Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2020 Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

HunieCam Studio (PC)

My fingers are numb from the clicking but after 4 tries, I finally got that diamond trophy.

---

STAY (Vita)

The concept of helping someone through what basically amounts to a escape room puzzle is interesting, but in the end the story just doesn't ever really get good and because of this it is merely a passable VN with a few puzzles tacked on. The platinum requires another six play throughs to unlock all the endings and I'm pretty certain I'm not doing that anytime soon.

---

Axiom Verge (NS)

Very good Metroid-clone. Sometimes the controls felt like they were doing their own thing, but other than that and some slow movement and backtracking, it was a very solid experience. Almost scratched that Metroid-itch, but most Metroid games are still clearly better.

Also, there were tons of weapons to find, which seemed pointless in such a short game. Many of them were clearly inferior in terms of damage and/or coverage as well.

City Climber (PC)

Silly little physics based climbing not unlike Human Fall Flat or I Am Bread, but singleplayer.

---

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney [DS Lite]

I suspect y'all want case rankings, so here goes. For me it's 4, 5, 2, 3, 1. Spoiler free writeup follows:

Case 4 - Turnabout Goodbyes had lots of history, very cool twists and turns, and I find Gregory Edgeworth to be quite handsome.
Case 5 - Rise from the Ashes was very long and also twisty, sometimes in ways that didn't make sense to me. But a lot of the trucking around, talking to more characters and gathering 30 pieces of evidence was very exciting.
Case 2 - Turnabout Sisters was shocking. Not only did it eliminate some plot armor, but it delves into corruption and protection schemes. Money talks, man.
Case 3 - Turnabout Samurai was fun, but not as engaging as some of the other cases. I found myself wandering around without much concrete to go on for much of this case. I did like the psychological aspects of this case's resolution, though!
Case 1 - The First Turnabout is very nostalgic, as it's the first case you play, and it's a little bit of a tutorial fight:
[credit:hiimdaisy's Persona4 comic]
You gain valuable insight into how court proceedings work, what to look for, and how witnesses react, especially when the truth begins to surface.

And a great AA lesson, "If something smells..."

---

Nier (360)

Endings A and B. I really really liked the first half of this game, but the second half was uhhhh not as good, to say the least.

---

My Friend Pedro (Steam)
Not bad, and very weird.

---

Pixel Gladiator (Switch)

A 2D shoot em' up tower defense game. Also my first tower defense game I played.

You get sent to an abandoned planet as a participant for a Gladiator show. Kill enemies in front of a camera to earn money to buy weapons and defenses

There are 3 arenas with a boss at the end of wave 10 and a survival mode.
Weapons you get: Rifle, Flamethrower, Grenade Launcher, Plazmagun. All weapons have a primary and secondary function. Grenade Launcher is my favorite.
You can also get Rocket Boots, an extended life meter and a Droid.

Defenses you can build: Walls, Turrets, Tower Turrets, Landmines, Flame Floors,

Survival mode is fun when making a personal best/going for the leaderboard. Exclusive to Survival mode you can buy a Mech, Missiles for your Mech, double the life for your Mech and even more defenses where you can call in missile/lightning strikes.


---

Kenri posted...

Nier (360)

Endings A and B. I really really liked the first half of this game, but the second half was uhhhh not as good, to say the least.

I'd recommend getting at least ending C, as well. You should be able to get it in like 2-3 hours.


---

Daymare: 1998 (PC)

I really really wanted to like this game. It's not a bad game, in fact. I find it charming, however, the aftertaste leaves much to be desired. The Resident Evil roots and inspirations are there, and for all intents it is a perfect fangame, but shed the influences and you're left with an unpolished and somewhat mediocre game. Legitimate issues abound concerning enemies, repetition, cheesy stilted dialogue. I praise the inventory system and the game looks GREAT but everything even the plot and that ending was just so stupid.

6/10

---

Deiland (PC - Steam)

Dragon Quest XI > Portal 2 > 999 > Deiland > West of Loathing

I'll post more in the Game of the Month topic soon.

---

Control (PS4)

This title was great! The powers that you get are quite fun to use, and they feel natural and fluid to use. A few I'm really going to miss. I enjoyed how movement was a big part of the combat, how you never really wanted to sit still - and how you could almost always hip fire. I don't think I aimed in the last half of the game at all. The areas were all pretty neat, and the enemies are cool. The bosses were done weird, with almost none of them tied to the main questline. I was lost with what was actually happening story wise, though didn't really impact my enjoyment. Overall I'd recommend this game!

---

Braid (360)

I beat this back on Steam way back in 2010 or 2011, so once I saw this was leaving Game Pass, I figured this is an excellent opportunity to replay it. It still holds up today!
---

The House of Da Vinci (PC)

Interesting game in the vein of The Room series of games.

---

Doom Eternal (PC)

Holy shit this game reinvigorated my love of FPS games. So well designed in that every weapon and ability has a specific use and it keeps you switching between everything on the fly.
You can ignore all that and still enjoy it, but I can't imagine getting through the harder difficulties without optimizing your strategy.
Also anyone that can beat this with a controller has my respect.

I've never played a game where I feel like I have to take a break after every level or two to just kind of decompress and cool down.

---

Oh I can actually post in here now that I beat FF7R the other day

Next up will be Persona 5 Royal soon

---

Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch)

Gotta hand it to them, the controls for this game really do feel like trying to manipulate a giant ball of garbage. Very fun aside from that though!

(Also the King of All Cosmos is the best.)

---

Oh yeah forgot to post multiple games

Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Date Beaten - 02/18/2020
Score - 7/10
Achievements - 80%

Hmm I think it was the weakest of the trilogy. I was not a fan of most of the game being set in the same village. Also terrible performance on PC for unknown reason, it lagged in the village a lot (I have more than the recommended specs to play this game..)
Story was also pretty weak, but I most say I liked Lara, I will miss her
As for Achievements I am missing some missables that require playing again, and I don't want to bother with them. Also missing speedrun on tombs, i'll pass

Warcraft III Reforged
Date Beaten - 03/28/2020
Score (As a standalone game) - 8/10
Score (As a remake) - 1/10
Achievements - I beat all the game on Hard so I unlocked all the "beat X on hard" portraits

The hate for this "remake" is well deserved. Blizzard lied and this is just a lazy remake
However, this is still Warcraft 3, for good or for bad. In my opinion it looks better than the original, some units might be uglier but in general it's better
But things like Upkeep aged terribly (and honestly they weren't good to begin with) and the pathing is inexcuseable. The fact that they didn't even bother to try and fix the pating is so horrible
But still, if you ever want to play WC3 campaign again, I feel like playing it in Reforged is the best option. I can't say anything about the multiplayer experience, I don't care about it

Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Date Beaten - 04/09/2020
Score - 7.5/10
Achievements - 31/37, missing stuff like beat the game under 4 hours, beat the game without dying etc

The game is pretty fun but I feel like it's too complicated for it's own good
Even the first dungeon was kinda complex and I just...wanted the game to start on a more simple side, you know?
It's kinda like if the Forest Temple was the first OOT dungeon instead of the Deku Tree
Anyway, it's by far less linear than the previous game, more times you get lost, side quests, skills, NPCs to talk with, collectibiles...it's a mess
Bosses on hard takes a little too much time to kill and fuck the last escape sequence seriously. But besides all my complaints the core gameplay is still Ori and still good! so it deserves a 7.5 score

Resident Evil 3 Remake
Date Beaten - 04/13/2020
Score - 5/10
Achievements - 100% completion

The game is..sadly, pretty disappointing. I can't get used to how much linear the maps are, they are kind of making me clausterphobic!
Nemesis boss fights are boring and uninspired
The city is too short and too small, they removed tons of parts from the original and it's just...wasn't a very good game
It honestly feels like "we have the engine, we have most of the assets, let's make something quick and be done with it"
Meh

Dai Gyakuten Saiban
Date beaten 04/21/2020
Score - 6/10
Achievements - none

It...wasn't very good. The first case sucked ball. The third and final cases were good. Second and fourth were "Fine"
Overall second weakest Ace Attorney game after Apollo Justice (yes, I enjoyed PW vs PL more. And I do like AAI!)
The main characters are pretty great so at least there is that. But the murder methods and figuring them out were just dumb

Hitman Codename 47 (repeat)
Date Beaten - 04/29/2020
Score - 3/10
Achievements - None

Holy shitttt this game is a mess. It aged worse than a fucking milk
I actually played this game in the past, made it to the last mission and gave up because it was stupid. But that was before Youtube was a thing so nowadays I can just see a video to see how to cheese the final mission and beat it easily
Anyway the only reason I played this again is because I want to play Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018) which I never played before. Also, I never beat Contracts, made it only halfway or something, so time to do a series marathon!
Anyway game is a mess. AI is bugged. Sometimes you kill a guard and the one behind him doesn't notice anything. Sometimes the other guard is in "panic" because he heard a scream. And sometimes he already points a gun at your head from the moment you started killing the guard. And we are talking about enemies that are standing at the same spot every single time...they are not random.
Also, you can't save. If you mess up it's all over. Now granted for some games it's fine, but not for this game. Some missions are too long and consist of running a lot in a empty space for 3 minutes (like the jungle mission) and sometimes you need to follow a guard for 2 minutes or wait for him to come
And...only Hitman 2 started with the whole "silent assassin" thing. Sadly in Hitman 1 they expect you to gun down multiple enemies sometimes, instead of being stealthy

---

Oh right, didn't post.

Finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC (Steam) for the second time.

---

Rastan (Sega Master System)

An ancient replay from my childhood.

I remember playing this many years ago as a kid. Going back to it now was very rough.

You play as Rastan who is off to kill a dragon and save a princess. Rastan has a very Conan vibe to his design.

The Down Stab in this game is very good. Has so much active frames it can demolish most enemies and does huge damage to bosses. Before there was Link in Zelda with a Down Stab, there was Rastan!
You can even jump off of walls which was neat in some area.s

It actually had a day night system. Spend too much time on a level and it turns to night. All it does is make the level darker and more bats come out.

When fighting bosses, you have to actually kill the bosses real quick or else your life drains slowly. I never noticed until I looked it up afterward.

This game had some pretty cool things going for it for an action/platformer.

Venture Kid (Switch)

This game was heavily inspired by Mega Man.
You can play in Classic mode which you play the stages in a fixed order or in Adventure mode where you can select any stage.
It has both a good/bad ending. There's also a Survival and Boss Rush mode.
It plays very well, has a nice 8-bit look and some catchy chiptunes.

Aborigenus (Switch)

You play as a tribesman who has to become a shaman in order to rescue his beloved and tribesmen from an evil shaman.

I was shocked on how short this game was when I started it up and beat it in less than an hour.

When you kill enemies, you get XP which you can use to power up your abilities but it seems like you can't really max out every ability considering how short this game is. One mechanic I liked in the game is a sneaking mechanic where you can hide in the background and stab the enemy with your spear to do critical damage.

Fun little game but over too soon.


---

Halo 2 (360 BC)

At the rate I'm going I'll beat Halo 3 in maybe 2035.

---

Torna: The Golden Country

It's technically DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but it was 25 hours long and a completely separate campaign.

---

Well I technically got an ending so Persona 5 Royal

---

Super Metroid (NSO)

Last time I played this I was a teenager, I think? It holds up, though when you compare it to everything that came after, the lack of fast travel is pretty glaring.

---

Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)

This game is awesome. So many callbacks.
If you loved Streets of Rage 2, you'll love 4. It ranks right alongside with it.
Definitely a modern classic!

---

Running With Rifles (PC)

It's top-down Battlefield basically. It has a campaign where you can play as VaguelyGerman, VaguelyRussian, or VaguelyAmerican. Its a little annoying because you can miss. Like, the accuracy mechanic is tied to the fact that you can't just run and gun and have to actually use cover I get that. And you die in 1 hit unless you're ranked up or wearing a vest. It's okay. It kind of got repetitive by the end, and the WW2 Pacific Campaign introduced new weapons but I thought this game was going to be more of an open world do whatever you want war thing.

I would imagine the multiplayer shines better but meh I'm so sick of this game to even try.

---

Cuphead (XB1)

I finally caved and bought it like a year ago. I assumed that I was going to love it but not ever beat it. 289 deaths later, I was proven wrong on the latter!
---

Sine Mora Ex (PC)

I only paid like $2 for this game, so can't be too harsh against it. Overall the art direction was great - the backgrounds, planes, and bosses were all delightful to look at. The time mechanic was pretty cool - rather than a set amount of hits you had a countdown to beat the level in X amount of time, and if you killed an enemy you would get more time, but if you got hit you would lose time. One annoying thing was that you lose your powers on hit, which was kind of a pain - especially on bosses. The bosses themselves were hit or miss. There was one towards the end I absolutely hated.

---

Doom Eternal (PC)

Pure awesomeness. It was either this or RE3 and it looks like I chose right. Only thing is I'm just not good at it to truly enjoy it for what it is. Doom 2016 was awesome for me but this was a bit stressful and busy for me to love it. I suppose if I collected everything on easy, then played on normal with all the upgrades I would appreciate it more. But my heart goes out to Id for being an awesome company and personal favorite I loved that they put 3 Quake 2 tracks in this game. Quake 2 was the Id game I grew up on and I know of its status as sort of a black sheep in the franchise. But you can't deny those rockin' tunes.

---

Kirby's Dream Land 3 (NSO)

I really liked this game last time I played it, but man did the controls feel unresponsive this time. I still think I might like the animal + power system the most of any Kirby game though.

---

Also didn't share here that I beat Rayman Legends (Uplay) before the end of last month, but mostly since I still have some things to do there, which is just collecting at the end of it all.

---

And now finished a puzzle game I've played occasionally for a decent amount of this year.

Mind Reflection- Inside the Black Mirror Puzzle (Steam)

Was entertaining, a couple tough things, though be careful if you think it's interesting; the game is set apart in 7 sections of 15 levels apiece, and the second to last section has the entire puzzle rotating. Just as a warning if you might be prone to get headaches with the color scheme it has. I wish I remembered who my Secret Santa was since I would have pinged him to thank him for this game if I did.

---

Kirby Super Star (NSO)

Good game! I used to like KDL3 more than this but I'm not sure anymore. I wish the entire game was the quality of Milky Way Wishes and Revenge of Meta-Knight but it's all pretty good.

---

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS)

Well, after almost three years I've finally beaten it! Over time I've grown to enjoy and appreciate the game more and more every time I played it. It wasn't my kind of game initially, now I'm glad it is what it is and ended up spending hours and hours on it the last week or so.

Honestly, when I really look at its separate parts, I still think it's not as amazing as it's supposed to be. A lot of filler shrines, not the most exciting collectibles and the Divine Beasts are tiny dungeons considering the otherwise enormous scope of the game (even if the concept itself of the divine beasts is awesome). I'll forgive it the simplistic story, because Zelda games don't generally need a complex story anyway.

Still it manages to be more than the sum of its parts, and I can't really put my finger on it. I think it's the complete freedom combined with the sense of discovery of the world itself (unlike the actual collectibles like korok seeds or the many redundant weapon chests). Every piece of scenery produces a sense of wonder. And even though the rewards aren't always amazing, the fact that you know every time you explore a place you will get something at least makes you want to see what it is. I guess, compared to other open world games, this is easily the most magical one to me, even if in general it's not in my absolute top favorite games (or even Zelda games) ever.

Sally Face (PC)

I saw this back in 2016 and only one episode had been released then. That was also a time when indie gaming horror games were still in full swing, and so I thought every wannabe game out there was either going to be bad or stuck at Episode 1 forever. When I heard the last Episode released last year, I went and did it all in one tonight and it was great. The story is rather tragic and takes influences from Ben Jordan and the Chzo Mythos but goes a bit further with it and isn't afraid to kill off characters or change them forever. This kind of cosmic horror is a bit more street level and doesn't truly go cosmic until the end, which frankly what makes the last episode kind of lame in that it just brushes aside the creeping investigative horror in favor of that cult butt kicking. But it still ends bittersweet and that makes it endearing.

I'm glad I waited all these years for it and never forgot about it. Such an underrated horror series.

---

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (PC)

---

Halo 3 (360)

Kenri posted...

At the rate I'm going I'll beat Halo 3 in maybe 2035.

Hey, I beat my projection! Definitely my favorite of the three campaigns.

---

Dex (PC)

Interesting game. I enjoyed it

---

Kirby's Adventure (NSO)

This is a good Kirby game. I forgot it was so good! Lots of lag whenever there's more than two or three sprites on screen though, unfortunately.

---

The Longest Journey (PC)

I played this adventure a long time ago back in highschool and I remember it fondly as one of the greatest 00s pt clicks. I replayed it again recently because I never played its sequels which at the time didn't exist yet and I think I tried to at one point but my PC couldn't handle it.

So coming back to this I knew the major twists already but assumed things out of order. I didn't think there were so much dialogue in this game which thank god was skippable. There was I feel way too much infodumping and lore building that it felt grating at times. Like I just wanna solve inventory puzzles and shit. But I'm not complaining. TLJ lives up to its notoriety. It holds up as a classic game even today. And the bittersweet ending of sorts feels like something Daedalic Games used to make on occasion.

---

Detective Pikachu (3DS)

So while it was enjoyable for what it was, it was way too easy. It definitely has potential to be a fantastic Pokemon spinoff series, but I don't see them ever making the games more complex or difficult because it is a Pokemon game and when the hell has a Pokemon game ever been hard? Outside of Mystery Dungeon postgame content of course

Tomb Raider (2013), don't know, a couple of months ago (PC).

Smugglecraft (PS4)

Being a procedurally-generated game, the RNG can be very unforgiving at times. They could also be more clear about some things (I have no idea what the on-map objects I can collect are, and I have no way of knowing if a vehicle part is compatible with a particular vehicle body prior to constructing it), and I encountered a few inconvenient bugs. Overall though, I did enjoy this, as I am a sucker for driving games.

---

ONRUSH (XB1)

This is very refreshing style of racing game. They probably could have done fewer tournaments and multi-events in the campaign, but that is a minor issue.

---

Dark Burial (Switch)

This game came out today. Got it for $0.09 on a discount.

You are a sentinel that is off to warn his people of a dark army approaching

It's a 2D (pixel art) action/platformer with some simple puzzle elements. You can use your crossbow to shoot at the terrain to use your arrow as a platform as well as using it for combat. You can press the X button to highlight what terrain can be used to shoot your arrow so it can stick to the wall/object. There are only 3 bosses in the game. 1 hit from enemies/obstacles can kill you. You have 18 chances to try to beat the game until you game over.

It was a short game. Was a little fun and challenging.

---

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (TurboCD)
TurboCD games are a trip. Graphics that can't really compete with the SNES but then voice acting. Anyway, pretty nice game, good music, bosses that felt distinct and somewhat well-tuned combat. It might be more frustrating if you couldn't save scum.

---

Finished 2 games today. Finished the first Streets of Rage (PC). I know there's a 4th game but honestly I didn't hear about it until recently. SoR 1 was a childhood demon that I never finished when my SEGA Genesis was still alive. Finishing it was satisfying a little.

Then I just finished Universal Paperclips (PC). Interesting Idle clicker and one with an ending. You actually had a choice of prestiging which I didn't bother to. I liked that it had 3 levels of idle and wasn't just the constant need to purchase and purchase bigger and better things.

---

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (PC)

Back in 2006 when this game came out, I knew it was bad from the reviews. Stealth/Action segments in adventure gaming. A Cliffhanger of epic proportions. A completely new protagonist. And the annoying limitations of the 3d craze most games seem to have fallen for at the time. If I never knew that a sequel would come 10 years later, I would've just left it at that. So I consider this game a transition point of sorts. It really is a bad game. I'm glad to be done with it. But it was necessary to understand the next one.

That said, I'm starting to feel like the next one will be as Telltale-y as this game. It was already wrought in exposition in the first game and now its just worse. I'm just in this for the plot that I'm now invested in. I'm so curious how 10 years has changed things. When I'm done with Chapters, I might do a retrospective of the entire saga.

---

The Suicide of Rachel Foster (PC)

Firewatch in a hotel. The execution up until the end was fantastic. There was this creeping sense of dread that something was gonna pop up at any moment. The ending was....ehhh. The plot went from cruise control to car wreck when that final day popped up. Felt like the devs ran out of money, like Life is Strange and just dropped the twist and left you holding the bag. There was also too little to piece things together. So many questions left unanswered and essential ones too. Gone Home is still my number 1 game for this genre, which is interesting because in this game the ghost is real but I bet you if it wasn't people would give it the same flack Gone Home had. You just can't win'em all.

5/10

---

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

As others said, it feels weird to say I "beat" this, but I got to the credits scene.

---