Board 8 > Mac Ranks 72 Games Played in 2022

(+) Yeah! (+)

Next game hint: a classic platformer that failed to steal my heart (2002)

Darn, if it hadnt been for the platformer part of this hint then Kingdom Hearts would fit perfectly

Gotta be Sly Cooper

MacArrowny posted...

Next game hint: a classic platformer that failed to steal my heart (2002)

Thief: Deadly Shadows

55. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (2002)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/5/5/AABKTfAAED8z.jpg

It's interesting how the Sony platformers I've played (Sly, Ratchet, Spyro) all share a certain feel to them in that they're not really about precision. The platforming is a lot floatier than, say, the Mario games. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that merely controlling the character isn't a source of joy. Sly 1 does try to make up for that in certain areas, like how there are parts of levels where you can activate thief mode to sneak along a wall or something, and how some upgrades make you snap to certain targets, but those almost feel like concessions to the fact that the devs couldn't figure out how to make platforming feel as fun as they wanted (though these abilities are still fun to use). The main area the game shines is in level design - exploring the levels is always exciting, and I ended up collecting all the messages in bottles. None of them felt terribly arduous, and it was always enjoyable to seek them out. The story cutscenes were all a blast too. They're not super long, but they all enhanced the experience.

There were a few things that held the game back for me, though. You die in one hit unless you have a horseshoe, and dying so quickly feels bad, even if the game's not terribly hard. This is especially annoying on boss levels, since I'd often go in with a horseshoe, quickly die while figuring the boss out, and then have to beat the boss without getting hit at all because I didn't have a horseshoe on my later tries. I didn't die a ton on any of the bosses, but I died a few times on most of them, and having to redo a long fight due to one mistake was annoying. I think bosses at least should have all started with a horseshoe, like how the DKC games give you a DK barrel at the start of boss fights. There's also a ton of minigame levels. These minigames were generally fun and added variety, but could also be punishingly difficult and long. The racing game felt like it was purely random - I had to try a lot to win the levels, and my winning attempts felt like the other racers did worse for some reason rather than me being good. The levels where you had to protect Murray by shooting enemies were frustrating too, especially since I ended up shooting him myself a few times... I wonder how the later games in the series compare. This was better than Ratchet 1, and I thought Ratchet got pretty great over time. Would be nice if Sucker Punch learned some lessons from this game.

also the anime ending made me burst out laughing what a treat

Next game hint: a long-running RPG series returns to furious shrugs

Note: this is the end of another tier. Tunic and up was games that were solid but nothing special, and everything after Sly is a game I quite enjoyed, but often with some flaws holding them back.

Sly 1 is quite different from the rest of the series. In the sequels, you have larger hub areas you can explore instead of levels like in the first game. You can play as all three members of the Cooper Gang, not just Sly, and switch between them at the hideout. The horseshoes are also gone, replaced with a health bar.

54. Valkyrie Elysium (2022)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/0/AABKTfAAED90.jpg

First of all, this isn't a particularly good game, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people. There are many better choices out there, and I benefited from getting it for free. I was a big fan of the original Valkyrie Profile and also liked Silmeria, and this game doesn't deliver much for VP fans. Despite all that, I didn't really have any major problems with the game, and actually found it quite fun for the most part, which is thanks entirely to the combat. VE mostly feels like an action game with some light RPG elements. I'd compare it more to something like DMC than anything, though it's not quite as hardcore as that. Summoning allies in combat is fun, you get an awesome grappling hook type move that lets you zip from enemy to enemy, and there's all sorts of little combos you can pull off. The game builds as it goes, giving you more moves and options until chapter 6 or so (out of 9). The combat's still not perfect - the camera has some issues, and the block/parrying system is a little pointless when you can dodge instead - and it gets a little tiresome later in the game, but it pulled me through.

With regard to the flaws, I'll say that none of them were gamebreaking for me, but I can understand them being so for other people. Level design is fairly bland, but I at least never got too lost or frustrated. There's some moderately fun platforming with the grappling hook, but it's pretty basic. There aren't many enemy types - most of them are recolors of previous enemies. This makes it so you can learn enemy patterns, but it reduces surprise. Sidequest design is super weird. You get sidequests within levels, then you do the sidequests from the hub, which lets you go to a small instance of the previous level with new enemies. It worked, I guess, but it was very strange. Fidelity-wise, the game is solid, but the levels don't look amazing and the character models aren't as good as their designs imo. The story isn't that good either. It's very slow to develop, and while the character mini-stories are better, they're presented awkwardly. There are almost no NPCs. Most of the twists feel cribbed from the original VP, but presented worse here. At least the music is nice, with one of the more solid Sakuraba OSTs.

The game has more than its fair share of negatives, and I feel like I should have disliked it. But for whatever reason, this is one of those games where having fun is all that mattered to me. It'd be cool to see the dev build on this foundation and create something more ambitious, but I'm skeptical about that being within their abilities, and the game doesn't seem to be selling too hot. Of course, it has a fairly low budget feel to it, so maybe selling okay is all it needs. <3

Next game hint: I was slow to get around to playing the biggest platformer of the 128-bit era

Obviously Bubsy 3D is next

Super Mario Sunshine

53. Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/0/AABKTfAAEEDc.jpg

Came to this game pretty late! I have some experience with the Sonic games - I had the PS2 collection, so I played 1-3, and I tried Sonic Adventure in a Blockbuster demon station. Figured it was worth giving the 3D Sonic games another shot though, so I bought SA2 on Steam a few months back for an extremely low price, and finally got around to it, only to discover that it's... pretty okay? I wouldn't call it great by any means, but what it had going for it was its ambition. I played Sly shortly before this, and while that's a more competently executed game in most ways, it doesn't really aspire to even close to the heights SA2 does. SA2's levels are huge and full of variety. There's three different playstyles, all of which have unique mechanics, in addition to a ton of minigames. On top of that, you get to play through the game as both the good and bad guys! Pretty nifty mechanics all around. The huge levels are the part I admire most - I didn't replay the game, but it feels like something that has a ton of replay value. I can imagine kids playing this over and over, discovering cool new things and mastering the various mechanics.

But again, I only played it once, and goddamn was it obtuse. The game is littered with tutorials, but a bunch of the mechanics still made zero sense to me, and I didn't master some of them at all, while others took me until the villain route to really figure out. There are some absolutely mind-boggling choices: the B button is both the spin-dash and somersault for Sonic, and the X button does the same thing. Why didn't they make it so that the X button is spin-dash and the B button is somersault instead of this context sensitive bullshit? It would've been better design, and easier to create that way too. Despite coming out five years after SM64, the game has some terrible camera issues, too, and I died a few times due to not being able to see anything that's going on. For a while, I actually felt like the Tails/Eggman stages were the most competent ones: despite not having a ton to make them interesting, they don't have any huge flaws that I found irritating. Knuckles/Rouge's stages were fun at first, but the bigger they got, the less fun they became. Searching the huge stages for treasures sucked. Especially bad were the time limited Rouge stage and the space stages. Ugh. The game's bosses were generally poor too. They were generally either extremely easy or extremely frustrating. I don't think I found any of them particularly fun.

But when the game was good, it was quite good. Sonic's levels were pretty good, and Shadow's were even better. The final special level was pretty cool too, and I like the game's attempt at a story, despite the terrible English voice acting. It's a shame that apparently none of the future Sonic games were able to refine these concepts and make a real deal product, because the potential is definitely there.

Next game hint: Nothing scarier than hollywood actors in video games (2015)

Heh, that's gonna be Until Dawn.

The real draw of the Knuckles/Rouge stages are the songs tbqh. Mostly on Knuckles's side though. >_>

SA2 fun game.

MacArrowny posted...

Next game hint: Nothing scarier than hollywood actors in video games (2015)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic Adventure 2, great game

I mean uh

ya rouge shes sexy and smooth

Mac didn't mention it in his write up but he also didn't like the Chao Garden

Wow you gotta sell me out like that huh

52. Until Dawn (2015)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/6/AABKTfAAEEI2.jpg
Until Dawn is a bit of a combination of me and not me elements. I'm really not a fan of horror, but I love choice-based games like VNs and such. Going in, I was under the impression that the horror elements were pretty campy and that I'd be laughing a lot, but they weren't, really. What they were was incredibly cliched, though not necessarily in a bad way. The cast members are all fairly standard horror archetypes with one or two twists, which works for the game, but it didn't leave me loving any of them. Emily with her bitch aesthetic might've been the most entertaining, since she had the most over the top lines, but they weren't quite at the level that made her likable. They all worked in their various situations though, and making choices as them was pretty fun. The story overall was reasonably interesting. I was partly aware of one of the twists ahead of time I'd heard Josh was a villain, but that was only part of it, and I wasn't aware of the real twist, which was pretty surprising. The evolution of the plot throughout was very well done.

The gameplay wasn't as good though. The choice making part is good, and the QTEs were all well-done (no button mashing, generally very simple other than the "don't move" parts which were annoying). The walking around exploring parts weren't fun at all though. I got lost a couple times despite the areas generally being well designed to prevent that, and it just plain wasn't fun to walk around and explore with the way the game played. Movement's very slow and clunky. Probably intentional since it's a horror game, but not my thing. I wish there was a better way to replay things, like being able to fast-forward through scenes and/or use a flowchart to see the different outcomes. I ended up just checking out a YT video for character deaths and survivals (I had three survive in the end). This is a big problem most games have, honestly. WRPGs with quick saves and pure VNs are the only genres that have really mastered replaying to see alternate choices, which is a big part of the fun for me.

Lastly, this was a very good-looking game, other than the gameplay sequences. Mostly excellent facial animations and art in general.

Next game hint: I always thought this was a 3D platformer until I played it (1997)

i was legit wondering about the lack of chao garden in that writeup but couldn't be sure if they just didn't remove it on steam for some reason

SA2 is a camp classic, I will not hear criticism of its voice cast. And the OST is killer.

Because you just told me, fox boy!

MariaTaylor posted...

Mac didn't mention it in his write up but he also didn't like the Chao Garden

I was just about to ask about this lol. Dang, chao raising really adds a lot of replay value to the game, it's surprisingly deep! But if you don't like it you don't like it.

Predix uh (checks 1997 releases)... Alundra?

I didn't really understand the Chao Garden for most of the time. Like, even hatching eggs mystified me. It's a strange experience.

andylt posted...

SA2 is a camp classic, I will not hear criticism of its voice cast.

Do you also enjoy how a bunch of the lines are just left in Japanese?

MacArrowny posted...

Next game hint: I always thought this was a 3D platformer until I played it (1997)

whatever it really is will probably be funnier than any dumb joke prediction

MacArrowny posted...

I didn't really understand the Chao Garden for most of the time. Like, even hatching eggs mystified me. It's a strange experience.

Oh it's a detailed system IIRC, I remember printing off pages and pages of info from the net (probs from GFAX) as a kid. Did you at least unlock hero+dark garden, and do some of the races/karate?

As you predicted, I did indeed spend hours upon hours combing through this game discovering new things at the time. I even used the GC-GBA link cable to connect to Tiny Chao Garden from Sonic Advance. And I never reached all 180 emblems :(

Do you also enjoy how a bunch of the lines are just left in Japanese?

Yosh!

back then we simply had more time to waste figuring out obtuse games through trial and error. now, if I don't like or don't understand something, I simply put a different game in. I have limitless access to quality games because of how the industry has evolved over time, and technology as well.

I played the Chao minigames on the Dreamcast VMU like god intended. (Though maybe that was only SA1? I don't recall.)

Klonoa

andylt posted...

Oh it's a detailed system IIRC, I remember printing off pages and pages of info from the net (probs from GFAX) as a kid. Did you at least unlock hero+dark garden, and do some of the races/karate? As you predicted, I did indeed spend hours upon hours combing through this game discovering new things at the time. I even used the GC-GBA link cable to connect to Tiny Chao Garden from Sonic Advance. And I never reached all 180 emblems :(

Hell no, I unlocked almost nothing. I hatched like two, got like 1 or 2 level ups, and figured out nothing else.

Sounds like a lovely childhood experience.

MariaTaylor posted...

back then we simply had more time to waste figuring out obtuse games through trial and error. now, if I don't like or don't understand something, I simply put a different game in. I have limitless access to quality games because of how the industry has evolved over time, and technology as well.

this

don't worry mac you are under no obligation to go back and play some baby-raising simulator for countless hours just because some nerds were obsessed with it in their childhood

this is a tongue-in-cheek post ilu andy (but i doubt many people in 2023 are gonna wanna do chao raising)

51. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/7/8/AABKTfAAEELO.jpg

I never knew that much about Klonoa, other than that it was a PS1 platformer with something of a cult fanbase. I always thought it was a 3D game, even, so I was surprised to discover it was 2D (or 2.5D, if people still use that term - you always move on a 2D plane, but the environment curves around and looks 3D). The gameplay feels like a combination of Yoshi and DKC, where Klonoa controls similarly to Yoshi in a few ways, but the levels are designed in something more similar to DKC's style. It works fairly well. Platforming is reasonably tight, and the levels are enjoyable to move through. Bosses integrate the game's mechanics fairly well too. I rarely had a bad time when I was playing this. The game's fairly easy for the most part, though not to the extent of, say, an average Kirby game.

There's also more of a story than a lot of platformers have. Every level has a cutscene or two, which are generally reasonably charming. They use cute made-up language and Klonoa says "wahoo" a lot, which is great. It's a fairly short game - 12 main levels, which aren't particularly long, and a bonus level, which is quite a bit harder than the main game. I turned on the easy mode for that level, since it's basically just made up of sections where you instant die a lot. Having infinite lives makes it much less frustrating. I played the 2022 remaster which is apparently based on the Wii remake - it looks nice, but the way to speed through cutscenes doesn't work very well.

Next game hint: probably the silllest game to put its name in its theme song (2022)

Triangle Strategy

Yoshi+DKC sounds like a pretty solid mix tbh

Dels posted...

(but i doubt many people in 2023 are gonna wanna do chao raising)

WHAT! But then they'll never experience this glory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JoOh7ZZovs

100% Triangle Strategy lol

50. Triangle Strategy (2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF1yb-SOi0A (seriously why do they keep saying the game's name)

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

This game kinda disappointed me in every way, but still feels like it was well done? I feel like it has a lot of small things that are executed well that just make it feel nice to play for the most part, gameplay-wise, and there's some other neat stuff like every character having a unique style in battle, which you don't usually see in SRPGs with big casts. It also had a pretty good story that kept me interested the whole time. The system where you have votes to choose what you do in the story is great, and it's really neat how much variety in chapters there is. Makes the choices feel somewhat significant. From what I've seen, the game also has awesome replay value because of this, though I only played it once for reasons I will elaborate on. On the other hand, the important stuff in the game was not as good. First, the gameplay was never super interesting for me? I'm not sure if I'd feel the same about FFT playing it now (I liked FFT quite a bit back in the day), but I certainly liked the gameplay in this less than any FE game I've played (though I like the gameplay in those a fair amount). The main thing is that you don't play around counters nearly as much here. I like the counter system in FE a lot, so losing that is a shame.

Second, the cast is weak. There aren't many characters who suck (other than maybe one or two of the villains with nonsensical motivations), but there aren't any characters or relationships I care about either. They almost all feel like generic, ordinary people without any traits to latch onto. Perhaps because you can choose anything, the MC has almost zero personality. The rest of the cast isn't much better in that sense. No one feels unique at all. They're just... meh.

I did feel like the game got better as it went along - having more options in battles was nice, and the plot went some fun directions. But overall, it's the worst of the Asano games I've played.

Next game hint: evil reaches new heights

Snakes on a Plane

49. Resident Evil 8 (2021)

I didn't quite play through this, but I'm putting it up here anyways. What I did do is play it for a few hours, until I beat Lady Dimitrescu's area, which is probably a bit more than a third of the game? I wasn't enjoying the act of playing it though, so I ended up just Youtubing the rest. Seriously, why do Resident Evil games feel so bad (other than 4, which maybe would feel just as bad if I went back to it)? Moving around, picking up items, shooting, etc. None of them feel that good. It can work to enhance the horror I guess, but 8's less horror-focused than 7, so I don't feel like it helped here. The rest of the game is rather more engaging at least. The cast of characters is fun, and they do a great job introducing everyone to make them mysterious/interesting. The way they develop as the game progresses feels natural. Heisenberg's progression is pretty interesting, and Miranda's backstory is fairly interesting too. Ethan's fairly likable, and Lady D is hella tall. The game also has good atmosphere, though probably not as good as 7. That game had an intensity to it that's probably unmatched in gaming.

I would've given this game a much lower score if I played the whole thing rather than Youtubing it.

Hint: do androids dream of electric sheep? (2022)

Citizen Sleeper

MacArrowny posted...

Seriously, why do Resident Evil games feel so bad

Huh, don't think I've seen this particular take before! The earlier tank control games sure, but I love how RE2make feels, even in the speedy HUNK action scenarios and the like.

And I got Triangle Strategy for Xmas, so I can only assume every game I've bought/received within the past month is on this list somewhere >_>

48. Soul Hackers 2 (2022)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/6/AABKTfAAEEPG.jpg
It was interesting playing this shortly after Valkyrie Elysium. Both of them are games with something of a low budget feel that take some shortcuts. For the most part, SH2 works better within its limitations, focusing its resources where it needs to. The game looks good, and it feels modern/snappy in general. The one place where it falls short is unfortunately one of the most important places: the dungeons. When I played SH1 earlier this year, my main hope coming away from it was that SH2 would improve the dungeons, which could feel like huge slogs in that game. SH2's weren't as much of a slog for the most part, but they weren't interesting, either. Only one of them has an interesting design gameplay-wise (the underground dungeon with doors that unlock when you go through other unlocked doors), and they're mostly pretty uninspired visually too, other than the final dungeon. Way too many generic urban environments. The main sin in terms of dungeons is the 'optional' Soul Matrix dungeon, which is just generic empty cyberspace. It's very long, and while you don't have to do it, it gives the cast quite a bit of development, it's required to get the true ending, it gives your characters a bunch of fun/powerful skills, and you'll probably be chronically underleveled without doing it. Reminds me of something like Tartarus. It generally wasn't very fun, and I think the game would've been more enjoyable if it didn't exist, or if they compressed each floor to be half the size or something.

The game's better outside the dungeons. The gameplay's mostly typical SMT with a few tweaks, like having you control characters rather than demons, though they still equip demons to gain their abilities. The Press Turn system is replaced with the Sabbath system, which is basically like an All Out Attack from Persona that builds in strength every time you hit an enemy weakness. It's solid, but not as fun as Press Turn (and less interesting in that the enemies can't do it to you). The story is solid too, though not as good as some hyped it up to be imo. There's some good development, and it's fun that the cast is all adults. Having a protagonist who talks and has a personality feels like an upgrade from SMT in general. I didn't think there was much for emotional or thrilling developments though. There are some solid twists her and there; it just never filled me with a burning desire to see what's next. I'm really glad I waited for the QoL patch to play this game that gives 2x speed in battles and adds a dash while running around, because the experience would've been interminable without it.

Hint: going underground isn't always as fun as going up (2017)

Hm. My guess is going to be No Man's Sky, ballparking the release date to my memory.

47. Steamworld Dig 2 (2017)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/0/7/AABKTfAAEEVD.jpg

I don't really know how to feel about this game. On the one hand, there wasn't really anything bad about it. It was paced fairly well - it took me a bit over 8 hours, and had consistent progression + a variety of environments. The digging was a fairly neat mechanic. You essentially start at the surface and have to dig your way down to find explore new areas and mine for ore which you sell for money. You have limited torch fuel and limited space for ore, so you have to return to the surface fairly regularly, which I didn't mind as a mechanic to keep things fresh, but it could be occasionally frustrating. The upgrade systems were fairly cool - you can upgrade your various abilities with money, and also get new basic abilities with money.

The main thing I didn't care for was probably the setting/story. The post-apocalyptic wild west stuff was pretty blah, and the story was too uninteresting for there to be as much dialogue as there was. It's mostly optional, but still. Not really a top Metroidvania, and basically one I only played because they gave it away free on Steam and it got great reviews for some reason. Honestly, I probably should've put this a couple spots lower...

Hint: quadruple the beat 'em up carnage

Soul Hackers 2 is an interesting experiment from Atlus. Parts of it feel even more casual than Persona, but the dungeon structure is closer to old-school SMT spinoffs. I think they could definitely build of what they have here for next-gen Persona/SMT, but it needs a bunch of tweaks.

Also, aside from the main theme and the battle music, the soundtrack is somewhat unremarkable. The Tartarus-like dungeon is especially a snoozer, which sucks, because the dungeon itself is extremely boring too.

46. Streets of Rage 4 (2020)

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

I played this shortly after Shredder's Revenge, so I guess I was in a real beat 'em up galaxy for a while.. This was way longer, but definitely not as good (finishing this retroactively improved my opinion of SR). I feel like most of the positive things I'd like to say about this were done better in TMNT. The game looks great - enemies have plenty of style, and the characters' techniques are all cool. But they're not on TMNT's level. Every characters has some good variety to them, and I liked that it wasn't too hard to change characters between sessions. The cutscenes were probably the most fun part - all were extremely silly and over the top in the best way. The music was also quite nice, having a bunch of famous composers contributing. And of course, it felt good to play in co-op. I wasn't really a fan of how slow the combat felt either, and the game does a poor job of explaining how to pull off more advanced techniques IMO. Even at the end of the game I was still using some attacks without understanding how I was pulling them off. The game's a decent example of a genre I'm not that into, but even at its best I never had that much fun with it.

Hint: finally playing this three years later was like a dream come true (2019)

i'm sort of unsure how "a dream come true" can be in the same part of the list as "didn't really have fun with this"

idk, resident evil 2? could be a dream come true to see the updated graphics but you said above you don't like modern resident evil gameplay much, so maybe?

This tier may be poorly ordered. Like, I think I probably liked the last two less than the few below, but ended up ranking them higher due to having less flaws.

I like the Steamworld Dig games for what they are. They're cheap and don't have any big issues and you can just play 'em and then they're over. But yeah 2 didn't exactly wow me.

45. AI: The Somnium Files (2019)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/4/AABKTfAAEEX0.jpg

Hmm, it seems like I wasn't as enthusiastic about this as a lot of people. In general, I found it to be a very competent game. The graphics/presentation are infinitely better than Zero Time Dilemma while retaining the same style. The act of playing the game is generally quite enjoyable - I always liked going to different locations and talking to people/investigating rooms. The main "gameplay" element of the game is the somniums, which are dreams you investigate to find clues on secrets people are hiding. Though the system is kind of poorly implemented (there's a time limit but also lots of fun hidden games that take up time), I still enjoyed it, and rarely had to retry them. There's a lot of comedy in the game, and while some of it misses, it's never bad, and it got its fair share of laughs from me.

The main parts I'm mixed on are the story/characters. The story as a whole was solid, but it was kind of basic compared to the Zero Escape games, or stuff like Remember 11. Unfortunately, everything to do with the "truth" is pretty stupid, but it somehow feels like it didn't make the game that much worse for some reason? Like, I was only on track to rank it maybe ten spots higher before the twists came out, so while they certainly hurt the game, they didn't ruin it. The characters are the main thing that hold the game back, I think. Aiba was great, and it would've been nice if she got more focus. Date, the protagonist, was mostly good, but he was frustratingly stupid at times. Other than that I wasn't particularly fond of anyone. Iris is probably the most important other member of the cast and I was thoroughly meh on her. Most of the others didn't make much of an impact - Mama was lame, Boss was fun, Miyuki was good sometimes, So sucked, Mayumi was meh, Hitomi was meh, and Ota was godawful. It's not like the ZE games had 100% perfect casts, but I feel like the characters were more interesting at least. The less mundane settings probably helped.

Pretty solid overall, and it got me interested in the sequel, especially since it due to the mostly new cast and different protagonist.

Hint: sometimes it's nice to play a game where the bad guys you're fighting are just 100% evil and there's no real need to develop them (2017)

MacArrowny posted...

Hint: sometimes it's nice to play a game where the bad guys you're fighting are just 100% evil and there's no real need to develop them (2017)

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

tried to find a funny joke answer and couldn't

I agree that A.I. was meh. I think you'll like the sequel more, the characters are better.

MacArrowny posted...

Hint: sometimes it's nice to play a game where the bad guys you're fighting are just 100% evil and there's no real need to develop them (2017)

GTA when you kill all the cops

I really liked AI's cast and most of the lategame twists lol. The somniums weren't implemented very well, the QTE sequences were bad and the humour had more misses than hits for me, but otherwise I really like that game! Haven't played the sequel yet.

44. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus (2017)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/9/AABKTfAAEEaZ.jpg

Frustrating in the same way the first game is. I think the level design here sucks, and the map is often not very good about helping you finding the way to go. 3D games in general suffer from this, but some handle it much better than others - the Doom games, for another example from the same publisher, make navigation much more straightforward. The combat and guns are better in this one than New Order, but that's not enough to eliminate the frustration. Even the hub area (a submarine) is really confusing to navigate. There are some side missions you can do on the sub, and I had no idea where to go to do some of them.

Thankfully, the story's an improvement! The first game's story was pretty good, but I didn't love it. Here the story's packed to the brim with over the top great moments. There's a ridiculous amount of awesome Nazi-killing, and the Nazis themselves are hilariously over-the-top evil. The scene with Hitler in particular is incredible. You're undercover during that sequence, but you can kill him anyway, though you'll immediately get shot to death if you do. I did it anyway just for the joy of it. The MC keeps up a great monologue for most the game, talking to a character who died. Gives a deeper meaning to everything that happens. The other characters are good too. Anya mowing down dozens of Nazis while pregnant is always entertaining, and Set's just as fun as ever. It's a shame they haven't done a third game, since the ending really sets one up.

Hint: two games in one package is twice as fun (2013)

43. Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ (2013? 1989? 1990? 2011? I played the PC version so I went with that release date but it's pretty useless...)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/0/8/AABKTfAAEEc4.jpg

I wasn't expecting much out of action RPGs this old, and only really played them because Ys Origins ended up being pretty good, but they were actually good too! Despite the simplicity of the bump system (you attack enemies by running into them at an angle) sounding like shitty game design, it turned out to be really fun. It's so simple that it's quite enjoyable, and it doesn't get old because it's so basic, unlike more complex gameplay. The second game is basically the second half of the story, but it does change a few things up gameplay-wise, in that you have to bump diagonally rather than off-center, and you get magic now. Most of the magic spells are used for utility (teleport, light, etc.) but there is one combat spell you get, a fireball, which is the main way of fighting bosses. It's not that great for regular enemies, so you still bump those, but it's used for most of the boss fights, and makes those a bit more interesting than the Ys 1 boss fights were.

The games can be a little grindy at times (you'll have cases where gaining a level takes you from doing 1 damage per hit to doing 5 damage per hit), but it's generally pretty fast so I didn't mind too much. More annoying were the overlong mazelike dungeons. I'm not a fan of having to find my way around those huge dark environments, and ended up using a guide for most of them. A couple of Ys 1's bosses were a pain too, particularly the bat boss where you have to dodge him for an interminable amount of time before gaining an attack window that lasts less than a second.

The story's pretty remarkable for how old they are. In classic Falcom fashion, there's tons of NPCs to talk to, and their dialogue updates a few times after making story progress. Ys 2 upped the ante by giving them all unique dialogue when you transform into a monster, and also when you attack them with fire magic, and you can even talk to every single monster in the game while transformed, which I did not do, but it's a fun amount of detail. The main story of the games isn't that complex, but it's pretty solid, and has some twists that deliver well on the setup. Fun cast, too. Certainly much better than 3/Oath in Felghana. The beginning of 2 is an amazing moment. It looks very nice, and the music is fantastic, as expected for Ys. I've now played most of the series, with just 5-7 remaining. We'll have to see when I get around to 6...

Hint: it's amazing how art has evolved over time (2022)

42. Pentiment (2022)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/9/AABKTfAAEEhv.jpg

Pentiment's successes as a game are a bit unconventional. The story often isn't that interesting, the writing could be better, and there are a lot of dull moments. It's mostly a gameplay-free experience based entirely on talking to people, and what gameplay there is isn't very good. There were times I was annoyed by the lack of some sort of fast travel to make walking around empty maps less boring, and the minigames they threw in were mostly terrible, with some really bad elements (with one of them, if you accidentally hit the quit button early, it resets the whole game from the start when you hit the keep going button at the confirmation screen). The beginning of the game, before the first murder happens, is interminable.

And yet it does stuff with its structure that makes it uniquely enjoyable. From a more mundane perspective, the game gets a lot more compelling once the murder happens, and investigating the murder along with everyone's motivations and the evidence is pretty fun stuff. Andreas is a solid protagonist with his artist perspective, and it was neat how his specific background choices contributed to dialogue options when investigating. I like how the culprits can all seem equally guilty depending on how much you focus on investigating them, and it's cool that you get limited time to investigate so you're guaranteed to leave some stones unturned. But it's the Act structure that makes the game really good. With every Act, you get to know the townsfolk better. Seeing how the change in each Act is awesome, and I felt like I really knew some of them by the end. Some characters were a bit forgettable, but the good ones felt pretty real to me. I found the game to get better with every Act, and actually enjoyed it a good bit by the end. There were some excellent twists, too. Mainly, I just wish the conversations in the game were more universally compelling. I get that the writers wanted the characters to feel realistic, but I wouldn't have minded sacrificing some realism if it meant each conversation could be interesting in its own right, like Disco Elysium did.

Hint: sometimes, it takes a hyper weapon to achieve victory (2013)

41. Rance 01 (2013)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/2/8/AABKTfAAEEjc.jpg

There's some pretty neat things in here for such an old game! Though it's a remake, so some of those might not have been in the original. Probably the coolest part of the game is the battle system. It's basically a typical JRPG, but you have an inventory of 'chips' you use in battle, consisting of weapons and shields. The fun part is that you can use every weapon and shield in your inventory at once when attacking. The first time I used like 7 weapons at once to kill a boss in one turn was a super cool moment. Feels awesome. There's some strategy to it, since chips have cooldowns, meaning you can't just use all of them every turn, so it's interesting too. Eventually it gets a little clunky, when you can have like a couple dozen weapons and shields, but it's still fun.

Other than that, it has a fair amount of VN/adventure game elements. The adventure game elements aren't my favorite thing, especially since there's some side quests that require doing things in a specific order or they're lost forever, so I ended up using a guide for most of the game. It's fun that you get a bunch of choices of how to interact with people things at least, even if I mostly ended up performing every single option every time, haha. It was fun to see how attacking people would fail in various ways (or result in taking a bunch of damage). The characters/dialogue were pretty engaging in general too. Rance is a hilarious MC, basically being an evil piece of shit most of the time, but feeling like he's our evil piece of shit. He certainly crosses the line a few times, but that almost makes him more entertaining, haha.

Probably the main weakness of the game is the art? It's not bad, but considering that this is supposed to be a remake, it sucks that most characters only have one facial expression. I get that there's a lot of characters, that just doesn't excuse them not having more varied expressions. It could get a bit annoying navigating some of the dungeons too, since various status ailments force you to go in the wrong direction, but that wasn't a huge issue. Pretty fun game overall.

Hint: It stands for ninja (2015)