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StarTopic The 2024 Completed Games Thread

Another one bites the dust!

3: Pokémon Scarlet+The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero
GFr6z59aUAAoohC


I've taken... quite a while to complete this one, i'm usually not this lazy when it comes to Pokémon games, and while i could bail myself out by saying that i'm saturated, truth is, i've had to force myself to finish it.

Even when SwSh is inherently worse on everything that isn't tech related, it's clear where Game Freak's focus was, and i can't blame them for it given SwSh criticisms, but for whatever reason they ended up leaving one of the key aspects of the game unfinished: The open world.

I've praised this game's open world before, and i'm not going to lie, i still do, but after going through the DLC i realized that its most glaring issue was either a conscious decision or a consequence of being rushed in time: It lacks notable landmarks.

Game Freak has opted for a mostly realistic orography, and it's sooooooooo utterly bland and boring to explore, it has some points of brilliance like the huge waterfall in the east side, and the caves that plague the region and are an actual challenge to explore both because of the resident mons' levels and if you haven't unlocked all of Koraidon's abilities.

But then i unlocked the DLC and, just like it happened with SwSh, i expected them to go crazy on level design, but they didn't, Kitakami (Noroteo in the Spain localization) has some interesting verticality focused in the mountain at the center of the region, but thake that out and you have an even less interesting region to explore. The Blueberry biomes? More of the same, the ice and rock biomes have some points of brilliance, but it's mostly bland and boring to explore.

I'm not one to compare wildly different games, but BotW's Hyrule is a thing that exists, in a game where traversal is key, and the Xenoblade series at large have outrageous (in the good sense) open world design right from the first entry. Look, i'm not asking for Xenoblade 2 levels of weirdness, but when you have me, someone who inherently hates dungeons and caves, looking for caves while exploring, is because there's something wrong with your open world.

"Damn, Reinhardt, you didn't have to go so hard on this game"

Yes, i do, because this is a realization i came to while rushing to beat the Blueberry Academy's Elite 4: "Why am i rushing so much? There's another region to explore, with 4 different biomes. Oh, wait..."

"But you said you still praise this game's open world"

And i do, because it's an open world conceived to put Pokémon that will live in it, and, see, that's exactly the issue, it's been conceived to be plausibly realistic, but it's very boring to look at, it barely has any landmarks (i haven't used the minimap and quest markers so much since Fallout 3) it's boring to explore, and they double down on it on the DLC.

They made a realistic open world in a game with creatures that spit fire or can cause hurricanes and electric storms. WHAT THE FUCK

Ok, rant over, let's talk about the good, because there is something where this game excels so much that it goes beyond anything else done in the series: The story.

Say what you will about the game, but its story is peak, it starts with an uninteresting plot (finding a treasure as the main activity in an academy) and becomes something crazy, emotional, and emotionally crazy. There are three main subplots:
  • The champion road: Nemona's path, the classic beat-eight-gyms-and-become-the-champion plot, this one is a tale of healty rivalry and self-discovery. You get to participate in crazy minigames before each battle, and gym leaders are actually fleshed out, they're all characters with their own lives, likes, dislikes and motivations, and you get to interact with them more than once.
  • The hidden spices: Arven's path. It starts as a weirdo's (Arven) obsession, until, you discover his motivations and get to know more about him. His story is one of parental neglect, sacrifice - going as far as he can to save his best friend, Mabosstiff - and faith. I've teared up with this one.
  • Team Star: Penny's path, this one is my favorite, a story about bullying, mistakes, redemption and friendship. As someone who was bullied both in school and HS, this one hit me the hardest, and as you go further in the story becomes more of a mess, the Team Star turns out to be a buch of eccentric that got bullied for being weirdos that formed Team Star and the things got out of hand when the bullied started to become bullies themselves. It even adresses the teacher's role on the whole thing and how their inaction just made things worse.
And then it all converges down in Area Zero where, i kid you not, me, an almost 40 yo guy, ended up silently bawling like a baby.

And the DLC doesn't slow down. The DLC is a story of friendship and jealousy that goes out of hand, combined with the meddling of a certain investigator. I wont enter in detail with this one, because it's still too recent, but one thing i appreciated a lot is how neither Carmine nor Kieran are paper thin characters, Carmine is far from being an angel, she's demanding and bossy, and her behavior fuels Kieran's insecurity, the fallout between them is both their fault, and it's pretty satisfactory to see.

Whew! Long review. Ok, so in the end, my veredict? I'm very, VERY conflicted with this game, everything related to the Pokémon themselves is, honestly, very good, from the designs to their location, the new mechanics - shared with Legends - are clearly underbaked, but they work, Picnic is unnecessary but cute, and i miss some stuff that they mixed with the open world (gimme back the daycare, dammit!).

But the Open World fails at making itself interesting, Gamefreak paid the noob tax and designed a realistic open world that is boring both to watch and explore, this is probably the worst fail of the game, even worse that the tech side if you ask me.

But then, the story is peak, it goes beyond BW's inconsequential plot that doesn't go anywhere in the end, and it goes HARD, i've never been so invested on a Pokémon game's story (closest i've been has been at the end of Legends) and it never lets down, EVER. It's worth playing only for the story. Yes, it's that good, for a Pokémon game at least.

And also, 🎶🎵🎶SOUNDTRACK.

I don't need words for this one




There's a lot of potential here. TPCi, let Game Freak cook, for fucks sake!
 
Reinhard Schneider said:
But the Open World fails at making itself interesting
Click to expand...
Gonna be honest, I agree with you there. Paldea (and I guess Hisui) I consider the baby steps, and fervently hoping that the next game goes back to linear style the world would be more fleshed out next time.

Keep the entries coming, everyone! I haven't finished a game in a good while so I will vicariously acquire that feeling of satisfaction through you
 
meatbag said:
Gonna be honest, I agree with you there. Paldea (and I guess Hisui) I consider the baby steps, and fervently hoping that the next game goes back to linear style the world would be more fleshed out next time.

Keep the entries coming, everyone! I haven't finished a game in a good while so I will vicariously acquire that feeling of satisfaction through you
Click to expand...
You know, Hisui doesn't fail that much on it because the areas are self-contained and has, at least, one landmark that catches your attention when moving the camera, one landmark that makes you think "I want/need to go there"

I'm still to finish legends (need to work on that Pokédex) so it will most likely be the next one, this time alongside SoulSilver.

I hate that SV fails at its open world because, in a way, it's actually well done, it's a world for the Pokémon to live in and the way they're placed on it makes sense, but it neglects player engagement, wich is unforgivable.

At least it's better than SwSh's wild area, but it's clearly worse than SwSh's DLC except inside the caves. Honestly speaking, SV's caves are kind of amazing if you haven't unlocked all of Koraidon's abilities.
 
3. Super Mario RPG (Switch)

I've never got to play the original because it never released over here but I knew a bit through popculture osmosis I suppose, so I went in more or less blind.
I have yet to finish the postgame but given those are mostly grindy minigames or superbosses, I think I'm good. What a fun little game otherwise, reminded me a lot of Mario & Luigi!

Really liked the new artstyle, I think it did the original game justice. Really like how squished Mario looks in this game, it's so cute! The whole game has a bit of a weird vibe, but in a kind of "good weird" way, which I can't really put my finger on. All characters and environments really shine with the fancy HD coat of paint though, which is great!
I'm a bit more divisive on the new remixed OST, while there's some absolutely fantastic arrangements in there, like Forest Maze, I've more than once switched to the SNES soundtrack and found it a bit better, like for example the Sunken Ship. Sometimes less is more and I felt like all the added (metaphorical) bells and whistles kind of drowned out the essence of the original song? (and then there's stuff like Tadpole Pond which is grating in both versions :LOL: )

Had some issues with combat because I'm absolutely horrible at QTEs and oh boy, if you miss those too often, it's game over pretty fast. Also the isometric perspective made some platforming really grating, yes there's a shadow, no that does not help if I can't tell whether Mario's gonna jump forward or slightly to the left and forward. Also some minigames just were kinda dumb, especially that minecart racing, even though I think it's cool that they made sure to change up the gameplay ever so often! Making music was fun :) I also did appreciate that I never felt the need to grind but also rarely felt too strong for any bosses or enemies. I think it would've been cool if the game had that ambush mechanic from later RPGs with that "roaming random battles"-stuff. Like, jumping on an enemy in the overworld gives you an advantage.

Star of the show for me was definitely the dialogue, especially the german localization was sometimes positively zany. Reminded me of the olden days of Claud Moyse that translated the few SNES RPGs that did come over here. All the inhabitants of the mushroom kingdom are brimming with personality and wit, it's a real joy. One of my favourite parts was how much the game emphasized Mario's role as "the hero" and a real celebrity of the world. And how they weren't tired of mentioning stuff like his fabulous jump power or his magnificient mustache. Also the secret dialogue from enemies is chef's kiss!
Yeah, a lot of your playable characters are a bit flat but I guess you can only do so much with the established characters like Mario, Peach and Bowser. At least Mallow is adorable and I really liked his little journey. Also he's really strong in combat, provided you don't ultra-suck at QTEs. Geno was a fun idea for a character and is also very strong, even if you suck at QTEs because almost all of his skills just require to press and hold until the bar is charged. But overall I found him kinda boring as a character. I did like the few bits Bowser had about having to team up with Mario!

Story was a bit of a basic JRPG-fare, although comparatively lower stakes, Mario didn't quite go out to attack and dethrone god after all, though saving the world's wishes is a really cute idea and oddly fitting for Mario! At least we had Mallow's coming of age (sorta) story, which is nice (also further cements him as the best part of the game and possibly the Mario canon).

Overall, I'd very much like to see more of this brand of Mario RPG. Despite some flaws and me being angry at the combat, I enjoyed this a lot!
 
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Regulus Tera said:
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (5/5)

Between Breath of the Wild and this I have now spent over 300 hours on this iteration of Zelda. I think the new open-world formula hits the right appeal of the franchise. We are now seeing l voices clamoring for a return to the precious formula, but I think the ship has already sailed on that. When I first played Ocarina in 98 I didn’t care about the linearity, because it perfectly sold the illusion of adventure. It’s why I am so fond of Wind Waker in spite of its obvious content shortcomings.

What these two games do is give you all the freedom in the world to actually engage at your own pace, and as such Hyrule feels like a living place. I have my issues with the map reuse here, but I still found myself enthralled by what was around the corner.

Ultrahand is a game changer. I know Aonuma has already spoken of doing away with it for the next game, but I think that’s a mistake. It allows for so much flexibility and creativity that it would be a mistake to do away with it like they did with the wolf or the motion controls.

The main issue here is the map reuse. I understand there’s limitations in modern game development, but it’s so obvious that the surface was made with BotW in mind. There’s a lot of empty space in there that they paper over with caves and wells that simply feel out of place. Hyrule in BotW may have had a lot of negative space, but this was done purposefully. That game had myriads of world building in every crevice, and every pond and meadow served a purpose, particularly in relation with how shrines and Sheikah Towers were laid out.

Ironically enough, I think the sky feels the most full in that aspect. Yes, the locations are spread around, but all have something of interest. In contrast, the Depths are almost barren. Narratively it makes sense, but making it the same size as the surface was overkill. As much as I enjoyed shrine and root hunting, the repetitive biomes didn’t do it any favors. If I were Aonuma/Fujibayashi, I would have somehow merged both the sky and depths together. It’s not like this series is foreign to the concept of a dark world, it’s just that this particular version is too much.

Too much is also my main complaint about the crafting. TotK added way more things to do, way more things to craft, way more things to upgrade. And while I see how that aids extend playtime, I don’t think encouraging that sort of behavior behooves this type of game. It’s one thing to find enough diamonds and star fragments across 200 hours to then upgrade your shirt. It’s another thing to ask a player to farm dozens of Lynels and Molduga if they care about using the cool looking armors and not be at a disadvantage. Zelda combat is serviceable, but it doesn’t have the level of depth of something like MonHun, where this kind of grinding would make sense since that is the whole point of the game. Combat in Zelda is more a means to an end.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this game a lot. I thought I would burn out of it quickly since I had just completed BotW barely a few months back, but open word Zelda is still compelling. I just don’t know whether revisiting this version of Hyrule for a third time will work again.

One last thing: if they’re gonna make open world Zelda the mainstay focus, they need to be more careful with their story telling. The critical path is so dumb for the people who get distracted with every shiny thing. It’s not a question of seeing things coming, it’s about Link looking stupid when characters react to stuff he should already know. This is one aspect of the game that BotW did much better, on top of Zelda being a much fuller deuteragonist in terms of her character arc.

Can’t wait to play the next one in 2030!
Click to expand...

3. New Super Mario Bros. U (3.5/5)

I often maintain the New series gets too much flak from haters. These are quality games, and the designers are top of their craft. But even I have to admit they were running out of steam by this point.

The issue here isn’t that it is a bad game, that it is irritating, or that it isn’t engaging. The issue here is that 80% or so of the ideas are derived wholesale from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, with barely anything changed between them. A poison level might have become a lava level in between titles. Maybe the wallpaper had been replaced. But you can tell this was a refinement of the previous game, and as such a lot of the surprise is lost.

I am not talking about the aesthetics either. 3D World shares a lot of the same visuals as 3D Land, but the former’s level design takes advantage of the change to multiplayer, and finds way to put its own spin on the formula.

U is not that. U is content with replicating what worked with Wii with barely any changes. Maybe in a vacuum it might be better than that game, but as someone with over three decades of experience in Mario, it left me feeling kind of empty.

And that’s with me visiting this game twelve years after the fact. I can only imagine how much more disappointed I would be if I had played it on release, as the fourth 2D Mario in a row in barely six years, on top of all the other 3D Marios sharing similar ideas.

U is fine. It’s a good game. But 2D Mario had definitely gotten into a place of complacency by 2012. I am glad to be over that.
 
Games, games, games

Jusant: short and sweet. Very beautiful soundtrack. I wish there was a bit more variety to the climbing, for example utilizing the rope swinging more or having some light platforming sections.

Crusader of Centy: Zelda at home vibes. Overly large areas with nothing interesting in them, too few puzzles, lots of enemies thrown at you randomly and a very unsatisfying sword swing. Replacing items with animal companions is a fun twist, and I appreciated the separte sprites for diagonal movement.
 
Regulus Tera said:
3. New Super Mario Bros. U (3.5/5)

U is fine. It’s a good game. But 2D Mario had definitely gotten into a place of complacency by 2012. I am glad to be over that.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's pretty much the whole problem with U in a nutshell :LOL:
Definitely not the Mario game you want to launch your new console with.
 
0
I guess now that I'm no longer a lurker I can post my games this year so far. Been working on the 3DS backlog a bit after spending a good while late last year beating my first From Soft game in the original Dark Souls. Planning to jump into Bloodborne at some point this year but man Dark Souls really just took my gaming energy for that kind of game. Anyways here's my list:

1. Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS)
I have played nearly all the Picross e games once, and almost all the Picross S games twice, so I really was looking forward to jumping into a new take and dimension on Picross. Never played the first one on DS, so it was a bit of a learning curve. I even dropped it once because of another game and learning the tricks again was tough. But about halfway through the main set of puzzles I found my groove and was speeding through, using this game as a relaxing way to unwind after work and the family is in bed. I loved this game for the couple of months I played it, and there is so much content. I didn't like the timer and possibility of mistakes, especially since I wanted to get the best medals on everything. But once I got used to them, and besides the occasional misinput, it was all good. I didn't do the Amiibo puzzles since I don't have any, but managed to beat the rest of the puzzles with the highest medal. For me, a solid 9/10

2. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (3DS)
The DSi ware one. I played the GBA one back in the day, but otherwise never really touched the series. And this game reminded me why I don't really feel compelled ever to play these lemmings-type games. I like having a character to control, or my puzzles to be completely abstract, like Picross or Sudoku. I also got frustrated with the touch inputs for the pink blocks. I beat the main set of levels and rolled credits, but otherwise didn't play much more. Probably didn't help I was inclined to try for gold on every stage, but either way I was disinterested after a while. 6/10

3. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)
The game that has been my favorite this year, and the reason I dropped Picross 3D for a few weeks. My ideal modern 2D Mario. Lots of creativity and bonkers ideas that come together with tight controls and loads of secrets. Since no one knows me yet, I'll say I almost always 100% the mainline Mario games I play, and love doing so in most cases (looking at you NSMB2). But getting all the medals in this game was a treat and a joy from start to finish. Loved the enemy design, and the badges, and the music, and the secret final badge. I did play online with the ghosts and that was fun enough to interact with people at a minimal, Nintendo-like level. In my opinion, the best Super Mario game since Odyssey, and best 2D Mario since World. For sure a 9/10

4. Liberation Maiden (3DS)
Got this game as it was on a lot of people's lists for must have games on 3DS around the time the shops were closing. I gotta say, good little 2 hour game with a lot of style and fun. Unfortunately for me, I am left handed, and the game relies on using the right hand for it's touch controls and the left hand for the buttons. I stuck with it since it was so short and fun, but I think I would have a better time with changing the controls (or being right handed lol). Only beat the campaign, didn't do any score attack or try for the achievements. 7/10
 
Grime (final update)
I finished my first playthrough including all DLC content, but I'll withhold my opinion on this game until a patch is released. The state of the game is sorrowful with many bugs and glitches that SEVERELY impact gameplay and, even if I like the game behind them so much, I can only recommend people to stay away from it until the devs come forward and do the right thing to leave the game in the state it should've been at release.


Unworthy
I loved this when it came out and thought it was the best implementation of 2D Dark Souls back at the time, miles better than Salt and Sanctuary. This game took a minimalistic approach, extracting just the core of the DS formula and implemented it in 2D, unlike S&S which just did everything DS did but in 2D, with little regard about what made sense to port and what didn't. So I just started playing after so many years and it's even better than I remember. This is a masterclass in game design, everything has a purpose and is masterfully executed. The game is hard and is constantly trying to destroy you, but there are clever tells to help you triumph and they feel awesome when you manage to identify them and use to easily get through a challenge that seemed terrifying at first. I'm blazing through it and having an absolute blast.


Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
I liked this so much when it came out, but I wanted to replay it to see if it still holds up and to check if I may have been too harsh in my review of Minoria. Just played for a little less than an hour yesterday and so far it's as good as I remembered.


Main post
 
The list is not that long, but some of these are the best games I've ever played.
  • Xenogears
  • 13 Sentinels
  • Persona 4
  • Tears of the Kingdom
  • XC3 DLC
  • Alan Wake
 
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2AtPtQL.png


6. Metroid Fusion

Having recently caved at long last and upgraded my NSO to include the Expansion Pass, I have now access to the GBA games. It has been a long, long time since I last played Fusion. I never owned the game myself, and never finished it. And now it was time to finally change that!

Going into this, I thought the linearity of the game would bother me, but that did not turn out to be the case. I did notice how much I had gotten used to the myriad of movement options Dread offers though, because evading attacks with nothing but careful positioning and well-timed jumps turned out to be much harder than I remembered. And yet, the only walls I hit during the four hours and three minutes it took me to finish with 41% item collection were Nightmare, and the first phase of the SA-X fight.

What I did expect was the game still holding up, and that expectation has been met, and then some! Sound and visuals are probably about the best you could expect from a GBA game, and the atmosphere they combined manage to convey is top notch. What else can I say, it's a Metroid game, and a damn good one. I can already see myself doing another playthrough when my classic Metroid itch starts to bother me again, to try and collect all the items.

  1. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  3. Sol Cresta
  4. Metroid Prime Remastered
  5. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
  6. Metroid Fusion
 
9X5BdIj.png


7. WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania

Everyone make room, coming in hot to make it two in a row today!

The only WarioWare I ever played for more than a couple of minutes was Get It Together! And since I really enjoyed that one, I thought it would be cool to check out the roots of the series – and so I did.

The microgames are fun, though some of them can be incredibly frustrating. But that is WarioWare for ya! It was a rough 90 minutes or so until the credits rolled, and every single second of it was filled with hilarity, close calls, me being on the edge of my seat, and having a blast in the process. Who thought pressing A at just the right time could be this much fun?

  1. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  3. Sol Cresta
  4. Metroid Prime Remastered
  5. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
  6. Metroid Fusion
  7. WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania
 
Finally got through Bear and Breakfast, which is what I like to call a spinning plates simulator. You're a bear running several B&Bs, trying to keep your customers and their wallets as happy as they can be. It can get a little hectic, but I rarely felt overwhelmed. I have a lot of nitpicks about the UI and mechanics, particularly when you're plopping down furniture, but overall I had a great time!
 
Reinhard Schneider said:
Another one bites the dust!

3: Pokémon Scarlet+The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero
GFr6z59aUAAoohC


I've taken... quite a while to complete this one, i'm usually not this lazy when it comes to Pokémon games, and while i could bail myself out by saying that i'm saturated, truth is, i've had to force myself to finish it.

Even when SwSh is inherently worse on everything that isn't tech related, it's clear where Game Freak's focus was, and i can't blame them for it given SwSh criticisms, but for whatever reason they ended up leaving one of the key aspects of the game unfinished: The open world.

I've praised this game's open world before, and i'm not going to lie, i still do, but after going through the DLC i realized that its most glaring issue was either a conscious decision or a consequence of being rushed in time: It lacks notable landmarks.

Game Freak has opted for a mostly realistic orography, and it's sooooooooo utterly bland and boring to explore, it has some points of brilliance like the huge waterfall in the east side, and the caves that plague the region and are an actual challenge to explore both because of the resident mons' levels and if you haven't unlocked all of Koraidon's abilities.

But then i unlocked the DLC and, just like it happened with SwSh, i expected them to go crazy on level design, but they didn't, Kitakami (Noroteo in the Spain localization) has some interesting verticality focused in the mountain at the center of the region, but thake that out and you have an even less interesting region to explore. The Blueberry biomes? More of the same, the ice and rock biomes have some points of brilliance, but it's mostly bland and boring to explore.

I'm not one to compare wildly different games, but BotW's Hyrule is a thing that exists, in a game where traversal is key, and the Xenoblade series at large have outrageous (in the good sense) open world design right from the first entry. Look, i'm not asking for Xenoblade 2 levels of weirdness, but when you have me, someone who inherently hates dungeons and caves, looking for caves while exploring, is because there's something wrong with your open world.

"Damn, Reinhardt, you didn't have to go so hard on this game"

Yes, i do, because this is a realization i came to while rushing to beat the Blueberry Academy's Elite 4: "Why am i rushing so much? There's another region to explore, with 4 different biomes. Oh, wait..."

"But you said you still praise this game's open world"

And i do, because it's an open world conceived to put Pokémon that will live in it, and, see, that's exactly the issue, it's been conceived to be plausibly realistic, but it's very boring to look at, it barely has any landmarks (i haven't used the minimap and quest markers so much since Fallout 3) it's boring to explore, and they double down on it on the DLC.

They made a realistic open world in a game with creatures that spit fire or can cause hurricanes and electric storms. WHAT THE FUCK

Ok, rant over, let's talk about the good, because there is something where this game excels so much that it goes beyond anything else done in the series: The story.

Say what you will about the game, but its story is peak, it starts with an uninteresting plot (finding a treasure as the main activity in an academy) and becomes something crazy, emotional, and emotionally crazy. There are three main subplots:
  • The champion road: Nemona's path, the classic beat-eight-gyms-and-become-the-champion plot, this one is a tale of healty rivalry and self-discovery. You get to participate in crazy minigames before each battle, and gym leaders are actually fleshed out, they're all characters with their own lives, likes, dislikes and motivations, and you get to interact with them more than once.
  • The hidden spices: Arven's path. It starts as a weirdo's (Arven) obsession, until, you discover his motivations and get to know more about him. His story is one of parental neglect, sacrifice - going as far as he can to save his best friend, Mabosstiff - and faith. I've teared up with this one.
  • Team Star: Penny's path, this one is my favorite, a story about bullying, mistakes, redemption and friendship. As someone who was bullied both in school and HS, this one hit me the hardest, and as you go further in the story becomes more of a mess, the Team Star turns out to be a buch of eccentric that got bullied for being weirdos that formed Team Star and the things got out of hand when the bullied started to become bullies themselves. It even adresses the teacher's role on the whole thing and how their inaction just made things worse.
And then it all converges down in Area Zero where, i kid you not, me, an almost 40 yo guy, ended up silently bawling like a baby.

And the DLC doesn't slow down. The DLC is a story of friendship and jealousy that goes out of hand, combined with the meddling of a certain investigator. I wont enter in detail with this one, because it's still too recent, but one thing i appreciated a lot is how neither Carmine nor Kieran are paper thin characters, Carmine is far from being an angel, she's demanding and bossy, and her behavior fuels Kieran's insecurity, the fallout between them is both their fault, and it's pretty satisfactory to see.

Whew! Long review. Ok, so in the end, my veredict? I'm very, VERY conflicted with this game, everything related to the Pokémon themselves is, honestly, very good, from the designs to their location, the new mechanics - shared with Legends - are clearly underbaked, but they work, Picnic is unnecessary but cute, and i miss some stuff that they mixed with the open world (gimme back the daycare, dammit!).

But the Open World fails at making itself interesting, Gamefreak paid the noob tax and designed a realistic open world that is boring both to watch and explore, this is probably the worst fail of the game, even worse that the tech side if you ask me.

But then, the story is peak, it goes beyond BW's inconsequential plot that doesn't go anywhere in the end, and it goes HARD, i've never been so invested on a Pokémon game's story (closest i've been has been at the end of Legends) and it never lets down, EVER. It's worth playing only for the story. Yes, it's that good, for a Pokémon game at least.

And also, 🎶🎵🎶SOUNDTRACK.

I don't need words for this one




There's a lot of potential here. TPCi, let Game Freak cook, for fucks sake!
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This makes me think if I should get the DLC. Unlike you, I had a great time with the base game, it's definitely my favorite region since gen 4, but when I finished it I was kinda just done with the game. This happens to me with all DLC btw, it's not a Pokémon problem. I do wanna play some Pokémon but like, there's surely another one coming out later this year and I could just wait for that and have a completely new experience.

I guess I'll wait to see what they have in store for Pokémon Day.
 
1- Dragon Quest Treasures (Switch)
2- F-zero (SNES)
3- The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie (SNES)
4- Gunple: Gunman's Proof (SNES)
5- Go! Go! Ackman (SNES)
6- The Legend of Zelda (NSO)
7- Super Bomberman 3 (SNES)

8- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
9- Castlevania III (Switch)

It had been a while since I last played ALttP and I have been itching to do so since last year, but after 200h of TotK I kinda got my Zelda fix for that time. A new year has come, and following the og TLoZ last month, I was ready to dive into what I consider to be the second of four cornerstones of this legendary franchise, and maybe the most influential one. I've also been trying to make a friend play this game for a couple years now, he got a SNES Classic only to play Mario and I'm like, dude, there's so much good stuff there. He loved DKC and was blown away by Super Metroid, and the next step was ALttP, but he's been reluctant. So I played the game putting myself in the place of someone not familiar with Zelda and playing it for the first time, and it was an interesting experience.

I'd say the game does a very good job on being accessible for a first timer, and its more cryptical parts will be just as difficult for someone more experience with Zelda (I found the Dark Palace to be way harder than I remember, and was scratching my head a few times trying to figure out how to access some parts of the Dark World). It's incredibly good in communicating its logic to the player, but only when it wants to, sometimes it just says "fuck you". Overall, I think my friend will love it as long as I give him some help here and there. Shout out to Hyrule Castle which is probably one of the best first levels in a videogame ever and a masterclass in game design, teaching complex concepts to the player in an extremely elegant way while also being a damn good set piece to kick the game off. I never paid attention how it invisibly guides you and teaches you how to use small keys, how to navigate between floors etc, but it does.

ALttP remains a timeless game and hasn't aged one bit imo. It's still a lot of fun, although I remembered it having more content and secrets than it actually does. The map is much smaller and simple than I remembered, but I guess that's the effect of playing in a post BotW world. Soundtrack is still a highlight, I think it has a different vibe from the rest of the series, it's leaning more into a western fantasy style and sounds very powerful as a result. Hyrule Castle and Dark World are unmatched in terms of hype, and the Ganon battle theme is the best in the series by far.

---

I've loved the Metroid-like Castlevanias since I was a kid, when I was introduced to the franchise with Aria of Sorrow. However, the old style entries were never my cup of tea; unlike other franchise like Megaman which I've discovered the early entries later in my life but still enjoyed them greatly, early Castlevania always felt extremely clunky and unfun to me. That changed somewhat a couple years ago when I got the Anniversary Collection and beat the first game for the first time. Overall, I had a good time with it, even if the last levels were kinda bullshit and I had to resource to save states. I found out it was a way more manageable game when you learn how to play it properly, and had a good bit of fun seeing the series origins.

So a couple days ago I finally picked up Anniversary Collection again and proceeded to start Castlevania III, which is, of course, a fan favorite (I tried Simon's Quest for a few minutes and I'm not messing with that, thanks). I... uh, didn't like III very much. It's like 1, but the bullshit is taken to such an extreme level that it does away with all the fun I could have had. The checkpoints are ridiculously sparse, especially the ones before bosses, and the game seems designed assuming you will spend weeks or maybe months pushing through and getting really good at it, retrying levels over and over again until you have them memorized and can do a perfect run, and I'm just not doing that in 2024. So I abused save states and I managed to finish it, but I can't say I had a good time. I have to say the soundtrack is absolutely killer and the Dracula fight is kinda fun (and actually one of the most fair fights in the game), but this is a game I probably won't play ever again. Now that I'm done with NES Castlevania, I'm proceeding to the 16 bit era, and I'm excited for things to get more modern. I already started Bloodlines and it's so unapologetically 90s that I'm having a good time just by how edgy the game makes a point to be.
 
Super Mario Bros. Wonder [95/100]

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Beat it on Jan 18 :) I don’t think I was active back then though

I honestly sighed in disbelief @ the actual rage stage Bowser fight thing as it felt way less interesting than that first phase with all the wonder effects

^ Nevertheless most of the cutscenes made me cry, I absolutely loved this game, it left me feeling like a little kid playing their first Mario game on Christmas, still replaying some of it to this day. It’s truly special

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EDIT 8:53 PM — Added reaction
 
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MissingNo. said:
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6. Metroid Fusion

Having recently caved at long last and upgraded my NSO to include the Expansion Pass, I have now access to the GBA games. It has been a long, long time since I last played Fusion. I never owned the game myself, and never finished it. And now it was time to finally change that!

Going into this, I thought the linearity of the game would bother me, but that did not turn out to be the case. I did notice how much I had gotten used to the myriad of movement options Dread offers though, because evading attacks with nothing but careful positioning and well-timed jumps turned out to be much harder than I remembered. And yet, the only walls I hit during the four hours and three minutes it took me to finish with 41% item collection were Nightmare, and the first phase of the SA-X fight.

What I did expect was the game still holding up, and that expectation has been met, and then some! Sound and visuals are probably about the best you could expect from a GBA game, and the atmosphere they combined manage to convey is top notch. What else can I say, it's a Metroid game, and a damn good one. I can already see myself doing another playthrough when my classic Metroid itch starts to bother me again, to try and collect all the items.

  1. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  3. Sol Cresta
  4. Metroid Prime Remastered
  5. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
  6. Metroid Fusion
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Metroid Fusion praise 🙏 You love to see it

Leo said:
I've loved the Metroid-like Castlevanias since I was a kid, when I was introduced to the franchise with Aria of Sorrow. However, the old style entries were never my cup of tea; unlike other franchise like Megaman which I've discovered the early entries later in my life but still enjoyed them greatly, early Castlevania always felt extremely clunky and unfun to me. That changed somewhat a couple years ago when I got the Anniversary Collection and beat the first game for the first time. Overall, I had a good time with it, even if the last levels were kinda bullshit and I had to resource to save states. I found out it was a way more manageable game when you learn how to play it properly, and had a good bit of fun seeing the series origins.

So a couple days ago I finally picked up Anniversary Collection again and proceeded to start Castlevania III, which is, of course, a fan favorite (I tried Simon's Quest for a few minutes and I'm not messing with that, thanks). I... uh, didn't like III very much. It's like 1, but the bullshit is taken to such an extreme level that it does away with all the fun I could have had. The checkpoints are ridiculously sparse, especially the ones before bosses, and the game seems designed assuming you will spend weeks or maybe months pushing through and getting really good at it, retrying levels over and over again until you have them memorized and can do a perfect run, and I'm just not doing that in 2024. So I abused save states and I managed to finish it, but I can't say I had a good time. I have to say the soundtrack is absolutely killer and the Dracula fight is kinda fun (and actually one of the most fair fights in the game), but this is a game I probably won't play ever again. Now that I'm done with NES Castlevania, I'm proceeding to the 16 bit era, and I'm excited for things to get more modern. I already started Bloodlines and it's so unapologetically 90s that I'm having a good time just by how edgy the game makes a point to be.
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The Famicom version is way better, it's more fair with some tweaks (like how Grant actually has a throwable knife) and the music is even better thanks to the sound chip. Castlevania III is actually one of those games they made harder bringing it over to America, though I do think the original version is a bit too hard either way, it's still pretty good I think.
 
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8. Kirby's Dream Land

Getting another super quick completion out of the way while I'm taking a break from some rather time-consuming ones, and since I was both in the mood for some Kirby, and still felt like more nostalgia food after Fusion and WarioWare, I decided to go with Dream Land for dessert.

I've played Dream Land before, but it has been a while. Kirby without transformations isn't quite the same, but I still enjoy this game a lot. Especially because you can play it from start to finish in about thirty minutes – and rather comfortably so. The main reason I wanted to return to this one is that I never played Dream Land 2 or 3, but also want to tackle those at some point this year.

  1. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
  3. Sol Cresta
  4. Metroid Prime Remastered
  5. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
  6. Metroid Fusion
  7. WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania
  8. Kirby's Dream Land
 
6) Good Job!
A game of nepotism and mass destruction

Previous games:
1) Riccchhhhhaaarrrrd Metal Wolf Chaos XD
2) Toree 3D
3) Piczle Cross Adventure
4) Macbat 64
5)Metroid Prime Remastered
 
5. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (Switch)

Played this back in the day on GameCube and it always left an impression on me, though at that point in time I'd played relatively few RPGs. I'm really glad it, and the prequel have had a re-release. While this has its rough edges, and the remaster also has its own odd rough edges, for all that it uses some familiar tropes I've never really played anything quite like it. Some really beautiful pre-rendered art, music, and a unique if flawed combat system, and really esoteric world and character design, make for a strong combination.
1. Super Mario RPG (Switch)
2. Metroid Fusion (NSO)
3. Super Mario 64 (3D All-Stars, Switch)
4. Dredge (Switch)
5. Baten Kaitos I (Switch)

I want more Baten Kaitos now, so it's a good job I was unable to play Origins back in the day. That'll remain in the To Play 2024 list. Not sure what's next...

A Highland Song
Baldur's Gate 3
Baten Kaitos I
Baten Kaitos II
Dredge
EarthBound
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Metroid Fusion
Star Ocean The Second Story R
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario 3D World (+ Bowser's Fury)
Super Mario Odyssey
Chants of Sennaar
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
 
1. Octopath Traveler II - 9/10
2. Metroid Prime Remastered - 8/10

2. Metroid Prime Remastered | Platform: Switch | 100% Completion (Normal & Hard) in ~45 Hours | 8/10

I beat the game on Normal back in December but didn't want to check it off until I unlocked all of the concept art and music, so I ran through Hard mode over the last week or so for 100% completion. Next, I'll probably try to get back into one of the many half-finished JRPGs in my backlog and slowly chip away at AI: The Somnium Files.

Context: Metroid Dread introduced me to the IP back in 2021 and it quickly became one of my favorite games. Since then I've also enjoyed both Fusion and Zero Mission. I also tried Super but it didn't really click with me. When this remaster was announced I was excited because it gave me easy access to play one of Nintendo's most praised games.

Story:
  • + A simple but effective story. It doesn't go anywhere too wild, but it didn't need to.
  • + Excellent environmental storytelling. I loved scanning everything more than I thought I would.
  • I felt like there was a missing escape sequence at the end like in every other Metroid I've played. There was one in the frigate at the beginning, so I guess that's good enough. The crater area also felt like it was meant to be a fully explorable world and was left unfinished, but that's just my speculation.
  • - Samus was lacking in characterization compared to Dread. I don't think it helped that the character animations also felt stiff.
Combat:
  • + Surprisingly friendly control-wise for someone who has never played an FPS before.
  • + I liked the variety of having to use the different beam types on different enemies.
  • I loved every boss (especially Metroid Prime, what a great final boss!) except for Omega Pirate and Meta Ridley. For Omega Pirate, I didn't like the randomness of the different colored troopers that spawned in. It felt like I only had a chance to win when I got lucky with the color of the troopers that spawned, because some are inherently easier/faster to kill than others. For Meta Ridley, I just thought the fight was really unbalanced. 80% of his health is gone in a few minutes, then the last 20% takes forever. And the last phase is a massive spike in difficulty. I would have 90% health going into that last phase then get obliterated by his charge because Samus is too slow. I could go on, but I think the fight is just poorly designed in a few aspects. On a more positive note, Metroid Prime and Flaahgra were excellent.
  • - Often felt unfair instead of challenging. This is in contrast to Dread, which is extremely challenging, but always felt fair. Especially on hard mode, it felt like I had to find ways to cheese enemy AI by standing in a different room and shooting in.
  • - Enemies respawn when you are only two rooms away. I just think this is too soon, frankly, and it further exacerbated my problems with backtracking.
  • - I'm not a fan of Samus's limited movement. You can only walk or roll around as the Morph Ball (without camera control!). The only way to move fast and react to shots is with the sidestep when you lock onto enemies. I wish there was a way to either run (speed booster?) or somehow dodge faster when not locked on (something like flash shift from Dread, perhaps?).
  • - I wish there was some kind of melee attack or counter like Dread.
Exploration:
  • + Plenty of items and lore secrets to discover.
  • + Using the different visors made for some unique moments.
  • + Awesome puzzles. I especially enjoyed the ones involving the morph ball.
  • + The platforming never asked too much of me, which I appreciate.
  • Unsurprisingly, I'm not a fan of having to backtrack all over for the different Chozo artifacts.
  • - My biggest problem with this genre of games is the extensive backtracking, and sadly this game is no exception. Going through an area twice is fine, but after that, it slowly starts to wear down on me. My second playthrough (hard mode) I broke down and used a walkthrough to take optimal paths since I had already seen everything previously. Here's a spoiler-free example of what would happen to me: you get to a new area and realize that you need an item to progress forward. So you backtrack for a while, find it, and come back. Then, you go in one room further thanks to that new item, ready to make some progress, but realize you need another different item to actually make progress. For this sequence, I had to go through the same area five times (and fight all of the enemies every time) within just a few hours. This isn't even mentioning when I'd have to come back later for 100% to get the secret items that were locked behind a different ability. This is the kind of thing that is not fun to me.
Art Direction / Score:
  • + Simply iconic in both aspects. One of the best-looking and sounding games on Switch.
Quality of Life:
  • + The map was surprisingly good for the shift to 3D.
  • + The hint system helped reduce my directionless wandering.
  • + Plenty of control options. Dual stick controls worked great for me.
  • + The first Nintendo-published game I'm aware of with options for those that are color-blind. I don't benefit from it, but it really should be standard. Great work Retro!
  • + I love that you can unlock concept art as you scan more and more things. More games should show off their concept art.
  • - No way to skip cutscenes as far as I know, but they are usually so short it doesn't matter that much.
  • - The map is lacking compared to Dread in terms of being able to place markers and showing item locations.
  • - After you open a door that needs a certain beam type, it should revert to being openable by any beam type.
Performance:
  • + Perfect. No bugs or frame drops. Load times were acceptable.
TLDR: 8/10 - I didn't love the combat or backtracking, but otherwise I can see why this game is so heavily praised. It's awesome! There are just a few aspects besides the visuals/controls that also could have used a remaster. I liked it enough that I'd also pick up ports of Prime 2 & 3, but more so I'm hoping that Prime 4 is able to fix some of my core problems with this formula.
 
FiniteInfinities said:
The first Nintendo-published game I'm aware of with options for those that are color-blind. I don't benefit from it, but it really should be standard. Great work Retro!
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iirc Splatoon games kinda have a color-blind mode; there's a "color lock" option in the menu that I think limits ink colors to specific more high-contrast colors
 
TheWolvesDen said:
1) Kirby and the Forgotten Land - 5/5

www.backloggd.com

TheWolvesDen's review of Kirby and the Forgotten Land | Backloggd

I am sitting genuinely asking myself… is this my fave ending to a game since maybe I ran credits on Xenoblade 1. I am in shock of what that final core close out did. In terms of pushing the player? I got wrecked many times, in terms of ramping scale and having just wondrous attack patterns? Just...
www.backloggd.com
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I think this review perfectly encapsulates how good forgotten land is. It’s one of those games where even thinking about your experience with it brings you back to how much fun you had playing it, and this is Hals first 3D Kirby too! Just crazy, only beaten by planet robobot and (maybe on a really good day) amazing mirror
 
Finished in 2024 #6: Super Kiwi 64: Doomsday

A free content update? Neat! Of course, the content that will take the largest amount of time are the new time trials added to the main mode, which means replaying every single base game level. Which means...

Replay #1: Super Kiwi 64

Siactro has made a name for himself by releasing lots of super short, super cheap, and super nostalgic games. He's been at it for years - the original Kiwi 64 is nine years old at this point - but it was the Toree games that put him on the map. Both games do a really great job of disguising their short lengths and simple mechanics with extra collectibles, ranks for clearing levels faster, and bonus characters. Add in the fact that each is a dollar, and it's no surprise that they joined several "best eShop bargains" lists. So naturally, Super Kiwi 64 got a decent amount of attention and hype.

At launch and now, Super Kiwi 64 was...alright. Like the Toree games, you have eight levels to go through, but these are open areas instead of linear platforming. You can jump, glide, and use a beak attack that let's you cling to and jump up walls. And...that's about it! The game can be finished in less than an hour, and it lacked the extra features and challenges that helped the Toree games stick the landing. It ends up feeling a bit hollow, not bad but not something I'd rush out and recommend.

The Doomsday update tweaks the base mode by adding a timer to each stage, much like in his previous game Beeny. This does add some of that extra replay value that the Toree games delivered on, but I still prefer Toree over Kiwi. While Kiwi has good control, it's not as good for exact precision, which can be difficult for nailing those time trials. Part of it comes down to the port - it's pretty easy to tell that this is a platformer meant for keyboard and mouse. And to be fair, Toree is the same way, but Toree's more linear levels and slower speed translate a lot better to both control schemes. Even so, this inclusion alone does make it better, including a great 100% bonus, so if you like 3D platformers it's worth a shot for the cheap price. You just might want to consider the PC version instead of the Switch version.

...okay, we good? Alright. So the Doomsday update also adds a new scenario that calls back to Siactro's earlier games. Don't expect too much - we have two open levels and a final level with an extremely easy final boss fight. It's more of Super Kiwi 64, and the levels themselves have solid design, though I did not like how some of the Rings in the "find 5 rings" challenge are hidden in brightly lit areas that deliberately blend them in. It makes the whole package feel a bit more complete, but it's still pretty short.

The update bumps this game up a few more notches, but unless you specifically want a callback to collectathon platformers, I'd recommend the Toree games over this one.
 
1) The Last of Us Part 1 (PS5)
2) The Last of Us Part 1 - Left Behind DLC (PS5)
3) God of War (PS2)
4) Tetris Effect Connected (PC)
5) Trials HD (XSS) [Replay]

6) Aperture Desk Job (Steam Deck)

This is effectively the Steam Deck's pack-in game. A free little tech demo, set in Aperture Laboratories, that shows off each of the Steam Deck's features in much the same way Astro's Playroom does for the DualSense. Astro's Playroom is much more substantial than Aperture Desk Job, though. This game only takes thirty minutes to complete. But it's full of that signature Portal humor, and J.K. Simmons reprises his role as Cave Johnson, so there's good stuff here. I laughed a good number of times while playing, and that's all I really wanted. It's not Portal 3, but it's something, and it's free.
 
#4. Wild Guns (SNES NSO)

Wild Guns is a third person arcade style shooting game. It plays well, has very nice graphics, a fun soundtrack and is also challenging but fair. It's only downfall is that it's pretty short.

If you wanna play something short and fun on NSO I definitely recommend this. I read there's a modern version but I dunno how it is.
 
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1. Unpacking (Switch) - 7.5/10
2. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch) - 9.5/10
3. Ori and the Blind Forest (Switch) - 8/10

4. Advance Wars (Reboot Camp) (Switch) - 8/10
I decided to consider the two halves of Reboot Camp as separate games - I don't see myself using the extra modes that much if at all, so my opinion on this is just based off the campaign. I enjoy the gameplay loop here overall, but I admit that I don't have much patience for the difficulty. It definitely is frustrating to play a mission for ~20-30 minutes and lose out. I'm just not a good strategic thinker I guess! This game didn't hook me as one of my favorites, but it is objectively very well designed and offers a lot of variety in the missions. The characters are pretty cool too. I'm interested to see how/if the formula evolves with Black Hole Rising.
 
I’m now in the first mission of Doom Eternal (Switch version), playing on the easiest mode. So far so good. I’ll check back after I finish playing it.
 
Finished in 2024 #7: Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit

It's the first game I finished on my new Retroid Pocket 4 Pro! Hooray, new tech.

Sonic Triple Trouble is one of many Game Gear Sonic games, and I've seen it widely considered the best. I'll take their word for it - I haven't played beyond the first zone! This remake envisions it as a sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the Genesis/Mega Drive. While it doesn't reach the highs of S3K (only so much you can do with the framework of the original), it does successfully bring the title up to the standards of the 16-bit games with overhauled level design, revamped visuals and sound, modernized mechanics, and a bunch of extra characters. There's a great effort of weaving the story in better with other games in the series, too, done so in a very tasteful way. If you like 2D Sonic, this is a must play on either PC or Android.
 
Finished a few games, so it's time to post about them! First up is...

Neko Can Dream

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I've played this one before in Japanese, but this time I've finished the English version! Neko Can Dream is an adventure game by one of my favorite comic artists, Nekobungi Sumire! It's not just Game Boy styled... it IS a Game Boy game! There's versions on iOS and Android, but for both Japanese and English versions, I opted for the cartridge version! Played a bunch of it using the Super Game Boy 2, but I finished it on my childhood Game Boy Color.

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In this game, you play as a nonbinary cat who wakes up hungry in an alleyway. Though you find a can of cat food, you have nothing to open it with. Making your way to a bar to find a can opener, the bird bartender tells you that what you have isn't just a regular can of cat food... but it's a Dream Can! The bird makes you a deal; if you can go around into the dreams of sleeping humans around the city, and collect their dreams in cans, you'll get as much cat food as you want.

So you go about into three different dreams, and you learn a lot about the dreamers as you adventure through. Each one has its own unique set of goals. One is a maze-like area where you have to find tuna, another is a murder mystery with some sokoban puzzles, and one's a big treasure hunt! It's a lot of fun, and the stories end up feeling very heartfelt!

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Of course, interwoven between all these is the mystery of exactly who the main character is... This game is well worth a look if you love adventure games or Game Boy games in general! I was a big fan of it when Glow and I played through it together in Japanese, and I was really happy to give it another go in English! The translation is by Nekobungi herself, by the way! She's also translated several of her comics into English, so you can check out some of those if you're into trans and lesbian themed stories!

The next thing I completed was...

Spare Parts: Episode 1
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Spare Parts is an indie visual novel series by Sophie Rose! I'd been meaning to play it for SO long now, and I finally got around to it last night! In the first instalment, Lucy's recently moved away from her parents place. Though she's staying with a friend, she needs to find work to help out. Thankfully she finds a strange shop called "Spare Parts", run by a very odd woman. She gets hired on the spot, and soon discovers the place has some secrets she doesn't understand...

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It's not REALLY a spoiler, but the other people in the shop are all... robots! But Lucy... just doesn't realize it! Against all odds! It's a really fun read. The characters are very cute, and I'm a big fan of Sophie Rose's art. Those thick outlines give the game a really distinct style! There's an undercurrent of drama, with the shop owner, 01, worrying about keeping the place going, and the status of her siblings... there's a nice and sweet story told here, while leaving plenty of threads dangling for Episode II! I gotta start reading that tonight...

The first episode is free, and I linked it above if you wanna give it a read! It's totally hooked me, and I'm excited to read more!

1) Signalis
2) Gnosia
3) Sylvie miniature
4) Another Code: Recollection
5) Sonic the Fighters
6) Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain
7) Neko Can Dream
8) Spare Parts: Episode 1
 
Unworthy (final update)
Not much to add: Awesome combat, great ambient, great exploration...The only thing I didn't like were the missable, convoluted secrets that force you to go through the whole game again in NG+ to get them, or weird stuff like the dungeon that uses the system time (it should've used an in-game timer instead). I loved how the final boss absolutely trashed me when I tried to fight it with a bow and keeping away, but in my second attempt using the sword and trying to stay close at all times I obliterated it without having to heal but once. It was a good summary of the whole game: It would constantly present you with insurmountable challenges at first, but which would become passable and even "easy" once you experimented enough and found a good weapon and strategy to use. Still, I found that the game dragged a bit towards the end, the gauntlets weren't as great as the hammer or bow, so I think it needed some new cool upgrade to keep the momentum going into the final areas.


Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth
Just started playing it after Unworthy. I have very high hopes in this one after falling in love last year with Touhou Luna Nights from the same developer. The pixel art and animations are precious and the Ikaruga-style combat system seems very interesting, though the healing mechanic allowed me to easily sort of cheese the first bosses. I didn't like that it resorted too much to text boxes to explain all the basics. It also looks a bit linear, but we'll see.


Main post
 
5. Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS)
Another 3DS game off the list! I played Robobot last year, which was my first Kirby in a while, so my expectations were higher than normal since I really enjoyed that one. Both games essentially have the same format with the collectibles and extra modes. That being said, I think this one is a lot less fun than Robobot. The levels are about the same, the abilities are fun, but the Hypernova gimmick for this one is kinda one note and more of a spectacle than anything. It had some moments, but mostly just hold the button and see what happens. And the final boss, while cool in their design, was pretty easy. Also the story was even more nothing than a lot of Kirby games, with the world and stakes only being developed in the last few levels. As a perfectionist I got the 100%, especially since it didn't take much time, but I don't see myself going back to this one. I feel a bit bad feeling so down on it because I did enjoy my time, but the similarities to Robobot are too glaring to not make a direct comparison. Overall a 7/10

1. Picross 3D Round 2 (3DS) 9/10
2, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (3DS) 6/10
3. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) 9/10
4. Liberation Maiden (3DS) 7/10
5. Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS) 7/10
 
4. Pikmin 2 - Was really itching for some extra Pikmin fun and I only ever played the first little bit of Pikmin 2. I remember dropping it pretty quickly because it was just ridiculously hard and I was very close to dropping it again in 2024, but I pressed on! I reached the credits, landed in the newly unlocked 4th zone, got all of my white Pikmin demolished by the monster that shoots the homing rock, closed the app, and started Prince of Persia. Was very fun to play old-school Pikmin in a new way but I will likely never touch this game again lol.
 
Christo750 said:
4. Pikmin 2 - Was really itching for some extra Pikmin fun and I only ever played the first little bit of Pikmin 2. I remember dropping it pretty quickly because it was just ridiculously hard and I was very close to dropping it again in 2024, but I pressed on! I reached the credits, landed in the newly unlocked 4th zone, got all of my white Pikmin demolished by the monster that shoots the homing rock, closed the app, and started Prince of Persia. Was very fun to play old-school Pikmin in a new way but I will likely never touch this game again lol.
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Oof, the urge.

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Good that you played it, though, every person on Earth should play Pikmin 2 at least once lol
 
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All

Been replaying Ace Attorney for a few months, and I forgot how awful was the third case in this game. It's like a "worst of" the series, with a lot of backtracking, mostly bad characters (like two adults trying to marry a 16 yo girl), and the logic in the trial doesn't make sense. Fortunately, the fourth case is absolutely excellent (albeit a bit too long) so you finish on a high note.

4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Wrote some thoughts about it in the Yakuza ST but to summarize: it's excellent. Fell in love with it and Ichiban is still one of the best video game characters of all time.

1. Hentai Golf
2. Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All
4. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
 
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11 — Final Fantasy XIII
This game is tirelessly, relentlessly about combat. When you reach the odd town, you’ll be there for approximately 3 minutes before enemies flood in and chase you along to the next story beat. There are no mini-games to speak of, really. When you reach Gran Pulse, the large-ish open area you spend a good chunk of the second half exploring, all there is to do there is hunt monsters and build up your gear. The combat never seemed to click with me in the past, and thus I found it hard to like FFXIII, let alone appreciate what’s in the periphery of all those beatdowns. For whatever reason, it clicked into place for me this time. Once I was in on the combat, XIII’s other virtues began to shine brighter. It has a fantastic soundtrack. As linear as progression can be, the striking visual identity and enticingly weird lore make things feel bigger (even if a few too many important details are squirrelled away in a codex).

That’s not to say this isn’t a flawed game; it is! The cast is still a weak point for me. Well-designed and voiced as they are, far too many cutscenes play out with these people saying a lot without really saying much at all. If I had to hear one more freaking monologue about Operation NORA, I might have lost it. And while I had a newfound appreciation for the way the game splits the cast into pairs for most of the first half, highlighting their personalities and the different ways their lives thread together, it’s undeniable that it waits an awful long time to hand over the reins and let you bring its mechanics to their full potential.

Now I gotta re-order my ranking of FF games!
 
Feb 2024 - Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout

The first time I tried playing this RPG was 2020. I barely got through the first few hours of it. It might be the case where with age, I'm getting more patient and tolerant for games with slower start. And probably also because I'm a little bit more determined to get through games.

The starting gave off Haruhi vibes which I like. Just Ryza dragging her merry band of friends around. For a while, I thought Ryza's voice actress was Hirano Aya. p.s. The voice actress is Noguchi Yuri.

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It took a while but once I figured out how the alchemy system works, that's when the game went from slightly challenging to almost a cake-walk. Bombs (or its higher tiered versions) are the answer to almost everything. Dragons? Bombs away. Elemental spirits? Bombs away. Final boss? Bombs away. I think I realized how I've broke the game when a major boss fell in two turns after I threw a bomb at it. It makes sense. It's a game about alchemy. Of course, item usage is the most broken thing compared to all the special moves. It's quite amusing to see the cast all tired after their victory when all they did was threw a bomb or two.

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Ryza's support move is a Hadoken.

An RPG with a likeable cast and doesn't overstay its welcome. The post-final boss bits of the game are kinda draggy but by then, it's just about fast-travelling everywhere to give everyone one last farewell. Kinda a downer that Ryza stayed behind on the island by herself, a large contrast to how the game started with her leading everyone around cheerfully. But hey, there's two and three of the franchise to go!

Now I'm curious how the anime depicts the story. I see that there's new merch in Japan specifically for the anime so the anime version should be relatively popular too.

Jan 2024 - Super Mario RPG
Jan 2024 - Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
Jan 2024 - Pokemon Violet DLC - The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero
 
komicer said:
Now I'm curious how the anime depicts the story
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I've only seen the anime and I'd describe it as a slice of life show where Ryza and her friends mostly do side quests which lets them grow as people. The game sounds like it has similar vibes, which is further tempting me to get it.

Síriocaz said:
every person on Earth should play Pikmin 2 at least once lol
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Someday I will. Someday...

big lantern ghost said:
Final Fantasy XIII
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Your darn GIFs make me wanna play it lol
 
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (update)
I'm a bit over 60% of the map discovered. The pixel art and animations are truly fantastic, this game's a visual treat. Music is also amazing. The combat system seems interesting at first, but I feel like it's not working completely: You have 2 elements (wind and fire); Attacking with one powers up the other up to level 3. Being in level 3 heals you. While in fire mode you can absorb fire attacks to replenish your magic meter (same with wind). Getting hit makes you lose 1 level of your active element. When fighting regular enemies, they fall too soon if you're in level 3, but the game becomes a lot harder if you're below this level. This quickly spirals because as soon as you take one hit, the game becomes much harder and with every other hit, you deal less and less damage. IE, cruising when you're at max level is "easy", but if you make a mistake the game stacks penalties against you.

There is a weakness/resistance system with enemies, but it has a couple of problems: First, it's shown with some dice numbers on the bottom of the screen in a very weird an unnecessarily complex way. Second, only some enemies really take advantage of the element system, but it's nothing too complex as once you factor in level geometry or other enemies it can easily become a mess. Third, apart from fire and wind there are a lot of other elements you can use with magic, but most of the time it's just better to use the regular elements + your current magic (magic seems a bit OP) even if the enemy is not specially weak to it. Bossfights are good, but it's very easy to cheese them. If you get hit, just switch to your other element that is still at level 3, run away and heal, then go back to attack. With the bow and magic it's easy to keep your distance and attack minimizing risk. I'm beating almost all bosses on my first try this way and I'm not really needing to understand their attack patterns.

The combat system is good on theory, but in practice there's some missing piece to make it click.

Also, there are almost no differences between both elements movement-wise. Wind can hover and fire can make an invincible (sometimes?) dash, but you won't be using these skills too often (specially the dash). Same with the Symphony of the Night-y back-dash, it's almost useless. They tried to make both elements play differently but that would wreck the combat system, so in the end the differences became minimal and insignificant.

Exploration is a bit simple as well, you're mostly exploring linear paths with not too many secrets. The paths are often blocked by color locks that disappear when you kill a boss and hit the corresponding switch, but I feel like this could've been communicated better. Same with a puzzle that required getting 4 or 5 spirit keys: As I collected the keys I had no idea what they were for, until I stumbled into a room and they suddenly interacted with a device on the wall and opened the way forward. It felt very random, I couldn't understand the relationship between the keys and the device, specially because each key seemed to be for a specific door and not for a global puzzle. Apart of the double jump and the slide-dash, there doesn't seem to be any other ability-gates and everything seems to rely on these color locks and special doors. It's a it underwhelming for a Metroidvania.

So overall I'm enjoying the game, but when comparing it with Touhou Luna Nights, I feel like the combat has taken a step back in order to allow for the RPG elements, a bigger map and more Metroidvania-y elements, but these aspects haven't been realized enough to compensate for the loss of TLNs amazing combat systems.

BTW, the game lacks Coyote-time and it feels awful until you get accustomed to it and unlock the double jump. It's specially bad because a lot of jumps require you to jump from the very last pixel in the platform so they're easy to miss. Note that this is a Metroidvania, not a platformer, so you'll have to repeat some of these jumps a lot of times as you backtrack through some screens. They should've added Coyote-time and given more wiggle rooms to jumps.


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Leo said:
This makes me think if I should get the DLC. Unlike you, I had a great time with the base game, it's definitely my favorite region since gen 4, but when I finished it I was kinda just done with the game. This happens to me with all DLC btw, it's not a Pokémon problem. I do wanna play some Pokémon but like, there's surely another one coming out later this year and I could just wait for that and have a completely new experience.

I guess I'll wait to see what they have in store for Pokémon Day.
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I've been overly negative in my review, but mostly because i wanted to vent about the Open World because, truth to be told, i enjoyed it a lot (otherwise i wouldn't have purchased the DLC, full stop), but there's really a conversation to be had about the Open World in Pokémon games.

That said, do yourself a favor and go for the DLC, if you wholeheartedly enjoyed the main game you will enjoy it for sure. The Teal Mask is a neat side story that feels disconnected from the main story, but actually connects you to The Indigo Disk wich is quite meaty and adds a lot of post game content.
 
9. Home Safety Hotline

Took a little break from 100 hours of Yakuza to finish a short game that interested me.

Effectively this is a horror puzzle game in which you work at a call center, listen to queries of people, and need to figure out what sort of problem they have.

It's very fun presentation-wise, reminding me a lot of Hypnospace Outlaw with its fake OS you poke around in. The game is also quite funny. On second day you unlock various cryptids and strange things which are all wonderfully written.

That said, the horror part of the game is fairly middling. One of the unfortunate things about this game is that most of the creepy stuff comes from you playing the game wrong. It seems that once you get the wrong answer, a customer will recall you with a message which usually implies bad things happening. On right answer, unfortunately, you'll get nothing.

Still, despite this, I found the "puzzles" to be interesting as the game clearly knows how to mess with you, and the steady stream of unlocking weird creatures makes it so that you're constantly engaged and want to see more. It's great at what it does, it's fun, funny, and I wish there was more to it. Perhaps not that the game was longer, but maybe something else from the universe of those creatures.

4/5
 
Jahranimo said:
6. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch) - 2/1/24

Starting the month strong....err at least I think so. (I've always loved this shot from the trailer!)

What can I say that hasn't been said? New favorite Kirby game. Best one in my opinion! I really don't have many gripes with the game. The jump to 3D was damn near perfect. I did miss some other favorite copy abilities like Spark, Wheel and Water but they went for quality > quantity for their first 3D Kirby game. I can't wait to see the next game on Switch 2...with even more older copy abilities returning and seeing how they adapt them to 3D.

Poyo!

Edit: Another idea inspired by some of y'all, I'll keep a list of each game I complete throughout the year to make it easier to keep up with (especially for me)

1. Star Ocean The Second Story R (Nintendo Switch) - 1/1/24
2. Sonic Superstars (PC - Steam) - 1/4/24
3. Shantae (Nintendo Switch) - 1/5/24
4. Shantae Risky's Revenge Director's Cut (Nintendo Switch) - 1/8/24
5. Deathloop (PS5) - 1/18/24
6. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch) - 2/1/24
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7. Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary - 2/13/24

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Dipped into the indie side of my backlog and got to the remake to the first Q.U.B.E. I forgot when this originally came out, but since I took a leap of faith with Q.U.B.E. 2 on the Switch almost four years (and enjoyed it) I figured I'd get the physical for this one last year.

Another solid first person puzzler akin to Portal, except there cubes to manipulate and solve puzzles to move from room to room. There is a plot but it is very much an indirect narrative that doesn't really put itself into the forefront ever. The sequel did this a little more but it is what it is. I don't mind it really.

The puzzles have a slow ramp up overall, about 70% the way in is where you're going to be sitting there thinking and trying things way more than before. Game isn't that long, 3-4 hours I think.

The one thing that is a bit disappointing with this port compared to Q.U.B.E. 2 is that while the aesthetic is a little simpler it seems to have a more aggressive dynamic resolution and one time in the last few puzzles it dropped to a very low fps for some reason. Memory leak? Maybe! Not sure really, but again the sequel which released before this one looks and runs more consistently. In some later puzzle areas where it can get a bit darker visually the resolution sometimes looks like that filter that Lethal Company on Steam has for its entire look. I don't know what it is called, but anyway....

Even though we have the Portal Companion Collection on the Switch I would recommend these if you want something a bit different to scratch that puzzle itch that may come and go at times (or...you could get it anywhere else where it runs better overall lol)

1. Star Ocean The Second Story R (Nintendo Switch) - 1/1/24
2. Sonic Superstars (PC - Steam) - 1/4/24
3. Shantae (Nintendo Switch) - 1/5/24
4. Shantae Risky's Revenge Director's Cut (Nintendo Switch) - 1/8/24
5. Deathloop (PS5) - 1/18/24
6. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo Switch) - 2/1/24
7. Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary - 2/13/24
 
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Another handful of games completed across the past couple of weeks I wanted to add some thoughts about!

7. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch)

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Thoroughly enjoyed this one! I have such a fondness for just how out there and weird games were in this era and I'm so glad I finally got around to playing through it. Didn't take me long, maybe just over 4 hours? I definitely didn't go seek out every single treasure or anything but just had a great time rolling around - really like how you start out thinking the goals are just absolutely unattainable but then you kind of grow exponentially and suddenly things that were kicking you around at the start are tiny. Also I can't say enough about the soundtrack, this one moved me to tears, good lord -


I can't wait to play other games in this series - I've got copies of We Love Katamari, Beautiful Katamari, and Katamari Forever that are calling my name.


8. Picross S: Genesis & Master System Edition (Nintendo Switch)

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Okay so I really enjoy Picross and have played seven or eight of the S series on Switch so far, and this one was up next - have been chipping away at it for a few weeks, but man, once I get started, I have trouble putting it down. It's so addicting at times but weirdly I didn't find myself paying much attention at all to the completed puzzles? I get the same type of feeling with Sudoku puzzles too, like as soon as I finish one I have the itch to immediately move on to another and can't just stop / walk away haha. Plus the fact that I know next to nothing about Sega games represented here maybe took the shine off of this one a bit for me. The only other thing I'll complain about is that some of the color picross puzzles felt REALLY difficult for me to tell which specific color it was looking for at times? Like the sprite I was trying to make had multiple shades of a similar color, and it tripped me up. Not a huge deal at all but just thought it was worth mentioning. This one took me around 28 hours to fully finish and I did enjoy it, just didn't love it.

9. Yakuza Kiwami (PlayStation 5)

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Wow. So I have only ever played Yakuza Zero and LOVED my time with it when I went through it last Spring, and felt like enough time had passed from my 70 hours spent there that I could move on to Kiwami in between Final Fantasy playthroughs. You can definitely tell that it's a remake of an older game here but at the same time it does feel pretty similar, gameplay wise, to Zero in ways; the story was super interesting to me, and I had a good time with the minigames (although really missed the Real Estate and Cabaret Club owner subgames from Zero). I kind of get overwhelmed in modern open world type games when there are a bunch of icons as soon as you walk into a new town for you to 'check off of the list' so I adore the style of these games (so far at least) where the icons for substories don't really appear unless they're related to one you've already discovered. Like, walking down the street and running into a gang of con artists who collapse and act like you bumped into them and broke their shoulder randomly is hilarious to me! And there are some great substories here too, and loved that some of the end game ones tied in to the main story and weren't all just throwaways or one-offs. I finished every single one except for the one that required you have unlocked all of the Dragon of Dojima style abilities, because I just could NOT be bothered to grind that out. And on that note, while at first I really enjoyed Majima Everywhere, it really started to wear on me as I kept playing. Felt like I couldn't enter and exit a building without running into him for another fight. And while I loved the random times you'd encounter him (in a trash can, in the trunk of a car, underneath a hilariously large traffic cone, as a hostess at the cabaret club lmao) - I wanted more of that, and less of the plain street encounters. But otherwise yeah just had a great time with this one and thought the story ended on a real high note with so much going on. Can't wait to get into Kiwami 2 at some point later this year.

  1. Final Fantasy VII (Switch) - 01/06/24
  2. Mega Man 7 (Switch) - 01/08/24
  3. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy) - 01/10/24
  4. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PlayStation 5) - 01/21/24
  5. Final Fantasy VII Remake Episode Intermission (PlayStation 5) - 01/21/24
  6. Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion (PlayStation 5) - 01/28/24
  7. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch) - 02/01/24
  8. Picross S: Genesis & Master System Edition (Switch) - 02/01/24
  9. Yakuza Kiwami (PlayStation 5) - 02/12/24
 
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (final update)

Wrapped up the game, I feel like I blazed through it. The game is very linear, so you won't use a lot of time getting lost and finding the right path. In fact the game is divided in chapters and, even if the whole map is connected, you rarely have to return to a previous area, except for some optional pickups. The combat system also favours that you steamroll over everything when you're fully powered up (and conversely, it completely destroys you in a blink if you're not at max power). Bosses are very easy to cheese thanks to you begin able to infinitely heal yourself and having enough movement skills to be able to run away and safely heal or fight from a distance at any moment. I think I beat 90% of all bosses on my first try :( I also didn't have to make a lot of hunting for secrets, I was at 97% of map completion without doing anything special.

Overall, nice game, there was nothing "bad" with it, but I'm a bit disappointed after how good Touhou Luna Nights was: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth expands on the Castlevania elements by reducing the gameplay system focus that TLN had and, in my opinion, it loses more than it gains.

BTW there is also a boss rush mode which I didn't even try because the last-to-final boss is actually a boss rush of everyone in the game so...


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GAME 7: Final Fantasy VII Remake: INTERmission
PS5 | Finished 14/02/24 | All Trophies Earned | 14 Hours Played | 7/10

Yes, I'm counting DLC here... especially one that took me 14 hours lol.

This was a short and, relatively, sweet introduction to Yuffie as a character; though it very much has all the same issues I have with the main game. To start off positive: I love Yuffie's move-set. Perhaps because of her status as a DLC character, she feels so much more 'in-depth' to play as than other characters, whilst not becoming overly complicated. Moving between ranged and melee, synergised and not, with only the occasional (thankfully beneficial with Hard Mode) spell thrown in for good measure was incredibly fun. Also helps that some of the new traversal elements really help with the cumbersome movement of the base experience.

But then there's the bad, and I think the main thing here is the fact that, despite so many new characters being introduced, none of them feel as fleshed out as they could be. The story here is so all-over-the-place despite not much actually happening within it, and that's really an issue I haven't seen in many other places except for the 'FF7 Remake Universe.' Issue is, where the base game had 18 chapters to develop its cast... this only has 2. And in that time, most of it is spent running around similar - or identical - to the base game, with few major character moments to really let them shine.

So plot points that are supposed to hit hard barely do, because most of these characters barely get any significant screentime. Doesn't help that most of them were just dull. I don't know how many of them introduced here will appear later on in Rebirth/3, but I do know that I'm not really excited for them to return. Fortunately, Yuffie herself is introduced well here, and I suppose that's what matters most.

Now I wasn't expecting to play this before finishing my - still ongoing - hard mode run of Remake, but I needed a break from that so here I am. I must say, I definitely enjoyed getting the 100% (no Platinum as it's just a DLC) here. Frankly with help from a - very useful - guide. Fort Condor, for instance, has a lot of potential, but it was too slow for me to really get invested. So in comes the guide, showing me the most broken strategy. One of advancing with a single guard dog and then obliterating the opponent's home base before they can even attack mine.

The two superbosses were both frustrating, but not too much so. Helps that I've already defeated their counterparts in the main game. One thing I did learn here is that simplicity is often the key when it comes to looking up guides and such. The three-stage 'fight the summons' VR mission is one that, according to guides, requires pinpoint button presses and a 50-step-long list of direct commands. Instead, it just required some thoughtful strategy, a bit of patience, and some pre-existing skill.

So, yeah. Should be finished with my replay of the main game within the week, and then it's a few short games before the 'main event' that is Rebirth. I look forward to it :)
 
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