Your 2020 Gaming Diary

[Aperson]

@drahkon  Yeah, part in Okami is one of the more surprising things about it.

 

Spoiler

Especially considering the game has been seemingly about the tale of defeating Orochi, but it's like they went above and beyond that to something even greater. I won't say too much, but the way this game ends is why I have always felt a sequel was going to be very difficult to actually do. This game is among my top three games of all time and the fact that this whole Orochi section was just the game's opening section just makes the whole thing feel even more grander. In fact... you aren't even halfway through the game yet! I will say no more...

 

Anyway, the newest episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is up and it's the shortest one in the series. With Fusion finished I kind of want to get this LP done with before the FF7 Remake comes out.

 

 

You'll understand from the video why this one was so short. And after all this time too...

Edited March 27, 2020 by GenericAperson

[drahkon]

10 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

@drahkon  Yeah, part in Okami is one of the more surprising things about it.

Hm? I'm not playing Okami.

[Aperson]

2 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Hm? I'm not playing Okami.

Sorry, wrong person. I saw it on the previous page, double checked and meant to tag @Vileplume2000

[Cube]

Me and my girlfriend played through A Way Out. It's a really fun two player game. I would have looked more puzzles and stuff (most of them are at the start) bit it's still very solid.

[nekunando]

 

[Aperson]

To make up for the last one being rather short compared to others... this one ended up being quite long.

 

 

 

I wanted to get a lot done in this one, the boss battle and the powerup were two seperate things in the game but they happen fairly close enough to each other that the middle portion was something I felt I could cover. That being said, it COULD have been a bit shorter if it weren't for the fact that on arrival in the Ing Hive, complete and utter fail happened.

 

And yes, the episode title is a reference but also on multiple levels because of what Samus gets at the end of it.

[Cube]

Played through Titanfall 2. It's very short but very impressive. The lab level was a highlight - although I wish they did a bit more with the particular aspect from it. . 

[Aperson]

Precursor to the best boss fight in the game... but I needed the Temple Keys first.

 

 

 

Planning this one out was going to be tricky. Want Quadraxis to be his own episode but I needed somewhere to collect the last two Temple Keys so this ended up pretty short. I couldn't justify picking up some pickups either because I realised that most of them have been picked up along the way save for the few that require every powerup in the game and ones that can be collected on the way. I noticed a pattern in how Amorbis was Part 11, Chykka was Part 22 so I thought Quadraxis would be Part 33, looks like I was one off in that regard.

[Jimbob]

Finished the final Assassin's Creed title ive not played on PS4 being Assassin's Creed Rogue the other day.  Can't fault it too bad, story is decent enough and I quite like Shay as a character.  A few people didn't like this title, but it's underrated as a whole.
 

With that done, decided to give Days Gone another go.  Bit more into it, the story's coming out more.  Have upgraded my bike a bit, so at least I can travel further between fuel stops (a nice feature which at the moment I've been lucky on for refueling, but I guess you could be unlucky and have a horde come through as you need fuel).  Deacon seems a decent character, but I'll find out more as the game progresses.

[drahkon]

12 1/2 hours into Tangledeep.

Got very close to dying (and in turn losing all progress with my current character) quite a few times. I really need to reduce my pace.
Think I'm getting close to the final boss. Haven't found any meaningful upgrades for my equipment and I can't enhance my weapon/armor anymore. Looks like it's all about tactics now.

I still don't understand how breeding pets works. I've let a couple of my beasts "have fun" and the offspring should be stronger, but it doesn't feel like it is

Anyways, great game. Money well spent so far.

[Aperson]

Been looking forward to this one. It's the epic boss fight against Quadraxis, the best boss in the game.

 

 

 

I must admit, of all the boss fights I've had the way this one played out was epic, I really thought I was going to get a game over there...

[Ike]

Quadraxis is a pain because it has so many scans, I kept missing one so had to keep restarting/got killed.

[Aperson]

3 minutes ago, Ike said:

Quadraxis is a pain because it has so many scans, I kept missing one so had to keep restarting/got killed.

5 scans and it's so easy to miss one. On top of that it also has the limited quantity scan that is the Dark Quad so if you miss it first time through Sanctuary Temple this is the only time you can get them. I missed the head module first time around and I might not have got it so easily had I not been doing an LP of this and rewatching footage from Part 25 to notice my mistake. That has been quite helpful to see what scans and powerups I skipped out on.

 

Prime 2 has so many off-ball obscure scans, it's no wonder I have never finished the logbook for this game... and still won't in spite of attempting a 100% playthrough, stupid Ing Webtrap...

Edited March 30, 2020 by GenericAperson

[Ike]

47 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Prime 2 has so many off-ball obscure scans, it's no wonder I have never finished the logbook for this game... and still won't in spite of attempting a 100% playthrough, stupid Ing Webtrap...

Yup, missed a boss room door lock scan because I figured it would show up again. Nope, one time only!

[drahkon]

Finished one playthrough of Q-YO Blaster.

I've played much better shmups. But for 99cts it was ok. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Aperson]

Prime 2 continues and since I'm getting towards the end I'm really ramping up recording progress ahead of episode releases. This episode sees the Light Suit being obtained and the start of the Sky Temple Key hunt.

 

 

Finding the most striking image of the Light Suit was a challenge. Refraining from taking any Temple Keys before the end game quest and ensuring I go to the Sky Temple gate however was not.

 

I posted a clip of it on Twitter but a really amusing thing happens in a later episode...

[Aperson]

A Metroid may have interfered with this episode...

 

 

 

Sound will return to normal next episode... by the time I realised the mic was too loud the game had already been saved.

[drahkon]

Credits in Animal Crossing: New Hoirzons have rolled. This means I consider it "finished" for my list, but I'll keep playing.

Positive:

• very relaxing
• came at the perfect time, but I would've probably enjoyed it in "normal" times, too
• gorgeous, cute, lots of charm
• lots to do, see, explore

Negative

• easily one of, if not the worst online system I've seen
  • constant cutscenes when people enter/leave the island - my biggest issue with it
  • the questionnaire you have to work your way through every single time you want to travel
  • apparently the seasonal events are locked behind internet connection
  • the whole "only one island per system" and "no cloud save" disaster
  • come on, Nintendo, we pay for your online service, this is a first party game and the online system isn't even close to the industry standard
• some weird design choices like no crafting in bulk, materials not taken out of your storage, no auto sort in your inventory, tedious terraforming
• the amount of text you have to get through even though you've read them a million times already - just give us the option to skip

Since I don't dabble much with the game's online offering it doesn't affect me that much, but it's still worth pointing out and should be criticised a lot more. I've given up hope that Nintendo will ever change their stance on their online system, though.

[Aperson]

Don't the credits in an Animal Crossing game roll usually simply by listening to K.K. Slider anyway?

 

Anyway, I was going to finish my Metroid Prime 2 LP today in terms of recording but came down with something which meant I was unable to talk comfortably for long periods of time, I will finish the game tomorrow. Here's the next part of the LP meanwhile.

 

 

Despite being a fetch side quest episode there is a major new addition to the arsenal and it includes perhaps the silliest moment in the entire LP. I burst out laughing when I saw this and clipped it in a Tweet. Skip to 19:08 for said moment in the video, I'll post the tweet after the next episode comes out.

 

The plan was to finish the LP before Final Fantasy VII Remake comes out. But then... Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) came out early so I ended up starting that instead this evening... 

[drahkon]

Haven't played Animal Crossing much today. Only a few minutes.

Tangledeep, on the other hand...3 1/2 hours.
I've come to grips with several mechanics, especially breeding pets. So that's pretty cool.

Managed to reach what I assume is the halfway point again in the new run. I feel much better prepared than in the first few attempts. Even though I didn't bother to upgrade my gear, yet.

Looking forward to spending more time with it tomorrow.
Really happy with the game. It's worth every penny

[Jonnas]

Managed to get a couple of short games in before March ended:

Kirby's Pinball Land

Already a recurring boss in 1993

Despite my love for the Game Boy, I don't think I've ever tried this title. I remember one kid in my school having it, and I definitely remember trying out Gator Pinball (from the same developers), but not Kirby's first ever spin-off. Well, the 3DS VC version was discounted on MyNintendo, so why not? It's gotta be short, right?

So, we start with the quasi-choice of 3 tables (Whispy, Poppy, and Kracko). Each table has three screens of their own, each with their own flippers (and you move from one to the other via an opening above or below). The lower screen spells death if you fall (with a chance to "save" Kirby if you have good timing), while the uppermost screen as a full ceiling. Each table has a set of interactions and/or objectives that you can fulfill in order to reach your goal: that table's boss.

The lower screen usually features two enemies, one who will launch you upwards if you hit them enough times, and another which will spawn a warp star that takes you back to Table Select (without losing your current score, you just keep on playing). The middle one features a task involving a larger Kirby, which will either launch you upwards, or spawn a warp star that takes you to a minigame. The upper one features a more involving task where the goal is the warp star that will take you to the boss (whom you must defeat without letting Kirby fall). In the middle of all of this, there are always ways to acquire temporary boons (stuff that temporarily blocks the gaps you can fall through).

Game feel is good. Not as tight as Pokémon Pinball, but floatier physics fit Kirby well. My main complaint is that it's super easy for Kirby himself to fall through the side gaps as if there's a magnet there, and it feels unavoidable. I get it, with 3-screen system, falling isn't as punitive as in other Pinball games, but if it happens, it still resets whatever progress you were making up there, which is frustrating.

The tables themselves were creative, and felt truly distinct, with some truly fun objectives which I never really got bored of. The boss battles were even better, each with creative attacks that made sense, a fast pace, and a decent challenge. Lots of cool polished ideas in this small game, and I'm guessing that's Sakurai's hand at work (he directed this game, you see).

Just like I guessed, the game turned out to be really short: after defeating the three bosses, you face King Dedede. After you defeat him, the game's beaten, and you loop back to the beginning, to increase your score even further for your current run. Since I wanted something short, I decided to end it here, but the truth is, deep down, I kinda wanted to see more tables and/or bosses with this level of creativity.

Game Feel.....3/5
Table Design..4/5
Boss Battles...4/5
Longevity........2/5

Perfectly pleasant pinball, playable in your pocket. I think that's what one of S.C.G.'s Virtual Console reviews would say (Sakurai: [laughs]). But it's the truth, it was a fun diversion.

 

Pikuniku

I respect any game that allows you to climb on roofs for no reason

That's right, Pikuniku! The hottest game of 2019 that was also discounted at 0,99€ a couple of weeks ago. You read @Ashley's review, you heard @londragon's impressions on the N-Europe Café, and now, it's time for one of Jonnas' hot takes.

Charm............4/5
Difficulty..........1/5
Interactivity......3/5
Wobbliness.....5/5

Ok, not that hot. I mirror many of their thoughts. It's a short, simple, pleasant game, a good fit for children and/or people normally unused to videogames. And also us fogeys looking to relax.

In a world that reminds me of Mr.Men, you play as this red circle with legs (name not mentioned, but I'm assuming it's Pikuniku) that just... wobbles around the place. Yes, he walks... wobblibly. I believe this is what Monty Python calls "silly walking". He can also tuck his legs inside and roll around the place, jump in a spring-like BWOING fashion, and kick things with his legs in a somewhat inaccurate, but undeniably fun, manner.

The game functions like a Metroidvania, where you move to and fro, talk to NPCs, pick up items and bring them to where they're supposed to be, and generally follow a straightforward list of objectives, with the occasional maze/dungeon in between. The tasks can get creative, like having to draw a cartoony face, or do a quick dance minigame. Nothing hard or complicated (some boss battles might feel like small difficulty spikes, but the game's very forgiving on failure), and your character doesn't evolve much, though he gains snazzy accessories here and there. Thankfully, there's a good chunk of optional mazes/levels, challenges, items or characters to meet outside of the main quest, which is always positive, proper rewards for your sense of exploration (though it must be said, the final level suddenly throws a point of no return at you, making me miss a collectible. I was miffed, to say the least).

One thing that makes this game fun to explore is how Pikuniku interacts with everything. When you walk into a movable object he just sort of... pushes his face against it, and if the object is movable, the physics engine will let it be pushed. If you roll, the same thing happens (though the object might roll over you). You can also just kick it if you prefer, occasionally producing childishly funny results. You can do this to boulders, vases in people's houses, or the NPCs themselves (in fact, I never got tired of just walking to NPCs and push my way through them, like some sort of wobbly Terminator). Honestly, I just wish I could've interacted with all the things, like background bookshelves and such. I found myself disappointed whenever I couldn't flip a table by kicking it.

The plot is silly and easy to digest: local CEO promises free money in exchange for local resources, but those ventures hide a sinister plan. The writing is light-hearted, simple, and fun, with pretty much every NPC you meet along the way is charming, silly, or both. They make small talk, they take just a smidge too long to reach obvious conclusions, they even do some wobbling themselves from time to time. Londragon mentioned their humour tends too much to the adult side, but I personally don't see it, as they don't make any crass jokes or anything, just subtle references or allusions to more complicated subjects (not too dissimilar to how the Astérix books do it), and to me that's ideal.

So yeah, clocking at roughly 3 hours, I'm pleased with the game, though with that length and difficulty, I personally don't think I'd pay more than a couple of Euros for it. Maybe if I had a kid to initiate in these sorts of games, but by myself, "neat" is how I feel about it.

 

  My 2020 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018) Completed (January 13th)

-Mr.Driller: Drill Spirits (2004) Beat (January 30th)

-Dragon Ball Fighterz (2018) Beat (February 22nd)

-Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (2008) Completed (February 25th)

-Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle (2018) No Goal (March 13th)

-Professor Layton and the Curious Village (2008) Completed (March 23rd)

-Kirby's Pinball Land (1993) Completed (March 28th)

-Pikuniku (2019) Beat (March 31st)

 

Currently Playing:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

-Bravely Default (2013)

On an uplifting note, I will be having next week off work. I might get some good progress on a couple of games I really want to play. Maybe even a certain Pod Pals game...

Edited April 3, 2020 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

Finished Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology recently. I'm on mobile, so no hilarious captioned pictures.

It's an enhanced 3DS port of my favourite DS RPG, Radiant Historia, which never came out in Europe originally.

You play as Stocke, a secret agent working for the Alistel army. Apparently, he's really good at his job, despite wearing a bright red cape. One day, he's given a job by his boss, Heiss, along with a strange white book. He's also put in charge of two mercenaries, Raynie and Marco, for this assignment.

Upon meeting the spy he had to get intel from, everything goes proper tits up as the Granorgian army (They're the bad guys), seems to be one step ahead of Stocke the entire time. The whole mission is hopeless, Raynie and Marco die and Stocke has no choice but to jump into a raging river.

Suddenly, that book comes into play and Stocke is transported to a strange place called Historia. Two children, Teo and Lippti, guard this place and tell Stocke that the White Chronicle he has allows him to travel around in time. He can use this to fix the mistakes he made in the past. In return, Stocke is made to promise that he'll use this power to find a way to stop the desertification that the world is slowly falling victim to.

That time travel is the key mechanic for this game. There are two timelines that originate from an initial decision that you make at the start of the game and you have to jump all over the place to find the one path that'll save the world from becoming the world's biggest sand castle. Going down one timeline will sooner or later get you to a dead end where it's impossible to carry on for some reason and you'll more than likely have to go to the other timeline to see if you can find an event that'll affect the first timeline.

You see, the two timelines affect each other. For example, saving a demolitions expert in one timeline will mean that he shows up to where he was supposed to be in the other timeline, allowing you to blow up some rocks that are blocking the way. It all makes sense in context and a very strong plot with some great characters helps to make it all the more engaging. Stocke may just be one of my favourite JRPG protagonists precisely because he knows what he's doing and isn't an utter idiot, I can honestly believe he's good at his job.

It's also worth mentioning that there's well over 30 endings. Granted, most of them are not the ideal outcome you're looking for. They normally come around when you make a choice that thoroughly screws everything up. You're not really punished too hard for finding these bad endings (You can travel through time, after all), so it's quite entertaining to see just how bad things can get. The best thing about this is that you're taken back to Historia after getting a bad ending and effectively told off by Teo and Lippti, especially if what you did was really, really stupid. One of my favourites came around when I had to input the right code to stop some kind of robot scientist from malfunctioning. I already knew the code from another timeline, but I messed around with the other options, only to find that 4444 was the self destruct code that the guy programmed into himself. The resulting conversation at Historia was similarly amusing, as it boiled down to Teo and Lippti effectively saying "Well, that was unlucky" and Stocke interrupting to point out "Who programs themselves to blow up like that!?"

This 3DS port adds full voice acting for any character important enough to have a portrait during dialogue, which is always worrying, but thankfully, the voice work is solid here. I heard Heiss' voice and I immediately thought, "Yeah, that's a great fit".

When you're not messing with timelines, you'll be in battles. It is an RPG after all. Radiant Historia's battle system revolves around swapping turns around. You can effectively choose who goes next, but do this and the character that swapped their turn will be left vulnerable until they act. Why do this then? Well, manipulating the turns like this can let your party bunch their turns together and perform combos by attacking one after the other, doing more damage and getting more experience and money.

The other key battle mechanic involves physically moving the enemy around. The enemy is on a 3X3 grid. The closer they are to your party, the more damage they'll give and take. Some characters can shove enemies around to change how much damage they do. Or you can manipulate the enemy positions so they are all on the same spot. This allows any later attacks in the combo to hit everyone on that spot.

I probably make it sound more complicated than it is.

And if that isn't enough, the 3DS port adds a third timeline to explore! It's surprisingly lengthy too, focusing on "what if" scenarios where one key detail differs from the original game. You can choose to have these happen during the plot or only have them available once you finish the original plot. Oh, and there's plenty of bad endings to discover here as well.

The whole package is more than worth the money that I paid. (5 quid in the latest sale). The only downside I'd say this port has is that the redone character art looks really generic compared to the original game. The original art had a nice rustic style that helped it to stand out, but on the 3DS, characters look more like the standard Japanese style we've seen many times before. You can purchase the option to have the original style with real money. It's really cheeky and it doesn't even apply that art to the menus, but I paid 5 quid for the actual game, so I didn't mind dropping an extra couple of quid on it, Radiant Historia is that good.

So yeah, if you haven't played this and like a good turn-based RPG that does something unique, play Radiant Historia! Play it now!

Edited April 3, 2020 by Glen-i

[killthenet]

Posting a little bit late as I wanted to finish the last game before posting a write up. Didn't get through as many in the past month but it started out with a long overdue play through of Onimusha Warlords on Switch. It's one of those games that I've always been interested in playing but for some reason or other never got around to buying, the re-release on Switch was the perfect excuse to finally hop in. I enjoyed it in parts but it is certainly pretty rough in some areas, the most glaring problems were the inability to skip cutscenes and the fact that it kicks you out to the menu every time you get a game over - makes the more frustrating boss fights even more annoying when you're forced to go through the menus again and watch an excruciating cinematic. There is fun to be had in the hack and slash gameplay and it's definitely charming in some respects but it does feel quite dated now.

Next I played through Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels on the NES online app. One of the few mainline Mario games I hadn't played and I can see why Nintendo of America decided against releasing it in the US, it is obscenely cheap in some of its level design and feels more like a collection of troll Mario Maker levels than a full fledged Mario Bros game. Glad I've given it some time but I can't see myself ever wanting to touch it again.

Worked my way through another disappointing sequel in DOOM II (also on Switch). I picked it up along with DOOM 3 in the recent sale on the eShop, I played through the first DOOM for the first time ever late last year and felt like I enjoyed myself most of the time but this was more annoying. I just don't get the level design in these games at all, not helped by the awful map screen, when I hear people waxing about these games they are always talking about how brilliant the level design is but it just seems wilfully confusing to me - not intuitive or navigable in the slightest. DOOM II really suffers from being bloated too, felt like a real slog to get through. I'm hoping DOOM 3 will feel a bit more inviting but I'll be taking a bit of a break from demon slaying before I get around to that one.

Finally I finished A Plague Tale: Innocence last night and despite some obvious flaws I really enjoyed it. It owes an awful lot to The Last of Us - the dynamics of the two main characters, the music, the setting even the pacing are reminiscent of Naughty Dog's 2013 hit. It manages to pull it off though, there is enough of its own identity there for it to tell an engaging story. Amicia and Hugo are interesting characters for the most part and some of the chapters are utterly gripping but it falls apart a bit when it dips too far into the super natural - I had assumed it was a straight historical tale about the bubonic plague but it's clear from very early on that something else it at play, I wouldn't mind this but the game is certainly at its best when it plays as a tense stealth game. It suffers from some obtuse design in places, it's sometimes hard to fathom what exactly you're supposed to be doing at times - it could do with explaining itself a little more clearly - but for the most part I was really impressed by it. 

Not sure how many games I'll get to in April, I plan on reading a few books before delving into anything too involved and I've got Animal Crossing eating up the majority of my gaming hours for the time being but I did pick up Dark Souls III and Death Stranding so I've got plenty of big adventures to sink my teeth into during the lockdown.

[drahkon]

Tangledeep can be ridiculous at times

[Aperson]

Officially finished recording the Metroid Prime 2 Echoes Let's Play, it will finish this Sunday with a total of 38 episodes and I went to a grand scale for the finale.

 

In the meantime, the newest episode is up:

 

 

Interesting that they give you an entirely new enemy/obstacle for one of the keys to make it more of a late game area. Also it is in the next episode that I realise that the Missile count was inaccurate as I forgot that you get 5 Missiles when you get the Seeker Missiles.

 

Also, the event which I thought was the highlight of the last episode? Here it is in tweet form.

 

 

Most hilarious thing I've ever seen in this game...

 

Well, guess the only thing left to play now is a little game called Final Fantasy VII Remake...