Your 2021 Gaming Diary

[RedShell]

A few more completed games to add to my diary, starting with...

The Medium.

At first I was really enjoying this game, it felt like a modern day version of the classic Resident Evil titles, but as time went on it became less and less enjoyable. I was expecting them to do some cool stuff with the split-screen mechanic (where you control the same character across two unique versions of the environment in real-time) but unfortunately it never really happened, the majority of the puzzles involving the split-screen were in fact pretty disappointing. There was basically no action in the game either apart from some stealth sections, but these were often infuriating due to it not always being clear exactly how to avoid detection, and failure would usually result in having to go through unskippable cutscenes/dialogue again. So yeah, the game certainly had potential, but ultimately it was a bit meh.

Next up I turned to something that I knew wouldn't let me down, Yakuza 3!

I was very pleased to see the remastered collection arrive on Game Pass, because having started playing the Yakuza series with the 4th game back on PS+, I'd never gotten around to actually playing 3. The original release of Yakuza 4 had an extensive catch-up mode though, so I was aware of what went down in Yakuza 3, it made playing through it now a weirdly nostalgic yet fresh experience. I think the main thing that struck me is the pacing of it, it really does take ages to get going! Having said that, I quite liked all the early game stuff involving the orphanage, it was surprisingly chilled-out and helps to showcase just what a great character Kiryu is. Speaking of which...
 

Spoiler

...that part where Rikiya is killed and Kiryu absolutely breaks down! Holy shit! Super emotional scene and an utterly fantastic performance by Kiryu's voice actor. Amazing stuff.

And as is always the case with Yakuza, there were plenty of funnies too, especially....

Reminded me of this.

Anyway, it was great to finally experience the events of Yakuza 3 first-hand, and the remaster was very good indeed. The increased resolution and frame rate on PC is awesome, the only downside is the FMV scenes I guess (which are heavily compressed and really showing their age at this point) but other than that it was spot-on.

I have since downloaded Yakuza 4. Not sure if I'll replay the entire thing (probably not) but I definitely want to at least check out Akiyama's chapter again, mainly for the parts with Hana.

And last up is UnderMine.

This is a game that I'd been playing on and off for a while now, gradually chipping away at it. I'm not a huge fan of the roguelike genre, but this one got me hooked with it's charming presentation and enjoyable gameplay. There are many nods to the Legend of Zelda series in there too which also helped. I think the reason it took me so long to finish is mainly because I wasn't very good at it but also that I'd only ever play it in short bursts as it's a great pick up and play game. Although it did get slightly annoying about halfway through, when the cost of upgrades increased dramatically but obtaining/keeping enough gold to purchase them was tricky. Made it much more of a grind than it needed to be really. But yeah, I got there in the end.

The same cannot be said for Cyber Shadow, which some of you may have noticed is missing from the list below, despite me mentioning it earlier in this thread. The truth is (and as I expected) I just wasn't able to stick with it. I get that they were going for punishing difficulty akin to the 8-Bit era, but in my opinion they took it too far. Or perhaps I'm just too old for it now. Either way, I simply didn't have the patience for it so decided to call it quits.

Games completed in 2021:

1. Tetris Effect: Connected
2. Doom Eternal
3. Dragon Quest XI
4. The Medium
5. Yakuza 3 Remastered
6. UnderMine

[Hero-of-Time]

I never realised that you didn't play Yakuza 3. I know you started with 4 but I always assumed you picked it up after finishing the fourth entry.

I really enjoyed the orphanage stuff. It was a nice way to chill and get to know the kids he was taking care of. As for your spoiler, yeah, exceptional VA work, as is always the case in these games. 

Shame about Cyber Shadow but totally understandable. 

[RedShell]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I never realised that you didn't play Yakuza 3. I know you started with 4 but I always assumed you picked it up after finishing the fourth entry.

Nope, after 4 I picked up Yakuza Dead Souls (now there's a game that could do with a remaster!) and then I think I went through in the order the games were released, so... Yakuza 5, 0, Kiwami, 6 and Kiwami 2.

By that point the idea of returning to the PS3 to play Yakuza 3 wasn't very appealing so it was a case of wait for a Kiwami 3 (which obviously never happened) or skip it. Then of course the remastered collection became a thing, and with that now being on Game Pass I finally had the perfect opportunity to play it.

[Aperson]

More progress to report in Dark Souls... I now have defeated all four Lords!

 

Demon Ruins felt like a Boss Rush. Not only because there were three boss battles in such a short space of time but also because a lot of the regular enemies are former bosses like Taurus Demons and Capra Demons.

 

Ceaseless Discharge took me a few goes, Demon Firesage was surprisingly the hardest of the three given that he's effectively a reskin. The Centipede Demon was kind of tough but eventually managed to beat it after it wandered out onto solid platform. So then I went in to Lost Izalith but not before checking up on... SOLAIRE! PRAISE THE SUN!

 

Ahem... anyway after that I went to Lost Izalith and burned alive in the lava because I didn't realise I now had a ring that allowed me to survive the lava. Equipped that instead and ran into the lava, finding yet another bonifre (seriously, these two locations have five bonfires between them though none of them are warpable). After trying and failing to farm the Titanite Demon there I decided to do the Bed of Chaos next... and I'm not even sure if I can say I beat it properly because I died about 5 times, yet on multiple occasions the objective changed because the fight is checkpointed so you don't have to destroy the sides multiple tines. So the "successful attempt" was just running and jumping onto the branch that lead to the weak point... which dies in one hit? OK.

 

The boss might have been a bit more manageable if its sweeping hand attacks didn't knock you into bottomless pits and causing instant death... 

 

This however is not quite the complete end stretch of the game. I decided to upgrade my Demon Spear to Level 5 so went back to Anor Londo to get some Demon Titanite that I missed. Ended up getting enough to get the +5 Demon Spear. I also have a +15 Balder Side Sword so completely switched up my equipment for the late game. I think these two are pretty powerful weapons and the Demon Spear has now replaced my Silver Knight Spear +5 that I was using for about half the game. So long old friend...

 

I did get the "Prepare to Die Edition" so the DLC was preloaded onto the disc (I'm playing on PS3). I looked up how to get into the DLC and... I'm now in the Sanctuary Garden. This is where I currently am in the game and next time around I will be trying to do the DLC. I expect it might be harder than the final boss but I suppose this is as good a time as any to do this in game.

[Cube]

I replayed Saints Row IV. The superpowers make it an extremely fun game, lots of fun riffs of other games and some great lines ("That light had a family"). I definitely think it's the best in the series. Characters are a lot of fun, too. The Christmas DLC is a lot of fun. I wasn't a big fan of Enter the Domanatrix (BDSM jokes aren't my thing) but it was worth it for the "escape" scene and ending.

Also tried out Gat Out of Hell for the first time. Also a lot of fun - after a few upgrades, flying around with angel wings was a ton of fun. The big weakness is very few missions (mostly just challenges in the open world). Seems odd to let you play as Kinzie when the cutscenes give Gat all the credit anyway, but was still a blast to play. The musical number surprised me but I loved it. 

Most recently played The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I do disagree with one thing about the lack of "hand holding" - something should make a hint to how the "Touch" thing means you have to do something (to begin with, I presumed you were left to your own devices in figuring stuff out instead of having to work out the "right" answer to be confirmed by the game. That said, once I figured it out, I enjoyed it much more. It was great discovering the "stories" along the way (I missed some but the game lets you warp to near the location near the end) and felt like I was actually figuring stuff out. Definitely the best "walking simulator" I've played. 

 

Spoiler

Completed

Donkey Kong 64 (Wii U) 101% - 1st Jan
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order (PS4) Platinum - 5th Jan
Star Wars Squadrons (PS4) Main Story - 10th Jan
Bioshock Remastered (PS4) Main Story - 12th Jan
Bioshock 2 Remastered (PS4) Main Story + DLC - 16th Jan
Bioshock Infinite (PS4) Main Story + DLC - 21st Jan
Grim Fandango (PS4) - 25th Jan
The Secret of Monkey Island (PS4) - 27th Jan
Monkey Island 2 (PS4) - 29th Jan
Day of the Tentacle (PS4) - 30th Jan
WET (PS4) - 31st Jan
Star Wars Racer Revenge (PS4) Tournament - 31st Jan
GoldenEye (PC) - 3rd Feb
Concrete Genie (PS4) Platinum - 8th Feb
Little Nightmares (PS4) - 10th Feb
Moving Out (PC) - 14th Feb
Saints Row IV (PS4) - 17th Feb
Gat out of Hell (PS4) - 21st Feb
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) - 22nd Feb

List of Shame (Unfinished)
The Crew 2 (PS4) - Forced Online
The Medium (PC) - Tedious controls, weak puzzles
Darksiders (PS4) - Boring

Games With No End
Sea of Thieves (PC)
 

 

[Goron_3]

I've decided that Sekiro just isn't for me. I was buzzing after the Lady Butterfly and Genshiro fight but since then I've found that when I'm up against most bosses or sub-bosses, I'm actively trying to find ways of cheesing them. I appreciate what Miyazaki has tried to do here and when it works it's brilliant (Genshiro is better than any boss I've come across in any of his other games) but those moments don't come across often enough. 

I think it's great how they've tried to put less emphasis on just rolling and dodging (this was especially a problem with the combat in Dark Souls 3) and so trying to make the combat feel like actual, aggressive swordplay was a pretty brave decision, but it's just not my cup of tea. I'm also not a fan of skill trees, and it's a shame they're in the game. Maybe one day I'll come back to it.

Next up: Raging Loop on Switch and Bowser's Fury.

 

[Sheikah]

I've decided that Sekiro just isn't for me. I was buzzing after the Lady Butterfly and Genshiro fight but since then I've found that when I'm up against most bosses or sub-bosses, I'm actively trying to find ways of cheesing them. I appreciate what Miyazaki has tried to do here and when it works it's brilliant (Genshiro is better than any boss I've come across in any of his other games) but those moments don't come across often enough. 
I think it's great how they've tried to put less emphasis on just rolling and dodging (this was especially a problem with the combat in Dark Souls 3) and so trying to make the combat feel like actual, aggressive swordplay was a pretty brave decision, but it's just not my cup of tea. I'm also not a fan of skill trees, and it's a shame they're in the game. Maybe one day I'll come back to it.
Next up: Raging Loop on Switch and Bowser's Fury.
 

Git gud

[Goron_3]

15 hours ago, Sheikah said:

16 hours ago, Goron_3 said:

I've decided that Sekiro just isn't for me. I was buzzing after the Lady Butterfly and Genshiro fight but since then I've found that when I'm up against most bosses or sub-bosses, I'm actively trying to find ways of cheesing them. I appreciate what Miyazaki has tried to do here and when it works it's brilliant (Genshiro is better than any boss I've come across in any of his other games) but those moments don't come across often enough. 
I think it's great how they've tried to put less emphasis on just rolling and dodging (this was especially a problem with the combat in Dark Souls 3) and so trying to make the combat feel like actual, aggressive swordplay was a pretty brave decision, but it's just not my cup of tea. I'm also not a fan of skill trees, and it's a shame they're in the game. Maybe one day I'll come back to it.
Next up: Raging Loop on Switch and Bowser's Fury.
 

Git gud

Lolllllll bugger off

Tbh, it's not the difficulty. I just don't find the moment to moment gameplay very exciting. Might jump back in at one point.

[Cube]

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Short but I liked it...I think. I'll put more detail in a spoiler tag just in case but still try to keep is spoiler free. I feel the puzzles could be a bit more complicated, and there was one that didn't really work from a logic point of view (as in there's an obvious solution, but as it's not the intended solution it doesn't work).

Spoiler

It's surprisingly dark and depressing, definitely not the cute game it looks like. One big moment in particular I think could have been handled better in terms of the story, but the gameplay impact and control still make it somewhat powerful of a moment. 

Transistor. I'm not a huge fan of "active pause" games, but really enjoyed this (although some near-end battles felt a bit annoying). Really nice style and great music.

[drahkon]

After quite a long time I've finally been able to afford a game I've been wanting to play: Frostpunk.
(It's on sale on the PSN store, if anybody's interested)

It's a city-building game that incorporates a lot of survival mechanics. I haven't had a lot of time to properly give it a go, but I've managed to play a few minutes and get a basic idea of what this game is all about: misery, compromise and micromanagement.

You have to make decisions that are not that easy. For example: You can establish a law: How about child labour?
Pro: You get more workers and in turn resource gathering is more productive
Con: It's child labour Hope falls. And that is bad, because - if I understand it correctly - once hope is lost, you lose the game.

There are more pros and cons, of course, and a lot more laws you can establish.

I immediately lost 12 of my people after the first day. I may have done something wrong

Can't wait to spend more time with Frostpunk. I can only imagine that the longer a game goes on, the more harrowing it gets.

[Tales]

13 minutes ago, drahkon said:

After quite a long time I've finally been able to afford a game I've been wanting to play: Frostpunk.
(It's on sale on the PSN store, if anybody's interested)

It's a city-building game that incorporates a lot of survival mechanics. I haven't had a lot of time to properly give it a go, but I've managed to play a few minutes and get a basic idea of what this game is all about: misery, compromise and micromanagement.

You have to make decisions that are not that easy. For example: You can establish a law: How about child labour?
Pro: You get more workers and in turn resource gathering is more productive
Con: It's child labour Hope falls. And that is bad, because - if I understand it correctly - once hope is lost, you lose the game.

There are more pros and cons, of course, and a lot more laws you can establish.

I immediately lost 12 of my people after the first day. I may have done something wrong

Can't wait to spend more time with Frostpunk. I can only imagine that the longer a game goes on, the more harrowing it gets.

This is one my favourite indie games. Finished it a long time ago, but every now and then I start it up again just to have one more go on the first campaign or free play.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Tales

[Hero-of-Time]

I've had a busy week.

Worms Rumble

I finally nabbed the platinum for the game. It took a serious amount of grinding but I got there in the end. It was hilarious watching seeing all of the AFK players in the matches. You would have full teams in a game but only a few players actually playing it. I think most people were just there grinding the exp and money.  It was a fun game while it lasted and I did manage to play with a few games with a couple of mates over the Christmas/New Year period. Sadly, they dropped off the game and I was left to fend for myself. This right here is a big reason why I don't bother with multiplayer games much these days. People tend to get bored quickly and move on to something else, whereas I try to finish what I start. 

DeBlob

I picked this up for a couple of quid in the recent PSN sale. I hadn't played the game since it was released on the Wii and I remember loving the game back then. I still enjoyed the game but I forgot what a pain the butt it is when it comes to getting 100% on each level. There are no save points in a stage and so you have to play through each one in a single sitting, some of which can take over an hour to do. What's worse is that the final 2 stages of the game have points of no return. If you miss painting something in the first areas of the stages and then move on, you will have to start again. This happened to me on each of these levels, causing me to lose an hours play time on each. Also, one of the challenges in the game didn't get modified for the new controls. In the Wii version, the faster you shook the Wiimote, the faster you would paint a building but that isn't the case here. This means that one of the challenges is EXTREMELY tight on time and it took many attempts for me to finally nail it.

Speaking of the controls, this is another example of a Wii game being ported to newer consoles and playing absolutely fine without the waggle. Once again showing that a lot of the time the motion controls weren't really needed and were indeed a gimmick.

Deponia Doomsday

I started playing the Deponia games last March. I read that they were point and click games that were full of humour and had a style similar to the old Lucasarts games, like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. I wasn't disappointed in them and swiftly made my way through the first 3 games. This one is the 4th and final entry in the series. I started playing this soon after finishing the other 3 but I stopped when there was a trophy in the game that required you to do something for 2-3 hours. You have to mix and match a few items and create 243 creatures in the game. This put a stop to my time with the game last year but seeing as I had a week off work I decided to try and tackle the thing. I had to print off 9 spreadsheets of info just to get this trophy done and it did take the estimated 2-3 hours to finally achieve. Feels good to finally cross it off the list.

With that out of the way, I was able to continue with the rest of the game and was happy to see that it was hilarious and as the other games, with time travel antics playing a big part in it yet again. The series does remind me of Monkey Island but with a mix of Final Space thrown in. If you like the point and click genre I would certainly recommend giving them a try. Saying that, I read that one of the games has now been delisted due to some racists content that was in it.

Resident Evil 5

I was in the mood to play a Resident Evil game and it has been years since playing this entry of the series. It was on sale for a tenner and so I picked it up. I last played it back on the 360 and done most of it in co-op with a friend, which I found to be a fantastic time. This time I had to play on my own and I was worried about how the AI of Sheva would perform. I remember hearing horror stories about how rubbish the AI was in this game. To my surprise I found it to be absolutely fine. In fact, i'd go as far as to say that it was pretty broken at times. Once I unlocked the magnum with infinite ammo and gave it to her she was picking off enemies left and right without even breaking a sweat. The combo of me having a rocket launcher and her having the magnum worked wonders.

I adore having the infinite ammo weapons in this game. It makes it so much fun to play through the game. Obviously you have to finish the game first and complete it under a set amount of time to unlock certain weapons but once you get them it makes the rest of the playthroughs a breeze. Killing bosses with a single shot on Professional difficulty feels great. Even the mighty Wesker falls prey to a rocket in the face.  

Playing through this game reconfirmed that this is a MUCH better Resident Evil game than Resident Evil 4. I've said that for years now but often wondered if I would still feel that way but playing the game again I can honestly say that my feelings remain the same on the matter.

The Last Campfire

I noticed that there was an indie sale on PSN and seen this was part of it ( @drahkon Castle Crashers finally went on sale....after your mate bought it for you ). I loved the look of this game when I seen it as part of a digital event. Was it part of Nintendo's indie showcase last year? Either way, I was excited to try the game but when it was released I heard it was only a few hours long. The length of a game doesn't bother me but the price has to reflect the time I was going to get out of it and as such I was waiting for a sale to happen.

I LOVE this game. You get to explore 3 small hub worlds and each of these worlds have hidden Embers (NPCs) to find. They have been turned into stone and it's up to you to rescue them. When you approach one of them you are taken into a mini puzzle room. These rooms have you doing things like rolling rocks, manipulating platforms or rotating beams of light. The main character can't jump and so you are limited in what you can do. This makes the puzzles feel more focused and at times I felt like I was playing a mix between Zelda and Captain Toad.  The 3 overworlds that you explore remind me of Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Each of these areas have puzzles to solve in order for you to open things up a little more and make your way forward.

The story is told by a narrator that speaks as you go about your adventure. There are lots of themes touched upon. Things like loneliness, depressions, fear of the future, change and sadness and are brought into light. However, I feel the overall message is one of hope and acceptance. There is a lot left up to the player to interpret for themselves and that's exactly what I done with my take away from the game.

The run time of around 3-4 hours means the game never overstays it's welcome, nor does it try to pad things out in order to increase it's length. It's definitely an indie game I would highly recommend. It's full of charm, has some great puzzles, fantastic musical score ( I played with headphones on and loved the soundtrack ) and 3 great overworlds to explore. I read that the game was made by the guys who worked on the LostWinds games on the Wii. Knowing this, I can now see certain influences in this game that come from those games and it makes sense why I love this game so much because I also adored LostWinds on the WiiWare service.

Here's the launch trailer for those who can't remember it.

 

Undertale

In order to meet my goal of playing an RPG every month, I decided to finally play this game. It was also on sale on PSN and given the praise that this game receives, I figured now would be the time to play it. So, how was it?

I've no idea how this game has received so much praise over the years. The whole thing is just nonsense. It tries to be funny but it just doesn't work at all. For me, the characters just come off as super annoying, with the writing just forcing itself to be funny rather than it feeling natural. The whole game just feels weird for the sake of being weird, with you not actually needing to fight enemies, battles that you can't really lose and characters that look like they are from some rip off Nickelodean show from the 90's.

Also, what the hell is with the trophies for this game? You don't even have to finish the game to unlock them all. I know Toby Fox doesn't like achievements/trophies but he could have at least put some effort into them. Instead it seems he took the huff and made the trophies super generic and boring. He could have been quite creative with them, especially given the endings that can be achieved within the game. I suppose I should be grateful that he didn't go the other way and make them stupidly difficult and obscure. It's been known for some developers to do that just to annoy the achievement and trophy communities. I'm looking at you, FallGuys. 

I did actually finish the game after getting the platinum.

Spoiler

 

The one positive that I can take from the game is that it at least tries something new when it comes to the battle system. I quite liked the bullet hell system that is in place. Dodging enemy attacks in this way was quite fun. Other than that....easily one of the most overrated games i've played. Off the top of my head it's definitely the most overrated indie game i've played.

Link to the Past & Link's Awakening

I continued by playthroughs of the Zelda games, with Link to the Past and Link's Awakening now done and dusted. Strangely, on Link's Awakening they don't allow for numbers on the name. This meant I had to get creative and give Link a name that showed it was played in 2021.  Not much to say about either of these that I haven't said before other than LA on the GB/GBC is a much better game than the Switch remake. Sure, it's a faff on to constantly keep pausing the game to switch your items but the game just feels far more charming than what was released on the Switch. That's 4 Zelda games down and many more to go.

 

 

[drahkon]

7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

( @drahkon Castle Crashers finally went on sale....after your mate bought it for you )

Yeah, I noticed...told him and he was a little cheesed Still, we had fun and I'll definitely by him a beer or two as soon as this pandemic is over in 2030.

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Absolutely. It's like Untitled Goose Game. Overrated garbage that just lives by its memes

[Glen-i]

See that @Hero-of-Time took the easy way out when it came to Undertale.

You monster.

[Hero-of-Time]

12 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

See that @Hero-of-Time took the easy way out when it came to Undertale.

You monster.

Just be grateful I actually finished the piece of junk.

[Glen-i]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Just be grateful I actually finished the piece of junk.

Spoiler

That's debatable at best.

And I was gonna just ignore this, but reading it a second time, I feel this needs to be said.

Quote

He could have been quite creative with them, especially given the endings that can be achieved within the game

The main point of the game just flew right over your head.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I missed the point of the game? Oh no.

 

[Glen-i]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I missed the point of the game? Oh no.

 

Well, that's on you. But I will say after my first playthrough of Undertale, my view of it was strikingly similar to yours.

[Aperson]

Personally I really enjoyed Undertale but I think that was moreso due to its humour being rather similar to stuff I find funny or like. I was wary about admitting to liking it at one point due to the fact that many people at the time were particularly annoyed by its fanbase but I honestly think its a good game and I liked the characters a lot. I think thats what it comes down to really, whether or not you like the characters. If you don't like the characters then a lot of Undertale's appeal is rather lost. I also thought it was particularly clever in how it tracks your decisions and changes the dialogue if you restart the game, certain flashpoints like the Toriel fight were made very difficult to save so most players will kill Toriel on accident (that was the moment I knew I was invested in the game as I felt REALLY bad for killing Toriel) so I then proceeded through the rest of the game tying to save as much as possible. Ultimately got a neutral ending because of my earlier actions though I admittedly haven't tried going back and saving everyone on a repeat playthrough yet.

 

Anyway, recently got done with the Artorias fight on Dark Souls. Took me so long to get him down, it was a very difficult fight because he is so relentless in attacks. You literally have to use his recovery frame animations as opportunities to heal. Then there's the fact he can go super saiyan and power himself up to the point where he can one shot you while you're trying to heal and this fight took me a long time. In the end, the 93 Throwing Knives I unintentionally farmed in Anor Londo back when I was grinding for Ornstein and Smough came in use. Throwing the knives at Artorias whiel he's charging up staggers him and prevents the powerup. This makes the fight more manageable. From there it was just a case of learning Artorias' attacks and how to dodge them all as well as hitting him when I got the chance. For that reason I brought the Silver Knight Spear out of retirement which was a good idea as it allowed me to poke at Artorias every time I dodged a lunge or a jumping attack (getting the timing down on dodging those took some practise) and eventually he went down and was defeated.

 

I then proceeded through the Ooicile Town and arrived at the Abyss... an area that looks like a much harder version of Tomb of the Giants.... and then I decided I needed to take a break from the game for a bit!

[Dcubed]

Even taking away Undertale's characters & story and just purely looking at its gameplay mechanics on their own? It's a cracking RPG!

First off, the bullet hell inspired battle system is not only completely unique, its fantastic fun! Every single enemy encounter has a totally unique way you can spare them, with unique patterns and ways of winning each fight.  The bosses are also absolutely sensational! With EVERY SINGLE BOSS having a unique set of gameplay mechanics to them for you to master and overcome; something almost unheard of outside of the likes of Golden Sun, Final Fantasy 4 & Chrono Trigger!

Secondly, the dungeons ALL have great puzzle design and globs of unique & interesting gameplay mechanics; something that is extremely rare to see in a traditional RPG.  It's not on the same level as Golden Sun, but it is light years ahead of most traditional RPGs in terms of out-of-battle gameplay mechanics.  It's shocking that this could be made by just a handful of people, when so many large scale RPGs completely fail to deliver on this front.

Thirdly, the pacing is lightning fast and the game doesn't outstay its welcome.  It's a breezy 10 hour long RPG and it is absolutely packed with interesting mechanics & new concepts that continue being introduced throughout its entire runtime from start to finish.  Undertale, in those 10 hours, introduces more unique gameplay concepts & mechanics than almost every single 80+ hour RPG does.

Finally? The sheer number of ways you can interact with and alter the world is mindboggling.  I can't really go into too much detail due to spoilers, but I have never seen any RPG that has SO many different little touches and things you can do that have an impact on the world.  It's like an RPG with the level of world interactivity that you see in something like Metal Gear Solid 2! And to think that this was made by essentially a 1 man band!?!? Jesus fuck!

Undertale is a little miracle of a game.  It absolutely clowns most large scale productions in terms of the quantity & quality of its gameplay mechanics; and even divorced from its novel concept, amazing music & lauded story/characters? It's a brilliant game!

Edited February 28, 2021 by Dcubed

[Zell]

@Hero-of-Time I'd argue that you haven't actually beaten the game. Just getting your first ending without going for the other endings (including the true ending which has more content) means that you've missed out on a quite a bit.

I admit when I was on my first playthrough of the story I didn't get what the fuss was about, but it finally clicked with me and by the time I had got the true ending I was enthralled.

Can understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me Undertale is one of the best indie games I've ever played and worthy of all the praise it gets.

[Hero-of-Time]

13 minutes ago, Zell said:

@Hero-of-Time I'd argue that you haven't actually beaten the game. Just getting your first ending without going for the other endings (including the true ending which has more content) means that you've missed out on a quite a bit.

I admit when I was on my first playthrough of the story I didn't get what the fuss was about, but it finally clicked with me and by the time I had got the true ending I was enthralled.

Can understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me Undertale is one of the best indie games I've ever played and worthy of all the praise it gets.

Yeah, I'm not playing through the game again. Platinumed nabbed and credits rolled so that's enough for me. I'm quite happy to leave my opinion of the game as it is. More power to you and others who went through it multiple times and enjoyed it but for me it's a rubbish game and doesn't warrant another playthrough.

[RedShell]

What's this? A Switch game to add to my gaming diary!?

Looks like it, as the credits finally rolled on Ring Fit Adventure!:

Yeah, I really should play this much more often.

Anyway, it's a fantastic game and you can undoubtedly get a great workout from it too, in that sense I think it's actually much more effective than any of Nintendo's previous sports/fitness titles. The final battle was also brilliant, I was absolutely knackered towards the end of it and in considerable amounts of pain but just couldn't stop grinning. Think I was level 170-ish by the end, but there are some people on my friend list that are at over 300! They're obviously doing new game+. Hopefully I'll also be able to find the motivation to continue playing this for a while yet.
 

Games completed in 2021:

1. Tetris Effect: Connected (PC)
2. Doom Eternal (PC)
3. Dragon Quest XI (PC)
4. The Medium (PC)
5. Yakuza 3 Remastered (PC)
6. UnderMine (PC)
7. Ring Fit Adventure (Switch)

Edited February 28, 2021 by RedShell

[Hero-of-Time]

Nice work, @RedShell! I've been dabbling with the game again recently as well. I've not put the adventure mode on but rather just been doing a few exercise routines here and there. 

I should really get back to the adventure mode though and see those credits. Maybe it can be the RPG that I finish in March?  

[drahkon]

After finishing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix HOW MANY MORE WORDS DOES THIS TITLE NEED, I started playing Frostpunk, as mentioned above.
All's fine and dandy with this one. If by fine and dandy you mean everything is horrible, life is pain, death is inevitable and misery is all around us.

However, there's this little guy inside my head who keeps saying: "Drahkon, listen. Playing a video game that's not a (J)RPG is nice, but come on...you gotta play a (J)RPG. If you don't I'm going to be very mad with you, you miserable piece of crap."

So I decided to look through my PSN library and find a JRPG that I haven't played, yet. And since there are approximately 8 million games in that list it was no surprise to find one: Battle Chasers: Nightwar.
Bought it a long time ago on a sale and because I'm a stupid idiot who tends to buy games on sale and then only play half of them, I haven't played it until now.

"Hey drahkon, why are you here writing this post instead of playing Battle Chasers: Nightwar?"
Look, Timmy. We've been through this...you can't just chime in every time I'm talking and make me look like a fool. It's rude.
"Hey drahkon, why don't you answer my question?"
Sigh...ok, Timmy. You ready for this, Timmy? ARE YOU LISTENING, TIMMY? Here's what I wanna share:

One of the first things I do in JRPGs (or pretty much any video game) is: Browse through the game's menus. Stats, percentages, equipment, lore...you name it, I need it in my veins. And this is where Battle Chasers: Nightwar shines (this is a statement that I can give after 30 minutes playtime; maybe this'll change - I doubt it, though).

I mean...just look at this beauty:

Bestiary done right. You see the enemy, you see its stats (well...not yet, but but you unlock those details eventually), you get info about where to find it and what it drops and more. And goodness me, there are Beast Perks you can acquire by defeating a certain number of this enemy. It's a dream come true. LET THE GRIND BEGIN.

Next one:

It's gorgeous. All stats visible, sub-menus for equipment, skills, etc. and you can immediately see that there's rarities for gear indicated by colour.

Speaking of gear:

You can look at every piece of equipment in the Inventory and actually equip it from there. No need to go to the Equipment sub-menu. So simple, so smart, so effective.

AND THERE'S FISHING:

 

"Hey drahkon. Are you done with gushing? It's getting annoying...tell me more about the actual gameplay."
Alright Timmy, you may wanna sit down for this one...
After only a few battles I can say: The battle system may very well be one of the best I've ever seen in a JRPG. It's a love letter to classic games like Final Fantasy. The turn-based nature reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy X and that is, as we all know, my favourite battle system ever. You can actually see the turn-order and how different skills may change it. Wanna use a powerful AoE attack? You gotta wait a bit and maybe let an enemy attack first.
Wanna just attack? You can do it immediately, but it's weaker than a skill. However, you do get so called Overcharge Points which can be used instead of Mana. Pretty neat.
Also: You got poisoned by an enemy? Press L2 and you can see exactly what it does, e.g. 4 damage per tick, lasts 3 ticks. Makes planning your moves so much better.

I'm already excited to see what mechanics/buffs/debuffs/etc. the game will throw at me.

"Ok, drahkon. Lots of positivity, but come one...we've just come out of 2020, and 2021 hasn't gotten any better, yet...there's gotta be some negatives."
Yes...
The overworld. No real exploration...just some paths you can/have to follow.

Monsters are shown as little avatars which is weird.
The game sadly runs at 30fps which is not too bad given the nature of turn-based JRPGs but it's still quite jarring.

Satisfied, Timmy?
"Yeah, kind of. But is there anything else other than the overworld?"
I haven't come across one, so far, but there are supposed to be dungeons to explore. Nothing I can comment on right now, though.
"Wow, great...thanks for nothing. Well, I'm gonna go now. You suck!"
Eh, ok...goodbye assface.