StarTopic The 2023 Completed Games Thread

[Irene]

Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

I was going to leave the series rest for a bit to avoid saturation, but started the first case to pick it up later and couldnt avoid to get hooked. Oh well.

I would say, as far as i have played until now, this game is the Super Mario Bros 3 of the series. My main complaint of JFA - the disjointed cases - have disappeared and it gives us a perfectly narrated story with enough twists and turns to build two rollercoasters.

It closes every single lead that has been opened since PWAA and it does it masterfully. Quality drops a bit in the third case, but i would say that's a staple by now, and it also helps that, seemingly, that case was originally written for JFA. Still, it was enjoyable and gave us an apparently unimportant piece of info that will be extremely relevant later on.

Last case acts as a perfect finale for the series, everything comes to an end and it has what i would say were the most hype moments in the original trilogy

Spoiler: Hype moments list

It starts HARD with Phoenix disregarding his own safety to cross the burning bridge and try to save Maya
THEN We're put in the role of motherfucking Miles Edgeworth. I can't believe how much of a fanboy i have become for such character
The Five Pyshelocks on the door of the training cave is genuinely scary WTF moment
The Iris and Dahlia switcheroo
Dahlia's return!
Dahlia's defeat and Iris' confession
And, finally, the final showdown agaisnt Godot

No matter what i play next, i KNOW that it's not going to top this. Yesterday i was bawling my eyes out at 1 a.m. while knowing that

Spoiler

Phoenix, much to his own regret, was basically exerting too much an already exhausted Maya, who only wanted to protect the man that saved her life

and then at the ending.

I now understand why the original trilogy is so well regarded. These games are fucking masterpieces.

Taking the words out of my mouth here! Trials and Tribulations is a game unlike anything else. You’d think that we had two games with a bunch of separate and maybe loosely connected cases but no, Trials and Tribulations ties everything up and reveals that it was all just a long game to string it all up in an epic, thematically sound trilogy that gets resolved with a damn bang.

Also, Godot is straight up one of the series’ greatest characters. He just steals the show for me, in a game already filled to the brink with pure narrative quality.

“The prosecution can wield a whip, or drink seventeen cups of coffee - but there’s only one truth!”

Such a phenomenal series. Love them to death.

 

[meatbag]

Spider-Man Remastered

Pretty much my current favorite Playstation first party game.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Played this last year on Steam, it’s definitely a short and sweet FPS with a well-realized framing device.

Godot is straight up one of the series’ greatest characters

Nothing says sharply dressed like a laser visor. Godot is the best!

 

[Ozeiyo]

I've started strong(ish) this year, finishing some games I started in December and clearing out a couple of short games. My finished games for January are, so far:

1) Yakuza 3 - Series X. Probably the weakest entry so far (I've played from 0 to 3). I finished it early in January after having struggled with the game for a few months. Unpolished and boring combat, a weakest story so far in the series, and save for a few heartwarming moments, it's often dull and not fun to follow. It hurts to play it after Kiwami 2

2) New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3DS. Fun platformer, undeserved hate, mid-tier NSMB level design, the extra levels are very challenging and a welcome change of pace. Still, for a portable Mario game, NSMBU and Mario 3D Land are much, much better.

3) High on Life - Series X. It feels like a PS3-era game in the sense that it's fun, doesn't overstay its welcome and is a pretty by-the-numbers shooter with fun mobility options. I enjoyed it but, honestly, it's hard to recommend after reading everything about how much of a revolting person Justin Roiland is, so honestly I'd just like to take a moment to say fuck you Justin before moving on to number 4

4) Lunistice - NSW. It's fun! It's short! The music is great and the graphics are pretty! The only thing I didn't care much for are the basic levels in the beginning, but they grow in scope, ideas and creativity in the end. Happy I played it, overall. An easy recommend, considering the price.

Next up: Yakuza 4 and Bayonetta 3.

 

[jnWake]

Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

I was going to leave the series rest for a bit to avoid saturation, but started the first case to pick it up later and couldnt avoid to get hooked. Oh well.

I would say, as far as i have played until now, this game is the Super Mario Bros 3 of the series. My main complaint of JFA - the disjointed cases - have disappeared and it gives us a perfectly narrated story with enough twists and turns to build two rollercoasters.

It closes every single lead that has been opened since PWAA and it does it masterfully. Quality drops a bit in the third case, but i would say that's a staple by now, and it also helps that, seemingly, that case was originally written for JFA. Still, it was enjoyable and gave us an apparently unimportant piece of info that will be extremely relevant later on.

Last case acts as a perfect finale for the series, everything comes to an end and it has what i would say were the most hype moments in the original trilogy

Spoiler: Hype moments list

It starts HARD with Phoenix disregarding his own safety to cross the burning bridge and try to save Maya
THEN We're put in the role of motherfucking Miles Edgeworth. I can't believe how much of a fanboy i have become for such character
The Five Pyshelocks on the door of the training cave is genuinely scary WTF moment
The Iris and Dahlia switcheroo
Dahlia's return!
Dahlia's defeat and Iris' confession
And, finally, the final showdown agaisnt Godot

No matter what i play next, i KNOW that it's not going to top this. Yesterday i was bawling my eyes out at 1 a.m. while knowing that

Spoiler

Phoenix, much to his own regret, was basically exerting too much an already exhausted Maya, who only wanted to protect the man that saved her life

and then at the ending.

I now understand why the original trilogy is so well regarded. These games are fucking masterpieces.

I hope you get to play the Great Ace Attorney games, those are awesome as well.

 

[Sheldon]

I beat Metroid Fusion as part of Fami's Metroid Prime and Fusion 20th Anniversary Event and I'll keep most of my thoughts to the dedicated thread. Suffice to say I loved it. And part of the joy was discovering, in retrospect, Fusion's DNA all over Dread. The linear level layout that yet still sometimes tricks you into feeling like you walked in an unsuspected direction and discovered a secret passage beyond the intentions of the designers, bosses that are a bigger focus than previously in the series as well as normal enemies that have to be taken seriously for a change, and the big blue screen you return to in regular intervals to get talked at by a robotic voice. The smartest small change Dread made was eliminate Samus' inner monolgue during elevator sequences as if it was Harrison Ford's narration during the original cut of Blade Runner. That alone makes Samus a compelling character because players are allowed to read into her. And it's a much easier adjustment than "write better sentences".

Continuing the sampling of the Cowabunga Collection, I can now confidently state that Fall of the Foot Clan is the Turtles game I owned as a kid. And only because I recognized one level and boss. The game doesn't stick to memory. It's very short and very easy. I don't remember if I beat it as kid nor guess at if I was disappointed if I did. To its credit, part of why it is easy is how snappy the controls are. You can pretty much hit enemies behind you and in front of you in the same frame. Every hit I took was because I fell asleep at the wheel or because the camera wasn't centered where it should have been.

Sticking with the sequel on Game Boy, Back from the Sewers cranked up graphics and difficulty. I didn't try Hard since Medium had enough unfair moments. I definitely would not have beaten this as a kid. Even with save states helping me through the bullshit, I entered the final boss room with two health left. Thankfully Krang was a pushover as always. I'm less likely to play this again than Fall of the Foot Clan, as the latter works as a sub-one-hour palatte cleanser between new playthroughs.

Still tempted to squeeze in Zero Mission next, since I caught the Metroid bug. Otherwise I'm toying with the idea of finally starting Three Houses now that everyone else is busy on Fire Emblem Engage. But, really, it's time to get going on the Wii U and 3DS backlog so I'll have a clearer picture of what I may still want to buy before their respective eShops shut down.

Spoiler: Previous post about games beaten so far in 2023

Beat Pokemon Scarlet, but the final stretch left me in too much bliss to pass judgement on the whole game right now, so instead here's two little sweeties, both by way of the Cowabunga Collection and both in their Arcade version:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has so much in common with Turtles in Time that I questioned myself repeatedly whether the foggy childhood memory I have of playing a TMNT beat 'em up on Super Nintendo wasn't in fact me playing on a friend's NES. Only unlimited credits made playing this tolerable. Given those, however, it was surprising how despite the hard-to-intuit controls, frustrating hit boxes, putrid boss patterns and "super armor on attacks for me but not for thee" enemy design there was a fun, fast, unforgettable romp underneath that'd be satisfying to get good at, warts and eccentricities and all.

Turtles in Time, again, reminded me more of the original than I was prepared for. The resemblance was close enough some levels could pass for remasters rather than sequels. Unexpectedly, for such a lauded classic, the similarities included the bad parts mentioned above. Although I feel like I would be ready to forgive those instantly if I ever figured out how to get the dive kick out consistently. Is it height of the jump? Is it directional input? There were strings of half a dozen dive kicks in a row where I thought I had nailed it down and was on the way to cheesing an encounter and then, suddenly, half a dozen limp floaty kicks ruin the streak of being untouchable.

Next up are the Game Boy games to see if I can identify which of the first two I owned as a kid.

 

[Superizer]

I 100%'d Octopath Traveler this two day sago, even though I bought it only a month ago.

I'm going to try and completely finish some games the coming months that I started last year, for example:

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (3-starring every cup in 50CC, 100CC, 150CC, Mirror Mode and 200CC including the DLC cups available so far)
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Season Pass (completed the main game already but bought the Season Pass and never finished that)
• Spiritfarer (only have a couple spirits left to complete)
• LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga (completed the story already, but have quite a lot of freeplay stuff left)
• Paper Mario: The Origami King (didn't get far in this yet, I might start over)

 

[Twilight]

1. Desperados III [ PC ] - 9
2. Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path ( Replay ) [ DS*] - 10
3. Resident Evil Deadly Silence [ DS*] - 8.5
4. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney ( Replay ) [ 3DS ] - 8.5

I'm definitely in a mood this month

*Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice DLC: Turnabout Time Traveler [ 3DS ]

The last piece of content that I haven't finished from the series is now done, it was a pretty nice case, better than the DD's DLC case which was solid, as a big fan of the dynamic between Phoenix and Maya, it was nice to have a full case with their banter again, is somewhat entertaining to have a Phoenix vs Edgeworth trial, but for it to work as a nostalgic throwback moment they kind of have to regress some of Edgeworth's character, so is a bit awkward in a post Investigations duology case, I remember DD handling that better, but is a inoffensive fun extra case in that regard with some good emotional punches. A neat addition to the excellent SoJ, a game only second to Prosecutor's Path in terms of quality for me.

5. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box [ DS ] - 7

Time to continue my Layton journey, the second game improves on a lot of aspects over Curious Village, presentation has a lot more budget, puzzles have a lot more correlation to some level of narrative instead of just being whatever, etc. I don't think is quite as good overall as a package tho, I quite like the twist in the original Layton, it was neat, simple, and recontextualized a lot of the game and its gamey ness fairly well; in Diabolical Box, despite the tender emotional bits, I feel the narrative takes away more after learning how everything works rather than add anything, and I'm not a fan of the start of the game, it takes a while to get going in terms of location and atmosphere, feels lacking compared to Curious Village in that regard as well. The puzzle selection is pretty good for the most part, but it has a bit too many sliding puzzles in the pacing of the main game, plus some localization issues that make some puzzles more confusing than they are.

6. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future [ DS ] - 7

If I played this one first, it would probably be my favorite and I would rate it much higher, but is hard to get invested in the premise once you know how Layton works, is not a good thing when a series with a mystery angle becomes formulaic to the point where you can tell what is coming not from foresight and analysis, but because the series just works in an specific way, also because the mystery part of Layton relies solely on its twists rather than the build up of the mystery, but still it has a lot of good character moments and stuff that I would say is pretty peak, but again, wasn't invested at all in the setting of this one because Layton. Yet again another general improvement of the series in gameplay and presentation, with a mostly really good selection of puzzles, and a neat idea with the puzzle fights, even if those were very few across the game overall.

 

[bixente]

I've started strong(ish) this year, finishing some games I started in December and clearing out a couple of short games. My finished games for January are, so far:

1) Yakuza 3 - Series X. Probably the weakest entry so far (I've played from 0 to 3). I finished it early in January after having struggled with the game for a few months. Unpolished and boring combat, a weakest story so far in the series, and save for a few heartwarming moments, it's often dull and not fun to follow. It hurts to play it after Kiwami 2

2) New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3DS. Fun platformer, undeserved hate, mid-tier NSMB level design, the extra levels are very challenging and a welcome change of pace. Still, for a portable Mario game, NSMBU and Mario 3D Land are much, much better.

3) High on Life - Series X. It feels like a PS3-era game in the sense that it's fun, doesn't overstay its welcome and is a pretty by-the-numbers shooter with fun mobility options. I enjoyed it but, honestly, it's hard to recommend after reading everything about how much of a revolting person Justin Roiland is, so honestly I'd just like to take a moment to say fuck you Justin before moving on to number 4

4) Lunistice - NSW. It's fun! It's short! The music is great and the graphics are pretty! The only thing I didn't care much for are the basic levels in the beginning, but they grow in scope, ideas and creativity in the end. Happy I played it, overall. An easy recommend, considering the price.

Next up: Yakuza 4 and Bayonetta 3.

Posted about this in the eshop thread. Maybe you'd be interested. Inspired by Mario 2 and from the developer of Gunman Clive.

Edit: I'm an idiot. "New" SMB2... lol.

 

[Ozeiyo]

Posted about this in the eshop thread. Maybe you'd be interested. Inspired by Mario 2 and from the developer of Gunman Clive.

Edit: I'm an idiot. "New" SMB2... lol.

Lol no worries. I like Mario 2, it was one of my first GBA games and I beat it again when it released on SNES online. I'm not a fan of how this looks visually but the mechanics really do look familiar. Might add it to the "interesting" pile -i'm trying to not over-buy games this year-

 

[Pineapple Pizza]

Slow start to the year for me due to a long holiday in Thailand.

I started Regency Solitaire on the plane and finished it today back at home.

It's a great port of an indie solitaire game. Controls well both with a stylus and a controller. Would love to see more quality solitaire games on the Switch. Grey Alien Games, the devs, made the OG Fairway Solitaire. This is good but doesn't have quite the same depth.

A solid 4/5.

My 2023 list:
1. Regency Solitaire - NSW - 4/5

 

[komicer]

Jan 2023 - Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Jan 2023 - Miracle Snack Shop (Korean Philia route)
Jan 2023 - Cruis'n Blast

I'm knees deep into Persona 5 Royal. Not completed yet but there's so much I love about the game. It has been a long while since I've played a large chonky JRPG that isn't Pokemon. That said, it's definitely not a game that you can play during the commute. Since you never know when you'll end up in one of those long sequence of events that you can't put the game down on.

So for commutes, I played Cruis'n Blast. It was fun running around a fictional track featuring Singapore landmarks as a Triceratops. I'm not sure at what point a racing game is considered completed but... I've unlocked all the tracks and gotten a gold trophy for all the regular mode rounds. AND I've gotten the Triceratops. With that, I'm satisfied with my experience playing this game.

Back to creeping around the cognitive dungeons of P5R!

 

[LunarJade]

1. Pikmin 3 Deluxe [Switch]
2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney [Switch]

I suppose this is a replay. I played Ace Attorney on the DS years ago, and while this is my first playthrough of the updated Switch version as far as I understand the update is mostly on graphics.
That said I do prefer the original pixelated graphics over the nicer images. It could just be nostalgia talking but I felt they had more charm overall.
Either way I still immensely enjoyed the game. Remembered a lot of it as I was playing through but there were definitely still twists that caught me off guard because I sometimes remembered struggling previously with a section rather than the answer. (For example the video evidence in case 5... I mostly remember struggling through watching the video several times trying to find the answer.)
Probably the biggest thing I wasn't expecting out of a replay was getting caught in the idea that I thought I was close to being finished a case when I was still way further from the ending than anticipated. The Ace Attorney series is one of the few games I have accidentally stayed up all night playing because I thought I'd be able to finish it sooner than I had. And even knowing that I had done that already once it managed to do it to me again on a replay.

This game series has a lot of memories and good things associated with it for me and I'm glad to see I still find it just as charming years later. I haven't played the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles yet. I think I need to get to those this year if I can, but I do want to finish playing through this whole trilogy again first.

 

[Mbolibombo]

Here we go! Hoping to clear out some of the backlog before Octopath II hits.

January
1. Skyward Sword HD [NSW]
2. Captaid Toad: Treasure Tracker: Special Episode (DLC) [NSW]
3. Final Fantasy VII [NSW]
4. The Last Campfire [NSW]
5. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger [NSW]
6. Sudoku #1 [NSW]
7. Bayonetta 3 [NSW]

Spoiler: Currently playing

Professor Layton and the Lost Future [DS]
Cuphead [NSW] - Co-op with wife

Spoiler: Upcoming day 1 games:

Octopath Traveler II [NSW]
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon [NSW]
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [NSW]

Spoiler: Retired from the backlog

Axiom Verge
Stardew Valley
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Halo
Live A Live

6. Sudoku #1 [NSW]

Played a little bit before bedtime for half a year or so, it's Sudoku no more no less so always enjoyable and good for the mind =)

7. Bayonetta 3 [NSW]

Holy heck, this was a kick of adrenaline. Super exctiting combat with a lot of depth, probably in my top 3 of 2022. Not without it's flaws ofc, not really a fan of the kaiju fights, they didnt really work very well - and while Viola had some cool movesets I did have some problem with the dodging mechanic.

I get that some where dissapointed by the ending - but to me it wasnt really a big deal, I love all the bayo games but If someone asked me about the story for either game I couldnt re-tell it.

 

[Brock Reiher]

8. Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) [8.5/10]

The rare non-Smash Sakurai game (and perhaps the last one!). I've been playing Assault alongside the other Star Fox games, and this feels like a much much better version of what they wanted to do with that game. Once you get past the controls, the game has a fun anime-esque story to get through with some big set pieces. This game kind of reminds me of Sin and Punishment Wii in that since the environments can't be interacted with a lot of the time they can really go all out, making it one of the best looking games on the system. The gameplay is a little lackluster (especially the flying segments, which are definitely more Star Successor than Star Fox) and the dialogue has aged a bit, but you can tell they really put every single idea they had into this game. Biggest surprise is that despite being so annoying at the start, Pit is the likable character by the end. Not too shabby!

 

[ZSaberLink]

Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

I was going to leave the series rest for a bit to avoid saturation, but started the first case to pick it up later and couldnt avoid to get hooked. Oh well.

I would say, as far as i have played until now, this game is the Super Mario Bros 3 of the series. My main complaint of JFA - the disjointed cases - have disappeared and it gives us a perfectly narrated story with enough twists and turns to build two rollercoasters.

It closes every single lead that has been opened since PWAA and it does it masterfully. Quality drops a bit in the third case, but i would say that's a staple by now, and it also helps that, seemingly, that case was originally written for JFA. Still, it was enjoyable and gave us an apparently unimportant piece of info that will be extremely relevant later on.

Last case acts as a perfect finale for the series, everything comes to an end and it has what i would say were the most hype moments in the original trilogy

Spoiler: Hype moments list

It starts HARD with Phoenix disregarding his own safety to cross the burning bridge and try to save Maya
THEN We're put in the role of motherfucking Miles Edgeworth. I can't believe how much of a fanboy i have become for such character
The Five Pyshelocks on the door of the training cave is genuinely scary WTF moment
The Iris and Dahlia switcheroo
Dahlia's return!
Dahlia's defeat and Iris' confession
And, finally, the final showdown agaisnt Godot

No matter what i play next, i KNOW that it's not going to top this. Yesterday i was bawling my eyes out at 1 a.m. while knowing that

Spoiler

Phoenix, much to his own regret, was basically exerting too much an already exhausted Maya, who only wanted to protect the man that saved her life

and then at the ending.

I now understand why the original trilogy is so well regarded. These games are fucking masterpieces.

Sincerely, thank you for the hype moments list because wow that set off a nostalgia bomb in my brain. Absolutely agree that the five Psychelocks on that door was an OH CRAP moment. Also Godot is just perfection as a character.

I don’t play as many visual novels as I used to but damn I’ll always come back to Ace Attorney.

Taking the words out of my mouth here! Trials and Tribulations is a game unlike anything else. You’d think that we had two games with a bunch of separate and maybe loosely connected cases but no, Trials and Tribulations ties everything up and reveals that it was all just a long game to string it all up in an epic, thematically sound trilogy that gets resolved with a damn bang.

Also, Godot is straight up one of the series’ greatest characters. He just steals the show for me, in a game already filled to the brink with pure narrative quality.

“The prosecution can wield a whip, or drink seventeen cups of coffee - but there’s only one truth!”

Such a phenomenal series. Love them to death.

Glad you all liked Trials and Tribulations. Probably an unpopular opinion here, but I always thought T&T was fine, but not great imo. My favorite of the original trilogy was the 1st game by far. After playing them too I just remember so much more of the 1st game than the third. However, it's been many years since I've played the games so maybe my opinion would be different now.

 

[Twilight]

Glad you all liked Trials and Tribulations. Probably an unpopular opinion here, but I always thought T&T was fine, but not great imo. My favorite of the original trilogy was the 1st game by far. After playing them too I just remember so much more of the 1st game than the third. However, it's been many years since I've played the games so maybe my opinion would be different now.

I think, from the original trilogy, that the first game has a set of consistently really good to excellent cases, with T&T I find case 2 and 3 just ok, so the game is carried by 1, 4 and the ending, which is an amazing ending, but the middle game is kind of forgettable; and I feel the same about JFA, where I only really like case 2 and the final case is amazing.

 

[Ozeiyo]

Yakuza 4 is done. I eventually came around to it, and really enjoyed the distinct fighting styles even if some of the story beats were a bit muddled and convoluted, and Saejima as a character -and his story beats- were the worst. The ending battle

Spoiler: Y4 spoilers

against Daigo and ESPECIALLY the bodyguards and fucking Munakata took me ages and was absolute bullshit. Fuuuuck that guy

was a bit of a drag. I think I'll take a break from Yakuza for a bit until Ishin comes out.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Month of January:

The Messenger (PS4) - A really fun and humourous NES inspired ninja action game with some frustrating sections interspersed in there with fun parts. Not one of my favourite of the ninja action games but had a good time with it. C+

Tactics Ogre Reborn (Switch) - An absolute classic that I finished my first route at the start of January. I don't really plan of going back to it for the foreseeable future but it's one I like having around for when I get the feeling I want to explore more of the routes again like I did on the PSP. The postgame is enormous and there's too many other games to play. A-

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS5) - An all time classic. Loved it on the PSP all those years ago and it's a game that hits differently nowadays, what with me being older and having more life experiences. It's one of the most contemplative games I've ever played, it takes its time telling short stories about the passage of time and tragedy. The dungeons & combat are fun. Possibly Sakuraba's best work as a composer too. A-

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (PS5) - An amazing game that wears its Shinobi, Mega Man and Hagane inspiration on its sleeve. Not as hard as you might think, either. It's a pretty fair and I never got annoyed with the game, I was always enjoying it. Only downside was some of the boss battles are rather forgettable. Very much a 90s era Action Platformer homage that most should love. I hope there's a sequel that lets you switch between the characters teased at the end. B+

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS4) - IntiCreates never misses for me. Really fun small gem. Think I liked it more than Bloodstained itself, then again, I've generally been more of a fan of linear Castlevania than the Iga style games (with few exceptions). Definitely going to play the sequel. B+

Ridge Racer 2 (PS5) - Good Ridge Racer. Very hard though. Did as many of the courses as I could. C+

The Medium (PS5) - Decent point and click adventure game with horror aesthetics. It barely qualifies as "survival horror" for me. It is rather mediocre but has its moments. Probably the weakest of Bloober's games I've played though. D+

Demon's Souls Remake (PS5) - Amazing faithful remake. Not played this fantastic game since the PS3. Loved it all over again. Still, it's one of the lower tier Miyazaki directed games compared to what he managed to do later in his career but still great. B+

Goldeneye (Switch) - Playing this game the past few days, everything came back to me again from all those years ago. Such a nostalgia wave. The game is still really fun to play through and it's got a charm to it all. The soundtrack still slaps. B+


All in all, really fun and varied month of gaming for me.

 

[ILovethegameAC]

For January:

-Live A Live: I was very happy with this one, the separated stories structure while had their disadvantages and none of them felt "amazing" by the end, overall presented some very cool scenarios, some more fun to pay and others with better stories and I had a very cool time with every one of them, especially the prehistoric, feudal japan and distant future ones, but is the ending that really elevates everything, it was really awesome. Also the battle system is really cool and the remakes looks and sounds incredible. Maybe not the best jrpg but easily one of the most unique and memorables out there.

-Bayonetta 3: I was a bit nerveous before playing Bayo 3 for some of the negative or mixed comments I heard, but I really liked it in the end, since it's just a nonstop ride of action with incredibly cool setpieces and is just spectacular all the way trough with an excellent battle system once again. I know not everyone clicked with the summoning aspect, but I really did, and also Viola is definitely fun to play now after the patch (and even before that you barely play as her, so never got why she was such a deal breaker for some). However, while I never cared about the story in Bayonetta as much as other people seemed to, I really disliked the ending like pretty much everyone else did and while I kept replaying the levels after that, it sucks that for people that only wanted to play it once left such a bad taste on their mouths.

-Neon White: awesome game, never thought I would have played a fast paced first person 3D platform since that sounds very tricky to do correctly, but they not only did it but is just a blast to play with incredible mechanics, awesome music and art style and some of the levels really made me feel awesome. Didn't really care for the story and I don't like how is told for the most part, and is a shame the secrets of the later levels are a pain to find since in the first few worlds they are really fun to find and motivated me to replay levels, but even with that I had an amazing time with Neon White, best game I played in january.

-Crisis Core Reunion: I enjoyed CCR, but it's definitely the most "flawed" game of the ones I finished in January, since the structure is a bit simplistic, the story that doesn't tie directly with FF7 is just okay for the most part, the missions are a nice addition but can be very "quantity overl quality" and some details of the story could have been further developed, but even with that is heavily carried by Zack, who is a pretty cool dude, the new battle system which is simple but very fun, and all the story bits related to FF7, which are amazing and absolutely elevate the experience and makes it totally worth playing. It also looks quite good, even on Switch.

-Ys Origins: I played the first 2 stories last year but took a big break to play the last ones, since it's tiresome to play the same 10 hours game again, but I had a very good time the 3 times I played it, it's just a very fun action rpg with simple but adictive combat that makes it a blast to play all the time (more with the 2 melee characters than with the projectile based one though), and the awesome music really helps too. I do think they should have changed the level design somewhat between the 3 characters, since it can be repetitive even by the second playtrough, let alone the third one, some of the bosses really sucked and the stories themselves are just fine, not bad but nothing amazing and I have problems with how they are told in some ways (plus Hugo story felt like a copy of Sasuke's from Naruto), so maybe not a game for the story over gameplay crowd, but is still a very solid game and can't wait to play more games in the series.

All of them on Switch btw

 

[Red Monster]

Spoiler: The List

1) Super Metroid (NSW)
2) Metroid Fusion (Wii U)
3) Metroid Dread (NSW)

4) Sonic Frontiers (PS5)

Sonic Frontiers surprised me. After the initial month-long IGN reveal last June I was convinced the game was going to be terrible, but the concept was so compelling that I wanted to try it for myself anyway. And it turns out, Frontiers is awesome! I put 24 hours into the game and came away with the platinum. The game is just nonstop fun. Here's hoping Sonic Team is able to take what they have here and run with it!

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I'm in a bit of an unfortunate situation where I've started a lot of good games, but part of the way through I've lost motivation to beat them. I don't know why . It can't be gaming burnout because I just got back into games last December after a long break and I still feel like playing, just not anything I've made significant progress in. Sucks that it means I'll beat less games soon. Oh well.


1. Mario Party Superstars (NS) [Finished January 1st, 2023] - 8
2. Bayonetta (NS) [Finished January 2nd, 2023] - 8.5
3. Pikmin (GC) [Finished January 5th, 2023] - 8.5
4. Pikmin 2 (GC) [Finished January 17th, 2023] - 6:

This is honestly one of the worst Nintendo games I've ever played, maybe straight up the worst by their internal teams at least. It fixes a lot of the control issues that the original Pikmin had, and the standard Pikmin gameplay is about as good as ever, but the dungeons are such a turn off. Only about 5-7 of them represent a challenge, but those that do are filled to the brim with really bad level design and bullshit gimmicks. But what's even worse than that is how tedious the game is. My god, I've never played something that is this much of a slog to get through. 100%ing the game takes about 30 hours. 30 hours. In a fucking Pikmin game. And not to mention the terrible balancing act of the new Pikmin types, which at best give the player an overwhelming hand with which to crush enemies with, and at worse means the player will have to beat the game.

I wish there was a Pikmin game with this level of content and challenge, while also retaining this level of control, that was just Pikmin, and not a poor imitation of a dungeon crawler, but alas. A 6 is being very generous, it's just because I really enjoyed the first ~10+ hours or so. After that it was a struggle to beat.

Anyways I'm going to rank the games I've played so far:
1. Pikmin
2. Bayonetta
3. Mario Party Superstars
4. Pikmin 2

 

[Subrosian Link]

Nice!

I've been playing some older titles and cleaning up backlog. Up until now, I've beaten...

(0.) Legends Arceus - I strictly finished it on January 2nd, but I think this deserves to count on the 2022 list rather than here.
1. Super Mario Land - fun to play as an oddity, I don't thinkI will ever pick it up again.
2. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - sooooo much better, the leap between the two games is huge, and this being an OG Gameboy game is amazing.
3. Super Mario Land 3: WarioLand - and the third one, this was one of my childhood games and although it's remarkably easy, I find it a little superior to 6 Golden Coins and, well, the difference with the first one is simply amazing.
4. Inside - it was... cool? but tedious on some parts. I was a little dissapointed, to be quite honest. It's not bad by any means (it's fun!) but, I don't know, all that buzz surrounding it... i was a little hyped and it didn't pay off that much. That said, I loved that Akira-esque ending. that's for sure.

And now, I'm playing GC Twilight Princess at home whenever I can manage to have some time alone, It Takes Two with my SO, and, on the bus and generally on the go, Three Hopes. The first two... I'm loving them - Twilight Princess is the last remaining Zelda I had, and a game I played when I was a child but never was I able to go further than the third dungeon; now I'm on the last one and I love it. It Takes Two, totally different game, but very Mario-esque on its approach to one level-one idea phylosophy. But Three Hopes... yeah, I'm not feeling it. After +200h on Three Houses and ~150h on Age of Calamity, I was over the moon with the release of this one, but I'm finding it... kinda tedious? I couldn't care less about the main character and it's a retelling of something that I spent 200 hours in, so nothing new on this front. I don't know if I'll finish it or I'll let it down in some days.

1. Super Mario Land
2. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
3. Super Mario Land 3: WarioLand
4. Inside
5. Twilight Princess (GC)
6. Three Hopes (1/3)

I've finally done it!! After... what, 13 years? I've managed to beat Twilight Princess!! It's a strange feeling - not proud, but similar. And yes, I've love it. But, as happened to me as I was playing Wind Waker a couple months ago, I really, really want to experience them handheld. I almost never play on TV, and I don't like it so much, with a lot of days between sessions, so it has definitely harmed my enjoyment of it. Just port them to Switch, please.

And... first route on Three Hopes done! It finally clicked, but not like... a lot a lot. Just enough to enjoy the experience, but I need for sure some time in between until I try the next rout (just experienced Dimitri, next in line is Claude, same as my original playthrough for Three Houses). It was fine, but worse than both the real Fire Emblem and Age of Calamity, so a little dissapointed. Still making progress with It Takes Two, tho, I think in a week or so it'd be finished!

Next, more backlog time until TotK: Metro 2033 and, after that, Star Wars for the Game Boy. That one is gonna be tough.

 

[Barely Able]

2-6 - Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Super Metroid, Metroid Samus Returns, Metroid Dread (replays)

Did all of these for the Metroid badge challenge. Lumping them all together. Have to say, they all are good! Dread is the best probably, but have a soft spot for zero mission. So much fun to replay all of these again.

 

[smoothies]

Game Two
Gunstar Heroes
[Sega Genesis Classics, Switch]
[4 out of 5]

For the Exploring NSO thread, I began playing Light Crusader. While I ultimately bounced off of that game, I became very intrigued about the studio behind it - Treasure. The night after going to a barcade, I was looking for a fun Sunday morning game to play and zoomed through most of Gunstar Heroes in one sitting. I finished it that evening. It's a very fun Contra-style game that seems to borrow inspiration from games like Gradius for both the weapon system and a later level with a great gameplay twist. One recurring boss - Seven Force - is especially inspired: it's a giant mech that switches between seven forms and attack patterns. Everything is very smooth. Considering the amount of action, the game runs very well and looks good. While it was very fun, I do wonder if I will remember it for long. The studio prides itself in making unique games for their own pleasure, and I'm all about that, but the world here does come across a little generic. This game made me want to eventually explore more of Treasure's work, especially Ikaruga. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it.