Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

I wasn't even paying attention to post count, but here's the new topic!

Just post each time you beat a game throughout the year and the platform you played it on. Do not hesitate to add some discussion in regards to the games you or others beat.

At the bottom of this post is a link to a Google word doc that you are free to edit to immortalize your gaming accomplishments. Feel free to tinker with your color, font, and/or bulletpoint/numbering options, but do know that users are supposed to be in alphabetical order.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OBPa3Hva9H1-RHgBTDQK4UqT1s_UmXO0qhWyf8IJbGg

Donut County (Switch)

I beat this on another platform several years ago, but I decided that I wanted to play this again. I'm not one to play games in a single sitting, but I actually did that here. I remember struggling in the boss fight previously, but I had no problems this time.

Feeble Light (PC - Steam)

It's a Shump that was released during the Summer Sale this past July. Was bought on a whim and only like 4 bucks after the discount.

There is no end, but I unlocked all the achievements and am currently 8th on the high score list (How many levels you reach). Nevermind that there are only 3 reviews and it probably has less than 50 sales lol. So I am stating that I beat the game. It has 5 main stages, then loops. All shumps do this to some extent....just this one does it infinitely.

Anywho, I really was drawn to this game. It's got a cool simplistic art style, the game's mechanics are spot on and fun, and the music is great.

I reached the 15th level. Not sure I can get further. Usually even though I really like Shumps, I am terrible at them. This one you have random upgrades come your way, I had a great loadout when I got to 15. Though if you know the patterns it probably does not matter that much. That said, something with the way bullets are thrown at you is very easy to read. They are larger and slower then in most games. I really liked that. They are telegraphed well.

I think I've talked way too long about this game literally nobody knows about lol. I enjoyed my time.

ABZU (Switch)

I had already bought the PC, Xbox, and Playstation versions when I decided to support Giant Squid again when this was on sale for $2 on Switch however many years ago that was. This is definitely the inferior version, but it was still a good experience.

Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5) (Story Mode)
That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. 10/10 GotY

I wonder when I will finish Armored Core VI.

I'm stuck on the End of Chapter 4 boss after 3+ hours of dying continuously to it.

Alwa's Legacy (Switch)

I abandoned my playthrough of Awakening nearly six years ago after not feeling compelled to see it through after being around 75-80% done. I did end up beating this one, though I nearly quit like I did previously. It is a clear improvement, especially in terms of puzzles and platforming options, over Awakening but it still has most of the same issues from what I can recall from the first game. It's from a very small team of about 4-5 people, so I can understand why some issues fell through the cracks.

9 Years of Shadows (Steam)

A beautiful metroidvania with a couple unique systems. You get a handful of elemental armors as major powerups and you use them both as progression upgrades (e.g. water armor lets you explore flooded areas) and to deal extra damage to enemies by hitting them with their elemental weaknesses. But you can't always breeze through doing the latter, because sometimes e.g. plant enemies will be in a water room, so you can't use fire armor.

There's also a very unique health system. By default you die in 2 hits, but you have a shield that regenerates a little whenever you hit an enemy. This shield is also the ammo for your projectile, and enemies chunk off huge amounts of it when they hit you. When it's fully exhausted, you can either refill it quickly by passing an active reload QTE or by standing still for a few seconds to charge a heal. It's a lot like Hollow Knight, but it slightly fixes the problem with healing in that game, which is that you can just keep yourself topped off by healing anytime you get hurt. Here you can only heal when you're most vulnerable, so screwing up a heal is pretty devastating (often a game over). There's no way to get back lost HP other than reaching a save point, but shield is easy to get back, so there's a real risk/reward to being aggressive or spamming projectiles vs. playing safely and defensively to preserve shield.

My biggest issues are that the game's pretty linear, the enemy variety is very very low, and the story is kind of half-baked despite how emotional it's clearly supposed to be. Amusingly, the two most common complaints I've seen from others are that 1) the game is too easy and 2) the game is too hard, so I guess YMMV on that.

Ghost of Tsushima

After putting it off for a while having only played the first three or four hours, I binged it and platinummed it over the last couple of weeks. The combat and side-mission design got repetitive but I did like it regardless. The feedback from the game, both audial and visual, was so satisfying. Perfect parries never stopped feeling great. There was one side mission where you climbed the mountain while getting from campfire to campfire to ward off the cold, and I was so relieved to have a different mechanic like that used so late in the game after so many repetitive side-missions.

Samara in Mass Effect 2 compared Justicars to Samurai, and that made for two comparably bland characters. Jin was very stoic. But that did mean his little moments of humour or rage were worth paying attention to, and playing as him was undeniably a fun power trip. I liked him in general and he was definitelyw well-performed, particularly in the ending. The peak of the game was Act 2 generally, with the Yarikawa mission where you get Ghost Stance, and the entire ending of that act leading up to the horse dying were all superb. Act 3 wasn't great by comparison, with the attack on Khotun Khan comparatively short. The finale was fantastic though, what a terrific choice to end it that way.

In the end, I chose to kill my uncle. Was ranting about that here but I'm gonna make a topic because it's been on my mind.

Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS)

Pretty much all of the changes from the first one are welcome, even if the biggest one that affects gameplay flow, the "show me the row/column where the next logical move is possible" button, often led me to question exactly what kind of logic the game expected of me. Still a good show, functionally it's a lot like the navigation function in other 2D picross games that effectively does the same thing. The extra amiibo puzzles that are conspicuously way more detailed than anything else in the game are also neat, even if the generic descriptions they're given are pretty disappointing.

Spectacular Sparky (PC)

Cool run-n-gun game with tough boss fights but forgiving game design. It is surprisingly fully-voiced and the titular character is sociopathic rabbit lead that is not Max but totally is Max

Death end re;Quest 2 (PS4)

With this game leaving PS+ Extra on Tuesday it was finally time to get through both the first game and this one, and so far I have only a few trophies left to collect (1000 enemies defeated, NG+ exclusive ending, and beat the bonus dungeon) in this one after beating it last night.

This game takes a lot of what made the first game great and throws that out the window. Gone are all the hacks you can utilize in battles, as well as any strategy using the field bugs - most don't even deal any damage to your character anymore, so you can just run over all of them in every battle, go into Glitch Mode, and just destroy the enemy. I actually turned up the difficulty to Hard for a good portion because the game was extremely easy - something that I never thought during playing the first game.

The story and exploration also takes a step back. Most of the story sections take place in a school setting, which to me is immediately less interesting than the sections with Arata in the first game. All exploration is done at night, which adds to how the game leans a bit more towards the horror genre than the first. Also to add to the horror theme there are now monsters that spawn in dungeons that chase you for a brief time. Touch it, instant game over.

All in all, the game seems to be a disappointing sequel to a great first game. NG+ seems to be goign towards a much deeper link between the two games than the first run through, so it might be more interesting when I finish it either today or tomorrow.

Ravenlok (XS/X)

It's pretty basic and attacks lack the oomph and overall feedback to come away impressed, but the quickness and fluidity feel great, and the voxel art looks fantastic.

Bloodborne

Well I'm officially a From Soft fan. I've now played this, Demon's Souls, and Elden Ring. None of the Dark Souls though! My ranking thus far:

Elden Ring > Bloodborne > Demon's Souls

Elden Ring is definitely their magnum opus and really smartens up their game design, such as always supplying you with the healing flasks whereas in this game you still have to find them or buy them. They're everywhere, but I have been buying some, especially on NG+ against some of these DLC bosses. I've only done the DLC on NG+ which has probably made it even more challenging! I'm on the final boss of the DLC. I'll beat that bastard eventually. Anywho, onto my thoughts of the game!

Some cool changes to their usual formula here, from the rally mechanic adding an extra layer of risk/reward to the trick weapons each having transformations. And no shields! Well, one shield that is not worth a damn. I was a shield user in Elden Ring, though Demon's Souls...did that even have shields? If it did, I don't think I used them much! But maybe I did and just don't remember, will have to check my file again. Alas, dodging is always more fun than blocking in games anyway, so doubling down on that in a game that already doubles down on aggressive play was a smart choice.

Level design is top tier as always. Love the areas that just go on forever like the Forbidden Woods. Love how the game progresses from day to night to blood moon rising. Love the gothic setting and creepy atmosphere. Love that I still have no idea what the hell is happening in these games and I like...became a baby or some shit at the end? I dunno. These worlds are cool enough that I don't care, but they also have given me no real compelling reason to learn their stories so eh. I'll skip watching lore videos for now, but if there was one I would do that for, it would be this one with that weird ass true ending.

Yep, safe to say I'm a fan of this studio now. Excited to play the Dark Souls trilogy when I get around to it, though I also feel a bit burned out on their games for the time being. Even though I've spaced them pretty far apart, I did play Demon's Souls earlier this year and all their (Soulsborne style) games are just so similar. I'll wait a bit before I dive into Dark Souls. And maybe I'll play Sekiro first because I hear that's a bit different.

And I think I've fiiiinally gotten used to losing souls and no longer get frustrated when I permanently lose a huge amount. It's inevitable.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

I really only knew about the game as the funny killing Chaos meme game before I started playing it so I was genuinely surprised when it turned out to be a souls-like (I was expecting something more akin to FF13 or 15) though I suppose it's meant to be more like Nioh since it was apparently built on the same engine as the sequel.

The gameplay mechanics took some getting used to but I found it enjoyable on the whole even if there were several stumbling blocks. Most of the bosses didn't take more than one or two tries to clear but the first fiend boss fight against Tiamat was a huge wake up call for actually learning to use the magic-absorb parry effectively; other than that it was just pattern learning and sometimes switching to a better job set, I felt compelled to try and at least fill out the skill tree for all the jobs starting with the ones that seemed like they'd be clunkier at first which only felt somewhat worth it in the long run.

Some of the mechanics like the weapon upgrades/effects tinkering felt like it wasn't really worth looking into either just because of the sheer volume of equipment drops you go through on each level and how you're always finding higher base level stuff that way, maybe it would have some use if you do a good amount of the postgame chaos difficulty mode but I didn't really feel like doing more than a few hours of that. I also only did a tiny bit of the online co-op mode but it seemed neat enough.

Speaking of postgame, despite how much of a shitpost this game tends to be seen as I did feel like I enjoyed the ending more than I was expecting. I'd say it's worth checking out if you like games with that style of gameplay or are a fan of the series, since the story is pretty much a continuation of the weird edgy lore retcon-expansion for the world of FF1 that started in Dissidia, though as implied at the start of this paragraph I found that this game executes that a lot better.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (PC)

Replayed. The new DLC is aight. Usagi and Karai are fun, Survival is ok but it's no Streets of Rage 4 Mr. X Nightmare and the extra skins are pretty cool.

Dragon Climax (PC)

Replayed. One of the few games I own that did not have a cloud save so I replayed it and unlocked the gallery again. It's a fun Legally Distinct Kung Fu Master/Shinobi game.

Roar of Revenge (PC)

Replayed. Didn't have a cloud save either so I replayed and got the best ending. Unlocked the ending gallery too. A good Legally Distinct Rastan game.

Pokemon Trading Card Game (Game Boy Color/Switch)

Replayed. It has been a good number of years since I last played this game since it came out many years ago. I was really happy to have played this game again. It was fun constructing all of my old Decks again. I also managed to unlock every Card within the game as well. I doubt I'll go after the 2 cards you can get with Card Popping.
I always hoped they would make a bunch of sequels like this game. As far as I know, they only did a sequel to this game in Japan only. Would of been sweet if they kept making this type of game for future consoles.

Vampire Survivors (Switch)

Replayed but this time on Switch. As soon as the Switch version dropped on release day, I was more than happy to play this wonderful game all over again. I unlocked everything and completed the game in 6 days. Poncle deserves my money. The game also runs surprisingly well on Switch.

Mega Serval (PC)

A nice Free game on Steam. Legally Distinct Mega Man but with the Kemono Friends license. It was a little rough around the edges in some parts but it was good enough for me to enjoy it.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Next in my kind of spontaneous run through several Castlevania games (GBA/DS games). It was also the first one I ever played and I remember loving it back then. It was still a lot of fun and I got through it so much easier now. I also collected more souls and synthesized more weapons than in the past, so there was more experimentation on my part and now I was able to get the awesome Claimh Solais just like in AoS. The graphics and music are fantastic. It's a little bigger than AoS too. I do think AoS is a little quicker and I could have done without the Magic Seals, but it doesn't matter much (I never missed a Seal prompt), it's still a super fun and great game.

Next up is Portrait of Ruin which I bought second hand very recently! Will be my 2nd playthrough. Probably won't play Order of Ecclesia, since I'm not shelling out a 100 euros for it and I beat it once before through...means.

8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure (Steam)

Okay so I've been sleeping on this game because most of the reception I've seen has been that it's kind of mid, but no, this game is rad as hell. What a great metroidvania. It's got everything I want from this genre of game, even weirdcute characters and a story I was somewhat invested in. It's basically about a Korean afterlife bureaucracy, which immediately reminded me of Death's Door, but I like this game's story, characters, and aesthetic like 100x more.

Gameplay-wise the most interesting thing it did to shake up the metroidvania formula was make your grounded attacks (specifically the last hit of your melee combo) so so so much stronger than your aerials, which really changes up the usual [jump -> attack -> attack again while landing -> repeat] metroidvania combat without going all Soulsy instead. It's not a hard game like it pretends to be but it's juuust tough enough to feel satisfying when you kill a boss or beat a tricky section.

I 100%ed this (except for some challenge achievements that would require separate playthroughs, and achievements for getting the bad/neutral endings) and enjoyed basically every minute of it. Great game.

Hitman 2 (XB1)

I started this in 2019 and beat the first four missions and then started over in 2021 but was sidetracked. I finally did it all over again using Hitman 3 by importing all of the DLC I owned and finished the main six missions. I will definitely be doing the two DLC missions in the coming days.

Miami > Mumbai > Isle of Sgail > Whittleton Creek > Hawke's Bay > Santa Fortuna

Tangle Tower (XB1)

Nearly a decade after beating Detective Grimoire, I have finally beaten Tangle Tower. The game ended on a weird unsatisfying note, but overall I thought this was a great follow-up.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (XB1)

I'm not sure how I totally feel about this one. The first several chapters were strong, but I really wasn't feeling it in the final half.

Jupiter & Mars (PS4)

Seemed pretty cool at first, but it is a 2 hour game stretched into about three times that, which combined to its limited abilities/puzzles, it doesn't take long to overstay its welcome.

Cats Hidden in Bali
For 89 cents, it can't be beaten.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

I've cleared the game twice, and I'm currently stuck on NG+2 True Final Boss at the moment.

Amnesia: Rebirth (PC)

I don't know what to say as I'm tired af. This game has haunted me for a long time and I started to drop it off the wayside around the time the game got scary. But then I find out the game series hasn't changed as a whole and what were once novel mechanics back in the day, are now tired mechanisms overused and overwrought. Of particular note is the use of death to skip parts of the game in order to keep things moving. Normally I would complain but I was just so done with this protagonist that I just wanted to keep moving forward. I think the game intended you to hate her overtime idk. But anyways it was satisfying at the end when they finally offered the third option which I gladly took.

The story is tragic enough to keep me interested and much like all its games before it including SOMA, it offers a very interesting morally grey choice. Unlike SOMA though, we don't get to deal with an interesting philosophical quandary about the state of mind in things. We get this sorta-kinda-okay deconstruction of a mother's love and what she'll take to save her child. Honestly the infodump by the end was kind of on the nose I mean it was fine but the pacing could've been better. Still, it was nice to finally answer or expand on a few questions made by the first game.

God I dunno if I wanna do the Bunker now seeing how vastly different it is. Well, not in a long time at least. For now, my history with this developer stops here. SOMA, Penumbra, Amnesia all of it. It was a ride to be sure.

1 game left before I can finally upgrade my OS. I saved the soulsclone for last because I didn't want to be distracted by this horror game coming back to it sporadically. Amnesia Rebirth had to go and I sincerely put it off for the longest time. Why do I keep doing this to myself lol.

Witch & Hero (3DS)

I've heard the sequels are better and I'm inclined to believe. It's short enough to beat in a few hours but still manages to feel very grindy by nature. The first half of the game has a few stages that feel like unnecessarily sharp spikes in difficulty designed to invoke this, including one that essentially forces you to rely on one particular ability that I had completely ignored until then, meaning I had to spend some more time grinding money to dump upgrades on it. After that you get a powerup mode which makes the rest of the regular stages considerably easier if you manage to get good RNG setups to use it.

The final boss fight however is an unforeshadowed switchup which is not only unnecessarily protracted but also makes you redo the entire last regular level when you die; this combined with the game's Ys 1 control scheme of attacking enemies by running into them at the cost of your own health (though for this particular boss you only take damage if its projectiles hit you) makes the encounter excessively tiresome. Even the hidden gimmick that's meant to make the fight easier isn't much help; you can use the controls that would ordinarily aim the witch's attacks to steer where the boss's projectiles are fired, the problem being that this is right stick on other versions but L and R in this one, meaning you cannot hold a specific angle, and letting go of the buttons means the boss goes right back to tracking you. This wouldn't be too much of a problem in the end if not for the very last phase in which the boss starts firing little laser shots that bounce off the edges of the screen and quickly turn things into the hell part of bullet hell which is only aggravated by the aforementioned awkward control scheme, and being unable to force a specific angle for them means the aiming gimmick is effectively useless. After punishing my thumb for a while I had enough and gave up.

In retrospect it was oddly similar to Fairune 2 in many ways, counting the system I played it on, the oddly specific way you interact with the enemies, the gameplay experience largely falling flat as a whole, and the unexpected final boss switchup although the former game fared much better in that regard. If there's one positive thing I can say about it it's that the aesthetics and gameplay flow for the regular stages reminded me a lot of Vampire Survivors even though the developers apparently have nothing to do with each other.

Blacksad: Under the Skin (PS4)

I'm interested in reading the comics now, and I liked the game, but who thought it was a good idea to have a point-and-click adventure where the interaction points can only be accessed under very specific proximity and angle parameters? The uncanny valley on some of the female characters was also a little concerning.

A Short Hike (XB1)

I always like a good excuse to go through this one

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4)
This is a game I should played through a few years ago after beating DR1 and DR2, but started it too quickly after DR2, quit playing very early and then just didn't play it until now when I played it through with my partner. We played through 1 and 2 together as well and jumped quickly into this one.

Revisiting 1 and 2 was great, playing this one for the first time was as well, but it ultimately just wasn't as gripping or satisfying as the other two for me. There were parts I liked about the final chapter, but the majority I really didn't like. I mostly liked chapters 4 and 5 in this game I'd say, I don't know what the consensus is.

All in all, sad that there's no more Danganronpa left to discover for me (that I'm interested in at least), but it was an okay 3rd game. Definitely last for me despite the gameplay improvements, but 2>1>3 is probably my overall ranking.

The Legend of Zelda

Both quests. This was the first time I beat the second quest. I've finished the first countless times over the years, but in the past I always got halfway through and abandoned the quest. Anyone who thinks the first quest is too cryptic would get destroyed by the second quest.

KCF0107 posted...

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (XB1)

I'm not sure how I totally feel about this one. The first several chapters were strong, but I really wasn't feeling it in the final half.

But then that 11/10 credits song kicked in and all was forgiven right?

Honestly might be my favorite traditional song (i.e. just a song with lyrics/vocals) ever in a video game. It is apparently a cover, but it's tonally a radical departure from the original IIRC.

Also it was done by Mick Gordon, as if that guy wasn't already talented enough at making more traditional instrumental video game music

Hitman 3 (XB1)

While not on par with Blood Money and the first two reboots, this one isn't far behind in the Silent Assassin and Absolution tier. I do appreciate that the game added some kinectic flowing (probably not a good descriptor) missions from Absolution in Berlin and Carpathian to mix things up. The only reason why I don't put Hitman 3 as high as the other two in the reboot series is that Dubai and Chongqing are probably in my Bottom 3 from the reboots, and Carpathian is something that I liked playing once but not something that I think I would want to play again.

Dartmoor > Berlin > Mendoza > Carpathian Mountains > Dubai > Chongqing

Mail Mole (XB1)

It's a decent somewhat throwback 3D platformer. I say somewhat because the game is structured as so, but the main hook of being a mole who is constantly burrowed underground and has its mechanics uniquely built around that definitely seems contemporary. Sometimes its hard to gauge where your mold specifically is in the environment, especially on levels that have a more zoomed out camera, which led to some frustrating deaths.

Nanashi no Game (DS)

It's neat, unique, functional, and little else. The real terror while being chased by the ghosts comes from the very sparse checkpoints meaning you'll have to redo several minutes of gameplay with the very awkward first person tank controls. Funnily enough the last time I can remember that I had to redo a lengthy "final boss" sequence because of a very minor goof I did at the end of it was also while playing a DS game, namely Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.

AM2R: Return of Samus (PC)

This game rocks. It feels exactly like a lost game in a trilogy with Fusion and Zero Mission. It's a shame Nintendo hasn't made any new Metroid games since Other M but at least there are some great fan games like this one and A Robot Named Fight.

Gone Home (PC)

It was okay, but it resonated with me more than it normally would have due to "good timing"

Toree 3D (PC)

I'm playing the series out-of-order, but this is probably better than Genesis. I used a controller and wonder if maneuvering the camera was really only designed with KB+M in mind.

Sea of Stars (PS4)
I get married ~15 hours from now, so this game gets the fun distinction of being the last one I'll ever beat as a single man.

Normal ending, so I'm gonna hold off on most of my thoughts until I come back in the near future to do everything I didn't get to just playing through casually. For now, suffice to say that I was heavily, heavily anticipating this game as an original Kickstarter backer, and while I definitely don't think it's a perfect game, it was worth the wait and I loved it.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (via Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, Steam)

so this is a kirby game, right

like klonoa is just kirby. you can suck up enemies and spit them out and it's all about dreams and nightmares. the character designs even look kirby-ish, aside from klonoa himself

it's fine. it could have been a lot better but i enjoyed it. i was planning to jump straight into klonoa 2 but i do feel like that would be too much klonoa right now so maybe a small break is in order.

i got all the villagers and beat the extra vision but didn't get all the gems in every stage because i'm not an insane person

Klonoa was one of my first PS1 games. Dat infamous ending still makes me cry. But people getting this duology might feel weird about seeing Klonoa again in a 2nd game without knowing that both games are about a decade apart.

Code Vein (PC)

My final Windows 7 backlog is complete. Code Vein is a spin-off of the God Eater games which does not play like that series at all. I would probably call it more of a mix between Persona and Dark Souls. This was the only game in my backlog that I actually was looking forward to finish and that's why I saved it for last. I quite enjoyed this game and honestly wonder why people don't talk about it more. I suppose it does sit in this weird niche between Anime and Soulsclones.

As amazing as soulsclones are, what always peeves me is every single clone is trying to copy Dark Souls even down to its tone and mood. Refreshingly this game deviates in both mechanics and theme peppering the post-apocalyptic backdrop with some JRPG nakama bullshit. The whole blood coding system makes for some very versatile gameplay indeed. This is probably also the only soulslike I believe apart from Ashen that aspires to get to a proper good ending as far as good endings go.

Story spoilers incoming.

Despite that, I do have some complaints about the tone of this game. I had to redo this game when I found out I wasn't on path for the Best Ending and I was confused at first because realistically I was just following the game but apparently, in order to achieve the game's best ending one would have to pull a Dynasty Warriors 8 What If Mode and make sure that absolutely nobody dies. Nobody. You have to do this 3 times in the story and if you know what to do the tone is just off. You get treated to a 10 minute scene where the death is inevitable but then in the next minute they're all better. It's ridiculous. And I mean I have no complaints about the story as a whole, but there had to be a better way to get a True Good Ending that might also result in acceptable loss.

Spoilers end.

But the writing itself was alright. Usually with these soulsclones things are left as vaguely as possible. And that is the case here as well, but the revelations and worldbuilding blossom slowly in a spiral from who are you to what is this on my face. It's all explained and trickled down without feeling contrived. And it all leads to this stunning reveal in the end.

For all its wonderful offerings, a few game design flaws stop me from enjoying this game sometimes. You can ONLY save by initiating/sitting down in a bonfire. There's no autosave while you use it in between or after actions. That means, if you used the bonfire to level up and didn't exit to use it again, the level up wouldn't register until you found another bonfire later on. Often times I found my progress slowed because I forgot to "rekindle" at the save point.

Getting x2 annoying is the fact that the game crashes at certain fights and scenes. I had to get a cheat device just to bypass I think about 3 scenarios in the game. Mercifully you can essentially skip any cutscene even if its your first time seeing it.

Finally a third gripe is the game doesn't explain to you how to level properly. You get these skills you have to grind to be able to use them in another class. However, this is separate from your actual level. The game doesn't tell you that if you actively level alone, grinding for skill proficiency will be next to impossible. On paper it is a good system so you'll have to rely on skill abilities instead of whacking hard or vice versa but imagine if I wasn't restarting the game to get the good ending, then I would've been royally screwed at around the halfway point of the game.

Finally just a minor issue are the setpieces which are decent but I can't believe you can't showcase a post-apoc earth without using 40% caves into your repertoire. There's even a labyrinthine knock-off of Anor Londo a third into the game that everyone despises, but I absolutely love because its the only zone that's vastly different from the others.

Anyways, this'll be my last for awhile. Now I have to backup my files and upgrade my OS.

The next soulsclone I'm planning to play is Nioh 2 as someone on this board suggested aaaaages ago when I made my writeup post here about Nioh 1 being mediocre.

Simoun posted...

Klonoa was one of my first PS1 games. Dat infamous ending still makes me cry. But people getting this duology might feel weird about seeing Klonoa again in a 2nd game without knowing that both games are about a decade apart.

Even weirder for me because my first Klonoa game was Empire of Dreams for the GBA and I played that about 15 years ago. Can't remember anything about it though so this is practically like coming into the series fresh.

And yeah the ending was weirdly devastating.

I played Klonoa back on the Wii and I have absolutely no memory of the ending. Then when the remake was announced YouTubers/podcasters I follow were all saying how infamous the ending is and stuff.

Maybe it will come back to me when I play these again. Plan to get that duology at some point!

The Big Con (XS/X)

Fun, 90s-themed crime adventure game. I actually started this last year on PC and totally forgot about that until just now.

Two games from my childhood that made me cry was the ending of Klonoa 1 and the Post-Avalanche scene in Terranigma as well as just that game in general. They just don't do shit like that to games anymore (targeted towards young adults or kids).

Mega Man Battle Network 1 (Switch)

So I had no idea how this game actually played going into the game and was pleasantly surprised.
It has fun mechanics and the story is simple silly.

The only knock I have is the confusing layouts to the internet part of the game. I had to look up a map online. Oh and also that one level where there was pattern solving with batteries that run out of energy. That was evil and I don't know if I would have had the patience to go through it without looking up directions to solve it.

Overall though the game was great! I am missing quite a few cards though and am not sure where to get them...I covered most if not all of the map and did quite a bit of grinding in the deep net.

Super Squidlit (PC)

Funny, weird sequel to Squidlit. Honestly the new FPS segments were probably my favorite, except the final boss. That was a slog. My game had an odd crash right after the final boss, so I didn't reach the credits. I got a weird pop up message just as I was about to leap into God Emperor's arms that said "Plip" was missing, and all that I could do was abort..

Learn Japanese to Survive: Hiragana Battle (Steam)

I've had these in my library for years but I recently got the itch to start studying a bunch of language-and-related stuff again for miscellaneous reasons and they very much fall into the "try everything and see what sticks" wheelhouse. This game definitely doesn't do much of anything to differentiate itself from its perception as a rather lackluster meme game, which is superficially evident by virtue of basically all the assets being pre-made RPG Maker stuff and the writing for the "plot" being nothing special.

One of the complaints I saw the most while superficially looking into this game was that it was "too grindy"; in my experience it wasn't grindy like Dragon Quest where you HAVE to grind to survive and progress, more grindy like Mother 1 where the encounter rate is too damn high so even if you're not worried about dying the battles start feeling like a chore.

This relates to the system the game tries to use to teach you hiragana, which is selecting the equivalent latin script syllable from a list to attack the japanese script enemies. Since this includes the entire hiragana syllabary including all the dakuten/handakuten variations, the list gets pretty long pretty quickly. The game kinda gets around this by just focusing on the latest stuff you've learned, which kinda defeats the purpose, and even if you really wanna keep practicing this way there's no good way to ensure that you'll get encounters with the characters you want to focus on. Aside from hiragana there's a few basic vocabulary lessons sprinkled in, though given that the game doesn't include any kanji or mention the different on'yomi/kun'yomi readings, it feels kinda pointless in the grand scheme of things, even if the final dungeon switches things up by making everything vocab focused even though by this point there's a good bit of vocab piled up with no prior opporunity to practice it.

Oh yeah, and you better save often because there are random crashes.

I guess I'll try the others which I've heard are an improvement. Unsurprisingly though this one rates pretty low in the japanese learning tools I've tried so far.