Games Completed 2019

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duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by duskvstweak »

clippa wrote: September 22nd, 2019, 10:47 pm Haha, I thought you said you were rubbish at most games? That's ridiculous!
I heard they'd nerfed it, but not that bloody hard! Did it feel like you got lucky?

Sometimes you can get really lucky with gear drops and you're just going through the bosses like a hot knife through butter, other times you really have to fight for every kill. That's part of the joy of the rng in the game.

This was my first win, by the skin of my teeth - https://i.imgur.com/h8KroYB.jpg

Look at this by comparison, on the next difficulty up, look at how much health I had left and I even still had that respawn after death thingy still unused - https://i.imgur.com/c4Vf39i.jpg

Look at the gear I had though. The rng gods just kept showering me with golden gifts. It was embarrassing at the end, I was throwing away weapons I'd kill for because I was getting one that was slightly shinier :D - https://i.imgur.com/pvOcdrE.jpg

It's designed to be infinitely replayable so you can just start again if you like, or you can put the boss stem cell in the machine at the start and that's how you play the harder difficulties.
Two cells is as far as I got, that difficulty seemed to be broken, or I was too shit for it.
They removed the mobs auto scaling with your character and the game has been tweaked quite a lot since so it might feel a lot more balanced now. I'm all dead celled out though, I reckon. There's some games I just played too much all in one go and I end up feeling sick if I put them on again.

Congrats though, man. That's impressive! You can put that on your CV "finished dead cells on my thirteenth go".
If you ever say that your crap at games again, I'm gonna remind you of this.
Wow. That's some gear!

A longer video will eventually end up on my Youtube this week, but I clipped the last minute of the fight. I guess I cheated, cause I had the mutation that let me die one time and keep going...I had actually forgot I even had it at the end! Also, I guess it was my 12th run.

I'm gonna keep playing for a bit, go achievement hunting for a bit. I'd hate to leave the game so quickly. It's such a pretty game.

https://clips.twitch.tv/LaconicSteamyPotMcaT
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
25/01 - Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
31/01 - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
01/02 - SOMA (Safe Mode)
09/02 - Shadow Warrior
18/02 - Mulaka
26/02 - NieR: Automata - 3C3C1D119440927 DLC
02/03 - Race Driver: GRID
04/03 - Bladed Fury
10/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Devil Hunter)
13/03 - AER: Memories of Old
17/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Son of Sparda)
20/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Human)
05/04 - God of War III Remastered
12/04 - Devil May Cry 5 (Dante Must Die)
14/04 - Journey
15/04 - ABZU
22/04 - Journey
28/04 - Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition
30/04 - Dangerous Driving
02/05 - Final Fantasy XV - Episode Gladiolus/Episode Prompto/Episode Ignis
12/05 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition
21/05 - RiME
22/05 - Remember Me
20/06 - Bioshock
08/07 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2
11/07 - Bioshock 2
25/07 - Inside
05/08 - Bioshock Infinite
14/08 - Eastshade
23/08 - Judgment
11/09 - Astral Chain (Pt Standard)
13/09 - Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
15/09 - Assault Spy (Normal/Asaru)
19/09 - Prey (2006)
23/09 - Leaving Lyndow

This was a little surprise that I literally just stumbled upon less than an hour ago. It turns out there's a prequel to Eastshade! Or rather, this is more a prologue/tech demo for Eastshade, as this came out first. I found this as console versions for Eastshade just got announced, but I was sure it was already out on PS4. So upon searching for it to see if I was mistaken (seems I was), I discovered this existed. Since I really enjoyed Eastshade and this was less than £3, I decided to pick it up on impulse.

It's only a very short experience, which I finished in 40 minutes, but it was a nice little slice of that world that I adored so much in its successor. There's no painting or crafting mechanics here. Just walk around in a handful of small compartmentalised areas and talk to people, with a few little interactive doodads here and there. But it's still got that same nice ambience with some very pretty scenery, albeit not looking quite as fleshed out and finished as the full experience. It's set a length of time before Eastshade, so you get to see the port town of Lyndow that you first arrive at while it's still under construction here. So it's kind of interesting to see this virtual world in an unfinished state, both technically and in the in-universe fiction. There are also a bunch of characters and references to things that show up in Eastshade, so it's neat to see how they were already being teased here, and gives a bit more context to later events too.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Combine Hunter »

Spoiler: show
15/02 - Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
17/02 - Final Fantasy VIII (PS Vita)
18/02 - FAR: Lone Sails (PC)
14/04 - Final Fantasy IX (PS Vita)
28/04 - Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (PC)
09/05 - Devil May Cry 5 (PC)
11/05 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC)
26/05 - Observation (PC)
04/06 - Katana Zero (Switch)
29/06 - Dino Crisis (PS3)
13/07 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
31/07 - Outer Wilds (PC)
08/08 - Gato Roboto (Switch)
13/08 - DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC - BFG Edition version)
14/08 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Edelgard's campaign (Switch)
07/09 - The Evil Within 2 (PC)
21/09 - Control (PC)
21/09 - Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch)
23/09 - Gears 5 (PC)

Bit of an anticlimactic ending, but I think Act 2 and Act 3 of this campaign are the strongest Gears has ever been for me. I hope they lean into that design approach further in the next entry.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Gears 5 too.

Yep ending is a bit anticlimactic and the last boss is a bit of a sh*t but overall it is a very good game and an excellent Gears game. Might need to replay 3 to see if it still the best but this is a solid 2nd for me.

Hopefully this means 6 will be a launch title new gen however
Spoiler: show
How will they address the character you save choice?
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ReprobateGamer
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by ReprobateGamer »

DomsBeard wrote: September 23rd, 2019, 9:33 pm Gears 5 too.

Yep ending is a bit anticlimactic and the last boss is a bit of a sh*t but overall it is a very good game and an excellent Gears game. Might need to replay 3 to see if it still the best but this is a solid 2nd for me.

Hopefully this means 6 will be a launch title new gen however
Spoiler: show
How will they address the character you save choice?
Indeed - there is the potential for them to go down the
Spoiler: show
Mass Effect
route but I think it more likely
Spoiler: show
they will just have the surviving character run through the game with the appropriate skin and ignore any inkling of romance
Combine Hunter wrote: September 23rd, 2019, 9:23 pm
Bit of an anticlimactic ending, but I think Act 2 and Act 3 of this campaign are the strongest Gears has ever been for me. I hope they lean into that design approach further in the next entry.
There's an opportunity here for a similar open world design to a level but with live events ie two Swarm invasions at different points and you would need to pick which one to address with the choice then impacting missions further down the line. The Coalition appear to have plans for the franchise so could be interesting.

Thinking back to the ending, it reminds me a bit of the original game - a sudden event that clearly doesn't resolve the story ...
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Scrustle
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
25/01 - Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
31/01 - Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
01/02 - SOMA (Safe Mode)
09/02 - Shadow Warrior
18/02 - Mulaka
26/02 - NieR: Automata - 3C3C1D119440927 DLC
02/03 - Race Driver: GRID
04/03 - Bladed Fury
10/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Devil Hunter)
13/03 - AER: Memories of Old
17/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Son of Sparda)
20/03 - Devil May Cry 5 (Human)
05/04 - God of War III Remastered
12/04 - Devil May Cry 5 (Dante Must Die)
14/04 - Journey
15/04 - ABZU
22/04 - Journey
28/04 - Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition
30/04 - Dangerous Driving
02/05 - Final Fantasy XV - Episode Gladiolus/Episode Prompto/Episode Ignis
12/05 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition
21/05 - RiME
22/05 - Remember Me
20/06 - Bioshock
08/07 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2
11/07 - Bioshock 2
25/07 - Inside
05/08 - Bioshock Infinite
14/08 - Eastshade
23/08 - Judgment
11/09 - Astral Chain (Pt Standard)
13/09 - Jettomero: Hero of the Universe
15/09 - Assault Spy (Normal/Asaru)
19/09 - Prey (2006)
23/09 - Leaving Lyndow
24/09 - Assault Spy (Normal/Amelia)

This second run took longer than I expected. You don't just play through the same levels again as a different character, they add on a couple of extra levels at the end of this campaign to act as a finale that ties both character's stories together. Which was kind of cool, as they justify the different campaigns as being alternate realities, so as you go through the same events in the different campaigns, the characters take on different roles and it turns things on their head a bit. The finale levels let you switch between characters at will too.

I didn't really like playing as Amelia as much as Asaru though (which made character switching much appreciated) as she doesn't feel as interesting to play as him, and also doesn't really flow as well in combat. While she is still fun and has good kinaesthetics, her combat style doesn't really feel as distinct or deep as Asaru's. While his style is like a combination of Dante and Vergil from DMC, with lots of timing combos and juggle potential, Amelia's feels kind of basic and simplistic in comparison. Like it doesn't really have a clear idea of what it's trying to be. You're comparatively limited with combos, only simply attack strings of mostly the same button, with attacks that don't feel like they naturally connect to others. She does have the ability to hold down the attack button for a charged move, but it works as a distinct attack that interrupts a combo, and not like you're charging specific attacks in an existing string, like you might get out of Beowulf in DMC, or how various characters in the Yakuza games play. Asaru also has this really useful ability to pull out a distraction to draw enemy aggro away from him, which is extremely helpful as most of the basic enemies in the game use ranged attacks. Amelia lacks this ability. She does however have one thing that helps spice things up a tad. She has a Royal Guard style block. The timing it pretty generous and you can do a powerful counter after a successful block, but it doesn't have any mechanics of charging up energy like in DMC. It's still pretty satisfying to use on bosses though, even if it's not that useful with normal enemies.

Another somewhat annoying thing about playing Amelia was that in the finale levels where you get to switch to Asaru, you aren't able to upgrade his skills or even view his move list. Not necessarily an issue with Amelia herself, but rather just a UI design oversight in those levels. It's pretty annoying when you haven't played as him in a while and want to remind yourself of what he can do, or power him up if you need to.

But despite all that it was still fun, and this is a great little game I'm glad I finally played through. I'll be keeping an eye on the dev from now on to see what they're doing in the future.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Tetris Effect

Non vr. Enjoyed it and amazed myself by doing the last bit first time. Good music
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Flabyo
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Flabyo »

Flabyo wrote: September 15th, 2019, 4:32 pm 5th Jan - Rise of the Tomb Raider (XBO)
1st Feb - Doom (2016) (XBO)
20th Feb - Crackdown 3: Campaign (XBO)
25th Mar - Bound (PS4)
30th Mar - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (XBO)
29th April - Mortal Kombat 11 Story Mode (PS4)
17th May - Middle Earth: Shadow of War (XBO)
25th May - Wolfenstein 2 (XBO)
28th May - Tacoma (XBO)
12th July - Metro 2033 Redux (XBO)
23rd July - Timespinner (XBO)
30th July - Shadow Warrior 2 (XBO)
3rd Sep - Outcast: Second Contact (XBO)
15th Sep - Gears 5 (XBO)
25th Sep - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (XBO)

It’s basically Symphony of the Night 2, which is fine by me. Got a few of the bonus bosses to do to get the full map percentage, but I’ve seen all the endings so it’s pretty much done.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Man Of Medan

Very disappointed. Did it two player couch co-op. Very jumpy in places and the story could've been paced a lot better. If you would have shown this to someone who had never heard of Until Dawn then said until dawn was the game they made after this they would believe you.
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Jan - Streets Of Rage 2 - (Switch)
Jan - Detroit: Become Human (PS4 Pro)
Feb - Quarantine Circular (Switch)
Feb - Yoku’s Island Express (Switch)
Feb - Shenmue (PS4 Pro)
Mar - Rise of the Tomb Raider (XOX)
Apr - Gunstar Heroes (Switch)
May - Street Fighter 5 (PS4 Pro)
Jun - The Division 2 (XOX)
Jul - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
Aug – Burning Rangers (Saturn)

Sep – Doom (2016) (XOX)

Mixed feelings on this one. I know it’s a fantastic game, and I can absolutely see why it’s so highly regarded. Fast, smooth, atmospheric, finely tuned gameplay, great arsenal of weapons, excellent level design. It’s all there. I just didn’t particularly enjoy it.

I think it’s that I actually just found it all a bit too much, at the end of a long day at work, to be relentlessly chased around by demons wanting to rip my head off. It’s all just so intense! I found that 60-90 minutes per session was more than enough, and that then made it feel like a slog to beat as I was dipping in and out so often before the credits eventually rolled.

It’s strange as I don’t mind intense, fast paced games at all. In fact I love them more often than not. But there was something about Doom that tipped it over the edge into being slightly intolerable for me.

Oh well. At least I can strike Doom Eternal off my watch list! This one was quite enough!
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Combine Hunter »

Spoiler: show
15/02 - Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
17/02 - Final Fantasy VIII (PS Vita)
18/02 - FAR: Lone Sails (PC)
14/04 - Final Fantasy IX (PS Vita)
28/04 - Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (PC)
09/05 - Devil May Cry 5 (PC)
11/05 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC)
26/05 - Observation (PC)
04/06 - Katana Zero (Switch)
29/06 - Dino Crisis (PS3)
13/07 - Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
31/07 - Outer Wilds (PC)
08/08 - Gato Roboto (Switch)
13/08 - DOOM II: Hell on Earth (PC - BFG Edition version)
14/08 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Edelgard's campaign (Switch)
07/09 - The Evil Within 2 (PC)
21/09 - Control (PC)
21/09 - Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch)
23/09 - Gears 5 (PC)
28/09 - Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

So glad this ended up being more than the joke (even though that joke is very funny). Highly recommended.
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by MajorGamer »

Spoiler: show
Jan 2 - War for the Overworld (PC)
Jan 13 - Pyre (PC)
Jan 16 - Heroes of Hammerwatch (PC)
Jan 17 - Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Jan 20 - ReThink | Evolved (PC)
Jan 20 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
Jan 22 - Ruzar - The Life Stone (PC)
Jan 27 - After Death (PC)
Feb 6 - Vikings - Wolves of Midgard (PC)
Feb 21 - Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins (PC)

Feb 27 - Book of Demons (PC)
Mar 4 - Vaporum (PC)
Mar 5 - Frost (Switch)
Mar 9 - DarkMaus (PC)
Mar 10 - Octopath Traveler (Switch)
Mar 31 - Final Fantasy X (PC)
Apr 5 - Treasure Adventure World (PC)
Apr 15 - Greedy Guns (PC)
Apr 23 - ChromaGun (PC)
Apr 27 - The Quest (PC)

May 1 - Skautfold: Usurper (PC)
May 7 - Alwa's Awakening (PC)
May 9 - OneShot (PC)
May 13 - Darkest Dungeon: Ancestral Edition (Switch)
May 27 - Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (PC)
May 29 - Styx: Shards of Darkness (PC)
Jun 5 - The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians (PC)
Jun 5 - Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom (Switch)
Jun 11 - Yoku's Island Express (Switch)
Jun 17 - LISA (PC)

Jun 18 - Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (PC)
Jun 24 - Halcyon 6 (PC)
Jun 29 - Fox n Forests (PC)
Jul 4 - Battle Princess Madelyn (Switch)
Jul 14 - Dustforce (PC)
Jul 26 - Ambition of the Slimes (Switch)
July 29 - Final Fantasy X-2 (PC)
July 31 - Epistory - Typing Chronicles (PC)
Aug 2 - Moonlighter (Switch)
Aug 6 - Seasons After Fall (PC)

Aug 10 - Bayonetta 2 (Switch)
Aug 12 - ReThink | Evolved 2 (PC)
Aug 21 - Shadows: Awakening (PC)
Aug 24 - Singularity (PC)
Aug 26 - Typoman (PC)
Sep 4 - Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions (Switch)
Sep 4 - The Surge (PC)
Sep 6 - Rise & Shine (PC)
Sep 14 - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
Sep 15 - -KLAUS- (PC)

This is the kind of indie game no one has heard of that makes it worth searching through all the crap. It is a decent platformer, nothing overly complicated or difficult but deaths will happen regularly enough. There are some gimmicks that change up the main levels as well as not-so-secret levels that have their own things going with them. To aid (or complicate) the platforming, there are platforms and such you need to move around with your mouse. It also has a bit of a Thomas Was Alone vibe to it as the characters thoughts/dialogue are displayed on screen while going through the levels.

There is also a time trial mode after clearing it to beat certain times. Most are fine but some are extremely lenient (a 5:30 min timer and it takes under 2:00) or extremely stringent (a 3:20 timer and being near perfect is 3:10). This isn't the most fantastic of games but it was great fun running through it.

Sep 22 - MagiCat (Switch)

I was just in a platforming mood. Almost every level is split into three sections and a boss. Every level has its own, unique gimmick that are almost never reused. It goes from wind, getting a grappling hook thing, ghosts, icicles, and so on. It is rather impressive how many there are but because of how things designed, they never really dig into the intricacies of each or have them interact with each other. There are also gems to collect and all can be collected without using the dash for an extra challenge but there is no penalty for using it. There were a few that were fairly mean, though.
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Alex79 »

Alex79uk wrote: January 20th, 2019, 5:10 pmJAN - Super Mario Land (Nintendo Gameboy)
JAN - Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Megadrive on PS4)
FEB - Professor Layton & The Curious Village (Android)
FEB - Donkey Kong '94 (Nintendo Gameboy)
FEB - Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
FEB - Chuchel (Android)
FEB - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
MAR - Spider-Man (PS4)
MAR - Florence (Android)
MAR - Where On Google Earth Is Carmen Sandiego (Browser)
MAR - Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)
MAR - Final Fantasy X (PS Vita)
MAY - Söldner-X 2 (PS Vita)
MAY - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
MAY - The Punisher (Arcade on PS Vita)
JUN - Super Mario Bros. (NES on Switch)
JUN - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PS4)
JUL - Windjammers (Arcade Mode) (PS Vita)
JUL - Detroit: Become Human (PS4)
JUL - Super Mario Odyssey: Credits Roll (Switch)
AUG - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES on Switch) SEP - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
SEP - Yakuza Kiwami 2: The Majima Saga (PS4)
SEP - Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS4)
SEP - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
SEP - The Room (Android)

Superb. Really, pretty much a perfect game. It's the absolute pinnacle of the sub-genre I think. Played it years ago but remembered nothing, so it was like a fresh game to me. Looking forward to moving on to the next one.
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Alex79
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Alex79 »

Alex79uk wrote: January 20th, 2019, 5:10 pmJAN - Super Mario Land (Nintendo Gameboy)
JAN - Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Megadrive on PS4)
FEB - Professor Layton & The Curious Village (Android)
FEB - Donkey Kong '94 (Nintendo Gameboy)
FEB - Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
FEB - Chuchel (Android)
FEB - Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
MAR - Spider-Man (PS4)
MAR - Florence (Android)
MAR - Where On Google Earth Is Carmen Sandiego (Browser)
MAR - Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)
MAR - Final Fantasy X (PS Vita)
MAY - Söldner-X 2 (PS Vita)
MAY - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
MAY - The Punisher (Arcade on PS Vita)
JUN - Super Mario Bros. (NES on Switch)
JUN - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PS4)
JUL - Windjammers (Arcade Mode) (PS Vita)
JUL - Detroit: Become Human (PS4)
JUL - Super Mario Odyssey: Credits Roll (Switch)
AUG - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES on Switch) SEP - Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4)
SEP - Yakuza Kiwami 2: The Majima Saga (PS4)
SEP - Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS4)
SEP - Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
SEP - The Room (Android)
SEP - Super Metroid (SNES on Switch)

Holy fucking shitballs, that was EPIC! What an ending! What a game! God damn. What a game!

Image
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Glad you enjoyed it Alex. It is funny that is the completion time as in my brain when I finished it when I was around 14/15 it felt like a good 20 or 30 hour game. Think I had a guide as well as I think it came in a big box?.
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JadePhoenix
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by JadePhoenix »

9/29 - Dragon Quest (Switch)

I've played through it once before with help, so I was interested to see if, between my memory and the in-game signposting, I could get through it unaided (preferably without spending hours wandering around lost), since NES RPGs are notoriously bad at that. I suspect a lot of credit goes to the updated localization in this version, which I assume is the same as Androis/IOS, but I managed to save the princess, defeat the Dragonlord, and restore peace to the world, all in about 5 hours, and had a lot of fun along the way.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by KSubzero1000 »

AI: The Somnium Files

What a strange, flawed, wonderful game. I was just in the mood for another slow-paced visual novel in the spirit of Zero Escape or Ace Attorney and this one really hit the spot for me.

First things first: The plot is excellent overall. It's less focused on Uchikoshi's go-to tropes and signature twists than most of his previous work, which is a good thing in my opinion. You can definitely tell it's the same writer who is behind 999 & VLR (especially towards the end), but this is a more subdued and grounded story with more of a focus on character relationships than on raw twist shock value. It starts off pretty slowly, almost like a standard police procedural mystery thriller of sorts, before drastically ramping everything up towards the end. A lot of the character arcs took me by surprise, too. Uchikoshi is really talented at taking established archetypes that would remain completely one-note in most stories and going out of his way to humanize and flesh them out. The game has multiple endings, most of which serve as the resolution to a specific character dynamic rather than dealing with the "main plot", and two of those secondary endings definitely struck a chord with me. I won't go into further details so as to not spoil it for anyone else, but let's just say this game goes to places I didn't expect.

Overall, it doesn't quite hit the same highs as something like VLR, but this is probably more consistently good throughout if the frequent tonal whiplash isn't too much of a deal-breaker. Namely, the game relies quite heavily on sarcastic sexual humor that may not be to everyone's taste. And the occasional action scenes are also treated as a bit of a running joke in which all rules of logic and dramatic tension instantly fly out of the window. It's certainly intentional (and I haven't really made up my mind as to how I feel about it for now) but it's an acquired taste, let's put it that way.

I suppose the switch between absurdist comedy and tragedy was meant to underline some of the game's themes and message (?), but it doesn't help that many of the puns fall completely flat. I honestly can't blame the localization team here considering how difficult it can be to translate this sort of thing across language barriers, so I'm inclined to give everybody involved the benefit of the doubt. The english voice acting is excellent, however. Whoever voiced Mizuki in particular is absolutely spot-on and manages to convey a lot through her delivery alone.

You can definitely tell this is a mid-budget game, though. Thankfully it's not as bare-boned as ZTD (urgh), but the limited amount of locations and re-used animations / pieces of music are painting a very clear picture as to where the priorities lay during development.

Gameplay is arguably the game's main weakness. The escape-the-room sequences found in Zero Escape have been replaced by puzzle-ish "Somnium" sequences which consist of entering a character's subconscious and tinkering with various elements until you open various "Mental Locks". Think Inception x Monkey Island with a bit of Silent Hill powder sprinkled on top. The concept itself is pretty cool, in fact there are a lot of interesting imagery and subtle visual hints that tie very neatly into the overarching plot, but the mechanical aspect is opaque and frustrating since it's almost impossible to know ahead of time what exactly the game expects of you. Add to that an arbitrary resource and time management element that almost forces retries of some of the more difficult latter sections. It's not unplayable or anything, and thankfully there's a nice fast-forward feature for those aforementioned retries, but it doesn't hold a candle to the tight structure of 999's escape rooms or the panache of Ace Attorney's courtroom sections.

While not perfect by any means, this is nevertheless a great game that is both very reminiscent and very different from Uchikoshi's previous works. Occasionally awkward, often genuinely touching but always captivating, I'm glad this game exists. The price tag might be too much for some people, but I was glad to support the new project of one of the more idiosyncratic game directors working in the industry.


As an aside, and this isn't me picking a fight with anybody in particular, but I can't help but be disappointed at how little interest and excitement there appears to be for the Uchikoshi games in comparison to other branching narrative experiences like the Quantic Dream games for example. Do the AAA production values and aggressive marketing with Hollywood superstars make such a big difference?


PS: I'm under the weather and I find it really hard to formulate my thoughts at the moment. I've been staring at this post for an hour and even though I'm pretty sure my syntax is complete garbage today, this is the best I can do. Hopefully somebody will get something out of it anyway! :P
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Stanshall
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by Stanshall »

Sounds very interesting, but it's been an expensive month. I've decided to hold off for a sale or until I can't bear to wait any longer.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Stanshall wrote: September 30th, 2019, 9:34 pm Sounds very interesting, but it's been an expensive month. I've decided to hold off for a sale or until I can't bear to wait any longer.
Oh, really? I thought for sure I saw you mention it in the Whatcha Been Playing thread a few weeks ago. But in any case, I understand how it might seem like a steep proposition for somebody who isn't really into visual novels or already a fan of Uchi's previous works.

If you still have your PS4 (?), the Nonary Games double pack regularly goes on sale for next to nothing on there. It includes both Nine Hours, Nine Person, Nine Doors & Virtue's Last Reward (of the Zero Escape series), which are the two most acclaimed games by the same director. I can vouch for their quality, too. Although they are slightly more... "high-concept" than this one.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Games Completed 2019

Post by DomsBeard »

Control

I've been trying to think of Metaphor for Control and all I can think of is this:

You will be going to dinner for a lovely meal with great service however the dessert will be awful and leave a bad taste in the mouth. You cant skip it though.

The last hour of the game is amazing then incredibly infuriating followed by a final bit that seems like a training level.

It reminded me of the Dharma stuff from Lost crossed with X Files with Max Payne.

Tell you one think it will be a bloody great C&R Episode :lol:
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