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Your Gaming Diary 2022

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2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'd definitely give priority to Forgotten World over Star Allies. I enjoyed them both but FW is easily the better of the two. 

It's a terrible choice if you're craving 2D platformers though.

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6 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'd definitely give priority to Forgotten World over Star Allies. I enjoyed them both but FW is easily the better of the two. 

I've already played the first world and I can tell it's gonna be a great game :hehe:

I'm not even sure why I own Star Allies but maybe the mood will strike eventually!

As for Yoshi, his games have never been better and I'll absolutely be looking forward to the next one :grin:

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Just now, nekunando said:

I've already played the first world and I can tell it's gonna be a great game :hehe:

I'm not even sure why I own Star Allies but maybe the mood will strike eventually!

As for Yoshi, his games have never been better and I'll absolutely be looking forward to the next one :grin:

Indeed. Woolly World and Crafted World are top tier platformers. I easily prefer both of these over something like Yoshi's Island and Story.

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Took a while, but I'm finally done with the Halloween "remnants".

INMOST

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Not an imagery that you see Inmost games

Ever since I bought those Charity Bundles on itch.io, I didn't actually play any of the games in them. Until now.

INMOST is a 2019 game made by a Russian and an Ukrainian, both of them residing in Lithuania. They describe it as "a game to be played in a rainy night". I figure the game is a smidge too long for that, so "evening" or "afternoon" would be more accurate.

It follows three characters in distinct scenarios: a little girl playing around a scary house, a badass knight killing a bunch of enemies, and a clumsy man navigating a hostile world without any weapons. The last one is who I'd call the true gameplay protagonist, as we spend most of the time with him.

His segments are structured like a Metroidvania, but without any meaningful combat. I'd argue it's more like an adventure-puzzle game in 2D. It's well made, at any rate, with the protagonist feeling a lot like Wander from Shadow of the Colossus with how he moves (desperately grabbing onto things, tripping all over the place, barely handling many jumps). The girl's segments are simpler puzzle affairs, while the knight's segments are all action.

The real star of the show is the story, which I won't spoil. I thought it was well told, and really got to me by the end. All I'll say is that the three characters are connected in a way that isn't immediately obvious, but will become so by the end. I think it's worth a few discussions on the meaning of some of its elements, as well.

So yeah, this was a winner, and one I should've picked for the 31st. Ah well.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2

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Now with less curse, but more moon. Also, more blood, but somehow less stained.

Despite loving the first game, it took me a while to start this one. But at some point in the middle of October, I found myself having to wait in a car in the middle of hilly rural Portugal during a stormy evening and no reception whatsoever (long story), but I had a fully charged Switch with me (really long story), so I figured this was a good time to get into it.

And I had a grand time with it. Inti Creates took the concepts behind the first game and turned them up to eleven, while adding some Megaman flavour into the mix.

Like the first entry, it's a game designed for several playthroughs, but the UI makes it clearer this time around, dividing each into "Episodes", which defines the party and/or moveset you get for that particular run. Any given person needs to do at least 5 runs to see all endings. The playable characters are:

  • Zangetsu, who feels more Mega Man Zero than Ninja Gaiden this time around;
  • Dominique, who combines Eric Lecarde from Castlevania Bloodlines with DuckTales' Uncle Scrooge (yes, really);
  • Robert, a more original military-type character with long-range attacks. Basically, what if Hammer from the Sorrow duology was playable? That's him;
  • Hachi, a good boy corgi who plays like those Mecha suits from the SNES Mega Man X games.
  • Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel return as the Castlevania III clones.

A couple of notes, though. The first is that this game handles Episode 2 poorly. Basically, if you get the "Good Ending" to Episode 2, you immediately unlock Episode 4. If you get the "Bad Ending" to Episode 2, you unlock Episode 3 instead, and if you then beat Episode 3, you unlock Episode 4 anyway. This was a poorly thought-out decision, and as such, I recommend to everybody playing this game that you never bother with the Good Ending in Episode 2, it's seriously not worth it.

The second note is that this game gets HARD. As in, Inti Creates pulls no punches, you better get good at 2D games and master these characters' pros and cons, because you'll need them to overcome the game's challenges. The good thing is that, if you just want to take a casual look-see through the game, you can adjust the difficulty to suit yourself, and the game is kind enough to give you some leeway with the way character's lives work.

On my end, I loved the challenge, and Episode 4 felt great to finally beat on Veteran Mode. On the other hand, I'm still trying to beat Boss Rush Mode (they put some frustrating limitations on your moveset here), and I'm not even trying right now to get the Hardest, Silliest Ending for Episode 4 (it's a solo Zangetsu run, basically), which is an attempt that must come much later.

All things considered, this might be one of my favourite Inti Creates games ever. The MM Zero series is probably the only things that beats it, imo.

  My 2022 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Steamworld Dig 2 (2017) Completed (January 6th)

-Bit.Trip Saga (2009-2011) No Goal (January 15th)

-Ever Oasis (2017) Beat (February 25th)

-Guilty Gear (1998) No Goal (March 19th)

-Flashback (1992) Completed (March 19th)

-Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (2002-2012) Beat (March 30th)

-Defenders of Oasis (1992) Completed (April 20th)

-Katamari Damacy (2004) Completed (April 27th)

-Donkey Kong Land (1995) Beat (April 29th)

-Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) Beat (May 11th)

-Donkey Kong Land III (1997) Completed (May 28th)

-Skullgirls (2012) Beat (May 29th)

-Super Punch Patrol (2020) Beat (August 10th)

-Final Fight (1989) Completed (August 18th)

-Streets of Rage (1991) Completed (September 18th)

-Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (2014) Beat (October 1st)

-Puzzle Bobble (1994) Completed (October 5th)

-Fatum Betula (2020) Beat (October 31st)

-Paratopic (2018) Completed (October 31st)

-Distraint 2 (2018) Completed (November 1st)

-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (2020) Beat (November 8th)

-INMOST (2019) Beat (November 11th)

 

Replays:

-Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995) (March 20th)

-Wario Land 3 (2000) (April 15th)

-King of Fighters '98 (1998) (June 30th)

-Chiki Chiki Boys (1990) (August 8th)

-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006) [Richter Mode] (October 14th)

 

Dropped:

-Dicey Dungeons (2019) (January 3rd)

-The Room (2012) (January 8th)

-This War of Mine (2014) (March 18th)

-Virtua Fighter 2 (Mega Drive) (1996) (April 24th)

-1943: The Battle of Midway (1987) (August 3rd)

-SonSon (1987) (August 8th)

-Strider (1989) (August 9th)

-Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) (October 6th)

I really gotta wrap up some remaining games I'm leaving unfinished...

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Following on from that, I'm now Rank #5 after playing some more of the game this evening.

Honestly, it's becoming more and more difficult not to be disappointed with it..

Edited by nekunando

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On 12/05/2022 at 10:34 AM, bob said:

I'm still plugging away at Assassin's Creed Unity. As I mentioned before, I'm really enjoying the Nostrodamus puzzles, and have been mainly ignoring the rest of the storyline and missions to roam around Paris looking for statues. The Order must be really disappointed in their newest recruit. It made me wish there was an entire game of puzzle solving across various cities. Kind of like Dan Brown: The Game.

One thing that Ass Creed: Unity doesn't have, that I kind of took for granted in this console generation until now, is that you can't put the PS4 in rest mode with it? I assumed it was a console feature, but apparently it's something the developers have to add to each game to utilise, and they didn't bother with this. It's really irritating, because i've used it so extensively with other games (I don't think I've actually turned my PS4 off properly for years), that it's like taking a huge step back when playing Unity. I have to plan ahead and decide if I have enough time to complete a mission, because you can't pause and save the game in the middle of a mission, and if you turn the PS4 off, you lose all your progress.

I hope that for the PS5, they've made it a feature regardless of game. On the Switch, you can put the console to sleep and pick up right where you left off, and so far it has worked with every game i've tried.

So I finally finished the main story. I realised that with Christmas coming up, I can't realistically ask for any more games until I complete the ones I got for last Christmas, so I thought i'd better put some effort in.

 

The last few missions really started to get crap though. There is one near the end where they tell you it would be impossible to get close enough to the target because he has too many guards, so you come up with a plan to discredit him, and try and turn the mob of Paris against him. In doing so, you put a potion in his drink to make him act mad.....why not just put poison in his drink?! That's not very good assassining?

The final boss is very bizarre too. It suddenly goes all magical and supernatural, which in fairness is how many of the AC games end, but i've always felt it ruins a good jaunt through the various historical settings. 

Anyway, generally, I thought Unity was a much better AC game than many give it credit for. The setting is one of the best, and the city and map are absolutely gorgeous. The plot is a bit wobbly, and the extraneous bloat of collectables and bland side missions kind of detract from the good bits. The game could have done with streamlining and being given another 6 months in the oven.

I'd give it 7/10. 

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16 minutes ago, bob said:

Anyway, generally, I thought Unity was a much better AC game than many give it credit for.

I think it's a very underrated entry in the series. It got blasted when it was released, mainly due to the bugs and glitches, but I played it after everything was fixed and had settled down and I really enjoyed it.

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I picked up The Last of Us Part I during the recent sale. It was a much more manageable £40 rather than the £70 they were charging.

I think this is the third time I've played through the game and I honestly didn't enjoy it this time around. Because I know the narrative so well now, I felt the game lost a lot of its impact and the gameplay isn't strong enough to carry it. It felt like I was just going through the motions.

On a technical level the game is stunning though. It was already something special but the new animations and character models really do make a difference.

Its been hilarious playing this super polished game alongside Pokemon Violet. The quality difference is like night and day. However, I can honestly say I've had more fun playing Pokemon. Probably because it was a new experience, even if it was a glitchy mess that ran in slow motion.

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On 24/11/2022 at 6:05 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

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I picked up The Last of Us Part I during the recent sale. It was a much more manageable £40 rather than the £70 they were charging.

I think this is the third time I've played through the game and I honestly didn't enjoy it this time around. Because I know the narrative so well now, I felt the game lost a lot of its impact and the gameplay isn't strong enough to carry it. It felt like I was just going through the motions.

On a technical level the game is stunning though. It was already something special but the new animations and character models really do make a difference.

Its been hilarious playing this super polished game alongside Pokemon Violet. The quality difference is like night and day. However, I can honestly say I've had more fun playing Pokemon. Probably because it was a new experience, even if it was a glitchy mess that ran in slow motion.

Speaking of The Last of Us, I recently tried to resume my save file of Part II on PS4 (I think I'm around 7-8 hours in) and, not for the first time, I'm finding it very difficult to get back into it :hmm:

Even at this stage, I think I've managed to avoid any spoilers regarding the story but I'd still like to get the game done at some point before I inevitably stumble upon something!

Maybe I'll try again after I clear No More Heroes 3 which is unfortunately becoming a bit of a repetitive slog itself. I really didn't expect that from it!

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Just now, nekunando said:

Speaking of The Last of Us, I recently tried to resume my save file of Part II on PS4 (I think I'm around 7-8 hours in) and, not for the first time, I'm finding it very difficult to get back into it :hmm:

Even at this stage, I think I've managed to avoid any spoilers regarding the story but I'd still like to get the game done at some point before I inevitably stumble upon something!

Maybe I'll try again after I clear No More Heroes 3 which is unfortunately becoming a bit of a repetitive slog itself. I really didn't expect that from it!

I didn't care for I originally played through it but after playing part I, I'm actually keen to play it again. It's a very dark and depressing game and you really have to be in the right mood/mindset to play it.

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7 minutes ago, CrowingJoe79 said:

I think both are among the best games ever released.

Yes, Joel..

I'll stop reading there. Maybe not a great idea to be throwing around spoilers when, like I said, I'm only a few hours in.

Thankfully, I've already experienced that bit but I'm not risking the rest of your post!

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Finished a few games this weekend.

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I gave my PS5 some more use and played through this game. I played through this last April on the PS4 and this year it got a PS5 version which was free for those who originally bought the PS4 version. I wanted something light and colourful to play, especially after recently playing through The Last of Us Part I. Last year, I found the game to be disappointing but I didn't find that to be the case at all this time around and I really enjoyed the game. The combat was satisfying, the dialogue quite funny and the visuals popped with colour and style. Some of the tracks in the game are quite catchy, as well. I'm trying to remember why I didn't like it when I first played it (in the 2021 thread I didn't elaborate why it didn't hit the right notes) but I'm happy to have given it another chance. Bring on the sequel.

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From bright and colorful, to black and white. :p 

I bought this on the Switch last year when it was on sale for £1.50. I tried playing it last October but I couldn't get into it at all. I decided to have another crack at it and I'm glad I did because I ended up loving it. The game's atmosphere reminded me a little of Little Nightmares and the gameplay took me back to early indie games back during the 360 era, which makes sense given when this was first released.

I like how the game is very generous with it's checkpoints and quick to reload the player back into the game. This is very welcome given the amount of times you die. I wish there was a kill counter in the game because I died so many times figuring out the puzzles and I would have liked to have seen how many times I got the little fella killed. Speaking of the puzzles, I found them to be very clever and never really frustrating...well, except for this one...

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Trying to get that box to slide and then manipulating the gravity to throw it over the other side took a fair few attempts but I got there eventually. :D 

Spoiler

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Like River City Girls, I was happy that I gave this another chance and played through the game. I enjoyed it so much that I picked up Inside. It was on sale for £1.50 and figured seeing as I enjoyed this, I may as well give it a shot.

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Spoiler

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This 3D indie platforming game has been getting a lot of attention from gamers and various outlets. For the sake of a fiver I decided to take a punt and see if it is worthy of the hype. I'm happy to say that it is. It's so fast and smooth but it still manages to handle so well. Most of the 3D Sonic games try to balance both speed and control but they never manage to get it right. This indie developer has pulled it off. They also had the common sense to allow the player to hold down a button that slows the speed of the characters movements and jumps, for when you want to take some more precise actions.

The game only lasts a few hours but if you want to get more time out of it there are collectibles to pick up, S ranks to achieve and the ability to play through the game again with a couple of new characters from other indie games. Both of these characters play very differently from each other and change how the game is played. The game having a short length means it's not a slog to play through it again with someone different.

Highly recommended for those who are fans of 3D platformers. @Aneres11 you may want to check it out. there's a demo on the eShop if you fancy a look.

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Let's Build A Zoo

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A 2D pixelated zoo management game. It starts off great, with lots of systems to work out and a small amount of animals to work out pens for. There’s a lot of stuff to unlock, and even good/bad choices you can go though. Good choices are mainly about renewable energy, while the bad choices are about exploiting your zoo and animals by farming. There’s also genetic splicing and breeding as you try to find all variants of each.

Where the game falls apart is that it starts to slow down. New animals will start to become very rare (even though I had unlocked less than half of them) and I found myself putting it on fast forward for hours just waiting for new things to do. 
 

 

No Man's Sky

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Second attempt at trying this. There is some fun stuff about the game, and some lovely sights, but it still has the main big issue as last time I tried it: before long you just learn the patterns of planets and animals, and it takes all the fun out of new discoveries once you notice these patterns. 

80 Days

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A really fun choose-your-own adventure where you have to make it around the world in 80 days. It's based heavily on the bizarre and wonderful style of the world in the Jules Verne book. The first time round, I took a fairly traditional route across trains, things were going well until a boat I was taking to America decided to detour and my mutiny attempt failed, leading to a massive setback. I somehow missed all of the bizarre stuff and went past the 80 days (what’s nice is that you can still continue your journey).

The second time, I went via the north pole and encountered loads of marvellous machines, and multiple hidden cities and societies. It was a lovely adventure and I had over two weeks to spare.
 

Return to Monkey Island

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Monkey Island is back (again)! I really like what they did with this one, with similar style of puzzles and lots of great dialogue (I really recommend turning on the extra lines in the options - the “director’s cut”). The graphics - which looked odd in trailers - are surprisingly very beautiful and the game looked fantastic at all times.

It addresses the fairly terrible ending of Monkey Island 2 in a clever way, while also being a sequel to all the Monkey Island games. It was nice that they didn’t discard the other stuff. One thing it does extremely well is the hint system. For other point and click games, I've been using a website that provides "hint guides" that point you in the right direction instead of telling you specifically what to do. The hint system here does the same, and can provide clues without ruining the experience (unless you keep drilling down into it and it eventually gives you the answer).

The one let down is the ending. It’s one of those where you can tell it's going to be a let down, but it’s still a let down when you get to it. It’s not quite as bad as the Money Island 2 one, but is still a bit of a sour note to end on.

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension

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A very strange game about a game that isn’t a complete game. You have to work out what to do by clicking on things to reveal objects to use in a point and click style. Along the way you end up in other games and have to solve puzzles from “outside” the game by sort of breaking the game and using objects from HUD elements to move into the game world. It’s a lot of fun with some crazy stuff happening (including a musical section). 

Sally's Law

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A cute puzzle-platformer. Each level you progress by jumping over gaps but - surprisingly - all the obstacles keep moving out of your way. You then re-do the level as another character who then has to solve puzzles and hit switches in order to remove obstacles before your previous character gets there (your movement is recorded, so it’s based on your exact performance). It’s a really nice mechanic. 

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16 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Highly recommended for those who are fans of 3D platformers.

There's a demo on the eShop if you fancy a look.

I tried the demo last week. I had fun with it, but after a few levels, I started to feel dizzy from all the camera shifts.

Now granted, I was playing handheld mode in a dark room, but I was wondering if you felt anything similar during your playthrough.

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1 hour ago, Jonnas said:

I tried the demo last week. I had fun with it, but after a few levels, I started to feel dizzy from all the camera shifts.

Now granted, I was playing handheld mode in a dark room, but I was wondering if you felt anything similar during your playthrough.

Not at all but I did instantly reduce the camera speed when moving it with the control stick as I found it far too fast.

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On 14/11/2022 at 1:21 AM, Jonnas said:

I really gotta wrap up some remaining games I'm leaving unfinished...

And the first one is...

Final Fantasy

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"I, Garland, shall knock one of you down!"

As I mentioned a month or so ago, I decided to play the first game, GBA version. About time I crossed this one off my list.

The first Final Fantasy needs to introduction, so I'll just say... I enjoyed it. There's a semi-openness to the world that's inviting, as well as unpredictable, because it doesn't follow a generic industry formula (for example, I like how half of the game is fetch quests in random places, and you don't really know where each will lead you). The closest thing to a predictable formula is the dungeons leading to the four fiends, and even with that they play a bit.

The combat system is super basic, but serviceable for the time, and the freedom to build your own party gives it a decent amount of depth... But it's so simple, it's actually incredibly, obnoxiously, easy to abuse. At some point, I was one-shotting most bosses I met. Compared to its contemporaries, I felt like the combat in DQ3 (or even DQ1) was more interesting. I will say that the final boss fight was such a ramp up in difficulty, I actually felt properly challenged, and it was very satisfying.

The worst part of the game is the random encounters. The frequent random encounters. The utterly obnoxious random encounters. They bogged the game down considerably, they stunted any kind of exploration, and the combat isn't deep enough to save this.

Another flaw, one that came with this rerelease, is how the bonus dungeons are handled, unlocking in the middle of the game like that. They're filled with tremendous amounts of EXP, and those extra levels trivialise the rest of the game even more than usual. Furthermore, they're filled with cool extra bosses, but they're only difficult at the point of the game that you unlocked them. And assuming you didn't clear one of the other dungeons first. Except for Omega and Shinryu, which are difficult at all points in the game. It's a huge, timey-wimey mess, and a waste of some very cool extra bosses and callbacks. The extra wind dungeon (as well as Omega and Shinryu) are the only challenges appropriate for the endgame.

Anyway, I did beat all 4 dungeons. Earth and Fire immediately after the class change, Water and Wind after I had already beat the game. Fire was great for that point of the playthrough (and I ended up defeating the hardest boss in that dungeon, awesome challenge), Wind was excellent for the endgame, and Water was only worth it for Omega and Shinryu (which would be massive difficulty spikes for the dungeon otherwise).

Finally, music was great. Plenty of charming memorable tunes, and the excellent battle theme is the only thing keeping those random encounters bearable. Nobuo Uematsu showing his value very early on.

So yeah, I'm glad I finally tackled this one properly, but it is pretty flawed (the original Dragon Quest trilogy aged better than this, I feel). Still has just enough charm to make a splash, and it's no wonder that the designs for White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage survive to this day.

  My 2022 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Steamworld Dig 2 (2017) Completed (January 6th)

-Bit.Trip Saga (2009-2011) No Goal (January 15th)

-Ever Oasis (2017) Beat (February 25th)

-Guilty Gear (1998) No Goal (March 19th)

-Flashback (1992) Completed (March 19th)

-Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (2002-2012) Beat (March 30th)

-Defenders of Oasis (1992) Completed (April 20th)

-Katamari Damacy (2004) Completed (April 27th)

-Donkey Kong Land (1995) Beat (April 29th)

-Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) Beat (May 11th)

-Donkey Kong Land III (1997) Completed (May 28th)

-Skullgirls (2012) Beat (May 29th)

-Super Punch Patrol (2020) Beat (August 10th)

-Final Fight (1989) Completed (August 18th)

-Streets of Rage (1991) Completed (September 18th)

-Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (2014) Beat (October 1st)

-Puzzle Bobble (1994) Completed (October 5th)

-Fatum Betula (2020) Beat (October 31st)

-Paratopic (2018) Completed (October 31st)

-Distraint 2 (2018) Completed (November 1st)

-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (2020) Beat (November 8th)

-INMOST (2019) Beat (November 11th)

-Final Fantasy (1987) Completed (November 21st)

 

Replays:

-Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995) (March 20th)

-Wario Land 3 (2000) (April 15th)

-King of Fighters '98 (1998) (June 30th)

-Chiki Chiki Boys (1990) (August 8th)

-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006) [Richter Mode] (October 14th)

 

Dropped:

-Dicey Dungeons (2019) (January 3rd)

-The Room (2012) (January 8th)

-This War of Mine (2014) (March 18th)

-Virtua Fighter 2 (Mega Drive) (1996) (April 24th)

-1943: The Battle of Midway (1987) (August 3rd)

-SonSon (1987) (August 8th)

-Strider (1989) (August 9th)

-Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) (October 6th)

On 24/10/2022 at 7:17 AM, Glen-i said:

Am I gonna have to wait almost 9 years for the payoff to that reference?

It did work, and I beat every superboss in the game without a White Mage.

Quann turned out to be a sentient fragment of pure Chaos, and Farise turned out to be an ancient Lufenian, which was wild. Not sure if that counts as "payoff", but there you go.

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Infinite use Flare is totally balanced! What are you on about?

But yeah, the bonus dungeons in FF1 Advance completely snap any semblance of balance like a twig. The other advance titles handle their bonus content better, generally being near or after the credits, and being a bit more fleshed out.

FF2's is very good, a touching story of 1 man and his redemption arc against a door. And then he's rewarded by getting into Theatrhythm instead of 2 more important characters.

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1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Infinite use Flare is totally balanced! What are you on about?

Compared to Temper+Haste+Monk, Flare is downright meek. It's hilarious how whack this game's sense of balance is.

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You're crawling towards the end of that game, aren't you, @nekunando :laughing:

Over the past couple of days I was in a bit of a retro Sega mood...

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Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a game I played last July but I noticed it got a free update for PS5 owners and so I downloaded it and played it again. Anything for another platinum. :D The game is enjoyable enough for a couple of hours and certainly gave me a sense of nostalgia when playing it. I do wish they had updated a couple of things for the game though. The controls aren't as tight as they could be and the hit detection is still a bit iffy. Both of these were problems in the original game and they could have easily been fixed for this remake. Still, it's an authentic experience, for better or worse.

Sonic Origins was a game I was interested in but wasn't willing to shell out the full price for. It recently got a price drop to £18, which is more like what I was willing to pay. There's nothing really to say about the main games. I mean, it's Sonic 1, 2 and 3 which are all stand out games and ones that I can replay endlessly. Sonic CD on the other hand...awful game. I think this is the third time I have played it in my lifetime and it still doesn't sit right with me. The game just looks a mess and is far too cluttered. The boss fights are also pretty rubbish. There's a special place in hell for whoever came up with the pinball battle boss fight.

I was happy with the extras the game offers. The unlockable artwork, movies and music were a welcome addition and reminded me a little of Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn. The mission mode that is included was a very nice surprise. Sure, a lot of them are quite easy but they were fun to do and gave someone like me, who has played the original games to death, something else to get my teeth into. 

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