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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Technically beat it earlier, but hadn't killed Demon of Hatred yet. Did so a little while ago. Very much enjoyed this game, a nice little change from the Dark Souls battle system (moreso deflecting than dodging). Definitely was challenging at times, but didn't seem to be in an unfair way!

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Final Fantasy III (DS)

This little dinosaur is one I've owned for many years, but never got more than halfway through. Now that I'm older, I am much more appreciative of it despite its archaic design. It's also much less difficult than I thought it would be. Like many classic jrpgs, doing side content and leveling up a bit diminishes the challenge. Happy I finally beat this and had actual fun with it. That's another older game crossed off of my huge backlog. :)

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Blaster Master Zero 2 (PC)

Like the game before it, it's ok. It does some stuff better than the original, some stuff worse. It felt shorter too.
But Iliked the small planets, it made the game pacing feel better
Counter system is also an improvement
I will probably play another game in the series if there will ever be one

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Fable 2 (Xbox One | Gamepass)

Been playing this off and on and woo-wee I never realized how much worse the second (and third) were to the first one. As a youngling I used to love them. Was a struggle to get through this one.

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Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition (PC)

After finishing the Warmastered edition of the first game ages ago, I was already in the middle of doing the 2nd one when the HD remaster showed up. I spent a long time "forgetting" that playthrough so I can replay it again with this one. I finished all the DLCs and gotten the most out of all the secret hidden stuff. I'm honestly neutral on this game series. On the one hand, it is good. However, the games are basically 30 dollar versions of 60 dollar games. Every single game from what I've seen is just trying to cash in on whatever is popular at the time. For the first it was Ocarina of Time. For this, it was God of War. The third one has a Dark Souls vibe to it and the 4th is your traditional top down shooter.

So what can I say other than this game is good. Just good, but not great. It hits alot of boxes, and sure I have been hankering for a circa 2000s 3d action adventure type. You just don't see much of those anymore. Sure, Death is badass, but it's just so generic at this point and only manages to scratch an itch for me that nothing special pops up.

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The Room (PC)
Cool game. I had to come back with an actual mouse to want to finish it.

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Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS)
Not bad overall, but I ended up being so unprepared for the final boss that I had to respec my party by way of a lot of grinding. They may have bit off more than they could chew with the class system, because I ended up putting my hero into a class that was no good for unlocking hero as a class, and 3 or so characters gravitated to the same second-level class with the help of one joining with it already unlocked. It's no fun when not reading a character build guide leaves to hard-to-correct mistakes.

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Nightshade (NES)

Played this via NES Switch.
I remember renting this game long ago as a kid. I never got that far in it.
Here I am several years later. A lot older and wiser to get a second crack at it.

Sutekh has taken over Metro City. His evil goons murdered the city's hero, Vortex. You are Mark Gray, who dons the guise of Nightshade to avenge your fallen idol.

It's an action/adventure with a point and click interface. The combat is a little jank but once you know how to deal with most of the fights they are all pretty easy.

This game has no save feature but it can be beaten in less than an hour once you know what to do. This game has a neat way of handling your "lives". When you lose your entire health meter, Sutekh puts you in a death trap. If you can survive the death trap, you successfully escape but you lose a bit of your Popularity when you do so. There are four different death traps. The fifth death trap cannot be escaped and it's game over.

Speaking of Popularity, you have a Popularity Gauge. When you do good deeds for the citizens of Metro City, your reputation goes up and you can get better cooperation from the public to learn more information.

Overall, I think this game is very under appreciated and it deserves a little more love.

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The Room Two (PC)
That had some atmosphere compared to the first game where you were just opening boxes mostly. And that already had atmosphere. Definite Myst vibes. I look forward to running through the third game by the end of the day tomorrow probably.

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Azure Striker Gunvolt (PC)

I actually played it before on the 3DS, but gave up on the final boss. But I don't like leaving games unfinished, so I did a double dip and bought it on Steam, as I am much more comfortable with Keyboard over the 3DS.

Anyway, this time I finished it for real (true ending as well)

The thing is about this game...is that it's a weird one, I don't think I ever played a game like this -
It's pretty meh if you play it casually, as most stages are bland and has a low enemy variety. You can pretty much rush through the stages with the ring that gives you the ability to avoid damage if you have "electricity" not on cooldown, and then the stages are a breeze
But the game can be super fun if you try to S+ rank it. The basic gameplay of tagging and destroying robots and speedrunning the stages is satisfiying. If you are one of those elite gamers that are willing to replay a level 100 times until you perfect it, this is the game for you.

Unfortunately I can't bother with this. 100%ing this game can take hunderds of hours of practice. Most achievements require you to S+ a stage. Then there is a achievement to get all other achievements...yeah, I am not doing this

But oh well, it was fine overall

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The Last of Us (PS3)
This would've been a nice way to close out 2020 of all years but I expect to wrap up at least one or two more that I've started before the year's up.

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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
Game & Watch Collection (DS)
Game & Watch Collection 2 (DS)

There's pretty much no way I'm going to be beating another game within the next six days so it looks like I'm ending the year with 71

Spirit Tracks Zelda = Best Zelda

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)

Played this to prepare for CotM 2, which is the GotM for January. It was okay, I guess. I much preferred Ritual of the Night, though.

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Touhou: Luna Nights (PC)
I really liked it. Not sure I can swing the optional boss, though.

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Gravity Ghost (PC)
Thanks to Sergeant Sphynx for this. It was cool, flinging yourself through space and discovering the story.

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Darksiders III: Deluxe Edition (PC)

As I said in my previous post, this game takes its cue from Dark Souls. Although at first I was going in to dismiss it as a clone, they took alot of liberties with the mechanics until ultimately I can no longer say its an outright clone. It's still lacking in the depth that other games have but it's got its own kind of charm going on. I do love being able to be a badass in a dark soulsy environment, and the exploration and environments are very varied and vast. Things you see in the distance always remind you that there's always something coming.

But. I can't explain, perhaps it is the lack of other things to do and potential. For example, there's only 3 stats in the game and 4 kinds of armors (5 with the DLC). There's only 4 kinds of weapons (8 with the DLC), no sidequests, no extra bits, the battle system is simple timing with dodges and punishing. But maybe that's a good thing ya know. I do miss the PS2 era action games where you're not bloated with all these extra 100% completionist BS. Which brings me back to my point about this series. Sell it at 30 usd, not 60. Have this game be represented properly. Otherwise, it'll just look like it pales in comparison to the greats it is forced to compete with like Dark Souls, which it totally isn't upon further inspection.

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Planet RIX-13 (Switch)

Game Description
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"You are the pilot of a spacecraft that is looking for and exploring worlds that are potentially suitable for life. While scanning the next target, you lost control of your ship and had to make an emergency landing. It quickly becomes clear that you are not the first person on this planet
"You have to study the ruins of a long-dead civilization and the abandoned laboratories of researchers who have been on this planet before you. Avoid deadly dangers, study the local flora, fight with hallucinations, and find a way to eliminate the cause of the accident. Do your best to leave this planet and return home!"

Features:
- A mysterious planet full of secrets and traps
- Lots of different ways to die
- Two endings

What I thought: It was...so so. There are much better adventure games out there. This one wasn't terrible. Just nothing special about it. There actually aren't that many ways to die if you pay close attention and it has one particular way to die that's BS IMO and doesn't really give you any indication on how to avoid said death.

Also, two endings is false advertisement. It's more like "there are TWO different ways to beat the game but the ending is the same".


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What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)

A friend of mine recommended this to me and I apparently already had it because of PS+ and it was only like two or three hours to 100% so I figured I'd give it a try. Pretty neat game. I love how every section has a unique style to it, very creative.

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Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Definitely not my favorite of the 3D Mario platformers. In fact I'd put it second-to-last, only above 3D World. I thought the controls felt stiff, the camera could be inconvenient at times, and both of these made some stars needlessly frustrating to get, particularly timed ones. I've also never ever enjoyed riding Yoshi in a 3D game and this was no exception.

The graphics, music and level design were just as good as the original though. Maybe I prefer the levels in the original out of nostalgia but that's about it. Finally playing that one after months of hunting down a Wii was fantastic. This... didn't have that same joy to it.

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Scratches - Director's Cut (PC)

Oldschool horror point click adventure. Clunky interface does not detract from the fact that it was scary as hell, playing entirely on the Nothing is Scarier trope. But also, the reveal that the mystery was never truly solved. The Dark Fall creator had a hand in this so its no surprise. I should really get back to that series. I think I abandoned it because it was too fuckin scary.

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Guacamelee 2! (XB1)

I haven't played the first one since like 2014, but I want to say that this was better in virtually every way except for pacing because some of those areas went on forever.
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Astro's Playroom (PS5)

As far as tech demos go, this is above-average and I could see myself going back to try and 100% it someday. A lot of cute little pieces of PlayStation history, and the music is so happily catchy.

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Yakuza Kiwami (PC)

Overall it was pretty good, though I preferred Yakuza 0. The bosses were a pain in the ass in this one, though. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

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It looks like I won't be beating any more games this year, so I'll catch up on the last few I didn't post about:

Katamari Damacy REROLL (Switch)

It's odd to say this was about what I expected when I'm not even sure what my expectations were going in to my first Katamari game (though I've watched them before). Regardless, I'm left with a game I'm very glad I played through once and a series I have no real interest in ever returning to. I suppose that makes sense given how singular an experience Katamari is, though.

VVVVVV (PC - Steam)

What can I even say about VVVVVV as a game that hasn't already been covered? As for my experience with said game, it sure felt good to finally (restart and) finish it after six and a half years since my partial playthrough ended upon getting stuck in the first intermission. Also, now that I've collected the Doing Things the Hard Way trinket twice over, I can confidently contend that its difficulty is a tad overstated - I'd put each screen closer to the average Celeste B-side screen than the average C-side screen in that regard.

LIMBO (PC - Steam)

I think this had the worst case of style over substance of any game I've ever played, capped off by an ambiguous ending that seemed to expect investment the game never gave me a reason to have. I felt its puzzles in particular were frustrating when not inert, though my distinctly lacking puzzle-solving skills probably colored my perception there. That being said, it's at least a credit to Limbo's sense of style that I wouldn't even consider calling it bad.

Celeste > Dragon Quest XI > A Short Hike ~= Portal 2 > VVVVVVV ~= one night, hot springs ~= 999 > Katamari Damacy REROLL > Deiland > West of Loathing ~= LIMBO

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

The last mainline Mario Kart I played was Mario Kart Wii.
It felt good to play a Mario Kart game again. I had a lot of fun with it and it's probably a game I'll probably go back to from time to time.


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Capping off 2020 for me will be Game #120:

Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders (PC)

Excellently executed, well-written. Great art and music. Hope the dev makes more games soon. Some pixel hunting though and shame as a lack of voice-acting albeit each character still had their own distinct personality via their speech patterns and mannerisms.

Some recaps for me this year:

Top AAA Games Played: Control, Doom Eternal, and Black Mesa (tied with Dying Light)

Top Indie Games Played: Ion Fury, Vaporum: Lockdown, and Lightmatter

Most Unique Game: The Textorcist - The Story of Ray Bibbia

Most Memorable Story: Sally Face, The Dreamfall Trilogy, and Dracula: Path of the Dragon

Worst Games Played: Daymare1998, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Cat Quest 2

Most Surprising Game: Manifold Garden

Most Disappointing Game: Carrion

Backlogs Beaten: Borderlands 2, AssCreed Odyssey DLCs, The White Chamber, Fatal Frame 2, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Metro Exodus, Operation: Winback

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Cyberpunk 2077 (PC)

Eh, it was all right. I may get a few other endings, not sure really sure yet.

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I'd been planning on finishing up one more to close out the year but I'm struggling a bit with the final boss so I'll get on the board early for 2021 with it.

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79211816

New topic for new year
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