Your 2025 Gaming Diary

[Hero-of-Time]

The grind for equipment and orbs wasn't that bad. I've read stories of people trying for days to grind the items they needed. 

I thought my game glitched during the final boss. I powered up the sword to the Mana Sword but was doing 0 damage. I didn't realise the magic ran out on it and had to keep topping it up. Terrible final boss fight though. It was so basic. Naturally I butchered the thing after my excessive exp and item farming.

The last trophy I needed was to max out all the magic spells. It was here, at the end of the game, that I only realised I could put magic usage on to a shortcut button. I'd been going through the menu to cast a spell during the whole game.

It's nice to have finally played it but it's not a good game. Take away the need to grind and there is very little to it. It does have a certain charm to it and, as Dcubed said, the soundtrack is pretty great, but overall it's very overrated and in no way deserve the praise it gets. 

With that done, there goes my first game off my 2025 pledge list.

@Julius you should stick everyone's pledges and updated pics in the first post. Would make it easier to see what everyone has picked and how they are getting on with things.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

@Julius you should stick everyone's pledges and updated pics in the first post. Would make it easier to see what everyone has picked and how they are getting on with things.

Done and done, great idea H-o-T, happy to implement it 

Congrats on getting your first pledge game cleared for the year!

 

If anyone else has suggestions like this for the pledge (or just the thread in general tbh) I'm all ears! 

[bob]

First game of 2025 complete! 

 

 

Ok, granted I payed 90% of it last year, and I think I started it months ago, but nevertheless I have finished Uncharted 4!

 

Christ, it went on a bit. It did not need to be that long - it could have been half the length and I think it would have felt complete. The epilogue was so mind numbingly boring to complete, it clearly should have just been a cut-scene.

Anyway, I enjoyed the game. It really is visually stunning, and has some really fun set pieces in it. I think it might be my favourite of the 4. I liked the piratey theme and locations - it just needed trimming and removing a few dull chapters (wandering around that mansion during flashback; the chapter with all the exploding mummies; the epilogue).

 

Not sure what to play next. Maybe I'll make a gaming pledge! Although the idea of even attempting to compete 10 games is laughable, I may put a few on it that I want to play.

[Hero-of-Time]

My first gaming purchase of the year was Thank Goodness You're Here. It's a game that has been in my wishlist for a while and it was now on sale. I remember @Happenstance playing and enjoying it last year. If it was a game that kept his attention enough for him to see it through to the end I figured it must be worth playing.

The game is great! As a businessman, you're tasked with speaking with the mayor of the town. The problem is that he's unavailable for a while and so to kill some time you set out and about the small, nothern town to meet the people and help them with their tasks.

The game is absolutely hilarious and VERY British. I'm not sure if players from other countries will get a lot of the references but those of you from the UK will certainly enjoy the charm and banter between the characters. The gardener and Rog the veg store owner are two of may favourites, with the latter having nightmarish flashbacks about his youth and the size of his head. It's all very wacky and a bit crazy but it never failed to make me smile. I feel @Dcubed and @Glen-i would get a kick out of the British humour.

The gameplay itself is very basic, with only jump and slap actions being used by the player. Both of these are enough to engage with the world and lead to some funny moments. It's basically a series of fetch quests and small tasks but the game and town are short and small enough so that doing these things doesn't get old.

Unlike the game I played before this, this one is definetly worthy of the praise it got and I can see why many reviewers raved on about it and had it as one of their best games of 2024.

To end with, here's a scene that had me howling.

 

[drahkon]

11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 

[Nicktendo]

I feel like a prize clown for picking 12 games now. I obviously didn't do enough reading or pay close enough attention to the pictures because I somehow just assumed it would be like one game a month or something. Oh well. Uphill battles are made to be overcome. 

[Happenstance]

Glad you enjoyed it. As you said, it's such a British game and the humour was top notch.

[Julius]

25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

I feel like a prize clown for picking 12 games now. I obviously didn't do enough reading or pay close enough attention to the pictures because I somehow just assumed it would be like one game a month or something. Oh well. Uphill battles are made to be overcome. 

...if it makes you feel any better, you mentioned all three MGS games in Vol. 1 of the Master Collection, so I guess it's really more like 14 

If you'd like to change it to 10 feel free to, no lawyers have been contacted to make any of these legally binding (...well, yet) -- but it sounds like you're up for the challenge! 

[bob]

 

I went ahead and made a pledge anyway, although i'd like the jury to recognise that it is in no way binding. At best i expect to actually complete one or two of these, and the rest are pretty much just my current backlog.

 

Zelda TOTK - A friend got me this for Xmas 2023, and i still haven't got it out of the packaging. It's a bit daunting given how long BOTW ended up being, but i do want to play it (plus it's a bit awkward because it was a gift).

Mass Effect 3 - I've played through the first two, and need to complete the trilogy at some point. It would be good to see how some of my choices play out, even though i've heard that the ending is a bit disappointing.

Spider-man 2 - I always intended getting a PS5 to play this, because I loved the first one, but unfortunately I can't justify buying another console when i barely get to play the ones I have. However, the game is now coming to PC, so i reckon i can play it on my laptop instead! This one is most likely to get played and completed. Cannot wait for Jan 30th!

Hades 2 - Again, I loved the first one, and look forward to playing the next. Might end up waiting for it to get reduced in price, but it's a good game to play in little bursts on the Switch, so i genuinely might end up playing this at some point.

Outer wilds - This one has been on my watchlist for a while. I've heard weird and wonderful things about it (and constantly get it confused with Outer Worlds - I had to check several times that this is the one I want to play). If i do end up with nothing else to play, i'll buy this!

Stardew Valley - I've been intending to buy this for a while as well. it's only like a tenner now, and i recently heard it's added 2 player coop, so it may be something my wife will play. 

Horizon Forbidden West - Another one that I was planning to get on PS5, but is available on PC, so perhaps I will buy this and play it...

Pokemon Arceus - I have picked this up and played bits of it multiple times. Unfortunately it is just a bit too boring to keep my interest for long enough to complete it. Still, I'm not that far from the end, and obviously i'm itching to find out how the captivating and well-written plot plays out!

Far Cry 4 - i've owned this for sveral years, and have never opened it. I loved the 3rd one though, and the setting seems fun, so perhaps 2025 will be the year I finally open it!

Paper Mario: Origami King - I have played some of this. I think i got to the 3rd world/level maybe? To be honest I couldn't get on with the battle system, so I doubt i'll ever finish it, but i feel guilty that i own it and never completed it, so it goes on here to complete the pledge.

Edited 4 hours ago by bob

[Julius]

1 hour ago, bob said:

I went ahead and made a pledge anyway

Glad to have you aboard bob, I've gone added your pledge to the pledge wall in the first post; lovely and varied pledge! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on whatever you get to 

2 hours ago, bob said:

although i'd like the jury to recognise that it is in no way binding. At best i expect to actually complete one or two of these, and the rest are pretty much just my current backlog.

The courts recognise the non-binding nature of the pledge and wish you well with it!

Just a few more of these pledges and we'll have enough sacrifices ready to form the summoning circle...

[Glen-i]

4 minutes ago, Julius said:

The courts recognise the non-binding nature of the pledge and wish you well with it!

Not like they could do anything about it, anyway. You see? His is green. Non-standard pledge design, you can't hold him to anything!

[Glen-i]

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is an action adventure game developed by Konami that originally released on the DS in 2007. As you probably would have guessed if you read my Dawn of Sorrow post from last year, I played this on the Castlevania Dominus Collection that came out last year.

A man with improbable jumping skills and a catchphrase runs into a big castle and finds it weirdly devoid of human life. After exploring it a little, he comes across an enchanted painting that also doubles as a portal to the place depicted on it. Using these paintings, our protagonist has to get to the bottom of where the owner of this castle is.

What? That reminds you of something? I can't think of what you're talking about. You must be imagining it. I mean, this game takes place in the Victorian era.

At least, I think it does...?

There are two key differences between this and the two "X of Sorrow" games. The first is that JONATHAN there has some backup in the form of CHARLOTTE. You can swap between the two at any time. Other then repeatedly cycling through their voice clips over and over again, they specialise in different methods of attack. JONATHAN uses more physical weapons, including a lot of the traditional Castlevania subweapons like Axes, and Crosses, while CHARLOTTE has a load of magic spells in her book.

Neat idea, but CHARLOTTE ends up being far too slow to be of much use in a fight, and can't upgrade her spells, so JONATHAN ends up being the only character I used by the end. Which is amusing, because I've been playing way too much Vampire Survivors recently, and CHARLOTTE is way better then JONATHAN there. But then again, that's the game where you can throw 50 knives in about 2 seconds, so it's probably not that accurate.

The other big difference is the paintings I alluded to earlier. Previous games would have one massive area to explore, but here, there are many different places to explore. This means that progression is a lot more linear, which is fine, makes for a nice change of pace. What I wasn't keen on was the absolutely insane difficulty spike halfway through the game. Yes, it was Death, but that's not what bothers me, straight after Death, there's another boss fight, where in order to not get the bad ending, you have to hit it with a certain spell. The problem is that this spell takes about 10 seconds to charge up, and the boss does not give you anywhere near that amount of time to do so. So you have to let the AI handle CHARLOTTE's casting and hope she doesn't get hit. Oh, and you can't go too far away, because she despawns if she goes off-screen.

Never again...

Despite that setback, it's a really fun game. Balanced a bit poorly with how much better JONATHAN is, but solid. Dawn of Sorrow is better, mind.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

[Jonnas]

16 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I mean, this game takes place in the Victorian era.

At least, I think it does...?

It doesn't. It takes place during WWII. Only the first painting takes place in the Victorian Era.

...

There is a decent chance that Super Mario 64 also takes place during WWII. Just saying.

Edited 2 hours ago by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

9 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

It doesn't. It takes place during WWII. Only the first painting takes place in the Victorian Era.

Ah, gotcha. Probably my bad, to be fair. The Dominus Collection does have the instruction booklets in the gallery.

[Hero-of-Time]

I fired up this game this evening.

I remember when the original game was first released on the Sega Saturn in Japan. The official UK Saturn magazine was hyping it up as the Final Fantasy VII killer, obviously because that games wasn't making an appearance on the console. They kept raving on about it, only for the game to never get a Saturn release in the West. Ironically, it wasn't until it was released on the PS1 that UK JRPG fans would get to play it.

I've not done much on it yet (clock says I've been on over 4 hours but I fell asleep for a while after work, with the PS5 pad still in my hand ) but I am enjoying the cozy vibes of the game. Justin seems to be a bit of a cheeky git and Sue is adorable.

I've just been kicking around the first area (Marna Road) to do some grinding. The exp is a bit rubbish but I'm getting plenty of levelling done on my weapons. I keep chopping and changing them in order to unlock some new moves. Doing this has meant I've obtained plenty of cash and have been able to buy all weapon and armour upgrades in Parm. It's a bit of a shame that there are no random battles though and instead you have to walk into enemies. It means I have to concentrate a little bit more when farming exp, as opposed to just being able to walk around in circles using controller. This is my progress for the day.

Another thing I'm not keen on is the item limit. Having a character being able to hold just 12 items seems a bit limiting. I've already stashed a load of stuff in the chest at home to free up space. In all fairness, it shouldn't really matter. I'm the type of player who when playing JRPGs hordes items for a rainy day but never actually uses them. 

One more thing, Sue has that little creature on her head and when she runs she looks like she's rocking the novelty breasts from Blackadder.

Edited 7 minutes ago by Hero-of-Time