Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2024 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

We are slacking this year as this has to be the latest by a month or two to need a second topic.

Anyway, 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/15OFzmqNprpzjW33xJs3VYBG8rVCwLi1Zukyf5Q0nLUI

I was gonna say, this feels like the latest we've ever started a new topic.

Tag

Ys X: Nordics (PC)
Here's Ys X, and what everyone wants to know is how it stacks up to VIII. I'd say pretty well overall, and certainly better than IX did. There's a lot of stuff here. A sailing overworld with naval combat, for one. It plays like some other light ship combat games but more like Ys combat, with turbo boosts, magic weapons and barrier fields. The raid system is part this and part on-foot battle gauntlets.

On the way to Celceta, Adol finds himself in a Defiant Ones situation, mystically handcuffed to the daughter of a Viking lord, and must join her in battle against a monstrous undead army. These two are the sole playable characters this time around, and the game makes the most of it by rewarding frequent tagging between them. Each character has special attack energy that regens far quicker while tagged out, and they also slowly regen HP while tagged out. The block button brings the two together to block and dole out powerful dual techs, with damage that builds as attacks are absorbed. There are also unblockable attacks that must be sprinted through, causing our heroes to do DBZ-style instant sidesteps and charge up their weapons for a punish. The whole thing gets very DBZ as it escalates. The combat can be quite hard to get a handle on at first, but once it clicks, alongside escalating challenges, it's great.

Exploration also has some cool things going on. The grappling hook returns for both traversal and combat, and new to the series is a hoverboard. You can pull this thing out with the press of a button and skim over land, water and ethereal grind rails. It's fun. There are a few others but those stand out. This also leads to some pretty wild action setpieces. Let's just say fans of Sonic Adventure 1's first level should be happy. As dramatic and flashy as the story is, it's nice just to land on a random island and find a new area to explore.

So all in all, Ys X has good combat, good exploration, a reasonably fun story, lots of variety, and I like the soundtrack pretty well. I'd certainly recommend it to any fans of the series or ARPGs in general.

Ghostwire: Tokyo (XSX)

This was an unusual experience not for what it offers but how I felt about everything. The coolest part of the game was the world and exploring it. I think this would have made for a very cool open-world stealth game if they would have gone in that direction and obviously structure the gameplay around that. Alas, I felt that combat was always off with its dodging, spells and spell cycling, and 95% mob-based encounters when I just don't think their mechanics work well for more than a one or two enemy fight. I liked the talismens, but those were obviously meant as a seldom-used novelty with their low capacity and relatively expensive cost.

Also, at no point in the game did I find the plot or characters interesting, and it took me way too long to finally skip cutscenes.

Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling + The Relapse DLC (Steam)

If you liked: Looking Up I See Only a Ceiling

You should try: cognitive behavioral therapy

LEGO 2K Drive (XSX)

Open-world racing game that's fun and funny. I wanted to try out more of the game, but they locked quite a bit behind having to register for a 2K account "to protect the kids" and I didn't bother to do so. My main gripe about the racing is that no matter the handling rating on your vehicle, making sharp turns never feels right, and there were a couple of courses that plenty of those.

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered
Had a wonderful time, especially since some parts of 3 I had no memory of at all (1 and 2 I guess I knew fairly well). 3 I imagine would be awfully frustrating without being able to save anywhere, but giving you that feature made it just fun to mess around. The toggle between old and remastered graphics ruled. I stuck to the OG controls, it felt right.

Playing those games now is weird because they are nonsense. Straight up. There's no reason for the Temple of Xian to be a never-ending deathtrap (that level was the peak of the 3 games. A pure gauntlet), for levers and buttons to work that way, and the London levels in 3 make precious little sense if you think about it.

And yet I don't care, really. With that grid-based platforming and clear rules of traversal, it tells you "this is the obstacle, and here are your options to get past it". It's going to sound stupid but it was like I was playing a game with rules and structure. Like in snakes and ladders, surely you can just hop off the snake rather than be thrown all the way to the bottom? Well, sure, logically. But those aren't the rules. That's how I felt playing TR. With its lack of quality voice acting, narratively nonsensical levels, etc they felt like more pure games. And I liked it.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I do wonder what else out there would give a feeling like that.

Firewatch

And then you have Firewatch. Finished it in a couple of days. The total opposite of TR, all story-driven dialogue stuff. Liked it a lot. I felt tense, scared, laughed a few times... i think it's quite cleverly written and its message is quite grounded. Very un-videogame in the way its story ultimately unfolds, it's a deliberately brutal bait and switch that brought a tear to my eye in the credits. I think there are flaws in the execution but not gaping ones and I totally got what they were trying to do. Didn't seem to run too well on the Switch, though. Had a bit of slowdown.

King's Knight (NES)

One of those games I only learned about from Jeff Gerstmann playing every NES game. At first glance this one feels very high concept in a way NES games usually weren't. It's a shmup with four characters who each get their own level. Within a character's level they can get pick-ups to increase their stats. Everyone who survives their level comes together for a fifth, final level. It feels a lot more like a modern indie game going for a retro aesthetic than a legit NES game!

...Except that's not really how it works. You actually NEED all four characters to complete the final level, so it's not "anyone who survives will help at the end" but rather "if you die once you must restart the entire game". And while building your characters' stats is important, you also have to collect the four spell components in each character stage that will let them cast their spell at arbitrary moments in the final stage, at least one of which is mandatory or you die. The game never tells you any part of this. At least the final stage lets you continue -- but it's also insanely hard, because four characters means a hitbox 4x as big. You also have to grab pick-ups to switch which character is leading, but those pick-ups freeze you in place while the team rotates, leaving you at the mercy of enemy projectiles and of instant death by screen scroll. Ah, NOW it looks like an NES game.

This game sucks and I had to use save states to beat the final level. Admittedly, it was pretty fun when I didn't know what all was required to beat it.

I was hoping we would never get a part 2, that would've been a record haha. Honestly I think its cos I've just been playing DOOM games all year I am one of the more prolific gamers here but doom just has me by the balls. Anyways more doom:

Ancient Aliens - History Channel meme, turned into a real WAD. Lots of neon 80s area 51 stuff. Oh and smoking on the pipe and encountering spirit animals. This is a med to high difficulty wad that kinda pissed me off but it's not like I wasn't expecting it to be a ride. Strangely this mapper though deft in creating fiendish setpieces, can't seem to hold their design philosophies beyond constricted spaces and so when a map opens up like the 2nd half usually, it gets pretty easier all things considered as the threats though trap-y, tend to be self-contained in a corner of the place.

Valiant - So I thought it was a good (read: bad) idea to immediately jump into a set made by the same guy. Named so for the titular mutagen which turned humans into killing machines, this time half of the monsters from doom have been augmented to shoot faster and stronger and the common imp became such a pain that would chip my health into nothing in no time and in mobs just became utterly impossible to avoid. Yeah this map was not fun but strange as with the previous one became fun once the map let loose once again in the open.

Sign of Torment - One of those edgy experimental artsy type of maps. There's alot of good things going on with this map and I do believe the mapper sacrificed quality for art. For example, they would not compromise that Episode 1 was Red, 2 White, and 3 Black. As you expect, my eyes suffered quite a bit and ya know its fine if the gimmicks were nice and they were. But for 32 maps of the same damn thing it felt like an absolute slog. There was also a ton of pretentious Silent Hill-esque mockery where the world would consistently tell you how in the shitter you are being here. I think the one thing I find amusing is in Episode 3 who's central theme was just doom and gloom, all of the tracks used for each of the levels were ambient horror game tracks and like, if I didn't have the wiki on hand to know where the tracks are from I would've thought they all came from the same album or track even. I just appreciated how this guy went out of his way to look for 10 horror ambient tracks from a variety of sources. Like I said, it was an art piece that was meant to be appreciated for what it was trying to portray. It was just 10 maps too long. Maybe 15.

TNT: Revilution - is a reinvention of DOOM's most memetic expansion pack. TNTR starts very strong and kinda falters around the finale but I won't fault it for skipping a beat. TNTR feels like how TNT should've been brought to modern sensibilities. It's got an all-star cast of mappers working on it and it's got callbacks to the original TNT and I believe this is the first time in a long time I've felt like I was actually having fun and didn't realize I was already in Map 21. Oh and TNTR also has one of the best interpretations of an Icon of Sin level which isn't just a labyrinth full of never ending spawns for shits and giggles. Certainly in my top 10 doom wads.

Kenri posted...

King's Knight (NES)

One of those games I only learned about from Jeff Gerstmann playing every NES game. At first glance this one feels very high concept in a way NES games usually weren't. It's a shmup with four characters who each get their own level. Within a character's level they can get pick-ups to increase their stats. Everyone who survives their level comes together for a fifth, final level. It feels a lot more like a modern indie game going for a retro aesthetic than a legit NES game!

...Except that's not really how it works. You actually NEED all four characters to complete the final level, so it's not "anyone who survives will help at the end" but rather "if you die once you must restart the entire game". And while building your characters' stats is important, you also have to collect the four spell components in each character stage that will let them cast their spell at arbitrary moments in the final stage, at least one of which is mandatory or you die. The game never tells you any part of this. At least the final stage lets you continue -- but it's also insanely hard, because four characters means a hitbox 4x as big. You also have to grab pick-ups to switch which character is leading, but those pick-ups freeze you in place while the team rotates, leaving you at the mercy of enemy projectiles and of instant death by screen scroll. Ah, NOW it looks like an NES game.

This game sucks and I had to use save states to beat the final level. Admittedly, it was pretty fun when I didn't know what all was required to beat it.

Even though the NES was before our time, one of my best friends growing up got one second hand, and one of my favorite games to play of hers was King's Knight. It was the first VC game I bought for the Wii too.

I'd have probably loved the game as a kid! I never beat anything then anyway, so the absurd requirements would have never become a factor.

Tchia (XSX)

A very middling open world game.

Gestalt: Steam and Cinder

Story-heavy metroidvania with very good pixel art. The art is, unfortunately, the highlight. The gameplay is acceptable, and the story is fine until the end, but if you're going to interrupt the game with this many cutscenes, the ending needs to actually feel rewarding.

Donkey Kong (NES Classic)

Never was my favorite arcade game but, eh, it's totally okay.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (XB1)

It's on par with The New Order (aka great). Roughly halfway through the game, I had noticed that it was considerably easier than New Order, then they pumped out a ton of challenging scripted fights/flexible scenarios in the second half to where I think this was the more difficult game as a whole. I tend to take a stealth approach first, and for the most part, this game I think did a much better job on that front when it comes to level design and the ability to snuff out the heavier enemies (that can't be taken out with a stealth finisher) with dual suppressed weapons. Enemy detection however seemed much sharper.

As a sidenote,
Ys X: Nordics NG+/100% achievements on Nightmare
This was slightly odd in balance, ranging from absurdly easy at the beginning to probably overall easier than NG on Hard by the end. In other words, Nightmare difficulty (not the max difficulty) isn't balanced for NG+. It's balanced for making the game tough on the first playthrough. Well, it's fine. I enjoyed a shorter second playthrough with some cleanup.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

Fun game, albeit a little repetitive, which I think is just an inherent flaw with a game like this. Out of 120+ echoes, there were only a small handful of them that I used with any sort of regularity. Traversing usually amounted to stacking beds and/or water blocks. Fairly easy for a Zelda game too, yet it never felt like a spin-off. They definitely made this as a mainline Zelda game, and it feels like one. I did enjoy the void levels a lot, some of the boss fights, and the overall art design. Tri was a nice character and it was really fun to finally give Zelda a starring role in her eponymous series.

Half-Life
After all these years, I finally played it. Loved it until the alien planet.

The Quarry (XSX)

This is my second Supermassive game after playing Until Dawn in 2020. Until Dawn is as a whole the superior experience, but I also liked this one plenty. Characters/Performances were the highlight, but themoment to moment was also great, and I liked some of the interactions that weren't in Until Dawn like Don't Breathe. The overarching plot wasn't of great interest to me, probably somewhat fueled by their physical interpretation of werewolves being kind of lame, but the biggest issue I had was the lighting. I cranked the brightness way up after struggling with it early on, and it was still of little help when it came to segments where you only had a cell phone light and an awkward camera angle to work with.

Most characters survived the night. The only deaths were Silas and four Hacketts (Constance, Chris, Kaylee, and Caleb). I "cheated" when it came to doing the breaker in one of the later chapters. I had no idea what I was even supposed to do. It was a very poorly designed/explained puzzle and after finding out the solution online (and how to avoid accidentally killing Jacob), I stand by my decision.

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights (PS5)

Do you like Metroidvanias? Well, there's a good chance you'll like this one.

It's got a little bit of Souls in it too with the bonfire equivalent causing enemies to respawn but remarkably no corpse run. In fact, there's no penalty for death at all, and you can warp back to the last save point at any time. It makes up for that by generally remaining pretty tough until you get HP on hit and HP on kill relics late in the game. Bosses are a highlight and really force you to learn and execute; tanking never really felt like a viable strategy and leveling up makes things easier but never a cakewalk.

The map is likely to be a source of a bit of consternation given that it's a little bit abstract. It shows the general shape of a room/area and how it links to other areas but it's otherwise just a series of interconnected boxes. This can be a bit annoying when trying to explore but the game is nice enough to change the color of a room from blue to orange when all the secrets/items have been found.

Perhaps my one real gripe is that the last few optional items I needed to collect were stuck behind some platforming that didn't feel quite natural. You needed to use some optional spirits to allow you to go a little further and a little higher than you could otherwise in a way that didn't feel telegraphed like most other things in the game.

But overall, this was very enjoyable to me and had me staying up past my normal bedtime multiple nights in a row.

Duels of Fortune (PC) (Steam Deck)
I started seeing trailers for this on Youtube, and the characters looked fun. It's a freeware simplified 2D fighter, kind of like Kyanta... Kyanta is a close comparison actually, and this is the rare game to give it some competition. I've only cleared some arcade mode runs, but thought I'd do a writeup. This game is still in development since launching in early access last December, but there are quite a few characters and even gameplay modes available, including a challenge mode along the lines of Smash Bros or MK9. Characters are fairly complex and mobility is high - You can kind of move in midair just by holding a direction, in addition to airdashes. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to try a new fighting game. The boss fight is BS though.

Castlevania (NES)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I played a whole lot of Castlevania throughout the month of October. 1CC

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I only lost a single life. Got the best ending.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Took Sypha as my partner. Only got 2 Game Overs. I did pretty good for not playing this game in years. I could of played the Japanese version but I opted to stick with the US version by choice.

Akumajou Dracula (Super Famicom)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Colleciton. First time playing the Japanese version of Super Castlevania IV. The visual changes is good stuff (Blood and Crucifixes). The sound of the whip is also different. Same game nonetheless.

Castlevania: The Adventure (Game Boy)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. The music is what drives me to play this game. Often cited as one of the worst Castlevanias but it has it's charm. Level 3 is brutal.

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. It's pretty cool to see Konami learned how to improve on making the sequel after Castlevania The Adventure and learned to make a better game.

Castlevania Legends (Game Boy)
Replayed. It may not be canon but it's still a little fun. It's probably one of the easiest games in the series if you abuse the spells in the game. Got the best ending.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
This was a very good game. It was pretty cool playing as Zelda as the protagonist officially that wasn't a spinoff/side game (Smash) or in some limited capacity in the other mainline games. Using the many echoes for combat and solving puzzles in different ways was very satisfying. I also didn't feel stressed out at all compared to when I played through Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (I still liked those games). I hope they do another Zelda game of this type again (I like 2D Zelda but I don't mind 3D Zelda),

Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. This time around I played with John Morris and beat the game for the first time with him. I usually play as Eric Lecarde who is the much better character IMO.

Kid Dracula (NES)
Replayed via Castlevania Anniversary Collection. This is a fun spinoff.

Kid Dracula (Game Boy)
Replayed. The sequel to Kid Dracula. I enjoy this one over the Famicom one.

Castlevania Chronicles (PS1)
Ancient Replay. I have not played this game in many years but I did surprisingly good. I remember most of the pro strats from watching my favorite streamers play this one. Completed Arranged Mode.

Akumajo Dracula XX (Super Famicom)
Replayed via Castlevania Advance Collection. First time playing the Japanese version of Castlevania: Dracula X. Only major thing in the Japanese version is the blood. This game gets dumped on a lot because it's not Rondo of Blood. It's still an ok game minus the final Dracula fight with the bottomless pits. If you know the pro strat, it's not that bad.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (TurboGrafx-CD)
Ancient Replay. Probably one of the best games of the classic style of 2D Castlevanias. Completed it with Richter and got 100%.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
Ancient Replay. I still know this game like the back of my hand. Quite possibly my favorite PS1 game of all time.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
Replayed via Castlevania Advance Collection. A good game but you are at the mercy of RNG when it comes to Item/Card Drops.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Replayed via Castlevania Advance Collection. An ok game. It can be a little confusing to navigate but not too bad if you pay close attention.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Replayed via Castlevania Advance Collection. Got every Soul with best ending. I never knew the Luck stat was bugged in this game and doesn't work as intended. The Soul Eater Ring does slightly help a little with Soul drops while the Rare Ring helps with Item drops at least.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Ancient Replay via Castlevania Dominus Collection. Got every Soul with best ending. It was nice to revisit this one minus, again, the Luck stat not working as intended. How Konami managed to screw that up again is...wow. It was also nice using non touch screen controls and use QTEs instead for the Seals although it was a little awkward with breaking ice blocks with using the right analog/thumb stock and pressing Right Trigger. Also completed Julius Mode on the side.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Ancient Replay via Castlevania Dominus Collection. A very good one. I'm probably one of the few that didn't mind having to go through the last 4 paintings that are recycled from previous areas (they have different enemies/bosses and slightly different layouts at least) but nobody bat's an eye on Castlevania Symphony of the Night's Upsidedown Castle but eh, it's whatever cause you get more gameplay out of it and I didn't mind it either. Using 2 characters was fun and loved the OST. Also completed Sisters Mode on the side as well.

Gori: Cuddly Carnage (PC)

In the grimdark future of Earth, a robotic toy cat, a manic weaponized hoverboard, and a mopey AI are all that stands in the way of mutant unicorn domination!

You start up this game and get absolutely hit in the face with the neon-pastel aesthetic. It's hard to define the gameplay precisely but Gori is something like a skate-platformer-brawler with the sort of in-your-face edgy humor that would feel right at home on Dreamcast or original Xbox. Movement is extremely fast and works reliably, and fighting is mostly about staying in motion while using your various weapons to mow down enemies. The game doesn't overstay its welcome (Honestly the end is too abrupt and anticlimactic) but it has some technical flaws, including a few hard crashes during my playthrough. It speaks to how fun the game is that I was never all that brought down by those and picked it up again right away to keep going.

Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Famicom)
Replayed my fave game in the series

Monster in My Pocket (NES)
Ancient Replay. I completed the game with the Vampire.

Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (PC)
Replay. A short cute Metroidvania. Bosses have a little too much health.

Deja Vu/Uninvited/Shadowgate (NES)
Replayed via 8-Bit Adventure Anthology Volume 1 (PC)
Shadowgate > Uninvited > Deja Vu

Macbat 64 (PC)
This was a very cute fun little short N64 inspired 3D Platformer.

Super BOO Quest (PC)
Replayed. Completed the game with Yurei Ghost. Fun little stealth/puzzler arcade game where you collect orbs and scare the enemies. It's like stealth Pac-Man.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)
Replayed. One of my favorite games within the series. I grew up with this one.

Gargoyle's Quest (Game Boy)
Replayed. I liked making it a tradition to play this, Gargoyle's Quest II and Demon's Crest close to Halloween time. This is an ok game. It's a little rough in the beginning but it gets easier if you stick with it.

Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
Replayed. A little better than the first one.

Demon's Crest (SNES)
Replayed. I would love a sequel. Capcom would rather do another GnG instead. It is what it is.

Savage Halloween (PC)
I played this on Halloween. This was a fun Contra like game. I beat the game with Lulu the werewolf.

Vampire Survivors - Ode to Castlevania (PC)
Yes. There's a credits sequence for this one. This was quite possibly one of the greatest DLCs I have ever played. Words cannot even begin to describe how good this DLC is. Everything has come full Circle of the Moon.

Mega Man Rock N Roll (PC)
This was an alright fan game. You can play as either Mega Man or Roll. I feel the level design was easier to navigate with Roll, much like how playing Mega Man and Bass where the levels were much easier to play with Bass. The final boss fight was a bit much.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Ancient Replay via Castlevania Dominus Collection (PC)
It felt good revisiting this entry again. This game still holds up well to me. I even went out of my way to get all the Boss Medals and beat the bosses damageless. I have VODs of myself getting them on my twitch channel.

Biomech Hell (PC)
A legally distinct Contra that stars Rock and Stan from another game from this developer (SEEP), Thunderflash, a legally distinct Ikari Warriors/Commando/Heavy Barrel like game.
This was an ok one. I got 3 of the 4 Endings. I need to go back to figure out how to acquire the last Ending I need.

Vosaria: Lair of the Forgotten (PC)
A fun little action/platformer where you have the gimmick of going upside down and right side up like in Metal Storm, Mega Man 5's Gravity Man Stage and VVVVVV. Nice variety of weapons as well. You are a space marine sent out by the Armada to take down aliens and find out what happened to the rest of the team.

Little Nemo: The Dream Master (NES)
Replayed. A good game if a little rough around the edges in some parts. Leve 8's second area is such an evil screen.

The Simpsons (Arcade)
Replayed with a friend via Fightcade. I was Marge and he was Homer.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade)
Replayed with a friend via Fightcade. It was awesome revisiting this one. I was Mess O' Bradovich and he was Hannah Dundee.

Vice: Project Doom (NES)
Ancient Replay. A great action/platformer with nice cinematics that is very deserving of a sequel. The ending is such a tease.

The Legend of Zelda: Dungeons of Infinity (PC)
A Link to the Past roguelike. I was able to complete it on my third attempt. It was super good.

DANDAN Z (PC)
A very cool Game Boy inspired fighting game with some cool mechanics.

Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade)
Finally got my runback with this one. Beat the game with Bison. I'm most likely never going back to this one again cause the AI was infuriating.

Mega Man Rock Force (PC)
Ancient Replay. I played an updated version of this game that has playable Robot Masters. It's a nice fan game worth checking out.

Caveman Ransom (PC)
You play as Ooga who must rescue Booga, his grandfather, by a gang of bandits.
Action platformer where you play as a caveman. Game is easy enough if you farm for the item that gives you infinite ammo.

Roar of Revenge (PC)
Replayed. I only got a single death. I almost got a deathless run had I not did one little mistake. I do like this legally distinct Rastan game.

Streets of Rage (Genesis)
Replayed. Completed with Axel. This one has a nice charm.

Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)
Replayed. Completed with Axel. One of the best beat em' ups around.

Bare Knuckle III (Mega Drive)
Replayed. Completed with Axel. It is absolutely insane how much enjoyable this game is compared to Streets of Rage 3. Mainly with the difficulty setting having much better balance and most of the enemies/bosses not being damage sponges like they were in Streets of Rage 3. The OST may have been experimental and not liked as much compared to the first two games but there are some nice tracks in it that matches the vibe with the game.
As far as gameplay goes, I do like the gameplay in this one with the special meter that allows you to do your other two special moves without draining your life meter.

Streets of Rage 4 (PC)
Replayed. Completed it with Axel. A good modern beat em' up.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (SNES)
Replayed. Completed the game with Leonardo. A fun fighting game.

Dear Lord, where do you find the time?!

River City Girls (PC)
The game has a great aesthetic, and I enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not some kind of beat-em-up enthusiast. Not sure if I'll play the sequel.

Awaria (PC)
Helltaker guy made a new game, and it's not as good.

Final Fantasy VII (PC) (Replay)
Was so burnt out grinding for the achievements earlier in the year that I never actually beat the game, which is the last achievement. It crashed before the post-credits scene because my controller turned off.

Underleveled posted...

Dear Lord, where do you find the time?!

I...have lots of time, lol. I'm just catching up with my write ups! I've been updating my progress on the google document and I've been making a personal list on the side of how many games I have beaten on stream since I started streaming on twitch. Streaming has given me the motivation to not only replay my favorites but also getting through new games in my backlog!

Divine Dynamo Flamefrit (PC)
This was a new game released by Inti Creates last month. This is a spin off from another Inti Creates game called Card-en-Ciel, a deck building roguelike RPG.
You play as a young boy named Yuto in top down adventure stages (very similar to the top down sections of Blaster Master Zero). The boss battles are the main highlight of the game: You get to pilot Flamefrit, your mech in first person mech battles (kinda like piloting Impact from Mystical Ninja starring Goemon on N64). This game is a little on the short side and can be beaten within 2 hours. That was probably why this was sold at a low price.

Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
Replayed. I made things interesting and started on Extra Game (Hard Mode). Still amazing that Sakurai was only 19 years old when he made this game.

Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Ancient Replay. A very good overall NES game. Found all the secrets.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Game Boy)
Ancient Replay. I played this with a color rom hack called Kirby's Dream Land 2 DX that makes it so the game is in full color and got rid of the slowdown. Good times.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Reprise (Game Boy Advance)
This was a really cool ROM Hack where it turns Aria of Sorrow into a Roguelike.

Hansei Zaru Jirou-kun no Daibouken (Super Famicom)
The Japanese version of Spanky's Quest on SNES. This is a nice version with some differences. The title screen is totally different. There's a map screen that is shown in between the worlds with a song not heard in the American version. The first world is entirely different and acts as a tutorial world. The second world was the American versions first world except with the second world's tile set/template while the American version got a totally different layout of the second world. Jiro (Spanky) also has a different win pose when he completes a level. The ending is also different and a little better than what the American version got (a generic credits roll where it just shows Spanky fighting all of the bosses)

SNK Vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (Neo Geo Pocket Color/PC)
Played the Steam version. Completed single player mode with Terry Bogard. This game is absolutely adorable and very impressive on how it looks and plays!

Milo and the Magpies (PC)
This was a nice little hidden object game mixed in with puzzles and has a story. You have to guide a cat named Milo back to his home after an encounter with some Magpies.

Steel Assault (PC)
This game was freakin' awesome. You can use an electric whip, punch up close and a really cool zipline that's almost similar to using the Bionic Arm in Bionic Commando. It was short but very cool and challenging.

Beyond Shadowgate (PC)
Not to be confused with Beyond Shadowgate on the TurboGrafx CD.
This game serves as a direct sequel to the first Shadowgate.

I LOVED THIS ONE SO MUCH! As a fan of the ICOM trilogy (especially the NES versions), this was totally worth playing through!
I only used the digital guidebook a total of 5 times when I was REALLY stumped and I got a few nudges from my own chat when streaming it. I want to say so much about this game but I can't! This is 5 times as long as NES Shadowgate according to the store description (it's true)! Do yourselves a favor and don't look up anything about this game at all whatsoever, not even in the store page! This is a game that needs to be played and experienced!

Nine Sols (Xbox Game Pass)

This is definitely a labor of love from the dev team. I wish I could have liked it... a little bit more? The super original (and very weird) setting hooked me, as did the surprisingly competent story and gorgeous art, but it's a game that demands a lot of attention and precision for its combat or else even basic enemies will fuck you up. In other words, it was really stressful to actually play. Definitely more so than something like Hollow Knight, which is about the upper limit of difficulty I'll tolerate in a metroidvania game.

Of my 28 hour playtime, about 5 of those hours were spent on the 3-phase final boss alone before I finally fuckin got her. I'm probably going to do a second run to finish out the achievements I missed, but I'm doing it on story mode this time to make things just a bit less brutal.

The Inner World - The Last Wind Monk (XB1)

I played the first one about six years ago, and seeing as it was just fine, I had no intention of playing any sequel that was apparently out but I was not aware of. If I didn't receive this as part of a service, I wouldn't have tried it out. It was also fine, but it reinforced my desire to only play point-and-click adventure games on PC.

Choujin Sentai Jetman (Famicom)
So before the release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, I wanted to get a little hyped and played various Power Ranger games that lead up to the release of Rita's Rewind. This game is based on the 15th entry of the Super Sentai series. This is a very fun and easy Action/Platformer by Natsume. 3 of the 5 rangers (Red, Black and Yellow) are viable with their swords that do more damage while the other 2 rangers (Blue and White/Pink) uses guns but the guns take more hits to take down enemies but can safely shoot from a distance. The boss fights culminate into a Zord battle which is really cool, like a 2D fighter. 6 stages. Fun and short with a good OST. I recommend it!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Game Boy)
Replay. This one is ok. The big highlight in this game is the final battle A Megazord battle against Rita Repulsa herselff! This is one of the few pieces of media where Rita got to physically fight the Rangers .

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)
Replay. This game is super fun and easy. It uses a similar engine to another Natsume game, The Ninja Warriors. The Megazord battles are also really cool too in the last two levels.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition (SNES)
Replayed. A very fun 2D fighter. Got the 1CC with the Mega Tigerzord. This game also seems to use this fighting engine as a base for Shin Kid Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel for the Super Famicom that was made a year later, another fine fighting game.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Genesis)
Replay. This game was ok. One of the things that stands out in this fighting game is it's on an infinite plane with no corners.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Game Gear)
I have heard many legends and praise on how great of a licensed game this is. Many have said that this is the best Power Rangers game.
I'm a believer.
This game is very awesome. The amount of moves you can do with 2 buttons and a D-Pad is amazing. Good production values as well. This is definitely a game I would recommend to anyone if they are looking for a good game to play on the Game Gear.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (Genesis)
Replay. Only used one continue. This is a very good beat em' up and it does a good job of telling the events of the movie in the cutscenes and even a flashback with Season 2 of the show. It has been pointed out that this game feels a little unfinished and a lot of content was cut. Nonetheless, this is a fun game to play and it has Ron Wasserman music from the show so it gets major points for that.

Gekiso Sentai Carranger: Zenkai! Racer Senshi (Super Famicom)
Power Rangers Turbo over in Japan.
This is a VERY good licensed game. Natsume were consistently good whenever they were given the license to make SNES games of Power Rangers. Only continued once. I also recommend this one!

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES)
Ancient Replay. Last time I played this game was the year it came out when I rented it. While this game has absolutely nothing to do with the movie except that includes Ivan Ooze, it's still a very good game. It's basically an expansion of the SNES game. You can also switch planes by going in the background and the foreground. You can also use a special move when in Teenager Mode (the manual's words, not mine!) but it uses up a little meter. When you build up the meter, you have the option to morph into a Ranger and it restores you to full health if you were damaged in Teenager Mode). Only had to use 2 continues. I even went back to this game the other day and played with my friend via RetroArch. He never beat the game before so it was a cool moment for him and I was glad to help!

Power Rangers Ninja Storm (GBA)
This was a very good licensed game and made by Natsume! Took me less than an hour. Fun and simple.

Power Rangers Dino Thunder (GBA)
This was an ok one. It lacked variety. Also by Natsume.

Power Ranger S. P. D. (GBA)
A good one by Natsume. I really liked the variety in this one with the driving levels and the variety of how the Rangers played.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
I was trying not to get too hyped when this was announced and tried to keep my expectations low. They were in the middle.
This game was just...ok. Every Ranger played the same except with different animations. The Zord vehicle sections were fun. The Megazord sequences were really fun but short. I liked most of the boss fights except for the final boss fight, which was anti-climatic along with the ending. It's a 6/10 to me.
The game is slowly getting patched to iron out a few of the game's problems which is nice at least.

8-Colors Star Guardians
I loved this game a lot. You play as 5 unhinged female legally distinct Power Rangers in RPG Boss Battles that you can fight in any order from a Boss Select screen similar to Mega Man. I like that if you retreat from a boss or if you happen to lose, the girls talk to each other and provide you with hints on how to take down the boss. Chapter 2 was a free update to the game that extended the story. The story and dialogue was just too good and hilarious.

Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
Replay. Lost a few lives but did not use a continue. A nice comfy 1CC. Very good licensed game by Capcom.

Shiro (PC)
One of those precision platformers. Has some combat but the main feature were these symbols you jump to and they acted like barrels from Donkey Kong Country. You can also jump off walls. It was a story where you had to rescue your sister from a witch. It was an hour long. One and done deal. A little rough around the edges but it was fun.

River City Girls 2 (PC)
Replayed. But this time with the Double Dragons with the Double Dragon DLC! I have been waiting to play with a friend online for 2 years after they ironed out all the bugs and the performance of the game which took almost a little over a year. I was Billy and my friend was Jimmy. Jimmy looked like the most fun to play of the two. Billy was alright. I also liked the minimal new dialogue that was added into the main story that was incorporated for Billy and Jimmy.

Gravity Circuit (PC)
OMG THIS GAME WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME! Legally Distinct Mega Man X/Mega Man Zero. The game had it all! Great graphics, great controls great OST, good story and it was just fun! It is very deserving of a sequel!

Sonic Generations (PS3)*
So there's a caveat here. I went back to play this for the Platinum on the PS3 version. So while I didn't formally start a new game, I did had to replay every level. I only didn't re-fight any of the bosses except for the final boss, so I'm counting this as a semi-replay.

As for going through the game again, man did getting everything made the jank a lot more apparent, especially for Modern Sonic.

I still enjoyed playing the game and will likely do a formal replay with the Remaster at some point (but not before playing Shadow Generations), but man did the controls make getting some of those Red Rings irritating.

That said, playing Sonic 4 makes me yearn for the Classic Sonic stages from this game...

Astro's Playroom (PS5)
On the opposite end of jank controls is a game having REALLY smooth controls. It's great how this game is both a PS5 tech demo and a teaser for Astro Bot. There's just so much charm in this game that every moment of playing this was pure joy! .....except for some of the stuff involving gyro controls and the track pad movement. Those weren't so fun to play. Still it's one of the few games out there that make full use of the Dualsense capabilities.

Loved going through the history of PlayStation and I'm sure I'll get more with Astro Bot soon.

Yohane the Parhelion -NUMAZU in the MIRAGE- (PS5)
Alright, so here's another 2024 release that I managed to get through this year (with the other being Tekken 8 near the beginning of the year).

So this is an interesting case that it's my first time playing through a rougelike deckbuilder, and I really only picked it up because I'm a fan of the franchise it comes from. But man do I feel like rougelikes maybe aren't for me. The very idea that you can lose hours of progress if you screw up your run is really stressing.
....Though despite saying that I still plan on playing Balatro and Slay the Spire.

As for this game itself, it's nothing fancy. People have been saying that this game is just like Slay the Spire with a coat of anime girls on it. Not a bad game, but it is lacking in content. It's definitely something meant for the fans.

Botany Manor (Xbox Game Pass)

Good game. It's a little bit like Strange Horticulture crossed with Gone Home, though both those games have better aesthetics. I 100%'d it in about 3 hours so it's nice and breezy too.

Planet RIX-17 (PC)
Ancient Replay. Last time I played this game was on the Switch in 2019.
"A 2D adventure, in which you play as a space explorer engaged in searching for planets potentially suitable for life."

It's short and doesn't overstay it's welcome. Also got every achievement.

Half-Life: Blue Shift
One of the most nonendings I've ever seen. I've never seen a story where people make a plan, and then the plan just works with no complications. Also had a puzzle where you have to push a metal barrel between two electrical wires to continue; I refuse to believe anyone figured that out without a guide. Still fun, but definitely inferior to the main game.

Polyroll (PC)
Ancient Replay. I last played this on the Switch in 2019.
A very good Legally Distinct 2D Sonic the Hedgehog-like game except you play as a bug. Nice level design and some neat boss fights.

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch (PS5) (PS++)(Platinum)
I got pretty far in this game on PC, but there are some Unreal Engine issues with framerate that annoyed me just enough to not finish it. This is solved on PS5, and so I quite liked it. It's a Chinese cyberpunk furry Metroidvania about a grizzled rabbit fighting a cyborg police state with weapons salvaged from his old mech suit. Movement and level design are quite good. Combat isn't the best, but also isn't so weak as to bring down the experience. I had to grind through some less thrilling stuff once it came time to finish the trophies, but it's fine.

I've found myself in the middle of several epic level Doom WADs so my completion rate has slowed. So I think these are my last beats for the year:

Rowdy Rudys Revenge II: POWERTRIP - A community-made sequel and semi-conversion turning your arsenal into a more Rambo-like aesthetic (increased rate of fire and noise). This was also apparent in the first one but its enemy placement didn't really fulfill the fantasy as much. Now with the mapper knowing a bit more and his newfound cohort of community mappers, the trip was a little bit better to say the least. I wish DOOM's chaingun was loud and in charge by default.

Icarus: Alien Vanguard - One of the old historical ones. Icarus was that other project team TNT worked on that was a compliment of sorts, daring to be a bit more experimental. I personally find it nice to explore things that were made back in the early roots of things and while I would never play this again, it was such an experience. I actually mistook this for Alien Vendetta which I had already played previously.

Project Einherjar - This was a total conversion based on a novel about a post-apocalyptic female-dominated dystopia. That novel barely having anything to do with the actual game actually, but its rare for a DOOM conversion to have full fledged characters, story, and worldbuilding. This 5-episode undertaking was a trip in itself. I don't dislike it but it definitely wore me down by the end of episode 3. Much of the challenge comes in taking cover---a philosophy that goes against traditional standards. There was also a whole boatload of reused assets across multiple episodes and I can only recall maybe 2-3 setpieces that were even worth it. It had a ton of bosses but a DOOM engine is not really the place to do such things. All in all glad to be done with it, except not really because it has a 15-level 2 episode epilogue of sorts that I'll try to muster next year.

Interception - A mid-tier mapset that only got a little tedious by the end. We're talking from 70-80 monsters to 4 fucking hundred. I don't really find the maps memorable but I mainly took this for its music track, which has become a staple in several other maps. See its very rare to find a project that even has original music, much less a track made by someone who isn't "one of the only two music makers in town". So yeah, didn't really wanna end the year on such a lackluster (to me) mapset, but here we go.

Anagram posted...

Half-Life: Blue Shift
One of the most nonendings I've ever seen. I've never seen a story where people make a plan, and then the plan just works with no complications. Also had a puzzle where you have to push a metal barrel between two electrical wires to continue; I refuse to believe anyone figured that out without a guide. Still fun, but definitely inferior to the main game.

Yeah, I always found Blue Shift a bit boring, it just felt like too much of the same with the OG HL1, just not as good.

Opposing Force I absolutely love though.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis (XBO)

There's a sense I got while playing Fate of Atlantis that told me this was the game the developers actually had been wanting to make all along. There's an amount of detail in the main characters of the DLC that I found lacking in the main game, which made the overall flow of the DLC more engaging and the creativity in crafting these unique worlds where they weren't tied down by the historical context really makes for some stunning locales. But while the combat gets reshuffled a bit to make it more interesting, the overall gameplay loop unfortunately remains.

Fate of Atlantis takes place over three episodes in three different areas, which are completely different from Greece. In that sense it already fixes a problem that Legacy of the First Blade had; it gives you a world you're interested in exploring. Episode 1 features Elysium (Paradise), Episode 2 features the underworld, and episode 3 features Atlantis. All these locations also feature the mythical characters people know of Greek myths: Persephone, Hades, Poseidon, but also Hekate, Hermes, Charon, and Atlas among others. The settings are gorgeous. Greece was beautiful to explore, but the DLC takes it to a next level. Elysium really feels like a paradise, and there's a gorgeous verticality as well. A lot of the places are extremely high up, but you have the Wings of Hermes which are essentially magical elevators to get there. The underworld is a depressing place, but certainly has its own special kind of charm. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and wasn't disappointed at the desolate nature of the underworld. The underworld probably also has the most satisfying quests with the best connection to the main game, it feels like DLC whereas Episode 1 and 3 feel more like an expansion pack. And then there's Atlantis, which is essentially just a huge city and unfortunately, the worst area. It's also gorgeous, and it gives you plenty of opportunities to delve into a lore. But it's a pain to get around, as there's just so many winding pathways and all the height differences make climbing just a pain and a timesink.

It's one of the reasons this DLC suffers. I obviously played this right after Odyssey, Lost Tales and Legacy, and the difference in location and the slight adjustments to combat, with more engaging enemies than the usual soldiers or bandits, kept the DLC fresh. But the main gameplay loop is mostly the same. So without the pause of release schedules for DLC, with the cumbersome nature of Atlantis, Episode 3 truly had me groaning whenever a new quest wasn't the final one. It just cycled through the loop too often, although I will say that the architecture of the 'forts' allowed for a much easier navigation to just get to the main point that you needed to get to for a quest, as opposed to the forts in Greece which always felt like everyone needed to be cleared out.

It's a certainly a DLC that should be experienced; the locales are too gorgeous to miss out on, the supporting characters feel more fleshed-out than most of the supporting characters in the main game and the overstuffed gameplay mechanics of the main game are removed here for the core gameplay experience. But if you're coming off of the main game or Legacy of the First Blade, don't hesitate to wait a few months before jumping into this ocean of content.

RyoCaliente posted...

Yeah, I always found Blue Shift a bit boring, it just felt like too much of the same with the OG HL1, just not as good.

Opposing Force I absolutely love though.

Plan to play OF in January.

11:11 Memories Retold (XB1)

Another game I dropped years ago and picked back up to do something with my hands while I was occupied audibly. The water color art style is still pretty cool to look at, but it is sometimes a double-edged sword when it comes to scanning for objects and interaction points to move the game along. As a WWII tale, it isn't particularly interesting when compared to many other works of fiction on the subject. There are numerous endings based on your actions at the end, and my ending made little sense or at least the aftermath.

Metal Slug Tactics (XSX)

I wouldn't say that I'm a fan of Metal Slug, but I was curious on how it would translate to a tactical game. Honestly, the tactics are pretty great. Even though it is a roguelike and this is a crucial aspect to the genre, I was really taken aback by the variety and depth of passives and abilities (I think that they are just called special actions), especially what's unlocked from the start. You are forced to select a dual weapon setup from the start (and you only have one combo available for each of the three initial characters) that you can't change for your run, but it's the passives and special actions that run the game.

That being said, I can't fully recommend this because while the tactical aspect is great, the scenarios/map designs I was overall not pleased with. You have to complete three missions in a map before facing off against a boss and moving onto another map, but you are hamstrung with what missions to choose because you are only able to select those that directly connect to a liberated point on the map. Some of these tasks are pretty basic and you know what you are getting into for the most part (kill everyone, kill all the special targets, survive for x amount of turns, etc...), but some are just absolute shit and/or do not a good enough job describing the mission.

Had I known that ensuring that four civilians survive meant that there were just five on a small map full of enemies with map portions being added every turn full of enemies and that the civilians were out in the open, defenseless, wouldn't move, and would die in one hit, I would never have taken the job. Had I known that destroying a tower meant that the tower was armed and would fire homing missiles with a wide AOE at multiple characters every turn while destroying precious cover, and that the map would continuously spawn in enemies, I would never have taken the job. There are a couple of other mission archetypes that are just plain not fun or challenging in a cool and reasonable way, but man those two are run-enders.

I think that I beat it on my fifth run, which unlocked two more characters for me. I may dabble with this some more since it will presumably be on game pass until at least the fall of 2025, but I'm just dreading being forced into a really crappy mission.

VirtuaVerse (PC)

A point and click adventure with a sort of weird vibe (in a good way!) because it is set in a dystopian future, begins kind of dreary, then it kind goes on for a long stretch of being of sort of goofy before ending somewhat serious. I wouldn't call it an interesting world or story, but I like a decent point-and-click adventure.

Loddlenaut (PC)

A fun marine cleaning adventure with a creature collector side thing going on that I didn't do much with (just cleaned up the Loddles I came across and dumped them in my home cave) nor get why that was included. It's not a big map, but it does take awhile to get around with your modest speed, limited fast travel opportunities, and lack of certain features on the map. That was probably a conscious decision to bring up the playtime as a third or more of my time spent was going back and forth from somewhere to my base just to dump materials and get a full oxygen tank.

Unravel Two (PS4)

Co-op with my wife.

Finishing up a light year with a game that was... fine. Of the three games we've played through together (It Takes Two and Kirby Forgotten Land being the others), this was pretty easily the least enjoyable. Levels and puzzles felt a little same-y outside of a couple notable exceptions. The very last section of the last chapter was more fun than most of the rest of it combined, to the point that I think the whole game might have really benefited from being a little more freeform than it was.

If you're looking for something to go through cooperatively with a casual-ish player of games, this isn't a bad option. Difficult platforming sections are fairly rare, and there's a mechanic to let one character piggyback on another so the more experienced operator can just power through some of those tough sections on their own.

Anyway, not particularly my jam, but it was short and sweet enough.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is a great game. It's also a game that gives a lot of conflicting feelings throughout.

One of the things that sets Radiant Dawn apart somewhat from other Fire Emblem games is that it's a direct sequel. So you're making a direct sequel, and obviously you want to bring back characters from the previous game. How can you give these people a feeling of power however, when you're limited to only 40 levels? And how can you set them apart from other prepromotes you can get though? Well, you add another set of promotions and levels to go through. This is a great choice, as it really makes characters feel more powerful as the game progresses, and if you'd have all your characters be locked into level 20 halfway through, it wouldn't be terribly enjoyable. The scope of this decision though, goes a little bit further, especially in the difficulty.

Not even keeping in mind the mistranslation of the difficulty that this guy was fooled by, the beginning of the game is ROUGH. Clearly, this is the intention: you start of as the Dawn Brigade, a group of plucky and mostly untrained rebels going up against a trained and powerful Begnion Army. It needs to be difficult, and a challenge. The Dawn Brigade however, is a really rough group of units, and in this part of the game, it treads more into unfair than challenging. Difficulty curves in games generally slowly go upwards; Radiant Dawn's difficulty curve is basically a U. Beating these chapters obviously feels quite rewarding though, and it makes it so satisfying once you get Ike's Mercenaries in Part 3 and you can approach missions more in a 'how efficiently can I do this' rather than a 'how do I not die here' mode.

The main gameplay element that needs to be criticized is the abolishment of the support system. It's understandable that keeping track of all possible support conversations across all acts AND keeping the boosted stats element of supports active was going to be tough, but by getting rid of the supports, a lot of the characters lose out on personality. It's really a shame when you bring units with you throughout the game, but you can't really connect with them beyond their performance because you just don't know anything about them whatsoever.

The story I found interesting enough. There were some twists I saw coming a mile away, and there were some I didn't expect at all, but I was invested in it all well enough, and I'm quite sad to be leaving Tellius behind.

Also, the final boss is one of the most bullshit encounters in any video game ever. Yeah, you're fighting a god, so it should be, but man, going through that fight without a guide is just mean.

Micaiah Lvl. 60, Sothe Lvl. 42, Sanaki Lvl. 51, Jill Lvl. 58, 5. Nephenee Lvl. 57, 2. Ike Lvl. 59, Soren Lvl. 60, 4. Rolf Lvl. 60, Ena Lvl. 23, Reyson Lvl. 25, Elincia Lvl. 58, Zihark Lvl. 59, 1. Nolan Lvl. 58, Fiona Lvl. 58, Bastian Lvl. 60, Volke Lvl. 59, Kurthnaga Lvl. 33, Gareth Lvl. 31, Nasir Lvl. 34 | Leanne Lvl. 12, Skrimir Lvl. 25, Naesala Lvl. 27, Sigrun Lvl. 39, Marcia Lvl. 49, Ulki Lvl. 31, 3. Haar Lvl. 51, Shinon Lvl. 35, Rhys Lvl. 26, Tanith Lvl. 36, Danved Lvl. 29, Nealuchi Lvl. 22, Mordecai Lvl. 17, Edward Lvl. 34, Lethe Lvl. 21, Stefan Lvl. 48, Mist Lvl. 44, Nailah Lvl. 33, Rafiel Lvl. 21, Titania Lvl. 38, Gatrie Lvl. 49, Mia Lvl. 52, Aran Lvl. 50, Heather Lvl. 42, Janaff Lvl. 29, Lyre Lvl. 17, Calill Lvl. 28, Ilyana Lvl. 14, Boyd Lvl. 31, Laura Lvl. 15, Muarim Lvl. 19, Tormod Lvl. 25, Vika Lvl. 28, Oliver Lvl. 48,
Tibarn Lvl. 31, Ranulf Lvl. 27, Lucia Lvl. 34, Tauroneo Lvl. 34, Astrid Lvl. 56, Oscar Lvl. 50, Volug Lvl. 19, Leonardo Lvl. 8, Makalov Lvl. 27, Kieran Lvl. 33, Brom Lvl. 24, Meg Lvl. 3, Kysha Lvl. 18, Caineghis Lvl. 36, Giffca Lvl. 36, Renning Lvl. 59

I haven't really been participating in this, but I will state that my final game beaten this year is Haiku the Robot. Decent metroidvania that feels like a mix of Super Metroid and Hollow Knight, while not being nearly as deep as either.

Other recent game completions:
12/28 Afterimage (not for the first time)
12/22 Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane
12/20 Ender Lilies (not for the first time)
12/4 Gestalt: Steam and Cinder

I do play games that aren't metroidvanias, I promise. They just tend to be the sorts of titles that are long, involving, and often don't have explicit endings.