Your 2024 Gaming Diary

[Cube]

40 minutes ago, nekunando said:

Genuinely interested to hear why 🙂

Sure, the game resonated with me completely. The atmosphere and story were absolutely compelling. Which is odd for me, as I'm not big a fan of horror games (other than Remedy's titles, Eternal Darkness is the only the only other one for me). 

I think it's that it's more psychological horror, which is greatly enhanced by the deep characters in the game, not just Wake himself, but those around him. Unravelling the mystery is captivating. 

The core gameplay itself isn't the most groundbreaking thing, but is enjoyable enough throughout the course of the game, and works well with the vibes and horror of the game. 

Then there's the music. The game's use of music is phenomenal, using it to set the tone while also having some genuinely amazing songs made just for the game. The game is responsible for me discovering Poets of the Fall, who are my favourite band.

Every part of the game just clicked with me in a wonderful way, and the way it does horror feels unique. The sequel improved every single aspect.

The whole connected universe (Alan Wake, Quantum Break and Control) are games I massively love. 

[nekunando]

18 minutes ago, Cube said:

Sure, the game resonated with me completely. The atmosphere and story were absolutely compelling. Which is odd for me, as I'm not big a fan of horror games (other than Remedy's titles, Eternal Darkness is the only the only other one for me). 

I think it's that it's more psychological horror, which is greatly enhanced by the deep characters in the game, not just Wake himself, but those around him. Unravelling the mystery is captivating. 

The core gameplay itself isn't the most groundbreaking thing, but is enjoyable enough throughout the course of the game, and works well with the vibes and horror of the game. 

Then there's the music. The game's use of music is phenomenal, using it to set the tone while also having some genuinely amazing songs made just for the game. The game is responsible for me discovering Poets of the Fall, who are my favourite band.

Every part of the game just clicked with me in a wonderful way, and the way it does horror feels unique. The sequel improved every single aspect.

The whole connected universe (Alan Wake, Quantum Break and Control) are games I massively love. 

That's great! I wish I could say the same 🥲

The gameplay was definitely the biggest issue. It felt clumsy throughout but shining a torch at random objects flying through the air just brought out a sigh in me every time.

If the story captivated me I could have perhaps overlooked that a little more but I wasn't engrossed by that or the characters.

The game often issues mundane tasks and objectives in the corner of the screen. It is nice to know where to go but when it's constantly 'go to this room.. speak the this person.. pick up glasses.. pick up tablets..' then it just never feels particularly compelling for me.

I do think it would have had more of an impact had I played it back when it originally came out but it just hasn't resonated with me at all in 2024.

[WackerJr]

21 hours ago, Dcubed said:

They only published/distributed the physical releases, well after their original respective digital releases.  They had nothing to do with their development.

Anything funded and actually developed under GameMill's tenure as a publisher inevitably ends up being irredeemable rubbish.

That makes sense then, and the fact that you could guess the publisher based solely on how atrocious the game played gives a great indication of their reputation!

I’d been keeping an eye on ‘Outright Games’ for the shortcuts they take in their family-friendly games (although reading reviews it sounds as though they’re at least improving… possibly!).

[Glen-i]

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is an action adventure game that originally released on the Game Boy Advance in 2003. I've never actually finished a single Castlevania game before, but with the Dominus Collection recently released, I wanted to at least try this one before committing to it.

Speaking of, this game isn't part of that collection. I played this on the Advance Collection, which came out in 2021.

The game takes place in the year 2035, and follows Soma Cruz, a Japanese exchange student who is magically teleported to Dracula's Castle for some reason. Soma is attacked by monsters, and after beating them up, he absorbs their souls.
You see, Soma has a special power called the "Power of Dominance" which allows him to absorb the souls of monsters and utilise their abilities.

So, you know, like Kirby, but nowhere near as cute. Using this power, he has to explore Dracula's Castle, and find a way out.

This is one of those Castlevania games that are structured more like a Metroid game (Hence the term, Metroidvania). Instead of various stages where you have to get to the end, it all takes place in one massive castle, and it's surrounding areas. Much like Metroid, the goal is to find your way through this labyrinth, find new abilities and use said abilities to get to even more areas. Rinse and repeat, until you get to the final boss.

The key difference between this and Metroid, however, is that Castlevania utilises an RPG style level system. Killing enemies will eventually make Soma stronger. Alongside that, you can also find or purchase equippable weapons and armour to boost those stats even further.

Or just stumble upon a sword that's bigger than you are, that works too.

What's also noteworthy is how the souls work. Every enemy has a corresponding soul, and you have a chance of getting it whenever you kill one. Equipping these souls will allow Soma to use certain abilities. But what's interesting is that some optional areas need a specific soul to access, you could go through the whole game without getting what you need, so I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Aria of Sorrow isn't the first Metroidvania I've tried, by the way. That would be Circle of the Moon (Known as just "Castlevania" in Europe), but I bounced off of that game because it was very unforgiving. Aria of Sorrow is far better in it's difficulty curve, and I'm glad I gave the series another crack with this one. Even if the fight against Death was a humongous difficulty spike, but that seems to be a pretty standard thing with Death.

Shout out has to go to the animation this game has. Castlevania games since the shift to Metroidvania has some of the most satisfying animation in games. When you can bust out a victory dance at any time, well...

The soundtrack is also top tier, but that's nothing unexpected for Castlevania. That series has an amazing batting average for soundtracks.

So yeah, my first completed Castlevania game, and I very much enjoyed it, so much so, that I went and got the Dominus Collection afterwards.

And speaking of that...

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is another action adventure game that originally released on the DS in 2005. Like I mentioned before, I played this on the Dominus Collection, which released last week.

As the name implies, this is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow, you know this because the intro immediately spoils the big twist of Aria. Soma is once again dragged into action when a mysterious cult wishes to create a new Dark Lord to replace Dracula. This is bad, so Soma has to reuse his Power of Dominance to stop this.

When it comes to gameplay, this game plays very similarly to Aria of Sorrow. A big Metroid style map to explore, and lots of souls to find along the way to augment Soma's abilities. It's just a simple refinement, but that's totally fine.
I will say that the bosses are way better though. They are probably the highlight of the game.

OK, bad example, but trust me, they're great. (Seriously though, REALLY!?)

All in all, they play similarly, but I prefer Dawn of Sorrow. So I'm gonna use the rest of this post to point how excellent the emulation options are in the Dominus Collection.

Being a DS game, Dawn of Sorrow naturally uses both of the screens on the console, but the footage I posted above actually shows three screens. The original game had those two screens on the right as an option for what you had on the top screen, but the Dominus Collection allows you to display both at once. Very cool, and having the stat screen was quite helpful in solving a certain puzzle.

As well as that, there's save states, and a rewind feature, which I never used, but the biggest change would have to be the option to draw seals with button inputs. I've heard some horror stories on how imprecise drawing on this game can be, so this is an interesting workaround. It works well enough. Can't imagine what trying touch controls with the imprecise Switch screen would be like. Don't plan on finding out.

But yeah, that's it. I'll likely carry on playing through this collection with Portrait of Ruin.

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)
Miitopia (100 flipping per ceeeeent!)
Metroid Zero Mission (100%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

 

[Jonnas]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I'll likely carry on playing through this collection with Portrait of Ruin.

It's great that you're discovering such a great series, but take care not to burn yourself out. I see you've played through two of these in a row already.

...That said, if PoR is next, I hope you enjoy the weirdest variant of Marco Polo ever: Charlotte Jonathan.

[Glen-i]

Just now, Jonnas said:

It's great that you're discovering such a great series, but take care not to burn yourself out. I see you've played through two of these in a row already.

...That said, if PoR is next, I hope you enjoy the weirdest variant of Marco Polo ever: Charlotte Jonathan.

Oh, don't worry. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster is what I'm focusing on now, I just meant that when I go back to Castlevania, that will be next because it's on the Dominus Collection.

Aria of Sorrow was pretty short, so I craved more, and Dawn is a direct sequel, so it was perfect.

[Dcubed]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Oh, don't worry. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster is what I'm focusing on now, I just meant that when I go back to Castlevania, that will be next because it's on the Dominus Collection.

Aria of Sorrow was pretty short, so I craved more, and Dawn is a direct sequel, so it was perfect.

Yeah, I’d try not to play too many in a row; because the metroidvania CVs do all play fairly similarly; despite each having unique gimmicks to call their own.  They were more or less annualised during the GBA/DS eras, and it’s easy to get burnt out on them if played in quick succession.

That’s one of the main reasons why OOE shook up the game structure quite significantly.

Likewise, I’d suggest having a break before going back to play the unlockable modes; like Julius Mode.  You’ll enjoy them more if you leave the game for a bit to become a bit more fresh again before tackling them

Edited September 6 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

Gravity Circuit is a 2D Action Platformer developed by Domesticated Ant Games. It released on all modern platforms (Except XBox) last year. It's a game that takes a lot of inspiration from the Mega Man X/Zero games and wears it on it's sleeve. I played the Switch version.

The game is set in a world filled with nothing but sentient robots. A long time ago, a group of evil robots called the Virus Army brought devestation to this world, but were eventually defeated by the Circuits, 9 robots with exceptional combat capabilities.
Loads of years later, the Virus Army suddenly returns, but this time, 8 of these Circuits seem to have defected to the Virus Army. This leaves us with our protagonist, Kai, also known as the Gravity Circuit, reactivated with little memory of his past, to fight them pretty much single handed.

So yeah, the parallels between this and Mega Man are pretty obvious, after the intro stage, you have a choice of which Circuit you want to take on in whatever order you like, before ending with a final gauntlet of tough levels before the final boss. But Gravity Circuit has a few mechanics that help to differentiate it from it's inspiration.

He has a hookshot!

Kai doesn't have a projectile weapon, well he does have one, but it's slow and clunky, and meant more for traversal then combat. Kai prefers to get up close and personal and punch enemies to death. It's a bit of a different dynamic, and this really shines with "Burst Techniques".
If I were to describe them, they're basically special moves from Smash Bros. Kai can have four equipped, and inputting a direction, then pressing R, will execute them, this consumes energy, so they're not infinite use, but killing enemies will replenish them. You only start with one basic technique, but you can buy more, and beating each Circuit allows you to buy more, there's 20 of them, which makes Kai quite customisable, especially because some techniques aid you with movement and platforming.

But that's not all, Kai can also have three passive abilities (Including a double jump, which I got immediately), but to get these ones, you also have to rescue citizens in each of the 8 main stages, and even more then that, you can find "Palette Chips", which change Kai's paint job and change his abilities further, at the cost of him not getting as much energy from enemies. There's a lot to discover here, and those who go exploring can find some pretty cracked upgrades.

It'd be easier to show me at endgame, just to get the point across.

The whole thing is just so slick! And I very much appreciate bottomless pits and spikes not immediately killing you here. Instead, Kai takes a decent amount of damage and respawns back at the last safe platform he was on. This is probably the main difference that made me like this game, when I don't enjoy most Mega Man games. It's challenging, but fair.

If I had one criticism, it'd be that the Hookshot is kinda awkward to use well. Sooner or later, I had enough techniques and passive abilities to get over large gaps without it, which was nice, because it's too easy to accidentally fire the hookshot in the wrong direction.

But yeah, I first saw this game at Games Done Quick, and I'm glad I did. This is a fantastic game! Pretty cheap to pick up too. Any Mega Man fan needs to play this!

Anyway! I beat up a tree!

Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster is a remake of the Japan-only SNES game, Final Fantasy V. Unlike Final Fantasy III though, this has had various ports throughout the years, so it's not truly Japan-exclusive like that game was.
The Pixel Remaster was released on PC in 2021, and then PS4 and Switch two years later. Like all the other entries, I played the Switch one.

The game follows Bartz, a wanderer who travels the world with his Chocobo friend, Boko. While camping overnight, a meteorite strikes nearby, prompting Bartz to investigate. There, he finds Lenna, a princess travelling to the nearby Wind Shrine to see what's happening with the Wind Crystal, and Galuf, an amnesiac middle-aged man, who is also going there, although he can't remember why.
Anyway, when they get there. The Wind Crystal shatters, and our heroes are tasked with protecting the other three crystals. Spoiler alert; they're really bad at this!

Good at piano, though.

The plot is a lot more light hearted than Final Fantasy IV, very comedic. But this is the game that introduced Gilgamesh, so that's to be expected.

It's not important, because this game, despite having set characters, brings back the job system from the third game. As you progress, you'll unlock more jobs. But the key difference with this game is that you can take abilities from one job and apply them to other jobs. That element of mix and match is what elevates this over FF III. For some reason, certain bosses are not immune to status effects, so you can do some really silly stuff if you know what you're doing!

This game is probably the reason future Final Fantasy games made status effect spells useless...

It's not completely refined, some jobs still kinda suck, and you'll end up with just Freelancers and Mimes in the end because of how those jobs work. But this game walked, so Bravely Default could run, and I very much appreciate it for that. It does mean that I think it's the weakest SNES entry, but it's still decent. It's got way too many moments where you can permanently miss something. Also, the Shinryu fight is absolute BS, and I will not hear otherwise.

Music's great, though!

Interesting enemy formation, there

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)
Miitopia (100 flipping per ceeeeent!)
Metroid Zero Mission (100%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Gravity Circuit
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster

 

Edited September 14 by Glen-i

[nekunando]

Only played the first day of Pikmin last weekend on Switch and I will get back to it soon but the pointer controls feel frustratingly restrictive after how amazing they are in Pikmin 3.

I have played more of Super Mario Galaxy this week, though. I'm up to 56 stars now with Luigi 😃

I knew I wouldn't like it.. but what I didn't expect was to feel actually sick after playing Portal.

Either it's an frustrating case of motion sickness or my body is finding new ways to be repulsed by critically acclaimed games beyond my mental disgust!

[RedShell]

Very quick update to my list seeing as I probably won't be playing anything else but Dondoko Island- I mean... Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for a while now.

• New Denpa Men
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
• Call of the Wild: The Angler
• Bakeru
• Tinykin
• Pac-Man Museum+
• Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland

Thanks again @Hero-of-Time for the recommendation of Tinykin. Great little game that, I enjoyed it immensely.
BTW, not sure if you've played it or not, but Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland would be a super easy platinum trophy for you to add to your collection. I say this with confidence because even I managed to get all the achievements in a couple of hours:

I don't recommend the game at full price as it's very light on content, and nothing special either, but one to keep an eye out for on sale maybe.

2024 list:

Spoiler

• Bramble: The Mountain King
• Stray
• Palworld
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (replay)
• No More Heroes III
• Dead Rising
• Metal Slug (replay)
• Prodeus
• Resident Evil 2 Remake (replay) (did a playthrough on Hardcore difficulty)
• Paper Mario
• Castlevania Bloodlines
• Metroid: Zero Mission
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom
• The New Denpa Men
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
• Call of the Wild: The Angler
• Bakeru
• Tinykin
• Pac-Man Museum+ (replay-ish) (played a bit previously on Game Pass)
• Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland

Edited Wednesday at 03:03 PM by RedShell

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, Rugrats is on my wishlist (loved the cartoon as a kid) but will be holding off until its reduced in price due to how short it is.

[Glen-i]

Wait, Rugrats is out now? Completely slipped me by, that.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

Wait, Rugrats is out now? Completely slipped me by, that.

Rugrats has been out since 1991, Glen, are you doing okay? 

[Hero-of-Time]

30 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Wait, Rugrats is out now? Completely slipped me by, that.

Yeah, it's £20 but only around 3 hours long.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it's £20 but only around 3 hours long.

I mean, it's a platformer designed to run on the NES. Doesn't surprise me one bit it's short.

[Hero-of-Time]

10 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I mean, it's a platformer designed to run on the NES. Doesn't surprise me one bit it's short.

Yeah, but NES platformers were pretty tough, meaning that they usually required a lot of trial and error and you got a lot of time out of mastering them. This us supposed to be very easy but still fun.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it's £20 but only around 3 hours long.

If it’s a good 3 hours that makes for a highly replayable game? I’d much rather pay £20 for that than the same price for a 100 hour slog.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

If it’s a good 3 hours that makes for a highly replayable game? I’d much rather pay £20 for that than the same price for a 100 hour slog.

I agree but the point is there are so many quality smaller games released these days that it's easy to pass on a 3 hour game for £20 when for the same price I could probably get a few highly rated indie games. For example, I recently bought Terra Memoria (JRPG), Alwa's Awakening (Metroidvania) and Panzer Paladin (Action Platformer) for the same price as what it would cost me for Rugrats. 

[RedShell]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, Rugrats is on my wishlist (loved the cartoon as a kid) but will be holding off until its reduced in price due to how short it is.

Smart move. The only reason I played it already is because it was available as a freebie on PC via the Epic Games store.
Anyway, I recommend switching to the 8-Bit graphics when you do play it, as while the HD graphics look like the cartoon, the pixel art is a much better fit for the gameplay style.

25 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

If it’s a good 3 hours that makes for a highly replayable game? I’d much rather pay £20 for that than the same price for a 100 hour slog.

I had fun with it for what it is, but I certainly wouldn't want to replay the game. Especially not it's final level, which let's just say has some very authentic NES era enemy placement. Might be different for others though.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, RedShell said:

Smart move. The only reason I played it already is because it was available as a freebie on PC via the Epic Games store.
Anyway, I recommend switching to the 8-Bit graphics when you do play it, as while the HD graphics look like the cartoon, the pixel art is a much better fit for the gameplay style.

Yeah, that's what I planned to do. The NES version looks great. Just how a Rugrats game would have looked had it released on the console.

[Dcubed]

Am I the only one who thinks that a NES Rugrats game feels inherently weird? I mean, Rugrats only started in 1991; after the SNES had launched.  So surely a SNES/MD game would be more on brand than a NES game?

I mean, it’s cool and all; what with it being a real NES ROM that runs on real hardware.  But I dunno, it just feels strange being on that hardware, as I associate the series with the early-late 90s (which covers the 16bit and 32bit eras).

[nekunando]