Lurker > Simoun

Coma was nice for its time when it first appeared. We've sadly come a long way since then.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Eggs of Steel (PS1)

Oh man. Me and this game have had a very strange history. I saw it once in a gaming magazine and I thought it was pretty cool, tbh. I was thinking this out loud when a classmate of mine was like "I have this game." and so he lent it to me. I do remember playing it a loooong time ago and it was good if not clunky. But after like months of playing, my friend got angry that I was hogging his game and forcibly took it back. Never saw it again and I agonized over never beating it again for a long time too. Until today.

This game is quite odd as it is obscure. Rhythm and Hues made this game? Atlus and Enix published this? No guides, no nothing about it. But these are big names and for 1998 that was like the PS1's prime. It had a magazine ad so it was a pretty big deal. Did it do well? Did it fail? Hm.

The game itself is an action puzzle platformer with an animated egg, set in a static cg backdrop. Its very uhm. It's very solid for what it is. I can forgive its frustrating camera angles for the briefness of its levels. Usually it'll just have this one gimmick and if you solve it, you move on. For what it was, I was surprised that the boss fights were innovative. I tip my hat though for the Dark this game has. Charlie actually causes the very mayhem he's trying to stop AND he literally murdered his supervisor, who is this game's final boss in the form of a vengeful egg ghost. And yet, everybody just praises Charlie like he's the hero of the story. There's even a sideplot where the resident accountant went crazy and turned to a scottsman, forcing you to fight him. Fucking idk. It's late. I just beat this game once and for all. And my brain is fried.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return! (PS1)

Absolutely loved this game as a kid so definitely how could I resist coming back to it, especially since it used a save from Tomba 1 to get some extra stuff in it.

This time I went and got all events, even the stupid fucking minigame ones I couldn't beat before. They were still hard now as they were then and they expected children to beat it?!

I also encountered something hilarious playing this. Apparently someone flubbed a line and just left it in there. It was totally a blooper but they stuck it in an obscure questline nobody thought they'd see lol. And also, finally saw what I had thought was a scene where one of the characters swore because of some ill-perceived mature content, turned out to just have been my imagination.

Anyways, nice game to get back to.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Gex (PS1)

Continuing my nostalgia trip, decided to take this one for a spin. Honestly never played this but I saw demos of it at a department store when I was a kid. Was expecting a crap experience given the graphics, but turns out to be surprisingly solid. The wisecracking got grating after awhile but everything was excellent. The boss fights, the varied music, the zones and levels were very distinct despite the engines limitations at the time. Personally feels on par with the first Crash Bandicoot.

I also beat all the challenge levels in the secret zone. Good game.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Tomba! (PS1)

First time in awhile that I'm actually going back to a game I really loved and beating it fully. In this case, I finally got all 130 events even that goddamned motocross gold medal. Fond memories for this game and sad the dev went bankrupt before it could do anything more. I even remember that the gfaqs board for Tomba had individual members representing each of the evil pigs in their signature. It was just that kind of quirky game!

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (PS2)

One of my old console backlogs finally beaten. FF2 brings me back memories of console horror gaming with the guys. I don't really have much to say other than I'm glad this weight is now off my back. I don't care much to replay it for the true ending or fighting the final boss though, but I got a ton of ghosts and side stuff that has made me a happy gamer.

FF3 is next but, I probably won't play it for a long time. Probably also done with this kind of horror in awhile. I think this is the first time a horror game has me truly stressed simply because the game was scary.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

KCF0107 posted...

Unlikely. In years past, I would go through my massive Steam backlog of short games while I continuously play Apex Legends, Rocket League, and Halo MCC. Now I am playing those games while also going through my backlog of longer games.

Well. It happened last year.

It's also got something to do with me. I start the year strong, then I slowdown when I play long games like RPGs. We both have excellent clear rates though, I enjoy posting here because I see you post. I dunno if that matters.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP)

What a ride. Probably the easiest Atlus game I've ever played, which is to say its just "Fair". I understand now why this was an easier spin-off to the SMT games. There were alot of old archaic things here that I quite liked such as being able to see how the demons reacted to your attempts to convince them stuff. Characters actually have different kinds of guns and its hilarious how every boss is weak to guns. Not having to fuse persona from persona meant I didn't have to worry about skill inheritance that much, which made the game very enjoyable. Music was amazing, and I honestly thought the story was gonna suck as it would try to forego that for dungeon-crawling madness. Instead I was quite surprised by the roster as well as the plot. Real classic gaming here, not disappointed. Could hold a candle to the modern Persona games.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Its time for that mid-year turnaround where KCF overtakes my game beats X3 coming soon

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Secret of Mana Remake (PC)

Oh my fucking god. Never again. The grinding. So much grinding. Although tbh in a hilarious twist, the grinding in this game was alot more satisfying than playing LA Noire. It was a nice change of pace. I put this game off several months at a time as I could not stomach the grind. The magic grind. The weapon grind. Was it a good game? I guess it hasn't aged well with the mechanics. That radial menu. Did I mention THE GRINDING. The remake did make some QoLs to be sure so at least I wasn't grinding that badly. Meh.

Would I recommend this game? Depends. Do you like crashes? Because that was my main enemy doing the final dungeon. It was like a roll of the dice every fucking time. I almost gave up on it tbh.

It's done. Another demon from my childhood vanquished.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

L.A. Noire (PC)

This was a difficult game to pick up again. I had tried to finish this some years ago but got bored of it fast. My penchant for new mystery games led me to re-open this once again and this time I dropped everything to see it through the end. I think I understand why I don't like this game. Despite its open-world trappings, everything about this game screams Visual Novel, a genre I am not so sure about. And at this point I was pretty much burned out with open world sandboxes so my previous gripe with the emptiness this game used to offer is now less harsh.

For me, the ending though a cop-out (heh) was actually pretty apt for the genre. And the themes of corruption in a noir are on par. Shame this is the only game that studio could have made. It was a bold attempt and a polarizing game all said.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

The Painscreek Killings (PC)

I love murder mysteries. And when I saw this game that came out a year before the Obra Dinn, I had to check it out. From descriptions, it is a "detective simulator" which is basically a walking simulator but no hints of any kind. On paper it sounds lovely, but the game is graphically intensive and the loading in between major areas kind of removes you from the immersion given the immense amount of backtracking necessary to get an A+ as you would have to find every single note and every single key gated quite annoyingly in such a way that you are forced to revisit areas of minor significance.

If you can get past all that though, you'll get a very rich murder mystery complete with an increasing amount of deaths the further in you go. It has quite a few loose ends though, but the ending is satisfactory. Two things though you might want to consider before trying to play this. I'll try my best to not spoil the damn thing. First, there's going to be at least 2 (god forbid I find more) moments where you'll see something...unnatural. Relax, it's not a horror and the music never changes. Secondly, the ending sequence suddenly becomes more...action-laden, much to the consternation of a traditional Adventure Gamer.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Remnant: From the Ashes (PC)

aka Dark Souls w/ Guns Take 2. Some years ago, I played the first attempt which was Immortal Unchained. That was a very forgettable and shitty game. This one was slightly better. I can forgive its flaws mainly the lack of a pause button, the poor excuse of a swamp DLC which might as well be a part of the main game, the lack of a respecc and a weird skill tree whereby you discover skills yourself instead of planning ahead with unlocks. The bar Unchained set was really low so I didn't hold my breath this time around and found it satisfactory. high 7/10

I don't care much for its procedureally generated content, which meant that in order to fight every boss and have sustainable builds, you would have to "reroll" and repeat certain maps over and over and that works for short games where death grants progress but in a Dark Souls game its a bit sadistic. I do however love the gunplay and the manual cover. The game is basically Gears of War multiplayer with bots except you both take 1-3 hits to die. It never feels unfair save for a few moments and the boss fights were set in these large setpieces that allowed you to outrun, hide, and strategize instead of just setting everything in a big flat circle arena *coughfinalbossletdown*

Incidentally, I actually thought this game was made by the Immortal devs, because the plot and organization was quite similar; that is you're a dude traversing planets fighting natives on respective planets all leading up to a showdown back at home.

Also I hate the title of this game. I very often forgot what it was called because of how generic it sounded. Even as the loading screens had them all the time (and you will see them often), I still couldn't remember when I made this post.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

SuperNiceDog posted...

@Simoun I didn't realize the puns when I was younger, like Alucaneet Palace

Haha yeah!

The PS2 sequel might've been crap, but I learned all about wines that day

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.

Brave Fencer Musashi. No other game like it and holy shit voice-acting in 1998. Unique tracks in every level, every segment of a dungeon, and every boss fight. A sword sucking ability system. Collectibles. Unique boss fights. It's a grand design by a company that used to be a hell lot more creative before becoming a Final Fantasy shill.

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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.