Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2022 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

It is simple. Just post each time you beat a game throughout the year and the platform you played it on. Do not hesitate to add some discussion in regards to the games you or others beat.

At the bottom of this post is a link to a Google word doc that you are free to edit to immortalize your gaming accomplishments. Feel free to tinker with your color, font, and/or bulletpoint/numbering options, but do know that users are supposed to be in alphabetical order.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yIYIV88xVcdQR4Ixqah8TgNAiHzdtZgYEUpGdenAJwI

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche (PC)

I definitely prefer horizontal shumps to their vertical counterparts, but this one was just okay. Spongy enemies and lackluster weapons made it a bit of a chore. I really only saw it through because I knew going in it was only an hour-ish long, and I found the obliviously moronic lead to be endearing.

Not last in the other topic or first in this one -_-
CODE VEIN(PC)
Well, this was played in the drive to "play Souls-likes" but this lacks a certain level of intentional design that the genre needs. Maybe it's not a Souls-like at all but a weird spinoff of a Monster Hunter clone that sort of tried to jump on the bandwagon. That said, it's not a terrible game. The map feature is very welcome, but certain areas seem determined to counteract the quality of life provided by stuffing in as much convoluted verticality as possible. Combat is okay but not great. The RPG elements are okay but not great. The tone clash between metal post-apocalyptic vampire soldiers and melodramatic sentimental memory walking sim segments is laughable. The companion characters alternate between clearing groups of enemies and being incompetent. They say the dumbest things I've ever heard as we walk through a level. Don't tell me "We can go up here!" as we reach the bottom of a ladder! Anyway, it's kind of a fun time but I think I should keep higher standards.

Tag

Tinykin (XB1)

A great, no-threat puzzle/platforming/exploration/adventure that takes inspiration from Pikmin/Overlord with much high QoL improvements and very accessible. I'm very impressed with the the open-endedness of each level and how easy it is to view the entire layout with visual cues to help you find new paths or important items.

Nobody Saves the World: Frozen Hearth (PC)
If you played this developer's Guacamelee! add-on (or built-in part of Guacamelee depending on what version you played) El Diablo's Domain, this is the same idea. The focus is a set of minigame challenges using the game's mechanics in creative ways. In NSTW this means combining your acquired forms and abilities into new loadouts to overcome them. It won't last hours and hours, but it's a $5 mini-expansion. It also gives you two new forms to play with in the base game's world, since you can't master them within the minigames. It was a nice surprise to get a reason to return to this game at all.

Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
The one that started it all.
Beat it with Jon Talbain. The AI in this game is ridiculous. Pyron can hang with Level 8 M.Bison and Magneto from Children of the Atom.
Thankfully the series gets better after this game.

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Beat it with Jon Talbain. A much better game than the first one.

Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Beat it with Jon Talbain. This is a weird one. It plays like Vampire Savior except it adds in Pyron, Donovan Baine and Huitzel and removes Jedah, B.B. Hood, Q-Bee and Lilith.

Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of the Vampire (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.

Beat it with Phobos (Huitzel). Another weird one. Plays just like Vampire Savior except it adds in Donovan Baine, Phobos and Pyron while Jon Talbain (my main), Rikuo and Sasquatch were cut.

Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Beat it with Jin Saotome. This is a really cool fighter. You have a lot of different Mechs to choose from and they each have different moves. Choosing the pilot doesn't matter, it's just for avatar purposes.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Beat it with Hsien-Ko. A good puzzle game.

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Also known as Pocket Fighter.
Beat it with Hsien-Ko. Very fun fighter to pick up and play.

Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Collection (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Beat it with Guile. This version of Street Fighter 2 is pretty cool cause you can play with any iteration of every fighter from World Warrior all the way to Super Turbo. Playing against the AI in the Japanese version is also a little easier.

Red Earth (Arcade/PC)

Played via the Capcom Fighting Collection.
Also known as Warzard.
Beat it with Leo. This game has a pretty cool concept for a fighter. While there are only 4 characters to choose from, you get to level up and the single player is a cool boss rush. You can also save your stats/levels with a password. If you want you can also play at max level with all of your moves unlocked in this collection without having to deal with the password nonsense. It also has multiple endings for each character so the replay value is pretty high with this one.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS4)
Adol Goes to Jail
Adol heads to the Romun-occupied city of Balduq, a city with a giant prison as its main landmark, only to be arrested for being central to too many near-miss apocalypses to write off as a coincidence. One thing leads to another and he becomes a Vtuber- I mean Monstrum, a sort of Stand user or mutant, doomed to fight creatures born of human malice in a dark parallel world.
The gameplay here expands upon the base of Ys 8. There are even still empty potion bottles even though you're in a city. The main gimmick is Monstrum powers, mostly traversal abilities, and any party member can access them as long as the original user has joined the party. Adol the Crimson King has the grappling hook ability to zip to specific places or to targeted enemies, while others glide or climb walls. The combat has been redesigned pretty significantly. While Ys VIII was all about spamming specials until you run out of energy, IX gives you less of it to work with, and restores it only by not using specials, or a charged normal attack once unlocked. Instead of the EX finisher move, there's an EX mode, boosting your power and giving you HP regen until meter runs out or you use the finisher. This fills quite quickly, so combat works as more of a strategic flow, alternating normal moves, Monstrum powers, special moves, dodge, parry, and EX activation, than the straight-up spam in VIII. The Grimwald Nox dark world battles replace Raids and are fairly similar. The story is still pretty wild but I think VIII's was crazier and more surprising.

PowerSlave Exhumed (PC)

Finally finished this one. I hate that its hard but I guess that's what its known to be. I got every collectible too. My heart is hungry for these retro FPS shooters both old and new. I wish they could come out faster instead of all at once (I don't like playing something still in Early Access).

I don't know if there are any fans of this game, but I detest the fact that your hurtbox is so huge and that all your weapons have a mana system which would be fine if your weapon switching wasn't clunky slow.

Everhood (PC)

Really neat rhythm battles, but the game is held back by its mundane RPG Maker-esque elements outside of battle.

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80165612

Another live action mystery game directed by the main writer of 428: Shibuya Scramble is definitely a game that is right up my alley, though it took a while for me to play it since its release back in May. TrueTrophies' Warboats' trophy selection threw its first trophy on one of my boards, so I fired at that spot (a miss) and continued the game after the event ended.

The mystery story is top-notch and spans a number of eras in Japan, focusing on the Shijima family throughout its six chapters. The game portion is basically making as many hypotheses as possible in a grid based on the clues and dialogue you collect through the story. As you might expect, some of these hypotheses can be ridiculous or nonsensical based on other evidence or just reality in general. Then you present your deductions - but there's no way to actually fail this portion (you get a grade on the deduction, but it's irrelevant for anything besides a single S rank trophy), as the 'detective' will simply think 'no, that's not right' and let you pick another choice.

So overall, I really enjoyed the game, but the gameplay really needed some better mechanics. Would be interesting if we see another game from this developer in the future, as this is their first release.

Blue Fire (PS4)

This game fucks. It's sorta like if Wind Waker was actually Hollow Knight. Blue Fire is just fun to move around in, which is probably the highest compliment I can give a platformer. It's super fast but never unwieldy, and it gives you tons of options for varying your number and height of jumps and dashes, then basically just says "go nuts". There are very few true out-of-bounds areas or invisible walls so the platforming is very free form, and this also means you can get some upgrades earlier than they presumably wanted you to.

The combat isn't great and I honestly kind of wish the game was longer. It was about 11.5 hours for me to 100% without the DLC, which I'm still working on. It also has a bad case of Mario Sunshine Camera in its self-contained platformer challenges, where the challenge would be significantly easier if the camera would just fuck off and give you a reasonable viewing angle of both where you are and where you're jumping to, but this game's platforming is much, much better than Sunshine's so it doesn't feel nearly as game-breaking.

TOEM (PS5)

I wanted a chill and casual game to play, PS+ gave me a chill and casual game to play.

Not much to say really, it's relaxing, short, and easy-to-play. Pretty much exactly what I was looking for and was my 80th platinum.

Calico (XB1)

Super janky, but that was at least somewhat intentional as the game reveled in it and felt like some parts were based around it, life sim that where I basically abandoned my cafe for 98% of the day to explore and mess around. It will never not be fun grabbing an animal, putting it on my head, grabbing another animal, and then break out for a dumb sprint.

Lila's Sky Ark (Switch)

Wow, the reviews were savage to this game and it absolutely did not deserve it.

So this is basically a 2D Zelda-like, but instead of getting a sword, you can only fight by throwing pots and other objects. To make this system actually function, you can stow these objects in your inventory and pull them out as needed; you also get a number of non-weapon upgrades. While it starts out finicky, I came to really appreciate the extra layer of difficulty and strategy it added to the game's combat.

The humor was kind of a miss for me (it's the typical surreal, referential humor that's been trendy since Undertale, if not since Earthbound) and the story is questionable, but overall I thought the game was pretty compelling. Definitely something I'd recommend to fans of the genre.

Save Room
"What if RE4's attache case was a sixty-minute game."

It does everything you can possibly do with that concept.

Portal (PC)

I watched this game before I played the second game, it's been a while so now I've beaten the first one. That's all.

Archvale (XB1)

This game is a lot of fun with tons of weapon options to roll with, but man did they just make a bunch of baffling design choices that are not user-friendly to put it mildly.

Astro's Playroom (PS5)

This game is really cute and good. Even without factoring in all the Playstation nostalgia (I don't have much, frankly) it's just a really fun 3D platformer. Kinda wish it was longer!

LIMBO (XBLA)

LIMBO is a well-loved game. It's got a 90 on Metacritic and won a whole bunch of awards. Playing it now, I think that has to be put in the context of 2010. Maybe it would still work now, but I feel like LIMBO lives mostly off off the idea of video games as an art form. Aside from the auteur nature, it doesn't have that much going for it.

LIMBO plays like pretty much any puzzle-platformer. It doesn't have a particular mechanic it can call its own; there's box moving, timers, magnetic/gravity play,... One mechanic that is maybe more unique is how some levels rotate and you constantly have to adapt to the wall becoming the floor becoming the ceiling, but its not like LIMBO takes ownership of this mechanic and presents it as its thing. Neither does it do this with the brain bug mechanic where you're forced into a specific direction until you hit sunlight or a ceiling...thing eats the brain bug off your head. These mechanics are tied to a set of levels and don't really appear afterwards.

It doesn't help that the brain bug mechanic is pretty annoying too. Beyond the gameplay aspect of it, it slows down your nameless main character, who is already kind of slow. This is where more of that auteur nature of LIMBO comes into play; for the dark and dreary setting, the slowness of the child adds to the feeling of dread, but there's sometimes when you're trying to figure stuff out or have to redo a segment because you died a couple of times where it's just grating and a chore.

It hits the right notes for a puzzle platformer; solving a puzzle gives a good feeling! However, there's other puzzles where the solution just didn't feel right. I couldn't rightfully say whether I didn't like them because they frustrated me or if they were designed poorly (relative to the rest of the game), but some did not give me a feeling of "I should've figured that out", but more along the lines of "They expected me to figure that out?".

On a technical level is where the game attains its identity. There is only black and white, and no sound except maybe for an oppressive drone or the sound of insects and machinery. Every death is displayed pretty gruesomely; given the name of the game, it seems like a very specific choice, beyond just being gruesome for the fun of it.

That art direction ties into the art-nature of this game. It is very distinctive, with the eyes of the main character also being the only eyes you see in the game. Every other human figure that appears is merely a silhouette. The bugs don't have eyes either. The game doesn't have a story, beyond what you make of it as you play. There's no codex, no cutscenes, just small implications for people to figure out themselves.

I figured that this game was going to blow me away. It didn't. It's not a bad game by any means, but this kind of artsy is not really my thing. Kentucky Route Zero is a game where the art-nature hit me a lot more, and I was a lot more invested in that world. This was a nice distraction, but I'm thankful it was a short experience, because I don't know how positive I would've felt if it had dragged on.

KUNAI (PC)

Stylish and a lot of fun to zip around in. I wish that there was a form of fast travel because you do plenty of backtracking.

Tomb Raider: Legend (PC)

I've never beat this game but I also don't remember playing this game. I remember playing it on the PS2 but I thought I only managed the first 2 levels or something. Everytime a level loads I'm like hold on have I been here before? Anyways, it's just nice playing this. Lots of memories; I know maybe the original TR was always the better TR but for me this was a precursor to games like Uncharted, mechanically speaking. The new TR while nice was just too Uncharted ironically. I have plans to finish this 2nd era trilogy dunno if I will continue it currently.

Utawarerumono: ZAN (PS4)

This game takes the 30 hour plot from the second game in the series, condenses it into five hours, and replaces the strategy RPG battles with a more generic musou-like system. It really wasn't anything special, but I'll still get all the trophies as nothing seems particularly challenging. Atuy is still the best character.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 (XB1)

When I was a kid, I remember going to a target and playing a Dynasty Warriors for PS2 demo and thinking it was pretty cool but ultimately never played the series/franchise after that. Fast forward like 20 years, and I decide to download this licensed Warriors game from Game Pass as I am pretty sure this is based on a show that was a Saturday morning cartoon.

I wasn't sure at first, including an aggrevating loss condition that I failed, but I stuck with it, and I must say that I had a blast. Clocking in at around 15 hours including some of the side Treasure Mode, it didn't overstay its welcome for me. I quickly realized that this was made for people who watched the show, so I ended up skipping all the cutscenes after the first few. As a result, I don't really have any idea how anyone is affiliated, but I wish that Crocodile was available in the main mode more often. He was definitely my favorite of the 15-ish different characters that I played.

Fashion Police Squad (PC)

This game is hilarious. Lots of references and lots of jokes about fashion and just the entire nature of this game where you basically shoot people and make them fashionable using paint guns and gnome grenades surely doesn't take itself seriously. The boss fights are very interesting in that they aren't just beatable by running in a circle because of their weapon weaknesses and phase fights. Each enemy/boss has a distinct weapon weakness that is required to take it down. And because there's infinite ammo the entire challenge of this game is based entirely on memory of which weapon to use in a fight. It's great, but sometimes there are spaces that just make fights unfair; enemies that home in on you in areas that require some platforming or a tight area where they can combo you if you're not careful. I can't outright say they were proper of the level design but I can't complain at least they didn't make it like Serious Sam where every fight was in a wide open space.

My only complaint is that the game seems to want to incorporate slippery platforming and swinging around. Mercifully these segments don't have enemies in them too but sometimes they go on for way too long. It's like the game doesn't know if it wants to be a DOOM clone or Mirror's Edge. But yeah exciting finale and I really love the plot for this game it makes so much sense.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale (PS5)
Even with long-running trends in indie games, I had certain expectations for a game where you play as a cartoon dog and color in a monochrome world with a magic paintbrush. It's going to be cute, have a light, self-referential sort of humor, and take you through a series of puzzles and sidequests as you gain abilities. There will be some sort of theme about the power of creativity to light up the world. And sure, it's got all that. However, things take a different turn when you meet Chicory, your predecessor and personal hero. Chicory is a story about the crushing weight of art, fame, power, duty and succession, and enduring it through mutual support and understanding. These simply-drawn animals are quite human indeed. What's more, while the game normally doesn't have combat, you'll periodically face boss fights that are visually dazzling and quite intense, even though you can't really fail them. It's a remarkable game that I recommend trying. Although I'm not sure I'm too into the idea of 100%ing it, myself.

Strangeland (PC)

This game only has one game to compare it to: Sanitarium. If I didn't play that game, maybe I would've appreciated this one a bit more. Even Sanitarium's worst parts--the non-horror parts---are in my opinion better than this. Sanitarium knows how to set the tone on the bizarre and the surreal without being pretentious, overwrought, and too on the nose with the symbolism which was what Strangeland is. Like in that final chapter the twist was like this one big exposition on how yes the carnival is apparently how the protagonist thinks his life is a game which makes the message of the story trite and shallow. Whereas Sanitarium just puts a circus in the game for absolutely no reason other than because the human mind is incomprehensible and you're having a breakdown.

Anyways, when the game isn't trying to shove poetic drivel down your throat, its decent. Puzzles are fine and not basic. But its the characters that really charm me. Even though they're just "You", they have their own facets to them that make them endearing. And I don't want to say much about the second half of the game but essentially you get to do the first part again but this time everything's dead and this part felt more rushed than the first. It would've been really interesting as a redo but the pretentiousness just had to get in the way.

Its meh really and I'm glad to have gotten it out of the way. Twist is nothing special. I saw it a mile away and can I just say that I am starting to get real tired with these family-related "psychological horror" games like you just *know* that it's always your fault your wife/child/sibling died. It's always you no exceptions. Like I wish there was a game where you're just being fucked around in the head even though your family is fine or you have nothing to do with anything.

Unsighted (XB1)

A great action game that I'm glad has a lot of customization/accessibility options because my inner explorer would have been miserable with the default settings.

Murder by Numbers
Don't recommend unless you really like Picross. It does that well, but for a mystery game, the mysteries are very lame.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows (PSP)

Okay so. I have a confession: I was out of whack with the order in which this game was played. Originally I thought Blood Drive was the first game to play and instead I ended up spoiling myself the final chapter of Book of Shadows which appeared in the prologue to this game.

That's when I started beating the first game early this year.

Finishing Book of Shadows today is a continuation of that. I am really not fond of VNs but this plot has me hooked it seems. That said, I am not really into the whole Bad End repetitive nature of the series. I think the idea is that the plot of Corpse Party takes place in some kind of freaky time loop where any and all possible paths are happening at the same time, but its just too much. Did I like BoS? Probably the parts that "mattered" which was just 10% of the game and that's probably why it took me a long time to beat it as well.

What really irks me is why bait the chapter that matters behind a wall that requires all the Bad Ends unlocked? If I didnt have the original Corpse Party save, I probably would've lost it. It was nice hearing the bonus stuff though; the character voice actor commentary. Anyways I'm done with this and I can finally resume Blood Drive which has sat in my desktop this whole time preventing me from proceeding properly.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond
Yep, it's Pokemon.

Lake (XB1)

Not quite a mail carrier sim, but it was oddly compelling. The walking speed sucked, and it becomes a bit tedious after awhile even though it isn't a particularly long game. Still, I enjoyed the change of pace with this one!

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)
What a title. Now, at the time this game released it seemed like it was downplayed pretty hard. It wasn't a full sequel, it reused much of the existing Spider-Man game, which had reused its own elements for a DLC expansion already, and it wasn't a particularly hype showing for the brand-new PS5, unable to reach that famous 4K/60FPS combination for one thing. And it's true, there's not as much here, in terms of campaign length or side activities, and plenty is reused from the original. But I don't think it got enough credit, because it's a great game, in many ways an improvement on the original. It's a huge spectacle, a dramatic superhero story, and an experience. Among the things reused are a truly excellent combat and traversal system, and most of Pete's abilities are unlocked up front. Meanwhile, Miles' personal abilities are inherently fun and satisfying in gameplay, and introduced in a way that enhances the story's presentation. One of my big complaints about the original was that Peter's gadgets were clunky and hard to access compared to the rest of the combat techniques, leading to them gathering dust unless I was desperate. Here they're refined down to four types, including the web shooter, and I mostly still don't use the others except remote mines. Picking up the slack is the Venom power, which feels right at home in character action and superheroing alike. The charming humor is still loud and clear. I don't care for Danika, though. I get that some people didn't enjoy being continuously slandered by JJJ between missions. I love being continuously slandered by JJJ, and the shorter plot here gives him a tad less to work with, but he still makes good stuff out of it.
I recommend this game heartily. It's a good time, and on PS++, so go for if if you've got it.

Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

All of games are very good, but this competes with Super for third-best in the series. I liked the inclusion of real-time and adventure elements. It was very funny with the Toads, Kamek, and Olivia standing out the most to me. I didn't love the battles. I liked regular battling fine because of how flexible they were, but the boss battles were more of misfire. For a game whose target market is children, I'm surprised they used sliding/spinning combo puzzles, limited moves, and a time limit all in one. If they simply removed the time limit, I think a lot of issues are alleviated.

Persona 5 Strikers (PS4)

Absolutely loved it. Story and gameplay were off the charts. I came in expecting a cheap spinoff and was thoroughly blown away.

Jesus Christ RPG (PC)
First of a trilogy which has been sitting in my Steam library for longer than I can remember. Ah, RPG Maker games. This one is a bit of a spoof, with rather goofy jokes as you might expect, but also mostly to the point and fitting the general idea of the plot arc it adapts. I went right through this in one sitting. Not overstaying its welcome helps a lot with a game like this.

Corpse Party: Blood Drive (PC)

That was not worth it. I'm sorry. This game is kind of a mess and is a frankenstein of several things jumbled together into this "ultimate story". I feel like they made this game just to bring some kind of closure to the series or at least this saga. When it works it works; the horror is still good I guess but not as good as the first one. Like most horror movies, the sequels kind of remove any sense of shock in an attempt to be twice as better and what better what to ramp things up than to turn the ghost story into a cosmic horror story. Not to mention that the original cast are still back and now play a more important role (allegedly) and so they have plot armor now, making the Bad End system kind of fruitless and uninspiring. Bad Ends worked in the first game because you really didn't know who was gonna live or die and there were genuinely scary moments and alternate universes that could've occurred with each wrong choice. The Bad Ends in this game were mostly oh no you picked the wrong thing or didn't choose fast enough, guess this guy mauls you now.

If it was by the numbers I wouldn't have minded probably. But then you got these VN sequences that just appear in the middle of things just to either flesh out a one off character in the game or in a previous game, or just padding essentially. Then you're back in the game and like wtf was that really necessary? In addition certain characters just appear out of nowhere that requires you to have played the spin-off as well as read some of the non-game stuff to get their context which is bs and I was trying to avoid it but here we are.

As a survival game, it was also kind of a tedious effort especially if you're aiming for all collectibles. I understand they needed to up the stakes by having actual pursuers but the layout of a school (hallways with dead end rooms separated by 3 floors) was not a good fit not to mention broken stealth mechanics, cheap obstacles that encourage you to move slower, and an infuriating stamina system. Like the first game had no pursuers save for certain moments and that was fine because of the school's mystique. But here everytime you are pursued you will most likely suffer for it annoyingly. I had to use a guide to acquire those one-shot talismans and thank god they permanently defeated the ghosts instead of just stunning them.

There wasn't alot of puzzling (even though it had more puzzles than the first game) and they surprisingly only came in the last 2 chapters mostly. But they were also fiendish and it took me out of the game for awhile as I had to actually look up how to proceed. Recalling one serious case of pixel hunting and two mind boggling event-driven scenarios.

I was still glad to play the first 2 games before this one which is absolutely necessary if you're investing in this game. While I enjoyed the bigger picture the game attempted to explain, I just kind of didn't like how they essentially shafted most of the original main cast in favor of one and I get it those guys' stories are over but then why use all of them again? In one of the extras, one of the VAs even mention that after he thought he was the hero but he wasn't even a significant character, but a character who "escorted the heroes" and I just feel so sorry for the guy who was already vanilla in his appeal.

That said, this new focus character. She is. soooo dumb. Like, when it was revealed she caused everything and made the situation worse I just rolled my eyes of course you dumb bitch. Everyone told you to stfu and mind your own business and you still followed the beats of a horror game final girl.

Least I'm done for now. Corpse Party 2 is next but I probably won't be doing that for a long time. And its unrelated to this game anyway so no need to worry.

Begrudgingly making this game my worst played this year so far and no I don't wanna count those crappy Painkiller games because I chose to do those knowing they were bad.

Vampire: The Masquerade Coteries of New York (PC)

Engaging from start to finish with plenty of interesting characters. I had Shadows on pause because I was told it would be best if I went through this one first, and I wanted to wait until October to do so. I hope to go through Shadows and Werewolf: The Apocalypse Heart of the Forest this month too.

Woten (PC)

Short, interesting platformer. I missed some key items which I'm guessing affects the ending.

Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)

Decided to take a trip back to memory lane and finish one of the first FPS' in my life. Its a shame Raven has been reduced to making COD and Activition killed their franchise. This game has aged alot and playing it now I do find it an odd mix between a modern shooter and a quake-like. You still had some mobility and the enemies were all hitscanners and just plain unfair. Also, I just a simpler time when the biggest threat to the world was a huge ass missile.

i was on a couple flights and some things happened:

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (Switch, originally NES)

Okay, this ended up being a lot more playable than I expected, despite the complete lack of any kind of quality of life feature. Hey, did you know you can't trade items in FE1, only give them? If two units both have full inventories, too bad! No battle prep either. Really I was surprised there was even a convoy. I honestly just eyeballed my way through this without really doing the math on if my attacks would work or not, luckily enemy quality is VERY low (at least until the last few chapters). I rolled with Cain, Abel, Caeda, Catria, Palla, Minerva, Navarre, Merric, Linde, Castor, Wendell, Boah, Ogma, and Barst because movement and staff use are king. Also magic. Also flight. And uh Barst was moral support. I don't think I'd play this again but I had a weird sort of fun!

Titan Souls (Steam)

What if Shadow of the Colossus was made for the SNES? Titan Souls is a pretty interesting boss rush type game where all you have is a single arrow. You die in one hit. The bosses die in one hit (sorta). They really don't have particularly difficult patterns or gimmicks, but there is very little room for error. Given that this game is all about bosses I do wish the bosses were somewhat more interesting (they're mostly bog standard), and given the high difficulty I wish the hit-boxes felt more exact (they look much smaller than they actually are, so give anything threatening a very wide berth). I killed all the titans and the secret final boss.

Escape from Tethys (Steam)

This game feels a lot like if Metroid 1 had gotten the Mario 3 treatment -- a late NES game that really iterates on the original and pushes the hardware more. It isn't like a top 5 Metroidvania, but it has solid retro sci-fi vibes if that's what you're craving, and it plays well too. There are lots of secrets so it's worthwhile to really explore the entire game world. Achievements don't pop in offline mode so I have the achievement for killing the final boss but not the one for the first boss.

Blooming Nightshade (Steam)

i'm gay

There are six routes in this VN and each corresponds to one potential girlfriend (there's also a prologue and some bad - more like neutral/platonic - endings). The first two I did - Nanami and Shiori - had me feeling kind of down on the game, because for those two routes the main character has a bad case of Extremely Malleable VN Main Character syndrome. They just sort of float along, with no initiative or strong opinions or, seemingly, even any likes or dislikes. However, the other four character routes are much, much stronger, and the ending of the Kiku route deserves particular praise.

I can see the writing style being very hit or miss for some people. Each route is made up of a bunch of very, very short scenes, which can usually be summarized as:
I found [girlfriend] at [place] and decided to say hello.
*girlfriend suggests doing [thing]*
*they do [thing]*
I don't know if I'd ever do [thing] myself, but it was fun to do it with [girlfriend].
I went back to my room thinking I understood [girlfriend] a little better.

It's this, over and over for about 4 hours. But while the scenes never have as much time to breathe as I'd like and while the internal monologue is stilted, the dialogue is pretty breezy and the characters genuinely are cute together. Don't expect much action or even much drama. It's slice of life (which I like) at an all-girls boarding high school (barf, but you can pretend they're in college pretty easily -- it certainly reminded me of my college days more than anything).

Catmaze (Steam)

Kind of like a less depressing Momodora + Slavic folklore + a little sprinkling of Cave Story, specifically leveling up from killing enemies but losing your levels as you get hit. Very solid Metroidvania and I obsessively played it to 100% completion, as is my wont. The ending is a little saccharine for my tastes and I wish there were more unique upgrades to go with the unique setting, but it's still great even if it doesn't break the mould. Character art is amateurish at best, which is weird because the sprite-work is very good.

Westerado: Double-Barreled (Steam)

I marathoned this open-world retro Western revenge story on my flight today. It's pretty interesting! You're trying to hunt down the person who killed your family, by doing tasks for people so they'll trust you with information. The game keeps track of your clues and you can accuse anyone in the game when you think you have them pinned down. You can also just... murder everyone, or help the local Native Americans take their land back, or whatever. It's very freeing, but in a way where it's easy to fuck things up by not considering the consequences of your actions. The combat is pretty nerve-racking too, though the lack of real consequences for death peel away the veneer of high stakes as soon as you realize. I feel like I'll probably come back to this one to try the other characters.

Inexistence Rebirth (Steam)

This... is not a very good Metroidvania! Its biggest sin is chugging along at like an inconsistent 10-20 FPS, but it's just messy in general. Lots of typos. The best way I can describe the controls is "starchy". The text isn't sized correctly, so the menus glitch out and frequently select two options at once (great when you buy an antidote from the shop and get a free super potion, not so good when you're trying to heal during a tough fight and end up warping to the store instead). Obviously I 100%'d the map and got all upgrades and items, though I didn't do hard mode or the bonus "sister mode".

Despite the flaws it's a decently fun - if small - MV that feels sorta like a SotN hack, even sharing a lot of the same enemies. I did enjoy how powerful and useful magic is here. Normally I go through MVs with an almost exclusively melee build, but here magic is so outrageously OP that there's no reason not to use it as much as you can. It melts the final boss in a few seconds. Just absurd.

The game is frequently on sale for <$2 so at least the price is right. Fair warning that there's a slightly upsetting twist in the ending.

Bowser's Fury (Switch)
Is that considered the full title of this game?
I had played Mario 3D World before and liked it well enough, but I just got the Switch version so I quickly started playing this. It's a fun experimental sort of mini-collectathon. Take the basic gameplay of 3DW and put it in an open map with the assistance of a high-speed amphibious vehicle (Plessie) and Bowser Junior. The latter hangs around and occasionally sucker punches a standard enemy for you. Then, when he's so inclined, a giant scary Bowser will try to kill you no matter where you are or what you're doing. Collecting a Shine will get him off your back instantly, and hitting quotas of them will let you fight kaiju with kaiju to progress the game. The objectives are a little blatantly repetitive even given the game's short length, but the level design keeps it interesting, along with the unusual central mechanic. I look forward to finishing 100%.
Also, everything is cats. There are even cat seagulls. Seacats.

Prodeus (PC)

Closest I can think of is retro DOOM 2016. But. It's got the same problems I think as that Postal shooter in that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It has amazing setpieces if not uneven in some parts (the penultimate level is something out of Quake while the rest feel more modern and bizarre in style...and it was actually better than those levels), but it doesn't encourage the run and gun franticness that modern Doom wants. Instead it deals more on variability and bloodshed. You can easily paint the walls red and blue with any of the 21 different weapons (however 4 are not in the "main campaign" and would require someone to include them in a created map or level editor). Annoyingly there are collectible Ores that give you passive skills like double jump and dash as well as increase your arsenal, but such a mechanic requires you to backtrack and you can't exit mid level when you do so.

Now to address the elephant in the room. Prodeus has one glaring flaw: Its checkpoint system. There is none. Prodeus' levels for 100% completion require that you do not die finishing a stage. However, the checkpoints in this game are called a Nexus and all they do is teleport you back here whenever you die AND refill your health. It doesn't turn back time either; enemies are already dead and you have to spend 10 seconds getting back to where you were. This is a feature that the devs stuck to their guns with all the way from development to deploy and it seems their aim is to make things more arcadey. But it doesn't inspire confidence in the hardcore FPS gamers who feel like you're basically playing on god mode. Moreover, some levels take upwards of 20-30 minutes, more if you're secret hunting (which is also required for 100%). Dying in the 25 minute mark is just unfair and taxing on your part.

Now I've played this on Medium and it was fair and I've only died once. I think Hard or the difficulty above it is what's actually suppose to be for us gamers. The devs actually give you the ability to change difficulties on the fly as well as teleport to a Nexus anytime even if you dont die. So theoretically you can cheese Prodeus by exploiting these 2 settings. It's just a dumb design decision.

Finally, for what it is, it is a solid retro shooter. However, it was a bit dragging and that's fine but the game gives you 26 levels but stops giving you monster variety around map 15, only adding 1 more in certain intervals. And they weren't even in every map. So you'll be gunning down mooks ALOT. As I mentioned, it has the same symptoms as that Postal game but unlike that game, I don't think placement and tweaking can save it from being mundane. This game is in serious need of monsters and honestly, the ending was lackluster as well and unlike other shooters this one doesn't have episodes. That was it. I have a feeling the devs just don't want to invest in a new episode and is putting all their resources on the mapmaking community which is their biggest strength. Same goes for the music. Great heavy stuff; but then it starts getting repetitive later on.

As it is, I give it a 6 out of 10.

Slay the Princess Demo
Does this even count as a game? Anyway, I enjoyed it, but I thought it would be better if the mask was kept on the entire time.

GRIS (Switch)

This is an exceedingly pretty game. You could grab any random frame of gameplay here and 99% of the time it'll be something gorgeous, surreal, dramatic, and unique. The music is hauntingly beautiful too.

The game itself is... okay. It's a 2D puzzle platformer that wants to be a walking sim, or maybe the other way around? There are puzzles and there is platforming, but a lot of the game is spent just holding a direction while stuff happens. And those are the good parts! There are also parts where you just hold a direction and stuff doesn't happen, but you have no choice because you need to get to the next area and it's waaaay over there and your walking speed is really slow.

The ending was quite good.

Simoun posted...

Corpse Party: Blood Drive (PC)

That was not worth it. I'm sorry. This game is kind of a mess and is a frankenstein of several things jumbled together into this "ultimate story".

well, I did warn you