Lurker > Simoun

SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption (PC)

The other other Dark Souls game for 2018. Wish I played this one first, because it's worse than Ashen. It's like if someone decided to create a Dark Souls fangame, creating only the boss fights and decided "okay, that's the game." I love how shallow and nonsensical the pretentious plot is, as if to pad out the game for what it is. Its offering of its unique premise of sacrificing stats to eventually beat the game is interesting, but not enough to hold any sway.
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Ashen (PC)

I love it. It's different enough from Dark Souls that it stands out and it plays much better than any wannabe Dark Souls clone. I also love how its tone takes a complete 180 from Dark Souls' premise. You're ushering in a new world, the people you meet are given hope, and almost no one dies. Mechanically, there are some UI stuff I like. You can see items in the form of tiny markers that don't detract from the gameplay. The waypoints are sufficiently starved apart. Money purely goes into upgrading your weapons. And it's just fun to see your town center grow each time you return there. No loading times whatsoever unless it's fast travel, you die, and the one major dungeon in the game. I guess if I had one thing to say about it, it's that the enemies and bosses are mostly human. But unlike Dark Souls 2, this is just par for the lore.

It is very strange this game has received little to no fanfare since it came out. Much like Hob.
EDIT: Oh right, its on the Epic store, that's why
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DOOM 64 (PC)

I used a SourcePort btw, that's how I was able to play it.

I didn't know DOOM64 was more focused on horror than the rock n roll shooter it was built up to be. That said, I wish it wasn't 80% set in hell, but there were some unique things you wouldn't normally see in a DOOM game like the lightning effects, unique triggers, stages that morphed behind your back. It was a step in a certain direction that I wish was explored more.
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Far Cry New Dawn (PC)

Lol. Ubisoft's attempt at making a Borderlands clone fails because it's an Ubisoft game after all. The story was ordinary, predictable, and I would only recommend it if you've played FCV if only because You finally get to shoot Joseph Seed, yourself. Other than that, well, it's a nice nostalgic trip seeing characters and locales you've been to before albeit there is now less incentive to visit them as they all give kind of useless resources. At least Primal tried its best to be palatable. I feel like this game had wasted potential and calling it a spin-off as an excuse is unfortunate.
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Space Quest 1: The Sarien Encounter (PC)

Fuck that slot machine bullshit
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Call of Duty 2 (PC)
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Nancy Drew 14: Danger By Design (PC)

It's okay. Most of the puzzles were original, but it wasn't as heavy. It was surprisingly shorter than most of the other adventures. But what really got me is the twist. I don't know what to say; it's actually kind of funny. Like, the bad guys had nothing to do with what you were doing and so the game decided to give you a completely unrelated treasure hunt from yet another old faux-historical figure like it couldn't break the formula of the previous games. A bulk of the game's challenge was spent on doing some pretty boring chores for a couple of people. Nice twist though as it turns out none of your NPCs were the culprits, given the context of Nancy's original mission.
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One Unit Whole Blood (PC)
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I have RETURNED!

I've been playing FF6 (GBA) and it's finally done! Dragon's Den and everything.

I actually almost beat this baby years ago but stopped at Kefka's tower because I was too scared of fighting the 3 statues and Kefka himself. So here I am wrapping things up. Took awhile though, especially with the grinding. My quest to finish every FF (except maybe 2 and 8) is a long ways to go. My next stop is XII and then the newer FFs. So there's that.

But for now, its back to other things. JRPGs can be draining sometimes.
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Return to Mysterious Island (PC)

Lovely pt click adventure. I was surprised that it was in first person and allowed multiple solutions to a certain problem. Plot was well escalated too. I went from trying to survive to solving island problems to shooting robots in the face.
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Oh yeah fuck that Radiance BS
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PC)

I never did get that good ending. So here it is. Wow. So many badass moments!

I might take a rest with other games before I tackle the DLCs
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Hand of Fate was too hard for me and I had to bail on it early
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Just Cause 4 (PC)

Well. It certainly improved alot of things, but also removed alot of things. I honestly went into this game with pretty low expectations. I mean, cmon. It's Just Cause. As long as I can fuck around in the open world, it shouldn't be a problem. I saw reviews about how it's pretty much the same thing with no innovation and...maybe?

I mean, if anything JC3 was just JC2 with better graphics. You still based your conquest around shooting red things. In JC4, this was dropped for a more objective system of taking the zones which was both a good and a bad thing. It removed the tediousness of having to find every base to shoot red things in, but it made things way too simple.

A few pluses tossed in like the darker but still shallow storyline (hoping the DLCs can somewhat alleviate this as it had done in the third game) as well as the beautiful world. Granted it is a step down and the open world is clearly now more obvious as a tech demo for the weather. But I still enjoy driving around the place regardless.

And a few minuses from the annoying grapple customization system, the empty progression (finishing sidequests and levels just gave you more things to drop. Things you will never use 80% of the time), and the distinct lack of physical collectibles makes for exploring the vast world kind of pointless, which is a shame because I truly felt brainlessly immersed in this one.
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Resident Evil II Remake (PC)

Absolutely perfect. Can't wait for the 3rd one.
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Vampyr (PC)

The game is trying to be 2 different games and because it's chasing down 2 tails, it falls flat doing both. Thank god they put a Story Mode but there's no way I'm repeating this again just for that. I stuck around because by the time I had realized how grindy this game was I was too invested to forget about it. And that ending was not a disappointment at least.

Finished it without killing anyone. I wanted to do an all kill runthrough but its just way too annoying to start again.
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KCF0107 posted...

return for PC

10 minute or so free game on Steam that caught my attention for its art/graphical style. You can skip this one, though I think being spoiled by the likes of You Must Win the Game and Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt in terms of free Steam games.

If you haven't played it yet, the creator of NaissancE finally made his game free last year
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Onimusha: Warlords (PC)

I was in the 7th Grade, in Shanghai. I was part of this exchange cultural tour whatever. And I was wandering the streets of some small district and noticed that the underground stairway had an exceptionally noisy glow. It was my first time seeing a chain of bootleg shops, my mind was blown. I had purchased a cd containing every NES rom in existence, can you imagine?!

And there in the very corner of the underground, was an old chinese dude playing this weird Resident Evil style game, but it was on the PS2 (I wouldn't be getting it in 5 years). And it was set in Samurai times.

I've since had a fascination with Onimusha. I've wanted to play it since but what never able to until this moment. And I'm not disappointed. Hello Tank Controls! Hello good old fashioned Capcom cheesiness and epic gameplay. It's no surprise this re-implementation sold well and I hope the sequel can come soon otherwise its the PS2 emulator for me.
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KCF0107 posted...

Simoun posted...

Tri: Of Friendship and Madness (PC)

Jesus Christ. I've never played a game so divisive in my mind that I would constantly almost uninstall it after every level. But when that level is done, even if it took 3 hours to complete and would only get longer in level, you feel a sort of cathartic state of accomplishment.

I would have loved to pitch this as an underrated Portal clone, but it's way too tedious to be one and my goto is still Antichamber in the end. It's got the cool beats of an amazing puzzle game and it is despite the abstract art style. But the rather obtuse and carefully thought out solutions can sometimes wring your mind dry. Tri isn't hard because the puzzles are hard. They lull you into a false sense of security and then spring the impossibility once you're 90% up.

I'm just glad to be done with it. Oh, and I went for all the hidden statues too which made this playthrough even more nailbiting.

I bought this a couple years ago as it had been on my wishlist for a long time, but I stop myself from starting it because I remember people saying it is pretty lengthy for a first-person puzzle game.

It's longer than your average puzzle game because the mechanic is placing meticulously sticky triangles everywhere. In itself feels kinda zen actually in that you lose yourself and don't realize it's been an hour.

But then you come to the light bending puzzles where you need to use the triangles to reflect the light beams at an angle. I found those to be the most obnoxious and made my time consumibg all the more self aware. And later on, the light beams turn to lasers, forcing you to avoid the very beams you're reflecting.

By the time I was sick of it I was 3 levels shy of finishing it so I just grit my teeth and started watching walkthrough vids for some of the shittier puzzles
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SgtSphynx posted...

Simoun, I'm assuming Rufus remains the literal worst protagonist ever, that's what made me stop playing after the second game

That is correct. In the third game, Rufus allows the death of 2 children to be eaten by a giant slime monster (played for comedy), and breaks up the relationship of a character from Game 2 by tricking the gf (a black woman btw) into becoming a dancing girl for a horny organ grinder. All for 5 bucks.

And yet, by the end of the third game, Rufus "sacrifices" himself by jumping to his death so that others may live.
It ends with him laughing at the fact that he just can't seem to "change" as if his previous acts were justifiable. One thing the 3rd game tries to do though is finally explain why Rufus and Cletus look alike and why Rufus is an asshole by default. But it feels so ham-fisted and since there's no Redemption Arc (Goal sides with him always) it's pointless anyway.
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Tri: Of Friendship and Madness (PC)

Jesus Christ. I've never played a game so divisive in my mind that I would constantly almost uninstall it after every level. But when that level is done, even if it took 3 hours to complete and would only get longer in level, you feel a sort of cathartic state of accomplishment.

I would have loved to pitch this as an underrated Portal clone, but it's way too tedious to be one and my goto is still Antichamber in the end. It's got the cool beats of an amazing puzzle game and it is despite the abstract art style. But the rather obtuse and carefully thought out solutions can sometimes wring your mind dry. Tri isn't hard because the puzzles are hard. They lull you into a false sense of security and then spring the impossibility once you're 90% up.

I'm just glad to be done with it. Oh, and I went for all the hidden statues too which made this playthrough even more nailbiting.
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The Hong Kong Massacre (PC)

This game is a shame. It is as Hotline Miami as it is Hatred to Postal. The game seems adamant to make it look as cool as possible while ignoring everything else. Shrapnel and setpieces explode in bullet dances and slow-mo intricacy who's quickly refilling bar encourages you to abuse it as much as you can.

However, the game is mired with several design flaws. The bad guys are idiots. They never try to flank you when you're busy going down the halls and you just happen to miss one. They only respond once you enter their zone which is usually the room they patrol in. They don't even flinch or react when you fire INTO the room unless it hits one of their own. They also appear to have literal eyes at the back of their heads as they are easily able to detect you even if you sneak up and try to snipe them from behind. There was also a severe lack of variety---only 1 armored enemy about halfway into the game and that would've been fine if the levels weren't so long and repetitive. Sure game, it's a drug den but really it's the same damn rooftop only longer and more tedious. And speaking of which, the boss fights themselves are just the same set-up with slightly more mooks and obstacles to dodge through.

While the guns feel like guns, every other sound effect is non-existent. There is no sound cue when you perform a dodge roll, so I have no idea when the animation ends leading me to getting shot. There is no death gurgle for any of the mooks you finish off so you don't know if you managed to nick one. And the interface forces you into this zoomed in perspective that while was effective in Hotline, only served to infuriate me here. But the biggest design flaw I see is how the final kill is always zoomed in...and blurred out. Like, I wanna see the destruction I cause up close!

The music gets repetitive but at least it does some decent HM inspired techno. And the story while engaging in the beginning, turns into dragging nonsense by the end. I just realized that if Hotline Miami didn't have such an absurd premise, the levels would be as tedious as you wouldn't really care what happens next.

I rag on and on, but only because I loved it and I feel disheartened that it doesn't really try to capture the true kind of Hong Kong shootout. They could've done more exciting setpieces and things to do like environmental kills or chase sequences or collectibles to keep it fresh.
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The only things I've heard about VII are that it has time travel in it and that there is ALOT of backtracking involved. Other than that, I just find it weird that no one is talking about it even more than VI despite the fact that its on the 3DS.
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Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (Android)

Aka FF4 5 6 meets Chrono Cross.

I see now why this is the black sheep of the franchise (and 7 apparently welp) but to me I appreciate how dark and different it is. With a history of constantly improving itself, VI is often said to be worse than V. But so what.

I frankly think VI's strengths lie elsewhere such as the awesome but hilariously broken job system as well as the map shit and the little adventures you have. People say the story is almost not there but really, it's not like IV and V have been stellar. VI is great.

Next time on my DQ Quest, I'll be moving to the 3ds for the next two games.
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I will admit, I was compelled mostly to finish Deponia 3, because you posted about finishing Deponia 1 and the memories started flowing back to me hehe
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Goodbye Deponia (PC)

I started the first 2 games more than 3 years ago, but stopped because I had heard about the saga in general and where it was going. While I wasn't spoiled, I was just a bit disheartened about how Rufus keeps becoming more and more like an asshole, never changing despite that ending (which assumes it was all justified) and this game proves it. I have decided I should just play it for what it is; the puzzles, the music, the scenes. This one in particular crosses the line twice ALOT of times which makes me uncomfortable at times but I mean I think that was the point. I may have suffered seeing as characters from 1 and 2 return in full force and I barely remember any of them.

Now I'm on the fence about the 4th game as I already know the drama surrounding it. Best I can do is just play it for the game itself. I keep forgetting that this is Daedalic and their games always have some form of bittersweetness in play.
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Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter (PC)

This concludes my Sherlock Holmes run started 2 years ago. It's a ride, that's all I can say mostly about this. Like, it looks great. I didn't even mind the QTEs but it was like a beautiful ride. You can't do anything and mostly just go through the motions of it. I don't want to hate it. But I have to on the principle that it paled simply from its predecessors. They fucking turned Sherlock into a 30-year old dad ugh.

And the final part would've been so much better if the fucking title didn't dangle it in front of you all the time.
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hombad46 posted...

Kingdom Hearts 3

I hear that the game is Cutscene 70%. Is that true?
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Well tbf, I havent finished the third game yet so I'll leave it at that. I would love to hear your reaction to the eventual conclusion of the saga hahahah.

I'm kind of spoiled a bit because I became aware of the fandom drama before the games hit
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KCF0107 posted...

Deponia for PS4

I realized based on art, subtitle font, and music that this had to be from the same person/company responsible for the Edna & Harvey series. While it isn't as funny, I do like how Deponia follows suit and jokes come at the expense of every character with plenty of morbid/dark humor. My main issue was that I hated the main character, but that was mitigated with him being far and away the most frequent recipient of punishment.

I own the entire collection on Steam, so hopefully I can pick up where I left off and not have to re-do the first game.

If you hate the main character, I sincerely worry for you if you plan to finish all 4 games. The fact that he's hateable is the point according to the devs, and thats not changing for the better.
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Bytepath (PC)

Neato implementation of an Asteroids clone. Ultimate selling point has got to be that POE Sphere Grid skill tree
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Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PC)

Last year, I was attempting to finish every Sherlock adventure game. I was on a roll but when I got here I had to stop. It was so different that they had dropped the Pt Click Adventure elements and just went into a more logical puzzle. I felt disheartened to continue.

But that was a year ago.

After sitting on my desktop for half a year, it is finally done. It probably took awhile to disassociate myself from the zany pt click elements. While I appreciate this new modernized Sherlock, obviously inspired by the recent tv show and its Mind Palace style of deduction, I still kind of miss the random crossover adventures and even that last one which was quite original. By contrasts this one was just a bunch of short stories strung together and having read some of these stories already the conclusion was pretty much obvious. Although I'd like to think this is Frogwares' attempt at testing the engine, seeing as the next game is a full on single case. EDIT: Okay, I'm just reading about it right now. It isn't. lol

Still. The environments look great, even better than anything before it. The Unreal Engine probably had something to do with that. I'm also a little disillusioned by the notion that this game is still taking place in the same continuity as it references previous adventures and yet the Sherlock now looks nothing like the Sherlock then. Strangely enough, they do this in the next game anyway so there's hardly a point.

Excellent game I'll still admit. Just miss the old style. Time to finish the last one soon. Maybe Frogwares will get back to Sherlocking when they release their Cthulhu open world game.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

I absolutely love VI. Most underrated game in the series, imo

(And I assume youre not counting X; if you have a good way to play that one, let me know...!)

Awesome. I'm going into each of the games, blind. All I know about VI is an improved Job System, a "darker" storyline, and something about alternate universes. Can't wait to get started.

Unfortunately I am also skipping X. Not that I couldn't play it, I just don't like MMOs in general and you can't exactly "beat" it in regular time. I am planning to maybe get into some of the spinoffs after I'm done with the main series.

My main issue right now looking ahead is IX. I can't find a reasonable cart anywhere near me, and I hear terrible stuff about emulation. Specifically that a ds rom of IX will freeze and corrupt saves at inopportune times. So I am at a loss there.
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Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Android)

Phew. What a trip. Apart from a few flaws I can forgive, I would say this is the best one yet. You know, I originally started playing DQ because I was bored waiting in line for something. But after the 3rd game I realized I could basically play every DQ game except maybe IX which is a shame. So, I'm enjoying this ride so far.

And I hear the next one's even darker. Can't wait.
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FAR: Lone Sails (PC)

Wow. I shed a tear at that ending. Haven't played something like this since Inside. Those Swedes really know how to make games. And the musical score is amazing as well.

Unfortunately, also like Inside, it is pretty short. And the ending to some may be a bit too ambiguous and melancholic. Also, the price might be a problem.
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Project Warlock (PC)


I went and got this because I wanted the cathartic moments from Dusk without all the Horror. But honestly it got pretty tense by the end as well. I suppose this is how 90s shooters are after all. My favorite thing about this game is that each of the 5 zones have an easter egg showing a 90s Shooter Protagonist strung up and executed. All in all pretty enjoyable. I also love how each of the 55 levels have their own theme tune.
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Dusk (PC)

I looove the throwback. I've never played Blood but my god this game is like the 90s never left. Maybe I should play that, but I've had enough horror for awhile. There's so many things I wanna talk about though. Every beat is decidedly 90s: the frantic pace, the secrets, the homages to DOOM, Quake, STALKER, Half Life 1, and so on. The way enemies gib hard when you blow them up with far more damage than necessary, the excuse plot, fast movements, no reloading, heavy metal pumping through your headphones. The horror elements were superb and they got me when they did. And the best for me was how many filters and settings this game had.

You could, if you want, run this on an old PC with 640 resolution and super pixelized. I'm glad it has the option to do that. In an interview, the dev stated that the biggest challenge was making the game as ugly as possible because Unity kept making the game look good.
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Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (Android)

This took awhile to beat mainly because I got bored halfway. Perhaps the gimmick of playing your party's backstory was a novelty then but it got boring real fast. And by the time you play as the hero, the world would have been thoroughly explored, leaving the Ultima aspect of the game quite lacking. The bad guy makes no sense. I mean at least the previous games had evil for evil's sake but this one tried to do something different and it fell flat. I beat the secret 6th chapter too which didn't give as much a challenge but at least wasn't as cheap as the third game.
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MURI (PC)

Love the DOS throwback. I'm getting Commander Keen / Jazz Jackrabbit vibes with all the oldschool platforming and sound effects. It even lets you play in "16 bit" mode where the animation is stilted.
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The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human (PC)

Pretty cool. Decent metroidvania/shadow of the colossus mashup. Yet another undersea endgame scenario and the horrors that come with it much like SOMA though not the exact reasons behind it. It did get kind of bullet hellish by the end and some bosses were just downright unfair. The best parts of the game were the calm sequences between bosses, whereby you are just told and shown what happened to humanity years after the ice caps melted.
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Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Android)

So I hear that this is basically Japan's holy grail JRPG. Not bad. I love it. It's probably the closest thing to a Japanese Ultima. They fixed the issues behind the grinding. And the job system is to die for. It is archaic but it is the first. The final boss took a few tries though, and the secret boss a whole lot of grinding tries.
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Katamari Damacy REROLL (PC)

Nice to see this PS2 classic revamped for HD PC
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Iconoclasts (PC)

It has the same strengths and weaknesses as Owlboy, but done a little bit better. It has a great story, amazing boss fights, lovable and lovable-to-hate characters, and a great setting and direction. But it seems mired by its pseudo-metroidvania style of play. It's gameplay mechanics are in a way that invites backtracking and collectible puzzle solving but it in no way encourages you and in fact bog you down at times. The puzzles are often hit or miss and the direction of where to go can sometimes be distracting. That said, the pacing was proper if not a bit carrot over stick and the end was worth it anyway unlike say Owlboy who just almost looked like it ran out of money by the end.
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Starting my year off is Dragon Quest 2 (Android)

I mean, its better than DQ1 at least. I'm not complaining about the grinding in this game which is weird because I hate FF3 for the same reasons. My only gripe is the totally unfair final boss and his RNJesus.
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Nice! Can't wait to use it
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Instead we get a live action trilogy. What do you think of those?
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bump
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.