Games Completed 2021
- OneCreditBen
- Member
- Posts: 234
- Joined: August 15th, 2017, 10:03 am
Re: Games Completed 2021
Do Kid Dracula on the NES if you want "interesting" bosses.
It's really good gameplay wise tbh.
It's really good gameplay wise tbh.
Re: Games Completed 2021
OCT - The Red Strings Club (Switch)Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 1st, 2021, 1:25 pmJAN - 80 Days (Android)
JAN - What Remains Of Edith Finch (PS4)
JAN - Judgment (PS4)
JAN - Donut County (Android)
FEB - Gorogoa (Android)
FEB - Horace (Switch)
FEB - Castlevania (NES on Switch)
FEB - Akumajō Dracula (Famicom on Switch)
MAR - Pinball FX3: Back To The Future (Switch)
MAR - Pinball FX3: E.T. (Switch)
APR - Fantasy Zone (1cc) (Arcade on Switch)
APR - Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4)
APR - There Is No Game: Game Jam Edition (Android)
MAY - Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (Switch)
JUN - Super Mario 64 (Switch)
JUL - Silent Bomber JP (PS1 on Vita)
AUG - OutRun 2 (PSP on Vita)
AUG - OutRun 2 SP (PSP on Vita)
AUG - Ashen (Switch)
AUG - Papers, Please (Vita)
AUG - Scramble (1cc) (Arcade on Switch)
AUG - Bayonetta 2 (Switch)
AUG - Pinball FX3: Family Guy (Switch)
AUG - Shovel Knight: Shovel Of Hope (Switch)
SEP - FAR: Lone Sails (Android)
SEP - The Artful Escape (Xbox)
SEP - Pinball FX3: Portal (Switch)
SEP - Pinball FX3: Aliens vs Predator (Switch)
SEP - EA UFC 4 (Xbox)
OCT - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Aliens (Switch)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Alien Isolation (Switch)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Attack From Mars (Switch)
OCT - Superliminal (Xbox)
OCT - Haunted Castle (Arcade on Switch)
OCT - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES on Switch)
OCT - Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition (Xbox)
OCT - Castle Of Illusion (SMS on Vita)
OCT - Land Of Illusion (SMS on Vita)
OCT - Akumajō Densetsu (Famicom on Switch)
OCT - Castlevania: The Adventure (Gameboy on Switch)
OCT - Super Castlevania IV (SNES on Switch)
I really liked this. Thought it looked and sounded really nice, and I enjoyed the story. I think it could be interesting to play again some time making different choices, I'm not sure how much it would affect the game story, but there does seem to be one or two quite significant directions it may be able to go in. I was satisfied with my outcome, though. Worth playing if you like interactive stories, although there's not too much more gameplay than that. There's far less cocktail making than I'd initially thought there would be from reviews and trailers, though!
Re: Games Completed 2021
- Spoiler: show
This game wormed its way back in to my thoughts recently so I decided to give it another run through. It’s a pretty fun and unique game, but I still think it has a lot of problems that needed ironing out that stop it from being something really great.
The basic concept of this arcade racer where you blow up trackside elements to take out your opponents is still really cool and novel. Like a reverse Burnout in a way. And it does create for some thrilling moments, as well as some neat track design with how larger Power Plays can completely change the track layout. Aesthetically it’s pretty good too. I like the stylised look of it, even if it was a bit overdone for the time, being that high contrast blue and orange look with a lot of lens flare. It does look nice, and fits the excessive reality TV show vibe. Car designs are pretty good as well. They look mean and exaggerated, but not too over the top as to not be believable, and they sound pretty meaty as well.
But there are a ton of small problems the game has that drag it down and make it pretty annoying at times. None of them are big issues by themselves, but with so many of them showing up so frequently, it’s hard to ignore. The most obvious problem is that the car handling model isn’t great. Cars are pretty sluggish to turn, and feel very heavy. Drifting is weirdly discouraged, with it slowing you down a whole lot and throwing you extremely wide. It can be very hard to avoid drifting too. Some cars smoothly step out in to a slide in a controllable way, while others swing out wildly and don’t feel consistent to control at all. So the game seems to want to emphasise proper clean racing lines a lot, despite also forcing you to weave around randomly exploding scenery. And despite drifting being a bad option for going fast, it’s also the best way to build up power to do your own Power Plays. So perhaps this is an attempt at balancing these two mechanics, giving you more access to fight back from behind if you find yourself driving in a way that will push you back there in the first place? It doesn’t feel well balanced though, as falling in to the pack also puts you at risk of being caught up in opponent’s attacks too.
This also touches on another issue, with how this game handles rubber banding. Or rather how it doesn’t. It feels like the game doesn’t have traditional rubber banding. It doesn’t seem like other racers speed up or slow down in response to your own performance, at least not in any significant way. This combined with the Power Play system causes some issues. In order to set one off, you need to be in view of an opponent, with them in front of you. So they need to be in a certain range. If one manages to get far enough ahead early on, they just fly off and are never seen for the rest of the race, because the pack behind gets slowed down taking each other out, and they can just go off without having to worry about any retaliation. It makes getting first place in a lot of the game extremely difficult. But it’s not a fair type of difficulty, since it’s based on whether or not some random thing happens in front of you early on in a race. I think the game acknowledges this to a degree too, since you don’t need to get anywhere near first in every race in order to progress. A lot of success in the game feels rather random in general, just because of the nature of the Power Play system and how it can screw you over at basically any time.
The game also seems to have different rules between how your car drives and how your opponents’ do. They seem to be able to turn and drift faster than you. They also seem way more solid on the road. If one nudges you from behind it’s very likely they will send you veering off in to the wall. You can’t do the same to them. Any time you find yourself coming in to contact with another racer will usually have you coming out worse.
There are some visual readability problems as well. While I do like the look of this game from an aesthetic perspective, it’s actually kind of bad for gameplay. Tracks can be very hard to parse, thanks to everything being very high contrast, but with a very limited colour palette. It also doesn’t help that the game is very heavy on post-processing effects and runs at a pretty low resolution, making the picture very pixelated. It can be very hard to tell where the road actually goes at times, and trying to hit the apex when you can’t tell where the track limits are isn’t ideal. I don’t think this is a fundamental problem though. I wouldn’t want to take out the visual stylings of this game, especially when such a thing is hard to come by in this genre. I think if used correctly, this aesthetic could actually benefit this type of game. Using the high contrast to make a clear distinction between what is and isn’t the correct course.
But for all these problems, I don’t think this game is bad, or that the experience is totally ruined by them. The novelty factor still has value, and when things go right in a race, you can tell there’s something special here. When you’re weaving through explosions, right on the edge of danger but still making it through. Or when you do a miraculous comeback and use a well timed play to jump from the back of the grid all the way to the front. It has some great moments despite it all. The conceit also makes for a lot of room for interesting game modes that go beyond simply racing, although in execution they are a mixed bag. It still makes me sad that this game never got a sequel, despite it outright ending with a “to be continued” screen. There’s something really good here, that could be made so much better given another attempt. Rebalance some systems, make the cars snappier and more responsive, and you would have a solid classic. But it was never to be.
Re: Games Completed 2021
I was like man, Scrustle reallllly likes this game, he gave it 23/10.
Re: Games Completed 2021
OCT - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Xbox)Alex79uk wrote: ↑January 1st, 2021, 1:25 pmJAN - 80 Days (Android)
JAN - What Remains Of Edith Finch (PS4)
JAN - Judgment (PS4)
JAN - Donut County (Android)
FEB - Gorogoa (Android)
FEB - Horace (Switch)
FEB - Castlevania (NES on Switch)
FEB - Akumajō Dracula (Famicom on Switch)
MAR - Pinball FX3: Back To The Future (Switch)
MAR - Pinball FX3: E.T. (Switch)
APR - Fantasy Zone (1cc) (Arcade on Switch)
APR - Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4)
APR - There Is No Game: Game Jam Edition (Android)
MAY - Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (Switch)
JUN - Super Mario 64 (Switch)
JUL - Silent Bomber JP (PS1 on Vita)
AUG - OutRun 2 (PSP on Vita)
AUG - OutRun 2 SP (PSP on Vita)
AUG - Ashen (Switch)
AUG - Papers, Please (Vita)
AUG - Scramble (1cc) (Arcade on Switch)
AUG - Bayonetta 2 (Switch)
AUG - Pinball FX3: Family Guy (Switch)
AUG - Shovel Knight: Shovel Of Hope (Switch)
SEP - FAR: Lone Sails (Android)
SEP - The Artful Escape (Xbox)
SEP - Pinball FX3: Portal (Switch)
SEP - Pinball FX3: Aliens vs Predator (Switch)
SEP - EA UFC 4 (Xbox)
OCT - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Aliens (Switch)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Alien Isolation (Switch)
OCT - Pinball FX3: Attack From Mars (Switch)
OCT - Superliminal (Xbox)
OCT - Haunted Castle (Arcade on Switch)
OCT - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES on Switch)
OCT - Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition (Xbox)
OCT - Castle Of Illusion (SMS on Vita)
OCT - Land Of Illusion (SMS on Vita)
OCT - Akumajō Densetsu (Famicom on Switch)
OCT - Castlevania: The Adventure (Gameboy on Switch)
OCT - Super Castlevania IV (SNES on Switch)
OCT - The Red Strings Club (Switch)
What a fucking game! This was brilliant. First played it years back when it was given away on PS+, then again on PS Now last year some time, but never made it past the first hour or so, but I really wanted to play through the whole game so when I noticed it was only £3 or something on the Xbox store recently I picked it up right away.
I really loved everything about this game: the combat, the looks, the nonsense story, Raiden is such a good character in this too. I was sure there had been a CaR show on it too, but it seems not - hopefully one day!
- Indiana747
- Member
- Posts: 1016
- Joined: September 3rd, 2012, 5:17 pm
Re: Games Completed 2021
(Jan) Call of the Sea - Series X.
(Jan) Remember Me - PS3.
(Jan) Ghostbusters Remastered - Series X
(Feb) Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4 Pro.
(Feb) Batman: Arkham Knight - PS4 Pro.
(Feb) Sacred 3 - PS3.
(Feb) The Darkness II - PS3.
(Feb) The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - PS3.
(Mar) Gears 5: Hivebusters - Series X.
(Mar) Silent Hill: Downpour - PS3.
(Mar) The Medium - Series X.
(Mar) Donut County - Series X.
(Mar) Astro's Playroom - PS5.
(Apr) Outriders - Series X.
(May) Lego City Undercover - Wii U.
(May) Ghost of Tsushima - PS5.
(May) Resident Evil Village - PS5.
(May) Dantes Inferno - Series X(BC).
(May) Streets of Rage 4 - Series X.
(May) Dead Space - Series X(BC).
(June) Matterfall - PS5.
(June) Battlefield 4 - Series X.
(Aug) Metro Exodus + DLCs - Series X.
(Aug) Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition - Series X.
(Aug) Maneater(1000GS) - Series X.
(Sept) Dead Rising 4 - Series X.
(Sept) Limbo - Series X.
(Sept) Raji: An Ancient Epic - Series X.
(Sept) The Ascent - Series X.
(Sept) The Artful Escape - Series X.
(Oct) Mighty Goose - Series X.
(Oct) Alan Wake Remastered - Series X.
(Jan) Remember Me - PS3.
(Jan) Ghostbusters Remastered - Series X
(Feb) Disney Infinity 2.0 - PS4 Pro.
(Feb) Batman: Arkham Knight - PS4 Pro.
(Feb) Sacred 3 - PS3.
(Feb) The Darkness II - PS3.
(Feb) The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - PS3.
(Mar) Gears 5: Hivebusters - Series X.
(Mar) Silent Hill: Downpour - PS3.
(Mar) The Medium - Series X.
(Mar) Donut County - Series X.
(Mar) Astro's Playroom - PS5.
(Apr) Outriders - Series X.
(May) Lego City Undercover - Wii U.
(May) Ghost of Tsushima - PS5.
(May) Resident Evil Village - PS5.
(May) Dantes Inferno - Series X(BC).
(May) Streets of Rage 4 - Series X.
(May) Dead Space - Series X(BC).
(June) Matterfall - PS5.
(June) Battlefield 4 - Series X.
(Aug) Metro Exodus + DLCs - Series X.
(Aug) Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition - Series X.
(Aug) Maneater(1000GS) - Series X.
(Sept) Dead Rising 4 - Series X.
(Sept) Limbo - Series X.
(Sept) Raji: An Ancient Epic - Series X.
(Sept) The Ascent - Series X.
(Sept) The Artful Escape - Series X.
(Oct) Mighty Goose - Series X.
(Oct) Alan Wake Remastered - Series X.
- ThirdDrawing
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- Joined: October 13th, 2016, 2:33 pm
- Location: Poverty Stricken StudentLand
Re: Games Completed 2021
#31 - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.
I think I actually liked this more than Hotel Dusk. It's a shame it didn't get a North American release.
I think I actually liked this more than Hotel Dusk. It's a shame it didn't get a North American release.
- OneCreditBen
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- Posts: 234
- Joined: August 15th, 2017, 10:03 am
Re: Games Completed 2021
Got a One Credit Clear live of Castlevania 3 (Japanese Rom) on the stream this week.
It starts at - 19:14
It's maybe one of my favourite live clears ever.
- ReprobateGamer
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Re: Games Completed 2021
- Spoiler: show
This games main talking point seems to be the fact that the main writer is Rhianna Pratchett but it is actually a fairly well polished platformer.
There are a couple of narrative threads in the game - the real world story of Izzy and her efforts to write the story of a young female adventurer in the made up world of Estoria and the girls efforts to become a word mage.
Both progress with similar mechanics and to a limited extent you can personalise the stories of each. Fairly short to play (around 5 hours or so) and somewhat suitable to a younger audience but it does deal with themes of loss - parents should bear this in mind that it is not a happy, sunny platformer (at least not for a good chunk of the game)
There are collectibles but most of them are not too hard to find - without trying I think I'm missing one in the real world journal and two from the Estoria sections.
The voice acting is fine - the score is a little bland honestly but this is a game about the words more than the audio ambience so ...
For anyone looking for a slightly more thoughtful, but easy to play game, this is probably worth picking up
- Combine Hunter
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- Joined: August 27th, 2012, 4:40 pm
Re: Games Completed 2021
- Spoiler: show
Really fantastic expansion on what was already one of my favourite games of all time.
- ColinAlonso
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- Posts: 585
- Joined: September 6th, 2016, 9:13 pm
- Location: Dublin
Re: Games Completed 2021
- Spoiler: show
One of the swath of 90's inspired indie racers of recent years. I won the 5 Mario Kart-style Grand Prix events on medium difficulty. Handling is fine. Track design seems a bit bland with no particularly tough tracks. Drifting and slipstreaming build up a boost bar.
It would be quite good except the rubber banding in the game is massive. There was always someone right behind me and if I was behind, the massive slipstream meant I'd be ahead in a straight or 2. Races becomes a matter of saving up boosts to clinch a race in the last third of the last lap. It ruins the fun quite a bit.
I got it for €5 so no big deal. Might try a harder difficulty to see what that does.
Re: Games Completed 2021
This is so true, it's the worst in any racing game I've ever played. Shame because it looks and plays so great.ColinAlonso wrote: ↑October 26th, 2021, 10:00 pm It would be quite good except the rubber banding in the game is massive. There was always someone right behind me and if I was behind, the massive slipstream meant I'd be ahead in a straight or 2. Races becomes a matter of saving up boosts to clinch a race in the last third of the last lap. It ruins the fun quite a bit.
Re: Games Completed 2021
I saw that they had recently a Senna DLC pack for that game which adds F1 cars and tracks. Has reviewed well.
- OneCreditBen
- Member
- Posts: 234
- Joined: August 15th, 2017, 10:03 am
Re: Games Completed 2021
Haunted Castle - ROM K
So this is the original American ROM which is pretty fair, and plays very well.
That's all of them done now.
N & P - The Japanese Roms have minor differences but play very like K.
E - The European Rom is also very similar to the American Rom K
M - Vastly different difficulty and lots of opportunities to die suddenly (Pits etc)
Loads of fun though. Music is cracking, and there's something cool about the fact that Simon Belmont ends up with a sword.
- ColinAlonso
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- Joined: September 6th, 2016, 9:13 pm
- Location: Dublin
Re: Games Completed 2021
Haha, a very different take to when I played it a couple of weeks back.OneCreditBen wrote: ↑October 27th, 2021, 9:41 am Haunted Castle -
Loads of fun though. Music is cracking, and there's something cool about the fact that Simon Belmont ends up with a sword.
- Spoiler: show
- Magical_Isopod
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- Posts: 993
- Joined: May 29th, 2018, 11:57 pm
- Location: London, ON, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2021
#18 - Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (PS4)
Welp, I have a clear GOTY leader now, finally, in the tail-end of 2021. It's been a pretty lousy year for games, but WOW is this one ever great.
I'm not going to drop any spoilers, so this review may be a tad succinct... But believe me when I say this is a fantastic horror game, and probably Supermassive's best work to date. Yes, even better than Until Dawn.
So a bit of history... I've loved the Dark Pictures Anthology games from the word go. I loved Until Dawn, and when the first trailer for Man of Medan dropped, I was right there. Now, Man of Medan was a really good game... But kinda rough around the edges, and with a fairly predictable story. I liked it, a lot. Played it 3 times already, and will give it another go in the future, I'm sure. It's an amazing co-op experience. Little Hope, I was a little more tepid on... Without spoiling, it had a similar twist to Man of Medan, and I was kinda just like, "Yeah okay, what else you got?" It had better writing, but the theme of New England witchcraft was not really my jam.
Enter House of Ashes. Do you like The Descent? Do you like Pitch Black? Do you like Aliens? If you said yes to any of the above, you'll probably like this game. It takes elements of all three and weaves its own yarn set in relatively-unexplored Mesopotamian mythology (or is it?). In what may be a gaming first, this is a game set in Iraq where the goal isn't jingoistic slaughter of America's enemies. It's set in real-world 2003, and the game doesn't shy away from the very real politics of the time. But that's part of what makes it great.
The writing of this game is excellent. Is it Hollywood good? Probably not. But it effectively sold the emotion of any given scene, injecting humour where appropriate, and energy when it needed it. The acting... Not quite the same deal. The good writing saves a handful of pretty lousy actors here. The husband and wife couple of Eric and Rachel really stood out as being woefully miscast and poorly-acted. Eric's assistant Clarice never really sold her lines either. But the rest of the main cast and supporting characters, they ranged from appropriate to fantastic. Jason and Slim really get some moments to shine near the end of the game, and their actors absolutely nail it.
On a technical level, the game looked and sounded amazing running on my PS4 Pro, with the use of HDR being probably the best I've ever seen on the console. It's a pretty, pretty game. It mostly runs great too. However, there were a handful of QTEs I missed (less than 5) because the game stuttered and messed up the timing. That was really annoying. None of those stutters led to permanent errors or deaths, however, and they didn't ruin the experience. As well, the game can have some awkward loading times as the gears crunch your decisions and outcomes in the background, sometimes lasting well over 30 seconds.
But yeah. I ain't spoiling anything. So there's not much else I can say. This is one of the best horror games of the console generation, and the best game of its type to date. It's an excellent experience with a great premise and tight writing, and I highly recommend it to horror fans.
&iso2021
Welp, I have a clear GOTY leader now, finally, in the tail-end of 2021. It's been a pretty lousy year for games, but WOW is this one ever great.
I'm not going to drop any spoilers, so this review may be a tad succinct... But believe me when I say this is a fantastic horror game, and probably Supermassive's best work to date. Yes, even better than Until Dawn.
So a bit of history... I've loved the Dark Pictures Anthology games from the word go. I loved Until Dawn, and when the first trailer for Man of Medan dropped, I was right there. Now, Man of Medan was a really good game... But kinda rough around the edges, and with a fairly predictable story. I liked it, a lot. Played it 3 times already, and will give it another go in the future, I'm sure. It's an amazing co-op experience. Little Hope, I was a little more tepid on... Without spoiling, it had a similar twist to Man of Medan, and I was kinda just like, "Yeah okay, what else you got?" It had better writing, but the theme of New England witchcraft was not really my jam.
Enter House of Ashes. Do you like The Descent? Do you like Pitch Black? Do you like Aliens? If you said yes to any of the above, you'll probably like this game. It takes elements of all three and weaves its own yarn set in relatively-unexplored Mesopotamian mythology (or is it?). In what may be a gaming first, this is a game set in Iraq where the goal isn't jingoistic slaughter of America's enemies. It's set in real-world 2003, and the game doesn't shy away from the very real politics of the time. But that's part of what makes it great.
The writing of this game is excellent. Is it Hollywood good? Probably not. But it effectively sold the emotion of any given scene, injecting humour where appropriate, and energy when it needed it. The acting... Not quite the same deal. The good writing saves a handful of pretty lousy actors here. The husband and wife couple of Eric and Rachel really stood out as being woefully miscast and poorly-acted. Eric's assistant Clarice never really sold her lines either. But the rest of the main cast and supporting characters, they ranged from appropriate to fantastic. Jason and Slim really get some moments to shine near the end of the game, and their actors absolutely nail it.
On a technical level, the game looked and sounded amazing running on my PS4 Pro, with the use of HDR being probably the best I've ever seen on the console. It's a pretty, pretty game. It mostly runs great too. However, there were a handful of QTEs I missed (less than 5) because the game stuttered and messed up the timing. That was really annoying. None of those stutters led to permanent errors or deaths, however, and they didn't ruin the experience. As well, the game can have some awkward loading times as the gears crunch your decisions and outcomes in the background, sometimes lasting well over 30 seconds.
But yeah. I ain't spoiling anything. So there's not much else I can say. This is one of the best horror games of the console generation, and the best game of its type to date. It's an excellent experience with a great premise and tight writing, and I highly recommend it to horror fans.
&iso2021
- Magical_Isopod
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- Posts: 993
- Joined: May 29th, 2018, 11:57 pm
- Location: London, ON, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2021
Unless you're a filthy pirate like me.ThirdDrawing wrote: ↑October 24th, 2021, 10:51 am #31 - Last Window: The Secret of Cape West.
I think I actually liked this more than Hotel Dusk. It's a shame it didn't get a North American release.
Yarr harr fiddle dee dee.
- Magical_Isopod
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- Posts: 993
- Joined: May 29th, 2018, 11:57 pm
- Location: London, ON, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2021
When I first played 13-2, I was like, "Wow, that's a much better game than I expected, I loved that." But in retrospect, I think it's a Top 5 Final Fantasy for me. If you had to poll me right this second, I'd say 7, Tactics, 5, 13-2 and 6, in that order. Really loved this game. Apparently Lightning Returns has some good ideas too, but bungles the execution. And then 15 came out... Yikes. Momentum totally halted.Megadirt wrote: ↑October 16th, 2021, 12:59 am
Final Fantasy XIII-2
I discovered I don't learn lessons very quickly. This was a lot more fun to play, really interesting battle system, much better paced story, and a very genuine feeling of freedom and exploration. The psuedo-pokemon element for making up the third team in your party and the Ghost Trick esque way of creating paradoxes I actually found very fun and the plat wasn't anywhere near as stressful as with XIII. I decided to take a break from this 'plat all FF games' quest as I had started to go insane.
- Magical_Isopod
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- Location: London, ON, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2021
EMMI counters wasn't the primary issue, more the game missing wall-jumps and double-jumps. That drove me insane. It was a little better with JoyCons playing handheld, but it still wasn't tight enough for the pace it demands.