Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2019 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

Star Wars: Battlefront II (XBOX)

I've never been a huge Star Wars fun, but y'know, Backloggery fortune cookies. It was an okay game, I just felt like it was super chaotic most of the time so I barely knew what was going on.
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Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

Fun game
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Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia (PC)

Backlog from last year. Took quite awhile to finish. I'm frankly amazed this one turned out to be Actually Challenging. It's almost as if the dev team took the most time with this one, being the last one in the trilogy. Like, if it just took its time instead of splitting into 3 episodes they could've made a decent main game instead of a butchered spin-off. The end was very frustrating but very satisfying and was frankly harder than any AC final boss battle. It's a shame that even well-polished, it misses out on just a little more detail to make it worth my while. Also, still better than Origins and Odyssey.

One more thing I like about this one is the subtle use of Ezio's theme, but in a darker more solemn context that doesn't overpower the current mood and doesn't outstay its welcome.

And with that, I think I'm done with the AC franchise. The only ones I haven't touched are certain DLCs (like the madness of George Washington) and that one spinoff Freedom Cry which I might visit one day.
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Spyro the Dragon (Reignited, PS4)

Only ever played a little bit of the original on an emulator before. Really enjoyable and relatively non-frustrating collect-a-thon. Extremely easy to 100% as well. However, I wonder if I'm gonna like 2 and 3 as well. I've noticed with these platformer-trilogy remakes/remasters I tend to like the first one and stop bothering after that, with the exception of Ratchet & Clank.
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Sorcery 3: The Seven Serpents (Android)

This took awhile. If I had known the 2nd half of the saga was gonna be like this, I might not have decided to take on this sadistic interactive novel. But here I am with 200 gold and 20 rations. And I hear the the last one's even more of a doozy.

The 2nd game had so much going for it even though it was a bit linear in terms of progression. But the 3rd throws this out the window by introducing an open world, backtracking aspect which just dilutes the experience with annoying repeats not to mention that annoying day night cycle where you have to eat food at least once a day or starve to death.
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Resident Evil 6

I should have posted here every single time I beat a RE game during my RE marathon (which is going for 9 months, fuck my life)
Honestly, this game wasn't as bad as people say it is. I have no idea why it's so hated
It shouldn't be because "It isn't a RE game" as at this point it's been more than 10 years since the last real RE game. It isn't as good as 4 and 5 obviously but it was decent! sometimes even fun

However upon replying some of it (only needed to complete the last segment of each chapter for each campign for the "beat the game on professional" achievement) I couldn't help but feel that the game is too scripted
It never bothered me when playing it for the first time, but upon replay...it was pretty obvious
I am also pretty sure there were tons of times I wasted ammo on a boss that I wasn't supposed to - and it was just a matter of waiting until the boss enter into his next phase, no matter how hard I hit it
It was very obvious because that replay was with unlimited ammo Magnum..and it didn't speed things up

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Valley (PS4)

A neat running-and-jumping simulator. At its best, it was exhilarating. Combat was tacked on there for whatever reason, but it actually worked kind of well for the one boss fight they had. I wish they had an in-game counter of all the collectibles so I didn't have to solely rely on a guide.
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Nancy Drew 11: Curse of Blackmoor Manor (PC)

Okay, so I finally got this one working so I had to go back and finish it. And I can see why alot of people recommend it. It has the traditional beats of every other story with a hidden treasure with a scary thing trying to scare you, but unlike those games, this one just fit in so well. I think this is the first time I was so engrossed with the mystery itself. And the whole theme of how the family in the manor over 4 centuries came up with puzzles to protect a secret treasure. It reminds me of Sly Cooper and their vault.

Definitely one of my top 10
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The Silver Case HD (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78036628
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I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin Good Dating Simulator (PC)

Pure VNs bore me to death, and this one was also boring, but they leaned on its ridiculousness enough to keep me mildly interested at times.
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Sorcery 4: The Crown of Kings! (PC)

Ugh fuck this final chapter. I do appreciate the twist of making the rewind mechanic into an in-story device, which basically just disabled it in the 2nd half of this game to the whole thing was just an exercise in trial and error and you could not fucking die.

I still prefer the 2nd one, but it was very satisfying killing the Archmage after 3 books of abuse.
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Torchlight II (PS4)

Reaaaaally fun Diablo clone! So many references to Diablo 2. Not as good I feel, and actually shorter than I expected, but will surely be very replayable as well.
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Ryse: Son of Rome (XB1)

Despite the mechanics practically staying the same, it was oddly an uneven experience. I came away with mostly positive feelings, and after playing some online, I would ultimately consider this to be a good game. Edge of the World is hands down the best level.
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My Memory of Us (PC)

Oh the feels. Basically its Valiant Hearts, but set in WWII on the Polish side.

Intertwining childish whimsy and steampunk with the atrocities of the nazi empire is a bold choice. The puzzles while easy, were very inventive and were varied enough that I didn't mind the abstraction. While the early parts were onset by a clear separation from reality, by the time the heartstrings get pulled the game is almost over. But I don't think the point of the game was to tug at them so closely. Rather, it did very well in bringing awareness to an often overlooked part of the conflict as well as the people involved, as you find the easy to acquire collectibles.
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Sylvio: Remastered (PC)
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New Super Mario Bros (DS) -All star coins clear
What the hell was that save system? I know I'm bad at Mario but c'mon. Kind of rough. Not sure it lacks all originality, but it's not SMB3 brilliant.
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
River City Girls (Switch)

Love both of these games
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Timespinner (XB1)

Neat little Metroidvania that most closely resembles Symphony of the Night. What it lacked in environments and exploration, it made up for in a deeply customizable weapon system.
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AI: The Somnium Files (PS4)

Man, have I really not beaten another game since Bloodstained?

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The Fidelio Incident (PC)

Interesting narrative game.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations (3DS)
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Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (PS4)

I thought the first movie was okay, and the second movie much worse. That is my only experience with Guardians of the Galaxy. I ended up being very impressed with this game, and it might be my second favorite of this style of Telltale games that I've played (Wolf > Guardians > Walking Dead S1 >= Batman S1). I can't exactly put my finger on it as to why, but a potential reason is that I feel like this was arguably the most character-oriented of the four, which is to my tastes. I also think that my decisions had a larger effect on the plot than the other three.

It does have its issues, beyond the typical Telltale performance ones, in that the shift from the cel-shaded art style to the one they used in the Sam & Max/Monkey Island/etc... era was definitely a headscratcher and the jarring reactions by various characters to your dialog choices.

I will put all of my major decisions in spoiler tags below. Because Telltale went under, there were no end-of-episode mentions of your decisions, so I had to piece things together through various sources online.

EP1
- Told Drax he got revenge for his family
- Told Gamora family is worth fighting for
- Called the Nova Corps for Thanos corpse
- Promised mom to fight with words
- Took Drax with me to ship

EP2
- Prioritized Rocket over Nebula
- Defied Lylla and carried her out
- Had Gamora guard Nebula
- Told Rocket to hang onto wrist computer
- Freed Nebula from handcuffs

EP3
- Used words with bully
- Beat Nebula in spar
- Told Gamora not to give up on Nebula
- Told Nebula to stay on ship
- Destroyed forge

EP4
- Still went camping with mom
- Followed Rocket in cave
- Exited out of the worm's rear
- Helped Drax sacrifice himself
- Blue the rock monster is a friend

EP5
- Went to Drax first over Gamora
- Feelings toward Guardians are positive
- Hala consumed by the forge
- Had a final moment with mom

I might actually replay this in the distant, distant future as choosing between destroying and keeping the forge seemingly yields a decent amount of different content.
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

I can understand why this is some people's favorite Zelda game.
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

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Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)

Still a classic
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The Surge 2 (PC)

The 3rd game I was waiting for this year and I'm not disappointed. Though they improved the combat, the maps, and made the UI in general alot easier to handle, I did not much care for the structure and the story. I understand that the sequel has to escalate the threat, but I much preferred how in-the-dark you were in the first game as you slowly unraveled things that were happening to the facility. The plot also tries to ape Borderlands 2 in my opinion, all for some hidden twist that feels meh as it doesn't impact anything. It is nice though that they made the survival of Warren---the Surge 1 protagonist, canon because that guy was badass and deserved everything that was happening to him. You even help him in a prolonged sidequest of sorts.
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Minit (PC)
That was rather fun.
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Super Mario Kart (SNES)

Ancient replay via Switch.
Bowser's top speed felt great and using the Feather to use for shortcuts was too sweet.

Decap Attack (Genesis)

I finally spent the time to play this game all the way through. Used to play it off and on without giving it much of a chance beyond the first world.

You play as Chuck D. Head, a headless mummy created by Dr. Frank N. Stein who is sent to defeat Max D. Cap, a demon from the Underworld that is trying to conquer the surface world.

You can attack with a face from your torso and can jump on enemies. You can also collect a skull that can be be tossed and can come back to you. If you get hit you lose it though.
You can also slowly descend your jump. You can also some very useful potions and items to give you an advantage like using an earthquake (smart bomb), a shield, a projectile to use against bosses, freeze enemies, an item to make you run faster, jump higher and an item to make you reach farther and punch harder.

A few more things that are interesting is that this game is a re-skin of another game that was changed for Western audiences. In Japan, it's Magical Hat no Buttobi Tbo! Daibken

It also had a comic strip.
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I have such fond memories of Decap Attack. It is one of the main reasons that I bought the Ultimate Genesis Collection.

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Full Throttle Remastered (Vita)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78066347
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Pokemon Ultra Sun (3DS)

Finally beat it, bought it about a year ago I think, but couldn't get into another Alola run. However, thanks to a few long sessions the past couple of months I have now managed to become the champion (final battle was fairly lame, weak Pokemon selection imo just like in X/Y).

I got my money's worth out of it, and it's still pokemon. Having said that, I don't really see myself returning to the Alola games anymore. I don't know why some games in the series I can keep replaying and others not so much, considering the gameplay differences aren't that big. I guess something about Alola and its forced "oh em gee Alolan pokemon are soooooo great!" vibe annoy me, even if I love island settings.
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Katana Zero - Steam
Good game but it feels that it ended just before they got to the finale.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

This was a very good remake.

The art style grew on me overtime. It has that whole "diorama thing come to life" type of thing. It gave the characters a lot more personality as well.

I like some of the quality of life things added like the Sword, Shield, Power Bracelet and Pegasus Shoes having their own buttons and that means you don't have to go into the menu too much.

I also liked they added a few new things and surprises to make it a fresh new experience for someone that is already familiar with the original.

The remixed OST is very nice. I like how in some of the tracks they mixed them in with the old 8-bit soundtracks as little callbacks.

If there was one thing that fell a little short to me, it was the Chamber Dungeons. It's nice you can make your own Dungeons except you've been through them before only you can go in a different order.
I almost want to think Nintendo did this as a small experiment if they ever get the idea to make a Zelda Dungeon Maker ala Mario Maker.

Overall, good remake is good.
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC)

Oh man oh man. Iga did us good. Hooked from beginning to end.

The game isn't without its flaws though. There appears to be some trouble concerning difficulty curves. There are moments where a boss will just halt your progress by being too hard when the next couple after that will be easy. I didn't like the way the game handled this issue, which was to give you an equally cheese powerset which relied on grinding for shards. I would have appreciated just that, but to require extra crafting for extra power in itself felt like busywork at times. Although, it was fun busywork at least. At least until the endgame where you were way too powerful.
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Lost Dimension (PS3)

Very interesting tactical RPG. I don't give a shit about the characters (personality-wise) or the plot, but the unique gameplay system is pretty cool and while the vision/traitor system is dumb the more you think about it, I was fully invested in it as I was worried if I would lose the characters I thought were the best (Agito and Sojiro).

I eliminated all the traitors, and I ended up with these as my final party:

Sho (obviously), Toya, Mana, Sojiro, Zenji, and Agito

My traitors were in this order:

George (I found out this was scripted), Marco, Himeno, Nagi + Yoko
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Celeste (Switch)

Awesome game, not sure if I have the skill/patience to make it through the side-Bs and DLC though.

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Pokmon HeartGold Version (NDS)

Had to beat Lance kinda cheaply but...beat him anyway. Champion! Really enjoyed this game, it's such a good remake of games that I love anyway. There wasn't really anything added that I felt took away from the games, except maybe the distribution of TMs and locking some behind Move Tutors and the like.

Also a great showcase of the evolution of Pokemon; I consider the Johto E4 to be the weakest of all of them and one you can easily enter if you're a bit underleveled; not so much in the remakes. It didn't help that my team wasn't greatly balanced but still, it was a tough road (going back to having to healspam to beat Lance). So yeah, looking forward to the Kanto part!

My team:

Prodigy (Typhlosion) Lvl. 45
Sploosh (Politoed) Lvl. 46
Angelus (Togekiss) Lvl. 46
Ms. Mittens (Ambipom) Lvl. 45
Flowey (Sunflora) Lvl. 44
A Tree. (Sudowoodo) Lvl. 45
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Luigi's Mansion (GCN) (Replay)
Charming. It actually reminds me of Resident Evil, except with some Ghostbusters. I had a few issues with the controls, and unintuitive stuff involving the GBH, but still it's pretty great.
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Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - PS4

It's been years since I played the DS version so I had forgotten a decent amount. Good game, but I still think it's the weakest of the trilogy.

Also I feel ripped off that this and VLR's trophies are combined for a single platinum!
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LordoftheMorons posted...

I still think it's the weakest of the trilogy.

Get out!
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Deliver Us the Moon (PC)

Interesting adventure game, some of the game play is fucking annoying though. That said, I'd say I enjoyed it overall
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Xeodrifter (Switch)

Not a bad Metroidvania-lite, especially for its current price of $1. Reminded me a bit of Metroid Fusion.

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Untitled Goose Game (Switch)
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Rugrats: Search for Reptar (PSX)

This game was all the rage among my friends when it came out 21 years ago, but I never played it because I didn't have a Play Station at the time. Even for an early 3D platformer it has some pretty frustrating controls, mechanics, and cameras, but it's short and pretty easy and clearly for kids, and it was kinda nice to relive some old memories (all of the levels were based on episodes from the show).
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Stranger Things the Game (Android)
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Refunct (Switch)

The game lived up it's description: "A peaceful, short first-person platformer about restoring a vibrant world."

Moving around felt really good. You can wall jump, slide, go in pipes, ride lifts and jump on springboards while you activate all the switches to restore the world around you.

I felt very relaxed when playing and the soundtrack was really nice and pleasant to listen to.
Makes for a good speedrun game and to go for personal bests.
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Good game. The guy who made it developed another game called Swarm Lake if you are interested.
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