet another missed opportunity is the idea that currency in the game is through bullets. And you already spend so much crafting even dispensing one. However, there are no stores in the game and your reward for quests are XP and...bullets. So why even bother doing side stuff to begin with. Never mind they're clones of each other; the gameplay loop expects you to expend bullets only to be rewarded by them. Inane. And you only need to spend a bullet officially in story stuff thrice in the game all optional, all piddly.

The whole running around go anywhere and possibly fight anything has shades of Vampyr but the main diffs are a) there is fast travel b) the fights only happen indoors and in "infected areas" which there arent alot and c) the monsters are monotonous and theres not alot you can do once you're maxxed on skills and weps. And in fact the game continues giving you skill points even though you're capped. Hilarious. I kinda get that they couldn't exactly use Lovecraft stuff---like the King in Yellow are The Yellow Kings. And so the monster designs here resemble waterlogged Silent Hill rejects. Which is honestly fine. I always kinda shit myself whenever the big ones prowl about but that's because of the survival mechanic of having to craft your bullets which will scare you for around the first third of the game.

There are only 3 boss fights and I've only died to 1. The game isn't really made for combat either; you can't dodge roll for one so if an enemy pack swarms you you're done for early game. And some of the bosses move like regular third person shooters which is annoying in hindsight.

The similarities to Vampyr are surprising: a) A Skill Tree earned by doing what the game expects you vs fighting (in vampyr, the open world battles give you less than doing plot stuff) b) emphasis on dialog and mystery solving but in Vampyr the branches and choices are more interesting and c) Survival Mechanics: you dont wanna fight much cos it takes alot to craft bullets. In Vampyr, Blood is based on how well you suck and if youre aiming for a good ending you cant do it alot.

Well enough of shitting on the game, back to the good stuff. I really like how they adapted the story here. Its done in chapters and every chapter is a possibly-connected lovecraft thing whereby when you solve it then it moves on like a showcase and they're not soo blatant that you can expect to know where its going. I honestly LOVE the King in Yellow in this and it Hastur is my favorite among the mythos. I think they got everyone: Shuggy, Yoggy, The Order of Dagon. Strangely the only one missing in this game is Nyarly. But he's overrated.

Speaking of the story: Achievements. Not every story path gives you an achievement. Idk if thats a mistake or not but it ends up making it so that the game wants you to play a certain way to reward you and sometimes it doesnt make sense you get rewarded for choosing the shittiest decision. How many people are going to replay this game again?

That's it I guess. I could go on about the backtracking but at least fast travel exists. In the end I had to employ a speedhack though as I started to get bored around the third act. Not my favorite game but a valiant Modern CoC effort. We could use more Lovecraft games honestly and I'm not talking about Lovecraft-inspired indies.

One more thing about Sinking City. I don't think I've ever seen something so mundanely horrific as (spoilers) people eating a caked version of a dead person. At a wake. And being taken for serious.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/4/AADCaiAADIPO.jpg

And nobody ever addresses it. It's just sort of there and I honestly don't know what to feel about it.

Bioshock 2
Been a while since I played a game this much "exactly the same as the first game."

LittleBigPlanet (PS3)

I started this game like ten years ago and then never went back to it. But I have it on disc and I wanted to see what trophies I could easily get out of it. I guess I remembered why I never went back to it.

LittleBigPlanet was Mario Maker before Mario Maker, but not as good. Not nearly as good. Mario games are fun to play. LittleBigPlanet just sucks to play. People can make the most inventive and interesting levels, and those are great, but playing them sucks.

Now take away the inventive and interesting part, and you have LittleBigPlanet in 2022, because the online is gone (RIP my platinum). So now it's just the pack-in levels and you have to play with the awful squishy physics and unresponsive controls. So it's bad. Luckily the game is super easy and not very long.

Mario Maker made this game completely obsolete.

Crying Suns (PC)

A less cute ftl with more interesting worldbuilding. The story did a good job of keeping me invested

I don't generally have time for roguelikes, especially tactical ones, so I ended up hacking to speed things along. i'm glad i did

not sure i agree with the writer's philosophy or message, but it was still cool

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4)

It is what it is, but what is it? Not even the makers apparently know